No problem about the wording or how it works. Simply when I think "do I want to invest 4 pts in this guy and where to seat him?"... No idea.

First problem. Expensive. 4 pts...

Second problem. Where to place him. iHe needs a high PS ship. But such a VIP flagship is so precious... I do not see him with VI Dash or one crew only ship. Perhaps with RAC or Bossk but... those ships are not cheap and the price tag...

I have never played with or against this card. One of my pals wrote one scenario to try it and this card was the target of Bobba Crewmember so... I really do not know what to do with him. I am quite lost.

Wes Janson + Sensor jammer... I'm sure I've seen them in the meta around...

But Wes ... X wing...no crew or system slots

RAC + Hotshot, Gunner and 3rd crew of your choosing is fairly popular and strong build.

Han Solo + Hotshot, Gunner, Expertise is also viable

Pretty much a high PS PWT with Gunner, so Han or RAC.

I've also seen it used to annoying effect on Phantoms.

The rest of the squad is also important - put Sensor Jammers and Jukes in there if you can.

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/upgrade-spotlight-hotshot-co-pilot.html

This might help explain it a bit!

Thanks, sir. The price tag...4 pts.

It's *really* good in the right context. RAC can strip two focus tokens from one target or pretty reliably force damage through on his second attack, or take one from each of two targets. They his defender wingman with Juke can shoot them with effectively free carck shot.

It's a pricey upgrade, but combined with Gunner it makes it much easier to punch through token stacks. You definitely want it in high PS ships to get the most out of it, which is why I've mostly seen it on Han and VI RAC so far.

In short, it's not something to put on any ship with a crew slot, but on the right pilot it can be devastating.

I recently tried it with RAC (VI, EU, Gunner, HSCP and OS) and Rexler (Juke and x7) and it was devastating as I could force my opponent to spend a focus and at the same time generate one for myself on the miss with Operations Specialist, which is extra fun with Rexler's ability. It's also handy to TL with RAC at range 3, miss the first shot to get a focus and then attack with fully-modded dice.

2 hours ago, Hexdot said:

Thanks, sir. The price tag...4 pts.

Price sucks if you wanna include it "just like that".

Price is balanced if you wanna include it in a squad that will make most use of it.

With the increase of token stacking courtesy of things like Attanni Mindlink, something that can token strip effectively is definitely worth considering. I ran RAC with Vader, HSCP and Gunner (plus Juking Maarek) against a Fangaroo list recently and took it apart comfortably. It should do quite well against Parattanni as well I think although I haven't played it yet.

If you can nuke Fenn for no loss except RAC's shields, which isn't unlikely with that setup, you stand to do pretty well but you do have to focus fire HARD on Assaj.

If not you probably lose.

But IMO it's one of the better ways to specifically counter Parattani - just not necessarily to counter everything else...

I read that blog article and thought of Kagi with hotshot & sensor jammer. Kagi has a higher PS, can redirect target locks his way and can strip focus for everyone else.

8 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I read that blog article and thought of Kagi with hotshot & sensor jammer. Kagi has a higher PS, can redirect target locks his way and can strip focus for everyone else.

Not a bad combo, the only downside is that the Lambda is still a brick to try and fly. I still prefer to put HC on RAC with VI to ensure I can token strip at PS10. Then having a Juking Defender or similar to rub salt in the wound.

HC and SJ look good on paper but I have struggled to find an effective combination of ships to employ it on that will fit into 100 points.

How about:

Captain Kagi (27), Hotshot Copilot (4)

Countess Ryad(34), TIEX7(-2), Juke (2)

Colonel Vessery(35), TIEX7(-2), Juke (2)

100 PTS

Because Expertise immediately made it obsolete.

22 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Because Expertise immediately made it obsolete.

Well it is a good counter, but with mindlink manaroo lists everywhere, it's far from obsolete. And with a juke wingman, hotshot still holds value. It does lose defense value for rac or han, but still is a pretty good offensive upgrade combined with gunner and a juke wingman

In a squad of lower PS pilots it can be used as a great deterrent. Any ship that shoots at Hotcop ship will be defending with mostly naked greens and we all know how well that works out. It's a solid upgrade in most squads but really shines with gunner as most others have pointed out.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Because Expertise immediately made it obsolete.

36 minutes ago, TheOz said:

Well it is a good counter, but with mindlink manaroo lists everywhere, it's far from obsolete. And with a juke wingman, hotshot still holds value. It does lose defense value for rac or han, but still is a pretty good offensive upgrade combined with gunner and a juke wingman

Well more than a good counter. In case you didn't know the meta is still tight with the MOV even without point vaults. Last thing you want is to have points spent on an upgrade that completely fail against any list. Expert Han is a list that murders it (come to think of it it is coming back.)

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Well more than a good counter. In case you didn't know the meta is still tight with the MOV even without point vaults. Last thing you want is to have points spent on an upgrade that completely fail against any list. Expert Han is a list that murders it (come to think of it it is coming back.)

It still opens targeted ship to jukes.... still not terrible is good list.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Well more than a good counter. In case you didn't know the meta is still tight with the MOV even without point vaults. Last thing you want is to have points spent on an upgrade that completely fail against any list. Expert Han is a list that murders it (come to think of it it is coming back.)

If you are worried about spending points on an upgrade that can be made useless against certain match ups then what in the hell are you doing taking Expertise?

It's been a waste of 4 points and an EPT slot every time I've gone up against it (twice with Ventress, once with RAC with Rebel Captive).

Expertise doesn't exactly make HSCP useless either. Chances are a squad that has a ship with Expertise also has ships that don't have Expertise. Plenty of ships with Expertise will still take focus actions to have a focus to spend on defense.

In my experience, you are going to run into more ships that use focus tokens than have Expertise.

29 minutes ago, Vitalis said:

It still opens targeted ship to jukes.... still not terrible is good list.

Yeah but Juke takes up your EPT slot, so no crackshot or expertise of your own. Expertise is like Marksmanship only waayyyyy better.

The problem with the meta isn't the amount of token spam where Hot Shot Co-pilot (the topic of this thread) excels at, it is the free modifications from expertise, palp, Poe and others. You don't need focus tokens to get 1-2 hits into 3-4 hits. As for juke well if they got pilot skill you will have to be spending your evade before your attack so good bye Juke.

Juke is really only good with coms relay list where you can keep it but again Han Expertise does a good job of stripping it off. Or on green Squadron where you can combine it with snap shot.

22 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/upgrade-spotlight-hotshot-co-pilot.html

This might help explain it a bit!

This is niiiiiice...

I must try it in PS9 Bossk! I'm sick of party bus setting, and this seems more fun to play. Way more fun.

3 hours ago, TheOz said:

Well it is a good counter, but with mindlink manaroo lists everywhere, it's far from obsolete. And with a juke wingman, hotshot still holds value. It does lose defense value for rac or han, but still is a pretty good offensive upgrade combined with gunner and a juke wingman

You don't lose so much in defence, if you read the article up.

A thing that I never considerate