1 hour ago, Green Knight said:SloanE. That's what the op missed.
I think she looks fun on paper, letting me roll with generic ties and ints to win the squad fight. If any survive they can do bombing.
Fun, but how effective I the long run? You might win the squad war, but how much hull will remain then, and will it be worth losing those ties to plink at ships? Time will tell.
This is essentially my view of Sloane. While as an Imperial player I'm excited to have her, I think, upon further reflection, even with the not Rogue instead of with Swarm, she's not as powerful as she appears on paper. She "buffs" the Imperial squadrons, but I would be careful about how we phrase that buff. She gives a moderate improvement to general dice-rolling, sizable, but not Admiral worthy, and a new way to deal with Rebel Friends. The ability to burn tokens is a clever way to give Imperial space-superiority builds a way to deal with tough Rebel aces without unnecessarily buffing them against generics. (Yes she gave them a tiny buff, but not one that seriously imbalances the balance of power in the squadron space.) She improves Imperial results against the notorious Rieekan archetype, and as a bonus adds a new mission to the TIE wings, anti-ship runs with a point.
She has a glaring weakness, however, and that is that she doesn't do anything to armor the weakness of the TIEs, that they evaporate under a stiff breeze and a stern look. TIE balls can now hurt worth their points, but they are still trading points into their opponent for that newfound damage/effect. That many Rebel ships, particularly the ones that need to be relieved of their defense tokens (*cough MC80H1 *cough), spit out double-dice anti-squadron fire, and worse fly in formation with other ships that do the same (*glares at GR-75s hiding behind them) means that TIEs have a hard time surviving attack runs as it is, let alone wounded ones limping from a squadron battle. If you choose to take advantage of the wording choice here and deploy the Empire's heaviest assets (Defenders, Phantoms, VT-49s), their expense prohibits you from having a large number chances, offsetting that they will survive a round or more of Rebel fire. Is she probably still a tad undercosted? Probably a couple of points, but she is a niche admiral and one that very much requires a fleet built around her strengths (large squadrons, the ability to herd them effectively) more than other Imperial admirals, and to me that is an interesting turn from FFG and one I greatly appreciate.