So, we have both ships as ordinance hogs with turrets and the comparable missile and torpedo slots. Yet the only stat differences are 4 less health and one more doge die for a point less points, and access to barrel roll. The last factor here to look at is dials. Do you think those differences are close enough to only have a 1 point cost difference based on stats alone or will we be seeing a much better dial than a y wing on an aggressor. I personally expect to see a dial comparable to an x wing on this thing, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?

droids?

Depends also on the dial. But 5 health behind 3 agility (LWF) is harder to beat by other turrets I guess

5 health w/ 2 Agility is less durable than 8 with 1 agility (6 w/2 is very close to 8 w/1 as I understand). However, barrel roll is huge on a turret carrier. If anything, the dial might be weaker than the Y-wing, forcing the player to use barrel roll to compensate in many situations.

They'll have 3 (almost, thanks to LWF) agility over 1, and barell rolls, that's how. Most likely a superior dial as well. FFG seems to have largely dropped the idea of limited dials like the HWK, Ys or B-wings have. Sloops and white 4 everywhere.

More than likely the pilots and missile slot will be the difference. Also im willing to bet this thing has a vastly better dial than the Ywing to compensate for its obviously weaker frame and roughly same cost.

Ywing w/o R2 has a really, REALLY bad dial. The worst in the game in terms of greens, it has a whopping 2 of them lol. I suspect the TIE Aggressor to have no reds except whatever fliparound they give it.

Well, I expect the imperial ones will all get EPT slots like usual

I have to say that I want to get 3-4 of these guys! They are so cool in concept (at least to me). I want to set them up for some many different missions and scenarios. I can see them being escorts to cargo ships or made to attack enemy capital ships. They really make me think of a Dauntless (WWII US fighter-bomber from Pacific) with the rear gunner. I can just think of a whole bunch of these in an Epic game or some sort of mission to be a really cool idea.

They look similar to the tie advanced, in logical world, you would think the dial would be similar as well, so not bad, but not terrible as well.

8 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I have to say that I want to get 3-4 of these guys! They are so cool in concept (at least to me). I want to set them up for some many different missions and scenarios. I can see them being escorts to cargo ships or made to attack enemy capital ships. They really make me think of a Dauntless (WWII US fighter-bomber from Pacific) with the rear gunner. I can just think of a whole bunch of these in an Epic game or some sort of mission to be a really cool idea.

A navy blue/ white scheme would look really cool on those guys to.

Biggest thing is Agility. It will be closer to a HWK-290 than a Y-wing in terms of attributes. The Dial will probably be better than a HWK-290, there will be at least one reversal maneuver. now will it be a K-turn or a pair of S-loops is anyone's guess. The double missile slot makes it a carrier for unguided rockets if it isn't going to go for TLT.

So instead of calling it an Imperial Y-wing , maybe we should call it an Imperial Hawk with missiles for passengers, and a better dial.

We'll probably have to see the dials, and maybe the abilities of the pilots (see what their style is). In SWG, the Aggressor totally was the Imperial Y, and here it has a very explicit parity to the upgrades with double ordnance and turret slot. But also lore wise the Aggressor is an escort fighter, it does patrols and convoy duty, whereas the rebels use the Y-Wing as a bomber/strike fighter. It definitely has the niche which may be similar to the Y and the HWK, but I'd lean closer to the Y equivalence if for no other reason than you can use the generics for 4 TLT lists. Pretty sure nobody does that with HWKs. But again, dial and pilots.

33 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

They look similar to the tie advanced, in logical world, you would think the dial would be similar as well, so not bad, but not terrible as well.

Without either the ability to turn hard or to go slow, the TIE Advanced may have the worst dial of any of the TIE variants. I don't think there is another ship in the game whose only speed 1 maneuvers are banks.

A potential 3-4 defense dices, barrel roll and most likely a better dial. We dont know the named pilot abilities or cost but there might be something there as well. Finally being Imperials, they will evole in a different context and have access to unique partners/combo. Jonus was the first to be named but i'm pretty sure there are others. Personally i cant wait for a Decimator + 2 Aggressor combo. 50 points give you a pretty decent Deci.

Your opponent wont want to get into that range 1 hole when Oicun+Mara Jade protect it. Hux is great because Fanatical Devotion will work on both attack from a TLT. It's almost as if the card was created with that in mind ;-) If you remove LWF from the Aggressors, you can add another 6 point of upgrade on Oicunn, opening up many other options. Expert handling, Inspiring Recruits and Experimental interface would be my personnal choice.

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

I have to say that I want to get 3-4 of these guys! They are so cool in concept (at least to me). I want to set them up for some many different missions and scenarios. I can see them being escorts to cargo ships or made to attack enemy capital ships. They really make me think of a Dauntless (WWII US fighter-bomber from Pacific) with the rear gunner. I can just think of a whole bunch of these in an Epic game or some sort of mission to be a really cool idea.

I smell some custom HotAC missions and ship cards coming!

Just now, Herowannabe said:

I smell some custom HotAC missions and ship cards coming!

I don't have the time! Would love for someone else to do it, though.....

1 hour ago, Squark said:

5 health w/ 2 Agility is less durable than 8 with 1 agility (6 w/2 is very close to 8 w/1 as I understand). However, barrel roll is huge on a turret carrier. If anything, the dial might be weaker than the Y-wing, forcing the player to use barrel roll to compensate in many situations.

nearly 3, he had Lightweight Frame

1 minute ago, heychadwick said:

I don't have the time! Would love for someone else to do it, though.....

I'm sure somebody will. I might be persuaded to come up with some ship cards and an AI chart for it. Figuring out the AI will be tricky though, as they will want to fly completely differently depending on whether or not they have Unguided missiles, TLT, or any other turret equipped. We might have to come up with 2 or 3 different AIs for it depending on its load out

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

I have to say that I want to get 3-4 of these guys! They are so cool in concept (at least to me). I want to set them up for some many different missions and scenarios. I can see them being escorts to cargo ships or made to attack enemy capital ships. They really make me think of a Dauntless (WWII US fighter-bomber from Pacific) with the rear gunner. I can just think of a whole bunch of these in an Epic game or some sort of mission to be a really cool idea.

As a world war 2 plane, I kinda see them functioning more like a mosquito or hurricane, cheap ordinance carriers that are not super fast or extremely durable, but can turn around well.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Biggest thing is Agility. It will be closer to a HWK-290 than a Y-wing in terms of attributes. The Dial will probably be better than a HWK-290, there will be at least one reversal maneuver. now will it be a K-turn or a pair of S-loops is anyone's guess. The double missile slot makes it a carrier for unguided rockets if it isn't going to go for TLT.

So instead of calling it an Imperial Y-wing , maybe we should call it an Imperial Hawk with missiles for passengers, and a better dial.

I don't like calling it a hawk because the hawk has always been more of a support, and I just don't see that at all with this ship.

4 minutes ago, rafcpl6868 said:

As a world war 2 plane, I kinda see them functioning more like a mosquito or hurricane, cheap ordinance carriers that are not super fast or extremely durable, but can turn around well.

Perhaps it could have the Striker dial?

Extremely poor top speed (no 4/5 fwd, no 3turn), but has a white *insert flippy maneuver name here* in exchange?
We know it has a 2green bank but that usually doesnt mean much. Defenders dont have any green banks, all the imp large bases have 2green banks but not 1bank, TIE Adv has green 1bank but not 2bank.

Idea being literally anything could chase it down but it can rebound on you in a heartbeat

19 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Perhaps it could have the Striker dial?

Extremely poor top speed (no 4/5 fwd, no 3turn), but has a white *insert flippy maneuver name here* in exchange?
We know it has a 2green bank but that usually doesnt mean much. Defenders dont have any green banks, all the imp large bases have 2green banks but not 1bank, TIE Adv has green 1bank but not 2bank.

Idea being literally anything could chase it down but it can rebound on you in a heartbeat

I like that, I could see it being better than a bomber but slightly worse than a standard tie as far as dials go.

Hmm... Comparing Comparable platforms...

At 15 points, we have the Quadjumper, with a comparable statline. The Quadjumper has a lot of interesting support upgrades, but a truly weird dial, and lacks the initial shield as well as the target lock action.

At 16 points, we have the Hwk-290*, which should have had the same statline. The Hwk has a crew slot instead of the missile slots, which is probably a bit better. The HWK lacks a barrel roll action and has, in my opinion, the worst dial in the game (I rate the red stop maneuver on the Lambda better than a white turn on the Hwk).

At 16 points, we have the Tie Bomber, which has an extra hit point and some additional ordnance slots instead of the turret slot. The Tie Bomber is actually pretty efficiently costed (Or at least, it was prior to power creep). The dial is slightly below average (Using the X-wing and Z-95 as the benchmark for average)- The Greens are serviceable but unexceptional, and while the red 2-turn hurts, the 5k is perfect for an ordnance carrier.

At 18 points, we have the Y-wing. The Y-wing is noticably more durable, and has a bit more upgrade flexibility. The dial is rather lackluster due to the lack of greens, which I suspect comes down to the same questionable design decisions that plagued the early waves.

I'd say the dial is very much in the air. There are a lot of upgrades that could be cause for concern, and since a vocal portion of the playerbase dislikes turrets, that might lead them to be pretty cautious. On the other hand, perhaps they want to shake up Imperial list building, and will go for a more aggressively costed ship.

*I don't buy the "It's a support ship" argument. Making support ships terrible just leads to them being ignored during list building. I suppose the argument can be made that even with 2 base attack, the HWK is still below par, though.

Thinking of FFGs math behind cost and durability, I'm thinking the dial will have to be much better; barrel roll is nice, but the cool mod card in the pack makes you focus....so I'm leaning "good dial" not "great" but much better than the Y...it is a TIE isn't it?

10 minutes ago, Squark said:

Hmm... Comparing Comparable platforms...

At 15 points, we have the Quadjumper, with a comparable statline. The Quadjumper has a lot of interesting support upgrades, but a truly weird dial, and lacks the initial shield as well as the target lock action.

At 16 points, we have the Hwk-290*, which should have had the same statline. The Hwk has a crew slot instead of the missile slots, which is probably a bit better. The HWK lacks a barrel roll action and has, in my opinion, the worst dial in the game (I rate the red stop maneuver on the Lambda better than a white turn on the Hwk).

At 16 points, we have the Tie Bomber, which has an extra hit point and some additional ordnance slots instead of the turret slot. The Tie Bomber is actually pretty efficiently costed (Or at least, it was prior to power creep). The dial is slightly below average (Using the X-wing and Z-95 as the benchmark for average)- The Greens are serviceable but unexceptional, and while the red 2-turn hurts, the 5k is perfect for an ordnance carrier.

At 18 points, we have the Y-wing. The Y-wing is noticably more durable, and has a bit more upgrade flexibility. The dial is rather lackluster due to the lack of greens, which I suspect comes down to the same questionable design decisions that plagued the early waves.

I'd say the dial is very much in the air. There are a lot of upgrades that could be cause for concern, and since a vocal portion of the playerbase dislikes turrets, that might lead them to be pretty cautious. On the other hand, perhaps they want to shake up Imperial list building, and will go for a more aggressively costed ship.

*I don't buy the "It's a support ship" argument. Making support ships terrible just leads to them being ignored during list building. I suppose the argument can be made that even with 2 base attack, the HWK is still below par, though.

I'm thinking this . That's what FFG designers did with the new Sycks that probably were being worked on around the same time. ?