5 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

Would have loved these on rebel Z.95

But this happens much too often lately... a new cool card is only available for Scum or Imperials.

Mwa ha ha. Rebel scum can't beat our superior cards.

Tomax Bren won't be a bad idea with these, Crackshot, and LWF for 27 pts. You could even do Adrenalin Rush or Cool Hand if you wanted to be a little crazy.

Personally, I think Unguided Rockets and the new, unseen Bomb System will probably bring the Tie Punisher into the game more.

2 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

Tomax Bren won't be a bad idea with these, Crackshot, and LWF for 27 pts. You could even do Adrenalin Rush or Cool Hand if you wanted to be a little crazy.

Personally, I think Unguided Rockets and the new, unseen Bomb System will probably bring the Tie Punisher into the game more.

Where is Bomb System? I haven't seen it.

1 minute ago, Celestial Lizards said:

Where is Bomb System? I haven't seen it.

No one has. It's not been released, but we know it's a System and has something like Bomblet Generator. I'm sure someone will correct me as I'm probably off by a bit, but it is something about Bombs and it's a System. It's from the new H-6 Skurrg Bomber.

I am really looking forward to Unguided Rockets to bring Bombers and Punishers back into the game more. I'm already a big fan of Deathfire and Tomax Bren but it will be nice seeing more of them in use.

At 2 pts, its basically a fix for a lack-luster opening offense for generic bombers that would not be able to get a Target Lock on 1st engagement due to PS issues. UR and LWF and basically fixes for TIE Bombers and Punishers. You still have a torp slots available if you want to drop on EM and a Plasma torp or bombs if you want to invest more in a more traditional offense.

Getting Focus tokens should not be an issue these days with Hux running around. UR even syncs with Hux's Fanactical Devotion has you weren't going to be using the Focus token for defense anyways. Also, Intensity hasn't been spoiled yet, but I think its going to be a way to get a Focus or Evade token at the cost of needing a spare Focus or Evade token later by the way the flip reads.

I am also looking forward to the Bomblet Generator and System Upgrade coming with the Havok as other possible upgrades to Punishers.

Ewings with bomblet generators?

2 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

Ewings with bomblet generators?

The Bombad General Bomblet Generator is an unspoiled two Bomb slot upgrade. It won't fit on an E-Wing.

There is some other unspoiled System Upgrade with the Havok as well.

It's a 3 dice range 2-3 cannon in effect that you can't use TLs on and you can't use if you don't get an action to focus. It's... alright. I'm not convinced it'll see heavy use. I can put it on bombers, sure. But then no homing missiles, or cluster missiles. I can take a cheap bomber, put on some torps and then 2 points to make sure it's got some range 2-3 bite after dropping the load. Or use it as a bomber and keep it cheap?

Given that it is only 2 points, it's a solid upgrade for bombers but I don't think it'll be worth dusting off punishers for. And if I'm taking a bomber, I think I either (a) want a shuttle or (b) want some proper rockets on the thing. Then again, 5 bombers with rockets and LWF? Could be a list, perhaps?

It's pretty solid Empire only upgrade, gives few ships 3 dice attack with secondary attack benefits an it is cheap. It will bring some life back to the ships that are able to use them.

Just realized the Aggressor comes with a TLT, Lightweight Frame, and a new dual ept.

1 hour ago, MajorJuggler said:

You can't think of it as Ordnance. For all intents and purposes it is a primary weapon, with the caveat that range 1 & 3 bonuses / penalties don't apply. The key is that it requires a double missile slot, which means it can only be used by a couple of ships -- notably ones that need a buff anyway. Whether or not it will make either the TIE Bomber or TIE Punisher effective is a more complicated question.

So what you're saying is it's a slightly worse Inquisitor.

Tomax with Crack shot and Unguided rockets is going to be a thing.

It'll be interesting to see what spamming Aggressors does. They might very well be the Imperial YWing. Which is cool and all, but that squad's been done, ad nauseam. 4 turrets or a solid primary is YWings. I'm hoping instead, like others have said, the Bombers, or maybe even punishers, instead can get a little life from using agressor upgrades

12 minutes ago, Lobokai said:

It'll be interesting to see what spamming Aggressors does. They might very well be the Imperial YWing. Which is cool and all, but that squad's been done, ad nauseam. 4 turrets or a solid primary is YWings. I'm hoping instead, like others have said, the Bombers, or maybe even punishers, instead can get a little life from using agressor upgrades

The Aggressor pretty much IS a Y-Wing. Only with Lightweight Frame.

An interesting effect of the wording on Unguided Rockets is that the opponent cannot modify the attack dice, either. For example, M9-G8 or R7 Astromech cannot force you to reroll any dice. Things like Kanan's and Rex's pilot abilities will still work, however, because they are changing the number of dice rolled. Any other effect (there aren't many of them) that allow the enemy to modify your attack dice will not work.

3 minutes ago, Incard said:

An interesting effect of the wording on Unguided Rockets is that the opponent cannot modify the attack dice, either. For example, M9-G8 or R7 Astromech cannot force you to reroll any dice. Things like Kanan's and Rex's pilot abilities will still work, however, because they are changing the number of dice rolled. Any other effect (there aren't many of them) that allow the enemy to modify your attack dice will not work.

Nice catch!

I'm really puzzled by this the creation of this card. It has very little value and doesn't appear to have the possibility of ever being competitive.
The negatives of it seem to outweigh the positives leaving your ship to rely on dice variance on both offence and defence.

1 hour ago, Celestial Lizards said:

The Aggressor pretty much IS a Y-Wing. Only with Lightweight Frame.

You mean its a HWK... 4 Hulls 1 Shield 2 greens

Quote

I'm really puzzled by this the creation of this card. It has very little value and doesn't appear to have the possibility of ever being competitive.
The negatives of it seem to outweigh the positives leaving your ship to rely on dice variance on both offence and defence.

Well.. the only negative aspect to it is being unable to modify blanks - so each hit has 75% chance of being good (because you need a focus on the ship to even be allowed to fire them off)

The positives though are decent enough: Denies range 3 additional dice, ignores all modifiers like M9G8, Sensor Jammer and whatever else that tries to mess with Red Dice before the attacker modifies 'em. Makes for a cheap "3 red primary" blocker. 18 Points for the Scimitar, 20 if you add in the LWFrame.

Its really not a bad card and not every card needs to be crazy Scum good...

It'll be better once Rebels get a double missile carrier and I can run it alongside Jan

37 minutes ago, Shraken said:

I'm really puzzled by this the creation of this card. It has very little value and doesn't appear to have the possibility of ever being competitive.
The negatives of it seem to outweigh the positives leaving your ship to rely on dice variance on both offence and defence.

I believe it is more of a test bed that anything else.

Someone has already mentioned it but in play it is like a low cost 3 die R1-3 cannon with a bunch of restrictions on it. The Focus requirement here may not be as bad as the Blaster Turret's requirement but the big "cost" for this is the slot requirement; I'd like to have seen it taking up a single slot instead.

4 hours ago, MajorJuggler said:

You can't think of it as Ordnance. For all intents and purposes it is a primary weapon, with the caveat that range 1 & 3 bonuses / penalties don't apply. The key is that it requires a double missile slot, which means it can only be used by a couple of ships -- notably ones that need a buff anyway. Whether or not it will make either the TIE Bomber or TIE Punisher effective is a more complicated question.

2 hours ago, Celestial Lizards said:

So what you're saying is it's a slightly worse Inquisitor.

Sort of -- in a nutshell yes. The Inquisitor is (or was) good because:

• his cost efficiency was >100%
• he gets reposition capability at PS8

I don't have the exact numbers handy, but TIE Bomber and TIE Punisher cost efficiency will be up closer to 100% with LWF*, relative to a TIE Fighter or Z-95. Unfortunately that's not necessarily good enough anymore, plus they won't have any high PS repositioning. On the bright side, it may bring them back up to par with other vanilla generic ships like TIE Fighters, Z-95s, B-wings, and X-wings.

* using an older wave 5 meta shooting gallery. Not sure what the updated numbers in a wave 10 meta look like.

Why put a point cost on it? 1 point maybe, 2? I can find elsewhere to make 2 points work better.

It really doesn't feel like it helps the platforms it is intended for, especially the Punisher which is a liability in most lists anyway because of its destructibility and the cost you have to sink into it to make it put damage out.
There's so much red dice around you typically need that focus for defence. Imperials don't have many great ways to stack up focus either other than maybe fleet officer. Then you have to have a support ship just for that unless you are ok with losing a ship a turn that is probably doing 1 or 2 damage if you are extra lucky.

Idk, maybe there's more than I'm seeing or perhaps I shouldn't be looking at all new cards to be immediately useful.

38 minutes ago, Shraken said:

Why put a point cost on it? 1 point maybe, 2? I can find elsewhere to make 2 points work better.

It really doesn't feel like it helps the platforms it is intended for, especially the Punisher which is a liability in most lists anyway because of its destructibility and the cost you have to sink into it to make it put damage out.
There's so much red dice around you typically need that focus for defence. Imperials don't have many great ways to stack up focus either other than maybe fleet officer. Then you have to have a support ship just for that unless you are ok with losing a ship a turn that is probably doing 1 or 2 damage if you are extra lucky.

Idk, maybe there's more than I'm seeing or perhaps I shouldn't be looking at all new cards to be immediately useful.

Off the top of my head realistic ways to add focus abound in imperials: Fleet officer, general hux, the coordinate action, operations specialist.

Sure it's no manaroo or mindlink but it's not horrible.

It's also pretty clearly not intended to make a bomber some super powered jouster. It's a great upgrade that for cheap points gives your Ordnance carriers options when they run out of payload. Instead of pushing 2 torpedos and 4 missiles into a bomber you put in a pair of torpedos and unguided rockets for a punchy alpha and a solid plan b on the cheap.

1 hour ago, Shraken said:

Imperials don't have many great ways to stack up focus either other than maybe fleet officer. Then you have to have a support ship just for that unless you are ok with losing a ship a turn that is probably doing 1 or 2 damage if you are extra lucky.

You have heard of the Upsilon Shuttle with a 4 die primary attack and Coordinate, and General Hux who hands out 3 Focus for 1 action + 1 stress, including pushing unavoidable damage, right?

8 hours ago, Shraken said:

Why put a point cost on it? 1 point maybe, 2? I can find elsewhere to make 2 points work better.

It really doesn't feel like it helps the platforms it is intended for, especially the Punisher which is a liability in most lists anyway because of its destructibility and the cost you have to sink into it to make it put damage out.
There's so much red dice around you typically need that focus for defence. Imperials don't have many great ways to stack up focus either other than maybe fleet officer. Then you have to have a support ship just for that unless you are ok with losing a ship a turn that is probably doing 1 or 2 damage if you are extra lucky.

Idk, maybe there's more than I'm seeing or perhaps I shouldn't be looking at all new cards to be immediately useful.

Well you did also state above that you don't see it ever being competitive a few posts above this too, so I guess you're covered either way

I think it's worth trying.

Tomax Bren with Unguided rockets, crack shot, and LWF is only 29 points. He's PS 8 so he will usually fire early enough to use the focus to power up his attack and possibly keep it for defense too. With repeating crack shot, he's pretty **** punchy and LWF keeps him on the table longer.