So, I'm just a little worried about Sloane. She will obviously be dominating the store champs( thank god I went to my first store champ just weeks before wave 6 was released!) But then I think on the bright side and I all of a sudden wanted to start thinking of some counters!

Below is a list of counters that I have come up with( assuming that the fighter build will be a swarm of TIEs), feel free to post more as you learn of others!

-AA Fire

-Ten Numb and Mauler Mithel

-Counter Fire( including QLTs!)

I think there's a bit of a misnomer in terminology... Countering Sloane is very difficult. To counter, being to remove their ability to work at all... That's not easy, because of the way the Imperials are set up with a long range first strike capability...

For that, you need to get good at setting up a right proper BARCAP (squadron screen) - have her expend her energy in moving Intel, and only picking the single target, etc, etc, etc. She's still going to get her ability into play - and honestly, a first strike might be all she needs to turn the tide of the battle (stripping the brace from say, your Flagship, on the first strike). Then, you look at the soft counters to what she does - Walex Blissex, Tagge, Hand of Justice, those sorts of upgrades are soft counters as they somewhat counter and mitigate the use of her ability. Not perfectly (hence soft ), but that's for the best.

Certainly, you can limit Sloane's replayability, for example - that's what Killing the TIE fighters will get you - a hefty limit on her ability to re use her stuff against you. For that, QLTs, Ten Numb, Mauler, all of that stuff will be useful - to turn her first strike into an only strike.

I think a lot of people focus on the limiter as a 'counter'... But that's a focus - I feel - on stopping it from happening multiple times, whereas I am more focused on making her completely useless, instead

People are doing a lot of worst-case scenario thinking when it comes to Sloane, I think. She doesn't instantly strip all your ships' defense tokens and her favored squadrons don't like getting flakked, so she needs to be a little careful there too. I'm expecting to see a lot of her when wave 6 arrives but I'm not expecting her to stick around universally once the new hotness aura wears off.

If you want to be safe from Sloane, just take your anti-squadron defenses seriously. That's become increasingly important since wave 2, was strictly necessary against Rebels come wave 5, and now will be strictly necessary against Imperials as well come wave 6.

Edit: and I just finished my primer article which is effectively "hey everyone, Sloane is cool but calm the F down already."

Taking down the flagship as early as possible is an option, if you go ship heavy and worried about having less squadrons. It won't be easy, but it's an option nevertheless

Devastator. Strip my tokens, please!

Generic squadron forces will perform well against sloane- If the enemy ties are stuck attacking Joe x-wing pilot, Sloane is 20-something points of dead weight. Jan Ors would work well here, too- Her brace tokens will be safe as long as her escorts are safe, but they'll still do good work keeping those escorts alive.

Let's see... A few A-wings to make an alpha strike trickier and perhaps pick off a force multiplier, Some generic X-wings guarding your ships, with Jan as a reserve to keep the X's alive. 3 X-wings, Jan, Tycho, and a generic A-wing come to 85 points- 91 if you think Shara's ability and tokens are valuable enough even if Sloane may strip them.

Edit: It's also worth pointing out that Sloane's ability isn't terribly impressive by itself- Tie Fighters don't care about defense tokens by themselves. If you're can dodge or cripple the enemy ships, the ties will just be plinking away at your ships with pee shooters.

No Squadrons.

24 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

No Squadrons.

And cluster bombs on every ship!

If she worked on Deci's she would be scary. As is, the multiple bomber commands were way worse and horridly broken. She only works on 1/3 of the fleet and only on blue/red dice with low percentage. She is there to make TIE swarms happen. Some good AA and that is over with. Granted they may do their damage before going down but she just isn't multiple bomber commands good.

To be fair, Multiple Bomber Commands aren't Multiple Bomber Command good anymore, either

Multiple bomber command should have never been a thing.

32 minutes ago, Mep said:

Granted they may do their damage before going down but she just isn't multiple bomber commands good.

...So she's not as good as an effect that doesn't work any more?

1 minute ago, Snipafist said:

...So she's not as good as an effect that doesn't work any more?

Not the point being made.

39 minutes ago, Mep said:

If she worked on Deci's she would be scary. As is, the multiple bomber commands were way worse and horridly broken. She only works on 1/3 of the fleet and only on blue/red dice with low percentage. She is there to make TIE swarms happen. Some good AA and that is over with. Granted they may do their damage before going down but she just isn't multiple bomber commands good.

The only problem with AA is that now the Imps have the Quasar title Stronghold . And Ciena.

3 minutes ago, anonymousguy said:

The only problem with AA is that now the Imps have the Quasar title Stronghold . And Ciena.

I thought the title of a Quasar at close range was Free Points .

4 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

I think there's a bit of a misnomer in terminology... Countering Sloane is very difficult. To counter, being to remove their ability to work at all... That's not easy, because of the way the Imperials are set up with a long range first strike capability...

Or you know what punch the Imperials at long range first. You could be playing Imperials which means you have all the same fast fighters and similarly good Squadron 3 or 4 with Expanded Hangars carriers. If you are Rebels run in some A-Wings and snipe with E-Wings their Intel or whatever else they are using that makes you nervous. This isn't an effective tournament answer since you are pretty much throwing away 44+ points (assuming 4 A-Wings) to tie up your opponent and maybe blow up a TIE Fighter or two but it does neuter Sloane in potentially keeping those Fighters from hitting things with tokens you want to keep safe for those first 2 to 3 turns.

You don't need to stop or counter Sloans ability you just need to weaken it and play to your strengths.

A few A-Wings and perhaps some X-wings and Jan Ors will do just fine for the most part.

The fear is a bit overheated, I have played two games with Sloan and she didn't feel more superior than any other commander like Motti for example, just different. But I was up against moderate number of rebel fighters with only two aces. I managed to win both games but not with any huge margins and her ability was not that crucial either.

On the imperial side, an anti-squad Demolisher will live up to its name against Sloane with Ruthless Strategists and 1-2 TIE Defenders or Advanced. Toss in Mauler Mithel to clean up most survivors.

For Rebels, generic escorts and Jan will be a huge headache to deal with.

What I see here is that the counter to Sloane (if that even exists) is not Hamerheads AT ALL. So, since it will be comming brand new at the same time many rebels are going to be frustrated watching their brand new ships die in swarms of pain.

My advice to rebel players, keep those HH at home till the Sloane hysteria passes out, bring hell boring lists, dont let your opponent squeeze Sloane to her best. Eventually he will bore too and switch commanders to adapt to your gameplay, and you will be able to go back to your HH testing

Thats the best counter to Sloane atm, kill your opponent with boredom.

Solution:

- 15+ point bid

- GR-75 + Quantum Storm

- Slicer Tools

Its not fool proof but if you can take squadron commands away from their carrier you're making a lot of their point investment a lot less useful. Better yet - two GR-75s with Slicer Tools: change their dial before they activate and after they activate and they're SOL without Pursuant or SFO.

That works in theory, but in reality if you're letting your carrier be harassed by a pair of stray flotillas when you have a mass of fighters at your disposal, you probably already have bigger problems.

At this point in the fight you're already playing cat and mouse with your fighter ranges and your carrier will be pretty close to the action. Besides, speed 3 with Quantum Storm and the R1-3 from ST is a pretty big bubble.

I really don't see why is there so much fear. Ties. 3 hull. Even if they are supported by Quasar, that can be easily killed since its a glasscannon. 3 hull ties then die like flies. Toyn Farr is there to help your flak, Ten Numb also available. Combine these with Yavaris. Ah, hold on, we already had these kind of lists! So?

As Imp, you have great AA options: Mauler, Warlord+H9 (with DC it brings down Strongold in no time), Glad 2 Demo with Kallus, Etc...

Cmon guys, stop the fearmongering! It will bring few more options, but she is not a game breaker.

7 minutes ago, Coldhands said:

It will bring few more options, but she is not a game breaker

Hope time puts her in the shoes of poor Rieekan.

15 minutes ago, TaeSWXW said:

At this point in the fight you're already playing cat and mouse with your fighter ranges and your carrier will be pretty close to the action. Besides, speed 3 with Quantum Storm and the R1-3 from ST is a pretty big bubble.

I don't see leaving your carrier completely undefended like that, though. Even if it's turn 4, and we're in the thick of the fight, I can't imagine a carrier being so completely on it's own that it couldn't recall some fighters to intercept, or there isn't a fast buddy around to plough in, like a Raider 1 or even a Gozanti with a couple of it's own fighters in reserve. To be so wide open, you'd have to be already on the heavy losses side of the battle, in my mind.