No one said anything about being wide open. Even if it's at the back of the formation you should be able to hit it with Slicers - otherwise it's probably too far back to be helpful.

I usually fly my ships in a column: big hitter up front, support ships in the middle, and cleanup guy in the back. This puts my Slicer Tools close enough to the action to strike but under dual protective umbrellas.

I'm not saying it's not a scenario that could happen, I'm just saying if it gets to that point, the carrier is likely already boned by being out of position, or lacking protection. Also, Quasars are going to see Slicer Tools as major threats, so I'd imagine savvy players with Boosted Comms are going to attempt to deal with that pretty early on, as well as hold back some cover for a QS boost.

Slicer Tools is absolutely going to be a threat though. I'm not unhappy about that. As much as I love the idea of the Quasar, I'm happy that Slicer Tools is finally going to start coming into it's own. I always felt it was a strong pick left ignored in favour of BCC or Comms Net, or even just running naked for the sake of saving points.

LuLz! Who says the carrier is a Quasar?

it can be 3 VSDs with disposable capacitors and quads. Sure, bring them flotillas over!

8 hours ago, Coldhands said:

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.

So easy said .
3 hull can be a lot, when you never have the chance to attack them.

The only problem is that these squadrons, when they attack with Sloane, already did their damage and the harm. One round of the squadrons, combined with an attack ship (ISD or Demo), can kill all but an ISD in one round. If the Tie player is even player 1, you get hit by the first activation as well and it could even take down an ISD without any chance for him to response. And even if, all you can do is take down some of the Ties, but still lose the big ship.

You are right, she is no game breaker (in term of being broken or overpowered). But she is extremly powerfull, and might change the Meta way more than any other new admiral so far.
You never had to change your list so far, if you fear to face a special admiral. But with Sloane it might happen. If you dont count with her, and adjust your list against her, you might go down.

The biggest change you might see is that squadron aces might be reduced in favor of more generic squadrons, most likely more expensive generic squadrons to capitalize on activation efficiency.

The threat of Sloan means you can't... or at least it will be a great risk of running fleets with no fighter cover at all. The risk of having squadrons is that they strip defensive token and can be a bit too much to handle unless mitigated somehow.

14 hours ago, anonymousguy said:

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

Drive your Quasar into the heat and let me know how that works out for you. A bit of a defensive title there, hah.

Everyone is talking standard TIES.

For Sloane, Defenders is where its at.

7 Defenders and Maarek.....its an abomination

4 hours ago, Tokra said:

So easy said .
3 hull can be a lot, when you never have the chance to attack them.

The only problem is that these squadrons, when they attack with Sloane, already did their damage and the harm. One round of the squadrons, combined with an attack ship (ISD or Demo), can kill all but an ISD in one round. If the Tie player is even player 1, you get hit by the first activation as well and it could even take down an ISD without any chance for him to response. And even if, all you can do is take down some of the Ties, but still lose the big ship.

You are right, she is no game breaker (in term of being broken or overpowered). But she is extremly powerfull, and might change the Meta way more than any other new admiral so far.
You never had to change your list so far, if you fear to face a special admiral. But with Sloane it might happen. If you dont count with her, and adjust your list against her, you might go down.

I guess you refer to another isd1 driving 6 ties at you and Double arcs. Yes, It can happen.

I see a couple of jumpmasters joining the fun too. Howlrunner and stronghold loves them too if im not mistaken.

Well, time to phisically Block squads to reach you, considering rhymer is retired(still he might see some action still). I could imagine a Fel-Dengar-Mauler-escort ball as well, supported by warlord or isd2 with leading shots. If They are correctly blocking, those ties Will have to chew themselves trough the meatshield, giving you Enough tme to bleed them out.

23 minutes ago, SmurfWedge said:

Everyone is talking standard TIES.

For Sloane, Defenders is where its at.

7 Defenders and Maarek.....its an abomination

Defenders and Phantoms... I am excited for the Phantoms with her

Vic + warlord + h9s... mow them down

My initial thought is sloan will play a very methodical game. Her fighters need to get in and by turn 3 strip your defense tokens so the hammers can come in and pop you open. There may be some tech in blitzing her. Just get in her face fast so she doesn't have the time to strip mine you.

Beating Imperial fighters is gonna be tough, especially if sloan is played as a secondary ability. Meaning you design your squadrons to fight squadrons, sloan is the icing on the cake. Sure people will take 14 TIE stands, but Howlrunner/Dengar/Flight Controllers/TIE INTs not only do well for sloan, but they destroy the world. Speed 5, Alpha at 6 blue dice, counter 4 and intel to keep moving. I've gone in on firesprays, shredded them, to the point my opponents didnt want to even attack back because they have 2hp and i have counter 4 with swarm.

what a time to be alive.

54 minutes ago, SmurfWedge said:

Everyone is talking standard TIES.

For Sloane, Defenders is where its at.

7 Defenders and Maarek.....its an abomination

Defenders don't benefit as much from the crit reroll because of bomber (you've got to give up a damage to spend that token), and they've only got two blue dice to fish for accuracy results against squadrons.

Sloane exists in a weird design space halfway between wanting a bomber list and wanting a fighter screen, but Defenders are a fusion of both of the wrong ends of the spectrum. What dies to 8 Sloane Defenders that doesn't also die to 8 Motti Defenders?

In both raw damage output and token stripping, against both squadrons and ships, 16 Sloane Tie Fighters is more effective than 8 Sloane Defenders.
Not that you should run 16 Tie Fighters with Sloane, just that multi-role Defenders don't hit as hard with Sloane as dedicated squadron-killers do, since Sloane gives them half-bomber.
Not that you shouldn't run 16 Tie Fighters.
25 in CC with Fighter Wing.

40 minutes ago, svelok said:

Defenders don't benefit as much from the crit reroll because of bomber (you've got to give up a damage to spend that token), and they've only got two blue dice to fish for accuracy results against squadrons.

Sloane exists in a weird design space halfway between wanting a bomber list and wanting a fighter screen, but Defenders are a fusion of both of the wrong ends of the spectrum. What dies to 8 Sloane Defenders that doesn't also die to 8 Motti Defenders?

In both raw damage output and token stripping, against both squadrons and ships, 16 Sloane Tie Fighters is more effective than 8 Sloane Defenders.
Not that you should run 16 Tie Fighters with Sloane, just that multi-role Defenders don't hit as hard with Sloane as dedicated squadron-killers do, since Sloane gives them half-bomber.
Not that you shouldn't run 16 Tie Fighters.
25 in CC with Fighter Wing.

Fair enough mate.....but if you want accuracies against ships then if you crit you can reroll......add a bomber command centre and you can reroll again. What Sloane does is make defenders super efficient as no matter what they do they are getting a result.

Accuracy against squadrons not too worried about as if they have scatter just overload them with squadrons dice. 2 blacks and 2 blues with 6 Defenders alpha is going to smash a lot of things (3 blues with Flight Controllers)

While I agree with 16 TIES is better, activating them is an issue and they don't like AA....Defenders can shrug that off a bit

6 hours ago, SmurfWedge said:

Fair enough mate.....but if you want accuracies against ships then if you crit you can reroll......add a bomber command centre and you can reroll again. What Sloane does is make defenders super efficient as no matter what they do they are getting a result.

Accuracy against squadrons not too worried about as if they have scatter just overload them with squadrons dice. 2 blacks and 2 blues with 6 Defenders alpha is going to smash a lot of things (3 blues with Flight Controllers)

While I agree with 16 TIES is better, activating them is an issue and they don't like AA....Defenders can shrug that off a bit

Hmmm... why not a compromise and take both so you can benefit from both strengths?

Using Sloan and taking 134p of just basic Ties MIGHT not be the best of ideas. A large squadron count should be about 10-12 squadrons. In my experience the best mix of quality and quantity for Imperials.

Yeah I've said it before and I'll say it again. Maxing on 1 type of squadron, be it defenders or ties, is not where Sloanes sweet spot will be.

I see her pushing Defenders, Phantoms and regular ties, plus a couple of aces. Even Rhymer or standard bombers, stripping tokens is fine but if you are just plinking after that and/or your hammer ship is otherwise occupied you need your squads to do work. I see shooting at a flagship with an alpha of expendable ties as an opening gambit followed up by actual bombers with a bomber command backing them up. Ruthless strategist on a red AS die Quasar may even mean YV 666 can make an appearance. it really just opens up the whole game.