I picked up 2 more strikers the other day. Can't wait to get all 5 on the table

You guys are really making me want to get two more Strikers so I have five. Stop it!

25 minutes ago, dadocollin said:

You guys are really making me want to get two more Strikers so I have five. Stop it!

Do it. Do it. Doooooooooo it!

Dewit! Join me and together the strikers will rule the galaxy!

Ok they had one at my B&N tonight and I had a 20% off coupon. I’m up to four!

One of us one of us

I played my first game with 5 SCARIF DEFENDERS on Monday and I won. Go me! However, full disclosure, it was against a new player who had just bought the core set that day so maybe not the best test of how well I fly them.

I'll definitely get a good test tomorrow as I intend to fly them at the Omaha regional. Up until Monday I had intended to fly Palp Yorr, Inquisitor, and expertise QD but I haven't felt like I was in the groove with it lately. And then there's the fact that there's going to be a ton of people there trying to win tickets to worlds meaning my chances of winning have gotten pretty slim.

So I said screw it, fly the Strikers and have some fun. It'll be my biggest tournament yet so I'm excited and nervous, but not flying a meta list in an attempt to win it all has taken a lot of the pressure off. I'll definitely let you all know how it goes.

On 3/2/2018 at 6:17 AM, DXCrazytrain said:

So I said screw it, fly the Strikers and have some fun. It'll be my biggest tournament yet so I'm excited and nervous, but not flying a meta list in an attempt to win it all has taken a lot of the pressure off. I'll definitely let you all know how it goes.

Atta boy!

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 7:17 AM, DXCrazytrain said:

I played my first game with 5 SCARIF DEFENDERS on Monday and I won. Go me! However, full disclosure, it was against a new player who had just bought the core set that day so maybe not the best test of how well I fly them.

I'll definitely get a good test tomorrow as I intend to fly them at the Omaha regional. Up until Monday I had intended to fly Palp Yorr, Inquisitor, and expertise QD but I haven't felt like I was in the groove with it lately. And then there's the fact that there's going to be a ton of people there trying to win tickets to worlds meaning my chances of winning have gotten pretty slim.

So I said screw it, fly the Strikers and have some fun. It'll be my biggest tournament yet so I'm excited and nervous, but not flying a meta list in an attempt to win it all has taken a lot of the pressure off. I'll definitely let you all know how it goes.

While I didn't get to see you play in Omaha, I did see the list and was appropriately spooked. 5 ships with 3attack dice is actually quite a bit! Especially with how fast they are, and what good blockers they make. I was only brave enough to bring one striker... how did you do?

I just want to report that I have obtained my fifth Striker!

My batt rep from the Omaha regional can be found here, https://desmoinesareaxwing.wordpress.com/strategytactics-resource-page/ under Jefferson Hansen.

Between holidays and various adulting-type things, (plus a good half of our stores players disappearing across the pond to Worlds for a week) it's been months since I got a game in, but I did last night.

Good fun - and felt great to start getting back into practice. I'm very psyched for 2nd edition, because if "it's all about manoeuvring" - with many aces having bullseye-restricted abilities and turrets being a mobile arc not an all-the-arcs-all-the-time, then strikers may be one of the best things to get in training with. With only a handful of exceptions, there's now always a blind spot somewhere .

Plus, Duchess's ability to use Adaptive Ailerons or not now applies whilst stressed as well, making her seriously squirrely.

Major things which popped up for the first time in the game:

• Snap Shot/R3-A2. Adaptive Ailerons trigger this , and do not in turn trigger Lightweight Frame. This hurts .
• Loose Stabilizer. Adaptive Ailerons triggers this , too, but if you dial in a green move it's something you can cope with.

I, too, am brimming with excitement for Second Edition. I haven't played much since Store Championships, diverting my energies to Runewars (which, SURPRISE! is all about maneuvering). I've been putting TIE strikers on the table, but I haven't been doing so well. I make a really good trade early on, like 1 striker for one of their 3 ace-like ships, but then I just can't keep the momentum going. Losing the focus on the K-turns and S-loops really hurts in a world where so many other ships can have full mods when they turn around or shoot you out the back.

A lot of me wants to go play with the 1.0 stuff I haven't played with, especially Rebel and Scum because I won't be updating them to 2.0 right at first. But man, I think I'd rather lose with strikers than win with something else.

With 2.0 Interceptor and Striker could be deadly ! Now I just hesitate if I took more striker on 1.0 or wait the 2.0 blister....

14 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Losing the focus on the K-turns and S-loops really hurts in a world where so many other ships can have full mods when they turn around or shoot you out the back.

Agreed. You find yourself having to loop a lot with strikers because of their minimum speed.

The best 'striker aces' squad I ever managed to try was:

• "Duchess"
  • Adaptive Ailerons
  • Veteran Instincts
  • Lightweight Frame
• "Pure Sabbac"
  • Adaptive Ailerons
  • Crack Shot
  • Lightweight Frame
• "Countdown"
  • Adaptive Ailerons
  • Lightweight Frame
• Captain Yorr
  • Electronic Baffle
  • Inspiring Recruit
  • Intelligence Agent

Yorr allowing you to pull a crazy aileron segnor and still get focus tokens makes the striker all-stars work so much better it's untrue.

14 hours ago, Parakitor said:

A lot of me wants to go play with the 1.0 stuff I haven't played with, especially Rebel and Scum because I won't be updating them to 2.0 right at first. But man, I think I'd rather lose with strikers than win with something else.

Indeed. I do miss using my TIE/fo swarm, but ultimately, every time I look at anything else, I find myself going "but strikers ...."

I might be interested in switching to TIE/in in V2, at least to experiment with, because the baked-in Autothrusters ability comes close to giving it the flexibility of ailerons. If I can pack 5 Alpha Squadron Pilots - especially if I can pack 5 with Afterburners for more free boosts and barrel rolls than you can shake a pointy solar panel at - it might well work somewhat similarly to the TIE/sk x1.

15 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I might be interested in switching to TIE/in in V2, at least to experiment with, because the baked-in Autothrusters ability comes close to giving it the flexibility of ailerons. If I can pack 5 Alpha Squadron Pilots - especially if I can pack 5 with Afterburners for more free boosts and barrel rolls than you can shake a pointy solar panel at - it might well work somewhat similarly to the TIE/sk x1.

Absolutely! Truth is, I only fly TIE strikers because TIE interceptors are just underpowered by comparison. If Second Edition interceptors are balanced, I may ditch the strikers...but it's more likely I'll fly them both in the same squad.

6 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Absolutely! Truth is, I only fly TIE strikers because TIE interceptors are just underpowered by comparison. If Second Edition interceptors are balanced, I may ditch the strikers...but it's more likely I'll fly them both in the same squad.

Strikers, Interceptors, Silencers....it's all good. @ficklegreendice can focus on Wingspan, I'll take the ships with pointy bits (I have always liked the Fang, on a related note...).

strikers and silencers are lateral wingspan and therefore fall under my purview

Soo......It looks like the striker swarm is going to need some serious thought to make work.

Changes:

• Strikers are still agility 2. But with Lightweight Frame supposedly gone, they're stuck and staying at agility 2. That means we now have, essentially, the durability of a Z-95, combining a fragile hull more like the TIE/ln or TIE/in with the lack of green dice of the TIE/sa.
  • 4 hits with lousy green dice is still arguably better than 3 hits with more green dice, because it's impossible for a bad roll to see you one-hit-killed by a 'normal' 3 dice attack (barring silly critical hits).
  • This does significantly reduce your chances of living through a 4-dice shot.
• We don't get any of the lovely new linked actions. Not that a TIE striker would really want them, because we retain the 1.0 TIE/sk's sensitivity to stress.
• The spoiled pilot, "Planetary Sentinel" is Initiative 1, and has the artwork of the Scarif Defender. Therefore, assume the Imperial Trainee and Scarif Defender have both been merged into this guy. We might have the Black Squadron Scout as a pilot with the talent slot, but unless they're a lot, lot cheaper than their current incarnation, you won't get the 5-ship swarm (or 4-and-support-craft) of them that makes generic strikers really stand out, especially if you buy anything to go in said talent slot.
• Adaptive Ailerons is now baked in. The dial has been marginally changed (taking the koiogran turn down to speed 1) because apparently a lot of people flew them without the title. (Who the heck did that?)
  • This might make handling them in close proximity to enemy ships marginally more awkward because you can't now bump with your aileron move then loop behind them with your 'proper' manoeuvre - a speed 1 move won't clear a normal base if either it's at all at an angle or either your or their movement template nubs clip the other ship's base. Fortunately, the speed 2 segnors are still fast enough to do clear an enemy.
  • Speed 1 koiograns will make it easier to turn in pursuit of an enemy - because that means an effective speed 3 not speed 4, which will mean you can get back into your starting position facing the other way in one turn, and hopefully have less chance of dropping out of range of a retreating enemy.
• Apparently we now have the devices slot (a.k.a bomb slot). Honestly I'm not too bothered about this. I know people used to rant and rave that "the striker should have bombs" because it mentions them in a cross-sections book, but I'm not convinced in game it makes much difference; using bombs when you have a swarm of fragile ships often hurts you as much as the enemy. We'll have to wait and see what bombs exist and how much they cost, though. Assuming drop-on-reveal-your-dial is still a thing (since it's claimed action-bombs are gone), then Adaptive Ailerons should give us an equivalent of the TIE/sa's 'Nimble Bomber' rule, giving us a chance to shift positions of bombs subtly.
  • Depending on cost, it might work well. The weak point of the striker has always been when overflying an enemy and needing to turn around; being able to bin off a couple of mines/seismic charges/whatever to give your opponent something to worry about whilst you get your nose around would be quite useful.
• We will need to wait to see points costs.
  • Since prices have essentially doubled, the assumption is that the PS1 Imperial Trainee at 17 points should imply a PS1 Planetary Sentinel at 34 points.
  • Without Lightweight Frame to spend points on, I see two possibilities:
    • We have 6 points-per-ship to spend on upgrades in a 5-ship swarm. Without Lightweight Frame, this is either going to be a bomb of some kind (might as well use our new slot) or some attempt at a durability upgrade (are hull upgrade or stealth device still a thing?)
    • Literally a single (new) point reduction in the price of the ship would give you the option of a 6-ship swarm. Given a general reduction in dice modifiers, though, is FFG really likely to let us play with 6 3-dice attack ships at once?

On ‎2‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 12:02 PM, TyrantLord73 said:

Just thought I’d chip in with my striker experiences. Flew countdown with twin ions 3 trainees with LWF and a bomber shuttle with systems and fleet officers and twin ions at a local toury over the weekend. Won my first 3 games including one vs Rebel alpha with harpoons, but then my tired brain gave up and I lost the next 2 >< love flying strikers, so looking forward to the reaper to replace my bomber shuttle!

Love the First Order Striker.

Also love the fact that a lego pilot can hang on to the movement stick. That looks awesome.... Must have some TIE pilot minifigs somewhere!

Some more aileron-based shenanigans at a game night last night. Complete with actual pictures....

Actually got three games in this time.

I've definitely missed the strikers. Which have apparently been christened the '5trikers' by one of the guys at the local club.

11 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Nice pictures! The one above particularly grabbed my attention because that's what I'll be up against Thursday night in the Vassal League.

Captain Nym (Rebel) (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
"Genius" (0)
Guidance Chips (0)
Havoc (0)

"Crimson Specialist" (27)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
Thermal Detonators (3)
Ordnance Silos (2)
Deflective Plating (1)

Ezra Bridger (Sheathipede) (17)
Snap Shot (2)
Sabine Wren (2)
R3-A2 (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Versus

"Vizier" (23)
Systems Officer (2)
Recon Specialist (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
Advanced Ailerons (0)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Pure Sabacc" (22)
Trick Shot (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Duchess" (23)
Trick Shot (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Looking forward to trying out the Reaper, just something simple to start with.

Good luck!

• Vizier's ability aside, don't bunch up. This squad is splash damage a-go-go.
• Nym's Harpoon is more or less a basic 4-dice missile unless you get unlucky - whilst the explode-on-kill trigger is still there, the squad lacks the ability to reliably inflict a critical to set the harpoon off.
• KILL NYM FIRST. I didn't, it was a stupid move, and I got massacred.
• With at least three attacks, one of them target locked, you probably won't take out Nym in one go but a goal of taking him out by turn two isn't unreasonable. If you can stop him getting his second harpoon off you're doing okay.
• Vizier can afford to eat a bomb and keep right on rolling, and thermal detonators aren't too scary with Twin Ion Engines MkII. There's an argument with using him for bait, especially since whilst you need to fly up to him to 'snag' a token you can then fly off again to a safe distance to shoot.

On 5/23/2018 at 5:55 PM, Magnus Grendel said:

.

Actually got three games in this time.

I've definitely missed the strikers. Which have apparently been christened the '5trikers' by one of the guys at the local club.

5 strikers with 5 imperial dial covers is ?

On 5/24/2018 at 1:19 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Good luck!

• Vizier's ability aside, don't bunch up. This squad is splash damage a-go-go.
• Nym's Harpoon is more or less a basic 4-dice missile unless you get unlucky - whilst the explode-on-kill trigger is still there, the squad lacks the ability to reliably inflict a critical to set the harpoon off.
• KILL NYM FIRST. I didn't, it was a stupid move, and I got massacred.
• With at least three attacks, one of them target locked, you probably won't take out Nym in one go but a goal of taking him out by turn two isn't unreasonable. If you can stop him getting his second harpoon off you're doing okay.
• Vizier can afford to eat a bomb and keep right on rolling, and thermal detonators aren't too scary with Twin Ion Engines MkII. There's an argument with using him for bait, especially since whilst you need to fly up to him to 'snag' a token you can then fly off again to a safe distance to shoot.

Well, despite not seeing this message until just now, I think I did almost everything right. I didn't bunch up, I attacked Nym first, and Nym only got one Harpoon Missile off. That said, I got tabled. Managed to get Nym down to 1 or 2 hull left, and Ezra down to 1 hull. I started off strong, but somewhere along the way I choked. A Blinded Pilot on Vizier when he was range 1 of Ezra didn't help. It was a really fun match, and I flew my best, but I just needed a little more luck. Here's the link to the log file if you want to view it. If you see any tactical errors, shout it out so I can continue to learn.

http://lists.starwarsclubhouse.com/download_vlog?match_id=7825

On 5/24/2018 at 5:54 AM, Vandenberg said:

5 strikers with 5 imperial dial covers is ?

WANT NOW! What would that cost me, $35? Tempting, but with 2.0 coming out, I'll buy my 5th Striker in the new expansion pack, whenever that's released. I do think Dial covers will make the 2.0 dials a lot more user friendly. And they look fantastic!