We know the stats, slots, pilotskills and cost of the Phantom II.

It has 2 Attack, 2 Agility, 4 Hull and 1 Shield. Focus and TL are obvious. Also it has Coordinate!

Fenn Rau is PS9, costs 20pt and has an EPT, Crew and Astromech.

His pilot ability reads: When an enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3 becomes the active ship during the Combat Phase, if you are not stressed you may receive 1 stress token. If you do, that ship cannot spend tokens to modify it’s dice when attacking this round.

I guess Juke is not affected by the ability, so primarily TL and Focus.
Importantly he recieves the stress at beginning of combat, so no expertise for example . But what other upgrades do you see that go well with his ability?

Crew:
Kyle Katarn basically means free focus every turn (depends heavily on the greens).
Ezra (crew) means he can change a focus to a crit for free.

Astromech:
R2-D2 is obvious because you'll do plenty green maneuvers.
R2 is another nice one - he allows Fenn to always move with green if he has enough 1speed maneuvers, constantly removing that stress and - with Kyle - getting a free focus.
R3-A2 would go the other direction and get even more, as you need arc anyway - pair him with inspiring recruit to remove that double stress.

EPT:
Wired is the only one that is repeatedly useful with the stress. PTL is no option, and neither is Expertise . Of course other good EPTs work too, from Predator to Lonewolf and more. e: Expertise is fine if he shoots before the ship whom he wants to deny the tokens.

So the Phantom2 could be a tokendenying, stressing, action-delivering control ship that won't last long and won't do much damage. But it doesn't have to!

An example would be
Fenn, Wired, R2, Kyle and your modification of choice for 25+ points. It uses the action to coordinate, gets a free focus every turn and has green 1s and 2s.

Edit: another example:
Fenn, VI, R3-A2, Inspiring Recruit. 24pt stresshog v3. Can reliably clear both stress with inspiring, and stresses the opponent. e: stress only works against higher PS!

One more:
Fenn, VI, Mech?, Kanan. 24+pt, will coordinate and always clear his ability. But R2 is cheaper and probably about as good.

A ridiculous one:
Fenn, VI, R3, Gunner, for 28pt. Cancel that focus result to miss and to get an evade, then shoot again.

And the last one:
Fenn, VI, Astro, OpSpec for 24+pt. You will miss anyway (force it with R3 to increase survivability?), so why not distribute some more tokens?

Your thoughts?

I think R2 will be stapled to him depending on the dial. Otherwise I'd go Rey or Katarn plus VI. Coordinate at PS 11 should be pretty awesome. You'll probably want to keep the Phantom II as cheap as possible. Its basically a Z-95 with a rear arc.

If Fenn's ability is really range 1-3, it's going to fit right into FSR. Biggs takes R2-F2 to get +1 agility and then gets coordinated a Focus from Fenn. Lowhhrick still passes out his Reinforce Evade, has DtF/Selflessness, Rex is there to decrease attack power, AND now Fenn is there to disrupt attack accuracy. It's going to be disgusting.

If he gets stressed from his ability then the bb8 idea is out the window since he cant take primed thrustors.

Unless he has an ugly dial (somehow i doubt that, the attack shuttle isnt bad either and this is V2 of that thing after all), R2D2 makes sense yeah, otherwise R2. All other mechs will be highly situational and we need to know some more info to debate those.

Also, coordinate on a cheap-*** ship....meaning its actually going to get used.

2 minutes ago, defkhan1 said:

If Fenn's ability is really range 1-3, it's going to fit right into FSR. Biggs takes R2-F2 to get +1 agility and then gets coordinated a Focus from Fenn. Lowhhrick still passes out his Reinforce Evade, has DtF/Selflessness, Rex is there to decrease attack power, AND now Fenn is there to disrupt attack accuracy. It's going to be disgusting.

But swapping Jess for Fenn reduces your damage output a lot, and you still need to kill at least 1 ship to score some points before time runs out (also lose 1 dice for final salvo)

It also is a autothruster-free, 2 agility, 5HP ship. Like the HWK or X-Wing without integrated.
This thing will melt like butter in the sun if not protected by Biggs, and I really don't want to use Biggs (still never have). Any mods will be exclusively defensive to keep the coordinate going some more.

Coordinate is essentially like Ahsoka's ability, right? Except he has no camouflage as enemy ship.
Maybe he would go nicely by throwing Jake an action at ps11?

I'm also really curious what the new astromechs do (still hoping for a soft X-wing/Y-wing buff) and what the two new Crew do

Eclipsed by the XG-1 and Kimo.

Sorry I find it hard to get excited over this one.

I wonder if with a Sabine pilot that can pre movement BR/Boost using it as wingman with PS11 Poe and using coordinate until it dies will be a thing

Coordinate is basically ahsoka yes, only it happens when he activates/does an action rather than start of combat. It is range 1-2 however instead of range1

There is no Sabine in this expansion

Keep in mind that it has a rear-facing auxiliary firing arc. So anything that works off of firing arcs has twice the real-estate to work with.

And the Rear Gunner might have some use.

42 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

His pilot ability reads: When an enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3 becomes the active ship during the Combat Phase, if you are not stressed you may receive 1 stress token. If you do, that ship cannot spend tokens to modify it’s dice when attacking this round.

I guess Juke is not affected by the ability, so primarily TL and Focus.
Importantly he recieves the stress at beginning of combat, so no expertise for example. But what other upgrades do you see that go well with his ability?

Astromech:
R3-A2 would go the other direction and get even more, as you need arc anyway - pair him with inspiring recruit to remove that double stress.

EPT:
Wired is the only one that is repeatedly useful with the stress. PTL is no option, and neither is Expertise. Of course other good EPTs work too, from Predator to Lonewolf and more.

Edit: another example:
Fenn, VI, R3-A2, Inspiring Recruit. 24pt stresshog v3. Can reliably clear both stress with inspiring, and stresses the opponent.

Your thoughts?

I'm afraid that R3A2 is a complete no-go, since he becomes stressed if he uses it - and therefore he couldn't use his pilot abilty since that triggers when the enemy ship activates, not when he does. However, it does allow Expertise to work on him, should you wish.

I'd go with Kyle, so he gets a focus while still being able to co-ordinate, plus either R2D2 or R2 depending on the green moves and points available.

48 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Phantom II - where do you see it?

Parked on the back of the Ghost?

Just now, Gilarius said:

I'm afraid that R3A2 is a complete no-go, since he becomes stressed if he uses it - and therefore he couldn't use his pilot abilty since that triggers when the enemy ship activates, not when he does. However, it does allow Expertise to work on him, should you wish.

I'd go with Kyle, so he gets a focus while still being able to co-ordinate, plus either R2D2 or R2 depending on the green moves and points available.

Duh, of course! I completely missed that! He shoots probably first anyway.

10 minutes ago, Gilarius said:

I'm afraid that R3A2 is a complete no-go, since he becomes stressed if he uses it - and therefore he couldn't use his pilot abilty since that triggers when the enemy ship activates, not when he does. However, it does allow Expertise to work on him, should you wish.

I'd go with Kyle , so he gets a focus while still being able to co-ordinate, plus either R2D2 or R2 depending on the green moves and points available.

1 shield means R2-D2 is probably a waste.

Given it's stats, it's hard to justify putting points into this thing. Maybe Ps11 Fenn with Kyle, R2 astro and VT at most.. Unless the new astros are better.

Do we know what the new title does? I've heard a rumor it might let you use pilot abilities from pilots of attached shuttles. That would make Fen Rau's ability.... Interesting.

I also wonder what the cheapest Sheathipede pilot will be. It might be a nice way to get even more Specter builds on the table.

20 minutes ago, Punning Pundit said:

Do we know what the new title does? I've heard a rumor it might let you use pilot abilities from pilots of attached shuttles. That would make Fen Rau's ability.... Interesting.

I also wonder what the cheapest Sheathipede pilot will be. It might be a nice way to get even more Specter builds on the table.

I've head speculation that it is AP-1, the inventory droid.

7 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

I've head speculation that it is AP-1, the inventory droid.

AP-5

Rau is PS9 for 20 points, so PS1 AP-5 will be... 12?

26 minutes ago, eMeM said:

Rau is PS9 for 20 points, so PS1 AP-5 will be... 12?

Interesting, it has to be more, right? He would be a 2/2/4/1 for just 12? compared to the 2/2/2/2 Z-wings?!

But then again, 1 PS usually goes for 1pt at least, so more expensive is also strange

It's a support ship for sure.

I mean lets be real: Coordinate action, plus astromech, plus crew, for potentially as cheap as 12 points for the PS1, or PS9 with an EPT as well with a support ability for 20 points? The astromech/crew combo has a lot of options that only the ARC had, except the ARC had to use them for it's own benefit, either offensively or defensively. Now we have a super cheap ship that has good upgrade potential that can create some nasty combos for little overhead cost, unlike with the ARC where the cheapest pilot is 23 points.

AP-5 will be popular as another stressmule ship, too. 19 points for a front/rear arc ship that can double stress, that's the cheapest we've ever seen before. That's 13 points less than Braylen with R3-A2 + Gunner.

jesus christ, I didn't even notice that this thing was an ARC

makes the 2 die ARC primary looking even more wimpy now

welp, so long Failin' Braylen! you're being replaced by something around 10 points cheaper

7 minutes ago, Razgriz25thinf said:

It's a support ship for sure.

I mean lets be real: Coordinate action, plus astromech, plus crew, for potentially as cheap as 12 points for the PS1, or PS9 with an EPT as well with a support ability for 20 points? The astromech/crew combo has a lot of options that only the ARC had, except the ARC had to use them for it's own benefit, either offensively or defensively. Now we have a super cheap ship that has good upgrade potential that can create some nasty combos for little overhead cost, unlike with the ARC where the cheapest pilot is 23 points.

AP-5 will be popular as another stressmule ship, too. 19 points for a front/rear arc ship that can double stress, that's the cheapest we've ever seen before. That's 13 points less than Braylen with R3-A2 + Gunner.

Put that on Ezra who has a defensive ability while stressed at a max point cost of 19 (though likely cheaper), Stressbot+Gunner would cost about 26 points and still have an EPT to work with.

Now to decide to call this the StressCamel or the Stressipede?

2 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Put that on Ezra who has a defensive ability while stressed at a max point cost of 19 (though likely cheaper), Stressbot+Gunner would cost about 26 points and still have an EPT to work with.

Now to decide to call this the StressCamel or the Stressipede?

Then Pulse Ray Shields ...

2 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Put that on Ezra who has a defensive ability while stressed at a max point cost of 19 (though likely cheaper), Stressbot+Gunner would cost about 26 points and still have an EPT to work with.

Now to decide to call this the StressCamel or the Stressipede?

stressboat

cause the rau art looks like a speedboat