Recently, a somewhat hot topic was whether (and why) arc dodgers were an NPE. My personal opinion was that they indeed were, but more due to the fact that even if you did manage to catch one of them in arc you still weren't likely to do any significant damage. As an experiment of sorts, I decided to create a ship with a completely crazy maneuverabilty, but also very fragile. I present to you: The Chiss Clawcraft.

Now that you know the cards and the dial, let me offer a few words of card-specific explanation.

Chiss Ace: Given the arcdodgy nature of the ship, I considered it pointless to include low-PS generics.

Jagged Fel: I wanted a pilot that would breathe new life into some old utility cannons.

Narth Deredim: As a made-up force-sensitive Chiss (none of the two canon ones worked well with the ability), Narth was designed to give your arcdodgers a little more breathing room around bombs.

Soontir Fel: I definitely wanted an ace with a native PS9 for this ship, so when I found out Soontir actually piloted the craft the choice was obvious.

Nsiss-Class: From the get-go, it was obvious to me the ship needed some way of avoiding turrets and all the crazy arcs that have came up in the recent waves. Adding dice results against out-of-primary-arc shots was either insufficient against some ships and meaningless against others or effectively invulnerable anyway, so I decided to outright forbid out-of-primary-arc shots against the Clawcraft.

Claw Thrusters: I wanted all pilots to be able to arc dodge, therefore they needed a way to (almost) guarantee going last.

Repeater cannon: this is the default "primary" cannon for all pilots that aren't Jagged. By effectively disabling range combat modifiers for the Clawcraft, I wanted to let the player focus solely on the arc control aspect of the ship.

Let me know what you think. It would be awesome if some of you took the Clawcraft for a test drive and told me how it went

FAQ:

Q: If I have both the "Enhanced Scopes" and the "Claw Thrusters" equipped, what is my Pilot Skill in the activation phase?
A: Because both cards refer to the same time window, the controlling player may choose which effect will resolve first. However, since neither of them is optional, you will end up at either Pilot Skill 0 or Pilot Skill 3.

Changelog:

nothing for now

Quote

Would you like to fly a ship that lives and dies entirely by their abilty to arc dodge?

Um, isn't that the TIE Interceptor?

And, from personal experience so far, my answer is no.

But a Clawcraft would be awesome. . .

9 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Um, isn't that the TIE Interceptor?

And, from personal experience so far, my answer is no.

But a Clawcraft would be awesome. . .

The idea came from a thread from a few weeks ago. The rough consensus from the thread was that arc dodgers, or perhaps just Soontir Fel specifically, became frustrating and non-interactive when it felt like even when you got them in arc you couldn't touch them (As a fully tokened up Soontir often was).

That being said... While I think Soontir' s defensive capabilities were probably excessive, I also feel arc dodgers do need some form of passive defense and/or an evade action. Otherwise things like the Lancer, Yv-666, and turrets would be too difficult to fly against.

I think Soontir would have been fine with the Palp Nerf in place. Every time he left himself in arc was a gamble, and having a pre Nerf crutch to cover his bad roll was what may be the over the top to his capabilities.

59 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

I think Soontir would have been fine with the Palp Nerf in place. Every time he left himself in arc was a gamble, and having a pre Nerf crutch to cover his bad roll was what may be the over the top to his capabilities.

He probably would have have been if waves 7-11 didn't include at least 1 anti Ace card each wave.

To the OP, I like the idea but I haven't crunched numbers to see if it is balanced. On the surface you could spend 39pts on Fel for Advanced Sensors, PTL, FCS, Ion Cannon, and the two native cards. He does hardly any damage but is probably impossible to kill unless you really mess up.

Just one thing. I'm not sure that Jagged works. I know what you are trying to do but I think you need to reword it. Just to make it more clear. The way he is written requires some precise walking through the timing chart and it would be better to just have an intuitive ability in the first place. Like "add 1 hit result when using a cannon of 3pts or less. If the attack hits, after the cannon effects are applied, deal 1 critical damage to the defending ship"

Ironically a swarm would eat one of these up. Even if you managed to dodge most of the arcs. 2 or 3 Tie Fighters could ruin your day.

I like it!

Just a few minor critiques.

It needs a line in the title that says you may perform the same action multiple times per round. That way if you take PTL, you can barrel roll twice to get out of arc. Otherwise it's just too squishy.

And fluff-wise? It needs at least two evade - it would be weird if something with this many wings had the agility of a punisher! Then drop the hull down to two. It'll still get killed by Nym bombs, so it also needs some ability that protects it from bombs.

Like the TIE interceptor, one Warden with conner nets and your day is ruined.

Great idea @Elavion, it would be a lovely model, keep up the good work ?

27 minutes ago, Giledhil said:

Like the TIE interceptor, one Warden with conner nets and your day is ruined.

All ,all, all , along the watchtower...

4 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Um, isn't that the TIE Interceptor?

And, from personal experience so far, my answer is no.

But a Clawcraft would be awesome. . .

Oh, you almost got a like but then you heaped praise on the Flawcrap.

The Eta-2 would be a better choice for 'arc dodge or die'. Probably has 2 hull.

Jagged Fel, I feel, was a superior pilot to Soontir, since he was able to beat Jaina (in old cannon) most of the time in simulators. The dial is a tad ridiculous; white 1-speed tallon rolls are enormously strong, the sheer number of greens means PTL is simply stapled to all of these pilots.

Bombs aren't the boogey-man people seem to think here, since every pilot can equip Enhanced Scopes to go down to PS 0 and move before the boom-booms. However, TIE striker swarms, Vader (With VI) , Tycho(with VI and Adaptability and prockets) will all eat these things alive, as will Fair Ship Rebels.

I'll second the call for an Eta-2 first. Although the Clawcraft is really cool, it just isn't as recognisable. The Eta-2 can do a lot of the same things while introducing some more prequel pilots (Maybe Oddball, Obi-wan, Saesee Tiin and Anakin as uniques in a pack with 2 interceptors), which would be super-popular no matter what the nay-sayers say.

Thanks everyone for the feedback

4 hours ago, DodgingArcs said:

He probably would have have been if waves 7-11 didn't include at least 1 anti Ace card each wave.

To the OP, I like the idea but I haven't crunched numbers to see if it is balanced. On the surface you could spend 39pts on Fel for Advanced Sensors, PTL, FCS, Ion Cannon, and the two native cards. He does hardly any damage but is probably impossible to kill unless you really mess up.

Just one thing. I'm not sure that Jagged works. I know what you are trying to do but I think you need to reword it. Just to make it more clear. The way he is written requires some precise walking through the timing chart and it would be better to just have an intuitive ability in the first place. Like "add 1 hit result when using a cannon of 3pts or less. If the attack hits, after the cannon effects are applied, deal 1 critical damage to the defending ship"

IIRC, raw numbers run at 11 points for the statline itself (at ps1). That means 8(11 with mod) points for the PS, banana dial, title and solid action and upgrade bars. That said, this ship is so different from every existing ship in the game it's really hard to just estimate how much it should cost. The cannon slot(s) definitely offset the 1 primary somewhat.

I'll try to simplify Jagged's wording, I agree it's kinda clunky (though Phantom2 Fenn Rau still holds the #1 spot :P)

4 hours ago, Jo Jo said:

Ironically a swarm would eat one of these up. Even if you managed to dodge most of the arcs. 2 or 3 Tie Fighters could ruin your day.

That's possible, though it would probably divert the entire swarm's attention.

4 hours ago, Kieransi said:

I like it!

Just a few minor critiques.

It needs a line in the title that says you may perform the same action multiple times per round. That way if you take PTL, you can barrel roll twice to get out of arc. Otherwise it's just too squishy.

And fluff-wise? It needs at least two evade - it would be weird if something with this many wings had the agility of a punisher! Then drop the hull down to two. It'll still get killed by Nym bombs, so it also needs some ability that protects it from bombs.

Considering it has access to Advanced Sensors, I don't think that's neccessary . Though I will take that into consideration if I feel it's underperforming.

Combining damage mitigation with maneuverability is exactly what I was trying to avoid with this ship, hence the 1 agility. The Clawcraft was known to be both better armored than the TIE Interceptor and also armed with deflector shields, which I landed at the 1/4/1 statline; it also should be able to tank almost any one hit, but blow up after taking any two, which is kind of what I wanted it to do. I felt like requiring an entirely flawless execution was a little too much, even with the tools it has

3 hours ago, Giledhil said:

Like the TIE interceptor, one Warden with conner nets and your day is ruined.

I thought about that actually, and I don't think that's true- With advanced Sensors you should be able to avoid any Conner Net that didn't get dropped directly onto you. Even if you do get directly connered, it still does not prevent Advanced Sensors- so although depending on the context using PtL might be a bad idea, you still get some repositioning. And even with Sabine, it's just 2 damage- which will be very hard to follow up on for a K-Wing, which normally relies on turrets for that.

Clusters are a bit more scary, but (aside from being slightly harder to land) that's what Narth is for

1 hour ago, Astech said:

Jagged Fel, I feel, was a superior pilot to Soontir, since he was able to beat Jaina (in old cannon) most of the time in simulators. The dial is a tad ridiculous; white 1-speed tallon rolls are enormously strong, the sheer number of greens means PTL is simply stapled to all of these pilots.

Bombs aren't the boogey-man people seem to think here, since every pilot can equip Enhanced Scopes to go down to PS 0 and move before the boom-booms. However, TIE striker swarms, Vader (With VI) , Tycho(with VI and Adaptability and prockets) will all eat these things alive, as will Fair Ship Rebels.

I'll second the call for an Eta-2 first. Although the Clawcraft is really cool, it just isn't as recognisable. The Eta-2 can do a lot of the same things while introducing some more prequel pilots (Maybe Oddball, Obi-wan, Saesee Tiin and Anakin as uniques in a pack with 2 interceptors), which would be super-popular no matter what the nay-sayers say.

I'm not very knowledgeable in SW lore, so I won't deny that. I'll keep him at 7 for now, I might rename him in the future though.

Regarding the dial, that was kind of the point . Did you miss the introduction at the top or the statline? It's meant to be extremely hard to catch, but very fragile if you do. With just 1 agility, no evade and only 5 hp, you get to make one mistake at best.

E-scopes are kind of suicidal- they're obligatory, so you'd be sacrificing every other matchup. Besides, SLAM bombs might still get you.

Not sure why TIE Striker swarms, of all things? Vader is definitely scary, but Narth and Soontir can still outPS him (well, out-initiative in case of Narth). Tycho would need to perfectly predict you with that build, since he wouldn't have a second action (and is still only PS11, so 2/4 pilots can outrin him).

I wouldn't be too worried about 4SR. They're great at jousting, but getting outmaneuvered is precisely what they're scared of. Sure, it's easier when your name is Dash Rendar or Nym, but still very doable for a more conventional ace.

ETA-2 is definitely something to consider. I went with Clawcraft mostly because it kind of came up in my YT subscribtions (shoutout to Spacedock!) while I was working on the mechanics,. I also prefered it to be an imperial ship (I know it's not exactly imperial, but it's a tiny bit closer to that than ETA-2)

THIS IS SO COOL!!!!

However, I think the hull could afford to go down to 2-3 and agility up to 2.

59 minutes ago, Elavion said:

ETA-2 is definitely something to consider. I went with Clawcraft mostly because it kind of came up in my YT subscribtions (shoutout to Spacedock!) while I was working on the mechanics,. I also prefered it to be an imperial ship (I know it's not exactly imperial, but it's a tiny bit closer to that than ETA-2)

Well, the ETA-2 was used during the early days of the empire for pilots like Vader (and likely inquisitors as well) since nobody was going to make pilots of their caliber fly a mere Tie/ln (Once the Classic flying coffin we all know and love replaced the V-wing, that is).

3 hours ago, GrimmyV said:

Oh, you almost got a like but then you heaped praise on the Flawcrap.

The Eta-2 would be a better choice for 'arc dodge or die'. Probably has 2 hull.

Aw, who doesn't like a squint with sexy curves ?

1 hour ago, Elavion said:

I'm not very knowledgeable in SW lore, so I won't deny that. I'll keep him at 7 for now, I might rename him in the future though.

Regarding the dial, that was kind of the point . Did you miss the introduction at the top or the statline? It's meant to be extremely hard to catch, but very fragile if you do. With just 1 agility, no evade and only 5 hp, you get to make one mistake at best.

E-scopes are kind of suicidal- they're obligatory, so you'd be sacrificing every other matchup. Besides, SLAM bombs might still get you.

Not sure why TIE Striker swarms, of all things? Vader is definitely scary, but Narth and Soontir can still outPS him (well, out-initiative in case of Narth). Tycho would need to perfectly predict you with that build, since he wouldn't have a second action (and is still only PS11, so 2/4 pilots can outrin him).

I wouldn't be too worried about 4SR. They're great at jousting, but getting outmaneuvered is precisely what they're scared of. Sure, it's easier when your name is Dash Rendar or Nym, but still very doable for a more conventional ace.

ETA-2 is definitely something to consider. I went with Clawcraft mostly because it kind of came up in my YT subscribtions (shoutout to Spacedock!) while I was working on the mechanics,. I also prefered it to be an imperial ship (I know it's not exactly imperial, but it's a tiny bit closer to that than ETA-2)

Brief Jagged history:

His first major appearance was in the The New Jedi Order books. On the eve of a major battle he turns up with a compliment of Clawcraft, which nobody had ever seen before. For a time he and his squad trains alongside Rogue Squadron, where they wipe the floor with them routinely. The only pilot that came anywhere close to Jagged's skill level there was Wedge, and even he lost more than won. So while Soontir might have flown a Clawcraft, Jagged was practically born in them.

The trouble with a dial like that is that it is quite literally impossible to catch that kind of ship. Soontir Fel, in particular, with Advanced Sensors, FCS, PTL and all the nice titles and mods is sitting at PS 12 with target lock, focus boost + barrel roll every single turn, performing those actions before he moves to stay stress-free. He'd be the undisputed master of the endgame, since literally no ship can get him in arc. Give him a Mangler cannon and Tractor beam and nothing can stop him, for a scant 40 points.

Of course, it's highly match up dependent, since a swarm will eat him alive, but Dengar/Nym would be lucky to perform a single attack against him. That's why the strikers are so deadly against these Clawcraft - you can get five 3-dice attackers in a single list with high maneuverability, so Soontir simply can't dodge them all, and he'll die to attrition. TIE bomber swarms (with unguided rockets) would also be quite nasty, but they don't have the tricks to keep up with arc-dodgers at all.

The thing about 4SR is that they laugh at 3 die attacks, even fully modified ones. If need be they'll fortress in a corner and win on final salvo, but otherwise you'll simply not kill anything, even by flanking.

There's really no (fluffy) reason to have the clawcraft be anything less than 3 agility.

4 hours ago, VanderLegion said:

There's really no (fluffy) reason to have the clawcraft be anything less than 3 agility.

That's because damage mitigation implies high maneuverabilty in X-Wing. The whole idea behind this experimental build is to see whether disconnecting them would be better.