TIE Silencer and Rebel B/sf-17 preview up

By HolySorcerer, in X-Wing

2 hours ago, VanderLegion said:

VI up to PS11 and nym won't be doing any murdering of you.

No but everything else will when you don't have PTL. A single action ace is usually a sad ace.

2 hours ago, DarkArk said:

Here's a thought: if Nym shoots your Kylo, take the hit because you can, and then make him PS 0. Boom, easy win there. Pair him up with Vader if you're scared of not getting the crits.

You gotta generate that crit first, which is not guaranteed on this ship. Also Nym doesn't even have to shoot you to damage you.

The TIE Silencer looks amazing in a vacuum. Great stats and upgrade/action bar. But that cost...good lord that cost. Corran Horn with +1 PS and +1 HP but a worse pilot ability and no regen (HUUUUUGE difference, even with AT). Price and lack of Evade might kill this ship. If I wanted a high PS "heavy" ace with systems and tech, I'd take Quickdraw. He has a far better pilot ability and is much cheaper.

If this thing was released maybe a year ago it would be OP. Now...it's questionably competitive. I'll definitely have fun flying it at league nights though!

24 minutes ago, defkhan1 said:

No but everything else will when you don't have PTL. A single action ace is usually a sad ace.

You gotta generate that crit first, which is not guaranteed on this ship. Also Nym doesn't even have to shoot you to damage you.

It's an Imp ship. Generating a crit is not exactly a thing they have to worry about.

Just now, Sithborg said:

It's an Imp ship. Generating a crit is not exactly a thing they have to worry about.

At Kylo's current cost you're going to have trouble pairing him with a halfway decent RAC. So all you're left with is Vader or Backdraft (which leaves very little room for a third ship). Palp is another option, but again by the time you build Kylo + Palpshuttle you don't have much for a decent second "ace".

7 hours ago, MegaSilver said:

Because, as always, the Tie/SFs crew member is dedicated to working the back guns. That's his only job. Crew in this game represents crew that can actually do other things other than man the guns.

Except, as always, the TIE Phantom.

10 minutes ago, evanger said:

Except, as always, the TIE Phantom.

The TIE Phantom second seater and the pilot can operate the forward guns.

1 hour ago, DarthEnderX said:

One of the rest of the ship's 3 crew?
One of the rest of the ship's 3 crew?
One of the rest of the ship's 4 crew?

The point is, like the Y-Wing, the TIE/sf is a 2-seater. 1 pilot, one turret gunner. All those ships you mentioned have pilots, gunners, and "other" crewmen. The Crew upgrades are the "others" not the gunners.

I wish they'd followed the idea that crew upgrade cards are better than the "stock footage" un-named people manning the guns.

Get a Falcon with no crew = some movie set extra is manning the guns.

Add in "Luke" or "Gunner" = that extra takes a hike.

Star Wars is awash with buddies pairing up to fly/fight together in the same ship. They shouldn't have missed that opportunity.

Poe and Finn in the only flying TIE/sf ever shown.

Luke and Dak Ralter, Hobbie and Janson, Luke and C-3PO (in a Y-wing), etc.

The TIE Phantom wrecks your argument, too. It has a pilot and a co-pilot/gunner. Why the crew slot, by your logic?

The best argument for leaving a crew slot out of the Y-wing (other than poor planning) would be unforeseen negative impacts of having both a crew and an astromech. That used to the a semi-believable argument against more crew slots...before the ARC came out.

Edited by evanger

On the Kylo vs Corran debate:

Corran with Adv Sensors is crazy maneuverable. Kylo will be an order of magnitude more so. He's got green turns. He's probably got S-loops. He can pack Pattern Analyzer or Primed Thrusters to further enhance flexibility of movement. We don't even know what one of the new techs will do. Could be significant.

Defensively, the enhanced maneuverability plus Autothrusters plus a hp might not match Corran, but it's close in most situations.

Offensively, he's going to have a great duty cycle. Corran can hit and run extremely well. Kylo will just hit every turn, probably from Range 1.

Say Kylo costs almost 50 points, what do you pair him with? Something that threatens Nym and has a corresponding high duty cycle. Options:

A pair of Aggressors

Decimator

Upsilon

TIE/D Defender

These all fit nicely with Kylo and can threaten Nym and anyone else with turrets or control. A pair of Gunboats might fit in that slot as well.

1 hour ago, defkhan1 said:

At Kylo's current cost you're going to have trouble pairing him with a halfway decent RAC. So all you're left with is Vader or Backdraft (which leaves very little room for a third ship). Palp is another option, but again by the time you build Kylo + Palpshuttle you don't have much for a decent second "ace".

Kylo Ren (TIE Silencer) (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Autothrusters (2)
First Order Vanguard (2)

Commander Kenkirk (44)
Trick Shot (0)
Emperor Palpatine (8)
Ysanne Isard (4)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Who needs RAC when palp can generate a crit.

My take from this expansion.
More bombs. :(
Less dogfighting, more dropping random explodey things in people's paths, or on them.

I think Trajectory Simulator is pretty weak but I like it on TIE Punishers, Nym will still want Adv Sensors though.

Bigass Rebel Bomber... yaaawn. At least now we know why they're nerfing the K-Wing and it's so you have to buy this instead!

TIE Silencer is 3-5pts overcosted. Kylo won't make an impact, he's waaaaay down the list of best imp Aces. Comparison to Fenn or QD, where you get more for less points, is just really sad. I wanted to like this ship so much because it's Kylo, but barring a white k-turn on the dial this ship is rotten.

Gotta say I'm also a bit disappointed by the Silencer (really wish the title could conditionally "shut off" pilot abilities)

As a lover of x7s, I don't see myself using the Silencer over them apart from ps skew. Here's hoping either the tech or the ps 7 makes it more interesting

I do love bombs as they're wholly positioning based, but this bomber has what seems to be three ship specific upgrades of which one was revealed, so the preview is fairly worthless

Really don't appreciate more pwts though, even if it's an incredibly weak one

Edited by ficklegreendice

It's really interesting to see the different reactions to the Silencer.

There are a lot of skilled players here, who think it would be underwhelming and not really a new change or threat to other ships.

I am a rebel player myself, so I'll most probably get this upgrade for the upgrade cards myself and I'll face this one in combat rather often.

My first reaction was: "Wow, this is going to be huge and a real threat!"

I mean.. this could be the new Soontir Fel! And I think it's really difficult to get it into arc at all.

And even if you get it in arc... it has got 6 HP, 3 green dice, Autothrusters and the option to reroll green dice via title.

To me it seems VERY difficult to shoot down.

I like playing arc dodgers myself and honestly.. this will outfly most of my lists.

How come you guys think it's boring and not good? I am really wondering about this.

I find this Silencer preview boring because it's kinda more of the same base mechanics we've already played out long before, plus the same pilot ability from a previous expansion

I don't think it's particularly strong because it's incredibly expensive and arcdodging (impossible against turrets) sacrifices essential dice mods. **** unmodified dice, gimme x7s!

Emphasis on arcdodging also naturally reduces options to "high ps or bust". We need more spoilers to see if it can do anything else

I expect more from a ship this neat looking. Fcs, ptl and primed could be cute

Edited by ficklegreendice
5 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

How come you guys think it's boring and not good? I am really wondering about this.

One reason why it's seen as bad besides being a bit too expensive can be found in your own post.

You say how hard it is to get into arc, and that's true. But the most played lists at the moment overwhelmingly use turrets and bombs - they don't care about arcs, at all!

Note you can't Dodge turrets but you can certainly Dodge bombs outside ASLAM hitting you preactivation

Just requires different flying

5 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Note you can't Dodge turrets but you can certainly Dodge bombs outside ASLAM hitting you preactivation

Just requires different flying

Unless it's Ps10 Nym - so the other half to the ASLAM Miranda :P

Silencer should have ATT 4 or white k-turn to impact the meta. Maybe some tech can push it but no hope from me.

for imps pointing arcs at things + token up for offense AND defense is really hard, imho only juke Ryad and SF sorta work.

at +35points you can't fit 3 imperial aces so our only archetype is not respected by this wave nor as far as I can tell FFG is giving an alternative.

I'll buy one and put it on the table because loyalty but tournie experience won't improve much for us.

No ??for??FFG??

edit: spelling is hard

Edited by polmoneys
8 minutes ago, polmoneys said:

Silencer should have ATT 4 or white k-turn to impact the meta.

Seriously? Do you also criticise power creep when you are not asking them to make an OP ship?

23 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Seriously? Do you also criticise power creep when you are not asking them to make an OP ship?

Read my words, I was expecting a ship that impacts the meta so I can go to tournaments with a bit of OP in my squad. What Nym has done to the meta is what I expected from one of the iconic movie characters.

- lemme add the wording of Kylo's pilot ability is meh

Edited by polmoneys

Honestly, I expect more wailing and gnashing of teeth here

Neither Silencer nor Gunboat seem out and out busted like Dengar (jumps in general) or Miranda. They're priced too conservatively relative to those two

Gunboat though seems unique mechanically with it's SLAM shenanigans (title, ASLAM reload) so it'll be incredibly fun at least

Silencer so far seems eh, nothing we haven't seen before honestly

Edited by ficklegreendice
2 hours ago, FlyingToaster said:

My take from this expansion.
More bombs. :(
Less dogfighting, more dropping random explodey things in people's paths, or on them.

Will some one run that freaking ADVANCED SENSORS then? Imps got an Ace who should build it in.

With PTL.

With Primed Thrusters if necessary.

And no needs of FCS because the title helps you anyway with rerolls.

I think it is time.

Edited by Cerve

Kylo... you're paying Poe/Corran points for a ship with a far worse pilot ability and, critically, no regen.

By comparison to QD and Fenn I think he's under the curve. By comparison to a non-Regen Poe I think he's arguably about right (PS9 Poe + BB8 = Kylos cost and adds the barrel roll), although with a worse pilot ability and none of the pre-move shenanigans available.

He's playable, but definitely a few points too much. If the title had been free...

5 hours ago, evanger said:

I wish they'd followed the idea that crew upgrade cards are better than the "stock footage" un-named people manning the guns.

Get a Falcon with no crew = some movie set extra is manning the guns.

Add in "Luke" or "Gunner" = that extra takes a hike.

I wish "Gunners" actually allowed you to fire more than one of a ship's weapons in a round, and various named Crew also just count as "Gunners" in addition to having some other special effect.

i.e. on the Falcon, you can either fire the PWT, or the missiles. But if you have two Crew that count as "Gunners" then you could fire both turrets(that the ship is supposed to have, but doesn't in this game) AND the missiles in the same round.

48 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Seriously? Do you also criticise power creep when you are not asking them to make an OP ship?

Genuinely, we now need power creep to keep ships and whole factions relevant. It's be nice to no have to use Munitions in the Imperial faction..

The Silencer had better have some serious tricks in the rest of the Ex pac or we're as a faction still relying on Missiles and the Gunboat. Sad.

Edited by Rinzler in a Tie