And it's debatable if it works on other ships when the EPT is on Youngster, given that it's not 'your' EPT when it's on another ship.

And Marksmanship is terrible.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

And it's debatable if it works on other ships when the EPT is on Youngster, given that it's not 'your' EPT when it's on another ship.

And Marksmanship is terrible.

It could theoretically have a use, but it requires:

• An ability that triggers off criticals
• The ability to attack multiple times per turn

Wampa has one , but not the other, and isn't powerful enough to equip a more expensive pilot purely to support his ability.

The only time I've seen Marksmanship really do work is Kath Scarlet (the imperial version) with Gunner. It used to have some value on Horton Salm/R2-D6, but then expertise came and yoinked that spot something rotten.

My personal comments:

I won't try and rank the pilots 1,2,3,4, but I would definitely rate some as 'good', 'great', or 'a bit bantha poodoo'

1. Howlrunner

• Yes, all right, range 1 bubble. But even if only 2-3 ships benefit, it's still predator. And Howlrunner is still a PS8 fighter with an elite slot. The swarm can still swarm, you just chose not to .
• There's a reason she's one of the longest-lived competitive pilots, but her current most common incarnation is her plus 3 black squadrons plus 3 academies who block and may well not fly in close.
• Preferred equipment - either Crack Shot or Veteran Instincts. Determination isn't a bad call specifically if you use the old damage deck, because then she can't lose her pilot ability.
• Great .

2. Wampa

• Not actually as lethal as people think, but Wampa causes much more fear than he justifies purely because the regen crowd are scared of him.
• He's 14 points for a reason. Don't invest significant points in making his ability work .
• He is great as support in an imperial Dirty Tricks squad - throw into a squad with Palpatine, and/or Lieutenant Colzet and you've got some nasty interactions.
• He is, ultimately, filler. The only points I'd spend on him was a Targeting Computer - be prepared to reroll any dice result including hits to get that critical and it's surprisingly reliable attack.
• Great

3. Acadamy Pilot

• Cheapest ship in the game, decent dial, barrel roll, PS1 so nigh unblockable and a great blocker. What more do you want?
• How about Youngster, giving you a (stress-inducing) ability to pop focus-and-rerolls?
• Great

4. Black Sqd Pilot

• Cheapest generic elite in the game.
• Able to field Crack Shot, or Snap Shot, and still take 6 ships (or 7 if you mix with academy pilots)
• Great

5. Scourge

• 17 points for a PS7 ship with an easily triggered 'extra attack die' ability is great value. Unlike Backstabber, he has an elite slot too!
• However, it's not as good as Mauler Mithel because you don't get the benefit of the ability during the Swarm's strongest moment - the first firing pass.
• A ship with an outstanding damage card is generally a ship with lots of hull - high hull, low agility ships are the kind that TIE fighters generally don't need help killing.
• His ability does still work with Snap Shot, though - and paired with Mauler Mithel you can handle a target very roughly - because after 2 snap shots (1 3 dice) plus a 4-dice range 1 shot, few things won't have been winged.
• In theory, he makes for a nice caddy for Swarm Leader, but I fear that he doesn't have the durability to resist the massive amount of aggro he'd draw by doing so!
• Good

6. Youngster

• Youngster is good, but specifically I only think he really cuts it with Rage. Other 'action' elite upgrades are either too expensive (expose), too useless (expose), don't really help TIE fighters (expert handling), or are expensive and suicidal (Daredevil).
• Rage looks bad on paper but:
  • Youngster's range 1-3 ability lets the entire swarm fly loose.
  • It gives you 3 rerolls - generally not a big deal but you WILL notice the difference to howlrunner on a range 1 shot (or with a swarm leader!)
  • Because it's an action, it's 'locked in' and doesn't go away if Youngster gets splashed at PS9+
  • Provided you only Rage 1 or 2 ships a turn, the stress problems are manageable (especially if you rage a guy on 1 hit point who's probably dead anyway)
  • He's a lot cheaper - allowing you to field 7 academy pilots and him. Youngster is not an alternative to howlrunner. He's an alternative to the (largely useless) option to upgrade 4 academy pilots to obsidians and hence lock yourself in to a fixed movement order!)
  • Don't forget that if you don't mind mixing eras he can hand his ability to TIE/fo and - even more importantly - TIE/sf.
  • Great

7. Dark Curse

• You can't reroll dice! Or Spend Focus Tokens when attacking him!
• You can, however, fire Deadeye missiles at him, use Expertise, Guidance Chips, and the many, many ways of getting extra attack dice
• More importantly, he only has the firepower of a single, standard TIE fighter. Omega Leader has a similar ability but he is useful because it still works whilst he's attacking .
• Biggs Darklighter gets awesome when you layer defence because you can force people to fire at him . Ignoring a TIE fighter until you kill everyone else is remarkably easy.
• A bit bantha poodoo

8. Mauler

• 17 points for a PS7 ship with an easily triggered 'extra attack die' ability is great value. Unlike Backstabber, he has an elite slot too!
• Whilst you can take him with Crack Shot, or Veteran Instincts for PS9, by far the most brutal option is Snap Shot.
• Mauler with Snap Shot delivers a 3-dice snap shot plus a 4-dice range 1 shot - that's 7 dice per combat phase out of a TIE fighter for less than 20 points
• Great

9. Night Beast

• His ability is essentially 'get a free focus if you pull a green move'.
• This is mostly irrelevant.
• The only real use I can see for this is paired with Chaser. Night Beast (Twin Ion Engines MkII) and Chaser can between them generate 2 'free' evades a turn for 30 points, making them good value 'fuel' for a Swarm Leader.
• A bit bantha poodoo (but maybe useful with a Swarm Leader)

10. Backstabber

• 16 points for a PS6 ship with an easily triggered 'extra attack die' ability is great value.
• In the current environment, you tend to find yourself facing ships with turrets who'll run away a lot - making it common to get his ability.
• Good

11. Chaser

• His ability is essentially 'get a free focus if you have a wingman'.
• This is mostly irrelevant.
• The only real use I can see for this is paired with Night Beast. Night Beast (Twin Ion Engines MkII) and Chaser can between them generate 2 'free' evades a turn for 30 points, making them good value 'fuel' for a Swarm Leader.
• A bit bantha poodoo (but maybe useful with a Swarm Leader)

12. Winged Gundark

• Turning a hit into a critical at range 1 sounds good.....but still doesn't help you land a kill, especially since there is no option to pack crack shot.
• However, low agility, high hull ships (Nym, Norra, Miranda) are the order of the day at the moment.
• Most importantly, he pairs up very well with Kylo Ren. Vader and Chiraneau are better, but if you can find 15 points in a Kylo Ren squad, I can see him actually do some work.
• Good

13. Obsidian Sqd Pilot

• Guess what? It's a PS3 generic with no elite upgrade!
• There's an elite PS4 generic (or Wampa) for only 1 point more!
• Having that PS boost....really helps nothing.
• Really, really bantha poodoo

Quickdraw might be a viable candidate for Marksmanship on Youngster, thinking about it - but without defensive focus the chances of him getting lots of shots off with his ability are often super low.

16 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

Quickdraw might be a viable candidate for Marksmanship on Youngster, thinking about it - but without defensive focus the chances of him getting lots of shots off with his ability are often super low.

Good thought. There might be an argument for it once Advanced Optics is a thing (so you've got a stored up defensive focus); the ability to bank a focus plus auto-generate a target lock (FCS) is good regardless of whether Youngster is there or not, because it lets you use your action to barrel roll at PS9 (or even 11)

The one Issue I can see is that a multi-attacking, critical-spewing Quickdraw really, really would like to have Kylo Ren in the vicinity, and getting a marksmanship Youngster on the board might be too expensive. A Ren TIE shuttle, Youngster, Quickdraw and Backdraft might fit, but it'd be a heck of a squeeze and you'd be cutting something else you really want

Yeah, that one's way too tight, you onyl get 7 points of upgrades to play with after fitting in all the essentials.

Marksmanship is just crazy expensive.

2 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

Marksmanship is just crazy expensive.

The only real use I ever saw for Marksmanship was on a ship toting 3+ attack dice, a source of native rerolls and Gunner. But for one point more and action independent, Expertise has totally eclipsed it.

6 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

The only real use I ever saw for Marksmanship was on a ship toting 3+ attack dice, a source of native rerolls and Gunner. But for one point more and action independent, Expertise has totally eclipsed it.

Yeah it used to have some good options but meta changes weakened them a good bit and than Expertise just made it completely obsolete. The only two places I think it can really still be useful are on the Imp Kath with Gunner as mentioned earlier and maybe TIE/D Maarek Stele. It just costs to much for something that requires an action to use.

14 hours ago, Princezilla said:

Yeah it used to have some good options but meta changes weakened them a good bit and than Expertise just made it completely obsolete. The only two places I think it can really still be useful are on the Imp Kath with Gunner as mentioned earlier and maybe TIE/D Maarek Stele. It just costs to much for something that requires an action to use.

Good point on Maarek Stele. Expertise for a point would give you focus on both attacks and the defence, but Marksmanship does give you a fairly likely critical on the primary (good for Maarek) and the secondary cannon, just costing you on the defence roll. Which sadly is the TIE/D's big weak spot compared to the TIE/x7.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Good point on Maarek Stele. Expertise for a point would give you focus on both attacks and the defence, but Marksmanship does give you a fairly likely critical on the primary (good for Maarek) and the secondary cannon, just costing you on the defence roll. Which sadly is the TIE/D's big weak spot compared to the TIE/x7.

...add Experimental Interface and get the defensive focus or barrel roll for a LOLexpensive build.

And the need to try and shed stress on a TIE defender which (a) isn't Ryad and (b) now can't have Twin Ion Engines MkII.....