I know its probably wishful thinking but perhaps the new cards are misprints? lol or maybe they are going to un-nerf the midslam bomb drop ability? I didn't think it was that over powered. Now TLT yes... but they will not Nerf TLT until everyone gets a chance to buy multiple imperial TLT platforms....

The more I think about it, my issue with the Advanced SLAM nerf is this: it probably ought to be a 0-point upgrade on a K-Wing, but it still needs to be a 2-point upgrade on a GUNBOAT.

With a K-Wing, getting a focus or target lock you can't attack with this turn matters very little. With the original design of the card and its uses, the cost was fair, or perhaps even too cheap. I'd mused that Advanced SLAM ought to cost 4 points like Advanced Cloaking Device. But without bomb damage, it does very little, and the point cost is out of balance. At 0 points, it'd be a interesting alternative to LRS, and would be an fun option with Burnout SLAM ships. I don't mind that the triple-warden list is dead, or that solo K-Wings need Experimental Interface--these seem fair changes to the archetype. However, it's such an overpriced upgrade for any ship except a Starwing now.

Speaking of the Gunboat, FFG designed it around creative ways to ignore the drawback of the SLAM action. Once you can do that, of course the upgrade needs to be 2 points. Even without a title, A-SLAM into Reload would be a reasonable action pair: clearing the ship out with a 3-3, then doing a hard turn next round to reengage with loaded ordnance. With the titles? Well, I guess XG1 only does a maximum of one damage, but both the named pilots have abilities that work in conjunction with weapons disabled tokens.

On 10/21/2017 at 0:26 AM, Icelom said:

Miranda is susceptible to focus fire it's her weakness, saying it's not a valid argument is like saying that "soontir fel is susceptible to blocking is not a valid argument because blocking negatively effects other ships as well"

It’s not a valid argument because having a way to beat her doesn’t mean she isn’t poor design or an issue in the game. It just means you can kill her, which is not an important factor in determining whether a pilot is simply good or too good. The argument I was making wasn’t “these ships also die to focus fire”. It was an ironic statement in that we’ve heard that argument for all of the ships I listed, yet they were/are all issues as well.

The correct question for Miranda is does she die enough. Not does she die.

Her massive use at high level competition over hundreds of other pilots, as well as the frustration of many players with her abilities, would indicate there is a possibility that no, she does not die enough, or at least quickly enough, for the point cost she can be fielded at.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example to better illustrate why the “dies to focus fire” argument holds little value in many situations.

A 99 health, 0 agility 1 attack ship would “die to focus fire”. Do you argue that the ship is fine because of that? Of course not. The issue isn’t whether it can die. The issue is it would take too long to kill, would prolong the game, and would create a poor play experience, even if it dies to focus fire.

So it is with Miranda. She can chip away at you from long range, drop reveal bombs on lower ps ships, mines on higher PS ships (previously with adv Slam, now with exp interface*) when they decide to get close, fire massive payloads to erase a ship off the board quickly, and she can also regenerate shields on top of all that. None of these arguments are “she doesn’t die!”, they are that the value she provides is so much that she doesn’t die as much as she should, or she provides more value than she should for how much she costs to field.

*I actually don’t think exp interface Miranda will be oppressive. Restricting the dial with stress should do a lot to keep her in check.

7 minutes ago, Kdubb said:

*I actually don’t think exp interface Miranda will be oppressive. Restricting the dial with stress should do a lot to keep her in check.

I agree. As someone who has played against Miranda with Flechette Cannons, I've found that stress on a K-wing is almost as good as a Ion. It's so much easier to get it in arc next turn if it's stressed. It turns the action bomb from the first choice of offense to something you carefully use when the situation is right and the stress won't screw you next turn.