Oh yeah. Goddammit. Small Ship Only.

Serves me right for having hope.

I know...

Ah. Didn't notice the small ship only. Unfortunate, as it'd have been rather useful.

Never mind, then.

Technically you could carry it on the Heavy Scyk, but I really don't think that's worth the effort for a 2-dice primary attack....

36 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

More importantly to me, it also works on the Lambda Shuttle, allowing the near-critical advanced sensors/electronic baffle to let it actually turn corners whilst still being able to achieve something if it actually gets a shot. Probably.

• Omicron Group Pilot
  • Electronic Baffle
  • Linked Battery
  • Gunner
  • Engine Upgrade

I for one welcome our new spacecow overlords.

It's also a scary piece of so-and-so on IG-88, I suspect.

Small Ship Only

They got you as well

42 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Oh yeah. Goddammit. Small Ship Only.

Serves me right for having hope.

But FAQ revisions are built on hope!

4 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

But FAQ revisions are built on hope!

So shall we plan already that linked batteries add another cannon slot?
Gunboats with linked batteries, ions and jamming beams would be sweet.

I mean, we can hope that there's something in the pipeline that will make Linked Batteries cray, like there was for Mindlink and the /sf.

But I very much doubt we see an FAQ buff to it ever.

13 hours ago, BVRCH said:

I agree. They need their own twin ion engine card in title form.

Ibtisam with wired and Hera crew offers more re-rolls, as well as working on both attack and defence whilst she's stressed, and its cheaper. I don't see how linked battery is a better option on her.

I think linked battery only really helps the generic B-wings, and non-Rage Farlander builds. Farlander with PTL, linked battery and collision detector would be quite a nice setup. Nera doesn't really benefit from Linked Battery though, nor does Ten as he will still prefer mangler.

I used to run Ibtisam/Wired/Hera, but I think I will prefer the Linked Battery. The EPT slot is valuable and to put Wired on it means you can't take other potent combinations, meanwhile the cannon slot is almost always going unused. Talking offensively, Linked Battery allows you to re-roll any result, focus or miss, and Wired only lets you re-roll a focus result. Talking defensively, I have found in experience that Wired seldom triggers on defense for two reasons: most often you are only getting only 1 defense die, and since Wired is limited to re-rolling focus results, I find rolling focus results on green dice is harder when you actually want to (my dice are traitorous scumbags that are apparently blank on all 8 sides while they are in motion). So, this loadout is more aggressive and takes away a defensive situation that doesn't trigger all that much. It also changes the way you use Ibtisam.

Putting Trick Shot in the EPT gives a valuable extra attack die if you maneuver yourself behind asteroids (basically, the same result as if you had the Zuckuss ship ability). You kind of want to do that anyway, since you have all your red maneuvers available to you at all times and you also have Collision Detector to mitigate some of the risk. The other option, VI, helps push you up to the aces range, but I'm on the fence about it because if you can't get to PS9, then what is even the point anymore. It only puts you at PS8. I have also been considering Crack Shot or Snap Shot in that slot, but I'm not sure it's worth all those points--then we start getting into the 33- and 34-point range. A Score To Settle might also be a good option in a predominantly 2-ship meta--that gives you the option of modifying all 3 of your attack dice and an all-but-guaranteed crit, but doesn't give you a circumstantial 4th die at range 2-3...

15 hours ago, Marinealver said:

Baze is just terrible and is no where near comparasion of Gunner. Unless you pair him with tactician that is the only time Baze switching targets is a benefit. If you only have 1 target in arc, Baze is a waste of points.

Oh I never said it was good, just that it would get that 3rd ship into the list.

Although I did try Baze once on a stripped down Chewie. His extra shot put about 4 damage through during the match but there were some weird situations. I think twice I was throwing 4 dice at a 1 or 2 agility target and missed so Baze kicked in for 3 dice on a 3 agility target and put damage through. It was kind of funny actually but in no way convinced me to try him again.

I think it's fairly priced, which is distinct from correctly priced - going on the logic that it is 'totally' the upgrade meant to 'fix' B-wings (it isn't), and one presumes they're hoping Star Wings are fairly priced too.

C'mon, it's a Predator upgrade that doesn't use the EPT slot, and loses a marginal improvement (you don't take Predator for that second reroll, do you?) for a point cheaper than the EPT . Or Dengar. Or Krassus's whole shtick.

It's a fantastic card; the only issue is the ships that are currently in the game who could take it are not the best able to take it (Defenders end up overpriced and title-less, B-wings are underpowered, Scyks end up with 2 attack, Gunboats... might take it sometimes?), but I for one am happy it's not the new TLT; the balance patch that came as a compulsory upgrade card.

Why they restricted it from Large ships baffles me, though - I struggle to see how Shuttles, Firesprays, or IG-88s would have broken the meta by having a cool new upgrade. It's fairly priced! IG-88 get an extra choice to make between AdvS/FCS/Batteries at last, Firesprays buy a little more flexibility, and a Lambda might even find it mildly appealing on occasion!

Been thinking more and more that istabam might fancy some linked batteries. Since she wants a stress anyway for re-rolls, why not give her another re-roll for two points?

59 minutes ago, pickirk01 said:

Oh I never said it was good, just that it would get that 3rd ship into the list.

Although I did try Baze once on a stripped down Chewie. His extra shot put about 4 damage through during the match but there were some weird situations. I think twice I was throwing 4 dice at a 1 or 2 agility target and missed so Baze kicked in for 3 dice on a 3 agility target and put damage through. It was kind of funny actually but in no way convinced me to try him again.

I paired up Baze with Hotcops on a NuChewie build once. It was not unsatisfactory.

By which I mean Chewie desocketed the arms of about 120pts worth of imperial shipping all by himself. but my red dice were pretty hot that day.

1 hour ago, Reiver said:

Why they restricted it from Large ships baffles me, though - I struggle to see how Shuttles, Firesprays, or IG-88s would have broken the meta by having a cool new upgrade. It's fairly priced! IG-88 get an extra choice to make between AdvS/FCS/Batteries at last, Firesprays buy a little more flexibility, and a Lambda might even find it mildly appealing on occasion!

I am convinced it's entirely Scum Kath's fault. Being able to roll 5 dice at short range (6 with a jamming-beam enabled Opportunist or Expose) with a native reroll and an agility reduction out of her rear arc might have been enough to scare the developers.

Now, if it was IMPERIAL only, imperial firespray would fiinally have something the scum firespray doesnt.

24 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

I am convinced it's entirely Scum Kath's fault. Being able to roll 5 dice at short range (6 with a jamming-beam enabled Opportunist or Expose) with a native reroll and an agility reduction out of her rear arc might have been enough to scare the developers.

Now, if it was IMPERIAL only, imperial firespray would fiinally have something the scum firespray doesnt.

If Opportunist or Expose is the reason to be scared of Linked Batteries, I must fall to the floor giggling.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but holy crap, that's hilarious .

(And also trivially fixed by insisting it be out of an arc that you can fire your cannons, for example, but...)

2 hours ago, Reiver said:

I think it's fairly priced...

All very good points!

50 minutes ago, Reiver said:

(And also trivially fixed by insisting it be out of an arc that you can fire your cannons, for example, but...)

Indeed

19 hours ago, Marinealver said:

If a ship uses up 1/4 of your the most you can take is 6 ships. If it uses 1/3 of your list you only end up with 5. Now of course this is assuming you are doing a single ship and swarm so most likely moving from 21-25 point ship to a 26-32 point ship will likely take out another ship. So going above 25 points will likely decrease the number of ships in your list from 4-5 ships down to 3-4 ships.

But yeah Gunboats are cool but this thread is about B-wings.

But 6 Z-95s are72 points, so if one ship takes 25 pts you can easily have 7 ships. Of course that’s a crap list but it’s possible!

52 minutes ago, GrimmyV said:

But 6 Z-95s are72 points, so if one ship takes 25 pts you can easily have 7 ships. Of course that’s a crap list but it’s possible!

Wasn't always the case.

I labor under the hopes that maybe it will return again.

In the meantime, 6x Acadamey Pilots and an x7 Delta Squadron pilot is actually a legal list. It's... a TIE swarm. With a Defender. (I have no idea how you'd fly it. Presumably use the Defender as bait, then punish targets with the Swarm for ignoring them? Or run the swarm as blockers, with the Defender taking shots as best it can? Not terribly relevant till Nym goes away again, of course, but I always did mean to try it out...)