Well, the new imperial hotness was fully previewed, so let's take a minute to see what we can make of it!

WARNING!: Long posts with lots of theory coming your way.

At first glance, I'm not terribly impressed with the cannon options. The XG title is cheap and cute, but the tractor beam, flechette and jamming beam just don't pack enough wallop to really tickle my fancy. Pairing those with a Linked battery sounds awful; investing basically a whole ship to get rerolls on attacks that do 0 damage. I could see taking just one of those with a larger cannon like a mangler or HLC, and only using your light cannon when you're disabled. Most likely when you had to SLAM to catch up to your target. Taking linked battery and a heavy cannon could be alright. You're taking the title purely for the extra cannon slot at that point and avoiding disabled tokens, AND it's a 10 point investment to get XG, Linked Battery and HLC. It's a steep bill, but you'll always hit hard with a guaranteed reroll and hopefully a focus. I think this works better with the generics more so than the named pilots.

The OS title makes a lot more sense to me, and that's where I see the majority of the lists with alpha's leaning. LT's pilot ability is kind of counterproductive, but might make good use of Wired to act as a soft focus. If you can shoot with your disabled token, why bother remove it and stress yourself? Major's ability fits fantastically, and I think you're going to get some serious mileage out of it. PS7 means you won't win the first shot probably ever, even with VI boosting you up to 9. There's just too many 10's and 11's flying around right now, so you might as well embrace it and grab an EPT to fix the main problem you'll have.

The big boogey monster for this guy will be getting that target lock to use that ordnance. You'll likely move early or even first, so Deadeye eases a lot of those headaches and allows you the freedom of shooting at whatever is in your way. Most shuttles or crew carriers move early and won't help on the first salvo, but you certainly need something to manipulate his action economy to make ordnance work. Ideally getting double mods or using ordnance with built in soft mods (i.e. Proton Torps and Conc Missiles) should be your goal, but how viable is a shuttle? Upsilons and Lambdas are awfully expensive once you've tossed on a few upgrades and a shuttle bomber is one of the softest ships you'll see fielded lately. I think there is an answer somewhere in the /sf's or /fo's, but I'll get to that later.

So, how do you build this thing? If you're looking for a cannon, you're probably not going to SLAM too often as you've probably elected to grab one that pokes more holes than a flechette cannon. 2 agility dice would be fixed by LWF if it had the TIE suffix on its ship. Since it doesn't, I think you'll be best served with the cheaper mods. Long range scanners means you won't go into the first charge without double mods. Guidance chips might be okay if you pack at least one missile or torp and don't mind reloading, but that's why you put on a light cannon right? Engine upgrade or vectored thrusters give you that extra little adjustment to block ships or try to make your arc harder to dodge, but I think the low PS will make these moot. I think most people will eventually come to a build something like...

Nu Squadron Pilot (18)

• LRS (0), XG-1 (1), Tractor Beam (1), HLC (7)

That's 27 points (30 for the PS4 Rho Pilot) for 7 hull and shield with double modded HLC shots and a tractor beam to make sure Nym stays away. You also wouldn't be amiss with a cheap missile or torp (since you're already in the 3ish ships range), but I think if you want them you'd be better served with the Major or LT. Speaking of them, let's look at their ordnance set up.

Lt. Karsabi (24)

• Adv SLAM (2), OS-1 (2), Wired (1), Plasma Torps (3), Conc Missiles (4)

He's a bit heavier at 36 points, and might need some assistance with a target when you're reloading. With Wired, you don't really need a focus and the missiles have a soft fix for a single blank. Proton Torps also would be okay, although I'm not sure if I'd reroll all of the focus results since it already fixes one of those. Not only that, but wired works defensively too adding some reroll potential. He's priced about where the other Aces are, and might see some action if you can stomach the PS5. Onto the Major!

Maj. Vynder (26)

• Adv SLAM (2), OS-1 (2), Saturation Salvo (1) or Deadeye (1), Proton Torps (4), Cluster Missiles (4)

The Major comes in around 39 points. You probably don't need more ordnance, since you'll want to slam or reload each turn to keep up your extra defense die, but you certainly could to expand your options. I think you'll likely skip out on VI or adaptability since PS 10 and 11 is a popular thing right now, so why not embrace the suck and pick something to make your opponent take you seriously? Saturation Salvo works interestingly well with cluster missiles, and I'm excited to try it out. If you miss, each ship at range 1 of the defender (which includes the defender I believe) with agility less than the cost of your spent ordnance (how many ships have 4+ agility?) rolls an attack die and suffers any hits and crits rolled. Cluster gives you 2 chances with 3 attack dice, mods optional, to either poke them in the face or whiff and potentially hit everything nearby. It's almost like its own single-round, double barrel, self triggering harpoon missile. If that doesn't grease your wheels, Deadeye is a safe fall back for the same cost. SLAM for your disabled defense token, don't hit a rock and get your focus, laugh as you fire all the proton torps. Straightforward, although maybe using Extra Munitions so you're reloading less often would fit better than a missile. We'll figure that out during playtesting.

EDIT: For consistency between similar effects, it is safe to assume Saturation Salvo would only trigger after the second attack if both shots missed. That being said, a substitute could be Cruise missiles after not adding the optional dice equal to your maneuver speed, preferably on a reload turn as it won't spend your target lock.

So! Now that we have an idea of what they can do, how do we make sure they can do it each round? On SLAM turns, you can certainly get your target lock or focus if you don't park your ship like you live in Jersey. But what about when you reload? You'll be doing that probably every 2nd or 3rd round at the latest, so we need a way to get some action economy rolling. The article mentioned Gen. Hux and I had to try and not choke on my soda. Ain't nobody got time for him. I wish we did, but I don't think we'll ever see "strong list" and "contains Hux" describing the same squad. Not only does our mystery ship need to give out this target lock or focus, but it needs to be able to keep up with a ship that slams every other turn to maintain arc. That would require a very maneuverable ship and you're in effect sinking in double the points for a single ship to operate. A firespray has a crew slot, is likely going to be right in the enemy's face anyway, is cheap enough to outfit, and has comparable PS pilots. You've also sunk about 90 points by then and might as well round out those 2 ships because you aren't fitting anything else. Something like this...

Boba Fett (39)

• Shield Upgrade (4), Andrasta (0), VI (1), Mangler Cannon (4), Bomblet Generator (3), Fleet Officer (3)

Maj. Vynder (26)

• Adv SLAM (2), OS-1 (2), Deadeye (1), EM (2), Proton Torps (4), Cluster Missiles (4), Conc Missiles (4)

You could slim it down a bit certainly and have more than the 1 point bid this has already to make sure Fett shoots as early as possible. You won't need to babysit Vynder too much with 6 shots before needing to reload and having options for every range. Bomb's keep aces from creeping up your backside and Boba is only too happy to use his action for fleet officer once in awhile. EU could work as well, but I don't have the experience flying him to know how useful that is. Losing Fett before Vynder also hurts your ability to close fights as I'm pretty sure you don't reload munitions tokens.

What else works? Can we fly a support Decimator? What do we already run that we can tweak for only a few points to keep Vynder bringing the heat? I'd like to take a look at Quickdraw for this. A typical bare bones build is around 34 points and brings LWF, Spec Ops, VI, and FCS. Cruise missiles have been hot lately and a good number of players strap one to QD or at the very least Pattern Analyzer or Primed Thrusters. Why not drop those 3-5 points for a 3 point Targeting Sync? You'd still be sitting at 37 points without a missile, plus the 39 or so for a basic Vynder loadout. You can fit a good number of imperial ships in at 24 points without giving up much firepower. I personally like to fit in Omega Leader around that point total, but Duchess and others fit just as well. That list would look something like...

Quickdraw (29)

• LWF (2), Spec Ops (0), VI (1), FCS (2), TS (3)

Omega Leader (21)

• A Score to Settle (0), Comm Relay (3) or TS (3)

Maj. Vynder (26)

• Adv SLAM (2), OS-1 (2), Saturation Salvo (1), Proton Torps (4), Cluster Missiles (4)

QD and Omega Leader are definitely the scarier ships to bring to end game, so they will often draw some kind of aggression if you keep the Major a range band back for the first engagement or two. QD is a pain in the butt with her retaliation shot. OL is just frustrating to hit period once you're target locked, and leaving the ordnance boat up to shove missiles in your face sounds like your opponent only has bad options to choose from. Not only that, but both of your shipmates can supply your alpha with a target lock. QD can even set that up as the first shot of combat or from a retaliation shot. You sacrifice next to nothing to open up all your options with targets, and you're free to focus for a mod on turns you aren't reloading. Drop down to Plasma Torps, Ion Missiles or EM and swap SS for Deadeye and you've got a decent initiative bid, can't be denied a target and will often have a mod from either your focus or a friendly TL. Ask your friendly neighborhood TO how they handle Deadeye, as that would be much more useful than just the shared target lock.

That just about wraps up chapter one. I'd love to hear more thoughts and opinions about this ship, how you think it should fly or what upgrades you'd put on.

Looking at the combat capabilities of these ships, without any external help, only the cannon builds are likely to spend their focus on defense with any kind of frequency, meaning that you will average between 1.5 and 3 evades (base, range 3, obstructed) with a focus and 0.75 to 1.5 evades without it. Offensively, you're likely to have at least one mod and infrequently 2 (you should always have double mods for the first joust) mods if you're shooting every other round AND can be in the modified target lock range. With a Linked Beam and 3 attack die cannon, you average 2 hits or 2.8125 with a focus and will likely never spend your target lock. Linked with an HLC averages 2.5 hits or 3.5 with a focus. You might spend a target lock here, but largely you won't really need it. If you decide on not running a Linked Beam, your expected damage drops around .5 damage and you will be less likely to have double mods.

That means you should be encouraged to focus for every action on a cannon build, and not feel bad if you spend it defensively. With the low pilot skill, a focus is much more likely to serve you better than a target lock will and can be spent defensively to make sure you even get a shot. With a Linked Beam, against most other small ships, you can expect to deal 1 damage (2 with HLC) if they roll 3 dice with no mods. You are not expected to deal damage against ships rolling 3+ dice with a focus or 4+ with an evade token, 2 dice with both tokens, or 4+ dice with a single die reroll or autothrusters (HLC's require an extra die with mods or 2 without to be blocked under the same situations). Without Linked Beam, you can subtract about half a die (1 token if possible) to what they need to prevent your damage.

LRS is still most likely your ideal modification for cannon builds. Adv SLAM is too expensive without cutting down your cannons, and you want your action to focus or your expected damage is too low so VT/EU are out. Chips won't trigger without ordnance and Munitions Failsafe doesn't make much of a difference when you're only an action from getting that missile back.

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With the OS-1 builds, Lt. Kar is actually your best defensive choice while running Wired . He can expect 1-2 evades (1 at range 1 or 2, no focus. 2 at range 3, obstructed, no focus) or 1.5-3 evades with a focus. However, if you aren't running another ship to supply a target lock or focus in some way, you are highly unlikely to have one to spend defensively. You average 3.5 hits with no focus using the concussion missiles, or all 4 hits with a focus token. Pretty scary to think that one ship supplying a focus or target lock gives you an average of 2 evades against most attacks or max damage with your missile. The plasma torps average 3 hits, not including the bonus damage if they have shields remaining. Since secondaries also deny the range 3 defense die, your expected damage against average small ships is around 2 (average being 3 dice with a single mod). Against low agi ships, your expected damage goes to just over 3, or just over 2 with plasma torps when they don't have shields. You can also expect to dodge at least one 3 dice attack + a focus or target lock while holding a defensive focus. Without that focus, that same attack or better will most likely push through, and the expected damage goes up quick.

Maj. Vynder averages between 0.1 evades more at close range and 0.3 evades less at long range and obstructed shots compared to Lt. Kar despite rolling more dice, and offensively it's about the same. The biggest difference comes in the EPT. Running Deadeye means you'll never be denied a shot and it is easier to plan around and set up shots. You will require less token sharing efforts or are very likely to have a modifier for your missiles and torps if you do get consistent support. You will also average higher damage on all secondaries except proton torps and concussion missiles. With SS and clusters, you can destroy formation flyers pretty consistently (against FSR, you're averaging 1 damage on each of them just by missing!). Choosing between these two will likely come down to your local meta. Lt. Kar is statistically better against fewer, beefy ships and Maj. Vynder is easier to fly or can take down formations quickly.

Let's take a closer look at some of the cards coming with the alpha class star wing and see if everything can find its place and what issues we can expect.

OS-1 Loadout: Since I see this as the most likely to find a recurring place on a squad with an alpha class, let's start here. The upgrade certainly has its uses; granting a second torpedo and missile slot, allowing an array of ordnance, and it's pretty cheap. Up to 4 different secondaries, 6 shots with extra munitions, or use of unguided rockets means you have enough options to tailor this bad boy to destroy the competition. That being said, you might be disappointed if you only read the product preview or have heard about it second hand. The preview and intent of the card seems to be that you could slam and reposition, follow up with a focus and blast your target halfway across the mat. The devil is in the details as they say, and it seems like that will not be the case. As written (the most hated phrase in x wing it seems), you must have a target lock to fire your secondaries. Rather, you may only shoot at targets that you personally have a target lock on while you have a weapons disabled token (the diagram in the preview specifically lacks that target lock, hence the disclaimer). Neither Deadeye, nor Targeting Sync fix that issue and you will quickly find yourself facing the same problem of "how do I get a target lock this round". As a SLAM capable ship, this is less of an issue after the initial joust. You can usually keep close enough that no other ship will get away from you, or you can make a clean break and try to reset for later. However, you will not be able to stay in the thick of things long without loading up heavily on missiles. This leads to a divergence of builds based on playstyle. The first option would be to include extra munitions and really load up on secondaries. This ensures you can stay in the fight for up to 6 rounds of shooting and dogging your opponents before you need to break away and reload. You're a tough little ship, but if you're right in the thick of things you will probably only last long enough to fire 3 or 4 shots if you can't get out of your opponents arcs. The next option would be to play a hit and run style. Slow roll the first round, SLAM to around range 3 to get your target lock, fire away. Next round, you'll be hauling your junk as far across the board as you can with a SLAM into reload and coming back with the rest of your squad. In that respect, it flies like a defender would except it takes an additional turn to come about. Lastly, you can pack ordnance that conserves your target lock so you have one ready on reload turns. That would entail packing any of the following: Adv. Homing Missiles, Cruise Missiles, Harpoon Missiles, Homing Missiles or Ion Pulse Missiles. You have a good array of damage and effect options here, and this will be a good starting point while on the learning curve and deciding if one of the earlier play styles suits you better. Overall? It will take some practice to fly, but should be friendly enough to new and veteran players to get some consistent use out of this title.

XG-1 Configuration: I see this being fielded mostly on the lower PS generics, but Lt. Kar certainly can swing this title pretty well if you're looking for that extra oomph. Having 2 cannon slots, you'll absolutely want either a light and heavy cannon combo, or a linked battery and HLC. Unless you plan to run the flechette, jammer or tractor beam as the primary or co-primary function of your ship, you likely won't get a lot of use out of the second clause, but it does leave room for future cards to improve your functionality. All three of the light cannons have a control aspect and won't really be a source of damage, so think long and hard about how to properly utilize them if you plan to go this route. At PS 2 or 4, you probably get much use from the reduced agility of the tractor beam or stop any expertise ships with the flechette, but it will help limit their options for the future round. Likewise, the Jamming beam might be at it's best on a low PS pilot. You want to use it to deny token stacks on aces, so when better to hit them than after they've blown all their tokens? In an ideal world, every one of these does some action denial and it will come down to play style which one you would like. Flechette gives a stress, which locks them into a green maneuver or they need to forfeit their action the next round. This makes them more predictable and easier to block. Tractors will move that small base ship on top of or on a collision path with an obstacle, giving them either stress or just skipping their perform action step outright. Harder to use, doesn't stop large bases at all, but there's not much your opponent can do or say to stop it beyond staying far away. Jamming for those who haven't read about it, is not the same as epic jamming. It places a token on the target that cancels out the next focus, evade or blue TL that gets put on that ship. As far as I can tell from the information put out, these tokens stick around until they're discarded along with the other tokens. This means that you will only ever deny your enemy a token action or effect from another ship, and they get to pick what action they take to get rid of it. It is also only range 1 and 2, compared to the 1-3 of both the flechette and tractor beam. I see it as the least reliable, but also the only one you can stack up to really deny someone their ship's full potential. If you're going the linked HLC route, you're basically flying a heavy defender that can't turn as well. 3 dice primary with a reroll at R1, 4 dice with a reroll at R2-3 and hopefully a focus to set you straight. There's not a whole lot to say about it; it's straightforward and pretty obvious what you'll be doing or planning to do each turn. It throws a lot of dice, has high consistent damage and you're only a few points over making a 4 ship, double modded every turn "HLC swarm", which could have been the stuff of nightmares. Overall, I see it as playable, but with niche roles. How competitive it is will be determined by how those niches perform.

Jamming Beam: I would really like to be more enthusiastic about this. It has a good design and concept behind it, but I don't know that it will have the impact the developers intended. Giving your opponent the option of what to discard along with the jam token makes this a little too weak in my eyes, unless your opponent only ever takes a single mod and has no way or intention to stack tokens. Token stacks are becoming an issue recently and if being jammed meant you couldn't use or gain a specific token designated by the user of the jamming beam, I think this would be incredibly strong against some lists. Alas, we'll work with what we have. It's a 0 damage, limited action denial cannon with shorter range than the ion and flechette cannons and tractor beam. PTL aces that are boosting/barrel rolling more often than taking token actions will certainly be hurt a lot by this if they allow the jamming tokens to stack up. Likewise, it reduces the effectiveness of combo's that creep up in lists fairly often, but it really only works well if you can pair this with any other effect to control your opponent. Being jammed and stressed means a green move and an action to clear your jam. Jammed and ionized means they're a sitting duck who can't turtle up. Double jammed and they won't have many tokens ever if they can't find a way to clear the stack each turn. The only real issue is, for this to be effective, you need 2 ships with control cannons doing a max of 1 damage a turn, or you need to already have a list that consistently stresses or ionizes the target of your choice without giving up damage. That leaves us with torpedos, tactician with excellent flying, or double TIE/D defender lists. It's fine to slap this on a low PS ship, since its main benefit will be in future token denial, but the Rebel and Scum factions have many better options to run this and it will probably see more mat time on a scyk than a star wing. Overall, great intentions and good for rebel and scum, imperials will find it a little lacking in general play.

Linked Battery: A 2 point predator upgrade that fits on exactly 4 ships. Scyks, Defenders, Star Wings and B Wings rejoice! We can cut Scyks out of that list, since a reroll on 2 attack dice is probably the farthest thing from a worthwhile investment. Defenders would in effect be trading a cannon attack with a light cannon to be able to stack that reroll on a primary with a focus, in essence having a free EPT slot and soft double mods. I could see this being useful on any of the pilots besides Col. Vessery. If you could throw this on an x/7, it would be downright scary. A defender running this with expertise could be nasty, if only it weren't so expensive. It's a little niche, since you'd be trading off an attack with a possibility of damage and a nasty effect for your opponent for only a single die reroll. It does mean you should consistently see 2 and 3 hits on your primary attacks, especially when paired with the right EPT. It might even be enough to bring Rexlar back on the table, but it is still a much better fit on the Star Wing. Likewise, only the top 2 B wing pilots would really get anything close to a worthwhile effect from this, and that's a bit of a stretch to even say that much. As of what ships have been released, only the Star Wing makes it stand out. I strongly believe that this should be paired with the HLC to really maximize it's effect, although it works well with a mangler if you're looking to save on points. Stacking reroll effects greatly diminishes their individual value, so it's not great when you are consistently getting target locks, but works great with focus actions or expertise. It works best when you can maximize your attack while still getting some kind of defensive measure, which the star wing sorely lacks. Taking a defensive focus with an offensive EPT or an offensive focus with a defensive EPT, preferably passive EPTs, will go a long way in keeping you coming out of engagements on top. Overall, I think it makes a strong HLC combo and gives you the ability to act both offensively and defensively, if you are willing to make room for a star wing in your squad.

Saturation Salvo: This guy is the bane of generally evasive formation flying lists. You can also plan to use it proactively if you can find a way to funnel your opponent's ships close together, either with bombs, bait ships, or just flying away from them and making them follow you to keep up. There's really no other tricks about it. In a way, it discourages token stacking for the defender. If you're hit for as little as possible, you only take 1 or 2 damage. If you spend tokens to evade it completely, you've still got a 50/50 at taking a single hit, as well as all your buddies. This could be a particularly devastating combo with clusters and harpoon missiles. Stick a harpoon on your target higher up in the round, and cluster them fishing for a critical. That gives you 2 chances during the attack to push a crit through, and 2 extra chances if they dodge and have to roll for damage anyway. Best case, your opponent's dice are on fire and they end up taking 3 damage on every ship within range 1, worst case, you effectively TLT'd them. This also pairs well with ion torpedoes. Do you take the hit and ionize all of your ships, or dodge it and possibly take damage on all of your ships? There are still a lot of 2 ship lists flying around, so this might not be the perfect time for it, but it certainly has a place against 3 or 4 ships. Anything packing a cluster missile or any 2 other ordnance should see pretty good returns from this as long as you are getting those shots off. Overall, I think it has great potential and can fit easily in a lot of lists. It's a decent enough counter to token stacking that even if big multi ship lists don't come around, you can still toss this on a cheap flyer as a threat against spending those tokens too freely or holding them too tightly.

I’m going to say wait and see what the Jamming Token does from a small ship. We also need to see what the other ships offer as well. Honestly this looks and feels like what the Punisher should have been. It’s effectively the same roll as a bomber/punisher and in the same point and pilot skill ranges.

As as for the theory crafting I see more cannon builds than Missles. Biggest reason is not giving up rounds to reload. We already know that most ordinance never gets fired more than 1 or two times in a match from a single ship in this type of roll in most cases. I will agree on Saturation Salvo it’s essentially a limited Ruthlessness. I’m not sold on this shipat first glance honestly as what will help get the Empire back into the meta fray.

It's a good comparison to consider it like a bomber/punisher with the OS title or like a defender if you're running the XG title. They did release the reference card for the reload and jam actions and I'll add the link to it here.

I think that an OS build would probably do best with the ability to fire 3ish torps/missiles. At 7 health, unless you get focused down early, you should be able to get two off pretty safely and the third should be a good last shot you hope to get off, although that could even be after a reload if you had to. EM and your ordnance of choice or maybe a mix list of two is probably all you really need. I'm optimistically hoping to get at least 10 damage from one of these to justify it's cost to field with that setup. I'd be interested in seeing how the cannon lists perform. Either a "swarm" of 4 Nu's with LRS, XG, Linked and Manglers or maybe Lt. Kar with an HLC.

I'm also not convinced that this is what imperials need to make a strong comeback, but I think it might see some fringe lists that do moderately well in regionals. We'll have to see it on the table or wait and see what the silencer brings with its release.

On 10/21/2017 at 7:08 AM, Jimbawa said:

The XG title is cheap and cute, but the tractor beam, flechette and jamming beam just don't pack enough wallop to really tickle my fancy. Pairing those with a Linked battery sounds awful; investing basically a whole ship to get rerolls on attacks that do 0 damage.

Flechettes do do damage, but I see your point; they don't do much .

The Nu Squadron Pilot does interest me. Advanced SLAM, Linked Battery, Flechette Cannon, XG-1 gives you a lot of speed and whilst the cannon doesn't do much damage, with focus/lock it's pretty accurate and stress is always useful. And besides which, slowing to 'normal' speed and firing your primary weapon is always an option if you think you're likely to land more than one damage.

On the other hand, I know people have tried triple ion cannon TIE/D defenders and felt they fall short on firepower, so they may not be as good as I hope.

My problem with Flechette cannon, is that it only gives 1 stress if the target doesn't already have one. That restrictions makes it pretty much useless, since being forced to make a green maneouver the next turn isn't exactly a huge deal for most popular ships nowadays.

8 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Flechettes do do damage, but I see your point; they don't do much .

The Nu Squadron Pilot does interest me. Advanced SLAM, Linked Battery, Flechette Cannon, XG-1 gives you a lot of speed and whilst the cannon doesn't do much damage, with focus/lock it's pretty accurate and stress is always useful. And besides which, slowing to 'normal' speed and firing your primary weapon is always an option if you think you're likely to land more than one damage.

On the other hand, I know people have tried triple ion cannon TIE/D defenders and felt they fall short on firepower, so they may not be as good as I hope.

I'm excited to fly that list, I think it'll be a lot of fun to SLAM around that much. I don't think it'll do enough damage over time, though.