"I found a working heavy laser cannon in this debris cloud"

• Test Pilot "Blackout"
  • First Order Vanguard
  • Trick Shot
  • Collision Detector
  • Primed Thrusters
  • Autothrusters

At range 3, that's a 4-dice attack with a 1 die reroll, removing your obstructed bonus and your range 3 bonus, whilst return fire has to deal with 5 green dice and autothrusters. More importantly, you can pretty much fly, boost and barrel roll across the debris to your heart's content, and it's using a lot of really cheap upgrades.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

"I found a working heavy laser cannon in this debris cloud"

• Test Pilot "Blackout"
  • First Order Vanguard
  • Trick Shot
  • Collision Detector
  • Primed Thrusters
  • Autothrusters

At range 3, that's a 4-dice attack with a 1 die reroll, removing your obstructed bonus and your range 3 bonus, whilst return fire has to deal with 5 green dice and autothrusters. More importantly, you can pretty much fly, boost and barrel roll across the debris to your heart's content, and it's using a lot of really cheap upgrades.

It's a nice "budget" Blackout build. I say budget at 36 points because normally you are pushing 40 something points with him.

I do think Advanced Sensors is probably key with BO. He'll want to stay glued to the rocks as much as possible and Adv. Sensors + Push/VI will give you a lot more maneuvering options.

I'm thinking about TPBO w/TS,AO,AS,AT,FOV. That is to say:

* Trick Shot

* Advanced Optics

* Advanced Sensors

* Autothrusters

* Title if points allow

EEEK. That's crept up to 40 points, and probably wouldn't be worth that. Eh. Still might be the first build I try of it.

Don't forget the First Order can easily supply 'off-board' action support in the form of an Upsilon Shuttle. It's not cheap like a rebel 'bug or captured TIE, but it's a big brute of a ship that (a) isn't easy to kill and (b) will massively punish you if you ignore it thanks to that 4-dice 'big stick'. That goes a long way to giving Blackout what he wants - the opportunity to be an annoying sniper and flanker that's more trouble than he's worth to hunt down.

Both mid-tier Upsilons are great ace support:

• Dormitz with Hyperwave Comm Scanner (and Blackout with same) can deploy at PS12, co-ordinate boost, and have Blackout snuggled up in a safe sniping position on your opponent's flank on turn 1.
• Stridan with Systems Officer and Blackout with Primed Thrusters can provide a free Boost/Barrel Roll and target lock every turn, even if Blackout starts the turn stressed, and can do so even if the silencer is lurking at range 3.

I'm not suggesting those be the only upgrades you pack, but if you're taking a 'cheap' Blackout and a shuttle, you can probably afford a pair of TIE/fo or a lightly equipped TIE/sf to provide the shuttle with a close escort and have something resembling an actual 'battle line'.

16 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Blackout"

• First Order Vanguard
• Trick Shot
• Collision Detector
• Primed Thrusters
• Autothrusters

This looks great. Sure its super budget, but can be built on. Yes could be an excuse to get my Upsilon out again, that thing can gather dust like nothing else!

23 hours ago, Awing Test Pilot said:

This is what I think might be the best combination in my opinion. It's expensive, and I'm having a hard time getting used to that. I think I like adv. sensors over fcs, so I can tuck in behind rocks, then barrel roll out. I really like threat tracker, and hope I can have the TL reliably to use it. Basically, I'm wondering if I should switch to advanced optics without fcs, since I have the reroll on the title. Anyone have any great Blackout builds you want to share? Test Pilot "Blackout" — TIE Silencer 31 Push the Limit 3 Advanced sensors 3 Threat Tracker 3 Autothrusters 2 First Order Vanguard 2 Ship Total: 44

IMO Threar Tracker is overkill. With PLT, advanced sensor, boost and barrel roll the ship is as evasive as it needs to be. Its also already a bit on the expensive side.

Blackout might also need VI more than PTL. The added ability to arc dodge is a bit wasted on a ps7 pilot. It's also a 41 pts ship vs a 39 pts one. That part im not so sure. I will need to practice to find out which version is better.

No matter what, i think Blackout will be a good partner for RAC. Having Kylo as a crew on RAC is much better than having the pilot version of the ability. It's cost will also allow RAC to be much closer to its usual build.

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Don't forget the First Order can easily supply 'off-board' action support in the form of an Upsilon Shuttle. It's not cheap like a rebel 'bug or captured TIE, but it's a big brute of a ship that (a) isn't easy to kill and (b) will massively punish you if you ignore it thanks to that 4-dice 'big stick'. That goes a long way to giving Blackout what he wants - the opportunity to be an annoying sniper and flanker that's more trouble than he's worth to hunt down.

Both mid-tier Upsilons are great ace support:

• Dormitz with Hyperwave Comm Scanner (and Blackout with same) can deploy at PS12, co-ordinate boost, and have Blackout snuggled up in a safe sniping position on your opponent's flank on turn 1.
• Stridan with Systems Officer and Blackout with Primed Thrusters can provide a free Boost/Barrel Roll and target lock every turn, even if Blackout starts the turn stressed, and can do so even if the silencer is lurking at range 3.

I'm not suggesting those be the only upgrades you pack, but if you're taking a 'cheap' Blackout and a shuttle, you can probably afford a pair of TIE/fo or a lightly equipped TIE/sf to provide the shuttle with a close escort and have something resembling an actual 'battle line'.

THIS.

this is pretty much the route I will take, and with the extra points, maybe do zeta ace with threat tracker and trick shot

I'm a big fan of budget Blackout: Trick Shot, Collision Detector, PA, Title, AT. He can fly over debris as he pleases, and has soft offensive and defensive mods. While the PTL/Adv. Sensors combo would have more overall utility, it is a lot more points that aren't really worth it in my mind. For 35 points, he can slot nicely into all kinds of lists.

Alternatively, if rolling around in debris and ending up stressed to buggery every turn, Wired might not be a bad call.

It's a slight drop in punch compared to trick shot but works if you can't get an obstructed shot (because whilst I'd love an imperial Dash Rendar, without a turret he's going to have to come out and engage sooner or later, and it pairs with primed thrusters better as you only need your actions to boost or barrel roll.

More importantly, it's a bigger boost in toughness than it is drop in firepower, and it's one that stacks with autothrusters and makes them better (because you could reroll a useless focus result into a blank you can then modify with autothrusters).

On 12/5/2017 at 8:33 AM, Thormind said:

IMO Threar Tracker is overkill.

The added ability to arc dodge is a bit wasted on a ps7 pilot.

Isn't this the entire point of threat tracker? Especially with PTL? To push/barrel roll out of the arc of HIGHER PS ships arcs after they move but before they fire?

1 minute ago, ltetone said:

Isn't this the entire point of threat tracker? Especially with PTL? To push/barrel roll out of the arc of HIGHER PS ships arcs after they move but before they fire?

Its not garanteed you will be out of arc after your boost/barrel roll. Its a 3 pts investment for a situation that is not bound to happen that often. IMO best way to deal with higher ps is to have an intel agent somewhere in the rest of your squad. That or using kylo crew to lower them to ps0 Thats one of the reason why i think Blackout+RAC (or KO RAC) has a lot of potential.

24 minutes ago, Thormind said:

Its not garanteed you will be out of arc after your boost/barrel roll. Its a 3 pts investment for a situation that is not bound to happen that often. IMO best way to deal with higher ps is to have an intel agent somewhere in the rest of your squad. That or using kylo crew to lower them to ps0 Thats one of the reason why i think Blackout+RAC (or KO RAC) has a lot of potential.

I'd like to break this down a bit more. Isn't having access to actions after your opponents move the major benefit to having a high PS? And essentially how arc dodging works? It's not like you're retroactively changing your dial after seeing the opponents move. I'd argue, unless you're attempting a block, that having actions after your opponents done moving is far greater than having access to an intel agent. Those two things seem to be after different goals in my mind. And of course it's not something you'd use every round, but the opportunity cost at only 3 points seems to be of pretty high value to me. The downside is needing to have acquired the TL, but what TT grants you is a tremendous amount of flexibility.

Now perhaps this flexibility is much more valuable to a novice or intermediate pilot then it would be to some high tier talent, which I could see being the case. And that might be a fair argument and what really keeps it off the table at top 8 cuts.

23 minutes ago, ltetone said:

I'd like to break this down a bit more. Isn't having access to actions after your opponents move the major benefit to having a high PS? And essentially how arc dodging works? It's not like you're retroactively changing your dial after seeing the opponents move. I'd argue, unless you're attempting a block, that having actions after your opponents done moving is far greater than having access to an intel agent. Those two things seem to be after different goals in my mind. And of course it's not something you'd use every round, but the opportunity cost at only 3 points seems to be of pretty high value to me. The downside is needing to have acquired the TL, but what TT grants you is a tremendous amount of flexibility.

Now perhaps this flexibility is much more valuable to a novice or intermediate pilot then it would be to some high tier talent, which I could see being the case. And that might be a fair argument and what really keeps it off the table at top 8 cuts.

When evaluating an upgrade for a specific ship, you have to take into account all other aspect of your build. Unfortunatly for us the Silencer is a bit on the overcosted side and it still needs some strong partners to work. You want to make sure that you dont put too much points in there or else you sacrifice a lot on your other ships.

Your 3 points are not going to do much vs any builds that dont include an higher ps pilot. Thats a big chunk of the meta at the moment. Now think about your past experience. How many time did you play against an higher ps pilot where a boost or barrel roll would have put you out of his arc? Substract to that numbers the time where that roll would also have made that ship out of your arc. Do you get a high number?

Im not saying having an extra action that "might" be good once in a while is not something desirable. There is just no place for that option on the Silencer. Now if you can find a build where those 3 points for TT would be your best investment choice, go for it. Chances are you will need those pts to add a more needed option to your other ships (better pilot, better ship, better upgrade, etc).