So, curious of others opinions. Could the First Order Test Pilot (PS6), be the best overall option? Blackout’s Skill is very very situational at best for the extra points. And Kylo’s Skill you want to hope never has to go off, because he shouldn’t be taking shots or very very few to begin with, so your paying 6 for pilot skill here.

With VI a PS8 with ability to be responsive if played right in his arc dodge capability. And costing about the price of a solid mid tiered Ace for the points. Roughly 35-39 points how much of a difference is there between him and Kylo? Not to mention being a generic not as likely to be the focus of Alpha Strikes or Early focus in favor of other threats. Certainly a ship that can thrive end game if it gets there.

Honestly if you looking at putting 29 base points into an imperial ship I would probably go with Backdraft with obligatory LWF for 29 points every time. same total health, higher natural PS that can get to 9 over 8, rear arc, and cool ability.

Realistically if the silencer is going to see play it will be for the chassis + the higher PS pilot abilities, and I'm not sold on Blackouts ability being consistent enough to justify so probably just Kylo seeing play right now. Edit: and honestly if I am going to play an ace that has a cool ability when they take damage Quickdraw is my go to anyways, Kylos ability is more of a backup plan rather than a significant benefit to the list.

I'm happy to be proven wrong of course but Quickdraw and Backdraft set pretty high bars to meet if your looking at a 31-35 point imperial ace for your list.

as long as Dash exists, FOTP is bunk

Blackout is worth it for PS 7 alone

but largely, can't disagree with Windu. The SF is just more cost effective and out and out superior from a simple dice --> cost ratio

After 2 disappointing games (and real struggles with list building with the silencer) I came to the conclussion:

Blackout is worse then Whisper. Even in a slim build (with Trick Shot, Threat Tracker OR Advanced Sensors, AT and Title) he costs 40 points.

For 41 points we get a fully equiped Whisper (with Kallus) - that can do the same obstacle game. Only better (5 greens, has Focus / Evade, can actually USE the Target Lock for fully modded attacks with Kallus, more unpredictable, decloak to go away from the obstacles). The only downside Whisper has: less hull. Bombs kill her 1 round earlier then the Silencer. No AT don´t hurt her that much... because without PTL Blackout will never have more tokens then probably a focus.

The whole design around this pilot sucks.

On the Upside: The silencer model looks really nice. A shame that the stats and costs are not matching. Only playable Silencer Kylo... But the lack of a good wingman makes it hard to build him into a list. A Decimator (RAC) is far to expensive....

I have to agree with the recent silencer posts. It's a cool looking and fun ship to fly, so for fun/casual play great, but I'm not seeing the value in it. If anything I've found the high total cost quite restricting on my over all build. Early days I know, but the few games I've played I'm glad I just bought one.

The gun ship however, I'm seeing a lot of fun and value with. Karsabi with ordinance load out was so much fun with slam, and good damage out put. I see a lot of potential with this little fella, and possibly looking to buy a couple more next pay cheque.

Only played against a couple of scum builds so far, both heavy on the guns for hire expansion rather than wave 12, that expansion is going to see a lot of play. Did play against a bullseye ship, but they never got it to work.

Yup, this is where I've got to with the SIlencer as well. It's nice, and ASPTL is cray, but it's not solid. It's not a fortress, when it only has 3 green with focus and autothrusters if applicable, to save it. 4+ die attacks are all too common and they stomp it into the dirt.

My experience is strictly 3 rounds of a relaxed tournament with vi Blackout. I got his ability to work once that evening. Threat Tracker was amazing. the ship IS tough, but I think putting some cold hard practice into it will be rewarding. I literally opened the box and played 3 games. The price is steep, but i'll figure it out. the generics look awesome, too.

IMO, too much investment for a just a 3 dice attack. There are plenty of other ships who can also throw 3 dice, much much cheaper.

Arcdodging doesn't mean anything when practically 90% lists have a turret at least.

Durability would have been nice, like... 4 or 5 waves ago. Nowadays, 3 green dice + focus is like donning a condom to bang a chainsaw.

7 minutes ago, Jehan Menasis said:

Quote

Nowadays, 3 green dice + focus is like donning a condom to bang a chainsaw.

^ this literally made me spit my coffee with laughter. My mission today is to use this phrase at least once.

The Silencer looked mediocre from the beginning. It's just too expensive for a ship that has to spend all of it's actions on positioning. I has very little killing power for 40-50 points, it just doesn't project much of a threat on the board. At the same time, it is also a very soft target without that evade action and only 6 hp. So we have a very expensive ship, that has a hard time dealing damage, but is itself very soft. Also, both pilot abilities are terrible. And it doesn't have the ordnance it should.

I recently had some fun with this at a tournament.

12 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

but largely, can't disagree with Windu. The SF is just more cost effective and out and out superior from a simple dice --> cost ratio

Soooo...are we just not doing dials anymore, then?

Because the SF dial is crappy, and the Silencer dial is amazeballs.

1 minute ago, xanderf said:

Soooo...are we just not doing dials anymore, then?

Because the SF dial is crappy, and the Silencer dial is amazeballs.

Yeah, the SF dial is garbage. I wanted a heavy TIE Fighter, instead I got an x-wing.

13 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Soooo...are we just not doing dials anymore, then?

Because the SF dial is crappy, and the Silencer dial is amazeballs.

For what the SF does, that 1 straight can be amazing. Generally though, yeah, it leaves something to be desired.

19 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

The Silencer looked mediocre from the beginning. It's just too expensive for a ship hhas to spend all of it's actions on positioning. I has very little killing power for 40-50 points, it just doesn't project much of a threat on the board. At the same time, it is also a very soft target without that evade action and only 6 hp. So we have a very expensive ship, that has a hard time dealing damage, but is itself very soft. Also, both pilot abilities are terrible. And it doesn't have the ordnance it should.

So does the Decimator. It only has 3 dice.

Kylo with Adv Optics can still spend a good amount of time repositioning and stikl have tokens.

I saw a pretty good "Blackout" build played yesterday that I personally thought was good. And it was under 40 points to boot.

Test Pilot "Blackout" (31)
- Trick Shot (0)
- Collision Detector (0)
- Pattern Analyzer (2)
- Autothrusters (2)
- First Order Vanguard (2)
Total: 37

Bring debris as your obstacles, and Blackout can set get those between himself and his targets for his ability bonus. With Pattern Analyzer (as it was explained to me by the person using this build) you can fly through the debris and still get your action before the stress is applied to your ship while Collision detector ensures you can't be harmed by debris. And if you're looking to make the ship even cheaper to fly, you can drop the title. You lose some action economy, but at least your not dumping too many points into one ship and Blackout can still hit pretty hard if you get a few obstructed shots.

7 hours ago, Mr Slippery said:

I have to agree with the recent silencer posts. It's a cool looking and fun ship to fly, so for fun/casual play great, but I'm not seeing the value in it. If anything I've found the high total cost quite restricting on my over all build. Early days I know, but the few games I've played I'm glad I just bought one.

The gun ship however, I'm seeing a lot of fun and value with. Karsabi with ordinance load out was so much fun with slam, and good damage out put. I see a lot of potential with this little fella, and possibly looking to buy a couple more next pay cheque.

Only played against a couple of scum builds so far, both heavy on the guns for hire expansion rather than wave 12, that expansion is going to see a lot of play. Did play against a bullseye ship, but they never got it to work.

What was that Karsabi build, if you don't mind me asking?

I've only got *one* (like yourself, I intend to get another one when momey is less tight) so this intrigues me.

At the minute my build is just a Rho Squadron Vet with XG-1, LRS, HLC, Linked Battery and Crack Shot.

I just slot him into various Defender lists (Vessery pairs well with LRS), but would love to have two SLAM-ing around.

35 minutes ago, Derpzilla88 said:

With Pattern Analyzer (as it was explained to me by the person using this build) you can fly through the debris and still get your action before the stress is applied to your ship while Collision detector ensures you can't be harmed by debris.

Correct. You get the stress from debris after the "check pilot stress" step which PA can delay until after your action.

31 minutes ago, Tom1132 said:

What was that Karsabi build, if you don't mind me asking?

It's a straight forward build to be honest - VI, Homing Missile, Os-1 title and advanced slam.

VI to bring in line with Blackout and Sabacc (with adapt), homing because I have more success with that than others (you can swap out for harpoon which seems flavor of the month).

I've only flown it twice but was fun.

First Order Test Pilot with Sensor Jammer, Juke, and Comm Relay is a lot of fun. A list with two of them and a Sensor Jammer-Juke-Comm Relay SF is pretty effective.

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

So does the Decimator. It only has 3 dice.

Kylo with Adv Optics can still spend a good amount of time repositioning and stikl have tokens.

The Deci at least has a turret to ensure that it can attack every round. Plus it has Large Ship Boost.

Not that I'm knocking the Silencer. Advanced Optics is pretty great here, though I love Primed Thrusters on this thing for the freedom to use Advanced Sensors to boost or barrel roll while stressed.

And the people knocking Kylo's ability because it only works when he takes damage must be drunk. Unless you only play incompetent opponents, it's pretty safe to assume that you will probably take a hit or two in a fight. Even in the days of Super Soontir, it would not be unusual for Fel to end up getting tagged once. You can do all you can to prevent it, but it's still something that any player should expect will happen. Kylo just provides a penalty when it happens to him.

18 minutes ago, Celestial Lizards said:

First Order Test Pilot with Sensor Jammer, Juke, and Comm Relay is a lot of fun. A list with two of them and a Sensor Jammer-Juke-Comm Relay SF is pretty effective.

This makes no sense. How do you plan on using Juke or Com Relay on a First Order Test Pilot? The Silencer doesn't have an evade action.

It seems like this is not "pretty effective" unless I am missing something.

1 minute ago, RunnerAZ said:

This makes no sense. How do you plan on using Juke or Com Relay on a First Order Test Pilot? The Silencer doesn't have an evade action.

It seems like this is not "pretty effective" unless I am missing something.

Hyperwave Comm Scanner. Put it on an Epsilon Sqd Pilot.

1 minute ago, Celestial Lizards said:

Hyperwave Comm Scanner. Put it on an Epsilon Sqd Pilot.

I understand now. I never use that card, and you put "Comm Relay" on the SF in your 1st post, not Hyperwave Scanner.

24 minutes ago, Celestial Lizards said:

First Order Test Pilot with Sensor Jammer, Juke, and Comm Relay is a lot of fun. A list with two of them and a Sensor Jammer-Juke-Comm Relay SF is pretty effective.

I think the PS4 generic is the best value so far. Been running it with optics, advanced sensors, and thrusters for 33 points. Amazing dial, solid stat-line, and pseudo action economy is a great little package.

Planning on running Kylo with Intensity/AdvS/CommR/thrusters/title for 47 points of pseudo regen, less auto-win against arc-locked ships but more well-rounded against the field.