Bravo, FFG, you successfully prevented once again Tie Punishers from being played!

So scum and rebels have special tricks for their bombs and you, FFG, introduced a special new keyword that archives the one and only goal: Prevent the Tie Punisher pilot Deathrain from doing the free barrel roll after launching!

The efford you invested pays off!

Now honestly, haven't you realized that the TIE Punisher needs a HUGE buff to be seen on tables? The possibility to launch and drop in a single round was there - which would have been interesting especially for Deathrain. Not only this isn't possible, but deathrain can't even do his mild trick after launching. So, compared to scum and rebels, imperial heavy bombers fall even further behind...

Shame! Shame! Shame!

Effort

If you fly Casual, perhaps this can help.

Title. "Punisher Mk2". Free.

You can perform one Free Boost Action each turn.

Did Deathrain like... run over someone's cat at FFG HQ or something?

22 minutes ago, RufusDaMan said:

Effort

thanks

20 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Did Deathrain like... run over someone's cat at FFG HQ or something?

Good question. Or they just hate the Tie Punisher as it is the least popular ship even within FFG

I'm kind of fine with the Tie Punisher not seeing the light of day. The Tie Bomber on the other hand

It's FFG's ironic design to say the least. The design took the iconic (sadly casually mediocre) TIE Bomber chassis and put it on huge physical steroids and FFG took it from the video game and then gave it the most imposing name ever given plastic in our lovely game. Then they made it the worst (terribly balanced casual ship) stats, cost, upgrades and abilities that meld together to be a not-quite nearly-almost, but seriously unplayable ship.

Everyone needs a whipping boy on which to lament or point to as the worst. The NFL has the Browns, we have the Punisher.

The saddest thing is, the Imperial faction should --cannon wise-- be the best at bombing, or at least an equivalent faction. But the Imperials SUCK at it. Meanwhile, Rebels excel at it and so do the Scum. If one wants to bomb well, one must not fly the Punisher, or the TIE Bomber. What did I type?!? Don't fly a ship with "Bomber" in the title in this game if you want to use the bombing mechanic. What?!?!

Thanks @Jo Jo for the design of the original Interdictor from "Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds"....and my subsequent edit.

3 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

I'm kind of fine with the Tie Punisher not seeing the light of day. The Tie Bomber on the other hand

It seems that most ppl don't care. Thats pity, isn't it?

Tie Punishers could really use a rule like "You never discard secondary weapons" to field them cheaper and reflect the huge space for amunitions

Well I didn't think you could do both anyway, but I understand how people are now upset because deathrain cannot barrel roll after lauching now. But I never that you could do that anyway, because his card states drop and they never stated that launch was the same as dropping.

2 minutes ago, clanofwolves said:

It's FFG's ironic design to say the least. It takes the iconic (sadly casually mediocre) TIE Bomber chassis and they put it on huge physical steroids and gave it the most imposing name ever given plastic in our lovely game. Then, they made it the worst (terribly balanced casual ship) stats, cost, upgrades and abilities that meld together to be a not quite almost, but seriously unplayable ship.

Everyone needs a whipping boy on which to lament or point to as the worst. The NFL has the Browns, we have the Punisher.

The saddest thing is, the Imperial faction should --cannon wise-- be the best at bombing, or at least an equivalent faction. But the Imperials SUCK at it. Meanwhile, Rebels excel at it and so do the Scum. If one wants to bomb well, one must not fly the Punisher, or the TIE Bomber. What did I type?!? Don't fly a shop with Bomber in the title in this game if you want to use the bombing mechanic. What?!?!

Canon-wise the Tie Punisher should be able to launch ordnance from all four tubes at a time. it is what it is. The firepower of four regular Tie Bombers in one single ship. The FFG game design here is a mere joke, sorry for that.

I myself try to make lists including my two Tie Punishers that isn't a autoloss - but every time I manage to optimize them out. They are just too weak for too much points.

If Deathrain is launching a bomb why does it need to barrel roll when 1 forward would avoid bomb damage and allow him keep the ship he's targeted in arc. If you're successful in trying to hit someone with a reveal bomb then the ship will end in Deathrain's arc too most likely.

It's still more toys for Deathrain and Punishers in general and it's great zone control in rocks.

2 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Well I didn't think you could do both anyway, but I understand how people are now upset because deathrain cannot barrel roll after lauching now. But I never that you could do that anyway, because his card states drop and they never stated that launch was the same as dropping.

Deathrain pilot ability could be altered with ease, just like so many card texts have been changed over the years

4 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Well I didn't think you could do both anyway, but I understand how people are now upset because deathrain cannot barrel roll after lauching now.

Deathrain never could trigger his ability after launching. That was the common rules interpretation before as well. The shame is that FFG did not use this moment to actually make the card better and allow deathrains ability to work with TS.

1 minute ago, SEApocalypse said:

Deathrain never could trigger his ability after launching. That was the common rules interpretation before as well. The shame is that FFG did not use this moment to actually make the card better and allow deathrains ability to work with TS.

Yeah I don't know why anyone is up in arms about this, everyone interpreted RAW to mean that "launch" and "drop" were not the same, and therefore Deathrain's ability could not trigger.

11 minutes ago, clanofwolves said:

It's FFG's ironic design to say the least. It takes the iconic (sadly casually mediocre) TIE Bomber chassis and they put it on huge physical steroids and gave it the most imposing name ever given plastic in our lovely game. Then, they made it the worst (terribly balanced casual ship) stats, cost, upgrades and abilities that meld together to be a not-quite nearly-almost, but seriously unplayable ship.

Everyone needs a whipping boy on which to lament or point to as the worst. The NFL has the Browns, we have the Punisher.

The saddest thing is, the Imperial faction should --cannon wise-- be the best at bombing, or at least an equivalent faction. But the Imperials SUCK at it. Meanwhile, Rebels excel at it and so do the Scum. If one wants to bomb well, one must not fly the Punisher, or the TIE Bomber. What did I type?!? Don't fly a ship with "Bomber" in the title in this game if you want to use the bombing mechanic. What?!?!

Not really an FFG design. It exsisted in only one Star Wars video game, SW: Galactic Battlegrounds as the Tie Interdictor. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/IT_Interdictor_starfighter

The Punisher just needs a (free) title that gives you reload on your action bar and lets you reload after a boost or something like that. Maybe a title that lets you reload bombs

1 minute ago, Skargoth said:

If Deathrain is launching a bomb why does it need to barrel roll when 1 forward would avoid bomb damage and allow him keep the ship he's targeted in arc. If you're successful in trying to hit someone with a reveal bomb then the ship will end in Deathrain's arc too most likely.

It's still more toys for Deathrain and Punishers in general and it's great zone control in rocks.

Deathrain (+ Bomblet Generator) with a free roll after launch would give him the interesting ability to do fly a bank without ending in his own bomb. Furthermore, he could get a better position for next round and/or get back into range2/3 to fire ordnance. He would be an interesting pilot with far more possibilities.

5 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

Not really an FFG design. It exsisted in only one Star Wars video game, SW: Galactic Battlegrounds as the Tie Interdictor. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/IT_Interdictor_starfighter

The Punisher just needs a (free) title that gives you reload on your action bar and lets you reload after a boost or something like that. Maybe a title that lets you reload bombs

The GAME DESIGN is by FFG

This sould be a VERY awesome title to make me buying even more. I'd prefer an errata fix.

5 minutes ago, horsepire said:

Yeah I don't know why anyone is up in arms about this, everyone interpreted RAW to mean that "launch" and "drop" were not the same, and therefore Deathrain's ability could not trigger.

Personally, it bugs me because there was no particular need to define Launch as a new keyword - 'when you drop, you can use a 5 straight from the front guides' would have been fine, would have let Deathrain keep doing his thing, wouldn't have raised controversy about dropping and launching in the same turn, AND wouldn't have left the Launch rules languishing in a rules booklet thatyou can't get without buyign the BSF17.

It bugs me because it was a bad way to institute the thing, basically.

1 minute ago, GeneralBergfrühling said:

This sould be a VERY awesome title to make me buying even more. I'd prefer an errata fix.

True. They have set the precedent by removing icons from pilot cards, so they can certainly add them. However, I think FFG would really like to minimize that and go the route of us having to buy things.

18 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Personally, it bugs me because there was no particular need to define Launch as a new keyword - 'when you drop, you can use a 5 straight from the front guides' would have been fine, would have let Deathrain keep doing his thing, wouldn't have raised controversy about dropping and launching in the same turn, AND wouldn't have left the Launch rules languishing in a rules booklet thatyou can't get without buyign the BSF17.

It bugs me because it was a bad way to institute the thing, basically.

For a good game design you should minimize the amount of keywords and if you introduce new ones, it should enhance the game. Introducing the keyword "launch" was just useless

This bugs me, too.

31 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Personally, it bugs me because there was no particular need to define Launch as a new keyword - 'when you drop, you can use a 5 straight from the front guides' would have been fine, would have let Deathrain keep doing his thing, wouldn't have raised controversy about dropping and launching in the same turn, AND wouldn't have left the Launch rules languishing in a rules booklet thatyou can't get without buyign the BSF17.

It bugs me because it was a bad way to institute the thing, basically.

I respectfully disagree because I think that by using a different keyword, "launch" instead of "drop", they keep the card's interaction isolated and prevent any unintentional interactions with many/any other cards that use the "drop" keyword...

...like Deathrain.

I can see your point, but I think it was a better decision to keep the card isolated from possibly breaking later.

TIE Punishers needed a fix before the trajectory simulator. The new FAQ/Errata only codifies how most* people were already treating TS and Deathrain.

*By most, I only mean the handful of people I have spoken to about this issue in my very unqualified and unscientific survey.

Deathrain is literally the only element in the game triggered by dropping a bomb (as opposed to triggering bomb dropping, which was what actually broke with Launch) so, nice job there.

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