11 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

I've only played 1 to date and my Ion Troopers only managed to die quickly to an AT-ST, but that's because my opponent was afraid of them. My next plan is to take 4x Trooper squads all with Ion. The Ion grenadiers can still use the A-280 rifle so they can save the Ion for when they need it. The AT-RTs are currently kitted with 2x Rotary Blasters and 1x Flamer+Comms Jammer. I want to try this combo on the RT and see how it does.

I think there's something to a "ground support walker" RT with flame/jammer. It provides cover while your troops move to a given location and provides a huge disincentive for enemy troops to get near it. If enemy vehicles get near it, comms are jammed and it risks being ionized.

Ok, after a few more games (all with 2 ion units) their value has diminished.

When playing for objectives where you need troopers, using your ion units will likely mean you're not getting the objectives as they either need to move and shoot or ready and shoot. C onversely, if you use them to get objectives you've probably wasted 32 points on a heavy weapon.

When more trooper units become available this might change but for now their usefulness is situational.

Played a game with 4x Trooper squads with Ion this weekend. Also had 2x RTs with Rotary Blasters and 1x RT with Flamer. Opponent was running 5x Stormtrooper squads with DLT's (4 had Targeting Scopes) and 2x Bike squads. We were playing Breakthrough/Long March/Clear Conditions.

Flamer died without doing anything other than giving Luke cover while moving up the board. The Rotary RTs did work, killed a lot of Stormtrooper. Without an AT-ST on the other side the Ion was rather lackluster. In 6 turns only fired it 5 times from all 4 squads, each time against the 74-Z squads. First shot failed to damage the bikes so failed to Ion. Second and Third shots managed to land an Ion with 2 damage, then 4th and 5th shots all managed to kill the bikes making the Ion token pointless.

I managed to win on tiebreaker since he only had Vader left and I lost Luke, 2x AT-RT, and 1 squad of Troopers. I felt like I would have been better served with a 3rd rotary blaster vs the flamer AT-RT and swapping the MPL-57s for Z-6s just for weight of fire since the bikes didn't have armor. I haven't tried the list against one with an AT-ST or a mirror match against rebels with AT-RTs, which might change my opinion of the Ion launchers.

Yeah, bikes are the worst vehicle target for Ion Launchers. The natural critting from the Z-6 is a better tool to bust through their cover 1 than impact, it's not hard to kill them outright if you can land focused fire on them, and you can easily land his using the A-280's to speed it up, too.

42 minutes ago, kaffis said:

Yeah, bikes are the worst vehicle target for Ion Launchers. The natural critting from the Z-6 is a better tool to bust through their cover 1 than impact, it's not hard to kill them outright if you can land focused fire on them, and you can easily land his using the A-280's to speed it up, too.

Impact doesn't do anything to the bikes, since they don't have armor.

I think that ions are great against lists that have a ton of vehicles, less so against troop-heavy lists. As more vehicles get released, and when Veers drops, I think their value will go up.

Cover actually works against impact since cover cancels hits before impact mods them to a crit.

Impact is 100% useless against bikes.

Just use Z-6's. Z-6's are love, Z-6's are life.

18 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Cover actually works against impact since cover cancels hits before impact mods them to a crit.

Impact is 100% useless against bikes.

18 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Cover actually works against impact since cover cancels hits before impact mods them to a crit.

Impact is 100% useless against bikes.

I know. That was my point.

Z-6s are cool until you roll no crits against an AT-RT for 2 rounds and then it toasts you. At least ion allows you to get at least 1 damage on target.

15 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

Z-6s are cool until you roll no crits against an AT-RT for 2 rounds and then it toasts you. At least ion allows you to get at least 1 damage on target.

I mean, if you roll well below average, any weapon is trash.

1 minute ago, MasterShake2 said:

I mean, if you roll well below average, any weapon is trash.

And rolling above average shouldn't be considered when building an army.

I like Z-6s. I ran 5 of them and was rolling 55 dice. But I can't tell you how many times I rolled 4+ damage and no crits. It took 4 rounds to bring down a T-47 with 2 Z-6s and a Laser AT-RT.

Rebels don't have a consistent way to deal with Armor. AT-RTs are great until they are attacked. T-47 is fast, but it can get separated and shot down by HH-12 of DLTs. MPL is great because it has equivalent damage to Z-6s, and Impact and Ion. They just suck because of exhaust. Rebels need a way to recover for free, just like what Veers does, or they need a better Impact weapon like HH-12. I honestly hate going up against HH-12s. They keep sniping my AT-RTs because I don't have cover and range 4 is hard to stay out of.

I'm waiting for Fleet troopers. Shotgun and Impact will give it Impact and Pierce. Just need to get into range 1.

6 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

And rolling above average shouldn't be considered when building an army.

I like Z-6s. I ran 5 of them and was rolling 55 dice. But I can't tell you how many times I rolled 4+ damage and no crits. It took 4 rounds to bring down a T-47 with 2 Z-6s and a Laser AT-RT.

Rebels don't have a consistent way to deal with Armor. AT-RTs are great until they are attacked. T-47 is fast, but it can get separated and shot down by HH-12 of DLTs. MPL is great because it has equivalent damage to Z-6s, and Impact and Ion. They just suck because of exhaust. Rebels need a way to recover for free, just like what Veers does, or they need a better Impact weapon like HH-12. I honestly hate going up against HH-12s. They keep sniping my AT-RTs because I don't have cover and range 4 is hard to stay out of.

I'm waiting for Fleet troopers. Shotgun and Impact will give it Impact and Pierce. Just need to get into range 1.

Pretty sure the Grenade Launcher for the fleet troopers is the right call assuming it's dice aren't trash and it's Impact isn't 1. We know it's range 3 and has blast, so against troops behind barricades it'll do as much damage as an entire unit and higher Impact than 1 will do some work (and will be amazing if you get into range 2 because you should nat into 1-2 crits).

2 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

Pretty sure the Grenade Launcher for the fleet troopers is the right call assuming it's dice aren't trash and it's Impact isn't 1. We know it's range 3 and has blast, so against troops behind barricades it'll do as much damage as an entire unit and higher Impact than 1 will do some work (and will be amazing if you get into range 2 because you should nat into 1-2 crits).

In the preview article isn't the grenade launcher shown as having Impact 2?

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/24/defend-the-fleet/

5 minutes ago, Caldias said:

In the preview article isn't the grenade launcher shown as having Impact 2?

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/24/defend-the-fleet/

Oh yeah, in that case 100% grenade launcher unless it's like 1 white die or somehting.

3 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

Oh yeah, in that case 100% grenade launcher unless it's like 1 white die or somehting.

It'd be hard to justify something with Impact 2 only having 1 die on its own, since it can specifically be fired on its own... Invalidating half of its own special keyword...

I mean, sure, two White dice are possible

5 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

Oh yeah, in that case 100% grenade launcher unless it's like 1 white die or somehting.

I bet it will be 2 black dice, will exhaust, and cost 28-30 points. The shotgun also seems like a pretty good option though.

I've noticed quite a few people commenting on how having to recover to rearm the grenade launcher slows the team down and makes it ineffective, which is certainly true.

On the other hand, I look at the launcher as a secondary weapon to be deployed as needed so it's not going to fire every turn. In fact, I'm thinking that a lot of my grenadiers' time is going to be spent shooting their rifles and not because they've exhausted their MPL-57: the launcher is only going to get used when I actually need it or if there definitely isn't going to be a need in the future (all the local enemy armour has been destroyed). It's there for when things look dire and a squad has an AT-ST bearing down on them. As long as it's not shot at every target of opportunity, it will always be there when I need it.

It's perhaps not the best use of 22 points to have a gun I'm going to fire once or twice, but I'm not the kind of person to assign value by how economic a weapon is.

The activation order is probably one of the most important factors. This alone can result in two ions tokens being dropped on an a vehicle from a single unit- make the armour move first, ion it, and then 'ambush' next turn to ready and fire. Likewise, a single ion shot and a harpoon from an airspeeder swinging a target in the wrong direction really limits the enemy options; t's the timing that's tricky and the dice can obviously throw your plans awry. Then again, I'd go for the creativity of an ion- tow cable maneuver over rolling lots of dice and hoping for critical hits any day. It just has more style.

I've often read that the 22 points for the MPL are to expensive for impact 1. Put 5 points on top for the impact grenades and double the number of MPL troops and you become one of the mightiest anti tank weapons at this moment. Clever played you will stun the enemy to a defenseless state and pull them down on range 1. At least you become 2x7 trooper with MPL and grenades for 174 points, what is cheaper than 2 laser RT's or a naked T47. Against other troopers they are pretty good, not like a Z6 but better than a normal troop with extra mini and definitely better than the RT's or the T47.