" Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies ." - Darth Vader

Welcome to card of the day!
Today's card is the Crew Upgrade Intelligence Agent.
This crew reads:
- At the start of the Activation phase, choose 1 enemy ship at Range 1-2. You may look at that ship's chosen maneuver.

What do you think of it? Is it weak or strong in this meta? What squads would you use it in? Any neat interactions to note? What strategies should you use in a game? Any rules questions you have? Cassian Andor and BoShek have similar(ish) abilities; when would you use them instead? Anything at all you want to say about Intelligence Agent, or agency burglary, this is the place!

I feel like its in a place where it can be good and bad, make it 1-3 and it would see a lot more play...

It's situationally very good, but there are comparatively few situations where that applies:

1: Phantoms. Whisper and Echo can make excellent use of it, it's one of the best crew options they have.

2: Blockers. The epitome being Bumpmasters, but potentially also Quadjumpers.

3: Oicunn with Bo Shek (and Bo Shek generally, but having two crew slots and using them on IA and Bo Shek is questionable at best).

4: Things that have bombs (and don't want Sabine instead).

In short, you need to be able to move before higher PS pilots AND to be able to adjust your final position or choices based on that information. The amount of cases where both of those things are true AND the ship/squad concerned has a free crew slot are pretty few and far between.

good lord bumpmasters still a blast

Heff Tober with Boshek, Intel Agent, Ion Projector is a brutal blocker. Upgrade to Oicun if you have an Imperial inclination, and add Mara jade.

Quadjumpers would love them if they didn't love Cikatro + Cloaking even more.

I think it'd be viable at 0 points, or 1 point and R1-3.

Big thing to note about this card that a lot of people make the mistake of is that it's not a "missed opportunity" if the players forget Intel Agent at the Start of Activation. There is not a may in the text on that, therefore it's a must.

Beyond that, I need to get back to playing bumpmasters someday soon...

For then Rebels this guy is also great on Chopper especially with a mod like ion projector or anti-pursuit lasers. I've run a really strong version of this as a wingman to Dash Render.

Chopper, FCS, Autoblaster, Cassian Andor, Intelligence Agent, Anti-pursuit blasters.

Then Standard Dash PTL, HLC, Kanan and Title

Intel agent and Cassian really help you set up an ideal location for Chopper and let Dash be able to pre-plan his final posistion and avoid ships.

For the low cost there are few things better to take for crew, only Wookie Commandos, Hera or Inspiring Recruit come close for me.

2 minutes ago, GILLIES291 said:

Intel agent and Cassian really help you set up an ideal location for Chopper

Except they don't, because you don't have any ability to change his position based on the information from Intel Agent. It triggers strictly after Cassian (for exactly this reason).

I think Cassian is strictly superior on ships without native repositioning

There aren't many manuevers you need to guess that your opponent could pull to avoid the worst of your positioning

I remember also using int agent on ye ole Ks before aSLAM got neutered. Those were good times before the dark times...before the torp scout

Also, wanna know whats fun when supported by an int agent ship? Goddamn vipers

Ain't a thing under the sun they can't block when you know where they're going

Also personally prefer int agent quads, except in large base metas such as these where you need whatshisface to swap cloaking for emp device. Plutt with int agent is a nightmare for small bases

Nothing beats tugging opponents into manuevers that'll bump or rock them

Only if you have advanced sensors.

This wasn't a powerful list, but it was certainly fun.

Scout + TrickShot + Intel

Scout + TrickShot + Intel

Jakku Gunrunner + Tugger Array

Slaver + Greedo + Boba Fett

Bring the biggest rocks possible.

The little space tugger ruined some peoples day when their ships ended up on rocks in the activation phase. With a bit of tweaking (I'm not sure the Slaver + Boba + Greedo is a great use of points) it could hit a bit harder and really give some lists fits. Having multiple intel agents on barrel rolling large base ships with a stupid good dial is just frustratingly enjoyable.

Quadjumpers are one of those ships I really want to like, but against a careful player, will just fail.

I've been ruined by them a couple of times (similarly, snap-stress things), and each time it's because I've just failed to remember to stay out of their range 1 arc, and to stay out of the way of the rocks. You have to remember to avoid them.

They're a trap card, basically, and like most trap cards, they're frequently wasted against someone who thinks it all the way through.

Unlike good old Leeroy Jenkins here.

not really. a well built and well flown QUAD represents such a threat to small base ships that it almost turns into Biggs

the Quad's greatest weakness is that large ships exist and don't give a flying **** about its Tug Tractor Array, which is about the only reason to take it

14 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

not really. a well built and well flown QUAD represents such a threat to small base ships that it almost turns into Biggs

the Quad's greatest weakness is that large ships exist and don't give a flying **** about its Tug Tractor Array, which is about the only reason to take it

A tractored Asajj is a sad Asajj. Cuts down on that lonewolf and glitter defense.

Yeah but spending 25ish points for -1 agility isn't a terribly sound investment

Tbeam repositioning on small ships can just **** them over so much harder

Oh I agree, just saying that there are *some* large base ships that don't like the reduced agility if you have the opportunity.

10 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Yeah but spending 25ish points for -1 agility isn't a terribly sound investment

Reducing a ship to merely one aspect is to ignore all of its other qualities.

Like its two green dice.

so, like nothing

without the ability to reposition small ships, a Tractor Beam token is literally only -1 agility

as a pure blocker, int agent or otherwise, the Quadjumper is strictly inferior to the master of all jumping

6 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

without the ability to reposition small ships, a Tractor Beam token is literally only -1 agility

as a pure blocker, int agent or otherwise, the Quadjumper is strictly inferior to the master of all jumping

A standard Jakku Gunrunner is always going to be inferior, because the best he can hope to accomplish is a single tractor token, and costs 19 points with the standard cloaking loadout.

Unkar, on the other hand, has great potential. The first time I played him I assigned three tractor tokens in a round, moving two X-wings onto rocks and killing the one at AGI 0 in two shots. Earlier this week I nuked QD in a turn, tractoring and blocking the same ship.

Unkar's greatest strength is his extreme unpredictability. While cloaked, he can really be anywhere within R1-3 to tractor you, out his front 180 degrees. Add primed Thrusters, Cikatro and so forth and you get a ship with amazing options for blocking. The trouble with contracted scouts is they're a bit of a one-trick kind of ship, whereas Unkar can easily deal double-tractor and ionise everything at R1 on a key turn.

Unkar's also 22 points with Primed Thrusters, Cloaking Device, STA and Cikatro, which is a significant discount over the contracted scout.