We got a sneak peek at the new and improved Whisper card in the Imperial preview article. The Phantom and Whisper each got a bit of an ability tweaking, but one thing sticks out. FFG has very conspicuously covered the attack rating of the new Phantom. Are our little Phantoms losing their firepower, or is this just FFG being a tease?

more than likely

even in the new system, the difference of 1 die is going to be huge

slightly missed opportunity there, but what can you do?

point is, if the phantom is going to be anything but a problem child, it'll have a 3-die primary. Giving it four reds was one of the big reasons for it being so unbalanced upon release

I highly doubt it. As is, Whisper looks less powerful than she was. The fact that Stygium Array is standard strongly implies that ACD is gone, and evade tokens aren't as good as focus tokens*. Sure, she has an extra hull, but I reckon the rework here is intended to make the Phantom work as intended, i.e. as an immensely powerful glass cannon.

*or are roughly on the level of focus tokens. Depends on the circumstances.

I hope that they make cloaking more powerful then. At the very least cloaking should discard and prevent locks.

edit: Yeah, evade tokens are very weak now.

On the other hand, thanks to that cunningly-placed Force token, it could have a green dice value of 3...

problem there is we don't have point costs

so if you drop the phantom primary back to being reasonable , you can cost it more like an x and less like two z-95s (when it's as durable as ONE, uncloaked)

we know already it's AT LEAST a 1.0 x-wing (pre integrated)

that green # def looks like a 2, though

also, while evades are weaker, free stygium is good . besides, changing a green die to an evade is basically the same as the old evade for me ?

ALSO the fact that stygium turns evade --> cloak means you never have to cloak as an action . So, in combat, you can always evade and (if you're not shot) then re-cloak at the end phase. This is a big Q.O.L buff

(but you'll probably have to cloak action if jam comes around)

Advanced cloaking device and stygium array have been melded into a single mechanic from what I can tell. Keep in mind that the viability of a phantom will also be greatly affected by 2 details:

- Do TLTs still exist?

- Do autothrusters still exist?

Two simple questions, but they might blow your mind balance wise if you consider that they may not.

5 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

On the other hand, thanks to that cunningly-placed Force token, it could have a green dice value of 3...

I considered that, but I feel like it defeats the point of the ship. 3-3-3-2? That's just a slightly debuffed Defender. The Phantom was always kind of a unique ship, where you could have either ridiculous offense or ridiculous defence but not both at once. ACD broke that, of course, because a lot of the time Whisper could have both. If they've gotten rid of it, I don't see why the ship couldn't work as intended.

1 minute ago, dotswarlock said:

Advanced cloaking device and stygium array have been melded into a single mechanic from what I can tell. Keep in mind that the viability of a phantom will also be greatly affected by 2 details:

- Do TLTs still exist?

- Do autothrusters still exist?

Two simple questions, but they might blow your mind balance wise if you consider that they may not.

Autothrusters are confirmed to be gone. (Or rather, the name still exists, but it does something else.) Even if TLT is still around, the turret mechanics mean it will be much weaker.

1 minute ago, fhdz said:

I considered that, but I feel like it defeats the point of the ship. 3-3-3-2? That's just a slightly debuffed Defende  r. The Phantom was always kind of a unique ship, where you could have either ridiculous offense or ridiculous defence but not both at once. ACD broke that, of course, because a lot of the time Whisper could both. If they've gotten rid of it, I don't see why the ship couldn't work as intended.

Whisper could be crazy, provided she went first. When she lost the PS race, she was not nearly as devastating. As a longtime Phantom player I hope to see it make a come back.

1 minute ago, Cusm said:

Whisper could be crazy, provided she went first. When she lost the PS race, she was not nearly as devastating. As a longtime Phantom player I hope to see it make a come back.

Yeah, my sense is that the Phantom change is more about making Whisper good on average instead of auto-win in some matchups and auto-lose in others. If ACD is gone, she cares about initiative much less, and that was always the core issue with the Phantom, right?

7 minutes ago, fhdz said:

I considered that, but I feel like it defeats the point of the ship. 3-3-3-2? That's just a slightly debuffed Defender. The Phantom was always kind of a unique ship, where you could have either ridiculous offense or ridiculous defence but not both at once. ACD broke that, of course, because a lot of the time Whisper could have both. If they've gotten rid of it, I don't see why the ship couldn't work as intended.

it's still unique, because it can cloak

and, if its ability is any indication, it'll cloak MUCH better than anything else can cloak

I don't doubt that we'll see Cloaking Device (which is just the cloak action plastered on a card), but no other ship will get Stygium Array

point is, these changes are great for making the phantom more than just "guess I gotta out ps you, or I suck". I think it's much better balance than having lopsided capabilities

3 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

it's still unique, because it can cloak

and, if its ability is any indication, it'll cloak MUCH better than anything else can cloak

I don't doubt that we'll see Cloaking Device (which is just the cloak action plastered on a card), but no other ship will get Stygium Array

Maybe you're right. I hope not, though! I like the 4-die Phantom. I don't think its attack power was ever the problem.

In response to your edit: again, though, as written the new Phantom already doesn't care about initiative (or at least, no more than the average ship). You decloak before everyone moves, and you recloak after everyone shoots. No benefit to be gained from high initiative.

17 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

more than likely

even in the new system, the difference of 1 die is going to be huge

slightly missed opportunity there, but what can you do?

point is, if the phantom is going to be anything but a problem child, it'll have a 3-die primary. Giving it four reds was one of the big reasons for it being so unbalanced upon release

And we dont know the point cost yet. Its (relative on /200 vs /100) point cost might be lowered to compensate for the regular 3 atck dice. This would be nice as it would open up more build possibilities with him (or her?). Point/pwr level would make her close to a regular ace but with a quite distinctive gameplay feeling.

If this is where they are going with their general goal (less difference in power lvl but more variety in gameplay styles) i might actually consider rebuying some stuff...

Uh oh, they conspicuously covered up the entire stat line for Dutchess, I think they may have changed a few things around on our Strikers.

Oh no, the deci too! I’m going crazy!!!

2 minutes ago, GrimmyV said:

Uh oh, they conspicuously covered up the entire stat line for Dutchess, I think they may have changed a few things around on our Strikers.

Oh no, the deci too! I’m going crazy!!!

Deci has a 2-die primary

....hah

Though it'd make sense given how tiny the model's guns are :p. Maybe that's why you get 3 in the conversion box...

I think Cloaking happens at the same time as bombs now, which happen after everyone has set dials but before anyone activates.

This means you could, COULD still bomb her before she decloaks, maybe.

I could see the Tie Phantom keeping its 4 die primary if the ship recloaks per the Stygium rules on the card. That’s a lot less of an issue for lower PS ships than Adv Cloaking Device was.

I just hope that Scum keep their faulty, illicit cloaking device with its chance of breaking down. Phantoms should definitely be the king of small ship cloaking, but I find that stuffing a (faulty) black-market counterfeit into a scum fighter is both hilarious and fun.