Opinion: Deltas are being underrated

By prauxim, in X-Wing

1 hour ago, XPav said:

I flew Anakin/7B/R2/Spart Parts with 2 104th/7th Fleet/R2 yesterday.

It didn't go well, the ARCs just didn't pay for themselves.

I'm taking Ani/7B/R2 + Mace?/7B/R2 + 2 Gold Torrents next time.

Have you considered Ani/Macr/104?

2x Gold for 50 vs 104th+7th at 51 is an interesting dilema. A little extra meat vs getting a 3die fully modded upgraded to a 4die fully modded.

So, I'm a huge fan of flying Trip Deltas, and more and more I want to fly 7bs for obvious reasons. I also think Anakin with I6 is just too good to leave out.

Then it comes down to what to pair him with. You can fit Lumi and Mace in there, but you're at a full 200 points, meaning no bid, no r2.

Conversely, you could put two Jedi Knights in there, and now all 3 have r2s and you've got a 2-point bid. But you lose initiative, force, and cool abilities/the ability to have your lower init Jedi reposition and still evade or double re-position and still have force available. Still, a 5 straight into a boost will usually safely get you where you can r2 after early exchanges.

I've also toyed with Anakin/Obi-Wan with 7b +r2 and just a 42-point arc to soak some damage or punish you if you ignore him.

In either case, the idea is to kill other I6s and keep Anakin alive for late game, using that high init and double re-position to clean up whatever is left over. I'm trying to figure out which of these makes the most sense, and I'm curious to hear thoughts from others trying them out.

One other thought is that Mace +7b is the EXACT same points as Ahsoka +7b. I've played more Ahsoka, but I'm coming around to the idea of Mace. Curious to hear thoughts there as well.

37 minutes ago, prauxim said:

Have you considered Ani/Macr/104?

2x Gold for 50 vs 104th+7th at 51 is an interesting dilema. A little extra meat vs getting a 3die fully modded upgraded to a 4die fully modded.

I've considered it, but the Torrents are a little tankier between the two of them (10hp behind 2 defense dice) and you get two focused 2 die shots vs one 3 die shot. If I'm the opponent, I'm definitely going to burn down that ARC asap, where the Torrents make it a harder sell.

44 minutes ago, prauxim said:

Have you considered Ani/Macr/104?

2x Gold for 50 vs 104th+7th at 51 is an interesting dilema. A little extra meat vs getting a 3die fully modded upgraded to a 4die fully modded.

2 Jedi + ARC was my first Republic try. It didn't work, the ARC just got burned down. My second republic try was 2 Jedi + 2 Torrents, and that went pretty well. Third try was 1 Jedi + 2 ARCs (that didn't work).

Just now, XPav said:

2 Jedi + ARC was my first Republic try. It didn't work, the ARC just got burned down. My second republic try was 2 Jedi + 2 Torrents, and that went pretty well. Third try was 1 Jedi + 2 ARCs (that didn't work).

So your next progression -

1 Jedi + 3 arc (GOOD)

2 Jedi + 3 torrent (Seems good, but needs more stress testing)

1 super jedi + 4 torrents (Seems pretty good, but needs a lot more testing)

1 minute ago, XPav said:

2 Jedi + ARC was my first Republic try. It didn't work, the ARC just got burned down. My second republic try was 2 Jedi + 2 Torrents, and that went pretty well. Third try was 1 Jedi + 2 ARCs (that didn't work).

Funny, because 3 ship Republic has been a staple with huge success personally. I’ve taken basically any mix I wanted of a Jedi, an Arc, and a third Jedi/Arc with named pilots and upgrades to taste and felt it worked.

All style I suppose, but the Arc is a threat that can’t be ignored, and pulls heat off the Jedi while it works.

3 minutes ago, viedit said:

So your next progression -

1 Jedi + 3 arc (GOOD)

2 Jedi + 3 torrent (Seems good, but needs more stress testing)

1 super jedi + 4 torrents (Seems pretty good, but needs a lot more testing)

But I don't have 3 ARCs or Torrents! :)

And I like flying Anakin, which makes it hard to get other Jedi in there. I suppose I could try though.

10 hours ago, prauxim said:

You mean with those configs, or in general?

With those configs.

8 hours ago, millertime059 said:

I’ve taken basically any mix I wanted of a Jedi, an Arc, and a third Jedi/Arc with named pilots and upgrades to taste and felt it worked.

Just curious: when you say “upgrades to taste,” does that ever include torpedoes? I’ve been getting my butt handed to me by ProTorps since starting to dip my toes back into 2E. Not sure if they would help back up the Delta by posing a bigger threat, or if they would throw off the squad’s viability by sucking up too many points.

2 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Just curious: when you say “upgrades to taste,” does that ever include torpedoes? I’ve been getting my butt handed to me by ProTorps since starting to dip my toes back into 2E. Not sure if they would help back up the Delta by posing a bigger threat, or if they would throw off the squad’s viability by sucking up too many points.

It can, but typically no. But droids are good, Cody, syncs console, force talents, upgrading to Wolffe or Sinker, upgrading to Obi Wan, two 7b’s, you get the idea. Protorp is fine, but I find that making each of the three ships more of a well rounded threat has been better. I mean going from 104th to Wolffe is 9 points, and you gain 3 initiative and a very useful ability. Slap Cody and it’s the same points as the torp, but for a better all around package IMO.

3 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Just curious: when you say “upgrades to taste,” does that ever include torpedoes? I’ve been getting my butt handed to me by ProTorps since starting to dip my toes back into 2E. Not sure if they would help back up the Delta by posing a bigger threat, or if they would throw off the squad’s viability by sucking up too many points.

I don’t like sinking points in to torpedoes unless I can double modify them somehow. Especially not on low initiative pilots.

I suspect 4x Torrents and a Jedi would have a good chance against torpedos. Force them to waste torpedos on Torrents instead of your closer.

2 hours ago, martini74 said:

With those configs.

Ah. I wonder if Mace with Sense might just be straight-up better, both 7B. Sense doesn't fully offset the Ini advantage, but his ability feels stronger.

9 hours ago, prauxim said:

Ah. I wonder if Mace with Sense might just be straight-up better, both 7B. Sense doesn't fully offset the Ini advantage, but his ability feels stronger.

Sense is such a good card on the Jedi, I won't be surprised if we're talking about it being broken with a couple more waves worth of releases. One nice thing is that it does help medium and low initiative pilots to be more relevant.

My boy flew CLT Anakin and 2 7B, Sense Jedi's against me. Beat a pretty strong Imperial 4 ship list with it. Did seem really quite good. I think you run into some hard counters but it might have some legs. I even managed to kill Anakin quite quickly but the Jedi were super annoying and closed the game out.

If there does turn out to be a broken usage of Sense occur, it's the free at R1 that will be key imo. That's where the points really seem to add up.

He also used 4 CLT Knights with Sense. That was insanely irritating to play against but for all they shut you down, they don't do enough damage. Late game, I had enough left in my 2 aces to just mop them up. Low Init beefy generics would obviously laugh at them.

Struggling with Ani plus 2 ARCs myself at the moment. Started very promisingly in a couple proper games, but if my boy is now regularly kicking it's ****, then I have major problems.

Difficulties occur on the turnaround after engagement. Difficult to finish off a good alpha with the 2 dice rear gun and work room to 4k before the ARCs are dead and dying. If the alpha whiffs in the 1st place, it's game over.

Seems decent against low ship count or low hit point ships, but against anything that can tank damage or bring many, many firing arcs, (which is almost all lists), it's hard.

Going to be trying 7B Anakin with Wolffe and Jag as a last resort. Seems like it might be the most flexible version.

Edited by Cuz05
4 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

If there does turn out to be a broken usage of Sense occur, it's the free at R1 that will be key imo. That's where the points really seem to add up.

Yeah, I agree it has a reasonable cost overall -- 6 points plus needing to spend a force seems fair (but the Republic may even be able to break it there at some point since they can have multiple force users, and 3 point force users at that).

19 hours ago, prauxim said:

Have you considered Ani/Macr/104?

2x Gold for 50 vs 104th+7th at 51 is an interesting dilema. A little extra meat vs getting a 3die fully modded upgraded to a 4die fully modded.

I would blindly go for the 2 Gold after some praxis with both. They are much more versatile to me.

10 hours ago, millertime059 said:

It can, but typically no. But droids are good, Cody, syncs console, force talents, upgrading to Wolffe or Sinker, upgrading to Obi Wan, two 7b’s, you get the idea. Protorp is fine, but I find that making each of the three ships more of a well rounded threat has been better. I mean going from 104th to Wolffe is 9 points, and you gain 3 initiative and a very useful ability. Slap Cody and it’s the same points as the torp, but for a better all around package IMO.

Maybe slightly off-topic, but I've always ended up taking Synch Console out of my lists before playing them. I might be looking at them wrong, but it seems they benefit a list by preventing TLs from going to waste.

10 minutes ago, Rangor said:

I would blindly go for the 2 Gold after some praxis with both. They are much more versatile to me.

Agree. There is a lot of hard to explain utility in occupying two lanes instead of one with 2 torrents instead of 1 Arc. Or giving your opponent twice as many ships (2 v 1) to have to chose in shooting. You also have twice as many ships shooting back at more than likely an unmodded defender. There's a huge increase in control and denial that those two torrents can provide that the arc can't.

10 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Just curious: when you say “upgrades to taste,” does that ever include torpedoes? I’ve been getting my butt handed to me by ProTorps since starting to dip my toes back into 2E. Not sure if they would help back up the Delta by posing a bigger threat, or if they would throw off the squad’s viability by sucking up too many points.

If I could put Proton Torpedoes on an Aethersprite, they'd totally get Torps from time to time.

On an ARC? I just don't see the point. Most ARCs are pretty low-init and not that good at getting locks. Even Jag seems dubious, since an opponent can just attack him first, he probably won't get the shots off, and handing over 12 points of MOV feelsbadman.

I feel like Seventh Fleet Gunner would be a lot better if you're trying to get extra red dice.

Good gravy....Proton torp on Anakin would be so broken. Just Ani, torps, and R2. Done.

4 minutes ago, viedit said:

Good gravy....Proton torp on Anakin would be so broken. Just Ani, torps, and R2. Done.

I wouldnt mind a purple reload action in addition to the torp slot though. Make it a title at a cost of -2.

Seems legit.

2 minutes ago, Rangor said:

I wouldnt mind a purple reload action in addition to the torp slot though. Make it a title at a cost of -2.

Seems legit.

Or you can just put it on a chassis ability as a red action as well as a chassis ability to reduce crits down to hits.

I6

3 force charges

Proton torps

What could possibly go wrong? :P

20 hours ago, prauxim said:

Have you considered Ani/Mace/104?

2x Gold for 50 vs 104th+7th at 51 is an interesting dilema. A little extra meat vs getting a 3die fully modded upgraded to a 4die fully modded.

I feel like the biggest reason to go 104th over 2x Gold is if you can't afford 50 points. I've been fascinated lately by Synchronized Console, and Mace+Ani 7Bs with R2 and SynCon only leaves 48 points. I don't think a loaded, named Torrent is going to be worth the points (Debris Gambit Kickback is cute, though... Roll/Evade/Lock...), so have to bring an ARC. 44 with SynCon leave a 4 point bid, not huge. Adding Clone Commander Cody might make sense, but attacking last the only benefit is to maybe force someone onto Blue moves. I think in this list, I'd rather just have bid.

Seventh Fleet Gunner seems like it could be fun to try out, though. Certainly a lot cheaper of a support ship than a Palp ARC, and it's basically the "Proton Torpedo for Anakin." Not exactly, but kinda.

//

Broadly speaking, I can't wait for the next waves. N-1 should add a new price point to the faction. Ric Olie with Juke seems instantly promising, guessing something in the mid 40s price range. Y-Wing also adds a new price point, and at least one more crew and gunner option which could probably fit onto an ARC of some kind.

2 hours ago, AlexW said:

Yeah, I agree it has a reasonable cost overall -- 6 points plus needing to spend a force seems fair (but the Republic may even be able to break it there at some point since they can have multiple force users, and 3 point force users at that).

Yeah, Sense is balanced by being a dead card in many situations. Its good for 6pts, but paints a blazing target on the carrier against Aces and doesn't nothing against swarms. Invest 12 in it you're probably over invested anti-ace tech.

I ran quad CLT with 2 sense list for a bit, it trivializes some matchups via perma-blocking and insta-looses to others.

Now if we had something like an I2 Jedi Consular with 2 force for similar price to a JK it might be broken. Between that and SN the blocking ability would be nuts.

Edited by prauxim
2 hours ago, viedit said:

Good gravy....Proton torp on Anakin would be so broken. Just Ani, torps, and R2. Done.

Have you noticed the btlb y wing...