I guess that it's fragility it's what balances it... imagine something as mobile as a Reaper and as Durable as a Lambda. Not good for the game.

13 minutes ago, william1134 said:

Blegh... I don't know what FFG can possibly do to this ship as its just a bit dead right now.

I suppose they could release a config that gives it white hard turns but it doesn't solve the problem of zipping around too quick and getting itself into trouble before melting instantly.

Free jam action would probably do it.

Nah. All the reaper needs is (arguably) cheaper base costs and folks willing to learn how to fly the dang thing

Given the price of the Arc, the reaper could def be argued to be cheaper

Here's my take:

Jam is a trap and definitely not the USP of this ship. You're better off spending the 3 points to put ISB and JB on Kagi or Jendon if you really need it. For the reaper it's just gravy.

Coordinate is situational, but can be incredibly useful because: It's all about the ailerons . What you want is control over whether you do or don't do your aileron move. As long as you can plan one turn ahead, you actually have probably the best maneuverability a (non-scum) medium base ship can reliably get. I have the most practice with Vermeil/Vader, which is entirely worth the points IMO. If you want to slow-roll next turn, you do a red coordinate (Vader strips tokens and lets Vermeil attack hard). If you want to go fast next turn, evade!

It's kind of strange, but the evade action on Vermeil has typically saved me about 3+ health over the course of a game. He already has offensive mods so the defense is all that he needs. And an evading ship at I4 that token strips is... pretty good with Juke. Sure it's a points sink (ship totals 70 points which is absurd for a reaper) but I've done so much work with that. It just bites through so many things and opens up juking attacks from your wingmen as well. Don't think Juke is dead at 7 points: it's still doing very well, and it's entirely worth its price. And this combo has everything it needs to make it shine, or it gets focused down and lets your aces into the endgame for free, which is just as good.

Of course, that's far from the only way to fly them. I'm personally quite curious about the viability of Tarkin with Targeting Computer on a generic. At 48 points, that leaves room for 2 I1 strikers and 2 I4 Interceptors with Predator. The only thing these ships really need is offensive re-rolls, and Sloane doesn't give that as reliably, as long as Tarkin can stay alive and out at R3. For two points more you can get a Sloane Reaper, which does a fantastic job at area control and can be flown with 4 Strikers for a very cool-looking squad that actually has a surprising amount of bite and annoyance. The goal with these lists is to out-shoot anything above I3-4 (which the fast ships have a pretty easy time catching, especially with 5 3-dice arcs and rerolls) and then in the endgame use the Sabers like Soontir to just ace away whatever scrubs are left. Of course it's easier said than done, but I feel like the potential is there.

23 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

The meta waits for it to be meta before making it meta.

You got deep thoughts, Son.

5 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Thanks a lot, Blue Oyster Cult.

This reply needs more cowbell!

Reapers are fantastic.

Just, y'know. Fussy.

Hmm, there is a recent win on ListFortress (14th September), 14 player store tournament:

Captain Feroph + Crack Shot + Darth Vader + Stealth Device
Major Vermeil + Crack Shot + Emperor Palpatine + Shield Upgrade
Planetary Sentinel
Planetary Sentinel

1 hour ago, Rossetti1828 said:

Hmm, there is a recent win on ListFortress (14th September), 14 player store tournament:

Captain Feroph + Crack Shot + Darth Vader + Stealth Device
Major Vermeil + Crack Shot + Emperor Palpatine + Shield Upgrade
Planetary Sentinel
Planetary Sentinel

That's odd. It seems Palpatine and Vader are on the wrong ships; Vader synergizes so well with Vermeil, and Palpatine wants Feroph's defensive buff...

6 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

That's odd. It seems Palpatine and Vader are on the wrong ships; Vader synergizes so well with Vermeil, and Palpatine wants Feroph's defensive buff...

It's a weird list for sure.

I guess the Stealth Device did work....

And his opponents at the store all had confused reacts only.

1 minute ago, Cuz05 said:

It's a weird list for sure.

I guess the Stealth Device did work....

And his opponents at the store all had confused reacts only.

The only Dash list I ever won with prominently featured a Stealth device. When you're rolling 5 dice with Focus/Evade it can stick around for awhile.

Pity R1 kills him so bad.

2 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

The only Dash list I ever won with prominently featured a Stealth device. When you're rolling 5 dice with Focus/Evade it can stick around for awhile.

Pity R1 kills him so bad.

Ah Dash... I ran him with Lone Wolf and PerCo way back before any points changed and he was quite durable. 3 green at R3 with a reroll and focus. I'm not surprised he can rock an SD for some extra early defence.

On 1ag, it's never made an awful lot of sense to me over the guarantee of a Shield Upgrade though. Clearly must have a little bit of utility there though, if the dice agree.

Still, Feroph, with SD, an evade and force, plus a distant Palp.... Token stripped attackers firing from R3 are gonna have a ridiculously hard time knocking the SD off. But if you're out there, why not switch Palp and Vader indeed.... And why would anyone even bother shooting at him?

My best guess, this guy had an extreme plan.

Possibly involving end game Vader.

3 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

Ah Dash... I ran him with Lone Wolf and PerCo way back before any points changed and he was quite durable. 3 green at R3 with a reroll and focus. I'm not surprised he can rock an SD for some extra early defence.

Unfortunately, no points changed. 😕 He's totally unusable, really. It was a super janky build with a lone Sheathipede for the wingman, but I pulled one win against Torkil and three Kimogilas.

4 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

On 1ag, it's never made an awful lot of sense to me over the guarantee of a Shield Upgrade though. Clearly must have a little bit of utility there though, if the dice agree.

Still, Feroph, with SD, an evade and force, plus a distant Palp.... Token stripped attackers firing from R3 are gonna have a ridiculously hard time knocking the SD off. But if you're out there, why not switch Palp and Vader indeed.... And why would anyone even bother shooting at him?

See, it would make sense to me if Palp was on Feroph, because you're wanting to keep him alive, right? Or are you just running away with Palp, in which case, why do you have Vermeil? Endgame Vader crew isn't as scary as Vermeil/Vader/Juke, which is actually pretty good in my experience, especially with Juking Duchess/Whisper/Soontir/whatever fits. But at only I4, even that's not too scary...

8 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

My best guess, this guy had an extreme plan.

Or maybe they just got super lucky or are super good?

8 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Thanks a lot, Blue Oyster Cult.

Insüfficient ümläüt.

If I could get Duchess as a Reaper Pilot, the ship would be worth flying.

8 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Endgame Vader crew isn't as scary as Vermeil/Vader/Juke, which is actually pretty good in my experience, especially with Juking Duchess/Whisper/Soontir/whatever fits. But at only I4, even that's not too scary...

Or maybe they just got super lucky or are super good?

Thing is, that scary Vermeil will never be allowed to make it that deep into the game. If he does, then it was won a while back.

When ship count has gotten low, Vader Feroph, (probably without SD by now, but who knows), is gonna be hard to take down, while still being capable of beating stuff up. Particularly if they're damaged and he largely isn't. It can be surprisingly difficult to permanently escape a Reapers arc.

66pt is no small number to have still on the board as well. Especially if there's some bits of Striker still meandering around.

But I imagine the last part of your post had to have had some influence on results.

I am personally more partial to feroph due to him being my green dice spirit animal

If they went down just a few points, they'd be golden with striker or interceptor support.

I think if they went down a few points, you'd start seeing them all over, because they're already good.

Like the v1 was when nobody used it, except those who knew the truth .

The meta is only that which is popular, which is merely an indication of what is good.

Reapers have been my jam for the last couple of months and it’s the most fun I’ve had in ages. Vizier and Vermeil paired with a third ‘easy’ ship to balance ailerons works well for me. Current iteration:

“Vizier” (45)

Major Vermeil (49)
Darth Vader (14)

Countess Ryad (82)
Lone Wolf (5)
Heavy Laser Cannon (4)

199

An Imperial Beef with 2 Reapers, 2 Academies, Wampa, and Duchess came 2nd in the last kit tourney I went to (and my 5 SFs was the only squad to beat it). Not a major event, to be sure, but on paper it doesn't seem bad.

Reaper is the approximate statline of a B-Wing, fast but not super nimble, at the same cost. I think there's space for it as something which just smashes faces. Three Reapers plus Vader? Seems kinda fun.

//

Meanwhile, there are hyperspace/extended differences. Hyperspace Reaper doesn't really seem to make sense in list-Tetris. There aren't good support crew, except Vader, and folks generally want to fly TIE/x1 Vader. In Extended, Jendon exists, and shows up almost as much as all other Shuttle and Reaper pilots combined . He kinda sucks the life out of everything shuttle or reaper.

Feroph and Vermiel have decent performance percentiles on MetaWing, but pretty low total reps. I can't discount the possibility that Reapers are better than they appear, but folks just don't want to fly them.

**********, how did Palp NOT go Hyperspace with the deci!?

Well, that's frustrating. Grand Inqy is NO use on a reaper and 7th sister is just weird (never tried).

Now we DO have Kallus, who is actually really **** good and would pair nicely with a budget Vermeil.

But that's it? Death troopers? Bueller?

Kallus and ISB Slicer on Vermeil is not awful. But there are so many swarms right now that he just gets nuked before any of his stuff really matters.

I wanted a coordinate boat to help out the grand inquisitor and seventh sister, and maarek. built the list with a reaper with tactical officer, then switched over to Lt. Sai in the lambda with st-321 title. loads more action efficiency, natural white coordinate. The only reason i'd use the reaper is if I was accompanying fast moving strikers/ interceptors, and had to keep up.

58 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Kallus and ISB Slicer on Vermeil is not awful. But there are so many swarms right now that he just gets nuked before any of his stuff really matters.

Another reason for Feroph 😛

no Palp makes things a LOT less fun, though, especially when it could be fun to fly alongside all these inquisitors