What's the point of rebel Fenn Rau in the game? His ability is pretty good but why have that on an initiative 6 Sheathipede? I'm really curious why the game developers made the choice of including this combination of pilot, ability and ship.

Also does anyone use it?

The point of Rebel Fenn is basically an initiative 6 coordinate, allowing a lower initiative pilot the perk of activating at i6 (getting to take an action last (or least late) in the activation phase) on top of it's own action. The pilot ability improves Fenn's chances of survival when he's coordinating instead of taking a token for himself. He's very expensive though, which is why he's not seen often.

He was a super big deal back in 1.0. Coordinate at the highest initiative can be really dangerous. I haven’t seen him in 2.0 because he’s a rather expensive support piece. We might see him come down eventually, but like some other meta monsters from the First Edition, they started Rebel Rau on the high end in hopes to avoid mistakes of the past.

I am glad this came up. I was looking at ways at using him or even Ezra in a list but have yet to wrap my head around either as of yet.

6 hours ago, SabineKey said:

He was a super big deal back in 1.0. Coordinate at the highest initiative can be really dangerous. I haven’t seen him in 2.0 because he’s a rather expensive support piece. We might see him come down eventually, but like some other meta monsters from the First Edition, they started Rebel Rau on the high end in hopes to avoid mistakes of the past.

It boils down to the fact that he's as expensive naked in second edition as he was equipped with Flight Assist Astromech and Hotshot Copilot in first. If he came down by four or six points, I think we might actually see him hit the table.

18 hours ago, Flyingbrick said:

I am glad this came up. I was looking at ways at using him or even Ezra in a list but have yet to wrap my head around either as of yet.

Unpopular opinion: Zeb should be cheaper than AP-5, and Ezra shouldn't be much more. Fenn should be around 48

You put Swarm Tactics on him and you can have any ship at R1 act like an ace.

3 hours ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Unpopular opinion: Zeb should be cheaper than AP-5, and Ezra shouldn't be much more. Fenn should be around 48

I don't think I've ever seen a single Zeb hit the table, ever. He has three pilots and a crew card? All probably overpriced.

The other thing with 1e/2e differences and Fenn Rau: Rebels don't have other tools to mess with opponent's dice. Fenn Rau, while sometimes decent on his own against like Harpoon Missiles and other highly modified attack dice, the times when Fenn Rau was really good when you had multiple ways to make your opponent's dice worse. The best tool to combo with Fenn Rau was Sensor Jammer (to turn a hit to an eye), and I had some solid games with M9-G8 to reroll one of my opponent's hits (only a 50/50 chance, but it opened up squad building).

In 2e, M9-G8 is now Resistance, and Sensor Jammer is gone. There's nothing to stack with his ability, and it suffers because of it. He's probably still decent against Torpedoes (preventing a Focus/Lock Redline from spending tokens can be nasty), but he's kind of niche.

//

As to price, Init 6 Coordinate and being a much-hated pilot in late 1e, it was probably wise to price him high, but he can probably be cut down some.

7 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Rebels don't have other tools to mess with opponent's dice.

There's Kanan (pilot) and Magva (pilot). But it wouldn't be very interesting...

Just now, h0racio said:

There's Kanan (pilot) and Magva (pilot). But it wouldn't be very interesting...

I guess Kanan does stack, but Magva doesn't really. Can't really put the kibosh on your opponent's hits anymore.

Agreed.

So yes it's all about the I6 coordinate. Which sounds good but really expensive on that chassis.

7 hours ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Unpopular opinion: Zeb should be cheaper than AP-5, and Ezra shouldn't be much more. Fenn should be around 48

I find this perfectly acceptable. I think FFG should recognize more often that some lower initiative pilots are better than their higher initiative counterparts and price accordingly. Ezra is much weaker without R3-A2 handing out stress, and Fenn is less useful now that Engine Upgrade can't be slapped on any ship to addboost, making I6 coordinate for reposition less prevalent.

3 hours ago, Okapi said:

I don't think I've ever seen a single Zeb hit the table, ever. He has three pilots and a crew card? All probably overpriced.

Toronto Systems Open (source of the "Toronto roll" ruling was in the semifinals), final table. Was used as the squad's Leia carrier. Guy flying it misdialed on of his B-Wings turn 2 and the Marshal blocked him from switching the direction despite his opponent's permission to do so iirc.

17 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Was used as the squad's Leia carrier.

Attack Shuttle, I assume? Rebels' cheapest 3-primary is almost okay. Sheathipede is very very meh, especially without the actions-while-stressed ability of AP-5 that comes cheaper .

11 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Attack Shuttle, I assume? Rebels' cheapest 3-primary is almost okay. Sheathipede is very very meh, especially without the actions-while-stressed ability of AP-5 that comes cheaper .

No, Sheathipede. Attack shuttle can't coordinate.