11 hours ago, KCDodger said:

Please don't act like the RZ2 is better than the TIE/SF- it's just not.

That's crazy talk. The Resistance A-wing is one of the best ships in the game, and every pilot (named or generic) is a good, strong choice. The TIE/sf is decent, but honestly has only mass generics see good game time.

12 hours ago, FriendofYoda said:

Earl Grey?? Who hurt you..? (Yorkshire Gold is the only acceptable choice surely?!)

Well, we have her the proper response 'eh? The grand thing about most beverages is the host of differing flavors that make favorites unique. If you like a malty black tea, then a selection grown in higher elevations in the dark continent is a grand selection.

But, there is nothing wrong with flavoring your tea with the squeezing of the bergamot orange, it a flavor that can remove that consistent flavor of lime in the tap, if you have such a thing.

...is this a tea forum? Heaven's no, but I'll go get mine and stop the typing on such topics.

Carry on.

7 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

That's crazy talk. The Resistance A-wing is one of the best ships in the game, and every pilot (named or generic) is a good, strong choice. The TIE/sf is decent, but honestly has only mass generics see good game time.

Though I cannot argue against your overall point, Quickdraw would like to have a word.

4 hours ago, 5050Saint said:

That's crazy talk. The Resistance A-wing is one of the best ships in the game, and every pilot (named or generic) is a good, strong choice. The TIE/sf is decent, but honestly has only mass generics see good game time.

Hey it's no secret I'm a little crazy and I do appreciate the RZ2, but for a comparable price the TIE/SF- while it does not have a boost, has much more durability and never has to gain stress to fire backwards. That to me is superior versatility. Not to mention, Quickdraw, Backdraft, and Phasma are all very good pilots in their own right.

5 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

First Order really feels like the best-designed faction to me.

• TIE/fo are solid filler/swarmer, one of the best. They can work cheap, they can take a few upgrades, the aces are really interesting (but not OP).
• TIE/sf is, in my opinion, the best-designed ship in the game. Two distinct feels with and without gunner, and the kind of ship where, while the choices aren't costly, you still have to make them.
  • Sorry @KCDodger I kinda will say the RZ-2 is better. It's certainly shown itself to be more effective. I love the basic SF. It's a really straightforward ship to play, and a great one for making you think about how to use your dial. But without a Boost, there's kind of a ceiling to it. The things that dedicated 5A players can do with the RZ-2 are rather impressive.
• TIE/vn is sweet. I love my chonky interceptor. It just moves so well and can take. And FFG made a really wise design decision to keep their best aces at Init 5.
  • There's something much nicer in the design of a faction where the wicked strong ship with the force-using ace is Init 5, but the Init 6 ships are somewhat niche and have weaknesses.
• TIE/ba has some cool mechanics. It's strange as a ship which can double reposition or double-mod 3 red dice without stress, but doing those things opens up vulnerabilities.
• Upsilon... well... OK so this one might be a little flawed. Kind of too expensive to be a proper support ship/crew carrier, it also required the only emergency points fix to date in X-Wing.
• But the Xi shuttle is coming down the pike, and that seems like it'll fill in the gaps left by the Upsilon.

All good points.

I won't deny that some things keep The First Order from greatness / outright rulign the scene... but, they're just... so well designed.

20 hours ago, KCDodger said:

Hey it's no secret I'm a little crazy and I do appreciate the RZ2, but for a comparable price the TIE/SF- while it does not have a boost, has much more durability and never has to gain stress to fire backwards. That to me is superior versatility. Not to mention, Quickdraw, Backdraft, and Phasma are all very good pilots in their own right.

I'd rank QD and Backdraft pilots as decent, but less cost effective than the generics. LeHuse and Phasma I have yet to fly or fly against as they are not yet out, so I cannot truly judge. While the Sf is more durable, the RZ2 is less likely to take any damage. Also, the RZ2 having to get stressed to rotate is barely a downside since it has one of the blue-est dials in the game (10 blue maneuvers out 17 total). I don't want you thinking that I disagree that the SFs are good; they are. 5 mini-Firesprays in a list is great, it's just the comparison to the A-wing I disagree with.

6 hours ago, 5050Saint said:

I'd rank QD and Backdraft pilots as decent, but less cost effective than the generics. LeHuse and Phasma I have yet to fly or fly against as they are not yet out, so I cannot truly judge. While the Sf is more durable, the RZ2 is less likely to take any damage. Also, the RZ2 having to get stressed to rotate is barely a downside since it has one of the blue-est dials in the game (10 blue maneuvers out 17 total). I don't want you thinking that I disagree that the SFs are good; they are. 5 mini-Firesprays in a list is great, it's just the comparison to the A-wing I disagree with.

I did kinda' forget the SF doesn't have three greens...

Back to the original topic I agree that strain should be a core mechanic like stress, but I don't think it should replace stress and I definitely don't think it should be an optimization choice where you can default choose between strain/deplete.

As soon as Strain tokens became a thing I started talking about integrating it into existing parts of the game for fluff reasons because i feel like strain could have represented stress on the chassis while a Stress token represent stress on the pilot. It's more of a 3.0 type suggestion though as I would think many cards would need to be changed and all stress mechanics rewritten in the base rules.

Within the existing framework of 2e though, I wouldn't mind if they just added strain as an additional effect of red maneuvers. That would make it so highly stress effective builds still have something to consider, but at the potential cost of scaring every other ship out of ever performing a red maneuver again... 😕

On 1/26/2020 at 1:37 PM, clanofwolves said:

Best application for Earl Grey:

When backpacking, place two Earl Gray bags and a stevia pack in a Sigg bottle in the AM. By afternoon, when you hit your mileage mark and make camp, it’ll be dead-on.

First Order: marginally the coolest ship designs that add a dark splash of power to the already fantastic Imperial designs. However, to date they have been a bit shy of having the best game winning tools. Now? We’ll see.

Cries in caffeine intolerance, clenches FO-loving fist in fanatical zeal.

Mandatory

On 1/26/2020 at 10:39 AM, JJ48 said:

Would you choose which during your activation? Because if so, then I6 just gets even more powerful.

Somehow this comment has been completely ignored so far but it hits the nail exactly on the head. We don't need even MORE reasons to take I6.

1 hour ago, StriderZessei said:

Cries in caffeine intolerance, clenches FO-loving fist in fanatical zeal.

Mandatory

...'caffeine intolerance' is quite a terrifying thought.

Quite.

I don't like strain, I really don't like the idea of deplete. We now have 3 different kinds of "stress" tokens, and I feel they don't add so much to the game for the added complications, and added token glut.