Resistance Aces Pack (Speculation)

By Cgriffith, in X-Wing

On 3/26/2020 at 10:27 PM, KiraYamatoSF said:

I personally think it's gonna be a 2.0 version of the Heroes of the Resistance pack from 1.0. With them mentioning how Aces packs have unique paint schemes, they mentioned X-Wings in particular, and how it's a chance to bring in old pilots with new abilities to show their growth, its likely gonna be Poe's orange X-wing with the Falcon.

Would also bring in the Falcon to buy in 2nd edition format for Resistance and get things such as Lando Pilot and Wedge Gunner.

So are we likely to see another version of Poe in a T-70.

Personally I'd like to see his 1.0 ability back.

But hey I'll take an Orange One title that helps mitigate his stress.

Like - In the end phase you may remove one red token.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread for talking about the new Heralds of hope pack.

Underslung Blaster cannons - How useful do you'll think they'll be? Points costs?

Overdrive thrusters - Again they seem powerful. Giving T-70's great repositioning power? What are your thoughts?

Do you like Poe and Temmin's new abilities?

What else do you thinks in the pack?

They've hinted at an X-wing only upgrade?

They hinted at another upgrade that will deal with S-foil positions?

On which note I also want to speculate on Resistance R2-D2 astromech. He was flying with Poe in the Battle of Exegol, so one would assume he will be featured in this pack.

Republic R2-D2 was featured and was pretty powerful. What could we expect for the resistance upgrade.

I was pondering this last night and wondering if this was the oppertunity to bring back R5-P9 in another fashion?

However what made that card strong was on someone like Poe with his V1 ability. So I thought what if it was both just tuned down a bit. The state of the s-foils came back to my mind and I came up with this?

While your S-foils are in the closed position, when attacking or defending, if you have a focus token, you may change 1 of your focus results to a hit or evade result.

At the end of the Engaement phase, you may flip one charge. If you do you may spend 1 of your focus tokens to recover 1 shield (up to your shield value). Then gain a deplete token.

2 Charges. 10-12 points.

It's way of bringing Poe's old ability back, which I'm a fan of, but not without sacrificing some firepower. Good flying means you can get the bullseye in then your golden.

Also pairs well with the new Temmin pilot. You could find yourself in a bad situation and want to close the foils at engagment.

Thematically for R2-D2, at this point the old driod is a veteran co-pilot, he can actively boost your output and maintain your shielding, so feels good for him.

What do you think is this OP? Could we expect to see something close to this for the new R2?

Edited by Tyhar7
On 8/2/2020 at 1:25 AM, Tyhar7 said:

Thought I'd resurrect this thread for talking about the new Heralds of hope pack.

Underslung Blaster cannons - How useful do you'll think they'll be? Points costs?

Overdrive thrusters - Again they seem powerful. Giving T-70's great repositioning power? What are your thoughts?

Do you like Poe and Temmin's new abilities?

What else do you thinks in the pack?

They've hinted at an X-wing only upgrade?

They hinted at another upgrade that will deal with S-foil positions?

Double taps are powerful, but the criteria for firing this cannon are very onerous already, so I'm hoping that's priced in. Maybe 2 points? I'm on the fence for viability with this upgrade. Although it could be really useful, it also seems like something you would need to build around to make effective......... if you're sinking more points into an X-Wing to make a 2 die shot happen, maybe you're better off stripping upgrades and trying to fit in an A-Wing?

Overdrive Thrusters can be powerful, but also somewhat niche? I don't see this really being used on anyone other than Old Poe, unless it's built specifically around New Poe squads. Hoping for 3 points or less on this.

I think New Poe is good design and a welcome addition, but less spicy than historical Resistance abilities. Doesn't make it bad, just more Rebels-y and slightly less exciting. Temmin seems fun running with 3 other T-70's and coming in hot. I'm pretty amped to give him a shot.

I'm really hoping we get another tech option. I think I saw that on the spread, and I hope it's something that can really push the Resistance chassis in a fun, new direction. PA is good utility, and Optics is great on A-wings, but I'd like a new tech that does more than just add to raw efficiency.

I'd love to see another s-foil configuration. Having 2 different configurations to choose from would really help the T-70 to continue to be customized the way you want. I can't remember if they mentioned this was happening, or if they just had upgrades that interact with s-foil positionings. In either case, something that encourages decision-making on s-foil positioning can only be good.

Lastly, I'm a big fan of Starbird Slash. I think that will be fun to add to A-Wings that are used to fill in a squad, and give them more value-add in something like XXAA.

3 hours ago, Spicystu said:

Overdrive Thrusters can be powerful, but also somewhat niche? I don't see this really being used on anyone other than Old Poe, unless it's built specifically around New Poe squads. Hoping for 3 points or less on this.

I share your concerns about the USB cannon, but its also another firing arc during engage phase, at worse you could point it out the back and treat the T-70's as an arc-170. Feels like Bastian can take advantage of this, that with target synchronizer. Plus we have 2 more T-70's that might help with locks.

Curious, you don't see Overdrive Thrusters to be good on any of the other T-70's? With the S-foils closed they all have access to a Focus > Red BR. That seems quite good especially with New Temmin?

The pack contains 3 new astromechs any thoughts on those?

Frankly I'm hoping for an Astro that gives us access to calculates to utilise c3PO.

11 minutes ago, Tyhar7 said:

I share your concerns about the USB cannon, but its also another firing arc during engage phase, at worse you could point it out the back and treat the T-70's as an arc-170. Feels like Bastian can take advantage of this, that with target synchronizer. Plus we have 2 more T-70's that might help with locks.

Curious, you don't see Overdrive Thrusters to be good on any of the other T-70's? With the S-foils closed they all have access to a Focus > Red BR. That seems quite good especially with New Temmin?

The pack contains 3 new astromechs any thoughts on those?

Frankly I'm hoping for an Astro that gives us access to calculates to utilise c3PO.

Good point about the cannon, that does add a bit of utility; that might push the points a bit higher. Agreed on Bastian, he seems like an obvious candidate. Targeting Synchronizer would work well with him. Hopefully there are some good synergies with the new T-70 pilots, because outside of Poe/Jess, I don't think the other pilots offer enough action economy to justify 2 shots, with only one of them realistically being modded. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I fear this cannon will be just like every other cannon in the game, where they offer a decent effect but poor value given the current pricing. I'd hate to see these be dead on arrival due all the firing restrictions and an overweight price.

I hadn't thought about combining it with New Temmin. That's an interesting combo. Being able to REALLY barrel roll could get a ship into unique positions, but I think it lacks the flexibility of putting it on Old Poe (since he can boost). New Poe could really help with other ships' boosting, but that might just be overly complicated for a low payoff. I'm not sure how to assess it's power level tbh, so I'll just have to see how it behaves on the table!

I'd love to see some new astros that aren't of fringe-case use. I like the design of the unique Resistance astros, but they feel overcosted or niche, so right now I only ever use generic BB's, R3, or R4. Something new that competes with R4 for Poe, or adds utility to other strong pilots (Nien, Bastian, etc) would be great to see. I'm excited to see what they can do.

Agreed on a calculate-add astro. I really like running C-3PO (usually on Rose), but I really only use it for a coordinate option on the pod, with the bonus of better action economy. Being able to take advantage of the super-coordinate would be cool. I've tried making it work with PZ-4CO on the Falcon, and investing another 6 points for infinite range isn't worth it imo.

Someone also pointed out that Vinnie would benefit from some T-70s with the Underslung Blaster Cannon as it's another turret arc for his ability to work with.

9 hours ago, Ebak said:

Someone also pointed out that Vinnie would benefit from some T-70s with the Underslung Blaster Cannon as it's another turret arc for his ability to work with.

It's a good point but I'm personally reluctant to put any Starfortresses on the table at the momement, even Vennie. They're still over costed in my mind, and become a point spung to get efficient. FFG are afraid of putting them under 50 points and having 4 on the table. Which seems senseless, 3 with VTG and bombs are more effective than 4 naked. Plus they are comparable to the K-wing which has a better dial and SLAM to boot.

Sure the Starfortress has 3 forward arc and 3 more hull but is that worth the gap of 13 points difference between the K-wings I2 and its I1? I don't think so, and let's remember they aren't exactly destroying the meta themselves.

Edited by Tyhar7
11 hours ago, Spicystu said:

I hadn't thought about combining it with New Temmin. That's an interesting combo. Being able to REALLY barrel roll could get a ship into unique positions, but I think it lacks the flexibility of putting it on Old Poe (since he can boost). New Poe could really help with other ships' boosting, but that might just be overly complicated for a low payoff. I'm not sure how to assess it's power level tbh, so I'll just have to see how it behaves on the table!

I think having Overdrive Thrusters on Nien is going to be quite interesting for his repositioning shenanigans. Still the limited ways to apply the boost could be an intentional design choice, they simply want to give the other pilots some enhanced BR repositioning options but only Poe can really take full advantage of all of it. Which again hopefully keeps the points down on this upgrade. I'm guessing somewhere is the 4-6 points region. Though it might be costed by initiative.

As for the USB cannon coming in DOA. This has to be priced competitively against the other cannons. It has such a limited window to trigger but the extra arc does add consideration. The other other snap shot abilities are priced quite high but this again is far more restricted than those. The main cannon I even consider putting on T-70's at the moment is auto-blasters and even then at 3 points it a tough call. However this cannon only works on the T-70 so balancing on the wider meta isn't an issue. Maybe they will come in low this time and let us have fun with it? 2 points maybe and see if its busted?

Edited by Tyhar7

Since I haven't seen anyone say it, there's four new pilots for the T70 and four for the RZ2. (source: there's 10/6 pilot cards total and 4/2 generics)

4 hours ago, svelok said:

Since I haven't seen anyone say it, there's four new pilots for the T70 and four for the RZ2. (source: there's 10/6 pilot cards total and 4/2 generics)

Yeah they stated in last week live stream. T-70's we have new Poe and Temmin, plus another I4 and I2.

As for the A-wing we have Merl Cobben I1 plus another I3, I4 and another I5.

Merl Cobben might be a interesting blocker, that ability with intimidation and starbird slash, could remove 3 agility dice from a target. That could really give any ace a bad day if you catch them right.

As for the I2 or I4 T-70's I'm hoping a least one of these is going to have some synergy ability like Dutch for getting locks.

Edited by Tyhar7