It seems like the allies' ability to redirect damage would make Stealth Device a good investment, e.g. on Howlrunner, Serissu, Soontir, Wedge, etc. If the wing leader evades/focuses and their buddies are absorbing shots, stealth device should last a while, thus shedding the average expected number of hits/crits your allies have to absorb by a little bit. Though with so many shots coming in, eventually a damage will force its way through. Or foes can focus on the wingmates instead, which they'll be inclined to do so anyway unless they desperately need to remove a force multiplier like Howlrunner or Serissu.

Would this be a worthwhile investment, or is it kinda just doomed to not matter much?

I think it’s worth while. Problem though is a lot of epic games never last long enough to matter into the late game. Either cuz time or players get bored of playing it out.

In my experience people don’t even bother shooting at the wing leader until the wingmates are down. The odds of hitting Howlrunner (for example) with a focus token, 3 green dice, and 2 cancelled results are abysmally low.

The other problem is that you'll often use your wing leader to reposition, meaning they will lack a green defensive token. Some pilots are able to both move and get a defensive token like Soontir Fel.

But the ones that will probably do alright without a token because they have enough green dice to compensate are also the ones for whom Stealth Device costs the most. *Shrug* I think it's worth trying a few times, but I always seem to find better uses for my points than Stealth Device on a wing leader.

On 4/7/2020 at 2:42 PM, Herowannabe said:

In my experience people don’t even bother shooting at the wing leader until the wingmates are down. The odds of hitting Howlrunner (for example) with a focus token, 3 green dice, and 2 cancelled results are abysmally low.

My experience flying Soontir Fel with 2 wingmates vs a CR90 and one Y-Wing's primary attack was that all 13 green dice would be blank, whilst their un-modded dice would be 100% hits or crits and Soontir departed his virtual existence after shooting once and receiving 3 attacks back!

The following game, I kept Soontir docked to the Gozanti until a bit later - which meant he never formed up in his wing but was much more effective.

1 hour ago, Gilarius said:

The following game, I kept Soontir docked to the Gozanti until a bit later - which meant he never formed up in his wing but was much more effective.

Minor point: "Ships that are part of a wing cannot be docked or placed in reserve unless a specific scenario dictates it." (Epic Rules Reference, p5 under "Placing Wings During Setup")

But keeping Soontir docked until the herd has been thinned is a great tactic generally.

1 hour ago, Gilarius said:

The following game, I kept Soontir docked to the Gozanti until a bit later - which meant he never formed up in his wing but was much more effective.

Minor point: "Ships that are part of a wing cannot be docked or placed in reserve unless a specific scenario dictates it." (Epic Rules Reference, p5 under "Placing Wings During Setup")

But keeping Soontir docked until the herd has been thinned is a great tactic generally.

45 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

But keeping Soontir docked until the herd has been thinned is a great tactic generally.

Probably just keeping any priority target docked is a good idea unless they have to be in a wing, considering some stray fire from a turbolaser or an extra torp can pretty much take most threats that the Empire has off the board.

21 minutes ago, Npmartian said:

Probably just keeping any priority target docked is a good idea unless they have to be in a wing, considering some stray fire from a turbolaser or an extra torp can pretty much take most threats that the Empire has off the board.

It's true. But my style is more in the vein of launching generics in the system phase to royally mess up my opponent's flight path. I like having Soontir out and about to draw fire and be an annoyance since the guy is viewed as a threat, but doesn't hit any harder than a generic TIE interceptor.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

Minor point: "Ships that are part of a wing cannot be docked or placed in reserve unless a specific scenario dictates it." (Epic Rules Reference, p5 under "Placing Wings During Setup")

But keeping Soontir docked until the herd has been thinned is a great tactic generally.

But they aren't a wing until you declare they are - on deployment or later. Just having a wing leader card doesn't make him part of a wing until he gets a wingmate or two. Or, at least, that's how the TO ruled it after I asked!

On 4/8/2020 at 1:10 PM, Gilarius said:

But they aren't a wing until you declare they are - on deployment or later. Just having a wing leader card doesn't make him part of a wing until he gets a wingmate or two. Or, at least, that's how the TO ruled it after I asked!

Eeehh....well....I can see the argument, but I don't think it holds up.

Quote

Squad Building
A player can select a wing leader and form a wing by equipping specific upgrade cards. These upgrade cards nominate a small ship as a wing leader, contain parameters for choosing that wing leader’s wingmates, and provide the wing with an ability to use during the game.

Placing Wings during Setup
During the Place Forces step of setup, the entire wing is placed immediately after the wing leader is placed at their initiative. Ships that are part of a wing cannot be docked or placed in reserve unless a specific scenario dictates it.

Okay, so the key areas in these rules are

1. "A player can select a wing leader and form a wing" tells me that you don't have the option of forming the wing or not. By equipping a wing leader card, you already are giving him wingmates, and your even assigning them specific positions in the wing as well.
2. "During the Place Forces step of setup, the entire wing is placed immediately after the wing leader is placed at their initiative " (emphasis mine). Notice it doesn't use the word "may" anywhere in there. When you choose a wing leader, he/she has to set up with his/her wingmates on the field.
3. I'm sure future upgrades will explore design space around setting up a wing that is already split, but it will likely be part of a scenario rather than general rules.