Matt Cary continues his review of the last points change with his thoughts on the Imperial Faction. Check it out here and let us know what you think.

I'd disagree a bit on the TIE Aggressor. I think we're learning how good simply being an efficient ship with a Dorsal Turret is. TIE/rb is going to step on those toes a bit when that's out, so maybe not fully unique in Empire, but simply being a turret ship seems to go a long way.

Might not matter, since this is mosquito season, but still.

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The counter to that: while the generics are solid, named Aggressor jank is sorely lacking. I guess I could get behind some sort of expensive kinda weak but maybe janky fun Missile-Turret.

Overall, better for the plain basic use of Aggressors to be alright and the jank to be extra bad. When the jank is OK-to-good, but the ship is bad, that's usually a pretty rotten feeling.

Janky missile turret? Janky missile turret.

XV-8 Experimental Missile Pods

3 dice, range 1-2, mobile arc, missile+turret slot, 3(2?) charges

Requires lock to fire, or focus if inside front arc. Adds rotate->red reload (or vice versa).

props to anyone who can find the very vague 40k reference

I could probably live with "Focus to fire in arc" on a range 1-2, 3 dice missile, if it had the Ordnance icon. Only really helps at Range 2.

Linked Reload and Rotate is sweet, since it'd be a purely set-up action. Can't do anything with it this turn. Heck, I'd be tempted to make it a Rotate -> White Reload.

Just now, theBitterFig said:

I could probably live with "Focus to fire in arc" on a range 1-2, 3 dice missile, if it had the Ordnance icon. Only really helps at Range 2.

Linked Reload and Rotate is sweet, since it'd be a purely set-up action. Can't do anything with it this turn. Heck, I'd be tempted to make it a Rotate -> White Reload.

Yeah, white could be fine too: aggressors need all the help they can get. I was just being cautious. That being said, what if the big gimmick was no ordnance icon? How much would it have to change? Maybe take off either A. the linked action or B. the focus in arc but if it's basically a turret, then that could be the big difference to other "missiles." A straight 3 die turret that gets range 1 bonus but needs a lock and is basically exclusive to 1 (pretty crappy) ship? I'd probably take it.

4 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

I'd disagree a bit on the TIE Aggressor. I think we're learning how good simply being an efficient ship with a Dorsal Turret is.

Yeah, this was written before that Aggressor list went to cut at Dathomir, so I'll eat a little crow on that. I do think Sloane plays a huge part of Aggressors working though. (All of the points change articles were written last month, and my warnings about mosquito season in the CIS article are going to seem a little late). I'm stealing mosquito season, btw. Very clever.

I'm digging the missile turret commentary here. White reload is fine, but red would likely be fine as well since, orbiting with the turret would be fine with the Aggressor's blues. But giving the ship as many advantages as it can is fine, as well.

I am a bit lerry on the sentiment that Sloane needs to go up by a point.

She is strong, but she serves as a great way to make what is an iconic Empire gimmick of 'Bossy ship getting value from swarms' work. Wide crew abilities are a great spot to put a little extra 'oomf' into a faction because it allows the faction to be 'flavored' by them regardless of what ships are good, and Empire has a diverse set of options even with Sloane at their current price, and even within that archetype! Having good wide abilities allows a faction to maintain a generic archetype's unique aspects across different lists, and the main problem with other wide abilities is they were very far off cost. Having a wide crew that helps define archetypes being '1 point better' than it 'should' be is a great way to keep say... Imperial swarms feeling different than Sep swarms or FO swarms.

Not to mention Sloane isn't even that high up in terms of power level. They are in the top 50% on metawing but month to month they are ranging from rank 30 to rank 50. A big 'problem' with X-wing is the disparity between 'meta' and 'off meta' lists is REALLY huge. Despite Sloane being pretty clearly good and Sloane swarms offering a lot, the big bullies of a given meta keep on giving lists like it that are juuuuust not unfair enough black eyes.

My justification on Sloane is the upcharge on Howlrunner, Serissu, and Leia. Sloane was good at her original cost of 10 points back in the day, so the drop to 9 was a curious change anyway. Going back up to 10 should be fine. Especially since I recommended dropping all of the named Reaper by 1.

32 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

My justification on Sloane is the upcharge on Howlrunner, Serissu, and Leia.

Right, but those existed in a different context entirely than Sloane. Just because similar options go up doesn't mean Sloane is unhealthy or needs any adjustment. Just mirroring a nerf on a type of thing doesn't make sense when Sloane is arguably under-preforming, not over-preforming.

That is like saying that we should buff the Fang because the T-65 was buffed, as they are similar classes of ships: That is super obviously untrue, because the Fang is doing super well, while the T-65 isn't. Or its like saying the nerf to crackshot means we should nerf marksman too. It is a weird justification that doesn't make a ton of sense: People didn't like 3 point Leia because it enabled one of the best brawler platforms to ignore all of its weaknesses. They didn't like Howlrunner because it allowed pretty unconditional extra damage out of an already high damage list. Sloane doesn't 'fit' with the pattern of wide nerfs, and I don't think FFG just said 'we don't want any wide stuff to be good' and just 'forgot' Sloane.

32 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

Especially since I recommended dropping all of the named Reaper by 1.

Right, but moving power from Sloane to the chasis that carries her is the opposite of how faction identity should be expressed, because it makes it easier for the aspect of the list that makes Empire unique (Stress-control swarms) easier to 'lose.'

Sloane's meta impact is currently high, but her list's overall impact is low. This means it would be very easy for Sloane to just fall off if power was moved off of her but not out of her list, and some other crew just totally replaces her as the better option. She really doesn't need to be touched right now for the sake of touching her.

11 minutes ago, dezzmont said:

Just because similar options go up doesn't mean Sloane is unhealthy. Just mirroring a nerf on a type of thing doesn't make sense when Sloane is arguably under-preforming, not over-preforming.

But neither Howlrunner nor Serissu were over-performing either. We have, however, seen in recent weeks that Sloane has been performing pretty dang well. 4 made cut in Galaxies so far, where only 1 Serissu did, 0 Howlrunners did, and only 2 Leia Crew did.

11 minutes ago, dezzmont said:

Right, but moving power from Sloane to the chasis that carries her is the opposite of how faction identity should be expressed

Moving power to the chassis is because the chassis sucks, not because of Sloane. They just happen to balance each other nicely.

4 hours ago, 5050Saint said:

I'm digging the missile turret commentary here. White reload is fine, but red would likely be fine as well since, orbiting with the turret would be fine with the Aggressor's blues. But giving the ship as many advantages as it can is fine, as well.

Rotate/Reload is kind of a special case, IMHO. Like, I'm glad the Reload > Calc on the upcoming HMP is red, since that Calc still can be used. If it's Rotate? Well, all you've done is set up for next turn.

4 hours ago, Npmartian said:

Yeah, white could be fine too: aggressors need all the help they can get. I was just being cautious. That being said, what if the big gimmick was no ordnance icon? How much would it have to change? Maybe take off either A. the linked action or B. the focus in arc but if it's basically a turret, then that could be the big difference to other "missiles." A straight 3 die turret that gets range 1 bonus but needs a lock and is basically exclusive to 1 (pretty crappy) ship? I'd probably take it.

I guess I'm just a bit more nervous 4 dice attacks than reloads. Missile is safer since Cavil can't go up to 5, but that's just my opinion.

1 hour ago, 5050Saint said:

Sloane was good at her original cost of 10 points back in the day, so the drop to 9 was a curious change anyway.

it was kinda odd how long it took folks to get into Sloane lists, really figure them out.

Well, now that I put it like that, not really... Generics kept going down and down, and often the Sloane carriers, too. I bet a good number of Sloane lists, as they exist now, would be incredibly expensive in release prices.

*e*

• Scarif Base Pilot 41 + Admiral Sloane 10
• Alpha Interceptor 34
• Alpha Interceptor 34
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
  • Total: 211

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau 88 + (1 Ruthless, 14 Vader, 10 Sloane, 4 Novice Technician, 6 Dauntless, 2 Hull)
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
• Academy Pilot 23
  • Total: 217

• Captain Feroph 47 + Ruthless 1 + Hull 3 + Sloane 10
• Sienar Specialist 30 + Dorsal Turret 4
• Sienar Specialist 30 + Dorsal Turret 4
• Sienar Specialist 30 + Dorsal Turret 4
• Sienar Specialist 30 + Dorsal Turret 4
• Sienar Specialist 30 + Dorsal Turret 4
  • Total: 231

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau 88 + (3 Swarm Tactics, 6 Death Troopers, 10 Sloane, 10 Agile Gunner, 6 Dauntless, 3 Hull)
• Alpha Interceptor 34
• Alpha Interceptor 34
• Alpha Interceptor 34
  • Total: 228