1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Block. Jedi are maneuverable as heck but with their real punch dependent on bullseye arc shots, blocking someone is a big deal - especially if wanting to use the lower initiative jedi pilots.

Generics are as cheap as a TIE/ln, but with 5 hull they're tougher - yes, only 2 agility but they don't really care if they lack tokens, as virtually nothing in the game can one-shot them, and as long as they're taking two shots or more to kill, they're 'tough' by swarm standards . In addition, they have an awful dial but do have barrel roll/link/evade, which is great for a ship whose main job is to get in the bloody way all the time.

The fact they depend on hull, not green dice, means strain is less of an issue, so they're also a nice expendable Dedicated carrier to keep something more important (i.e. Jedi) alive.

...

Especially in games where Homing Missiles are an option. The ability to cycle the target lock makes the usual response of 'just take one damage and live with it' much less appealing.

Never thought about Homing Missiles on Torrents, but that sounds pretty sweet!

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

It's game-mode specific, but I can heartily recommend Lil' Anakin in Aces High games. Nothing else which fits into the Lightweight (50 points) bracket is anything like as tough - give him Elusive and an astromech or system upgrade to taste, and use Focus/Force/Evade/Reroll to laugh mockingly at anyone trying to actually hurt him, given that most of your opposition has probably got a primary-2 main weapon.

Not only for aces high, but I actually like him more than Ric now. I started using Ric because that third green die seemed too sweet, but being restricted to high speed moves hurts the N1 (way more than the defender). Ani, on the other hand, is cheaper, always has a free mod, can shoot double modified torpedoes, can start the turn behind a rock and avoid it and if you go crazy and get advanced sensors, daredevil and r4p astromech it becomes a crazy impredictable ace for lower init ships (too expensive, but it's so fun to double barrel roll before moving...) 😃

1 hour ago, xanatos135 said:

Not only for aces high, but I actually like him more than Ric now. I started using Ric because that third green die seemed too sweet, but being restricted to high speed moves hurts the N1 (way more than the defender). Ani, on the other hand, is cheaper, always has a free mod, can shoot double modified torpedoes, can start the turn behind a rock and avoid it and if you go crazy and get advanced sensors, daredevil and r4p astromech it becomes a crazy impredictable ace for lower init ships (too expensive, but it's so fun to double barrel roll before moving...)

Little Ani is going to get a power up with Eta-2 Obi tossing focus to him, making those double mod torpedoes even more potent.

On 10/23/2020 at 9:07 PM, theBitterFig said:

It's possible that, like the E-Wing, FFG has been too conservative with the LAAT. Remains to be seen, since they're so new. But I think it's good that FFG took their time lowing the E-Wing price, and now they're finally OK. Deceptively nice little ships--thisclose to being large tournament viable. Caution with the LAAT (again, free "Locks") is probably good, but if the price drops because they're less effective than anticipated? So be it.

I think the problem with E-wings is now less their price point and more that some lists are just too 'unfair' personally.

It is just hard to justify nifty little play around powers that define your list, like the LAAT's fire support or the E-wings ability to open up double modded and to fly as a hybrid jouster-ace, when you just can crush people under sheer efficiency. 'In between' ships that aren't either a swarm of overstatted things or are a small dense list with extremely well stated aces supported by passive mods aren't going to do well because they are too 'fair.' They are super strong ships that have a lot of play around potential and there are too many strong ships that don't have play around potential that you can use to deny your opponent an opening to outplay you, or at least as large an opening. A big goal in X-wing listbuilding is to do as much as you can to ensure you don't bleed MOV and deny interaction unless you are overwhelmingly favored, which is a bit too easy to do at the moment.

I suspect a lot of cool designs are going to hit up against this and we are going to see more and more ships that are just too broadly powerful nerfed more than these ships buffed. Delta-7s (Which, arguably, are just a really bad design that hampered the faction a lot because any time they were remotely useable they got nerfed for being NPE despite not even being that good) being replaced by the more skill testing Eta, for example.

The LAAT is clearly a very good ship, and it has had some modest success. Its now just the meta is way too predatory for the type of ship it is, unless its price point drops to a silly degree.

The LAATs are clearly priced for the upcoming V-Wing and Eta 2.

2 Dedicated SSV ARCs and Warthog leaves 56 points to play with. Unless FFG does something braindead stupid with the pricing (which, they might), that most likely leaves room for Anakin in the Eta.