There are 6 pilot cards, 4 unique and another Red and Rookiee Pilot. The ship templates will likely either double up on the generics or be blank.

Umm WTF... 30 points for it to field, and with slicer tool, Jammer, and that other upgrade card, Imperials cant win. taking stress off of reb fighters, while all the while the possibility of damaging Imperial fighters that are stressed, and being able to stress them if they are in the 2-3 range.

Here, take this... Now breathe slowly into the bag. Calm down, that's it...

Whew. Okay. Let's take a look at this actual undefeatable combo:

1. Total cost for what you suggest is 41, 45 if you include the Shield Booster. That's equivalent to almost 4 TIEs.

2. That's 45 points with no offensive output

3. Jamming to do damage via Slicer Tools is going to be HORRIBLY inefficient - Action to Jam, action to Slicer, then action to Recover, for a maximum of 1 point of damage to one ship. You can only Jam one target per turn, and only do 1 damage per stressed target, so...

5. In 3 turns, Chewie (comparably cost Falcon) has the potential for 9-12 damage, has 1 more hit point (in shields, at that) and 1 more agility.

Slicer Tools is scary, but more for what it's going to restrict your opponent from doing. Self-stressing ships are going to have a big issue. I'm starting to think someone at FFG has a serious hate on for the Interceptor, because this thing will BURY PtL Interceptors, which many players consider the only viable way to field them.

I have no doubt it's going to be an interesting bit of board control, but it's a long way from an "Imperials might as well just blow up the Death Star themselves" piece.

Maybe that is why a couple of the intriguing pilots that are coming with Imperial Aces do not have EPTs. This is FFGs attempt to make interceptors viable *without* needing to rely on the PTL crutch.

Maybe that is why a couple of the intriguing pilots that are coming with Imperial Aces do not have EPTs. This is FFGs attempt to make interceptors viable *without* needing to rely on the PTL crutch.

That's why a lot of the response to Lorrir has been "Can't take PtL, he's trash". If releasing non-EPT interceptors is their plan to help them... <shrug>

Misread slicer... You can do 1 damage to a total of 4 ships. Not as bad but still a bad day for PTL interceptors.

There are 6 pilot cards, 4 unique and another Red and Rookiee Pilot. The ship templates will likely either double up on the generics or be blank.

Not necessarily. Both the HWK-290 and the shuttle have unique pilots paired on bases. I hope they don't do that with a $60 purchase for the fighter, but there's precedent for it.

So, I guess I'm the only person who has no interest in this blimp thing, but is looking forward to more X-wing pilots? I've never been a big fan cutesy scenarios like this Epic Play stuff (not much of a beer and pretzels player). As such, the prospect of paying $60 for an X-Wing is pretty brutal. I'll probably just have to do without.

Even if it's not a tournament format, I'm not sure Epic will qualify as a "cutesy scenario". It's going to be more ships to deal with, which will mean more options for synergistic and support ships, and the Transport itself introduces some doozies.

Yes, there will be the Cinematic scenarios, but those are a different thing. Epic itself is just a bigger competitive level, at least from what we've seen so far.

Could someone who understands from the image how the movement template works fill me in?

It looks to me like all the edges of the template are flat, I am not seeing how you determine the angle of the bank...

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the little notch on the end which gets you the angle

Ok guys and girls and aliens. All this talk about the balance and the waiting time for these ships is all in good fun. But lets be realistic here. I don't think FFG just throws out a ship that is OP. Everything they do has gone through lots and lots of testing and figuring out how to make this as even as possibly for gamers in the x-wing verse. And yes, my guess is they have been playing with ships not yet announced, like wave 4, 5 and big IMP ships and some Rebel Aces. Its all gonna be fine.. Except the waiting time! Its gonna take between 2-5 months until they are on the boat.

BRING IT

Sorry but I don´t get how that new maneuver template is going to work really?

There is no reference point how the transport flies a curve, so can you turn the ship as much as you like? The Bank 2 manuever shown makes no sense, do you rotate the template beneath the ship? If so that´s extremely impractical...

I think the "Slicer tool" is rather OP, TIEs get damage without being able to defend...? 2 Transports doing that action at the same time will kill any number of TIEs in range 1-3 and just because the TIEs have 1 stress?

We have played in our local group with a GR-75 (yes, same scale) and it´s so large that it hinders most movement, especially now if TIEs just die when touching its base.

Range 1 for that "Slicer tool" would have been more than enough especially since the tranport´s base is huge and thus the total area covered is already huge.

Besides that transports are armed... http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/GR-75_medium_transport

Even the toy Rebel Transport had guns...

All in all nice model but I am not (yet) convinced of the rules.

Hey, look, they updated the Upcoming page finally to include the Rebel Transport and Tantive IV.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp

Both are listed as in development and neither has an expected release date yet.

[edit] And they took the Starfield Tile Kit off completely, haha.

Starfield Tile Kit isn't there anymore, because it's status is now: "Buy now!"

See for yourself

Sorry but I don´t get how that new maneuver template is going to work really?

There is no reference point how the transport flies a curve, so can you turn the ship as much as you like? The Bank 2 manuever shown makes no sense, do you rotate the template beneath the ship? If so that´s extremely impractical...

I think the "Slicer tool" is rather OP, TIEs get damage without being able to defend...? 2 Transports doing that action at the same time will kill any number of TIEs in range 1-3 and just because the TIEs have 1 stress?

We have played in our local group with a GR-75 (yes, same scale) and it´s so large that it hinders most movement, especially now if TIEs just die when touching its base.

Range 1 for that "Slicer tool" would have been more than enough especially since the tranport´s base is huge and thus the total area covered is already huge.

Besides that transports are armed... http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/GR-75_medium_transport

Even the toy Rebel Transport had guns...

All in all nice model but I am not (yet) convinced of the rules.

the "standard" variant has "Armaments: None."

If you look closely there is a notch at the Tail End of the movement template which hooks to the base of the forward stand.

Slicer only Hits "Stressed" up to a maximum of Current Energy. this happens to be 4 on an unmodified transport.

It's similar to Vader(crew) but does not Crit. Also the wording on the card will probably be FAQed pretty quick. It's open to interpretation of:

"pick 1 stressed and dump energy; "X" Energy = "Y" Damage"

OR

"Pick "N" Stressed Ships within range-3 and apply 1 damage in exchange for 1 energy (Max: 1 Damage per Ship)"

the Former has the Nuke Potential of Vader IF you're stressed within range AND the transport has Energy.

the Latter isn't as painful since it's a damage spread AND still requires Energy and "Stressed in Range"

also note we don't know how spent energy is regenerated yet.

also note we don't know how spent energy is regenerated yet.

The movement dial implies that the 1 bank maneuver costs two energy. If that is correct you can expect to use several points of energy for basic ship functions every round. Therefore I guess that a full charge of four energy tokens is available every round.

The picture shows five energy tokens. There might be an upgrade which increases the available energy.

The thing I am most curious about is the red and green torps? in the center of the picture. They have firing arcs on them.

So how will they work?

Speculation #1 They can fire out of the side of the transport, and use their own arcs for targeting.

Speculation #2 They are slow moving projectiles, and move say..3 speed towards the closest enemy ship within their

own arc. i.e. homing missiles. How cool would that be? Would add a new element for sure.

Mmm... Anyone knows if the 'Energy' action replaces the 'attack' action for the transport?

I foresee some serious combos here....

With so much stress-hate abilites, Yorr is definitely being revalorized...

also note we don't know how spent energy is regenerated yet.

The movement dial implies that the 1 bank maneuver costs two energy. If that is correct you can expect to use several points of energy for basic ship functions every round. Therefore I guess that a full charge of four energy tokens is available every round.

The picture shows five energy tokens. There might be an upgrade which increases the available energy.

Or perhaps you regenerate energy by flying slowly. That would make sense if the slower maneuvers have more energy icons.

well, we imp players are getting the aces first. i have played with printed up cards and they friggin rock!!!!

being able to give the named pilots 2 ship upgrades along with a pilot skill is huge. tie interceptor with stealth, armor upgrade and PLT!!!!! especial the dude who can use a bank for for his barrel roll!!!!highly mannuverable and fast with good firepower.

then you have the action killer pilot. man that guy really hurts the rebs.

i think we will see different balances, the imps are not getting a big ship.......yet. but we have the aces and i think that is good enough for now.

As someone who loves big ships though, it's a bit of a shame that I'll be playing without them while my rebel playing friends hapilly get to field big ships.

What about the Corvette though? We know it's in design, and we know its coming. Will that mean the rebels get another big ship before the imperials? Or will the corvette be the first ship available for both sides?

Considering they are promoting it as the Tantive IV, I doubt it.

Considering they are promoting it as the Tantive IV, I doubt it.

Bleh, that's right. Forgot about that. Feels weird that that rebels are flying around with more heavy ships than the empire.

Bleh, that's right. Forgot about that. Feels weird that that rebels are flying around with more heavy ships than the empire.

This is apparently because the Emperor was overcompensating for some, um, deficiency, and kept build bigger ships than anyone else.

Starfield Tile Kit isn't there anymore, because it's status is now: "Buy now!"

See for yourself

Huh. Very interesting. Good catch.

Bleh, that's right. Forgot about that. Feels weird that that rebels are flying around with more heavy ships than the empire.

This is apparently because the Emperor was overcompensating for some, um, deficiency, and kept build bigger ships than anyone else.

It'll even out... eventually

Rebels have more Small Bases 5-4

Empire has more Large Bases 2-1

Rebels have more Huge Bases 2-0(currently)

The Empire will more than likely have more "Massive Bases" once it comes to that especially if they get no "Huge Base" ships...

Hey, look, they updated the Upcoming page finally to include the Rebel Transport and Tantive IV.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp

Both are listed as in development and neither has an expected release date yet.

[edit] And they took the Starfield Tile Kit off completely, haha.

Starfield Tile Kit isn't there anymore, because it's status is now: "Buy now!"

See for yourself

Yeah.. about that.. if you follow the link you provided.. its no where to be seen after that initial place.. and it is not in the Star Wars products for sale either.. possibly a forgotten link that needs to be removed...

So excited for this. I wonder if you can use this in both play styles. That would be cool.

I thought slicer was OP on first read too, but it's a limit of 1 damage per ship per round. Still going to be a problem but not as bad as I thought. I can't wait for the imperials to get that tech though. Keep those kturning Bwings in check!

Just compared the pictures from the current announcement and the GTM article. Look at the upgrade cards. Bottom row, 7th card from the left.

In the GMT article it seems to be cargo. In the current announcement it looks like a title card. The artwork is different, too.