So, I guess I’ll fly Imperial too… I already HAD a few of their ships like the TIE Phantom for a few of the cards… Turned out to be a good thing as my S&V got Cloaking Devices… Well, kind of J… But in any case, I’ve been using a few of the cards.
The Phantom is a REALLY solid ship. The 4 base Primary Weapon is huge for a Fighter. Maneuverable as all get out, and even after the rule change to “nerf” it, still annoyingly difficult to pin down. Minus? Well, it is only 2 Shields and 2 Hull… Relies on the Green Dice and Actions/Tokens to survive, and they WILL let you down eventually. I’ve beaten them in the past forcing bumps then just attacking with everything until they go down… PS 7 is the normal maximum, but pretty standard Veteran Instincts (VI) makes it a 9… So a solid Ace level PS, but now something that is easily matched or even surpassed. Still, I play “a bit” more aggressively than most people, and the idea of an extremely maneuverable 4 Attack ship fits well into my play style.
The Defender is another I snagged… With the Imperial Vets set coming out “soon”, they get a HUGE boost on what I consider an already solid ship. Solid, not “optimal for tournament play" J… Now? Give up your Missile and Cannon slots for -2 points AND the ability to just get a free Evade for a 3+ Speed maneuver? Wow. THAT is really quite good… And some of the new Pilots are pretty solid… Countess Ryad’s ability to take ANY Straight and make it a K-Turn? So a Green 2-5 K-Turn on the dial… Do the Green 3, gain a free Evade, PTL for 2 more actions? Or Predator for the passive re-rolls? 36 points seems a bit low to me, but it is still PS 5, and only the 3 Hull/3 Shield ship with the dependency on Green dice to live… A gambler’s rig, and one I am perfectly comfortable with. Fly right at them, and dare them to stop you…
Defender’s OTHER title gives you the ability to fire a Cannon (3 or fewer points) THEN fire your Primary… For free. So, I guess at least it is NOT a negative point value upgrade, but I think the clear winner is the Ion Cannon at 3 points… Does damage, Ion is a real problem for almost everything (need 2 for Large Base ships, but…)… So, I think this really does kill off the Rebel ships easily, and presents a problem for a LOT of the S&V ships. K-Wings being Small Based are especially vulnerable to this and I think this is just another nail in their coffin. Y-Wings are right up there as well… Yes, both are fairly durable ships, but I would not expect either to survive 2 turns against a Defender set up like this. And there is a VERY real chance that the vaunted TLT simply misses against the 3 Agility of the TIE. The Defender will be able to pile on Damage and Tokens (Ion) to pretty easily kill anything low Agility… And frankly I’d put anything 2 Agility in the “Lowish” range… I’ve had too many T-70’s and Jumpmasters just fold under the piled on attacks…
So, avoiding the obvious high powered builds at the moment… Locally we see a LOT of Imperial Aces with Soonter Fel, The Inquisitor, Darth Vader and company in most of those builds… The Emperor in a Shuttle and a pair of Aces to back it up are a VERY popular build as well… With my “higher than average” use of Ordnance and things like the Ghost and her 4 base Attack, this is less a problem for me… But it kills the basic U-Boats and anything Rebel pretty regularly… The Aces made me change up my builds to the higher PS stuff to compete, and that has worked VERY well for me so far… NOT saying that someone flying generics or hordes of low PS stuff will do poorly, just not my style, so I would not do well with it I think. The TIE swarm is still a VERY real thing, albeit with Crack Shot on say 6 TIEs rather than the old version of 8 basic ones...
But for my Imperial Squadrons? A Defender or two… A Phantom likely… J Well, that’s about it as I get close to 100 with just 3 of the basic fighters there… Just have to choose the Pilots and upgrades to keep at or below the 100… Will be fun, but NOT anything overpowering I suspect…
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