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https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/10/24/fanatical-devotion/

Hyperwave seems awfully cheap.

Well, consider that you have to pass up Pattern Analyzer and Comm Relay to get it (Big opportunity cost). Also,if you use it to place a ship at PS12, you probably don't assign focus tokens (they only go down if another ship is placed at range 1-2 after the controlling ship). You then need to be running something that will get a turn 1 shot on an opponent who will try to deny you action economy (either by going slow or deploying far away), or else the focus vanishes.

While I think that it will be an interesting upgrade, there are a lot of reasons that it only costs 1 pt.

Now that Coordinate is on a standard game ship, can you double dip on some actions? If I pair an Upsilon shuttle with a Decimator and use Expose, can the coordinate action use expose and then on the Decimator's action use expose again to make it 5 attack dice?

The article kept pushing the TIE/fo, but I still don't see why I wouldn't use standard TIE's instead. Also, why would you put a calculation on the Omega Ace? If you are triggering its ability, why would you ever use Calculation?

The squads in the examples are rarely optimized. And I guess they printed the cards, they might as well try to push them.

I'm not sure what the exact text on Coordinate is, but my guts would say no.

Edit:

Ships with the (little arrows symbol) action icon in their action bar may perform the
coordinate action. To do so, choose another friendly ship at Range 1–2. The chosen ship
may immediately perform one free action.

So in other words, the rules for free actions govern Coordinate like all other cases. If you didn't use Expose yet, sure, fine. If you already used it, you can't use the same action, free or not, twice in the same round.

Ah, that makes sense

So Hyperwave only dishes out the focus and Evades AFTER the shuttle (or any other tech using ship) is placed first. correct?

 captain bloody fists wrote:
So Hyperwave only dishes out the focus and Evades AFTER the shuttle (or any other tech using ship) is placed first. correct?

Backwards - the shuttle has to be placed before them. Hence, the reason you can do PS0 or PS6.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Hyperwave seems awfully cheap.

Hyperwave is a 1 time use that you either tell your opponent ahead of time where you are setting up the rest of your ships to get a very minor bonus for the start of the game (since most of the time there is no combat to use the focus/evade tokens). And on the flip side if you use it to place last you don't keep the PS value.



But as for the reveals over all they are really aiming to make it a large support ship that is better than the lambda is, unless the dial is a good ways better that simply isnt going to happen and the upsilon will be used as a more offensive ship rather than support, but once again needs a decent-great dial to make that work,

 DanielBeaver wrote:

 captain bloody fists wrote:
So Hyperwave only dishes out the focus and Evades AFTER the shuttle (or any other tech using ship) is placed first. correct?

Backwards - the shuttle has to be placed before them. Hence, the reason you can do PS0 or PS6.

so i was correct. shuttle then other ships


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Oberron wrote:

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Hyperwave seems awfully cheap.

Hyperwave is a 1 time use that you either tell your opponent ahead of time where you are setting up the rest of your ships to get a very minor bonus for the start of the game (since most of the time there is no combat to use the focus/evade tokens). And on the flip side if you use it to place last you don't keep the PS value.



But as for the reveals over all they are really aiming to make it a large support ship that is better than the lambda is, unless the dial is a good ways better that simply isnt going to happen and the upsilon will be used as a more offensive ship rather than support, but once again needs a decent-great dial to make that work,

i disagree, it can be a rather powerful card. think of it this way. i use Dormitz with Hyperwave, setup two defenders (x7's) at range 3 from the table edge (thanks to his ability). go blistering across the field at speed 5, pick up a free evade and already have a focus or evade from Hyperwave so lets me do a TL or another Focus. can anyone say alpha strike? i would be interested in seeing if this play actually works.

I'm quite interested in Stridan... He is very expensive next to the Palp shuttle, but finally Empire has a way to reliably pass actions and tokens out to R3. There are quite a few ships which might really benefit from that, and become more playable.

He could pair well with Systems Officer and the inquisitor. Quiz might also be able to ditch PTL for Juke then, which would be sick.

And sorry to bang on about Turr Phenir again, but this might be exactly the kind of support he needed to get him out the dog house. Being able to reliably pass him a token, or an Action with coordinate, is gonna make him a badass.

Omega Ace is another pilot who could really benefit from this. I've tried to make him work before, but he's incredibly action heavy, as not only does he need a Focus and Target Lock, he really also needs Boost to make sure he gets into R1 for max crits. I tried giving him PTL and pairing him with stuff like the Tie Shuttle, or Colonal Jendon, but it was always a bit unwieldy, and range on the abilities was a real problem. However, when it worked he does pretty consistent damage. With Stridan, I'm thinking range isn't going to be a problem, and Striden could potentially pass him the TL and Focus he needs each turns. That means he'd be free to boost with his own action, and might not even need PTL. That's huge, because with something like Juke or Expose he'd be an absolute monster when his ability triggers.

First impressions:

Generic: amazing stat line at a competitive price. Remember how generic Ghosts are a major factor in the meta? Same 4-dice gun, but a green die and 12 HP instead of no dice and 16, for 5 points less. Coordinate is really good on a support ship, and you have FCS for actionless dice modification even when you're buffing other ships. And with two crew slots you can take Palpatine in the standard aces list, or a nice range of other buff crew if you don't have aces. Unless the dial is really terrible this looks like it's going to be a strong competitive option.

Lieutenant Dormitz: either reasonably good or very bad, depending on how good at X-Wing you are. If you're a good player you pay a mere 1 point for +1 PS (relevant against a lot of PS 2-3 generics) and an interesting alternate deployment option that you may occasionally use. If you're bad at X-Wing this is one of the worst cards ever printed and probably destroys imperials as a viable faction for you. Like newHan Dormitz gives you access to lots of ways to completely screw up your deployment and lose the game, and can easily be a case where having access to an option is worse than being forced to make the correct play. If you have the self control to deploy normally 95% of the time Dormitz is a solid choice. If not, throw the card in the trash.

Major Stridan: again, you pay the +1 point for +1 PS and get the pilot ability for "free". Which is good, because this is not a strong ability. A range 1-2 bubble is usually enough to get the job done, going out to range 3 matters a lot less. And of course if you're taking Palpatine (who is the default crew option for a reason) or using the shuttle as a pure jousting ship you don't care about range at all. How much you like Stridan probably depends on how much you want the bid to PS 4. The ability probably isn't worth it for its own sake, but you might get some use out of it if you value PS 4 highly.

Kylo Ren (pilot): probably the default option. PS 6 and an EPT are good, and the condition card is really powerful. Dealing damage through shields is powerful on its own, getting to make it a face-up crit of your choice is insane. In fact, if you have points, you'll probably want to upgrade all the way to Kylo Ren because his pilot ability is so good. Expect to see him in competitive lists.

General Hux: very good in the right list. Spend an action to get three actions on friendly ships (including his own ship, if you want)? That's great action economy. Adding the "fanatical devotion" card is just a nice bonus. You need a little luck to make it work and the downside means you'll only want to use it on low-agility ships (which don't use defensive focus) or cheap meatshields you can afford to lose, but getting an occasional uncancellable result through can really hurt some targets (like Soontir Fel, if BMST hadn't killed him already). The only real issue with Hux is that you're paying 5 points for him, plus the carrier cost, so making the list work out might be a bit of a challenge and you'd better get a lot out of him before you run out of ships to buff.

Operations Specialist: trash. Like the similar rebel crew an ability that requires you to miss a shot is almost always going to be bad. You're going to be hoping you never get an opportunity to use your 3-point crew upgrade, and even when you do it's not much more than a weak consolation prize for missing. The only redeeming factor is that it's actionless dice modification, even if setting it up is a convoluted mess. Maybe this could see some use in a meta full of stress control, where missed shots are common and focus tokens are hard to get.

Hyperwave Comm Scanner: trash. Giving up a tech slot for PS 12 in deployment is not a good trade, even if it was zero points. And the token passing ability is really weak. To use it effectively you have to put the carrier down early, which then gives your opponent the opportunity to deploy away from you and keep you out of combat on the first turn (at which point all those free tokens disappear). The "everyone deploy at PS 12 and shoot on turn 1" list is a bad gimmick and offers very little compared to shooting normally on the second or third turn, especially when you have to take questionable ships to make it work at all.

Targeting Synchronizer: trash. TL;DR: "take the missile/torpedo target lock with a different ship". I can't see any situation where you set this up and make it work effectively. Ordnance is bad in general, and the few ordnance carriers that are good don't need this. Maybe it makes sense in a future wave, but right now it's useless.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Smacks wrote:
And sorry to bang on about Turr Phenir again, but this might be exactly the kind of support he needed to get him out the dog house. Being able to reliably pass him a token, or an Action with sync, is gonna make him a badass.

But it's going to make a better ship more badass.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 captain bloody fists wrote:
i disagree, it can be a rather powerful card. think of it this way. i use Dormitz with Hyperwave, setup two defenders (x7's) at range 3 from the table edge (thanks to his ability). go blistering across the field at speed 5, pick up a free evade and already have a focus or evade from Hyperwave so lets me do a TL or another Focus. can anyone say alpha strike? i would be interested in seeing if this play actually works.

Ok, so you do this. Now at higher PS I deploy away from you so you can't reach me on turn 1. Your tokens go away at the end of the turn, and your gimmick fails.

 captain bloody fists wrote:

 DanielBeaver wrote:

 captain bloody fists wrote:
So Hyperwave only dishes out the focus and Evades AFTER the shuttle (or any other tech using ship) is placed first. correct?

Backwards - the shuttle has to be placed before them. Hence, the reason you can do PS0 or PS6.

so i was correct. shuttle then other ships


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Oberron wrote:

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Hyperwave seems awfully cheap.

Hyperwave is a 1 time use that you either tell your opponent ahead of time where you are setting up the rest of your ships to get a very minor bonus for the start of the game (since most of the time there is no combat to use the focus/evade tokens). And on the flip side if you use it to place last you don't keep the PS value.



But as for the reveals over all they are really aiming to make it a large support ship that is better than the lambda is, unless the dial is a good ways better that simply isnt going to happen and the upsilon will be used as a more offensive ship rather than support, but once again needs a decent-great dial to make that work,

i disagree, it can be a rather powerful card. think of it this way. i use Dormitz with Hyperwave, setup two defenders (x7's) at range 3 from the table edge (thanks to his ability). go blistering across the field at speed 5, pick up a free evade and already have a focus or evade from Hyperwave so lets me do a TL or another Focus. can anyone say alpha strike? i would be interested in seeing if this play actually works.

I never said it was weak. But even with dormitz it is very predictable what you will be doing, any opponent who sees what you are doing won't set up infront of you unless they can out alpha strike you or can arc dodge you. It is an upgrade that MIGHT change the set up order of a single ship and gives a bonus that is questionably useful for the very first turn of the game.

Any word on the dial?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Peregrine wrote:
Ok, so you do this. Now at higher PS I deploy away from you so you can't reach me on turn 1. Your tokens go away at the end of the turn, and your gimmick fails.

Unless i maximize my chances by placing the Shuttle dead centre of the play area and the defenders as far either side at R2. Again as you say it i a gimmick but it may catch a few unsuspecting player off side...

 captain bloody fists wrote:
Unless i maximize my chances by placing the Shuttle dead centre of the play area and the defenders as far either side at R2. Again as you say it i a gimmick but it may catch a few unsuspecting player off side...

Then you aren't getting as much forward distance (since you use some of your range-2 margin on horizontal separation instead of vertical), you split your forces so you can only attack with one defender on the first turn (since they're too far apart and have to move 5-straight), and you still can't catch a far-corner deployment. As for people not expecting it, if you show up with a list that has a giant "I AM GOING TO TRY TO ATTACK YOU ON TURN 1 AND HAVE INVESTED HEAVILY IN DOING IT" sign attached and they walk right into the trap, well, you beat a bad player that you were going to beat anyway. Gimmicks like that don't fool good players.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Smacks wrote:
And sorry to bang on about Turr Phenir again, but this might be exactly the kind of support he needed to get him out the dog house. Being able to reliably pass him a token, or an Action with sync, is gonna make him a badass.

But it's going to make a better ship more badass.

Not necessarily. Stridan + Systems officer is expensive compared to the Palp shuttle. There isn't room for two expensive aces like Fel and Vader (or even Fel and Quiz), and there isn't crew space for Palpetine. it might seem like Fel would be more badass with a free Target Lock each turn, but if it means losing access to Palpatine and a wingman, then he's probably less badass than in a standard build.

Quiz goes quite nicely with Stridan, as it allows him to take Juke, and still stack all his tokens. Phennir is cheap enough to fit alongside, and with the extra action economy he's going to make a decent substitute for Fel.

Operations Specialist in a list that uses a lot of snap shot...

 Anpu-adom wrote:
Operations Specialist in a list that uses a lot of snap shot...

That sounds like it could be fun, problem is you'd be looking at a low end Bomber Shuttle which just isn't go too last long especially if all the TIE's around it are token stacked, I think just another Snap Shot ship would be the stronger choice

Just to clarify, when Snap Shot says "you can't fire again this Phase" does that mean it is still free to fire again during the combat phase? If so Snap Shot might work quite well on the Doom Shuttle, with Operations Specialist and Vader.

Smacks, yes. The first reading gut check is that Snap Shot isn't very good... but you are right in that it says phase, not turn. Snap Shot doesn't prevent you from firing during the Shooting phase, only the movement/activation phase.
Operation specialist isn't limited to Imperials... I see it on an ARC-170 or K-Wing with a bunch of Juke A-wings.

If you say so Peregrine

 captain bloody fists wrote:
Any word on the dial?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Peregrine wrote:
Ok, so you do this. Now at higher PS I deploy away from you so you can't reach me on turn 1. Your tokens go away at the end of the turn, and your gimmick fails.

Unless i maximize my chances by placing the Shuttle dead centre of the play area and the defenders as far either side at R2. Again as you say it i a gimmick but it may catch a few unsuspecting player off side...

Peregrine does have a point, which could have been made in nicer ways, that if you do place your ship in the middle and defenders to either side you won't be able to get off as strong as an alpha plus you now have to worry about asteroid placement. More than likely you won't be able to go as far with a 5 straight without running over something.

 Anpu-adom wrote:
I see it on an ARC-170 or K-Wing with a bunch of Juke A-wings.

While I really like the idea of combining Snap Shot with Juke, I don't know if it's going to mean much on PS3 A-Wings, as a lot of ships will already have moved before they get their Evade action, and you can still only fit 4 of them in a standard list.

I can see it working well on tie fighters, Mauler Mithrel or Wampa could be quite annoying with Snap Shot (assuming their powers don't count as "modifying"). I'm not sure how it would measure up to Crack Shot on Black Squadron Pilots, it's probably better if they can consistently get those R1 shots, but that's a big "if". It would certainly be something to consider on any ships that have FCS, and aren't tied to any particular EPT.

 Smacks wrote:

 Anpu-adom wrote:
I see it on an ARC-170 or K-Wing with a bunch of Juke A-wings.

While I really like the idea of combining Snap Shot with Juke, I don't know if it's going to mean much on PS3 A-Wings, as a lot of ships will already have moved before they get their Evade action, and you can still only fit 4 of them in a standard list.

I can see it working well on tie fighters, Mauler Mithrel or Wampa could be quite annoying with Snap Shot (assuming their powers don't count as "modifying"). I'm not sure how it would measure up to Crack Shot on Black Squadron Pilots, it's probably better if they can consistently get those R1 shots, but that's a big "if". It would certainly be something to consider on any ships that have FCS, and aren't tied to any particular EPT.

A-wings don't have much trouble with generics... who they have trouble with is aces and ships that have a lot of hull (but little evasion). Either case, Snap Shot is a godsend. You can take some potshots at aces before they token up. With the big ships, you just get more opportunities to shoot and do damage... so you can chew through that hull faster. Once again, not worried about generics.

My thought was using a swarm with the Shuttle and Hux

So..

Starkiller Base Pilot + FCS + Hux + Operations Specialist

5 x Academy Pilot

Hux gives out 3 focus every turn

The Operations Specialist is awesome with this many TIES because you WILL miss with some of them. They all have the same pilot skill so you can shoot with one that already has the focus and if you miss, you can hand the focus generated to a TIE that made a K turn that turn which WILL happen repeatedly. Obviously this trick won't help with defense at all, but your TIES should be able to do more barrel rolls and K turns and still get focus. Also the focus that Hux hands out can be used for defense more easily and then the TIE could be given a focus again from another tie that missed.

Isn't there a card or pilot ability that came out recently that lets you retain evade tokens from turn to turn? That would be nice to use with Hyperwave...

 Stormonu wrote:
Isn't there a card or pilot ability that came out recently that lets you retain evade tokens from turn to turn? That would be nice to use with Hyperwave...

Comm relay, a tech slot upgrade that came with the TIE/fo in the first TFA releases. It's in theory a useful thing, but normally on turn 1 with comm relay you bank an evade token since you have nothing else to do. The hyperwave thing only helps if you're playing the "deploy close and get into shooting range on turn 1" gimmick shuttle, or if you really need to perform a non-evade action on turn 1 (which is very rare).