Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello dakka!

I recently received my order of wave 3 ships! woohoo! I got a game in last night with some buddy's and needless to say i am impressed.

We played the HWK, B-wing, and TIE Bomber. We did not bust out the Lambda yet as we were doing a 1v1v1 at 50 pts each.

I will go through my thoughts on each of the above ships.

First off the HWK. This puppy has a ton of potential. Not so much as a ship killer, but as a buffer and support ship. I took the dude that makes a friendly ship at 1-3 Pilot skill 12 in the combat phase! Yikes! I was thinking of the nasty Han list and dropping a single x-wing for this guy. Making your other x-wing fire at 12 and then unload with Han......ouch.

The B-Wing. Dudes a tank and has a ton of potential. Not very manuverable but I can see this ship being the answer for the rebels as a close range fighter. Can take a fair amount of damage and dish out some unstoppable fire power (literally, can't cancel hits with defense dice with the upgraded weapon) with an upgrade or two.

The TIE-Bomber. Look out rebels this ship is going to be a pain in the butt. First thing I noticed was the sheer amount amount of upgrades this thing can take. Bombs and Missiles and multiples of the latter. It has double the hull points of most other TIEs and the pilot abilities are nice buffs as well.

Any one else had a chance to put the wave 3 ships on the table yet? Thoughts?

I've Tried a few games, and here are my thoughts:


B-Wing- Love it. It's a really flexible ship that you can plug into any role really. Surprisingly maneuverable thanks to Barrel Role and some of its new moves, I don't think it is a good close-ranged fighter in most situations- simply because it is too easily bogged down with a poor maneuver selection at speeds 3-4.

I've run it in three games so far- first was a blue with Fire Control, and an Ion cannon- Got a half-kill, then ended up eating Range one shots from Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, and two other TIEs and exploding. Thanks to it diverting attention from my X-wings, I was able to really make up the gap in material and pull a win.

Second Game was Ten Numb with Chinlasers, PTL, Sensors and Engine Upgrade. He was the hardest to play, put the couple times I pulled things off right it was satisfying to watch the TIE's explode helplessly.

Third Game was a Blue with Laser Cannon and Fire Control. My Favorite so far, this guy just destroyed a Lambda and a TIE Bomber. I think this guy really nails shut the coffin for Proton Torps.


Lambda- fracking un-maneuverable. While I like the support abilities it brings, I got my B-wing (with Laser Cannon) behind it, and it was basically game-over. The lack of Turrets or K-turns means if a heavy hitter gets behind it, its dead. I'm thinking that next game It should get an engine upgrade- hopefully that will help a bit.


TIE Bomber- From the Rebel Perspective, scary on paper- sadly in my one game against it, my opponent was running Major Rhymer With PTl and a heavy payload, but kept just waiting for the perfect shot for the bomber, and went down with full bays. I'm thinking a better use would be to run a Scimitar with Proton/Concussion and an assault missile as part of a TIE Swarm- break up formations/batter shields with the missiles, then pick on the heavy hitters with the Torps. Also, running a Black Pilot with Draw their Fire gives you a moderately skilled pilot who may soak up crits for the bomber. I'm going to have to try that next game, with 5 academy pilots for support.


Sadly, have not tried my HWk yet.

From a modelling perspective, the B-wing and TIE-bomber look very nice. I'm not sure why but the shuttle (while just as well done as the falcon) looks a bit plain. I don't know if its the start white base color but it feels like it should have a bit more visually.

I'm interested in the HWK, because it's got some useful abilities and the ship just looks cool for what I want it for- I really want to make a pirate squadron with some of the fanmade Z-95's off boardgamegeek, a HWK (or two), and a generic YT-1300.

IMO:

B-wing: it's only "not maneuverable" if you're talking about the basic ship. With advanced sensors + engine upgrade + PTL it's even more maneuverable than an A-wing/interceptor as long as you don't need to go fast across the table. And with Ten Numb you're doing all those reactive moves at PS 8, so you can line up an autoblaster shot while dodging arcs on everyone else. The only downside is spending 46 points and then another 25+ on the mandatory Biggs shield to get him into range. And of course you're also free to just take a blue with HLC and do it the conventional way.

TIE bomber: still not impressed. You're spending so many points on secondary weapons that you end up with a 3-ship rebel list with different models and no shields. It seems like this is going to be a pure alpha strike option, if you don't inflict fatal damage with your first salvo you aren't going to win. There's a reason nobody's taking lists with four rookie x-wings with torps.

HWK: boosting is cool, but don't forget the 5-7 point turret tax you have to pay. IMO it's a situational ship, sometimes you'll have a combo that makes the boosting worth it, but it's not an auto-include in every list. Points are probably going to be the big problem here, you need the HWK + turret tax, then an elite ship that's worth boosting, and Biggs to keep your elite ship from getting blown off the table and leaving you with a boosting ship that can't boost anything. And now you're out of points, so that's your list. Not much flexibility there.

Shuttle: I guess it's a cheap blocker with APL? Every time I look at it I can't help thinking I'd be better off with more TIEs instead.

What does everyone think of Ten Numb with Autoblaster, Advanced Torps, and Marksmanship? Anything within Range 1 of him is basically automatically dead, the only problem is getting there.

Give him engine boost too. Getting there is no longer a problem with that and BR. You'll also likely stay out of an opponent's fire arc too.

Oh yeah, good idea! Also, what exactly goes into the "Biggs shield" Peregrine was talking about? I'm guessing Biggs with shield upgrade and maybe R2-D2? Anything else?

I've used the HWK in a few games with this arrangement:

Kyle Katarn + Blaster Turret + Recon Specialist + Moldy Crow

And he is an excellent support ship for distributing focus and hanging onto it over the course of the game.

 Peregrine wrote:
IMO:

TIE bomber: still not impressed. You're spending so many points on secondary weapons that you end up with a 3-ship rebel list with different models and no shields. It seems like this is going to be a pure alpha strike option, if you don't inflict fatal damage with your first salvo you aren't going to win. There's a reason nobody's taking lists with four rookie x-wings with torps.

I think the saving grace of the bomber is what it will be shooting at. Rebels have a much lower average agility, and (except for the A-wing) lack evade actions. So immediately, Torps/missiles are going to cause a lot more damage. Then, there is the "Biggs Shield" and other effects that keep rebels at range 1 of each other- meaning assault missiles are suddenly useful. Beat up Biggs with some 4-dice alpha-strike, get some splash damage on Wedge. Imperials also don't have the same damage output from their primaries as rebels do, so the missiles add strongly to that.

Another big advantage of the TIE bombers is their durability over a normal TIE. Most TIE's don't survive the initial pass, these are far more likely to fire their torps. Also, I wouldn't take the TIE bomber special characters. You can get a LOT of bang for your buck with the the cheap guys. In fact, take the points saved and buy bombs + one torp. Get em coming and going.

 MandalorynOranj wrote:
What does everyone think of Ten Numb with Autoblaster, Advanced Torps, and Marksmanship? Anything within Range 1 of him is basically automatically dead, the only problem is getting there.

Too many points. You're wasting points by taking both the autoblaster and advanced torps since both are range-1 weapons, and both have pretty much the same end result. Pick one or the other.

Also, PTL is mandatory with advanced torps. You need the double action to get focus + TL, otherwise you're throwing away 6 points.

 MandalorynOranj wrote:
Oh yeah, good idea! Also, what exactly goes into the "Biggs shield" Peregrine was talking about? I'm guessing Biggs with shield upgrade and maybe R2-D2? Anything else?

Just Biggs however you equip him. R2-D2 can work, or R2-F2 + stealth. Even basic Biggs is worth it if you don't have enough points available. The idea is that if you're taking nasty but expensive ships like Wedge or autoblaster Ten Numb they're an easy obvious target: lots of firepower that you're depending on to win the game, but no more durability than a rookie pilot. Biggs changes that by forcing your opponent to spend 1-2 turns killing someone else, while Wedge/Ten/Salm/etc are free to kill stuff. And then by the time Biggs is dead formations are broken up and it's harder to just focus an entire squad onto your elite ship and kill it.

Any comments on what the models/paint jobs are like for these ships? Any nice touches or alternately glaring issues with them?

 Pacific wrote:
Any comments on what the models/paint jobs are like for these ships? Any nice touches or alternately glaring issues with them?

It's pretty much what you'd expect from seeing the previous models. The biggest issue seems to be the wings on the shuttle not folding down properly without a lot of force (and even then mine are still a bit off) because the hinges are too tight or somehow obstructed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
I think the saving grace of the bomber is what it will be shooting at. Rebels have a much lower average agility, and (except for the A-wing) lack evade actions. So immediately, Torps/missiles are going to cause a lot more damage. Then, there is the "Biggs Shield" and other effects that keep rebels at range 1 of each other- meaning assault missiles are suddenly useful. Beat up Biggs with some 4-dice alpha-strike, get some splash damage on Wedge.

So what do you do when you face another Imperial list? I don't like the idea of tailoring to a matchup you can't expect to face more than half the time.

Imperials also don't have the same damage output from their primaries as rebels do, so the missiles add strongly to that.

But at a huge cost. It's like the A-wing problem, you're spending lots of points on one-shot weapons and once those one-shot weapons are gone you've got nothing left. For the cost of a bomber and two missiles you can buy an x-wing and torps, which is the same initial alpha strike shot but with three primary dice every turn after that.

Goresaw wrote:
Another big advantage of the TIE bombers is their durability over a normal TIE. Most TIE's don't survive the initial pass, these are far more likely to fire their torps.

IMO the durability isn't really much better. You've only got two defense dice instead of three, and you can't spend any of your actions on defense (and don't have evade at all). And, unlike other two-dice ships, you don't have any shields to stop crits. Then there's also the ship count issue: TIEs are durable because you can bring so many of them, bombers with missiles are getting into rebel ship price ranges so you can't afford to lose one (especially if it gets killed before shooting).

Also, I wouldn't take the TIE bomber special characters.

I disagree. Jonus is mandatory if you're taking a bomber list. Re-rolling two dice per shot makes a huge difference in how much damage you do with a ship that can't PTL to TL + focus a missile shot. Because of the way the math works in this game turning (average) two hits into three with that re-roll is way more than 50% more firepower. Nothing else you can take will boost a bomber squad's effectiveness by that much for so little.

yep, totally agree with Pg about jonus being a must include. im currently working a on a list that uses jonus + scimitar sqdrn + slave1. slave1 has HLC attached. its essentially just hose 3 ships with assault missile and homing missile in the mix as well.
posted this in FF Forums.

jonus+homing missiles+squad leader+proton bomb
scimitar squadron pilot + assault missiles
Bounty Hunter+HLC+recon specialist+seismic charge

if i drop the proton bomb i can upgrade to krassis. still tinkering.