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These literally just popped up on the Fantasy Flight website... no details yet though

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=174&esem=2&esum=224

There's an article up: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4645

Each of the wave’s four starfighters arrives ready to maneuver, battle, and fulfill a specific role within your fleet:

The Z-95 Headhunter enters the Rebel fleet as an extremely efficient missile platform, better enabling the Alliance to match Imperial forces ship-for-ship.
The TIE defender is a straight-forward fighter with strong shields, weapons, agility, and a maneuver never before seen on a dial.
The E-wing pairs the X-wing’s firepower and resilience with the A-wing’s speed and agility.
TIE phantom pilots rely upon the ship’s unique cloaking device to evade enemy fire and pounce upon their foes with their deadly laser cannons.

In many ways, the Z-95 Headhunter was the precursor to the X-wing. Though the Z-95 was later outclassed by the X-wing in most respects, it could perform a tighter turn and was cheap, durable, and reliable enough that the Rebel Alliance continued to make use of it throughout the Galactic Civil War, most commonly in close air support roles.

The Z-95 Headhunter enters X-Wing as the Rebel starfighter with the lowest squad point cost. None of the four ship cards in the Z-95 Headhunter Expansion Pack weigh in at more than nineteen squad points, and at just twelve points, the Bandit Squadron Pilot ties the Imperial’s Academy Pilot as the starfighter with the game’s lowest point cost value. However, the Z-95 Headhunter isn’t designed to fly like a TIE fighter; it comes, instead, with the focus and target lock actions, as well as the ability to load and fire a missile.

Accordingly, the Z-95 Headhunter Expansion Pack comes with two missile upgrades, the Assault Missiles and the deadly Ion Pulse Missiles.

Altogether, the Z-95 Headhunter Expansion Pack includes one Z-95 miniature, four ship cards, five upgrade cards, one maneuver dial, and all the tokens necessary to bring your Z-95 Headhunter to battle!

When it was first released shortly before the Battle of Endor, the TIE defender was perhaps the most technologically advanced starfighter in the galaxy. It improved upon the design of the TIE fighter by adding shields, a hyperdrive, and more powerful weaponry.

In X-Wing, the TIE defender is a lethal starfighter that features three attack, three agility, three hull, and three shields. Imperial players can further load it up with both cannon and missile upgrades, and because only the Empire’s most elite pilots were allowed to fly the TIE defender during the Galatic Civil War, both of the unique pilots among the expansion’s four ship cards come with the elite talent upgrade.

The TIE Defender Expansion Pack introduces one TIE defender miniature, four ship cards, one maneuver dial, all the tokens you need, and five upgrade cards, which include a pair of elite talents certain to make your elite TIE defender pilot a truly fearsome predator throughout the game’s fast-paced dogfights.

When it was designed, the E-wing was intended to match or exceed the performance of the X-wing in every respect, and the E-Wing Expansion Pack for X-Wing introduces a starfighter that combines the best of the X-wing’s firepower and durability with the A-wing’s speed and maneuverability.

Furthermore, the E-wing’s advanced technology is reflected in the fact that it can equip both system and astromech upgrades alongside a complement of torpedoes. The partnership of these upgrades permit some interesting, new combinations, and the E-wing may open some wildly creative squad builds.

For example, by partnering R7-T1 with Advanced Sensors on a ship piloted by someone like Etahn A’baht, who is capable of using Push the Limit*, you could perform three actions before you reveal your maneuver. And if that maneuver is green, Etahn A’baht would even end his Activation phase without a stress token!

With its E-wing miniature, four ship cards, five upgrade cards, maneuver dial, and tokens, the E-Wing Expansion Pack comes with everything you need to pursue entirely new tactics in your X-Wing battles!

*The Push the Limit upgrade comes in the A-Wing Expansion Pack and Imperial Aces. It is not included in the E-Wing Expansion Pack.

By adding a stygium crystal cloaking device to a modified V38 assault fighter that came equipped with both deflector shields and a hyperdrive, the developers of the TIE phantom created one of the most menacing starfighters in the galaxy!

The TIE Phantom Expansion Pack brings this fearsome fighter to life with new rules for cloaking that allow it to slip off opponents’ sensors in the middle of battle. Imperial players will be able to further customize their phantoms with system and crew upgrades, so the Rebellion will never know what to expect.

The TIE Phantom Expansion Pack includes one TIE phantom miniature, four ship cards, five upgrades, one maneuver dial, reference cards for its new rules, and all the tokens you need to bring your TIE phantom to battle!

awesome awesome awesome. I need to catch up in the arms race, dont have b wings yet = P

 Guitarquero wrote:
awesome awesome awesome. I need to catch up in the arms race, dont have b wings yet = P

It seems like an age since the Rebel transport and Blockade Runner were announced and they're still not released yet, so think you have time

Aw, this is going to get expensive, Iv only just started

From what I can see the stats are
Headhunter 2-2-2-2
defender 3?-3-3-3
ewing 2?-3-2-3
phatom 4?-2-2-2

ahzek wrote:
Aw, this is going to get expensive, Iv only just started

Tell me about it! I need to catch up with the second and third waves!

Its gonna be a long wait to get these, and I want them all now!!

 ironicsilence wrote:
From what I can see the stats are
Headhunter 2-2-2-2
defender 3?-3-3-3
ewing 2?-3-2-3
phatom 4?-2-2-2

The article explicitly states that the Defender has an attack of 3.

Also, while that blurry red number on the Phantom's card does indeed look like it's most likely a '4', I think it's worth remembering that no primary weapons to date have had an attack value of '4'. Even the B-Wing and Firespray, which are basically floating gun platforms, only have primary weapon values of '3' (Note that at least one secondary weapon - the Heavy Laser Cannon - does have an attack value of '4').

Marek Stele, the obvious choice for a TIE Defender pilot, has already been used for the TIE Advanced X1. Ironically, the only other pilot who I can identify off the top of my head who actually flew one of the things was Darth Vader, who's the other TIE Advanced X1 pilot. Are there any other named pilots who've been identified somewhere as piloting a Defender?


Personally, I'm not all that excited about this release. I'm glad to finally see the Z-95, but I've been hoping that they wouldn't ever release the Defender. The Phantom is another choice that I'm not too happy with. And what little I've heard about the E-Wing doesn't make me much of a fan of it.

Eumerin wrote:
Also, while that blurry red number on the Phantom's card does indeed look like it's most likely a '4', I think it's worth remembering that no primary weapons to date have had an attack value of '4'. Even the B-Wing and Firespray, which are basically floating gun platforms, only have primary weapon values of '3' (Note that at least one secondary weapon - the Heavy Laser Cannon - does have an attack value of '4').

I think it will be fine. It's agility 2 and only 4 HP, and the cheapest one is 25 points. Compare that to a hypothetical TIE interceptor with HLC at the same 25 points and you trade a point of agility and the boost action for an extra HP and some hull moved to shields. It all depends on how the cloak works obviously, but it seems like the intent is a glass cannon ship that cloaks until it gets set up for a good shot, but is an expensive and quickly destroyed waste of points if you can't use your cloak effectively.

I'm glad to finally see the Z-95, but I've been hoping that they wouldn't ever release the Defender.

Honestly I kind of felt the same way since it would be so easy to make the defender a game-breaker, but now that we've seen it I don't think it's going to be too bad. 30 points for a basic PS 1 ship is a lot. A TIE interceptor with 3x shield upgrade costs the same 30 points for the same stats, except the interceptor also has boost + evade actions. With the defender and e-wing I think you're going to see a lot of setups that look dominating on paper, but die horribly to swarms in real games just like those "scary" 40-50 point Wedge lists.

 Peregrine wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
Also, while that blurry red number on the Phantom's card does indeed look like it's most likely a '4', I think it's worth remembering that no primary weapons to date have had an attack value of '4'. Even the B-Wing and Firespray, which are basically floating gun platforms, only have primary weapon values of '3' (Note that at least one secondary weapon - the Heavy Laser Cannon - does have an attack value of '4').

I think it will be fine. It's agility 2 and only 4 HP, and the cheapest one is 25 points. Compare that to a hypothetical TIE interceptor with HLC at the same 25 points and you trade a point of agility and the boost action for an extra HP and some hull moved to shields. It all depends on how the cloak works obviously, but it seems like the intent is a glass cannon ship that cloaks until it gets set up for a good shot, but is an expensive and quickly destroyed waste of points if you can't use your cloak effectively.

Note that I'm not complaining about the number. Merely mentioning that this would be the first ship with an attack value of '4'. Given that we've seen some "gun heavy" ships in the past, and the number's pretty blurry, I think the '?' that ironicsilence put next to the number is a bit more justified than it would usually be.

 ironicsilence wrote:
From what I can see the stats are
Headhunter 2-2-2-2
defender 3?-3-3-3
ewing 2?-3-2-3
phatom 4?-2-2-2

Looks like the E-wing has 3 firepower.

Excited to see this. Wonder what the R7 Astromech does?

I see a 4 2 2 2 on the Phantom and a 3 3 2 3 on the Ewing.

Besides the stats, I'm liking the Defender and the Z-95. Maybe because it's just bringing me back to my old X-Wing and Tie Fighter DOS games. I still have them on disk. I should bust out the old PC and play it.

IMO, they went real light on the Defender's stats. The ship is a monster. Not surprised it's tamed down some. I wouldn't have minded stats mirroring the monster it is, if the points were right.

Looking forward to adding to the collection.

Spamming the z-95 could be good, though probably plays very similarly to tie spam.
I do like the tie defender though

I need 8 of them all, and more colour ideas for TIE repaints.

ahzek wrote:
Spamming the z-95 could be good, though probably plays very similarly to tie spam.

I wonder if a Z-95 'Macross Missile Massacre' list would work. Take 6 12-point Z-95s and equip each one with a Cluster Missile. Target lock at Range 3, then fire everything the next turn and hope what's left can be dealt with.

Maybe worth taking one 'bigger' thing to clean up

I wonder how often we are going to see A-wings after this. Where I am, they already aren't especially popular, and it looks like they might be taking a double-whammy with the Z-95 taking the missile caddy role away (simply for being able to buy missiles and still cost less than an A-wing with no upgrades). If the E-wing turns out to be an interceptor that can fight, I can't see much hope for the A-wing, which might end up as a poor compromise between the two. Fortunately, the E-wing lacks boost so the A-wing should still be a little faster.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
I wonder how often we are going to see A-wings after this.

Can't even buy a damn A-Wing at the moment. Not so fussed about how good it is, just want one because it was always my favourite ship

I like the looks of these, from an aesthetic standpoint.

I'll be needing to expand my X-Wing mini case I expect...

I read in an interview with one of the producers for the new sw show, that they will be using designs by Ralph Macquarie made during the filming of the original trilogy. So in a few years it might mean the concept art in those old sw art books might be canon models to use in the game!

Just noticed this last night, but if you click the second article link posted above, some of the cards on the FFG articles are blue. You can click them and the preview the cards.

R7-T1 and the level 5 E-Ewing pilot are shown.

 Lancer wrote:
Just noticed this last night, but if you click the second article link posted above, some of the cards on the FFG articles are blue. You can click them and the preview the cards.

R7-T1 and the level 5 E-Ewing pilot are shown.

And they look good.

On a semi-related note, does anyone think that we'll see an increase in game size, simply to play with all the cool toys? I mean, the TIE-d breaks the 30pt marks for the cheapest model, the B-wing w. HLC breaks with in all but a generic pilot with no other upgrades. The E-wing as well, will break the mark with minimal upgrades, while the TIE Bomber gets really expensive if you give it multiple upgrades. Might we see a higher average game size, simply so that people can take some of these newer ships with upgrades, and still run a decent number of ships?

The only problem with that is that game time could increase by a lot. Adding 25-50 points to get another 1-2 high points craft in could also add in 2-4 low points craft.

This is awesome! FF is basically release all the ships that I would have loved to see, but would have guessed wouldn't actually be made. Very exciting to see the Z-95, E-Wing and the TIE Defender, and I had actually forgotten about the TIE Phantom, but I'm glad to see they're using it. It's refreshing to see a bit of Star Wars that actually gives a nod to some of the older fans.

Larger point games would take longer...but what about starting a campaign. The local store I'm at does weekly battles and points / rankings are kept track of. But, I think it would be neat to build an entire squadron around a points limit. I envision each player having their squadron stationed on some type of flagship. Nebulon-B frigate or a Victory Class Stardestroyer, etc. And maybe some schemed up campaign designed over a sector of space. Players would have to protect systems and resources...pick and choose where to send fighters, etc.

Much beer...but I can't wait to see what X-Wing brings next. I'd really love to see a rehash of the old X-Wing and Tiefighter DOS games as well.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
I wonder how often we are going to see A-wings after this. Where I am, they already aren't especially popular, and it looks like they might be taking a double-whammy with the Z-95 taking the missile caddy role away (simply for being able to buy missiles and still cost less than an A-wing with no upgrades). If the E-wing turns out to be an interceptor that can fight, I can't see much hope for the A-wing, which might end up as a poor compromise between the two. Fortunately, the E-wing lacks boost so the A-wing should still be a little faster.

IMO it's going to depend on what you're using the A-wing for. If you're using prototype pilots because they're the cheapest possible rebel ship (and a lot of lists do) then the Z-95 is going to do everything the A-wing does and save you 5 points each. But if you're using A-wings because you want a fast ship that can stack focus + evade then the A-wing isn't going anywhere. A green squadron A-wing with PTL is only 22 points. An E-wing with no PTL, no boost, and (presumably) a weaker maneuver dial is 27 points. Add enough upgrades to make the E-wing a viable option and you're looking at a 40-50 point ship. It will probably have a role in some lists, but I can't see a 40-50 point ship making a 20-30 point ship obsolete.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
On a semi-related note, does anyone think that we'll see an increase in game size, simply to play with all the cool toys? I mean, the TIE-d breaks the 30pt marks for the cheapest model, the B-wing w. HLC breaks with in all but a generic pilot with no other upgrades. The E-wing as well, will break the mark with minimal upgrades, while the TIE Bomber gets really expensive if you give it multiple upgrades. Might we see a higher average game size, simply so that people can take some of these newer ships with upgrades, and still run a decent number of ships?

I really hope not. Above 100 points the table gets too crowded and game start to take too long. And I like the fact that taking powerful single ships is a difficult choice to make that forces compromises in the rest of your list. Building a good list shouldn't be easy, and I'm glad the E-wing and TIE defender are going to cost so much that taking a super-ship at all becomes a list-defining choice instead of just something you throw in because it seems fun.

Plus, I doubt that large games would really change the balance between elite super-ships and larger numbers of mid-range stuff. Increasing the point level to 150 just means you're going to see lists with 6 X-wings/B-wings, and those lists will still have the same inherent advantages over 150-point elite lists that they have over current 100 point elite lists. If an E-wing with full upgrades can't match up well against its point value in cheaper ships at 100 points I really don't see how it's going to do better just because there's more ships on the table.

Is it just me or is the Z-95 vastly superior to the X-wing as far as power/competitiveness is concerned?

12 points for 2 pilot skill and 2/2/2/2 stats, vs 21 points for 2 pilot skill and 3/2/3/2 stats?

By taking an X-wing you are paying 75% more points for 33-50% more firepower depending on close range or not, and 25% more points of survivability?

On top of that, the Z-95 is described as being able to make a tighter turn which is desirable.

Oh, and the Z-95 can take missiles rather than proton torpedoes which generally seem much better.

You can't take an astromech but on a ship so cheap and efficient who cares?

Why would you take X-Wings ever once the Z-95 is out? For that matter, why would you take an A-wing now that the Z-95 can carry missiles for way cheaper?

 ph34r wrote:
By taking an X-wing you are paying 75% more points for 33-50% more firepower depending on close range or not,

No, it's way more than that. Firepower in X-Wing isn't linear because you're talking about opposed dice. Let's say you're shooting at an X-wing with either an X-wing of your own, or a Z-95 and no focus/target lock/whatever for either side. The X-wing's two defense dice cancel an average of 6/8 of a hit. The Z-95's two attack dice inflict an average of one hit, while the X-wing's three dice inflict an average of 1.5 hits. So what this means is that the Z-95 averages 2/8 of a HP, while the X-wing averages 6/8 of a HP. In this situation the X-wing is getting 200% more firepower, not 33-50%. And if you look at 3-defense ships like TIEs the X-wing's firepower advantage becomes even more decisive.

(This, by the way, is why heavy laser cannons are so awesome. It's "only" one extra attack die, but that extra die is a huge increase in average damage.)

Oh, and the Z-95 can take missiles rather than proton torpedoes which generally seem much better.

It's really about the same. Concussion missiles and proton torps have the same expected damage, just with a different way of getting it. The missile works better with stacked focus + target lock (something the Z-95 will have trouble doing without PTL), the torpedo works better with just a target lock since it generates so many more crits. And then each type of weapon gets its own interesting variants: assault and homing missiles are great, but so are advanced torps.

You can't take an astromech but on a ship so cheap and efficient who cares?

Not taking a droid is a huge difference. The generic R2 astromech is probably the best one-point upgrade in the game, especially on high-end pilots with stress-producing EPTs. Seriously, an X-wing with R2 has more (useful) greens than an A-wing or TIE interceptor.

For that matter, why would you take an A-wing now that the Z-95 can carry missiles for way cheaper?

Because the A-wing has three defense dice, boost, evade, and (presumably) a much better maneuver dial. The A-wing's days as a cheap missile platform are probably over, but the green squadron A-wing with PTL is capable of things a Z-95 can only dream of.