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http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5274

I've been waiting for this for ages. At 100pts, X-wing is an amazing game for a tournament setting, but "Epic" always feels like I envisioned Star Wars battles in a miniatures game. This baby-Star Destroyer will go a long way toward making that option even better!

Also, the Tie-Advanced cards look to massively improve the ship, with its title-card looking out-right incredible (Cost zero, and makes one upgrade card cost -4 squad points)

That design will definitely take some getting used to.

What grates about it? Kind of looks like a baby star destroyer with some tie-like wings tacked on. Seems cool to me.

I also like the TIE Advanced upgrades, neat. I'll be glad to have this as an option should I end up with a large rebel ship now too.

So I wonder if this is going to be the only epic imperial ship.

Awesome! I like how they package stuff in the sets that can be used in normal games of xwing.
Those Tie Advanced upgrades are money!

 GrimDork wrote:
What grates about it?

you summed it up well:

 GrimDork wrote:
looks like a baby star destroyer with some tie-like wings tacked on.

Fair enough, the wings are kind of an odd addition.

I'm very much in the camp that hates it when, in a particular sci-fi franchise, all items of a similar type look the same for no real reason. I don't mind that Star Trek's Federation ships all have the saucer and twin nacelles, as a) it fits with how the engines work and b) they do at least try to make things interesting on the show with the same basic layout.

In Star Wars, I really hate the idea that the bad guys must always ride around in aggressively pointy ships. It used to be, back before the EU became a bloated mess, that the majority of Imperial ships had forms that fitted their function. Then, thanks mainly to the prequel era's vessels, and I think a few of the video games, more and more Imperial ships had that angular look (and more and more smaller ships had the TIE-style cockpit, see the Decimator). The homogenisation wasn't even confined to a single era, as the 'bad guy' ships of the Legacy and Revan-eras all started to take on 'Star Destroyer' or 'TIE' characteristics. It became less interesting, and, like so much of the Star Wars produce since the prequels, it actually seemed to shrink the universe, rather than grow it as we'd seen throughout much of the 90s.

Having said all that... I don't have too much of a problem with the Raider. I agree that it falls under my the same problems that I wrote about above, but given how few canonical Imperial ships there are in the right size bracket (and none of them are a shape that are going to be immediately recognisable and therefore sellable), FFG certainly had to make something new. Yes, it's pointy. Yes, that's tired. But ultimately it has to sell,and anything else other than 'default Imperial ship design' is probably too great a risk to take. So I think it's a victim of a larger trend in recent Star Wars fiction rather than something to dislike.

Those TIE Advanced cards though... oh my. The Advanced needed something, as it was a sort of okay-ish multirole fighter in a game where building a dedicated ship for a dedicated plan seems to be a the better choice most of the time.

So in summary. I like the idea of a huge Imperial ship, I can put up with how it looks (whilst disliking what Star Wars has become to make it look so), I can't wait for all the cards, and I really want to get that 2nd Advanced and start running them.

Can it be March now?

Wait how can you blame the prequels for this?

Not specifically the the prequels, and not specifically this. When I talk about the prequel era, it includes all the various books, games and other assorted garbage that were spewed into existence at the same time. All this additional fiction didn't build on and grow the existing mythos, as the EU had done before, but instead shrunk it. Characters went to the same planets over and over again. Ships from decades earlier now had to have TIE cockpits, or S-foils. And so we ended up with all new Imperial capital ships having to be flying triangles, because that became what Imperial ships were. The prequels weren't necessary the thing most to blame, but they were the cause (and also victims with the Acclamator/Venator ships, aforementioned fighters and the various flavours of walker vehicles).

This ship is just the latest in a long line of victims of the mentality that emerged from that era.

Wings are still a bit silly though.

Its not like you could just take the wings off and glue some greebles (airlock points?) or even small gun turrets to the attachment points.

As for me...time to change my shorts.

I have no problem with the "baby star destroyer" part; it's the "tie fighter wings tacked on" part that I will have to get used to.

Wow, that's a pretty positive reaction. I'm quite put off by the fact that they tied a $60 anchor around the fix for the tie advanced. I don't personally play "epic" and I didn't mind missing out on all the new xwing pilots, astromechs and crew from the other ships because I can make great, fun lists without them. I was really looking forward to a buff to my advanced and I guess I'll have to keep waiting.

Henshini wrote:
Wow, that's a pretty positive reaction. I'm quite put off by the fact that they tied a $60 anchor around the fix for the tie advanced. I don't personally play "epic" and I didn't mind missing out on all the new xwing pilots, astromechs and crew from the other ships because I can make great, fun lists without them. I was really looking forward to a buff to my advanced and I guess I'll have to keep waiting.

Or print your own cards... or Ebay/trade for them?

Only the most legit tournaments would really insist you have the physical goods for a given upgrade, and if you do play at that level, it'll end up being worth the investment in the cards if you do feel compelled to run them.

In more casual play... I am sure no one will give grief for not having a card and saying "counts-as".

Been thinking about it a bit, and I think that with the title, the Tempest Squadron Pilot (TP) will compare favorably to Academy Pilots (AP). With the title and enhanced scopes, TP weighs in at 18pt- exactly 50% more than AP. This conveniently allows us to compare 2 TP to 3 AP, both costing 36 points.

Defensively, the TP's have the advantage, with 10 hits (including 4 shields) to the AP's 9 hits (no shields). Both have the same agility and defensive action options. The AP's have a small advantage in that, if an opponent "overkills" (by landing, say, 4+ hits) them, the extra damage is wasted, while it will still have an effect vs a TP.

Offensively, the AP gain the upper hand, with 3x2 Dice, vs the TP's 2x2. However, as the ships accumulate damage the TP's occasionally break even with the AP's. For example, after 3 hits on a single ship, and AP is dead, while both TP's are still fighting, evening the firepower up a bit. Same at 6 Damage. Offensively, the TP's are also redeemed somewhat by possessing the Target lock action, meaning that if they lack a good shot one turn, they can "Store" the action for later. Also, with PS2, the TP's will shoot before the AP's and other PS 1 ships. This gives them a slight edge in a even match.

For movement, I think that with these loadouts it would be a draw. AP's have a better dial, but the Enhanced Scopes allow TP's to block PS 1 ships movements, or move after them to learn their destination. I feel that this flexibility is worth the loss of the 3-K turn. If you swap scopes for another system upgrade, then the edge goes to the AP, but that leads us to our fourth catagory.

Customization: TP's take this one easily, with System and Missile upgrades to the AP's no upgrades. While this raises their cost above that of the Academyy pilots, being able to serve more roles than expendable cannon fodder should add to the TP's viability.

Advanced scopes is awful, don't even consider using it. Your two choices are accuracy corrector (automatic maximum damage on a 2-dice ship with no actions, so you can BR/evade every turn without giving up firepower) on low-PS ships and the new upgrade (huge damage increase) on high-PS ships that can consistently target lock the correct ship.

Also, you misunderstand how the title card works. You get a 4-point discount on the system upgrade, not on the ship as a whole. Any point deduction beyond the cost of your chosen upgrade is wasted.

Finally, advanced scopes is not optional. If you take it you are always PS 0 during activation.

The standard Imperial wedge design makes sense in engineering terms.

The engines go at the back to push the ship forwards. You can't put weapons there because of the blast and radiation, and for the same reason the back end is hard to attack. So the back is the widest part of the ship to shield the rest of it from incoming fire.

The weapon turrets are spread around the outside of the hull, and the pointy wedge maximises their arcs of fire. In particular, probably 100% of them can fire straight forwards, and 50% or more in any one direction except straight backwards where as noted the engines prevent fighting.

The bridge is on top because it gives the commanders the best viewpoint. The launch and recovery bay for fighters is underneath because it prevents the view from the bridge being constantly interrupted by flight operations.

The wedge overall is wide and flat because it is easier for crew to move around horizontally than constantly to be climbing stairs or going up and down in lifts.

Once the basic concept is established, the design similarity between different classes of Imperial ships is made more likely because they would share a lot of engineering principles, design work and standard systems and parts between their various ship-yards.

I think it'll paint up beautifully.

Wondering if that is all, or if we'll see a second huge ship with a support role, a la the transport.

The wedge also makes it immediately recognisable as an Imperial ship. I like the look of it, the wings are a bit unusual but it still looks rather bad ass. I wonder if it will also turn up in armada?

 Peregrine wrote:
Advanced scopes is awful, don't even consider using it. Your two choices are accuracy corrector (automatic maximum damage on a 2-dice ship with no actions, so you can BR/evade every turn without giving up firepower) on low-PS ships and the new upgrade (huge damage increase) on high-PS ships that can consistently target lock the correct ship.

Also, you misunderstand how the title card works. You get a 4-point discount on the system upgrade, not on the ship as a whole. Any point deduction beyond the cost of your chosen upgrade is wasted.

Finally, advanced scopes is not optional. If you take it you are always PS 0 during activation.

Woops! Thanks for pointing that out.

my better half plays Imperials, showed it to her, she sat with a slowly spreading evil grin, think I'm going to be facing more than 1. Thanks.
I think it's a great looking ship, looking forward to this being added to our collection!

Okay, so I had another idea (and hopefully this time I actually get the cards right ). I'm thinking that an X-1 with Accuracy Correctors could be a pretty good missile boat, as it doesn't seem that the Accuracy Correctors are limited to primary weapons. Basically, give them Ion Pulse or Assault Missiles, and shoot something. Two hits guarantee the ionization of anything with agility one or less, and gives good odds on anything with an agility of two which doesn't have any focus/evades. Same with assault missiles, hitting anything nearby.

Wow, it's been awhile eh? Some alt paint schemes I'm dreaming up:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
Okay, so I had another idea (and hopefully this time I actually get the cards right ). I'm thinking that an X-1 with Accuracy Correctors could be a pretty good missile boat, as it doesn't seem that the Accuracy Correctors are limited to primary weapons. Basically, give them Ion Pulse or Assault Missiles, and shoot something. Two hits guarantee the ionization of anything with agility one or less, and gives good odds on anything with an agility of two which doesn't have any focus/evades. Same with assault missiles, hitting anything nearby.

The accuracy corrector specifies primary weapons only.

 Lorek wrote:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
Okay, so I had another idea (and hopefully this time I actually get the cards right ). I'm thinking that an X-1 with Accuracy Correctors could be a pretty good missile boat, as it doesn't seem that the Accuracy Correctors are limited to primary weapons. Basically, give them Ion Pulse or Assault Missiles, and shoot something. Two hits guarantee the ionization of anything with agility one or less, and gives good odds on anything with an agility of two which doesn't have any focus/evades. Same with assault missiles, hitting anything nearby.

The accuracy corrector specifies primary weapons only.

Actually, unless they changed it from what's showing up in the preview, the words "Primary Weapons" do not appear anywhere on the accuracy corrector card. The only limitation is that you cannot further modify dice results.

Blah. I was thinking of the Advanced Targeting Computer.

Sorry!!

KnuckleWolf wrote:
Wow, it's been awhile eh? Some alt paint schemes I'm dreaming up:

I was definitely planning on painting the bloodstripes on mine too. Not sure about the stripe down the middle. Two racing stripes so it goes faster?

Only if they are red.
Oh, wait. Wrong game.

KnuckleWolf wrote:
Wow, it's been awhile eh? Some alt paint schemes I'm dreaming up:

Dammit that actually looks really cool.

I was nice and safe thinking "nah I'll never buy that" to "holy crap that's actually pretty cool looking".

Got a nice Sabre Squadron vibe going to it. Would look sweet with some of the Imperial Ace Interceptors zipping around it.