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The Electro-Proton Bomb is not going to be an issue. The 1-turn delay in detonation means it can be easily dodged but it does reward good play by timing the drop just right. If you catch a big points fortress with it, it's great but big ships are even harder to catch since they move so fast.

They move fast if they can boost. Which isn't all big bases. And if you're going to make sure they can't move fast... you can always use a Nonnac Reddof* to block easy ways out.

*Warriors of Ultimate Death

Thinking the bomb dropping Y (in the example list) would serve duty as blocker as well. The thing is though that as with all bombers its not really so much the damage that you can do but forcing your opponent to dance to your tune. As is said the radius of the actual bomb blast is fairly easy to dodge but in order to do so your opponent needs to be moving fast or in a direction that may not be in there interest, if you can force them to split up a formation or move really quickly then hopefully you can trap them in a kill box of your own ships. Of course you can always just ion them, drop the bomb and ion them some more...

TBH I just don't see it. The area denial works both ways and there are limited arrangements where you get to bomb your opponent for significant value but don't catch your own ships as well (or have to turn away from the engagement to escape). If you launch the bomb they can fly past it and k-turn behind you while your ships are pointed directly at the bomb and forced to turn away. If you drop it they can potentially break away or hold position outside of the radius while you are forced to joust straight at them. And if you fail to set up a head-on joust and they're coming at you from the side (or, worse, multiple directions) then they have even more options for avoiding the bomb while still getting to attack. Without the ability to take more than one of them or immediately detonate it you're relying way too much on being significantly more prepared than your opponent, and if you have such a skill advantage that they don't know how to counter the bomb then you don't need it to win.

IMO it might end up being an interesting gimmick, but unless it's cheap I don't see it getting much use.

I think that's why people are thinking about Nym with a Y-Wing carrying the bomb, cause he can hold the bomb while your ships are in the blast zone.

Nym plus another carrier just seems like a hell of an investment for something that has such variable outcomes. It also affects the Nym players just as much as their opponent because the blast range is so wide. You may get more control over when the bomb detonates but the amount of points you've sunk into making it happen just doesn't seem worthwhile. It's not like Nym's been seeing a lot of play in the meta and bombing Y-Wings are fairly rare too. You could go VTG on both but is that more powerful than just taking more VTG Y-Wings in general?

Hyena Preview;
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/13/living-starfighters/

I like that they're using the app to allow them to vary the upgrades available for each ship. So instead of Configurations or Titles you just choose the pilot card with the upgrade you want. Allows them to tailor the ship's abilities to its upgrades which is a good way of doing things.

Awesome ship! It'll be so fun to play with it

I saw the article title and lost my mind for the second before the picture loaded.

FFG: "hey, let's make a worse version of a 1.0 card that nobody used because it was terrible, 2.0 players will love it."

What?

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
What?

The new and even more terrible assault missiles.

Assault missiles weren't bad. Especially post guidance chips.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Assault missiles weren't bad. Especially post guidance chips.

They’re too situational.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Assault missiles weren't bad. Especially post guidance chips.

They really were, thus being almost nonexistent in competitive play.

If not for Harpoons they'd be the go to in any build with Jostero. On the joust against a formation they could wreck face. Even still I'd seen and used harpoons and assault missiles in conjunction. That double splash was beautiful.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
If not for Harpoons they'd be the go to in any build with Jostero.

So, a second-tier option in a list that could be charitably described as "not a relevant part of the competitive meta". Not saying much there.

On the joust against a formation they could wreck face.

"Could" is the key point. They might do some damage, if you made the poor decision to joust a list that wants to line up in formation and joust, if you managed to hit, if they didn't spread out to mitigate the damage, etc. There's a reason they never made any meaningful competitive impact, and now the 2.0 version is worse in every way.

I saw the N1 pilots in Polish on Instagram, does anyone else know if this has been translated? My Polish is a tad rusty, see.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
I saw the N1 pilots in Polish on Instagram, does anyone else know if this has been translated? My Polish is a tad rusty, see.

Havent seen them (nor the Polish leak for that matter). Its only Rik and the Int. 3 we don't know isn't it? Padme and Annie were shown in the video on the last page and the Royal companions (cant remember the proper name) have been shown elsewhere. Got a link?

Alas no, only saw it fleetingly on Instagram. And since I'm not truly a 14 years-old, I don,t quite know how to find it again and post a link from that gosh darned application.

Well here is the article:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/20/new-tricks/










Think we are going to see lots of passive Phantoms from now.

 ingtaer wrote:
Think we are going to see lots of passive Phantoms from now.

I doubt it. The advantage over taking a normal focus action is marginal and unless it costs zero points the standard phantom list can't afford it. The only use I can see is getting target locks with low-PS ordnance carriers, but that raises the question of why you're paying points to make your action happen later when you could spend those points to increase your PS and avoid the problem you're trying to fix.

Because if the price is right, it might be worth it to pay just for that, rather than a useless EPT slot and "still not quite enough Initiative" to move after aces.

I'm curious as to why people think we'd see phantoms with Passive Sensors, though? Not one of them comes with TL or Calculate in their action bar.

The way I'm reading it is it'd let the ship take a target lock or calculate regardless of the ship having it. Which honestly my Reaper/2 Phantom list probably won't need Krennic/Tarkin crew anymore if the cost is cheaper then the collision detectors I normally use.

Might also be good for low initiative ships in general.

That would be insane.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
The way I'm reading it is it'd let the ship take a target lock or calculate regardless of the ship having it.

This is correct, and the reason why anyone is talking about using it on phantoms. An ability that says "perform {action}" can be used even if the action isn't on your action bar (though of course it doesn't add it to your action bar or allow you to do it any other way). It's just a fairly questionable value on anything besides ordnance carriers, and ordnance carriers already have the target lock action on their bar. And it's especially questionable when targeting computer seems to be in one of the preview spreads and will probably be a cheaper option.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
That would be insane.

Why? It's, at best, an extremely minor buff.

Yeah but generally ordinance carriers have bad initiative and thus have a hard time locking something that then just moves out of arc. You have to have a shenanigan like Tarkin or mass barrage rockets which then use focus anyway.

This let's you lock up anything that gets in your gun sight.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Yeah but generally ordinance carriers have bad initiative and thus have a hard time locking something that then just moves out of arc. You have to have a shenanigan like Tarkin or mass barrage rockets which then use focus anyway.

This let's you lock up anything that gets in your gun sight.

It's not always the case that ordnance carriers are low Initiative - Redline, Wedge and Luke have all been fairly common ordnance carriers. It's more accurate to say that massed ordnance tends to come in the form of low Initiative ships. As Peregrine points out though, if Passive Sensors is above a certain cost you're gaining nothing by taking it on a low Initiative ship when you could be spending those points on getting, for example +2 Initiative by going from I2 generics to I4. If it's more expensive than that you might even be able to go from I2 generic to I4/I5 named pilots.

I'm also not seeing it on Phantoms. Getting a Target Lock is nice but often Focus is just as good. Yes, there are times when you don't have a shot and aren't getting shot when grabbing a TL is beneficial but in general you'll probably want Focus anyway. The Phantom lists at the moment don't have any points spare to add these sensors either and Whisper and Echo generally want a Collision Detector to increase their options when decloaking and moving.

Anyone want to theorycraft as to why the wave is delayed? Usual FFG shenanigans, or something more ominous?