Just when we thought we were going to have a regular Christmas, FFG comes along and drops this:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/14/rule-the-skies/
Yep, both the Tie Bomber and Tie Defender will be getting some much-needed love with the next Aces pack. While there have been a few success stories with Tie Bomber swarms (see SableGryphon’s Victory is Mined) the ship hasn’t really been seen on the competitive seen too much, with the K-wing and Punisher stealing the spotlight. And the Tie Defender, while a fun ship to fly, suffers from the Tie Fighter dilemma – is this ship worth it’s weight in Tie Fighters? At 30 points for a base model, the answer has been a resounding “no”.
Here’s a look at what’s all inside the box:
Oh my, look at all the goodies! We’ve got titles, new generics, new modifications, a new bomb(?), and of course some very prettily painted models.
On to the upgrades!
Ordnance is still looked at with a sideways glance since it’s just too difficult to get those target locks in a timely fashion but now your low PS ships have a reason to grab proton torpedoes! Start off the game by locking on to the biggest threat on the table and suddenly you’ve got an easy way to get a solid 4-dice attack at range 3. While the idea of X-wings finally having a reason to use Proton Torpedoes would have been cool, the bombers (K-wing, Tie Punisher, Tie Bomber, etc.) will definitely get some use out of this.
Tie Bombers with their excellent 5k can actually get out of range 3 easily and swing around for a fully loaded missile pass. Punishers besides “Redline” will be able to actually use all of those missile slots and K-wings might even consider this against advanced slam (though Slamming and then grabbing a target lock once you’re out of arc/range is still a very solid move).
It also looks like a “Tie Shuttle” title is available, stripping out the ammo and adding two crew slots. According to some people on the forums with better eyes than mine, it’s restricted to crew costing “4” and under (so no Palpatine crammed into a bomber hull) but that’s still a heck of a lot of utility for a 16 point ship. Imagine a 22 point Jonus, loaded up with a fleet officer, flying in tandem with 3 long-range bombers. He can toss out focus, the bombers can lock at crazy long rang and deliver re-rolled, focused hits with impunity. That’s a heck of a range 3 punch!
But the more interesting upgrades (in my opinion) are the Tie Defender titles:
Let’s just get this out of the way – I’m super stoked for the Tie/D title. Double tapping Ion Cannon defenders bring a very strong control element to a beefy ship without sacrificing damage potential. We’ve already seen what two 3-dice attacks can do when they only deal 2 damage max. This one can deal up to 4 damage (5 at range one!) with a ion token on top of it. That’s going to really make you think hard of trying to joust with these bad boys. And the icing on the cake is that you don’t have to target the same ship! Ion one target? Great! Take your full dice attack against the other 🙂
They’re already very good at hunting other Ties and tanking damage from turrets. This finally lets them dish it out and make their heft 33 point price tag seem worth it. I would absolutely put this ship against two b-wings and expect it to survive. The tractor beam is something else to consider, but the potential with Ion Cannons is the one that has me the most excited.
The Tie/x7 title on the other hand, might finally make the generics worth it. At 28 points, you’ve got an excellent jouster that can reliable stay alive and keep up the pressure without dying to a lucky pair of shots. Focus/evade stacking is a godsend on 3 hull tie interceptors. On 6 shield/hull for 28 points? That’s some real nice efficiency. I expect to see some lists drop two ties to squeeze in one or two of these instead. White 4k with focus/evade keeps them in the fight and let’s them shrug off a few hits to deliver a fully focused attack.
All in all, I’m very excited to see how these upgrades help out the Empire. The Tie Defender still has one of the best stat lines in the game but was saddled with a crazy high cost. With the inclusion of these upgrades, it can finally justify it and I’m very excited to see these on the table.
A few other things to note is that we almost definitely have Maarek Steele in a Tie Defender (unless there’s some other “Maar” pilot we don’t know about) and the incredibly scary Tomax Bren. What makes Bren so scary? He turns discardable EPTs into non-discardable EPTs. And while there’s some fun interactions with Lightning Reflexes and Adrenaline Rush, the real star will be Crack Shot.
Crack Shot in it’s current form is already incredibly threatening and can be a death sentence to low-hull, high-agility ships. But as an always on ability? That’s potent. Couple that with some more reliable ordnance and suddenly that concussion missile or proton torpedo is a lot more threatening. Advanced Homing Missiles just became even more deadly and it’s going to be hard not to load Tomax up with all the goodies.
All in all, there’s some great stuff in store for the Empire and as always, I can’t wait to see what this brings to the game. Nicely done FFG!
Des Moines Area X-wing 