Ummm...you do know they HAVE to put those tokens in every ship, right? I mean, because they have no idea what ships people will/won't buy or in what order that every ship needs to have all the tokens required to use it. That's also interesting that FFG is coming over to your house and putting a gun to your head forcing you to buy their products. They just must not have made their rounds in my neighborhood yet.

Totally agree with this. In playing this game and watching other people play this game it seems that most people fly the same way. They fly all their ships towards the other guy until both sides are in a big blob. They all stay in that blob and keep firing at close range until someone dies. The defender REALLY works best at range 3. Range 3 with an HLC and it becomes a beast. It's incredibly difficult to kill and is handing out 4 die shots without an increase in agility. The dial also expects you to do that. If you get stressed or someone gets too close, run away and turn around to come back again. Also, sure the 1 and 2 turns are red, but it's better than not having them. It has every maneuver in the game but a 1 straight. And honestly, I've only ever needed to use a red turn on a defender once. It's just a ship that begs to be flown differently than how ships have traditionally been flown.

It's probably the most reliable Imperial ship. It's dial lets it get anywhere you need it to go. It can survive some bad defense rolls and it also puts out a good amount of damage. It's also the best HLC platform in the game. My favorite way to use it is with an HLC Delta. I just slowly move forward while having my academies block to deny actions. At PS1 I get focus every turn. I stay in the back so I'm lobbing off 4 dice range 2 and 3 attacks. At that range, other people have a hell of a time damaging me back. Then when the other team gets too close, I just k-turn behind them and it starts all over again.

Kinda don't understand the hate here. What does it matter to you how many people were at their regional? I mean if it's such a big deal, you could always fly down there next year and play there yourself. There are only 2 regionals in the entire South American continent. North America has 22. The people who won there deserved to win there. No need to be a jerk about it.

I used to worry about the Phantoms. In my first game against one, I got beat like a drum. After playing a few more games against one and playing a few games as one, I learned that there are a LOT of counters to Phantoms. And it's not just, "get a turret" or "use high PS." Asteroids work great. Good luck decloaking in the middle of an asteroid field. Plain old TIEs. This is what I've been doing a lot. I've been using them to screen various sections of the board, while keeping a heavy hitter the back. At that point the Phantom HAS to collide with one of them, losing an action and giving a chance for your other ship to hit it. Stress & Ions. A shuttle with tactician, ion cannon and gunner is nasty. These are just a few examples and these are all things that are effective against non Phantom builds also. Anyway, this is just a little bit of what I learned about how to stop worrying and love blowing up the Phantom.

I've actually had good success blocking the Phantom with regular TIEs. The problem is actually doing damage to it after that point. If they're using Whisper, you're still most likely firing against 4 defense dice and focus. I'm starting to think that a screen of TIEs followed by an HLC a good distance behind is the best way to do it without turrets.

That's the exact thought I had the last time I ran an Advanced. That it wouldn't be a bad ship if people actually fired at the dang thing. It's high defense coupled with the ability to take some pressure off my other ships would be fantastic. I wonder if they are thinking that the Proton Rockets on an Advanced would make people more likely to shoot at them.

Has anyone had any luck countering the Phantom as Imperials without using another Phantom? I like running Imperials, but it seems you only have a few options for countering Phantoms: Vader in an Advanced - but then you're stuck with a 2 attack ship Maarek w/ VI - Might as well use Vader Mauler Mithel w/ VI - would probably need an Engine Upgrade to make this work Howlrunner w/ VI - Kinda seems like a waste Soontir Fel - Always an excellent ship, but weaker against the Falcon which is becoming prevalent again. Rexler w/ VI - Can definitely do the job, though costs a lot of points. Rymer w/ VI + Flechette? - Maybe? Kath or Fett w/ VI - Can definitely do the job, though I don't like losing Expert Handling Is there hope without waiting for the Decimator?

Honestly, I love the PS1 defender. Slap an HLC on it and it's good to go. Lately I've been running: Carnor Jax Push the Limit Hull Upgrade Delta Squadron Pilot Heavy Laser Cannon Night Beast Black Squadron Pilot Decoy (or sometimes Wingman) Carnor is a big threat in his own right and makes people less likely to target the Defender. Also when Carnor is at range 1 stopping evades and focuses, it's really nasty to get hit by a focused HLC.

Anyone making an argument of, "It doesn't explicitly say I can't do something, so I obviously can..." drives me insane. Rules lawyering ruins games. Games designers can't think of every possible "what if" scenario with every rule. Again, as the rulebook says: During the Planning phase, players cannot use maneuver templates in order to “test” where ships will end up. Instead, they must plan their maneuvers by estimating their ships’ movement in their heads. So the idea is we estimate distances using our brains. Problem solved.

I live in St. Charles, quite close to the Fantasy Shop actually. Though my schedule is somewhat limited, I'd be interested if they set up a weekly night. I might know someone else who is interested too.

I would hate if they did that. You'd lose a lot of flavor and make the game more "game-y". Not to mention you would just see certain pilots over and over again. I know I'd put Vader in pretty much every list I ran. And could you imagine Maarek in a Phantom?

For sh*ts and giggles I used Maarek with Predator in my last tournament. He actually ended up being the MVP in two of the games... Still, is Maarek with Predator worth 2.5 TIEs? NOPE Is it worth it to see the look on your opponents face when they realize they have to pull 3 crits and I get to pick one? YES

I think that's the big problem with Phantoms. In the hands of an average player, they are more of a liability. In the hands of a skilled player they are scary.

The best ship is whatever ship I'm flying.

The defender is incredibly powerful. Combined with an EU and HLC it just becomes ridiculous. The trick with using it is it needs to start off as a flanker. Focus fire will bring it down fast. On a flank it just rips ships apart. I think the hardest part with using the Defender is building a list around it. It costs so many points that it makes list building difficult. This was my first attempt at a Defender list: Rexler Brath - 37 (51) Predator - 3 Heavy Laser Cannon - 7 Engine Upgrade - 4 Night Beast - 15 Black Squadron Pilot - 14 (16) Wingman - 2 Black Squadron Pilot - 14 (18) Opportunist - 4 There's some things I want to adjust in it, but I still annihilated my opponent only losing 1 TIE.

This game is totally pay-to-win. I pay my opponents $100 and I win every time!

That's the most annoying thing in my opinion. The other ships make slight changes to the meta, whereas the Phantom just takes a big, fat dump on it. Hopefully, no one who is super-skilled with the Phantom will show up to the tournament I'm going to tomorrow. I like shaking up the meta, I'm just not prepared for it.

As someone else with a job, wife & kids I RARELY get to play epic format. But when I do...it's totally worth it.

I'd expect better less alarmist statements from you. The Phantom is far easier to play than it is to play against, meaning that right now its performance is basically meaningless. Players will learn to fight it, to kill it, and it will come to be good, but far from the best. But it also does what it was supposed to do. Stop low PS swarms from eating everything else alive. Packing any number of things completely nueters the Phantom. And interestingly they are the same things that didn't see play in the previous meta because firepower was more important. Stress delivery, Ions, High Pilot Skill. And of course Turrets. Because they will always be good. Funny how we're getting a pair of new three range turret ships.And then theirs heavy lasers, Ordnance, and every other way to get 4 attack dice. It's like FFG designed it to create build diversity or something. It's not broken. Just broken if you don't build taking it in to consideration and can't predict where it will go, despite the fact predicting movement in this game, even for a phantom, is not that difficult. As I said. I expected better than doom and gloom, Ban this, nonsense. Thank you, I appreciate your kind words especially when we disagree with one another. I do feel the need to respond. The question was whether or not the Phantom is the best ship, and I firmly believe that hands-down and by a very wide margin the Phantom is indeed the best ship. I also went to great pains to state that it is not invincible, but it IS a ship that hard counters at LEAST 80% of the ships in the game. If I bring Echo with VI (whom I believe is by far the more effective), any ship that lacks a range 3 turret or has a PS less than 8 is going to get murdered by me. You state that people need to be able to predict my movements, but they cannot. They cannot, because I don't decide where I am going until after they have moved. In the hands of a skilled player, the maneuver on the dial works to either bring you in close or move you completely out of range depending on which direction you place your 2 bank in. If the ship "guesses right", you decline the exchange. If the ship "guesses wrong", you move in and vaporize them. There is no opportunity for them to guess well against you, unless you make a pretty significant mistake. The other point I made is that the Phantom is simply too cheap for its abilities. I have repeatedly destroyed lists that should have been able to hurt my Phantom, because I can optimize the other 60 or so points of my list up against whatever is threatening to Echo. High PS is the most effective, so generally I run 5 TIEs. 5 TIEs kill YTs, and block the hell out of any high PS ships that wanted to get a shot on Echo. By putting those TIEs in the few good places available to counter my Phantom, I can guarantee my opponent cannot go there. I have regularly, by which I mean 4 out of 4 times so far, destroyed entire lists using ONLY Echo (as in, I only put the one ship on the table), and her advantage grows exponentially with support that can deny actions and control my opponent's movements. To be sure, those lists were all lists with low PS (except the 4X build that had Wedge/R2, Biggs/Hull, Rookie, Rookie). I am not trying to brag up some claim that I am some kind of elite player. It just really isn't that hard to do. I'm not forced to out plan or out guess my opponent, I can see exactly where his ships are before moving Echo. And if I get the details a little bit wrong, there is always barrel roll to get that last little bit out of arc/range. I do believe the Advanced Cloaking Device needs to go. The only reason Phantoms can be abused is that they can use their phenomenal maneuverability every single turn, without spending so much as an action to do so. THAT is why they are abusive, not because they roll 4 green dice when shot at. It would really make very little difference if cloaking added any dice to defense because if you're doing it right your opponent rarely if ever is allowed a shot. Can the Phantom be beat? Of course it can. Very high PS builds, turrets, action denial swarms, all three of these act as paper to the Phantom rock. My issue is that you cannot just add an anti-Phantom element, because if you do the OTHER 60 points of the Phantom's list can remove it and the Phantom can crush everything else. You are obliged to dedicate your entire list to anti-Phantom tech, because the moment you find yourself with only sub 8 PS non-turret ships on the table a single Phantom can consistently eliminate your entire list. If you rocked 75 points of general list, and all the Phantom player managed to do with 60 points of his list is eliminate the one guy who threatened his Phantom, he is probably going to win anyway. Despite your theoretical 75 to 40 point advantage. It's not unbeatable in a rock paper scissors game. It's just such a big Rock, it crushes pretty nearly everything up to and including every other rock, all scissors, and even a little bit of paper. You MUST build entire lists to deal with it, or else you will get mauled the first time you run into one. JMO. I'm guessing that the meta is going to evolve, and you will see several lists doing well including ones that don't have Phantoms. But any lists that don't either include a Phantom or anti-Phantom tech as a centerpiece are going to be at a severe disadvantage. I enjoy having the meta change and evolve. I don't enjoy having a single ship warp the entire meta around it. Heres the thing.Anything that counters the Phantom also drops it incredibly fast. If 35-40 dice on your team go down like a sack of bricks early game you've probably lost. And in a tournament scenario(the only real place balance matters) You will start to see these pop up. Yes, the Phantom hard counters most ships underneath its point cost. But I in no way believe that is a bad thing. Functionally on an individual level Soontir Fel does the exact same thing. So does the YT. The Outrider will too. Thankfully this isn't a game of individual ships. The best ship has to handle well against all comers. If the best gets owned reliably by Horton Salm with vet Instincts and an Ion Cannon it isn't the best. The big difference between a high PS Phantom and other ships is that it's really easy to avoid your counters in a Phantom. If your counter moves first, it's trivial to reposition to a place where your counter doesn't have a shot or doesn't have a good one.

The thing with B-Wings is that they are so reliable it makes everyone want to use them. The system slot makes them even more reliable at whatever it is you're looking for them to do. You don't need to be lucky in rolling defense dice, it just tanks the hits. It puts out a good amount of firepower and is very maneuverable. In a tournament setting, Dagger & Blue Squadron pilots are very much worth the points. You know what you're going to get out of them and taking them isn't risky. Since most people play in tournament formats (even in pickup games) they see a lot of use.

It makes sense. Miniatures market and the FLGS probably get the ships on the same day. But where the FLGS just calls me and says they have shiny new things for me MM has to process hundreds of orders, package them, and ship them. Thankfully MM is my FLGS.

B-Wings are what made me switch to primarily playing Imperials. B-Wings are so good that I kept putting them in my rebel lists. Whenever I try to put in something else, I end up just putting a B-Wing in anyway. Then whenever I played a rebel player, I was fighting B-Wings. I just got tired of seeing B-Wings everywhere. Now that I primarily play Imps, I get to shoot B-Wings all day long. It's good therapy.

This mental image had me laughing all morning.

Here's a list: http://critical-rocket.blogspot.dk/2012/10/star-wars-x-wing-critical-hit-guide.html