Pathfinders spoiled early, it seems

[Caimheul1313 2,990]

3 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

Something to remember about Bistan is that all models in a unit have access to the weapons on the unit card. That means he can use the A-300 rifle (and it's configurations) along with the weapon on his card. I forgot that and thought it was a waste of 32 points at first glance also.

With that in mind, it is only a "waste" of 15 points (each model in the unit costs 17 points), again depending upon what the option for the other side of the A-300 configuration.

[NeonWolf 942]

1 minute ago, Caimheul1313 said:

With that in mind, it is only a "waste" of 15 points (each model in the unit costs 17 points), again depending upon what the option for the other side of the A-300 configuration.

The Config weapons (so far) require a Recover action to flip the card. This means that you can, theoretically, start off with long-range config, use Bistan's exhaust weapon, then when you Recover to change the A-300 config you also refresh Bistans weapon.  It makes his exhaust weapon more efficient than MPL launchers in the Rebel/Fleet troopers.

[thepopemobile100 977]

I have mixed feelings about Bistan. I hate exhaust cards but at range 3 the pathfinders will put out the same amount of dice as fleet troopers with the mpl with the same surge. It'll lack blast, but that's a lot of damage. With infiltrate and overwatch I could see using them effectively as a turret until the rest of the force catches up with them.

[Caimheul1313 2,990]

4 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

The Config weapons (so far) require a Recover action to flip the card. This means that you can, theoretically, start off with long-range config, use Bistan's exhaust weapon, then when you Recover to change the A-300 config you also refresh Bistans weapon.  It makes his exhaust weapon more efficient than MPL launchers in the Rebel/Fleet troopers.

In that respect, yes it does. But part of that 15 points is paying for Impact 1 and Ion 1, two keywords that large dice pools are of minimal benefit (they only apply when targeting vehicles, most vehicles have Armor so only the Impact hit and any crits will get through, one of those has to cause damage for Ion to apply). Unlike the MPL launchers, he doesn't seem as good at targeting a vehicle by himself, since he needs 1-2 hits in order to ensure the Impact has something to convert after cover/dodge is applied.

[Weikel 68]

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

In that respect, yes it does. But part of that 15 points is paying for Impact 1 and Ion 1, two keywords that large dice pools are of minimal benefit (they only apply when targeting vehicles, most vehicles have Armor so only the Impact hit and any crits will get through, one of those has to cause damage for Ion to apply). Unlike the MPL launchers, he doesn't seem as good at targeting a vehicle by himself, since he needs 1-2 hits in order to ensure the Impact has something to convert after cover/dodge is applied.

Bistan needs aim tokens to help with that. Trust goes both ways will help for one turn. Time that command card with Bistan aiming before shooting and it'll maximize his chances at landing ion.

[Docgimmethenews 176]

Pathfinders are going to be amazing.

Sit Jyn and 2-3 units of pathfinders on an objective turn 0!

Long range config till they move then just aim and standby from there.

****....depending on the where the deployment zones are you could rapidly reinforce them with a sniper team that is also given recon intel.

These are the perfect units that you entrench on an objective and dish out pain!

Also remember that Bistan and Pao are named units. If you use more than one pathfinder unit, you are going to use both anyways cause you cant have two Paos or Bistans.

So if you want to have three PFs, than it's going to be Pao, Bistan, and a no-heavy unit.

 

These units are boss.

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

19 minutes ago, Docgimmethenews said:

Pathfinders are going to be amazing.

Sit Jyn and 2-3 units of pathfinders on an objective turn 0!

Long range config till they move then just aim and standby from there.

****....depending on the where the deployment zones are you could rapidly reinforce them with a sniper team that is also given recon intel.

These are the perfect units that you entrench on an objective and dish out pain!

Also remember that Bistan and Pao are named units. If you use more than one pathfinder unit, you are going to use both anyways cause you cant have two Paos or Bistans.

So if you want to have three PFs, than it's going to be Pao, Bistan, and a no-heavy unit.

 

These units are boss.

I totally agree that these are awesome units; however, I am not sure I'd be adding Bistan automatically on a 2nd squad of them.

Heck, you could add the basic Comms Technician for only 14 points (9+5 for Relay, the cheapest comms upgrade), and get that technician to using the basic/general upgrade weapons.

Without a generic "Pathfinder" trooper (if there indeed is not one in this pack), then that would be the easiest way to get one at minimal cost.

Edited February 18, 2019 by manoftomorrow010

[UnitOmega 2,818]

Pao I think has two uses, befitting the fact that you can use pathfinders a few different ways. On the one hand, he's basically as close as the rebels get to the DLT, he'll be slinging suppression and pot shots all over the place. The second though with Inspire is that you don't have to necessarily drop Pathfinders on an objective right away - you can use them to spearhead your conventional forces as they'll likely have some decent ability to engage at longer range and can stay mobile while suppressed, so Pao can inspire your guys following behind to keep pushing up. 

It's good to point out Bistan can still use the normal A-300 attacks, this makes him less dead weight, but still quite expensive to get a extra rifle in there and sometimes be able to drop a slightly better Z-6 shot. If I knew lots of guys who wanted to run armor or something, I'd use him, but in a vacuum....

ALSO HEY LAST MINUTE ADD, ARTICLE UP

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/2/18/leading-the-way/

[chemnitz 328]

4 minutes ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

I totally agree that these are awesome units; however, I am not sure I'd be adding Bistan automatically on a 2nd squad of them.

Heck, you could add the basic Comms Technician for only 14 points (9+5 for Relay, the cheapest comms upgrade), and get that technician to using the basic/general upgrade weapons.

Without a generic "Pathfinder" trooper (if there indeed is not one in this pack), then that would be the easiest way to get one at minimal cost.

Unfortunately, you can’t add a Comms Technician to the Pathfinders because they lack a personnel upgrade slot. 

[chr335 658]

Hmm the long range configuration is weaker then I thought but still range 4 is enough to pin down stuff

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

2 minutes ago, chemnitz said:

Unfortunately, you can’t add a Comms Technician to the Pathfinders because they lack a personnel upgrade slot. 

womp womp. I confused the heavy-weapon person running

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

6 minutes ago, UnitOmega said:

Pao I think has two uses, befitting the fact that you can use pathfinders a few different ways. On the one hand, he's basically as close as the rebels get to the DLT, he'll be slinging suppression and pot shots all over the place. The second though with Inspire is that you don't have to necessarily drop Pathfinders on an objective right away - you can use them to spearhead your conventional forces as they'll likely have some decent ability to engage at longer range and can stay mobile while suppressed, so Pao can inspire your guys following behind to keep pushing up. 

It's good to point out Bistan can still use the normal A-300 attacks, this makes him less dead weight, but still quite expensive to get a extra rifle in there and sometimes be able to drop a slightly better Z-6 shot. If I knew lots of guys who wanted to run armor or something, I'd use him, but in a vacuum....

ALSO HEY LAST MINUTE ADD, ARTICLE UP

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/2/18/leading-the-way/

Yeah I will always be starting them on this configuration.

This unit will be incredibly versatile.

[bllaw 250]

15 hours ago, UnitOmega said:

RIP Bistan, his dice pool+exhaust are pretty bad for a minimum 1/8th of your points.

I actually think that Bistan won't be so bad...sure his Ion stinks and will probably never be used by that weapon looks like it'll pack a lot of punch. And sure the recover is annoying, but throw HQ up link on them and with their reconfigure card having to be recovered I'd find myself performing the recover action pretty often. Plus they're trying to get suppression so when they get too much, they've got to recover

[NeonWolf 942]

Alright, after finding out what the Long Range config is I am kind of envisioning two squads of Pathfinders, one each with Bistan & Pao. Start them off with the Long Range config, give them Duck & Cover, then deploy them as late as possible to either snag Key Positions, Supplies, or Vaporators and throw out suppression with all the white dice. If they start taking fire you get the extra dice from Danger Sense and can choose to take a suppression with Duck & Cover.

It seems like the sweet spot for these guys is 3 suppression. They still get a free move from Dauntless but get the 3 extra defense dice.  Pierce is going to wreck these guys though. Getting caught in melee won't be pretty either, I'm guessing.

Edited February 18, 2019 by NeonWolf

[UnitOmega 2,818]

Low amounts of pierce probably aren't too bad - you can theoretically roll surplus Blocks with Danger Sense. But yeah, they need to ride that line of Suppression which gives them a lot of risk/reward. I think they're gonna like that new Training with Bossk and Sabine to give them the option to pull extra Suppression off at the end of Activation as an alternative to Duck and Cover - depends on what kind of positions are available to them.

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

20 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

Alright, after finding out what the Long Range config is I am kind of envisioning two squads of Pathfinders, one each with Bistan & Pao. Start them off with the Long Range config, give them Duck & Cover, then deploy them as late as possible to either snag Key Positions, Supplies, or Vaporators and throw out suppression with all the white dice. If they start taking fire you get the extra dice from Danger Sense and can choose to take a suppression with Duck & Cover.

It seems like the sweet spot for these guys is 3 suppression. They still get a free move from Dauntless but get the 3 extra defense dice.  Pierce is going to wreck these guys though. Getting caught in melee won't be pretty either, I'm guessing.

I think they will do OK against Pierce. Cover, Suppression, Danger Sense all means you're absolutely going to have heavy cover at all times, unless you just botch them tremendously. And the extra dice with surge means you could maybe cancel the hits even after Pierce is applied.

Crits will absolutely be the result you can't afford to see.

[Docgimmethenews 176]

1 hour ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

I totally agree that these are awesome units; however, I am not sure I'd be adding Bistan automatically on a 2nd squad of them.

Heck, you could add the basic Comms Technician for only 14 points (9+5 for Relay, the cheapest comms upgrade), and get that technician to using the basic/general upgrade weapons.

Without a generic "Pathfinder" trooper (if there indeed is not one in this pack), then that would be the easiest way to get one at minimal cost.

You cant do that...

You can only equip a heavy and not an xtra personnel...unfortunately. 

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

Just now, Docgimmethenews said:

You cant do that...

You can only equip a heavy and not an xtra personnel...unfortunately. 

yep chemnitz pointed that out

[FSD 865]

49 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

Alright, after finding out what the Long Range config is I am kind of envisioning two squads of Pathfinders, one each with Bistan & Pao. Start them off with the Long Range config, give them Duck & Cover, then deploy them as late as possible to either snag Key Positions, Supplies, or Vaporators and throw out suppression with all the white dice. If they start taking fire you get the extra dice from Danger Sense and can choose to take a suppression with Duck & Cover.

It seems like the sweet spot for these guys is 3 suppression. They still get a free move from Dauntless but get the 3 extra defense dice.  Pierce is going to wreck these guys though. Getting caught in melee won't be pretty either, I'm guessing.

Thinking along the same lines myself.  I think the Long Range config  gels better with Bistan as you are going to be throwing 8 white and one black at range 4.  You'll need to recover to keep that going and when you do, you can double dip to get the short range config if needed.  Personally, the config is going to effectively be stapled to him.

With Pao, I'm not so sure I'd auto-include the config.  If I did, I'm pretty sure I'd never be looking to recover and would just ride out the game on the Long Range config for the range bonus to 4 when needed.

[buckero0 1,956]

1 minute ago, FSD said:

Thinking along the same lines myself.  I think the Long Range config  gels better with Bistan as you are going to be throwing 8 white and one black at range 4.

8 white dice?  

[manoftomorrow010 1,119]

2 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

8 white dice?  

4 Pathfinder minis = 4 white with Long Range config

Bistan = 1 black, 4 white.

[buckero0 1,956]

I thought the long/short range configuration was 1 mini, where does it say they all get the weapon?

If it acts just like every other weapon upgrade, its one per unit, just like the rotary gun or sniper rifle.

Edited February 18, 2019 by buckero0

[Docgimmethenews 176]

3 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

I thought the long range configuration was 1 mini, where does it say they all get the weapon?

It's inherent

 

So like with grenades, or hooks, or TS, etc, it applies to all

Edited February 18, 2019 by Docgimmethenews

[DarkTrooperZero 304]

7 hours ago, Weikel said:

And if you're reconfiguring your A300 and/or recovering some suppression, that refresh isn't much of a negative.

For the marginal increase in hits to swap to 1 red versus 2 white I doubt the recover action is worth it?

[arnoldrew 1,713]

6 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

I thought the long/short range configuration was 1 mini, where does it say they all get the weapon?

If it acts just like every other weapon upgrade, its one per unit, just like the rotary gun or sniper rifle.

It acts like almost every other upgrade, which means every mini in the unit has that weapon. It does not act like a Heavy weapon or Personnel upgrade, which adds a single mini which has access to anything on it's card. "Weapon upgrades" don't really exist, unless you mean Grenades and Armaments, whcih act in the opposite manner to what you said.