Ion cannons will always be relevant to this game

[klyver 44]

I can not believe how useful the ion cannon is. Especially against large ships, it can be devastating. I just won my second tournament almost on a fluke, well basically a fluke. First opponent forfeited due to a work obligation. Second opponent quit after i ionized his Chewbacca falcon off the board. He only had shield stripped xwings left. I count myself lucky for winning and earning an hwk when it gets released.

[GrandMoffMatt 958]

Well that's one way to do it.  Escort Chewie right off that board!

[nimdabew 156]

I try to use at least one movement control cannon when I play rebels. They are good. I don't know if the B-Wing with ion cannon or the y-wing with ion turret is better. Time will tell, but I think the Y-Wing is a better overall ion carrier.

[Ravncat 1,988]

Definitely a difficult thing to say - The difference of the range 3 cone and the range 2 circle is very important tactically, which suggests different kinds of uses. One example is that the Y-wing can stay stand off-ish (Setting up targets for other ships, as it circles the target), but the B-wing will want to set up shots for itself and ships flying in formation (as it has to be moving in the direction of the target due to the nature of it's cone)

[Joe Boss Red Seven 11,292]

I agree you need to use them smart and in groups, say one Y-Wing with two X-Wings, and keep them together.

 

When I watch battle report videos and I see the player who spreads their ships out all over the board I am like: "Dude, are you trying to be picked off by all of the Tie Fighters?!" and sure enough they loose.

Y-Wings in/or with groups. They are deadly.

The only reason I do not have six of them (Ha,Ha) is because they are being reprinted and I just got into this wonderful game, so I missed them the first time around.

[Parakitor 5,583]

I've played the following squad twice, with minimal success:

 

[33] Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire-Control System (2) + Ion Cannon (3) + Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

[33] Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire-Control System (2) + Ion Cannon (3) + Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

[34] Kyle Katarn (21) + Blaster Turret (4) + Recon Specialist (3) + Moldy Crow (3) + Stealth Device (3)

 

The goal is to ion a ship or two coming in, and receive a Target Lock. Move in to range 1 and either focus for the Advanced Proton Torpedoes attack, or barrel roll out of firing arc and then have Kyle pass a Focus.

 

It's been having some struggles. First off, I have been starting with my B-wings split so they could converge in the center, but nobody ever sets up in center. Instead they start on one edge and one of my B-wings is stuck out of the fight for the first round of combat. Definitely going to rectify that mistake.

 

Kyle is good with his Blaster Turret, but because I use a Focus to pass, a Focus to fire, and a Focus to modify I find him running low on Focus tokens. I think I'm going to drop Stealth Device, change one Blue to a Dagger Sq. Pilot, and use the last point to upgrade Kyle's turret to an Ion Cannon Turret. That way, if I lose a ship early I still have the ability to disable a large ship in a single round to either set up for the APT attack, or to escort it off the board.

But maybe three ion weapons is excessive. If it doesn't work out well, I may keep the Blaster Turret and give Kyle Adrenaline Rush. This will allow him to take a critical Bank 3 maneuver to be in range to give a Focus, but also keep his action.

[KineticOperator 2,534]

Ion weapons get better the more you have.  Against large ships, the multiples let you actually ionize the thing every round.  Against larger numbers of ships, the more you have the more incoming fire you can avoid.  I am pretty confident you will be happy with the third ion weapon.  My only thought is that you might not want to upgrade the Blue, save the points to get initiative.  Having your two Blues share PS makes it easier to maneuver, since you are planning to run them close to one another from now on.

[klyver 44]

I would use ions only for turrets, not a bwing. The 360 degree fire circle is just to good. With the blaster turret on ywings, i may not even use the ion anymore, but we shall see.

[Hida77 951]

I try to use at least one movement control cannon when I play rebels. They are good. I don't know if the B-Wing with ion cannon or the y-wing with ion turret is better. Time will tell, but I think the Y-Wing is a better overall ion carrier.

I would argue the HWK is now one of the better Ion Turret carriers.  Kyle/Jan + Ion gives you a lot for the cost. Gold + Ion is still fine if you are just looking for cheap (although the HWK also beats the Y there by a point too!), but the extra points for either named HWK pilots is really nice.

[nimdabew 156]

I would use ions only for turrets, not a bwing. The 360 degree fire circle is just to good. With the blaster turret on ywings, i may not even use the ion anymore, but we shall see.

You would need to take focus every turn and if you lose your action for whatever reason, you cannot fire the blaster turret unless you got a focus token somehow. 

[Norsehound 2,737]

If you wanted to perform "escort tactics" I'd take the Y-Wing with turret. At lower pilot skill, if you need to avoid hitting the ship you are ion'ing, you can still engage it while peeling off.

 

I always preferred something with more damage than the ion cannon could give, escort tactics relies too much on repeated hits and it's not very fun for your opponent. I know I wouldn't like being on the receiving end.

[Vonpenguin 389]

While the blaster has more damage potential, the fact that it's no simple task to modify the dice means the it's probably only going to do slightly more damage over the course of a game. 50% unmodified on a given die gives a three die attack 1.5 damage and an average tie will get one evade unmodified per attack. I'd personally take accuracy, consistency, and flexibility over the outliers where my good roll lines up with their bad roll. I think Blaster is going to be great for guys like Horton or a pimped out Kyle who can up their odds but for the most part I think I'll only use them if I don't want to put up the extra point for an ion.

 

I like the standard canon as well because it's a nice way to tag something at range three and know where it's going to be next turn.

[KineticOperator 2,534]

Against an agility 3 or higher target, the Ion Turret with focus is almost identical to the blaster turret with a focus in damage output.  When comparing the Ion Turret with focus to an unfocused blaster (because it used it to fire), the Ion Turret does MORE damage per turn.  At agility 2, the Ion Turret has a small disadvantage with both focused, and is equal when the ion is focused but the blaster is not.  Only against agility 1 targets does the Blaster Turret consistently out damage the Ion Turret.  The Blaster Turret's real advantage is the potential for a large, early hit eliminating a ship, not in average damage output.

 

 

Just something to keep in mind.

Edited September 10, 2013 by KineticOperator

[Parakitor 5,583]

I like the standard canon as well because it's a nice way to tag something at range three and know where it's going to be next turn.

Definitely. The ability to ion the Falcon off the bard at range 3 is pretty neat compared to the range 2 turret. I could never convince myself to put the Ion Cannon on the Firespray, but for the smaller B-wing (which has the cannons according to canon) I am all for it.

[DoubleNot7 768]

There is nothing not to like about the Ion cannon.

[Norsehound 2,737]

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

 

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

[Joe Boss Red Seven 11,292]

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

 

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

 

That is why you have another ship BEHIND  (or to the side) of the Ion affected ship to blast it while it bumbles one forward...you know right where it is going to be next turn.

[nimdabew 156]

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

 

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

Unless it does barrel roll, boost, or runs into another ship, you know exactly where that so is going to be the next turn. Guessing where the other players ships are going to the following turn is bathe battle. If I know that *that* X-Wing is going to be *right there* I can position my ships and set them up to blast the X-Wing to holy hell the following turn.

Movement control > the off chance of getting one more damage some of the time.

[Deltmi 786]

 

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

 

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

Unless it does barrel roll, boost, or runs into another ship, you know exactly where that so is going to be the next turn. Guessing where the other players ships are going to the following turn is bathe battle. If I know that *that* X-Wing is going to be *right there* I can position my ships and set them up to blast the X-Wing to holy hell the following turn.

Movement control > the off chance of getting one more damage some of the time.

 

 

Knowing where your opponent is going to move is the biggest advantage in this game. I'd stick one of my ships in front of the ionized ship so they lose their action AND they can't shoot that ship.

[DoubleNot7 768]

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

 

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

 

 

Running your opponent into asteroids or off the table while sitting out of his fire arc, priceless.

[KineticOperator 2,534]

Twice on Vassal using my Dutch+3 Gold Y-Wing list I have managed to completely lock down Han Solo.  Ionized him, had him land on an asteroid and parked a Y-Wing in front of him.  Every turn I had the Y-Wing go 1 straight into Han, which he couldn't do so he stayed put.  When Han went, he tried to go 1 forward from the Ion and couldn't, so he sat on the asteroid.  No actions, no attack, and it is pretty trivial to ionize an actionless Falcon with 2 or 3 remaining Y-Wings.  Funny (for me) both times, and not really that hard to do if your opponent ever makes the mistake of pointing his Falcon at an asteroid.

Edited September 11, 2013 by KineticOperator

[ForceM 1,456]

One damage point only. The target still shoots, evades, and performs actions.

That's what I don't like about the Ion cannon and its effects.

Absolutely.

I do not like the ion cannon at all. It's cheap but i can hardly imagine a situation where i would prefer it over a standard shot and its damage potential. That is because the standard ion cannon is for B-Wings, Firesprays and Shuttles, each having a 3 attack value.

I like the ion turret though. It made the Y-Wing useful and gave it a chance to win a dogfight at all. We will see in what measure the blaster turret will replace it. It is also easier to get shots with it and i will definitely try it on a HWK, especially Kyle, so he can guve away more of his own focus tokens!

Ion weapons are quite good, but very often you could have also killed the ship you ionize every turn instead. Also especially escorting large ships off board is very difficult and requires you to shoot 2 ion weapons per turn at it, wasting all other shots on it. Also if an enemy worth his salt sees an ion list he will stay in the middle of the table just to prevent being escorted off the board. And he will present a target that can take a hit a turn for very long while other ships kill your ion cannon

Ships.

Honestly i would like ion tokens to not only make you go straight 1 but also take away actions for the subsequent turn. Would make more sense too fluffwise.

So no i dont think these weapons are overly strong really. But they can still be useful especially if you make your shios work in concert.

Edited September 11, 2013 by ForceM

[jhsjhs 3]

Twice on Vassal using my Dutch+3 Gold Y-Wing list I have managed to completely lock down Han Solo.  Ionized him, had him land on an asteroid and parked a Y-Wing in front of him.  Every turn I had the Y-Wing go 1 straight into Han, which he couldn't do so he stayed put.  When Han went, he tried to go 1 forward from the Ion and couldn't, so he sat on the asteroid.  No actions, no attack, and it is pretty trivial to ionize an actionless Falcon with 2 or 3 remaining Y-Wings.  Funny (for me) both times, and not really that hard to do if your opponent ever makes the mistake of pointing his Falcon at an asteroid.

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but why couldn't he shoot?

[KineticOperator 2,534]

Because I left him with his base still on the asteroid, and you cannot shoot while your base overlaps an asteroid.  Since he couldn't move off of it while Ionized with a Y-Wing directly in front of him, he never got another shot off.

Edited September 11, 2013 by KineticOperator

[Emrico 410]

Twice on Vassal using my Dutch+3 Gold Y-Wing list I have managed to completely lock down Han Solo.  Ionized him, had him land on an asteroid and parked a Y-Wing in front of him.  Every turn I had the Y-Wing go 1 straight into Han, which he couldn't do so he stayed put.  When Han went, he tried to go 1 forward from the Ion and couldn't, so he sat on the asteroid.  No actions, no attack, and it is pretty trivial to ionize an actionless Falcon with 2 or 3 remaining Y-Wings.  Funny (for me) both times, and not really that hard to do if your opponent ever makes the mistake of pointing his Falcon at an asteroid.

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but why couldn't he shoot?

Because when the ship base is overlapping an asteroid after moving, it cannot perform actions and cannot attack.

Jim