TIE Phantom updated decloaking explained

The biggest change in the game is current update on Decloaking.  So before we explore revised Phantom's tactics lets see how new decloaking works.

DECLOAK REFERENCE CARD 

 DECLOAK REFERENCE CARD 
This card should read:

At the start of the Activation phase, after players have resolved all other abilities that trigger at the start of the Activation phase, each ship may spend a cloak token to decloak, starting with the ship with the lowest pilot skill (using initiative to break ties). When a ship decloaks, it must choose one of the following effects:

• Perform a barrel roll using the [ 2] manoeuvre template. 
• Perform a boost using the [ 2] manoeuvre template. 

Decloaking is not an action or a manoeuvre, and a ship can decloak while it has a stress token. A ship cannot decloak if it would overlap another ship or an obstacle token, or if the manoeuvre template would overlap an obstacle token. After all decloaking has been resolved, the Activation phase continues as


Lets look at how this update changes the mechanics of decloaking.

1. at the start of Activation phase players nominate which Phantom (in case of several ships) decloaks first. But only after all other abilities, such as Advanced sensors, have been applied. 
2. then ships decloak in ascending order, from lowest to highest Pilot skill, using "2" straight or bank template to reposition their ships. 
3. then other ships reveal their dials, perform their movements and take action in same order.
4. only when comes Phantom's step in accordance with PS, it will reveal its manoeuvre.
5. after movement is complete Phantom may take its actions.

In order to simplify the main change:
Previously Phantom was decloaking on its own step of initiative, now it must decloak to beginning of Activation phase. This is a significant change that degrades unpredictability, Phantoms main advantage. Now after decloaking, opponents will be able to predict Phantom's movement with relative ease, and act on it.
Though  it deprives Echo and Whisper their biggest advantage: being able to move last and outflank any ship with zero repercussions, there are way to maintain their superiority. Stay tuned for Phantom's tactics.

Starwolf, out. 

TIE Phantom review: origins, rules, upgrades

TIE Phantom is one of the ships of 4th wave for X-Wing miniatures games. At the moment of writing this post its couple of week away from release along with TIE Defender, E-wing and Z-95 Headhunter. I was lucky enough to acquire Phantom during Assault on Imdar event in my local gaming store.

Origins: TIE Phantom was featured in computer game Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, where Darth Vader was extremely annoyed at his egg-heads who kept testing this stealth fighter instead of delivering it under his command. Well, in events of that game (released in 1995 AD), the entire fleet of Phantoms along with cruiser Terror explodes in typical Star Wars manner.

Rules: Now lets have a good look at rules and card for this fighter. Box comes with two generic pilots flying Phantom: Sigma Squadron - Pilot Skill 3, Shadow Sq - PS 5, and two named pilots: "Echo" - PS 6 and Whisper" - PS 7. As you can see on a picture, Phantom has Firepower of 4, Agility 2, Hull 2 and Shields 2. Incredibly impressive firepower is delivered by five laser cannons, which makes this beast most dangerous opponent in Range 1 with its 5 dice to hit you. even with Agility 3 and guaranteed Evade, there is few ships able to leave without scratch. (unless your dice hate you)

Points: All this goodness comes at a steep point price, Sigma Sq: 25 pts, Shadow Sq: 27, Echo: 30, Whisper: 32. And we have not yet looked at upgrades!  

Manoeuvrability and cloaking: this is the best part of Phantom, its unique (until arrival of Jedi fighters and Stealth-Wing) ability to cloak and become invisible. Game mechanics works in following matter: you spend an action and place a fancy Cloaking token next to the ship. This adds +2 to Agility of the ship and stays until decloaked. The pay-off is that you cannot make an attacks while cloaked. However Decloaking IS NOT an action. Let me say that again: decloaking is not an action. Which means that that after you appear on the field you still can focus, barrel roll, evade or put target lock (if you have an upgrade, because Phantom does not have it as standard).

Decloaking is made before you reveal you manoeuvre. After you decloak ship must move ahead 2 or make a barrel roll of 2. Then you make a move depicted on a dial. I will talk about it later in tactics section, but just imagine the possibilities! Muhahaha! Phantom's manoeuvrability is close to TIE Interceptor, but without K-turn and direct ahead of 5. But with decloaking move of 2 it not a bad compensation at all.

   

Upgrades: TIE Phantom can take following upgrades: Elite Pilots skills (named pilots only), Crew, System Upgrades, as well as Modifications. There are no Titles for this ship at the moment of its release. Box comes with five of the upgrade cards: Recon Specialist - adds extra Focus token (3 pts), Fire-Control system - allows you to gain a Target Lock on a ship you just attacked (2 pts), Tactician - ship defending from your attack in Range 2 takes a stress token (2 pts),  Stygium Particle Accelerator -  allows free evade token if you perform Cloak or Decloak (2 pts) and Advanced Cloaking Device - enables you to perform free cloak action after you perform an attack (4 pts). 

All in all, TIE Phantom is an exceptional addition to the fleet of Empire, with its firepower and mobility it will make a great hunter. However there are some big question to which role this craft should be assigned in your squadron, as well as its high price and effective combat application.

I will explore this more in TIE Phantom Tactics. 

Starwolf out.

Target Priority and game strategy

While browsing through various x-wing related groups Starwolf came across an outcry of frustration from one of the local players: "after a devastating experience in my local gaming store tournament, I've decided to sell my collection. I simply do not possess the understanding of this game's strategy." Despite the obvious frustration (we shall discuss how to deal with frustration later on this blog), player have pinpointed his problem very well. But any strategy begins with its cornerstone: Target Priority.

Target Priority is briefly described in of Starwolves principles,  and although it seems simple, prioritising targets have several important layers. First of all choose what would be your goal during the game, apart from winning, of coarse. Have a look at opponents list and choose your main target. This could be one of those listed below:

1.The Biggest Threat: 
Ship(s) that have a biggest damage potential against your list. You should understand, that those ships may cause havoc if not destroyed quickly or denied their biggest advantage.

Usual suspects: TIE-Phantom, TIE-Interceptor, E-wing, Falcon, Doom shuttle and any ship with Gunner on board.  

2. The Juicy Target:
Look at the point cost and ask yourself is that ship worth more than half of the points of opponents list? If answer is "yes", then you are looking at Juicy Target. Good new is, that after Juicy Target is destroyed you are automatically in the lead, all you have to do now is lose less points that opponent. Victory and advancement in tournament ladder is defined by this. The bad news is that Juicy Target in most cases is the Biggest Threat and has most number of upgrades and hull.

Usual suspects: Falcon, Decimator, IG-88, Firespray.  

3. The Synergy Centre
To understand where lies opponents  Synergy centre is to find a key to his defeat. Synergies and Tactical advantages they give have been explored earlier. Here we shall concentrate on how to find that centre.

what do you mean I'm not a Wookie?!

Elite list, consisting of 2-3 ship with high Pilot Skill and lots of upgrades provide synergy by using their unique abilities and crew members. For example, Llando in YT-1300 provides a free action to a friendly ships in Range 1, or Dutch Vander giving a free Target Lock to any friendly ship in Range 1-2. Most Elite list have an expendable escort designed to either distract or deny opponents actions and abilities.  However, once the support ship has gone, or its ability neutralised by critical hit, the rest of the battle changes significantly in your favour. As one brave pilot have put it: "help yourselves everybody, there is no fighter escort."

Usual suspects: HWK-290 with Recon Specialist, Lambda with Intelligence agent or Fleet Officer, and or ST-321 title, any escort ship for Fat Han.  

look! there is Vader behind you! 

Specialist list, consisting of 3-5 ships, with several key upgrades and one or two elite pilot skills are most vulnerable and easiest to determine their synergy centre. First of all, Specialist rely on being in specific range of synergy provider. For example Howlrunner's ability and Swarm Tactics working in Range 1. Then there is maximum two Synergy providers due to points limitation. Determine which one is most important and eliminate them. For example HWK-290 is one of the best support ships for both Rebels and Scum, allows its owner to modify attackers Pilot Skill, provide extra focus and evade tokens, re-rolls, extra actions, and yet it is rarely defined as a significant threat, due to its low attack and agility. Imperials must rely on cards with special actions, since they have slightly less supporting abilities than other factions.

Usual suspects: HWK-290, Howlrunner with swarm tactics, Darth Vader with Squad Leader, IG-88 with gunner or boost ability. 

here they come!!

Swarm list, consisting of 5-8 ships are surprisingly resilient to the loss of special abilities or upgrade cards, since there is so few of them. However, swarm lives and dies by its ability to concentrate fire of 4 or more ships on one target and grind it down with its weight of fire. The obvious response to that is flanking, in order to avoid at least some of the incoming fire. But the biggest game changer against the swarm is breaking its formation! This could be achieved by several tactics:

• controlled bump to deny actions and bonuses: Captain Oicunn, Intimidation, Rebel captive, anti-pursuit lasers.  
• use of weapons with splash damage: bombs, assault missiles, Mara Jade   
• area denial: proximity mines, blocking positions by your ships. 
• upgrades allowing to increase the damage per turn: Darth Vader (crew) and Ruthlessness      

Once swarm has lost its main advantage, opponent may concentrate on singular ships and slowly but surely overcome the numerical advantage.

Other important factor when fighting swarm is attacker's damage output per turn. On average, attacker must be able to destroy at least 1,5 TIE Fighter per round of shooting, in order to even the numbers by turn 4 and be able to either outlast or wipe out the majority of swarm.

Usual suspects: Howlrunner, Airen Craken, Prince Xizor. Any ship providing extra shots, re-rolls or higher PS.   

4. The Weak Spot
We all make mistakes or less than calculated decisions. However in tournaments this should cost your opponent a game, at least. When you looking for a weak spot, try to find

• combinations which are counter productive for your opponent. For example, Push the limit with Ysanne Isard on one ship is not a great combo as it denies one advantage while giving another. It could also be easily denied if target receives stress. 
• crippled ships: if opponent has got a ship with 1 hull left, it must become a Primary Target. While its on the board it is either denying you a victory points, or could be used as an expendable blocker. 
• tactical weaknesses and ways to exploit them. Blocking Phantoms decloaking lane is one of such examples.
• easy targets: any ship which is an easy kill must be yours, however do not get greedy and lose your primary target.     

So to summarise the layout of your Target Priorities: determine the Biggest Threat and Juicy Target, deny the Synergy centre and hit in Weak Spot.

Starwolf, out.