Great review and in effect tutorial for those of us just getting into the game. One of my subs did a vid about game time vs real time and used X-Wing s an example so I started to look into it. In reality I'd think this beast would have trouble with a barrel roll lol I'm with you I love the way it looks. I had been doing vintage board game vids lately. One of them was Carrier Strike which has WWII planes dogfighting using ace pilot ratings and then numbered cards instead of dice like a game of War. It uses a hex grid board. The other is Destroy Death Star which uses X-Wing squadrons. Armada reminds me of that but DDS has removable X-Wings. I house ruled it using D&D advantage disadvantage dice lol Anyway I had always seen X-Wing but didn't want to get caught up in spending money on all the ships as is customary. I had some coupons and points burning a hole in my virtual pocket so after watching your vids and a couple others I decided to give this a try. I'll get it next week. I'm starting with the Force Awakens Core, I bought the Rebel Aces Pack Awing & B-wing based on your enthusiastic vid review. Then probably the TIE Punisher, Phantom, Interceptor, and Expansion Pack (to get Howlrunner which I figured out she was in that set but without her picture like Armada). I‘m going to have to play TIE vs TIE. the ships are jus too cool. If I play it enough I'll get a larger ship like Dash Rendars Outrider or Slave I. Ghost looks interesting but a bit pricey. The bounty Hunters ships are interesting as well. I have the 2007 Wizkids Pocket Models TCG ship to ship combat game which I haven't' played in a long time but looks like a precursor to X-Wing on a much liter and focused scale. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that. It’s like their Pirates series of constructible ship games. Luckily I have two card tables that are black and get dusty so I don't have to invest in a starfield playmat for this ; Ig ot a blue mottled fabric for Pirates fwiw. I haven't looked at fan sites yet but I assume players make custom cards for X-Wing. I'm making some for the D&D board games since they don't have a Tiefling Warlock or Hexblade for example. I could see people making their own pilots and upgrades for X-Wing as long as the combatants agree on it of course. I wouldn't doubt players make their own ships.
Great point on Night Beast with the TIE Mk. II mod! Mighta missed that otherwise. I agree with you, Pat - this thing is pretty gnarly looking. Gonna pick one up this week!
Pretty impressive ship, over all. I like the boost option, and the Engine Upgrade is pretty nice as well (for 1 point!) - Night Beast will be going back to the hangar for some upgrades. Like the 2nd Pilot there, with option to deliver payload out the front. Won't use more than one of them, but I see him creating some difficulties.
I would of preferred to see this with a point or two more of shield or hull. It has to survive long enough to drop the payload, and one evade is not going to cut it. Since it is a third of the build, taking it out will be a high priority for the other player.
For those who don't' know the official FFG FAQ PDF for Cluster Mines "When a bomb token detonates, the ship that moved through or overlapped that token rolls 2 attack dice and suffers 1 damage for each hit and crit rolled. Then discard that token." (the difference is they added a crit) I haven't tried it because I didn't have time yet but thinking out loud I'll just ask could the ion bomb affect the ship that dropped it?
In my opinion. I think Deathrain is one of the most effective bomber of any bomber type ship in the game. Simply because he can throw bombs out the front and has a systems upgrade for enhanced scopes. Yes the K Wing is a crazy bomber, but anyone realise the range of bombing is honestly the same? Both max speeds are 3 if a K Wing bombs after going 3, 3, lands at 7th speed it places the bomb behind it making the bomb range 5. Now deathrain goes up 3, places the bomb infront and it's 5, also gets to barrel roll away. Also if you play him correctly you will always be able to disable the K Wing with a conner net just like that when you have enhanced scopes. Next turn you go first, K Wing takes ion move up 1 and let's say you have cluster mines, you move up 1 and place the bomb 2 range behind you forcing the K Wing to go through a second bomb. Seriously, people take this ship so lightly compared to the K Wing it's frustrating. Yes, it can't do cool stuff like recover shields and has no turret, but being able to drop cluster mines twice on or within range 1 of the same ship in two consecutive turns? Always having the initiative to land bombs on ships first? He can destroy aces much faster than the K Wing as long as he is in range 5 max. When I mean range, I mean speed
+Dax The Destroyer Unfortunately, it's not something I have planned at this time. While I like Armada, I like X-Wing more, and I have neither the time nor the money to keep up with both games.
As a newcomer to the game I have to ask for your opinion: which one would your rather have, a TIE Bomber or a TIE Punisher? I already own four TIE Fighters and a TIE Defender with the thought of buying the Imperial Veterans expansion in the near future. Your content is fascinating, keep it up! :)
If I could only have one or the other I'd probably go with the Bomber because it's a bit more versatile, especially with the content from Imperial Veterans (not to mention the fact that Veterans also makes your Defenders AMAZING - seriously, Countess Ryad with Push the Limit and the x7 title is incredibly solid. Partner her up with Vessery and the x7 title and whatever Elite you like and they'll both be attacking with target lock + Focus, which makes them very deadly).
One of my favorites! Also, since my 2 fav pilots are Deathrain and Redline, it has remained as such with the Aggressor with a close second with Double Edge and Lt. Kestrel. Too bad these happen to be the worst ships (according to everyone it seems). Will these ships be able to finally shine again or are they going to disappear...
They said that they plan to re-release everything but it will take some time, especially with adding two new factions to the game and needing to bring them up to par with the other five. I imagine we will see the older ships start to trickle back into waves after the new year.
The new TIE engine Mk. II mod gives me an idea for the Defender (though tbh, I'm really a complete noob to X-Wing minis, so not sure how well this would actually work in practice) Rexler Brath + TIE Engine Mk II + Push the Limit + Heavy Laser Cannon I guess PTL could be put to better use because of the engine mod's increased green maneuvers, and I think I've heard that HLC is one of the best uses for Rexler's ability as long as you punch through shields and/or hit the hull directly. So, I guess that allows for the possibility of, I guess, using both Focus for Rexler's ability and Target lock or maybe double Focus (to have one for Rexler's ability and one for defense..?), etc etc (and maybe I'd put on a missile too like Adv. Homing Missile just for kicks) Sure, that might be hella expensive, but I think I like the idea of a tricked out Defender (bit of a TIE Fighter PC game fan here) __ To go on a bit of a tangent about the Defender mini, maybe i'm just a noob/munchkin/too much of a Defender fan, but I kinda feel as if the Defender should be able to have the Evade action too. At least because canonically, the Defender (and maybe the TIE Avenger) is one of the most, if not the most maneuverable starfighter in the SW universe, able to fly circles around just about anything else.
sana__6 PtL would let you Target Lock and Focus to get the best chance of 4 hits out of the cannon. It was very expensive at 48 points, but it's certainly a solid build and would be fun to play.
Got a bit of a rules question, if you have redline and use thecolonel Jendon's ability of assigning a target lock to a friendly ship does this give redline two target locks?
+SuperkittyAvatar - Yes, I believe that is correct, as long as Redline doesn't already have a target lock. His ability reads "When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that ship." So if Colonel Jendon, whose ability reads "At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign 1 of your blue target lock tokens to a friendly ship at Range 1 if it does not have a blue target lock token," gives Redline one of his target locks, Redline's ability would kick in and assign a second lock on the same target. That's a pretty nice little combo, since it would allow Redline to use different actions and still get his target locks.
JESUS you could but Autothrusters on this thing... Imagine Deathrain dropping cluster mines on a falcon, barrel-rolling out of arc, and getting a free evade when getting shot back.
songarakram It's true, and Autothrusters are cheap so why not use them? They're not as efficient as on, say Soontir Fel, where they're one part of a well-oiled machine designed to not take any damage at all, but they can certainly help keep the Punisher on the board a bit longer.
+Steve Wyatt - It's a reference to the release schedule for the expansions. Each release is called a "wave." So Wave 1 was the original core set, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Y-Wing and TIE Advanced. Wave 2 was the Millenium Falcon, Slave 1, TIE Interceptor and A-Wing, and so on. There have been seven waves of expansions so far, with a few special releases interspersed, like the Aces packs and huge ships. The next release, Wave 8, has ships from Star Wars Rebels, the Episode VII X-Wing and TIE/fo expansions and a couple of Scum bounty hunters, and is the largest wave to date with six expansions releasing on the same date!
Since Redline can have 2 target lock, can you use a target lock to launch a missile and then use the second target lock to reroll the attack dice for the missile?
But the card says: "You may maintain 2 target locks on the same ship. When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that same ship."
john tailby Not as much as you'd think. It still only has 1 agility so it's canceling at most 1 hit. Turrets already have their Autothruster banes - TIE Interceptors, IG-2000s and StarVipers.
Not really. You want the Punisher firing munitions as much as possible. Accuracy Corrector helps its primary but you don't really want to be shooting primary too much. Fire Control System is better for the free Target Locks
I hate what they did with these mines and only giving one per pack. with extra munitions, I need two sets just to use it. especially playing triple k wing Sabine list, I need 6x cluster mines just to play.
I hear you. They seem to be trying to make up for this somewhat in recent waves; if you buy one of everything you should have three sets of Cluster Mines and Proximity Mines and two Conner Nets. And of course if you buy multiple heavy bombers you'll get even more. Of course, giving double bomb tokens should have been standard as soon as Extra Munitions was introduced.
Sander de Neef Yeah things are good. I'm just tired. Went from working nights to early mornings, job is better but I'm still catching up on the sleep schedule. Thanks for the concern, though!
Your reviews are simply the best. Thanks.
+Francesco L. Bellman Thank you!
Agreed
Francesco L. Bellman agreed!
Great review and in effect tutorial for those of us just getting into the game. One of my subs did a vid about game time vs real time and used X-Wing s an example so I started to look into it.
In reality I'd think this beast would have trouble with a barrel roll lol I'm with you I love the way it looks.
I had been doing vintage board game vids lately. One of them was Carrier Strike which has WWII planes dogfighting using ace pilot ratings and then numbered cards instead of dice like a game of War. It uses a hex grid board. The other is Destroy Death Star which uses X-Wing squadrons. Armada reminds me of that but DDS has removable X-Wings. I house ruled it using D&D advantage disadvantage dice lol
Anyway I had always seen X-Wing but didn't want to get caught up in spending money on all the ships as is customary. I had some coupons and points burning a hole in my virtual pocket so after watching your vids and a couple others I decided to give this a try. I'll get it next week. I'm starting with the Force Awakens Core, I bought the Rebel Aces Pack Awing & B-wing based on your enthusiastic vid review.
Then probably the TIE Punisher, Phantom, Interceptor, and Expansion Pack (to get Howlrunner which I figured out she was in that set but without her picture like Armada). I‘m going to have to play TIE vs TIE. the ships are jus too cool.
If I play it enough I'll get a larger ship like Dash Rendars Outrider or Slave I. Ghost looks interesting but a bit pricey. The bounty Hunters ships are interesting as well.
I have the 2007 Wizkids Pocket Models TCG ship to ship combat game which I haven't' played in a long time but looks like a precursor to X-Wing on a much liter and focused scale. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that. It’s like their Pirates series of constructible ship games.
Luckily I have two card tables that are black and get dusty so I don't have to invest in a starfield playmat for this ; Ig ot a blue mottled fabric for Pirates fwiw.
I haven't looked at fan sites yet but I assume players make custom cards for X-Wing. I'm making some for the D&D board games since they don't have a Tiefling Warlock or Hexblade for example. I could see people making their own pilots and upgrades for X-Wing as long as the combatants agree on it of course. I wouldn't doubt players make their own ships.
If I see one of these in Rogue One, I'll freak out. This thing looks like it can destroy a Corellian Corvette by itself in a single pass!
Great point on Night Beast with the TIE Mk. II mod! Mighta missed that otherwise. I agree with you, Pat - this thing is pretty gnarly looking. Gonna pick one up this week!
Advanced Homing Missiles and Lt Blount seem like a match made in heaven! Thanks for another great vid :)
+ratofvengence Thanks! Yeah that combo will make Whisper stay well away from Blount.
Love your work. Keep it up. Plenty of new ships ahead.
David Swann Thanks! And yes, so many new ships coming up in the near future...
Pretty impressive ship, over all. I like the boost option, and the Engine Upgrade is pretty nice as well (for 1 point!) - Night Beast will be going back to the hangar for some upgrades. Like the 2nd Pilot there, with option to deliver payload out the front. Won't use more than one of them, but I see him creating some difficulties.
Love your videos they let me know what ships to buy!
Thanks!
Thanks for the comprehensive review!
+Ernest Spencer You are welcome!
That engine mod is going to make things very interesting for a lot of ships I think.
got a couple of these : ) i used the mines to trap and destroy the millinium falcon by forming a triangle in front of the enemy ship.
This is like the Tie Bomber _Xtreme_ edition
I would of preferred to see this with a point or two more of shield or hull. It has to survive long enough to drop the payload, and one evade is not going to cut it. Since it is a third of the build, taking it out will be a high priority for the other player.
For those who don't' know the official FFG FAQ PDF for Cluster Mines "When a bomb token detonates, the ship that moved through or overlapped that token rolls 2 attack dice and suffers 1 damage for each hit and crit rolled. Then discard that token." (the difference is they added a crit)
I haven't tried it because I didn't have time yet but thinking out loud I'll just ask could the ion bomb affect the ship that dropped it?
This model is ridiculously big... I was surprised when I saw it at the store. It is pushing large base size for sure.
+brent schlaeppi - Yep. It's a monster.
In my opinion. I think Deathrain is one of the most effective bomber of any bomber type ship in the game. Simply because he can throw bombs out the front and has a systems upgrade for enhanced scopes. Yes the K Wing is a crazy bomber, but anyone realise the range of bombing is honestly the same? Both max speeds are 3 if a K Wing bombs after going 3, 3, lands at 7th speed it places the bomb behind it making the bomb range 5. Now deathrain goes up 3, places the bomb infront and it's 5, also gets to barrel roll away.
Also if you play him correctly you will always be able to disable the K Wing with a conner net just like that when you have enhanced scopes. Next turn you go first, K Wing takes ion move up 1 and let's say you have cluster mines, you move up 1 and place the bomb 2 range behind you forcing the K Wing to go through a second bomb.
Seriously, people take this ship so lightly compared to the K Wing it's frustrating. Yes, it can't do cool stuff like recover shields and has no turret, but being able to drop cluster mines twice on or within range 1 of the same ship in two consecutive turns? Always having the initiative to land bombs on ships first? He can destroy aces much faster than the K Wing as long as he is in range 5 max. When I mean range, I mean speed
These reviews are da bomb!!! (pun intended) Any chance you will be reviewing the Star Wars Armada minis as well???
+Dax The Destroyer Unfortunately, it's not something I have planned at this time. While I like Armada, I like X-Wing more, and I have neither the time nor the money to keep up with both games.
As a newcomer to the game I have to ask for your opinion: which one would your rather have, a TIE Bomber or a TIE Punisher? I already own four TIE Fighters and a TIE Defender with the thought of buying the Imperial Veterans expansion in the near future. Your content is fascinating, keep it up! :)
If I could only have one or the other I'd probably go with the Bomber because it's a bit more versatile, especially with the content from Imperial Veterans (not to mention the fact that Veterans also makes your Defenders AMAZING - seriously, Countess Ryad with Push the Limit and the x7 title is incredibly solid. Partner her up with Vessery and the x7 title and whatever Elite you like and they'll both be attacking with target lock + Focus, which makes them very deadly).
Thank you for your answer, it helps a lot! :)
When go offensive go with bomber
One of my favorites! Also, since my 2 fav pilots are Deathrain and Redline, it has remained as such with the Aggressor with a close second with Double Edge and Lt. Kestrel. Too bad these happen to be the worst ships (according to everyone it seems). Will these ships be able to finally shine again or are they going to disappear...
Can you do a x wing build for the tie punisher? I would like to see your thoughts on it
i noticed it has no booster on the back
USES BOMBS TO PROPEL FOWARD AND BACKWARD
It has some kind of engine on all five pods, so if anything it should be faster than it is.
I hope the Puhisher, Agressor and Phantom wil be made again for 2nd edition.
They said that they plan to re-release everything but it will take some time, especially with adding two new factions to the game and needing to bring them up to par with the other five. I imagine we will see the older ships start to trickle back into waves after the new year.
The new TIE engine Mk. II mod gives me an idea for the Defender (though tbh, I'm really a complete noob to X-Wing minis, so not sure how well this would actually work in practice)
Rexler Brath + TIE Engine Mk II + Push the Limit + Heavy Laser Cannon
I guess PTL could be put to better use because of the engine mod's increased green maneuvers, and I think I've heard that HLC is one of the best uses for Rexler's ability as long as you punch through shields and/or hit the hull directly. So, I guess that allows for the possibility of, I guess, using both Focus for Rexler's ability and Target lock or maybe double Focus (to have one for Rexler's ability and one for defense..?), etc etc
(and maybe I'd put on a missile too like Adv. Homing Missile just for kicks)
Sure, that might be hella expensive, but I think I like the idea of a tricked out Defender (bit of a TIE Fighter PC game fan here)
__
To go on a bit of a tangent about the Defender mini, maybe i'm just a noob/munchkin/too much of a Defender fan, but I kinda feel as if the Defender should be able to have the Evade action too.
At least because canonically, the Defender (and maybe the TIE Avenger) is one of the most, if not the most maneuverable starfighter in the SW universe, able to fly circles around just about anything else.
you'd need a way to give Rexler another focus as the FAQ states you cannot take the same action twice
sana__6 PtL would let you Target Lock and Focus to get the best chance of 4 hits out of the cannon. It was very expensive at 48 points, but it's certainly a solid build and would be fun to play.
Death rain with prox mines and ion cannon support would be super deadly because you guarantee the mine will hit
Got a bit of a rules question, if you have redline and use thecolonel Jendon's ability of assigning a target lock to a friendly ship does this give redline two target locks?
+SuperkittyAvatar - Yes, I believe that is correct, as long as Redline doesn't already have a target lock. His ability reads "When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that ship." So if Colonel Jendon, whose ability reads "At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign 1 of your blue target lock tokens to a friendly ship at Range 1 if it does not have a blue
target lock token," gives Redline one of his target locks, Redline's ability would kick in and assign a second lock on the same target. That's a pretty nice little combo, since it would allow Redline to use different actions and still get his target locks.
JESUS you could but Autothrusters on this thing... Imagine Deathrain dropping cluster mines on a falcon, barrel-rolling out of arc, and getting a free evade when getting shot back.
songarakram It's true, and Autothrusters are cheap so why not use them? They're not as efficient as on, say Soontir Fel, where they're one part of a well-oiled machine designed to not take any damage at all, but they can certainly help keep the Punisher on the board a bit longer.
do you suffer damage if you drive over one of your own bombs?
Yes, bombs aren't smart enough to tell friendly ships apart from enemy ships.
Can you perform a primary attack and a secondary attack( missiles/torpedoes) in one attack round?
No, unless you have an ability or upgrade that says otherwise (huge ships are the exception; they can fire everything they have each round).
twin ion card says Tie Only. not defender only. wouldnt that mean it works with EVERY tie?
+Alex Santa - Yes, it can be used on any TIE-class ship. Obviously it benefits some ships more than others (like the Defender).
+The Cardboard Dungeon dude ur page is awsome
brilliant description...... you mention that this is a wave 7 ship what does this mean please
+Steve Wyatt - It's a reference to the release schedule for the expansions. Each release is called a "wave." So Wave 1 was the original core set, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Y-Wing and TIE Advanced. Wave 2 was the Millenium Falcon, Slave 1, TIE Interceptor and A-Wing, and so on. There have been seven waves of expansions so far, with a few special releases interspersed, like the Aces packs and huge ships. The next release, Wave 8, has ships from Star Wars Rebels, the Episode VII X-Wing and TIE/fo expansions and a couple of Scum bounty hunters, and is the largest wave to date with six expansions releasing on the same date!
+The Cardboard Dungeon cool thank you for your help
Since Redline can have 2 target lock, can you use a target lock to launch a missile and then use the second target lock to reroll the attack dice for the missile?
Citronvand sadly no, only one target lock per target, so he can have a target lock on two separate enemies
But the card says: "You may maintain 2 target locks on the same ship. When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that same ship."
There are other ways to get pilot skills of 0. The critical damaged cockpit does that too
That is true
this has put my annoyance to rest at the cost. awesome review
+Kroogario - Thanks!
So you could put auto thrusters on the ship?
john tailby Yes you can.
that is going to make it the pain of turret ships.
john tailby Not as much as you'd think. It still only has 1 agility so it's canceling at most 1 hit. Turrets already have their Autothruster banes - TIE Interceptors, IG-2000s and StarVipers.
Very informative, as usual. You're desperately in need of some intro music, by the way
+Gareth Davies Yeah, I know. I haven't found anything that I really like.
punisher + accuracy corrector? is it good?
Not really. You want the Punisher firing munitions as much as possible. Accuracy Corrector helps its primary but you don't really want to be shooting primary too much. Fire Control System is better for the free Target Locks
Thanks. You're a cool cow!
I hate what they did with these mines and only giving one per pack. with extra munitions, I need two sets just to use it. especially playing triple k wing Sabine list, I need 6x cluster mines just to play.
I hear you. They seem to be trying to make up for this somewhat in recent waves; if you buy one of everything you should have three sets of Cluster Mines and Proximity Mines and two Conner Nets. And of course if you buy multiple heavy bombers you'll get even more. Of course, giving double bomb tokens should have been standard as soon as Extra Munitions was introduced.
That model looks like a big, mean bully
It got really powerful in Second Edition, too. So powerful that they adjusted the point cost but it’s still a great ship
Those are heat vents not solar panels.
You sound very down again, everything alright?
Sander de Neef Yeah things are good. I'm just tired. Went from working nights to early mornings, job is better but I'm still catching up on the sleep schedule. Thanks for the concern, though!
Good to hear, i recently became a father, so i know how important a good night sleep is :) Keep up the good job! (and vid's of cource)
Bomber can't take Enhanced Scopes.
Why not?
Tom Landy Yeah there should be a notation on the video - I meant to say TIE Punisher, not Bomber, when talking about Enhanced Scopes.
Punished TIE fighter.