Named Pilots- Ten Numb

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts in this series will be available in the coming weeks. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Ten Numb (31)
Card Text: When attacking, one of your <unfilled explosion> results cannot be canceled by defense dice.
Usage in game: Stickin' crits.
Breakdown: So it's no secret my favorite ships from Wave 3 are the TIE Bomber and B-Wing. I always liked flying both of them in X-Wing Alliance and TIE Fighter on PC back in the day, so I'm kinda biased to start with, but nostalgic personal feelings aside, they're both solid ships. Add a pilot with a solid PS value (8) and a nice bit of card text into the mix, and you end up with our good pal Ten Numb.

He's awesome, no doubt about it, the only question you ought to have in mind really is whether or not he's actually worth a third of your available points.

B-Wings have a decent dial, good stats, and a fairly varied amount of upgrades and options available, so I think the decision for most people will boil down to how comfortable they are running a three ship list. I know you could probably generate a four ship list, but you'll probably not run Ten Numb totally naked, right? I mean, you could- his card text is pretty cool, but let's look a little closer and see what we can do with some of those aforementioned upgrades and stuff.

B-Wings already have a respectable Attack of 3, but keeping in mind Ten's card text, Proton Torpedoes seem like a no-brainer. Is it worth taking two loads of them? Advanced Proton Torpedoes are their usual nasty selves, and while they don't particularly mesh up with Ten Numb's card text, you are throwing 5 dice instead of 4, so there's one more die to possibly roll a critical. Is it worth it points-wise? For me? Nah- I'd stick with normal Torps, just looking at it in a vacuum like this. 

That said, if you were to take an Elite Pilot Skill like say, Marksmanship? That might change things a bit. Expensive? Hells yeah. Ability to hurt something real bad? In spades, my friends. You don't have to take APTs to make it worthwhile though- Ten Numb's card text doesn't specify secondary weapons or anything, so you could even work it on just a regular old primary Attack roll.

As for other Elite Pilot Skills, Push The Limit is always a pretty good option to have up your sleeve for the flexibility it provides, but here doubly so to pull off a Target Lock and Focus (or TL and Marksmanship) in the same Activation Phase should a really golden opportunity present itself. It'd also be handy for comboing some other Action with a Barrel Roll should you find yourself on the wrong end of things. If you're more concerned about keeping Ten Numb alive with your Actions, perhaps letting upgrades and secondaries do your offensive work for you, Elusiveness isn't a bad idea, but Expert Handling could be fun to throw on there especially if your opponent loves to run Bombers, TIE Advanced with Missiles, or Colonel Jendon.

Taking an Ion Cannon for Ten Numb is kind of a waste with how Ion handles crit results, and while there is definitely an argument to be made, I think sticking a Heavy Laser Cannon on a ship that already has an Attack 3 weapon is kind of a waste and even more so with Numb's card text (EDIT: As Bikini Aficionado +TheForlornViking pointed out in the comments, a HLC actually isn't that much of a waste on Ten Numb- if you have a Target Lock, Marksmanship, or some other means available to re-roll your Attack roll, your second results stick regardless of the card text on HLC, and therefore would trigger Ten's card text should one of your re-roll results be an unfilled explosion symbol). The Autoblaster I think will get FAQed in the future, but right now, it's probably the only non-ordnance secondary weapon I'd consider for Numb. I don't know how exactly they'll choose to rule it, when they choose to rule it, but as for now, it would appear that rolling Ten Numb with an Autoblaster does not allow the defender to cancel any hits and one crit with his defense dice (if you rolled two crits, he could cancel the second one as +Davyd Atwood reminded me in the comments that only one of Ten's crits avoids the cancellation). Take that TIE Interceptors! Please note that other, non-dice related means of cancelling hits and/ or crits (namely Evade tokens) would still be effective here.

As B-Wings are currently the only Rebel ship that can use the new-fangled System Upgrades, I gotta mention those. Any of the three would be useful to Numb, but I like Fire Control System for the free Target Lock the best. Again though, it's easy to make a case for using a more defense-oriented System Upgrade like Sensor Jammer so you can go more offensive with Elite Pilot Skills or Secondary Weapon Systems or even Advanced Sensors and pull a Barrel Roll early in the Activation Phase if a ship unexpectedly gets behind you at an inopportune time.

EDIT: I wanted to throw this great idea in from the comments courtesy of +Nick Smale as it's a great use for a normally forgotten (at least by me) Modification and would likely catch a lot of folks unawares.

I've had a lot of success with PtL, Advanced Sensors and Engine Upgrade. The choice to possibly boost and barrel roll either before or after you move, plus instantly shed the stress from PtL immediately after you've used it (assuming you've gone green) is insanely effective. 

It wouldn't be cheap, but it's hard to argue with the effectiveness! I remember playing against some Interceptor lists where the ships kept on flying out of my firing arcs using Boosts and Barrel Rolls, now, I realize the B-Wing doesn't have the dial those ships do, but they also can't take Advanced Sensors and immediately shed the Stress token as Nick mentioned above by choosing a green maneuver. I'm just saying, the possibility of flying right out of lower PS pilots' arcs is still there if you're a veteran at maneuvering.

If stuff like that's still a little over your head though, I think one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get more mileage out of Numb is picking the rest of your squadron around the idea of using Ten as the heavy hitter he is. Biggs can help pull some of those shots away from him, Garven Dreis can hook him up with a Focus, Dutch Vander can kick him over a Target Lock all of which theoretically allows you to go overboard on offense or provide some help for that single green Defense die that Numb is stuck with.

Wave 3 Preview- The B-Wing

Right on, so this article's been a long time coming. I covered the rest of the Wave 3 stuff prior to this, but today, finally, the oft-delayed B-Wing article from me goes up. Was it worth the wait? Hell, I don't know. Let's take a look and see what we've got here. 

First, the majority of the info from this article comes from the stuff revealed in the FFG article called, "Target Lock Acquired" where they talk about the B-Wing and the TIE Bomber. The info does not come from my totally hilarious April Fool's Day post from, uh, well, 1 April. 

Like most of the Rebel ships, the B-Wing comes in two named pilot versions and two common pilot versions. I always like to start off with the common dudes first just to get an idea of what I'm working with before muddying the waters with named pilots and their abilities, and since this is my bar, that's where we'll start. 

So Blue Squadron is the cheapest, lowest Pilot Skill version of the B-Wing and clocks in at 22 points or one point more expensive than the Rookie X-Wing. How do the two compare? 

First, the stats are relatively similar. Easy, I said relatively. The one Defend die is a bit rotten, but it has 3 more shields than the Rook to help make up for that. They have the same 3 Attack, so that's good, and they both also have 3 Hull. All in all, it's looking fairly even. Where I think the B-Wing kinda comes into its own is possessing the extra Barrel Roll Action in addition to the Focus and Target Lock that Rookie also gets. How often you make use of it is entirely dependent on you and your ability, but as any TIE Interceptor player will attest, having a Barrel Roll in your arsenal is never a bad thing. After all, who cares if you only have one Defense die if you can BR out of your opponent's firing arc anyway? 

Past that, you've got a double load of torpedoes, the funky raygun, and the new Wave 3-centric Advanced Systems upgrades all available to you. That's a lot of variations via upgrades for such a cheap ship. 

So what are the common B-Wings well suited for? I think folks who regularly switch their alliances between Empire and Rebels will probably have a ball with this ship because they're used to barrel rolling, whereas guys like me who predominantly play Rebels, might struggle a bit with it at first. Also folks who have messed around with Firespray lists as I think the most straightforward application of this ship is as a Firespray-lite- staying back behind some X-Wings, bombing in shots to finish fools off from long range. I could see tacking on a Heavy Laser Cannon or an Ion Cannon once in a while for the the lulz, but really, I think it runs fairly decent just as it is. Keep in mind, the most common backline Firesprays are built around Trelix with an HLC or Kath with either an HLC or an Ion Cannon. Your generic B-Wing isn't going to be nearly as effective, but it's also much cheaper, so as long as you're not leaning on it heavily for results, you can use it in much the same way, albeit to diminished effect. As usual, the PS2 version of the ship is 2 points cheaper than the PS4 version with no other differences between the two. 

Ten Numb is the most expensive B-Wing pilot slotting into your list for 31 points. Considering the other options available at that amount of points, he'd better bring something pretty special to the table, right? PS8 is solid but not earthshaking, and the Elite Pilot Skill icon is something you should expect at this kind of point cost. Ten Numb's main benefit is his card text ability- which states that when you attack, 1 of your <crit> results cannot be cancelled by defense dice. 

Ok, so as I've stated before, I think crits are an important way to reduce the effectiveness of big ships. That's not to say that they don't work on small ships, just that they work on big ships better. As the Imperials will be able to choose between the Firespray and the Lambda, both quite capable and dangerous options, having the ability to stick a crit that can't be cancelled is kind of a big deal. That said, sticking an uncancelable (yeah, not a real word, I know) crit on a TIE Interceptor could be pretty amazing too, so it's not like you should only use Ten against big ships. 

The question in my mind is how often does this card text actually work. You're paying 9 points over the cost of the Dagger version for 6 more Pilot Skill, the Elite Pilot Skill icon, and the card text. Is it worth it? 

Weeeeell, maybe. 

As you've likely noticed before, your red Attack die is an 8-sider. Of those 8 sides, one is a critical result. Since you get to throw three of them down every time you attack, you've got a decent shot at rolling a crit. Of course, increasing those odds by running Ten Numb with Marksmanship or with Proton Torpedoes, and you've got the potential to stick somebody with some nasty and (probably) lasting effects. That said, you're talking about more than a third of your point total in a 100 point match, and Rebel ships aren't exactly cheap to start with (translation: you're not going to field much anything else in a 4-ship list in the way of upgrades or named pilots). There again though, against anybody buy a low PS swarm, you're probably coming out ahead with that strategy. 

As formidable as Ten Numb is, it's Ibtisam I'm more likely to mispronounce. I mean, I'm more likely to use. 28 points, she's not exactly cheap, but like Ten Numb, she adds the Elite Pilot Skill icon as well as (in this case) 4 PS above the cheapest incarnation, and her card text for 6 more points. 

28 points is the same total as Luke, so naturally I want to compare them. Luke's at a higher PS (8), but Ibtisam has that intensely interesting card text ability. As you'll recall, via his card text, Luke can change an eyeball result rolled on defense to an Evade. Ibtisam's ability is kinda similar, but her ability can be used on attack or defense and so long as she has a Stress token, she can reroll 1 of her dice. 

Now, some folks have been interpreting this as if Miss I has more than one Stress Token, she can reroll more than one die. I'm not one of those people who thinks that's how this card works, but whatever. I guess we'll have to wait on the FAQ. Either way, at a glance, the ability seems pretty great right? 

Again- weeeeeeeell, kinda. 

Bear in mind that you've gotta have her Stressed for this to work. That means you pulled a red, you took Push The Limit (and paid those additional points), or you cancelled one of Kath's hits. It's not like it's too hard to get Stressed (especially with all those red maneuvers available), but you very well may have sacrificed your Perform Action step to get that Stress token. If you used Push the Limit, well, kudos to you- your'e like the B-Wing Vader or something. If you purposely pulled  a red maneuver to generate the Stress, you just traded in a Focus, Target Lock, or Barrel Roll for the ability to reroll a single die. Not a great return on investment. Still though, if you don't mind the idea of wrapping up a third of your points in a single PS6 ship, you're probably not all that worried about that. 

Me personally, I'm probably going to play several games with only my common B-Wing pilots to get the hang of maneuvering them. Past that though, while Ten Numb and Ibtisam both have some pretty unique card text abilities, I think a case could definitely be made for going common on the B-Wing and still getting some good results. 

Wave 3 Preview- Advanced Sensors and Ten Numb

During my recent hiatus (hiatuses? I don't know- you tell me), you guys might have run across another FFG Wave 3 preview article called simply, "Advanced Technology." Ostensibly, the article is about the new Advanced Systems upgrade cards available to ships with the little radar dish icon (which from the way the opening of the article reads, is the B-Wing and the Lambda). 

We've already talked about a couple of these Advanced System cards in the past, but this article calls out one that I'd not seen the text on just yet. 

Right. So instead of revealing your chosen maneuver, performing the maneuver, then declaring your Action, you declare then reveal, then maneuver. 

So what's the big deal? 

The obvious thing that jumps out is you still have a chance to declare an Action even if you're going to run into somebody or some thing. That's kind of a big deal. I mean really the only thing that keeps me from jumping out of my seat is that earlier mentioned fact that only a couple of ships can take this upgrade. If this were a Modification instead? Holy mackerel. 

I kept thinking about it, and the other pretty big deal is that since you're essentially changing when the Perform Action step is happening for this particular turn, you could perform a maneuver that would normally Stress you out, then if you've selected a green maneuver from your dial, you'd lose that Stress token just about immediately. Will everybody and their dogs start rolling Daredevil finally? It's still too early to say, but I'd say folks will at least be performing K-Turns more often than they were before in ships that can take Advanced Systems. 

Before you completely dismiss Daredevil again, bear in mind that you'd actually be doing the Daredevil maneuver before your normal maneuver. That's pretty tricky, really. 

Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to Stress-generating maneuvers. Barrel Rolls, Expert Handling, and Boosts by way of Engine Upgrade also lend themselves to some interesting potential by rearranging when the Perform Action step occurs in relation to maneuvering. 

The other card that was revealed for the first time in that article was the Ten Numb card. 

The first thing that jumps out at you is probably the first thing that jumped out at me- the cost. 31 points! Wow- that's really kind of a lot, no? It's a cool card and all- the text is good and hard to deny, B-Wings have 3 Actions stock, the stats aren't bad, Mr. Numb is Pilot Skill 8 and has access to the Elite Pilot Skills, what's not to like? 

That 1 Agility sucks, boyee. I know, I know, it's not the end of the world- this thing is basically a fence-sitter on the backline bombing in shots like a HLC'ed up Firespray, not to mention it has a Barrel Roll available to it as well as all those other icons. It just still seems like a lot to me. You could hit 35 or 40 points with this guy, easy. 

I'm not saying it's bad, but I am saying you better watch your step. Sure, he's got a good amount of Shields, but Numb in particular is going to be a pretty high-points, high-priority target so when you go to upgrading him, I think you either tool him so offensive he's likely to kill back his point cost quickly before he gets shot down, or you try to make him unkillable with Expert Handling, Shield Upgrade, etc. 

I'm really curious to see what the other B-Wing pilots look like now! Well, I mean, I was before too, but now I'm like italics-level curious now.