Talk:TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack/@comment-50.249.19.14-20150915162059/@comment-70.106.202.219-20151218235226

Alright, I’ll bite. I don’t think this post deserves this level of analysis, but I can’t help myself.

How many times has *anyone* put a Shield Upgrade on an Academy Pilot?

It’s a non-trivial question. Your argument about power creep is based on the premise that a Shield Upgrade is a good buy for an Academy Pilot. Really? How many times has anyone said, “Boy, if I could scrape up a few more points I could drop a Shield upgrade on that there Academy Pilot and then, hooo-ie, THEN I’d be in business!”

It’s absurd, and it’s absurd for several reasons.

First, Shield Upgrade has different values for different ships. A Blue Squadron Pilot, for example, values an extra shield very lowly; it’s a relatively small HP addition, percentage-wise, and still defended only by a single green die. Soontir Fel, on the other hand, values Shield Upgrade very highly, because it’s a 33% health boost and crit defense protected by 3 base agility and multiple defensive tokens. Besides which, Soontir plays a very important role in most lists, and so keeping him alive is vital to a player’s strategy. The pricing of Shield Upgrade—or any modification, since they’re universal—will be more reflective of its value to high-end ships than low-end ships. Academy Pilots, whose primary virtue is low cost, are poor candidates for Shield Upgrade.

Players don’t put Shield Upgrade on Academy Pilots because Shield Upgrade isn’t worth four points on an Academy Pilot. Therefore, a new version of an Academy Pilot that had a shield built-in *should* cost less than Academy + Shield.

Second, the TIE/Fo is a bit different than the TIE/In. I like to compare it to the difference between a Prototype Pilot with Chardaan and a Bandit Squadron Pilot. The A-Wing is much more survivable and mobile, but the Z has the undeniable advantage of being cheaper. Survivability is only a so-so concern for this sort of ship, which is low-priority for the opponent and primarily a blocker. The mobility difference is significant between the two, yes, but you’re paying three points for that privilege.

(This is where you get outraged that an A-Wing is basically a Z-95 with a built-in Engine Upgrade, but a Prototype is cheaper than a Z-95 with Engine Upgrade. Actually, don’t get outraged about that.)

Both the Bandit and the Prototype are used extensively—notice how at Worlds, the winning list used a Bandit and the runner-up used a Prototype. In other words, the ships may fill similar roles but they’re different enough that you can pick the one that suits your precise needs.

This analogy ports to the Academy-versus-Zeta discussion. The Zeta is more durable, but that’s a secondary consideration for a blocker. It has a superior dial, so it is more mobile. Do you want to pay the extra points for that mobility advantage? Or do you want the most expendable trash you can field? I suggest you pick the ship that suits your list and your budget.

The TIE/Fo isn’t inherently more powerful than the TIE/In. It fills a slightly different niche and owning both gives you more options. Reductively saying that one renders the other obsolete is simply misguided.