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So I was looking at the new Imperial Aces expansion, and a few things caught my eye. I was thinking of creating a resilient Imperial squadron of 4 ships, 3 Interceptors and a single Black Squadron TIE with Squad Leader to support.

First you have Kir Kanos with a Stealth Device. 4 dice with a (near) permanent evade token? He's going to be a massive pain to hit, backed by the TIE/I natural maneuverability to keep out of fire arcs. The fact that he can simply evade every turn and use it for guaranteed hits or dodges is really solid imo.

Secondly, Turr Phennir naked. A typical TIE/I, yet even more elusive by being able to fire at a target and then boost or roll into a new position. Possibly freeing up points elsewhere for Marksman or PTL would work out. Marksman would give him more teeth, and PTL would allow him more options. Clearing the stress would be fairly straight forward with the option to boost for added maneuverability...of course if you have a stress token from the activation phase you can't, then, boost after you attack.

Third, Royal Guard Pilot in a Royal Guard TIE with Elusiveness and both the Shield and Hull upgrade. This makes him a 6 PS along with Kir Kanos giving me an option at that juncture, and also giving him a durability of 5 over the typical 3 in an Interceptor. Back that up with Elusiveness, and the good amount of mobility even when performing Green Maneuvers then you have a ship that is hard to hit and when you do hit it, it takes much more than is typical of Imperial ships.

Last, a BSP TIE with Squad Leader. Keeping him pulled back as a wingman who is ready to jump in and give his action to an ally at a crucial time.

I can't read, strike that as he can't squad lead anyone haha. Take Backstabber or a different Talent or an Alpha Squadron Interceptor.

That gives me a 7, two 6s and a 4 in pilot orders with 3 extremely agile ships with teeth. Two of the ships will be exceedingly hard to damage and one should be relatively hard to lock down in a good fire arc. The TIE is there for added flexibility and options.

An alternative build would be Turr Phennir and Kir Kanos with 2 Alpha Squadron Pilots and an Academy Pilot. This would give me an extra Interceptor on the field and a slew of low PS pilots as diversions for my higher skilled pilots. I also have considered 4 Academy Pilots as well with the two Interceptors for a 6-man squadron...but I'm intrigued with the idea of a less spammy and more elite Imperial fleet (Imperial Aces pack indeed).


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Oh...of course I could replace the RGP with Soontir Fel with PTL and upgrade take Howlrunner...I like that idea. Though Fel is kinda silly strong like that.

stuff like this makes me wish i ran imperials

Bitharne wrote:
First you have Kir Kanos with a Stealth Device. 4 dice with a (near) permanent evade token? He's going to be a massive pain to hit, backed by the TIE/I natural maneuverability to keep out of fire arcs. The fact that he can simply evade every turn and use it for guaranteed hits or dodges is really solid imo.

This is a really situational choice. His pilot ability only works in specific situations: you have to be at the right range, and you have to be at the right PS. If your opponent has an elite list of their own the ability to turn an evade token into offense doesn't matter because you're almost always going to have to spend it to dodge a shot from Wedge/Fel/etc. If your opponent has a low-PS list then you have to decide whether to spend the token on offense before you ever get shot at, in which case it's only slightly better than focusing (and probably worse once you consider the fact that other pilots have elite skills slots and pilot abilities to boost their offense directly). To make it work properly you need to set up a situation where you're facing some high-PS shooting that you need to take the evade token insurance against, but not so much that you're always going to use it.

Secondly, Turr Phennir naked. A typical TIE/I, yet even more elusive by being able to fire at a target and then boost or roll into a new position. Possibly freeing up points elsewhere for Marksman or PTL would work out. Marksman would give him more teeth, and PTL would allow him more options. Clearing the stress would be fairly straight forward with the option to boost for added maneuverability...of course if you have a stress token from the activation phase you can't, then, boost after you attack.

Phennir at least needs veteran instincts so he can shoot and move away at PS 9. For a single point that's such a powerful upgrade that you have to take it.

And PTL on Phennir works because you take a normal action in the action step, then trigger PTL with the free after-attacking action. So you focus, kill something, then boost + evade. If your opponent doesn't have any PS 8-9 ships this is extremely effective.

Third, Royal Guard Pilot in a Royal Guard TIE with Elusiveness and both the Shield and Hull upgrade. This makes him a 6 PS along with Kir Kanos giving me an option at that juncture, and also giving him a durability of 5 over the typical 3 in an Interceptor. Back that up with Elusiveness, and the good amount of mobility even when performing Green Maneuvers then you have a ship that is hard to hit and when you do hit it, it takes much more than is typical of Imperial ships.

I'm not really convinced about this one. Sure, it's a 5 HP TIE, but you're spending +7 points for that. And elusiveness is bad on TIEs, you want PTL for focus + evade since it will give you better defense for that same stress token.

I dunno. I think Kir Kanos is going to be my "always in" pic. Good price for an extremely versatile pilot. PS 6 is acceptable, considering he will be flexible and evade 90% of the time. This will allow him to dodge the higher PS pilots that might have a shot on him, and if he survives he can pop the evade for a guaranteed hit. The only time I feel I wont evade is when he boosts/rolls into a spot where he won't shoot or get shot (kind of the whole point of an interceptor imo)...or if he gets into range 1 against someone outside their arc and focuses for the extra firepower at point blank.

The way I see interceptors is that you fully outfly your opponent with them. If you can't, then they are not worth points, and paramount to that is good planning and positioning: the boost action also helps a ton; but if you do have to take fire, evade (imo) is the way to do go as you want to avoid taking hits, even if you are reducing your offensive punch by not focusing. The extra die over a TIE means you can focus on more guaranteed evades via the action instead of relying on lady luck (who hates me).

As for Phennir, I need to get a lot of practice with him to see how much I enjoy the boost after firing to avoid arcs and just plain zip around the board at insane speeds. Though, I was thinking: does boosting after your move prohibit the free boost after shooting as it's still the same game round? So you'd have to barrel roll and boost for those two actions? Though I do like the idea of PTL for another action after you fire and boost/roll since the stress token will do nothing to you at all if you take a green maneuver next turn (very likely).

As for the overboost RGP, It was an idea for tough pilots, but ya...expensive. My new idea for the RGT Title is for Fel, and adding a Targeting Computer to him ontop of Stealth Device. Making him 35 points, but allowing him to really hammer someone hard by Target Locking, and then rolling/boosting/whatever for the focus and rerolling blanks and then burning that focus for 3-4 high-chance damage.

My current 4-ship empire list is as follows:

Fel in a Royal Guard Tie with PTL, Stealth, Targeting Computer for 35

Tur with Veteran Instincts

Kir Kanos with Stealth Device

Academy Pilot

100 points even. 2 Hard to hit pilots. 2 extraordinarily mobile pilots (one of which is hard to hit). 2 extremely deadly pilots (guaranteed damage die on one. TL and Focus on the other). and 4 total bodies on the field to equal or exceed almost any rebel fleet. If I see a tie swarm, I'd be able to outfly them, and even if they fire at me, I have so much defense it would be hard for S2 TIEs to land a hit anyway.

I just prefer tactical flexibility to super focused lists that are "one-trick-ponies" like a swarm (must stay clustered), 2 pilots with absurd equipment, or boring builds like Biggs-bodygaurd shenanigans. To me, the TIE Interceptor is the perfect fighter for that, the named pilots adding a lot of options, and even basic Saber or RG pilots would be fine to fly.

4 RG ties with 3 point mods/elites each would be a fun force too

Bitharne wrote:
Good price for an extremely versatile pilot. PS 6 is acceptable, considering he will be flexible and evade 90% of the time. This will allow him to dodge the higher PS pilots that might have a shot on him, and if he survives he can pop the evade for a guaranteed hit.

But compare him to a basic RGP with PTL at the same PS. RGP takes an evade token on defense and a focus token that can either add almost as much firepower as Kir Kanos even if you have to spend the evade token, or give even more defense if you need it. Or you can evade and boost/barrel roll into a better position. Or boost to range 1 and focus for maximum offense. Etc. That's much better versatility.

Though, I was thinking: does boosting after your move prohibit the free boost after shooting as it's still the same game round?

Yes. A free boost is still a boost action.


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Bitharne wrote:
I just prefer tactical flexibility to super focused lists that are "one-trick-ponies" like a swarm (must stay clustered), 2 pilots with absurd equipment, or boring builds like Biggs-bodygaurd shenanigans. To me, the TIE Interceptor is the perfect fighter for that, the named pilots adding a lot of options, and even basic Saber or RG pilots would be fine to fly.

IMO:

Fel with PTL and stealth

Carnor Jax with PTL and stealth

Phennir with PTL and stealth

Fel is obviously Fel, the ultimate dogfighter. Carnor Jax completely screws over anything in range 1 on both attack and defense, while providing good offense. Phennir is kind of a placeholder, he's not bad but I expect he'll be replaced by one of the other characters in the new expansion.

 Peregrine wrote:

Bitharne wrote:
Good price for an extremely versatile pilot. PS 6 is acceptable, considering he will be flexible and evade 90% of the time. This will allow him to dodge the higher PS pilots that might have a shot on him, and if he survives he can pop the evade for a guaranteed hit.

But compare him to a basic RGP with PTL at the same PS. RGP takes an evade token on defense and a focus token that can either add almost as much firepower as Kir Kanos even if you have to spend the evade token, or give even more defense if you need it. Or you can evade and boost/barrel roll into a better position. Or boost to range 1 and focus for maximum offense. Etc. That's much better versatility.

But Kir Kanos is there for the survivability he has. Fel and Phennir are there for versatility more so. Kanos with stealth is much harder to hit than a RGP with PTL. He has 4 agility AND an evade token, and hopefully range 3 from anyone shooting at him (if he's in an arc) giving him 5 dice and a token. Also, I don't have to worry about managing his stress compared to a PTL RGP...not a huge huge deal with Interceptors due to the all 2 move greens and 3/4 straight greens. Of course that makes your moves a bit more predictable I would imagine. With Kanos he has the freedom to use his full dial and only worry about K turns for stress, and simply focus on hitting people with reliable damage and being a super hard target to kill.

One reason is the falcon, the primary banes of Interceptor lists: turrets. Kanos would still be hard for Han to actually hit compared to a PTL RGP. He is my rock in a world of dicey waters...I'm a Warhammer player with atrocious luck, so any hero that gives me guarantees to hedge my bet against dice is a huge huge blessing to me. I'll take the 1-damage-for-evade-token power over focus for my dice anyday because of this. You might feel differently, but this is a huge factor to me.

Of course...4 PTL RGPs would be freakin hilarious ^_^


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I don't actually have any interest in Jax atm. For the same reason I do not like TIE swarms...I'm not keen on relying on using "range 1 to hugely boost your team" powers. It just sounds like too "one trick pony" to me. A personal preference.

Also, 3 man Imperial sounds bleh to me.

Bitharne wrote:
[Kanos with stealth is much harder to hit than a RGP with PTL.

I'm talking about RGP + PTL vs. Kir Kanos, stealth or no stealth on both. RGP + PTL + stealth is 28 points, Kir Kanos + stealth is 27 points, so that's about equal. And the RGP is pretty much always better.

He has 4 agility AND an evade token, and hopefully range 3 from anyone shooting at him (if he's in an arc) giving him 5 dice and a token.

So does the RGP. In fact the RGP has even better defense since you also have a focus token that you can spend if you really need it.

Of course that makes your moves a bit more predictable I would imagine.

Not by all that much. Interceptors have enough greens that all you really lose is easy k-turns.

Kanos would still be hard for Han to actually hit compared to a PTL RGP.

How exactly? Kanos has an evade token and will almost always have to spend it by the time Han is done shooting at him. RGP has an evade token and will spend it as well, but also has a focus token available. Once Han is done the RGP is clearly in a better position.

For the same reason I do not like TIE swarms...I'm not keen on relying on using "range 1 to hugely boost your team" powers.

Note the key difference between him and swarms: you need to be within range 1 of the enemy, not your own ships. You use the speed of the TIE interceptor to get in close to a target and start dodging firing arcs while shutting down focus + evade. Think of him as Wedge in a TIE: he cripples his target's defense, except he also cripples their offense as well and maybe even does it to another ship or two. The rest of your ships are still free to do whatever they want.

Also, 3 man Imperial sounds bleh to me.

Yeah, but all you have in your 4-ship list is an academy pilot. I'd rather upgrade Kir Kanos to Carnor Jax and have three extremely powerful ships than have three weaker ships and a marginal academy pilot.