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Hey there guys,
I play that other flight path game, but I have always been a big empire fan. I love the tie interceptor from jedi. Is it viable to make a whole squadron of them? I'm not talking super competitive, but good enough to hold their own and not get massacred.

TIE Interceptors can be hard to use, but are very effective if used correctly. However, they have some bad matchups if your opponent starts spamming Turret Weapons, which you can't maneuver to avoid.

That being said, I like them.

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
Hey there guys,
I play that other flight path game, but I have always been a big empire fan. I love the tie interceptor from jedi. Is it viable to make a whole squadron of them? I'm not talking super competitive, but good enough to hold their own and not get massacred.

TIE interceptors have for a while been considered OK but not super competitive. I do not have much experience with full TIE interceptor lists, but I know that people in my gaming group have similar questions about TIE interceptor heavy lists.

In a week or two the TIE interceptor imperial aces pack comes out which will hopefully give TIE interceptors a needed boost. Significantly there will be a royal guard TIE ship title which will make it possible to upgrade a TIE interceptor from 3 hull to 4 hull 1 shield, which combined with its 3 agility might create a new sort of armored interceptor list. Time will tell as people get their hands on the imperial aces pack.

As it is though the TIE interceptor isn't so bad that it is not valid. One could certainly make a list of interceptors and have a fighting chance.

EDIT: a rough list using the new aces might be

Soontir Fel, push the limit, hull upgrade - 33
Carnor Jax, adrenaline rush, shield upgrade - 31
Alpha squadron pilot - 18
Alpha squadron pilot - 18

Ive heard an interesting list that comprises of Howlrunner with 4 of the standard Interceptor pilots (I cant recall what PS level, whichever you can fit in for the points). Its an interesting concept. Although the interceptors are faster and more maneuverable, they can often keep in close enough proximity to Howl to get her bonus re-roll.
Ive not tried it myself but if I get 2 more interceptors I might!

The game store somehow got a Imperial Aces pack that hadn't already been reserved. So I jumped on it. Let a buddy at the store run em against me. He made a fluffy experimental list with em which was tough enough. Royal Guard, Darth Vader, 3x Black Squads, plus some gear. First time he didn't use stealth device on any of his ships and as I was sneakily suspecting the Hull Upgrade came in remarkably handy for him buying an extra turn out of the royal guard. (he normally loses the Stealth the first attack I throw at it, Only once has it lasted to the second attack) Just food for thought. Like herbaciousT mentioned I believe the Interceptors with Howlrunner is worth exploring.

Thanks for the info guys [youtube]

Yes you can very much run all Interceptors, My friend is a very skilled squint pilot, and is deadly with soontir.

He ran all three named interceptors and went 2-2 and almost beat out a 8 tie swarm.

Interceptors are high risk high reward play style. one bad roll and there goes a ship.

The benefit of the Squint is its ability to dodge firing arcs like a beast with boot/barrel roll or both if you have PtL.

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
Is it viable to make a whole squadron of them? I'm not talking super competitive, but good enough to hold their own and not get massacred.

It's a very metagame-dependent ship. Against most ships the interceptor is great. Three attack dice make it a lot better at killing stuff (remember, dice in X-Wing are not linear, three attack dice is way more than 50% more firepower than two attack dice) compared to a regular TIE fighter, and the large number of greens on the maneuver dial make it great with PTL to stack focus + evade on defense, boost + barrel roll to shoot while being out of the target's arc, etc. It's a glass cannon, but if you're flying them well you shouldn't be getting shot at very often. And the named pilots are amazing. Fel has ridiculous action efficiency (three per turn effectively with mandatory PTL) and can last an entire game without ever taking a hit, while Phennir is just brutal against low-PS ships that won't get to shoot before he boosts and barrel rolls out of their arc.

However, interceptors do have their drawbacks:

The huge fatal problem is turret ships, especially named YT-1300s. They depend almost entirely on their ability to stay out of arc of most enemy ships and minimize the amount of times they have to roll defense dice. But against a turret ship that ability is gone and you're taking the same shots no matter where you are. And that often means 3-4 attack dice with a gunner re-roll if you manage to dodge the first shot, from a ship that has enough HP that you can't just kill them before it's a problem. Y-wings and HWKs are a bit easier to deal with since their turrets are only range 1-2 and don't have a gunner, but they're a lot cheaper so you might be facing 2-3 ion turrets instead of a single YT-1300. So if turret ships are popular in your area you're going to have a lot of really hard fights.

The second, less crippling problem, is that they rely on luck to survive. Unlike other ships that tank with fixed HP that can't be negated by bad dice, a TIE depends on getting good results from those green dice. A B-wing still has 8 HP to kill no matter how badly it rolls, and any evades on its single die are just a nice bonus. A TIE, on the other hand, has about a 5% chance of rolling nothing but blanks on three dice. That's pretty rare, but if you play a long tournament with an interceptor-heavy list you're going to have games where one of your ships just explodes in one shot. And, unlike a swarm of TIE fighters that can just laugh off the failure, interceptor-based lists don't have the numbers to survive. That one bad roll can easily cost you a game. And when you need an undefeated record (often without even having any modified wins) to get any prizes that makes interceptors a big gamble.

YT-1300s ruin Interceptors. Turrets, specifically. Soontir will hold out the best, but even he will eventually go down (ignore him, focus out the chaff, run him down at the end). Turr Phennar, my favorite pilot in the game, is amazing against non-turret ships, but folds like tissue paper against turret weapons. Totally depends on meta: if you don't have players running heavy turret lists, go nuts-you'll do very well. If turrets are common, leave em at home.

I always go for soont first i know hes a tough bastard with SD but one lucky roll can end his day . you really dont want him to be last alive esp in the hands of a good pilot

I would not follow the trend in here telling you that squints are trashed by turrets, but they do make you play differently. Every ship that has a turret has garbage agility, so your best defense is range 3. You getting 4 green dice is better than giving them 2, especially with Turr who can then roll behind an asteroid or Iif positioned well out of range.

I topped a Han/Chewie superfriends list to finish 2nd in a SC recently, by flying smart. I crammed the middle of the board with asteroids forcing him to skirt the edge or fly through. I kept chewie at r3 and stayed out of range of han until chewie died. . It can be done, just takes practice.

My opponents have usually tossed asteroids in the middle-I fly down the side with both YT ships together and then turn keeping greens. I also skip on Han and use Lando instead. The list has won all but one game so far. It IS tough, but it can be beaten. Takes a damn good pilot to do it though, and still requires a bit of luck to deal with two giant gunboats.

That being said, I love interceptors and can't wait to get back to using them!!

Interceptors are my favorite and I run a 4-Squint fleet a lot. As said before, it's very much a high risk/high reward build, but it's a blast to play.

The Imperial Aces have improved my quality of life significantly. I've started running a Saber Squadron with Opportunist in addition to my more elite fighters and he has been invaluable. Since he's firing last, most enemy tokens have been expended and suddenly I'm throwing 5 dice at range 1. It's effing glorious.

Interceptor list would be really fun. My friend has 3 and i played with them before. I like them a lot. Not sure on a Interceptor heavy list. You should comment back if you try it out and if it is successful.

Well, I took my Three Amigos list to a local tourney and won it.

Fel w/ PTL, royal guard, targeting computer, stealth device
Jax w/ opportunist, royal guard, hull upgrade, stealth device
Turr w/ vet instincts, stealth device

Went up against a trio of bombers, XBBB and XBBH. With my awesome maneuverability I was able to stay out of arc for a good while and whittle down enemy ships.

My last 2 games were very close, coming down to Turr vs 2 ships each time. Pretty much every time I risked taking damage instead of avoiding fire I got punished for it. So it is possible to win with Interceptors, but you have to know when to go in and when to bug out.

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
Hey there guys,
I play that other flight path game, but I have always been a big empire fan. I love the tie interceptor from jedi. Is it viable to make a whole squadron of them? I'm not talking super competitive, but good enough to hold their own and not get massacred.

You can but it takes practice to run it well. As for a proper squadron of 12 Interceptors? You can do it under the epic rules FFG just published for 300 point games. This is what I came up with for epic (and yes I do own 12 Interceptors )

Flight 1
Soontir Fell with Push the Limit, Royal Guard title, Shield & Hull upgrades (37)
Tetran Cowell with Veteran Instinct, Royal Guard title, Shield & Hull upgrades (32)
Saber Squadron with Veteran Instincts (22)
Saber Squadron with Veteran Instincts (22)

Flight 2
Carnor Jax with Push the Limit, Royal Guard title, Shield & Hull upgrades (36)
Royal Guard Pilot with Push the Limit (25)
Royal Guard Pilot with Push the Limit (25)
Royal Guard Pilot with Push the Limit (25)

Flight 3
Avenger Squadron (20)
Avenger Squadron (20)
Alpha Squadron (18)
Alpha Squadron (18)

Total: 300

Zathras, i am very jealous. 12 interceptors. Im sitting her at my house with only 1. I wish i were you.

I have 4 Interceptors and certainly do want to field them as a 'Flight' in a game some day. Even if I get blown off the board, I'm being fluffy and I'm sure I'll enjoy every minute of it. :-P

I played a game with all interceptors on the weekend... have decided with a friend to play a game with only 1 of each ship type per side for a bit so we can get a better feel for each.

So, for me, it was

Soontir with stealth and marksmanship (shoulda taken PTL)
Kir Kanos
Alpha
Royal guard with marksmanship.

Royal guard got wrecked pretty much turn 1... facing off against luke, biggs and garven.

Soontir got beat up not long after... couldn't roll a save or a hit to save my life for the first 3-4 turns. Finally though, the manouevering got the best of them, and in the end, it was the lowly alpha ps1 that emerged unscathed and won the match.

Nice Tom. How did Kanos work for you? I haven't used him yet and am eager to try.

Played my first game with Kanos, he was amazing, and untouched by the end of the game. His ability to turn his evade into an extra hit at rg 2-3 was really useful against Lando, giving him extra firepower to combat the range bonus.

Man, Kanos is the only Ace I really don't like. His ability is interesting, but without an EPT I feel like he's not giving you enough. Now give him access to PTL and he becomes awesome-sauce.

 Farseer Faenyin wrote:
Nice Tom. How did Kanos work for you? I haven't used him yet and am eager to try.

Honestly not very well, but more my fault than anything. I flew him out a bit on his own and it ended up that we was getting hounded a bit and constantly in at least 2 arcs... so I kept focusing him to ensure good defense (luke had swarm, so they shot first) and never really got to use his ability. I should have kept him behind the alpha pilot.

I ran a list with soontir del, carnor jax (my favorite interceptor) and one other that i can't remember, and faced a 2 b wing and 2 x wing list and he only got to shoot once lol, but then next time he used a ht-1300 and two y wings with ion turrets...and that did not go well

i really like jax as if you just rush him up behind the enemies formation and keep him out of their firing arcs, then they can't use focuses and my TIE fighter formation can tear them up, my two cents