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First off, played my first games finally last weekend, and they were a blast! FFG has done a wonderful job with this game IMO.

Second, is this sub-forum possibly going to get an "Army Lists" section? I'd hate to clutter up the main discussion thread for this with every little asinine list I come up with for this game!

On to the lists!

This is what I ran last weekend (for a store tournament even, I picked a good day to start I guess!):

Triple Interceptors

Turr Phennir + PTL + Stealth Device 31

Carnor Jax + PTL + Royal Guard TIE + Stealth Device + Shield Upgrade 36

Soontir Fel + PTL + Stealth Device 33

I could not deal damage or kill a ship to save my life, but rolling 5 defense dice at R3 was nice! Thoroughly got my ass handed to me by just about everyone (did I mention they were my first games?), but I still had fun and was a great learning experience. Carnor Jax was probably my MVP, as his ability just ruined some people's lists/plays (shut down a HWK-290 Kyle list!). But 3 TIE Interceptors, even with Stealth Device are no where near survivable, nor output enough killing power at 100 points.

As I saw mentioned elsewhere, some one was running a TIE swarm with Howlrunner and 4 Interceptors and they were the one who ended up in first.

Now for my next stupid list I've been mulling over:

TIE Bomberman!

Captain Jonus + Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Proton Torpedoes + Cluster Missiles + Cluster Missiles + Proximity Mines + Shield Upgrade + Deadeye 48

Major Rhymer + Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Proton Torpedoes + Cluster Missiles + Cluster Missiles + Proximity Mines + Shield Upgrade + Deadeye 52

Eggs, meet basket! The idea would be to Target Lock and the Focus actions to fire off the Torps/Missiles while keeping the TL until said target is dead. If I fire my primary weapon, something has gone wrong!

So, as usual, tear this list apart!

First list, the only thing I'm not a fan of is PTL on Turr. If you use his PTL, causing him to get a stress negates his ability to boost or barrel roll after firing. It makes his secondary ability useless if you PTL. I'd rather make him PS9 or give him adrenaline rush to pull a red, turn it green, get an action, fire when his turn comes around and dodge out of there.

If I could convince you: Don't do it. Loading up a Bomber is a trap. Two expendable weapons per ship is the imaginary line, try crossing it and you'll lose your shiny toys before they fire. Three expendable secondaries to a 100 list is also a good imaginary line. Think of Cpt. Jonus as supporting an opening missile/torp salvo, followed potentially by Heavy Laser Cannons and Ion cannons.

The Tri-Ace Interceptor list can be deadly as all hell with good piloting, though the game is balanced such that it's still very defeat-able, as is any list. Try it again in a few weeks or months!

Good Hunting!

In your first list I prefer to replace Carnor Jax with Vader, Daredevil and the engine upgrade and swap PTL on Turr Phenrir with Veteran Instincts.

KnuckleWolf wrote:
If I could convince you: Don't do it. Loading up a Bomber is a trap.

This. You have a two-ship list with a total of 14 HP protected by two defense dice. You can expect one bomber to die in the first exchange (with 15+ points worth of missiles left), while your return fire kills a ship. Now you have one bomber vs. 2-3 X/B-wings or 5-6 TIE fighters, and there's no way you win that fight without a ton of luck. You can't kill a ship in one shot, while the rest of your opponent's list can probably kill a bomber in one turn. You might beat a newbie with a bad list, but against a decent player you are almost guaranteed to lose, and lose badly.

And this brings up an important list-building rule: if you find yourself making a list with two small ships then you've made a fatal mistake, so abandon the idea. The absolute minimum ship count to have a viable list is three ships, and that's only if at least two of them are top-tier elites (Wedge/Fel/etc) and you have the skills to out-maneuver your opponent (preferably with high-PS reactive moves from barrel roll and boost) and avoid incoming fire entirely. A standard list should be at least four ships.

I have successfully run Capt Jonas and 3 gamma bombers. Jonas had swarm tactics, assault missiles, and seismic charge.

The gammas had 2 w/protons, the third with assault missiles and seismic charge.

To run this list you have to be able to get missiles and torps off on turn two. Then you have to stay close (range 1) to maximize your continued shooting.

You try and concentrate all fire at same target until it goes down, but targets of opportunity works as well.

You have 24 hulls which is quite a bit of damage you can absorb.

RB

Holy Twin Ion Engines Batman! Me and peregrine agreed AGAIN!? LOL

Yeah, I feel ill when we agree too. Two big ships alone? Absolutely. Two small ships? No. If you're gonna go with less shots, you need more hull points AND a way to limit the dangers of hits, especially crits. Which is why firesprays with their maneuverability or chewbacca in the falcon are required. Small ships have neither, and a single decent hit has the potential to kill a small ship in one round. You have to be very unlucky to lose a large ship in a single round.

PTL on Turr can work, but you have to be careful. The key is that you take your extra action after he fires to both boost and barrel roll after the attack.

That said, I still think its a bit of a waste on him as if you pilot him carefully, you won't need to both boost and barrel roll after the attack anyway.

Gargs wrote:
That said, I still think its a bit of a waste on him as if you pilot him carefully, you won't need to both boost and barrel roll after the attack anyway.

It's not just a double move. You get:

1) The option to turtle up with focus + evade when you're in a position where you can't dodge all of the arcs, or have a YT-1300 or high-PS threat to deal with. Sure, it means losing your special ability, but an interceptor that can only take one defensive action tends to be a dead interceptor. This is especially important early in the game, where you're going head to head and have to survive the initial pass to get into a proper turning dogfight.

2) The option to boost/barrel roll + evade after shooting. This is how you stay alive when you can dodge most stuff, but can't quite get the last ship. If you've spent focus on offense then you need that evade token to survive return fire.

3) The option to make a double move, before or after shooting. One move action is nice, taking both of them covers a ton of distance and really lets you get creative with your arc dodging. There are a lot of situations where one post-shooting move will leave you exposed to return fire, but the second one takes you completely clear. And interceptors are, above all, a defensive ship that must take every opportunity it can to fly out of arc.

The only other EPT you'd seriously consider is VI, but PS 7 is already better than most other ships. The downside of losing PTL is just way too harsh to justify an EPT that only works against a very short list of elite opponents: Wedge, Luke, Fel, Phennir, Jax, Vader. And lists that take more than one of those ships are even rarer.

Good point Peregrine. I was mixing Turr's ability with PTL. You are right obviously that PTL will allow any action (that hasn't already been taken) to be taken post firing in addition to the boost/barrel roll.

Personally, I still think its debatable as to whether or not its worth it, but that would largely depend on where the rest of my squad points stand. If I didn't have the points for PTL I would not be overly upset. At the same time, I would not leave it off for the sole purpose of being able to gain initiative either. Its just that imo Turr is still pretty good even without an EPT.

Gargs wrote:
Its just that imo Turr is still pretty good even without an EPT.

IMO, no, he isn't. No interceptor, except maybe the basic PS 1 pilot, is good without PTL. Just look at its strengths and weaknesses: good firepower, a dial full of greens, and the best action bar in the game, balanced by poor durability. The action bar and greens are pretty much a giant sign saying "USE PTL ON ME", if you aren't taking two or more actions a turn then you're really not making good use of the options you have available. Meanwhile PTL is essential to fixing the durability issue, both by taking multiple move actions to avoid arcs entirely, and to turtle up with focus + evade stacked when you can't out-maneuver everything. If you don't have PTL available then you've got a ship that costs ~50% more than a TIE fighter but dies just as fast. Three un-bonused dice just won't keep you alive long enough without multiple actions per turn.

And of course the final, fatal problem with interceptors that don't have PTL is the (character) YT-1300. PTL interceptors have a chance against the super-turret with gunner and marksmanship, since you just might have enough focus and evade tokens to survive both shots. If you're playing interceptors without PTL you might as well not even bother playing the game.

(Fun anecdote: Rhymer + Fel with PTL + Vader vs. Chewbacca + gunner + marksmanship. Rhymer spent his APTs to slaughter my B-wings in exchange for taking Vader's shields off, leaving two aces and a bomber against my 50-point YT-1300. Even in full turtle mode with some good dice Fel couldn't survive, and Chewbacca finished off all three of them. Without PTL that game wouldn't even have been close.)

 Evil Lamp 6 wrote:


TIE Bomberman!

Captain Jonus + Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Proton Torpedoes + Cluster Missiles + Cluster Missiles + Proximity Mines + Shield Upgrade + Deadeye 48

Major Rhymer + Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Proton Torpedoes + Cluster Missiles + Cluster Missiles + Proximity Mines + Shield Upgrade + Deadeye 52

Eggs, meet basket! The idea would be to Target Lock and the Focus actions to fire off the Torps/Missiles while keeping the TL until said target is dead. If I fire my primary weapon, something has gone wrong!

So, you can have multiple upgrades?! I've been using an onlien squad builder ready for my first proper couple of game sthis week, and I was under the impression you could only have 1 upgrade per 'slot'.

Can you fire all your weapons each turn?

I suppose I need to RTFM again.

Tournament wise as long as you've got the cards and the inventory slot then yes you can use multiples of same missile/torps. E.g a bomber has two torpedo and two missile slots. S

You can still only fire one weapon per ship per combat phase. Although some abilities allow double shot.

You can drop a bomb and fire a weapon in same turn.

Cheers!

Edit: I've just punched out and read all the cards/tokens etc from two starter sets and five expansions, and I now realise what's what. Thanks again for clarifying, I genuinely appreciate you taking the time!