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Empire list
Kir kanos
Soontir felt
Marksmanship
Colonel vessery
Adv homing missile and marksmanship

Rebels
Miranda doni
With twin laser turrets and concussion missiles

Poe Demerol
With marksmanship and r2d2
Tyco celchu
Push the limit

It seem like I was swept off the table. I have played a few games but seems like I cannot get the empire to balance. Any suggestions and sorry this was type from a tablet.

The problem is, Rebels actually have a half-decent list. Miranda has the TLT, which lets her do her Regen shenanigans. Poe has R2-D2, so can do his shenanigans. Tycho has PTL, so can do his action stacking shenanigans. Admittedly, it is far from perfect with Marksmanship on Poe and concussions on Miranda, but it's close. Dropping Missiles and marksmanship to give Poe and Tycho Vet instincts and Autothrusters would leave a fairly competitive list.

In contrast, the Empire list Fails spectacularly to take advantage of it's pilots strengths. There is no action economy or even stress generation on Soontir, and Colonel Vessery's ability doesn't work without someone else to gain target locks. There is no reason to run Marksmanship on wither of these guys, as it is just terrible. I also had to look Kir Kanos up.

The fact that the Imperial list is 11 points smaller than the Rebels does not help either.

Ok good advise but I do not have auto thrusters or vet instincts. What packages did that come with?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
So those cards come with the star viper and the falcon or firespray. Any other ships have these card?

 redcell wrote:
So those cards come with the star viper and the falcon or firespray. Any other ships have these card?

Those are the only ones. Just proxy the cards.

Agreed. Marksmanship only really does what a focus token does - except you can't use it defensively and it costs points.


A TIE/d Defender and two TIE/in Interceptors should be workable as a list but it needs a bit of tweaking.

If you've got Kir Kanos, I'm assuming you've got access to the Imperial Aces expansion. This is good. Kir Kanos....isn't. I love the Crimson Empire series but Kir Kanos is just bad as a pilot.

Carnor Jax, on the other hand, is a lot more dangerous and little more expensive.

Soontir Fel is also good. But to benefit from his ability you need to do something to stress him, which marksmanship doesn't


Both really benefit from Push The Limit - a TIE interceptor has lots of options for actions, is dependent on tokens for survivability, and sheds stress easily. Imperial Aces has two copies of Push The Limit in it - so stack them onto the interceptors.

I would then give them something to improve their toughness.

Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces) Stealth Device (Slave 1 or M3-A Scyck) and Autothrusters (Starviper) is the "industry standard" at the moment, but if you're not worried about tournament-shattering competitiveness, you can use just stuff from the Imperial Aces box - a TIE interceptor with Royal Guard TIE, Hull Upgrade, and Shield Upgrade is pretty comparable to a T-70 X-wing - 5 hits with 3 agility rather than 6 hits with 2 agility.

When planning a list, look at how cards interact.
Take Vessery for example:

Vessery's ability gives him a free target lock when he shoots at someone that's target locked by someone else.

That means you need another ship with the target lock action (which you don't have), which will shoot after him (he's the lowest pilot skill, too) so it hasn't spent its lock before he shoots, and which can be expected to survive your opponent shooting at it.

TIE Bombers, or other, generic TIE Defenders make good wingmen for the Colonel.

Secondly, his upgrades. Marksmanship turns all your focus results to hits and crits for an action. So far so good. But so does a focus token, and that doesn't cost you points. So...why would you want marksmanship? The answer is either "because you can use that critical hit to do something fancy" or "because you can attack multiple times a turn".

The former generally requires a pilot ability which works off critical hits. Bossk, Maarek Stele, Ten Numb, and the Imperial version of Kath Scarlet have one. Vessery doesn't.

The latter is only possible (for a TIE defender) with Cluster Missiles. It's most useful on ships with crew slots, that can take a Gunner, or pilots whose ability lets them shoot more than once (Corran Horn or Dengar).

Secondly, look at how the two upgrades interact. Marksmanship needs your action. Advanced Homing Missiles need a target lock to fire - so you need to use your action for that, instead. As a result, you can't benefit from both at once.


If you've got a TIE defender, somewhere you've got the Predator card. This is a good choice for a defender - rerolls to hit that don't require an action, so you can concentrate on using your action to get out of arcs of fire, or can afford to take tight turns (leaving you stressed) and still get shots you can expect to hit.

Playing Fel without a Push the Limit upgrade is rough. Actually, it just shouldn't be done. Sounds like you have that card if you have the aces set. Get it on him quick. Also give him a stealth device for added defense dice and watch his survivability go through the roof.

locarno24 wrote:
Agreed. Marksmanship only really does what a focus token does - except you can't use it defensively and it costs points.


A TIE/d Defender and two TIE/in Interceptors should be workable as a list but it needs a bit of tweaking.

If you've got Kir Kanos, I'm assuming you've got access to the Imperial Aces expansion. This is good. Kir Kanos....isn't. I love the Crimson Empire series but Kir Kanos is just bad as a pilot.

Carnor Jax, on the other hand, is a lot more dangerous and little more expensive.

Soontir Fel is also good. But to benefit from his ability you need to do something to stress him, which marksmanship doesn't


Both really benefit from Push The Limit - a TIE interceptor has lots of options for actions, is dependent on tokens for survivability, and sheds stress easily. Imperial Aces has two copies of Push The Limit in it - so stack them onto the interceptors.

I would then give them something to improve their toughness.

Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces) Stealth Device (Slave 1 or M3-A Scyck) and Autothrusters (Starviper) is the "industry standard" at the moment, but if you're not worried about tournament-shattering competitiveness, you can use just stuff from the Imperial Aces box - a TIE interceptor with Royal Guard TIE, Hull Upgrade, and Shield Upgrade is pretty comparable to a T-70 X-wing - 5 hits with 3 agility rather than 6 hits with 2 agility.

When planning a list, look at how cards interact.
Take Vessery for example:

Vessery's ability gives him a free target lock when he shoots at someone that's target locked by someone else.

That means you need another ship with the target lock action (which you don't have), which will shoot after him (he's the lowest pilot skill, too) so it hasn't spent its lock before he shoots, and which can be expected to survive your opponent shooting at it.

TIE Bombers, or other, generic TIE Defenders make good wingmen for the Colonel.

Secondly, his upgrades. Marksmanship turns all your focus results to hits and crits for an action. So far so good. But so does a focus token, and that doesn't cost you points. So...why would you want marksmanship? The answer is either "because you can use that critical hit to do something fancy" or "because you can attack multiple times a turn".

The former generally requires a pilot ability which works off critical hits. Bossk, Maarek Stele, Ten Numb, and the Imperial version of Kath Scarlet have one. Vessery doesn't.

The latter is only possible (for a TIE defender) with Cluster Missiles. It's most useful on ships with crew slots, that can take a Gunner, or pilots whose ability lets them shoot more than once (Corran Horn or Dengar).

Secondly, look at how the two upgrades interact. Marksmanship needs your action. Advanced Homing Missiles need a target lock to fire - so you need to use your action for that, instead. As a result, you can't benefit from both at once.


If you've got a TIE defender, somewhere you've got the Predator card. This is a good choice for a defender - rerolls to hit that don't require an action, so you can concentrate on using your action to get out of arcs of fire, or can afford to take tight turns (leaving you stressed) and still get shots you can expect to hit.

Thank you for breaking this down this is only our 3rd game. I never really looked at tournament list at all before now. This is total beer and pretzel with my main opponent's being my wife and son.
I was buying ship based on what we wanted to see on the table not based on what was competitive. I will try your advise on my Emp list and also proxy some cards. Thank you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Playing Fel without a Push the Limit upgrade is rough. Actually, it just shouldn't be done. Sounds like you have that card if you have the aces set. Get it on him quick. Also give him a stealth device for added defense dice and watch his survivability go through the roof.

Thank you will try this too.

I don't know how many starter sets you have and/or how many normal TIE Fighters you therefore have, but Academy Pilots are pretty good. They may not be flashy, but they get the job done and are actually really good in large numbers at blocking enemy movement. Don't be afraid to fly low-pilot-skill ships with zero upgrades, it's frequently a good choice in this game.