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Edit: sorry, preemptively posted

I've been playing around for awhile with a couple of lists from games I've watched online and I've fallen inlove with the decimator/defender combo, as it uses both of my absolute favorite ships.

I understand that this is more or less the standard layout for the list:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau
Gunner
Hotshot co-pilot
Darth Vader/rebel captive
Engine upgrade
Predator/VI

Countess Ryad
PTL
TIE Mk.ii engine
X/7 title

But I ran this at our local tourney and won quite handedly:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau
Gunner
Hotshot co-pilot
rebel captive
Engine upgrade
Predator

Maarek Steele
Juke
X/7 title

The bonus PS of Maarek really helped here. I never fought any large base ships, so his ability really didnt come into play at all, but I'm sure it would have done well had he been able to use his ability. However this experience really taught me how much I wanted his crits to go through. I could push the damage, but the critical were just too unreliable. I could have run Rexler Brath (which was my original intent on the change), but couldn't fit the points well enough.

So I looked around and found this, using one of the new cards from the quad jumper as its core for damage and control, while leaving me points for Brath

Captain Oicunn
Daredevil
Dauntless
Engine upgrade
Intel agent
Aspiring Recuit
Bo'Shek
Extra munitions
Thermal detonators

Rexler Brath
Expertise
Tie Mk.ii engine
X/7 title

I could potentially reduce expertise to juke to push damage, but I'm losing out on more focus results, and I NEED to keep the focus to flip more crits. If I drop it to juke, I can boost thermal detonators to proton bombs as well for even more shenanigans.

Bo'Shek and Intel agent with Oicunn is spectacular. The control and damage output it offers can easily turn battles in my favor, disengage troublesome ships, put them in range of Brath without an arc, or even fly them off the board.

Then Daredevil/dauntless combo with aspiring recruit allows Oicunn to ram twice a turn, every turn if he can.

So the RAC/gunner/hotshot combination is aimed at stripping tokens, so I tend to think it pairs best with a juke Defender... Maarek or Vessery perhaps (you can always take a TL with Rac and not use it so it boosts Vessery). I'm not sure about either captive or Vader, though.

Vader definitely helps against aces, but Soontir is a rarer sight these days and hotshot/ gunner would tend to be enough to push damage against most opponents... and the captive discourages shots vs the Decimator, which hotshot already does, to some degree. (And don't you want your opponent shooting at the brick of hit points that is the Deci?)

As far as the Oicunn/Brath build, I rather like it, but have you considered dropping something to get fleet officer? Giving Rex an extra focus so he has one on defense could be handy. Perhaps like this:

100 points
------

Captain Oicunn (60)
VT-49 Decimator (42), Daredevil (3), Cluster Mines (4), Inspiring Recruit (1), Intelligence Agent (1), Fleet Officer (3), Dauntless (2), Engine Upgrade (4)

Rexler Brath (40)
TIE Defender (37), Expertise (4), TIE/x7 (-2), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

You could also downgrade the bombs to switch intel agent for bo'shek, but I'm not sure how to play with that...

I've been up against a similar list. from memory it was RAC and Ryad. it was a bit flimsy. Once RAC (or Deci) was gone it wasn't hard to clean up Ryad

I quite like the combination of experimental interface and expose on RAC. More firepower and loads of opportunities to alter dice.

Expose and experimental is not something I've thought about before, and I'm interested to try it. I normally just stick with predator and engine upgrade for last minute arc dodging, but that just might be an awesome combo. I can't say the same for mixing it with gunner, predator, and hotshot though. The benefit of modifying down 3 dice to strip extra tokens is extremely useful, and will allow better support for juke, but the damage expose plus lock/focus would cause is great on Chiraneau.

EI + expose is terrible. The firepower is there, but PS 8 and a limited dial with no boost makes you way too predictable. The standard VI + engine is the default for a reason, RAC becomes really hard to kill effectively and that gives your ace a lot more opportunities.

I was matching it up with a black squadron tie with wingman and the inquisitor. Helps free up the dial and gives a few more ablative wounds for the Dec. It was quite good fun to play.

To kinda hijack the topic, what are some other ship (ships?) Builds that work with the Decimator?

I'm kinda toying with RAC (hotshot/ gunner) with a couple of juking Black or Omega Squadron pilots as one idea...

How about an Upsilon Shuttle?

You could run 3 in a list easily:

Starkiller Base Pilot
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

Starkiller Base Pilot
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

Lieutenant Dormitz
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

This can counter deploy against any list and chuck red dice like mad. Takes a bit to turn around though.

Major Stridan
-Experimental Interface
-FCS
-Fleet Officer
-Systems Officer
-Weapons Guidance
-Pattern Analyzer

Rear Admiral Chiraneau
-Expose
-Weapons Engineer
-Inspiring Recruit

This can compliment Chiraneau with each ship having 4 red dice, target locks, and focuses on each attack. Pattern analyzer combos with Inspiring recruit to do 1 red turns in the shuttle while still giving out actions. Green for RAC locks, action to coordinate RAC expose, EI to fleet officer. RAC moves and can bump without fear. Action could be to boost if I drop some upgrades.

Kylo Ren
-Expose
-EI
-Inspiring Recruit
-FCS
-Pattern Analyzer

RAC
-Expose
-Weapons Engineer

4 red dice and 5 red dice each turn with target locks/focus. Less synergy than the last one, but Kyle brings his ability to couple with RAC's crits, and a second exposing ship.

I was thinking about possibly something like this

100 points
------

Omega Squadron Pilot (22) x 2
TIE/fo Fighter (17), Comm Relay (3), Juke (2)

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (56)
VT-49 Decimator (46), Adaptability (0), Hotshot Co-pilot (4), Gunner (5), Tactical Jammer (1)

--------
The tact jammer was kind of an afterthought ...

I think RAC + Steele has a lot of mileage. In particular you will out-PSing most of the Tri-defender/Palp-Defender lists out there and the synergy between Juke and HoCo Pilot is handy.

Ryad is great to play and pairs very well with Vesesery but I have been less impressed when trying to run her my only "ace".

I would go with Vader over Rebel Captive for dealing with high agility aces. Soontir may be less common but Fen Rau sees a lot of play and is almost as hard to hit. Also, too many lists have mechanisms for mitigating (or downright ignoring) Stress for it to be a reliable form of defense.

Sometimes the best defense is unleashing the full power of the Darkside at your enemy with extreme prejudice.