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So, I played my first game against the super Dash+Corran list... and Whisper and I are breaking up.

Seriously- she managed to die without firing a shot. The Admiral then proceeded to kill Dash but couldn't take Horn with his remaining 3 hull.

So... what else goes well with Chiraneau? I've had a lot of luck with Krassis Trelix and a HLC... but I was wondering if I could squeeze some more firepower into the list.

I've thought about using a HLC+Engine shuttle and an Academy pilot... but I'm not sure that's I'm looking for. Maybe 2 Interceptors?

So I don't know how much your (or the common netlist) Chiraneau is points wise, but considering you listed Krassis Trelix as an option, at 43 points, here are some of my suggestions:

Colonel Vessery with VI and HLC. this guy can take some hits and hits like a truck with focus and a free target lock every turn and the 4 K although predictable never ceases to be awesome

Soontir Fel with PTL and an Obsidian Sq pilot (or Academy for 1 pt initiative bid) maneuverable, some damage, same hit points as Vessery but on two hulls with 3 evade each and both can use the evade action

Turr Phennir with Alpha Sq pilot or Royal Guard/Saber Sq. One extra attack dice and your second pilot is capable of boosting as well as the other array of actions. Turr is a great arc dodger that never has to worry about stress and benefits greatly from dueling with someone of equal or lesser PS (shoot first, dodge out of arc, don't get shot back) he only gets better with expose or VI but not enough points for either in this list. You could feasibly trade for a regular TIE but you're losing out on a lot of punch versus the Soontir option.

Mini TIE swarm, possibly Howlrunner, is a good option. You could also wait for the Raider release and make good use of 1-2 TIE Advanced.

As much as I love 3 ship lists (3 is my magic number for X-wing) I think the Vessery option is probably your best. He's arguably tougher than a Phantom (he definitely is when Phantom isn't cloaked) hits just as hard with Target Lock and Focus, has that awesome K-turn and is the same PS as Chir so you can move him before or after and shoot him before or after the Deci, each turn, as you choose/as circumstances dictate. He loses out on the maneuverability of the Phantom but it doesn't matter much when you lose your Phantom before it has a chance to shoot. At least with Vessery you'll strip quite a few shields with the 4 hits from the HLC every turn, before he dies.

I've been running:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Expose (4)
Experimental Interface (3)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

"Howlrunner" (18)
Wingman (2)
Stealth Device (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Use the academy pilots mainly to protect Howlrunner, but don't bother staying near her, go out and help finish or harass something that the Decimator doesn't kill. Howlrunner should always evade since her primary purpose is buffing the Decimator and making sure she is within range 1. If she gets a shot, great, but otherwise keep her safe.

With 4-5 attack dice, a reroll, and a focus, you can really pump out reliable damage, or weaken them to the point where the TIEs can finish them. Focus on as many single targets as possible.

Honestly, people take Whisper for a reason and it sounds like you're trying to draw strong conclusions from one bad game. If you died before getting to shoot it means that you screwed up your maneuvering, since even a one-shot kill against PS 9 Dash should have given you a chance to shoot back under the simultaneous fire rule. You just have to accept that sometimes a phantom is going to suffer from bad maneuvering choices or bad dice and focus on winning the majority of your games where this isn't a problem. And as someone who plays Dash/Corran I think this matchup is a very difficult one, Corran is rarely going to beat a phantom 1v1 so you have a very short opportunity to kill Whisper with Dash before Dash explodes.

Boba Fett has been my go to lately for pairing with the Rear Admiral.

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (55) VT-49 Decimator (46), Veteran Instincts (1), Darth Vader (3), Gunner (5)

Boba Fett (44) Firespray-31 (39), Lone Wolf (2), Recon Specialist (3)

 Vertrucio wrote:
Howlrunner should always evade since her primary purpose is buffing the Decimator and making sure she is within range 1. If she gets a shot, great, but otherwise keep her safe.

This makes no sense. You have to take an action to trigger EI, and since you already have a "focus" from your pilot ability your obvious choice is a target lock. You can only re-roll a die once so Howlrunner's boost is useless if you have a TL on your target. So you're essentially spending 23 points, almost two full academy pilots, on a redundant ability. Spend that much to buff one ship wouldn't be worth it even if you got a full buff out of the deal, it's a suicidally bad choice when all you get is a single re-roll that only applies if you lose your action (and lose expose as a result) or take a "lose your pilot ability" crit (and lose expose).

Eh, I meant target lock. It becomes obvious at the table anyway.

And, I don't play X-Wing a lot so I don't remember all of the particulars and haven't bothered.

You can easily just switch, to a Black Squadron with Wingman. That leaves 7 points to do whatever.

Try Darth Vader as a way to guarantee finishing off some particularly tough ships, that's 2 extra damage, but the big way the enemy puts damage on the decimater is a lot of things shooting at it.

A bomb can be risky, but again, a good finisher. Just plan again to get your TIEs out of the way.

Not sure if Ysanna would interact with this setup.

Jerjerrod with some cheap crew will help prevent crits of disabling the ship's combat ability.

Or a stealth device on the black squadron pilot, since he'll be an obvious target.

Etc.

Chirpy is a big sack of health throwing 3-5 dice depending on upgrades with a good deal of reliability. He excels at fighting off individual ships, but suffers against numbers. So, to buddy up with him, what's good against numbers of ships?

High PS/High maneuverability ships: Here's where Interceptors and Phantoms live. They have the mobility to get inside Dash's donut hole or sneak around back behind those multiple enemies, arc dodge and so on. The obvious downside is their low durability and extreme susceptibility to a bad roll.

Your own numbers: The Mini-swarm is a popular pick for Empire for a reason. Howl and 3 TIEs, 4 TIEs, even 3 mid-level named TIEs add numbers, more shots, more dice and blocking.

Another big ship: The double down, might leave you more susceptible to swarms but adds more single survivability. Firespray, another Decimator or a Defender are all solid options.

The notable exception here is the shuttle. Lambdas are big ships, but don't play like most big ships (diving in, relying on their HP). Shuttles are great tertiary ships, hang around the edges, mop up, finish off. In a straight fight they fall victim to their dial, but hanging on the periphery their dial is a great strength. A doomshuttle (Vader) and some TIEs is a solid 48 points, a buzzsaw (engine, gunner, FCS) is a good option.

To run with Chirps I'd probably go Phantom or a Firespray. Phantom covers its weaknesses quite well, Firespray does that a big less but is a lot tougher.

 Chumbalaya wrote:


They have the mobility to get inside Dash's donut hole or sneak around back behind those multiple enemies, arc dodge and so on. The obvious downside is their low durability and extreme susceptibility to a bad roll.

I've gotten pretty good at staying in said hole. A Rebel Captive certainly helps on it.

I've only fielded Chiraneau once and I think it was something like this:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau [Predator, Ysanne Isard, Mercenary Copilot, Dauntless, Engine Upgrade]
Obsidian Squadron Pilot x 3

It seemed to do alright. There's some pretty clever hijinks you can do thanks to predator combined with Target Lock and Chiraneau's ability. - Without rerolling a reroll.

I think I had rolled something like 2 Focus' and 1 hit. So I Predatored one Focus result, getting another focus. I then target locked the other Focus result, getting a Crit. The predatored focus, was then converted to a Crit. That made the Mouldy Crow go boom, when moments before my opponent was looking very relieved indeed.