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Hello, just looking for some advice on some of my Imperial Suqadrons.

Here is my go-to list. I am quite happy with it and don't know if there is much more I can do to it.

Interceptor Squad:

Soontir Fel (35)
-Royal Guard TIE
-Push the Limit
-Stealth Device
-Autothrusters

Turr Phennir (31)
-Royal Guard TIE
-Veteran Instincts
-Stealth Device
-Autothrusters

Carnor Jax (34)
-Royal Guard TIE
-Push the Limit
-Stealth Device
-Autothrusters

Here are two that I want to try out, so some opinions/criticism would be nice.

Phantom Squad:

Whisper (37)
-Advanced Cloaking
-Veteran Instincts

Echo (35)
-Advanced Cloaking
-Veteran Instincts

Shadow Squadron Pilot (27)

The goal of this one is to have Whisper and Echo do moat of the heavy lifting with shooting and recloaking at a high PS, with the Shadow Squadron Pilot running on the flanks providing mop up. It seems that Echo and Whisper have a great movement shenanigans game, and in all honesty don't need too much more help if I want to be able to get three Phantoms in there.

TIE Advanced Squadron:

Darth Vader (37)
-TIE/x1
-Advanced Targeting Computer
-Engine Upgrade
-Outmaneuver

Marek Stele (32)
-TIE/x1
-Advanced Targeting Computer
-Twin Ion Engine MKII
-Push the Limit

Commander Alozen (31)
-TIE/x1
-Advanced Targeting Computer
-Engine Upgrade
-Veteran Instincts

I have always like the way the TIE Advanced looks, and with the Imperial Raider it can really help these guys punch above their weight. They are fairly durable as well. I put Push the Limit on Maarek Stele to get that Target Lock as soon as possible, and the Twin Ion Engines to open up for options for removing the stress from Push the Limit.

Alozen got Veteran Instincts because I feel he really wants to shoot you before you shoot him. And it bumps him up to the level of shooting before some of the other Unique pilots for good measure.

Please, tell me what you think and what you would change.

First list looks good, although it will have major difficulties when faced by other PS9 guys who did bid for initiative.

Second list, I feel that the shadow squadron Pilot is going to get ripped to pieces due to lack of Advanced cloaking device and low PS. I think that you'd probably be better off replacing him with Dark Curse and grabbing some upgrades (FCS, Tactician, Gunner, etc.) on your ace Phantoms.

Third list, I'd probably give Maarek the Engine Upgrade and Veteran Instincts. This will put him at PS 9, which is more useful than two PS 7's. Commander Alozen then works as a tankier bait ship, using PTL to focus and Evade, and his ability to target lock targets of opportunity. Vader is fine.

Oh wow, yea I really do like your idea for the third list! I never even thought of just having the two PS9's and a PS5. I guess PS5 is still higher than the swarm pilots.

I never realised how hard it is to get three TIE Phantoms in a single list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, how about this for the Phantoms List.

Whisper (37)
-Advanced Cloaking Device
-Veteran Instincts

Shadow Squadron Pilot (31)
-Advanced Cloaking Device

Shadow Squadron Pilot (31)
-Advanced Cloaking Device

99 Points. I really want to fit three Phantoms in so badly haha.

If your hearts set on running three phantoms, that's probably the way to do it- PS5 beats most generics, letting you Recloak against them.

For Pilot skill, I always see it as being divided into several tiers:

1-2: Cheap generics, good for blocking more valuable ships, but shooting last. PS 1 can block PS2, but PS2 shoots PS1 first.

3-4: Expensive generics, brought on to shoot before guys with PS 2.

5-7: You have better PS than generic pilots, but are still easily beaten.

8: If you choose initiative, you have decent odds of being able to dodge arcs of most ships, but are still easily beaten by many aces either with base PS 9 or Vet Instincts.

9: There are only a couple ships in the game with equal pilot skill, and none of them beat you without veteran instincts.

10-11: You are trying to counter Soontir Fel.

IMO, a slight modification of the PS tiers:

PS 1-2: generics. Taken for maximum firepower/defense/blocking per point. Very common.

PS 3-7: generics and mid-PS uniques. Outside of a short list of uniques with relevant pilot abilities (Biggs, Deathrain, etc) these are not very useful outside of a metagame that is heavy on PS 1-2 ships. You pay points for PS but don't beat the high-end threats, and risk wasting your investment if you face the wrong kind of list. These are metagame-dependent but usually pretty rare.

PS 8: aces without VI. Corran, Poe, Carnor Jax, etc. These lack the PS of the best pure maneuvering aces but usually have a ton of raw power elsewhere to make up for it (Corran's double tap and R2-D2, Carnor Jax shutting down focus/evade, etc). To beat these you either need raw power of your own or the ability to move second at PS 8+. And you can almost guarantee that you will see PS 8 threats.

PS 9: Vader, Fel, Whisper, VI Jake. These move second against everything but another PS 9+ ace and are powerful threats, but only a very small number of ships are viable at PS 9. You will see them frequently, but countering them on PS is difficult and requires either a PS 9 ace of your own with an initiative bid or taking a VI ace as a dedicated counter.

PS 10-11: ace with VI. This is a single-purpose ship designed to beat the PS 8-9 aces. This is obviously metagame-dependent and generally not worth trying to counter because they're so stubbornly determined to move second and the price of even trying is high.

So, that gives you four basic approaches to PS:

1) Bring low-PS generics and win with sheer jousting efficiency.

2) Bring mid-PS ships in an attempt to beat the low-PS metagame, if one exists (this is suicide otherwise).

3) Bring an ace with PS 8-9 and a powerful EPT, and accept that you might not get to move second but have better raw power to make up for it.

4) Bring a VI ace with PS 10-11 and go all-in on the PS bid.

In the case of ACD you have a much simpler set of choices:

1) Bring Whisper and an initiative bid to win PS against anything but VI aces.

2) Bring another phantom and kill the generics but accept that you're hopelessly screwed against the aces.

mostly agreed with Peregrine - at least as far as Pilot Skill is concerned. The one thing I'd flag up - although I guess it's covered under "relevant pilot abilities" - is the PS4 pilots often have Elite Pilot Talents.

This makes them good 'caddies' for cheap talents that can drastically improve their performance relative to a generic pilot. Crack Shot and Wired are good examples of this. If you've got a plan for using them well, it can make Red Squadron Veterans or Black Squadron Pilots worth taking even against opposition that's solidly high PS aces.


If you want to fit in three phantoms, I agree you're not going to be able to play PS tricks with all of them. Personally, I'd go the other way with the generics - don't even try to fit in advanced cloaking devices.

Cheap Sigmas, Stygium Particle Accelerators, and stuff like Enhanced Scopes, Intelligence Agents, Mara Jade, etc, turns them into hyper-manoeuvrable roadblocks, and gives you an evade token to make up for the two green dice you won't be getting whether you take advanced cloaking devices or not.

That way you have two 'wingmen' to mess up people's day by getting in the way, and you can save points to have one more impressive ace to do the bulk of your heavy lifting - either whisper or echo depending on whether PS or raw manoeuvrability respectively is important to you (which will mostly depend on whether the major threats will be from turret-carrying ships).

Well, I played the three Phantoms list with Whisper and the two Shadow Squadron pilots. It was impressive, my generics shot before his generics every turn. I was just using them to hunt the generics and than recloak. I definitely need to learn how to use it better though.

It did seem to be missing something though. I feel that the Interceptors list punches way more than it should, the Phantoms were good. But they need a little help to really shine.

4 red dice is great, but I have found too many times that if there is no way to modify those dice, they will fail you on a fairly consistent basis, especially if the enemy has high agility and modified green dice. You need a way to get target locks or rerolls.

Trying to think of a way to make a whisper/Vessery list. Maybe the third ship can be a tempest with AC? Hmm....

The problem is that Vessery really wants target lock-capable buddies with a lower pilot skill (or the same pilot skill) as him.

Whisper wants to be as far up the firing tree as possible, and doesn't have target lock by default (although a fire control system is a possibility), and the accuracy-corrector tempest says "what's a target lock?" whilst using evade tokens and barrel rolling every turn.

I used to think that the best thing to support Colonel Vessery was TIE Bombers, or other generic Defenders. The TIE/fo is also now an option, too, as are the higher end TIE advanced aces with Advanced Targeting Computers, or the Colzeteur with a Fire Control System

Yeah, whisper will have a FCS, so she will have a target lock available for Vessery to mooch off of most of the time.

Vessery will probably have x7 and juke, because that action economy, yo.

locarno24 wrote:
The problem is that Vessery really wants target lock-capable buddies with a lower pilot skill (or the same pilot skill) as him.

Why? I get it with "normal" target locks, but FCS gives you the lock after you shoot. Shooting first with Whisper works just fine because of FCS. And the accuracy corrector TIE advanced does "waste" an action to set up the target lock, but on the other hand it will rarely need to use that target lock so once you get it you can just keep it there indefinitely and buff Vessery's shooting.