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So, having decided that the Punisher pack has bombs and cards that I'm going to want when Imperial Veterans comes out, I had some ideas about how to run the actual ships alongside a Defender with Epsilon Leader as a support ship.

The general idea is to have the Defender running semi-to mostly independent of the other ships while the Punisher and Epsilon run as a pair.

List one:
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Epsilon Midnight
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100 points
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“Redline” (39)
TIE Punisher (27), Advanced Sensors (3), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Cluster Missiles (4), Guidance Chips (0)

Rexler Brath (39)
TIE Defender (37), Tractor beam (1), Adaptability (0), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

“Epsilon Leader” (22)
TIE/fo Fighter (19), Comm Relay (3)

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Rexler can either bump his PS to 9 or drop to match Redline if the maneuver options are helpful, possibly using the tractor beam to set enmy ships up for better ordinance shots and fewer defense dice (at least until the titles are out)

Epsilon and Redline fly together so Redline can take an action (target lock most likely) pull a red maneuver then have Epsilon remove the stress.

List two is a bit trickier but has some particularly interesting possibilities

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Interloper Sixes
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100 points
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Colonel Vessery (39)
TIE Defender (35), XX-23 S-thread Tracers (1), Tractor beam (1), Lone Wolf (2), Guidance Chips (0)

“Deathrain” (42)
TIE Punisher (26), Advanced Sensors (3), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Proximity Mines (3), Seismic Charges (2), Experimental Interface (3)

“Epsilon Leader” (19)

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This one, with Vessery, to potentially give the other two a TL at an unexpected moment, kind of relies on EL being able to keep up with Deathrain (which is going to take some planning), but could see DR bomb, barrel roll, boost or TL, bomb again (and roll again) with Ex. Interface then take a white move and still end up with no stress.

It's probably too gimmicky to try the whole thing. But even TL/ boost, bomb, roll and move to green/ white, and clear stress is pretty neat.

Which do you think is a better idea for tonight's 3-game tournament

The obvious problem here is that you don't really have any reason for taking Epsilon Leader. It's a weak ship in general, and your first list doesn't even have any stress sources! Get rid of it in favor of Omega Leader (with comm relay and juke, stealth device optional), who is arguably the most powerful ship in the game. Then, once you've fixed your TIE/fo problem I've found the following to be useful

Deathrain
Advanced sensors
Extra munitions
Conner net
Proton bomb

~40 points to get four bombs. You can drop before you move or as an action, with advanced sensors to give you even more options. And you have a good option against both swarms and aces. Missiles/torps are optional if you have points to spare, but you probably have better things to spend them on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Apostasus wrote:
This one, with Vessery, to potentially give the other two a TL at an unexpected moment

I think you're kind of confused here. Vessery gives the target lock to himself, not to your other ships.

but could see DR bomb, barrel roll, boost or TL, bomb again (and roll again) with Ex. Interface then take a white move and still end up with no stress.

This is not legal. You can only drop one bomb per turn, period.

I think you're kind of confused here. Vessery gives the target lock to himself, not to your other ships.

He's talking about the Thread Tracers he's got on Vessery. Because giving your best offensive threat in the list a chance to do zero damage is a good idea. Vessery shouldn't be a swiss army knife.

OP, I think your lists are entirely too gimmicky, and you'll probably find it pretty challenging to keep these guys close together to gain advantage from the combos you've laid out.

But who knows, maybe it worked. Interested to see how they did.

I'm surprised at your choice of Defender/Punisher combinations.

I have personally had a lot of fun/success with "Redline" w/ FCS, Cluster Missiles, Plasma Torpedoes, and Guidance Chips accompanied by Colonel Vessery. Redline keeps up Target Locks on a target, and he also attacks first due to being 1 PS higher than Vessery, and Vessery gets free Target Locks when he shoots the same target as "Redline", so his actions are freed up for other things.

There are definitely dangers to late-night list building and forgetting the basic plan that you started with (gimmicking- creep?)...

Epsilon Leader seemed like a good idea to open up the dial somewhat for Vessery, who isn't terribly action dependent, and also for the Punisher. He also had the benefit of being somewhat cheaper than OL (who has an annoying habit of being blown up before I get much use from him).

Anyway, for tonight, I think this might be a better idea:
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Black Omega
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100 points

Pilots
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“Redline” (38)
TIE Punisher (27), Fire-Control System (2), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Cluster Missiles (4), Guidance Chips (0)

“Omega Leader” (26)
TIE/fo Fighter (21), Comm Relay (3), Juke (2)

Darth Vader (36)
TIE Advanced (29), TIE/x1 (0), Juke (2), Engine Upgrade (4), Advanced Targeting Computer (5)

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The meta locally has been seeing a lot fewer ps10s so I thought about giving Vader Juke to give all of his actions some offensive potential

Looks decent to me.

So the local meta decided that tonight was the night for Punisher builds, i fielded the list above, another chap brought two generic Punishers and the Inquisitor and a third chap brought Deathrain and a mini-swarm of TIEs.

My first game was against the double Punisher list -- first game of the tournament and first game for me using one. I definitely learned the advantages of FCS on the Punisher (not sure Redline needs it, but definitely potent with cluster missiles).

I also made a few maneuver errors, like putting OL in a spot to be shot at by the whole enemy list one round. And putting Vader pin places where he had to boost and roll a lot to try to get back in the fight. Long story short, Redline killed one of his punishers before going down, Omega Leader died soon afterwards and Vader went down before I was able to drop either of his others.

Game 2 against Brobots went very poorly for me. I was up against the guy who has been practicing Brobots for weeks getting ready for regionals (who I kinda manhandled last week).

I kept guessing wrong with OL and he barely got any shots in all game. But the 3 evade dice the bots have made my cluster missiles shots mostly useless and Redline went down with the plasma torps still on board. But he did soak a lot of fire. Again a lot of my problem came from Vader (and OL to a lesser extent) using their actions to move and not for dice modification. I might have gotten half points on one bot before I was wiped out, but goofed and shot the other one. 100-0

Last game was against another Imperial list, Soontir, Turr Phennir and a Bounty Hunter Firespray. And my decision to use juke instead of Adaptability ended up biting me. But I flew more patiently and made sure to keep OLs target lock on (vs the Brobots, I whiffed on my first shot and spent it rather than holding the lock for a later round). The arc dodgers (moving after Vader) were a real headache, but Redline caught Fell at without tokens and landed a two hits early (2nd shot of clusters I think).

He also got a plasma hit on the Firespray (after Vader unfortunately so no bonus shields) and soaked up damage and attention from the Interceptors while I brought Vader back around. OL and Vader trapped Turr and killed him leaving me with a full health Vader and wounded OL vs 1 health Fell when time was called.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also realized that a had forgotten how the advanceds' dial has some notable limits when going up against other aces... I think the extra survivability makes it worthwhile, but it's an adjustment.