I'm trying to build a list with a Firespray at its centre but everything I throw together doesn't seem that great (in my mind's eye at least). Here's what I've got so far

Kath Scarlet (48)

-Heavy Laser Cannon

-Marksmanship

Howlrunner (23)

-Swarm Tactics

-Stealth Device

Night Beast (17)

-Targeting Computer

Academy Pilot (12)

The idea being use Kath as a flank ship that's always stressing them out (hopefully) with marksmanship and running the ties as a mini swarm til they fall apart and Kath can clean up.

Any suggestions?

A wise person recently answered me the following when I asked nearly the same question: "start with a bounty hunter and 4xacadmey pilots and then see what spending additional points actually gets you."

I will suggest that the HLC is expensive and not nearly as useful as less expensive upgrades on the fire spray. You cannot use it out of the rear arc, and often that is how one fights best with a firespray.

I'd suggest PTL, Rebel captive, Recon Specialist, Gunner, engine upgrade, or expert handling as good places to begin upgrading a firespray. Oh and seismic charges.

Meanest firespray list I ever fought was

2x bounty hunter with recon specialist

turr phenis with push the limit

bounty hunters work together and turr phenis does his own phlanking thing

If you're going to use HLC on a Firespray, there's absolutely no reason to use anybody but Krassis. Marksmanship seems like a waste if you're not using Gunner or Cluster Missiles, even on Kath. The TIE mini swarm isn't a bad idea, and there are numerous ways you can do it. Here would be my two preferred lists:

Krassis + HLC

Howlrunner + Stealth Device

Academy Pilot x 3

---

Kath + Gunner + Marksmanship

Howlrunner

Academy Pilot x 3

I'm trying to build a list with a Firespray at its centre but everything I throw together doesn't seem that great (in my mind's eye at least). Here's what I've got so far

Kath Scarlet (48)

-Heavy Laser Cannon

-Marksmanship

Kath wants to have as many crits as possible cancelled. The HLC is counterproductive here because it doesn't leave any crits to be cancelled.

If you want a cannon, the autoblaster might be a better choice. Marksmanship to get at least one crit, only crits may be cancelled.

Add in a Mercenary Co-Pilot for when you're at a distance maybe? Or a Rebel Captive, to add to the stress.

Don't settle for one Firespray, fly 2 (or 3!)

Kath + Gunner + Marksmanship

Howlrunner

Academy Pilot x 3

That's actually about what I've been thinking after everyone's feedback

Kath wants to have as many crits as possible cancelled. The HLC is counterproductive here because it doesn't leave any crits to be cancelled.

If you want a cannon, the autoblaster might be a better choice. Marksmanship to get at least one crit, only crits may be cancelled.

Add in a Mercenary Co-Pilot for when you're at a distance maybe? Or a Rebel Captive, to add to the stress.

I completely forgot that HLC autocancelled the crits, I was mistakenly remembering that someone had them on a bounty hunter of some sort for 4 dice at any range (it was actually on a shuttle)

Truthfully, you don't WANT the crits cancelled, as dealing damage wins you games faster than a stress token here or there. However, when you roll 1 hit or something like that, merc copliot is nice for flipping that hit to a stress causing crit, at range 3, of course.

Gunner is my personal favorite, though, as it helps negate bad rolls, and if your bad roll happens to be just 1 crit, you profit from the evade AND get another chance to deal damage.

I'd probably run Marksmanship + Gunner, as long as I don't need to be mobile, that is.

I still like Krassis + HLC + RecSpec, when flown with Jonus & Howlrunner and whatever add-ons you feel appropriate.

I still like Krassis + HLC + RecSpec, when flown with Jonus & Howlrunner and whatever add-ons you feel appropriate.

Howlrunner only lets you re-roll primary weapon dice.

I still like Krassis + HLC + RecSpec, when flown with Jonus & Howlrunner and whatever add-ons you feel appropriate.

Howlrunner only lets you re-roll primary weapon dice.

Well, that why you have Jonus.

Jonus isn't that great with Krassis as Krassis gets a free reroll already. Not that often you need more than 1.

Firesprays are tough beasties to upgrade, as they've got such good combos.

My favorite is Kath with a Gunner and Expert Handling.
Gaining a stress to do a monstrously-large Barrel-Roll is substantially better than getting a version of Focus that can't be used defensively, but generates a single crit.
Using Gunner (which yields potentially 2 attacks) and Kath (who wants the Crit to come up) improve Marksmanship to the point of being playable, but I don't feel they improve it to being useful.

If you don't have the points for that, drop Gunner before dropping ExpHand. It's seriously that good on a Firespray.

Other build considerations:

• I prefer an HLC on Krassis, but I find myself shooting most of my shots out of the rear (cannonless) arc. The primary guns are good enough for me not to need to upgrade them this way.
• Bombs are always good, if you can spare the points for them. Firesprays don't like going up against Swarms, and Swarms don't like going up against Bombs.
• Engine Upgrade is the best of the modifications for a Firespray. Using a Boost as your action allows you to change the angle of both your fore and aft guns, which means you can almost always modify your position to gain a shot. Anti-Pursuit Lasers are better suited to a large-base ship whose smallest pilot is likelier to get run into than a Lvl 3.
• Missiles and Torpedoes are, sadly, irrelevant. The HLC is better than any of the choices these offer because it is inexhaustable and doesn't require a Target Lock to fire. When they're released, Flechette Torpedoes may make me change my tune.

Remember: an upgradeless bounty-hunter is still a HUGE threat. Learn how to use the ship first, and you'll find that adding upgrades to it is often gilding the lily.

I'm trying to build a list with a Firespray at its centre but everything I throw together doesn't seem that great (in my mind's eye at least). Here's what I've got so far

Kath Scarlet (48)

-Heavy Laser Cannon

-Marksmanship

Howlrunner (23)

-Swarm Tactics

-Stealth Device

Night Beast (17)

-Targeting Computer

Academy Pilot (12)

The idea being use Kath as a flank ship that's always stressing them out (hopefully) with marksmanship and running the ties as a mini swarm til they fall apart and Kath can clean up.

Any suggestions?

Brutal but honest: It's a terrible list.

HLC on Kath means she never forces your opponent to have to stop a critical, so you're wasting points by not triggering ability unless you're firing at range one.

You don't have a mini swarm, you have three TIE fighters that you've spent way too many points on upgrades for. Howlrunner becomes a waste when you have at best three other ships, two of which are cannon fodder benefiting from her ability. And you put a Targeting Computer on Night Beast so her ability is even more worthless. About the only person she would buff is the single TIE most of the time.

Either drop the HLC on Kath or use Krassis instead.

Replace the TIE's you do have with four Academy TIE's and then upgrade one of them with whatever points you have left. If you don't have at least four of them, then you are spending too much on ships that are designed to be cannon fodder.

Try these 3

Scarlet

Marksmen

Rebel captive

Omnicron pilot

Vader

Omnicron pilot

Sensor jammer

Heavy laser canon

Or

2 bounty hunters

Recon spec

Seismic charge

Omnicron pilot

Heavy laser canon

Or

Bounty hunter

Recon spec

Sontir Fel

Push the limit

Stealth device

Night beast

Dark Curse

I'm trying to build a list with a Firespray at its centre but everything I throw together doesn't seem that great (in my mind's eye at least). Here's what I've got so far

Kath Scarlet (48)

-Heavy Laser Cannon

-Marksmanship

Howlrunner (23)

-Swarm Tactics

-Stealth Device

Night Beast (17)

-Targeting Computer

Academy Pilot (12)

The idea being use Kath as a flank ship that's always stressing them out (hopefully) with marksmanship and running the ties as a mini swarm til they fall apart and Kath can clean up.

Any suggestions?

Howlrunner seems like she could be a waste of points here. Her ability doesn't help with the HLC. The Targeting Computer's TL doesn't stack with Howlie. All of this basically leaves you with one ship for Howlie to modify.

My suggestion is to take all of the TIE Fighters and think of a more efficient way to spend those 52 points. I believe FOUR Obsidian Pilots would be as effective if not more effective than the three fighters listed.

2 bounty hunters

Recon spec

Seismic charge

Omnicron pilot

Heavy laser canon

Pretty sure this is 104 points, if you meant Vader crew instead of the HLC on the shuttle that would make sense

Meanest firespray list I ever fought was

2x bounty hunter with recon specialist

turr phenis with push the limit

bounty hunters work together and turr phenis does his own phlanking thing

I like this concept.

And am expanding on it to become:

BH + Seismic Charge

BH + Seismic Charge

Soontir Fel + PTL / Carnor Jax + PTL

If I pick carnor, i could add intel agent to a BH. I just like Seismic Charges on the Firespray, and it opens up points for a different Interceptor Pilot.

I think a lot of people don't realize, once the HLC has fired, you change the dice to all hits, THEN if you use a TL, marksmanship, or Merc copilot and get a critical, it stays it doesn't get changed over to a hit. This is how its been since the HLC came out and they just provided the FAQ showing that it was the correct way to play this, so there is that. So you could have a hit, hit, critical, and critical with a HLC if you rolled 3 hits and a focus on the roll, then have marksmanship switch the focus to a critical then have the mercenary copilot switch another hit to a critical. Not necessarily the best use of points in my opinion and I think you would indeed get more use out of a gunner+marks combo.

This list I used in a few tournaments with the firespray was:

BH+Recon

Saber+PtLx2

Backstabber

It flew really well and got me a 1st an 3rd place at two store championships with 10 and 17 players (I flew terribly on the top 4 cut) If you are inclined to more stress, change out the recon to a captive and watch it do work.

2 bounty hunters

Recon spec

Seismic charge

Omnicron pilot

Heavy laser canon

Pretty sure this is 104 points, if you meant Vader crew instead of the HLC on the shuttle that would make sense