Per a list suggested in another thread, I see some potential in this combination. 2 big, beefy ships, and 1 ship zipping around. All have 3 dice guns, so you can't just ignore one. Also, you have some points to spare for a little customization. Can roll with a high PS Interceptor, and take points away from the BHs, or just take a Saber, putting some extra firepower into the BHs. This is where I need help. It'll likely come down to personal taste, but I bet we can come up with a combination that "works the best" if we think about it hard enough!

So starting with this frame work:

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter

Some Interceptor Pilot + PTL

Let's create the best possible combination of these 3 ships!

What upgrades for the BHs and what Interceptor pilot do you guys think would have an edge against the most lists? If you have an idea, provide your reasoning! I wouldn't even be against upgrading a BH to a named Firespray

There are only so many combinations, so this should go pretty quickly. I'm just having a hard time deciding, so maybe some suggestions will push me in the right direction.

2xBH with recon specialist is 72 pts. That leaves 28 points for your interceptor. 3 for PTL makes it 25 points left. 22pts for a RG, and you can toss on a TL mod for 2 points for 99.

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter

Some Interceptor Pilot + PTL

I would submit.

1 • Bounty Hunter - Recon Specialist (36)

2 • Bounty Hunter - Recon Specialist (36)

3 • Turr Phennir - Push The Limit (28)

and

1 • Krassis Trelix - Heavy Laser Cannon (43)

2 • Bounty Hunter (33)

3 • Saber Squadron Pilot - Push The Limit (24)

I'm just throwing this out there, I am not saying that it is the best, but it does provide some interesting avoidance options as well as unpredictability. I know the crew slot is the one that gets filled first on the FS, but EU allows for greater use of the rear arcs and should at least keep the Bounty hunters out of a swarm's firepower while still giving them shots with the rear arcs.

In practice this may be tough, but I think the freedom this allows over filling the crew slot is worth considering.

2xBH+EU

1xRGP+PTL

99 points

BH
BH
Soontir PTL Stealth

99 points,

I would put in rebel captive before you put in recon spec. I also would think the following might be worth playing around with...

Turr w/ ST

BH w/ Rebel + EU

BH

You could substitute EU for Recon on the second BH. And you could upgrade to Jax if you want, but I'd think Turr would be the better option.

The thought is that you'll have Turr zooming around, and then he naturally gets a second action, so he doesn't require PTL. Meanwhile, since he is so maneuverable, it won't be uncommon to have him zoom next to one of your BH, especially the one with EU, and then you can shoot before most people. The Rebel captive is a good counter to high PS lists since it gimps their mobility (and PTL I might add), and makes it easier for your to navigate around them and make great use of the EU.

But in practice it might not be that good =/

The thought is that you'll have Turr zooming around, and then he naturally gets a second action, so he doesn't require PTL.

But PTLing to Boost+Roll after an attack is so satisfying.

2xBH

Turr + PTL

7pts left isn't a bunch. Fill each BH with a recon as suggested above or go with 2 x seismic and put a Rebel Captive on 1.

Ohhh, that's some good stuff, gents. I think I like all the ideas so far.

My first thought from another thread was:

BH + Seismic Charge

BH + Seismic Charge + Intel Agent

Carnor Jax + PTL

I figured the 3 ships would have the hardest time vs Swarms, so the Charges are my first choice, easier formation breaking or free damage. Jax might be overkill, as he is more useful vs the Tie Swarm, as well. I can drop Intel Agent and put in Soontir Fel instead, which is ALWAYS a good choice.

I would try something crazy like this.

BH (33) flight inst (1)

BH (33) flight inst (1)

Tet Cowall (24) Title, Hull, Shield, Vet (8)

half the time the bh are going to be in the thick of things so flight nav might be fun to mix it up with. (Plus I could be annoying enough to make my opp forget about tet) Tet would be a 9PS and could take 5 damage which I think would make more sense then PTL in this case.

Ohhh, that's some good stuff, gents. I think I like all the ideas so far.

My first thought from another thread was:

BH + Seismic Charge

BH + Seismic Charge + Intel Agent

Carnor Jax + PTL

I figured the 3 ships would have the hardest time vs Swarms, so the Charges are my first choice, easier formation breaking or free damage. Jax might be overkill, as he is more useful vs the Tie Swarm, as well. I can drop Intel Agent and put in Soontir Fel instead, which is ALWAYS a good choice.

Soontir PTL Stealth is pretty much mathematically guaranteed immunity against TIE swarms, because with 4 agility, 2 focus tokens and 1 evade token, there is absolutely no way 7x2atk dices can touch you, with the sole exception of you rolling 4 blanks

Do you think Recon Specialist would get its worth in this list? I'm not sure on the upgrade, myself. It feels like a waste when I get blocked, which I ASSUME my opponent would try to do if he saw I had Recon Spec.

2 x BH+Recon is pretty much money. For the 28 pts, I like a Royal Guard+PTL+Hull Upgrade. Gives him just a hair more survival to work as a flanker.

BH gunner
BH gunner
Saber PTL

isnt that bad either. You could also swap gunner for recon spec / rebel captive + seismic if you feel you want to trade some consistency for punch

Original variant was running 2x academy TIEs, but since you wanted a TIEint, that's pretty much one of the cheapest and most effective TIEint available, the other being Lt L'Oreal, but he is a bit more unstable in terms of actual performance

Ohhh, that's some good stuff, gents. I think I like all the ideas so far.

My first thought from another thread was:

BH + Seismic Charge

BH + Seismic Charge + Intel Agent

Carnor Jax + PTL

I figured the 3 ships would have the hardest time vs Swarms, so the Charges are my first choice, easier formation breaking or free damage. Jax might be overkill, as he is more useful vs the Tie Swarm, as well. I can drop Intel Agent and put in Soontir Fel instead, which is ALWAYS a good choice.

Soontir PTL Stealth is pretty much mathematically guaranteed immunity against TIE swarms, because with 4 agility, 2 focus tokens and 1 evade token, there is absolutely no way 7x2atk dices can touch you, with the sole exception of you rolling 4 blanks

Rolling 4 blanks happens like 5% of the time. In 2 rounds of shooting vs the swarm (if they somehow got all guns pointed at you 2 turns in a row) the odds of you rolling 4 blanks starts to stack up pretty fast. Remember that it's more likely that they'll be shooting 3 dice + howlrunner reroll + focus. Those odds are ever in their favor.

Do you think Recon Specialist would get its worth in this list? I'm not sure on the upgrade, myself. It feels like a waste when I get blocked, which I ASSUME my opponent would try to do if he saw I had Recon Spec.

To quote someone quoting me:

Every time I want a Recon Specialist I have a Rebel Captive; Every time I have a Rebel Captive I want a recon specialist. If you're getting blocked often on the Firespray you're probably trying to use the front guns too much. I only get 2-3 shots out of the front guns a game with the Firespray.

Ohhh, that's some good stuff, gents. I think I like all the ideas so far.

My first thought from another thread was:

BH + Seismic Charge

BH + Seismic Charge + Intel Agent

Carnor Jax + PTL

I figured the 3 ships would have the hardest time vs Swarms, so the Charges are my first choice, easier formation breaking or free damage. Jax might be overkill, as he is more useful vs the Tie Swarm, as well. I can drop Intel Agent and put in Soontir Fel instead, which is ALWAYS a good choice.

Soontir PTL Stealth is pretty much mathematically guaranteed immunity against TIE swarms, because with 4 agility, 2 focus tokens and 1 evade token, there is absolutely no way 7x2atk dices can touch you, with the sole exception of you rolling 4 blanks

Rolling 4 blanks happens like 5% of the time. In 2 rounds of shooting vs the swarm (if they somehow got all guns pointed at you 2 turns in a row) the odds of you rolling 4 blanks starts to stack up pretty fast. Remember that it's more likely that they'll be shooting 3 dice + howlrunner reroll + focus. Those odds are ever in their favor.

After a couple of rounds on the table, I'm a lot more optimistic regarding Soontir's matrix-like invulnerability against swarms. I've had more than a handful of games where he took 0 damage from standing in front of a 7TIE howlrunner swarm for 3 consecutive turns, survived the same 7TIEswarm with 3 TIEs firing at range 1, and so on. Similarly, I've had times when I got hit, but even then it tends to be only 1 damage, and then I'm down to 3 agi, 2hp, 2 focus and 1 evade token, which also grants a level of "invulnerability".

Basically, I have around 12 or so games where I had Soontir PTL Stealth against a 7 TIE swarm, and only in 2 games did he die. And a lot of times where he didnt get a single scratch, about 7 or so games?

EDIT:

So if we take Howlrunner's squad of TIEs to be firing with TL+F, they really really cant chew through your 4 agi + F + E. Even if you are unlucky and got hit and lost the stealth device, they still cant chew through your 3 agi + F + E either

My two pence:

BH + RecSpec (36) x2

Turr + Marksmanship (28)

Comes in at 100. BH's are tanks that should be getting their double focii for pewing and swooshing. Turr flies around the stragglers, pewing them and rolling out of thier arcs. I might have to playtest this sometime!

Recon Specialist or Rebel Captive are highly contingent upon the rest of the build. If the Firespray doesn't reliably use its action (or one of its actions) on Focus (using Expert Handling or what have you), or if the Firespray is the clear alpha threat of the list, Rebel Captive is generally more useful. If it deters any shooting and lets the Firespray slip into late game mostly intact, you've gotten your money's worth from it. You want RC on ships that people want to destroy to force them into bad decisions or avoiding taking on your primary ship.

RC specialist is better in literally every other instance. In this case, it's a no-brainer for double BH, as a RC would simply force fire into your other ship(s).

So what do you guys think of this list archetype?

Will it hold its own on the competitive scene? Would it be better served to pull the interceptor and put in Ties/Shuttle?

Firesprays are tough enough to offset some of the lack of numbers, but you cannot take it for granted. You run into a player that's good at blocking to waste your Recon Specs, for example, and the Firesprays will neither deal nor survive enough damage to weather the fight. In general, if you're getting 2 BH and XXX support ships, it is a solid enough core build to be competitive. BHs are amongst the very best value ships in the game, IMO.

@ Durham... The problem with that is that you won't maintain Fx2 + E... And you especially won't have an E if you lost your stealth (assuming same round). One needs to run the math on probability that he'll spend his tokens, and average the evasion of a naked fel vs. a token-filled fel. Sadly, this gets rather complicated, especially against 7 shooters.

Who needs a 3rd ship? Dual firesprays all the way!

Do you interceptor players find more worth upgrading to a better pilot, or putting a Stealth Device/Hull on an RGP or Saber? This is in general lists, I mean.

Do you interceptor players find more worth upgrading to a better pilot, or putting a Stealth Device/Hull on an RGP or Saber? This is in general lists, I mean.

Tough call. A sup'd RGP with PTL, Hull, Shield is the same points as a higher PS ceptor with only 1-2 upgrades so it's totally about what the rest of your list is. That RGP isn't going down easy though.

Most of the time I upgrade to Turr or Fel, they are 2 of the top pilots in the game: Fel against anything can win (or get 1 shot'd), Turr vs most things will win (or get 1 shot'd).

Interceptors without modifications are such a gamble; in my last game against them I one shotted Turr+PTL with one naked Blue pilot and Soontir+PTL with another blue on back to back turns.

One error in movement and one bad roll of the greens are all it takes with no upgrades, so to me those modification upgrades start looking pretty decent on such an expensive and potentially game winning ship.