Hello everyone! First of all I'll try to be as clear as possible since I'm Italian and my english definitely needs an improvement.

Since the Interceptors came out, I left my Adv on the shelf and I've always flown two squints and some Ties. My current and favourite list has always been:

Soontir w/ PtL + SD
Turr w/ VI + SD

Academy pilot x 3

Total 98 pts.

I'm in a 6 win row with this team, but since the Aces came out I started to bite the dust.

I've recently tried Carnor Jax instead of Soontir or Turr but I've never found it so useful...So I tried Lorrir, but I had the same disappointing feeling. Now, it's me the problem or does the Aces needs more games in order to be fully appreciated?

Do you think that a couple of Royal guard pilot and one Alpha sq could work well with three academy pilot?

Something like:

Royal guard pilot x2 44pts

Alpha sq 18 pts

Academy pilots x3 36 pts

total 100 pts

Any other suggestions in order to change my mind about Aces?

Thanks Duraham, you post is like the holy bible of Aces. I'll try soontir with TL that intrigues me, and I'll also give a try to the list above-mentioned.

Royal guard pilot x2 44pts

Alpha sq 18 pts

Academy pilots x3 36 pts

total 100 pts

Other suggestions are obviousily welcome!

I must admit that I haven't had a ton of time to play with my new aces, but I really like them. My problem with the Interceptors before is they didn't fly naked well. Soontir Fell with PtL and SD is really nasty, but he is a lot of points and unfortunately easy to kill. But Soontir Fell without any upgrades is a PS 9 pilot with a pretty lack luster ability.

The Imperial Aces named pilots may not all have great abilities but they are at least fine un-upgraded.

Jax naked is 26 points. Compare that to Soontir's full 33 points, Jax is a ton cheaper.

At 26 points Jax can be useful or get killed early. Sure you never want you ships killed early, but it isn't as devisating as when you lose a 33 point Soontir.

All this is even more true for Kanos and Lorrir.

I will admit that Kanos's ability isn't stellar. but it could be useful. K-turn bumps are the worst, not only are you out of position and lose your action, but you can't k-turn the next round which is what will probably want to do.

Lorir has one of those great bonus abilities that you might find on mid-low skill level pilots. He is a gem. At 23 points he isn't a a superstar but he doesn't have to be.

I am not saying that I would never upgrade any of these pilots, but what is great about them IMO is that I don't have to.

As for the Royal Guard they are awesome. I would really like to fly four of them all with VI. (or maybe three of them with one named or more upgraded pilot)

Duraham, that was an excellent and thoughtfully written post.

However, I have to disagree with your comparison of Opportunist and Expose. Expos is best set up with a Target Lock, but you said yourself that Targeting Computer is hard to justify for most interceptors. The beauty of Opportunist is that you don't need to spend an action, so you can use Focus on your attack without setup. Moreover, TIE interceptors are great at shedding stress, and they already have a respectable primary weapon value. These things all add up to convince me that Opportunist is the stronger upgrade. And that's not even getting into the mind games it plays with your opponent, having to decide whether to spend that Focus token or not when Fel and Turr are attacking that same target before your Saber + Opportunist shoots.

And that's not even getting into the mind games it plays with your opponent, having to decide whether to spend that Focus token or not when Fel and Turr are attacking that same target before your Saber + Opportunist shoots.

mmmmhhhh...sounds great. Never considered that...

Duraham, excellent write-up. I have been way too busy to get any playtesting in yet, but I figured this was about how things would settle out.

I have been toying with ideas for House Rules. It is hard to justify spending 2 points more than the Royal Guard to get Cowell's +1 PS and an ability that will see very little use. Rather than lowering his cost further, I thought it would be better to beef up his ability to make it more useful. Do you think that Tetran Cowell's ability would be worth the cost if it instead read:

When you reveal a [straight] or [K-turn] maneuver, you may treat the speed of that maneuver as "1", "3", or "5".

Another idea is:

When you reveal a [K-turn] maneuver, you may treat the speed of that maneuver as "1", "3", or "5". When you reveal a [bank] maneuver, you may treat the speed of that maneuver as "1", "2", or "3".

While we are on the topic, other House Rules changes that I have been thinking of are:

• Alpha Squadron Pilot: cost reduced from 18 to 17
• Avenger squadron Pilot: cost reduced from 20 to 19.
• Saber Squadron Pilot: cost reduced from 21 to 20.
• "Fel's Wrath": cost reduced from 23 to 22, and ability now reads: "When the number of damage cards dealt to you equals or exceeds your hull value, you may immediately perform one extra attack, and you are not destroyed until the end of the round." *
• Lt. Lorrir: cost reduced from 23 to 22.
• Kir Kanos: now has an Elite Pilot Talent.
• Tetran Cowell: See above text change to pilot ability.

* FAQ: This means that Fel's Wrath could attack twice in one round if he is killed by a PS5 or lower pilot. If he gets killed by a PS6+ ship then he still gets one attack, just as before. If he is destroyed outside the Combat Phase, then you may immediately perform one attack, and you must then immediately remove "Fel's Wrath" from play.

Edit: I had to re-write Fel's ability since he wouldn't get a 2nd shot if he was killed by a PS5 ship and Fel did not have initiative. Also had to add FAQ for the case of dying outside the combat stage (i.e. bombs or rammed from huge ship).

2nd edit : After some more thought I think I agree with R2ShihTzu below that Kir Kanos simply needs an EPT. This would fill a unique role and PS/point position.

3rd edit: Saber Squadron Pilot cost reduced by 1 point. As they stand now, I'm not sure they will ever see much use with the Royal Guard now only costing 1 point more.

Interceptors may be overcosted by 1 point across the board, especially considering the prevalence of turrets, but even for House Rules I would rather err on the side of caution. The Regional results will be a good data point since Imperial Aces will be legal.

Duraham, that was an excellent and thoughtfully written post.

However, I have to disagree with your comparison of Opportunist and Expose. Expos is best set up with a Target Lock, but you said yourself that Targeting Computer is hard to justify for most interceptors. The beauty of Opportunist is that you don't need to spend an action, so you can use Focus on your attack without setup. Moreover, TIE interceptors are great at shedding stress, and they already have a respectable primary weapon value. These things all add up to convince me that Opportunist is the stronger upgrade. And that's not even getting into the mind games it plays with your opponent, having to decide whether to spend that Focus token or not when Fel and Turr are attacking that same target before your Saber + Opportunist shoots.

If you are playing around with "Fel's Wrath": How about making him a good Wingman for Fel?

How about: "If a friendly ship in range 1 would be dealt a facedown damage card, discard this card then take a stress token. You can't use this ability if you have a stress token."

If you are playing around with "Fel's Wrath": How about making him a good Wingman for Fel?

How about: "If a friendly ship in range 1 would be dealt a facedown damage card, discard this card then take a tress token. You can't use this ability if you have a stress token."

That's also a really good idea but I would rather keep his ability as close to the original as possible, and simply make it more useful.

If you are playing around with "Fel's Wrath": How about making him a good Wingman for Fel?

How about: "If a friendly ship in range 1 would be dealt a facedown damage card, discard this card then take a tress token. You can't use this ability if you have a stress token."

That's also a really good idea but I would rather keep his ability as close to the original as possible, and simply make it more useful.

You can't polish a ****.

If you are playing around with "Fel's Wrath": How about making him a good Wingman for Fel?

How about: "If a friendly ship in range 1 would be dealt a facedown damage card, discard this card then take a tress token. You can't use this ability if you have a stress token."

That's also a really good idea but I would rather keep his ability as close to the original as possible, and simply make it more useful.

You can't polish a ****.

Expose is bad, but there are actually a handful of pilots who can use it. Vader comes to mind since he has the built in double-action. Were Expose 2 points, it would see rampant use. At 4, not so much.

My Aces experience has been largely similiar to Duraham's, so kudos to you on that long and well thought-out response. A couple things that I will add from my own experience:

Opportunist: is a little better than you describe IMO. It works really well on Sabers, for example, when shooting behind some higher-level aces (as noted). Some other ships, namely those that can use secondary weapons since Opportunist does not limit itself to primary only, can benefit from it. Ibtisam plus HLC, shooting after Wes Janson? Yes, please. Also, the fact that Opportunist does not cost an action makes it really useful for setting up Focus/Target Lock first. Black Squadron pilots, for example, may be able to make nasty use of it in support of a PS6 TIE swarm with PS4 Black Squadrons ready with Opportunist, Focus, and Howlrunner.

Tetran: generally agreed, though with Wingman in the fold MAY get better. Of course, a Defender can white K-turn at will and still take actions, so his value is very limited when the Royal Guad is so good.

Kanos: needs an EPT, period. Squad Leader is simply too expensive a combo for his upgrade. If he could PTL, would be outstanding.

Lorrir: his ability is funky, but likewise needs an EPT. Since he stresses himself, even Squad Leader becomes tricky to use. Not sold on him yet and think his "trick" will be ultimately predictable once you've seen it a couple times.

I agree with pretty much everything else you stated.

Cowall:

I'd add VI, so at least he is about to move last.

Well yes, there are better ways to spend 25 points, though.

So, i never used him. But I should give him a chance...

The Aces are amazing! The only letdown in the set is Opportunist. I just can't seem to justify what it does at 4 points.

The Royal Guard are fantastic!

I'm currently messing with the following list:

Soontir Fell+PtL+TC

RG+PtL x2

Howlrunner OR Academy and then putting a Hull upgrade on the two RGs.

If you are playing around with "Fel's Wrath": How about making him a good Wingman for Fel?

How about: "If a friendly ship in range 1 would be dealt a facedown damage card, discard this card then take a tress token. You can't use this ability if you have a stress token."

That's also a really good idea but I would rather keep his ability as close to the original as possible, and simply make it more useful.

You can't polish a ****.

Yeah but getting a free attack isn't a bad ability. Your opponent has to kill Wrath in order to win, so the only way you wouldn't find his ability useful is if Wrath gets destroyed while staring out into space without any targets in arc. Even if it's down to 1v1 ship at the end and Wrath is your last ship and dies, he still has the chance of forcing a draw by killing your opponent's last ship as well.

The main problem with Wrath, in my opinion, is that his ability as currently written is completely useless if he is killed by a PS5 or below pilot. And the majority of ships are PS5 or below, so your opponent simply avoids killing him with his named pilots and lets the scrubs do the work. He is also over costed by 1 point, especially compared to the Royal Guard.

Edit: updated above "House Rules" brainstorming to give Kir Kanos an EPT at 24 points, and reduced Sabers by 1 point. Just brainstorming.

I generally prefer Expose over Opportunist, simply because the triggering of Expose is on my terms, whereas Opportunist depends on my opponent. Against experienced opponents, I never get to use Opportunist, but at least with Expose I know whether or not I use it is purely my choice

EDIT: OH I SEE, for the upgrade cards, I'm considering their applications beyond the scope of the imperial aces. So like for Expose vs Opportunist, I'm talking on a more general sense. Maybe its because we have had more time to play around with Expose, so there's more discovered ways to make Expose work fine.

For Fel's Wrath, they should make him immedlately do a primary attack when his damage cards exceeds his hull value. That way, when he is off-ed by someone with lower PS, he gets 2 shots, which does make him deadlier. I'd choose him if that was his effect.

For Cowall, currently Im flying him together with Yorr. There's some interesting synergy going on, but once again I rarely if ever do that 1 K-turn, nor do I feel the need to change my K-turn speed, so its back to the whole "hey royal mooks are better than him"

Tetran: generally agreed, though with Wingman in the fold MAY get better. Of course, a Defender can white K-turn at will and still take actions, so his value is very limited when the Royal Guad is so good.

Kanos: needs an EPT, period. Squad Leader is simply too expensive a combo for his upgrade. If he could PTL, would be outstanding.

Lorrir: his ability is funky, but likewise needs an EPT. Since he stresses himself, even Squad Leader becomes tricky to use. Not sold on him yet and think his "trick" will be ultimately predictable once you've seen it a couple times.

Good thoughts on the pilots. I personally think that Lorrir is interesting enough that he doesn't "need" an EPT per se, he just costs too much. Most / many PS5 pilots don't even get an EPT, so I think that's fair.

I generally prefer Expose over Opportunist, simply because the triggering of Expose is on my terms, whereas Opportunist depends on my opponent. Against experienced opponents, I never get to use Opportunist, but at least with Expose I know whether or not I use it is purely my choice

EDIT: OH I SEE, for the upgrade cards, I'm considering their applications beyond the scope of the imperial aces. So like for Expose vs Opportunist, I'm talking on a more general sense.

For Fel's Wrath, they should make him immedlately do a primary attack when his damage cards exceeds his hull value. That way, when he is off-ed by someone with lower PS, he gets 2 shots, which does make him deadlier. I'd choose him if that was his effect.

What do you think of my suggestions for Cowell?

Tetran: generally agreed, though with Wingman in the fold MAY get better. Of course, a Defender can white K-turn at will and still take actions, so his value is very limited when the Royal Guad is so good.

Kanos: needs an EPT, period. Squad Leader is simply too expensive a combo for his upgrade. If he could PTL, would be outstanding.

Lorrir: his ability is funky, but likewise needs an EPT. Since he stresses himself, even Squad Leader becomes tricky to use. Not sold on him yet and think his "trick" will be ultimately predictable once you've seen it a couple times.

Good thoughts on the pilots. I personally think that Lorrir is interesting enough that he doesn't "need" an EPT per se, he just costs too much. Most / many PS5 pilots don't even get an EPT, so I think that's fair.

I generally prefer Expose over Opportunist, simply because the triggering of Expose is on my terms, whereas Opportunist depends on my opponent. Against experienced opponents, I never get to use Opportunist, but at least with Expose I know whether or not I use it is purely my choice

EDIT: OH I SEE, for the upgrade cards, I'm considering their applications beyond the scope of the imperial aces. So like for Expose vs Opportunist, I'm talking on a more general sense.

For Fel's Wrath, they should make him immedlately do a primary attack when his damage cards exceeds his hull value. That way, when he is off-ed by someone with lower PS, he gets 2 shots, which does make him deadlier. I'd choose him if that was his effect.

What do you think of my suggestions for Cowell?

Not particularly impressed. I'm already not using Fettigator's effect at all when he's on the table, so naturally Im not really interested in effects that let you change speeds / bearings on the fly. Maybe it would be more useful for newer players? hmm.... that 1 bank would come in handy though

I was thinking what if his effect was "After you perform a bank maneuver, you may receive 1 stress token to rotate your ship 180degs". This would have quite a fair bit of practical usage, especially when trying to fight against high PS ships that are blocking your K-turns

The problem with Fel's Wrath is that he has to die to trigger his effect - you don't want to let your squints die.

So I like my 'house rule' better

Kanos would need a EPT slot.

Cowall with 1,3 or 5 straight and k-turn would be useful. I often miss the 1 straight when commanding squints.

Jax is fine, Lorrir is fine.

Kir Kanos, on the other hand, is a complete letdown. In fact, I feel he should change effects with Carnor Jax, since he really needs the PTL more than Carnor does. On his own, you would keep using the evade action until you die, but it also does mean that he cannot do anything interesting, and his attack power is actually about the same as if you had used focus instead. You can try and support him, but Imperial supports are very weak, and just about the best you could do to help him is perhaps howlrunner + squadleader. It's not a bad combo by itself, but with Kir at 24 points and a Howlrunner at 20 points that does not have any defensive capabilities, the rest of your team becomes quite.... weird to work with. You can sort of imagine the kind of havoc Kir Kanos could do if he was on the Rebel side instead. Just escort him with Garven or Dutch, wooh now this bugger is very scary, even if he's in an Awing. Definitely "wasted potential" the card, I really wouldnt mind if I paid 27 points for him, if he came with a EPT slot. You could try targetting computer on Kir, so you'd do something like TL the target, then swing in and attack him with an evade token on the next turn, but honestly in today's age of wave 3.5, your opponent would likely not be generous enough to give you the luxury of a 2-turn setup, even in casual games.

This is the reason I have been arguing that the Empire needs an Evade factory like the Rebels have in Kyle. I honestly think it should be an ability that the Advanced have. Produce 2 evades in a round and have the ability to hand one out at the beginning of the attack phase. It would turn the Advanced into a command fighter; the roll that it seems to play in the movies and the Star Wars universe.

What do you think of my suggestions for Cowell?

Not particularly impressed. I'm already not using Fettigator's effect at all when he's on the table, so naturally Im not really interested in effects that let you change speeds / bearings on the fly. Maybe it would be more useful for newer players? hmm.... that 1 bank would come in handy though

I was thinking what if his effect was "After you perform a bank maneuver, you may receive 1 stress token to rotate your ship 180degs". This would have quite a fair bit of practical usage, especially when trying to fight against high PS ships that are blocking your K-turns

Thanks for the thoughts. Cowell is a hard one to try and balance.

The problem with Fel's Wrath is that he has to die to trigger his effect - you don't want to let your squints die.

So I like my 'house rule' better

Kanos would need a EPT slot.

Cowall with 1,3 or 5 straight and k-turn would be useful. I often miss the 1 straight when commanding squints.

Jax is fine, Lorrir is fine.

• Fel's Wrath: true you want to save your squints. If he goes down in the first volley then you have essentially paid 5 points for 1 extra attack from him, vs a PS1 Alpha. It's still better than it was before, and especially at 22 points might actually be used. This needs some play testing and more opinions.
• Re Cowall: yeah the intent was to give him a 1 forward. I don't know how useful that would actually be.
• I think everyone is thinking that Kanos needs an EPT for his price point.
• I didn't touch Royal Guard, Jax, Turr, or Soontir Fel. They all seem OK at their cost.

How about this house rule for Kir Kanos:

"When attacking at Range 2-3, add one result to your roll."

Would this make him too strong? Second idea:

"When attacking at Range 2-3, if you have an evade token assigned, add one result to your roll."

So no need to spend an evade token for the attack ...

Instead of giving Kanos an EPT... How about rewriting his ability as:

"When attacking at range 2-3, if you have an Evade token, you may add one [hit] result to your roll"

Aaarrggg mind-ninjaed!!!! How in the hell???!!!

Kir Kanos, on the other hand, is a complete letdown. In fact, I feel he should change effects with Carnor Jax, since he really needs the PTL more than Carnor does. On his own, you would keep using the evade action until you die, but it also does mean that he cannot do anything interesting, and his attack power is actually about the same as if you had used focus instead. You can try and support him, but Imperial supports are very weak, and just about the best you could do to help him is perhaps howlrunner + squadleader. It's not a bad combo by itself, but with Kir at 24 points and a Howlrunner at 20 points that does not have any defensive capabilities, the rest of your team becomes quite.... weird to work with. You can sort of imagine the kind of havoc Kir Kanos could do if he was on the Rebel side instead. Just escort him with Garven or Dutch, wooh now this bugger is very scary, even if he's in an Awing. Definitely "wasted potential" the card, I really wouldnt mind if I paid 27 points for him, if he came with a EPT slot. You could try targetting computer on Kir, so you'd do something like TL the target, then swing in and attack him with an evade token on the next turn, but honestly in today's age of wave 3.5, your opponent would likely not be generous enough to give you the luxury of a 2-turn setup, even in casual games.

This is the reason I have been arguing that the Empire needs an Evade factory like the Rebels have in Kyle. I honestly think it should be an ability that the Advanced have. Produce 2 evades in a round and have the ability to hand one out at the beginning of the attack phase. It would turn the Advanced into a command fighter; the roll that it seems to play in the movies and the Star Wars universe.

good point!