If Kanos' ability was re-written as the two of you suggest, he would see more table time, IMO. I just (and most of us just) have issues with these mid-range pilots who have unique talents and no EPTs when most would be better off without that talent and just having the EPT slot. Kanos costs 2 points more than a Royal Guard, 3 more than a Saber. I can safely say I would rather have either of those ships 99% of the time with the option of PTL than Kanos. Lorrir falls into generally the same category, but his ability situationally helps with defense more so I find it better than Kanos' offensive buff, and he's a point cheaper to boot. If Lorrir could take Outmaneuver, he would be fairly righteous, but alas, he cannot.

To me, the biggest "shortcoming" of the Imperial Aces is that if the intent was to "fix" the Interceptor to make it a mainstream ship, it generally failed to do appreciably more than add a few minor tweaks to a fairly limited toolkit. Carnor is nice, Fel and Phennir got better with options for Hull Upgrade (as did a lot of ships for that matter), and the Royal Guard is to me the clear victor of the set, giving the Imperials an excellent mid-level fighter in the 25 point range. The rest will rarely see much time in competitive play, though I will certainly mess around with Lorrir, Kanos, and Cowell here and there. The disappointment really stings with the reveals from the Rebel Aces packs. Absolutely nothing in the Imperial Aces will ever compare to the Chardaan Refit or A-Wing Test Pilot. Not even close .

@Stone

If you can keep Evades then you are basically just growing Hits. An evade cancels a hit just like a shield. I would be fine with something that gave out evades to other ships, but keeping evades from turn to turn would simply lead to ships flying away from the enemy until it had 50 evades. It will take 50 hits to even get down to its shields.

Focuses have a reduced rate of return after a little while since you have to roll eyes to use them, but the only down side of evade is that it might go away without you getting to use it.

@Stone

If you can keep Evades then you are basically just growing Hits. An evade cancels a hit just like a shield. I would be fine with something that gave out evades to other ships, but keeping evades from turn to turn would simply lead to ships flying away from the enemy until it had 50 evades. It will take 50 hits to even get down to its shields.

Focuses have a reduced rate of return after a little while since you have to roll eyes to use them, but the only down side of evade is that it might go away without you getting to use it.

Uopo,

I commend you on your command of the English language, in its written form... it is far better than most of the posts I have read on this forum by native speakers!

I would even more like a:

"If your target has at least one stress token assigned, add one result to your roll."

for Kir Kanos.

Maybe we will see an ability like this for a different pilot.

Would be cool for a Advanced or a Bomber pilot as well.

@Stone

If you can keep Evades then you are basically just growing Hits. An evade cancels a hit just like a shield. I would be fine with something that gave out evades to other ships, but keeping evades from turn to turn would simply lead to ships flying away from the enemy until it had 50 evades. It will take 50 hits to even get down to its shields.

Focuses have a reduced rate of return after a little while since you have to roll eyes to use them, but the only down side of evade is that it might go away without you getting to use it.

True, but something that would allow imps to generate one or maybe two extra evades a turn and pass them out to friendlies would be awfully nice. No need to keep them from turn to turn. So, like Kyle, but not the crow.

It might be a bit over powered if the evade tokens could be kept and stacked. But come on, where is the Gaven and Kyle of the Empire? Why are evade tokens not being passed around? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Imperial Aces gave us a subtle hint that this is in the Empire's future.

Something like

Electronic Countermeasures

Modification, TIE Advanced only

Whenever you perform an evade action, you gain 2 evade tokens

Formation Commander

EPT

At the start of the combat phase, you may assign one of your evade tokens to a friendly ship at range 1

those squints will shine in the 300 point games just think in outmanouvering the big ships and fire em up from the rear

+ i for myself dont have any probs with carnor jax ;P i fly him with 3 royal guards with veteran instincs totally worth it and jax has stealth and determination 99 points for ya ;P

Something like

Electronic Countermeasures

Modification, TIE Advanced only

Whenever you perform an evade action, you gain 2 evade tokens

Formation Commander

EPT

At the start of the combat phase, you may assign one of your evade tokens to a friendly ship at range 1

Maybe more like, when you take an evade action, take a free focus/TL action. Something like that. Double evade on command means 1 2 dice ship will almost never hit it, even if you roll badly, that sort of thing.

To me, the biggest "shortcoming" of the Imperial Aces is that if the intent was to "fix" the Interceptor to make it a mainstream ship, it generally failed to do appreciably more than add a few minor tweaks to a fairly limited toolkit. Carnor is nice, Fel and Phennir got better with options for Hull Upgrade (as did a lot of ships for that matter), and the Royal Guard is to me the clear victor of the set, giving the Imperials an excellent mid-level fighter in the 25 point range. The rest will rarely see much time in competitive play, though I will certainly mess around with Lorrir, Kanos, and Cowell here and there. The disappointment really stings with the reveals from the Rebel Aces packs. Absolutely nothing in the Imperial Aces will ever compare to the Chardaan Refit or A-Wing Test Pilot. Not even close .

This is often mentioned by people but I don't know that we have any definitive evidence that was the purpose of Imperial Aces.

Or simply add:

Blood Stripes (TITLE). Ship gains [EPT SLOT]. May not be equipped on a ship with a PS 2 or lower.

Cost: 1 or 0

I say it costs 1 rather than 0 because the Interceptor is inherently in need of LESS fixing than the A-Wing, but the precedent of 0 titles is set with Royal Guard and A-Wing Test Pilot.

Look, it fixes literally everything with the Interceptors we've discussed and makes high end ones SUPER nasty (and SUPER expensive while still being frail).

Well, I guess Rebel Aces really has impressed people.

We've gone from the solution to every ship's problem being a Systems slot to the solution to every ship's problem being EPT/Double EPT for all.

It seems that my play experience differs greatly from a few people here.

Carnor Jax has been amazing. I have virtually no trouble getting him exactly where he needs to be. I usually start a match by having him race forward towards the enemy's play edge, actually out of the fray. It usually takes me until about turn 3 to bring him into the engagement, but i've found this works in my favor for two reasons. One, the enemy ignores him and picks different targets. When he finally does engage (usually by means of a 4-5 straight maneuver) he comes out of nowhere like a Mac truck, usually only in 1 firing arc if any, with a focus token and completely destroys a target that thought he was gonna survive another 2 rounds (usually a Y-Wing, X-Wing or HWK). The second reason it usually works is his position lures my opponent into partially breaking formation to send someone to engage him early. This usually hurts them because they don't appear to have planned for it, and this makes them deviate from their plans halfway through. A fatal mistake if ever there was one. Opportunist is a must on him, because nothing helps the above situations like rolling 5 attack dice on a ship that has 1 agility and no tokens.

So far Lorrir for me has been utter and complete garbage. I'm almost never in a situation where his wonky barrel roll serves me better than a boost or regular barrel roll, and i don't have to stress out to do it. I'll likely not use him again for a long, long time.

Kir Kanos on the other hand has been a great support player. He's never the best on the team, but seems to consistently deliver a performance that makes his cost worth it. His PS is low enough that all the important guys will have already shot at him by the time it comes to his turn, making it fairly easy to decide to give up that evade token. Plus, it means he's the only TIE who can make the decision to evade (instead of focusing) into an offensive one. Come on, you know we've all been there. You took the focus thinking you could use it for either, and when you shot it was all blanks/hits, but your evade roll was all blanks. This way, you can take that evade and if no one lined up a shot on you, you're still gonna get something out of it. And arguably, this puts you on the high side of your variance, since it's still totally possible to roll a stellar attack roll. Nothing says "boy howdy" like 3 hits and a crit at range 2.

Cowell, I haven't actually used much. The one time i did use him, I ended up losing, but he did the best out of all ships. After jousting with Luke through an asteroid (and coming out with the better end of the exchange) his 1-k turn brought him right behind Luke. This worked very well because the asteroid in front of me made my opponent sure the one maneuver i couldn't perform was a kiogran, and secondly because i passed the stress off to Captain Yorr. Range one shot? check. Focus token? check. Not in opponent's firing arc? Check. PS 9 because i gave him Veteran Instincts, so my target did virtually nothing to defend himself in terms of actions taken? Checkmate. Killing luke skywalker in the second round of firing? Only thing better would be doing it in one. Now obviously this situation sits at the high end of the probably outcomes, but i'd be lying if i said that it hadn't endeared him to me somewhat.

Targeting computer has turned my Soontir Fel into a true terror. TL in an off-round, then boost/barrel roll, PtL evade and an extra focus with a target lock? I'd say "they never saw it coming", but they usually do. Too bad that never helps them live.

Hull upgrade is a great filler, and also works well (oddly enough) on Bombers with Determination. Or at least, it has for me.

Opportunist has been great fun, and my Rebel friend has seen great use on Luke with it (Luke + Opportunist + R2-F2 + Stealth Device)

Oh Duraham… -sigh-…. will we ever agree?

Or simply add:

Blood Stripes (TITLE). Ship gains [EPT SLOT]. May not be equipped on a ship with a PS 2 or lower.

Cost: 1 or 0

I say it costs 1 rather than 0 because the Interceptor is inherently in need of LESS fixing than the A-Wing, but the precedent of 0 titles is set with Royal Guard and A-Wing Test Pilot.

Look, it fixes literally everything with the Interceptors we've discussed and makes high end ones SUPER nasty (and SUPER expensive while still being frail).

I think it would be better off saying add an EPT to a ship that doesn't have an ept

Or simply add:

Blood Stripes (TITLE). Ship gains [EPT SLOT]. May not be equipped on a ship with a PS 2 or lower.

Cost: 1 or 0

I say it costs 1 rather than 0 because the Interceptor is inherently in need of LESS fixing than the A-Wing, but the precedent of 0 titles is set with Royal Guard and A-Wing Test Pilot.

Look, it fixes literally everything with the Interceptors we've discussed and makes high end ones SUPER nasty (and SUPER expensive while still being frail).

I like this idea, but i'd say 0 cost. Generally titles cost nothing when they give you the ability to buy other stuff. You're already paying for the cost of it with whatever else it is you gain (RGT, Slave 1) as opposed to titles like Millennium Falco or Moldy Crow, which impart some static ability. Otherwise, you'de have to pay even more points for the EPT to make a decent/subpar pilot workable instead of just using a better pilot, and i think that would be likely to turn people away (and since the whole point of such a title would be to entice players to play those pilots, this is not really a favorable outcome.)

Or simply add:

Blood Stripes (TITLE). Ship gains [EPT SLOT]. May not be equipped on a ship with a PS 2 or lower.

Cost: 1 or 0

I say it costs 1 rather than 0 because the Interceptor is inherently in need of LESS fixing than the A-Wing, but the precedent of 0 titles is set with Royal Guard and A-Wing Test Pilot.

Look, it fixes literally everything with the Interceptors we've discussed and makes high end ones SUPER nasty (and SUPER expensive while still being frail).

I think it would be better off saying add an EPT to a ship that doesn't have an ept

I'm fine with that, too, if you want to differentiate it more from A-Wing Test Pilot.

I feel that the release was slightly underwhelming. Duraham and others have already summed up the shortcomings of the Imp aces pack quite nicely. There have also been a lot of good recommendations for house rules, and I'd like to add my own and see what people think.

First up I feel FFG should have taken a play from the YT-1300 kit and made the royal guard interceptors simply have different stats compared to normal squints, much like ORS vs the named YT's. Basically just give royal guard pilots, kanos, and jax upgraded ships which would tie in closer with lore.

For example the royal guard squints would have +1 Shield and Target lock by default on the actual ship card

Atk: 3

Agi: 3

Hull: 3

Sh: 1

Focus, Evade, Boost, BR, TL

Obviously this would mean the Royal guards would need a slight pt increase but i DONT think it should just be 6 pts like it would cost to equip a shield and target computer.... As has been pointed out several times already TL on interceptors is kind of wasted since almost every other action would be better in most situations. The only reason I even think TL should be on royal guard squints is simply because they had targeting computers according to their lore.

I also agree with majorjuggler that interceptors in general are probably 1 pt too expensive. Which would lead me to suggest that +3 pts for the above changes to royal guard squints wouldnt be too overpowered.

Finally, Kir Kanos should really have an EPT, i mean come on.... was he like the only royal guard pilot that was sick for flight training day or something?

Or simply add:

Blood Stripes (TITLE). Ship gains [EPT SLOT]. May not be equipped on a ship with a PS 2 or lower.

Cost: 1 or 0

I say it costs 1 rather than 0 because the Interceptor is inherently in need of LESS fixing than the A-Wing, but the precedent of 0 titles is set with Royal Guard and A-Wing Test Pilot.

Look, it fixes literally everything with the Interceptors we've discussed and makes high end ones SUPER nasty (and SUPER expensive while still being frail).

I like this idea, but i'd say 0 cost. Generally titles cost nothing when they give you the ability to buy other stuff. You're already paying for the cost of it with whatever else it is you gain (RGT, Slave 1) as opposed to titles like Millennium Falco or Moldy Crow, which impart some static ability. Otherwise, you'de have to pay even more points for the EPT to make a decent/subpar pilot workable instead of just using a better pilot, and i think that would be likely to turn people away (and since the whole point of such a title would be to entice players to play those pilots, this is not really a favorable outcome.)

I'm fine with the cost mostly to differentiate it from Royal Guard title. In all honesty, most of the ships that would really want it are already paying an "over-costed" tax relative to the Royal Guard, so 0 would be fine. You could also limit it from double EPTs on the upper ships. Really, just looking at ways to give Kanos, Lorrir, Fel's Wrath, and possibly Avenger Squadron pilots a consistent purpose when presently I have zero use for any of them most of the time.

Carnor Jax has been amazing. I have virtually no trouble getting him exactly where he needs to be. I usually start a match by having him race forward towards the enemy's play edge, actually out of the fray. It usually takes me until about turn 3 to bring him into the engagement, but i've found this works in my favor for two reasons. One, the enemy ignores him and picks different targets.

What sort of Jedi mind trick does it take to get an opponent to IGNORE Carnor Jax?? He's got an amazingly disruptive ability, he's around 1/3 of your squadron, and especially if you've got anything other than PtL he's relatively crunchy. What sort of opponent lets that conveniently circle around behind them, especially with lumbering ships like Y-wings??

I am waiting for them to make the title:

Secret Order of the Emperor (unique) (unique pilots only):

Your ship gains one upgrade of your choice (you cannot equip a torpedo, bomb, missile, or crew icon unless you already have one). You can equip this title even if another title is equipped.

I would even more like a:

"If your target has at least one stress token assigned, add one result to your roll."

for Kir Kanos.

Maybe we will see an ability like this for a different pilot.

Would be cool for a Advanced or a Bomber pilot as well.

My only problem with this ability is that, given the current shafting of Imperias, it's likely to appear on a Rebel ship.

Carnor Jax has been amazing. I have virtually no trouble getting him exactly where he needs to be. I usually start a match by having him race forward towards the enemy's play edge, actually out of the fray. It usually takes me until about turn 3 to bring him into the engagement, but i've found this works in my favor for two reasons. One, the enemy ignores him and picks different targets.

What sort of Jedi mind trick does it take to get an opponent to IGNORE Carnor Jax?? He's got an amazingly disruptive ability, he's around 1/3 of your squadron, and especially if you've got anything other than PtL he's relatively crunchy. What sort of opponent lets that conveniently circle around behind them, especially with lumbering ships like Y-wings??

When one of the other ships is Soontir Fel + RGT + Shield Upgrade + Targeting Computer + PtL. Also I'm just amazing like that. Also also, deployment. Also also also, I generally hold off on the 5 straight until turn 2. Turn one is usually a slow play. He tricks them into thinking he's going to turn into the fight immediately (and really most people would since he's a 'get him near as many enemies as possible' type o' guy), so by the time they've maneuvered for tunr 2 and planned for 3, he's leagues away from where they thought he would be. In fact, i'd go so far as to say on more than one occasion this has actually harmed my short-game… but X-wing is not a short game. With that blood red squint closing the rear of even the more maneuverable rebel ships, it usually spells doom. And if they kiogran to face him? They stress, while I get to focus or evade with Opportunist. If he doesn't kill them with that stroke, i usually blaze right past to someone else and let someone else clean them up, since the likely next move is a green one. I generally cycle my interceptors instead of dog a target (except y-wings), and I almost never have only one squint in a squad.

Edit: what aids that strategy even more is that usually turn 3 is either the first or second round of combat for me, and many ships are pulling the tightest maneuvering they'll ever pull in the whole game. That means limited moves, almost no k-turns open, or any tight things that generally might allow them to accommodate Jax's position.

When one of the other ships is Soontir Fel + RGT + Shield Upgrade + Targeting Computer + PtL.

So just to make sure I'm understanding this right, they forego a squishy threat to their entire squad's functionality in order to try and attack what is probably the hardest-to-kill ship in the entire game?

Huh. No wonder Jax has been amazing for you - your opponents are idiots.

Not that Jax isn't awesome, but... wow. That's some seriously messed up target priority there.

Well, the other school of thought is that you should hammer those defensive units as hard as you can while your squad still has the firepower to take it out.

Carnor Jax has been amazing. I have virtually no trouble getting him exactly where he needs to be. I usually start a match by having him race forward towards the enemy's play edge, actually out of the fray. It usually takes me until about turn 3 to bring him into the engagement, but i've found this works in my favor for two reasons. One, the enemy ignores him and picks different targets.

What sort of Jedi mind trick does it take to get an opponent to IGNORE Carnor Jax?? He's got an amazingly disruptive ability, he's around 1/3 of your squadron, and especially if you've got anything other than PtL he's relatively crunchy. What sort of opponent lets that conveniently circle around behind them, especially with lumbering ships like Y-wings??

When one of the other ships is Soontir Fel + RGT + Shield Upgrade + Targeting Computer + PtL. Also I'm just amazing like that. Also also, deployment. Also also also, I generally hold off on the 5 straight until turn 2. Turn one is usually a slow play. He tricks them into thinking he's going to turn into the fight immediately (and really most people would since he's a 'get him near as many enemies as possible' type o' guy), so by the time they've maneuvered for tunr 2 and planned for 3, he's leagues away from where they thought he would be. In fact, i'd go so far as to say on more than one occasion this has actually harmed my short-game… but X-wing is not a short game. With that blood red squint closing the rear of even the more maneuverable rebel ships, it usually spells doom. And if they kiogran to face him? They stress, while I get to focus or evade with Opportunist. If he doesn't kill them with that stroke, i usually blaze right past to someone else and let someone else clean them up, since the likely next move is a green one. I generally cycle my interceptors instead of dog a target (except y-wings), and I almost never have only one squint in a squad.

Edit: what aids that strategy even more is that usually turn 3 is either the first or second round of combat for me, and many ships are pulling the tightest maneuvering they'll ever pull in the whole game. That means limited moves, almost no k-turns open, or any tight things that generally might allow them to accommodate Jax's position.

That sounds interesting, do u mind posting the full build? I'd like to give it a try sometime