It went very poorly for me. Partly because the tie phantom has a sharp learning curve (even more so for Echo who I shouldn't' have taken), but also because of the high cost of the two imp ships, and the fact that my opponent wisely took a falcon which makes it even harder to win.

I hadn't planned out any squads in advance as I thought my chances of making top two weren't super high. So I hastily put together this:

Echo + Advanced Cloaking Device + PTL

Delta Squadron Pilot

Bounty Hunter

I flew Echo so badly that by the time I finally had a shot lined up I was killed before I could fire. The Defender with 6 hit points and 3 evade went surprisingly fast as well.

I just missed the final round at the FFG event center, but the Empire won with "Echo", two Academy Pilots, and a TIE Defender against Etahn A'baht, Airen Cracken, Biggs Darklighter, and an A-Wing. I'm not sure what the other pilots or upgrades were. The Defender did die fast, but was taking Range 1 fire without tokens for defense

Echo + Advanced Cloaking Device + PTL

Bad Markcsoul, Bad Markcsoul (meant to sound like someone scolding a dog who peed on the floor) Never ever take PTL on a Phantom with ACD, because if you stress yourself you can't use the ACD and you basically boned yourself. If you run a ACD on Echo/Whisper you should almost always take veteran instincts, that way either you have initiative and you can shoot first and get the cloak up, or if you don't have initiative you see where the opponent's 6-8s are(or7-9s in whispers case) to avoid Arcs when you decloak

Anyways I ran

Whisper-VI, FCS, ACD

Rexlar-Predator

Dark Curse-Stealth Device

I probably would have won if i did a 2 Turn rather than a 2 bank on Whisper causing him to bump a Z-95, preventing him from shooting/cloaking allowing a Shieldless Lando to oneshot the uncloaked Phantom, and letting the shieldless Z-95 land a critical hit on Rexlar getting a direct hit killing him. Without that bump I would have had 3 ships against a Shield less Lando (with Whisper Shooting first to cloak) and It would have been an easy mop up

I won a really hard fought final round with the following list:

• Echo + Stygium Particle Accelerator + Sensor Jammer + Outmaneuver
• Onyx Squadron Pilot
• Royal Guard Pilot + Push the Limit + Hull Upgrade

But I kept forgetting to apply Outmaneuver.

My opponent ran Corran (with upgrades), Blount (with upgrades), and 2 Rookies. Because he didn't fly any ships with 360 degree firing arcs, Echo mostly had his run of the place (Echo did get hit once, losing shields).

I really am not a fan of the Defender's dial, chiefly because hard 1 and 2 turns are red maneuvers. I basically sacrificed my Defender on the first pass so that my shiftier ships could live to joust.

The Phantom, and Echo in particular, is tremendous. In one instance, I decloaked forward 2 bank right followed by maneuver of a 3 bank right (equivalent of a 6 bank right maneuver, I suppose), landing Echo most of the way across the play area and breathing down Corran's neck. This ship was a blast to fly because it is unlike any of the other ships. I tried to place Echo so that the only way he would end up in enemy arcs would be if my opponent K-turned; that way my opponent's ships wouldn't be able to Focus and the Sensor Jammer could negate a hit flat out.

For most ships, you want to make sure you have someone in arc every turn; with the Phantom, you must unlearn what you have learned. There is no shame in retreating, cloaking, and popping out somewhere totally unexpected 1 or 2 turns later.

And for the love of God don't give it PtL. Can't afford the stress.

Yea I realized the ptl mistake after it was too late. As I said the Phantom has a big learning curve and I was thrown into the fire with it. Also VI wouldn't have made a difference as my opponent had Han, and I was already higher PS than his other 2 ships.

Yea I realized the ptl mistake after it was too late. As I said the Phantom has a big learning curve and I was thrown into the fire with it. Also VI wouldn't have made a difference as my opponent had Han, and I was already higher PS than his other 2 ships.

PtL still works with an ACD, just trigger PtL when you take the free cloak action. Shoot, cloak, barrel roll, stress. Great for hit and runs.

I lost to Imperials at the final round.

Of course, I make an effort to NOT play as Rebel Scum...

And after several hours of X-Winging, I really just wanted to go home.

And to top ALL of it off, my opponent wanted the win lots, lots more than I did.

I won with Imperials. Played Whisper with ACD and VI on the Phantom in case my opponent went with some PS 9 pilots. Additionally I had Rexler Breth with Predator on the Defender and I flew a Scimitar Bomber with a Flechette and a Proton Bomb. The bomb was to try and get lucky with a Direct Hit crit on either of the new Rebel ships that only have 2 hull.

My opponent ran Horn with Fire Control, Marksmanship, R7 Astromech, and an APT; Airen Cracken with Squad Leader, and Biggs with R2-F2 and a Flechette.

It came down to the Defender against the Z95. My opponent had initiative, so he had to move first. The red 1 and 2 turns are tough to deal with, but the white K-turn is nice when going head to head. This is based on very limited experience, but my first impression that the K-turn coupled with the ability to barrel roll, I think the Defender might actually work as a close in fighter (albeit expensive one) for the empire in a similar capacity to the B-Wing for the rebels.

I'm noticing that everyone who won with imperials didn't have to face a falcon like I did. Also I think I might be the only one who took echo as the phantom, who as I said is extra hard to figure how the movement system on in your head.

I was a4rino's opponent... and I'm pretty sure it would have gone differently had his 1 hull interceptor not rolled 3 evades on 3 different attacks... The thing just wouldn't die! That said, Corran's higher PS was critical in maneuvering against Echo. So it sounds like either a turret or high PS ship will be required to take him out.

I didn't get to see it all, but the guy (Phild0) at our final table won with Imperials. He took Whisper, but that's all I know about his build.

I didn't get to see it all, but the guy (Phild0) at our final table won with Imperials. He took Whisper, but that's all I know about his build.

Well that's because it's Phild0... I always expect him to win with his imps!

I'm noticing that everyone who won with imperials didn't have to face a falcon like I did. Also I think I might be the only one who took echo as the phantom, who as I said is extra hard to figure how the movement system on in your head.

Same, through out the day my opponent's were complimenting my ability to pull some perfect maneuvers and end up with good shots(very hard to do against a falcon, but I used the Decloak to line up some nice shots on Corran with Whisper),and I simply replied it was probably my experience by starting out playing heavy interceptor builds, one of those learn to run before you walk/crawl things.

Of course since I was running a miniSwarm + Firespray my formation flying was pretty embarrassing with the TIEs since I'm so used to spreading out with the Interceptors, and it showed whenever Howlrunner died and I split formation

I was a4rino's opponent... and I'm pretty sure it would have gone differently had his 1 hull interceptor not rolled 3 evades on 3 different attacks... The thing just wouldn't die! That said, Corran's higher PS was critical in maneuvering against Echo. So it sounds like either a turret or high PS ship will be required to take him out.

Was it really 3 different attacks? I just remember the one when I had 1 hull left and canceled 3 of your hits with an evade+eyeball+eyeball result. Good thing I decided not to spend that Focus token on offense!

I do know this: that Hull Upgrade on the Interceptor was among the best 3 points I've ever spent!

I was a4rino's opponent... and I'm pretty sure it would have gone differently had his 1 hull interceptor not rolled 3 evades on 3 different attacks... The thing just wouldn't die! That said, Corran's higher PS was critical in maneuvering against Echo. So it sounds like either a turret or high PS ship will be required to take him out.

Was it really 3 different attacks? I just remember the one when I had 1 hull left and canceled 3 of your hits with an evade+eyeball+eyeball result. Good thing I decided not to spend that Focus token on offense!

I do know this: that Hull Upgrade on the Interceptor was among the best 3 points I've ever spent!

Yup... there was the one half way through the game when Corran used his ability, then towards the end game, there were two when I then pointed out "Oh Corran can't shoot next turn" and we both redid our dials...

I'm noticing that everyone who won with imperials didn't have to face a falcon like I did. Also I think I might be the only one who took echo as the phantom, who as I said is extra hard to figure how the movement system on in your head.

FFG winning Imperial list ran Echo.

Echo is crazy good, but you need Squint flying experience to really get his to perform well.

At mine the winner was imperial. They ran a PTL royal guard with targeting comp along with echo with VI and the defender pilot that gets free target locks with predator. The rebel player ran a naked bandit, E'tan with advanced sensors, and Chewy with Han crew, C3PO crew, and milliniem falcon title. The imperial player had it in hand until he forgot to recloak before firing with his defender. Chewy swatted it down with only 1 hp left. Then it was 1 hp Chewy and no shields E'tan vs Vessary with no shields. Vessary one shorted Chewy the next round leaving himself open to E'tan who rolled 3 hits. Vessary only rolled 1 evade. The rebel player didn't realize that E'tan could convert his own hits to crits so he didn't take the crit that would have ender the game. (We checked the damage card after and it would have been a direct hit). The next round the defender barrel rolled out of E'tan's arc and got 1 crit through that was also a direct hit. The hosts were going to put it up along with commentary and it should be up soon by Covenant Tulsa. Crazy game. I'm glad I stuck around.

I won with imperials. I put together a mini-swarm: Howlrunner + Hull Upgrade, 2 AP, + Delta + Sigma. I won handily given I had 13 attack dice + rerolls vs. his 8. He played Wedge + VI + shield upgrade, Corran + VI + Advanced Sensors, and Airen + VI.

His VI points were totally wasted given I went with low PS and more ships. Didn't hurt that I rolled pretty well, but statistically the is lots of wiggle room with 13 dice + Howlrunner's rerolls.

I won with Imperials - my choice. I ran:

Soontir Fel - Push the Limit (30)

Colonel Vessery (35)

Echo - Veteran Instincts, Advanced Cloaking Device (35)

Colonel Vessery won me the game even though I messed up on the list by dropping a targeting computer on Soontir to fit the 100pts limit then realising afterward that I had no-one else to TL a ship to take advantage of the Colonel's ability - D'oh!

I faced:

Chewbacca YT-1300 with gunner

Corran Horn E-Wing

Bandit Squadron Z-95

Cant remember the exact upgrade loadouts on the rebels side.

2-0 with Imperials in the finals this weekend. Lost 1 shield in the first game and 2 in the 2nd.

List was:

Whisper with VI, WE, FCS, ACD

Vessery with HLC

Backstabber

Loving the Phantom. He was the star in both games. He did a ton of damage the first game and in the 2nd game showed his survivability after my opponent kinda pinned him along one side of the board and unloaded flechette's and ion pulses on him. He only lost 1 shield and that was due to Blount hitting him with the ion pulse.

The synergy between a phantom with FCS and WE and Vessery was also awesome.

i didn't play the final round, we just took the ships we wanted but if i had i was running, still i now have a phantom so it will be fun to play with.

Echo+VI+AdvS+ACD+Navigator

Delta squadron pilot

Royal Guard +PTL+shield

I won 2 with Imperial. The first one the TO only had us use 1 of the ships in our lists, made it a bit different, but everyone was okay with it. I ran:

Echo + PTL + Stygium + FCS

OGP Shuttle + Vader

OGP Shuttle + FCS

Backstabber

Opponent had a combo of Dutch, Graven, and Ehbat (sp) with some new astromechs. It was quite interesting!

Next imdaar we used both ships, I ran

Sigma Squadron Pilot + Stygium Particle Accelerator + Intel agent

OGP Shuttle

OGP Shuttle

Delta Squadron Pilot

My opponent had Chewy, Corran, and a Z95, assorted upgrades. It was just Chewy left vs all my ships when we decided to call it cuz the store was closing. Defender had 2hp, 1 shuttle at 5hp, the Phantom untouched. I think I could have lost it still. Shuttles weren't in a great position at the end, and Chewy had Engine. Just needed to get 2 lucky shots on the mobile ships and avoid shuttle arcs. Possible it was. Well played by mu opponent!

Echo is crazy good, but you need Squint flying experience to really get his to perform well.

Yup, if you wanna learn how to be an amazing pilot, you need to play matches with 4 or fewer squints preferably not all with PTL, you need to learn how to anticipate where you opponent wants to go, and how do you get away from him

So I guess I'm the only one who sucked at flying a phantom for the first time then. Guess it's my own fault for picking the weird one and not having experience with interceptors. Wish I could play it again, was one of the least fun games of x-wing I've ever played.