I've been thinking about a new team idea and I would like to have some feedback regarding its potential effectiveness.

Captain Kagi + Sensor Jammer + Engine Upgrade

Carnor Jax + PtL + Shield Upgrade + Stealth Device

Royal Guard Pilot + PtL + Shield Upgrade

The idea is to prevent the opponent to use actions as much as possible. If he takes a TL, it has to target Kagi, if he takes a focus, Jax deny its use. So he's gonna be left to either get rid of Kagi first or attacking without any modifier to his roll. Plus, if he decides to kill Kagi first, Sensor Jammer will help since Jax will prevent the use of a focus and the dice can't be reroll.

Of course, nothing will go according to plan and it will end badly but on paper, it sounds nice.

Now, there is some possible modification to the team:

- I could change Sensor Jammer for Advanced Sensor on the Shuttle and both Shield Upgrade for a Hull Upgrade. That would allow me to give a Stealth Device to the Royal Guard Pilot.

-I could Remove the Shield Upgrade from the Royal Guard and change the Shield Upgrade from Jax to a Hull upgrade. That would give me enough points to give a Gunner to the Shuttle.

-I could also remove the Shield Upgrade from the RGP and give a Flight Instructor to the Shuttle for added defensive capability. Or just switch the Engine Upgrade for it, since I expect it to be the first target, I'm not sure it will live to really need the Engine Upgrade anyway.

-Once Wave 4 hit the shore, I'll give a Ion Cannon and a Tactician to the Shuttle. Until then, I could just drop the Shield Upgrade from the RGP, give a Ion Cannon to the Shuttle for more control in position, so Jax know where to be to deny the focus actions, and keep 1 point for initiative. That would already give me a feel of the final team,

...

Now, I know I could change the RGP for something else, but he's there because A: Interceptor is my favorite ship to fly, and B: its thematic and I love thematic build. If Vader was not a suicidal son of a ... I would take him in, but no way I'm letting him shredding my Shuttle to pieces.

So, Yay or Nay?

Cut the shields down to Hull. Then put Advanced Sensors on the Shuttle. And add Stealth to the RGP. You've added a fair bit of adaptability and durability.(Advanced Sensors is much better than Sensor jammers.)

I know you said this in your post, I'm basically saying that feels like a better choice. It makes action denying the shuttle a pain, and allows it to get back into the fight faster. Shield upgrade rarely earns the extra point, but Hull and Stealth are better than just a shield upgrade.

I've been thinking about a new team idea and I would like to have some feedback regarding its potential effectiveness.

Captain Kagi + Sensor Jammer + Engine Upgrade

Carnor Jax + PtL + Shield Upgrade + Stealth Device

Royal Guard Pilot + PtL + Shield Upgrade

Effectively sexy. Yes.

I disagree with Animar (sorry ). Sensor Jammer is great, especially here where you are shutting down focus. Now, stealth device is lackluster, especially with Blount on the scene. Switch the Stealth on Carnor to a Hull (you need that guy to stay alive). Then give it a try and see how it works. I'm worried about running into Marksmanship, as it'll end Carnor super fast.

The build with the Advanced Sensor was my first idea when I started to think about this team. But like Sable added, Sensor Jammer combined with Jax ability looks like a perfect fit and could be very frustrating for my opponent. I'll definitly try it first with the Sensor Jammer, but if I see I miss the Advanced Sensor too much, I'll go back to my first idea. As for between hull and stealth, it is the eternal dilemma. When I take just one upgrade, I always go with hull, but again, since my opponent won't have a lot of modifier for offense, the bonus agility seems like a good gamble over the 5th hit point.

man, i wanted to love Jax so bad but I find the effort it takes to trigger his ability often times puts me in bad positions on the board, not to mention he doesn't hold up well to focus fire even with PTL

I disagree with Animar (sorry ). Sensor Jammer is great, especially here where you are shutting down focus. Now, stealth device is lackluster, especially with Blount on the scene. Switch the Stealth on Carnor to a Hull (you need that guy to stay alive). Then give it a try and see how it works. I'm worried about running into Marksmanship, as it'll end Carnor super fast.

Blount is an overrated threat against this squad. He'll drop in the first round of fire, guaranteed. If there were something better to do with the 6 points I'd say cut the stealths, but on a 3 ship build you're not going to do much better than Hull and stealth on each Squint. Maybe cut all of them for a tie to block some actions, but that leaves you EXTRA fragile.

What about the Ion Cannon on the Shuttle? It should help Jax get into a good position.

I went up against a similar list. It worked pretty well, although the player using it was very experienced and was quite familiar with using each of the three ships. The list was:

Kagi w/ Sensor Jammer

Fel w/ PtL & targeting comp

Jax w/ PtL, RG title, hull & shield up.

Frankly, if you're gonna build a list of this nature, i think Fel is the way to go. It really makes it tough on the opponent to choose who to fire at first: if you go for Jax, it will take more focus fire to take him down as compared to Fel, but ignoring Fel with a targeting comp is going to allow him to put out some serious hurt. Plus with Kagi around, it is harder to focus fire down Jax & Fel, except at long range (which generally favours interceptors anyway).

At the end of the day though, this is not a balanced list and you will have your good matchups and your bad ones. Having said that, I can see this list being a lot of fun when you've managed to coordinate your different ships really well, correctly anticipating your opponents moves to shut down the effectiveness of their actions, but then again, when you've got a bad matchup, you might feel like you absolutely have no hope of winning at all...

I would have to agree with Sable in the Sensor Jammer is a very good upgrade. It will typically prevent 2-3 damage a game, and Can prevent alot more against ships that are bumping, or k-turning, or using TL...it really is quite surprising how well it does.

On Jax i would have to say that the 5th hit point is better than a stealth device...i've used both and while SD is great when you're at range, and can be playing conservatively, when you need to be aggressive (like with Jax to get to R1) you really appreciate that other HP.

As to any changes? The only thing i could think of would be to drop Jax's Shield to a SD, and put Targeting Computer and Hull on the RGP, which can greatly increase the potency of a PTL interceptor. But i'm not sure which is better.

I'm always happy to see a shuttle squint tag team list. I don't think the empire gets more fluffy in a list aside from tie swarm ( which is over done for my tastes, if effective ). I'm already thinking of a dual defender 1 shuttle list for the next wave, but then, I like difficult to get run lists. Anyone think that has any merit to it ?

I would have to agree with Sable in the Sensor Jammer is a very good upgrade. It will typically prevent 2-3 damage a game, and Can prevent alot more against ships that are bumping, or k-turning, or using TL...it really is quite surprising how well it does.

On Jax i would have to say that the 5th hit point is better than a stealth device...i've used both and while SD is great when you're at range, and can be playing conservatively, when you need to be aggressive (like with Jax to get to R1) you really appreciate that other HP.

As to any changes? The only thing i could think of would be to drop Jax's Shield to a SD, and put Targeting Computer and Hull on the RGP, which can greatly increase the potency of a PTL interceptor. But i'm not sure which is better.

Sensor Jammer can stop some damage. But it costs more and does less than Advanced Sensors. Taking action before evry hard stop you make, and allowing Boost to Hard 2 on a Shuttle is a whole lot better than any amount of damage Sensor Jammer can mitigate.

The thing is, I believe the Shuttle will be the first target. It´s slow, easy to hit and have an annoying ability. So I believe it will go too fast to really need the AdvSensor and Sensor Jammer can help it survive longer. Once it´s down, I'm down to 2 Interceptor that had time to survive the first assault and get in position. Once there, I'm very comfortable with the rest of the game.

I personally had great success with Jax and his ability. Sometimes, you just need to play defensively and go in a position where you won't have the best shot but allow your allies to have one without a big retaliation. Definetly one of my favorite pilot. He can really screw up an opponent by making bad choice. In my experience, sometime your opponent will prefer to take TL just in case Jax get in range 1 this turn. That´s where I think pairing him with Kagi will help.

The thing is, I believe the Shuttle will be the first target. It´s slow, easy to hit and have an annoying ability. So I believe it will go too fast to really need the AdvSensor and Sensor Jammer can help it survive longer. Once it´s down, I'm down to 2 Interceptor that had time to survive the first assault and get in position. Once there, I'm very comfortable with the rest of the game.

I personally had great success with Jax and his ability. Sometimes, you just need to play defensively and go in a position where you won't have the best shot but allow your allies to have one without a big retaliation. Definetly one of my favorite pilot. He can really screw up an opponent by making bad choice. In my experience, sometime your opponent will prefer to take TL just in case Jax get in range 1 this turn. That´s where I think pairing him with Kagi will help.

If I see that my opponent plan on shooting Jax first, believe me that I'll play very defensively with him. His PS8 allows him to see a lot of thing before selecting the actions. Cat and mouse is a game highly in favor of the high PS Interceptor. Sure, I won't get to use his ability from the start, but I also think that's why some people fail with him, they rush him too fast. So, while my opponent will concentrate on Jax, or the Royal Guard, the other two can take shots at them. That's also why the Ion Cannon tempt me, for the what if he goes after the Interceptors.

Even so, no Interceptor can stand a full round of focus fire from most competent squads. No matter how well you turtle. Yes, at PS8 you can see a lot, but arc dodging enough will be tough, especially while giving up your defensive actions to do so.

Granted, no 3 ship squad with two squints is exactly competitive to begin with, but most smart opponents will have Jax off the map during the first round of shots.

Either way, Advanced Sensors is frankly amazing. Sensor Jammer can work, but not on this list. If you were running a tie swarm of blockers, maybe.

Personally Sensor Jammer is at its best against the CR-90, and thus in Epic Play, where most of its shots are totally screwed by the Jammer.

I'm always happy to see a shuttle squint tag team list. I don't think the empire gets more fluffy in a list aside from tie swarm ( which is over done for my tastes, if effective ). I'm already thinking of a dual defender 1 shuttle list for the next wave, but then, I like difficult to get run lists. Anyone think that has any merit to it ?

I would say:

OGP + ST-321 + Weapon Engineer + FCS

Colonel Vessery+Engine Upgrade

Onyx Squadron Pilot

I like the concept of the OP list, but I think that a PS 8 shuttle needs AS if it ever wants an action. Shuttles are easy to block, especially late movers like Kagi.

I think that the SJ is far more useful than it's often given credit for, but this particular situation does call out for AS I think.

Thanks for trying it out. The Shuttle is not the easiest ship to fly, that's why I understand why a lot of people advocate Advanced Sensor over Sensor Jammer: it does help a lot to be able to boost before moving when you need to turn around. Move forward to get out of fire and boost left the first turn, boost left before doing a hard turn left the next turn. You just save 1 turn and a half to get back into the fight. So, if someone is not used to fly the Shuttle, he should definetly go with Advanced Sensor.

Sensor Jammer, I can see working in my meta. The people I play with tend to favor TL over focus when playing the rebels and, like I said, combined with Jax, it will save a few damage. Just need to plan acordingly when I'm at the moment I need to turn, Get out of the fight to reposition and chase them with the Interceptors if the opponent decide to tail it. If not, do a big repositioning of ships to come back later.

If the people TL over focus blindly without looking at your ship Sensor Jammer is amazing. I just can't see decent players doing so.

Sensor Jammer is fantastic in several circumstances.

It forces your opponent into a catch-22 even in the worst case :

Actively deal less damage, or spend my action offensively even if it wouldn't be wise.

If their pilots have a higher PS than yours, you've either convinced them to deal less damage, or take more. This goes double if you have Opportunist.

You can improve the card further by including an action-denial strategy. This can be by simply including Carnor Jax in your fleet, using Blockers to prevent their actions, using Wes to remove their Focus Token before they can attack with it, et cetera.

Also, it completely nerfs ships that rely on arc-jumping for defense. Deal substantially less damage, or stay where I can deal massive damage back at you. Your call.

Sensor Jammer is fantastic in several circumstances.

It forces your opponent into a catch-22 even in the worst case :

Actively deal less damage, or spend my action offensively even if it wouldn't be wise.

If their pilots have a higher PS than yours, you've either convinced them to deal less damage, or take more. This goes double if you have Opportunist.

You can improve the card further by including an action-denial strategy. This can be by simply including Carnor Jax in your fleet, using Blockers to prevent their actions, using Wes to remove their Focus Token before they can attack with it, et cetera.

Also, it completely nerfs ships that rely on arc-jumping for defense. Deal substantially less damage, or stay where I can deal massive damage back at you. Your call.

I never said they blindly do it, just that they tend to favor TL, it might have to do with the strong B-Wing presence and the fact that Focus is less needed in defense. But, with Jax on the table, you can't just blindly take a focus anyway. That's what this team is about, forcing choices to the opponent.

The best counter to Jax, excluding marksmanship of course, is a TL, he do nothing against it. But, as long as the Shuttle is there, the TL will go on it. So, if you don't want to shoot the Shuttle first, you should take a Focus. But, Jax deny its use, so you might end up with no modifier at all if he gets into range 1 during its turn. Sensor Jammer force my opponent even more so to take a focus that he might not be able to use during his turn. So, should you just TL and deal with the Shuttle that will cancel one of your hit with the Jammer, or get rid of Jax without any modifier while he turtle up with focus, evade, arc dodging, whatever is best to avoid the more damage. As long as those 2 are on the table, the choice between TL and focus is not as clear as it seems. And it also exclude the time his ship will make a k-turn or a barrel roll and end up with no offensive boost at all.

Another choice that Sensor Jammer can force is during my attack. With 2 ship at PS8, there is good odds that I'll shoot soon, unless he went all elite. If a focus appear during his defense roll, should he use the token now to prevent maybe 1 damage or keep it so he can do 1 more to the Shuttle.

Of course, under normal circonstance, you should always focus when shooting at a ship with Sensor Jammer. But there is other factors to take into account, in this case Jax, that its impossible to know how it will work out during the game until you actually play it. Is the Shuttle in range 3 to take the TL? Is Jax in range 1, or can he actually be in it this turn? Should I get out of the Royal Guard shooting arc with a barrel roll or take a focus to potentially do one more damage to the Shuttle? Adaptation is needed in this game. We don't play against robots, we play against humans that can surprise you with a move you never saw coming or they can also make the worst mistakes.

I never said they blindly do it, just that they tend to favor TL, it might have to do with the strong B-Wing presence and the fact that Focus is less needed in defense. But, with Jax on the table, you can't just blindly take a focus anyway. That's what this team is about, forcing choices to the opponent.

The best counter to Jax, excluding marksmanship of course, is a TL, he do nothing against it. But, as long as the Shuttle is there, the TL will go on it. So, if you don't want to shoot the Shuttle first, you should take a Focus. But, Jax deny its use, so you might end up with no modifier at all if he gets into range 1 during its turn. Sensor Jammer force my opponent even more so to take a focus that he might not be able to use during his turn. So, should you just TL and deal with the Shuttle that will cancel one of your hit with the Jammer, or get rid of Jax without any modifier while he turtle up with focus, evade, arc dodging, whatever is best to avoid the more damage. As long as those 2 are on the table, the choice between TL and focus is not as clear as it seems. And it also exclude the time his ship will make a k-turn or a barrel roll and end up with no offensive boost at all.

Another choice that Sensor Jammer can force is during my attack. With 2 ship at PS8, there is good odds that I'll shoot soon, unless he went all elite. If a focus appear during his defense roll, should he use the token now to prevent maybe 1 damage or keep it so he can do 1 more to the Shuttle.

Of course, under normal circonstance, you should always focus when shooting at a ship with Sensor Jammer. But there is other factors to take into account, in this case Jax, that its impossible to know how it will work out during the game until you actually play it. Is the Shuttle in range 3 to take the TL? Is Jax in range 1, or can he actually be in it this turn? Should I get out of the Royal Guard shooting arc with a barrel roll or take a focus to potentially do one more damage to the Shuttle? Adaptation is needed in this game. We don't play against robots, we play against humans that can surprise you with a move you never saw coming or they can also make the worst mistakes.

Hence why jax will get killed ASAP. Without him half your fleet becomes useless.

So you're telling me there's a chance...... YEAH!

...

But as much as you think that Advanced Sensor is a better choice than Sensor Jammer (which I respect by the way, and until I actually try out Sensor Jammer, I agree), I don't think the Shuttle suddenly become useless just because Jax is dead and there is a Sensor Jammer on the Shuttle instead of Advanced Sensor. Sensor Jammer is not half the fleet and it can still be useful without Jax.

Anyway, thanks for the reply guys.