So I'll be attending my first tournament mid August and while I'm a casual girl and really only playing for fun, I'd like to get past the first round.

I loves me some TIE Phantom, so that'll be included. I had good success using TIE Defender and Shuttle with the Phantom, but I'm also thinking of replacing the Defender with the Firespray for more hit points.

I'd love to hear upgrade/pilot variations of the following list:

TIE Phantom - Echo

Veteran Instincts

Advanced Cloaking Device

Navigator

Lambda-class Shuttle - Omicron Group Pilot

Darth Vader

Firespray-31 - Bounty Hunter

Ion Cannon

Tactician

I tend to wiff on dice a lot, so my original plan of Col. Vessery, Echo with FCS, and Omicron with ST-321 and Weapon's Engineer helped that a lot. Maybe that's a better squadron concept than the above. I dunno. I thought stressing and ionizing targets while Echo dances about them and Omicron deals killing blows would be cool.

Thoughts?

Your list is very similar to one that I fly and it does really well for me:

Soontir Fel+PTL

Krassis+HLC+Rebel Captive

OGP+Darth Vader

In your case, you're basically switching out Soontir for Echo and going for a BH instead of Krassis.

Overall, if you're going to fly your list, you want to strip away as many shields from your opponent so that way you can get crits on them when you use Darth Vader. I'd suggest not going with the Ion Cannon on the BH. Ions are nice, but for your particular list I think an HLC would serve you better for stripping away shields.

Your list is solid, though.

TIE Phantom - Echo

Veteran Instincts

Advanced Cloaking Device

Lambda-class Shuttle - Omicron Group Pilot

Darth Vader

Firespray-31 - Bounty Hunter

Heavy Laser Cannon

I would swap the HLC for the Gunner. I find it much more reliable and you can use it with your rear firing arc. That frees up some points for something like a seismic charge.

I don't prefer any secondary weapon on the Firespray. Use the rear arc to its max potential that way! With 10 attack dice in your original list, Ion might not be the way to go, you got to kill ships in limited amounts of time. I like tactician on the Firespray though!

I would say FCS on Echo would be good to get very powerful shots off (dropping echo giving you a 99 pt initiative bid). Or drop tactician and put sensor jammer on Echo thus increasing survivability on your most vulnerable and highest cost asset.

Remember, lots of people out in anti-phantom insurance in their lists, Falcons, PS 10 pilots, etc. so you have to focus on protecting Echo.

I would swap the HLC for the Gunner. I find it much more reliable and you can use it with your rear firing arc. That frees up some points for something like a seismic charge.

But with Gunner you can only perform another primary weapon attack, not a secondary. If you're banking on just using your rear firing arc, what's the point of a secondary weapon in the first place?

Think about her list and what she's trying to do: maximize her damage to utilize the Darth Vader card.

If maximizing vader is the point, I would then get rid of the phantom. There's a good chance the vader shuttle will go down before the phantom creeps in on the side and gets an attack off.

I also don't like the HLC on firesprays. The big base makes it hard to keep your distance and your target in front of you. You'll get a few good shots off a game, but it makes me question if it's really worth the points.

Hard to argue swapping a defender out with a firespray, though you might get better maneuverability with the defender. I've been running Echo (quickly becoming my favorite ship) w/ACD, PS1Defender with HLC, and Jonus with concussion missle,, mun failsafe and swarm tactics. Def and Jonus really can deal some major early damage with Echo cleaning up and dealing damage herself.

I would swap the HLC for the Gunner. I find it much more reliable and you can use it with your rear firing arc. That frees up some points for something like a seismic charge.

But with Gunner you can only perform another primary weapon attack, not a secondary. If you're banking on just using your rear firing arc, what's the point of a secondary weapon in the first place?

Think about her list and what she's trying to do: maximize her damage to utilize the Darth Vader card.

I have found that Gunner IS the way to maximize damage output. What is better a) a single 4 dice attack in your front arc that may or may not be modified via Focus and/or Target Lock or b) a 3 dice attack to both your front and rear arcs where if you don't do any damage you can re-roll the whole thing using Focus and Target Lock the same way and if the target is in range 1, you can re-roll a 4 dice attack? The only thing that changes things is if the Firespray is piloted by Krassis.

If you really want to maximize attack dice use Gunner with Expose and you will peel shields and get to the soft part of a ship fast.

So I'll be attending my first tournament mid August and while I'm a casual girl and really only playing for fun, I'd like to get past the first round.

I loves me some TIE Phantom, so that'll be included. I had good success using TIE Defender and Shuttle with the Phantom, but I'm also thinking of replacing the Defender with the Firespray for more hit points.

I'd love to hear upgrade/pilot variations of the following list:

TIE Phantom - Echo

Veteran Instincts

Advanced Cloaking Device

Navigator

Lambda-class Shuttle - Omicron Group Pilot

Darth Vader

Firespray-31 - Bounty Hunter

Ion Cannon

Tactician

I tend to wiff on dice a lot, so my original plan of Col. Vessery, Echo with FCS, and Omicron with ST-321 and Weapon's Engineer helped that a lot. Maybe that's a better squadron concept than the above. I dunno. I thought stressing and ionizing targets while Echo dances about them and Omicron deals killing blows would be cool.

Thoughts?

As you can already see, people are going to pick your list apart with their own preferences in mind. I don't see any major flaws in your list, so play it and see what happens! My only major recommendation is that you practice, practice, practice. You're flying a couple of the more difficult ships in the game, and at the same time flying two large ships as well. Make sure you're very comfortable with both the Phantom and shuttle, as neither one plays like any other ship in the game. Do not joust with them, and pay very careful attention to asteroid placement. Also, try to get an impression of the meta before finalizing your list. If there are going to be a lot of other Phantoms there, considering taking Rebel Captive on yours to counter their ACD.

This is all great advice. Thanks so much for helping me!

I'm firm on running these ships, but I'll play around with the suggestions you've given me.

Much appreciated!

Recon specialists are great on both echo and the Firespray. One focus for attack and defense for echo.

Good luck! I like the Firesoray, shuttle phantom build. Keep us posted.

Remember....if you are going to a tournament...you get to play 3 games win loose or draw. then they cut down the the top 4 or whatever. Depending on how many show up. So just have fun and play a few games.

Also, your list is very solid. Good luck.

As you can already see, people are going to pick your list apart with their own preferences in mind. I don't see any major flaws in your list, so play it and see what happens! My only major recommendation is that you practice, practice, practice. You're flying a couple of the more difficult ships in the game, and at the same time flying two large ships as well. Make sure you're very comfortable with both the Phantom and shuttle, as neither one plays like any other ship in the game. Do not joust with them, and pay very careful attention to asteroid placement. Also, try to get an impression of the meta before finalizing your list. If there are going to be a lot of other Phantoms there, considering taking Rebel Captive on yours to counter their ACD.

Pretty much this. If you have people that you regularly play against, ask them if they'd mind fielding some specific lists against you as well. Playing against some of the core tournament builds will give you an idea of what to expect from them and also give you a chance to work out how you'd like to handle them prior to having to face them in an actual event. HSF lists in particular could give you some problems so try to get in a game or two against those to work out how you'll handle them.