Which of these builds is the best right now considering a strong opponent and the current meta?

(Or... if the idea of the squad is strong at all. Maybe too easy to kill?)

1. Red Everywhere!

3. College is Stressful

Soontir Fel without Push The Limit?! I'd go with Stealth Device over Hull, too. Oppertunist is really better for pilots with a lower PS. Let the high PS guys fire first and burn off the focus and/or evade.

IMO, the weak target doesn't really survive long enough for Oppertunist help out.

I also have mixed feelings about Gunner. Target lock or Focus work better. I'd rather take a hit than allow you to reroll all your dice. Gunner only helps when you full on whiff. It's easy to mitigate all but one hit to negate Gunner's ability.

Hmm, an Imperial Opportunist list? Like Donnerwolf said, it's an ability best used with low PS ships, unless you're the filthy Rebels and can take Wes Janson.

You definitely don't ever want to put Opportunist on Fel, because he's PS 9 and will almost always be shooting first, before his target has spent its tokens, which means he won't be able to trigger the ability...unless you want to get really cute and give, say, a Black Squadron Pilot "Decoy," allowing Fel to swap pilot skills and shoot at PS 4. Even then, though, Push the Limit is by far a better choice on Fel, who is a natural fit.

Now that I think about it, though, Black Squadron Pilots with Opportunist might not be too bad. They're only 18 points, the perfect pilot skill (high enough to not be Predatored, but low enough that most named pilots will have spent their tokens), and three attack dice if the ability triggers.

So, riffing off your lists, I'd suggest something like this:

• Soontir Fel (27) + Push the Limit (3)
• Colonel Jendon (26) + Weapons Engineer (3) + Tactician (2)
• Black Squadron Pilot (14) + Opportunist (4)
• Black Squadron Pilot (14) + Opportunist (4)

That puts you at 97 points, so you have enough left over to slap a hull upgrade or stealth device on Fel, or play with the loadout on Jendon (who passes target locks to the BSPs, and shoots before them to strip tokens).

Dunno if it'd be good or not, but it might be worth trying!

In each case you have copies of Opportunist in exactly the wrong places - your highest PS ships.

They fire first, meaning that Opportunist will basically never do anything because the target will still have it's tokens.

To make reliable use of Opportunist you need to find ways of having the ship bearing it fire after the rest of your stuff.

Something like this:

Backstabber

Black Squadron Pilot + Outmaneuver x2

Sabre Squadron Pilot + Opportunist x2

The Sabres can fire after the rest of your ships do, and they'll have no trouble clearing the stress where BSPs often would.

Step 1. Take a PTL card and glue it to the bottom of your Soontir Fel pilot card. Step 2. Profit.

Its funny that Opportunist came with the Imp Aces 2 set. It really doesn't fit well with interceptors. The lowest PS that can take it is PS 4 and its so hard to get away from PTL. Rolling 4 dice is fun, but not so much fun when your interceptor dies in the 2nd round because you couldn't get out of arc.

Really Opportunist is better on Rebel ships. Maybe the Decimator can make better use of it. Putting Opportunist on a BSP seems kind of silly to me. I rather just run naked Alpha Sqds at 18 points. They already have 3 attack. You lose PS, but you don't get stressed and your dial is better.

Soontir Fel without Push The Limit?! I'd go with Stealth Device over Hull, too. Oppertunist is really better for pilots with a lower PS. Let the high PS guys fire first and burn off the focus and/or evade.

IMO, the weak target doesn't really survive long enough for Oppertunist help out.

I also have mixed feelings about Gunner. Target lock or Focus work better. I'd rather take a hit than allow you to reroll all your dice. Gunner only helps when you full on whiff. It's easy to mitigate all but one hit to negate Gunner's ability.

You can still TL and Focus with Gunner... What you need to do is make your first attack as good as it can be unless you just roll all blanks or something. But you want to force them to use tokens in defense on that first attack if possible. If the defender rolls strongly on the first attack and dodges, gunner is a great way to force him to roll great again. Good against anything with a lot of agility. Also FCS is a great pairing. Get that TL for the second attack, then get another after the second! Gunner is a great upgrade. It almost always insures that you do some damage to the target.

No PTL on Soontir?!?! PTL is MANDATORY.

Opportunist is an odd duck on a lot of ships because the extra attack die sounds so good.

For example, opportunist on Mithel isn't going to be better than simple taking a basic Saber Squadron, who is going to dish out three dice consistently and more dice overall.

Instead of Black Squadron with opportunist you can have an Alpha.

In both cases you sacrifice a bit of PS, but you're going to have more consistent firepower. I'm not saying it's useless or that one option is better, if you want higher PS, for example, but for me, there aren't many situations where I would take it over a different upgrade or just move up a ship class.

Okay. I was going to say that I knew all about what was standardly good and that PTL is almost a must. I;m that annoying guy who talks really long-windedly whenever someone says the word strategy.

Anyway:

Tried it out today. It worked... okay. The second list was surprisingly good. You don't expect to hit off opportunist on the first pass, take an evade, go around them. Or be near the shuttle, which is what i did. Creates a pretty deadly zone around it, forcing opponents into your shuttles arc.

Even forgot soontir's stress/focus a few times.

That said, if you fly like trash, like i did the next few games, youre gonna get thrashed. Everything dies insanely fast. 1 hit, pop, 1 hit, pop.