Hey guys. Firstly let me say that I actually love Imperial Aces. It was the first thing I bought after buying the core set (I figured that a pack with two ships would be a good way to kick-start my Imp collection), and I think the models look really cool. That being said, it occured to me, what was actually the point of it?

Allow me to elaborate. It seems to me that the general consensus is that Aces packs are a way to reinvigorate ships which are underutilised/lacking in some way. Now, that may not have been their initial objective, I don;t know, but that certainly seems to be the thinking behind Rebel Aces. They've said several times that they are using it as a way to 'fix' the A-Wing in the hopes that it will make it a more viable choice, and while the B-Wing is already used quite a bit, it certinaly has some flaws which I guess they are also hoping to address.

Was this the same with Imperial Aces? For a start, we only got one type of ship, rather than two. And that ship was the TIE Interceptor. Now, I'm not sure what the meta was like back then (I started playing just after Imperial Aces was released), but it seems like the Interceptor really didn't need a boost (if you pardon the pun). It is a great ship, which seems to be widely used, and is generally considered to have some of the best named pilots on the Imperial side (Soontir Fel anyone?). I see Fel and Phennir and people being used in lists quite a bit, but in contrast, I hardly ever see the named pilots from Aces getting a look in. In fact, the only one I think I ever see is Royal Guard Pilot, which admittedly is quite good.

It came with some cool upgrades, but most of them were available already, like PTL and Shield Upgrade. Hull Upgrade and Targetting Computer are cool, but could easily have been included in other packs. The only real 'unique' thing seems to be the Royal Guard TIE title, which is very cool, but again isn't used that much I don't think.

Now, like I said, I wasn't playing before Imp Aces was released, so maybe I'm just not clued in on something. maybe the Interceptor was underutilised. I'm interested to ask you guys, what was the reaction when Imp Aces was announced/released? Did people think it was good? A dissapointment? Like I said, I love the set, but it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity. Why give more redundant stuff to an already good ship, when they could have used it to, for example, fix the TIE Advanced (which I'm pretty certain was already considered underpowered, even at that point)?

Thoughts?

Squints are the coolest Imperial ship. That was a good enough reason for me!

If I recall correctly, PtL was only available with the A-Wing prior to Imperial Aces. SO if you wanted to field PtL Interceptors (and a lot of people did) you had to buy the A-Wing expansion as well or source the card elsewhere. The same goes for the Shield Upgrade (except you had to buy a Falcon).

Hull Upgrade and Targetting Computer are both still only available in the Imperial Aces pack.

So yeah, it offered more options, more abilities, more pilots, a couple of cool new paintjobs and more for Imperial players.

in wave 3 two interceptors was a great deal. Currently, interceptors are just hurt even harder by anti-Phantom. nice paint scheme.

It still comes with Royal Guard, 2 hulls, and 2 PTLs, opportunist and a few other nice upgrades.

getting two core sets, a tie expansion and imperial aces lets you run soontir mini swarm

It is true that the squint didn't need to be boosted and I think the imp ace pack reflects that. What we got was not a big boost or rebalancing but rather a utility box to expand the capability of the squint.

It wasn't a boost like rebel aces is and didn't need to be, we got some very nice generics with the ps6 guard interceptors, some interesting new pilots and a bunch of nice upgrade cards.

Plus two mean minis, I never regretted picking mine up.

It brought Carnor, Tetran and Lorrir into the game, who are slightly undercosted and awesome + fun to fly.

The only issue that Interceptors have atm are those **** turrets.

Here's to hoping that the alleged upgrade in the StarViper expansion will fix that.

To be honest, if it wasn't for ships with turrets, Interceptors and Phantoms would rule this game with an iron fist.

I am a huge fan of Imperial Aces, and was looking forward to adding something here, but it's already been said. Great job, folks. We love our TIE interceptors!

Why? #1 reason is $ of course.

I loved a few of the cards in imp aces, especially opportunist on low PS ships. The difference in the two aces packs is pretty striking though. In imp aces you get some fun and interesting things. In Rebel aces you get game changing things. It seems like it's getting to be quite a trend now but I guess rebels are always going to outdo the imperials in customization. The rebels have such a commanding lead at this point that I don't know how the imperials would ever catch up and rebel aces is pushing that even farther.

The second point for all the major releases is to expand the rules/mission set.

Importantly, we learnt how to plant Rebel saboteurs onto a platform.

Sure to so some, this adds nothing to the game, but my play group all enjoy making our own missions and scenarios, we play these again and again, swapping sides.

You get out what you put into it.

Tbh I think it was just FFG testing the repaint market, good ships a great set but ultimately what led to reb aces and all other repaints which is a good thing

Imperial aces are the only squints I own, and they fly well against anything except falcons and phantoms.

Especially when paired with something big to draw focus away from the little guys. The firespray does that nicely.

Let's be honest named b-wing pilots suck they needed some new ones, and a-wings needed the fix as well, tie interceptors didn't need buffing their issues come from turrets not a flaw with the fighter itself.

Let's be honest named b-wing pilots suck they needed some new ones, and a-wings needed the fix as well, tie interceptors didn't need buffing their issues come from turrets not a flaw with the fighter itself.

While expensive Ten Numb does not suck. My buddy flies him constantly and since I play imperials almost always he can be devastating with marksmanship.

My friend plays him as well he almost never uses generic pilots and he's never done anything to my ties to make me rate him.

End of the day it's just opinion on my part.

IA is always going to look lackluster when compared with Rebel Aces because it focuses on one ship and, to be honest, most of the unique pilots just aren't that useful without access to PTL. That said, it did improve the ship quite a bit and actually helped them against their nemesis, the turret, to some extent.

Hull Upgrade by itself was a cheaper method than Shield Upgrade of making sure your interceptor wouldn't be one-shotted.

If you haven't tried it, the Royal Guard Title allowing you to combine Shield and Hull Upgrade is fantastic and makes the Interceptor very, very hard to kill (tougher than a defender on a ship that is more mobile). The Royal Guard Title will also only continue to be more effective/useful as more modifications come out, especially the one that may have been hinted by Alex in the interview.

The Royal Guard card is, imo, one of the best generics out there.

Carnor Jax, who hasn't been mentioned here, has one of the best abilities in the game and should be used a lot more than he is.

Whether it was purposeful or not, Imperial Aces has riled up some people who insist that using 'different coloured' Interceptors is 'poor sportsmanship'.

Colour me striped but I don't know why they would think that?

I am an addict,

I bought 3 sets, I need help

but the royal guard + royal guard upgrade + shield + hull + PTL = 1 bad ass ship.

soontir + royal guard upgrade + shield + hull + PTL = 1 of the best ships in the game, no more lucky 1 shot-ing soontir

just the ability to do these 2 options made the set worth it for me

Why? #1 reason is $ of course.

Agree I think they must have used the force looked into the future and knew I would have to much money one day to keep to myself

It's the same point as other expansions...to expand the game. Not every expansion succeeds as well as this one though. This one is chock full of good new cards, as well as valuable reprints (PTL).

Opportunist is good, Hull upgrade is great, the title is good, Royal Guard Pilots are good, Jax is good, and other things in it are useful or at least fun as well.

Interceptors were under-used before Imperial Aces came out. The expansion gave people more reason to choose them, and it seems to have done its job.

A do agree though, that the advanced is in much bigger need of a boost.

Like I said in the OP, I do like Imperial Aces. I guess my main question is though, why did they choose to do two of the same ship, and why did they choose one that was already good and widely used? I think the two Imperial ships in serious need of an upgrade are the TIE Advanced and the TIE Bomber. Now, fair enough that when Imp Aces was released, the Bomber hadn't been out long, so a 're-release' of it would be too soon. Also, a bomber doesn't really fit the 'aces' theme. Still, they already knew at that point that the TIE Advanced was lackluster, and as an elite ship, it's the perfect candidate to be made an 'ace'. Why didn't they do an Interceptor and an Advanced at least? It just seems like a missed opportunity.

I got into X-wing maybe a couple months before Imperial Aces came out, I was psyched for re-paints of the ship, plus new pilots and such. Was it absolutely necessary? Probably not, but it helped me get my 3 TIE Interceptors with all different pilots and such, so I was pretty thrilled since it's my one of my top 3 favorite Star Wars ships, right behind the Slave 1 and the Falcon