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.

Honestly they probably couldn't think of anything to do with the Advanced. The Advanced is a tricky ship to improve. How do you improve it without encroaching on another ship's design space? They've probably been working on a fix for a while and according to the Devs, we should be seeing something soon.

As for the Bomber, the bomber is a really, really good ship and aside from maybe some new pilots doesn't really need anything. The real problem with bombers is ordnance and we're getting more and better options all the time.

Overall I'm disappointed in IA. It's apparent that the design of IA was treated with kid gloves, especially when compared to RA (old designer versus new?).

Lorrir is one of the only named pilots who gets a stress from using his special ability. He also doesn't have an EPT. Same with Kanos. Kanos's ability is good but not having an EPT is a liability and makes him a rarity on the table.

IA still has some good things: the RG title, Carnor, Tetran, more mods, etc. But RA blows IA out of the water.

Chardaan Refit and Test Pilot completely reinvent A-Wings, all the named pilots are awesome, and Keyan is flat-out bonkers and meta-changing

The 2 changes I would have made to Imperial Aces are:

1. Lorrir should not get a stress from using his ability.

2. Kir Kanos should have an EPT.

I like both these pilots, and have tried to use them. With the way they have handled Rebel Aces and the Phantom there is no reason they could not have made the pilots that why. They would not be game breaking, and they would see a lot more play. I know FFG is against changing cards, but I think it is time they did an errata for certain cards. Not every card can be fixed by making a new card.

The 2 changes I would have made to Imperial Aces are:

1. Lorrir should not get a stress from using his ability.

2. Kir Kanos should have an EPT.

I like both these pilots, and have tried to use them. With the way they have handled Rebel Aces and the Phantom there is no reason they could not have made the pilots that why. They would not be game breaking, and they would see a lot more play. I know FFG is against changing cards, but I think it is time they did an errata for certain cards. Not every card can be fixed by making a new card.

+1

It's apparent that the design of IA was treated with kid gloves, especially when compared to RA (old designer versus new?).

Lorrir is one of the only named pilots who gets a stress from using his special ability. He also doesn't have an EPT. Same with Kanos. Kanos's ability is good but not having an EPT is a liability and makes him a rarity on the table.

I view Imperial Aces as a "test run" for later Aces packs, I think they tried to see how well an existing ship would sell repainted and with new pilots and a nice set of upgrades. It seemed to pay off and we have Most Wanted and Rebel Aces as the result (plus hopefully more). When doing test it makes sense that they erred on the side of caution rather than on making something more powerful.

Carnor Jax is awesome, same with the Royal Guard Pilot, Royal Guard Tie will be amazing as more and more Modifications come out. I think the focus in IA was more on the upgrades and less on the raw pilot abilities and RA was the opposite, we have some beast Pilots in there but the upgrades are a little meh.

Yeah, I'm going to go with the fact that it gave FFG an easy way to release some cool repaints. It wouldn't have made sense to suddenly release two new single ship blisters that have different paint jobs. I think it would just confuse people. That and it gave 'Imperials only' players access to Push the Limit... which is probably one of the most important upgrades for the Tie Interceptor.

In my opinion, the intent was to breath new life into the interceptor but while there is some good stuff in there, the designers ultimately failed to see what the interceptor actually needed and therefore failed to deliver such things.

Ever since wave 4, when the new lead designers came in, we have seen far less duds and over-costing in terms of pilot abilities, and far more attention to detail when it comes to giving us what a ship needs to be competitive, hence rebel aces.

But as has been mentioned, the interceptors are getting some love soon.

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

I've bought 3 myself. This is a bad addiction.

I don't think Interceptors were rubbish before, but they were certainly getting squeezed out of competitive lists for the most part. They still are not extremely well represented in the competitive arena, if I am not mistaken. With the subsequent increase in turrets, and the coming of the Phantom and it's "Anything you can do I can do better" playstyle, Interceptors definitely needed a pre-emptive bump, if nothing else.

I was less interested in the different paint schemes than I was in the pilots and upgrades. The different schemes look awesome on the table, though.

The Interceptor wasn't showing up in lists before AI, and as others have mentioned, most people put PTL on them which at the time was only available in the A-wing pack (which is why I have 2 a-wings). The RG title really opened up the posibilities for them as did the Royal Guard pilot, and all the upgrades it come with. RGP with PTL, Ttile, Hull and Shield upgrades is one of my favorite ships now.

The stuff that Imperial Aces brought to the table isn't as prevalent as you are making it sound. I mean, the mini Alpha swarm has nothing from the Aces pack.

I've only faced interceptors on vassal, but almost every time there was a PTL RGP in the mix. But I wasnt making a point about them in the overall meta, just that there are some great things that AI brought as either new pilot options, or solid, new and old upgrades packaged together.

Imperial Aces was a sorta B-/C+ release. Not super, not facepalm. A couple good pilots (Carnor, Royal Guard) and some good/decent upgrades (Hull, TC, RG Title, Opportunist), along with the availability of things like PTL made it worth getting. I am disappointed a bit by Kanos and Lorrir, as well as the lack of Alphas/Avengers, and Tetran is generally "meh," aside from being another PS7 pilot.

Rebel Aces is doing considerably more for the A-wing and B-wing, by comparison, and Most Wanted is in an entirely different category with all it is doing.

I will also add that if the POINT of Imperial Aces was to "mainstream" the Interceptor, it didn't achieve that goal. Certainly not the way that I expect Chaardan Refit and A-Wing Test Pilot will help A-Wings see more table time, or the many options offered to B-wings (such as crew and the new pilots, Farlander and Daniels). Perhaps the rumored "Autothrusters" pack in the Scyk (or is it Star Viper?) expansion will do that.

The imperial aces pilots are kinda crappy compared with the rebel aces pilots ... but i especially like Lorrir ...

even if he keeps fail to hit, because his special barrel roll produces stress and is lacking a ept slot...

... and in the end 2 Tie Fighters are always the better choice ...

But I like my Red Baron list

The 4 Royal Guards with Push the Limit is still one of my favorite squads.

I think the set was meant to buff up interceptors to use other builds than PTL. This was in preparation for all the rebel stress inducing stuff on the horizon. I think it would have succeeded in that, but we are still all too stuck in our ways, and don't bother with the non PTL path.

Aces packs are not always meant to "fix" a ship, but sometimes to make it consider getting out of the single minded build that people are using.

I think the set was meant to buff up interceptors to use other builds than PTL. This was in preparation for all the rebel stress inducing stuff on the horizon. I think it would have succeeded in that, but we are still all too stuck in our ways, and don't bother with the non PTL path.

Aces packs are not always meant to "fix" a ship, but sometimes to make it consider getting out of the single minded build that people are using.

Cause Lorrir and Tetran's abilities work well when they get extra stress on them...

I like how we are trying to determine how aces packs are 'supposed to' work from 2 data points.

The 2 changes I would have made to Imperial Aces are:

1. Lorrir should not get a stress from using his ability.

2. Kir Kanos should have an EPT.

I like both these pilots, and have tried to use them. With the way they have handled Rebel Aces and the Phantom there is no reason they could not have made the pilots that why. They would not be game breaking, and they would see a lot more play. I know FFG is against changing cards, but I think it is time they did an errata for certain cards. Not every card can be fixed by making a new card.

I bought 2 freaking boxes of IA because I love the ship so much. I even did so knowing that guys like Lorrir and Kanos sucked ****s. I think it would be a very positive gesture for the devs to rethink these guys and own up to the error. It's not like taking the stress off of Lorrir and giving Kanos an EPT is going to make them invisible to turret fire.

The 2 changes I would have made to Imperial Aces are:

1. Lorrir should not get a stress from using his ability.

2. Kir Kanos should have an EPT.

I like both these pilots, and have tried to use them. With the way they have handled Rebel Aces and the Phantom there is no reason they could not have made the pilots that why. They would not be game breaking, and they would see a lot more play. I know FFG is against changing cards, but I think it is time they did an errata for certain cards. Not every card can be fixed by making a new card.

I bought 2 freaking boxes of IA because I love the ship so much. I even did so knowing that guys like Lorrir and Kanos sucked ****s. I think it would be a very positive gesture for the devs to rethink these guys and own up to the error. It's not like taking the stress off of Lorrir and giving Kanos an EPT is going to make them invisible to turret fire.

Wow. Hope you aren't holding your breath on that one. Asphyxiation seems to be a painful way to go.

Xwing after wave 2, James Kniffen was lead designer. Everything wave 4 and after, Alex Davy and Frank Brooks.

Not so coincidentally: How many dud/over costed cards are in wave 4 and beyond? And how many are in waves 2, 3, and IA. (Wave 3 is espessially bad - none of the named pilots see widespread play)

So, my point is IA was an attempt to fix the interceptor but mostly failed.

It actually makes me reconsider armada.

whats *wrong* with interceptors? They seem **** good when i use them and a PITA to counter when others do.

I played two royal guards (one with PTL) in a game the other day escorting Kath scarlet.

The squints felw wonderfully, what cost me the game was *incredibly* bad dice rolls, i mean i'm not blaming the dice but its the law of large numbers, when you roll two sets of four red dice as both of them are on the rear of the enemy at range one and get no hits you just know it's not your day

When your opponent makes every green dice he rolls pretty much come up with evade you can be sure of it.

A real blip of a game as the averages average out and on the whole i find them to be awesome.

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?

Red tie fighters.

That is all.

And that is good enough...

I didnt like the red one at first.

But after i'd painted blood striped on my regular squint it grew on me so i ordered a seperate extra one off ebay for very little.

I like fighters to fly in pairs generally.