I know it's "Rexlar and ties" but have you tried:

Vessery + VI +HLC

Backstabber + Targeting Computer.

Whisper + VI + FCS + ACD. (Or replace with Ties as see fit, better if Ties have Targeting computer as well)

Rexler + Predator + HLC

Jonus

Night Beast

Backstabber(or Dark Curse)

I know, it's not Rex+Tie Fighters only, because of the Tie Bomber, but a fun list nonetheless.

My list of things to do:

1.) Try Brath with Predator

2.) Try Howlrunner again (it's too bad you can't do both, Lone Wolf frees up a point for that, interestingly enough)

I don't think I can justify 22 points for Jonus to buff Brath alone. I probably ought to give Vessery a go in a similar list. I've shied away from him so far, because I've had so many good experiences with TIE fighters (and they don't have TCs). Maybe it's time for an Imperial Aces purchase.

A note about Vessery, you really only need one durable ship with TL to make the most of Vessery.

Soontir w/ TC, a Firespray or a Shuttle are all good choices. If one of those dies, it should be late game anyway where the loss of Vessery's ability isn't a big deal.

When it comes to damage though, Vessery way, way outperforms Brath in my experience.

A note about Vessery, you really only need one durable ship with TL to make the most of Vessery.

Soontir w/ TC, a Firespray or a Shuttle are all good choices. If one of those dies, it should be late game anyway where the loss of Vessery's ability isn't a big deal.

When it comes to damage though, Vessery way, way outperforms Brath in my experience.

I'm sure this is all true, it just stops becoming the list that I'm trying to tweak and becomes a different list altogether. That's fine, it's just not what I'm trying to do.

My list of things to do:

1.) Try Brath with Predator

2.) Try Howlrunner again (it's too bad you can't do both, Lone Wolf frees up a point for that, interestingly enough)

I don't think I can justify 22 points for Jonus to buff Brath alone. I probably ought to give Vessery a go in a similar list. I've shied away from him so far, because I've had so many good experiences with TIE fighters (and they don't have TCs). Maybe it's time for an Imperial Aces purchase.

Got any Bombers? Because I've run something like this a couple of times, and had a lot of fun with it. The Bombers don't quite have the knife-fighting ability of a TIE Fighter, but they're a lot more stubborn--and they don't need Targeting Computers to buff Vessery.

Colonel Vessery (35)

Adrenaline Rush (1)

"Backstabber" (16)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Total: 100

I have been running the following lately:

Brath

HLC and predator (started w outmaneuver and couldn't make it work)

Mauler Mithel

TC

Backstabber

TC

Dark Curse

Will be running again tonight...great firepower and I have had fun running elite imp lists lately.

Feel free to year mine apart as well

I've been really interested in Rexler as well since listening to Chumby on the Kessel Run. His ability could potentially be a strong counter to the YT lists once their shields are gone. I've been toying with:

Rexler with Predator (no HL cannon - just too many points IMHO)

Vader with engine upgrade and outmanuever

2 academy ties (or switch out to Captain Yorr for stress relief - he plays really soothing new age music and gives full body masages in his space cow )

I think Predator is the EPT of choice for Rexler but Outmanuever could be good on him as well.

I know Vader in the advanced isn't super competitive but I can't help but want to make him work. Just doesn't seem right that he's not on the table kicking serious butt! If I play him cagey he can either be very defensive with focus & evade or with boost & barrell roll can be very manueverable giving him the potential to get in behind the YT and taking 3PO out of play. His manueverability and high PS should give him a chance against phantoms as well.

With the ties my HPs' are low = 17 compared to with the shuttle = 21 but my attack dice with the shuttle = 8 compared to with the ties = 9. Jeez, low attack dice either way. That could be a problem. Not sure what to think about this. Of course if I get into range 1 my attack dice with the ties and advanced go up and that should be relatively easy with their speed and manueverability.

Hope your efforts with Rexler go well and look forward to hearing about them. I'm going to try my list tonight at Madness. Any recommendations or insight on my list would be greatly appreciated.

@ Vorpal Sword: I've got one bomber. I might proxy some with friends to give the bomber heavy list a try. I sorta hate that the best use of bombers seems to be without any warheads, though.

@Shakezoola72: I've made lists sort of like that, but never run them. I keep shying off of having only 3 TIE fighters in support of a big stick. I really want to, as I love the named TIE fighters, but it seems so fragile, without the damage payoff of Interceptors. Ace TIE/lns are the cheapest way to get high PS, though...

@FerileSpade: I like that list, and I've played around with Vader/Squad Leader + Brath/HLC, but there's just not enough points to do what I want. I'd love to have Vader drop a Concussion Missile on someone and then have Brath do a TLed HLC as a follow up, dealing a bunch of crits on the first pass. There's just not enough points left for the rest of the squad, though.

yeah you're probably right. when i look at the hull points and attack dice available it's not real impressive. best thing they have on base stats is a lot of evades....but the dice gods can be fickle.

@ Vorpal Sword: I've got one bomber. I might proxy some with friends to give the bomber heavy list a try. I sorta hate that the best use of bombers seems to be without any warheads, though.

I like Bombers with warheads just fine, actually, and advocate for their use any time I can--Jonus really is all that and a bag of chips. But a 3x Bomber list with lots of ordnance goodies would be a very different list than the one in your OP.

Just curious, when you run a bomber squad, do you aim for 1 good warhead salvo or two? Do you use Clusters or Proton Torps? How do you get good target locks with low PS generics? Every time I look at my bomber pilots, I wish the named guys didn't pay 2:1 for pilot skill.

For generics, it seems to me that Clusters are the way to go, since you can't reliably get the Range 3 lock. That prevents the target from jumping down to range 1 to avoid a lot of warheads. They also are really helped by Jonus.

If you're running Bombers with Jonus clusters all the way. They shred Agility 1 ships and having two attacks each you foil 3PO real quick. Also giving Jonus Squad Leader helps with the TL or giving out a focus for the extra bang.

On the topic of Vessery if you have the stones you can run this:

Vessery with HLC and Outmaneuver

Royal Guard with Push and Targeting Computer x2

It'll either wreck face or fall apart faster than a droid bought from the same Jawas that sold R2 and 3PO.

Just curious, when you run a bomber squad, do you aim for 1 good warhead salvo or two? Do you use Clusters or Proton Torps? How do you get good target locks with low PS generics? Every time I look at my bomber pilots, I wish the named guys didn't pay 2:1 for pilot skill.

For generics, it seems to me that Clusters are the way to go, since you can't reliably get the Range 3 lock. That prevents the target from jumping down to range 1 to avoid a lot of warheads. They also are really helped by Jonus.

My favorite loadout is Jonus (usually with Homing Missiles before Wave 4; now I can't decide what I like) plus two wingmen loaded with Proton Torpedoes and Cluster Missiles. I try to maneuver to pick up locks at Range 3, and sometimes can; regardless, I have coverage in every range band, meaning my opponents can't avoid fire by either hanging outside or jumping to Range 1. I can reliably fire whatever missile Jonus is carrying, plus three of the four pieces from the wingmen.

It is rough against higher-PS targets, particularly on the initial merge, and the biggest weakness of the whole strategy is definitely elite ships with good approach control. I've seriously considered cutting back to Jonus + Gamma or even "back" to Jonus + Rhymer and spending the rest of the points on a flanker--Whisper or Soontir--but haven't actually made that jump yet.

Jonus + 2 HLC defenders is legit. I call it the Jonus Brothers. Defenders are very underrated.

Okey sorry for the short answer, since Vorpal posted and i was answering to the other post.

Rexler works best with Ties because he is too expensive, and he actually makes very good use of Ties if you use them as cockblockers. Predator seems a must if you want to use its ability from time to time, but not a requirement. Most of the time you are better off just using the focus for damage instead of flipping crits, except against big ships.

I can see a list with Doomshuttle + Soontir working too tho, but i think there are better options than rexler for that.

I'll try something crazy this weekend:

Rexler + predator + ion cannon

3 X academy tie fighter

scimatar tie bomber with a proton bomb (flyng in formation with Rexler)

Prepare for glory... or the biggest mess in miniature history!

All that, just to set up a Proton Bomb hit?

I love it!

Let us know how it goes.

@ Vorpal Sword: I've got one bomber. I might proxy some with friends to give the bomber heavy list a try. I sorta hate that the best use of bombers seems to be without any warheads, though.

@Shakezoola72: I've made lists sort of like that, but never run them. I keep shying off of having only 3 TIE fighters in support of a big stick. I really want to, as I love the named TIE fighters, but it seems so fragile, without the damage payoff of Interceptors. Ace TIE/lns are the cheapest way to get high PS, though...

@FerileSpade: I like that list, and I've played around with Vader/Squad Leader + Brath/HLC, but there's just not enough points to do what I want. I'd love to have Vader drop a Concussion Missile on someone and then have Brath do a TLed HLC as a follow up, dealing a bunch of crits on the first pass. There's just not enough points left for the rest of the squad, though.

That's why I chose mithel and backstabber. In the right (fairly common) conditions they are just as powerful firepower wise as an interceptor for fewer points. When using brath we don't have many points to spare so I squeeze what I can out of them...I would try the 3 alphas idea...but I don't have 3 alpha cards/tiles.

Well, it went mostly... horribly, lol. Now that cards like predator is out, a lot of people start preferring higher level Ties and such. 2 out of 3 bombs caused more damage to me because of bad manoeuvers, lol (and the third one landed a non interesting crit). Rexler with ion cannon was interesting, but again, I only managed to transform an ion blast into a crit once. So overall:

- No more ion cannons on Rexler

- No more proton bombs on low level pilots

Was thinking about another list and came up with a fun take:

I've played around with a Rexlar Brath + 4 TIE fighters list, and have done pretty well. One loss in about a dozen games, and I think the loss was winnable had I played a little better.

The list:

Rexlar Brath (37), Veteran Instincts (1), Heavy Laser Cannon (7) = 45

Backstabber = 16

3x Obsidian Pilots = 39

OR

2x Academy Pilots = 24

Night Beast = 15

My typical approach is to make the enemy squad fly through the asteroids to come get me where I try to use the superior maneuverability of the TIEs to pick off stragglers. Rexlar Brath typically flanks or hangs back to milk the HLC for all it's worth. This squad seems to really fit my natural play-style and mentality, but I'm trying to think of better ways to make it work.

A few notes:

Don't recommend Howlrunner + 3 Academy TIES. I'm sure it's awesome for a lot of people, but not for me. I've found that I can't stand formation flying, and staying in formation with the TIEs runs completely counter to how I fight with this squad.

One obvious change is to have 3 Academies + Backstabber, then use the free points to put Predator on Rexlar Brath. This seems good (and is probably the next thing I try), but I have some concerns. For one, at PS 10 he's kind of my backstop against Phantoms and other high-maneuverability ships, as well as being a heavy hitter. Being on the flank with 3 AGI and 6 HP makes it easier to use Focus offensively.

Obviously, there's not a lot of room to move in regards to 4 TIE fighters. Backstabber + 3 base TIEs leaves only a few points. However, if I drop to 3 TIEs or swap the Academies out for another ship altogether, there's plenty of points to try out different things.

So if you're still with me, given what I've said about how I like to play, and how I want to run this list, what are some other ideas to consider, while keeping the same general theme of this list?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Not sure if this has been said and I'm not gonna read three pages just to leave a tip. If someone else fires before Rexler, you have a better chance of getting his ability to work. You strip shields and defensive tokens that way. Other than that, I'm all for Rexler builds.

Hi, I like this list around King Rex:

Howlrunner

Push the limit

Rexler

Heavy laser cannon

Push the limit

Blacksquadronstreßbodyguard

+ Wingmann

Dark Curse

I fly the complete build in close formation. Rex could use Ptl to have target lock and focus so his ability will be a selfrunner. Rex or Howli could give the stress away to the wingman. Later Rex leaves the formation or Rex could be used as flanker from beginning.

Besteht wishes

Dark Curse

I have run this to great effect.

Rexler Brath (37)
Predator (3)
Proton Rockets (3)
Munitions Failsafe (1)

Darth Vader (29)
Squad Leader (2)
Proton Rockets (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Total: 100

Sexy Rexy HLC+Predator

Backstabber

Alpha

Alpha

99

Someone else calls him Sexy Rexy!

Made my day.

I have run this to great effect.

Rexler Brath (37)

Predator (3)

Proton Rockets (3)

Munitions Failsafe (1)

Darth Vader (29)

Squad Leader (2)

Proton Rockets (3)

Engine Upgrade (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Total: 100

I don't get Prockets on a Defender. You are paying 3 points for 1 extra attack dice once. They make sense on Vader as the buff his range 1 attack by 2 dice. The Munition fail safe seems like a waste of a point too. How often are you going to miss with 5 attack dice with a focus? Less than 5% of the time against 2 agility dice, that's how often. Might as well run VI or Determintation on Howlrunner. Personally I never use Howl and I feel that Howl is kind of a waste being only able to potentially buff 2 ships. Sorry to nit-pick, but if the list is working for you, by all means keep rolling.

Based on your list, I'd run:

Brath (37)

Predator (3)

Vader (29)

Lonewolf (2)

EU (4)

Prockets (3)

Howlrunner (18)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Determination (1)

Total: 100

Vader flanks and hopefully can take some tokens and a shield off or two. Howl then follows up and can take another shield off. Brath then opens up and with two re-rolls can get enough hits to drop the focus to flip some crits. Vader follows up with the Prockets to finish it off.