Gadge, I think we have similar preferences regarding ships. A-Wings and Interceptors are a blast, but glass cannons. I think Interceptors win out due to their barrel roll ability (uncertain why A's weren't given this) and third attack dice. Nonetheless, I have taken out Han and Chewie with missiles on a fleet of A's (outmaneuver and homing or proton rockets is a good pairing) when focusing on them and hitting hard out of the gate.

Try adding stealth to every ship on your A or interceptor list. You still survive by dice, but that 4th defense dice seems to be a tipping point in my experience. I've been playing A and Interceptor lists exclusively over the past few months and stealth, push the limit, predator and outmaneuver (in some combo) prove very effective with good piloting against any match up. An extra hull on Interceptors is also a good add if using an additional modification from royal guard.

On a separate note, I've found the vast majority of X-Wing players at tournaments to be very reasonable and willing to provide helpful critiques post-play. Would like to see that spirit continue on the forums, as it does the majority of the time.

Agreed

Funnily enough in my first game where i played A wings, Sam put stealth upgrades on his ints and they were infuriatingly hard to hit when you're normally rolling just two dice but once i'd got in close and hit them to remove it (this is what killed tycho) it became less of a struggle.

In general i love the tone of this forum. First person i've ever blocked on any forum in 20 years.

I did find ints versus A's battles go on a *long* time though as you're not throwing down much firepower but putting out a lot of defence.

Its why i went for Sams ints first and ignored his phantom as i needed to be able to box it in and combine firepower

Exactly, normally I dont block anyone but since i've been here he has consistantly been an idiot on so many posts that i'm just sick of seeing the whining so I've blocked him.

My normal policy on this forum is:

1. join in if i feel i have something to say, stop reading if it gets boring or circular

2. Post a thread if im particularly interested in a subject, have something funny or interesting to show

If i've said all i need to say I'll just leave the thread, I really dont care about continuing and argument on the internet as i've got enough 'real life' to be going on to argue about who is best at toy soldiers with an idiot.

However others have made interesting points in a less bellicose way on here so I'm interested to continue

Blocking him seemed the best way of continuing to enjoy the forum by removing someone i clearly don't see eye to eye or even have much common ground with.

The irony is that I was going to give the Xwing tourny scene a go as lurking at my local store and playing in my local area with some tourny players they seem a much more fun lot than the GW tourny scene but posts like his just make me realise that i'll meet people like that who will ruin the day wherever i go so prob best to sticking to playing with people i know and like... its not like i have any shortage of those.

Don't do that. Don't discount the wealth of knowledge you'll gain from joining in your local tournament scene, not to mention the fun and camaraderie of meeting and playing with new people. First off, you may give yourself some vindication, and you will learn new and interesting things you never knew about the game. I'm almost 11 months in, and every time I play 'outside' my group I learn something new that I can apply to my regular gaming group - whether that's list building, rules interpretations, or just learning new strategies, it's always something new when I play in a tournament. You may very well find that iPeregrine is correct, and your local gaming group may not match the 'meta' of the tournament scene. You know what? Who cares?? Have fun, and enjoy yourself - fly what you want.

If you enjoy flying Interceptors and A-wings, you can only get better if you keep flying them - meta be damned. Maybe you'll cause a shift in the meta. Maybe others will see just how much fun you're having and will adjust their personal meta to match your own. Regardless, fly casual and never mind the naysayers.

Exactly, normally I dont block anyone but since i've been here he has consistantly been an idiot on so many posts that i'm just sick of seeing the whining so I've blocked him.

Generally speaking, one must remember that an Internet forum is a rather special place, where one is at an increased risk of running into rather special people.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists

Some of the forums i love being on is the UK cold war and wwii airsoft forums.

Only about 500 regular players of WWII airsoft and about 200 of cold war in the Uk so you tend to meet each other at the big annual events.

Knowing you're going to be on site with someone and be attending post battle 'socials' tends to mean you treat them with a bit more respect and decency online as its hard to hind behind your keyboard unless you never want to take part in a battle and just stay at home talking a good game.

In this case deletion/blocking seemed the best policy.

I'm more than likely to give a local gaming event a go but you have to remember I'm in Nottingham UK... most the big wargames companies are based here, most my friends i play with work (and often write games) for GW, Mantic, Wargames Foundry, Battlefront, Bolt Action/Warlord etc etc and my closest gaming mates are FFG writers (again, not on xwing, on 40k RPG stuff).

So i'm not playing with morons or people who dont understand the rules here you know .

Some of the forums i love being on is the UK cold war and wwii airsoft forums.

Only about 500 regular players of WWII airsoft and about 200 of cold war in the Uk so you tend to meet each other at the big annual events.

Knowing you're going to be on site with someone and be attending post battle 'socials' tends to mean you treat them with a bit more respect and decency online as its hard to hind behind your keyboard unless you never want to take part in a battle and just stay at home talking a good game.

In this case deletion/blocking seemed the best policy.

I'm more than likely to give a local gaming event a go but you have to remember I'm in Nottingham UK... most the big wargames companies are based here, most by friends i play with work (and often write games) for GW, Wargames Foundry, Battlefront, Bolt Action/Warlord etc etc and my closest gaming mates are FFG writers (again, not on xwing, on 40k RPG stuff).

So i'm not playing with morons or people who dont understand the rules here you know .

Yeah, well, I live in northern Denmark, and have dreamt of going to some sort of UK-based gaming convention for years. Might well be an X-wing event - at least it makes the transportation of miniatures manageable.

I helped 'giant fanatic' set up some of their events in Denmark around 2003 ish... part of my job in community and events was to fly around the world helping people set up tournament and open day events.

really liked copehagen when i was there.

Small world, Gadge.

Glad you're enjoying the Interceptors! I you have not done so yet, you can also try Kath or Boba with an engine upgrade. Once you've mastered flying around asteroids, the Firespray becomes something like an Interceptor on stims, flying extremely long distance while changing its firing arc and dodging those of its opponents.

I need to get back to interceptors myself now that I've played enough with the Firespray and low level sigma phantom.

Also don't worry about iPeregrine, he seems to always be on a crusade to prove the game isn't balanced and you're just stupid. I've never seen you whine about Biggs, just voice your opinion on his ability.

What worries me is no WW turning up to troll him.

I haven't seen Greenie in a while....

Interceptors are the way to go. I have more fun flying them than any other ship. I wanna go real fast! Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Oh, how do you block someone on these forums? Can't find the button anywhere!

Also regarding A Wings vs Interceptors and the barrel roll, give Tycho Expert Handing and PTL. The look on my opponent's face last weekend when I shook off 3 target locks was priceless. You may run out of stress tokens by the end of the game is all.

Gadge -

Interceptors are a good time, and a solid ship. If you aren't playing tournaments, then they can easily be a top choice.

iP had a point, however, in that they are vulnerable to turrets. IF you are playing competitively, you will have the occasional unfortunate occurrence of some turret jockey firing for 2 hits and a crit vs. your blank greens, and go pop. Interceptors have a high price tag and a low hull count. The combination of the two doesn't necessarily make them weak, but it does make them unreliable. You can win 3 games in a row vs. turrets, but that 4th game you will just blank out and lose hard no matter what you do. It isn't a game balance flaw, your ship is just going up against a list that largely counters your maneuverability. In a tournament setting where you need to win 8 or 9 consecutive games, that sort of uncontrollable variation is not a good recipe for success.

Having said all that, I have won tournaments with 3 and 4 interceptor lists. They are a good time, and can be very rewarding. But the critics have a point, and they are disadvantaged vs. turrets, even if it isn't the "auto-lose" that many feel it is.

My friend only plays what he loves. Interceptors... A wings, ships kitted out so that he's spent their price over on upgrades.

(Like fully kitting out Ibtisam from 29 points to 44 points).

Its great. I'm sure he has fun doing it... but he also hasn't won a game in about two months. Sometimes I try wacky lists and things too but... I dunno. He's not particularly impressed with my style of play.

I wish he'd try the Phantom, because I think he'd be wonderful at it, but he's turned off by the amount of doodads that are sticking out of the HUD of the Phantom. We don't even play competitive, I totally remind him of any actions he might have missed.

They both only have one attack as well.

Gunner.

But still only one attack. Gunner let's you roll again, but it's not compounding damage like Corran Horn, or like the new Y-Wing title which gives you a true second attack

Let me put it this way. As I trained for Regionals, I beat my sparring partner with my 3x TIE interceptor and "Backstabber" squad every single time. For almost two months. I was feeling pretty confident, and a little cocky. I would just melt his Falcon and all its support. Then a week before Regionals he caved and started using Luke Skywalker crew and I haven't beat him since then. It's stupid good against 3 Agility ships, but it's 7 wasted points against Agility 1 ships. That's why I think balancing interceptors with a ship or two that are low agility-high health seems like a good strategy. I'm really liking shuttle + interceptor builds.

Except for cold dice nights, I find interceptors come out well if you first take out falcons, firesprays, and y-wings as others have warned.

Ships with less offensive capability you can usually outlast with stealth (that critical 4th defense dice) or move outside of their firing arcs.

B-wings often just can't turn around fast enough to return fire once you catch their tail and us strategic k-turns as they get their arc closer to you. But they are another one to watch out for in initial rounds if equipped with gunner options from rebel aces.

I really found the 'heavy ints' with HU and SU gave them the 'tough hide' to get past the inititial exchange and the hwks turret fire without taking any serious damage.

By the end of the game Turr phennir hadnt taken a single hit, neither had the other royal guard, the second royal guard was limping home on one hull point and because I wanted to finish *one* game without losing a ship i disengaged him while the other two got stuck in.

I think i'd have done better if i'd remembered that Turr had predator after the first time he used it (im not even sure i used it once actually, i know i totally forgot about it by the end which was stupid).

I'm a great believer in having a plan and sticking to it and not getting distracted. In this game the focus stacking HWK was my first priority, then the X wings, then the z95s and i went for them in that order. I think the dice were with me to a degree as well.

Old news now i know but I just love PTL on interceptors and found most turns i was making a green 90 degree 2 speed turn and a boost and evade to just soar round in rings.

Cheers for the debate guys, im all up for disagreement as long as its in the spirit of sensible and polite conversation and learning.

BTW, to block someone go to your profile settings, somewhere in there will be an ignore list. You can chose to ignore their posts, their PMs or anything at all to do with them. if you're in thread and they post you just see a light blue bar that says they have posted, that they are on your block/ignore list and would you like to read it anyway.

Welcome to the draw of flying by the seat of your pants. Interceptors are by far my favorite Imperial ship. Their only real drawback is the turret, which pretty much nullifies their main tactic of maneuvering.

Overall though, Ints are absolutely outstanding to play, a challenge on thinking and spatial awareness.

I tend to use the Hull and/or Shield upgrades on my Ints, I simply find it more reliable than Stealth Devices. If you add both to an Interceptor, you have almost the staying power of a Defender with far better maneuvering and in actual fact, better defense if you use focus and evade via PtL.

Long Live the 181st. Long Live the Empire.

Speed Freekz!