I don't know exactly why, but I have a soft spot for the tie advanced. I really, really want to run it, but just can't quite seem to make it competative.

I've been playing with ideas to make it better and I like a lot of the ideas that have been floated around for it. System upgrade slot, point reduction being my favorites, but today I hit upon a very simple option to make them much better.

Use the TIE fighter dial for the advanced. One extra k-turn at 3, and 1 speed turns. The sharp turns alone make the advanced much better. I noticed this because I grabbed the wrong dial for my advanced. After that I began to notice how many times that 1 turn wpuld have made a huge difference.

Price reduction alone only helps so much, but the extra maneuverability provided by 1 turns would i think make the advanced viable.

Im planning on playtesting the advanced with the tie dial and a 2pt price recuction to see how they fly.

I ran vader last week with expose. The two native actions make expose viable, and on turns where it isn't a great idea you can turtle up with focus and evade, or barrel roll to get out of sight. expose turns the advanced into a suped up x wing with a great dial and more actions to play with. Of course, vader is the only usable pilot in a standard match. I've heard Steele is good in epic play, but I haven't tested it.

Yeah vader is good, I want the generics to be better.

FFG has a fix on the way, as stated by designers Alex Davy and Frank Brooks in this Team Covenant interview at the 2014 GenCon:

Proton Rockets aren't terrible, but I suspect one of the fixes promised will include a Systems Upgrade slot so the Advanced TIE can use the Accuracy Corrector. Imagine always having 2 guaranteed hits and a barrel roll or evade per turn, plus 3 evade dice. That'll reboot the ship's popularity. They also said there's more than a single fix.

If you play epic games, Maarek Steele is awesome with cluster missiles and paired with CPT Jonus. Other than that, Vader is still so much fun to fly even if he doesn't get as many kills as he did in ANH. Lol

How about if the TIE Advanced could regenerate shields like X's, Y's, and E's can with R2?

There are a couple of builds that make Vader good.

Squad Leader build, uses Vader's high Pilot Skill and ability to give action economy. Possibly the most effective action economy option for the Imperials.

Tank Build. Choose either Shield Upgrade or Stealth device depending on what type of defense you want. Might even take Elusiveness to help keep stealth device up. Or Draw their fire with Shield Upgrade to keep low hit point Fighters, Interceptors, and Phantoms in the game.

Burst Damage Build: Proton Rocket, Engine Upgrade, and Expose. Make use of the double action by giving Vader all but the cloak action. Since proton rockets only require a focus token not spending a focus token you can focus and boost into range 1 with the rocket. Also after the rocket is gone the ability to switch from 2 firepower 3 agility to 3 firepower 2 agility is great for the Tie Advance as they have as many hit points as an X-wing. Again you could arc dodge with a barrel roll and expose to light up some rebel scum.

Expose is great on Vader, aside from the fact you are paying 33pts for a PS9 pseudo X-wing that is stressed.

Expose doesn't stress you. And many people don't think twice about putting 4-7 points on wedge, so I don't wanna hear it.

I had thoughts for some Adv. fixes, probably terrible ideas but here's one anyway...

"I Have You Now" - EPT - Darth Vader Only - 0 Points - +1 damage dice when shooting at a Target Locked enemy ship.

Obviously this is only a fix for Darth himself, but I figure if Han & Chewie can have an effect on the ship(s) they fly, then why not Darth.

Cheers

@Carpatheon:

Give your Advanced the E-Wing dial and a System upgrade slot

We played a bunch on the weekend and had exactly this discussion.

One idea that came up was to give the Advanced a Mod called Advanced Targeting System:

When you take a Target Lock action you may take a free Focus Action.

It would make the measly 2 firepower that little bit more reliable, and also would make them feasible as a missile boat.

Probably worth 1 point but I could even see it being a freebie given where the TIE:Adv currently stands in terms of overcosting.

i had a terrible game with vader and a flight of academy ties the other day.

Just couldnt get much out of him once i'd shot of the proton rockets.

I think its that low firepower that bugs me

A tie advanced has two main 'advantages' over a tie but in th game one of them 'hyperdrive' is redundant.

I also think it should be able to do any move a regular TIE can as its supposed to be better. A hard 1 on the dial (white) would make it a lot more viable for me.

FFG has a fix on the way, as stated by designers Alex Davy and Frank Brooks in this Team Covenant interview at the 2014 GenCon:

Proton Rockets aren't terrible, but I suspect one of the fixes promised will include a Systems Upgrade slot so the Advanced TIE can use the Accuracy Corrector. Imagine always having 2 guaranteed hits and a barrel roll or evade per turn, plus 3 evade dice. That'll reboot the ship's popularity. They also said there's more than a single fix.

That is incredibly boring. >< What. Your action doesn't even matter. You get two guaranteed hits every turn? Nah. I'd rather play for my victory.

The ship needs a firepower boost, a mobility increase AND probably a point reduction.

It also needs a role, which should be: tanky, mid-cost Imperial fighter. Durable, adds to firepower via ordnance. Support or command style support.

This means that the ship should probably come with variable building, so a systems slot would have been most optimal until that idiotic Accuracy Corrector card.

I really like the idea of using the Tie Fighter dial. It makes sense too. Great idea.

Its been a while since I've talked about it, but these are the two fixes I've suggested, trying to be as clean and elegant as possible:

Original: -3 cost. Gains systems slot. (Errata'd to no Accuracy Corrector proxies.)

Version 2: -3 cost. When you attack a ship you have a target lock, the defender rolls 1 less agility die (up to 0).

Then there's the Use the Tie Fighter dial choice, which I approve of.

I think, just take whatever ones you want from here and have at it.

--

(As it stands, the overcost of a advanced is 4.5 to 5 points according to MJ. If you don't understand this, don't ask. )

Expose is great on Vader, aside from the fact you are paying 33pts for a PS9 pseudo X-wing that is stressed.

I think expose is perfect, the problem is that it is an action but Vader gets 2 so not really a problem. He ends up getting a lot of stat flexibility where he can go to X-wing firepower/agility on the attack when he got a shot and then revert back to Tie firepower/agility when he doesn't have one. Now then again the X-wing can R2-F2 for one less point to get the Tie Agility however it still has the same problem of taking an action so you would need to PTL/EI in order for the X-wing to get Tie Agility + focus and then gets stressed. Darth can Expose + focus/TL and receive no stress.

I still maintain that the best fix for the advanced is to give it Xwing stats, ie. 3/2/3/2

I still maintain that the best fix for the advanced is to give it Xwing stats, ie. 3/2/3/2

That would indeed fix the issue.

@Carpatheon:

Give your Advanced the E-Wing dial and a System upgrade slot

oh I forgot:

and a discount on System Upgrades of 2 points.

So you can:

Give Maarek and nonames a FCS for free.

Give Vader Advanced Sensors for 1 point so he won't lose his actions because of bumps and k-turns.

Give Vader Advanced Sensors for 1 point so he won't lose his actions because of bumps and k-turns.

If Vader uses AS he gets one action. Not two. So his pilot ability is lost.

There are a couple of builds that make Vader good.

Squad Leader build, uses Vader's high Pilot Skill and ability to give action economy. Possibly the most effective action economy option for the Imperials.

Tank Build. Choose either Shield Upgrade or Stealth device depending on what type of defense you want. Might even take Elusiveness to help keep stealth device up. Or Draw their fire with Shield Upgrade to keep low hit point Fighters, Interceptors, and Phantoms in the game.

Burst Damage Build: Proton Rocket, Engine Upgrade, and Expose. Make use of the double action by giving Vader all but the cloak action. Since proton rockets only require a focus token not spending a focus token you can focus and boost into range 1 with the rocket. Also after the rocket is gone the ability to switch from 2 firepower 3 agility to 3 firepower 2 agility is great for the Tie Advance as they have as many hit points as an X-wing. Again you could arc dodge with a barrel roll and expose to light up some rebel scum.

3rd option

Vader + VI

Echo + Decoy

Because the sky is falling and 'fortressing' is running rampant and destroying the game (cough, cough), I would like to see a unique modification for the TIE Advanced.

AWACS-Scrambler

When an enemy ship within Range 3 overlaps another enemy ship, the overlapping ship suffers one damage.

That's another $1 contribution to the "Fix the TIE-Advanced Thread" jar.

It's no surprise that most "effective" TIE Advanced builds involve

a: taking Vader and

b: piling upgrades on top

Vader's excellent PS and ability make him a decent (if expensive) Imperial pilot, but until we can come up with a way to utilise Tempest & Storm Squadron pilots effectively (and consistently), you know the ship has issues.

That said:

Vader - Outmaneuver, Engine Upgrade, Proton Rockets (39)

Fun times. This guy came within the turn of two cards of one-shotting Wedge at a recent tournament. Vader got 3 hits, 2 crits, and I managed to evade with the X-Wing's one evade dice. A Direct Hit on either crit would have finished it; I drew Munitions Failure & Console Fire and survived (just). It's a one-shot wonder, though.

In a Furball game, had a buddy give Vader Engine Upgrade....holy crud Vader was flying around popping people in the back like he was a bad mofo. It was funny yet scary at same time

That poor sith lord. never quite the same after his wifey died. only 2 attack dice. and the slowest lightsaber swing known to the galaxy

Hey losing that type of hotness will mess anyone!