I played my first tourney this week. It was fun. I played a Chiraneau/Echo list

RA Chiraneau

Expose

EI

Ysanne

Rebel Captive

Echo

VI

FCS

ACD

Tactician

99 points

I did well. I didnt lose until the final game against a Fat Han. I feel like I flew my Phantom well and stayed as far from the YT as I could. He took me out from range three on turn four. I one shot one of his Z-95's with the first shot I took but after he killed Echo it was all over. I extended the game almost to the time limit but lost.

In my first game Echo died on turn 3 but I managed to pull out the win because I had thined his ties out considerably before then.

I did roll poorly on defense with the Phantom no doubt, but the Han list would have gotten him anyway. Its a tough list.

Saying all that I think I will be moving to the tie defender to pair with my Deci.

Oicunn

VI

Mara Jade

Ysanne

Brath

VI

HLC

EU

What do you think about that list?

I am not giving up on the Deci/Phantom, but am going to change echo out for Whisper for the Pilot Skill.

I like it. Probably not how I'd deck out Oicunn, but I'm no expert. 99 points? I think it's worth slapping Tactical Jammer on Oicunn in this set up. If he rams the opponent, they can't shoot him, and they'll try to shoot past him at Rexler Brath. The Tactical Jammer will help his survivability. I could also see running Brath as a flanker, but I have a hunch Tactical Jammer will still come in handy.

I played my first tourney this week. It was fun. I played a Chiraneau/Echo list

RA Chiraneau

Expose

EI

Ysanne

Rebel Captive

Echo

VI

FCS

ACD

Tactician

99 points

I did well. I didnt lose until the final game against a Fat Han. I feel like I flew my Phantom well and stayed as far from the YT as I could. He took me out from range three on turn four. I one shot one of his Z-95's with the first shot I took but after he killed Echo it was all over. I extended the game almost to the time limit but lost.

In my first game Echo died on turn 3 but I managed to pull out the win because I had thined his ties out considerably before then.

I did roll poorly on defense with the Phantom no doubt, but the Han list would have gotten him anyway. Its a tough list.

Saying all that I think I will be moving to the tie defender to pair with my Deci.

Oicunn

VI

Mara Jade

Ysanne

Brath

VI

HLC

EU

What do you think about that list?

I am not giving up on the Deci/Phantom, but am going to change echo out for Whisper for the Pilot Skill.

I like it. Probably not how I'd deck out Oicunn, but I'm no expert. 99 points? I think it's worth slapping Tactical Jammer on Oicunn in this set up. If he rams the opponent, they can't shoot him, and they'll try to shoot past him at Rexler Brath. The Tactical Jammer will help his survivability. I could also see running Brath as a flanker, but I have a hunch Tactical Jammer will still come in handy.

With 0 agility imo is a better target over something with 3-4 agility

Only thing I don't like about two ships is it can be pretty hard to kill something in one round, which leaves more guns pointing at the decimator

2 ships one with tactical jammer, I'd just shoot the big one.

With 0 agility imo is a better target over something with 3-4 agility

Only thing I don't like about two ships is it can be pretty hard to kill something in one round, which leaves more guns pointing at the decimator

If it was anybody but Oicunn I'd agree, but if he is in contact with one or more opposing ships, their only legal target will be the TIE defender, and it won't last long under sustained fire. I guess it depends on how you fly it. Like I said above, you might try flanking with Rexler. Either way, you have 1 point left, and Benvader's squad doesn't seem to care much about initiative, so might as well spend it.

Ya, but you seem to be forgetting something.

That first attack round I highly doubt he'll be touching anything, which leaves all your opponents ships to fire at it

Next is round he probably only going to be touching one ship, leaving your opponent other ships at rng one.

If he manages to live through that chances are pretty good he'll be dead next round

In a two ship build, getting into range one I don't think is a good idea, and I've seen this thing get tore apart from rng one ships.

3 ships getting four dice is going to hurt

I've lost the most to:

Chiraneau

*Determination

*Ysanne

*Gunner

*Engine

Echo

*Veteran Instincts

*ACD

*Rebel Captive

*Fire Control System

-> The two ships are both incredibly difficult to bring down in their own ways (phantom green dice versus decimator hull) and are stupidly maneuverable (echo moreso, obviously, but never underestimate EU on large-based turret ships), which makes it very difficult to simply focus one down.

I want to fly

Chiraneau

*Predator

*Navigator/Captive

*Engine

Yeah, you really should play your list against a Phantom or a Corran Dash bros list.

Rebel captive would do so much good in your Oicunn. Mara Jade is cool, but hardly useful against the stuff you want to stress the most.

I had actually killed Chiraneu in two turns with wes+wedge+luke (lol range 1). Decimators eat damage like an american cop eats donuts

Ya your right, but in lists like Luke wedge and biggs I keep my escorts in front of decimator, and in most games the decimator is far back enough that it'd just out of range so the only viable target is the bombers and tie.

I've had a lot of firepower shoot at them. If anything lose a tie, so far haven't lost a bomber on the first round.

Next round the decimator Is in rng, but in most cases it's yo hard for anyone to pass up shooting at a ship which is smoking.

Next round he is colliding doing dmg, and in most cases Mara jade handing out stress

As I said, I haven't played against phantom list, or swarm.

Swarm probably be it's biggest weakness.

As for phantom it may do well. It's weakness there is the phantom can get around the escorts with ease.

I've played against all bomber lists with cluster missles, high 3 ship ps various yt2400 builds and other and have done very well

It did very well against wedge with swarm tactics, biggs, eatahn, and Bandit the other night.

Any build can take down a decimator in two rounds. It's how the player controlling the decimator flies his build.

If your against a two ship build the decimator can die so fast.

I like having escorts just for that reason

And against an all xwing build they can't maneuver like an awing, so they basically joust which is something you don't want to do against so much hull

I didn't say Biggs, wedge and luke. I said wes, luke and wedge. I didn't mean it as a counter or anything (even tho in my experience and practice lately, they are favored for various reasons to this kind of lists) i was speaking about how fast decimators get vaporized if they don't get out of arcs of enemy ships, which is really really fast. And it's not only how fast they go down, but having 12 hull points, eating crits willy nilly isn't pretty at all. But really, if you try to joust with it, most lists with X-wing that you are mentioning will delete the decimator, the "amount of hull" is not really that big.

Swarm would be a biggest issue if they manage to get you, which, with your lack of EU and firepower, it is fairly easy of course to get the jump on it anyways.

My bad on the.biggs thing.

And yes I believe your right if the decimator is jousting alone against any list it's toast.

Just like another poster has mentioned the way he and I have been using it is keeping it behind the escorts.

By doing this usually makes for your opponent to fire all guns on the escorts, because usually and so far out of all my games cannot have them all shot the decimator.

This usually leaves him trying to finish off another ship rather than focus fire on the decimator allowing it to get in rng.

Once it hits one ship, that is one less ship from firing.

After which any ships near it get a stress, keeping them from kturn or any other red move.

Jousting with a decimator 3-4 vs 1 ya it's dead, but jousting with say in my case a tie and two bombers and a decimator slowly coming up from behind has not payed off for anyone yet

And ya a swarm I think would just too many for it to deal with

But never know. Bombers are tanky, if they can get lucky with the prox mines. And get behind the swarm.

Maybe Mara jade could slow them down as well.

Hard to say, but it would be a challenge

Yes, and no. If your opponent's are shooting at the bombers, and keep shooting at the bombers, it is obvious they are having missmanagement on their target priority. As you are setting your list to protect the Decimator, he should be doing so to get your decimator. Since it's a large base, and most of your list is low PS, this is easier to do than you may think.

And to me it's a mistake to try to finish off a bomber. Just kill the decimator, the rest of the list crumbles after it's gone against anything that's half decent on lategame.

Also, to continue on topic, this is the list i had most success with

Rear Admiral Chiraneau

- Expose

- Gunner

- Mara Jade

- Ysanne Isgard

- Experimental Interface

Howrunner

- Determination

Black Squadron

- Wingman

The ties fly behind him, then I use Howlrunner as the sacrificial lamb and she runs off in the other direction taking on evades and BR and people are all to happy to chase her.

Yes, and no. If your opponent's are shooting at the bombers, and keep shooting at the bombers, it is obvious they are having missmanagement on their target priority. As you are setting your list to protect the Decimator, he should be doing so to get your decimator. Since it's a large base, and most of your list is low PS, this is easier to do than you may think.

And to me it's a mistake to try to finish off a bomber. Just kill the decimator, the rest of the list crumbles after it's gone against anything that's half decent on lategame.

Also, to continue on topic, this is the list i had most success with

"Echo" (30)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Rebel Captive (3)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)

Expose (4)

Mara Jade (3)

Ysanne Isard (4)

Experimental Interface (3)

Total: 100

Why Chiraneau ? Because of the crit on focus he is very good against other decimator builds or Fat Hans.

Why echo instead of whisper ? While worse against turrets, it's better against non turrets, and has the same PS as the admiral, this allows you to choose who you wants to get the stress against rebel captive builds, and because against anything else than turrets, she is just better than Whisper, specially swarms, which would be the bane to the Chiraneu.

About Mara Jade, i like it on high PS ships, where people can't barrel roll away so easilly. Against swarms it would seem like amazing, but most of the time it is not, because you don't really want to get at range 1. Later on it is useful tho, at gaining turns, but i rely almost entirely on echo and whatever damage chira could do against them.

I know myself I'd go for decimator, but when all your ships can shoot at a bomber, and not all can shoot at the decimator the main target is obvious

Next it is hard for people to pass up range one shot vs 2-3.

The extra attack dice is tempting, and plus the escorts are getting that bonus as well, so people mindset is kill it before it fires

Then next round the decimator Is ramming something, and others are colliding with it.Usually at this point a ship or two is touching the decimator so therefore cannot shoot it. Bombers are laying prox mines or kturning,

Like anything to say something, but to do it is easier said than done.

In my case this is how a lot of games have played out

From having play this several times against various builds it has done well, and in a few cases not losing a single ship.

That's not to say it's indestructible by any means, but from having experience with it, it's not always as easy as you say.

That comes down to anything

Ya I'd ignore the escorts, but if they are allowed to live and the dmg isn't enough to finish off the decimator, then what?

Really same thing can be said about anything.

A decimator phantom list, well I'd send everything at the decimator and unload on it. Decimator in this case should die fast

Easy to say, but not always the case when executing.

And for ties to simply just barrel roll out of range one. Maybe they can

But maybe they can't with account of asteroids and other ships

And even if they do, now they don't have an action to focus or evade making it easier to kill.

Ive seen fair share of ties get one shoted because of this.

Point being it's so easy to say but without knowing other variables in the equation the results usually don't come out the same

I do love echo and I have some decimator echo/whisper builds to try

But so far been loving the bombers

Edit

I've had a game or two with chir and expose and experimental interface, and it is nasty, but found the decimator sucks for getting rid of stress. Making it predictable and in some cases taking it away from the battle in order to clear the stress.

As much as I do love echo, I've been really becoming attached to buzzsaw whisper

Ps9 is better than an 8 and with whisper ability, in most cases winds up with a focus and evade to back up those four dice.

Both have their merits.

I think both are great in their own way

The decimator is the target i want people to chase, to give echo the edge while killing anything than could threathen her, something Chira helps a lot with.

Yeah, i like the buzzsaw whisper too, it's good against turrets. Problem is its damage needs a turn to start to ramp up, and you don't have the time with a chira, because the decimator is going to die. He is better suited to play alongside Kenkirk imho.

100 Points

You. Cannot. Escape.

Can literally keep a squadron ioned/stressed the entire game. The Ruthlessness adds a tad of damage to compensate for the low number of dice being rolled each turn...2/0 so far. I'm in love.

The decimator is the target i want people to chase, to give echo the edge while killing anything than could threathen her, something Chira helps a lot with.

Yeah, i like the buzzsaw whisper too, it's good against turrets. Problem is its damage needs a turn to start to ramp up, and you don't have the time with a chira, because the decimator is going to die. He is better suited to play alongside Kenkirk imho.

It can work.

In a friendly game can be nasty, but again there are other variables to take into consideration

What's your opponent flying?

Is it a tournament game or friendly game?

I know people do do well in tournaments with two ships.

But i would think in that case can be a tough battle, little room for error

Where killing one big expensive ship vs cheap and numerous ships, time is what can defeat you

I actually love echo, but one bad dice roll can end a game all too quick.

I've had her one shooted at range 3 through a asteroid cloaked by a shuttle.

He rolled hit crit crit, and I roll five blanks, and was a direct hit

Talk about yahtzee

Looks like success with quite a variety of Decimator lists. Has anybody tried things that have definitely NOT worked for them? I'm getting the impression that this is just a quality ship in the Imperial arsenal.

I'll be the first up -- Recon Specialist isn't bad, but there are better options for Kenkirk. Sometimes it saves a damage, but I almost think a point more for Flight Instructor would be better, if you can spare the point.

EDIT: I can't usually spare that extra point I've gone to Moff Jerjerrod instead, as I discussed somewhere above in this thread.

Determination is an amazing filler card, but there have been many more games where it did absolutely nothing and significantly less where it canceled a maximum total of 1 damage, and about a 1 in a 1000 game where it canceled some absurd number of like 4 .

So, in my experience, if you have the point go for it but it is by no means an optimal EPT even though, in theory, the Decimator is the perfect ship for it

Determination is an amazing filler card, but there have been many more games where it did absolutely nothing and significantly less where it canceled a maximum total of 1 damage, and about a 1 in a 1000 game where it canceled some absurd number of like 4 .

So, in my experience, if you have the point go for it but it is by no means an optimal EPT even though, in theory, the Decimator is the perfect ship for it

The reason for this is simple: Agility dice cancel a disproportionately higher amount of {Hit}s than {Crit}s, due to the former getting canceled first.

The more agility dice you have, the more actual {Crit} damage you'll face. Similarly, the fewer agility dice you have, the more {Hit}s will get through, dispersing the {Crit}s to their naturally low occurrence.

Therefore, on a ship with 0 agility, Determination (which is only helpful for 8/33 of Crit-damage) is going to very rarely be useful, even if you have a lot of HP to soak damage.

Looks like success with quite a variety of Decimator lists. Has anybody tried things that have definitely NOT worked for them? I'm getting the impression that this is just a quality ship in the Imperial arsenal.

I'll be the first up -- Recon Specialist isn't bad, but there are better options for Kenkirk. Sometimes it saves a damage, but I almost think a point more for Flight Instructor would be better, if you can spare the point.

EDIT: I can't usually spare that extra point I've gone to Moff Jerjerrod instead, as I discussed somewhere above in this thread.

I can talk about what is essential:

Black Squadron + DTF: 5/5 absolutely essential. The ability to usuallly pull off two hits or to absorb two attacks (cuz they want him to die) is INVALUABLE. The most powerful upgrade for your Decimator.

Other than that, I highly recommend Moffy J or Determination for your Decimator at all times, because each game I get about 3 crits. Black DTF has absorbed around 2 each game, or been attacked instead.

Gunner: 4/5 Very very useful. A lot of times you might not ahve an action due to bumping or extra stress or needing to boost. This ensures a decent chance at damage. The chance you fail to break 3vs4 (Phantom) is about 35% failure. 3vs5 is about 80% failure. Don't do it.

Isard: 4/5 This upgrade has saved me about 3 or 4 hits on a game where I play well and don't let a swarm lambast me. If you get lambasted by a swarm or concentrated fire you cannot break up with good flying or asteroid... then you need to effing fly better.

Lesson learned: Don't joust the Phantom 5 tie swarm. Stupid.

Lesson 2: Range is a big deal. If they are coming sideways to you and some of their ties are behind R3, its a good time for a diagonal flyby. You can usually do some damage those first two turns.

Mara Jade: 5/5 Totally worth it. In fact, I estimate her worth about 9 points. Making a whole tie swarm and phantom not be able to attack you for 1.5 turns while they do greens? Loss of about 5 actions? WHOOOOO.

Rebel Captive: Havent tried. Trying next. Theoretically very good against stuff that needs to shoot the Deci all the time. Ex. Falcons. Phantoms. Dash. Doesn't do much vs swarm though.

Engine Upgrade: 3/5 I would drop this first. It costs an action, with good flying you won't even need it really.

PTL vs Predator: This is the interesting debate. Predator is better for everything except vs the two Han and Dash. The ability to control range to your favor in this matchup (esp Isard, PTL post-activation boost) gives you the upper hand. Han And Dash matchups with this combo are at like a 60% chance of you winning.

It is not good versus Rebel Captive though. You need to be far more judicious with it in those matches.

Predator + Gunner makes other matchups about 60% much easier.

Oicunn: worth the 2 points. deals about 2 damage a game. Can be a game ender by trapping large ships.

Kenkirk: not tried yet

Chiraneau: not tried.

recently tried the admiral with expose and IE with Isard and rebel captive AND another deci as the escort. The expose/IE combo wasn't that effective and ate up a bunch of points. have ran decis with pred in the past and found it much more useful. The problem with expose is that if your stressed you cant use it and one of the first crits i got in the game was "stressed pilot" or something like that.. made all my tight turns "red" and limited what i could do maneuver wise. big base ships NEED a good dial to ovoid everything!!! so while trying to not fly off the board and or hit things i would have to use a stressful maneuver..however my naked deci escort was able to mop up the remnants... so far what I have found out is that another deci seems to be the BEST escort for me at least... normally my deci escorts get picked off relatively fast and early in the game.which really messes up the synergy of the build sometimes.

I've been having similar thoughts about dropping Expose/EI on Chiraneau for Predator. Constantly having to shred stress really limits what is otherwise a decent range of movement. Plus I think that Ions are going to be more common with Scum, if not before and being stressed every turn just puts a Decimator in a precarious position.

If nothing else it frees up points for an EU so you can boost while still having a mini-marksmanship/targetlock within range 1-2.

yeah but the lure of 4 or 5 red dice is soooo powerful..lol but in reality for me at least predator seems to work better. granted things might have been different if i didn't get nailed with "Stressed pilot" so soon... also by freeing up those points I could have built a tanky Ocuuin/kirk build!! although i personally like the admiral..

I guess I have a dissenting opinion: the decimator really doesn't seem very good. It goes down fast and is a crit sponge.

I just finished a game where I played rebels. I went head on with E'tahn against the decimator - so his attack had one guaranteed crit. Behind him I had two Y-wings (dutch+gold) with the BTL title and ion turrets which were also issuing crits (on primary attack) via E'tahns ability, and way off to the side I had Dash + Mercenary Copilot + HLC issuing two crits via mercenary copilot and E'tahns ability. (and 5 attack dice thanks to Jan's HWK) After the first round the decimator had several crits including one that reduced its attack to 2 dice.

. I play 200 point games: maybe it's less viable in higher point games.

Well if your using an ion turret crits won't matter, as the opponent only takes one non crit dmg when ioned

Your also talking about 200 pt games so yes there are a lot more ships on the board so more guns equals more dmg for a ship that has 0 agility.

Also I have no idea how your opponent flew it, what other ships he had, and what upgrades/pilot he was using on the decimator.

Yes it dies fast, but there are ways to avoid that.

I played a 100 pt game against Etahn, wedge w/ swarm tactics, biggs and Bandit.

I lost one ship and had two crits total on the decimator

I flew

Oicunn,w/ rebel captive,Mara jade,dauntles, academy pilot and two scimitar w/ prox mines.

I lost a tie very first round of combat and did 0 dmg, by end of it my opponent had only the z95 left and called it there

Point being it can be a powerful ship. If flown a certain way

×

James T. Echo (100)

Commander Kenkirk — VT-49 Decimator 44

Predator 3

Ysanne Isard 4

Darth Vader 3

Engine Upgrade 4

"Echo" — TIE Phantom 30

Veteran Instincts 1

Sensor Jammer 4

Rebel Captive 3

Advanced Cloaking Device 4