And how to do it without Falcon or YT-2400? My friend likes playing with two Delta Defenders and the Patrol Leader and I tell you this is truly the iron fist of the Empire. I used to play with four ship Rebel squadrons but even if I manage to destroy Deltas I don't have enough remaining power to kill Decimator. If I try to put Decimator down first, Defenders rip my ships apart. I know that X-wing as a game changes with each new wave and I don't mind changing my play style. I just wondered is it possible to win such match without turrets?

About the only thing I truly fear with my decimator is etahn. Having several crits a turn pile up is just crazy debilitating.

Most people will say that a good old fashioned tie swarm can rip them to shreds in short order as well.

HAHAHa. that is a funky list.

You could go Phantom 5 tie. Avoid letting the defenders get shots on the Phantom, and hope that Whisper's focus 4 dice will dodge the 3 dice F of the decimator.

Have all of the tie fighters positioned as close as possible, and head them all at the decimator. It will drop in 2 turns, literally.

10 attack dice x 2 turns = 20 attack dice x 3/4 (chance of hit with F) = 15 damage. One more hit from the Phantom and thats 16 damage. No more decimator.

Oh yeah. and Etahn really really realllllllly is amazing vs decimator.

Sounds like you need more guns.

Here's a couple lists you could try, if you got the ships.

Etahn A’baht and as many Z-95's as you can manage. Give Etahn some upgrades to keep him a live and let him turn the Z-95 hits into crits.

Or perhaps a BXXZZZ list, Blue Squadron, 2x Rookie, 3 times Bandit. That's a lot of firepower that you can focus on a 0 defense ship, and a lot of hp's for those ships to try to chew though.

Throw as many attack dice at it as possible. This is why swarms are so good against them. Even though any individual TIE Fighter only rolls two attack dice (three at range one), doing that six, seven, or eight times is going to add up quickly.

I've thinking about running the PL + 2 deltas. Seems like it could be a solid list against most things. Got quite a bit of hitpoints to chew through and at least 12 of those HP are rolling 3 agility dice.

I have only two Zs but I'm thinking about something like ZZAA(both with Chardaan Refit) and Etahn with PTL, R2 Astro, EU and Advanced Sensors. I know Etahn will be primary target so I made him as mobile as possible.

Keep in mind, that Etahn just has to have stuff in his arc, so you can keep him at range 3, still get the effect and have 4 dice for defense.

Keep in mind that maneuverability doesn't do anything against large turrets, who move further than you and don't have to worry about silly things like firing-arcs, except give you a chance to shoot at them.

What does help is the E-wings natural 3 agility and access to an EPT and Astromech slot. I confirmed on Sunday that an R2-D2 PTL Ethan can slug it out with Chiraneau packing Gunner and EU. No joke, R2-D2 was worth 24 points of shield upgrades that game, and you can bet your brisket that a 3 agility 8 shield 2 hull ship can trump a 0 agility 4 shield and 12 hull ship when you're guaranteed a crit per shot.

Now that's just out-fight. Small ships just can't keep up with the stupid mobility of EU large ships, and even without EU turrets are idiot-proof in the sense that they're literally impossible to dodge. Until auto-thrusters come out, I do think E-wings are the only small ship can stand a chance one on one. For everything else, you better have multiples.

What exactly happened in your games with a four ship rebel build when you took on the Decimator first? I'm guessing you kill it in three turns (two if you're lucky) while losing two of your ships? And then your two generic rebels get slaughtered by the generic Defenders?

Wedge, Biggs, Rookie, Rookie. Focused them all on the VT-49 for 2 turns, took it down.

Wedge seems kinda pointless vs the decimator, though I'm sure he helps loads with whatever else it brings.

Etahn with R2D2

Cracken

Two Blue Squadron Pilots

Eleven dice, with extra actions from Cracken, and extra crits from Etahn. That Patrol Leader should be dead in two turns.

Stress is also helpful. If they are stressed, they cannot activate Ysanne.

Nathan Eide's list from World's could probably do it easy.

Corran FCS r2d2 ptl shield upgrade

Biggs

2 Bandit

Any 4-ship rebels with Biggs has a good shot.

I took on a four list rebel build leebo bzz my friend planned to ion me off the board so I went for the b-wing first killing it in two turns just with the decimator, one tie lost two hit points and kenkirk lost his shields in return I cleared the board.

Swarm is a solid option, but with ruthlessness out now it's pretty easy to take out large numbers of ships.

Wedge seems kinda pointless vs the decimator, though I'm sure he helps loads with whatever else it brings.

Indeed, I realized that right after I posted. If you know it's going to be double decimator, then go for a different named X-Wing.

Lots of damage fast.

red dice, as many as you can find

2+ Ion Cannon Turrets.

RB 1 or 2, and 2x Y-wings with ICT can just walk a Decimator off the table, onto obstacles, whatever/wherever you want. It is unbelievably easy to do.

Cheers

Jan gets the Blues (99)

Jan Ors — HWK-290 25

Swarm Tactics 2

Blaster Turret 4

Kyle Katarn 3

Moldy Crow 3

Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22

Fire-Control System 2

Heavy Laser Cannon 7

Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22

Fire-Control System 2

Heavy Laser Cannon

Against a HLC barrage of those proportions, the Decimator gets 2-3 turns max even with Ysard. The rest of the enemy squad is pretty much another story but the more points there are on the Decimator, the better for you.

It's not my list, so credit to Michiel van Rooijen (hooe i got it right) and his Youtube channel.

Ok i get the Red dice thing and today i get to fight against a decimator. Here is my quandary should i just fling low PS ships at it knowing there is a good chance he will be running predator? or sacrifice some red dice for a more predator resistant build? Also not wanting to go to the default swarm I was thinking of running "Bat-Man" (Ethan) E-wing with two dagger squadron B-wings both with HLC and Merc copilot. my other question is does merc copilot allow me to change one hit to a crit even if using the HLC? The overall goal being to get as many crits as possible.. granted i also know that more hits in general as in "swarm" have the potential of landing more crits. i just wanted to try something different.

HLC you roll and turn any crits to hits then your abilities take effect and you turn one into a crit, also remember if you re-roll any crits stay crits it's only the first roll you change to hits.

Ok, I've tried 2xRookie Pilot, Biggs and Keyan with Advanced Sensors. For the first two turns I was going for the Decimator but my opponent noticed that and started roaming around asteroids making top speed moves from time to time so it was hard to find out where he's gonna be. I managed to destroy one Defender and damage Decimator for 7 hits but eventually it's turret and Delta's white koiogran got me. Nevertheless I was much happier with the score because first few games ended without any Imperial loses. I guess it's a matter of practice after all.