Another phantom thread

By FNG tie pilot, in X-Wing

So a few months ago, I tried out the U.S. Nationals list (Yorr, Whisper, Fel). I like it, but I really don't care for Fels squishiness, so I've been experimenting with different variations on this. My favorite so far is ...

Yorr

-Rebel Captive

-Engine Upgrade

-Intelligence Agent

Whisper

-Advance Cloaking Device

-Fire Control System

-Tactician

-Veteran Instincts

2x Academies

97 points

The academies fly around to block and deny actions. Yorr is generally ignored most games and when he is getting shot at, it's because they have nothing else to shoot at. Rebel Captive will punish them a bit for taking shots at him. Originally I had Rebel Captive on Whisper, but wasn't super impressed with it.

In my escalation list, Ive started running enhanced scopes on Yorr so he can run in and mess up formation actions giving Whisper a few easy shots, then next turn use Intel agent to peek at dials, taking the guessing game out of Whispers decloak.

I know Gunner is traditionally the best thing to put on Whisper, but freeing up those 5 point to to put crew on the shuttle has kept it competitive and made it a little more fun. It just forces me to rely on FCS a little more, so the initial shot required to trigger FCS is a bit of a gamble. Additionally, putting Tactician on Whisper is a lot of fun(except for Farlander and a few of his stres soaking buddies). Played against a Fat Han in tournament the other day, I would put Whisper at Range 2 of where Han would be going(thank you Intel agent). My opponent kept wasting actions to boost out to range 3 to avoid getting stressed, kept him from target locking or focusing against my ships. (Oddly enough, he was running Predator and Gunner on Han, so logic could of been that he should hit something when shooting with this set up)

Another thing I would like to try is putting in the Interceptor that does 1K/3K/5K with PTL. Doing a 1K, having Yorr absorb the stress, the doing 2 actions with a squint would be fun.

Also toying with the idea of putting fleet officer on Yorr, but I feel like this would be a little self defeating as Yorr doesn't need anymore stress than what he soaks.

i have been playing pretty much the same yorr, fel, whisper list, but i also made a few changes.

on whisper, i put FCS, VI, RC, and ACD

on Fel i put PTL, Stealth Device

and yorr gets nothing.

im not sure on the sealth device on fel, he is a bit squishy even with it, but it has helped and acts as a good place holder until auto thrusters gets out on the market. im also not sure i like the fire control system on whisper, it seems like i could put those points to better use, like mara jade on the shuttle, but also not sure how often the shuttle closes to range one. i love rebel captive on whisper. if you dont kill her with your shots, i promise, she will kill you next then when she knows where you are going to be (barring crazy dice)

Yeah. I felt like Rebel Captive on the phantom just deterred people even more from shooting it until they had to.

As for FCS, I've found it to be an auto include. If I decloak and maneuver out of arcs, then I focus with the intent to use it for my attack, then regain the focus if the attack hits. If I'm facing turret ships, then I always evade as an action, then rely on the constant target locks from FCS to wear down the target.

I have tried Advance Sensors on Phantoms and found it to be a lot of fun mixing decloak and barrel before flipping the dial, but it's very unforgiving if you don't line up a shot