So i have been playing around with an Ion list to counter Phantom and Decimator lists. So Far I have tired Dutch with ICT, Gold with ICT, Blue Squad with Ion Cannon, and Airen Cracken. I was thinking about trying a Fringer with Ion Cannon and Outrider, 2 Bandits with Ion Pulse with Failsafe, and 2 Bandits with just Ion Pulse.

I feel like there is something there with Ion's that could really throw a wrench in the new Big ship meta.

Any thoughts?

I like to pair golds with ICT but I think your list needs some hurt, otherwise you will not get to kill anything.

I think if you put an Ion Canon on the Outrider you'd better hope your other ships can put out some damage....

You're gonna want ion torpedos. They don't do much in the wat of stopping 2 ship lists, but they deal full damage.

Lt. Blount with an ion pulse missile: two ion tokens, always hits...

You're gonna want ion torpedos. They don't do much in the wat of stopping 2 ship lists, but they deal full damage.

Lt. Blount with an ion pulse missile: two ion tokens, always hits...

Problem with those is that they add points for specialist ion one-shots only. The Ion Pulse missile is just a way to Ionize a large ship with just one attack and the Ion Torpedo is really only good for tightly packed formations such as 4 Academies. That is the concern with Ion is the damage that it can do. It doesn't do a lot of damage, in a matter of fact damage is sacrificed for control.

Now I have seen Ion control work quite well from sending a defender straight off the table to knocking out R2-D2 on an E-wing. However it works as long as you don't have more targets than you can give Ion tokens. If you are outnumbered in ships your Ion is going to be working against you as you struggle to create a cluster in the meant time dodging full strength attacks. You would need either 2 Ion attacks per enemy ship or a way to enhance that ion attack with stress in order to make the most out of it.

Gold Y-wings. Someone with flechettes.

If you manage to stress ion a phantom then it's a dead phantom.

For your consideration:

100 Points

Consider swapping the R2's with munitions failsafes if you like, generally the idea is for 2 ships to stress and 2 to ion, but 2 are also capable of DPS while ioning.

I love my GoldSwarms. I like to fly them in fairly close groups. On 3 or 2 ship lists they are just ridiculous.