Forget the fact that Autothrusters is coming as it isn't here yet, but can;

Interceptor, Choice of EPT, Royal Guard Pilot, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade

work?

It has firepower and it has better than average staying power.

If you think yes, as I do, what would your Interceptor be and what EPT would you use?

Well, I already use Soontir with PtL and targetting Computer in the current meta and I hardly use the Target Lock with him (TC is there until autothruster become available since they're worth the same points), so I don't see why it could not work with 2 more HP instead of the TC.

So, my answer is Soontir with Push the Limit.

I like soontir fel with PtL and stealth device. sometimes TC (partially depending on the list) but you could replace it with a hull upgrade hypothetically. I would guess it works fairly well though with hull upgrade and shield upgrade.m

Well, Fel w/ PTL SU and HU is 37 points. Whisper w/ VI and ACD is 37.

Fel has 2 extra hull but 1 less shield. He always has 3 agi where as Whisper normally has 4, but if playing against a Phantom Counter, can often find herself with only 2. She has 4 attack, Fel has 3. They're both maneuverable, but Fel is (more) susceptible to blocking techniques.

I think it could work, but the thing is, anything that hurts a phantom (ion, stress, higher PS) are going to hurt Fel and other Interceptors as well. So... I don't know if it'll be super competitive. Give it a go, you'll never know until you try it.

Fat Han/Dash/Chirpy says hi!

Auto thrusters will take one of the mod spots.

Forget the fact that Autothrusters is coming as it isn't here yet, but can;

Interceptor, Choice of EPT, Royal Guard Pilot, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade

work?

It has firepower and it has better than average staying power.

If you think yes, as I do, what would your Interceptor be and what EPT would you use?

It is a decent ship that way in my experience, but I don't fly multiples of them. I like running Jax with Hull, Shield, and PTL. I'll add that, as others pointed out, once you hit a certain point with them there are other ships that may be able to do the job better.

I also think that a PTL interceptor with hull and shield is much more resilient to turrets than a phantom, but the phantom hits much harder, of course and can actually get through a ship that has 3P0 and R2.

Fat Han/Dash/Chirpy says hi!

Heh, I flew a lot against them with Soontir and they're not that bad, Chiraneau being the worst of the lot because of his natural focus into a Crit; Dash being the easiest because you act after him and can usually either get out of range or into the range 1 ring. With Focus+Focus+Evade, he can resist surprisingly longer than you would expect. He'll go down eventually, but he will hopefully have bought you enough round for the rest of the team to do their job.

Hull Upgrade's definitely worth taking but I don't know if Shield is too. Hull Upgrade and Stealth Device is usually my choice for heavily modded interceptors, or Autothrusters and Stealth Device come Wave 6.

It's probably worth it on Carnor Jax who's right in the melee though.

When wave six hits AT plus SD will become pretty standard, SD is usually a gamble but in conjunction with AT it becomes far more reliable against turrets.

I've flown three autoceptors against the outrider 9 hit points against 24 and won pretty comfortably, I lost fel to a stress hobbie he didn't get the killing blow but he piled the stress on fel opening him up to incoming fire, but once I had the escorts out of the way the turret ship was pretty neutered.

Yep, once auto is out it and SD are good options against the turret, but not so much against standard ships...

Interceptors have never really had an issue arc dodging fighters it's only large turret ships that slaughtered them.

Totally agree on that. I fly them A LOT and love me. Just gauging thoughts on use until the Auto's are out.

I'm thinking of fielding this (don't laugh). It doesn't worry about stress, which is very prevalent in my area and can use it's action on defense, whilst still being capable in offense.

Carnor Jax, Royal Guard Pilot, Predator, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade (36)

Royal Guard Tie, Royal Guard Pilot, Predator, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade (32) x 2

Soontir and Jax can do it well. Maybe Turr. Maybe.

Totally agree on that. I fly them A LOT and love me. Just gauging thoughts on use until the Auto's are out.

I'm thinking of fielding this (don't laugh). It doesn't worry about stress, which is very prevalent in my area and can use it's action on defense, whilst still being capable in offense.

Carnor Jax, Royal Guard Pilot, Predator, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade (36)

Royal Guard Tie, Royal Guard Pilot, Predator, Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade (32) x 2

It's interesting and decent (uphill battle against a lot of lists), and I've run it with PTL instead of Predator, but in my experience, the focus+evade is key to surviving longer against large base turrets, whereas predator is only for offense.

Normally I'd agree with PtL, but I am seeing a lot of stress causers in my area and a double stressed Int is a dead int. Predator helps me stick damage when it needs to stick, allowing focus for defense more often.

I really like Hull+Shield. I like running Fel and Carnor with those mods and Push the Limit alongside a shuttle, whose load out varies. It's pretty fun.

But I, too, am concerned about the increasing prevalence of stress. Not only that, but I really like to K-turn because so often these new mobile ships won't let my PtL interceptors come around. As an experiment (because I like experimenting with TIE interceptors), I have been wanting to try

2x Royal Guard Pilot + Predator

2x Royal Guard Pilot + Ruthlessness

Against the current 2-ship meta Ruthlessness will be awful. But there are more and more 5-ship Rebel builds to counter TIE phantoms, and I think Ruthlessness can really help there. Also, in a 2-ship build, I may get lucky and pop a damage on "Whisper" or "Echo" if they stray too close to the Decimator.

I actually really like that list

What's the order of operations on a Predator Fel shooting at a ship with Rebel Captive? Would Fel have that focus token to modify the attack he is making on the Rebel Captive, or would that be a defensive token?

What's the order of operations on a Predator Fel shooting at a ship with Rebel Captive? Would Fel have that focus token to modify the attack he is making on the Rebel Captive, or would that be a defensive token?

Yes, he could use it to modify his attack. Rebel Captive gives a stress as soon as you declare the target, so he gets his focus before rolling the dice and being able to modify the roll.

When playing Fel vs a Rebel Captive ship, I'll try to not trigger PtL when I plan to shoot it, this way I still get two action and I don't end the turn with 2 stress.

What's the order of operations on a Predator Fel shooting at a ship with Rebel Captive? Would Fel have that focus token to modify the attack he is making on the Rebel Captive, or would that be a defensive token?

Yes, he could use it to modify his attack. Rebel Captive gives a stress as soon as you declare the target, so he gets his focus before rolling the dice and being able to modify the roll.

When playing Fel vs a Rebel Captive ship, I'll try to not trigger PtL when I plan to shoot it, this way I still get two action and I don't end the turn with 2 stress.

I thought as much about Rebel Captive, but I always like to double check these things.

When you say "still get two actions", do you mean "action + focus token", or something else?

as mentioned, slapping on an extra 7 points pushes interceptors right into phantom territory and, sadly, ACD phantoms are also better at dealing with stress because they only really care when they get two slapped on them or they get one before they shoot and get their free cloak action

All in all, I wouldn't fly anything that isn't soontir until thrusters come around to start canceling damage. They're not a straight 1 damage absorb like a shield would be, but it's quite close so long as you roll a blank at range 3 and it's half the points. If you manage to set it up, the value starts stacking like crazy (the 5k might see more use!).

Imo, Red Castle has the PTL Soontir plus incoming prevalence of stress issue covered, but I have been personally interested in trying to find interceptors that did not need PTL to be effective.

Unfortunately, the only named pilots that (imo) are any good are Soontir, Jax, and Turr. I think Lorrir would have found a place as a 25 point auto-thruster...but stress. I would not run royal guards without PTL because of Tie Fighter durability unless turrets remain incredibly prevalent (because auto thruster + evade? Good god **** luck).

The only thing I can think of that Turr's ability is a lot more useful when he shoots first and can then free action out of danger. So V.I is a solid option on him, far more solid now with Auto-thrusters because his ability actually matters against turrets now (rejoice ).

And honestly, that's all I got. It's been really difficult to try out the little buggers given my...disposition to green dice coupled with the current toxic meta.

any one will tell you a 4 hull 1 shield with 3 agility is better than a 3 hull 0 shield with 3 agility.

But the concern is in how much points you are spending and you would be spending 7 points for that combination. The cheapest is the royal guard pilot with base cost 22 for a skill 6 and an EPT. That would be 29 points a model so all you could do is field 3 interceptors that have the health of a HWK-290. For 1 more point (and the loss of your EPT) you can pick up Loor or F's Wrath which is only skill 5 or the same cost and stats of Guri in the up coming star viper.

Or if you do PTL soontir with Hu+Su you end up spending 37 points 1 more point than whisper + ACD.

Yep, once auto is out it and SD are good options against the turret, but not so much against standard ships...

They give pretty much garuentee that the first range 3 engagement misses you by a mile, allowing you to safely set up your interception proper. That's pretty valuable.

as mentioned, slapping on an extra 7 points pushes interceptors right into phantom territory and, sadly, ACD phantoms are also better at dealing with stress because they only really care when they get two slapped on them or they get one before they shoot and get their free cloak action

All in all, I wouldn't fly anything that isn't soontir until thrusters come around to start canceling damage. They're not a straight 1 damage absorb like a shield would be, but it's quite close so long as you roll a blank at range 3 and it's half the points. If you manage to set it up, the value starts stacking like crazy (the 5k might see more use!).

Imo, Red Castle has the PTL Soontir plus incoming prevalence of stress issue covered, but I have been personally interested in trying to find interceptors that did not need PTL to be effective.

Unfortunately, the only named pilots that (imo) are any good are Soontir, Jax, and Turr. I think Lorrir would have found a place as a 25 point auto-thruster...but stress. I would not run royal guards without PTL because of Tie Fighter durability unless turrets remain incredibly prevalent (because auto thruster + evade? Good god **** luck).

The only thing I can think of that Turr's ability is a lot more useful when he shoots first and can then free action out of danger. So V.I is a solid option on him, far more solid now with Auto-thrusters because his ability actually matters against turrets now (rejoice ).

And honestly, that's all I got. It's been really difficult to try out the little buggers given my...disposition to green dice coupled with the current toxic meta.

Phantoms don't deal with stress well at all. Phantoms only have 4 green maneuvers and unfortunately they aren't anywhere near the most useful moves on it's dial. Interceptors are way better suited to shed stress while keeping in the fight. Any stress on a Phantom through either movement or combat can really screw them up SUPER hard.

I have been flying a Soontir, Jax, Echo list lately to great effect. I have managed to take out turrets and survive, which has surprised both me and my opponents. The secret to my list is that I threw out Stealth Device on my interceptors and opted for Hull Upgrade instead. With this setup it is far more unlikely that one of my ships will get one shotted. In fact just having an extra HP allows me to take a round or two of shooting without taking (hopefully) to many crits while my squints move into their butter zone (around range 1-2 where they can use their high PS to arc dodge more effectively or in Jax's case stay in R1).

I will say that 7 points is a hell of a lot to add to any ship. While 5 HP would be wonderful to have you really end up cutting into the rest of your list. There is a point where you end up no longer being cost effective. I would say stick to hull or shield and your EPT (who am I kidding, you'll probably take PtL).