I am a fairly new player and was introduced to the game by my 17-year old son. Over the last few months I have played a handful of games and played in a store tournament recently. I finished 15 of 16 players running an Empire list with Soontir Fel Interceptor+PushTheLimit+Targeting Computer, Howlrunner Tie+ Swarm Tactics, and 4 Academy Ties. I was killed by most players running bigger ships with Mangler Cannons with lots of shields and hull. On some matches I flew pretty well but I was a bit helpless against a build with YT1300 Han and a YT2400. The 360 arcs and a Mangler Cannon put too many Crits on my ships to survive very long.

My most competitive match was against a 3 Interceptor build with Soontir Fel, Carnor Jax and a Saber squad. I managed to get Carnor down to one hull and hit the other two, but I blanked on my defense rolls with Soontir and he took it out in the last round before time expired. We were the last ones to finish the 60 min round and I felt I had a chance to win if there had been more time.

Is there advice on how to run a better Empire List? At the tournament, the Top 4 included 2 builds with 2 IG-2000s, 2 Decimators, and a 2-

Shuttle+Interceptor build. It seems like the bigger ships have way too many hull and shield to try to punch through and have the firepower to get crits on smaller Empire Ships. I am experimenting with Soontir Fel, Carnor Jax and a Shuttle, but am not sure about how I will fare. The shuttle is hard to decently maneuver and I am considering running a Tie Defender instead. Any Feedback is appreciated.

Hello and welcome to the game. Yes, it is true that big turreted ships have been extremely popular in the meta recently. Part of it is that they are great counters to Phantoms. Another part is that in 60 minutes, you have to kill the thing before you can get points from it. It's rather frustrating, but what can you do? As a side note, the rules for Phantoms have changed and considered a "nerf" (made weaker). So...maybe you will see less Phantoms? Also, there are a number of lists that do well against the big ships (mostly Rebel B-wings and Z-95 swarms), so I am hoping to see less big, turreted ships. Still, the IG-88's are making the rounds.

As a side note, are you aware of the Autothruster modifcation card? It only comes in the Starviper blister. It's 2 pts and can only be used on ships with Boost. People believe it was custom made for Tie Interceptors to deal with turrets. If you are at Range 3 or are shot at outside of the ships firing arc (such as from a turret) then you can turn one blank green die to a success. So, Soontir Fel is following Han Solo and gets shot at. Soontir rolls evade, focus, and blank. You can re-roll that blank! It works for any number of times you are shot that turn, as well. It's an excellent upgrade card for Tie Interceptors. I've started to call them Autoceptors. I recommend you get one or two of these cards.

soontir wants stealth device or some other defensive upgrade to not get completely bent over by my namesake

and chadwick has the right of it, Autothrusters are mandatory

Note that playing with a lot of the Imperial stuff you want to dodge that from arc on the bigger or turreted ships. This prevents the use of cannons such as the Mangler cannons.

• You don't want to go head to head and play chicken with them.
• Make use of the boost and/or barrel roll actions that the TIEs tend to have.
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• As mentioned Autothrusters are great against turret ships.
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• If more then one big ship focus on one at a time if you can or separate them if possible.
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• Use the asteroids to your advantage - IE use them as cover, to force a large ship to hit/pass over them or to 'control' where the large ship can go. (Except for Dash cause he doesn't care about them)
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Some sample TIE Interceptors builds; (Can drop the Royal Guard title and Stealth Device on both if wanted/needed)

Ah Yes - Autothrusters. I've seen people note them in their builds. I haven't purchased a StarViper yet so don't have the cards.

My main question is whether or not I could stay at range 3 against ships like YT1300 and YT2400. I also don't like the idea of letting them roll an extra defense die at range 3.

I am still working on the feel for range and distances.

IG-88s were tough to beat at the store tournament. Very maneuverable ship.

Stealth Device is in the Slave 1 and M3A - which I also don't have. The Slave was out of stock when I tried to buy it, but I guess now might be a good time to get one to add to my Imperial ships. This may be a more practical card to be able to roll 4 dice and try to keep an evade.

I REALLY wish FFG would sell individual upgrade cards - but I understand their strategy to sell more product in the market. I found a few cards on Ebay, but most of the time it is more cost effective to just buy the ship expansions.

Now I just have to wait for the wife to give me my allowance...

Practice with the ships and dials to get a feel for the maneuvers and how to predict or guess where you'll end up. Practice dodging around asteroids and such as well.

I ran this build a few weekends ago at a Store Championship and placed 4th out of 22 players.

An imperial list I'm in love with that as far as I can tell just crushes other two ship lists is:

Rexler Brath - Tie Defender - 37 (37)

Predator - 3 (40)

Heavy Laser Cannon - 7 (47)

Boba Fett - Firespray-31 - 39 (86)

Predator - 3 (89)

Heavy Laser Cannon - 7 (96)

Slave 1 - 0 (96)

Fleet Officer - 3 (99)

I actually played it in a 10 person tournament tonight and won 3-0 without losing a single ship. I played a dual Firespray scum list, a fat Dash list, and a Dash + Chewbacca list, and let me tell you, this list just wipes out two ship lists, especially those focused on large ships. 4 dice from all ranges with 1 reroll and double focus on Rexler from Fleet Officer to get both the hits and juicy flips is mean. Stay at range 3 and ignore their extra die while you get to have good evasion and with some careful flying you can really do some work.

This is a big departure from what you were running above, but you asked for a better way to beat two ship lists, and I suppose my answer is join them.