BLUF: I have been challenged to use only Imperial ships in my primary FLGS for the next two months.

I am primarily a Rebel player who loves to use X-wings in all of my lists. Recently I have been in a rather big slump and in the past few months some of my favorite squads featuring my favorite ship have been getting dominated by builds that for some reason seem to always gain the upper hand. One of the employees of the shop, seeing my frustration, suggested a challenge; fly only Imperial squads for the next two months with the exception of regionals which take place at our store on the 30th. While I sometimes fly Imperials during casual play (if my opponent is flying Rebels so I can keep it thematic) this is the first time I am completely switching my primary faction for league play and casual play.

At first I felt kind of iffy on accepting the challenge. With the regionals being so close, I really wanted more and more practice against the current crop of squads that have popped up thanks to wave 5 and six. After mulling it over for a few minutes I accepted with the caveat that I could still fly my somewhat trusty X-wings for regionals practice at the other store that I frequent.

The first night was against two squads that have become local favorites post wave six. Ten Nunb with Mangler Cannon an E-wing with R2-D2 and some other stuff and a Brobots list featuring B and C. I decided to go with an older squad with the most recent release being from wave two. I flew;

Howlrunner + Determination

Mauler + Determination

Dark Curse

Backstabber

Black Squadron + Draw Their Fire

Black Squadron + Draw Their Fire

I won both games that I played with almost every Crit either being passed off or completely cancelled and what surprised me the most is the ability of the 6 TIE swarm to hang with the Wave six meta. Especially the Brobots that had given me such huge problems while flying X-wings. I'm Curious to see what will happen in the coming weeks as I finally start updating some of my Imperial builds and cease to make them "on the fly" simply for thematic purposes or just pulling out Interceptors (which were originally my go-to Imperial build whenever I did play Imperial). Maybe I will finally take my Decimator out for a spin?

Has anyone else had to turn their back on their beloved faction or ships before? I know I can be the only one.

BLUF: I have been challenged to use only Imperial ships in my primary FLGS for the next two months.

I am primarily a Rebel player who loves to use X-wings in all of my lists. Recently I have been in a rather big slump and in the past few months some of my favorite squads featuring my favorite ship have been getting dominated by builds that for some reason seem to always gain the upper hand. One of the employees of the shop, seeing my frustration, suggested a challenge; fly only Imperial squads for the next two months with the exception of regionals which take place at our store on the 30th. While I sometimes fly Imperials during casual play (if my opponent is flying Rebels so I can keep it thematic) this is the first time I am completely switching my primary faction for league play and casual play.

At first I felt kind of iffy on accepting the challenge. With the regionals being so close, I really wanted more and more practice against the current crop of squads that have popped up thanks to wave 5 and six. After mulling it over for a few minutes I accepted with the caveat that I could still fly my somewhat trusty X-wings for regionals practice at the other store that I frequent.

The first night was against two squads that have become local favorites post wave six. Ten Nunb with Mangler Cannon an E-wing with R2-D2 and some other stuff and a Brobots list featuring B and C. I decided to go with an older squad with the most recent release being from wave two. I flew;

Howlrunner + Determination

Mauler + Determination

Dark Curse

Backstabber

Black Squadron + Draw Their Fire

Black Squadron + Draw Their Fire

I won both games that I played with almost every Crit either being passed off or completely cancelled and what surprised me the most is the ability of the 6 TIE swarm to hang with the Wave six meta. Especially the Brobots that had given me such huge problems while flying X-wings. I'm Curious to see what will happen in the coming weeks as I finally start updating some of my Imperial builds and cease to make them "on the fly" simply for thematic purposes or just pulling out Interceptors (which were originally my go-to Imperial build whenever I did play Imperial). Maybe I will finally take my Decimator out for a spin?

Has anyone else had to turn their back on their beloved faction or ships before? I know I can be the only one.

Will you be at the shop on Wednesday? You can play empire on FCB Wing!

Depends on if I have 20 team handover at work. We just picked up a cycle.

I would love to fly against your new imperial list.

I have a league started up where I'm using the list I'm considering for regionals. I mainly play rebel and I've been trying to find an imperial list to use. I really like your idea of only using a different faction at the main store since I'm blessed with four places I can play! Just gotta pick a list now lol.

I'm Already dead set on my list for regionals. I know it won't win in this meta, but I am more concerned with running exactly what I want to run as opposed to just playing to win.

I'm still up in the air, I won a store championship post wave six, but it was with a list that was very mean to phantoms and had trouble against fat Han. I'm not sure if I can tweak it the right way or I need to broaden my horizons so I'm really looking forward to this approach.

The list I flew for the Store Championship that I won was not exactly what I wanted to fly. I figure, if I know I can win with most of the lists I don't like to fly, why can't I win with the ones that I do? I think that frustration is what the shop employee saw and in the end I feel better about taking a break from the Rebels until Regionals and for a month after.

I think you have friends who care about how you feel. That's gold.

With all that Determination and DTF in your list, I'm surprised that your opponents are opting to have their Mangler Cannon's change a hit to a crit.

Blail: They do care, a lot, it's a tight knit group that I think is the Hallmark of any X-wing gaming group. Very friendly and welcoming.

WWHSD: I was surprised too. After the Fourth or so Crit was passed off/ cancelled in the first game, Howlrunner and Mauler still had no damage while both Black Squadrons had essentially been crippled. Hanging around to absorb that last Crit. Ten was dead by the end of round 3 in the first game while it was a Benny Hill-esque chase after IG-88B in the second. I think the second game I was just lucky.