I'm hoping for some explanation here, Explain Like I'm 5 if you will.

On paper it doesn't seem very scary. 6 attack and 19 HP. So what's in between the lines? What am I missing and What makes this list so powerful to win so many tournaments and place in many others?

Obviously, I've never faced this, but I am hoping to go up against someone with it very soon as I'm aiming for a Regionals in the coming months.

Because if you go after Soontir, he can be very tough to pin down or actually hit. By the time you do kill him, you might have 1 or 2 ships against a fully ready to go Chirneau who can dish some pain out.

Likewise if you try and widdle down the Admiral first, he's fairly tanky, quite agile with EU, and you have Soontir tearing up your flanks for a couple turns. If you do kill the VT-49 you'll have 1 or 2 ships against a ready to go Soontir, you loves those matches.

The loss of whisper means a less scary soontir, but it also means a chunkier admiral

What goes on the admiral as extra anyway? Soon tie usually cost 4 PTs less

It's autothrusters. Before Whisper was easily countered by VI Han. Now, at'd fel laughs at turrets.

Really it just depends on what you're playing and how fast you can destroy a decimator. If you're playing something with two hlc that can take a few hits you should be able to handle chirpy easily enough to also pin down soontir. If you aren't playing that (or tons of b wings) you may have trouble vs. chirpy usually rolling hit hit hit crit and soontir rolling 4/5 evade dice with a focus and evade on defense.

RAC with engine upgrade and Predator is pretty beastly rolling 3 or 4 hits/crits each turn (almost guaranteed damage with Gunner). He's also a good arc dodger. Add in Rebel Captive and you get a stress before he arc dodges next turn.

If you go after Soontir, Soontir will run like hell and RAC will rip you apart from behind. If you go after RAC, he'll run like hell and Soontir will rip you apart from the flanks.

Your best bet is to be psychic and block one or the other from actions like boost, while pounding him relentlessly with damage.

Nothing really. Chirpy is still annoying with his "I dare you to come into R1 so I can roll 4 hits!" attitude. And Fel is still annoying with "what's that... you have a R1 shot on me? oh, let me just spend this token. and this token. And roll 4 dice. And take no damage. And then blow you up with this other token!"

But unless you were reliant on turrets prior to W6, there's really nothing too scary about this. Take my build for example, (Corran, Psycho Tycho, Prototype) Corran won't have a problem taking care of Fel. In the perfect world, the prototype blocks Fel's preferred movement, and Corran comes in with the double tap kill. Tycho uses the threat of the Prockets to make Fel run away into a less desirable position, which sets up the kill from Corran. In the non-perfect world, Corran still comes in for a R1 (with TL) shot, strips the tokens and maybe does a damage, and then double taps for 1-2 damage in the end round, while he runs away and regens whatever damage Fel may have caused.

And once Fel is gone, there is no more threat on the board. If Chirpy is going for Corran, Corran can stay at R2, regen a shield, and evade to mitigate 2 damage a turn. Meanwhile, I launch prockets for 5 damage, followed by 2.5 damage/turn from Tycho (assuming most turns TL+F, but occasionally a boost is necessary), and the prototype is chipping away at 1.5 / turn. This means that I'll kill him in 3-4 turns. Assuming Corran never gets a shot in on him.

If your opponent stalls with Fel and presents Chirpy as the target, then it's pretty much the same thing. You unload the Prockets for 5 damage, Corran double taps for another 6 damage, and the Proto gets 1.5 damage through for a total of 12.5 damage in the second round. So if you managed to strip the shields in the opening R3 round (plausible) you've then killed Chirpy prior to Fel even engaging. If Chirpy went for Tycho, he's probably severely injured, but alive... but even if he's dead, Corran shouldn't have a problem with Fel. If he went for Corran, his shields are probably stripped, but Tycho and the Prototype should be able to keep Fel busy long enough for Corran to run away, regen, and re-engage.

Now, if you relied on Turrets during W4 and W5 to kill Phantoms and Interceptors, then you probably will have a tough problem adjusting to life with auto thrusters, but that's nothing special about Chirpy/Fel. You need to have a game plan for which ever one (likely Chirpy) is presented, and realize that there's probably going to be a feint or two to draw you into a bad decision on when/where/who to attack.

The big problem is that the things that take down fat turrets most effectively are relatively cheap ships that buy efficient offense by selling off their PS and ability to maneuver--things like Warthogs, or swarms of TIE fighters or Headhunters. But the things that take down dodgy, high-PS Interceptors tend to employ exactly the opposite strategy--they spend a lot of points on a single, highly accurate, high-PS attack of their own.

So a Chiraneau/Fel list works by pulling its opponents in two different directions simultaneously. A list that deals really effectively with one of your ships probably struggles against the other; lists that split the difference tend to have exploitable fault lines.

It's not an absolute; obviously any list can lose. But a good player running Chiraneau/Fel is tough to crack because it can afford to be aggressive with the threat you can't deal with while the other ship lurks in the background and takes potshots.

still seems like a wimpier version of chiraneau + old whisper

only thing I can think of is chiraneau is somehow beefier with the points saved on soonts

The big problem is that the things that take down fat turrets most effectively are relatively cheap ships that buy efficient offense by selling off their PS and ability to maneuver--things like Warthogs, or swarms of TIE fighters or Headhunters. But the things that take down dodgy, high-PS Interceptors tend to employ exactly the opposite strategy--they spend a lot of points on a single, highly accurate, high-PS attack of their own.

So a Chiraneau/Fel list works by pulling its opponents in two different directions simultaneously. A list that deals really effectively with one of your ships probably struggles against the other; lists that split the difference tend to have exploitable fault lines.

It's not an absolute; obviously any list can lose. But a good player running Chiraneau/Fel is tough to crack because it can afford to be aggressive with the threat you can't deal with while the other ship lurks in the background and takes potshots.

I think this is a good way of putting it. You have two ships that are polar opposites of each other, and very good at what they do. With Fel being cheaper than the previously common Whisper to accompany the Admiral, you have even more points freed up to fully kit out the Decimator.

Add in a reduced vulnerability to Rebel Captive (which Whisper truly hated to see), and you have a strong list.

There's also a parallel to Paul's Han/Talas list that won worlds. Paul's used R2/3PO to counter the Gunner/3PO Han Solos out there, while Chiraneau/Fel does a good job countering Chiraneau/Whisper. Obviously Phantoms are a bit less of a threat with the newer FAQ, but during the early Store Championships season it was common to see Chiraneau/Fel taking down Chiraneau/Whisper thanks to Rebel Captive.

still seems like a wimpier version of chiraneau + old whisper

only thing I can think of is chiraneau is somehow beefier with the points saved on soonts

I would say less raw power, but more well rounded. More points can be put into Chiraneau, but at the same time it's easier for the other squad to go after Chiraneau because they have a 3/4 dice attack with just a Focus breathing down their neck, in a relatively predictable location, compared to 4/5 dice with Focus/TL that can be lots of places. On the flip side, PS 10 and sometimes PS9 can truly wreck Phantoms quick, leaving 100 points of squad to deal with 60 points of Chiraneau, which is a pretty easy matchup. If someone PS trumps Fel, they usually will still have a hard time cracking a turtled Soontir.

I do think that the truly nasty version of the Fel/Chiraneau list includes Vader crew, because it gives Chiraneau the means to lay waste to the biggest problem ship the opposing side has, leaving Fel free from the biggest threat in the end game.

Fel is better vs turrets, less vulnerable if outbid in ps, less vulnerable to stress, is cheaper, and is now better at arc dodging than a phantom. He also has less firepower and isn't as good against things that aren't meant counter them.

Is it better to take out Soontir first? Or go for RAC?

The answer to that will depend on what is in the list you're using.

I figured that's the case. What if it's Xizor w/ 5 Z-95's? I am assuming go after the Decimator.

RAC, he will eat those Z's for breakfast if left unchecked.

Good luck catching him though, i.e. I'd try blocking instead of chasing.

The build I use for Chirpy makes him an arc dodger:

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/227928/the-baron-and-the-rear-admiral
(Sometimes I sub out Dauntless/Merc with Gunner)

Triggering PtL on the Evade from Isard for a boost *guarantees* that you're getting that boost action last regardless of Pilot Skill (since it's in the Combat Phase).

This gives you the king of arc dodgers paired with a big base that's taking points from the same page. The pair of them focus on any Turrets first and past that they both become stupidly hard to pin down.

This build gets eaten up by scum swarms. The problem with scum swarms is still fat Han. Scum swarms eat through chirpy and can catch the Soontir Fel auto thrusters easily. The problem comes when you have to power through fat Han's fat HP's with all of his evasion and damage mitigation. 7 Z-95's with the bug zapper attached shred Fel and with all of those guns, shred Chirpy.

The build I use for Chirpy makes him an arc dodger:

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/227928/the-baron-and-the-rear-admiral

(Sometimes I sub out Dauntless/Merc with Gunner)

Triggering PtL on the Evade from Isard for a boost *guarantees* that you're getting that boost action last regardless of Pilot Skill (since it's in the Combat Phase).

This gives you the king of arc dodgers paired with a big base that's taking points from the same page. The pair of them focus on any Turrets first and past that they both become stupidly hard to pin down.

Can you explain this part? What's the action sequence here? In action phase you can choose TL. Focus or Boost, then PtL, finally you could use Isard but since you have Stress from PtL... What am I missing?

You trigger PTL off of Isard's free evade action.

gotta love turrets. Though the Deci is slightly better than Fat Han (and it contains the awesomeness known as oicuun), it's still pretty full of rule ignoring ****.

anyway, just for the sake of reference

Green Maneuver + Dauntless:

Normal order: Reveal Maneuver --> Complete Maneuver --> Check Pilot Stress (clear, gain, or nothing)

With Dauntless: Reveal Maneuver --> Complete Maneuver --> Dauntless Triggers after Maneuver is completed --> Dauntless Action + Stress --> Check Pilot Stress (clear, gain, or nothing)

PTL + Issard:

Issard gives you a free evade action at the beginning of combat --> PTL triggers after you've performed an action, allowing you to boost at the beginning of combat right after you evade.

Not sure how popular Dauntless is ATM, since Issard basically takes care of bumping anyway. She's incredibly similar to C3po in that she removes the value of yet another core mechanic of the game, but has the weird trade off of adding an additional exploit (PTL + boost) while not being able to ignore a core mechanic that C3po couldn't give two ***** about (stress)

RAC, he will eat those Z's for breakfast if left unchecked.

Good luck catching him though, i.e. I'd try blocking instead of chasing.

Agreed. The good news is that since the Decimator's defenses are made of paper a few rounds of shooting from all of those guns is all it takes to bring it down. The tricky part is setting yourself up well enough to catch the decimator with enough shots. Xizor actually works wonders here because it lets you add damage/burn focus/evades with a high enough attack, while the real workhorses of the build (the z's) can get at that juicy unprotected hull. If Soontir or RAC tries to shoot at him, all the better since that's shots that aren't coming at your z-95s.

A wise Deci/Fel player would bring in Soontir to tempt you into wasting shots while RAC gets behind them and makes them suffer. Range control is the key to a successful Chirpy trap and you've got the hull/evade to survive several rounds of lucky shots so if you can slowly take away Chirpy's options, you should be able to make him suffer in short order.

And of course, if you just happen to catch a Soontir in your RAC net and you just happen to get him blocked....well, it'd be rude of you NOT to shoot him

You trigger PTL off of Isard's free evade action.

You can do that??!! :o

I used