So for a good few months last spring, I played 4 royal guards w/ PtL almost exclusively. Then came Wave 4 and in answer to the phantom, turrets sprang up everywhere and it was no longer a viable list.

When Autothrusters came out, I was a bit disapointed that there was no way to fill out the points nicely with just royal guards (because PtL + AT + shield/stealth/hull = 31/30 which is not enough for a 4th ship and leaves too much of an initiative bid)

So it took me until recently to figure out that Dark Curse w/ Stealth fits alongside 3 royals pretty nicely, since they are all PS6 and not super easy to kill.

3 Royal Guards w/ Push the limit & autothrusters = 27 x 3

Dark Curse w/ Stealth = 19

100 total

Anyone else try out this list? I haven't actually used it yet, so just wondering what other people's experiences have been with this or something similar in today's turret-heavy meta...

If you arnt using the extra mod slot, why choose Royal Guards over Saber Squadron?

dropping SD would give a very juicy bid versus brobots

Could do 4 Royals with Veteran Instincts and Autothrusters.

Then you'd be doing the Royals over the Sabers (Sabres?) for the (much) higher Pilot Skill.

If you arnt using the extra mod slot, why choose Royal Guards over Saber Squadron?

PS6 over PS4?

blade, I like this list.

I recently took Dark Curse to a tournament and he did his job pretty well. He either gets ignored and nibbles at the opponents taking a shield here or a hull there or he is so annoying then they focus on him leaving your Royal guards to cause havoc. Putting a stealth device on him is just mean haha.

Been thinking about the exact same thing, now that Autothrusters are nearly mandatory and PtL still as useful as ever on Interceptors, but hadn't come up with a final solution for the remaining points. Stealthy Curse certainly seems fun, although at competitive events, I'd want some sort of Initiative bid against IG88s.

Could drop one down to a saber for int bid. Not going to get the nice choice to how you want to move all your interceptors but I hands down prefer Curse to Nightbeast!

Or you can drop stealth for TC on DC to make sure his red dice do hurt!

If you arnt using the extra mod slot, why choose Royal Guards over Saber Squadron?

Well, PS6 does make a difference in some matchups (although not many, admittedly), but having all PS6 (along Dark Curse) is helpful in planning out movement. Honestly though, the main reason is because its an excuse for flying all red interceptors

Could do 4 Royals with Veteran Instincts and Autothrusters.

Then you'd be doing the Royals over the Sabers (Sabres?) for the (much) higher Pilot Skill.

Veteran instincts is nice in certain matchups but leaves you vulnerable in others. For example, PtL interceptors can walk all over BBBBZ, but VI interceptors get murdered. Even fat turrets are less of a headache when you have Focus + Evade + Autothrusters, while with VI, Chiraneau is still going to be pushing the odd crit through your defence, and interceptors hate crits.

Been thinking about the exact same thing, now that Autothrusters are nearly mandatory and PtL still as useful as ever on Interceptors, but hadn't come up with a final solution for the remaining points. Stealthy Curse certainly seems fun, although at competitive events, I'd want some sort of Initiative bid against IG88s.

I'm not that worried about initiative bid against IG88s. If you get initiative, interceptors make excellent blockers, and tokenless IG88s die much faster than ones with tokens. Plus, if you're shooting first (and couldn't block), its probable that they will have to use their token(s) for defence and so their shots back at you will be unmodified. If you lose initiative, then arc-dodging is easier. I'm okay with either scenario. I think the key to victory against IG88s is staying out of range 3 (opposite to what interceptors otherwise want to do) because their cannons + IG88's ability will deal more damage through your autothrusters than you can deal through theirs. And if they have HLC + IG88B, Range 1 is actually the safest place to be because it negates B's ability...