I'm a huge fan of flying Whisper - she's highly mobile and quite deadly. With the Raider coming up, I'm thinking of trying to back her up with some TIE Advanceds. The question is simply one of figuring out exactly what pilots and upgrades to use.

My basic Whisper is equipped with Veteran Instincts (VI) and Advanced Cloaking Device (ACD) for 37 points. That plus three Tempest Squadron Pilots with Accuracy Corrector (AC) is exactly 100 points. The biggest advantage of this approach is that it's got the most total hit points and ships on the board for me to work with. The downside is that I have no space for an initiative bid whatsoever, and bare-bones Whisper and Tempests aren't going to be very good at punching through the defenses of something like Soontir Fel that can put loads of green dice and tokens on the table.

My preferred set up for Whisper is VI, ACD, Fire Control System (FCS), and Gunner for 44 points total. I feel like the addition of FCS and Gunner is a pretty big deal against high-agility targets. Unfortunately, that leaves me with room for only two TIE Advanced. Here are some possibilities:

• 2x Tempest with AC and Cluster Missiles - I love the idea of the AC/Cluster combo for taking down fat turrets. What to do with the 6 left-over points though? Initiative bidding, Hull Upgrade, Stealth Device, and bumping up to Storm Squadron for PS 4 all seem like good ideas, but I can't make up my mind.
• Darth Vader with Advanced Target Computer (ATC) + Tempest with AC - The Dark Lord is clearly the best TIE Advanced pilot, but this combo leaves me with only 5 points left to upgrade him, meaning a tough choice between leaving him without an Elite Pilot Talent or without Engine Upgrade (EU) if I want to have an initiative bid at all. Juno Eclipse and other good TIE Advanced pilots run into similar problems.
• Fully loaded Darth Vader (ATC, Lone Wolf, EU) plus Dark Curse - This seems like the best way for me to get to fly two awesome PS 9 pilots in the same list, but I'm worried Dark Curse, even with that defensive pilot ability, will just bite the dust early in the match and I'll be effectively flying a two-ship 80-point list against whatever my opponent has in store for me at that point.

So, what do you folks think? Are there any good alternatives to the above that I've failed to think of?

It's very bare bones, but I think this is a list a few people are going to try out:

"Whisper" (32)

+ Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

+ Veteran Instincts (1)

Darth Vader (29)

+ TIE/x1 (0)

+ Advanced Targeting Computer (1*)

Soontir Fel (27)

+ Push the Limit (3)

+ Autothrusters (2)

I could see

Echo

VI

Gunner

ACD

Vader

Predator

ATC

EU

Then barebones Temp with AC leaving 2 points, or you can change echo to Whisper for no init bid.

My good buddy just took 12th (one ahead of me!) running soontir named phantom (can't remeber if echo or whisper) and a tempest with proket.

That would be me, and it was a storm squadron with a procket, Whisper with FCS, int. Agent, VI and ACD. Surprisingly enough most everyone I played rushed the advanced as the easy target and allowed Soontir and Whisper room to play. What really swept it for me though is the Intelligence Agent allowed me to out fly other phantoms that I came across.

here's an interesting idea:

Whisper w/ VI, FCS, ACD + intel agent = 40

Vader w/ title, ATC, pred + EU = 37

Strom w/ title, enhanced scopes + intimidation + EU = 32

99 pts

So Strom with barrel roll or boost (and having all 3 banks on advanced dial) allows for some excellent blocking. And he's a blocker from hell: he denies enemies their range 1 attack die plus intimidation knocks their agility down -1 (c3p0 would cry if he could). This lets you fly Vader + Whisper fairly aggressively---afterall, they get +1 attack @ R1 but the enemy doesn't. And you want Whisper in fairly close so the intel agent can facillitate Strom's blocking shenanigans.

Not only that, but who do you shoot? Strom does not contribute offensively so shots on him just let your heavy hitters pound away longer, but hitting Vader or Whisper is no easy task (especially with Strom's interference)

I would say try whisper with vi, gunner, fcs, acd and 2 storm squadron with title, accuracy corrector, and cluster missile. Advanceds with cluster and accuracy are miserable for your opponent and the extra points let you go up to ps 4 with keeping your initiative bid at 2 points. I think it's a very sexy squad.

I'm going to try Vader, Whisper and Dark Curse. I don't see Dark Curse dying that quickly if you don't expose him. Of course, this means that there is not "bulk" in the list, and every ship will scatter trying to get a flank on the opponent. Possibly very hard to maneuver list, and largely dependent on what your opponent decides to chase.