Hi all,

Looking for a wee bit advice. When I first got into X-Wing I swapped out my Tie Fighters for Rebel ships (something I now regret). Over time I've bought a very modest collection of Imperials (mostly for the upgrades) and at the moment I've got -

1. 2 x Phantoms

2. 3 x Tie Bombers

3. 2 x Tie-FO (4 at the weekend)

4. 2 x Firesprays (only ever flown as Scum)

I'm now looking to expand my Imperial fleet and am looking to see what people think are the best options for me to consider.

Cheers

Baaa

TIE Advanced, now that the fix is available, and Interceptors are a good option. Of course, you are going to get some standard TIE fighters, the backbone of the Imperial fleet! Eventually, get a Raider for Palpatine, or just buy the cards you want from that expansion on eBay.

More tie fighter there's always room for 4 more.

Imperial Aces is a great set, as is the Interceptor expansion. The Defender is a solid ship with great upgrade cards.

Personally, I'd make my next purchase the Imperial Aces pack. 1 Firespray and 2 Interceptors is a very fun list to fly!

Absolute first purchases IMHO

1 Tie Fighter for Howlrunner

1 Tie Interceptor for Soontir (try to borrow a Royal Guard Title for now) Actually a better option might be Imperial Aces and see if you can get a Soontir Fel ship insert and card from someone.

Then choose one of the following

MoAr Tiyez!! At least one more blister and then maybe a Gozanti if you have the cash.

Imperial Aces to trick out your interceptors.

Decimator. You can build some very strong lists around this one ship.

When you have the time and $$$

Tie Advanced is not really that useful without a Raider for the titles.

Shuttle: has some great uses but specialized

Defender... It's pretty?

You ever have a ship so good they nerfed it?

ever have a list that has two of those ships?

BOY DO I HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU!!!

2 Spooky 5 U is the list for you.

It runs two phantoms which.. YOU Already own!! what a deal!

Just pick yourself up a core set... Wait you already own that? Gadzookes!! what a value list this will be for you!

Are you tired of that big ship MoV Nerf bringing down your Fat han list? WELL SO WAS I! Until i discovered Fat Small ships that are seemingly unkillable [note i do not take responsibility if your ships die a horrible miserable death due to direct hits]

THIS LSIT HAS IT ALL!!!

4 dice attacks AND evades!!!

What else you ask? An unmodifiably defensive beast!

Listen as your foes Curse Echos through your list Sending them Whispering mean things about how over powered Phantoms are while raking in load of money (or equivalent value in store credit)

Defender... It's pretty?

And has Preadator! Only other way to get that card is to buy an E-wing.

You lack Tie/LN's. No the FO's don't count.

And squints...get some of them.

So my recommendations.....

Normal core set

Tie Fighter expansion

Tie Interceptor expansion

Imperial Aces

That gives you 3 of each

Ideally you will want a fourth Tie. 4 Academy Pilots comes to 48 points. I've always found that to be a good place to start building a list

Defender... It's pretty?

And has Preadator! Only other way to get that card is to buy an E-wing.

I would have sworn that I got another copy from wave 7

Thanks for the replies folks; they're much appreciated.

I've had my eye on the Imperial Aces for a while now, and I think that I've got the Imperial tiles and Pilot Cards from the first core set somewhere. So, looking at what you've all said I'm planning (over the next couple of months) to get -

1. Imperial Aces

2. 1 x Tie Interceptor

3. 4 x Tie Fighter

Just out of interest, and not looking to troll or start an almighty bun fight; but what's the advantages of the original Tie Fighter over the FO (apart from pilots)?

Cheers

Baaa

Thanks for the replies folks; they're much appreciated.

I've had my eye on the Imperial Aces for a while now, and I think that I've got the Imperial tiles and Pilot Cards from the first core set somewhere. So, looking at what you've all said I'm planning (over the next couple of months) to get -

1. Imperial Aces

2. 1 x Tie Interceptor

3. 4 x Tie Fighter

Just out of interest, and not looking to troll or start an almighty bun fight; but what's the advantages of the original Tie Fighter over the FO (apart from pilots)?

Cheers

Baaa

point for point base ties (Academy Pilots) are the most point efficient. check out the mathwing sections.. Ask Juggler, he'll tell you. also pretty sweet blockers.

Defender... It's pretty?

And has Preadator! Only other way to get that card is to buy an E-wing.

I would have sworn that I got another copy from wave 7

X-Wing wiki lists the Defender and Scum K as the only 2 current sources of Predator, so yeah if you got the K you received Predator in Wave 7.

Academy Pilots are, in my opinion, the best filler ship in the game. Also, Howlrunner is probably the best support ship in the game. She makes a swarm dangerous.

Also, when playing as Imperial you really need to embrace your callous disregard for your pilot's safety. Academy Pilots exist to die in a blaze of glory for the Emperor. Your opponent killed a TIE. How quaint. I only have 5 more. Muhahaha!

Lamda. Shuttle.

Once you learn to fly this thing, you can fly anything. Best imperial ship to learn after the tie fighter.

The 15 point FO has the extra safety of having a shield that the 12 point standard TIE lacks. But when you have 8 TIE fighters, fewer of them are being fired on at all vs having 6 TIE FOs.

Not getting shot at is the best kind of defense.

Standard TIE swarms are so good that Waves 3 and 4 were designed to Nerf them. Finally FFG changed the MOV rules to make them less powerful.

Literally every other list in the game has to answer the question "why this and not a TIE swarm. The good news is that Swarms are hard to properly fly.

TIE swarms aren't much fun to play in casual play, IMO. I'd definitely go with the Interceptor xpac first.

Just out of interest, and not looking to troll or start an almighty bun fight; but what's the advantages of the original Tie Fighter over the FO (apart from pilots)?

Other than efficiency ... it's the pilots

Dark curse, night beast, howlrunner and (my fave) backstabber are all very enticing and potent ways you can spend <20 points ... I don't see any /fo pilot that can match them, although I haven't proxied the new omega leader yet (fickle has and he seems to rate it highly).

Just out of interest, and not looking to troll or start an almighty bun fight; but what's the advantages of the original Tie Fighter over the FO (apart from pilots)?

Other than efficiency ... it's the pilots

Dark curse, night beast, howlrunner and (my fave) backstabber are all very enticing and potent ways you can spend <20 points ... I don't see any /fo pilot that can match them, although I haven't proxied the new omega leader yet (fickle has and he seems to rate it highly).

because Fickle knows that altough Green dice can be bad, unmodified Green dice are worse. As are unmodified Red dice.

There are a lot of directions you can go with Imperials. What type of a list do you want to play?

Soontir Fel is very popular, but completely overdone. I haven't flown an Interceptor in 6 months due to being sick of seeing them. Still, they are good ships. If you get Imperial Aces, you won't get Soontir Fel, though.

Personally, I think Howlrunner is overrated, but there are legions of supporters for her. She tends to die so fast that she doesn't make her points worthwhile (in my humble experience).

I like the Tie Defender, to be honest. I especially like Col. Vessery with all the new Tie FO's out. You can get Col Vessery and 4 Tie FO's in one list. That should be fun.

Some people love the Tie Phantom. It's a nasty ship with 4 red dice. I think once the Fat Turrets start to disappear, you will see this ship on the table more often (or is that not see?).

Personally, I think learning to fly generic Tie Fighters is an excellent idea. I've had some surprising success (and fun) with:

SPACE COWBOYS:

Omnicron Shuttle w/ Adv Sensors and Fleet Officer

Backstabber

Dark Curse

Nightbeast

2 x Academy

The strength of the list is that these normal Tie Fighters become a lot more durable with 2 free Focus a turn (not including Nightbeast's free one).

It's a great list to learn how to fly Tie Fighters and not bump. You aren't required to fly in some silly formation. The Shuttle can still fire it's 3 red dice. Not the best list to play vs. high PS arc dodgers, but with Academy Pilots to throw out and cause bumps, it's not a terrible list.

DECIMATOR, RUTHLESS, BLACK SQUADRON TIES, RUTHLESS!! RUTHLESS!

IT PUTS RUTHLESS ON EVERYTHING AND SHOUTS DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA!

All TIEs, every TIEs.

All TIEs, every TIEs.

WITH RUTHLESS

Incidentally, the black swarm with ruthless is my sole original contribution to listbuilding/theorycraft.

The idea is that if you turn all of time and space into a sea of laserfire, you'll hit something eventually.

You need, (yes need

- Shuttle

- Interceptor

Soontir will work great alongside what you already have when you can't afford a phantom. And the shuttle with Vader is a phenomenal filler ship.

Then, strongly consider a Decimator.