Forgive me if this has been asked. I did a bit of searching, and couldn't find anything. I'm really green!

Last night, using soontir/RAC I walked away with my first ever win (second game ever). RAC basically fought most of the match, with predator+gunner, and doing 90% of the damage. My opponent kept trying to shoot Soontir who kept arc dodging (I practiced flying through asteroids beforehand). I can Arc dodge fine, boosting, barrel-rolling and getting out of their arc, but I'm rarely ever able to shoot them, ever. The dodge either puts my arc out too, or places me out of range. Most of the time, I turn the dial to arc-dodge rather than to get into position to shoot them. I have the following questions:

1) Should arc dodging take priority over shooting them down? I'm thinking this way, as Soontir loses stealh device the moment he loses a hull, and a dodge is critical for autothrusters, so its always better to dodge. However, I felt that if he chased down RAC instead, he would have killed him early, and leave soontir as easy pickings (he was reluctant as RAC has rebel captive)

2) Do I take risks and try to fight down some ships even if I'm in the arc? When should I do this?

3) Should I always PTL with Soontir?

4) Are there any more aggressive imperial lists? While I enjoyed arc-dodging, I enjoyed landing an almost guaranteed 3 hits with RAC even more (gunner+predator) Soontir basically did nothing other than flit around.

5) Am I right to say that most of the time, you should keep your ships together all the time?

Play a lot of games and it will come naturally.

a bit of background on myself before i get in to your first question, i played a lot of World of Warcraft when i was younger (10 years ago to almost 1 year ago, still in rehab)

1) I was always told Dead DPS is no DPS (damage per second) same principle works here. Dead ships do no damage (dead man's trigger be damned). in that case RAC is the correct target always, because arc dodging Fel is a pain unless you're flying at PS 11 or 10 (Vader VI ect...)

2)low agility ship low health high priority target that you shoot before to save a ship(s) from a fate of a vaccuum based space death.

3) look toward the Worlds lists that made it. Whisper mini-swarms work well (in some Metas) Soontir Fel, Vader and Shuttle with Emperor Palpatine did swimmingly, or your super typical ultra 7 ship swarm, or perhaps your Crackswarm (search on the forums for more on those, they'll do better at explaining than i can)

4)the answer is a resounding maybe. it is always game to game. because every list and every pilot (in game and owner of the ships) flies differently. certain lists, like swarms almost always want to be flown together... until they're not. it gets muttled around the time when you can start using your low health/PS ships are Action deniers.12 points for a ship that denies a high priority ship like... lets say Soontir fel ANY Actions is worth his/HER weight in squad points(and gold) you have to learn by process of playing more games when its appropriate and when it is not to fly as a lump of space metal.

also topic in the title. if you barrel Roll back of your ship to front of your ship to one side, then boost in the curved direction toward your target Victim it can help get our of arc yet have them in arc. it comes with practice and knowledge of distances.

In the game you describe you did the right thing. If they go after Fel you just go all out evasive while the rest of your list gets to work.

Fel gets to shoot and dodge either when the enemy goes after his support or later on in game when there are less enemy arcs to dodge.

Keeping Fel alive till the endgame is a job well done usually.

Range 3 is a safe place for you unless they have a cannon. You'll have five green dice, and most likely two focus tokens and one evade token. Autothrusters will also be ready to kick in. You can withstand almost any number of two dice attacks and three dice attacks will almost certainly fail.

Rolling and then boosting in is usually the key to getting close range shots without letting them have one. This one you'll have to learn on your own, there isn't really a cheat sheet for how to do this to ensure you shoot and they don't.

You should probably use PTL every round, but if you know they won't have a shot there's no harm in leaving your dial open for the next round. At PS9 you can generally tell before you choose actions, so that helps.

While your Stealth Device is up and/or you're at range 3, never fear anything with only two dice. Only Blount and Omega Leader can threaten you, and the worst Blount will likely do is strip a shield. Unless he has missiles that do something bad when they hit you, then he's scary as hell and you must kill him at once. Advanced Homing Missiles are not your friend.

Arc dodging is generally better done at an angle than head on. This means dedicated arc dodgers need to flank while a second force advances from another angle. If you're near the edge of an enemy' firing arc, you can barrel roll out of it. If you were facing them, that will usually keep them in your arc.

Arc dodging with boost is trickier, since most of the movement is forwards instead of horizontal. Unless you're packing a turret, in which case facing is (mostly) irrelevant and you can just boost out of arc and shoot anyway because, "Yay! Turret!"*

*I'm not trying to start a turret rant. I'm just pointing out that arc dodging with a turret ignores one of the usual concerns. Whether the expense of most turrets balance this out or not, well, I leave that to other threads.

1) Depends on the target and the situation. If you're in Range 1 of a 3-dice ship and you cannot be certain you'll kill it before it shoots, then dodging the arc absolutely takes precedence over attacking. Even in that situation, be willing to save your tokens for defense if you don't get a great roll.

2) Unless you can dodge multiple attackers, it's best to go for the super-token platter of FocusFocusEvade. It's better to have tokens for all those attacks than take an attack with no tokens.

3) Yep, always PTL. Soontir loves riding the lightning that comes with free stress tokens. The only times you don't want to use PTL are when you know you're shooting at a Rebel Captive, or when you know the enemy won't be able to attack you this round and you want your full dial available for next turn.

4) The Empire is full of painful lists. Without knowing what you have and what you like to fly, it's hard to say. At this point, their only bad ships are probably generic Defenders and TIE Bombers. They're in a really great place as a faction.

5) You want to be able to concentrate fire, yes, and likewise want to prevent your opponent from focusing on one of your ships while the rest are too far away to help. However, that does not always equal "keep ships together."

Forgive me if this has been asked. I did a bit of searching, and couldn't find anything. I'm really green!

Last night, using soontir/RAC I walked away with my first ever win (second game ever). RAC basically fought most of the match, with predator+gunner, and doing 90% of the damage. My opponent kept trying to shoot Soontir who kept arc dodging (I practiced flying through asteroids beforehand). I can Arc dodge fine, boosting, barrel-rolling and getting out of their arc, but I'm rarely ever able to shoot them, ever. The dodge either puts my arc out too, or places me out of range. Most of the time, I turn the dial to arc-dodge rather than to get into position to shoot them. I have the following questions:

1) Should arc dodging take priority over shooting them down? I'm thinking this way, as Soontir loses stealh device the moment he loses a hull, and a dodge is critical for autothrusters, so its always better to dodge. However, I felt that if he chased down RAC instead, he would have killed him early, and leave soontir as easy pickings (he was reluctant as RAC has rebel captive)

2) Do I take risks and try to fight down some ships even if I'm in the arc? When should I do this?

3) Should I always PTL with Soontir?

4) Are there any more aggressive imperial lists? While I enjoyed arc-dodging, I enjoyed landing an almost guaranteed 3 hits with RAC even more (gunner+predator) Soontir basically did nothing other than flit around.

5) Am I right to say that most of the time, you should keep your ships together all the time?

Sounds like your opponent spent more time chasing soontir than shooting the decimator. That's a good thing.

And absolutely yes, ptl on soontir always.

The disgusting thing about Chiraneau + Fel is that they can both arc dodge (assuming you have Engine Upgrade on Chiraneau). If they go for Fel, you can go in hard with Chiraneau. If they go for Chiraneau first, Fel can flank and put them in a world of hurt.

I was facing these two a month or so ago and destroyed the list. Then I told my opponent that he needs to avoid jousting (that is, avoid running in head-long toward the enemy with guns blazing). I suggested he should try moving forward with the Decimator to bait me into committing to that attack and then turn and boost away out of arc. Then Fel is free to flank and destroy. He did exactly that and the Decimator's boost took it way farther than I expected. I ended up falling for my own trap and got torn to pieces.

So just play keep-away with whichever target your opponent has zeroed in on and you should be pretty good.

THE theing you must learn is that you should always be 45 degrees angled against your foe.

That way you can use barrel+boost or boost+barrel

to get into the flank.

But if that still puts fel into attack arcs of 2+ enemies, seek a safer place, prolonged survival > damage dealing

1) Should arc dodging take priority over shooting them down? I'm thinking this way, as Soontir loses stealh device the moment he loses a hull, and a dodge is critical for autothrusters, so its always better to dodge. However, I felt that if he chased down RAC instead, he would have killed him early, and leave soontir as easy pickings (he was reluctant as RAC has rebel captive)

If he had gone for RAC he would likely have won, because as you discovered, he is the true threat.

2) Do I take risks and try to fight down some ships even if I'm in the arc? When should I do this?

It depends, you will eventually have to gamble vs the odds if you want good mileage out of Soontir.

3) Should I always PTL with Soontir?

No, knowing when to PTL is a skill, as you become a lot less predictable and leave your options open. (that dial + PTL is insane when unstressed).

4) Are there any more aggressive imperial lists? While I enjoyed arc-dodging, I enjoyed landing an almost guaranteed 3 hits with RAC even more (gunner+predator) Soontir basically did nothing other than flit around.

Soontir did a lot more than that, he effectively absorbed the majority of incoming enemy fire.

There are more aggressive lists out there, try a buzzsaw whisper (Gunner, FCS, VI, ACD) + friends.

5) Am I right to say that most of the time, you should keep your ships together all the time?

It depends, but you should generally try to focus-fire single targets down, and this is easiest to do when flying in close formation - however - this can also be done by using turrets and loose formation flying with highly mobile ships.

1) Should arc dodging take priority over shooting them down? I'm thinking this way, as Soontir loses stealh device the moment he loses a hull, and a dodge is critical for autothrusters, so its always better to dodge. However, I felt that if he chased down RAC instead, he would have killed him early, and leave soontir as easy pickings (he was reluctant as RAC has rebel captive)

Agreed. Soontir Fel is nice as an end-game ace - but he's vulnerable to massed attackers (like everyone is) early on. As a rule, with an interceptor ace, rule #1 is "Don't Get Killed". Given a choice between both sides getting a shot, and neither side getting a shot, take the latter, because (as a rule) the interceptor will have an easier time getting back into arc again.

At the same time, chasing a big ship with boost can be counter-productive - it's fast enough and agile enough (with high-PS boost, anyway) to avoid a lot of fire, and it can shoot back with no real reduction in firepower. With Soontir dropping in behind you if you do this, it's a Damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't..... which is why the list is so successful.

2) Do I take risks and try to fight down some ships even if I'm in the arc? When should I do this?

Shrug shoulders here. "When the risk is justified" is all I can offer you. Soontir's PS9 means he should shoot first - if you think you'll get a kill and therefore eliminate the attacker before they fire, go for it. A turtled-up interceptor can probably avoid one attack with fairly good confidence unless it's range 1 or a big gun, but still avoid if possible.

3) Should I always PTL with Soontir?

4) Are there any more aggressive imperial lists? While I enjoyed arc-dodging, I enjoyed landing an almost guaranteed 3 hits with RAC even more (gunner+predator) Soontir basically did nothing other than flit around.

Raw firepower is best provided either by Bombers (and/or Punishers) or just a TIE fighter swarm. Less agile, but you'll massively regret standing in front of it.

If you want to keep Chiraneau, consider him, Howlrunner and 1-2 other TIE fighters, upgraded to taste.

Play a lot of games and it will come naturally.

Nominated for most unhelpfull reply of the day.

Raw firepower is best provided either by Bombers (and/or Punishers) or just a TIE fighter swarm. Less agile, but you'll massively regret standing in front of it.

If you want to keep Chiraneau, consider him, Howlrunner and 1-2 other TIE fighters, upgraded to taste.

Depends on target.

Fel (oh god, don't mention the monster in nighttime!)

can EAT ALL THE DAMAGE THE SWARM SPITS OUT.

Literally...

While Chiraneau and his "I'm mathematically guaranteed 2,5 damage per attack" predator_pilotskill 3-dice attack with rebel captive and Gunner eats fels alive.

Chiraneau has almost the biggest damage output from single ship.

You know what really helped me Arc-Dodge? Trying to rely on 'Daredevil (1-turn boost),' and discovering how seldom I needed it once I had it.

For me, personally, 'Daredevil' was my training wheels. And now that I've improved Lead-in and Contingency flying, I never miss 'Daredevil.'

Food for thought.

Raw firepower is best provided either by Bombers (and/or Punishers) or just a TIE fighter swarm. Less agile, but you'll massively regret standing in front of it.

If you want to keep Chiraneau, consider him, Howlrunner and 1-2 other TIE fighters, upgraded to taste.

Depends on target.

Fel (oh god, don't mention the monster in nighttime!)

can EAT ALL THE DAMAGE THE SWARM SPITS OUT.

Literally...

While Chiraneau and his "I'm mathematically guaranteed 2,5 damage per attack" predator_pilotskill 3-dice attack with rebel captive and Gunner eats fels alive.

Chiraneau has almost the biggest damage output from single ship.

for the longest time i used to run Chirp gunner Vader

Play a lot of games and it will come naturally.

Nominated for most unhelpfull reply of the day.

While it's a bit short, that's kind of harsh; Hondo's advice is solid. Practice makes perfect, after all.

Play a lot of games and it will come naturally.

Nominated for most unhelpfull reply of the day.

While it's a bit short, that's kind of harsh; Hondo's advice is solid. Practice makes perfect, after all.

But it addresed none of the questions. So it was short, snippy and motsly useless.

This link by Osoroshii will help you out no end.

Cheers

Baaa

THE theing you must learn is that you should always be 45 degrees angled against your foe.

That way you can use barrel+boost or boost+barrel

to get into the flank.

But if that still puts fel into attack arcs of 2+ enemies, seek a safer place, prolonged survival > damage dealing

Good advice, but if you're at a 45 degree against the front of your opponent, you will often only need to barrel roll without boosting to get out of arc. This comes in handy if you have to dodge one arc, but still have incoming shots, so you can have a focus for defense, too (or evade for defense, and save your free focus token for defense, too, unless you're feeling froggy).

Turr. As long as your opponent isn't packing Soontir (and if you're good at blocking even if he is) you get to shoot and then dodge.

I like Turr a lot and often take him over Soontir for the fun he brings back to flying interceptors. I don't want to see too much combat phase maneuvering but a few more pilots that so it would be great: tie FO/ interceptor that shoots during maneuver and maneuvers during combat, phantom that decloaks right before shooting, an Awing who can opt to double up on a previous action instead of shooting... Not too much. Just a little fun.

Turr. As long as your opponent isn't packing Soontir (and if you're good at blocking even if he is) you get to shoot and then dodge.

I like Turr a lot and often take him over Soontir for the fun he brings back to flying interceptors. I don't want to see too much combat phase maneuvering but a few more pilots that so it would be great: tie FO/ interceptor that shoots during maneuver and maneuvers during combat, phantom that decloaks right before shooting, an Awing who can opt to double up on a previous action instead of shooting... Not too much. Just a little fun.

The first two are sort of nutso busted and the a wing is probably not very useful since awings don't have all that much they can do without shooting unlike bombers with slam.

*I'm not trying to start a turret rant. I'm just pointing out that arc dodging with a turret ignores one of the usual concerns. Whether the expense of most turrets balance this out or not, well, I leave that to other threads.

That is literally the problem that Autothrusters was designed to solve. Jousters are designed to solve this problem in other ways (lots of health per point)

*I'm not trying to start a turret rant. I'm just pointing out that arc dodging with a turret ignores one of the usual concerns. Whether the expense of most turrets balance this out or not, well, I leave that to other threads.

That is literally the problem that Autothrusters was designed to solve. Jousters are designed to solve this problem in other ways (lots of health per point)

To Arc dodge first be sure you have a high pilot skill ship. The re-positioning with boost and barrel-roll allows you to cover a lot of ground. Don't aim for directly reaching the ship as that would causes bumps which will leave your ship exposed. Instead focus on getting behind the ship. At first work on removing ships and firing arcs. Arc dodgers work great in the late game when the number of enemy firing arcs have been lowered.