A little background info first. A friend gave me the X-Wing starter set years ago. I played it a couple times, but got more into mostly casual play of STAW. Now I want to get into X-Wing as my son has been playing it with his friends. I have access to almost all the ships, some multiple copies of. I've been buying up new expansions as they came out in anticipation of getting into the game.

Now my son wants to play me. He runs a Han Solo build with a couple escorts. His favorite build for casual play comes in at 110pts. I want to run a Decimator plus escorts build against him. I've been looking and reading here and other places, but I'm not sure 1.) which Decimator to build around and 2.) what escorts do well with the Decimator. I'm actually kinda concerted that the Millenium Falcon will just run circles around me. Any builds and advice will he greatly appreciated.

Chirneau Engine Upgrade Predator Isard gunner, expensive, but effective.

I would say run Soontir fel, but look at my signature... you can run a few ties in a miniswarm with crackshot (or howlrunner) that will probably do some work.

I'm unsure about TIE's in any swarm as last time I ran one, I ended up running all over myself. I had even researched a little about flying a swarm... And I still did it.

Building off what Panic suggested, try this then:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!c=110!99:57,-1,102,21,40,-1:-1:3:;70:98,23,-1:-1:1:

Take a target lock with Chiraneau, but don't spend it. You have Chiraneau's ability and Predator for the dice modification. This sets up Vessery. If possible, keep him at Range three of both your Decimator and the enemy to maximize Lone Wolf and the HLC (easier said than done...start them off as far apart as you can). Generally, get Chiraneau in there ASAP and clog things up (be sure to take advantage of the Engine Upgrade to either set up blocks or get out of arc from the escort) and keep Vessery at a distance in the sniper's role.

Or...

You could also go with the ever classic Decimator/Phantom duo:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!c=110!99:57,-1,102,21,46,-1:-1:3:;79:27,36,21:-1:9:

Really depends on Han's loadout, but he can really hurt the Phantom. This list comes in at 109 to give you initiative so you can decide to either move/shoot first or react/reposition instead. Either get in what damage you can with Whisper against Han in a sacrifice move, or use Whisper to take out the escorts while hopefully keeping away from Han.

Assuming you don't have everything listed above (but you do have the ships), look up the cards and proxy them: Simply write down or print out all of their abilities.

At 110 Points I would try very hard to get more than 2 ships in a list. I suppose you can have a lot of Decimator fun and use this:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau with Expose, Ysanne Isard, Gunner, and Experimental Interface

Captain Oinuun with Intimidation and Mara Jade

You can put Ms. Isard with Oicuun if you want. Take Oicuun and ram it into the center of his formation causing damage and stress. Then use Chirpy to snipe at Intimidated ships with Expose for 4 Attack attacks. You can ditch the Gunner for things like Anti-Pursuit Lasers and a bomb on Oicuun.

Yeah, if you have two Decimators, that absolutely works.

Chiraneau

-Emperor Palpatine

-Rebel Captive

-Predator

-Engine Upgrade

Darts Vader

-Title

-Advanced Targeting Computer

-Veteran Instincts

-Engine Upgrade

This is what I usually run on mine and it has turned out to be fairly effective. It sacrifices more defensive upgrades for more offensive output.

Kenkirk: Push the Limit, Engine Upgrade, The Emperor, Isard

Ps13 boost and easily can get 2 evades. Tankiest decimator I've flown.

Two basic options for me sit well with the Decimator - the Oicunn buzzsaw and the Chirpy buzzsaw.

Oicunn does it via Dauntless title, Daredevil - ram enemy, get free action from Dauntless, use Daredevil (which unlike Boost, specifically CAN overlap ships), ram enemy again - to do a decent chunk of damage per round, and still usually get a shot off against someone else - load up with whatever crew you fancy, really; Mara Jade and Rebel Captive go well on someone getting in the other guy's teeth.

Chirpy gets VI, Vader, Gunner, Engine Upgrade - add Isard if you have the points, or Expose/Experimental Interface/Isard if you want something a bit quirkier. The Vader/Gunner version dies super-quick if you fly him wrong though, and pretty quick anyway - you really have to make sure you're trading him off well, because he probably won't last through most games.

Chirpy with Expose, Experimental Interface, Palpatine and Isard is also an absolute beast; at range 1-2 you are rolling 4 or more hits the vast majority of the time, and saving at least one damage per round into the bargain. All very expensive, but in a 110 point game you have that little bit more to throw around to make them worth it.

I also would like to try Kenkirk/Isard/Determination sometime, for a proper tanky Deci.

In general my experience is that the Decimator is a very solid ship, but it does go down quickly, so you really have to make it pay for itself before it does. Use it to take the biggest threats off the board to whatever else you're running, the accept that it will quickly melt.

I like Kenkirk, Isard, Palpatine, and Determination. You can tank like nobody's business and keep palpatine alive longer, which is amazing for your whole squad.

Thanks for the responses. I'm looking thru these builds and seeing which ones I want to try. Unfortunately, I don't have an Imperial Raider, so no Palpatine for me, and I only have one decimator at this point.

Thanks for the responses. I'm looking thru these builds and seeing which ones I want to try. Unfortunately, I don't have an Imperial Raider, so no Palpatine for me, and I only have one decimator at this point.

Like I said, just proxy/print out some cards, like Palpatine. This isn't a tournament, so get a sense of what these cards can do in a home game.

Unless you love the dual Decimator build, then yeah, hard to proxy that.

One of my friends has a thing against proxies, so I'm not sure he'd be okay with it...unless I don't tell him. Is there a site that has jpgs/gifs of cards I can print to scale?

Well the good new is I played a Decimator and TIE Phantom build and won 2 out of 2 games. My foe played a X-wing (T-65 Wedge) and 3x A-Wings. First game I lost nothing. Second game my TIE got taken out pretty early.

For a 100 pt build I flew this recently which was a lot of fun:

Cpt Oicunn - 42

Reb Captive - 3

Moff Jer - 2

Tactician - 2

Anti-Purs Lasers - 2

Total - 51

Rex Brath - 37

Heavy Laser - 7

Twin Ian Eng Mk II - 1

PTL - 3

Total 48

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!s!97:-1,-1,46,103,61,-1:-1:4:;71:18,23,-1:-1:17:&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron

You can mess around with the crew, potentially swap out the anti-pursuit lasers for Predator or something, but it was fun ramming people and generally blocking with the defender shooting in from range.

To make this into a 110pt fleet

You can change to the Admiral with Predator, remove the defender completely and go with a couple of tie advance (flying them in formation):

Rear Adm - 46

Reb Captive - 3

Moff Jer - 2

Tactician - 2

Predator - 3

Total - 51

Darth Vader - 29

Swarm Tactics - 2

Tie/x1 - 0

ATC - 1

Total - 32

Temp Squad - 21

Tie/x1 - 0

ATC - 1

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!c=110!99:57,-1,46,103,61,-1:-1:-1:;22:9,-1:23:-1:U.124;20:-1:23:-1:U.124&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron

While a lot of people will want to have engine upgrade, this build relies on an element of giving out stress to slow people down and dealing out crits.

I'd want to keep engine upgrade as it proved extremely useful getting out of firing arcs. The Gunner card is also awesome with this ship.