I used to try Echo with the old grabbag of rebel captive,FCS a.c.d.

What other flavors abound that are fun and useful?

What do you like the rest of the list to look like?

I'm pretty new to the game, so take my advice as a noob's one. I really like Echo, and I've been trying to make him work, but I've found Echo to have the "low PS" problem (as everyone knows). Even with VI you're gonna be shot by lots of pilots before you are cloaked. So I had an idea that I took to my 2nd tournament last friday with only 7-8 games of experience in my belt:

ECHO, Decoy, FCS, Weapons Engineer, ACD

SOONTIR FEL, PTL, Title, AT, TC

EPSILON ACE, Comm, Shield

(99p)

Depending on the enemy I'd stick epsilon at range 1-2 of echo, to give him PS12, and Soontir would fly alone. Sometimes I flew them together, if I saw "stealing" Soontir's PS9 would make the trick.

The strategy worked pretty well, and caught everyone by surprise. I still lost my first 2 games because of my bad moves (chose a white maneuvre with a stressed Soontir and my opponent killed him the following turn, or crashed into an asteroid with a 1hp Soontir in the last turn of the game when I was winning). Both of those movements made me lose by 14 and 20p, but that only proves I suck at this game now, and have a lot to learn.

What do you think of my build?

I've had a hard time using Echo due to the low PS. Seems that most aces will just arc dodge or shoot him before he can re-cloak.

But I have heard that Kavil is a good crew for Phantoms.

I've had a hard time using Echo due to the low PS. Seems that most aces will just arc dodge or shoot him before he can re-cloak.

But I have heard that Kavil is a good crew for Phantoms.

I'm guessing you mean Kallus .

Echo is usually my go-to phantom pilot because I love maneuvering options far too much to fly anyone else, and it's true that going against higher-PS aces is an uphill battle, but fortunately one I'm successful at far more often than not. My way of overcoming this is by equipping her with sensor jammer and having Carnor Jax fly alongside her. Basically, in that first encounter I like to stick Jax in the middle of where I expect enemy aces to be and turtle up, with Echo behind him so that she can nail any (tokenless) ship trying to outflank/get past Jax. If Soontir/Vader bump they're often dead, and if they don't they'll still be in arc of 1-2 of your ships and will have an ineffective attack due to a lack of focus token and sensor jammer. From there on in I try to maximize the use of sensor jammer and use Echo's maneuverability to always try to get behind the enemy aces so that they can only get a shot if they k-turn/spend all their actions trying to get her in arc.

Recently I've taken her with three different wingmen:

Echo (VI, SJ, RS and ACD), Carnor (PtL and AT) and Strom (VI, x1 and SJ)

Echo (VI, SJ, RS and ACD), Carnor (PtL, AT and SD/HU) and Yorr

Echo (VI, SJ, RS and ACD), Carnor (PtL, AT and MKII) and Omega Leader (Juke and Comm Relay)

In the first case, rushing enemy aces with Strom and Jax is amazing, because not only do they not have focus/evade actions but they're also denied that range 1 die, which your ships will have along with their tokens. The second list tries to maximize Echo's mobility by decloaking and k-turning while still keeping her action (and recloak after her shot). This is shockingly effective at catching aces. The third list is the one I've played the least, but being able to switch targets with OL and still use juke effectively (with Carnor near the enemy) without having to change target locks can be incredibly useful. OL is also an effective ace hunter and will usually draw more initial fire from them, giving you time to bring them down with the heavy hitters, and all three ships in this list are good end game pieces.

Against lower-PS ships, Echo and Carnor basically just tear them apart, with sensor jammer being particularly handy against TLTs. If you'd rather fly Echo with other wingmen or get more ships on the table, well, last year I won a few tournaments (including matches against RAC, Wedge and fat Han) with Echo (same upgrades) and a Howlrunner miniswarm, so there's always that option.

Now that's some juicy stuff to chew on right there.

I'm also thinking about how to incorporate Intel agent and enhanced scopes. But I think that would be better on a sigma as a sort of super spy piece.

Intel agent to see there dial quick, then the decloak and move right away because PS 0. It feels very pre."rebalance"

RS is recon specialist then?

I'm also thinking about how to incorporate Intel agent and enhanced scopes. But I think that would be better on a sigma as a sort of super spy piece.

Intel agent to see there dial quick, then the decloak and move right away because PS 0. It feels very pre."rebalance"

Well, last year I flew Jax with two Sigmas with intel agents to both a regional and a national tournament (see my wall-of-text batreps here and here) to some success .

RS is recon specialist then?

Yup!

Something occurs to me as a possibility.

The 42 Echo above,

Omega leader,commrellay ,juke

Yorr + palp.

It's 100, so it kind of gives away initiative...meh

I've tried squeezing in Palpatine with Carnor and Echo, but it skimps too much on upgrades for my liking. As for initiative, at PS8 I don't really see the need anymore, particularly now that I always see Corran with VI and brobots with crackshot. Besides, between Jax and Echo you can always either get into range 1 (and arc-dodge) an enemy PS8 with Jax or cloak first with Echo... though that isn't really an option with your OL-Echo list.

If you want to go down that road, I'd consider giving Echo Agent Kallus and always do an evade action for defense while still modifying your attack and defense with Kallus and the emperor, and you'd also get to 99 which helps on initiative if that's important to you.

Edit: Vorpal had a post a few days ago with basically the same list only swapping Yorr for an OGP and Echo for Whisper, leaving a 2 point initiative bid (which is much more important at PS9).