Scum Player trying out Aces

By CHEEKSx36, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Hey everyone, so as the title states, Ive been a scum only player for the past few months until last weekend when I decided to change it up and give Imperial aces a shot. We got a pretty casual group of about 6 guys who play a mix of everything from meta to the random stuff we all come up with while were on the can. Played about 7 games so far trying out most of the typical Palp aces, 3 ace combos with Echo, Whisper, Soontir, Vader, Inquisitor. Found that I have the most fun playing with Echo/Soontir and wanted to make a list with them.

TIE Interceptor-Soontir Fel

-PTL

-Stealth Device

=33 pts

TIE Phantom-Echo

-VI

-Adv. Cloaking device

=35 pts

TIE Defender-Countess Ryad

-Adaptability

-TIE/x7

=32 pts

Threw a defender in there because why not? Also because those three are my favorite looking ships and wanted to fly them together. I originally had autothrusters on Soontir and an Onyx squadron pilot in the defender but went with Countess instead. Is that compromise worth it? Open to suggestions!

I love flying some ace groupings. Soontir is my favorite, but he has to go lone wolf to be the man. I think a fun list to get in the swing of aces -before committing to the details of specific pilot abilities and their charm- is to go with something like this (it's fun and very forgiving as you get your feet wet):

Royal Guard Pilot (22)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Royal Guard Pilot (22)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

"Fel's Wrath" (23)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Academy Pilot (12)

TOTAL: 100 points

Hey everyone, so as the title states, Ive been a scum only player for the past few months until last weekend when I decided to change it up and give Imperial aces a shot. We got a pretty casual group of about 6 guys who play a mix of everything from meta to the random stuff we all come up with while were on the can. Played about 7 games so far trying out most of the typical Palp aces, 3 ace combos with Echo, Whisper, Soontir, Vader, Inquisitor. Found that I have the most fun playing with Echo/Soontir and wanted to make a list with them.

TIE Interceptor-Soontir Fel

-PTL

-Stealth Device

=33 pts

TIE Phantom-Echo

-VI

-Adv. Cloaking device

=35 pts

TIE Defender-Countess Ryad

-Adaptability

-TIE/x7

=32 pts

Threw a defender in there because why not? Also because those three are my favorite looking ships and wanted to fly them together. I originally had autothrusters on Soontir and an Onyx squadron pilot in the defender but went with Countess instead. Is that compromise worth it? Open to suggestions!

Something to consider would be that running those aces only half equipped denies them their full potential (ie. Soontir really wants some AT and Echo would benefit greatly from rec spec/Kallus and a FCS). Taking a 3rd ace that is so expensive tends to make you cut corners elsewhere to the detriment of your list over all (imo).

Thankfully, recent releases have you covered as far as "pocket aces" go!

Omega Leader @ a standard 26 points w/ Comm Relay and Juke saves you 6 points over Countess Ryad. This allows you to throw AT on Soontir and Kallus/FCS onto Echo, which is pretty awesome! A draw back here is that @ 100 points, you have no initiative bid for Soontir, which is somewhat less than awesome. Another alternative could be to throw a "mini-soontir" in the place of Soontir himself, in the form of the Inquisitor. For Soontir's 35 points you could bring Inquisitor w/ PTL/AT/Title/Prockets, clocking in @ 34 squad points.

All of that said, if you are set on your posted list, then I would (as you mentioned) drop Ryad to the Onyx squad pilot and give Soontir AT. Ryad can be amazing based on Vassal reports, but she needs some points to really make her worthwhile and they just aren't there in your list.

Good luck!

Hey everyone, so as the title states, Ive been a scum only player for the past few months until last weekend when I decided to change it up and give Imperial aces a shot. We got a pretty casual group of about 6 guys who play a mix of everything from meta to the random stuff we all come up with while were on the can. Played about 7 games so far trying out most of the typical Palp aces, 3 ace combos with Echo, Whisper, Soontir, Vader, Inquisitor. Found that I have the most fun playing with Echo/Soontir and wanted to make a list with them.

TIE Interceptor-Soontir Fel

-PTL

-Stealth Device

=33 pts

TIE Phantom-Echo

-VI

-Adv. Cloaking device

=35 pts

TIE Defender-Countess Ryad

-Adaptability

-TIE/x7

=32 pts

Threw a defender in there because why not? Also because those three are my favorite looking ships and wanted to fly them together. I originally had autothrusters on Soontir and an Onyx squadron pilot in the defender but went with Countess instead. Is that compromise worth it? Open to suggestions!

Something to consider would be that running those aces only half equipped denies them their full potential (ie. Soontir really wants some AT and Echo would benefit greatly from rec spec/Kallus and a FCS). Taking a 3rd ace that is so expensive tends to make you cut corners elsewhere to the detriment of your list over all (imo).

Thankfully, recent releases have you covered as far as "pocket aces" go!

Omega Leader @ a standard 26 points w/ Comm Relay and Juke saves you 6 points over Countess Ryad. This allows you to throw AT on Soontir and Kallus/FCS onto Echo, which is pretty awesome! A draw back here is that @ 100 points, you have no initiative bid for Soontir, which is somewhat less than awesome. Another alternative could be to throw a "mini-soontir" in the place of Soontir himself, in the form of the Inquisitor. For Soontir's 35 points you could bring Inquisitor w/ PTL/AT/Title/Prockets, clocking in @ 34 squad points.

All of that said, if you are set on your posted list, then I would (as you mentioned) drop Ryad to the Onyx squad pilot and give Soontir AT. Ryad can be amazing based on Vassal reports, but she needs some points to really make her worthwhile and they just aren't there in your list.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips sir! Yea, I realized I was compromising quite a bit to fit the defender in there. Haven't given Omega Leader w/Juke, Comm relay a shot so I will definitely try him out. The inquisitor never lasted long with me, I was probably too aggressive with him and trying to get into r1 like the other aces when its better for him to be in r2 or r3. Probably gonna give him another shot as well.

Leave the inquisitor on range 3 as much as possible to get that extra defense dice and full use of autothrusters. He still have 3 attack dice at that range :)

The problem with Soontir and Whisper is initiative. When you play Whisper, you wan't to go first so you can use that Advanced Cloaking asap. With Soontir you want to generally go last so you can arc dodge everybody else.

Personally I can't wait to get the imperial vets, already thinkin about playing a list with Whisper and Maarek Stele