The Semi-Jouster:

Currently I think we now have a new role type for ships in the game. These are ships that are moderately bulky, but still die under focused fire, and have usually only modest repositioning or dial tricks.

These tend to be ships that are slightly overcosted for their firepower, whether that be debilitatingly so (the list of fix ships!!) or due to other upgrades/abilities that counterbalance that.

One example I've heard is the T-70. Someone on these forums posted a primer on how to fly them, and his first point is that the T-70 isn't a jouster. It has to do some jousting, but it actually doesn't have the stats for it. You need to make up its supposedly lower jousting efficiency by actually blocking, boosting and T-rolling into positions where you have shots and they don't.

Another example is the old T-65. By definition, this should be a true jouster... Yet, due to the new meta's firepower, it doesn't have the ability to take something like 3Uboats or 7 tie swarm on head-on and win. It has to fly in at some sort of angle and make use of abilities such as Biggs.

A new one that's baffled me is the Tie-FO. It really doesn't arc dodge that much. And it can't really, cuz it needs those focuses and evades for Comm Relay, and TL for Omega Leader. Against just one ace, Omega Leader does pretty well. but, say you go up agianst 2 or 3 Khiranslkdfs, it becomes a hard match.

The non-Corran E-wing I think fits here too, but its essentially overcosted. However, I'd love to discuss with you how you'd fly the generic E-wings! You can also -3 their cost if you'd like. That's not even enough of a fix, but it starts to make them less bad. (They really should have some cool ship ability/fix AND -3 points, if you take a look at their competition now).

The primary one I want to talk about is the Tie Defender. It has moderately low amounts of repositioning. It has only one K-turn, which most experienced players will hope to block. Or an inexperienced player simply forgets to plan for and faces rocks at exactly the 4k mark (me). The hull it has also indicates it does want to sometimes just face an opponent. Yet, these can also be wiped out in an alpha strike against true jousters before the 3red dice can reliably lower the enemy's firepower, or arc dodged hard when set up versus aces.

For instance, Vessery and Ryad: what these two should do in the meta I still have no idea. While you can get Vessery to PS8 often and compete with the semi-aces, Inquisitor and Omega Leader, a lot of times, you're going to be dodged by Ps9 and 10.

The True Jouster:

By theory, I'd declare that the true jouster is a ship that primarily is aggressive in creating damage zones and flies generally straight towards an enemy, and relies extremely primarily on its overbearing firepower to tilt the game into a scenario where it can slowly pummel the opponent to death. For the definition true jouster, I'd declare these ships and within this squad configuration. The list type is important, as similar ships in different lists will not actually be true jousters.

7-8 Tie Swarm: With the caveat that this is really good for blocking, and it makes up for its low individual firepower with good blocking. (From table experience, I now believe that it requires a Regional top4-8 ability to actuate the level of blocking understanding required. Meaning, that if you're only a Store Champ, you might not be quite as good as I've now seen it done. )

3 Contracted Scouts/ 2 Scouts + 3 crew Slaver: These just have a really high raw firepower. They do not do nearly any bumping (except for the slaver), and really intend to fly at you, and blow you up.

6 Howl Crackswarm

Some Ghosts lists with high firepower, or TLT, Kanan, Biggs etc.

5 Khiraxz - This list intends to fly at you and attack, and bump.

How to??:

So, how do you fly a semi-jouster? What deployments have you seen work well? I've noticed that forms of straight engagement tend not to work very well. Bumping may not work that well either if the pilot skills are weird.

Do you take strong care to plan your k-turn/t-rolls in advance? I find that does help quite a bit.

What kind of asteroid placements have you enjoyed?

Can someone also explain how they use only BR to arc dodge? What angles do you set up? How do you set up the rocks. If you can use vassal pictures, I'd love you.

I've been considering how to start this thread for a bit now. I fly T65s and have been trying to learn tactics that will work. Mostly I've come down to formations. I'm not talking tight box formations either. Since most ships out maneuver me and have post-dial movement I need a loose formation to cover the arcs. A TIE Interceptor doesn't like to be in the arc of even one XWing. I've killed Fel with a Rookie pilot simply due to deploying a loose formation and moving to cover my wingmen in a fluid shifting group.

For targets you outgun and doesn't dance around, tight formations are still good.

TIE Defender... Angles? Need to avoid the k-turn match up there!

There is no such thing as a 'pure' jouster in my opinion because that implies that just flying forward, taking a focus, and then rolling dice is a consistently viable strategy.

Defenders use the fact that they turn around with no cost to force angles their opponents can't respond to, casting wide arcs for free with their powerful k turn and a barrel roll.

The problem with so much of the discussion and theory on these forums are that almost every single discussion I've ever seen is ridiculously bad at taking the big picture into account. The reason Poe is a good jouster is because he generates value the opponent has a hard time fighting. Green straight, regen shield, t-roll, repeat is a lot of value where the opponent has a hard time returning fire without losing value. He generates continual value over many engagements that are difficult for the opponent to gain value from, similar to how defenders operate.

Jumpmasters are actually horrible at generating value outside of a very specific area: in arc, r2-3, with a focus they don't spend by ps3. It's just that without careful planning (approach, clustered rocks, range control) they can catch you in the 'derp value' range and kill you. Honestly I think it's not a good list, it just punishes mistakes with such a spike of damage that it can post good results. Due to the damage output if you slip into that value area of 2 of them you probably lose a ship. Because of this they can pick up some cheap/free wins. If you control your engagements well enough that they don't get the mega value punish off then they actually are really sad ships. If you've ever watched a gimp fight between two of those lists after they are out of torpedoes it shows that aspect off pretty well.

To add to the good stuff nigeltastic said, I'll say that between some Barrel Rolling, asteroid usage, and blocking it's very doable to have no more than 1 torpedo shot on your key ship(s). Depending on your ships, stuff like Defenders and Comm Relay FOs can soak a single torp shot, it's the second one that's a killer. From that point, you're doing damage and setting up blocks and the Uboat's damage goes way down.

X7 defenders laugh at anything you throw at them.

In all seriousness, in flying "semi-jousters", I try to drag my opponent through the rocks, forcing them to come to me. If they don't, I send one ship as bait that just flys as fast as it can without getting shot (being Imperial I have quite a few options).

Asteroid placement it depends on what I'm flying and flying against, if I'm flying 2-3 X7/D defenders I tend to try and keep the asteroids far enough away from each other that I can at least fit a 3 straight/turn/bank through. If I'm flying a TIE Swarm I try to spread the asteroids out as much as possible.

This fits the Tie Advanced also. They can take some hits but aren't set up for focused fire. I love tempest with AC but you can't just fly them haphazardly and expect to live. I think the reason I never felt the T-65 X-Wing was dead because straight on jousting was for cheap high hp three dicers like B-Wings. I always flew the 65 like it was fragile. A three dice ship doesn't have to be in R1 every turn to be effective.

5 Khiraxz - This list intends to fly at you and attack, and bump. Exactly the way I fly it.