So for Epic games as a teammate for the Raider, this is the guy I'm hopefully testing this weekend:

29 Captain Jonus - Draw Their Fire, Tie/Shuttle, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer, TIE mk. II

The theory is simple. DTF lets him take a crit for the Raider - and Huge ship crits are nasty. Fleet and System Officers pass off more modification to the Raider, as does his ability. He is disposable, but for those first few turns he'll allow the Raider to output damage at ridonkulous levels, allowing all four shots to cause havoc. I'm not even sure that TIE mkII is necessary, with how the Raider's just going to be slowrollin' forward, taking shots with its Single Turbolasers and main battery...

You could definitely give the raider a target lock but it can't use the focus at all.

Well, that saves a couple of points then. Maybe Moff Jerry, to stuff the Systems Officer and then himself into the holes created by Draw Their Fire? Or Weapons Engineer instead of Captain Needa? The possibilities aren't endless, but still good.

soon, kylo ren (crew)

I've been messing around with the Kylo Ren crew with rebel captive, it is silly good with tie adv vader. It really does work

"does work" as in at all or "does work" as in "does a lot of stuff"

but yeah, Kylo is an exciting upgrade. Completely neutering anyone thinking of running those exasperating 2-ship builds (esp with the Hotr falcon) is something I cant look forward to enough

Both. I have a list with RAC and tie adv vader that has been pretty strong As well as a vader, backdraft, shuttle list that does a solid job. The ability to not only ignore shields but to stick blinded pilot on prertty much any ship you want is powerfully good as long as you have a reliable crit device. It's even a bit of a defensive upgrade on RAC with kylo + gunner + VI when you know you're about to get hit hard by something. I think kylo can be a good 2nd option over palp in the future. And if the opponent uses the old crit deck it can be such a disaster to pop on injured pilot can just cripple a ship.

Both. I have a list with RAC and tie adv vader that has been pretty strong As well as a vader, backdraft, shuttle list that does a solid job. The ability to not only ignore shields but to stick blinded pilot on prertty much any ship you want is powerfully good as long as you have a reliable crit device. It's even a bit of a defensive upgrade on RAC with kylo + gunner + VI when you know you're about to get hit hard by something. I think kylo can be a good 2nd option over palp in the future. And if the opponent uses the old crit deck it can be such a disaster to pop on injured pilot can just cripple a ship.

Quick question, how are you ignoring shields?

It's too bad there isn't a card that just allows you to adjust your opponents damage deck. If there were, I think you'd see a lot of Wampa + Colzet lists flying around. One way to destroy an E-wing turn 1. Wampa, puts the card down, Colzet turns it over. Direct hit. Bye Corran. That's a little too good though.

I do think you could do some work on a set up that has Ren in the shuttle though, even without Vader on said shuttle. Have him fly instead. Something like this:

Both. I have a list with RAC and tie adv vader that has been pretty strong As well as a vader, backdraft, shuttle list that does a solid job. The ability to not only ignore shields but to stick blinded pilot on prertty much any ship you want is powerfully good as long as you have a reliable crit device. It's even a bit of a defensive upgrade on RAC with kylo + gunner + VI when you know you're about to get hit hard by something. I think kylo can be a good 2nd option over palp in the future. And if the opponent uses the old crit deck it can be such a disaster to pop on injured pilot can just cripple a ship.

Quick question, how are you ignoring shields?

It's too bad there isn't a card that just allows you to adjust your opponents damage deck. If there were, I think you'd see a lot of Wampa + Colzet lists flying around. One way to destroy an E-wing turn 1. Wampa, puts the card down, Colzet turns it over. Direct hit. Bye Corran. That's a little too good though.

I do think you could do some work on a set up that has Ren in the shuttle though, even without Vader on said shuttle. Have him fly instead. Something like this:

Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber 16

Kylo Ren 3

TIE Shuttle 0

Ship Total: 19

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced 29

Predator 3

Advanced Targeting Computer 1

Engine Upgrade 4

TIE/x1 0

Ship Total: 37

"Whisper" — TIE Phantom 32

Veteran Instincts 1

Fire-Control System 2

Gunner 5

Advanced Cloaking Device 4

Ship Total: 44

Total: 100

I mean, you could easily drop Buzzsaw Whisper in points (but then it isn't buzzsaw Whisper anymore) or add any number of other ships in with the 44 points she's taking. You could also drop pred from Vader fairly easily giving you 3 more to work with. I think this list would work extremely well though, as you could have Whisper fire first to hopefully drain tokens and shields from a target, then Vader can follow up with the ATC guaranteed crit. Very dangerous for all but the most heavily shielded opponents.

Without Whisper and Pred, you could drop a Patrol leader with some nice crew in it in the list, or a couple more shuttles for added shuttle fun. A lot of options. Fitting Ren into the list for a mere 19 points really gives a ton to work with as far as what to work around him.

All you have to do with kylo ren is do a crit damage to the ship. As long as a crit goes through the opponent's evade dice/tokens even if the ship has shields it will apply the crit card instead.

The I'll show you the dark side condition card says

"When this card is assigned, if it is not already in play, the player who assigned it searches the Damage Deck for 1 Damage card with the Pilot trait and may place it faceup on this card. Then shuffle the damage deck.

When you suffer critical damage during an attack, you are instead dealt the chosen faceup Damage card.

When there is no Damage card on this card, remove it."

From the main rule book

"During an attack, a ship suffers one critical damage for each uncanceled result. If a ship is dealt a Damage card due to suffering critical damage, that card is dealt faceup and its text immediately resolves. "

The bold parts are the important part. Just because you have shields that doesn't make it not a critical damage that was done. You don't need to burn down shields to make kylo ren's Dark side to go off, just an uncanceled critical result.

So for Epic games as a teammate for the Raider, this is the guy I'm hopefully testing this weekend:

29 Captain Jonus - Draw Their Fire, Tie/Shuttle, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer, TIE mk. II

The theory is simple. DTF lets him take a crit for the Raider - and Huge ship crits are nasty. Fleet and System Officers pass off more modification to the Raider, as does his ability. He is disposable, but for those first few turns he'll allow the Raider to output damage at ridonkulous levels, allowing all four shots to cause havoc. I'm not even sure that TIE mkII is necessary, with how the Raider's just going to be slowrollin' forward, taking shots with its Single Turbolasers and main battery...

Just remember that huge ships cannot have focus tokens.

It's also confirmed to work that way in the recent Upsilon article.

Basically normally, if you get Hit with an uncancelled crit, and you have a shield, you lose a shield token.

If you have no shield you get a face up damage card.

Kylo Ren gives the face up damage card when a crit hits either your Hull OR shield. It's pretty powerful as it can dish out the crit that stops attacks. I think depending on its dial and builds Kylo Ren (pilot or crew) is going to be highly competitive.

Wow. That's crazy powerful then. It would almost seem that using a lower PS crit damage dealer would be better, as Ren would be able to activate and trigger on the same round if the dice fell your way.

EDIT: Ren in the pilot seat I mean. It would really mess with target priority, kill the thing that if you shoot at it, can make the next crit you recieve a really nasty one, or take out the swarm that is going to be doing the crits. High PS with Ren crew though still seems to be the better way to go.

Wow. That's crazy powerful then. It would almost seem that using a lower PS crit damage dealer would be better, as Ren would be able to activate and trigger on the same round if the dice fell your way.

EDIT: Ren in the pilot seat I mean. It would really mess with target priority, kill the thing that if you shoot at it, can make the next crit you recieve a really nasty one, or take out the swarm that is going to be doing the crits. High PS with Ren crew though still seems to be the better way to go.

It depends on what you want to do with kylo ren. Personally I like the crew better than the pilot because it lets you focus on the problem you want rather than the problem that is already shooting at the upsilon. TIE shuttle with kylo zooms in, devilers the badnews to an opponent and TIE adv vader or some lucky crit comes in and sets up a wonderful blind pilot on an opponent ship who had a perfect shot set up or w/e, or criples a high PS to ps0 or even removes a ships pilot ability and EPT (if using the old damage deck).

I think we might be drifting away a bit from the purpose of the topic I made from the TIE Shuttle title to a specific effect so here is a 1 man ship idea

Tomax +Crackshot + TIE Shuttle +kylo ren + Merc Copilot

its only 2 dice and "works" at range 3 meaning the opponent gets another evade dice but crackshot helps that out. As well as the point of it is to force the opponent to use tokens and such so they don't get kylo ren's effect to go off only for it to go off from another ship that shoots at it. Another problem is that its still just a tie shuttle and 30 pts so it won't be replacing a palp shuttle anytime soon but its an option i guess

Yup. Kylo Ren Crew will hurt - essentially giving a swarm a shield piercing ability, and the choice of criticals just makes it worse.

Hux is just as bad - essentially turning a TIE fighter's popguns into autoblasters as well as being a super-fleet-officer; just a shame his 5-point ego won't fit in a TIE shuttle (for good reason!)

Yup. Kylo Ren Crew will hurt - essentially giving a swarm a shield piercing ability, and the choice of criticals just makes it worse.

Hux is just as bad - essentially turning a TIE fighter's popguns into autoblasters as well as being a super-fleet-officer; just a shame his 5-point ego won't fit in a TIE shuttle (for good reason!)

Hux +omega leader with juke and comm is almost 2 unavoidable damage

Yup. Kylo Ren Crew will hurt - essentially giving a swarm a shield piercing ability, and the choice of criticals just makes it worse.

Hux is just as bad - essentially turning a TIE fighter's popguns into autoblasters as well as being a super-fleet-officer; just a shame his 5-point ego won't fit in a TIE shuttle (for good reason!)

Hux +omega leader with juke and comm is almost 2 unavoidable damage

Unf. Don't say these things to me I might have to go back to my old Omega Leader stomping grounds.

Though, OL not being able to spend focus defensively seems likely to be bad a lot of the time.

Well that's what the evade token is for

don't think it stacks too well

see, if you're going to juke but one of your damage is already uncancellable, then your opponent can only roll one evade or you won't juke your other damage through

but...if you roll 2 damage and you juke that same one evade, you still do 2 uncanceled damage

so Fanatical Devotion and OL do not stack together well at all

the built-in fleet officer is another story

personally think you should have OL in a Tie Fighter hux list because I believe every list needs a badass lategame ship (and because OL is just a boss in general), but he's a pretty poor target for the condition imo. Luckily, you can always condition Hux's ship or one of the other ties you brought along

um just to confirm you can't actually put gen HUX on a tie bomber shuttle right?

um just to confirm you can't actually put gen HUX on a tie bomber shuttle right?

That is correct since he cost 5. We are just off on a minor tangent

I think Imperials need a few more cheap crew options (0-1 pt). Sometimes IA just isn't what you need, and bombardier on a Bomber without bombs is not smart (unless Jerry is stuffing him into holes). Rebels have a lot now, and so do scum, but the Imperials apparently think their crew members need plush surroundings, expensive imported wines, etc.

They need like a 1 point targeting coordinator, "If a friendly ship at range one attacks a ship you have target locked, it may reroll one [blank] result."

That would be fun on a Scimitar TIE swarm with Howlrunner in the mix. Allows the TIEs to concentrate on trying not to die so fast.

Whatever it ends up being, I just want some extra cheap crew for when I have an extra point in the list and an extra crew slot.

Anyone else feel Imperials need some better cheap crew options?

Well we now have another cheap crew option: Inspiring Recruit for 1 point. We can field cheap (minimum 17 points) Rage Support Ships now, will this be worth it?

Ops Specialist, Inspiring Recruit, Scimitar comes in at 20 points. Supporting a Youngster Rage swarm, that would still give you 4 basic academies and another higher PS pilot (or outfit 4 TIEs with Twin Ions) Being able to Rage every turn could prove extremely effective, especially against things like Decimators and Ghosts.

Well we now have another cheap crew option: Inspiring Recruit for 1 point. We can field cheap (minimum 17 points) Rage Support Ships now, will this be worth it?

Ops Specialist, Inspiring Recruit, Scimitar comes in at 20 points. Supporting a Youngster Rage swarm, that would still give you 4 basic academies and another higher PS pilot (or outfit 4 TIEs with Twin Ions) Being able to Rage every turn could prove extremely effective, especially against things like Decimators and Ghosts.

Also take note that the crew isn't limited or unique so you can take multiples on the same ship to remove even more stress on the same ship or remove multiple stress from multiple ships.

Also updated main post.

Well we now have another cheap crew option: Inspiring Recruit for 1 point. We can field cheap (minimum 17 points) Rage Support Ships now, will this be worth it?

Shuttle with 2 Recruits is 18 points. 2 is 36 points. 2 with Howl and 3 Rage TIEs is 100.

Probably not better than a crack swarm though.

I want to try this. Tie MK2 and/or ops specialist maybe not the best upgrades though.

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

TIE Shuttle (0)

Inspiring Recruit (1)

Operations Specialist (3)

TIE Fighter: · "Youngster" (15)

Rage (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Fighter: Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Fighter: Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Fighter: Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Fighter: Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

-- TOTAL ------- 100/100p. --

Hmm. A couple destressing TIE Shuttles with a Raging Defender and a Raging Fel sounds interesting. Trade in Soontir's arc dodging build for a high damage survival build (Rage Focus + Focus from stresss).

Hmm. A couple destressing TIE Shuttles with a Raging Defender and a Raging Fel sounds interesting. Trade in Soontir's arc dodging build for a high damage survival build (Rage Focus + Focus from stresss).

Soontir (27)

Rage (1)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Stealth Device (3)

Autothrusters (2)

You're still at 33 points. You would end up with 3 focus tokens when you Rage, and get the rerolls on your attack. I can see that working well, but it might need some way to mitigate the possibility of rolling 4 blanks on the defense. Seen that happen more than once.

Indeed. For Fel I'm thinking go for a hull upgrade instead of Stealth because it would be slightly more reliable for a less maneuverable interceptor.

Just came up with something else of interest as a fourth ship

QuickDraw + Title(29)

Rage(1)

Electronic Baffle(1)

TIE mk. 2 (1)

Total 31 points

1) Rage

2) clear your stress, lose a shield and attack

3) attack again

Once your shields are gone TIE Mk 2 should help you with shedding stress still.

Well, the wording on Baffles states that the stress is discarded before even being placed, not removed - and Z Recruit states that it only functions when a model 'removes' Stress. So probably no bueno for the rapid-fire QD.

The shuttle itself functions largely as a decoy. It's meant to draw fire, not be a heavy hitter in and of itself. Kylo will be a HUGE help for that; he's going to draw ever so much hate, and because the condition persists until the crit is dealt it won't matter if the Shuttle dies after only placing I'll Show You The Dark Side once. Zealous Recruit is... interesting, but I'm just not sure how much more useful he is for the Empire.

Right now my 4-ship list has a Darth Vader/Intel Agent Scimitar, along with QD Rage/Baffles, OmegaL, and ZetaL with Predator - though really, Predator just isn't that good these days.