Despite conscious effort, I keep flying Imperial squads. I strongly gravitate toward fast, hard-hitting, small-based ships (durability is negotiable). I have good blocking, spatial reasoning, and prediction skills, so I actually prefer flying small-base, guns-forward kinds of ships. I find repositioning actions the most useful for blocking and setting up approaches rather than arc-dodging. I play aggressively. TIE Fighters, TIE Defenders, and TIE Interceptors all work for me because of these things, but I own ships from all the factions, and I'm trying to expand my play into those to make use of them more.

For Rebels, the only ships I've felt good with are X-wings (both types) and A-wings (but mostly as blockers). The heavy fighters are too slow, and the big turreted ships just don't hold my interest.

For Scum, I rather like Y-wings, because Unhinged Astromech completely changes them. I've been trying to make Firesprays work, too, but haven't been too successful.

So, does anyone have any ideas of builds that might suit me? I'm interested in both single ships that I might be overlooking (if it's not listed, I probably haven't looked at it that hard) and also whole lists that fit with what I've described.

Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

Someone flew this at GenCon and placed top 4. I'm like you and am an aggressive flyer...love flying defenders and this build seems to suit me and I love flying it.

Biggs with R3A2 makes him quite tanky, and with a tight formation your opponent has to target him. Wes and corran at ps10 almost guarantee first strike, Wes strips a token and gives a stress and if you can get corran into range 1 he hits for 4 and gets a target lock for his title second attack. This makes for an amazing alpha strike IMO.

I feel you and have been expandig to rebels lately. My first suggestion is to fly Sabine Fel as it's lots of fun:

Sabine Wren (21)

Push the Limit (3)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Kanan Jarrus (3)

Skip Autoblaster or go 'all in' with it and beat palp aces without much effort with something like this:

Ezra Bridger (20)

Push the Limit (3)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Lando Calrissian (3)

Sabine Wren (21)

Push the Limit (3)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Kanan Jarrus (3)

"Chopper" (37)

Fire-Control System (2)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Hera Syndulla (1)

Intelligence Agent (1)

Total: 100

Chopper rewards blocking and it's good practice for the new imperial shuttle. Plus, Lando crew makes every match different. Hope helps...

Any chance you want to run a pile of A-Wings with outmaneuver and come at your opponents from all sides, boosting for blocks when the opportunity presents itself?

I mean, it's not a typical tactic I would consider for myself, but for a guy who likes to run Interceptors with Predator, it just might be a thing to try and possibly even have some success with.

It might be silly, but Scyks and Protectorate star fighters might fit your style. A light low PS Scyk is pretty similar to a TIE, with three effective HP and a barrel roll. The title is where they get terrible due to the two point tax to pay more points.

I know the protectorate isn't widely released yet, but it flies like an aggressive interceptor. You can't bug out with a green four straight, but you are fine with the occasional face-off.

Maybe something like:

Fen Rau

Push the Limit

Title

Autothrusters

Syndicate Thug

TLT

Title

Unhinged Astromech

Syndicate Thug

TLT

Title

Unhinged Astromech

Cartel Spacer

You might have more luck with a Binarye Pirate for a blocker and upgrading the Y-wings to Hired Guns, but then you don't have an initiative bid.

Edit: if you are bored sometime, try 4-LOM with Stay On Target, Outlaw Tech, and Advanced Sensors. It's no where near as tanky as a defender, but might even beat Countess Ryad on joy of maneuvering.

It might be silly, but Scyks and Protectorate star fighters might fit your style. A light low PS Scyk is pretty similar to a TIE, with three effective HP and a barrel roll. The title is where they get terrible due to the two point tax to pay more points.

I know the protectorate isn't widely released yet, but it flies like an aggressive interceptor. You can't bug out with a green four straight, but you are fine with the occasional face-off.

I agree. Fang Fighter is totally up your alley, Bio. Although I think you've already been considering it.

Another fun ship is the Scyk, but its a zero room for error kind of ship, since its so fragile (but I find Attanni mindlink can help a lot)

Here's two Mindlink lists that might be of interest:

Scyk Manaroo:

Manaroo w/ mindlink, K4 droid, unhinged, slicer tools, proton torps, extra munis & guidance chips = 39

2 TP Vets w/ mindlink, 'heavy', HLC & hull upgrade = 30 x 2

99

With the double HLCs, plus a torpedo (which almost always hits hull for the crit), you have a pretty potent alpha strike. Although you can't always fire the torp in the beginning. Still, its an interesting list that requires a lot of thought to get the most of all that firepower.

Mana Fangs:

Manaroo w/ mindlink, Punishing One, unhinged, K4 droid & Slicer tools = 45

2 Concord Aces w/ mindlink, protector titles & autothrusters = 27 x 2

99

This list has less firepower overall, but its a bit easier to manage in a way (autothrusters really help protect the Aces at long range and the title plus potential 2 foci protects at range 1).

If you want a list that's very similar to your Interceptor list, you could go with 4 Fang Fighters:

3 Concord Vets w/ Mindlink, protector titles & autothrusters = 26 x 3

1 Zealous Recruit w/ autothrusters = 22

100

With the target lock action available, predator becomes less important, although you don't quite have the same action efficiency, even with Mindlink (although its close!). Mindlink does give the advantage of allowing focus tokens all around even when one ship pulls a red move, however.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The Outmaneuver A-wing list is pretty intriguing. It kind of gets around one of the A-wing's big weaknesses. I wonder if you could swap Predator for PTL and do similar things to my goofy TIE Interceptor list. Overall tougher, but less punchy against certain targets.

I'm definitely interested in the Fang. It does seem to be right up my alley. With PTL it solves one of the problems of the PTL Interceptor and lets you Target Lock/Focus for enhanced offense. Fearless is an EPT that makes me want to play Scum, for sure.

I saw that Manaroo/Scyk list at Gencon and thought it was awesome. I don't own any Scyks, though. I also saw Dan Hars play the Wes/Corran/Biggs list at Gencon and determined that it took a completely different mindset than I'm usually bringing to the table. I typically do poorly with formation flying and synergy lists.

"Play aggressively" to me translates as "i want to fly Biggs so my squad can get right up in their face and not give a ****"

And if flyi g fangs, fly manny too

Dengaroo gives her this false pretense of a palp shuttle when she should be blocking

I read what you write and I hear Starviper, Syck, and Fang fighter. The gang fighter is scums interceptor, the Syck is our tie fighter, and the viper is our quasi/semi defender.

The question whether you're more of a swarm pilot or not as to what kinds of lists.

I'm currently playing around with Xizor, Serissu, and 3 spacers. I'm trying to compare it to a Defender + Howlrunner mini-swarm. Once the Fang fighter comes out, xizor may be replaced with Fenn or another fang pilot. The design it like a Fel + Howlrunner mini-swarm.

The Outmaneuver A-wing list is pretty intriguing. It kind of gets around one of the A-wing's big weaknesses. I wonder if you could swap Predator for PTL and do similar things to my goofy TIE Interceptor list. Overall tougher, but less punchy against certain targets.

I've run those A-Wings a half-dozen times with good results. The key is to double token at the beginning of the game and rope-a-dope your opponent. Don't worry too much about trying to get behind them for Outmaneuver at first. You just need to make sure that as many of your ships as possible survive to the end game. At some point you will get situations where you feel safe enough to target lock or boost. Be patient for those.

Here is a good guide to running four A-Wings. His list is slightly different, but there is great advice in there.

If anything I'm over aggressive... so my oddball lists might be of interest.

I like X-Wings myself, but I've been staying away from the named pilots. I've been trying to fly other things a bit but they are my go to ship for big tournaments right now. You could take a look at my Miranda thread in the Battle Reports section for a bit more info.

That said, I've started toying with Prototypes w/ Proton Rockets and Guidance Chips recently with success on casual nights. I pretty much just zoom around with A-Wings trying for blocks and popping off rockets. It satisfies my need for a big hit and fun flying ships. Only bad part is I only have 3 A-Wings. Competitiveness is likely not there...

I'm very fond of the T-70. It's reasonably tanky, especially with Integrated Astro, which means you get up in your opponent's face. I did okay at my local regional with 4 BS Novices, Integrated, and R2s.

A list I've had a lot of fun with is:

Wedge - BB8 - PtL - IA

Ello Asty - R2D2 - Authothrusters - VI

Hobbie - Targeting Astro - IA

I forgot to mention the Kihraxz. It's the scum xwing. There's been a good amount of success flying 5 cartel mauraders. You could also run 4 crackshot blacksun aces.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/184295-green-arrow-list/

You've probably seen this before, but this is a wonderful article for aggressively flying A-wings. I think the list used Rage + Wingman for the EPTs.