Hey ya'll, been trying to put together a competitive list with what I have available and came up with this:

Rexler Bath (37)

TIE/x7 (-2)

Juke (2)

Colonel Vessery (35)

TIE/D (0)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Tractor Beam (1)

Omega Leader (21)

Comm Relay (3)

Juke (2)

Things I like:

-All PS8, so shoot/move flexibility

-OL/Vessery synergy

-Two capable late-game ships (OL/Rex)

Things I dislike:

-No initiative bid

-Vulnerable to stress

-Fairly fragile, definitely would be vulnerable to torp scouts without fancy piloting

Are there any obvious things I'm missing? Any other outright bad matchups? Any tips for dealing with something like torp scouts? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

The main problem I find is that /D Vessery ends up with a massive target painted on his hull. My own version of this list swaps Brath for Ryad and gives both Defenders /x7.

35 Vessery (35), Juke (2), /x7 (-2)

36 Ryad (34), PTL (3), Mk2 Engines (1), /x7 (-2)

26 Omega Leader (21), Juke (2), Comms Relay (3)

97 Total

That leaves you with a slightly lower PS squad but a bit more durable and you can pull crazy stunts with Ryad. You have 3 points spare which you could use to put a Stealth Device on a ship of your choice.

This list is a bit better against Torpedo Scouts as every ship will normally have 3 Agility + Evade + Focus when they are taking fire. The Scouts will be lucky to force more than one damage through that lot and even then, you have a good chance of being able to maneuver to keep out of the Scouts torpedo arc since your ships have higher PS and Barrel Roll.

Stele is the same points as vessels and would get you a ps9 with veterans instincts. Dealing with torpedoes scouts it really depends on their ps but with you being all 8s you are probably shooting first. Just take advantage of the speed of your ships and get in that range one.

I like the original post. No bid works fine for the list, because both Juke and Tractor benefit from firing first. Vessery being target number 1 is fine because he's not that great in the late game anyway, and OL and X7 Rex are.

The biggest weakness I see is vs low AGI, high hull targets. All your upgrades are optimized for defeating targets with defenses, but are not really doing anything against Ghosts, and not doing much against Y-wing type targets.

The main problem I find is that /D Vessery ends up with a massive target painted on his hull. My own version of this list swaps Brath for Ryad and gives both Defenders /x7. 35 Vessery (35), Juke (2), /x7 (-2)36 Ryad (34), PTL (3), Mk2 Engines (1), /x7 (-2)26 Omega Leader (21), Juke (2), Comms Relay (3)97 Total That leaves you with a slightly lower PS squad but a bit more durable and you can pull crazy stunts with Ryad. You have 3 points spare which you could use to put a Stealth Device on a ship of your choice.This list is a bit better against Torpedo Scouts as every ship will normally have 3 Agility + Evade + Focus when they are taking fire. The Scouts will be lucky to force more than one damage through that lot and even then, you have a good chance of being able to maneuver to keep out of the Scouts torpedo arc since your ships have higher PS and Barrel Roll.

My biggest concern about PS5/6 is it puts them at or below the moderately crowded 5-7 PS range and lowers the overall offensive output compared to the PS8/Tractor Beam scenario.

Stele is the same points as vessels and would get you a ps9 with veterans instincts. Dealing with torpedoes scouts it really depends on their ps but with you being all 8s you are probably shooting first. Just take advantage of the speed of your ships and get in that range one.

I'm not sure how I feel about Stele over the other options. His ability is nice but doesn't have much Defender synergy (no ATC) and I'm not sure PS9 Stele without ability is better than PS8 Vessery with ability. PS9 tractor beam is tempting, but the attack mods will be fairly limited. Are there any PS8/9 ship pilots that would be vulnerable to a single-mod TB shot?

I like the original post. No bid works fine for the list, because both Juke and Tractor benefit from firing first. Vessery being target number 1 is fine because he's not that great in the late game anyway, and OL and X7 Rex are.

The biggest weakness I see is vs low AGI, high hull targets. All your upgrades are optimized for defeating targets with defenses, but are not really doing anything against Ghosts, and not doing much against Y-wing type targets.

Off-topic, but how's the Generic Interceptors project going?

Stele is the same points as vessels and would get you a ps9 with veterans instincts. Dealing with torpedoes scouts it really depends on their ps but with you being all 8s you are probably shooting first. Just take advantage of the speed of your ships and get in that range one.

Yeah, if I can arrange a 3xR1 shot I think I'm golden, that can be tricky to set up on the first pass, though. I think I need more practice flying against them.

I'm not sure how I feel about Stele over the other options. His ability is nice but doesn't have much Defender synergy (no ATC) and I'm not sure PS9 Stele without ability is better than PS8 Vessery with ability. PS9 tractor beam is tempting, but the attack mods will be fairly limited. Are there any PS8/9 ship pilots that would be vulnerable to a single-mod TB shot?

Stele is the same points as vessels and would get you a ps9 with veterans instincts. Dealing with torpedoes scouts it really depends on their ps but with you being all 8s you are probably shooting first. Just take advantage of the speed of your ships and get in that range one.

Yeah, if I can arrange a 3xR1 shot I think I'm golden, that can be tricky to set up on the first pass, though. I think I need more practice flying against them.

I'm not sure how I feel about Stele over the other options. His ability is nice but doesn't have much Defender synergy (no ATC) and I'm not sure PS9 Stele without ability is better than PS8 Vessery with ability. PS9 tractor beam is tempting, but the attack mods will be fairly limited. Are there any PS8/9 ship pilots that would be vulnerable to a single-mod TB shot?

I have gotten significant milage out of steele's ability.

I would like Stele with calculation a lot more, but that obviously precludes VI, which is a problem for the whole TIE/D thing. I have nothing against Stele, I'm just not convinced that he works well with this particular list.

I like the original post. No bid works fine for the list, because both Juke and Tractor benefit from firing first. Vessery being target number 1 is fine because he's not that great in the late game anyway, and OL and X7 Rex are.

The biggest weakness I see is vs low AGI, high hull targets. All your upgrades are optimized for defeating targets with defenses, but are not really doing anything against Ghosts, and not doing much against Y-wing type targets.

Good point on high defense/low hull ships. I typically try to trigger Rex's ability to stack crits when I fly him against those ships, but it's entirely dependent on getting good naked rolls to do so, so it's inconsistent.

Off-topic, but how's the Generic Interceptors project going?

Rex's ability is pretty useful both in this squad because you've got ships to strip shields and in general against those kind of targets are vulnerable to the extra crits. I'm just not sure it's enough. You don't have points for Predator on Rex, which would be better than Juke for both getting extra damage against beefy targets and leaving a Focus available to flip if you get a good quantity of natural hits. You might consider Lone Wolf, depending on how you like to fly. An x7 with Lone Wolf is insanely tough, and it gives him a little bit of offense. Alternatively, you could downgrade to Maarek with Predator, who preys on high hulled ships in a similar way. Their abilities trigger at about the same frequency against the discussed targets, and drawing three and picking the worst is pretty comparable to flipping 2 or 3, as there's usually 1 that really matters. You lose the PS, but you get a point for Mk2 Engines, or something. Oddly enough, I feel like x7 Rex is really at a high point right now. He straddles this point where higher PS pilots can't outfight him, and he's got the same joustiness as the more popular lower PS pilots like Ryad and Vessery. You've also got Dash, the new Lancer pilots, etc., that are all pretty responsive, but stuck at PS7 unless they give up offensive power for VI. He costs slightly more than all the Imperial Aces barring Phantoms, which is too bad, because it costs more, but nice because in a 1v1 endgame, their chances of killing him are almost non-existent.

In regards to the Interceptors, I played probably 8-9 games on Vassal before I started messing with Wave 9 stuff. I settled on 3 Royals with Predator and Autothrusters, backed up by a naked Alpha as the best variant, but it's on the back burner because to fly it in real life I'd need another Starviper and another Imperial Aces pack, and they're pretty low down on priority. There are no games that have been unfun with it, and I've hung close in all of them, even against players with some rough meta lists. Most people are pretty happy to play against it, too. It's just cool to see it fly. I tried some Fang Fighter variants, too, and they seemed reasonably solid as well, but half the fun of the list is the aesthetics, and TIE/Interceptors have that in spades over the Fangs.

I like the original post. No bid works fine for the list, because both Juke and Tractor benefit from firing first. Vessery being target number 1 is fine because he's not that great in the late game anyway, and OL and X7 Rex are.

The biggest weakness I see is vs low AGI, high hull targets. All your upgrades are optimized for defeating targets with defenses, but are not really doing anything against Ghosts, and not doing much against Y-wing type targets.

Good point on high defense/low hull ships. I typically try to trigger Rex's ability to stack crits when I fly him against those ships, but it's entirely dependent on getting good naked rolls to do so, so it's inconsistent.

Off-topic, but how's the Generic Interceptors project going?

Rex's ability is pretty useful both in this squad because you've got ships to strip shields and in general against those kind of targets are vulnerable to the extra crits. I'm just not sure it's enough. You don't have points for Predator on Rex, which would be better than Juke for both getting extra damage against beefy targets and leaving a Focus available to flip if you get a good quantity of natural hits. You might consider Lone Wolf, depending on how you like to fly. An x7 with Lone Wolf is insanely tough, and it gives him a little bit of offense. Alternatively, you could downgrade to Maarek with Predator, who preys on high hulled ships in a similar way. Their abilities trigger at about the same frequency against the discussed targets, and drawing three and picking the worst is pretty comparable to flipping 2 or 3, as there's usually 1 that really matters. You lose the PS, but you get a point for Mk2 Engines, or something. Oddly enough, I feel like x7 Rex is really at a high point right now. He straddles this point where higher PS pilots can't outfight him, and he's got the same joustiness as the more popular lower PS pilots like Ryad and Vessery. You've also got Dash, the new Lancer pilots, etc., that are all pretty responsive, but stuck at PS7 unless they give up offensive power for VI. He costs slightly more than all the Imperial Aces barring Phantoms, which is too bad, because it costs more, but nice because in a 1v1 endgame, their chances of killing him are almost non-existent.

In regards to the Interceptors, I played probably 8-9 games on Vassal before I started messing with Wave 9 stuff. I settled on 3 Royals with Predator and Autothrusters, backed up by a naked Alpha as the best variant, but it's on the back burner because to fly it in real life I'd need another Starviper and another Imperial Aces pack, and they're pretty low down on priority. There are no games that have been unfun with it, and I've hung close in all of them, even against players with some rough meta lists. Most people are pretty happy to play against it, too. It's just cool to see it fly. I tried some Fang Fighter variants, too, and they seemed reasonably solid as well, but half the fun of the list is the aesthetics, and TIE/Interceptors have that in spades over the Fangs.

Yeah, real-life X-wing is really pricey. That seems like a great list to fly in real life, though, both aesthetics and fun-wise. Did you do the quad fang/fearlessness/title build for those?

I actually did PTL Fenn + 3 Zealous Recruits. It's a great base ship, but I don't think I was playing it with the right upgrades. I never ended up trying it, but I'm pretty convinced that Mindlink is the way to go with those ships.

Edit: Also, Juke is great on Rex because the PS let's you double-dip a bit more often, it just seems to be overlapping with the core competency of Omega Leader.

I actually did PTL Fenn + 3 Zealous Recruits. It's a great base ship, but I don't think I was playing it with the right upgrades. I never ended up trying it, but I'm pretty convinced that Mindlink is the way to go with those ships.

Edit: Also, Juke is great on Rex because the PS let's you double-dip a bit more often, it just seems to be overlapping with the core competency of Omega Leader.

I actually don't know how much OL and Rex overlap-- Rex is there to take advantage of anything Vess can tractor and detoken, OL is there to ignore token stacking entirely and maintain a TL for Vess. I feel like they fly and fight fairly differently despite the similarities. OL controls and nibbles but can't really joust outside of a 1v1 situation, whereas Rex is just a fancy bludgeon.

I meant that Juke and Tractor Beam are all anti-agility cards, not anti-hit point cards. You are certainly correct that the ships are different ships, but they are upgraded to attack the same type of defenses. That's not to say it can't work, it's just something to consider.

I meant that Juke and Tractor Beam are all anti-agility cards, not anti-hit point cards. You are certainly correct that the ships are different ships, but they are upgraded to attack the same type of defenses. That's not to say it can't work, it's just something to consider.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll play around with Lone Wolf and see how it feels.