Hi, I have been playing with my lists for the next tournament and well, I don't really care about winning, its mostly for fun, but I have tried this list againsts TIE Swarm, Soontir-Carnor-Turr, Kath-Boba and Soontir-Omega Leader-Whisper. Won all of them somehow.

I'm not really asking for advice, because I quite like this list, so I just wanted to share with you, maybe try out and see if you like it. I have grown to like Zeta more than Omega, maybe just because I grew tired of flying OL everywhere, so I wanted something different, so have a look, it's a two defender, TIE/fo and bomber shuttle list.

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
TIE/x7 (-2)

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
TIE/x7 (-2)

"Zeta Leader" (20)
Wired (1)
Comm Relay (3)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)
TIE Shuttle (0)
Fleet Officer (3)
Intelligence Agent (1)

Total: 100

You are mostly not able to get a target lock for the first round of shooting, but in the second, you should get two deffenders with evade, focus and target locks. But you can let Zeta Leader take a focus. If I'm not wrong, you can do focus action and then get another one from Fleet Officer to tank up Zeta Leader but I have found him quite devastating at range 1. It also helps if you know that Zeta meets an asteroid or bump another ship so you can give him focus and luckily if he has evade for Comm Relay. I'm not sure how it would fare against other big ships, but I'm quite satisfied. I found mysef not using Intel Agent that much, mostly by forgetting about him, but he can let you possition really well against aces since you can barrel roll defenders and get focus token.

So here's a thought, If you drop Zeta to Weapons Guidance, you can fit a Systems Officer on the Shuttle. Then for Zeta, you could just take an evade when you are expecting shots coming your way. If not, if he focuses, and gets another from the Fleet Officer, coupled with his ability and Wired, he has a massive 84% chance of scoring 3 hits on a 3 dice attack. If you give him the TL too for some reason, that goes up to an incredible 98% of scoring 3 hits on 3 dice. If you are at range 1 with his ability, you have a 73% chance of 4 hits with the double focus and a stupid 97% chance of 4 hits with 2 focus and a Target Lock. From a TIE Fighter, that's pretty ridiculous. And since most opponents these days are a little jaded by Defenders, they might ignore ZL just long enough for him to do this to one of their ships.

If only to see their faces when a TIE fighter puts four hits into their ship, I think that would be a fun adjustment to the list.

So yesterday I have tried your list, with Weapon Guidance Zeta and Systems Officer. Didn't manage to use SO that much, but when I did it really helped, the same for WG on Zeta. This list was really fun to play.

My first game was against Ryad, Vessery and Palp Shuttle.

Zeta shot down Vess, next two turns the Shuttle went down and then my opponent conceded because we had like 5 minutes left and I have lost just the bomber. I think I took down even Ryad turn before shuttle, but can't comfirm it.

In second game I faced Poe (8), Miranda (TLT, Tactitian) and Gold Squadron with Stressbot and TLT.

I shot down Y-wing pretty fast, but the shuttle had 3 stress tokens so it didn't do anything, but my opponent focused to shoot it down with Miranda so I hade time to take down Poe. After some strugling I lost Zeta and then show down 4 hull points from Miranda with one defender. I have to say that Poe regenerated all his 3 shields and then 1 more and Miranda regenerated all 4 and then like 2 I think so my damage output even without shuttle help was really devastating. I was really lucky that I managed to make Poe bumb my ships for like 3 turn in a row and then outmaneuver him so he didn't take a shot at me.

In first game the Shuttle got focused on when he really didn't have any other target so I could destroy his ships with all token ships because it took really long time to shoot it down. Second game the shuttle was the main target wtich once again gave me opportunity to shoot with the rest. So it really doesn't matter if my opponents focus on bomber or other ships because the rest will just devastate opponent's ships one by one.

I will also write how I fare on tournament tomorrow but after these to test games I am looking forward to a success.

So what to say about the tournament.

My first opponent (finished 2nd or 1st place) had Fenn Rau, Manaroo and Contracted Scout. I lost due to my poor play, not being focused (target locks on Manaroo) and dice rolls. I lost one defender pretty early, but managed to shoot both Jumpmasters to 1 hull, I was just unlucky not to be able to do the last damage. Fenn Rau was just wrecking me with his 5 dice TL Focus Focus rolls.

Second game didn't happen, because the guy was feeling sick so... win.

Then Poe (x-wing) and Rey (falcon). I shot down Poe to hull, who then run and I had to deal with Rey, who took down bomber. Rey then bumped Zeta Leader and my two defenders were at range 1, but Poe was just in range so I lost Zeta but shot down Rey. After some flying we got out of time so it was win for me on points. But we decided to see what would happen if we did one more round. Well... poor Poe had no way and ended between two defenders at range 1, did no damage and got shot down in return, so I would win that one.

The last game was quite... very intense, because I played against my friend and we weren't really happy. We triend our lists against each other just two days ago. He made some minor changes but stayed with Ryad, Vessery, Palpshuttle. I took down Vessery pretty soon but lost one defender myself. Then took down shuttle. And flew 1hp Zeta Leader, 1 hp Defender and full bomber who was quite far. We ended on time with me winning once again just by 13 points when he took down Zeta in the last turn. Given time I would loose this one because I just couldn't do enough damage to take down Ryad, due to not being able to position both Delta and Zeta to shoot.

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Final Thoughts: I really like this list, but in 3 games on tournament and 2 testing with my friend I found using weapons guidance on Zeta just once or twice because I had Target Lock all the time and mostly used focus to turn all eyes into hits or just rolling hits. So I think about switching WG to Sensor Cluster to help him survive because when you opponent realizes that this guy can get four hits he gets really targeted. Not sure about Systems Officer on Bomber, I used him a few times, but I think I'll keep it in just because I don't see better crew for 1-2 point and put Lightweight frame on ship that died first in 60% and choosing to let it live a round longer or boos my damage output, I'm decided to keep the option to TL one of my ships.

Ok, this is it.

Love the review. I'm still impressed that so many good ships can fit into 100 points. I think the Sensor Cluster could definitely be a good switch. The only other upgrade that makes any sense would be Pattern Analyzer, so you could sloop and still get an action. Not sure how often that comes up, but it could give you some options if positioning becomes a key concern.

It's funny yes, I was the only one in tournament who had 4 ship list, there were some 3 ship lists, no swarm, I just had the most. I didn't mention that I finished 5th of 16. If I managed to destroy the two ships in first game or Poe I would have beed 3rd. So I really think that this list is really good but I need some more practice. The think that surprised me was that Bomber is really durable it took like three turns to take him down. And it really helped that opponents were switching targets from double focus+evade interceptors to then focus+evade Zeta and Bomber. Mostly I had some shield down on defenders, some damage on Zeta and then the Bomber got fired on.

I did some sloops in Poe/Rey where I had focus from bomber so it really didn't matter because 360° arc. Against Palp in last game... well I was flying last with Zeta and managed to arc dodge when doing Sloop so Pattern Analyzer wouldn't help that much.

I will try Sensor Cluster list but I have also been thinking about switching Systems Officer for MK.II engine to better remove stress and upgrade Zeta to Comm Relay. Now I now that this list can be competetive but it's really hard against other defenders because all the tokens. You need ships to survive long enough to and shoot with all of them to remove tokens from and get as many of them to shoot. I found it really hard to keep bomber up with other ships because sooner or later you need to turn it 180° and it's really hard and you are mostly limited by doing greens all the time.

Absolutely, practice is the biggest thing. You learn all sorts of things going up against different lists and opponents. The strength of the defender is also it's weakness. That white k-turn is about the most predictably move in the game. That's where you can use your lower PS to your advantage. Block that K-turn with your bomber if you can, and set up your other ships to take the shots on the defender that now only has an evade token. If you can position ZL to also be in range one and out of arc of the shot, you could have multiple 3-4 dice attacks going at that defender that turn, which with the action economy you are getting, can easily burn one down. Since you brought it up, how often are you using Wired instead of just a TL? I ask, because you could drop it to Trick Shot or Adaptability and get that point for the Mk II engines that way. You could also drop to a 1 point crew for the Comm Relay, though like you stated, there aren't many good 1 point crew cards for imperials. You may take a look at Inspiring Recruit, just due to some lists out there liking to put down stress, it would help you clear it in one turn. I would encourage you to fly it in each configuration a good 5-10 times before you try a different iteration. That gives you the best ability to see what upgrades are more generally helpful, and also see what weaknesses you may be able to decipher.

When I played against Ryad and Vessery and I knew to shoot Vessery first. Well that happened. Focus+Evade didn't help him against all four ships firing so I didn't get to block his 4 k-turn. But I managed to block Ryad from turning, but one of my Defenders was already dead and I didn't get more ships to fire. It's really hard to block Ryad but piling ships next to each othere worked.

About Wired. Somehow managing to manage tokens properly I didn't use Wired for attacks most of the time. Just after bomber was down and i s-looped, then wired got in play. Yeah, that was the last turn. Zeta really shines when he shoots first to get stressed. So after you spend your TL on attack, focus and evade on first defence, then all that keeps you from being destroyed is Wired. So for attacking you use it just when you bump or k-turn/s-loop and don't get focus from Bomber. Wired for defending happens more, but I don't think I'll drop it because it really helps surviving and I would have to change my formation to get Zeta behind other ships, but that's not that big problem. But I'll consider upgrading Zeta from Wired to Juke if I take Comm Relay so I can get him up to 2 focus + evade + target lock when maxed out.

Truth is that many times I wanted to use Wired to reroll all the eyes when attacking, but instead I used focus token so I get those hits instead of relying on dice roll.