So I'm intrigued by the idea of the offensive support UPS, and really like Stridan's utility, though I'm still learning to fly a shuttle-craft. I originally tried Stridan with Inquisitor, but found that he'd PtL too often to make him useful for Stridan's coordinate or Systems Officer. I thought maybe Vader would be a better fit given his capacity for stress-free multi-actions. The question then is who to pair with Vader to provide both damage, manueverability, and durability (especially against turrets)? One option would be a pocket ace like Omega Leader or the new Duchess. This would free up points to make Stridan a bit more juicy, like Hux or Ion Projector. Or I could strip Stridan down and throw in Inquisitor alongside Vader for Autothruster magic. What do you all think would be most viable? Or something different altogether?

Option 1:

Stridan: Collision Detector, Systems Officer, General Hux

Vader: VI, ATC, EU, Title

Omega Leader: Juke, Comm Relay OR

Duchess: VI, Title, Lightweight Frame

Option 2:

Stridan: Collision Detector, Systems Officer

Vader: VI,ATC, EU, Title

Inquisitor: Juke Or PtL, Title, Autothrusters

I'm a big fan of option #1. With Fleet Officer or Hux, Stridan is generally going to be stapled to green moves anyways. May as well get some bonus out of them with Systems Officer. You can then use Hux, give the condition to Stridan, and focus tokens to your friends.

Whether you choose OL or Duchess is up to you; one is a janky cranky dream to fly, and the other one is literal hell for your opponent, especially as all three are big bad endgame problems. Is there room, in any way, in either list, to fit FCS on Stridan? That makes him a much scarier ship on his own, for sure.

I suppose in the Duchess list you could lose VI on both ships for FCS?

Mmm, probably not worth it. Maybe on Vader, definitely not on Duchess.

Could switch it to Adaptability for PS10 and PS9?

I actually just played a very similar list (below) twice today and found some of the things you mentioned. I should note (unless I missed something), Hux and system officer are both assigning tokens not taking actions so the Inquisitor being stressed shouldn't effect them but still messes with coordinate. However I did run into a few times where he was stressed and none of the possibilites mattered for one reason or another.

I was also about to make a topic on optimizing this list as well but since you've pretty much started it as well I hope you don't mind me piggy backing.

TIE Avanced Prototype: · The Inquisitor (25)
Push The Limit (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/v1 (1)
Upsilon-class Shuttle: · Major Stridan (32)
Fire Control System (2)
Systems officer (2)
· General Hux (5)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
TIE/fo Fighter: · "Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)
-- TOTAL ------- 99/100p. --

The biggest issue I had was Hux causing stress to the shuttle. I now I should be sticking mostly to green maneuvers but it doesn't always happen and him relieving his stress while trying to not get shot in the ass was difficult more than once.

I could be wrong but system officer states a ship may "acquire a target lock," which is an action, I believe. So Inquisitor would not be able to make use of it if stressed.

50 minutes ago, Featherbrew said:

I could be wrong but system officer states a ship may "acquire a target lock," which is an action, I believe. So Inquisitor would not be able to make use of it if stressed.

"may acquire target lock" is different from "may perform a free target lock action"

you can still acquire the target lock while stressed

Gasp! This makes me very happy indeed!

But to complicate things, the evade from the Inquisitor's title is a free action so if he's stressed he could get the target lock but not the evade.

As an alternative for my list above I was considering dropping Hux for a rebel captive, then spending the remaining points on something...possibly the shuttle title or maybe a mod for OL.