I forget/can't find who first posted this little tidbit, but my thanks to you.

Major Rhymer with TIE Shuttle/Snap Shot/Tactician. Lovely little stress build, to which I added Lightweight Frame and Rebel Captive for further giggles. I ran him last night with Deathfire and two Crack Shot Omega Squadron TIE/fo's. My opponent flew a Cassian/Keyan/Snap-Juke A-Wing. First turn ended with the A-wing triple-stressed, but Rhymer was toasted. Deathfire almost pulled the game out for me, and would have if my opponent had rolled a little more average on Cassian's Console Fire, ha ha.

I don't often play Imperials, but I like the shenanigans this build offers. So, given a minimum 30 points on Rhymer, what else do I fly? 25+/- points of Deathfire seems well-spent, but it feels like there needs to be something nice and scary to draw attention away from those two squishy bombers. I'm toying with thoughts of Whisper or Echo, or some Defender or other, or maybe dropping Deathfire for some janky triple TIE/fo squad. What do y'all think? Surprise me (and our opponents).

I was thinking about this too. I haven't had a chance to play test anything but I was thinking that with stress/action denial there might be a place for opportunist in the list. This could also pair with some alpha and ion to ensure that stress sticks and to get a quick kill and make it more likely you can gain an early advantage where ongoing stress will continue to be useful. One possibility:

Rhymer- snap shot, tactician (30)

Tomax Bren- crack shot, extra munitions, ion torpedo, lightweight frame (34)

Soontir Fel- opportunist, royal guard tie, auto thrusters, stealth device (36)

While it would be nice to get chips on tomax and LWF on rhymer, I don't think it's practical since Tomax will likely be drawing the lasery love. Like I said.. just theorycrafting here so critique away

I was kinda half thinking something like Omega Leader, an Omega with Swarm Leader, and an Omega with Opportunist. Maybe. But I don't know if that's sufficient to draw attention away from Rhymer.

How about toss LRS on Deathfire and make your third ship Vessery/D?

8 hours ago, nitrobenz said:

How about toss LRS on Deathfire and make your third ship Vessery/D?

I just knew someone would suggest Vessery. And it is an excellent suggestion, just not for me. Defenders never called to me, and so I only have those that come in ImpVets, which were a gift. Ha ha. I just plopped down some cash on a small consignment of other ships, and so Defenders are still a ways off for me.

8 hours ago, JLank said:

I was thinking about this too. I haven't had a chance to play test anything but I was thinking that with stress/action denial there might be a place for opportunist in the list. This could also pair with some alpha and ion to ensure that stress sticks and to get a quick kill and make it more likely you can gain an early advantage where ongoing stress will continue to be useful. One possibility:

Rhymer- snap shot, tactician (30)

Tomax Bren- crack shot, extra munitions, ion torpedo, lightweight frame (34)

Soontir Fel- opportunist, royal guard tie, auto thrusters, stealth device (36)

While it would be nice to get chips on tomax and LWF on rhymer, I don't think it's practical since Tomax will likely be drawing the lasery love. Like I said.. just theorycrafting here so critique away

The more I think about this, the more I think you might be on to something here with the addition of ion control elements. Considering this, do we think a Glaive/D with an Ion Cannon would be scary enough? Or perhaps even sufficient to close out the endgame if the other two went down? And if so, how the merry hell does one run one's Turn Zero with this list? Heh.

I think Kylo Ren is a better crew choice on Rhymer - he doesn't really need a focus to be a dangerous ship. After that I'd say 2 juking Glaives would be good to capitalise on the tokenless Rhymer victim. They also make handy distractions. There are just enough points for:

Major Rhymer (32)
TIE Bomber (26), TIE Shuttle (0), Snap Shot (2), Lightweight Frame (2), Tactician (2)

Glaive Squadron Pilot (34) x 2
TIE Defender (34), Juke (2), TIE/x7 (-2)

Which I might bring out next game night. It's a brutal combination, and you could swap out LWF for twin Ion engines if you find Rhymer dies just as fast with LWF.

Busta Rhymes (99)

Major Rhymer (35) - TIE Bomber
Snap Shot (2), TIE Shuttle (0), Lightweight Frame (2), Tactician (2), Rebel Captive (3)

"Backdraft" (34) - TIE/SF Fighter
Predator (3), Collision Detector (0), Pattern Analyzer (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Backdraft should draw attention away from Busta Rhymes (my community's name for the Major Rhymer stress build) and the Black Crack TIEs can occupy the Range 1 space in front of the bomber.

For craziness swap Swarm Leader for Predator on Backdraft.