Sozin and Blair bring on their beloved friend Kevin Wadsworth (Kdubb) and some guy named Ryan Farmer to discuss some Rebel Jank ideas and a few other topics.

https://teamcovenant.com/star-wars-x-wing/episode-49-dont-jank-me-bro

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What I don't get is the opinion that the only Imperial builds are either high PS Aces or Swarms. You talk about Rebel Jank, but what about Imperial Jank? There are a number of ships that don't fit the first two categories: Tie Advanced, Tie Bombers, SF Tie Fighter, Lambda, VT-49, and Bat-wing. I know that the only competitive builds in the past have been with High PS Aces and Swarms, but you don't think there is ANYTHING that you can fly that might have a chance? Like Rebel Jank?

Cool, been waiting for the next episode.

1 minute ago, heychadwick said:

What I don't get is the opinion that the only Imperial builds are either high PS Aces or Swarms. You talk about Rebel Jank, but what about Imperial Jank? There are a number of ships that don't fit the first two categories: Tie Advanced, Tie Bombers, SF Tie Fighter, Lambda, VT-49, and Bat-wing. I know that the only competitive builds in the past have been with High PS Aces and Swarms, but you don't think there is ANYTHING that you can fly that might have a chance? Like Rebel Jank?

Imperial "jank" is much harder to come by. Rebels are by far the faction with the most variety, to the point that "Rebel jank" is almost the norm. Imperials are a faction built on uniformity and limited upgrade options. Imperial ships have few or no upgrade slots to build jank into and most of their named pilots are constricted to certain upgrades to be viable (like PTL on Interceptors). For that reason they've always done well at just two things: swarms and aces. There are a few janky lists that have done fine competitively (like the Lothal runner up) but those are outliers and seem to be quite hit-or-miss. It's MUCH harder to come up with a janky Imperial list and do well compared to Rebel or Scum.

1 minute ago, defkhan1 said:

Cool, been waiting for the next episode.

Imperial "jank" is much harder to come by. Rebels are by far the faction with the most variety, to the point that "Rebel jank" is almost the norm. Imperials are a faction built on uniformity and limited upgrade options. Imperial ships have few or no upgrade slots to build jank into and most of their named pilots are constricted to certain upgrades to be viable (like PTL on Interceptors). For that reason they've always done well at just two things: swarms and aces. There are a few janky lists that have done fine competitively (like the Lothal runner up) but those are outliers and seem to be quite hit-or-miss. It's MUCH harder to come up with a janky Imperial list and do well compared to Rebel or Scum.

What about ships like the Tie Advanced, Tie Bomber, or Tie Bomber Shuttle? Also throw in the Special Forces Tie Fighter. These guys have upgrade slots and don't fall into the other categories. VT-49 also works, too.

3 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

What about ships like the Tie Advanced, Tie Bomber, or Tie Bomber Shuttle? Also throw in the Special Forces Tie Fighter. These guys have upgrade slots and don't fall into the other categories. VT-49 also works, too.

There's your jank friend. All. The. Jank. Not too hard to come up with some borderline good squads too.

9 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

What about ships like the Tie Advanced, Tie Bomber, or Tie Bomber Shuttle? Also throw in the Special Forces Tie Fighter. These guys have upgrade slots and don't fall into the other categories. VT-49 also works, too.

Advanced and TIE/sf are still somewhat limited, they just have missile and systems (and tech in the case of the /sf). The latter has some interesting use with Targeting Synch but I haven't found anything that has worked for me.

Crew is the biggest thing that will foster variety, and Imperials don't have a whole lot of supportive crew or pilot abilities compared to Rebels. For instance, what would you put on a TIE Shuttle? Fleet and Systems Officer? Both are OK but severely range restricted. The Decimator is also an expensive ship and if you're not putting on crew that aid its offensive output (ie Vader/Gunner/Hot Cops etc) then its not worth its points.

NEEDZ MOAR JANK!

Next episode: Imperial Jank.

Next next episode: Scum Jank (no Attanni or JM5K, thx).

10 hours ago, heychadwick said:

What about ships like the Tie Advanced, Tie Bomber, or Tie Bomber Shuttle? Also throw in the Special Forces Tie Fighter. These guys have upgrade slots and don't fall into the other categories. VT-49 also works, too.

Perhaps the issue is it is difficult to find Imperial jank that can compete against strong lists, even when flown well. Rebels seem to have less of an issue, and some really janky rebel stuff can do some work when flown well. But, I will say, especially with the recent Palp and x7 changes, it's certainly a discussion worth having. Here is my favorite "imperial jank" build.

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)
Darth Vader (3)
Rebel Captive (3)
Hull Upgrade (3)
TIE Shuttle (0)

Total: 25

25 points of sheer ace terror. They want to kill you fast so you don't Vader crit them? Well, enjoy that rebel captive stress. Hull upgrade for taste to get an extra crit in.

Also, wanted to redeem myself with that Blue Ace build... Here is a much better jank Blue Ace build.

"Blue Ace" (27)
R7-T1 (3)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 33

Use him as a blocker, utilizing R7-T1 and his ability to sneak him in spots your opponent isn't expecting. Then, have one of your other ships use Blue Ace's Targeting Synchronizer to get some use from the R7-T1 lock on the blocked ship.

The reason it is tougher (please note I didn't say impossible) to come up with Imperial "Jank" is simply math.

I've pointed this out elsewhere but Imperials have access to half the number of unique upgrades (upgrades that not everyone else has access to) and currently has three fewer upgrade slots to work with. That's a lot fewer combinations to work with.

11 hours ago, heychadwick said:

What about ships like the Tie Advanced, Tie Bomber, or Tie Bomber Shuttle? Also throw in the Special Forces Tie Fighter. These guys have upgrade slots and don't fall into the other categories. VT-49 also works, too.

Per my point above, the other factions have similar combinations to work with on their ships as well as additional slots on those same ships (droids, illicit, turrets) and more unique cards (25-30 more than Imperials) to do something with those slots.