39 minutes ago, Iksentrik said:

Do you think Deathrain, or any punisher for that matter, is even remotely competitive?

No.

TO the OP: put Targetting Synchronisers on both /sfs and include a pocket ace of your choice (a Striker or OL will fit, or Deathfire with Homin, EM, Conner for an interesting alternative) for a VERY strong shooty list.

1 hour ago, Iksentrik said:

Do you think Deathrain, or any punisher for that matter, is even remotely competitive?

I think Deathrain has a tiny fraction of a chance, but it's pure suspicion, not based in experience.

6 hours ago, Biophysical said:

I think Deathrain has a tiny fraction of a chance, but it's pure suspicion, not based in experience.

I think I'd like to try a punisher when Unguided Rockets hits. I know a lot of people don't rate them, but you can get a quote sturdy 9hp 3 Dice platform with 2 green defence Dice (LWF) that way.

I'm also considering really loading the SF's up. It makes them more threatening at range, but it is a lot of points,and Duchess is super vulnerable to turrets/TLT.

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Quickdraw" (29)
Adaptability (Increase) (0)
Homing Missiles (5)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Backdraft" (27)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Homing Missiles (5)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)

TIE Striker: · "Duchess" (23)
Adaptability (Increase) (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive ailerons (0)
-- TOTAL ------- 100p. --

I'm curious if a starkiller base pilot with fcs (and pattern analyzer maybe) is a reasonable add as the third ship.

3 hours ago, nigeltastic said:

I'm curious if a starkiller base pilot with fcs (and pattern analyzer maybe) is a reasonable add as the third ship.

It's not worth, I tried the science and it's bad.

7 hours ago, nigeltastic said:

It's not worth, I tried the science and it's bad.

Tell me more.

I love the Upsilon, but it is a log to turn, and is easily arc dodged :(.

59 minutes ago, Goseki1 said:

Tell me more.

I love the Upsilon, but it is a log to turn, and is easily arc dodged :(.

For me it's solely based on the fact that I don't like the shuttle. But that is personal preference

2 hours ago, Iksentrik said:

For me it's solely based on the fact that I don't like the shuttle. But that is personal preference

Well kind of, I mean you don't like the shuttle because it's not very good.

20 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Well kind of, I mean you don't like the shuttle because it's not very good.

I think it's more my aversion to large base ships

On 5/19/2017 at 6:14 AM, SOTL said:

Well kind of, I mean you don't like the shuttle because it's not very good.

I'm with Iksentrik. I don't care for the aesthetics. If I did I'm 100 sure I would have made more of an effort to make it work. 4 attack dice with FCS is my jam.

On 2017-5-19 at 1:47 AM, nigeltastic said:

It's not worth, I tried the science and it's bad.

Can you explain more? I had a few practice games with Tomax and Duchess and haven't felt anything has stuck as well as I'd like. Vessery is another option, but I'm also tempted to just fly a Starkiller with FCS, Pattern Analyzer and inspiring recruit.

Edit: Am completely dithering on what to take still. I think I'm just going to run the Deathfire build I first posted about. Hopefully it's unusual enough to throw some people off and had a bid for some of the Fenn/PS9 lists out there.

Although... I could drop the Pattern Analyzers down to Primed thrusters. I generally only use pattern analyzer after a sloop etc to barrel roll out of arc, so primed thrusters serves a similar function. It means I could fit Plasmas on Deathfire too which is just silly. XD

As it stands I'll take:

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Quickdraw" (29)
Adaptability (Increase) (0)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Pattern Analyzer (2)

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Backdraft" (27)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Pattern Analyzer (2)

TIE Bomber: · "Deathfire" (17)
Extra Munitions (2)
Homing Missiles (5)
Cluster Mines (4)
Lightweight Frame (2)
-- TOTAL ------- 99p. --

The following list I having been using recently and it is capable of deleting a ship a turn (including an Up Shuttle). The TIE Shuttle ensures that QD can trigger rage and be double focused with no stress.

Gunslingers (100)

"Quickdraw" (38) - TIE/SF Fighter
Rage (1), Electronic Baffle (1), Homing Missiles (5), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Backdraft" (37) - TIE/SF Fighter
Veteran Instincts (1), Fire Control System (2), Homing Missiles (5), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (25) - TIE Bomber
Wired (1), TIE Shuttle (0), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1), Inspiring Recruit (1), Fleet Officer (3)

Oh that's lovely. I flew a support bomber once and did terribly but think I just need to try it again. I'll definitely try something like that after today. Though I don't think I'd take wired on the bomber.

Wired is great as the TIE Shuttle is pretty much always stressed and without focus, so it gives a modifier (even if only rerolling focus) on offense and defense, with makes the Shuttle that little bit harder to kill and provides some addition punch. great at range 1.

I've pretty much been flying TIE shuttles since Imperial Veterans came out. I find it hard to build a list without one

2 minutes ago, Supernatural said:

I've pretty much been flying TIE shuttles since Imperial Veterans came out. I find it hard to build a list without one

What build is your favourite and how have you been flying them for best effects

My favourite build would be Gamma Sqn Vet (Wired/Twin Ion Eng Mk2, Title and Fleet Officer). The combination of Wired and PS of 5 gives it some independent punch and survivability. Add second crew as needed.....the 'Poisoned Apple' adds Rebel Captive to make your opponent pay that little bit more for targeting it. When on a budget, I run a 20pt Shuttle (Scimitar Sqn with title, Twin Ion and Fleet Officer).

Pretty much all my Shuttle builds have included Fleet Officer (exception was a Shuttle carrying two intelligent agents....bit like an AWACS for phantoms), I find that fleet officer provides that extra action economy for the entire squad, acting a bit like Imperial mind-link. I have run TIE Shuttles with TAP swarms, double defenders, double SF, SF/defender, striker swarms, double phantoms and bomber mini-swarm.

As for use, in the early phases of the game, I keep the Shuttle behind the rest of the squad and just use it as a focus engine. Once engaged, it tries to block opponent (just generally get in the way) and still dish out the focus. Sometimes the opponent will get target fixation on the Shuttle in which case I disengage it and use it as bait to set up the opponent ships or it just adds some more red dice to the attack.

On 5/20/2017 at 8:43 AM, Goseki1 said:

Can you explain more? I had a few practice games with Tomax and Duchess and haven't felt anything has stuck as well as I'd like. Vessery is another option, but I'm also tempted to just fly a Starkiller with FCS, Pattern Analyzer and inspiring recruit.

The shuttle has good punchiness and is a scary gun. the problem is it gets 1 run before it's out of the fight usually and unlike a palp shuttle it does nothing when wheeling and trying to get back into the fight. It's possible I just wasn't flying it well but it didn't feel like a good fit for how much the double sfs like to peel off and use their double arcs to their advantage.

5 hours ago, Supernatural said:

My favourite build would be Gamma Sqn Vet (Wired/Twin Ion Eng Mk2, Title and Fleet Officer). The combination of Wired and PS of 5 gives it some independent punch and survivability.

LOVE THIS and totally never noticed that synergy.

Thank you Supernatural, thank you.

So had an interesting day today. I went 2-2 and came 5th. The guy who came 4th had worse MOV but one more won than me.

Of the 2 games I lost, one was against Dengar and Ketsu. I really ****** up with the bombers positioning and it was destroyed before doing anything, with no damage on his ships (I'd set the SF's too far away). I have a fairly strong ope on for the SF's I think, but the bomber I'm just not sure. Maybe I should just fly them all in formation?

I had his Dengar down to 1 Hull several times and he had gonked 4 Shields back. I played that one terribly and deserved to lose.

My other loss was to Paratanni (well the Jumpmaster was a contracted scout with mindlink and inspiring recruit). I killed the scout and then I killed Fenn with a well judged TL range 2 shot from Quickdraw, plus Cluster mines from death fire!

And then, for the first time since I've played Xwing, I dialled in a red move whilst stressed with Quickdraw, due to my position I couldn't shoot for 3turns and his Asajj whittled QD, Backdraft and my already 1 Hull bomber. I went from victory in my grasp to 100-77 loss because of one dumb mistake. So so sad.

Still. Overall the SF's were amazing and really pulled their weight. Quickdraw being PS10 and having a bid for Backdraft at PS9 was great. The bomber though.... Hoo boy. He didn't fire a single homing missile all day. And didn't hit anything with more than one set of clusters in every game. I don't know if it's lack of practice with bombing bombers, or maybe they just aren't good, but I think that's the obvious weak spot here. I could make some changes and add Soontir. Or take Duchess, or Inquisitor. The shuttle is still worth a go I think, and dropping the pattern analyzers to fit the shuttle might make me learn to not stress then, their greens are terrible!

Or I could keep practicing with the bomber XD,maybe I should just drop the homers and spend the pints elsewhere?

Wall of text over. Tl;dr, I like the SF's a lot, the Bomber needs some practice/replacement.

Are we all missing the obvious (if somewhat boring) choice?

35 Quickdraw w/ ASTS, FCS, SensorC, LWF, Title.
34 Backfart w/ VI, FCS, SensorC, LWF, Title.
29 Omnicron w/ Col Detect, Palp.
2 Inintiative.

14 hours ago, Goseki1 said:

So had an interesting day today. I went 2-2 and came 5th. The guy who came 4th had worse MOV but one more won than me.

Of the 2 games I lost, one was against Dengar and Ketsu. I really ****** up with the bombers positioning and it was destroyed before doing anything, with no damage on his ships (I'd set the SF's too far away). I have a fairly strong ope on for the SF's I think, but the bomber I'm just not sure. Maybe I should just fly them all in formation?

I had his Dengar down to 1 Hull several times and he had gonked 4 Shields back. I played that one terribly and deserved to lose.

My other loss was to Paratanni (well the Jumpmaster was a contracted scout with mindlink and inspiring recruit). I killed the scout and then I killed Fenn with a well judged TL range 2 shot from Quickdraw, plus Cluster mines from death fire!

And then, for the first time since I've played Xwing, I dialled in a red move whilst stressed with Quickdraw, due to my position I couldn't shoot for 3turns and his Asajj whittled QD, Backdraft and my already 1 Hull bomber. I went from victory in my grasp to 100-77 loss because of one dumb mistake. So so sad.

Still. Overall the SF's were amazing and really pulled their weight. Quickdraw being PS10 and having a bid for Backdraft at PS9 was great. The bomber though.... Hoo boy. He didn't fire a single homing missile all day. And didn't hit anything with more than one set of clusters in every game. I don't know if it's lack of practice with bombing bombers, or maybe they just aren't good, but I think that's the obvious weak spot here. I could make some changes and add Soontir. Or take Duchess, or Inquisitor. The shuttle is still worth a go I think, and dropping the pattern analyzers to fit the shuttle might make me learn to not stress then, their greens are terrible!

Or I could keep practicing with the bomber XD,maybe I should just drop the homers and spend the pints elsewhere?

Wall of text over. Tl;dr, I like the SF's a lot, the Bomber needs some practice/replacement.

You punted the bomber when you took LWF not Long Range Scanners.

I think you might be right, especially if I want to actually take/fire the homing missiles. The LWF did excellent at helping him survive, but at significant cost to his offense. I think I'll try LRS.

@CRCL Ive never wanted to fly the Lambda. It's always seemed so.... Cheesy. Maybe i should get over that.

Ooft. Will likely be trying an Aggressor as my 3rd. The named pilot abilities are pretty sweet.

1 hour ago, Goseki1 said:

Ooft. Will likely be trying an Aggressor as my 3rd. The named pilot abilities are pretty sweet.

Need to see that dial but I'm interested too!