27 minutes ago, Jarval said:

I've posted this elsewhere on the forums today, but I've been getting great results with the list below. (Winning a 30ish player Q2 kit tournament, a Store Championship, and a 10ish player weekday tournament evening without losing a game.)

It's all about the opening exchange though, and a lot of the time you're flying it in a very aggressive way to get shots over arc dodging or keeping tokens for defence. If you can PS kill a ship, that's the best form of defence of all... Omega Leader is a great "closer" for the list - if she's going one on one against almost any ship, she can probably win the game for you, especially if that ship is worth 51 points or less.

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

"Backdraft" (27)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)
Special Ops Training (0)

"Quickdraw" (29)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)
Special Ops Training (0)

Total: 98

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

How often to you use Crack Shot? I feel as if I'd prefer A Score to Settle or maybe even VI, if PS killing is really your goal.

1 minute ago, ArbitraryNerd said:

How often to you use Crack Shot? I feel as if I'd prefer A Score to Settle or maybe even VI, if PS killing is really your goal.

Pretty much every game. The number of times I'm 1 point of damage away from killing something is surprisingly frequent. Generally speaking, Backdraft shoots first, then Quickdraw. This means I know if I need to use my Crack Shot or not, and if I happen to get any crits on Quickdraw's shot it makes them easier to push through. It also means that people overspend on tokens, making Omega Leader's Juke all the more useful as you can then potentially spend her target lock on the attack.

This isn't to say that AStS or VI would be bad choices, but Crack Shot seems to be the optimal choice for how I'm playing this list. As a minor point, I'm slightly wary about giving people free offensive modifications against Quickdraw, as ideally you want to take damage on her as slowly as possible. (Within the limits of having 2 agility and no defensive mods...)

1 minute ago, Jarval said:

Pretty much every game. The number of times I'm 1 point of damage away from killing something is surprisingly frequent. Generally speaking, Backdraft shoots first, then Quickdraw. This means I know if I need to use my Crack Shot or not, and if I happen to get any crits on Quickdraw's shot it makes them easier to push through. It also means that people overspend on tokens, making Omega Leader's Juke all the more useful as you can then potentially spend her target lock on the attack.

This isn't to say that AStS or VI would be bad choices, but Crack Shot seems to be the optimal choice for how I'm playing this list. As a minor point, I'm slightly wary about giving people free offensive modifications against Quickdraw, as ideally you want to take damage on her as slowly as possible. (Within the limits of having 2 agility and no defensive mods...)

I've made the top four cut at two Store Championships with ASTS on my Quickdraw, but I take it primarily because it's paired with a Kylo RAC, and I want another way to force crits.

I will say, however, that it's never been a problem having another ship having the A Debt to Pay condition -- they generally don't want to shoot at QD, because of the shot back, and I'm often putting it on a ship that it matters very little anyways, as they already have enough ways to mod a crit/their attack.

1 minute ago, ArbitraryNerd said:

I've made the top four cut at two Store Championships with ASTS on my Quickdraw, but I take it primarily because it's paired with a Kylo RAC, and I want another way to force crits.

I will say, however, that it's never been a problem having another ship having the A Debt to Pay condition -- they generally don't want to shoot at QD, because of the shot back, and I'm often putting it on a ship that it matters very little anyways, as they already have enough ways to mod a crit/their attack.

I can see ASTS being excellent when paired with Kylo!

I tend to find that Quickdraw draws a lot of hate early game as people want to shut down her ability. They've learnt that leaving her until last can create a very bad 1v1 end of game situation, as then the odds of her ability triggering more than once got notably up. Having a double tapping PS 9 ship to deal with if you've got just one ship left can be pretty nightmarish. As a result, my opponents tend to put a lot of effort into stripping off all of QD's shields in the opening turn of firing if they possibly can, and I don't really want to make their life any easier on that front!

3 hours ago, Jarval said:

I can see ASTS being excellent when paired with Kylo!

I tend to find that Quickdraw draws a lot of hate early game as people want to shut down her ability. They've learnt that leaving her until last can create a very bad 1v1 end of game situation, as then the odds of her ability triggering more than once got notably up. Having a double tapping PS 9 ship to deal with if you've got just one ship left can be pretty nightmarish. As a result, my opponents tend to put a lot of effort into stripping off all of QD's shields in the opening turn of firing if they possibly can, and I don't really want to make their life any easier on that front!

That makes sense. I present them that option... Or the behemoth Decimator handing out personalized crits. So my target priority is a bit skewed. I DO want to start flying double SFs, though, so I'll definitely try this (though wouldn't Crackshot advertise, "Kill Me First!" even more?).

That's.... ****** nasty man. I can't live without LWF though.

17 hours ago, ArbitraryNerd said:

That makes sense. I present them that option... Or the behemoth Decimator handing out personalized crits. So my target priority is a bit skewed. I DO want to start flying double SFs, though, so I'll definitely try this (though wouldn't Crackshot advertise, "Kill Me First!" even more?).

I'm bringing this to a SC this week-end:

Lovely stuff, let us now how it goes! You based in Scotland as I'm also going to a SC thin s weekend...

Flew this last night

(99)

"Quickdraw" (39) - TIE/SF Fighter
Expertise (4), Fire Control System (2), Sensor Cluster (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Backdraft" (35) - TIE/SF Fighter
Opportunist (4), Fire Control System (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Pure Sabacc" (25) - TIE Striker
Veteran Instincts (1), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

with some practice with the striker I think this is pretty good, but still think the striker melts too easily.

played against missile wedge, z and another xwing. All had missile. Was only able to take out the z but that was more because I was was so focused on flying the striker that I forgot how to fly the SFs. Second game was against triple defenders 2 with ion cannons and the other with tractor. Same as previous game but was able to take one defender down and severely damage the other 2

so for my 3rd game I swapped back to my favourite version

(98)

"Quickdraw" (37) - TIE/SF Fighter
Expertise (4), Fire Control System (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Backdraft" (35) - TIE/SF Fighter
Opportunist (4), Fire Control System (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Omega Leader" (26) - TIE/FO Fighter
Juke (2), Comm Relay (3)

flew against the triple defenders again and only lost 2 hull off OL

I played way better and opportunist triggered almost every time on backdraft

I thiiiiink I'm running this at my Store Champ tomorrow.

• Quickdraw - A Score To Settle, Fire Control System, Lightweight Frame, Special Ops Training
• Darth Vader - Predator, TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, TIE MKII Engines
• Colonel Vessery - Adaptability, TIE/x7

I've pretty much convinced myself about taking Vader over Backdraft because I want that evade token. I was on Juke Vader with a 2nd TIE MkII Engine on Vessery but I was finding myself k-turning a bit too often with Vader and then not having the Juke active.

I'm still on the fence, though. Could well flip-flop back to Juke by the start of the tournament.

Where're you playing?

36 minutes ago, Goseki1 said:

Where're you playing?

Where's who playing?

Me?

i play in the uk...

we meet weekly in Frome, Somerset at our xwing club as well as Bristol 2+ times a month for tournaments as well as around the uk for major events

Oh hah, I meant SOTL. Was just wondering if we'll be at the same championship.

5 minutes ago, Goseki1 said:

Oh hah, I meant SOTL. Was just wondering if we'll be at the same championship.

Element Games?

Hah, nope. Was hoping to see someone other than me flying SF's! I'll be in Lanark, Scotland.

It's been a lonely life as an Imperial pilot around here too. There's only been two of us but we've been on the final tables at pretty much every event in the last month.

There's so much "Imperials are unplayable" hand-wringing going on, but the people actually bothering to play them are having plenty of success.

I've done okay with them, but I don't really get enough time to practice enoigh to be honest. I would've been top 4 at my last tournament easily but accidentally dialed in a red on a stressed Quickdraw (I swear my dial was loose and spun as I placed it). I went from almost tabling a Paratanni, to being tabled :(. I got like 78 points or something, but still...

I'll be running Backdraft, the fact he gets the same amount of dice from both arcs has been killer for me. I love Darth Vader though so let me know how it goes?

Backdraft is very food, Vader is very good. The one thing I can say for Vader is that he's turned a bunch of my wins from 100-33 into 100-0 because I don't have a soft target any more in my list.

He makes me play slower and more cautiously than I did with Backdraft, but overall he seems to get the job done in the end.

41 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Backdraft is very food, Vader is very good. The one thing I can say for Vader is that he's turned a bunch of my wins from 100-33 into 100-0 because I don't have a soft target any more in my list.

He makes me play slower and more cautiously than I did with Backdraft, but overall he seems to get the job done in the end.

Have you taken this archetype (either version) against triple K-wings? I've done solitaire games against them and done okay, but nobody around me seems to, so I'm wondering how it is going for others.

That's not a list you see any more, it's been largely gone for a few months. I've not seen one in the wild in ages.

1 hour ago, SOTL said:

Backdraft is very food, Vader is very good. The one thing I can say for Vader is that he's turned a bunch of my wins from 100-33 into 100-0 because I don't have a soft target any more in my list.

He makes me play slower and more cautiously than I did with Backdraft, but overall he seems to get the job done in the end.

I'll definitely try him out I think. I'll have to reconfigure my list though as I would not want to change QD.

I've also never seen triple K's, though appreciate I'm not exposed to as much if the meta as others.

12 hours ago, Cartchan said:

I'm bringing this to a SC this week-end:

“Quickdraw”

A Score to Settle

Fire-Control System

Special Ops Training

Lightweight Frame

“Backdraft”

Veteran Instincts

Fire-Control System

Special Ops Training

Lightweight Frame

Tomax Bren

TIE Shuttle

Crack Shot

Lightweight Frame

Kylo Ren

Rebel Captive

98 points

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/722103/stfu#

Very close to a list I was about to run for my SC. Adapt Vader instead of Backdraft. Let us know how it goes. I am very interested in how it does.

4 hours ago, SOTL said:

It's been a lonely life as an Imperial pilot around here too. There's only been two of us but we've been on the final tables at pretty much every event in the last month.

There's so much "Imperials are unplayable" hand-wringing going on, but the people actually bothering to play them are having plenty of success.

My brother made top4 with double SF (QD and Omega w/ Homing) and deathfire, he is switching it up to Double SF (QD and Backdraft w/ ion missile) and Sabaac. Decimator/Quickdraw has won a SC here and made top cut as well at other SCs. Imperials are competitive, just taking some creative juices to keep them that way. Palp/Aces is dead and people need to adjust.

Im bringing double SF's + 1 more SF tomorrow. See how that goes.

I think alot of it just come down to variance too! I've had games where Quickdraw has only lost one shield each round so had perfect revenge shots and Backdraft didn't even get hit. And then I've had games where they've died to 1 or 2 volleys even with a focus token at range 2 or 3 behind debris

6 hours ago, SOTL said:

That's not a list you see any more, it's been largely gone for a few months. I've not seen one in the wild in ages.

I agree, yet it's the number one reason I seem to see listed for why Imperial Aces suck right now. It's funny. It reminds me of 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy.

"You can't take monsters because cannons are too good against them."

"You don't need to take cannons because nobody brings monsters."

So I brought a monster.

11 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

I agree, yet it's the number one reason I seem to see listed for why Imperial Aces suck right now. It's funny. It reminds me of 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy.

"You can't take monsters because cannons are too good against them."

"You don't need to take cannons because nobody brings monsters."

So I brought a monster.

January.

Ive used meta-wing to log the best pilots by month since start of 2016. Warden Sqd was big in January - wasn't really around before that, hasn't really been around after that.

Beware the bombers boogeyman!!!