4 ship Imperial combo?!?! What has this world come to? It's certainly more fun than tournament worthy but this should be interesting enough.

Backdraft+ Spec Ops+ FCS+ LWF+ sensor cluster+ SNAPSHOT

Scimitar Bomber + shuttle + ops spec+ Systems officer

Mauler Mithal + Snapshot

Zeta Leader + Snapshot+ Comms Relay

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Tricks: this is just a snapshot + Op specialist list... and then some. You could pick any EPT toting pilots and the shuttle with Op specialist and call it a day or you can have some fun. What Mauler, Zeta, and kinda backdraft offer to the list is extra out of combat fun. All three create a range 1 field of "free actions" in the activation phase.

Mauler and Zeta can enhance thier Snapshots to 3 dice. Zeta can potentially use his ability twice a round (Snap a lower PS, green maneuver, enhance again in combat phase).

Backdraft gets a free TL and maybe another focus to fuel cluster. Even a missed snap is a free focus or TL for someone. Add in a green maneuver on the shuttle and normal actions and everyone should be sitting with tokens come Combat or have done some damage already or both!

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Parts:

Bomber Shuttle- I opted for cheap and supportive. The Operations Specialist is really the only required piece. With a few points here or there you can mix it up. PS up and snapshot here too is an option but gets spendy. Tomax is also great but you're losIn a ship. Considered a Lambda for this slot but the shuttle is cheaper for same combo.

Backdraft: you have to have some beef and this one has it out both arcs. While Snapshot doesn't trigger the title (oh how I wish it did!) FCS combos well enough. A missed Snap should also generate a free focus and allow you to BR for double taps or double up on focus for enhanced Def with sensor clusters. Added crits are always appreciated.

Mauler: High PS, cheap EPT carrier. Can throw 3 dice in activation and 4 + focus and even a TL (thanks shuttle!) during combat at PS 7. Pretty snazzy for a 19pt tie. Still gets 3 dice off before a Fenn alpha while Fenn has no tokens before he gets obliterated. Could be Howlrunner for a point more.

Zeta: same as Mauler except he might only get 3/3 or 2/4 situation and stress dependent. Also packs the extra shield and extra evade. The extra evade is more refillable since there will lots of tokens flying about. Considered inspiring recruit on shuttle for cheaper but the extra TL is probably better than an open dial. You can save points by dropping to Scourge or Howlrunner for similar results and upgrade your shuttle.

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Pros: comborific, fun, hits hard, Imperial 4 ship "Jank" build, no real 1st target, PS and activation kills at 7/7/7/2, positioning matters, 3/4 shoots before Fenn!

Cons: fragile (ish), base shuttle doesn't contribute a ton in combat, can get aced with only mid-PS, lots of interactions to remember

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Changes- options already noted. Shuttle has some wiggle room and so does Zeta slot.

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what say you?

Two major issues, one illegal one from experience (i run a lot of snapshot)

1) Backdraft cannot snapshot out the aux arc, it is a secondary weapon thus it HAS to be out of the primary unless it is given special permission (it is not). Therefore it is actually wasted on him due to his flight pattern, he should never be looking at anyone anyway. Even if it did work out of his aux arc, he cant add the crit since you cant mod the snapshot (adding results, rerolling, or changing results are modding dice). If you want an SF, go Quickdraw as her flight pattern actually does benefit snapshot abit (however she feeds into issue#2 even more)

2) Snapshot on a high PS (higher than 5) is actually stupid hard to pull off. I immediately did the Mithel + Snapshot idea, because rolling additional dice is NOT modifying so his ability still works. Except i found he almost never got it since it required someone to move infront of him at range1, and that doesnt happen that much.

I run snapshot on Scyks, TIE Fighters, and Awings all the time. Never, ever higher than PS5 except in the case below:

If you want an opspec list, run this. I scared the piss out of some Fenn Rau players at a few tournaments with this and beat the snot out of the few i actually faced:

Major Rhymer 26
Snapshot (2)
LWF (2)
TIE Shuttle (0)
OpSpec (3)
Tactician (2)

Black Squadron Pilot (TIE Fighter w/ EPT at PS4) x4 14pts
Snapshot (2)

Total: 99pts

FIVE snapshots, one of which can be extended to range2 with Rhymer's ability. If he extends it to range2, it also applies Tactician before actions go off, so it completely shuts down any Boosters like Fenn Rau from simply boosting into range1.
The amount of chaos this causes is hilarious, and you'd be surprised how hard it is to get to that bomber with 4 blacksnaps infront of it. Due to the range2 snapshot, the issue i mentioned earlier about high PS being hard to land snapshot is actually moot, its pretty rare for him to NOT get a snapshot off even at PS8.
edit: Also, evade every action if you can help it (or barrelroll if you think you can dodge an arc and not lose a shot). The amount of focus generation is sickening, you wont need your focus action. When firing the TIE fighters, fire in order of who can only hit 1 ship -> who has a focus -> has no focus to maximize Focus generation from OpSpec. If they already fired, theres no point in giving them a focus unless they can defend still (unlikely at PS4)

Snapshot for Backdraft (which I've only done once so far) is for that initial approach and to get folks to try to "move around" him so that the Aux arc is easier; I had no intention of backsliding with it. There are points in the build for QuickDraw but I like the all 7s and the bonus crit over trying to self damage for profit.

Do you just find it harder to get Range 1 as a higher PS pilot?

Its the order of movements.

Technically its not an issue depending on who you are facing: you want to move first so you can position to catch them as they fly by. Majority of ships are PS5-7 right now, so if you have snapshot and you are higher than 5 you may move second, which is considerably harder to pull off. At PS7, you pretty much wont snag anyone thats not a high value pilot and usually they have shenanigans to avoid it to begin with (boosting into range 1 for instance)

Other side of the coin is it forces your opponent to fly differently to actively avoid the snapshot, but i find this to be less rewarding than getting snap after snap after snap.

Played a casual match with this last night vs. a novice player. Got the 7 die round from Mauler. It's always fun when that happens.