I was playing Mario Kart last night and I had just picked up my wave 11 stuff (after vacation delay). I decided to play with Lt. Kestal. We got 35 pts. My opponents were:

• Soontir Fel w/ PTL and Shield Upgrade
• Jake Ferral w/ Outmaneuver, Snapshot, Stealth Device, and Procket.
• generic YT-2400 w/ upgrades that didn't matter

I flew:

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Predator (3)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Ion Pulse Missiles (3)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 35

Yes, I know it's Mario Kart, but......she was so effective! The Ion Cannon Turret had great range and Predator let me save my Focus for negating their defensive dice. Yes, there were times when someone rolled natural evades and I missed, but it was not that common. I was primarily focusing on Soontir Fel. Yes, he wasn't Stealthed up, but I did manage to hit him a number of times and cancel all the results. I was even able to hit Stealth Jake Ferral and knock off his Stealth Device! With Predator, I was usually rolling 2-3 hits (more 3 as my luck was decent) and my opponents would often only roll one or two natural evades. By negating the eyeballs and blanks, I really messed them up!

I like Ion Cannon Turret as it gives 3 dice to hit without weird requirements (TL or Focus from other turrets). The threat of Ion Cannon Turret can really mess up an ace in the game by having everyone know where they will be next turn. I know it's just Mario Kart, but twice I was able to ionize Soontir Fel into turrets that finished him off!

Overall, I think she's a great pilot with great control aspects. I was highly impressed with my first game with her. Yes, I haven't tried her in a normal game, but I can't wait. Anyone else use her much?

That has been my experience with her so far. She is a great anti ace, as long as you can stay in range. The problem comes when you are focusing on that ace the other ships focus on her and she will die fast, or be left for last and if she is not 1v1 she is in trouble.

Been using her as a ps9 cruise missile carrier along with Target synch Quickdraw. She can then focus and use QDs target lock. Havent got her ability off much as opponents were either out of focus tokens from QDs attack, or rolled blanks and dodnt have autothrusters,etc.

Pricy!

35pts - I understand you were using upgrades to get to 35 for mario kart, but a sienar specialist with ion cannon is only 22. That's a whole academy pilot worth of points to solidly do 1 pt of damage and ion, leaving only 65pts for the rest of the list to do the heavy lifting.

I finally got to use Kestal last night - deadeye, synched turret, LWF and was not impressed. I HATED having to have a focus just to shoot, and her ability never really came into play as she ended up shooting at various 1 agility opponents. I can see the promise in her ability though and wont stop me from fielding her, but that synched turret is dead to me lol.

Yes, she is a lot of points. I agree with that. I probably wouldn't field her that expensive outside of the Mario Kart. I do think the Ion Cannon Turret with Predator was a big deal, though. They are pricey.

Synched Turret doesn't really work with her, though. That's the problem I also found that the Ion Cannon Turret only really needed to get one hit through to be effective, so it was OK when I only got 1 hit through. With high agility and Evade tokens, it was often that I only got the 1 hit, but that's all I needed!

I've had decent success with:

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Lone Wolf (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 32

Just kite the battle as much as you can a plink away. In a few games I have found the enemy will try to over pursue the LT and leave them open for the rest of your list. I have not gotten her ability to actually proc in a few games, but she dealt consistent damage. Having a Barrel roll on a TLT platform is really nice.

14 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

I've had decent success with:

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Lone Wolf (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 32

Just kite the battle as much as you can a plink away. In a few games I have found the enemy will try to over pursue the LT and leave them open for the rest of your list. I have not gotten her ability to actually proc in a few games, but she dealt consistent damage. Having a Barrel roll on a TLT platform is really nice.

IMO the problem with TLT/named pilot is you would need a defensive ability for the extra points to be worth it (none have that). A generic TLT is already effective enough offensewise. Even if the named pilot ability is really good you cant do more than 2 dmg/turn and it's already easy enough to do that with the generic.

Im sure Kestal will have a role in the meta eventually but i dont think its going to be as a TLT carrier...

20 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

I've had decent success with:

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Lone Wolf (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 32

Just kite the battle as much as you can a plink away. In a few games I have found the enemy will try to over pursue the LT and leave them open for the rest of your list. I have not gotten her ability to actually proc in a few games, but she dealt consistent damage. Having a Barrel roll on a TLT platform is really nice.

I've been looking for a decent build on the AG. I've played a few games with the ship and by the time it rolls in to do an attack, it blows up.

Any other good builds for this ship that can help it be less squishy?

I do wish the ion turret had a range 3 band, though ...

1 hour ago, Jo Jo said:

I've had decent success with:

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Lone Wolf (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 32

Just kite the battle as much as you can a plink away. In a few games I have found the enemy will try to over pursue the LT and leave them open for the rest of your list. I have not gotten her ability to actually proc in a few games, but she dealt consistent damage. Having a Barrel roll on a TLT platform is really nice.

I'd say that this setup with Ion Cannon Turret instead of TLT will work just fine and help out your defense for cheaper than Predator from Chadwick's original build.

any thoughts on the Unguided Rockets? It irks me that I have to have that focus before I can fire them...since my focus is usually being used during defense. I feel like I need to find a way to feed her some foci