I don't want to fork over the cash for the autothrusters expansion (starviper is useless until new set comes out) but I have imperial aces. I love the interceptor and am fine with A wings but my survivability with interceptors, especially against turrets doesn't work. Now without suggesting stealth device, do you have tips on interceptors without autothrusters. I almost feel like the meta favors naked interceptors as auxiliary arcs kill arcdodgers really well, favoring PTL royal guards without upgrades

Interceptors with PtL are still good without Autothrusters they're just more susceptible to bad dice rolls, which always show up when you don't want them to.

Honestly, Interceptors are in kind of a tight spot right now, being more reliant upon green dice and only having 3 health just doesn't cut it anymore, since 4-5 dice attacks are the norm now.

That being said, I still fly Soontir Feel every now and then, but they are now much better at being flankers than the dice mod tanks they were before, (which is what FFG was going for in the first place I believe.) So you may want something more threatening to pull damage off of the Interceptors and let them harass.

Shouldn't TIE Strikers be better at this flanker attack role? Cost mostly the same, but can do with minimal upgrades and still be slippery.

6 minutes ago, Chibi-Nya said:

Shouldn't TIE Strikers be better at this flanker attack role? Cost mostly the same, but can do with minimal upgrades and still be slippery.

Heck for two points more you can go for a bomber with unguided and LWF, but definitely consider a Striker, they love to do this stuff

24 minutes ago, Chibi-Nya said:

Shouldn't TIE Strikers be better at this flanker attack role? Cost mostly the same, but can do with minimal upgrades and still be slippery.

More than likely, but I'm operating on the assumption that the OP doesn't have the striker expansion and doesn't have the money/want to buy the expansion. (Since OP made the comment about not wanting to spend money on star vipers for AT)

Strikers are definitely really good when flown right, but one thing I have noticed, especially in today's meta, is that they have a really hard time "knife fighting", which Interceptors are really good at due to tight turns and boost/barrel roll. Strikers have the "boost" but it's before maneuver, and sometimes you REALLY want the boost afterwards.

One thing that strikers Excel at more than the Interceptor, in my opinion, is chasing targets. This is due to the whacky ways they can maneuver with the title. You haven't LIVED until you've seen a Striker do the AA move before a 3 bank. It's ridiculous.

Turr Phenir with Intensity can double up on evade tokens.

Take the evade action, attack, then boost/barrel roll for an evade (or focus) via intensity.

I've played PTL Royal guards without autothrusters. They suck. Against any kind of ATT3 turret - to say nothing of TLTs, they just die.

If anything, I'd go for:

Royal Guard Pilot (24) x 3
TIE Interceptor (22), Elusiveness (2)

Captain Yorr (28)
Lambda-Class Shuttle (24), Fire-Control System (2), Inspiring Recruit (1), Inspiring Recruit (1)

At least you get 4 jousters with some decent protection.

how about just adding this to the rules:

"All ships that do not have a turret equipped may equip autothrusters as an additional zero point modification."

5 X (20) Alpha Squadron Pilot (18), Autothrusters (2)

....haha, OK:

5 X (20) Alpha Squadron Pilot (18), Targeting Computer (2)

36 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Turr Phenir with Intensity can double up on evade tokens.

Take the evade action, attack, then boost/barrel roll for an evade (or focus) via intensity.

Oh my goodness.

I never thought of that.

Shame Turr is so fragile

59 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Turr Phenir with Intensity can double up on evade tokens.

Take the evade action, attack, then boost/barrel roll for an evade (or focus) via intensity.

Of course, you can only spend one evade token per attack, so doubling up on them...isn't exactly super useful.

32 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Of course, you can only spend one evade token per attack, so doubling up on them...isn't exactly super useful.

It's an interesting way to get him focus/evade without PtL

So I've tried two PTL interceptors (1 royal guard 1 saber) +pure sabbacc with lwf and swarm leader+ 2 academy pilots with great success flying the interceptors as flankers with the other three in the middle. To great confusion and success as pure Sabacc shreds targets if left alone and the interceptors will flank whoever dares attack him. This list eats aces and large ships but loses bad to swarms . Unfortunately, the interceptors get eaten by turrets even when evading. I can't figure out if I should play aggressively or poke range 3 against YTs and decimators because both just end in death for the interceptors, but they can't abandon the other group....

I just...TIE strikers feel superior to TIE interceptors in just about every way. Which makes me sad, but I'll just play with strikers instead. The only reason I'd bring TIE interceptors is if I had points for Autothrusters to have turret insurance.

Infact, I've often thought of running two PS 1 strikers and two PS 1 interceptors w/ Autothrusters, along with some kind of shuttle. This will give me a good basis for comparing the two ships because they'd be exposed to basically the same things. This would be an interesting test...

49 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

TIE strikers feel superior to TIE interceptors in just about every way. Which makes me sad

So true. For me mainly because of the price. All the aces are quite cheap, who cares if your cheap Striker explodes, have good abilities and I think easy to fly even with Adaptive Ailerons. Interceptor aces are expensive to begin with and then you want to load them up with Autothrusters, Stealth Device, Push The Limit to make them work. Pure Sabacc can work with just Adaptive Ailerons.

6 hours ago, rafcpl6868 said:

do you have tips on interceptors without autothrusters.

I've run a generic Alpha Interceptors, no Autothrusters, in Epic as a complement to Black Squadron Snappers. That's when I've had a lot of success. They are good blockers, have a nice 3 attack and a lot of other distractions on an Epic table mean it can get the ignored.

6 hours ago, rafcpl6868 said:

I don't want to fork over the cash for the autothrusters expansion (starviper is useless until new set comes out) but I have imperial aces

who does? The StarViper is useless for me as I play Imperials. You have other options though - proxy or eBay and just buy the card.

3 hours ago, Warlon said:

It's an interesting way to get him focus/evade without PtL

Didn't say it wasn't a good choice for Turr. IMHO, aside from Vader and x7 Defenders, Turr is about the only other place (in an Imperial list) I'd even think of trying Intensity.

Was just pointing out, though, that despite it's obvious utility with him - the specific suggestion of doubling up evade tokens is probably not as useful as you'd think on first blush.

(Imperial collection aside) Guri and Xizor are definitely not useless and will likely see some table time with guns, its just scum just have so many other options that outshine them right now for the points.....

But as others have mentioned, unless you plan on going to tournaments proxy it, flying casual it will be the type of player you wont enjoy playing with anyway thst would be low enough to not allow it....

6 hours ago, Chibi-Nya said:

Shouldn't TIE Strikers be better at this flanker attack role? Cost mostly the same, but can do with minimal upgrades and still be slippery.

I think the Striker and the Protectorate has taken the mechanical role of the Interceptor. TIE Interceptor still has Soontir Fel but he has been detrhoned especially with many new upgrades and pilot abilities designed to counter him (Hot shot co-pilot, Genesis Red). The protectorate is the new Arc Dodger high firepower high maneuver (T-rolls and all) with 1 extra hull. TIE Strikers are not as nimble as both of them but as far as the high firepower high speed option goes the Striker takes that with an extra hull and a modification that doesn't match 3 agility but does fairly well.

Well if the 1stOrder Silencer is anything to the TIE Interceptor as much as the T-70 X-wing and TIE/FO -Fighters were to the X-wing and TIE Fighter it would be safe to say that the TIE Interceptor would be put on the shelf until a faction split. And even then there is no guarantee with the TIE Strikers. It isn't like the TIE Interceptors has a pilot much like Biggs that is good no matter what ship you put him in.

15 hours ago, Warlon said:

More than likely, but I'm operating on the assumption that the OP doesn't have the striker expansion and doesn't have the money/want to buy the expansion. (Since OP made the comment about not wanting to spend money on star vipers for AT)

Strikers are definitely really good when flown right, but one thing I have noticed, especially in today's meta, is that they have a really hard time "knife fighting", which Interceptors are really good at due to tight turns and boost/barrel roll. Strikers have the "boost" but it's before maneuver, and sometimes you REALLY want the boost afterwards.

One thing that strikers Excel at more than the Interceptor, in my opinion, is chasing targets. This is due to the whacky ways they can maneuver with the title. You haven't LIVED until you've seen a Striker do the AA move before a 3 bank. It's ridiculous.

I've a small suggestion to tweak Adaptive Ailerons: instead of the AA maneuver being compulsory dial pre-reveal, make it a choice of pre or post reveal, truly adaptive.

Just an idea.

The funny thing is; the more I fly Strikers the more I realize they are one of the most balanced ships in the game.

Outside of Duchess with V.I being able to react to everything and shut off AA, they require a lot of forward planning and good spacial awareness to fly correctly.

Any rebel scum/scum can just dial in a 1-2 hard turn and call it a day, but strikers with the title equipped require you to plan ahead and be aware of how far the extra maneuver is going to take you.

They're fragile in that one wrong move can cause you trouble, but they're durable enough that they don't just melt if your opponent catches you in sight (unless your evade dice blank out, which happens to me all the time.)

In a world where turrets had some kind of drawback for firing outside of arc (defender gets to reroll one dice or something) Strikers would be more commonplace than they are. That being said, they're still insanely fun to fly.

Star Viper may not be competitive in the meta but Xizor is actually a lot of fun to play in casual surrounded by Z95s and Y wings.

46 minutes ago, Warlon said:

The funny thing is; the more I fly Strikers the more I realize they are one of the most balanced ships in the game.

Outside of Duchess with V.I being able to react to everything and shut off AA, they require a lot of forward planning and good spacial awareness to fly correctly.

Any rebel scum/scum can just dial in a 1-2 hard turn and call it a day, but strikers with the title equipped require you to plan ahead and be aware of how far the extra maneuver is going to take you.

They're fragile in that one wrong move can cause you trouble, but they're durable enough that they don't just melt if your opponent catches you in sight (unless your evade dice blank out, which happens to me all the time.)

In a world where turrets had some kind of drawback for firing outside of arc (defender gets to reroll one dice or something) Strikers would be more commonplace than they are. That being said, they're still insanely fun to fly.

My favorite squad at the moment is the 3 named strikers with a palp lambda, and it is both a blast to play and quite effective. However, I don't think Strikers and Interceptors fill the same function. Strikers are some kind of evady jousters (by that I mean they can sometimes dodge arcs but they can joust fairly well with most lists*) and chasers, while Interceptors are really 100% arc dodgers who NEED their reposition to be safe.

*Though jousting a Guri Fenn Vobra mindlinked squad was not a good idea

@rafcpl6868 you could always try eBay to find single cards when you don't want to buy a whole expansion, especially one you don't want. Usually its more financially sound to just buy the unwanted expansion but I've gotten lucky on eBay picking up single cards here and there when I don't want to buy a whole other expansion just for another copy of a card. Just food for thought.

16 minutes ago, MalanTai said:

My favorite squad at the moment is the 3 named strikers with a palp lambda, and it is both a blast to play and quite effective. However, I don't think Strikers and Interceptors fill the same function. Strikers are some kind of evady jousters (by that I mean they can sometimes dodge arcs but they can joust fairly well with most lists*) and chasers, while Interceptors are really 100% arc dodgers who NEED their reposition to be safe.

*Though jousting a Guri Fenn Vobra mindlinked squad was not a good idea

Strikers to me are like a hybrid between the Interceptor and the Fighter, where it's beneficial for them to arc dodge, and with the title they can do it fairly well, but they also don't mind getting into someone's face to deliver the hurt or just swarming an area to clog up a lane.

The sad thing with Interceptors is when I saw them in the games/movies/fluff they never struck me as their sole purpose being to arc dodge, they were just really good at it due to their speed and maneuverability.

I mean, they're called Interceptors, which means chase or to...intercept...so it's kinda the opposite of what Interceptors do (run away or get out the way)

So sadly, in this world, Autothrusters is required due to the fragility of the Interceptor, and because of no downside for firing out of arc.

Strikers with LWF and 4 hull can at least withstand some of the storm long enough to deliver the pain back. Chances are, if the enemy's PS is higher than your striker, you're going to lose one before they get to fire. But when strikers strike they strike hard...strike. ?