Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Gunner (5)
Hotshot Co-pilot (4)
Rebel Captive (3)
Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)
Dauntless (2)

Soontir Fel (27)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)
Targeting Computer (2)
Royal Guard TIE (0)

Total: 97

I've signed up for my first store champs at the end of the month, and this is the list I'm thinking of taking.

I normally run Gunner/Vader/Captive on Chiraneau, but decided to try an idea I had with Hotshot Co-pilot. The idea is to target lock, use the first shot to hopefully peel off their focus, then spend the target lock on the Gunner attack to do the actual damage. Initially thought about Engine Upgrade instead of Anti-Pursuit, but with no tricks to get focus or target locks outside of his action bar, I can't really justify spending his action on boosting, especially with the 360 arc.

Having not played against anyone running a bomb-heavy list in my local meta, I don't know how well Soontir will do if people at the champs are playing actual meta lists, but I enjoy flying him.

I've only managed to get a single practice game in so far, but it did well against Fenn Rau/Old Teroch/Manroo. RAC sponged damage through the early game while bludgeoning down Fenn Rau and heavily damaging Manaroo. Fel was able to dance around Teroch and take him out, then finished off Manaroo in the late game once RAC was limping around on 1 hull. Co-pilot worked pretty much as I intended, eating Fenn Rau's focus on the first attack, denying it for the second attack, and for his own attack.

Thoughts? Does my Hotshot idea have legs, or is there a better combination of crew for the Decimator? Would someone a little beefier like Quickdraw or Ryad make a better partner for Chiraneau than Fel?

I like Fel but I'm afraid of how the current ordinance(bombs) may mangle him.

dropping Engine off the decimator will cost you many games. It gives you huge control in how you engage and how you protect RAC from return fire. Without it, you will lose RAC in almost every game you play. With it, you may not.

I agree with BM; I'd drop anti-pursuit lasers and put engine upgrade on RAC.

Other than that, looks like fun

RoV

10 minutes ago, Akondo said:

I like Fel but I'm afraid of how the current ordinance(bombs) may mangle him.

Yeah, I agree. I'm hoping that it'll just be a case of Fly Better, but I'll be asking my usual dojo opponent to build a bomb-heavy list and see how I fare.

7 minutes ago, blade_mercurial said:

dropping Engine off the decimator will cost you many games. It gives you huge control in how you engage and how you protect RAC from return fire. Without it, you will lose RAC in almost every game you play. With it, you may not.

Just now, Rat of Vengence said:

I agree with BM; I'd drop anti-pursuit lasers and put engine upgrade on RAC.

Other than that, looks like fun

RoV

Fair enough, I'll give it a run with EE on him instead and see how it goes.

So, got a second practise run last night, this time against BroBots. Lost Fel early due to a poorly chosen manoeuvre that got him caught dead between both of the Aggressors, but still managed to win in the end. Flew RAC pretty well; generally managed to keep him in arc of only one of the killer robots, if not out of their arcs altogether, and with Captive shutting down Expertise on whichever one could draw a shot and Co-pilot eating their focus, their attacks weren't putting much damage on. I only used the Engine Upgrade a couple of times, but it felt impactful when I did it - certainly more than the pursuit lasers would have been.

I'd go to Engine Upgrade, Captive or Kylo depends on your meta. I would do a Captive cuz Kylo RAC can feel horrible to play.

Mighty handshake for everyone who's still trying the lost art of Arc Dodging. Gotta love this list.

I do think that Fel might be better off in his traditional build (stealth device instead of targeting computer), but otherwise the list is pretty solid. You just have to fly Fel extremely carefully, dodging arcs even at the cost of not shooting that turn, because nowadays bombs and autodamage effects are very popular, which hurt him a lot. A bumped, actionless Soontir is pretty much a dead Soontir.

Hotshot and Gunner is a good combo, for defense, Captive and Isard are also good choices, you can't go wrong with either. Maybe on longer term damage mitigating, Ysanne Isard is more efficient. Captive is further incentivising people to shoot Soontir first, instead RAC.

I think I would dump the Dauntless title if I were you (and as @Captain Pellaeon suggested take SD instead of TC). That title makes RAC easy to focus fire at - you have very limited choice of maneuvers and they are not very good, while not having option to boost away is also big minus imo.

With those changes you can either keep 2 points for initiative bid or take Ion Bombs - occasionally these can be really useful. Placed wisely they will make the enemy ship fly out of the table or fly onto a rock... At least try for fun

It looks fun, but at this point, I find it really hard running RAC without Kylo. Being able to blinded pilot someone is huge when flying a ship with no evade dice.

Another thing to consider is Moff Jerjerod. No one uses him, but his ability is very underrated for 2 points. Yes, you lose a crew every time you do it, but to negate a direct hit, or a weapons failure is huge when your ship is more than 60 points of youre list.

My suggestion for a RAC list (and yeah, Soontir Fel won't last long in the current SC meta):

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Agent Kallus (2)
Ysanne Isard (4)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Dauntless (2)

Quickdraw (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Fire Control System (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 98

Or, if you want an Alpha Strike and don't mind loosing your bid for initiative:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Agent Kallus (2)
Rebel Captive (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Dauntless (2)

Quickdraw (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Fire Control System (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 100

10 minutes ago, ZealuxMyr said:

My suggestion for a RAC list (and yeah, Soontir Fel won't last long in the current SC meta):

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Agent Kallus (2)
Ysanne Isard (4)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Dauntless (2)

Quickdraw (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Fire Control System (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 98

Or, if you want an Alpha Strike and don't mind loosing your bid for initiative:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Agent Kallus (2)
Rebel Captive (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Dauntless (2)

Quickdraw (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Fire Control System (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 100

I like, but I don't think agent Kallus does much on RAC. Unless you have 2 focus results. And it's only defensive occasionally, since RAC doesn't have evade dice. I think you can find other things to spend points on. I mentioned Jerjerod in a post earlier. I think he's very underrated on the decimator. And by the end of the game, you don't really need Kylo. In most cases, you stop using his ability once the blinded pilots and the PS0 crits are used. You can use the Moff to jettison Kylo in exchange for a crit.

16 minutes ago, Biggsy_boy said:

I like, but I don't think agent Kallus does much on RAC. Unless you have 2 focus results. And it's only defensive occasionally, since RAC doesn't have evade dice. I think you can find other things to spend points on. I mentioned Jerjerod in a post earlier. I think he's very underrated on the decimator. And by the end of the game, you don't really need Kylo. In most cases, you stop using his ability once the blinded pilots and the PS0 crits are used. You can use the Moff to jettison Kylo in exchange for a crit.

Agent Kallus helps you modify your attack dice when you've performed another action that round (Kylo Ren). And on 3-4 attack dice with RAC + Agent Kalus this frees you up to use your non-Kylo actions for a Target Lock without eating 4 points on Expertise (and losing PS 10) so you can deal with crappy dice rolls. If it triggers R3/obstructed for defense that's just gravy.

You can't sell me on the Moff, he's overpriced and under-useful. I've tried to use him, there are just so many better crew cards...

Thanks for all the comments, guys. Great to get so much constructive feedback.

I'm with Biggsy on putting Kallus on RAC; I've done it before and I just dislike losing half the value, since you're not rolling defence dice. Gets you nothing if you only roll a single focus, too, since the pilot ability is just flat out better.

I've also used Isard before; I'm honestly not a huge fan. I feel like at 4 points she's quite expensive for what you get, and with no evade dice, I think a single token often just isn't that much mitigation. Between Captive and Co-pilot, I feel like I have the defensive tech I want.

Hadn't considered Jerjerrod , but what's stopped me from looking at him in the past is that I don't know what crew I'd want to drop to get him in there.

I had thought about Quickdraw as my second ship, though I was using Draw Their Fire to try and be cute with his ability. I'll try and get a run in with him, see how I like it. Honestly, though; I just like flying Aces. Fel is fun to play, even if I do sometimes have a brain explosion and fly him into the middle of an IG-88 sandwich. I usually fly squadrons like Whisper/Inquisitor/Omega Leader, and I do very well at my local club, but I'm pretty sure I'd just get flattened in a tournament in the current meta.

I'll have a go with Stealth on Fel instead of TC. It used to be my go-to build, though since I started flying this list I've really come to like being able to get a TL with him. I think going up to SD would put me to a flat 100 points, but I'm not sure how much the bid matters anyway; RAC shouldn't really care and obviously there's no bid in the world that gets Fel ahead of PS10. I suppose I could dump Dauntless to get 2 points back - it is nice to be able to bump one ship and still have a TL/focus to shoot the other, I've found, but you are right that it locks you in pretty tight next turn.

9 hours ago, ArchHeretek said:

I'm with Biggsy on putting Kallus on RAC; I've done it before and I just dislike losing half the value, since you're not rolling defence dice. Gets you nothing if you only roll a single focus, too, since the pilot ability is just flat out better.

I've also used Isard before; I'm honestly not a huge fan. I feel like at 4 points she's quite expensive for what you get, and with no evade dice, I think a single token often just isn't that much mitigation. Between Captive and Co-pilot, I feel like I have the defensive tech I want.

I think Kallus and Isard are an amazing pairing on Commander Kenkirk (throw in Lone Wolf and the goddamn thing's irritatingly hard to hurt). On Rear Admiral Chiraneau....not so much - as noted, Rebel Captive to mess with aces, and Veteran Instincts/Engine Upgrade is probably as much as he needs (plus hotshot copilot/gunner so he's rarely if ever being attacked by someone with a focus token).

13 hours ago, ArchHeretek said:

I had thought about Quickdraw as my second ship, though I was using Draw Their Fire to try and be cute with his ability. I'll try and get a run in with him, see how I like it. Honestly, though; I just like flying Aces. Fel is fun to play, even if I do sometimes have a brain explosion and fly him into the middle of an IG-88 sandwich. I usually fly squadrons like Whisper/Inquisitor/Omega Leader, and I do very well at my local club, but I'm pretty sure I'd just get flattened in a tournament in the current meta.

Having run Quickdraw for the entire SC season thus far: you do not need gimmicks to make him trigger. Let him trigger by being attacked only, don't help him die. Every shield is a deterrent to being shot and if you don't get shot you can't die...pity the fool who leaves Quickdraw (at full health) as the last ship on the board.

15 hours ago, ZealuxMyr said:

Agent Kallus helps you modify your attack dice when you've performed another action that round (Kylo Ren). And on 3-4 attack dice with RAC + Agent Kalus this frees you up to use your non-Kylo actions for a Target Lock without eating 4 points on Expertise (and losing PS 10) so you can deal with crappy dice rolls. If it triggers R3/obstructed for defense that's just gravy.

You can't sell me on the Moff, he's overpriced and under-useful. I've tried to use him, there are just so many better crew cards...

Kallus turns a focus into a hit, which, on RAC, you already have one to a crit. So, the only time it's useful is if you roll multiple focuses. That doesn't free up anything. On occassion, it helps, but that's few and far between. And it's only on 1 ship.

23 minutes ago, Biggsy_boy said:

Kallus turns a focus into a hit, which, on RAC, you already have one to a crit. So, the only time it's useful is if you roll multiple focuses. That doesn't free up anything. On occassion, it helps, but that's few and far between. And it's only on 1 ship.

Yes, that's the point. With half the cost of expertise and only 1 focus to a hit against 1 ship in current 2-ship heavy meta, Agent Kalus saves you points (and an EPT slot) over sucking down Expertise. Plus, if you get shot through a rock/range 3 you also get it on defense (so all you need is paint to at least have 1 evade result) where - at 4 points - expertise doesn't help there. On defense it's luck (or good piloting) and is all gravy, a bonus, the cherry on top. Plus, if you crash and Dauntless Agent Kalus still works, Expertise does not.

Agent Kalus is certainly vastly better on Commander Kenkirk but if I'm debating over a 2 point imperial crew on a decimator, I'm picking Agent Kalus long before I pick the Moff. Best way to win with a Decimator is to kill them before they kill you, with zero agility spending your points to mitigate damage or be defensive only leaves you throwing weaker attack dice and taking more rounds of incoming fire than if you just went for broke (within reason) and tried to get that sumofabatch who's shooting you off the table.