So I think this may be a solid competitive Lt Kestal build:

Kestal: Dead eye, homing missile x2, Synched Turret and guidance chips (37 pts.)

The idea is dead eye allows focus for firing homing missiles, guidance chips give one guaranteed hit, the leftover focus can either modify the roll or cancel all the opponents evade and eyeballs, and then if she's also be after 2 waves of attack, Synched Turret can be used without giving away what opponent is the target.

Most likely paired with Inquisitor (title, prockets, at, PTL) and Tomax Bren (crack shot, uhhnguided rockets and lightweight frame).

What do you all think?

5 hit points behind 2 agility? You will be lucky to survive 1 round of combat :/

Forgot to put, 37pts...

Yeah unfortunately it's way too expensive. Missles or turret but not both

Lt Kestal is bad.

2 hours ago, Browncoat50 said:

So I think this may be a solid competitive Lt Kestal build:

Kestal: Dead eye, homing missile x2, Synched Turret and guidance chips (37 pts.)

The idea is dead eye allows focus for firing homing missiles, guidance chips give one guaranteed hit, the leftover focus can either modify the roll or cancel all the opponents evade and eyeballs, and then if she's also be after 2 waves of attack, Synched Turret can be used without giving away what opponent is the target.

Most likely paired with Inquisitor (title, prockets, at, PTL) and Tomax Bren (crack shot, uhhnguided rockets and lightweight frame).

What do you all think?

Too expensive. Melts like ice.

Thank you all for the input. I now see the error of my ways. I did not take into account the high cost in my excitement after making a build with some synergy.

Yeah, seems like a rough ACE to try and field

I think Kestal can be good if she's in a list which can feed her extra focus tokens so she can have at least one remaining for defense. Also, I think Lightweight Frame is pretty much mandatory on all AGI 2 (or lower) TIEs.

Maybe a cheap support ship with General Hux in it?

I've flown A Ruthlessness Kestal with a twin laser Turret. Found it quite effective.

The trick is, always present a bigger threat.

With a target synched SF by her side, she is deadly with Cruise missiles. That is how I run her. Just VI and double Cruises.

Others have had some success with just Ion Turret. She can be a nice control piece with her ability.

Tomax Bren (24)
Cool Hand (1)
Fleet Officer (3)
Systems Officer (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
TIE Shuttle (0)

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Adaptability (0)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Lightweight Frame (2)

The Inquisitor (25)
Push the Limit (3)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Autothrusters (2)
TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I would try this, if I'd have all the cards necessery. Tomax stays within Range 1 of Kestal, gives focus to himself and Kestal because Fleet Officer, loses stress and gets an evade because cool hand. After the initial cruise missile alpha strike of Kestal and the Inquisitor, the TAP goes in and does TAP things, while Kestal circles around the board, plinking away with TLT, while Tomax follows her and hands over focus and TL tokens.

It all works brilliantly until you meet a stray stressbot. But it's fun, if not meta-shattering.

I have him with Expertise, Ion Turret and LWF (paired with Ruthless TIE D Vessery and Omega Leader).

Expertise to try and free up the focus token and Ion Turret to try and help with control. It's still a pricey investment though.

I had some fun with Kestal+Deadeye+Synced Turret(+LWF). The difficulty was to keep the focus against higher PS attacks.

Mine was completly shut down by a Hotshot RAC...

On 8/7/2017 at 8:43 AM, SOTL said:

Lt Kestal is bad.

Why? How? Explanation? Elaboration?

Lt Kestal is a very good pilot. Cancelling an opponents blank and focus results makes it that much easier to hit, as they'll have no dice left to modify, especially considering a natural Evade is more rare than natural Hits. It is VERY effective against pilots that rely on Focus or rerolls for Defense (Biggs, Dash, Rey, etc).

Expertise is an obvious choice, and my first pick; but I really like the idea of Dead-Eye + Synced. LWF isn't a staple, but obviously helps Kestal stay on the board longer. I can think of worse ways to spend those points.

20 hours ago, Drakeheart said:

Why? How? Explanation? Elaboration?

Kestal is bad because, without exterior support, she is starved for the action economy that her ability demands. If she saves the Focus token to use on her ability, she can't modify her shot, meaning you'll likely miss anyway. If you give her expensive upgrades like Expertise to compensate, you end up with a 30+ point ship that is easily just deleted by the current level of high dice/full mod/both attacks out there. Giving her both munitions and a turret just compounds this problem.

1 hour ago, MalusCalibur said:

Kestal is bad because, without exterior support, she is starved for the action economy that her ability demands... If you give her expensive upgrades like Expertise to compensate, you end up with a 30+ point ship that is easily just deleted by the current level of high dice/full mod/both attacks out there. Giving her both munitions and a turret just compounds this problem.

Thank you, a fair argument.

I do, however, disagree. Having played a bit with the pilot, and the ship, Kestal is just one more Ace, that requires upgrades to get the most out of. Paper thin? Maybe, but so are several other pilots, unless played right.