Hello!

I have been playing X-Wing for about a year now, and have gone to various store tournaments. I have never gone to any competitions bigger than that, since I haven't actually won any games that I have played. Being a dedicated Imperial player, I have all the Imperial ships (more than 1 copy of a few). The problem here is that I only have Imperial stuff, therefore none of the other upgrade cards are accessible to me... Possibly why I can't win any games

Anyhow, my cousin who also plays is leaving on a trip, and long story short, he is leaving all his Rebel things with me.

With Imperial and Rebel cards + ships at my disposal, I would like some help building the ultimate Imperial squadron that can help me (and others ) win a first tournament.

Please, any Imperial list suggestions or tips would be great!

P.S. Lately I have been using double defenders with Palp shuttle... does that still work well?

I'm still new aswell but it would be helpful to know what ships you have and what your cousin is leaving you with.

SO..... As I have noticed, Any Imp player is going to be required to be an exceptional strategist!! Weather you bring Palp defenders, QD & BD and your favorite pocket ace, IMP alpha strikes, a crack swarm......... There is always a hard counter out there for whatever you bring, and in the current Meta you probably aren't bringing the hard counter to table for most the Meta. But, if flown well, game plan visualized and stuck to there is a lot of decent IMP options, with or without the Rebel upgrade cards. That being said, I would tell you your best bet to win a store tourney is repeated practice with a single list against several very different lists so you know how to deal with them. The most important thing is to have fun, enjoy what you fly. Even though I don't usually do well with it, I regularly fly this, because of how much I love flying it.

Deathfire and his defenders (100)

"Deathfire" (28) - TIE Bomber Homing Missiles (5), Cluster Mines (4), Extra Munitions (2), Long-Range Scanners (0)

Colonel Vessery (36) - TIE Defender Trick Shot (0), TIE/D (0), Tractor Beam (1)

Countess Ryad (36) - TIE Defender Push The Limit (3), TIE/x7 (-2), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

If you love Defenders, try this:

Countess Ryad (34)
Push the Limit (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Tractor Beam (1)
TIE/D (0)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

OL and Ryad set up TLs for Vessery, who can shoot first, reduces agility with tractor beam and strips tokens. Then OL Jukes, Ryad does Ryad things up close and personal.

15 hours ago, QuantumBerry said:

I would like some help building the ultimate Imperial squadron

So would the rest of us!

It very much depends what you want to fly.

A lot of good lists recently have used the Imperial 'pocket aces' (TIE/fo fighters and TIE strikers) to allow more room for the proper aces to breath.

• Shuttle/Ace/Pocket Ace - Whisper & Omega Leader plus Palpatine won a store championship I was at last weekend, the points saved on Omega Leader let the shuttle be Captain Yorr, opening up the red moves that aces normally daren't touch.
• Defender/Defender/Pocket Ace - @Captain Pellaeon 's list is pretty much the ideal version of this

Another solution to your problem is to play around on squad builder software, or look at imperial lists here, and figure out which upgrade cards you don't own but think you might want, and then go to eBay. A lot of eBay dealers sell individual cards, so you can get the upgrades you need without buying ships you don't.

You can also use it to get parts of expansions that you don't want. For instance, I didn't want to spend $70 on the rebel transport ship, because I don't tend to play the large ship battles or anything. But I DID want the special X-wing and the pilots that came with it. You can get that on eBay too.

3 hours ago, direweasel said:

Another solution to your problem is to play around on squad builder software, or look at imperial lists here, and figure out which upgrade cards you don't own but think you might want, and then go to eBay. A lot of eBay dealers sell individual cards, so you can get the upgrades you need without buying ships you don't.

You can also use it to get parts of expansions that you don't want. For instance, I didn't want to spend $70 on the rebel transport ship, because I don't tend to play the large ship battles or anything. But I DID want the special X-wing and the pilots that came with it. You can get that on eBay too.

This also works, but I do recommend to buy more ships if you can spare the cash. I began as Imperial-only too, now I love flying X-Wings. Both old and new. And the K-Wing. You can never know when will you find a ship you really like for no apparent reason.

By everything, and fly everything. At least you get to know the opposing ships' weaknesses. And you'll find genuine fun where you least expect it.

Thank you all for the help!

20 hours ago, SassyPigLatin said:

I'm still new aswell but it would be helpful to know what ships you have and what your cousin is leaving you with.

He left me with all the Rebel ships except for the arc-170 and the new Wookie ship.

Expertise absolutely transforms Quickdraw and its probably the best card you can't get without buying Rebel stuff.

I won a store champ with this:

Colonel Vessery (35)
Expertise (4)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)

Countess Ryad (34)
Push the Limit (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

You could replace the expertise with crackshot/veteran instincts on vessery and hull upgrade on omega leader.

So... I built this list because I thought it could do a lot of damage, and it looks kinda fun to play.

Should I change anything?

Countess Ryad (34):

• Juke (2)
• Tie/x7 (-2)
• Stealth Device (3)

Lieutenant Kestal (22):

• Ruthlessness (3)
• TLT (6)
• Unguided Rockets (2)
• Lightweight Frame (2)

Omicron Group Pilot (21):

• Darth Vader (3)
• Fleet Officer (3)
• Tractor Beam (1)

Total: 100 Points

Ryad with stealth device and her title makes her really survivable, Kestal can fire TLT from afar and if 1 hits, Ruthlessness kicks in. Lambda is just there to get in the way, and feed both ships focus tokens, and attack with Tractor Beam, then using Vader's ability after.

35 minutes ago, QuantumBerry said:

So... I built this list because I thought it could do a lot of damage, and it looks kinda fun to play.

Should I change anything?

Countess Ryad (34):

• Juke (2)
• Tie/x7 (-2)
• Stealth Device (3)

Lieutenant Kestal (22):

• Ruthlessness (3)
• TLT (6)
• Unguided Rockets (2)
• Lightweight Frame (2)

Omicron Group Pilot (21):

• Darth Vader (3)
• Fleet Officer (3)
• Tractor Beam (1)

Total: 100 Points

Ryad with stealth device and her title makes her really survivable, Kestal can fire TLT from afar and if 1 hits, Ruthlessness kicks in. Lambda is just there to get in the way, and feed both ships focus tokens, and attack with Tractor Beam, then using Vader's ability after.

The biggest thing I would change is to run standard Ryad: PTL, x7, Twin Ion. You can get TL, Focus, Evade every turn and between all straights, K's (due to Pilot ability), and banks are green. This saves a pt, juke will likely not still be an option at PS5 unless you do something to increase PS or you avoid being shot, and realistically with a token stack (you can still toss an extra focus to her) she can tank right in the mix. Ruthlessness scares me since no matter what set-up you bring for ryad, she is a knife fighter that does best in close and looking up her enemies exhaust ports. Maybe expertise for the TLT or maybe lightning reflexes for when the opponent gets inside rng 1 and outside your arc??? Then maybe run the OGP with FCS or Reinforced Deflectors and bail on the cannon, his 3 dice primary is too solid to waste on a tractor beam shot.

Just my two cents.... On a side note, this is a casual list I have had fun with before I found out how much fun Deathfire can be

Lamda w/defender escort (100)

Colonel Vessery (35) - TIE Defender- Juke (2), TIE/x7 (-2)

Countess Ryad (36) - TIE Defender- Push The Limit (3), TIE/x7 (-2), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Omicron Group Pilot (29) - Lambda-Class Shuttle- Fire Control System (2), Weapons Engineer (3), ST-321 (3)