Gunner/Operations Specialist is a nice combination - with Hotshot Copilot you don't really care if you hit; you're just trying to mess with your opponent.

It should work; Chiraneau can afford to spend his action boosting to avoid shots, which is the best way for a decimator to protect itself.

I'm not convinced Brath's ability is amazing, but PS8 is definitely worth having, and it gives you a way to use 'spare' focus tokens if Chiraneau misses a lot!

I've played a ton RAC + Ace lists, so this may be the only place I have credibility to preach.
I know the Juke combo is really enticing, but with only one shot from Brath a turn, you may want to consider giving him VI instead and keeping a point for a bid. Meta lists today have either a handful of ships (and shots) or the ability to attack multiple times per round (Dengar/Quickdraw). Your list gets two shots, and frankly, you're going to want to bump with RAC as much as possible (which is why I always make room for the Dauntless title) to eliminate shots against the 0-agility oaf. With all of that in mind, you're really going to want Brath at a high PS.

Hot Shot is going to eliminate the focus that your target would use on attack, which is still valuable against any list.

With all of the Nym/Dengar lists out there, you will want to get your shots off and re-position at the same time as those two.

Interesting idea. I might give the variant with VI a try out as well. I figure more damage is the better with Rexler and the Tie Defender is beefy with the title at times.

14 minutes ago, hey_yu said:

Interesting idea. I might give the variant with VI a try out as well. I figure more damage is the better with Rexler and the Tie Defender is beefy with the title at times.

It is a beefy ship, agreed. But against Bomber Generator and Dengar/Quickdraw you want to be able to react and at the very least have simultaneous fire.

If you were only facing lower PS ships I'd take Juke every day of the week.

The Bomber Generator is something a person should consider when they choose their movement in the planning phase. For the most part, you can anticipate where it's going to be. It can be tricky if it's on Death Rain, Emon, Bombardier Crew, etc.

2 hours ago, hey_yu said:

The Bomber Generator is something a person should consider when they choose their movement in the planning phase. For the most part, you can anticipate where it's going to be. It can be tricky if it's on Death Rain, Emon, Bombardier Crew, etc.

What about PS 10 Nym with "Genius"?

That's an interesting range with Nym and Genius that you pointed out:

I could be wrong, but it looks like Nym would be in the blast radius as well after using Genius (even if it tries to barrel roll afterward). Also, if I go with VI and the opposing player has a Nym VI build at 99PT then I would have a 50/50 chance of going second to help react to the situation you're referencing to.

In any event, I appreciate the suggestion. I'll attempt to give it a play against a Nym build.

I've been rolling RAC with a similar build, and it's worked quite well for me. The Hotshot/Gunner combo works quite nicely. I've been taking Rebel Captive in my third crew slot though, helps avoid getting shredded by Expertise, and is just generally annoying even when not up against it.

Using OpSpec to get focus on Rexler is an interesting idea, though I agree with the above that if I were going to do it, I'd put VI on Rexler as well. That said, I feel like using part of the Decimator to boost Rexler rather than focusing on supporting itself isn't a good idea. If Rexler goes down first, or has to split off and isn't close enough, those points aren't doing anything.