Let's talk RAC/Vader list! I really like to fly mobile aces, and have found that combination of pilots to be a way to make that work, at least partly, in today's meta. From what I've seen good players fly, this should not be to far off:

Darth Vader
- Title
- ATC
- Engine upgrade
- Cruise Missile
- Veteran Instinct

Rear admiral Chiraneau
- Veteran Instinct
- Kylo Ren
- Engine Upgrade

That leaves 8 points, and two crew slots on RAC. The options I've considered are:

- Gunner
- Rebel Captive

or

- Emperor Palpatine

What do you guys think?

1 hour ago, Yearfire said:

That leaves 8 points, and two crew slots on RAC. The options I've considered are:

- Gunner
- Rebel Captive

or

- Emperor Palpatine

What do you guys think?

Depends whether you forsee Vader or Chiraneau doing most of the heavy lifting in the squad. Palpatine for the former, Gunner/Rebel Captive for the latter.

I think both of your crew options are solid.

I'd also consider the Dauntless title, if you haven't already. Its really awesome in combination with the engine upgrade. When small base ships try to catch you out with a bump, being able to bump then boost away and shoot at range 1 is really brutal.

31 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Depends whether you forsee Vader or Chiraneau doing most of the heavy lifting in the squad. Palpatine for the former, Gunner/Rebel Captive for the latter.

I’ve never thought about it that way before. But I guess it makes sense. With Palp, I can risk a focus/TL cruise missile on the first engagement with Vader, but other than that, I mostly looked at Palp as a way to guarantee the crit with RAC on R3.

This is a strong argument for Palpatine, since I really like the ace play.

24 minutes ago, timg_83 said:

I think both of your crew options are solid.

I'd also consider the Dauntless title, if you haven't already. Its really awesome in combination with the engine upgrade. When small base ships try to catch you out with a bump, being able to bump then boost away and shoot at range 1 is really brutal.

I have considered it, yes. But I think these crew options are much better than the title and 6 points of crew. Do you have any suggestions? Intelligence Agent instead of Captive kind of ruins the point of the title.

To be honest, I think the only wiggle room is the cruise missile.

So probably not going to happen.

But I'd encourage you to keep it in mind.

As a rebel player, Kylo is definitely the scariest card in your list, but without Dauntless I can work around it (basically try to bump RAC, restrict who he can target and take away the option of ISYTDS and boost). With Dauntless, I don't have that safe option.

3 minutes ago, timg_83 said:

As a rebel player, Kylo is definitely the scariest card in your list, but without Dauntless I can work around it (basically try to bump RAC, restrict who he can target and take away the option of ISYTDS and boost). With Dauntless, I don't have that safe option.

I guess it depends on the list, but I've not find blocking to be that big a problem with RAC. It might be because in the meta right now, four ship lists are an exception. But it's also worth keeping in mind that the easier it is to block (ie. the more ship you have) the less does ISYTDS matter.

From my experience, having Kylo on RAC means you're using him almost every round once you've engaged your opponent. Dauntless is a must, and I would even encourage you to actively bump with RAC on your secondary targets. EU you won't get a lot of use out of outside of against an opponent who likes to run away from you the whole game, so I tend to run either antipursuit lasers or ion projector to discourage extra bumping from your opponent as much as possible.

With Vader and getting your free crit from his title and Rac's soft focus -> crit, you probably won't really need palp as much as with an ace like QD, Whisper or Echo. Rebel captive keeps you safer in the late game, it's a solid choice. Gunner you might not need, but I haven't done the math on it. It helps you get the best chances of getting in damage each turn, but with R1 and 2 shots you're statistically getting 2-3 hits anyway. Mercenary Copilot also isn't bad, and helps keep your ISYTDS crits pushing through, and gives you a 3 point bid or room for dauntless.

Palp on your decimator is an absolute monster. Your statistically average R1 shot is 2 crits, 1 hit and a 50/50 split for a 3rd crit or 2nd hit. It's not terribly uncommon to get 4 and 3 crit shots at R1 and 2 respectively, and with the amount of low agi ships being flown around, you're getting a lot of mileage out of Kylo. Blind the biggest threat on your first 2 passes, put stunned pilot on anything thats trying to block and they'll destroy themselves in short order. Really nothing should beat you in PS, but damaged cockpit eliminates a lot of threats. PS0 Nym is a joke only trumped by an injured pilot Nym if they run the old damage deck.