STAR WARS: IMPERIAL TACTICS EPISODE IV: RAC

Ok pilots! Welcome back.

Time to take a look at Rear Admiral Chiraneau (RAC) in the VT-49 Decimator. As always, I am not an expert authority on X-Wing. Just offering my perspective to start a hopefully insightful gameplay focused conversation about a specific pilot. RAC is in many ways the Empire's best ship/pilot simply because we live in a high health arc dodging turret world and he is the only Imperial ship that checks both boxes. On to the Content!

Hit Crit Overview:

• Hit:

  • 3 Attack Primary Weapon Turret (PWT)

  • 16 HP

  • 3 Crew Upgrades

  • Action Efficient Pilot Skill

  • Highly Mobile

  • Extremely Cool Looking.

  • Hard Counter to Low Green Dice High HP Turret Ships like Nym, Miranda, Dash, Dengar, Rey etc.

• Crit:

  • No Agility

  • Likely to be destroyed after 4-6 Attacks

  • Has a # of bad matchups particularly against "multi-ship" lists

  • Flys under the influence of a lot of Critical Damage

Wookie Background Check:

• Chiraneau was a Human male who served the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War.
• A TIE fighter ace and an expert in the field of deep-space transmissions, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral by Firmus Piett, the commanding officer of Darth Vader's Death Squadron.
• In 4 ABY, Chiraneau was serving as Piett's personal advisor aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor during the Battle of Endor, and he was killed when the warship plummeted into the second Death Star's surface.

Pilot Card:

Dial:

EPT Upgrade:

• Veteran Instincts / Adaptability

  • Definitely my preferred EPT for RAC.

  • VI pushes him to PS10 allowing him to dictate the early game with Kylo Ren.

  • Adaptability is typically used in combination with Whisper.

• Predator

  • Fairly popular option. Gives him a native Mini-Target Lock & a Mini-Focus

  • Frees you up to Boost or Kylo Action and still modify your attack dice

• Ruthlessness

  • Biggs and Lowhrick are usually a big problem for RAC since they prevent you from pushing through Kylo crits on a priority target (Miranda, Kanan, Pava, etc. )

  • This helps you splash damage on things near Biggs and keep up with the HP countdown clock that regen Miranda in particular forces.

• Trick Shot

  • With zero agility its not a bad idea to put as many rocks as possible between you and the enemy.

  • Trick Shot takes advantage of that by bumping your attack up to 4 dice for obstructed shots but 1 additional attack is not as great as it looks

• A Score to Settle

  • Rarely used. Somewhat redundant given RACs pilot skill.

  • There are other better ways to guarantee landing a Crit

• Calculation

  • Same category as A Score To Settle. Kind of unnecessary given RACs ability.

  • Never really need a focus on Defense so there is that at least...

• Determination

  • Absolutely worth considering if you expect to face other Imperial lists with regularity.

  • Provides insurance against PS0 and 2 rounds of Blinded Pilot.

• Rage

  • Target lock and focus all in one for the cost of 2 stress you can clear with one green move if you have Inspiring Recruit Crew.

  • Trouble is you really need to keep RACs dial open to arc dodge as much as possible.

  • Stress is an absolute killer when you are on a 4-6 inbound shot countdown.

• Expert Handling

  • Any ship with a turret benefits greatly from Barrel Rolls.

  • Allows for considerable range control and tosses a target lock….but the stress is killer.

  • Helpful against RACs worst matchups...4x TLT, Biggs etc.

  • Not ideal but still very fun to use on RAC every now and then since it also helps you get into Range 1-2 to make use of his Pilot Ability.

• Intimidation

  • Bumping an opponent can give RAC that extra bit of time he needs to get to the next round by denying a shot so it does happen.

  • If your wingman is still on the board -1 Agility is always nice.

• Squad Leader

  • At PS8 and with General Hux, Inspiring Recruit, and Experimental Interface RAC can become a halfway decent although expensive support boat.

• Push The Limit

  • Limited Green moves make this a limited use EPT for RAC.

  • It can give you a significant advantage in the opening rounds dropping a Kylo Action & Target Lock on w/e it is you want to PS0/Blind

  • Still there are better ways to double up on action economy without having to take a stress, see Predator.

• Expertise

  • RAC shouldn't be stressed often since his dial is all white/green. Still 4pts is a lot and limits build options elsewhere.

• Expose

  • Maybe the only Imperial ship that can actually benefit from this EPT.

  • Trading an action for an extra attack dice isn’t necessarily better than simply boosting or modifying dice you already have.

Torpedo Upgrade

• Extra Munitions

  • If for some reason you are running a Bomber RAC (Most people don't)…..2pts for 1 more Bomb

• Advanced Proton Torpedoes

  • Why you would use this I dont know….but hard to deny that its kind of fun to roll up to Range 1 with a Target lock and chuck 5 dice with RAC

• Plasma Torps or Proton Torps

  • Drop an extra shield or push through another crit.

  • Deny Range 3 dice….but the points are almost always better used elsewhere

  • RAC rarely if ever uses Ordinance since you want to stay out of Arc and having to “point” at your opponent's ship makes that harder

  • Might be a reasonable way to soften up one of the 3x Jumpmasters your going to run into. But pointing at things is very dangerous.

• If only RAC had a Missile Slot instead……...so he and Vader could nuke Biggs stuff with Harpoons...

Crew Upgrade

• Emperor Palpatine

  • RAC is the only ship in game that can take Palp & Kylo together

  • This is what makes him so unique and represents a massive defense boost for your entire list.

  • All but guarantees you the ability to push through Kylo Crits on your target and opens the game up considerably for you to solo your opponents list with an Ace.

• Kylo Ren

  • Paired with Gunner or Palpatine RAC is probably the most effective ship in the game at forcing Kylo Crits through on opponents.

  • His native crit generation is a massive advantage.

• Darth Vader

  • Does not synergize with ISTDs

  • Gunner/Vader is very good fun and effective against low HP and low shield ships

  • Fenn and Soontir do not like to see this on the table…since it chews through their hull in basically one round.

• Rebel Captive

  • RAC is going to take a lot of shots. Your opponents tactic will often be to “burn” down RAC as soon as possible.

  • You don’t have green dice, so might as well push out stress to your opponent's top PS.

• Gunner / Hotshot Co Pilot

  • Awesome crew that can cause havoc if you pair it with Hot Shot Co Pilot to strip tokens in particular.

• Inspiring Recruit

  • Works well with Rage, General Hux, and some Experimental Interface combos.

• Intel Agent

  • RAC can take 3 of these. Yes thats unnecessary but slam into your opponents formation and flip all their dials during activation

• Mara Jade

  • At some point in every game you might be close to your opponent's formation.

  • Pushing stress through to everything at Range 1 can give you the time you need to get to a safe place.

  • But ask yourself....why were you in that place in the first place?

• Navigator

  • A nice option at PS9 or PS10….definitely helps you avoid blocks and keeps your actions rolling.

  • Might be worth considering if you are running an action bomb for fun.

• Operations Spec

  • Works ok with Gunner. Basically attack misses….focus….attack again.

  • Somewhat unnecessary overlap with RACs pilot ability.

• Ysanne Isard

  • Gives you an evade at the start of combat if you have no shields.

  • With 12 Hull you can actually get a good amount of work from this especially if your smart about staying at range.

  • High point cost but possible for it to earn you 1 or 2 extra rounds of combat which is a huge deal

• General Hux

  • Works ok if you have 2 other ships flying nearby like Strikers or Ties

  • RAC is a bit to expensive though so very difficult to make use of this

Title

• Dauntless

  • Its not uncommon for your opponents to try and trap RAC with bumps or for you to want to intentionally bump to save RAC.

  • This title helps you boost out of bad spots at the last moment or still take an action to attack other ships in their list.

  • Works better on other Deci pilots that want to intentionally ram other ships.

  • Still, Dauntless helps even the playing field a tiny bit against some of RACs worst matchups

Modification

• Engine Upgrade

  • This list begins and ends with EU. RAC is an arc dodger.

  • Without boost you put yourself at risk of being destroyed very quickly.

• Experimental Interface

  • Mentioned a few times already. Works well with a # of crew and EPT cards.

• Hull Upgrade

  • If you want to run Darth Vader crew might be worth it for fun but Engine Upgrade gets you the same thing by avoiding shots.

Favorite Wingman

• Darth Vader

  • At PS11 and with the ability to fire a Cruise Missile and generate Crits.

  • Vader is RACs best wingman right now.

  • RAC/Palp/Kylo/VI/EU + Vader/EU/Cruise is a monster. Lots of videos online of this combo.

• Quick Draw

  • QD is in a similar category as Darth Vader here with his ability to get to PS11

  • On his own QD is maybe a little fragile without a great ability to arc dodge or other ships to distract your opponent

  • Still a potent wingman that can do some serious damage in a hurry

  • Something to consider with Draw Their Fire to mess with your opponents tendency to shoot RAC first

• Whisper

  • The Classic pair, with RAC at PS9 these two feed off each other.

  • Probably the most fun way to use Whisper since it really takes alot of stress out of matchups where you know your opponent has the PS advantage on Whisper

  • People typically use the RAC/Palp/Kylo combo but dropping Palp to give the list more options is not uncommon

• Boba Fett

  • RAC/EU/VI/Kylo + Boba/Expertise/EU…..lots of health and super fun to fly

• Inquisitor

  • A tanky little fella that enjoys staying at range while RAC does RAC things

• Rexler Breth or Maarek Stele

  • Not something I have personally tried but can definitely see a # of viable options

  • Represents a considerable amount of health and places an emphasis on the crit cards

General Tips

• Going into a game I usually assume RAC can take 4-6 shots before he is destroyed.

  • A fully modified 3 dice attack should push through around 2.8 dmg per shot against 0 green dice.

  • That is not alot of “time” especially if there are missiles or torps on the table.

  • Engine Upgrade is your best option for extending the # of rounds you have RAC available

• Typically you will be using RAC + 1 Ace.

  • This means you need to get familiar with engaging early with RAC and keeping your Ace safe until the right moment.

  • If they decide to chase your Ace they have already given you a nice advantage by blessing you with an additional round or two of RAC combat.

• Do not let Bomblet Generator change your movement. It matters sure, but its less important than staying out of Arc or HLC range.

• Most people use that 3 bank move + boost frequently

• RAC is first and foremost an Arc dodger. The turret makes this a much “easier” thing to do.

• Boost regularly and take advantage of his native action efficiency the entire time

• Get close…..but not to close. Mind your range! RAC wants to be at R1-2 for his Pilot Ability but R3 for his survivability.

• Stay behind rocks to get extra green dice.

• Without Dauntless getting bumped for more than 1 turn in a game can cause major problems

• Do not let your opponent “trap” you in a corner. This spells doom so be very careful about flying along the edge of the board towards any of the corners without a plan

• Learn the entire Damage Deck. Get used to flying under the critfluence ( influence of crits ).

• Ion Tokens are not your friend since they keep you from arc dodging and you have no green dice to avoid them

Worst Matchups

• Biggs

  • If you see Biggs on the table you know you're in for a tough fight since the main goal with RAC is usually to neutralize your opponent's best ship early. Biggs denies that advantage.

  • This leaves you basically a couple options

    • Bump Biggs, Dauntless, and Shoot the other thing.

    • Alpha Strike Biggs with a Vader Cruise Missile Shot, 5 Dice Whisper Shot, or Double Attack from a Draw Their Fire QD…...paired with a 4 dice RAC shot. Trouble is if Lowhrick is around that probably won’t be enough damage.

    • Practice getting your target in range but keep Biggs out of range. Very difficult to do but….the best players definitely can do this since Biggs does fly somewhat predictably.

    • Pushing just 1 Blinded Pilot through on a Biggs protected target early can win you games if you manage the range properly

    • As mentioned above Ruthlessness + Sesimic Torps on RAC + Harpoon on Vader could turn this matchup on hits head reasonably quickly, but leaves you vulnerable to other lists.

• Multiple Ordinance Ships or Swarms

  • If you see more than 2 ships across from you RAC is in trouble especially if they have lots of missiles.

  • In this case you have two goals:

    • Arc Dodge all the things with Engine Upgrade….you won't be able to dodge every arc but make sure you dodge at least 1 of the arcs

    • Use Rocks to disrupt their Cruise Missile lanes. Blind or Bump 1 of the 3 attackers

• Multiple TLT Ships

  • This is a range control puzzle. Bump 1 and get into Range 1 of another…..not easy to do and only works if your Opponent allows it to work

  • Generally speaking if you see 4x TLT on the other side, particularly Y-Wings you are in a giant steaming pile of trouble.

• 3 Jump Masters

  • Outside of 4x TLT this is probably the scariest thing for RAC imaginable.

  • Two jumps are manageable but Trip Jumps spells doom….

  • They have a great deal of health….usually have torps and they often have intel agent

  • That means not only can they bump lock you….they can alpha you to the ground early.

  • In my book the biggest thing to be afraid of are those torpedo shots, so stay out of their front arc at all costs.

• RAC v RAC

  • This is usually degenerates into a pretty hilarious Kylo Ren slap fight. Determination can help a bit.

  • You get a blinded pilot and you get a blinded pilot and you get a damaged cockpit and you get a damaged cockpit…..etc. etc. you get the idea

Practice Tips

• Put these somewhere on the board: Miranda + Biggs or Kanan + Biggs

  • Fly around and practice maneuvers that put them inside Range 3 without giving you a shot at Biggs.

  • Try placing Biggs on different sides of your target to see how that changes your approach

  • Strafing runs become very important where you turn away or along side your opponent's formation at various angles.

  • The more familiar you are with that range ruler the better!

  • The image below is somewhat unrealistic but you get the idea on what to practice here.

  • 

• Put 4 Ships on the board at the range 2 corners.

  • Practice staying out of range of at least 1 ship at all time.

  • Basically put 4 Y-Wings on the other side of the table all spread out, and walk them up the board circling the rocks.

  • Move the Y-Wings to different spots and see what you have to do to keep RAC safe

  • 

Questions for the Experts

• Most of us are already familiar with RAC/Kylo/Palp…...any alternatives that open up points for the rest of the list?

• How do you approach his worst matchups? Trip Jumps, Multi-Ship lists, etc.

• Any practice tips other than what I already listed?

Thanks for reading!

Previous Episodes:

Id give this 3 likes if I could...

Wanna give an honorary mention to vessery as a wingman.

I've play a lot of RAC and another wonderful ace to pair him with is backdraft. It takes a bit to learn how to use his critting rear shot, but once you have his flying figured out he is a great compliment to RAC/kylo. I personally prefer Kylo/Captive/Gunner when I run RAC.

Bit of advice I would offer which is more of a personal playstyle, but if they are running ships in formation then fly aggressively at their center (need to get a bump in) and Rac's size will usually make them have to split up their squad. Your maneuverability with EU and your ace sitting back should be able to let you get some isolated shots on one of the side afterwards. Bit of a risk, if you screw up the approach then RAC may melt but worth learning.

43 minutes ago, Jemmers said:

I've play a lot of RAC and another wonderful ace to pair him with is backdraft. It takes a bit to learn how to use his critting rear shot, but once you have his flying figured out he is a great compliment to RAC/kylo. I personally prefer Kylo/Captive/Gunner when I run RAC.

Bit of advice I would offer which is more of a personal playstyle, but if they are running ships in formation then fly aggressively at their center (need to get a bump in) and Rac's size will usually make them have to split up their squad. Your maneuverability with EU and your ace sitting back should be able to let you get some isolated shots on one of the side afterwards. Bit of a risk, if you screw up the approach then RAC may melt but worth learning.

I have always struggled with that bit. Basically crashing into a formation, without taking a whole bunch of shots from the formation itself.

I guess if you hit it at an angle you can close off a direction for them to turn especially if they have a rock on the other side and avoid one or two arcs in the process?

2 minutes ago, Boom Owl said:

I have always struggled with that bit. Basically crashing into a formation, without taking a whole bunch of shots from the formation itself.

I guess if you hit it at an angle you can close off a direction for them to turn especially if they have a rock on the other side and avoid one or two arcs in the process?

I usually want to come in from an angle on them as that is when a formation can get a little wonky plus it leaves you the option to turn and strafe instead of splitting if you don't like the engagement. I aim to get just outside the range 3 or possibly just inside so only 1 or 2 of them can get a shot. You are going to take shots doing this so if you think they can alpha you off the board with their group then obviously find another tactic, but after that initial engagement (which you can hopefully lessen with a bump and kylo blind) you will have the turret advantage and ideally a split squadron that will lose a lot of bite by themselves.

This is also against formations I would see nowadays which aren't 8 man swarms. If there are more then 4 ships I would probably just strafe them around rocks.

Next please do Oicunn or Lord Vader.

4 hours ago, Boom Owl said:

Hard Counter to Low Green Dice High HP Turret Ships like Nym, Miranda, Dash, Dengar, Rey etc.

I'm dumb (read inexperienced). Could you or someone explain why this is the case? He can't dodge their arcs (though I guess can get in the doughnuts of some) ...

1 hour ago, TheHumanHydra said:

I'm dumb (read, 'inexperienced'). Could you or someone explain why this is the case? He can't dodge their arcs (though I guess can get in the doughnuts of some) ...

RAC can push through Damage Cockpit and Blinded Pilot kylo crits on ships with only 1 or 2 green dice pretty easily. Especially since he can self generate crits with his turret and Palp or clear defense mods and then attack with Gunner. So one on one he has a massive advantage.

Of course the problem is those ships usually arent alone! So "hard" counter might be kinda strong language on my part here since your red dice can fail you or the other stuff can destroy you.

Other Kylo Crew stuff can do the same thing but its just that RACs pilot ability, high ps, and turret make it extra easy. You can get to the same place with a Lamda or Upsilon shuttle carrying Kylo and Vader at PS11 or Backdraft Crits etc....but there are more things that can go wrong.

RAC just combines all those things into one ship without any green dice. Also one of the best ways to fight a turret is with another turret or better yet an even bigger turret or even more turrets.

Think of Kylo Ren and Palp together as the closest thing to Biggs that the Imperials have. Biggs "blinds" your opponent until he is destroyed and Kylo blinds your opponent twice. It removes some of your opponents choices and works most consistently on ships with low agility.

RAC isnt completely god mode though he just combines the Imperials 2 best crew and a turret into one ship. Makes him well equpped to table most 2 ship lists.

2 hours ago, Boom Owl said:

Thanks very much. So it's mostly with Kylo that he's such a good counter.

This is very amateur of me, but what do you think of this list against the meta?

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Baron of the Empire (19)
Trick Shot (0)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

Baron of the Empire (19)
Trick Shot (0)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I thought you might be able to sink one of the Jumpmasters before it fires or get around behind a Biggs formation in those bad matchups. But this is probably a bad idea considering how unfavored ships like TAPs are right now.

16 hours ago, TheHumanHydra said:

Thanks very much. So it's mostly with Kylo that he's such a good counter.

This is very amateur of me, but what do you think of this list against the meta?

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Kylo Ren (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Baron of the Empire (19)
Trick Shot (0)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

Baron of the Empire (19)
Trick Shot (0)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I thought you might be able to sink one of the Jumpmasters before it fires or get around behind a Biggs formation in those bad matchups. But this is probably a bad idea considering how unfavored ships like TAPs are right now.

This is kinda neat but generally speaking Cruise Missile shots get significantly easier to set up and land the higher your PS is, PS9+. Still looks like it could be fun but it likely would struggle a bit to consistently generate Crits with just Kylo on RAC and Guidance Chips only offering hits with the TAPs