I've been playing around with the idea of trying to make the best out of the two TIE Aggeessors I was suckered in to buy - or at least one of them. I think Kestal could be potentially really good, if I find a way to give her extra focus tokens. So here's what I came up with so far:

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

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 60

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Because the bomber and the aggressor have pretty much the same dial, I figure I just keep Tomax near Kestal, do Fleet Officer as an action to give both of them a Focus. Then Cool Hand triggers, discarding Tomax's stress and giving him an evade instead. Kestal can also do a focus action, so I have two tokens to spend. This should make her ability work pretty reliably... depending on my opponent's roll.

But how should I spend the remaining 40 points? With Kestal giving some ion control, I'd need a heavy damage dealer here. Any ideas?

I would use your second crew spot on Bren to put in a systems officer. You do a green maneuver you can add a target lock to Kestal (use or don't use), then I'd pair them with

VI'd Vessery, use a tractor beam to take someone's agility down by one, the VI makes him attack before Kestal so that he could get the target locks to re-roll both times, and use twin Ion's mod for Vessery to increase green maneuvers.

I've been playing with deadeye and synced turret on Kestal. You only need a focus action, and if you keep them in arc get free rerolls. The focus is there to hopefully get rid of their defense dice over modifying the attack. With all of the ps fights, I'm not sure that ps9 is worth it over 7 right now.

Haven't decided who to pair with yet, but a Tomax Kylo carrier could be fun.

3 hours ago, Captain Pellaeon said:

I've been playing around with the idea of trying to make the best out of the two TIE Aggeessors I was suckered in to buy - or at least one of them. I think Kestal could be potentially really good, if I find a way to give her extra focus tokens. So here's what I came up with so far:

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

Lieutenant Kestal (22)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Lightweight Frame (2)

Total: 60

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Because the bomber and the aggressor have pretty much the same dial, I figure I just keep Tomax near Kestal, do Fleet Officer as an action to give both of them a Focus. Then Cool Hand triggers, discarding Tomax's stress and giving him an evade instead. Kestal can also do a focus action, so I have two tokens to spend. This should make her ability work pretty reliably... depending on my opponent's roll.

But how should I spend the remaining 40 points? With Kestal giving some ion control, I'd need a heavy damage dealer here. Any ideas?

You just spent 60pts for a single damage ion cannon turret with 5hps. I would rather just toss on the points for Expertise on her and not have Tomax Support Vessel and instead have Inquisitor or Omega Leader,etc.

I really haven't been able to figure out Kestal to be quite honest. She's got too many "little" things stacked up against her. The cost of the platform as a whole is a touch high due to the turret slot, considering it's one less EHP than a bomber with still only two greens. Double-edge is closer to the price point I'd be willing to pay for a fragile frame, and the generics are surprisingly effective both with TLT and Ion Cannons IMO.

Kestal's ability is really neat. However, she is only PS7 which puts you at that awkward point when considering what EPT to use. Her ability stands out as frankly anti-ace tech which seems counter intuitive to all her low-damage turret options. TLT isn't too hot as you would need two focus to effectively use her ability. Ion would be great with her ability to catch Fenns and Soontirs if were seeing them a lot. Her ability makes more sense with missiles but then you lose LWF which drops your defense by an awful lot for GC.

I do tend to think that expertise would be a good choice, but it's just too expensive for what she does. Deadeye Synced I tried once, and when you realize that for the same points you could be getting an Inquisitor who will almost always have double dice mods plus native 3 agi plus an evade... it's hard to take her seriously.

I think dead eye Double-Edge with some missiles, or Lone Wolf, or Ruthlessness make more sense. Maybe lone wolf on Kestal would be decent, actually.

I've been trying to work out the same problem. I've been playing a double Aggresor squad (DoubleEdge + Onyx Squad) with VI Vader lately and it's been doing ok, just not great. It's a lot of fun to fly and such, but I'm trying to work a Kestal in there to see if her ability will make a difference. At the moment I've got her loaded up as with LWF, Deadeye, TLT and a cruise missile total: 34 pts. I swapped her for DoubleEdge and dropped the Onyx to a Sienar Specialist in with LWF, TLT and unguided rockets.

Haven't had a chance to put this squad on the table yet, but I'm hoping it's a little stronger than my previous list.

My theoretical understanding is that Kestal is good at two limited roles. One is being a cheap Cruise Missile carrier, ignoring her ability entirely. She'll be 26 points for VI, Cruise, and GC. No one else can get that high PS at that low a cost.

The other role is sniping high-dice-mods ships with Ion Cannon Turret. A unique Imperial control piece. I wouldn't try to build around her, so much as use her as the filler/3rd ship in a list which would otherwise be OK, if you're worried about folks like Soontir and Poe. I can't really envision that list, however. I mean, you could figure out a way to build a PS11 Vader/QD missile list, but I don't know that she'd really be that much better for it. You'll be able to Ion Poe, but is Poe really what you're worried about with a PS11 alpha strike? Maybe she fits along side two Defenders. PTL/Mk.II Countess and Vessery with an upgrade up to 1 point (A Score To Settle and Mk.IIs, perhaps). In such a list, however, Kestal becomes the obvious first target: she'll be so much easier to kill than an /x7 defender.

I feel like trying to support her with a shuttle Tomax isn't going to be a great idea. I've seen support Tomax work well along side a Rexler Brath TIE/D and a Pure Sabacc, since those are ships with potential for huge offense, but that's just not Kestal. Even with heavy investment in Turrets or Missiles, it's just not going to be that much damage.

You could use her to help get off Adv. Homing Missiles. Here's a troll build of massive fun (and much death).

"What Shields?"

TIE Aggressor: · "Lieutenant Kestal" (22)

Deadeye (1)

Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE Bomber: · Major Rhymer (26)

Deadeye (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

Proton Bombs (5)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE Fighter: · "Scourge" (17)

Trick Shot (0)

TIE Fighter: · "Wampa" (14)

-- TOTAL ------- 100p. --

On 10/17/2017 at 3:08 PM, Captain Pellaeon said:

Then Cool Hand triggers, discarding Tomax's stress and giving him an evade instead.

Alas, Cool Hand does not discard the stress. It just gives an evade or focus in addition to the stress. This is why I typically fly Tomax as follows:

Tomax Bren (24)
Cool Hand (1) or Crash Shot (1)
Systems Officer (2)
Fleet Officer (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE Shuttle (0)

Total: 31

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