I've got a local player who's just freaking dominating when he flies his Imperials. Lately, he's been flying a behemoth RAC-LO list that's awfully hard to beat. Which is what I need to do. I need to mess with his head... get under his skin... really make his RAC-LO build suffer.

Mainly because he's a longtime friend of mine, and I'm a troll.

So here's the gist of what he typically runs... what would work best to counter this, without sacrificing general game utility?

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau (64) - Kylo Ren, Emperor Palpatine, Veteran Instincts, Engine Upgrade, Dauntless
• Darth Vader (35) - Veteran Instincts, TIE/X1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Engine Upgrade

I did get the best of him with a bomb-heavy squad featuring Miranda and Nym, just before the Advanced Slam Nerf. I'm considering trying the same with Nym/Emon Azzameen, or Sol Sixxa/Emon. Also considering Panic Attack-like builds, because I love trolling my opponents with unexpected effects like stress, ions, and the like.

3 Ship builds are often the death of rac-lo, or ships with enough firepower/defense to withstand those rounds of blinded pilots and keep on shooting. I am actually in a very similiar situation, a friend of mine is running that exact list but with a ps 10 Quickdraw and it's devastating he went 6-0 in the first tournament he went to, though it crumbles again some builds, such as Rey, who has a really good defense, and can withstand those two blinded pilot rounds and then deal a ton a of damage. Dengar is also a good choice, you instantly turn over the blinded pilot crit if he's in your arc. Bombs are good source of damage because they don't involve an attack and usually besides RAC comes an ace, they may also force your opponent to boost out of the bomb's range, which means no kylo. When the palp is on the RAC i almost always go after him first, to make sure I take both kylo and the big man out, because otherwise my opponent can control the damage input that goes into Quickdraw much better and same thing goes for Vader focus+evade is hard, focus+evade+palpatine is harder. From what I understand Dash can be kinda painful too, if he's decently lucky, and can, if well played, dodge the crits. Aces with AT and turret ships are also good, aces because they ca fairly easily dodge attacks out of arc, which will be most type of the attacks RAC makes and turrets don't care wether he's in arc or not. Also try and make sure he can’t bump one of your ships, it's better for him than it is for you, one less ship attacking RAC and he still gets actions.

Hope this helps at all, I sort of rambled there, sorry.

Two ships really struggle against Kylo. Of all my tournament lists the successful ones were at PS10 with an alpha (Boba Nym) and my good old triple t-70 list which was fast enough and had enough red Dice to kick *** when one wasn’t shooting.

4 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Also considering Panic Attack-like builds, because I love trolling my opponents with unexpected effects like stress, ions, and the like.

This. Either action-independent control lists, or heavy swarms are the best way to deal with this sort of thing.

3 or 4 ship lists, especially packing autothrusters and good defence stacks. You have to hit, to Show the Dark Side, so just dodge everything being thrown at you and you'll be fine.

Or bring Determination on low agility ships.

13 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

3 or 4 ship lists, especially packing autothrusters and good defence stacks. You have to hit, to Show the Dark Side, so just dodge everything being thrown at you and you'll be fine.

Or bring Determination on low agility ships.

Why stop at 4?

Five strikers can pretty much turn the Admiral's ride to swiss cheese in a single shooting phase, and are agile enough to have a realistic chance of not seeing the dark side without a gunner being involved.

Not at range 1 with Palp. Average roll for either of those ships in that context is HHCC. You're likely to lose a striker a round - and RAC probably just skips Dark Side in that context for arc dodging and TLing.

Just a quick pop in to ask: where the heck does “Lo” come into the name scheme for this list?

edit: Wait I see it now never mind ignore me.

4 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

3 or 4 ship lists, especially packing autothrusters and good defence stacks. You have to hit, to Show the Dark Side, so just dodge everything being thrown at you and you'll be fine.

Or bring Determination on low agility ships.

Keyan Farlander w/ B-E2, Hera, and Determination don't carr about ISYTDS!

Thug life. It is awful for Rac to fly against. Even if he Kylo's 1, there are still 3 TLT shots to deal with. At 6 damage per turn, RAC dies fast. And I know the argument will be made to get in the doughnut hole, but a decent pilot can split up the formation at a good time and do alot of damage. And Y's have enough hit points to survive a couple shots from the decimator.

Other than that, determination EPT, x-wings with integrated astromechs, VI Dengar(which is hilarious BTW), are some options you have. Whatever replaces fair ship rebels might be an option, but we'll see if anything comes out of that.

12 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

I've got a local player who's just freaking dominating when he flies his Imperials. Lately, he's been flying a behemoth RAC-LO list that's awfully hard to beat. Which is what I need to do. I need to mess with his head... get under his skin... really make his RAC-LO build suffer.

Mainly because he's a longtime friend of mine, and I'm a troll.

So here's the gist of what he typically runs... what would work best to counter this, without sacrificing general game utility?

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau (64) - Kylo Ren, Emperor Palpatine, Veteran Instincts, Engine Upgrade, Dauntless
• Darth Vader (35) - Veteran Instincts, TIE/X1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Engine Upgrade

I did get the best of him with a bomb-heavy squad featuring Miranda and Nym, just before the Advanced Slam Nerf. I'm considering trying the same with Nym/Emon Azzameen, or Sol Sixxa/Emon. Also considering Panic Attack-like builds, because I love trolling my opponents with unexpected effects like stress, ions, and the like.

I think this Rey/Miranda list would directly counter that RAClo + Vader list. Neither RAC nor Vader would be able to do much against Rey, so they'd be forced to chase after Miranda, who can happily run and make them chase her into her bombs. You could also swap out Sabine for C-3P0 on Miranda and swap Scavenger Crane for Rigged Cargo, BO SLAM or Dampeners on Rey...that's probably better as a counter to this list, but maybe not as good as a general list.

Rey (45)
Determination (1)
Finn (5)
Kanan Jarrus (3)
Scavenger Crane (2)
Smuggling Compartment (0)
Countermeasures (3)
Millennium Falcon (TFA) (1)

Miranda Doni (29)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Sabine Wren (2)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Long-Range Scanners (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

We have a few local guys that have run similar lists to this, and I've managed to beat it pretty handily every time with a rather unorthodox list.

The combination of Palob & Torkil most often than not Vader is dead on the first round of fire, if not the second. Quinn proves rather punchy hitting for 3-4 damage every time he fires his missile, and, well, Sunny Bounder has currently killed 4 RACs that have been dropped to PS 0 by Torkil.

Triple Wooks w/Tactician and Breach Specialist will eat RAClo

They can breach specialist the Blinded Pilot, and if RAC gets double stressed, he cannot assign Kylo again.

Also, stress will be pretty good vs whatever ace they bring, bc it is hard to dodge 3, 180 degree arcs and their r2 band

3 minutes ago, HanScottFirst said:

Triple Wooks w/Tactician and Breach Specialist will eat RAClo

They can breach specialist the Blinded Pilot, and if RAC gets double stressed, he cannot assign Kylo again.

Also, stress will be pretty good vs whatever ace they bring, bc it is hard to dodge 3, 180 degree arcs and their r2 band

Yeah, not sure why I didn't think to post this first. Triple wookies are definitely competitive on their own and should put RAClo in a dumpster and light it.

There is no stopping the RAC.

Screw the Rock. It's time for the RAC!

As mentioned, RACLo hates certain 3 ship and most 4+ ship builds. Although to really mess with him, bring Torkil and a deadeye Scurrg with Boba Fett crew. RACLo is super sad to see him not shoot before everyone and Boba Fett ziplining along the Harpoon missile to assassinate Kylo off his crew. Fill out the rest of the list to help deal with Vader...like maybe a bumpmaster.

A TLT Ghost/Phantom build could eat RAC fast and can deal with a lot of his shenanigans.

I also agree that bombs can be brutal against this list. You could throw Sabine, EM, some bombs on that ghost to double down on the effect.

TIE Swarm for the win. Zero agility don't like being shot at 8 times. And Kylo isn't as strong as disabling half a list in a 2-ship build. Also Vader gets shut down when blocked. All those poor unused actions gone to waste.

I do need to get some practice back in with my basic TIE fighter swarm. Alternatively, a TIE fighter Snap Swarm might handle the Rear Admiral rather roughly if you can get ahead of him.