The Royal Alderaan Flying Club, a group of Vassal League core worlds players that have formed a community over the past couple of years, have been testing out a lot of different ways to make Kylo (Silencer) viable. We know he's good. Finding the right wingmate(s) have been the issue. A few of us have run into something that we think is extremely good. We call it Kylo's Mangled Face, or Mangled Face for short.

One day I hope to love myself as much as you do.

Hi,
thanks for the list, I tried it at a store kit today with 14 people and went 4-0 I only changed Primed Thrusters to Advanced Optics (personal flavor)

List works well, though you could think about changing the Linked Batteries to Flechette Cannons. In this way you can still make damage while actually re positioning for the harder Mangler attacks. I think I only used the Batteries about 4-5 times in the 4 games.

I would support the idea of throwing on Tractor Beams or Flechette Canons so you can be at least a bit functional after a SLAM.

I would personally like Adv. SLAM on them, but I can see the bid being important too.

6 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I would support the idea of throwing on Tractor Beams or Flechette Canons so you can be at least a bit functional after a SLAM.

I would personally like Adv. SLAM on them, but I can see the bid being important too.

You really want the Battery for damage. Turnarounds tend to be disengages, too, when playing Gunboats.

@op nice writeup, but wasn't that kind of the obvious list for new wave imperials (flexible in tech)? I think the most important aspect is the playtesting and playstyle here, not list creation.

On 2017-12-16 at 2:21 AM, Waaaaaampa said:

The Royal Alderaan Flying Club, a group of Vassal League core worlds players that have formed a community over the past couple of years, have been testing out a lot of different ways to make Kylo (Silencer) viable. We know he's good. Finding the right wingmate(s) have been the issue. A few of us have run into something that we think is extremely good. We call it Kylo's Mangled Face, or Mangled Face for short.

Kylo's Mangled Face ( 96 )

Kylo Ren (TIE Silencer) — TIE Silencer	35
Push the Limit	3
Advanced Sensors	3
Primed Thrusters	1
Autothrusters	2
First Order Vanguard	2
Ship Total: 46
Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing	18
Linked Battery	2
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Long-Range Scanners	0
XG-1 Assault Configuration	1
Ship Total: 25
Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing	18
Linked Battery	2
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Long-Range Scanners	0
XG-1 Assault Configuration	1
Ship Total: 25

As with any Kylo build, this list in the hands of unskilled players is just OK. I think most people would agree he's perhaps the most high-skill ship in the game. In the hands of skilled flyers this can do some serious work. The Mangler is a great meta call right now with all of the low agi ships out there. Pushing through multiple crits each round can crush a ship. Plus, it has great synergy with Kylo's ability. You can fly Kylo more aggressively in this build also, daring ships to shoot at him. If they do, then they are going to get blinded or PS 0'd that turn once the Nu's fire. If they don't then Kylo can stay in pursuit, getting 3-4 die fully modded attacks consistently.

The capper here is the 4 point bid, which will give you a massive advantage over any other Kylo build out there, or any other PS9 Poe, QD, Soontir, Dengar, Fenn, ect. Oh, and forget about Thweek being a problem for you.

If you run into a PS10/11 QD, Vader, Poe, or Nym they can quickly be PS0'd down after one round.

As with any list now, this isn't an auto win just by putting it on the table. Nobody wants to go back to the early JM5k days (or really the entirety of the JM5k days until last month) with broke stuff. There are counters for this, just like there are counters for everything out there right now. But as a meta call this can be really sneaky good currently.

Mangle away! But keep this name, it's too cool Maybe you'll see some of us flying this on Vassal.

Since you have LRS, i would replace linked battery by a control canon, at least on 1 of the boat.

The target lock is basically a last ditch effort with the manglers in case you absolutely whiff. With the soft reroll of linked, a focus token gives you a far greater shot correction than a target lock action would; that's the logic behind them and the same reason why you would take LRS/Linked on an HLC build as well.

My only problem with this list is Kylo is still the most dangerous target by far and is going to take some serious focus fire the first few rounds. This forces you to fly Kylo defensively in the early game and trying to position yourself out of as many arcs as possible, until your opponent decides to start spreading attacks onto star wings. Kylo at range 3 with no mods doesn't push through as much damage as you'd like, but it's just one of the trade offs I suppose. Having 2 wingmen instead of 1 gives you an option to block and try to chop up formation flyers, but losing that mangler shot probably hurts you a lot more than it hurts your opponent, who probably wasn't shooting at him anyway.

Would a lighter kylo (maybe just AT, PTL, AS) pair well enough with something like QD with a single mangler star wing that it draws some of the fire off him and let him take a more aggressive playstyle?

25 minutes ago, Jimbawa said:

The target lock is basically a last ditch effort with the manglers in case you absolutely whiff. With the soft reroll of linked, a focus token gives you a far greater shot correction than a target lock action would; that's the logic behind them and the same reason why you would take LRS/Linked on an HLC build as well.

My only problem with this list is Kylo is still the most dangerous target by far and is going to take some serious focus fire the first few rounds. This forces you to fly Kylo defensively in the early game and trying to position yourself out of as many arcs as possible, until your opponent decides to start spreading attacks onto star wings. Kylo at range 3 with no mods doesn't push through as much damage as you'd like, but it's just one of the trade offs I suppose. Having 2 wingmen instead of 1 gives you an option to block and try to chop up formation flyers, but losing that mangler shot probably hurts you a lot more than it hurts your opponent, who probably wasn't shooting at him anyway.

Would a lighter kylo (maybe just AT, PTL, AS) pair well enough with something like QD with a single mangler star wing that it draws some of the fire off him and let him take a more aggressive playstyle?

Yeah I think QuickDraw is always the right answer when talking about imperial lists, and tournament lists show that. You can even put a score to settle on qd, to keep your Kylo synergy going