Competitive Imperial 4 Ship List for my first tournament?

By Ryuneke, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Hey guys,

i will head to my first tounament soon. I love the new Alpha Class Star Wing. I came up with the following list:

Total: 100 pts.

Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing 18

Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Long-Range Scanners 0
XG-1 Assault Configuration 1
Ship Total: 26
Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing 18
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Long-Range Scanners 0
XG-1 Assault Configuration 1
Ship Total: 26
"Omega Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 21
Juke 2
Comm Relay 3
Ship Total: 26
"Countdown" — TIE Striker 20
Lightweight Frame 2
Adaptive Ailerons 0

Ship Total: 22

The two Nu Sqd. hit hard.

Omega Ldr. & Countdown should win the late game.

Thanks for your support.

I like Countdown, he's my favorite striker. I think it's very competitive. Most people tend to move the Nu's to missles though. I think if you moved them to missles, you'd have a few more points to spend on your accompanying ships, but that's preference. Fly it, I'm curious to see your results. Obviously hold Countdown back in TLT situations.

4 hours ago, SkyCooper said:

I like Countdown, he's my favorite striker. I think it's very competitive. Most people tend to move the Nu's to missles though. I think if you moved them to missles, you'd have a few more points to spend on your accompanying ships, but that's preference. Fly it, I'm curious to see your results. Obviously hold Countdown back in TLT situations.

Putting missiles on the Gunboats is a great idea. Now I have more points to spend for the other ships. Thats the updated list:

Nu Squadron Pilot (18)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)

Nu Squadron Pilot (18)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)

The Inquisitor (25)
Push the Limit (3)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Autothrusters (2)
TIE/v1 (1)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 100

I took the Inquisitor. Vader and Soontir are reliable pilots too Taking Soontir means to drop LF on Countdown...

Edited by Ryuneke

Another route to go on the nu squad is - flechette cannon, linked battery, XG-1 title, and advanced slam. It comes in at 25 points. But you can slam, take a focus, still shoot and get a re-roll on your attack. My personal opinion is this ship has a better dial for slamming than the K-wing because of the hard 3 turn. It goes everywhere

Your first list was better. Even if you were going to use Inquisitor, proton rockets are better on him than Cruise missiles (generally speaking), since his damage at R2/R3 is already okay. Its Range 1 where he tends to 'underperform' (relative to other ships in his point range).

7 minutes ago, blade_mercurial said:

Your first list was better. Even if you were going to use Inquisitor, proton rockets are better on him than Cruise missiles (generally speaking), since his damage at R2/R3 is already okay. Its Range 1 where he tends to 'underperform' (relative to other ships in his point range).

Why do you think the first list is better?

And drop Inquisitor and take soontir?

Edited by Ryuneke

The HLC is easier to use than the Harpoon. If you've had practice with both, then nevermind ;)

I'd split the difference. Keep Countdown and OL, then use OS-1 Alphas w/ Harpoons and GC, maybe Advanced SLAM. I'd rather fly 2 PTL Rhos, but you won't have the points.

If it helps, a list of Imperial ship builds I'm fond of in the 20-25 point range:

Nu Squadron Pilot

LRS, Harpoons (22)

LRS, XG-1, Flechette Cannon (21)

LRS, XG-1, HLC (26) + Linked Batteries (28)

Pure Sabacc

LWF, Title, Veteran Instincts OR Crack Shot (25)

Duchess

LWF, Title, Veteran Instincts (26)

Omega Leader

Comm Relay, Juke (26) OR A Score to Settle (24)

Omicron Group Pilot

Darth Vader (24) Anti-Pursuit Lasers OR Ion Projector (+2) Intelligence Agent (+1)

Sienar Specialist

LWF, TLT (25)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot

LRS, Cruise Missiles, Extra Munitions (21)

Gamma Squadron Veteran

Deadeye, Guidance Chips, Cruise Missiles, Extra Munitions (25)

Any of these can be a good option, depending on what your list needs and what it's trying to do. I'm sure other Imperial players have other, different go-to builds too.

My advice would be to think about how the parts of your squad come together to create wins. What is each ship's job, and how do all of those jobs put together translate into victory.

15 hours ago, fruitcakebat said:

If it helps, a list of Imperial ship builds I'm fond of in the 20-25 point range:

Nu Squadron Pilot

LRS, Harpoons (22)

LRS, XG-1, Flechette Cannon (21)

LRS, XG-1, HLC (26) + Linked Batteries (28)

Pure Sabacc

LWF, Title, Veteran Instincts OR Crack Shot (25)

Duchess

LWF, Title, Veteran Instincts (26)

Omega Leader

Comm Relay, Juke (26) OR A Score to Settle (24)

Omicron Group Pilot

Darth Vader (24) Anti-Pursuit Lasers OR Ion Projector (+2) Intelligence Agent (+1)

Sienar Specialist

LWF, TLT (25)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot

LRS, Cruise Missiles, Extra Munitions (21)

Gamma Squadron Veteran

Deadeye, Guidance Chips, Cruise Missiles, Extra Munitions (25)

Any of these can be a good option, depending on what your list needs and what it's trying to do. I'm sure other Imperial players have other, different go-to builds too.

My advice would be to think about how the parts of your squad come together to create wins. What is each ship's job, and how do all of those jobs put together translate into victory.

Was just about to post these other options! My local meta has been heavily testing these 4 ship 'imperial salad' lists. Good to see it is trending somewhat.

I would try and use missiles on the Nu squadron pilots and if you can find the points, Hull upgrade tends to be of more value on "Countdown"

I played the HLC list against a friend and it was lots of fun. Unfortunately I couldn’t use the HLC often. Because of this I tweaked the list a bit. Never the less the alphas performed great: 7 hit points with 2 agi are awesome. I also used them as blockers. Omega Ldr. and countdown did well too. Both are nasty and my opponent didn’t know who to take out first. But because of the HLC problem mentioned above I tweaked the list a bit:

Rho Squadron Veteran (21)
Deadeye (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Rho Squadron Veteran (21)
Deadeye (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Wanna try out the missile boats to see how they perform... I hope they will do a bit better than the HLCs

Edited by Ryuneke

May not be in time for your tournament, but if you still want to tinker with your list afterwords one of my favorite Imperial ships for a four ship list is Tomax Bren with Lightweight Frame, Crackshot and Unguided Rockets for 29 points. I had him in a list with Pure Sabbac, Duchess, and Lt. Kestal with ion for one of my first tournaments. I didn't clean house (it was like my second tournament ever) and I would definitly switch out Kestal nowadays (hello gunboat!), but Tomax with that build is a beast for only 29. UGR means you effectively up your primary by 1 while denying range bonuses, you get the extra evade with LWF, and you can still crackshot low health enemies. Keep him from getting burned down quickly (like you can with a 4 ship list) and you can deal some crazy consistent damage.

Best of luck with your list!

Cow

I practiced the list with the two missile Rho boats a bit and found out that the upgrade (nu to rho) is too expensive just for the deadeye ability. So I downgraded them to nu’s again. With more points to spend I took Quickdraw.

Nu Squadron Pilot (18)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)

Nu Squadron Pilot (18)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)

"Quickdraw" (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)

"Countdown" (20)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Flying Countdown without LW is ok I guess. But I can drop Advanced Optics to put LW on Countdown. I think this list works better than the last one. After playing it I have to decide between HLC boats and missile boats.