Can we agree that Instructor Goran is not good? His ability only kicks in a distance 1-2, which means you're likely defending against an attack from a heavy enemy squadron ball. Which means they're probably packing Intel, if they're willing to engage you near your ships. Which means Goran has no effect.

Use him on Stronghold. That seems the most obvious synergy.

Just now, Undeadguy said:

Use him on Stronghold. That seems the most obvious synergy.

If your opponent is packing Intel, your squadrons will be Heavy. Instructor Goran only works on non-Heavy squadrons.

Put him on a raider and add the raider to the squad fight right after your alpha strike, target intel first? I don't know, I see what you're saying, for sure.

IG88 doesn't care about escort, and loves Intel targets.

9 minutes ago, Valca said:

If your opponent is packing Intel, your squadrons will be Heavy. Instructor Goran only works on non-Heavy squadrons.

Right, so just kill Intel. Most lists run 1, and Counter only works on the defense. Yea it's a cheeky, much harder to accomplish solution, but it works.

Something like this?

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Instructor Goran (7)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Stronghold (5)
= 70 Points

Take a Tie/D for RS or some Tie/I. Take Dengar as well so you can re-position away from Intel, or to try and kill it. Saber is also a great addition.

I'm sorry but I'm still trying to figure out in which universe a competent player leaves Intel squadrons undefended to the point where you can just assume that you'll get a lethal attack off.

My current issue with Intel is that much like Relay, it's really easy to keep it from harm and really difficult if not impossible to meaningfully threaten it. Especially Jan. Three only things that do threaten it are either super specialized (Sabre squadron and IG88 which have tremendous weaknesses to "balance" them) or compete directly with other critical upgrades that are helpful in more situations (Wide Area Barrage, Ruthless Strategists).

Gar Saxon, Mauler, Saber, IG88, Boba Fett, Agent Kallus

E-Wings, Ten Numb, General Draven, Corran Horn

Ruthless, Wide Area Barrage, Ordnance Pods

Lots of good choices for going after Intel squads.

20 minutes ago, Thraug said:

Gar Saxon, Mauler, Saber, IG88, Boba Fett, Agent Kallus

E-Wings, Ten Numb, General Draven, Corran Horn

Ruthless, Wide Area Barrage, Ordnance Pods

Lots of good choices for going after Intel squads.

Soontir+escort *

26 minutes ago, thecactusman17 said:

I'm sorry but I'm still trying to figure out in which universe a competent player leaves Intel squadrons undefended to the point where you can just assume that you'll get a lethal attack off.

My current issue with Intel is that much like Relay, it's really easy to keep it from harm and really difficult if not impossible to meaningfully threaten it. Especially Jan. Three only things that do threaten it are either super specialized (Sabre squadron and IG88 which have tremendous weaknesses to "balance" them) or compete directly with other critical upgrades that are helpful in more situations (Wide Area Barrage, Ruthless Strategists).

If you're engaged with Jan and some X-Wings, it's going to be rough.

If you're engaged with Jan and some X-Wings with Biggs and GH, you're ****** and probably already lost.

My point is there are ways to kill Intel. It's probably not the easiest, but they are useful in all situations. RS is amazing at quickly dropping all squads. Saber is great with Stronghold, and thus Goran. And I actually forgot about Saxon, who is pretty good against Jan.

I just threw this together. 3 sources of auto damage, which puts Jan to 1 in a round. Just need to keep Saxon alive since RS works so well with him.

And you can imagine what this will do to Dengar.

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Instructor Goran (7)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Stronghold (5)
= 70 Points

Squadrons:
• Gar Saxon (23)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Saber Squadron (12)
= 50 Points

Total Points: 120

Lol intel just neutralize Goran. It is not that your bomber can still shoot her ship. It is that you screen also can shoot her squadrons without Goran's bonus.

Anyone try jamming field flotilla with him?

I'm actually curious on making Goran work. Here is my first pass and it seems like he should be with Sloane. It's not resistant to an alpha, but it strongly deters an opponent from attacking inside the bubble. To nullify Goran, your opponent would have to move Intel at the start of the attack, which means you can activate the Quasar next and have 5 FC+Howl boosted attacks to try and kill Escorts and Intel. And Ciena can have an amazing Counter 5, which is crazy.

Lots of anti-squad tech so you can rip through them and start attacking ships to trigger Sloane, setting up for Demo. 7 of the 9 can use Sloane, so I think you have fairly good odds at ripping a Brace. Saxon has Raid, and you can drop the Tie/F for Slicer to really shut down a ship.

I don't play Sloane, so maybe someone with more experience can comment. @Green Knight ?

Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation: Superior Positions

Gladiator I (56)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 75 Points

Quasar Fire II (61)
• Admiral Sloane (24)
• Instructor Goran (7)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Stronghold (5)
= 111 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Vector (2)
= 30 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
= 23 Points

Squadrons:
• Black Squadron (9)
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Dengar (20)
• Howlrunner (16)
• Gar Saxon (23)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Saber Squadron (12)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
= 133 Points

Total Points: 397

I find it plausible that FFG will release in FAQ saying instructor Goran effect only effects squadrons that have the heavy keyword printed on their card, otherwise I do agree he's kind of useless in the Squadron game because he's meant mostly for air superiority so if you have a fighter screen it really only comes into play against bomber fleets, and I would say about 99% of bomber fleets have a source of Intel so he becomes useless.

Why not put Goran on a slicer tools gozanti and go charging after your alpha strike?

Why does it have to defensive? Ships move......

4 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

Right, so just kill Intel. Most lists run 1, and Counter only works on the defense. Yea it's a cheeky, much harder to accomplish solution, but it works.

Something like this?

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Instructor Goran (7)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Stronghold (5)
= 70 Points

Take a Tie/D for RS or some Tie/I. Take Dengar as well so you can re-position away from Intel, or to try and kill it. Saber is also a great addition.

Or a generic TIE bomber.

24 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Why not put Goran on a slicer tools gozanti and go charging after your alpha strike?

Why does it have to defensive? Ships move......

Killing Slicer Tools is a win IMO. Killing Slicer and Goran is even better.

I just prefer Goran and Stronghold because it's the same range and there is so much synergy with Swarm and Howl. But it still doesn't make Goran good since Intel is so strong.

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

Killing Slicer Tools is a win IMO. Killing Slicer and Goran is even better.

I just prefer Goran and Stronghold because it's the same range and there is so much synergy with Swarm and Howl. But it still doesn't make Goran good since Intel is so strong.

Jamming Field Flotilla for your interceptors!

Intel give you heavy but you are no heavy, so I think it stills works no?

because if it works like that is worst than any liason

Mmmm... maybe he's decent against Sloane? Sloane usually wants to kill your squads first, then start bopping your ships. If you're flying a small blob of defensive fighters around your ships this could be a little extra boost.

But yeah, against bomber lists.... intel is going to A: make them heavy, and then B: not even shoot them because now you're heavy and they're going to bomb your ships!

Pricey fellow for 7 points to boot.

I think we're thinking of this too one dimensionally. You're bringing squadrons because you also want to attack their squadrons and ships, not merely sit there and let their bombers trash you.

So that leaves: against a bomber list, you've got to be able to punch out Intel. The hardest part of punching out Intel is when it is clustered around GH, but if they are attacking your ships, you'd better have flown in such a way that Jan is now outside of the GH bubble. They also have to start placing their squadrons such that they can attack the ship and ignore your squads, and while Intel is great for that, the positioning leaves them exposed for counterstrike by your anti-squadron fighters. Personally, I'd think Saber/Jendon to be one of the worst anti-Intel ships to have to deal with, from a Jan perspective.

What Goran does is increase the damage you give out if you are alphaed, which depending upon what squadrons you are running, may significantly disincentivize the opponent from even wanting to alpha you. That's a significant move by itself.

6 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

I think we're thinking of this too one dimensionally. You're bringing squadrons because you also want to attack their squadrons and ships, not merely sit there and let their bombers trash you.

So that leaves: against a bomber list, you've got to be able to punch out Intel. The hardest part of punching out Intel is when it is clustered around GH, but if they are attacking your ships, you'd better have flown in such a way that Jan is now outside of the GH bubble. They also have to start placing their squadrons such that they can attack the ship and ignore your squads, and while Intel is great for that, the positioning leaves them exposed for counterstrike by your anti-squadron fighters. Personally, I'd think Saber/Jendon to be one of the worst anti-Intel ships to have to deal with, from a Jan perspective.

What Goran does is increase the damage you give out if you are alphaed, which depending upon what squadrons you are running, may significantly disincentivize the opponent from even wanting to alpha you. That's a significant move by itself.

This.

Frankly, I don’t even care if I get to use Goran if his presence is forcing my opponent to have to make hard decisions or change his game plan.

As a rebel player: why the f*** are you imps b****** about this?

For 27pts and keeping your squads within a certain range you can change Tie fighters into cheaper Awings!

Sure theres a couple of requirements, such as range, but otherwise you can take 10 Ties, dengar, goran, add howlrunner for flavour and sloane and youve got a terrifying squadron force that, while not the highest hull, have strong attack, strong counter and the ability to reroll dice.

You think this card is bad, just because there is a counter card for it? Seriously?

This one, Dengar and Howlrunner are making each Interceptor to a deadly counter 5 with swarm. (Not to mention Ciena and Sontir, who will become a really pain....)
7 points is not so cheap. But this another card that allows the imperial to catch up on squadron boost upgrade cards.

24 minutes ago, Tokra said:

You think this card is bad, just because there is a counter card for it? Seriously?

This one, Dengar and Howlrunner are making each Interceptor to a deadly counter 5 with swarm. (Not to mention Ciena and Sontir, who will become a really pain....)
7 points is not so cheap. But this another card that allows the imperial to catch up on squadron boost upgrade cards.

Yup. I am simultaneously excited to try this card, and terrified of facing that build. Except no Dengar, because why would you bother with Intel when your interceptors are just going to mow down anything they face anyway?