I got pretty interesting challenge the other day. The challenge was to build a somewhat competative squad (or the most competative squad possible more likley) without using any upgrade cards. Yes, zero upgrades. No titles, no zero cost cards, no nothing. Also, four ships max, so no Tie swarms.

My best effort right then and there was RAC + Three PS1 Tie interceptors. But afterwards, I Think that is slightly lame, at least the Three interceptors.

What would you suggest?

4 * Crimson Squadron Pilots thats 48 hull+shield to chew through...

or 3 Kashyyyk Defenders ´+ Lowrick

FIVE. CARTEL. MARAUDERS.

I honestly don't think it's possible to build a squad that's just pure ships any more without actively penalising yourself, because the newer ships almost all have titles that are part of their function, and the ones that don't, have fixes or 0 point upgrades to fill slots - 4bz used to be upgrade-less, but Collision Detector now exists. So anythign with System, anything with Crew, anything with EPT, all have free thigns which can occupy slots without penalty.

And saying 'no TIE Swarms' eliminates the one archetype that does rely on pure points efficiency and doesn't have fixes or titles.

Probably the best i oculd come up with would be pure hull/shield squads, so multiple Lothal Rebels. Four Jumpmasters is probably also good.

1 minute ago, FTS Gecko said:

FIVE. CARTEL. MARAUDERS.

I was gonna say this but you're doing yourself an active disservice not taking Vaksai and freebies these days.

Five cartel marauders also sort of breaks the 4 ship max rule though.

Max 4 ships is another issue all of its own.

Basically you're looking for the four most point-efficient chassis in the game, and I think you'd struggle to do better than Contracted Scouts - but even they have two slots with 0 point upgrades they could take to be better than naked.

2 x lothal rebels + Lowhhrick + 2 pt bid.

That's a lot of hurt.

13 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Max 4 ships is another issue all of its own.

Basically you're looking for the four most point-efficient chassis in the game, and I think you'd struggle to do better than Contracted Scouts - but even they have two slots with 0 point upgrades they could take to be better than naked.

Indeed. With basic chassis, you can do far worse than TIE fighters, but with a limit of 4 ships they're no good.

• Wookie Gunships aren't bad but without commandoes they're a bit toothless.
• ARCs, Strikers, and TIE/sf are a no-go without their titles.
• Anything with a 'fix' title (Scyk, Defender, TIE/x1, Starviper, X-wing) are no-goes.
• Anything with a disproportionately weak primary (Y-wing, Punisher, HWK) are no-goes.

I'd agree that Lothal Rebels or Jumpmasters are probably your best choices.

A couple of VCX-100 plus a couple of cheap support ships should work - giving you the action economy you need on the VCX.

• Lothal Rebel x 2
• Captain Rex
• AP-15

The SHeathipede is going to be pretty strong generally, actually, because both AP and Fenn have very good action-economy abilities. AP means you can do back to back red moves, Fenn blocks mods, and in this format, the majority of mods will be token based.

Kimogilas are also likely to be strong, for similar reasons - the bullseye arc is a lot more powerful when the enemy is only going to have tokens to defend with, for the most part.

23 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

I was gonna say this but you're doing yourself an active disservice not taking Vaksai and freebies these days.

True, but "no upgrades for anyone" renders that point moot.

Four ship limit certainly doesn't help though. I may revise my statement to Dalan, Torani, and two Executioners. Lots of health, lots of damage and Bullseye arc shenanigans for all four ships.

Four TIE Phantoms is bizarrely fun. Also fast, win or lose.

I would Think that the best chassis, built in Dice mods and/or best support would be the first things to look for. Or pure shield/hull behemoths perhaps.

I run three Imperial Firesprays every now and then. 50/50 record so far. Its not very good but took down Nym Miranda before the nerf this way.

Challenge accepted!

Some Imperial options:

3x Bounty hunter

3x Sienar analyst + zeta leader/OGP

3x Sigmas + inquisitor

2x Sienar analyst + RAC

Sad to say but quad wooks is almost certainly the best.

The one true answer:

GUNBOATS.

The Major V and 4 NUs. You can keep those 2 pts.

4 PS1 starvipers!

1 hour ago, LagJanson said:

Four TIE Phantoms is bizarrely fun. Also fast, win or lose.

This is another very interesting and fun list for this format. That's a LOT of red dice.

1 minute ago, viedit said:

This is another very interesting and fun list for this format. That's a LOT of red dice.

It's a fun list in any format... You have options how you play it. You can cloak and dash. Cloak and take a box formation and immediately be split into a wide killbox net. Or just straight fly it in formation and pretend you're carrying a Death Star super laser...

Note: I didn't say it was a good list in any format though...

+1 to the triple bounty hunter list for imperials, that was actually was on the meta radar for quite awhile as a "standard staple". Lots of hull and two arcs. 4 Phantoms is a pretty good list too, 16 reds at ps3 is dang good for PS killing lots of the spammed stuff!

Four contracted scouts.

Have fun chewing through 36hp of pwt awesomeness

3 hours ago, markcsoul said:

Sad to say but quad wooks is almost certainly the best.

Agreed and I don't think its even close.

Maybe 2 Starkiller base pilots and a Patrol leader.

Bbbbz, three firesprays, 8 TIEs, 8 Zeds. 4 T-70s.

5 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

FIVE. CARTEL. MARAUDERS.

Four Auzitucks, three firesprays, two yt-1300s or a big faaaat double Dee...

Four Auzitucks, hands down. I mean, Wookiee Commandos don't add all *that* much to their offense, like a 1.5 to 1.875 damage increase. But if your opponents don't have upgrades either, it'll probably work out fine.

If I'm getting fancier... swapping one for Fenn Rau leaves the points to upgrade one to Lowhhrick.