So looking over the points there are some interesting questions that now come up from previous discussions. What and how to effectively build with 3 very interesting ships.

Stirkers and Interceptors base start at 34. Phantoms at 44. So you get 5 in any combination you want. 3 Strikers and 2 Phantoms. 2 Strikers 2 Interceptors and a phantom etc.

Then the Aces really throw wrenches into the mix. Duchess at 42 point feels like I might have stolen something for an I5. Turr Countdown and Sabacc 44 points each offering a squad something different for the points. Echo weighing in at 1/4 of a squad base Terrifying at I4. Then Whisper and Fel at 52. Might be a bit harder to get that Swarm feel but certainly a solid base to build from.

So what’s the go to and what’s the left out options here?

Look at the Reaper and the Lambda. This actually hurts and seems really pick your poison point costing. Both start at 41/43. So the choice really come down to how do you want to get around or specific pilot abilities to integrate with your squad.

Bombers, Punishers, the Aggressor and Star-wing are also in a similar boat the Strikers, Phantoms and Interceptors are in. Hard not to lean in favor of the cheapest bombers. Though the Aggressors lower cost gives it a competitive point for basically porting straight across. Kestal a 34 point base for I5 and his ability with basically the same loadout he had is strikingly appealing. Redline and Deathfire a little over 1/4 a squad once loaded up, as is Major Vynder. The improved upgrade bars on each are striking.

So fighting for space and the roll in the squadron becomes an interesting web. What fits where?

@Magnus Grendel @Parakitor @ficklegreendice @Rakaydos I know y’all have thoughts here. As do others.

IMO, Imperial list building will revolve around "Support ship/no support ship", "Commander selection" (Sloan/Palp/Jerjerod/Cianna/Gquiz/Tarken/tactical officer/none) and Ace/generic balance. There is an AMAZING amount of swap and customization to taste available.

Add reaper.

Add 4 strikers/interceptors/phantoms.

Fill reaper with support until you run out of points.

Turr Phenir is very cheap. Considering Soontir is great naked, he's a bargain at 52.

For support ships, I really REALLY like Lt Sai...

Sai with ST321. Coordinate a focus to Soontir, take a Focus for yourself, take a TL. Soontir gets his Focus then a preposition barrel roll. Soontir reveals a Green 2 turn and takes an Evade, maybe even decides to boost into R1, gets another focus from his ability.

2 actions = 3 focus, 1 evade, 1 TL, 1 boost, 1 barrel roll.

Did I mention that Sai had Krennic to optimise Soontir as well? Yeah, that.

I've been playing with Squint builds and there are some very interesting options. One super simple build is 2 sabers, Del, Phennir, all with Outmaneuver. Simple but effective, but I feel a mixed formation will be even better.

Indeed. 5-ship 'elements' are 40 points, give or take. There are some interesting options:

• Interceptor
  • Black Squadron Ace is 40 on the dot. No elite upgrade but with autothrusters you don't really need it.
  • Alpha Squadron Pilot is 34. Which means you get...not a lot, actually. Paying top dollar surcharge for shield/hull/agility modifications on an agility 1 ship seems foolish.
    • Could Pair up four with a Ciena Rees or Admiral Sloane shuttle.
    • I think interceptors are better with a shuttle because white co-ordinate and red jam is the 'right way round', especially with advanced sensors
• Striker
  • Whilst 5 strikers vs 5 interceptors is an interesting match, you can field 5 strikers with shield or stealth mods. You can't do the same with squints. Whilst buying initiative 3 with sabers is nice, I think strikers are a better choice if you're not taking either aces or commanders.
    • Black Squadron Scouts can either pack a 2-point talent each (hello predator) or 1 point talent and field supporting reaper(s)
    • 4 Ruthlessness scouts and an Electronic baffle reaper sounds interesting - if not a great day for the crew of the reaper...
• Bomber
  • Yes, all right, there's no longer an unlimited ammo upgrade, and lightweight frame is no longer a thing.
  • However, 4-5 charge might as well be unlimited ammo and dear god but the Scimitar is cheap now (28 points!)
  • You can pack a Scimitar (28), barrage rockets (6) and hull upgrades (5) and have 5 ships and still have points spare.
    • If you're not bothered about range 3 fire, cluster missiles lets you save another point - for 38 points each, enough to make one ship captain jonus, for more rerolled 3-dice attacks than you can shake a charge token at.
    • Whilst it's one-shot, neading that god-awful red reload, advanced proton torpedoes are easier to use and available in a 5-ship formation. That's one heck of an 'anvil' to support squints or strikers.
• Aggressors
  • They go pop. For missile boats....take a bomber. But now you can pack ion cannon turret aggressors in a 5-ship squadron. With control being a good answer to aces; that's worth a thought.
• Advanced Prototypes
  • Yes, Barons of the empire. But by the time you give them a missile or an elite talent, they cost the same as a striker or interceptor and they lack the guns. Roll/Focus and Boost/Focus is nice, though - you can do far worse than daredevil or elusive and fire control system, making the little ship hellishly manouvreable. Two dice attacks are a problem, but 5 TIE/fo can pull their weight and these ships are way, way better.
  • Alternatively, Inquisitors are 40 points on the dot. Without points to spend on force talents, I think I'd rather have the barons, and scraping together the points for one with Sense is hard.

I definitely prefer flying a Lambda shuttle, but I bought a TIE Reaper, and by golly, I'm going to put it on the table in 2.0! The tricky part for me is the number of ships in the Conversion Kit, since I'm only getting one. I like the idea of a TIE Reaper with 2 each of generic TIE interceptors and TIE strikers. But I won't be able to figure out what to do until I can print out the lists and really focus on them.

For now, I'm leaning on "Vizier" and the three named TIE strikers, much like what @Magnus Grendel described here .

Only trouble I'm having is picking out which 6/7 Tie Fighters I want to put on the table at the same time.

Soooo many possibilities, I am like soooo happy with the v2 improvement! So much balance in the force

1.) All-rounder aka "Imperial Xwing" (but better) = Phantom

There's your workhorse fighter. Well rounded statline but also incredibly manueverable. These fill your list, as they're basically just fine at everything

Whisper is also very block resistant between ability, Stygium, and sensors

Btw, if you're running Tsimulator Punishers you use Phantoms as bsck-up. Lateral decloak, baby!

2.) Strikers got more dice, less survivability and, imo, wonkier movement

Nothing quite matches a decloak "barrel-roll" when it comes to opening up manuevering options

Named pilots will probably get worked in as flanking filler, ESPECIALLY duchess (who's basically highway robbery for that cost)

I'll say quickly that Alpha wings have the easiest time being constantly useful (xg, ion, procket, ASLAM) if you take the time to learn them, bombers are cheap but require good TL, and Punishers are scary Trajectory Simulating monsters

Redline/Deathrain with phantoms will probably be my jam, but there are so many options

Four Phantoms (200)

• Whisper 52 + Juke = [56]
• Sigma 46 + Juke = [50]
• Sigma 46 + Juke = [50]
• Test Pilot 44 [or predator Duchess, if you're a cheaty mc cheaterson)

Numbers Game (200)

• Redline [70]
  • Base: 44
  • Advanced Sensors (8),
  • Proton Torps (9), Cluster Missiles (5)
  • Shield (4)
• Whisper 52 + Juke = [56]
• Duchess 42 + Predator = [44]
• Wampa [30]

The ****'s a TIE Swarm?

• Redline [66]
  • Base: 44
  • Advanced Sensors (8),
  • Proton Torps (9), Cluster Missiles (5)
• Deathrain [55]
  • Base: 42
  • Trajectory Simulator (3)
  • Proton Bombs (5)
  • Cluster Missiles (5)
• Whisper [78]
  • Base: 52
  • Juke (4)
  • Darth "Badass Motherlover" Vader (14)
  • Sensors (8)

Well, okay Vader's more just badass than actually good (probably). Might just want to throw hull upgrades and Afterburners on stuff, possibly skilled Bombardier too

Support Ships (pilots that buff other ships)
-Omicron (White Coordinate) (43 points)
-*Lt Sai (White coordinate) (47 points)
-*Col Jendon (White coordinate, All ship LRS 2/game) (46 points)
-*Captian Kagi (White coordinate, TL magnet) (48 points)
-*Del Meeko (AoE Defense boost vs damaged attackers) (30 points)
-*Howlrunner (AoE Primary attack boost) (40 points)
-*Vizier (white coordinate from ability) (45 points)
-*Cap Jonus (AoE Torp/missile attack bonus) (36 points)

Command Ships (Ships that can carry crew that support other ships)
-Lambada Shuttle (Omicron, Lt Sai, Col Jendon, Cap Kagi) (43-48 points)
-Tie Phantom (Test pilot, Sigma Squadron, Echo, Whisper) (44-52 points)
-Tie Reaper (Scarif base pilot, Vizier, Cap Feroph, Maj Vermil) (41-49 points)
-Decimator (Patrol leader, Cap Oicoon, RAC) (80-88 points)

Commanders (Crew who give support to other ships)
-*Admiral Sloan (10 points) (Stress control, AoE attack boost (primary, missile or anything) vs stress (requires ships to die in range for stress control)
-*Ciena Ree (10 points) (Super-maneuverable Coordinates at cost of stressing coordinate target) (Requires Coordinate)
-*Director Krennec (5 points) (Target gains undodgable auto-focus vs shielded targets)(only buffs 1 ship per game)
-*Emperor Palpatine (13 points) (Any friendly ship can use your force token(s).) (Limit 1 token per turn, takes two crew slots)
-*Grand Moff Tarken (10 points) (All ships gain TL on ship you have locked, usable every 2 rounds) (Requires TL)
-*Moff Jerjerrod (12 points) (All ships may choose whether to perform the same red boost action during the System phase at the Command ship's init. Usable every 2 rounds) (cannot be used on phantom without Squad Leader
-Tactical Officer (2 points) (Grants white coordinate) (Requires Squad leader Phantom, deci or Reaper)

Anti-commanders (Crew who debuff an enemy)
-Freelance Slicer (3 points) (turn your lock into a jam token)
-Informant (5 points) (Intel Agent) (Single target entire game)
-*Darth Vader (14 points) (token strip, or autodamage a tokenless enemy)
-*Death Troopers (6 points) (AoE enemy stress cannot be cleared) (Takes 2 crew slots)
-*Grand Inquisitor (16 points) (Reactive red action, can be a coordinate)
-ISB slicer (3 points) (AoE enemy ships cannot remove jam tokens)
-*Seventh Sister (12 points) (Canceling enemy linked actions)

Swarmer ships (2 attack dice before upgrades, base below 40 points)
-Gunboat (35 points base)
-Advanced V1 (34 points base)
-Aggressor (30 points base)
-Punisher (36 points base)
-Tie Fighter (23 points base)
-Tie Bomber (28 points base)

Heavy Swarmers (3 attack base or 3 attack with a reliable upgrade, costs less than 50 points base)
-XG1 Ion gunboat (40 base)
-OS1 Homing Missile gunboat (38 base)
-OS1 Barage rocket gunboat (41 base)
-Lambada Space Cow (43 base)
-Advanced x1 (41 base)
-Tie Interceptor (34 base)
-Reaper (41 base)
-Barrage rocket Aggressor (36 base)
-Homing missile Punisher (39 base)
-Barrage rocket Punisher (42 base)
-*Mauler Mithal (32 points)
-*Scourge (32)
-*Wampa (30)
-*Gideon Hask (30)
-Tie Phantom (44 base)
-Barrage rocket Bomber (34 base)
-Tie Striker (34 base)

Aces and pocket aces
-To be filled later

Imps really look like they have a ton of interesting list building options just in ship selection.