(2e) 4 Imperial Aces

By Ryuneke, in X-Wing Squad Lists

"Whisper" (52)
Juke (4)

Soontir Fel (52)
Predator (2)

"Duchess" (42)
Predator (2)

"Countdown" (44)

Total: 198

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Pretty straightforward:

- 4 ships with 3 dice each
- 3 ships have I5+
- Ships are doing fairly well at dodging arcs
- The 4 ships/pilots I love the most

That looks like it's super fun!

Only change I'd made is to remove the predator on duchess and improve Soontir's ept to lone wolf. Personally, I'd also take Sabacc instead of Countdown/Duchess, but that's up to taste. Countdown is probably the better choice. Not sure about Duchess though.

Edit: lone wolf changes the way you'd play it, with 3+1 as flanker. How are you planning to fly this list?

Edited by GreenDragoon
1 hour ago, GreenDragoon said:

That looks like it's super fun!

Only change I'd made is to remove the predator on duchess and improve Soontir's ept to lone wolf. Personally, I'd also take Sabacc instead of Countdown/Duchess, but that's up to taste. Countdown is probably the better choice. Not sure about Duchess though.

Edit: lone wolf changes the way you'd play it, with 3+1 as flanker. How are you planning to fly this list?

Imo Predator on Duchess is too good to drop it cause of her ability.

Line up CD a bit more to the middle with whisper close by. Soontir and Duchess togehter as flankers. Slow approach with W+CD

10 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Imo  Predator on Duchess is too good to drop it cause of her abilit  y   . 

Fair enough

10 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Line  up CD a bit more to the middle with whisper close by. Soontir and Duchess togehter as flank  ers. Slow approach with W+CD 

Have you tried that?

My immediate reaction is that I‘d try to go with most of my list (Whisper, Redline) against your flankers and try to blast Duchess out of the sky.

a quick calculation against a focused duchess at range 2, and assuming I shoot first, gives me 3.7 hits for Whisper+Redline, and one is a crit. Return shots on Whisper (with both predators) have 1.2, against Redline 3.9 damage (out of 9hp). I think I would take that trade.

I'm not going to query the maths, but my main observations:

  • @GreenDragoon is correct that - without stealth device, shield upgrade, hull upgrade, elusive, lone wolf or fifth brother, Duchess is actually pretty fragile. Killing her isn't too hard.
  • Duchess does have an issue being used as a flanker which is more fundamental - she's not very fast .
    • Strikers are good at big swoopy turns and outflying people at medium range with the ability to turn before pulling their manouvres, and Her Grace is the best of the lot with the ability to snap-stall ailerons into an otherwise impossible speed 1 hard turn as needed.
    • However, their actual dead-run, straight-line speed is no faster than a basic academy pilot TIE fighter. Speed 1 ailerons + speed 3 straight = speed 5 straight. By comparison, a decloaking TIE phantom and even more so a TIE interceptor can get an effective speed 6 or 7.
  • I'd therefore suggest Whisper and Soontir as flankers, with two Strikers as a 'head on' force - having two ships with identical dials probably makes more sense for them, anyway, and Duchess' ability lets you 'slow roll' a striker into the fight in a way not possible for other pilots.
Edited by Magnus Grendel