I've recently flown a list with Soontir and had a great time, but I think I liked the chassis more than the pilot. Their dial combined with their solid stats and manoeuvrable actions had me thinking back to old school Vader. I've quickly knocked up this list. Am I better off going Soontir, Turr and maybe another chassis or do you think this could work?

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

9 hours ago, t3hjim said:

I've recently flown a list with Soontir and had a great time, but I think I liked the chassis more than the pilot. Their dial combined with their solid stats and manoeuvrable actions had me thinking back to old school Vader. I've quickly knocked up this list. Am I better off going Soontir, Turr and maybe another chassis or do you think this could work?

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 40
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

I don't see why not.

You're fragile as heck, but with initiative 4 and autothrusters, each of your ships has a credible chance against most small ships in a dogfight, and 5 3-dice attacks coming in as a pack can do for most large ships fast enough that you shouldn't loose too much of your squad.

It's not a million miles away from 5 TIE strikers, and I assure you that's fun to fly. Compared to a quintet of black squadron scout strikers:

• You get a (much!) higher initiative - matching the best of any non-limited ship, in fact, and equalling or beating a good 2/3 of unique pilots, too. The striker is only I3, but is a touch cheaper, albeit only enough to equip a really cheap upgrade like predator, ruthless, or crack shot.
• The Striker doesn't get stressed by using ailerons and has a better red dial, but doesn't cope well once stressed, either. By comparison, autothrusters stresses you to use it, but the interceptor can burn off stress very easily with a brilliant green dial.
• Interceptors have 3 hits behind 3 green dice. Strikers have 4 behind 2 - you are tougher against the 'odd pot-shot' but the strikers are better against hard-to-dodge things and concentrated fire.
• You are faster in a dead run (speed 5 straight plus boost if unstressed, speed 5 if not) and in tight turns (speed 1 turn if unstressed, speed 2 if not). The striker is better at long swooping turns (aileron plus speed 3 bank, available turn after turn)

The key with a heavy swarm like this is knowing when to fly as a block of 5 and trust to rate-of-fire with 15 attack dice per turn , and when to split up and fly like a dragnet.

The latter is a good idea when facing an elusive target (e.g. Dash Rendar), other aces (but be careful not to split up too far) or to put a ship likely to be using reinforce in a crossfire.

The question I put to you is this:

How much do you value Init 4? You could run the same 5x Interceptors and also add Wampa (a semi-3-dice TIE), if you're willing to go all Init 1.

The potential to dodge arcs on a lot of lower generics seems good. However, there's the potential to add a whole extra ship which can also throw 3 dice sometimes. I suspect a lot would depend on what you wind up facing in your own local games.

But at Initiative 1, you are definitely losing a ship before it even gets a chance to shoot (at least against strong jousting squads), which completely negates the advantage of having an extra ship.

This list wants to shoot first and destroy jousting squads before they get ravaged, because its not always possible to dodge all enemy arcs. Having said that, you still want the option to dodge arcs, and that requires higher Initiative to other generics (which is what initiative 4 gives you). Now when going up against Initiative 5+, since you have 5 ships (with one of the best dials in the game PLUS the option to boost + barrel roll), it is relatively trivial to block and destroy one enemy ace at a time. Just as long as you are losing one interceptor per destroyed ace, you have that particular match-up in the bag (of course its not always going to be super easy to achieve that, but its do-able).

Now having said all of these things, I still think it is of great value to include one Alpha Interceptor. The PS 1 blocker will be a huge factor in particular against Barrage Bombers, proton torpedo carriers and lists that have shenanigans that depend on coordinate.

With the 6 points saved from down-grading a Sabre Ace to an Alpha, you have a couple of options. You could either change one Sabre Ace to Turr Phennir, or you could stick crack shot on the remaining 4 Sabre Aces (this is probably the superior choice). You also get a bit of a bid which may be helpful against other Initiative 4 squads (although by no means essential).

I think I4 is a sweet spot at the moment and I really valued it when running tie aces.

7 hours ago, blade_mercurial said:

Now having said all of these things, I still think it is of great value to include one Alpha Interceptor. The PS 1 blocker will be a huge factor in particular against Barrage Bombers, proton torpedo carriers and lists that have shenanigans that depend on coordinate.

With the 6 points saved from down-grading a Sabre Ace to an Alpha, you have a couple of options. You could either change one Sabre Ace to Turr Phennir, or you could stick crack shot on the remaining 4 Sabre Aces (this is probably the superior choice). You also get a bit of a bid which may be helpful against other Initiative 4 squads (although by no means essential).

I really like this idea and hadn't thought of it at all! I'm not a huge fan of Turr so will go for the crack shots. I'm playing a game over the weekend so I'll let you know how it goes.