22 hours ago, Makaze said:

In order to fit 4x 34 point ships (strikers or barrage bombers) and a Phantom you either have to skip Juke or sub Echo for Whisper. With initiative mattering significantly less on the new Phantoms I've had better success just not being in arc with Echo than leveraging the extra evade from Whisper and Juke is just so good that I lean towards Echo

I used Ruthless on Whisper to fit the 4x34 ships. I went with 2 barrage bombers, and 2 strikers. The bombers provide the extra hull to use Ruthless, while the strikers provide the maneuverability and 4 dice at R1.

Ruthless did lots of work for me, helping to ensure killing ships.

25 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Have you guys played games with Whisper, or is this theorycraft? Because she can't take a lot of abuse since she cloaks in the end phase. I'm not saying she's not good, but if I have low health/high agility ships en masse, then I want my support ship to be the opposite - bulky, but not agile. that's why I really like the Lambda and reaper.

Edit: because that way my ships have different weaknesses.

Edit 2: and I'm concerned that this love if Whisper may be a carry over from first edition.

Actually outside of this list, whisper is just awesome for the points, I have gotten to play 2.0 whisper quite a lot and she is fun and very good for her points

1-she can consistently token stack (evade focus)

2-add that to the outstanding maneuverability( 2 speed barrel rolls are outstanding) and you get repositioning and action economy and good offense( with juke working wonderfully against a double stressed ship without actions)

And all at ps 5, now I will say you have to fly her good, so it will take some practice games to get your head around the maneuverability, but even if your in arc of one ship whisper is still pretty safe, the evade focus(double evade if you attacked first) makes her sturdiness feel more like a 3 agility ship. Not to mention the best defense is not being shot at, and she is very good at that because no ship can move like her.

and now as I have posted in this thread I played her in this list(juke Sloan and 3 alphas and wampa) the thing is the Sloan carrier is the crutch of the list, and yes the shuttle is sturdy, but it’s easy to get around and start chipping away at, but what’s even worse is if the opponent can chip away the support ships and could care less about the stress(force users for example) then the shuttle just can’t close the game

whisper on the other hand can dart around and play it safe until you have weakened their squad and take over in the end game, and if its whisper against any ship that moves before whisper, then you can pretty easily win. I also had no trouble keeping whisper in range for Sloan to work, range 3 is quite a lot of space and easy to manage.

30 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Have you guys played games with Whisper, or is this theorycraft? Because she can't take a lot of abuse since she cloaks in the end phase. I'm not saying she's not good, but if I have low health/high agility ships en masse, then I want my support ship to be the opposite - bulky, but not agile. that's why I really like the Lambda and reaper.

Edit: because that way my ships have different weaknesses.

Edit 2: and I'm concerned that this love if Whisper may be a carry over from first edition.

I used Whisper Sloane+4 last weekend. Won a 17 person tournament, and never lost a hull on Whisper. As @RStan mentioned earlier, the 4 ships act as a screen to prevent the opponent from getting up close and personal with Whisper. You still need to use her gun to contribute offensively, but you should only ever be in range of 1 or 2 opponent ships. (Sloanes range is 0-3 of friendly ships!)

The opponent looks at the board, and has to decide between taking a single shot at Whisper with focus, double evade, or focusing on one of the +4's with a single focus token. All of my opponents incorrectly decided not to bother trying to kill Whisper.

The key is to just go kill the Sloane carrier! Whisper does indeed make that a difficult task, but many opponents incorrectly view it as impossible. This leads to easy wins ?

Well, as biased as I am towards the awesomely thematic Reaper + Strikes, it sounds like I'll have to give the ol' TIE phantom a go. Looking forward to seeing what it can do...fully acknowledging that I have flown a TIE phantom precisely once before in my life, so I may end up getting her killed. At the very least, I'll be better prepared when I face a Whisper/Sloane + 4 squad if I get a handle on how the TIE phantom can move.

I think the next squad I’m going to try is Echo/Sloane + Crack Mini Swarm.

TIE/ph Phantom - •“Echo” - 69
•“Echo” - Slippery Trickster (50)
Juke (4)
Collision Detector (5)
•Admiral Sloane (10)

TIE/ln Fighter - Black Squadron Ace - 27
Black Squadron Ace - (26)
Crack Shot (1)

TIE/ln Fighter - Black Squadron Ace - 27
Black Squadron Ace - (26)
Crack Shot (1)

TIE/ln Fighter - Black Squadron Ace - 27
Black Squadron Ace - (26)
Crack Shot (1)

TIE/ln Fighter - Black Squadron Ace - 27
Black Squadron Ace - (26)
Crack Shot (1)

TIE/ln Fighter - Academy Pilot - 23
Academy Pilot - (23)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

4x 3 dice ships is probably better, but I really want to fly collision detectors on Echo.

I have yet to play 2.0 but was hoping to use a Sloane list as my first to try and get back to smarmy lists. I came up with this pretty bare bones list, let me know what you think.

TIE/ln Fighter - Academy Pilot - 23
Academy Pilot - (23)

TIE/ln Fighter - Academy Pilot - 23
Academy Pilot - (23)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE Reaper - Scarif Base Pilot - 51
Scarif Base Pilot - (41)
•Admiral Sloane (10)

Total: 199/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

The reasoning for the two ln's over another striker or upgrades is because I'm only using the conversion kit contents but figured two easy targets in basic ties might lead to bad decisions by my opponent. I also never got to use the Reaper in 1.0 nor the Strikers much so this gives me an excuse to run some new toys.

I’m in the Reaper camp. The aileron and s-loops help it escape when it needs to, and it’s surprisingly easy to keep guns on target. Sai’s ability is excellent, but I’m more confident in my ability to keep the reaper alive.

Whisper has potential, but I’m concerned it’s less effective against players with the skills to take her off the board.

I've pretty much exclusively played Whisper since 2.0 dropped. She's really, really good.

3 hours ago, herbie93 said:

I have yet to play 2.0 but was hoping to use a Sloane list as my first to try and get back to smarmy lists. I came up with this pretty bare bones list, let me know what you think.

TIE/ln Fighter - Academy Pilot - 23
Academy Pilot - (23)

TIE/ln Fighter - Academy Pilot - 23
Academy Pilot - (23)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE/sk Striker - Planetary Sentinel - 34
Planetary Sentinel - (34)

TIE Reaper - Scarif Base Pilot - 51
Scarif Base Pilot - (41)
•Admiral Sloane (10)

Total: 199/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

The reasoning for the two ln's over another striker or upgrades is because I'm only using the conversion kit contents but figured two easy targets in basic ties might lead to bad decisions by my opponent. I also never got to use the Reaper in 1.0 nor the Strikers much so this gives me an excuse to run some new toys.

That, my friend, is a sexy looking list! I just might have to give that one a try, too! So much Sloane, so little time!