Hi folks,

I've been having a dilemma. See, I LOVE interceptors. Specifically 181st interceptors, and as great as the sabre are, they're pretty... squishy. I have a lot of difficulty flying an interceptor-only squad because half of them tend to go up in a puff of smoke with a single shot. Now honestly, it's not far off balanced, in terms of wins and losses. But there's a semi-disturbing trend, against PS5 and 6 opponents, where almost all my losses are, because usually one of them gets crippled or disabled before it even gets to fire, often from a ps5 or 6 torpedo.

I don't think the cost is bad, I don't think they really need much else, but I wondered about a temporary fix to the pilot skill issue, and how this might look as a custom card. I didn't want something that would help out soontir fel, because he's already great where he is. I wondered about something like this, it might be fun for the odd home-brew game. It won't make a swarm much more effective at a joust, because the effect is only for the activation phase. But it does give you that one turn or two of rewarding you for a good feint, you still need a bid against ps6 lists.

interested in your thoughts.

I kind of like it, part of me would prefer if it was Initiative 5 since ships pay for that Int 6, and that the Rebels would need something similar for their A-Wing.

TIE/in Interceptor - Alpha Squadron Pilot - 34
Alpha Squadron Pilot - (34)

TIE/in Interceptor - •Soontir Fel - 62
•Soontir Fel - Ace of Legend (52)
Predator (2)
Shield Upgrade (8)

TIE/in Interceptor - Alpha Squadron Pilot - 34
Alpha Squadron Pilot - (34)

TIE/in Interceptor - Alpha Squadron Pilot - 34
Alpha Squadron Pilot - (34)

TIE/in Interceptor - Alpha Squadron Pilot - 34
Alpha Squadron Pilot - (34)

Total: 198/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Played that this week and i loved it. (In the game I played I lost a single ship in the first round of combat and proceeded to crush my opponent, he could not dodge the blocks I was sitting with tokens and blocking him)

You are going to loose a ship that's for sure but you have amazing blocking potential.

PS1 interceptors are fantastic and they do not need any help.

You need to play to there strength, and that is the best blocking in the game, when you can move from out if combat range and block a ship that does a 1 straight then you feel the magic.

There advantage is they are cheap and block well, your card would make them absolutely overpowered. 2 rounds of combat at I6 would remove the only real weakness they have.

Basically Ptl on I1 is bonkers good, I think it's an extremely undervalued and underappreciated ship right now. I don't think it will stay that way.

Interceptors do not need any help, they are good in second edition.

Pair with Swarm Tactics Fell then think about if you'd like to play against it...

3 hours ago, Icelom said:

You are going to loose a ship that's for sure but you have amazing blocking potential.

PS1 interceptors are fantastic and they do not need any help.

Agreed, and agreed. I've been flying 5-ship TIEs for a long time, and you always expect to lose one early. In First Edition, this wasn't so bad because if the preponderance of 3-ship squads, so losing one still left you ahead. If you lost none, your opponent was in a world of hurt.

The toughest matches were always against squads with similar ship count with slightly higher pilot skill, and those were just rare. But in Second Edition, I do see those from time to time. Fortunately, Supernatural Reflexes has people running to the initiative race again, so you should still be seeing 3-ship squads. And as stated above, TIE interceptors are the best blockers in the game, bar none.

5 Sabre Squadron Aces are probably the most fun you can have with interceptors or heavy swarms.

Against lower In opponents, they're unstoppable killing machines.

Against higher In, they're still amazing blockers, just don't joust them unless you can afford to lose one before it shoots.

They've been so much fun that I haven't actually flown the Baron yet!

8 hours ago, Autosketch said:

I've been having a dilemma. See, I LOVE interceptors. Specifically 181st interceptors, and as great as the sabre are, they're pretty... squishy. I have a lot of difficulty flying an interceptor-only squad because half of them tend to go up in a puff of smoke with a single shot. Now honestly, it's not far off balanced, in terms of wins and losses. But there's a semi-disturbing trend, against PS5 and 6 opponents, where almost all my losses are, because usually one of them gets crippled or disabled before it even gets to fire, often from a ps5 or 6 torpedo.

4

I literally had a discussion about a similar situation with a player at a tournament today. The specifics are different, but the situation is pretty much the same -- he was asking how to approach an alpha-strike list that was getting 4 ships to fire at I6 or higher and just deleting part of his list. I told him that, in such situations, often the best you can do is to accept it's going to happen and make sure the opponent pays for it.

So yes, one of your Interceptors is almost surely going to get crippled or killed in the opening engagement. This comes with the territory of running massed low(-ish) initative ships. What you need to do is make sure the rest of your guys are in position to return fire and/or move in for blocks the following round, so their wingman's death was not in vain.

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Agreed, and agreed. I've been flying 5-ship TIEs for a long time, and you always expect to lose one early. In First Edition, this wasn't so bad because if the preponderance of 3-ship squads, so losing one still left you ahead. If you lost none, your opponent was in a world of hurt.

This is pretty much true for all swarms builds. Low PS/high numbers = attrition based games. If you're moving first you're going to be taking shots, so you need to maximise your damage output, cause casualties as quickly as you can and stay ahead in the damage race.

My FIVE. CARTEL. MARAUDERS. build did well for me because of the number of dice I was able to throw. I got a couple of 100-0s with it (usually when facing a 2 ship list), but more often when I won I'd lose one or two ships with a couple of others heavily damaged.

In4 generics are amazing. Most generics top out at In3, which means you still outfly them. Plus, even In5 aces are pretty rare, so those Sabers are spectacular against most aces as well. If you're flying Fel, tacking on Swarm tactics to him and every other saber means you can daisy chain In6 to create the ultimate alpha strike. In1 Alphas still make great blockers and are only 4 points more than Wampa with no limit on their 3 dice attack. Really, squints are in a great place right now.

That said, I don't feel like squints work well on their own, but that's really by design - they fill an escort role. They really shine when you pair them with something else and keep them as flankers that can joust when necessary. I've been flying a 5 ship list with 3 squints and 2 bombers and no upgrades other than barrage rockets for the bombers and I've been having a blast.

I feel that in this edition pilot skill is more important than ever. More ships have access to boost/barrel roll, Defensive mods are worse and crits are nastier. Alpha strikes and bombs feel like the black. My opinion so far. Only problem I have had in 2ed is facing higher ps ships

Generic interceptors feel like easy pickings

I've run five Alphas with Wampa a few times, and it's probably the most fun I've had flying a swarm.

Controlled chaos...

1 hour ago, jocke01 said:

I feel that in this edition pilot skill is more important than ever.

This is my experience as well. Right now I fly "Soontir Fell's Flying Circus" Soontir with Juke (not pred), 2 interceptor Alphas, and 2 scimitar bombers. I play Soontir defensive and try and keep my opponent using the focus action instead of re positioning, his juke also makes his target spend the focus so the circus can do damage. (you have enough points for barrage rockets and bombs on both bombers).

Sabers with Predator are actually pretty solid. You either reposition to hopefully not get shot (since you have to predict a bit) or you focus and hopefully have a reroll from the bullseye.

4 Sabers and 1 Black Squadron all with Predator can be decent. Yes, the most dangerous stuff in the meta probably still is a challenge but it's not completely unwinnable.

I think in regards to this proposed upgrade, we won't see it but if we do, the I5 variant suggested above makes more sense from a balance perspective (or it would need to be only 1 charge).

I have to agree, interceptors are fantastic for their cost right now. I will probably buy 2 more so I can fly 5 lol.

As to the OP...no that fix isn’t needed and would be as broken as anything 1.0 ever had.

The biggest thing I have seen in 2.0 is that people are still trying to play 1.0 and don’t understand what they are now working with.

It’s a very specific style of flying that changes dramatically as you go beyond 3 ships. 4-5 ships makes your moves matter more. Also makes where you want a fight to matter more. 6-8 ships and you have a whole different monster. A skill a lot of players didn’t learn as 1.0 really moved away from those types of list.

The low initiative ships are fine just keep practicing and biggest key be patient.

On 10/20/2018 at 10:13 PM, Autosketch said:

Hi folks,

I've been having a dilemma. See, I LOVE interceptors. Specifically 181st interceptors, and as great as the sabre are, they're pretty... squishy. I have a lot of difficulty flying an interceptor-only squad because half of them tend to go up in a puff of smoke with a single shot. Now honestly, it's not far off balanced, in terms of wins and losses. But there's a semi-disturbing trend, against PS5 and 6 opponents, where almost all my losses are, because usually one of them gets crippled or disabled before it even gets to fire, often from a ps5 or 6 torpedo.

I don't think the cost is bad, I don't think they really need much else, but I wondered about a temporary fix to the pilot skill issue, and how this might look as a custom card. I didn't want something that would help out soontir fel, because he's already great where he is. I wondered about something like this, it might be fun for the odd home-brew game. It won't make a swarm much more effective at a joust, because the effect is only for the activation phase. But it does give you that one turn or two of rewarding you for a good feint, you still need a bid against ps6 lists.

interested in your thoughts.

Holy f*** that's beautiful, but sadly would be costed like Luke Gunner (although probably variable costed depending on your base initiative). If it were turned from a fan card into a real one, its sole purpose would be a prohibitively expensive element that FFG says, "hey look, this problem of infinite time on target turrets represented by Luke Gunner messing with the initiative activation order thanks to Veteran Instincts has been cured."

1 minute ago, Ronu said:

As to the OP...no that fix isn’t needed and would be as broken as anything 1.0 ever had.

The biggest thing I have seen in 2.0 is that people are still trying to play 1.0 and don’t understand what they are now working with.

It’s a very specific style of flying that changes dramatically as you go beyond 3 ships. 4-5 ships makes your moves matter more. Also makes where you want a fight to matter more. 6-8 ships and you have a whole different monster. A skill a lot of players didn’t learn as 1.0 really moved away from those types of list.

The low initiative ships are fine just keep practicing and biggest key be patient.

I'd agree that low-init ships are fine, low init ships that can be one-shotted off the board struggle a bit more, though. A couple go down in the first round of fire before you get a chance to shoot back and you're in some pretty big trouble. A good opponent can also make it difficult to range control properly with that many ships.

I'm looking forward to running triple Silencer again, because they should have the durability to stay in the fight long enough to fire.

Oops, wrong thread! I'll take out this post's former content and put it in the right thread!

Lots a great pointers and advice here.

That said, I always felt the Interceptor should have at least one more hull than the TIE/LN.