Hey guys theory crafting after worlds, (no rest for the wicked eh)

Right now I'm playing around with

3x Sabers with PTL and shield upgrade.

I learned in worlds that cushion is important as I had some bad bad bad dice rolls. I'm currently left with 16 points and backstabber is not my first thought. I want to stick at 99/98 points for init. I would love to fit howl but I don't think I can work her in.

I like to think I can maneuver well and can get the most of my actions, avoiding arcs or focus evade turrets. Let me know what your thoughts are!

Howlrunner is harder to make work with a handful of nimble Interceptors who are at their best flying independently and taking opportunistic shots while avoiding firing arcs, so I wouldn't worry about fitting her into this personally.

When Aces comes out, you can use Hull upgrade instead of Shield upgrade. Gives you 3 more points to play with but a the cost of possibly taking an additional crit.

Scimitar Squadron Pilot, or Backstabber. Your choice

what about an academy tie with stealth huh huh

If you add Aces you give up three points upgrading Sabers to Royals and then you could add the Royal Guard title to them and give them either a Stealth Device or Hull Upgrade to go with the Shield Upgrade. It's still only three ships but they have a higher PL than many other ships and should be reasonably durable.

BSP with DTF

I looked at the aces after I posted this

Royal with PTL shield and hull upgrade =32 points

2 of those and upgrade one to jax puts me at 100.

3 strong ships like that might work PS would be 6/6/8 which is solid and focus shutdown from jax helps as well

Also looking at 12 hull 3 shields where or 4 hull 1 shield each, the equivalent of a HWK, defense of a tie, and shooting power of an xwing, with the maneuverability of an interceptor

Perhaps venture into using Fel, Turr and Vader until Aces is out?

I gravitate towards "Night Beast." He's not totally awesome compared to TIE interceptors, but for his price he's got some great utility, and it leaves you at 99 points.

Nimdabew suggested BSP + Draw Their Fire, but it suffers form the same problem as "Howlrunner," which is her need to stay in range, while her squad mates will try to outmaneuver the opponent and leave her range.

4x Royals with PTL is 100 points on the nose. That's something to try as well.

Currently, I've been running 2x Sabers with PTL, Fel with PTL/Stealth and Howl with Determination. It's a pretty neat list to try, especially because Howl's bonus allows you to play a ranged 2-3 game in initial exchanges. It frankly doesn't matter if Howl dies once your Interceptors start juggling around, what matters is her ability to buff your beginning shots. If you can keep her alive, by all means go for it because you're using her as points denial as that point.

Even if you're flying in formation with 2-Turns trying to clear stress, Howl will be able to maintain cohesion with the squad. I've been having success with this list as long as you properly examine your matchups and fly properly.

I feel like Night Beast is built to let you try to fly it like a still-fragile tank; same problem with Soontir Fell. Many people are tempted to use their token stacking abilities, but when you fly under several overlapping enemy arcs, concentrated fire can kill anything, even if that thing has boosted defense. It only takes a bad roll to vaporise all those invested points.

This is why I vastly prefer Turr to Soontir, he can react away from a lower PS skilled enemy after shooting by barrel rolling (and maybe boost as well, or evade with PTL, which is a must on him), giving you a bit more choices after everyone has activated, rather than doing some guessing with Soontir (since his maneuver is decided while everyone is choosing theirs).

Saber + PTL

Saber + PTL

Saber + PTL

Yorr + FCS + intel agent + intel agent

Your Sabers can do U-turns, pass the stress to Yorr, do a PTL, pass the stress to Yorr again, and that Saber can repeat that maneuver on the next turn. Intel agent to allow you to abuse boost + barrel roll against opponents with higher PS. Everything at PS4 so flying is a lot easier. FCS on Yorr because he will be permanently stressed and will need some way to get some actions to remain useful on the field.

just note that the PTL stress comes after the 2nd action, so it is easy to get too excited and accidently boost/roll out of range of Yorr. Also, you do not need to always pass the stress token to Yorr if you will be doing a green maneuver on the next turn.

I am against saber squadrons with PTL and no upgrade, hull or shields are needed if they are going to survive from being vapo in 1 shot.

I have been playtesting with

Royal PTL, RGT Upgrade Hull Shield x2

Canor Jax RGT Upgrade Hull Shield

It has been a very good squad to run, my alpha hit is important, With the formation I currently run I can normally get 2 shots and a boost/barrel out of arc from the focused guy. If they all are being fired at I simply focus evade and let the divided dice work with me.

I did find that Ion Turret can ruin my squad simply because if I double stress for actions then get the pop I loose the ability to get rid of stress and do actions the following turn.

So far it hits very hard and is harder to hit. I will play test more against competitive squads up here and get back to ya.