Technically these are Aces ideas unless you count the Hull Upgrade, but here's another similar idea:

99 points

Howlrunner + Stealth Device

Alpha + Hull Upgrade x2

Alpha x2

or

99 points

Howlrunner + Stealth Device

Saber + PtL

Alpha x3

2 dice + focus + 1 reroll vs 2 agility = 1.11 average damage

This really deserves its own thread, but basically, Howlrunner + 4 Interceptors should still be somewhat competitive, but not as good as Howlrunner + 6 TIEs, and higher risk to boot.

If we want to take the Imperial X-Wings idea and go the low pilot skill route...

Royal Guard Pilot (22)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Royal Guard Pilot (22)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

"Fel's Wrath" (23)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Academy Pilot (12)

TOTAL: 100 points

Drop Fel's Wrath down to another Royal Guard Pilot if you want initiative with 99 points. You'll have to buy a second Imperial Aces pack to get a third RGP card, though...

Why not take Lt. Lorrir instead of Fel's Wrath?

We're getting off topic, but with Advanced Sensors the Lambda can "K-turn" in two turns instead of three. I think it comes down to personal preference. Attack vs maneuverability.

You can bank 1 and boost for another bank 1 on both movements, or turn 1 on either movement, the only difference is you'll have an action coming out of the turn with the sensors.

FCS gives you a free target lock for your gunner so that sorta makes up for the lost action and comes in very handy when not turning, more so than the adv sensors, but that's debatable I guess.

I prefer FCS

Last night I ran a list that did much better than anticipated:

• Carnor Jax w/PTL
• Backstabber
• Howlrunner
• Academy Pilot x3

Howlrunner and the APs lured the enemy (Krassis w/HLC, Omicron w/Vader, Gunner, and Ion, and Jonus w/Swarm Tactics) out into the board while Carnor and Backstabber sped behind the shuttle. Howl + APs turned away from the enemy further and took evades, figuring on surviving a direct range 3 assault well (they did) while Carnor and Backstabber finished flanking, doing six damage on the shuttle (two of which was Backstabber through an asteroid). The shuttle got a shot off on an AP with the Ion, missed, did NOT use Vader because he only had four health left. Gunner triggered and did a point of damage, but again opted against Vader. The following turn, my mini-swarm pulled 90 degrees hard and faced off head-on against the shuttle - and even though Jonus had bumped the shuttle to PS6 with Swarm Tactics Howlrunner and Carnor (mostly Carnor) dealt the remaining four damage needed to not deal with the shuttle anymore. After a correct guess on where the Firespray would go next and focusing all of my shots on it, keeping Carnor and Stabber out of the firing arcs of the spray, I was able to focus it down in one turn.

The most interesting part of the experience was not the direct action denial Carnor brings, but the decisions he forces his opponent to make. "I want Focus for defense, but Carnor might be in range one so maybe I'll do a TL instead. Or, since I KNOW he'll be at range one of me I might as well do a red maneuver and try to get in closer to another target." It messes with your opponent's mind, which takes them out of their A game, and when you're playing in a tournament with great pilots that's the sort of psychological warfare that wins you acrylic swag.

Do we know what all of the Upgrade cards are for these ships? In the unboxed picture I see (from Left to right, top to bottom): 2X Royal Tie, 2X ????, 2X Hull Upgrade, 2X Targeting Computer, 2X Opportunist, 1X push the limit, 1 unrevealed Elite Pilot Skill (although probably PTL to keep with the 2X of each theme). Did I miss the ???? reveal or anything else?

What would make any glass canon build more reliable is an Upgrade card of some sort that reduces the effectiveness of turrets. Obviously what makes Fighters/interceptors great is the maneuverability. Turrets nerf that. It doesn't matter if Lorrir/Cowall can dance all over the place with their fancy flying abilities if they can still be easily destroyed by the Falcon/Hwk/Y+Turret. On a Fighter, its not that big of a deal because they are cheap canon fodder and you likely have 6+ in your squad. But when I spend 1/4-1/3 of my points on a fancy named Interceptor pilot, I need some help avoiding those turrets. I would love to see a modifiction something like this:

"When you are being attacked by a Turret outside of the attacking ships primary arc, \perfom a free evade action"

or

"When being attacked by a turret weapon outside of the attacking ships primary arc, if the attacking ship is in your firing arc, increase your agility value by 1"

An upgrade like that would give the ints a fighting chance and force turreted ships to actually fly well in some circumstances.

I'm excited by the ideas of these new Pilots, but with so many turret options available to the rebels, Interceptors are hard to work into any build. Its a shame because ints are by far the most fun ship to fly IMO.

Edit: Never mind, it looks like the ???? is Shield Upgrade x2

"When you are being attacked by a Turret outside of the attacking ships primary arc, \perfom a free evade action"

or

"When being attacked by a turret weapon outside of the attacking ships primary arc, if the attacking ship is in your firing arc, increase your agility value by 1"

An upgrade like that would give the ints a fighting chance and force turreted ships to actually fly well in some circumstances.

I'm excited by the ideas of these new Pilots, but with so many turret options available to the rebels, Interceptors are hard to work into any build. Its a shame because ints are by far the most fun ship to fly IMO.

Something like that would likely need a "receive a stress to: .... Cannot preform if you have at least one stress." Otherwise you're looking at 3 attack dice, which focused is going to roll 2.25 hits. If you always get an evade, that's down to 1.25 hits. With 3 agility, you're looking at an average evade of 1.13 naked. And the expected damage output is .49 damage. Compared to 1.22 without that ability. So while I don't like that ability at all, it would definitely need a once per turn type effect. But it still means the single ICT is basically useless against that ship. Which means that a HWK is basically sitting in the water against it.

The increased agility would be more "reasonable." Again, if it was limited to once per turn via stress or something. It takes the expected damage from 1.22 down to .95. Which basically means that you've gotten rid of the ability for Han / Blaster Turret to do 2 damage, but you're still likely to take 1 damage. Given, once you start doing what the interceptor does best, hiding behind asteroids at R3 w/ a stealth device... you're now rolling 7 evade dice against Han's 3 attack dice. *shrug... That doesn't bother me that much though, because you're flying well to get into that position, and you're giving him 3 agility dice when you shoot back. So the net effect is no damage is likely to be given that turn. Which doesn't bode well for the imps against a HSF list that typically goes to time anyways.

Yeah my idea isn't perfect, but the point is we need something to make interceptors more viable in the age of the turret weapons. Half of the Rebel ships can take a turret now. Which means that your shiny 30 point interceptor is going to get blowed up real fast and there is not much you can do about it other than hide behind asteroids, which nerfs the effectiveness of your attacks in many circumstances. So you get to hide or attack. Not a fun way to play and certainly not a good way to win. When my int comes out of hiding to take on that ship with a turret, I have no chance of taking him down in 1 shot. If it is the falcon or a ship with a blaster turret, it can (although not easy) one shot my int unless i have hull or shield upgrades further increasing the cost of my class canon. I guess that is what they are trying to do with the Royal Tie card allowing a hull and a shield upgrade, but that makes the ship awefully expensive and again means I'm unlikely to use it if I want to win

Captain Kagi, engine upgrade, rebel captive
Carnor jax, push the limit, shield upgrade, hull upgrade
Royal Guard, push the limit, hull upgrade, targeting computer

alternately:

Captain Kagi, engine upgrade, rebel captive

Carnor Jax, push the limit

academy pilot x3

There are a lot of ways to build this list but the bare essentials are Captain Kagi with rebel captive, and Carnor Jax.
I'm not sure about this list really but in theory you are controlling the opponent's use of focus and evade with carnor jax, and Captain Kagi deflects the target locks that might otherwise be used to try and get around Jax's ability to take him out. If they decide to try and go for the shuttle first, they take stress from the rebel captive. Should Kagi survive into late game, he has engine upgrade and is stressing one of the (hopefully) few remaining ships that are attacking him

I'm not sure a 3 ship imperial squad, with two of them being Interceptors, is wise. Even with upgrades, they are glass cannons and one or two bad rolls will wipe out a third of your squad.

I think you'll find you get the most value out of Interceptors if you have one or two of them in a larger list. Something like:

Omicron Group Pilot (21)
Gunner (5)
Engine Upgrade (4)

"Fel's Wrath" (23)

Lieutenant Lorrir (23)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 100

Where you have 5 ships (one of them really hardy), the loss of one isn't lethal.

Or you add a single interceptor to an otherwise capable and solid squad:

Omicron Group Pilot (21)
Fire-Control System (2)
Gunner (5)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Lieutenant Lorrir (23)

Boba Fett (39)
Expert Handling (2)
Navigator (3)

Total: 99

The Kagi + Carnor combo is very interesting. Kagi + Engine could skirt around the edge of the combat zone hopefully keeping range three but out of firing arcs for a couple of turns, while Carnor goes in for opportunity shots with PTL and you mix in a few academy TIEs to act as blockers and be their usual annoying selves.

FIENDISH! I love it.

I was looking at some Firespray, 2 TIEs and a Interceptor list earlier today, but only one has anything from Imp Aces. Here's my favorite two:

Kath Scarlet (38)

-Ion Cannon (3)

-Rebel Operative (3)

Soontir Fel (27)

-Push the Limit (3)

-Targeting Computer (2)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

This one has Sooper Fel, with all 5 actions but a bit of a glass cannon, the IonStress combo of Kath, and a pair of escorts to bring me up to 4 ships.

The other one turns the uniqueness of the TIEs on it's head and evens out the pilot skill, but won't have the 1-2 combo of Soontir Kath to eat things:

Kath Scarlet (38)

-Ion Cannon (3)

-Rebel Operative (3)

Backstabber (16)

Dark Curse (16)

Saber Squadron Pilot (21)*

-Vet Instincts (1)

*The saber, to keep it with Imp Aces, could just be a royal...

Here all 3 TIEs are PS6 and the Firespray is PS 7, and I think this may be the better of the two.

I played a gentleman on Vassal, his name escapes me, who ran:

Captain Kagi + Sensor Jammer

Carnor Jax + PTL + Stealth Device

Alpha Squadron Interceptor x 2

I ran:

Rhymer + PTL + APT + Concussion Missile

Academy Tie x 5

The combo of Jax and Kagi was great. Couldn't target lock Jax with Rhymer, though I did botch up my initial engage by rushing 4 fwd, JUST outside of range to TL Jax before Kagi got there. Also, couldn't target Kagi with my Academies if I didn't have focus because of Sensor Jammers. It was a lot of fun to fight, and of course infuriating. I did my best to block his actions to make up for my lack of actions. I just wish I hadn't decided to do that directly in front of Kagi's firing arc.

Overall I recommend this Jax list. I liked the 2 Alphas in this list more than 3 Academy ties, at least when fighting Imperials/swarms. Could be different against rebels.

I'm not a big fan of either of the 181st pilots. Don't get me wrong I think their abilities are fantastic! I would be absolutely in love with the ability to dance all over the board out of firing arcs, but as my rant a few posts above explains, it doesn't matter how well you dance when you are fighting a turret. So although I'll probably give them a go once in a while, 181st won't get much love from me. I think for me the best 2 pilots are the named Royal Guards. Hit hard and try to take out the turrets before they get a chance to do much, then mop up the rest. Maybe something like this:


Carnor Jax (29)
TIE Interceptor (26), Push the Limit (3)

Kir Kanos (27)
TIE Interceptor (24), Stealth Device (3)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (25)
TIE Bomber (16), Cluster Missiles (4), Homing Missiles (5)

Mauler Mithel (19)
TIE Fighter (17), Swarm Tactics (2)

This is designed to be especially usefull against turrets but i think would hold up well against any Rebel squad (I don't do tournaments so I couldn'tcomment on how well it would perform against imps). The plan for the opening strike is this: Keep your Interceptors back and let the bomber (swarmed up to PS7) use his HM at range three to soften up a target (hopefully whatever turret is out there). On next turn try to run Jax into range one (should be pretty easy with boost/barrel roll) of that turret to deny actions and deal some damage. Bomber and Mauler move to range 1. Bomber unloads CM. Move Kanos into range 3 to avoid damage and trigger his ability if needed. If rolls go well for you the biggest threat to your ints is eliminated allowing you to break off and pick apart the rest of the fleet with superior maneuverabilty and good firepower.

The obvious issue is squads with multiple turrets. But with Jax's ability good flying can negate blaster turrets by denying focus actions leaving only ICT to worry about as far as snap on turrets go. The falcon is the big turret to worry about so it must be target numero uno. I think this build needs a little work (is Swarm Tactics really necessary etc) but I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs.