Not to pick on you per se, but it's a good example. This kind of thinking is everywhere on these forums and it drives me nuts. Someone comes to ask a question about a build, "Nope, can't be done." Someone wants to put anything other than PTL on an interceptor, "Nope, don't do it." Most people have these ideas in their heads of what works/what doesn't work and most people have no desire to experiment whatsoever. People think about ships instead of squads - which is what the game is really about. A ship on its own doesn't matter, only what it does in the squad matters. A lot of variant builds do really, really well. Instead of saying that something doesn't work, you should try to find out how it can and in what situations it does work. Not only does it make you a better player, but it makes you a better squad builder. The best of the best X-Wing players are always experimenting and always trying new and crazy things. Check out Hothie's thread in the Battle Reports section for some of his interesting builds. And hey, remember when Paul Heaver won worlds last year using a card that everyone said was terrible, (R2D2 Crew) but it was key in his build. Or when he brought Biggs Walks the Dogs, another thing that no one saw before. So don't be one of those guys that says you can't do something or that something doesn't work. It probably does, you just haven't figured out how it does yet.

My quick attempt at an Advanced TIE build, but I think after playing around with it a bit, something like this would be fun: Zertik Strom (26) Veteran Instincts (1) Ion Pulse Missiles (3) Sensor Jammer (0) Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1) TIE/x1 (0) "Backstabber" (16) Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13) Total: 99 You could also drop the ION pulse, drop the TIEs down to academies and have a 7-ship swarm.

I'd love to face that Corran. He would be a dead man. Anecdotes are anecdotal.

Can't play it without a joystick. You'll have to pry my throttle and rudder controls out of my cold, dead hands.

I'm gonna be the glass half-full guy. 70% of the points spent in Regional elimination rounds were non-turreted ships. What are we going to do about our non-turreted overlords?

I've tried this and it's worked a lot better than I thought it would. I've actually stopped using my R2D2 build since this one has been performing much better. Corran Horn (35) Lone Wolf (2) Fire-Control System (2) R3-A2 (2) Total: 41 Lone Wolf helps mitigate a lot of damage and R3-A2 really helps you tackle tricky ships like Soontir.

I don't have a problem with turrets, except for one: I wish there was a way to make a turret vs turret match more interesting. All my X-Wing youtube subscriptions have been so boring lately. Maybe we can hire people to juggle chainsaws or flaming torches or something and dance around the play area. Then it might be fun to watch.

One thing I like about the StarViper is that there are only 2 small-based ships in the game that have a hard 1-turn and a 1-straight. The StarViper is one and the B-Wing is the other, but its hard turns are red. Being able to take those tiny movements and then adjust with barrel-roll and boost is so effective. It's good at getting close to ships and then maneuvering behind them due to the limited turns of other ships.

I kind of disagree. While this will be true with Vader, not so much with the other Advanced pilots. You have to remember that you have to get a TL on a ship first. If you're TLing a ship, you aren't focusing or evading. You'll have no way to modify the other two dice you're throwing unless you have predator. If you already have a TL on a ship, yes, you can put out some decent damage. But whenever you have to switch targets, you're going to take a massive hit to your damage output and your survivability. A 2 attack ship will always have good damage output whether they have to switch targets or not. An AC ship may not have as good spike damage as an ATC ship, but it is a hell of a lot more reliable and a hell of a lot more survivable. It won't be as good against agi 3+ ships, but it'll be a reliable little ship. I get what you're saying, but generally speaking I don't think you can get away with paying upper-tier Advanced Ace prices for anything that caps out at 2 damage a round. Particularly in the current meta where ships having 2 damage mitigation a round isn't that uncommon so you either need to hit hard or have a bunch of guns in order to have an impact. I think it depends. I would probaby never run anything other than ATC on Vader and Maarek. (Though I kinda want to try FCS and Calculation on Maarek for fun) Juno is so flexible and can reasonably stay at any range she wants, which makes other upgrades more attractive. Juno with the MKII, FCS & Cluster Missiles can be pretty dangerous. She can stay at range 3 for her first shot, to set up a TL for next round where she gets into range 1. Then will have a 3-dice TL+F shot next turn which is even better than ATC. And if she fires off those clusters, even better. Zertik for me depends on how I plan on using him. If I was just going to use him as a debuffer, I'd probably just slap AC and VI on him and take an evade or focus every round. Regardless, I'd always save the token for defense. That way, he can stay alive as long as possible to ruin people's days. Alozen I'm not sure about yet. His ability would make ATC good on him, but his PS makes getting into range 1 of higher PS ships more difficult. Colzet could be fun with FCS. AC would work too and he can just TL when he gets an opportunity. The generics, AC all the way.

Do you want to link us? We have no idea. I think it was the Vassal log on this page: http://teamcovenant.com/theorist/2015/06/26/tc-open-elimination-round-3/, but I'm not positive 'cause I can't run Vassal at work. It would be the Theorist vs MrSunol list. MrSunol was running what is an illegal list (but legal for this tournament). His list was: Luke w/ VI, ACD, FT Wes w/ VI, ACD, FT Wedge w/ R2-D2, VI, ACD, FT Theorist was running: 3 Cartel Spacers w/ HLC Black Sun Enforcer w/ Shield Upgrade & Flechette Torpedo Basically Theorist lost all his Cartel Spacers right away and won the match just with his Black Sun Enforcer. That match was particularly amazing, but all his matches were quite interesting.

I used to think the Starviper was pretty terrible until I saw Theorist fly one. Then I realized I wasn't flying to its strengths. After practicing with them for a while and learning how to build squads that work together with Starvipers, I've begun to really like them.

I kind of disagree. While this will be true with Vader, not so much with the other Advanced pilots. You have to remember that you have to get a TL on a ship first. If you're TLing a ship, you aren't focusing or evading. You'll have no way to modify the other two dice you're throwing unless you have predator. If you already have a TL on a ship, yes, you can put out some decent damage. But whenever you have to switch targets, you're going to take a massive hit to your damage output and your survivability. A 2 attack ship will always have good damage output whether they have to switch targets or not. An AC ship may not have as good spike damage as an ATC ship, but it is a hell of a lot more reliable and a hell of a lot more survivable. It won't be as good against agi 3+ ships, but it'll be a reliable little ship.

They do actually. Min Market is one of my local stores.

I heard you like Prockets. Jake Farrell (24) Push the Limit (3) Proton Rockets (3) Squad Leader (2) Autothrusters (2) A-Wing Test Pilot (0) Prototype Pilot (17) Proton Rockets (3) Autothrusters (2) Prototype Pilot (17) Proton Rockets (3) Autothrusters (2) Prototype Pilot (17) Proton Rockets (3) Autothrusters (2) Total: 100 View in Yet Another Squad Builder This list is a hell of a lot of fun, but if I was looking to make it more competitive, I would swap out one procket for an Ion Pulse.

I fly all A-Wing lists a lot, but lately I've just been fielding a single A-Wing in a list. Here's my current Jake loadout and he is a monster. Jake Farrell (24) Lone Wolf (2) Chardaan Refit (-2) Veteran Instincts (1) Autothrusters (2) A-Wing Test Pilot (0) Total: 27 No PTL makes missiles not work on him, but it really opens his dial. Being able to abuse that 1-turn makes him a nightmare to deal with. Since you're moving at PS 9, you pretty much know where everyone else is going to be and they don't know where you will be as you're not making predictable green moves. Then you make your move and focus. Boosting or barrel-rolling gets you into range 1 almost every turn once you've made contact with the enemy. Lone wolf gives you good attacks and good defense. All this for only 27 points!

WAY better without EU. Defenders want to be far away from their targets. Boost gets them too close. Staying far away and barrel-rolling can get any arc you need.

The best thing that the Twin Ion Engine does is it lets the Defender abuse those hard 1 turns and stay in the fight the next round. Vessery combined with an Advanced once the Advanced fix comes out will be ridiculous.

Honestly I don't think Lorrir needs the help. Sure it would be nice to have an EPT, (which is something you could say about a lot of pilots) but he doesn't really need it especially with the advent of autothrusters. Honestly, at this point I think that PTL is overrated on Interceptors other than Soontir Fel. A stressed Interceptor has a hampered dial and can be completely shut down by stress effects. I've been playing Interceptors without PTL for a while now and it's been a nice change. Sure with PTL you can turtle up, but then your next move becomes rather obvious. I feel that an Interceptor that PTLs every round actually gets shot at MORE than one that doesn't. Simply because your opponent has a generally good idea of where you're going to end up. Yes, Lorrir's ability does give him stress and it's not something you use for every action. The beauty of it is that you can go places that other ships can't. You can use it to maneuver to a location where no ship (other than a turret) can shoot at you regardless of what post-movement actions they have. For 25 points, he's kind of a good deal. If you still worry about action economy, Fleet Officer does a lot to fix that.

To add to this, I've been playing Lorrir & Autothrusters a lot lately and it's surprisingly good for 25 points.

Yeah, there's a lot of large-ship hate coming...and it is wonderful.

I completely agree. I almost won't run a defender without EU. It transforms it into an agile killing machine that cannot be outmaneuvered or reasoned with. white K followed by a boost is awesome and completely unexpected. It makes it the ship the empire was promised. I've always thought an Engine Upgrade on a Defender is a waste of 4 points. Generally a defender wants to get as many range 2 and 3 shots as possible. Boost brings them too close. Not to mention that a Defender almost always wants to focus. As for repositioning, a barrel-roll is superior for the types of movements a Defender wants to do. A k-turn followed by a barrel-roll can allow you to get a shot on any ship that you're trying to chase. Why waste 4 points on an Engine Upgrade?

I check the forums every few months or so just to see if there's any news about this. I really, REALLY like playing Commissars...and the line feels incomplete without this book.

Yep. Outmaneuver is the same way.

Some do. The Flechette stress triggers before tactician does, so you can double stress with a Flechette and tactician.

Exactly, range 3, not in arc, shoot twice, miss twice and opponent is destroyed. Not broken at all. If you're putting all your eggs in one basket like running all fragile arc-dodgers and run into something that hard-counters you...you're going to have a bad time. Nothing broken about that.