Ok, this is kind of a bait reply, but I'm gonna go with Demolisher. I've been playing demolisher since wave 1, I was among the lucky few who got to experience the Clonisher firsthand during its first appearance in the first Vassal WC, adopted the high activation - last first philosophy myself and I played various iterations of it in msu fleets. That was until its nerf: somehow, with the ET faq, something clicked in me and I decided Demo was dead for me, and that pulling those amazing high speed moves with that sweet 2 clicks engine tech at the end was no longer possible, thus putting the often outdeployed Demo in a bad spot for its trick, specifically in regard to its capability to set up double arcs and get away from retaliation. I resorted to playing rebels for some time - GASP, the HORROR - then switched back to imperials: I even brought a 2 GSD list to a tournament, and neither of those was a Demo. However, I felt that something was amiss in my armada life no matter what I flew. Only recently, after trying some double ISD builds, I decided it was time for a change of pace again, and tried a JJ msu list with a proud Demolisher GSD in it, and HOLY BALLS! Like, that thing can pull off an effective speed 4 manouver with 2-2-1-2 clicks, and even though it cant shoot after ET anymore, I feel like JJ is the most fitting admiral for it, as he enables drifting so hard the double arc setup is nowhere near a problem, and retaliation can now be avoided more easily than ever. I'm so glad to have a ship waifu back!

As an IRL friend of Aresius, I often want to punch him in the balls with the pointed head of that Mon Karren of his. I thought you guys might be interested in my exquisite analysis on the matter.

I feel I need some insight from you rules guys regarding the *new* officer Vader and its interaction with other officers. Wording on the card says: "while a friendly ship at distance 1-5 is attacking a ship, it may discard one of its *officer* or *commander* upgrade cards (other than Vader) to reroll any number of dice in its attack pool." Cool, I thought, we can now have 1-2 pts rerolls then! So I started building a list, but I found I'm not entirely sure about the consequences of discarding certain officers. What about Minister Tua? Does the defensive retrofit slot disappear after you force choke him, and what happens to the upgrade you put there? What about Taskmaster Grint? Since the token is placed after deploying fleets, does the effect outlive him? What about Pryce? Same as Grint, the round token is already there, does her effect outlive her?

how is this better than ET90B swarm? also, ET90B swarm isn't that awesome to begin with.

Heh, the whole point of h9 admonition is to guarantee the accuracy when you need it the most. I understand this is a lot cheaper, but I don't think it can work for me, as basically I'm a chess guy and would like to have to rely on "good" dice rolls as little as possible. Other than that, cool little ship. Just, I would not hunt flottillas with it.

As others have pointed out, by "worst" i actually meant best, or more cancerous, if you will. And yes, I'm serious, as this was not the first time I play Rieekan, I've been around since wave 1 and have seen my fair share of game, enough to say that, while of course it's true that Rieekan has a few nasty perks in that the opponent can't just kill the menace right away, dead stuff gets in the way while trying to escape, aces pack quite the punch, and all that, the list definitely have counters as it can't field more than 5 ships effectively, and 6 activations list will still get to act after all your ships are done, thus denying part of the advantage. By the way, you don't have to trust me: just look at euros! From a logical standpoint, one can only a) claim that in the whole Europe there isn't a single good Rieekan player: that, if you ask me, seems highly unlikely. b) admit that counters to Rieekan can in fact exist, and looking at euro top 8 the best way to counter it seems to be: as our lord and saviour @clontroper5 taught us long ago.

I just find it hilarious that this whole Rieekan unbeatable meme is still around. Look, a week or so before Euros me and @Aresius played a game on vassal to check if we were the ones not able to see the light or this while Rieekan thing was just mass hysteria: I was playing the worst Rieekan aces I could put together, while he played his euros list, and I felt I never had a chance. He would simply tie up my squads with A wings while I was in the middle of the process of moving them, and proceeded to last first things with his pimped liberty. Yeah, my ships survived until the end of the round, but an Ace ball is no good if it's forced to desperately trying to disengage from counter 2 enemies, and those ships aren't exactly deadly. Rieekan is good, that's obvious. Are there no counters to it? NOOOOPE, the real concept to beat is, and has always been since wave 1, high activations + high deployment + initiative/ a good set of objectives and an idea on how to manage them.

Honestly I cant make myself bring the interdictor to the table most of the time, and that's not because of what the ship lacks in terms of tricks (which are neat and dandy) or firepower (buy and ISD instead?). My problem with the interdictor is, has always been and forever will be its points cost. I remember going nuts with the spoilers from wave 4 as a mainly imperial player, because the relative point cost between the 2 ships released didn't seem to make sense back then: almost one year later, those concerns are still valid, as while Liberty is rampant in a myriad of lists mainly because of its cost efficiency, I barely get to see the interdictor played, ever, because it just doesn't fit in any remotely good list. Now, I'm not really complaining from a game balance point of view, and I am maybe one of the few left around here that doesn't think Rieekan aces is unbeatable and such. Empire is fine, they have their vulnerabilites, but overall can definitely compete with rebels. What I feel it's a shame is the missed opportunity, as without a (very unlikely) point decrease for the interdictor, I don't see it being played even with new cool upgrades.

This is actually quite clever, I too love to cripple enemy squadron blobs right away. Might give this a try in a campaign scenario.

It occurs to me (well maybe the forum name has something to do with it) that you seem to just want X-wing with bigger ships.

I like how imperial engineers take pride in providing their ships with the worst defence token around! Other than that, Quasar looks frigging sexy.

Eeew guys, does anybody know if the event is sold out yet? @Aresius is kinda talking me in...

Sorry to quote myself guys, but none of this was answered and I'm still uncertain whether this is a case of mass hysteria or an actual game balance problem.

I'm not actually. Proud brainwashed imperial admiral here. And I'm not even saying calm down, just trying to get the point. Aaaaand... I still don't get it. Yes, sinergies. Yes, flottilas. Yes, CC. When did this all become an OMG UNSTOPPABLE problem? How did the top players handled the - pretty evident TBH - problems I outlined earlier?

Having been out of the loop for some time, I'm not really sure I get all these complaints. I mean, I too think the game shifted a bit too much towards squadron play, but this has been true for at least 6 months now. Why are you guys complaining now? Also, some time ago I theorycrafted and played a couple games with lists very similar to those under the scope now and, while good and kinda fun, they felt nowhere near unstoppable, as I'm reading now, the reason being 1) the clunkiness of rebel bombers, that are forced to move as a blob with the slower bwings dictating the pace 2) being the all rounders they are, I found rebel bombers at a disadvantage over a dedicated imperial AS wing 3) the small numbers (actually fitting 8 squadrons is a challange) 4) the dependance on the survivability of the blob centre, ie the gallant/pelta providing the activations. What has changed now, and how do these Worlds top 4 guys overcome those problems?