TIE Phantoms are very elusive ships, and this Armada list seeks to take advantage of that. Enter the realm of the shadow pilots!
This build focuses on the Quasar-II carrier, TIE Phantoms, and the Lambda shuttle. What do these 3 elements of the Empire fleet have in common? Let’s break it down. The Quasar-II is long range focused. With red dice in its front arc for anti-ship and anti-squadron, this Quasar is comfortable in the backfield. Let’s review a title for this Quasar.
Squall is a 3 point title for the Quasar that helps boost squadrons. When you activate, you may choose up to 3 unengaged friendly squadrons, those squadrons may move up to distance 2. If the do, they cannot end their movement engaged. Ok, so this normally is very useful for bombers, but we will be pushing TIE Phantoms with the Squall movement. Bring along a Lambda shuttle and you have the foundation for this build. Let’s see where it all comes together.
Superior Positions is a great Navigation Objective. Not only does it have the amazing effect of forcing your opponent to deploy everything before you, but it also allows for infinite victory token potential. Whenever a ship or squadron performs an attack against the rear hull of a ship and it suffered 1 or more damage, the attacker’s owner gains 1 victory token worth 15 points. This is a great way to rack up points, and counter your opponent’s deployment. But what does this have to do with TIE Phantoms and the Lambda shuttle?
The TIE Phantom is a speed 4 squadron that comes with the Cloak ability. This allows Phantoms to move up to distance 1 at the end of the squadron phase, even if they are engaged. If you use Squall on the Phantoms, they have the potential to move distance 6 (base 4 + 2 Squall) and then move an additional move at speed 1. What we have here is the furthest reaching Squadron in Armada. Boosting these squadrons can quickly get them out of range of your ship commands, and effectively leave them hanging, but that’s where the Lambda shuttle comes in.
At speed 3, the Lambda doesn’t seem like it could keep up, but these squadrons come with Relay 2. This allows friendly ships to resolve squadron commands at distance 1-3 of the Lambda shuttle. That’s quite a distance! Considering a movement of 5 (3 base + 2 Squall) and having a Relay of distance 1-3, this squadron can keep up with the Phantoms. This combo that we have laid out here can effectively get you to launch your TIE Phantoms and Lambda into an enemy ship’s rear arc potentially on round 1. This can allow you to get those Superior Positions victory tokens to start racking up in no time at all!
This combo could be the new way that Phantoms earn their keep in the Empire’s fleet. Is this build worth trying out? Let us know what you think!
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About the Author: Barclay Montgomery
