Imperial March - Fighters

So it seems some people have been disappointed with troopers and walkers. Watching the Empire's finest being destroyed by Ewoks at Endor can leave a bad impression after all. Furthermore, not everyone likes to keep their feet on land. Some fellows looks at the overcast space and can't help but want to fly across it.
But have no fear, for the TIE fighters are here. These little buggers constitute what could possibly be the fastest DS decks within all factions, and are up there with LS "unblockables". They are not without flaws though. As a matter of fact, they have glaring, potentially crippling weaknesses. This doesn't mean you should lose heart, our friends. Like in previous entries, let's go through a quick list of generic pros and cons, evaluate some objectives and build a few decks.

PROS:
+Very cheap units --> Thought troopers were cheap? Well, you won't really know cheap until you play fighters. Appearently, it's easier to build a spacecraft from scratch than train a couple troopers with poor aim. Anyway, this leads to...
+Economic independency --> unlike other navy builds, fighters don't need a SINGLE enhancement/officer. Your 4 starting resources can be more than enough at every phase of the game.
+Mixed damage --> fighters don't have as much unit damage as troopers or walkers, nor as much blast damage as capital ships, but they do have both in reasonable amounts considering their cost. Since you'll be attacking every objective with your superior numbers, it's easy to get a nice deal of unopposed damage in.
+Hard to Lock --> between your numbers and the oh so very amazing Tallon Roll event, it will be hard for LS to really stop your onslaught.

CONS:
-Edge-dependant --> not only do fighters have a weaker edge than other navy decks, they are also the only archetype that actually needs to win it to deal damage. Thankfully, we just got Precision Flying to help with this.
-As fragile as wet paper --> with most fighters having only 1 or 2 damage capacity, they're pretty easy to destroy before they get to do anything. Actually, until the 181^st Interceptors, all the 3 damage capacity fighters were out of navy pods (Headhunters are in a Scum pod and Vader's TIE Advanced is Sith).
-Terrible Force control --> most units you would want in a fighter deck have only one force icon. A few select have two. Obviously, you won't get far with this. More often than not, you'll do better by completely ignoring the Force Struggle.
-Terrible on defense --> low unit damage + low health + edge dependency = big problems. If your offensive maneuvers aren't going well, you're in a much tighter spot than any other navy build.
-Smuggler Han --> he can single-handedly wipe your board in a couple turns. Unlike troopers, fighters don't have the unit damage to effectively deal with him. Pray to Tarkin you'll have Defense Protocol and/or TIE Attack Squadron with a fate card to get targeted strike and quickly dispatch him.
Fortunately (?), Smugglers have so many strong cards that Han isn't an auto-include anymore.


Alright now. What objectives should we consider? Defense Protocol and Kuat Reinforcements scream fighters and are no-brainers. Both objectives have very powerful abilities, provide a good number of fighters and also crucial events such as Tallon Roll and Death from Above.
Superior Numbers is the only other fighter-centric imperial objective until the new Rogue cycle. Another powerful objective, but it's a one-time use. Can the extra fighter make a difference? Can it overcome the utility of other objectives? We doubt there's a clear answer here. What 2-cost fighters we have available in our deck and how fast the LS meta is playing will be big factors when deciding this.
Now we would have to check other affiliations to scavenge some more fighters. There's, however, a problem if we want to use Superior Numbers: it's Navy affiliation only, making it hard to splash pods from other factions. There's Black Squadron Assault for Sith, while Scum has The Hunt for Han Solo and Hunt them Down. The Scum route can be rather risky. Both pods have a decent number of affiliated cards that could be potentially impossible to play. The objectives don't really synergize with Navy either. Furthermore, their fighters are rather expensive at a cost of 3.
Black Squadron Assault, on the other hand, has all-around more synergistic cards with the navy fighters. I'm On the Leader isn't too good yet, and Vader's TIE Advanced is great edge fodder, so you don't lose as much going this route.
And that's it for fighters. Any other pods we could use? A few come to mind: Recon Mission, A Dark Time for the Rebellion and The Scavengers. Let's review them one by one.

Reconnaissance Mission:
This objective is a godsend when your hand is fueling your objectives (DP / Kuat). You then get a couple Human Replica Droids. These guys are basically free and provide a bit of unexpected damage, causing havoc where your opponent thought it was safe. Finally, a variety of fate goodies. Heat of Battle is arguably the weakest for such a deck, but it will keep LS mains on their toes after they've received some damage from Defense Protocol. Target of Opportunity is your friend. You want to deal blast damage. This deals surprise blast damage. Not much to think here. Twist of Fate is always strong and will keep you safe from enemy fate cards. Important when most of your units get destroyed by a single Heat of Battle, or when an Echoes of the Force can slow you down so much. Despite their own particular uses, all your fate cards have one common feature: they turn the TIE Attack Squadron into a beast.

A Dark Time for the Rebellion:
Free damage every turn? Yes, please. LS doesn't like having its objectives damaged when facing Navy, so it'll damage its own units. Coupled with Defense Protocol, this will soften LS units enough for your fighters to be threatening to them, so you kill them and get the precious unopposed bonus or are simply granted free pass and get the bonus anyway.
Next are a pair of MTVs. Very decent units. For starters, they're vehicles, so they can get a discount from Kuat Reinforcements and the bonus damage from Death from Above. They only have a cost of 2, going well along the lines of a deck with a "weak" economy. 2 damage capacity is actually a big thing here. Finally, their combat icons are edge-independant. The blast damage in conditional indeed, but it's very easy to activate it thanks to the objective, a Target of Opportunity or simply another unit striking first.
Colonel Starck is way too expensive and isn't even a vehicle. Chances are you won't ever play him. He's 3 force icons though, so he's excellent edge fodder.
Moorsh Moraine is theoretically good since you'll be swarming and are bound to constantly get the unopposed bonus. It's cost is high though, and in all honestly, this is one of those cards I have never played. I'd rather keep pumping units.
Finally, we get Heavy Fire. Very straightforward. Very versatile. Very powerful. We talked about this one in the Walkers's article. Simply put, it's always playable and always useful.

The Scavengers:
Board reset in the objective is bonkers. It can give you a second chance when things aren't going your way.
Wittin should be edge fodder. He's expensive and has no synergies with the regular fighter cards.
The Scrap Dealers are, rather ironically, the real deal. Basically, your destroyed units undergo mithosis and you get even more units, for free. These work very well with the cheap, fragile fighters. If they were vehicles, it would be perfect.
Watchful Eyes will normally be used to set The Scavengers into position, being able to trigger it as fast as possible when you're in a tight spot, or send it to the bottom when you're on your steady way to victory. Otherwise, you may want to use it on your opponent's deck if he could have a particularly annoying objective for you.
Wrap this set up with Seeds of Decay. More fate cards for the TIE Attack Squad. You also get the neat effect to lock down a commited ready unit, saving your own and paving the way for your offensive.

After all these considerations, it's finally to time to build some decks. Like last time, we present you four different decks, though we must admit that only a couple of these might be considered as "competitive". Anyway, here we go.


Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Defense Protocol (Core)
TIE Attack Squadron (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x Kuat Reinforcements (Core)
"Backstabber" (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
TIE Bomber (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)

1x Reconnaissance Mission (Core)
Human Replica Droid (Core)
Human Replica Droid (Core)
Heat of Battle (Core)
Target of Opportunity (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x A Dark Time for the Rebellion (A Dark Time)
Colonel Starck (A Dark Time)
MTV-7 (A Dark Time)
MTV-7 (A Dark Time)
The Moorsh Moraine (A Dark Time)
Heavy Fire (A Dark Time)

1x The Scavengers (Join Us or Die)
Wittin (Join Us or Die)
Jawa Scrap Dealers (Join Us or Die)
Jawa Scrap Dealers (Join Us or Die)
Watchful Eyes (Join Us or Die)
Seeds of Decay (Join Us or Die)

2x Superior Numbers (Darkness and Light)
Escort Carrier (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)


Obviously, you don't want The Scavengers in your opening flip. The cheaper fighters are unimpressive (for now), so Superior Numbers isn't quite as good either. Best thing you would get is probably a TIE Bomber. All other objectives offer great utility. Starting with Defense Protocol + Kuat + Recon Mission will give you board control, virtual economy and the cards to fuel those effects. An opening with several Defense Protocols and/or Dark Time for the Rebellion is very strong as well, pumping out tons of damage.
As for your hand, any card can be useful if you have Kuat out, but you always want 2-3 units you can play right away, and commit one of them (preferably a non-fighter) if there's no Gamor Run out to slow the LS down a bit (not common in this meta, but can happen).
Turn 2 is when things get interesting. Deploy some more units and engage. How you decide to attack will make or break your games. It's all black or white. No grey zones. Generally, you want to spread out and engage everywhere, attacking with no more than 1-2 units per objective. Using your most threatening units first (ex: TIE Squad, TIE bomber) is good bait to keep your other units safe and able to get the unopposed bonus. Alternatively, and knowing your opponent wants to block said units, you attack with the weaker ones first, without using the bigger guns at all. You just dealt good damage without losing a single piece of your army. Of course, this means you're holding back, which is something such a fast deck doesn't want, but psychological warfare will sometimes be your strongest weapon. Keep that in mind and use it with caution.
In the end, by attempting to engage every objective every turn you will minimize your losses and maximize damage thanks to the unopposed bonus. Furthermore, between Replica Droids, Backstabber and your events you can deal much more damage than LS could expect, crippling or downright destroying objectives in single attacks. And when a unit is destroyed, a Jawa Scrap Dealer will appear in its place to keep engaging elsewhere.
While Sleuth Scouts get their "virtual" damage from objectives that can always be seen and accounted for, TIE fighters get their damage from their hand, making them far more deceptive.
Let's see what else we can mess with...

Oh yeah, we already got a glimpse into the future thanks to FFG. And what did our Oracle offer? This. Easily one of the top 3 Navy pods since Core, and could possibly be the very best (Between the Shadows might surprise us though, and we sure hope that will be the case!).
Like before, we just put every single fighter-centric Navy pod into the mixer, and because of some of the new cards, Black Squadron Assault becomes a much more tempting choice.


Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Black Squadron Assault (Core)
Vader's TIE Advanced (Core)
TIE Advanced (Core)
Black Squadron Pilot (Core)
I'm On the Leader (Core)
Target of Opportunity (Core)

2x Defense Protocol (Core)
TIE Attack Squadron (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x Kuat Reinforcements (Core)
"Backstabber" (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
TIE Bomber (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)

2x Superior Numbers (Darkness and Light)
Escort Carrier (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)

2x The Empire's Elite (Ready for Takeoff)
Baron Fel (Ready for Takeoff)
181^st TIE Interceptor (Ready for Takeoff)
181^st TIE Interceptor (Ready for Takeoff)
Flight Academy (Ready for Takeoff)
Stay on Target (Ready for Takeoff)


Okay, so despite having a few Sith cards we must stick to the Navy affiliation due to Superior Numbers. What do we miss? Fortunately, just two cards: I'm On the Leader, and Vader's TIE Advanced, which can be salvaged with Escort Carrier anyway. The objective is fairly useless though, so let's hope we won't be seeing it much. Speaking of objectives, we get the brand new The Empire's Elite, which isn't up there with Defense Protocol or Kuat Reinforcements YET, but has huge potential. Lets you recover fighters and pilots when the former is enhanced by the latter. Basically, you'll have more edge cards and a second or third chance to keep playing the same units. But what really received a big, mean power spike is Superior Numbers, as now we can choose between the TIE Bomber, TIE Advanced and the 181^st TIE Interceptor. It's like being a kid in a candy store. The Interceptor having 3 damage capacity for a cost of 2 is pretty amazing, as fighters tend to be extremely fragile. Just like The Empire's Elite, the Interceptors benefit from pilots, providing some force icons to the Force Struggle, doesn't matter if they're buried in focus tokens.
Next is the one and only Baron Fel. This guy is the man. Seriously, open a browser tab and go check his background. He is a pretty solid defender and force holder with all his icons (1 black unit, 1 black tactics, 1 white unit, 3 force). However, if you use him as an enhancement instead of a proper unit he will become an absolute beast, or rather, will make your units absolute beasts. Every single one of your fighters will gain edge (1) and elite for two resources. We probably don't need to explain how crazy this is in a deck that swarms with cheap fighters and already got free edge in the form of the Precision Flying enhancement.
You then get some pilot support. The Stay on Target fate card has the two standard icons, and lets you recover a pilot from your discard pile and put it in play for free as an enhancement on one of your vehicles.
Finally, Flight Academy. Fairly weak for now, as we can't really abuse the pilot-exclusive resource having only Fel and the Black Squad Pilots. Not to mention the card has 0 force icons, so it won't help much with edge battles. It's probably condemned to be DP/Kuat fodder until we get a few more pilots.
While the previous deck was somehow focused on board control (via damage from objectives) and deception to deal big amounts of damage unexpectedly and win before it ran out of fuel (via events and free units), this one makes use of resilience and superior edge prowess to simply power through the enemy lines. A more stable deck, no doubt. Then again, we don't have all the cards yet.

Next, and for fun's sake, let's try using what Scum has to offer in the fighter department. Let's check first.

Hunt them Down:
Objective is pretty useless. Even if you do get some captured cards in it, you shouldn't really need the resources. Plus, the objective could be exhausted for several turns.
Dengar will be useless as well. Just a 2 force icon card. Use him in edge or to fuel your other objectives.
The Kihraxz-class are actually somewhat decent now that the LS has many powerful 1-cost units (Hired Hands, Shifty Lookout, Nudj, C-3PO, to name some). Furthermore, their reaction won't be as restrictive thanks to Precision Flying.
Careful with Remote Hideout... with all the new 3 cost fighters you could see yourself needing some extra resources, but slowing down to get them isn't what we would like here. Fortunately, you can ready your fighters with Tallon Roll, but there's a limit to how many you have, and using them to ready the unit that was affected by the enhancement means you won't get to use the event for a double strike.
Target of Opportunity needs no explanation. More damage and chances to activate the TIE Squad.

The Hunt for Han Solo:
Great objective in a proper deck. Sadly, this isn't it. You won't have that many scum units, and you won't have many ways to capture cards either, so chances are the objective won't do anything for you.
The Upnaught can be useful if you get your capture mechanics rolling, but overall shouldn't provide too much. At least he provides a Scum resource.
The Headhunters are decent, not needing to win edge battles and being able to withstand some punishment. These should either capture a few units or force LS to throw them during the edge battle. Either way, you're winning (don't bring up Wolfsmen and Hyperspace Marauder. That's just sad. Every player out there had and is still having enough of those).
Cloud City Incinerator is useless. More food for your other effects.
Carbonite Chamber Activation is the real deal. Very strong in the current meta. Lock down the opposition to attack unopposed or prevent your objectives from receiving damage. Although it would be neat to use it mid-battle, letting your opponent fight the edge battle can be enough to screw yourself.


Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Defense Protocol (Core)
TIE Attack Squadron (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x Kuat Reinforcements (Core)
"Backstabber" (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
TIE Bomber (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)

2x The Hunt for Han Solo (A Dark Time)
Upnaught (A Dark Time)
Z-95 Headhunter (A Dark Time)
Z-95 Headhunter (A Dark Time)
Cloud City Incinerator (A Dark Time)
Carbonite Chamber Activation (A Dark Time)

1x Hunt Them Down (Escape from Hoth)
Dengar (Escape from Hoth)
Kihraxz-class Assault Fighter (Escape from Hoth)
Kihraxz-class Assault Fighter (Escape from Hoth)
Remote Hideout (Escape from Hoth)
Target of Opportunity (Escape from Hoth)

1x The Scavengers (Join Us or Die)
Wittin (Join Us or Die)
Jawa Scrap Dealers (Join Us or Die)
Jawa Scrap Dealers (Join Us or Die)
Watchful Eyes (Join Us or Die)
Seeds of Decay (Join Us or Die)

2x Superior Numbers (Darkness and Light)
Escort Carrier (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)


A risky bet at first glance since we're going 6-4 and using Navy affiliation anyway. Again, it's not that bad. Only cards you want to play and might not be able to are Carbonite Chamber Activation and the Kihraxz-class. Just like before, the Escort Carrier will solve half the problem.
You can easily drop one Hunt for Han Solo and/or The Scavengers for something else, though you won't feel as scummy.
In all honesty, there's not much else to say about this variant. Use the Kihraxz to capture what you can, and if you get the Hunt for Han Solo + Kihraxz combo rolling, you can keep striking for tons of damage. Headhunters can make this a tad easier. Then again, unless he has nothing to defend with, your opponent will just discard all units in the edge battle to prevent this.
We'll revisit a Scum fighters once we get more spoilers of the new cycle. The Black Sun Headhunter looks delicious, and hopefully will make for a strong addition to the fighter arsenal.

Now, for our last deck, we'll make use of the Hoth trait and abuse Fate cards to put it all on the TIE Attack Squadron. Is this any good? Probably not, but if you can pull a win with this you shall be remember as one of the big heroes in our history. Shame we can't give you a medal.


Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Defense Protocol (Core)
TIE Attack Squadron (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x Kuat Reinforcements (Core)
"Backstabber" (Core)
TIE Fighter (Core)
TIE Bomber (Core)
Tallon Roll (Core)
Death from Above (Core)

2x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

2x The Admiral's Assault (It Binds All Things)
Admiral Piett (It Binds All Things)
Hoth Reinforcements (It Binds All Things)
Seeds of Decay (It Binds All Things)
Heat of Battle (It Binds All Things)
Battle of Hoth (It Binds All Things)

2x Superior Numbers (Darkness and Light)
Escort Carrier (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
TIE Scout (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)
Precision Flying (Darkness and Light)


Okay, so Veers and Piett are joining the fray... or not. You don't want to play them. What you want are the small units and fate cards.

The General's Imperative:
Objective can help a bit if you also have DP/Kuat, and though you have some Battles of Hoth, don't expect this to stay undamaged. If anything, it might draw enough attention to keep your other objectives around for longer.
Veers is expensive and doesn't offer enough. Unlike Starck, he doesn't even have good force icons.
The walkers are cheap vehicles and have blast damage. That's about all a unit needs to be useful here.
Turbolaser Battery is... damn. Why isn't it an event? Do yourself a favor and discard it.
Battle of Hoth is powerful for edge, can heal a couple objectives and will bring back the Hoth Reinforcements. More importantly, it activates TIE Attack Squad.

The Admiral's Assault:
You can't even pay for Piett. Enough said.
You don't want to pay for Hoth Reinforcements. Just use your Battles of Hoth to bring him back. If his twin brother was in the discard pile as well, all the better. Free blast and distraction.
The rest of the set is all about fate cards. You get a good deal of utility from them.

You can easily swap one of these for a Recon Mission for similar effects. Just watch out for Twists of Fate. You don't want all your fate goodies going to waste.
Strategy is simple. Get TIE Attack Squad into play. Use fate cards to buff TIE Attack Squad. Cry when TIE Attack Squad gets destroyed. Smile when salvaging TIE Attack Squad with Escort Carrier. Maybe win if TIE Attack Squad gets to do its stuff. Lose if it doesn't.


So what do you think about fighters? Are they any good? Have you found a winning formula? Are they one of the stronger Navy themes or should they be buried to never see the light?

For our next issue, Capital Ships will be taking the spotlight. If you would like a decklist to be featured, feel free to PM Majestaat, pointing out objectives, explaining general strategy and maybe the not-so-obvious combos (do our job for us!).

Thanks for your time, see you on the battlefield!