The best TIE Reaper isn't the one you've been using

The TIE Striker's bigger, chunkier brother, the TIE Reaper, offers an interesting option for a 3-die attacker to Imperial lists, as well as a crew carrier with a very different combat profile than the Lambda. If you've flown Imperial in Hyperspace, you've probably used the Reaper. If you're like many tournament players, you've probably been using Major Vermeil.

But is Vermeil really your best option?

The TIE Reaper in general

Given the nature of how it moves, it's difficult to find a clear comp for the Reaper with other ships. Durability wise, it's exactly the same as a Y-Wing; you can reasonably expect to survive 4 single-modded 3-die attacks, and you can reasonably expect to be dead by the 6th attack. Given how hull-heavy it is, incoming crits might expedite that (or neuter the ships effectiveness). If you directly joust something like 5 Ion Y-Wings or a 6 TIE Swarm, you are going to die in the opening engagement the majority of the time. Lists that aren't quite so alpha-strike based might not kill you in one turn, but it's absolutely a possibility against most 4+ ship lists or 3+ alpha strike lists currently in the meta.

The dial is generally bad (especially if you played the Reaper in first edition). The lack of any white hard turns is a huge pain and needs to be carefully planned around. The hard stop is very situational, especially for the higher initiative Reapers. Unless you're playing your Reaper extremely conservative, you'll often be able to just bump something to accomplish the same goal, with the added benefit of not stressing yourself. The sloops are incredibly useful (but the lack of the Striker's K-Turn can also be annoying).

All of the above maneuvers, however, result in a stressed Reaper. Unless you've coordinated tokens to your Reaper beforehand, this can leave your ship very vulnerable. Parking a stressed Reaper inside multiple arcs is a very quick way to get rid of your Reaper!

Where stress does come in handy is in shutting down your ailerons. Again, if you're even roughly planning ahead a turn, you might have some sense on how fast or slow you'll need to be going on that turn, and if that plan involves going slow, you'll want to be stressed if possible. This can also be helpful in trying to maintain some semblance of formation, but it should be stressed that formation flying is very problematic in general given the medium base and the ailerons; take this into consideration if your list requires the Reaper to be within close range of one or more of your other ships for a prolonged period.

You've got Evade (which is occasionally nice, especially if your Reaper is functioning as a crew carrier), but you don't have Lock. This means that the typical TIE Reaper is not going to be double-modding many shots, which needs to be taken into consideration if your list depends on the Reaper to be doing a significant amount of the damage legwork. Unlike the Lambda, you also don't have Reinforce, which makes this ship die far faster than the shuttle.

The white Jam action is occasionally useful, mostly when there will be no exchange of fire in either direction for the Reaper. Very rarely, you might find a situation where jamming a key target lock might be able to prevent a ship from dying, or where jamming of a reinforce enables the rest of your list to do some work, but in practice, these situations are not common (and trying to manufacture them is likely a losing play). Jam is basically the action you'll be taking when you essentially have nothing better to do.

The Coordinate action is interesting for the Reaper, as it's an option to stress your ship without doing a red maneuver. Remember that even if you bring a Tactical Officer, the option is there to take the red Coordinate regardless. It's also worth noting that the Reaper is currently the cheapest way to get Coordinate into an Imperial list.

This is a fine ship for bringing gas clouds. Flying through a gas cloud with your ailerons maneuver and then doing your real maneuver and still having an action is great. Slooping onto gas clouds is great. Surviving attacks is great. The more points you're sinking into your Reaper, the more you should consider bringing gas clouds.

Stress control elements are awful to Reapers. Things like 4-LOM or Asajj will ruin your day. A perpetually stressed Reaper is a very slow, very juicy target.

The Scarif Base Pilot

It's fine? Basically, if you want to bring support crew into your list and want to do it as cheap as absolutely possible, this is your ship. It's also a decent enough 3-die attacker if you want something a bit less fragile than a Striker or an Interceptor.

At a similar price point in Hyperspace (at present), the generic Tempest Squadron TIE Adv x1 and the Barrage Rocket TIE Bomber can fill similar roles with various pros and cons, most notably that both of those ships are way less of a pain in the butt to maneuver in multiples. In Extended, the Imdaar Test Pilot is an even better 3-die attacker in this rough price range, and the Lambda is a much clunkier but more resilient ship overall.

Also, if you've ever wistfully looked at Ruthless and wanted to explore building around it, this is probably a pretty good ship to support your Ruthless carrier(s).

"Vizier"

Vizier's not a bad Reaper, really. It's possibly even a good Reaper! But it's a Reaper that doesn't often find a home in lists. It's a named Reaper that isn't tanky like Feroph, doesn't hit hard like Vermeil, and still isn't the cheapest way to get a Reaper into your list.

The ability is good, although you will bump your ailerons maneuver a non-zero number of times. However, especially on an opening engagement, it's not the worst plan to aileron forward, coordinate a friend, and then do a 3-forward/3-bank to set up a big blocker for the rest of your list. In this way, Vizier could be a good supporter for something like a mid-Initiative ordnance carrier or a non-Vader x1 pilot like Maarek Stele.

There frankly aren't a lot of lists where you want a Reaper and Vizier is your best option, but especially in a situation where you are looking for some combination of blocker and coordinator, there are worse ideas to explore.

Major Vermeil

Definitely the most popular Reaper at present. A non-fragile 3-die attacker with a built in chance for attack mods at a moderate initiative level is pretty good, it turns out!

Major Vermeil is certainly a very solid pilot. He fits very well in the 4-ship Imperial archetype, where you really need decent offensive output from 3+ ships, and usually there are higher initiative attackers who will be able to help clear green tokens way for Vermeil's ability to get value. In that list, Vermeil's also generally durable enough to eat some shots while your flanking element(s) do their thing, while still being enough of a threat that he can't quite be ignored. Mid- to late-game, Vermeil can still be an annoying body in the middle of the board to clog up the works, but you definitely want to avoid situations where Vermeil is your end game ship.

The important thing to watch is that Vermeil's ability is by no means a given. Lists with token stacking are going to deny the heck out of Vermeil. If Vermeil is your highest initiative pilot, you're a bit less likely to see the ability go off. On the other hand, the presence of Vermeil might encourage your opponent to focus when they would rather lock, which isn't the worst outcome.

Jamming purely to enable Vermeil is situational but probably wrong in the vast majority of scenarios; don't Jam unless the Vermeil bonus is a happy coincidence or you've already got a focus from another source. The point of Vermeil is to be doing ability+focus shots for an 84% change at getting three hits (and a 74% chance at 4 hits at R1). 

Captain Feroph

Yes, in my opinion, it is Captain Feroph and not Major Vermeil who holds the title of best Reaper.

Feroph's ability is far more consistent than Vermeil since it takes effect after the ship firing at Feroph would spend its token. That hit-hit-eyeball result that would have quite likely resulted in three damage to any other Reaper is two (or possibly even one!) damage to Feroph. In practice, this means Feroph survives one more attack than her Reaper peers.

This also means that there is much less interest in shooting at Feroph, a ship that can only single mod its own attacks and can result in a lot of frustrating attacks for the ships shooting at it. Here, then, is a crew carrier worth using, especially in Hyperspace. Carrying something like Death Troopers, for instance, creates a dilemma for your opponent: leaving Feroph alive won't kill them (at least no faster than any other single mod 3-die attacker) so shooting her feels wrong, but leaving the Death Troopers online isn't exactly ideal either.

So Feroph's the best, then?

Maybe. It depends. Sometimes.

Feroph is great if you're bringing strong crew. In Hyperspace, currently there aren't a lot of options. Palpatine's not legal. Krennic is iffy (but probably worth at least experimenting with). A list that really capitalizes on Ciena Ree and justifies her cost hasn't materialized. Vader's quite good, but expensive. Death Troopers are usually good, and occasionally very good. 

If you're looking to the Reaper purely for damage output at a reasonable rate, Vermeil is still the better choice. Death Troopers works here too, but bear in mind that Vermeil is already going to be the first target for your opponent, and as mentioned above, many lists can deal with Vermeil very quickly.

Scarifs are good if you want or have need of 3 attack dice and bulk. Vizier has niche applications.

What about upgrades?

Death Troopers are pretty good disruption and really hamper ships that want to be stressed often. Named B-Wings, RZ-2 A-Wings, Poe, Nien Nunb, Kylo, and Soontir all tend to finish a lot of turns stressed. Death Troopers can force some awkward re-engages for these ships. For non stress-dependent ships, it can still be a huge pain to deal with, although some lists will be pretty resistant to Death Troopers (bulky Republic lists, for instance). Flying to maximize Death Troopers is a slightly different style of Reaper playing so practice and adjust accordingly.

Tactical Officer is good if you're looking for a Coordinator, and is especially nice on Feroph or SBP. Again, look at the other ships in your list and determine how feasible keeping a Reaper near them throughout the game will be. The TIE Advanced x1, for instance, is always hungry for more actions, especially with the named pilots. However, format dependent, you may find the Lambda more suited to the list.

Vader combos obviously with Vermeil, but also adds more eggs to a relatively killable basket. Krennic has some merit, but don't take it with the expectation that you'll get a ton of value from the Optimized Prototype part of the deal.

In Extended, Feroph shines as a great carrier for Admiral Sloane and a fine carrier for Emperor Palpatine. Seventh Sister can work on Feroph or Vermeil but mostly only makes sense if the rest of your list is lower initiative. Agent Kallus on Feroph seems questionable but might work.

ISB Slicers seem quite bad. Other crew don't seem particularly compelling on this ship either.  Minister Tua is downright awful on the Reaper (unless you like uselessly lurching around the board like a bad first edition Lambda).

Trick Shot is generally good and especially good if you plan on bringing gas clouds and slooping behind them (in order to somewhat mitigate the downside on your attacks). Juke is probably a trap on Vermeil and just a bad idea on Feroph. The bullseye talents (i.e. Predator, Crack Shot, Marksmanship) are all pretty unrealistic on the Reaper (although I've admittedly found myself tempted to throw Crack Shot on Vermeil in the past).

Hull Upgrade is usable on Vermeil and possibly pretty good on Feroph, but not at the expense of more important pilots/upgrades elsewhere in your list.

That's it!

Thanks for reading! If you have a great Reaper build, some general Reaper thoughts, or an elegant Reaper-themed haiku, please share them in the comments!