Hi all,

I’ve recently made the decision to migrate away from 40k/Warhammer Fantasy (as frankly those systems are getting out of control – 40k in particular) in order to explore other options.

X-Wing was one game at the top of my list of things to try and so here I am.

I’m going to just jump in the deep end so to speak as I’ve signed up to a local tournament in a couple of weeks and wanted to post my initial list to see what feedback it generates.

I’m interested in primarily Imperial Navy armies, with my total model count at present being 7 TIE fighters (including the expansion).

As such, I’m going with my take on a TIE swarm (thinking if I can master the manoeuvring required for them it’ll be good for anything else I might try in the future).

Anyway, here’s the list:

Howlrunner

- Swarm Tactics

- Stealth Device

Backstabber

5 Academy Pilots

The theory being that I’ll run Howl and the academy pilots as a blob keeping within range 1 and mass shoot whatever comes into range, using swarm tactics to bump up an academy pilot every turn.

Backstabber will act on his own as either a distraction to peel away some enemy, or – if they don’t take the bait – then starts assassinating rogue style from behind (I’m also a D&D player and love rogues generally, so Backstabber appeals to me).

So pretty straight forward. Thoughts?

Seems that 7 TIEs is the best number of ships to field, so any other suggestions that make it to that number are welcome.

Thanks for any comments.

That looks right on. I assume you've seen this:

Instead of the stealth Jake used Dark Curse to great effect. I'm going to run something similar and might be doing Nightbeast for some variety. You definitely do want the initiative in case you match up with another Tie build so you can block, but in most cases I doubt you have to drop to 97pts like he did. Although the swarm gets some guff, I think it's the most fun list to fly with all the ships going everywhere.

Your list looks solid.
I personally use Push The Limit (A-Wing Expansion) instead of Swarm Tactics, demote Backstabber to an Obsidian, and promote two Academies also to Obsidians, for a 99 pt squad.

I ran the below list at a store championship and did pretty good. you can read about it on themetalbikini.com.

Howl w determination and Shield upgrade

Dark Curse

5x acad.

One of my favorite lists runs Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics, Winged Gundark, and five Obsidian pilots. The Obsidians give me fire initiative over most opponents but it is susceptible to Academies used as blockers. Gundark also isn't smiled upon among most imperial players.

7-ship swarms are perhaps the strongest list to fly with. 8 TIEs is impressive but lacks a lot of the special features needed to counter most other ships.

Thanks for the comments, all.

Awesome that all of the replies contain different builds for the same parameters and yet they all look viable to me.

Such flexibility in a game is a refreshing change to say the least.

@PenguinBonaparte - thanks for the video - I've seen some of the Team Covenant stuff, but hadn't actually seen that one. The poor Rebel player had a pretty bad start.

Would like to fit Dark Curse in as he seems a good survivor, but that would mean giving up the Stealth Device at a minimum and either keeping Swarm Tactics (which perhaps isn't as necessary as you're in effect getting a higher pilot skill anyway with the relatively hard to kill Dark Curse, or keeping it and pushing the total points out to exactly 100.

So, then - does having the initiative actually end up being a big deal? Or is it worth spending the points so that the list then looks like this at 100pts:

Or from the above, change it so that there's no swarm tactics (98pts) or replace swarm tactics with the stealth device to give Howlrunner some longevity and make it 99?

I realise there's no right answer here, just looking for advice and angles I perhaps haven't considered.

From what I've read, TIE swarms play better as a 'go hard, go early' type of army, so better to focus on offence rather than defense?

Again, thanks for the help.

I too used to play warhammer until I tired of the ridiculous faction/unit imbalances and have been very happy with x wing (which is at the extreme other end of the spectrum in terms of balance as compared to either warhammer).

If you like dnd rogues then you will really like backstabber - very satisfying to play since he's pretty effective for his pts.

Dark Curse offers insurance in games where you've lost everything else, but you really don't want to be in that situation, of course. Dark Curse may let you down without a stealth device, however....