H

H H

H H H

H H

H

Howlrunner moves last. Someone may run into her from behind.

The game will never allow you to get into this formation.

Always remember you formation is set the beginging of the game, after first moves its a struggle to maintain formation. There is. Famous quote one this that i cannot remember.

H

H H

H H H

H H

H

Howlrunner moves last. Someone may run into her from behind.

The game will never allow you to get into this formation.

It is POSSIBLE unless you're too close to the edge. It is just highly Improbable. Unless I'm badly mistaken Howlrunner could come from the other way and turn into the formation. Howlrunner from one side takes a left while everything else comes from the other side and takes a right.

H H H H H H H H H

Howlrunner moves last. Someone may run into her from behind.

The game will never allow you to get into this formation.

There are too many TIEs first of all, but it would be possible to get close to this with seven. Start with four in the front, three UN the back, and vary the speeds. 4 speeds for front row, three speeds fir second, 2 speeds fir back.

I just had a question about players who run TIE swarms. I'm fairly new to the game and usually play Rebels (the friend who got me into it decided we should each pick a faction to maximize our buying power).

That being said, I have yet to go up against a TIE swarm, although I have seen a few in different BATREPS, and videos from Worlds etc..

My question is - what are the advantages to running your TIE's in a tight formation? It just seems counterintuitive to me. If all of your TIE's are bunched together, they just seem like they're ripe for an Assault Missile attack, or for a bomb to go off in their midst. I understand that you want to maximize your firepower by bringing as many guns to bear on your opponent, but this just seems like far too great an opportunity for your opponent to take advantage of. I understand running Howl with the group as well, and close in in order to maximize her ability, but again, this just seems like your asking to take a beat-down.

Would it not be better to set up your fleet in smaller groups so that you can come at your opponent from multiple angles? Rather than having six or eight TIE's clustered together just begging for an alpha assault missile strike, does it not make more sense to have 2 smaller groups of 3 or 4 fighters coming at your opponent from varying angles, to force him/her to make the awkward decision as to which mini-swarm is the bigger threat?

School me please!

I see two reasons for formation flight, and have one devil's advocation against it.

The two are the oft mentioned Howlrunner, and the ease of concentration of fire.

The latter of these two ensures that formation flight occurs even without Howlrunner. Your swarm simply lasts longer if you can annihilate a B-Wing every turn with it, after all. Better to kill one ship outright than to wound the entire fleet, even when playing against a fellow swarm (although it depends on the size of the wound, there).

Now, a tactic I've seen other than doing a formation flight:

Run your Ties in pairs or trios, as though you were running 3-4 regular ships that happen to have two or three bodies a piece.

This version of swarm-flight gives you:

• Freedom to joust when you wish
• Freedom from Obstacle-based disruption
• Freedom from Blocking-based disruption
• Freedom from traditional Swarm counters (e.g. Assault Missiles, Seismic Charges, et c.).

And all it costs you are your Howlrunner synergy, and a lessened ability to concentrate fire.

A clever Swarm pilot will switch between these two tactics depending on their opponent's list, while a superb Swarm pilot will switch between the two within a single game. I call the second a "Starburst//Collapse" style of play.

Difficult to master, and harder to beat.

I just had a question about players who run TIE swarms. I'm fairly new to the game and usually play Rebels (the friend who got me into it decided we should each pick a faction to maximize our buying power).

That being said, I have yet to go up against a TIE swarm, although I have seen a few in different BATREPS, and videos from Worlds etc..

My question is - what are the advantages to running your TIE's in a tight formation? It just seems counterintuitive to me. If all of your TIE's are bunched together, they just seem like they're ripe for an Assault Missile attack, or for a bomb to go off in their midst. I understand that you want to maximize your firepower by bringing as many guns to bear on your opponent, but this just seems like far too great an opportunity for your opponent to take advantage of. I understand running Howl with the group as well, and close in in order to maximize her ability, but again, this just seems like your asking to take a beat-down.

Would it not be better to set up your fleet in smaller groups so that you can come at your opponent from multiple angles? Rather than having six or eight TIE's clustered together just begging for an alpha assault missile strike, does it not make more sense to have 2 smaller groups of 3 or 4 fighters coming at your opponent from varying angles, to force him/her to make the awkward decision as to which mini-swarm is the bigger threat?

School me please!

I see two reasons for formation flight, and have one devil's advocation against it.

The two are the oft mentioned Howlrunner, and the ease of concentration of fire.

The latter of these two ensures that formation flight occurs even without Howlrunner. Your swarm simply lasts longer if you can annihilate a B-Wing every turn with it, after all. Better to kill one ship outright than to wound the entire fleet, even when playing against a fellow swarm (although it depends on the size of the wound, there).

Now, a tactic I've seen other than doing a formation flight:

Run your Ties in pairs or trios, as though you were running 3-4 regular ships that happen to have two or three bodies a piece.

This version of swarm-flight gives you:

• Freedom to joust when you wish
• Freedom from Obstacle-based disruption
• Freedom from Blocking-based disruption
• Freedom from traditional Swarm counters (e.g. Assault Missiles, Seismic Charges, et c.).

And all it costs you are your Howlrunner synergy, and a lessened ability to concentrate fire.

A clever Swarm pilot will switch between these two tactics depending on their opponent's list, while a superb Swarm pilot will switch between the two within a single game. I call the second a "Starburst//Collapse" style of play.

Difficult to master, and harder to beat.

This is sort of what I was thinking. Although the reasoning was different. I was thinking that splitting the large group into 2 smaller groups would allow more flexibility when it comes to flanking and would ensure some measure of survivability against assault missiles and the like.

I am now coming to the realization that you're right about concentrated fire and ensuring that you can knock at least one opposing ship from the field each round.

Very interesting... It's been a long time since I've played swarm (wave 1/2) So, please correct any of the below as I plan to run swarm again this weekend...

For deployment I've always deployed my Ties in formation by measuring the distance with the range ruler, front to back 2 ties fit within range 1 and side by side both fit within range 1.

For moving, straights are easy. Turn ls are fine and transpose the entire formation to the left or right and banks require the TIES on the inside of the bank to do a maneuver 1 less than those on the outside... Right?

Very interesting... It's been a long time since I've played swarm (wave 1/2) So, please correct any of the below as I plan to run swarm again this weekend...

For deployment I've always deployed my Ties in formation by measuring the distance with the range ruler, front to back 2 ties fit within range 1 and side by side both fit within range 1.

For moving, straights are easy. Turn ls are fine and transpose the entire formation to the left or right and banks require the TIES on the inside of the bank to do a maneuver 1 less than those on the outside... Right?

I fly a lot of swarm (and for me that is six ships or more) and keeping them in formation around Howlrunner is crucial. Not only does it allow everyone to use her ability but it also looks amazing.

Additionally, I have never, ever, seen someone fire an assault missile at an event/tournament and I have been playing since wave 1.

When playing TIE 8, I tend to have two blocks of four, one deployed dead centre of the board and the other on which ever side had the most asteroids deployed on it. This generally deters anyone from setting up opposite and jousting. The centre unit can easily go left or right from the start.

Funny little trick is to deploy your four ships in a line and facing the board edge, dial in a bunch of hard ones and then see if your opponent is kind enough to point out you are facing the wrong way. This essentially gives you two turns of sitting still.

Key to moving is to ensure that everyone is going the same way and doing the same move with the same speed. They should never bump into each other if you do this. If you are using slower units such as headhunters or any two ships that have access to both the one and three speed bank, you can change direction quite easily without compromising the formation.

Agreed. Flying in two boxes of four is a lot easier than one big mob.

A two-by-four made of TIE fighters is just as unwieldy as one made of Scots Pine, and your opponent is unlikely to blithely accept being hit square in the face with either.

Alternatively, break down into pairs as a 'dragnet' if you're trying to catch someone manoeuvrable - Dash Rendar, for example.

4 Academy one half of the game arra, 4 Obsidian in the other half. Square formation, 2x2, 2 ctms between ships. The critical decision is to decide when to break in pairs.

Interesting thing about TIE Swarms: you can necro a 2 year old thread, and the discussions are still relevant.
​Or, possibly simply relevant again?
All hail the Gozanti TIEs and Crackshot!

With so few upgrades on the ships the TIE Swarm of today is mostly the TIE Swarm from the beginning. Obstacle choices could change as may a few specifics especially when you drop to six or seven TIEs but how you fly is still what makes them awesome.

Obstacle choices could change as may a few specifics especially when you drop to six or seven TIEs but how you fly is still what makes them awesome.

This is... actually something I hadn't considered.

Debris is certainly less annoying to TIE fighters than traditional asteroids.

I'll take a stress to attack, thank you very much.

Obstacle choices could change as may a few specifics especially when you drop to six or seven TIEs but how you fly is still what makes them awesome.

This is... actually something I hadn't considered.

Debris is certainly less annoying to TIE fighters than traditional asteroids.

I'll take a stress to attack, thank you very much.

With Epsilon Leader it ain't that bad either.

Even with these new choices it still doesn't really change how you "fly" a swarm as your biggest obstacle when doing so is often your own ships.