I am just learning the game and am interested in flying Ties in a tight formation. So my question is if a formation of say four ships were attacking say an x-wing and all four ties were different pilot skills, would all four ships concentrate fire and roll at the same time? I am thinking that this would be a real life practice in a fighting formation. I would also wonder if this would override the pilot skill of the X-wing if a fighter had a higher pilot skill in the formation as the other pilots would follow the lead of a more experienced pilot on a command to fire. Being X military this would be the case in my squad of the more experience soldier would take the lead and the lower experienced troops (Even officers as they don't want to die either and know they have to follow in order gain knowledge to lead) would follow his lead also.

Thanks

Steve

So my question is if a formation of say four ships were attacking say an x-wing and all four ties were different pilot skills, would all four ships concentrate fire and roll at the same time?

No. Ships attack in order of PS. And they attack one at a time. There is no exception.

I would also wonder if this would override the pilot skill of the X-wing if a fighter had a higher pilot skill in the formation as the other pilots would follow the lead of a more experienced pilot on a command to fire.

Swarm Tactics does that. Or some of it, anyway.

That's what I though on the PS but wasn't sure as I was watching a video on youtube and they were (I think) combining dice rolls on an attack on a GR-75. He was talking about 12 dice against the ship but I couldn't tell if they were all the same PS or not. What I was thinking was maybe the damage was assigned according to PS as a lower skill pilot wouldn't hit as often as a skilled pilot. I guess that they were talking in total shots at the ship over the round rather then at one time. Thanks for the info.

That's what I though on the PS but wasn't sure as I was watching a video on youtube and they were (I think) combining dice rolls on an attack on a GR-75.

Technically that is wrong. However, the transport does not roll any defense dice, except modifiers for range and obstacles. If the attackers have no evade or TL tokens, combining the rolls is faster. It is wrong but it saves time.

So if a swarm is attacking does the agility apply to each attack per ship? That doesn't make much sense as it would seem to under mind the purpose of the swarm

So if a swarm is attacking does the agility apply to each attack per ship? That doesn't make much sense as it would seem to under mind the purpose of the swarm

Yes. Each attack the defender is able to use their Agility score to defend.

The point of using a swarm with focus fire is that it increases the odds that damage will get through to the target.

Also remember that attack dice are slightly better than defense dice. That means that adding the extra dice from multiple attacks tends to be better than the extra dice from defending each time.

By tourney standards, wouldn't you deal w/ individual atk/def rolls? Would have to verify w/ TO or courtesy of opponent to clarify on that. IMO

By tourney standards, wouldn't you deal w/ individual atk/def rolls? Would have to verify w/ TO or courtesy of opponent to clarify on that. IMO

If there's nothing that can affect the rolls, there shouldn't be any reason not to speed them up by combining them.

There could easily be, though, especially where critical damage is concerned. I haven't fully groked the damage decks for the transport yet, so not sure if there is anything, but the potential is there.

There could easily be, though, especially where critical damage is concerned. I haven't fully groked the damage decks for the transport yet, so not sure if there is anything, but the potential is there.

There is:

Hull breach (front damage deck) disables one upgrade card. If the disabled card is the expanded cargo hold, a future critical is no longer able to draw from either damage deck.

So I read the manual more carefully. Here's what I've come to understand on attacking with a swarm:

When attacking in a swarm, the swarm tactics ability determines if the initiative rule from

Page 16 under initiative comes into play:

When ships of equal pilot skill value are activated, the player with initiative activates all of his ships with that pilot skill value first. Then the opposing player activates his ships.

If multiple pilots have Swarm Tactics (and are within the proper ranges) the ability can be 'daisy chained' from pilot to pilot. (Pilot A can pass his ability to Pilot B, who can then pass it to Pilot C - all pilots would have Pilot A's rating for the combat turn)

ALL Being bold text in the manual, this should make multiple shots at a ship and allows the defending ship to only use its defense rolls once. And not per ship as pilot skills of different levels do because pilot skill would cause each ship fire in order of their skill. Thus a swarm firing at different pilot skills would cause each ship to fire in order, thus allowing the defending ship to use defense rolls per attack (per ships attack)

This is why Howlrunner is an important addition to the swarm and each ship have swarm tactics to “daisy chain” the ability to make equal pilot skills This allows multiple ships to attack in a swarm together.

The only other way is to have all ships with the same pilot skill such as a swarm of all black squadron pilots (PS4).

So, if the defending ship is the same pilot skill, if he is destroyed in the attack and he is the same pilot skill as howlrunner, he isn't destroyed until after his attack on the swarm thus a ship can be destroyed from the swarm also.

When ships of equal pilot skill value are activated, the player with initiative activates all of his ships with that pilot skill value first. Then the opposing player activates his ships.

If multiple pilots have Swarm Tactics (and are within the proper ranges) the ability can be 'daisy chained' from pilot to pilot. (Pilot A can pass his ability to Pilot B, who can then pass it to Pilot C - all pilots would have Pilot A's rating for the combat turn)

ALL Being bold text in the manual, this should make multiple shots at a ship and allows the defending ship to only use its defense rolls once. And not per ship as pilot skills of different levels do because pilot skill would cause each ship fire in order of their skill. Thus a swarm firing at different pilot skills would cause each ship to fire in order, thus allowing the defending ship to use defense rolls per attack (per ships attack)

No.

You do activate all your ships first, but you're completely blowing past what it means to activate a ship. When a ship performs an attack, it means going through all the combat steps, 1-7, Declare Target through Deal Damage. That includes each defender rolling attack dice, canceling dice separately, and dealing damage.