Can someone with more flight hours on the dark side of the force elaborate on the virtues of the offensive named Tie pilots?

Winged and Mauler specially as I'm all sold with Backstabber. Not interested on DC or NB as my squad needs some extra punch. I don't believe Howl would be a good fit as of the 5 ships, two act as flankers:

Doomshuttle

Soontir+PTL

Backstabber

AP

That leaves 18 points. I've been using SD on Fel and NB...toying with the idea of TC on Backstabber...

If you have the points for Gundark, choose Night Beast instead. Mauler is very straightforward: 4 reds @ R1. Put VI on him and that takes you to PS 9.

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Veteran Instincts, or Marksmanship are my go-tos for Mauler. He's one of my favorite TIE Pilots. I enjoy running him with Gundark together, wing to wing and both firing on the same targets. If you're firing on low evade ships, these two can be a very dynamic duo, often chewing into sweet, delicious critable hull in one round of firing (if a Y-Wing), or two if a YT-1300. With someone else much more flashy on the board like Carnor or Soontir, your opponent is almost guaranteed to go for someone else first.

Their mistake.

Oh and on an experimental note, I've actually gotten good milage out of Expert Handling on Mauler. But I haven't used this enough to say for sure how solid it is yet. Also looking towards Outmaneuver or Predator at some point.

If I was making a 4 TIE miniswarm I would probably use Howl, Mauler(+VI), NB & WG.

At range 1:

Mauler shoots with 4 dice, a reroll and a focus

Howlrunner shoots with 3 dice and a focus

NB shoots with 3 dice, a focus, a reroll, and an evade for after

WG closes with 3 dice, a focus, a reroll, and a Crit.

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Just be very aware of how stress works with Night Beast's pilot ability. Once stressed you go to the turn AFTER the green maneuver instead of right away. Such that you get a stress, do a green maneuver to remove stress, action, dials, do a green maneuver and THEN get the free focus action. Black Squadron pilot is better than Beast and Gundark, in my opinion.

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Just be very aware of how stress works with Night Beast's pilot ability. Once stressed you go to the turn AFTER the green maneuver instead of right away. Such that you get a stress, do a green maneuver to remove stress, action, dials, do a green maneuver and THEN get the free focus action. Black Squadron pilot is better than Beast and Gundark, in my opinion.

Why is that??

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Just be very aware of how stress works with Night Beast's pilot ability. Once stressed you go to the turn AFTER the green maneuver instead of right away. Such that you get a stress, do a green maneuver to remove stress, action, dials, do a green maneuver and THEN get the free focus action. Black Squadron pilot is better than Beast and Gundark, in my opinion.

Why is that??

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Just be very aware of how stress works with Night Beast's pilot ability. Once stressed you go to the turn AFTER the green maneuver instead of right away. Such that you get a stress, do a green maneuver to remove stress, action, dials, do a green maneuver and THEN get the free focus action. Black Squadron pilot is better than Beast and Gundark, in my opinion.

Why is that??

The "check pilot stress" step happens after you execute the maneuver, so even though you have done a green maneuver you are still stressed when the opportunity comes to take your free focus action, and since you can't do free actions while stressed you don't get your free focus - I believe this is covered in the FAQ

Ugh. These technicalities are why I really don't enjoy the X-Wing rules system. At least they could consolidate the concepts and the wording to be more precise too. There are too many variants of attack, rolls, round, execute, differences in dealing with obstacles/ships overlaps, stress, multiple stress, capt yorr removing stress from a gr-75 giving stress. etc etc etc.

Far too many corner cases and no way to reliable sum the rules down to something understandable.

If you're putting a TC in, TC Fel. Barrel Roll, TC, Stressfocus.

Dark curse sticks around for so long he ends up packing quite a punch. Think long term survivability. Plus nobody will target him first, so you can fly him thusly.

Dark curse sticks around for so long he ends up packing quite a punch. Think long term survivability. Plus nobody will target him first, so you can fly him thusly.

Plus against Han rerolls or any Falcon he might become MVP. I'm going to regionals on saturday and quite a few Falcon builds will pop for sure. Mauler will have to wait although he sounds nice enough.

So 2 points left:

Doomshuttle

Soontir+PTL

Backstabber

Dark Curse

AP

should I bring TL on fel?

APL on the shuttle? IA and play at 99?

TIA

The only redeeming quality of Winged Gundark that I found was when used against the Rebel Transport with some other backup firepower.

- Escort brings the transport's shields down.

- Gundark swoops in and most likely lands a critical... and those criticals hurt transports, a lot.

Howlrunner is the best, but she's a force multiplier. Since you are looking for standalone pilots, of the other five, I'd rank them approximately as:

1 - Backstabber: good flanker, ability is fairly easy to trigger

2 - Dark Curse: exceptionally annoying to kill at times which allows you to use focus on offense more often

3 - Night Beast: like nearly having PTL; very underrated; with focus/evade very durable and still offensive if needed

4 - Mauler Mithel: pricier, have to be at range one which is riskier for TIEs; available for EPT slot, though, which can make him even better

5 - Winged Gundark: ability rarely comes up; rather have a black squadron pilot with elite pilot talent instead

In all honestly, they are all pretty good for the price, even Gundark.

Just be very aware of how stress works with Night Beast's pilot ability. Once stressed you go to the turn AFTER the green maneuver instead of right away. Such that you get a stress, do a green maneuver to remove stress, action, dials, do a green maneuver and THEN get the free focus action. Black Squadron pilot is better than Beast and Gundark, in my opinion.

Why is that??

The "check pilot stress" step happens after you execute the maneuver, so even though you have done a green maneuver you are still stressed when the opportunity comes to take your free focus action, and since you can't do free actions while stressed you don't get your free focus - I believe this is covered in the FAQ

Ugh. These technicalities are why I really don't enjoy the X-Wing rules system. At least they could consolidate the concepts and the wording to be more precise too. There are too many variants of attack, rolls, round, execute, differences in dealing with obstacles/ships overlaps, stress, multiple stress, capt yorr removing stress from a gr-75 giving stress. etc etc etc.

Far too many corner cases and no way to reliable sum the rules down to something understandable.

Really, it's consistant with the usage of PTL. If we take the example of a red maneuver causing the stress, both PTL and NB free focus can't be triggered for two turns.

PTL:

Turn 1 - 3 straight. In order to do a K turn next turn, cannot use PTL. Turn 2 - 4K, since the pilot is stressed, cannot use PTL. Turn 3 - 3 straight, clear stress, use PTL.

Total actions: 3

NB:

Turn 1 - 3 straight. Get a free focus, and then take a second action. Turn 2 - 4K, since the pilot is stressed (and it wasn't a green) cannot get a free focus or take an action. Turn 3 - 3 straight, stressed before the free focus, clear stress, take 1 action.

Total actions: 3

NB has the advantage in that at any point he can K turn, where as PTL requires advanced thought, along with tipping your hand to your opponent. Plus, he gets his 2 actions earlier than PTL, and an action today is worth more than an action tomorrow.

First of all the Named TIEs are super cheap. Even Howelrunner is only 18 points that is cheaper than the cheapest versions of most ships.

Howelrunner is the defining factor for TIE swarms, or even swarms in general. I have seem more than a few Interceptor swarms built around her. As for upgrades, I like to give he swarm tactics so someone else can take advantage of her 8 PS I also like to put a defensive upgrade like stealth device. Howelrunner draws a lot of hate, keep he back and keep her evading.

Mauler - He is your killer, TIEs excel at range 1 combat, Mauler simply excel more so. I usually don't upgrade him. Like most TIEs his greatest feature is his cost, so I like to keep him cheap.

Dark Curse - Is just hard to kill. I like him, but I just fit him near the front of my formation. Opponents often simply don't shoot at him, so you can get him in closer and get him better shots.

Backstabber - I agree with a lot that has been said. However I like as a not blocker. Right in the middle of my formation. This my sound crazy, but in the middle of the formation he isn't really a high priority target. If have him flank, there is a good chance that he will be killed off all by his lonesome without out any aid from his friends. If you keep him in the middle of the formation he only loses his ability on the initial approach. Once the hairball erupts he has a tendency to take people by surprise.

Winged Gundark - He's not bad, again, you want your ties in range 1 so he is sort of a poor man's Mauler. Unfortunately, if you only have a few "hits" it doesn't matter how many of them are crits.

Night Beat - IMO the most under-rated pilots in the game. His ability is almost as good as PtL, in some ways it is better. Especially when you need to k-turn. At 15 points I would always choose him over Mr. Gundark.

I guess I will continue to the rest of the TIEs even though they aren't unique pilots per say.

Black Squadron Pilot - 1 point more than Obsidian for only 1 more PS. What you are really paying for is the Elite Pilot Tallent Upgrade slot. I know a lot of people like this. Many of the named TIEs don't even have the EPT. And from time to time I have Put Veteran Instincts on black Squadron Pilots. That lets you have a PS 6 TIE for 15 points. A bunch of these can be a surprise, but I think I would prefer a Night Beast, sure you lost a PS, but you gain a whole lot of free focuses.

Obsidian Pilot - 1 point more than an Academy Pilot they have a PS of 3. Depending on your meta, they may go before or at least the same time as (if they get killed by a PS 3 ship, they still get to shoot) a whole lot of stuff. When I am building an Imperial list and I have 1 more point I often will spend it to upgrade an Academy to Obsidian Pilot.

Academy Pilot - For those of use who would like to save points by not buying up PS, and those who believe that you want to put as many ships on the table as you can Academy Pilots are the staple. When I first started playing this game the Academy Pilot became the basis of my economy. A Concision Missile was worth a third of a Academy Pilot, Marskmanship was worth a fourth. It helped me put things in perspective. When I fist stated playing, when I built my lists, I always tried to put in just one more academy pilot into the mix. You get so much of what every other TIE has for the low low price of 12 points.

Ugh. These technicalities are why I really don't enjoy the X-Wing rules system. At least they could consolidate the concepts and the wording to be more precise too. There are too many variants of attack, rolls, round, execute, differences in dealing with obstacles/ships overlaps, stress, multiple stress, capt yorr removing stress from a gr-75 giving stress. etc etc etc.

Far too many corner cases and no way to reliable sum the rules down to something understandable.

In all honesty, I think most players would heartily disagree with you and think X-Wing is pretty consistent with its rules as far as its language and timing goes. Everything you listed, literally everything, is specifically defined in the rulebook and, as needed, clarified in a very small and accessible FAQ. You have to have some patience with new releases, as they can't possibly know what FAQs are needed and how some rare effects may interact, but they have been exceptionally quick and thorough IMO in their responses. In fact, overly so, as most of the FAQs, to me, are commonsense things that they have gone out of their way to clarify when a smack upside the head of the player asking the question is the more warranted response.