I have a feeling that Cracken with Swarm Tactics is going to be in just about everyone of my list. Cheap PS buff and a free action. Why would I ever take Garven again? Haven't playtested him yet, but hot **** that sounds good to me.
Yeah, at 21 points for all that he's not bad, just fragile.
Edited by SonikgavReason to take Garven over Cracken? The difference is the wording of their abilities. Where Cracken allows for a free action Garven assigns a Token which means a Stressed pilot can benefit from Garven but not Cracken. Also the X-Wing has more firepower than the Z95. Other than those reasons, unless I missed something, Cracken generally is the better field commander.
Reason to take Garven over Cracken? The difference is the wording of their abilities. Where Cracken allows for a free action Garven assigns a Token which means a Stressed pilot can benefit from Garven but not Cracken. Also the X-Wing has more firepower than the Z95. Other than those reasons, unless I missed something, Cracken generally is the better field commander.
Or both together. Garven is among the most efficient X-Wing pilots.
I was thinking something like this:
Blount+Assault Missiles
2x Blues + HLC
Cracken
This leaves 1 point, maybe VI on Blount. You have the potential for serious damage on the first exchange at Range three. Stripping Stealth then two HLC shots, presumably one with focus and TL.
I really prefer having 3 reliable Assault Missiles and more bodies than going up to four. Honestly, I think two really reliable Assaults is the sweet spot. Blount achieves this, and another Z-95 with Cracken swarming him to TL + F with Munitions Failsafe just in case.
I really like the idea of B + Z.
Garven is still good for things like giving Biggs another Focus token.
Edited by SkargothPeople said similar things about Bombers with assault missiles, don't forget.
The Assault Missile Z95 lists will still have to beat other lists in order to get to the top, after all, and in my experience, the Swarm Match up is more rare than pretty much any list type
You might see 2, 4 ship rebel lists to every 1 swarm.
The difference between Rebels and Imperials is that the Rebels will have a much easier time passing timely actions/tokens to the low PS Z-95s. For the Empire you get an expensive Shuttle or somebody with Squad Leader to get you the TL you need to fire an Assault Missile although Jonus is nice to help it his IF it goes off. Generally the Rebels can bring the needed actions will less cost. A Squad Leader Cracken can almost always give to ships TLs for that Alpha Strike. Moving up in cost, and down in PS, Dutch also allows TL to come later.
I don't know if I'd use that 5Z/4Assault list I posted (not getting that many ships) but it could pack a bit of a punch. I believe when I was coming up with I thought about cutting a Z and some upgrades for a Rookie but figured if you're going for this type of squad you're probably better off going all in.
I'd guess the biggest weakness of the Z-95s as alpha strikers is that they can be taken down too easily. The TIE Bombers do cost a little more but 6 hull means they should survive a strike but the Z's 2/2 split can be taken out by 4 good dice.
You're right, rebels have it easier for action economy, which will definitely help!
Missiles just have lots of ways to counter them, such as blocking and slick flying right into range 1, where as the Missile list almost HAS to be predictable to ensure target locks. The good news is, Cracken will help! But only on 1 ship. Also, what do you do against PS 6 swarms? Even Blount might not get his target lock without Cracken before the Ties rush into Range 1.
Itll surely be fun, and there will definitely be games where you kill an entire swarm in one volley or just get that 1 missile that cripples the ties immensely. I just know I won't run I personally wouldnt be scared to run a swarm just because I might see Assault missiles. Itll still come down to player skill and guessing your opponent's speed.
You also make another good point, StevenO, those Z 95s using Target Lock means no focus for defense, so there is always the possibility of death before shooting! At least you'll have more of them in a list than bombers to even the odds!
PS 6 Blount will be a beast as well.
Against those PS 6 swarms you could have trouble but at least then you're looking at 2 dice attacks coming your way and you still should be able to get two TLs using Cracken. If Blount gets to fire his missile and one of the other Z's also get to fire that PS 6 swarm may get to cause some damage but may also suffer quite a bit of damage through the Simultaneous fire rules. If you get to fire two Assaults with Focus (which you should have if you didn't get the TL earlier) you should still do a lot of damage to a relatively tight swarm.
Oh, and just because a ship could fire an Assault missile with Focus doesn't mean it needs to spend the Focus then if the attack might otherwise hit. The Focus isn't as good defensively on a Z-95 as it is on a TIE Fighter unfortunately.
I don't think multiple Zs with assault missiles will prove valuable. One is enough to convince your opponent not to fly in a tight formation. Make it Blount and the lesson won't be missed.
I'd rather go with Blount and assault missiles flying with talas, IPMs, and munition failsafes. They don't want to fly tight, but IPMs can punish a spread out formation and make them arrive piecemeal. There isn't an efficient way to fly against that.
How about...
Cracken - Squad Leader
Bandit - Assault Missile X2
Blue Squadron X2
I'm on my phone at so can't work out exact points ie upgrades or Higher PS etc so feel free to tweak this. Just think that double first turn Alpha strike with the B-Wings to mop up sounds effective.
Edited by SonikgavCracken - Squad Leader
Bandit - Assault Missile X2
Blue Squadron X2
I'm on my phone at so can't work out exact points ie upgrades or Higher PS etc so feel free to tweak this. Just think that double first turn Alpha strike with the B-Wings to mop up sounds effective.
Not a very good plan. Two assault missiles, even with focus, aren't going to consistently give you more than one splash damage hit. You might as well just take Blount for a guaranteed splash instead of spending three ships and 50+ points for it. Then since you're only spending 22 points for your swarm counter you can spend your other 88 points on something better than a pair of blues.
I know this thread is basically all about using Missiles to kill off a TIE Swarm, but the more obvious question is how will the Z-95 perform without Missiles? I resurrected an old MathWing thread of mine and ran some numbers.... the Z-95's jousting efficiency is absolutely beastly. It is the only ship that comes anywhere close to being able to joust against a Howlrunner swarm and not instantly get vaporized into space debris. Add some Rebel synergy or Etahn for the critical hit gravy train, and if you take out Howlrunner early a Z-95 swarm will have a very good chance of defeating a 7 TIE Swarm through brute-force.
The rebel pecking order for jousting efficiency is going to be:
Z-95 > B-wing/A-wing + Refit > X-wing > A-wing (no Refit) > E-wing
Here's the relevant snippet:
Very High Degree of Certainty
Jousting Efficiency Total Efficiency
Ship min std. max min std max