Morning guys,

Last night I had my sixth game against my brother. He's the only chap I've played so far as we've been purchasing together and our times match up for when we can play.

Last night was also the sixth time I've lost, and I'm exasperated. I won't stop playing or anything. I'm not throwing my toys out of the pram. But I'm miffed with how it's going and need to vent to you guys, who I assume some will know how I feel.

I used 6 named TIEs, and they went up against XYA last night. I stripped shields but no ships went down.

I flew them them 2x3, and did a pretty good job of keeping them together with Howlrunner at the back. I only clipped an asteroid once, and bar a complete jam in the middle of the board between both of us, flying seemed OK.

I could easily chalk it up to 'it wasn't my night', but I must be doing something wrong. I flew in formation, focused fire, and 90% of the time remembered to do my actions (a big improvement for me).

I've got a picture of the board (first time we've had a proper game area!), but I'm not sure on how to get photos up.

Oh. I hate Wedge too

Try putting those interceptors to use. They take a bit of practice but when you learn to dance your ints they will boost your killing abilities tenfold. Stick at it, took me a while now I win more then loose.

Well, there's no reason that you can't win with a load of TIEs. You shouldn't have to use Interceptors.

when you say you 'focused' fire, do you mean that you used 'focus', or you focused all your attention and fire on one target at a time? In my book, the trick is to eliminate one target at a time by having as many of your ships fire on that target as possible, and then moving on to the next target.

Try putting those interceptors to use. They take a bit of practice but when you learn to dance your ints they will boost your killing abilities tenfold. Stick at it, took me a while now I win more then loose.

Ah see, I've got a little thing going on that I won't use my shiny interceptors until I've won a game with my TIEs. It must be doable! That may sound silly I'm fully aware.

But now I've done it (though failed) for a few games I feel like I need to see it through. It will make using those squints all the sweeter.

If you couldn't tell. I'm a stubborn so and so.

Well, there's no reason that you can't win with a load of TIEs. You shouldn't have to use Interceptors.

when you say you 'focused' fire, do you mean that you used 'focus', or you focused all your attention and fire on one target at a time? In my book, the trick is to eliminate one target at a time by having as many of your ships fire on that target as possible, and then moving on to the next target.

Exactly. I've read and watched, and 6 TIEs seems like a perfectly legitimate, match winning squadron.

I tried to do both! Remembered to focus, and concentrated on one guy. Ben's dice were hot like Tatooine, whereas mine were like Hoth. But I refuse to believe it just comes down to luck. I have to figure out how to get better.

I stripped shields but no ships went down.

I... ...focused fire,

This is contradictory, you should try to focus fire turn after turn until your target dies. With the low fire power ties I'd start with the lowest defense ship (Y in this case), unless there is a particularly scary ship on the board. What were the exact pilots/upgrades and how did you prioritize your targets?

I stripped shields but no ships went down.

I... ...focused fire,

This is contradictory, you should try to focus fire turn after turn until your target dies. With the low fire power ties I'd start with the lowest defense ship (Y in this case), unless there is a particularly scary ship on the board. What were the exact pilots/upgrades and how did you prioritize your targets?

Good point Jooshtuh. My TIEs (Howlrunner, Night Beast, Backstabber, Dark Curse, Mauler Mithel and Academy Pilot) started on a head on with the A (Tycho) down the right side of the board.

First round those 6 attacking only managed to take away the shields. The A then went straight past with a straight 5, and my thinking was that if I k-turned to chase I'd end up with his Wedge (that started in the middle) on my tail. So caught between which one might be on my backside I chose to let the A-Wing go and gun for the X.

At this point the Y was far left and didn't factor into my thinking as I'd have to fly through the firing arcs of the X and A to get to him.

Now reading that back I should have done things differently. But at the time I was doing what I thought made sense. Lots of learning to do methinks.

Well, there's no reason that you can't win with a load of TIEs. You shouldn't have to use Interceptors.

when you say you 'focused' fire, do you mean that you used 'focus', or you focused all your attention and fire on one target at a time? In my book, the trick is to eliminate one target at a time by having as many of your ships fire on that target as possible, and then moving on to the next target.

Exactly. I've read and watched, and 6 TIEs seems like a perfectly legitimate, match winning squadron.

I tried to do both! Remembered to focus, and concentrated on one guy. Ben's dice were hot like Tatooine, whereas mine were like Hoth. But I refuse to believe it just comes down to luck. I have to figure out how to get better.

The "problem" with this game is, sometimes it really does come down to luck. The only thing you can do, is try to mitigate the luck (or lack thereof) as much as possible. Formation flying and focus firing are good but sometimes you need more. XYA doesn't throw out very many red dice which means the only way they can win is by stacking the odds in their favor consistently. Is it safe to assume your brother was able to perform focus, and TL actions fairly consistently?

The advantage of having so many ships, is anything lower PS than any enemy ship can and often should be used to block. If the enemy loses their action, they are vulnerable. Block with the ships you don't need and focus fire on ships without actions.

Beyond that general advice, knowing your list and his would help. A rough outline of what happened in the battle couldn't hurt either.

Stay with it man! If you've already gotten "swarm flying" under your belt, the hardest part is behind you.

You mentioned that you whittled down his shields. Then what?

With 6 ships, all firing at range 2, you should be able to do considerable amounts of damage to ANY ship, much less ones with low agility.

Then at range 1, you should be destroying the poor thing in a turn.

Unless one of your Ties is out of range of a specific target, they should ALL be shooting at the same guy, till he is dead.

Stay with it man! If you've already gotten "swarm flying" under your belt, the hardest part is behind you.

You mentioned that you whittled down his shields. Then what?

With 6 ships, all firing at range 2, you should be able to do considerable amounts of damage to ANY ship, much less ones with low agility.

Then at range 1, you should be destroying the poor thing in a turn.

Unless one of your Ties is out of range of a specific target, they should ALL be shooting at the same guy, till he is dead.

I'll stick with it! I'm too stubborn and I've spent too much to quit! When I do beat him it will be awesome, just struggling a bit at the moment.

As I said in the post above, I could have done things better now. I see that. But on top of that the dice were not going my way at all. 3 blank and he's rolling 3 hits and crit!

Dude why not take cheap academy ties with just howlrunner and then use those extra points for more ships?

Use the numerical advantage the empire has, my friend and me play 150 and I'll field 4 tie fighters and 4 interceptors and pretty much dominate because he can only focus on one group at a time leaving the others free to get behind him and wreck his day.

By taking all the named tie pilots your kinda robbing yourself of your main advantage, pick one or two and build your list around them, otherwise you'll be a Jack of all trades and master of none.

Dude why not take cheap academy ties with just howlrunner and then use those extra points for more ships?

Use the numerical advantage the empire has, my friend and me play 150 and I'll field 4 tie fighters and 4 interceptors and pretty much dominate because he can only focus on one group at a time leaving the others free to get behind him and wreck his day.

By taking all the named tie pilots your kinda robbing yourself of your main advantage, pick one or two and build your list around them, otherwise you'll be a Jack of all trades and master of none.

I'm using all the TIEs I've got. The squints are my victory celebration/reward!

It will be sweet unleashing them, once I feel I've earnt it. By that point I should have imp aces and a Defender too so I'll go all out at that point!

Eh... 3 vs 6 isn't a numerical advantage?

Also, if you wanted to really exploit your numerical advantage at 150pts you should have flown 11 AP+Howl Runner.

I stripped shields but no ships went down.

I... ...focused fire,

This is contradictory, you should try to focus fire turn after turn until your target dies. With the low fire power ties I'd start with the lowest defense ship (Y in this case), unless there is a particularly scary ship on the board. What were the exact pilots/upgrades and how did you prioritize your targets?

Good point Jooshtuh. My TIEs (Howlrunner, Night Beast, Backstabber, Dark Curse, Mauler Mithel and Academy Pilot) started on a head on with the A (Tycho) down the right side of the board.

First round those 6 attacking only managed to take away the shields. The A then went straight past with a straight 5, and my thinking was that if I k-turned to chase I'd end up with his Wedge (that started in the middle) on my tail. So caught between which one might be on my backside I chose to let the A-Wing go and gun for the X.

At this point the Y was far left and didn't factor into my thinking as I'd have to fly through the firing arcs of the X and A to get to him.

Now reading that back I should have done things differently. But at the time I was doing what I thought made sense. Lots of learning to do methinks.

To me, attacking the A-Wing first is a huge mistake, unless you're at Range 1.

It is the target you have the lowest chance to destroy, try and focus on the heavy hitters next time around (e.g. the X).

Burn it down, then burn the Y-Wing, then the chase for the elusive A should begin.

This is the only game where I always have fun losing.

You are on the right track. I have seen many posts from new players that are expressing the exact same exasperation from losing consistently. One day, it will click for you and you'll understand the shadows on the cave wall, and then you will be dominating on the play surface.

Keep trying and fly casual.

I stripped shields but no ships went down.

I... ...focused fire,

This is contradictory, you should try to focus fire turn after turn until your target dies. With the low fire power ties I'd start with the lowest defense ship (Y in this case), unless there is a particularly scary ship on the board. What were the exact pilots/upgrades and how did you prioritize your targets?

Good point Jooshtuh. My TIEs (Howlrunner, Night Beast, Backstabber, Dark Curse, Mauler Mithel and Academy Pilot) started on a head on with the A (Tycho) down the right side of the board.

First round those 6 attacking only managed to take away the shields. The A then went straight past with a straight 5, and my thinking was that if I k-turned to chase I'd end up with his Wedge (that started in the middle) on my tail. So caught between which one might be on my backside I chose to let the A-Wing go and gun for the X.

At this point the Y was far left and didn't factor into my thinking as I'd have to fly through the firing arcs of the X and A to get to him.

Now reading that back I should have done things differently. But at the time I was doing what I thought made sense. Lots of learning to do methinks.

To me, attacking the A-Wing first is a huge mistake, unless you're at Range 1.

It is the target you have the lowest chance to destroy, try and focus on the heavy hitters next time around (e.g. the X).

Burn it down, then burn the Y-Wing, then the chase for the elusive A should begin.

The way the asteroids lined up, I wasn't too confident about flying through the more congested left hand side, so took the right, which just happened to be where the A was. I attacked him more because he was the first and coming straight at me than a tactical choice.

This is the only game where I always have fun losing.

You are on the right track. I have seen many posts from new players that are expressing the exact same exasperation from losing consistently. One day, it will click for you and you'll understand the shadows on the cave wall, and then you will be dominating on the play surface.

Keep trying and fly casual.

I knew you'd understand. I look forward to day of the clicking!

Wedge Antilles (33)

X-Wing (29), R2-D2 (4)

"Dutch" Vander (28)

Y-Wing (23), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tycho Celchu (33)

A-Wing (26), Cluster Missiles (4), Push the Limit (3)

Kill Wedge first in this build. Early on he eats 5-6 tie shots so you might kill him in a single turn wasting the points he spent on R2D2. While ion is annoying it will take him at least 3 turns to kill a single tie. The A wing most of the time will attack with 2 dice versus your 3 defense, making it pretty unlikely to do damage, so shoot him last.

Tried to get some asteroid between us, which ended up in the Y, X and 5 TIEs in a cluster in the middle. There was much overlapping!

Asteroids are the bane of Tie swarms try to cluster them as much as possible during deployment and try to pull you opponent into open space. Overlapping is also bad for the swarm, you only have 3 targets to shoot at and bumping limits your options even further.

All ended up facing the Y and X, so took the range 1 shots for the extra attack die as I could. Knocked shields off both of them.

That's 5 hits i.e. a dead Wedge. Focus fire is more important than R1 shots.

Wedge Antilles (33)

X-Wing (29), R2-D2 (4)

"Dutch" Vander (28)

Y-Wing (23), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tycho Celchu (33)

A-Wing (26), Cluster Missiles (4), Push the Limit (3)

Kill Wedge first in this build. Early on he eats 5-6 tie shots so you might kill him in a single turn wasting the points he spent on R2D2. While ion is annoying it will take him at least 3 turns to kill a single tie. The A wing most of the time will attack with 2 dice versus your 3 defense, making it pretty unlikely to do damage, so shoot him last.

Tried to get some asteroid between us, which ended up in the Y, X and 5 TIEs in a cluster in the middle. There was much overlapping!

Asteroids are the bane of Tie swarms try to cluster them as much as possible during deployment and try to pull you opponent into open space. Overlapping is also bad for the swarm, you only have 3 targets to shoot at and bumping limits your options even further.

All ended up facing the Y and X, so took the range 1 shots for the extra attack die as I could. Knocked shields off both of them.

That's 5 hits i.e. a dead Wedge. Focus fire is more important than R1 shots.

Cheers dude. Lots to try next time. Though with him having 3xX, 2xY, 1 A and very soon a B, I highly doubt he'll be using the same setup.

Plus, he'll read this entire thread at some point today!

One thing: Backstabber is best used as a flanking ship to harass opponents from the sides or behind. Flying him as part of your 2x3 block doesn't make the best use of his ability.

One thing: Backstabber is best used as a flanking ship to harass opponents from the sides or behind. Flying him as part of your 2x3 block doesn't make the best use of his ability.

I went as far as putting him on the edge of the 6 so that he could come out and go round. But the match didn't last enough for that to happen.

I guess I was aware of the ability, just didn't go far enough in implementing it.

Try and setup asteroids on your side to keep the other side clear and use your speed to get through so you can dog fight in an open area.

I'd use evade instead of focus. Less relying on chance and going for a sure thing. Keeps you alive and throwing attack dice for more rounds.

Concentrate on taking out one ship at a time.

Try and setup asteroids on your side to keep the other side clear and use your speed to get through so you can dog fight in an open area.

I'd use evade instead of focus. Less relying on chance and going for a sure thing. Keeps you alive and throwing attack dice for more rounds.

Concentrate on taking out one ship at a time.

With only 2 attack dice I was looking at focus as a way to make that stronger whilst keeping my options open. But evades would maybe have kept me in the game for longer and therefore I could have rolled more times. So more attack overall?

Definitely something to consider.

Try and setup asteroids on your side to keep the other side clear and use your speed to get through so you can dog fight in an open area.

I'd use evade instead of focus. Less relying on chance and going for a sure thing. Keeps you alive and throwing attack dice for more rounds.

Concentrate on taking out one ship at a time.

With only 2 attack dice I was looking at focus as a way to make that stronger whilst keeping my options open. But evades would maybe have kept me in the game for longer and therefore I could have rolled more times. So more attack overall?

Definitely something to consider.

Sorry to give contradictory advice, but mass evade is a fairly bad idea for swarms. From the perspective of an individual ship, evade increases your expected lifespan but decreases your expected damage* relative to focus. From the perspective of the swarm's commander, though, your opponent is likely going to concentrate fire on a single ship--and if all of your ships evade, that means every ship your opponent doesn't attack has entirely wasted its action.

TL;DR: when in any doubt whatsoever, focus.

(*Even this part is actually debatable, but I'll set that aside for the sake of focusing (heh) on the action-economy issue outlined above.)