Trying to kill an A Wing with a tie fighter at anything but Range 1 is not going to work in your favor usually....the A Wing is base 3 evade dice to your 2 attack dice in RB2-3

As stated before, in this scenario you should pound the bejesus out of Wedge until he goes down, let the A wing and Y Wng do their thing until Wedge is down, than go after the Y and finally the A Wing.

I state the A Wing should be last for the following reason, even if it shoots at you in RB 2-3 you will have more evade dice than are being thrown at you and even if he is in RB1 you will still be even on dice

Finally, yes sometimes it comes down to just plain luck and it can be frustratingly maddening (just find my post from last week about it), all you can do is grin and bear it, take it on the chin and go again

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

Keep at it , Wedge is nothing but a dirty hippie.

I've flown my ships randomly and in no formation and still won games.

Formation flying isn't the only way. Sometimes chaos is your friend

In an AXY list I would focus the X down first, especially if it's Wedge! Not only do X-wings attack through your defense dice easier than A or Y, Wedge also reduces your dice so you REALLY want him in a smoldering heap. My kill order would be X -> Y -> A. Once it's only the A left I would fan arcs and take evade actions.

As stated, Backstabber should be out of formation.

I would drop a lot of those named TIEs to Academy and squeeze an Interceptor for flanking.

Thanks guys. Appreciate all the help.

My brother/enemy knows I'll be sticking with the 6 TIEs until I beat him, so there is no element of surprise to be used against him.

I just have to fly better and make wiser decisions. Which all of your advice will help me do

He'll rock up with Y's and B's now won't he?

I know how you feel OP. I'm currently on a huge losing streak against my friend. I went from being 5 wins up to being 9 down, with only one win inbetween. It's the only way we win against each other: in long, broken streaks of luck. That 5 up i mentioned? Came after being 5 down before. Won ten games in a row. Each time one of our streaks finally ends, it's followed by a longer streak of losing, followed by an even longer streak of winning. This pattern has continued since we very first started the game. (he won the first, i won the second, he won the next two, i wont the next three and so fourth almost unbroken.)

Probably the Triple B Double A list will be his next list...that one will give you a run for your money any time

Once Wedge is down in you brother's list, he only real offensive threat is gone. Everyone else should be ignored since only he can reliably one shot your Ties.

I'll echo some other comments:

-Backstabber is best used as a flanking ship. At worst, your opponent makes an effort to go after him, splitting his forces and making life easier for your other ships. At best, he ignores him and Backstabber gets some hard hitting extra shots.

-Focus....I played in a seven game regional with a five ship Imperial build. I think the only time I used evade was when I was "Turtling" with Jax (using PTL to get both focus and and evade). Not unlike your build, mine had a high PS, and I rarely kept the focus for defense (when I had the option) because the extra damage early is almost always worth it, even over the chance of protecting your own ships, who are cheaper than your opponent's, so you can fight a war of attrition and he can't.

Why are you flying BACKSTABBER at their faces? Peel him off. Use a five tie formation and use Bacstabber to flank. Factor in pilot abilities in your strategy. Same with Dark Curse. He is your toughest pilot use that.

Cut out winged Gundark for some upgrades maybe. Hull upgrade on Dark Curse can go a long way. Much further than Winged gundark.

He's cheating.

Get a new brother.

-Cal

Why are you flying BACKSTABBER at their faces? Peel him off. Use a five tie formation and use Bacstabber to flank. Factor in pilot abilities in your strategy. Same with Dark Curse. Herez your toughest pilot use that.

Cut out winged Gundark for some upgrades maybe. Hull upgrade on Dark Curse can go a long way. Much further than Winged gundark.

Thats why i was saying to OP don't take every named pilot unless you build around them, you'd be better off buying abilities and upgrades on a few and taking cheaper ties.

Generally, Kill Wedge, Dutch, then Tycho, in that order. There is a second option though. Try this list:

Howlrunner w/Swarm Tactics

Black Squadron w/Swarm Tactics X4

Black Squadron w/Draw Their Fire

The idea is to chain Howlrunner's PS8 to each tie in your list. Howlrunner passes PS8 to a Black Squadron, that Black Squadron now passes his PS8 to the next Black Squadron, etc etc etc. As long as you stay at R1, all your ties will shoot at PS8. Use the Draw Their Fire on the 6th tie to take crits away from Howlrunner. The PS8 bid won't help at all against Wedge's PS9, but it will be powerful against Dutch's PS6. With 12 Red dice firing on a Ywing all with Focus and Howlrunner reroll, you should get 10-12 hits. The Ywing only has 8 total hit points. It's entirely possible that your 6 PS8 tie fighters shooting at Dutch will destroy him before he ever gets to shoot at all. Dutch is then no longer there to give Wedge a free TL each turn, or shoot at you.

The downfall to that list is that if Howlrunner dies, and she will, your Swarm Tactics upgrades become useless. But if it takes out one ship before it ever shoots at you, it may have be worth it. The disaster would be if Wedge kills Howl on his first attack. But, that's not going to happen every time. And if Howl takes an Evade, it should happen less often.

You could also drop the Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire and replace him with a 16 point named tie.

Why are you flying BACKSTABBER at their faces? Peel him off. Use a five tie formation and use Bacstabber to flank. Factor in pilot abilities in your strategy. Same with Dark Curse. Herez your toughest pilot use that.

Cut out winged Gundark for some upgrades maybe. Hull upgrade on Dark Curse can go a long way. Much further than Winged gundark.

Thats why i was saying to OP don't take every named pilot unless you build around them, you'd be better off buying abilities and upgrades on a few and taking cheaper ties.

Lots of great advice here, and not much I can add other then this.

Your list should be able to win. I say this just so you don't think it's your list that's the problem, the only thing keeping you from victory is your tactics and some luck. Because yes luck does play a factor.

Played a epic game with part of the list being B-Wings w/HLC. I was able to take out 3 squints with 3 HLC shots. Not much you can really do when that happens.

A lot of posts to reply to there! Awesome

I know how you feel OP. I'm currently on a huge losing streak against my friend. I went from being 5 wins up to being 9 down, with only one win inbetween. It's the only way we win against each other: in long, broken streaks of luck. That 5 up i mentioned? Came after being 5 down before. Won ten games in a row. Each time one of our streaks finally ends, it's followed by a longer streak of losing, followed by an even longer streak of winning. This pattern has continued since we very first started the game. (he won the first, i won the second, he won the next two, i wont the next three and so fourth almost unbroken.)

That is just crazy! I hope that's not how this goes down. 5 of the 6 have been drubbings for me. That other one (the 4th I think), we both had one hull left on our last ship, and he got it. I was gutted. At least I know I'm not on my own!

He's cheating.

Get a new brother.

-Cal

Hahahahahaha. I've got another brother so maybe I'll just play him instead.

AlexW, Aminar and Hobojebus - Cheers guy. Backstabber does need to be used properly next time (if I use him!). Winged Gundark hasn't made the last two teams, so I think he's out now.

With Night Beast I assume it's doing an action, moving him a green, then focusing is his equivalent of PTL? I might be getting that wrong.

Generally, Kill Wedge, Dutch, then Tycho, in that order. There is a second option though. Try this list:

Howlrunner w/Swarm Tactics

Black Squadron w/Swarm Tactics X4

Black Squadron w/Draw Their Fire

The idea is to chain Howlrunner's PS8 to each tie in your list. Howlrunner passes PS8 to a Black Squadron, that Black Squadron now passes his PS8 to the next Black Squadron, etc etc etc. As long as you stay at R1, all your ties will shoot at PS8. Use the Draw Their Fire on the 6th tie to take crits away from Howlrunner. The PS8 bid won't help at all against Wedge's PS9, but it will be powerful against Dutch's PS6. With 12 Red dice firing on a Ywing all with Focus and Howlrunner reroll, you should get 10-12 hits. The Ywing only has 8 total hit points. It's entirely possible that your 6 PS8 tie fighters shooting at Dutch will destroy him before he ever gets to shoot at all. Dutch is then no longer there to give Wedge a free TL each turn, or shoot at you.

The downfall to that list is that if Howlrunner dies, and she will, your Swarm Tactics upgrades become useless. But if it takes out one ship before it ever shoots at you, it may have be worth it. The disaster would be if Wedge kills Howl on his first attack. But, that's not going to happen every time. And if Howl takes an Evade, it should happen less often.

You could also drop the Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire and replace him with a 16 point named tie.

I've been thinking about this! Chaining my Swarm tactics (I'd need to proxy that card a few times). It has tempted me, but I was concerned about losing HR early. Ben is always likely to set up his Y the other side of his ships than my TIEs are, so he could keep him out of the way for a bit longer and be a pain.

I've just informed that after my brother's B-Wing arrives (giving him XXXYYAB in total), he will probably be going after Rebel Aces next. Should be interesting. Can still only use 100 pts though!

My 6 TIE swarm will win at some point!

Generally, Kill Wedge, Dutch, then Tycho, in that order. There is a second option though. Try this list:

Howlrunner w/Swarm Tactics

Black Squadron w/Swarm Tactics X4

Black Squadron w/Draw Their Fire

The idea is to chain Howlrunner's PS8 to each tie in your list. Howlrunner passes PS8 to a Black Squadron, that Black Squadron now passes his PS8 to the next Black Squadron, etc etc etc. As long as you stay at R1, all your ties will shoot at PS8. Use the Draw Their Fire on the 6th tie to take crits away from Howlrunner. The PS8 bid won't help at all against Wedge's PS9, but it will be powerful against Dutch's PS6. With 12 Red dice firing on a Ywing all with Focus and Howlrunner reroll, you should get 10-12 hits. The Ywing only has 8 total hit points. It's entirely possible that your 6 PS8 tie fighters shooting at Dutch will destroy him before he ever gets to shoot at all. Dutch is then no longer there to give Wedge a free TL each turn, or shoot at you.

The downfall to that list is that if Howlrunner dies, and she will, your Swarm Tactics upgrades become useless. But if it takes out one ship before it ever shoots at you, it may have be worth it. The disaster would be if Wedge kills Howl on his first attack. But, that's not going to happen every time. And if Howl takes an Evade, it should happen less often.

You could also drop the Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire and replace him with a 16 point named tie.

See that list i like, swarm tactics is a strong card that can work wonders in a tie list, more than once soontir with swarm tactics has killed wedge for me in a single turn by passing his PS9 onto a cheap interceptor acting as his wing man.

As already stated by others:

The named pilots you use really doesn't fly well together, at least not in a pack/formation.

Backstabber and Mauler is better used as bait/distraction by flying them solo or like a flank while the rest of the pack can/should stay in formation with Howlrunner.

Depending on you opponents movement/placement and who he/she decides to chase then it is a matter of skillfully timing and maneuvering you ships in to firing positioning.

I know this is actually quite difficult, and maybe a better/easier solution would be to trim off Dark Curse, Night Beast and Mauler Mithel and go with more Academy Pilots. This will more likely ensure that

A) Your AP can act as blockers and get their own action

B) simultaniously rob your opponent of his/her actions while

C) ensuring that the ships behind them (doing the same (forward) maneuvers) will also get there action in most cases.

So after an initial Range 3 firing round the next (direct) jousting round could be at Range 1 with all of your ships having a Focus (and many getting a reroll from Howlie) while 1 or more of your opponent doesn't have an action. I can tell you that 4-6 TIE's at Range 1 with Howlie reroll is VERY intimidating and devastating for most squads ;-)

At all takes skill, and your opponent might be sneaky enough to try and outflank you, so be prepared

Best of luck and Fly Casual

Niko

A lot of posts to reply to there! Awesome

I know how you feel OP. I'm currently on a huge losing streak against my friend. I went from being 5 wins up to being 9 down, with only one win inbetween. It's the only way we win against each other: in long, broken streaks of luck. That 5 up i mentioned? Came after being 5 down before. Won ten games in a row. Each time one of our streaks finally ends, it's followed by a longer streak of losing, followed by an even longer streak of winning. This pattern has continued since we very first started the game. (he won the first, i won the second, he won the next two, i wont the next three and so fourth almost unbroken.)

That is just crazy! I hope that's not how this goes down. 5 of the 6 have been drubbings for me. That other one (the 4th I think), we both had one hull left on our last ship, and he got it. I was gutted. At least I know I'm not on my own!

He's cheating.

Get a new brother.

-Cal

Hahahahahaha. I've got another brother so maybe I'll just play him instead.

AlexW, Aminar and Hobojebus - Cheers guy. Backstabber does need to be used properly next time (if I use him!). Winged Gundark hasn't made the last two teams, so I think he's out now.

With Night Beast I assume it's doing an action, moving him a green, then focusing is his equivalent of PTL? I might be getting that wrong.

Generally, Kill Wedge, Dutch, then Tycho, in that order. There is a second option though. Try this list:

Howlrunner w/Swarm Tactics

Black Squadron w/Swarm Tactics X4

Black Squadron w/Draw Their Fire

The idea is to chain Howlrunner's PS8 to each tie in your list. Howlrunner passes PS8 to a Black Squadron, that Black Squadron now passes his PS8 to the next Black Squadron, etc etc etc. As long as you stay at R1, all your ties will shoot at PS8. Use the Draw Their Fire on the 6th tie to take crits away from Howlrunner. The PS8 bid won't help at all against Wedge's PS9, but it will be powerful against Dutch's PS6. With 12 Red dice firing on a Ywing all with Focus and Howlrunner reroll, you should get 10-12 hits. The Ywing only has 8 total hit points. It's entirely possible that your 6 PS8 tie fighters shooting at Dutch will destroy him before he ever gets to shoot at all. Dutch is then no longer there to give Wedge a free TL each turn, or shoot at you.

The downfall to that list is that if Howlrunner dies, and she will, your Swarm Tactics upgrades become useless. But if it takes out one ship before it ever shoots at you, it may have be worth it. The disaster would be if Wedge kills Howl on his first attack. But, that's not going to happen every time. And if Howl takes an Evade, it should happen less often.

You could also drop the Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire and replace him with a 16 point named tie.

I've been thinking about this! Chaining my Swarm tactics (I'd need to proxy that card a few times). It has tempted me, but I was concerned about losing HR early. Ben is always likely to set up his Y the other side of his ships than my TIEs are, so he could keep him out of the way for a bit longer and be a pain.

I've just informed that after my brother's B-Wing arrives (giving him XXXYYAB in total), he will probably be going after Rebel Aces next. Should be interesting. Can still only use 100 pts though!

My 6 TIE swarm will win at some point!

Are you guys taking your actions before you move?

yes wedge is a glue to that list, drop him as soon as possible. all shots on him, and hopefully with you taking focus AND firing all guns on him, he would be gone in a turn, then onto the Y, then the A.

Actually its Move a green. Free focus action. Use your regular action?

Are you guys taking your actions before you move?

Ah I got myself mixed up. Makes sense.

We're moving then actioning

As already stated by others:

The named pilots you use really doesn't fly well together, at least not in a pack/formation.

Backstabber and Mauler is better used as bait/distraction by flying them solo or like a flank while the rest of the pack can/should stay in formation with Howlrunner.

Depending on you opponents movement/placement and who he/she decides to chase then it is a matter of skillfully timing and maneuvering you ships in to firing positioning.

I know this is actually quite difficult, and maybe a better/easier solution would be to trim off Dark Curse, Night Beast and Mauler Mithel and go with more Academy Pilots. This will more likely ensure that

A) Your AP can act as blockers and get their own action

B) simultaniously rob your opponent of his/her actions while

C) ensuring that the ships behind them (doing the same (forward) maneuvers) will also get there action in most cases.

So after an initial Range 3 firing round the next (direct) jousting round could be at Range 1 with all of your ships having a Focus (and many getting a reroll from Howlie) while 1 or more of your opponent doesn't have an action. I can tell you that 4-6 TIE's at Range 1 with Howlie reroll is VERY intimidating and devastating for most squads ;-)

At all takes skill, and your opponent might be sneaky enough to try and outflank you, so be prepared

Best of luck and Fly Casual

Niko

Cheers.

I've barely got my head around flying. Not sure how I'd do with purposely blocking!

It would just stop their movement and stop them targeting the ship they've come into contact with, as well preventing an action? They'd still be able to target another ship?

Regarding choosing evade over focus well like others said use focus most of the time, the exception would be Howl, if she's within range, for sur your opponent will want to shoot her before any other TIE because she's the corner stone of this deck. As much as you want Wedge dead and fast, he wants her dead as fast as possible, so evade is a good choice for her, you want her alive as long as possible. Another TIE you always want to use focus, is Dark Curse, your opponent will rarely if ever shoot him if he has other choice of target.

Also swap the St on Mauler and put Determination on Howl. Right there you can cancel that dreadfull crit that cancel your pilot ability and ruin your day. Rebels have very few PS7 skills anyway, so ST on Maurer will do fine.

Lastly to give you extra breathing room and helping protecting your key named TIE against bad crits, you should think about running a Black Squadron TIE with Draw their fire for 15 pts.

Lastly... Use your Academy to block. Blocking and stripping your opponent of action is the key to Victory. A Wedge without action... relies on luck for the roll but a Wedge with a TL every turn... Plus the - 1 agility is really bad news for any TIE out there!

I would try this formation in the future at 100 points.

Howlrunner: Swarm Tactics+Stealth Device

Mauler Mithel: Expert Handling+Stealth Device

Backstabber: Stealth Device

Academy Pilot x 3

This uses all 6 of your models and gives you options. You can set up your mini swarm in the middle with Backstabber and Mauler on each flank. Or you can set up the swarm in the middle and put both Mauler and Backstabber on one flank to really bring some pain. The trick is to slow-roll the swarm right at the enemy while your flanks get them in the side/rear. The Stealth device gives your named pilots exceptional staying power and if your opponent splits his forces, he is toast as the mini swarm should be able to take out a ship in one jousting pass while the other ships try t catch your highly maneuverable TIEs. If he focuses on the swarm, Mauler and backstabber should be able to light up a ship like a Christmas tree. The Academy Pilots will do what they do best, die a glorious, fiery death.

BTW: I love how maneuverable Mauler is with that setup. You can barrel-roll out of arcs at range 1 for some real damage against low agility ships like X's and B's (and Y's without turrets, but why would you take a Y without a turret?).

I would try this formation in the future at 100 points.

Howlrunner: Swarm Tactics+Stealth Device

Mauler Mithel: Expert Handling+Stealth Device

Backstabber: Stealth Device

Academy Pilot x 3

This uses all 6 of your models and gives you options. You can set up your mini swarm in the middle with Backstabber and Mauler on each flank. Or you can set up the swarm in the middle and put both Mauler and Backstabber on one flank to really bring some pain. The trick is to slow-roll the swarm right at the enemy while your flanks get them in the side/rear. The Stealth device gives your named pilots exceptional staying power and if your opponent splits his forces, he is toast as the mini swarm should be able to take out a ship in one jousting pass while the other ships try t catch your highly maneuverable TIEs. If he focuses on the swarm, Mauler and backstabber should be able to light up a ship like a Christmas tree. The Academy Pilots will do what they do best, die a glorious, fiery death.

BTW: I love how maneuverable Mauler is with that setup. You can barrel-roll out of arcs at range 1 for some real damage against low agility ships like X's and B's (and Y's without turrets, but why would you take a Y without a turret?).

But you can barrel roll and focus in the same turn. He become really hard to pin down.