I'm finding myself joining the ranks of my nemesis, the Tie Swarm! I guess the old adage is true, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

With the new wave 4 ships and the changing meta, I'm taking a liking to the "mini-swarm." I ran two different builds tonight and found some amazing results!

My opponent ran the same build in both games for consistency! Etahn and three Talas, one with cluster and two with assault missiles.

I ran two interceptors and four ties in the first game, all unnamed and only PTL on the squints! It worked marvelously! I kept the swarm together at first then spread them out just enough not to be completely destroyed by the Talas assault missiles if they landed!

The squints took a flank and swept in from the side perfectly! All was good with this build! It maneuvered and shot as I expected and was able to absorb the damage the way I thought it should!

The second build dropped one Tie fighter and upgraded the squints to Soontir and RGP, two Ties upgraded to Night Beast and Howlrunner. I kept the three Ties in a loose formation to take threat head on. Soontir and the RGP each took a flank. Things went as expected initially, but started to fall apart after the first exchange. Missing that extra tie was VERY noticeable! Even though I had higher PS and some extra abilities, they didn't make up for the durability of having another ship on the table.

The game came down to 4 HP vs 3 HP with me having only the three remaining on two ships! Soontit and HR managed to get into the correct positions to take out Etahn in the end, but it went a lot closer than I like to see!

I can definitely see how quantity has it's own quality works in this game too! Now I've experienced it from both sides of the table and am starting to like Swarms!

Gotta admit, I HATE the idea of swarms.. Always have. But even I am considering adding a mini swarm here or there to help vs the falcons.

Part of the allure is the durability! The YTs can only shoot at one ship each per turn! That leaves a lot of ships going untouched each turn! The same for any 3-4 ship builds! And finally, another swarm means things are even!

I've watched Heaver's win at World a couple of times, and I believe dice rolling came into play there! It could have gone the swarms way a few times and the outcome would have been the opposite! To me, that means the Swarm is strong!

Looking at the meta now, it can take all comers! I haven't seen anything that can reliably take on the swarm AND the turrets AND the Phantoms except another swarm...that's my opinion and I'm hanging with it currently! Until someone/something proves me wrong!

Added: I didn't/don't like full Swarms, but I've warmed to the mini swarm with support! I like two Squints, but Rexler is looking inviting too!

one of the first squads i flew in this game was a mini swarm with a stock defender with ion. howlrunner, night beast both with swarm tactics and i think i had two additional ties? dont have all the cards to add up the points but it was brutally effecient as my opponent ignored the defender trying to pick off the swarm boosting it and ion allowed me to single certain people out just food for thought and it matched the durrability of an extra tie to boot