Tips/list ideas, please?

It's an old question, one that's probably becoming less common in the purported Phantom/Falcon meta, but I still face a lot of swarms in my private gaming sessions. Any time there's 6+ TIEs I have trouble.

Z-95's with assault missiles, especially Lt Blount. If the swarm has Howlrunner, then they either have to stick together making them easy targets for an AM alpha, or else they split up making Howl a lot less effective.

Blues with HLC. HLC wrecks TIE face all day long.

Start every list you build with Lt. Blount + Assault missiles then watch them disperse and pick them off 1 at a time.

yeah actually its never that easy but its a starting point.

If all you want to do is kill swarms and nothing else you could try this list:

Airen Craken + Swarm Tactics + Cluster Missiles

Lt. Blount + Swarm Tactics + Assault missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot + Assault Missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot + Assault Missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot + Assault Missiles

its a good laugh

Gibarian what ships do you have available? Or do you allow proxy ships?

Z-95's with assault missiles, especially Lt Blount. If the swarm has Howlrunner, then they either have to stick together making them easy targets for an AM alpha, or else they split up making Howl a lot less effective.

Blacks with Predator have been what I've seen lately, no Howlie. I'm sure splitting them up still has advantages early in the game, but what I've noticed is that my games tend to go off the rails late, *after* the TIEs have all split up. It becomes difficult to track them all down in different directions after I'm reduced to 1-2 ships.

Blues with HLC. HLC wrecks TIE face all day long.

Not what I would have thought of, but it makes sense. I guess 4-dice attacks are the most reliable way to remove 3 agility ships one-by-one. Might have to go with Daggers because of the aforementioned Blacks, though.

Gibarian what ships do you have available? Or do you allow proxy ships?

More than enough to play around with different builds, fortunately.

5 Z-95's

4 A's

3 X's

3 B's

2 E's

1 HWK

1 YT-1300

Proxies are fine, too. I've been using Rebel Aces stuff since the first game I played (about 2 months ago).

Eh, hard countering TIEs with Assault Missiles is kind of cheesy if you already know what your opponent is running in a casual game. If I was a swarm player and saw my opponent setting up that kind of ordnance, I'd switch lists or just not play at all.

Not what I would have thought of, but it makes sense. I guess 4-dice attacks are the most reliable way to remove 3 agility ships one-by-one. Might have to go with Daggers because of the aforementioned Blacks, though.

I've had a lot of success running XXBB against 6-TIE swarms being piloted by very competent players. Don't let the lower PS fool you into thinking you're at a disadvantage.

Good.

May the TIE swarm reign!

Passably missles will work until they start running 5 black ties with predator then you don't need to stay in formation.

Eh, hard countering TIEs with Assault Missiles is kind of cheesy if you already know what your opponent is running in a casual game. If I was a swarm player and saw my opponent setting up that kind of ordnance, I'd switch lists or just not play at all.

Not what I would have thought of, but it makes sense. I guess 4-dice attacks are the most reliable way to remove 3 agility ships one-by-one. Might have to go with Daggers because of the aforementioned Blacks, though.

I've had a lot of success running XXBB against 6-TIE swarms being piloted by very competent players. Don't let the lower PS fool you into thinking you're at a disadvantage.

It's partly shooting second that's worrisome, but mostly it's giving up the double rerolls to Predator.

Tips/list ideas, please?

It's an old question, one that's probably becoming less common in the purported Phantom/Falcon meta, but I still face a lot of swarms in my private gaming sessions. Any time there's 6+ TIEs I have trouble.

Asteroid placement is key, as is your starting position. Playing against a swarm, these two factors make the biggest difference in my games followed second by list and build. Don't start the game jousting against 6-7 ships.

Do your best to set the rocks up in a way, and position your fleet to force them into the field. Watch out for any "open lanes" between asteroids and place asteroids to block those holes. Your opponent fielding 6-7 ships usually means you can get a sense of where his formation will start once he starts laying down academy pilots.

As rebels, you can slow to a crawl with 1 speed maneuvers at times forcing them to deal with asteroid clusters if they misjudge your speed.

I find various permutations of XXBB work very well against swarms.

My favorite is XYBB. Everything in that list is so tanky and dangerous. The Y-Wing can wreck their formation, and the B-Wings are much better at knife fighting than Ties. The X-Wing...is an X-Wing. Not much to say there.

I often split the two groups up, so I'm flanking with one group. One options is to start in the middle with the two groups pointing in opposite 45 degree angles, like a letter V. Fly apart the first turn and see which group they go after, pincher with the other. The group they go after tries to evade and/or stay at range 3. Once one of the two groups is behind them they are in trouble. It can be a good move to make sure that the entire swarm can never target a single ship. They are only good at killing things as a group.

If they manage to take out a ship it usually isn't a big deal. They could either go for the Y-Wing, in which case I get 9 shots a turn and will probably whittle them down to uselessness quickly. If they kill anything BUT the Y-Wing I'm going to ionize something and they are going to lose their formation.

My point here isn't that XYBB is a counter to tie swarm. But at worst it's an even match up, and at best I think XYBB (or ny of the XXBB variations) actually have the upper hand.

How about

2 Blackmoons Squadron Pilots-Flechettes missiles

2 Greens Squadron Pilots

PS3 takes you above the Predator (and Flight instructer) bonus range usefull in either an all comers list or against black squadron pilots+predator swarms. 3 agility is hard for swarms to take down, 2 attack dice unmodified should net 1 hit and 3 unmodified defense dice should net you 1 evade. The extra attack of the E-wings should help you punch through the Ties 3 Agility and the Flechettes should help negate a range 3 bonus or at least being able to stress a Tie when you need to could help

I still don't think the Rebels have the tools to stop the tie swarm yet. Maybe reb aces will make some problems with cheap elite talent A-wings but I don't see people going into competition with an assault missle build. It's good vs groups but not much else and only Blout is a sure bet.

3X 3Z

8Z

6Z + Cracken

5Z + Etahn

All of them work decently against tie swarms, and i would bet that a 3Z + 2X named would work too.

I think after rebel aces comes out you will see rebel swarms. You can do 8 Z95s as already stated but you will also be able to do 6 A wings with half being green Squadron. It would be iinteresting to see how that affects the tie swarm and miniswarm

Nor should you do so easily... In this one rebel propagandist film I saw awhile ago the empire stopped making ties and put all thier resources into this big moon looking thing...

I mean c'mon... Why would the empire ever turn thier back on a swarm of ties? How many swarms could be made for just half the cost of those so called "Death Stars"? You know it was the rebels that made that one up! Star... Ha! Maybe a "Death Moon" or a "Death Planetoid"; stars are not solid... Stupid rebel propaganda!

I sent an Outer Rim Smuggler in the YT (with Anti-Pursuit Lasers, Gunner and Weapons Engineer) straight into them. I was up against 7 TIEs, (Howlrunner, Night Beast and the rest of Obsidian squad). The ORS caused them to all scatter into smaller swarms.

It was like quail hunting. My two Red Squad X-Wings went after the stragglers.

I still lost (spectacularly), but Nightbeast and an Obsidian TIE were removed and every other TIE had only one Hull left.

I love this game!

If you are dead set on rebels then the best I have seen against a swarm was XXYB. I have seen two variations that were fun Wedge+noobs or Garven & Dutch+noobs. I personally like Garven and Dutch but Wedge can be pretty brutal on swarms.

Important thing is to kill them one at a time. If you put 2 damage on each TIE Fighter, but none of the TIE Fighters are dead, they can still attack you with all their dice each turn.

Z-95's with assault missiles, especially Lt Blount. If the swarm has Howlrunner, then they either have to stick together making them easy targets for an AM alpha, or else they split up making Howl a lot less effective.

Blacks with Predator have been what I've seen lately, no Howlie. I'm sure splitting them up still has advantages early in the game, but what I've noticed is that my games tend to go off the rails late, *after* the TIEs have all split up. It becomes difficult to track them all down in different directions after I'm reduced to 1-2 ships.

Blues with HLC. HLC wrecks TIE face all day long.

Not what I would have thought of, but it makes sense. I guess 4-dice attacks are the most reliable way to remove 3 agility ships one-by-one. Might have to go with Daggers because of the aforementioned Blacks, though.

Gibarian what ships do you have available? Or do you allow proxy ships?

More than enough to play around with different builds, fortunately.

5 Z-95's

4 A's

3 X's

3 B's

2 E's

1 HWK

1 YT-1300

Proxies are fine, too. I've been using Rebel Aces stuff since the first game I played (about 2 months ago).

One of the best ways to counter a swarm is with the E'tan swarm. E'tan with 4 or 5 Z's. All those critical really hurt ties. Also you can use a lot of the same shenanigans that the tie swarm uses and shoot before most of the ties.

I'd probably go with something along the lines of:

Dagger Squadron(24)+Fire Control System(2)+HLC(7)

Corran Horn E-Wing(35)+FCS(2)+Marksmanship(3)+R5-P9

Bandit Squadron(12)x2

You've got a pair of blockers and 2 ships with heavy firepower.

Keep the Bandits in front of the B-Wing and send Corran around to flank. Don't use Corran's ability all the time, but when you do, activate Marksmanship for a super-Focus+TL via FCS on every attack. Advance the Bandits and B-Wing slowly taking advantage of the HLC 4AD that denies the TIEs their extra evade dice at range 3 (secondary weapons don't allow that extra evade die). After using Corran's abilitiy, on his down turns use your full dial (except for reds) to reposition, focus, and restore a shield if needed.

Well use a swarm of Rebel ships, like the Z-95, or X-wing, greettings.

Well use a swarm of Rebel ships, like the Z-95, or X-wing, greettings.

I haven't seen TIEs vs Z-95s Swam match, but I would imagine that TIEs will have no difficulty hurting the Z-95s and the Z-95s will have dificulty with the TIEs. One extra hit is not as good as one extra agility dice.

I would recomend X-wings. B-wings, and YT-1300s low agility dice make them take lots of damage from TIEs.

I would also recomend avoiding spending too many points on any one ship. TIE Swarms do best when they outnumber you two or three two one. If you have 4 ships, TIE Swarms lose a lot of thier advantage.

Also take a close look at A-wings. TIEs biggest disadvantage is they have a hard time hurting agility 3 ships.

Z-95's with assault missiles, especially Lt Blount. If the swarm has Howlrunner, then they either have to stick together making them easy targets for an AM alpha, or else they split up making Howl a lot less effective.

Blacks with Predator have been what I've seen lately, no Howlie. I'm sure splitting them up still has advantages early in the game, but what I've noticed is that my games tend to go off the rails late, *after* the TIEs have all split up. It becomes difficult to track them all down in different directions after I'm reduced to 1-2 ships.

Blues with HLC. HLC wrecks TIE face all day long.

Not what I would have thought of, but it makes sense. I guess 4-dice attacks are the most reliable way to remove 3 agility ships one-by-one. Might have to go with Daggers because of the aforementioned Blacks, though.

Gibarian what ships do you have available? Or do you allow proxy ships?

More than enough to play around with different builds, fortunately.

5 Z-95's

4 A's

3 X's

3 B's

2 E's

1 HWK

1 YT-1300

Proxies are fine, too. I've been using Rebel Aces stuff since the first game I played (about 2 months ago).

One of the best ways to counter a swarm is with the E'tan swarm. E'tan with 4 or 5 Z's. All those critical really hurt ties. Also you can use a lot of the same shenanigans that the tie swarm uses and shoot before most of the ties.

This was the first list I tried after wave 4 arrived (although not against a swarm) and I bungled it so terribly I've been loathe to try it again. I let Etahn die too quickly, and things went downhill from there. Definitely want to try it again once I get my mojo back, however.

I'd probably go with something along the lines of:

Dagger Squadron(24)+Fire Control System(2)+HLC(7)

Corran Horn E-Wing(35)+FCS(2)+Marksmanship(3)+R5-P9

Bandit Squadron(12)x2

You've got a pair of blockers and 2 ships with heavy firepower.

Keep the Bandits in front of the B-Wing and send Corran around to flank. Don't use Corran's ability all the time, but when you do, activate Marksmanship for a super-Focus+TL via FCS on every attack. Advance the Bandits and B-Wing slowly taking advantage of the HLC 4AD that denies the TIEs their extra evade dice at range 3 (secondary weapons don't allow that extra evade die). After using Corran's abilitiy, on his down turns use your full dial (except for reds) to reposition, focus, and restore a shield if needed.

I like the look of this list quite a bit!