Hey guys. I just had an idea for a list which I think could be pretty effective at dishing out sizeable amounts of damage, especially against formation flyers:

Howlrunner (18)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Ruthlessness (3)

(17)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Ruthlessness (3)

(17)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Ruthlessness (3)

(17)

Omicron Group Pilot (21)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Fire Control System (2)

(30)

Total: (99)

Pretty standard tactics. The Shuttle hangs back, laying down heavy fire, while Howl and the swarm flies in. With Howl's rerolls + focus, those TIEs have a pretty good chance of hitting, and every hit doles out another damage. If all of them manage to hit, it gives you a lot of control over how the damage is spread out, especially if the opponent if flying in tight formation.

Thought? I could lose FCS to put Ruthlessness on Howl as well, but my objective was to try and make her less of the 'obvious' target.

I think it's going to suffer from the same problem as the z-95 assault missile swarm: you've spent a lot of points on punishing your opponent for flying in formation, and they can negate all of those points by breaking up their formation. While this does have some value the final conclusion seems to have been that it's not worth making a significant investment. And this is especially true in the current metagame where the most popular lists tend to favor elite pilots that don't have to worry about maintaining a range-1 ball. Unless your local metagame is much heavier on swarms and formation-limited abilities I'd just stick to something more straightforward.

It also hurts lists with more ships. Whisper 5 tie might at times come close to each other.

I'd certainly at least give it a try.

Even better of an upgrade on the Decimator or a Defender. Mobile enough to track whatever target they want.

Hmm I don't see making the other guy split up being an issue device and contour is a classic military strategy you just have to be careful when you get close is all.

I've ran ruthlessness swarms on Vassal with very poor result. It doesn't help that about 50% of build seem to only be 2 ship builds right now. I end up using Ruthlessness on myself more then my opponent.

If you're using Ruthlessness you don't want to be flying in formation yourself. Howlrunner's nearly useless in there because if your opponent breaks up formation you can't use her ability without hurting yourself every time a BSP shoots.

device and contour is a classic military strategy

It is? I don't remember reading about it in any of the history books.

device and contour is a classic military strategy

It is? I don't remember reading about it in any of the history books.

**** auto correct strikes again.

Stealth Divide... the ISD Contourer

I don't like the chances of hitting with just 2 dice though. I think I'd prefer to have something else with Ruthlessness.