https://capitalship.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/howlrunning-tie-fighters-and-how-to-use-them/

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Nice work on the article. I think you might have over emphasized the importance of Howlrunner, especially when used with smaller groups for TIEs and you more or less left out the generics. It would have been nice to see an explanation of why someone would choose to use an Academy, Obsidian, or Black Squadron TIE. The TIE Fighter is one of the few ships that sees frequent use of all its generic varieties as well as most of its named pilots.

I wonder how long it will be before the clamour for a fix for the TIE Fighter begins?

I wonder how long it will be before the clamour for a fix for the TIE Fighter begins?

I think people started asking for the TIE Fighter to be "fixed" back in Wave 1 because it dominated the meta so hard. That's what got us the Phantom.

Thanks Obama.

I agree with WWHSD about the overemphasis on Howl. Yes, the Stealth Device is nice, but the shine wears off pretty quick once the enemy decides that Howl has GOT to go. Then when she's gone, you're in the hole.

Also, Ruthlessness has become a pain. It makes me want to fly my TIEs farther apart, breaking formation. I can't say that I've had a lot of success with that either.

Yeah, there have been a LOT of fixes for the TIE Fighter swarm in the last couple waves. Phantoms, Z-95s, blount, ion torpedoes, Oink Oink in his Rhino, segway loops, autoturrets, andrasta/emon, Donut of doom, the upcoming advanced fix... I am sure i've missed some. (reads up) Oh yeah, Ruthlessness. That's a good one.

Some of you really have an amazing insight into the game and how it works and synergies to be used. Unfortunately that competitive approach may also be the biggest imbalance in the game. Most likely many such as myself will never pick up on small imbalances

But it certainly is an interresting read on here, as it tells me something about the depth of the game. It also saves a lot of time when I can just read an awesome article about something in the game and them follow the debate and make up my own mind by pondering different points of view.

Yeah, there have been a LOT of fixes for the TIE Fighter swarm in the last couple waves. Phantoms, Z-95s, blount, ion torpedoes, Oink Oink in his Rhino, segway loops, autoturrets, andrasta/emon, Donut of doom, the upcoming advanced fix... I am sure i've missed some. (reads up) Oh yeah, Ruthlessness. That's a good one.

The Donut of Doom?

Dash, I think.

Yeah, there have been a LOT of fixes for the TIE Fighter swarm in the last couple waves. Phantoms, Z-95s, blount, ion torpedoes, Oink Oink in his Rhino, segway loops, autoturrets, andrasta/emon, Donut of doom, the upcoming advanced fix... I am sure i've missed some. (reads up) Oh yeah, Ruthlessness. That's a good one.

Not disputing your point in anyway, just want to point out that 4 of the 11 things you mention haven't been released yet.

Yeah, there have been a LOT of fixes for the TIE Fighter swarm in the last couple waves. Phantoms, Z-95s, blount, ion torpedoes, Oink Oink in his Rhino, segway loops, autoturrets, andrasta/emon, Donut of doom, the upcoming advanced fix... I am sure i've missed some. (reads up) Oh yeah, Ruthlessness. That's a good one.

Not disputing your point in anyway, just want to point out that 4 of the 11 things you mention haven't been released yet.

But we still know about them enough for them to be proxied.

Donut of doom = Outrider with HLC.

I also disagree that Howlrunner is a must. I think she costs too much and as soon as your opponent sees her on the board, she's Public Enemy #1. I find she dies incredibly too fast to be worth it. The only way to make her viable is to pile on stuff to make her more expensive or go for Black Squadron pilots with EPT's to help her out. It's just not worth the investment in her.

Howlrunner also takes away one of the biggest advantages to Tie Swarms: their manueverability. Forget flying in formation. Just swarm your opponents. Send some Academy in front of some of their ships and swarm where those guys end up. Lots of Tie Fighters at Range 1 can do some damage. Also, you can arc dodge like crazy with Tie Fighters. Why give that up to fly in formation?

I can see why you don't put as much emphasis in Backstabber if you fly in formation. He's great if you break things up and swarm people. There is usually someone he can fire at from the flanks. Also, he's great to use as a flanking force. Send some Ties at your opponents and others to flank them. Differentiate the speed of the approach so that your flankers hit before your main body does and you can do some damage to minimize the first pass brutality.

I've not flown a Tie Swarm in the latest meta of Big Ships, but I think I'd like to. You can cover a lot of area and block up a lot of spaces to move, as well. If I weren't trying to learn Tie Bombers, I'd probably try it.

I've never had Howlrunner last long enough to even get 2 rounds of her buff on my swarm. She's usually dead in either the first round of shooting or quickly in the 2nd. I've used her about a half dozen times and have kind of given up. I've tried Hull/ Stealth, Evading, etc. If your opponent wants a 3/4 hitpoint ship dead that can't arc-dodge, it usually doesn't last long.

Well howlrunner is a must in 7 ties. If you have a 5 tie (herself included) mini swarm she is as well. 4 ties is iffy. Any less dont bother. Wierd stuff like howlrunner with a couple firesprays or w/e was done mostly as a ploy to get people to attack howlrunner.

The problem with 7 tie howlrunner is that the meta has made it nowhere near as dominant (and i'm not even talking about cards that punish range 1 like ruthlessness etc). In wave 4 it COULD still work, but having one big firing arc for your brick of ties still made life kinda easy for phantoms. Obviously some rose to the top at worlds if the players were significantly better than their opponents etc, but for the most part when the skill level was matched, the phantom won. And even the falcon that the swarm is good against could occassionally boost past most of the firing arcs.

Now you have another super arc dodger that can hit a tie with 4 dice, and it doesnt care which way it needs to point its arc as it dodges you. And that phantom is now known to hang out now with another fat ship that occassionally boosts past you instead of some other tie fighters that you can get some kills more easily.

If you insist on tie swarm now, i think 8 ties is better just because you need to be able to fly more freely.

Now you have another super arc dodger that can hit a tie with 4 dice, and it doesnt care which way it needs to point its arc as it dodges you.

... and doesn't give TIEs an extra green dice at range three.

Well howlrunner is a must in 7 ties. If you have a 5 tie (herself included) mini swarm she is as well.

I don't think I ever believe Howlrunner is a viable option. She just gets targetted first and dies. I'd rather take anyone than her. I'd rather take Winged Gundaark as he's less points when he gets targeted out first from the pack. If you play with anyone who's played against Howlrunner before, they just target her and she dies.

Howlrunner also takes away one of the biggest advantages to Tie Swarms: their manueverability. Forget flying in formation. Just swarm your opponents. Send some Academy in front of some of their ships and swarm where those guys end up. Lots of Tie Fighters at Range 1 can do some damage. Also, you can arc dodge like crazy with Tie Fighters. Why give that up to fly in formation?

So,by out-of-formation, do you also mean spread out at range >1 from one another to remain safe from Assault Missiles and Ruthlessness?

Well howlrunner is a must in 7 ties. If you have a 5 tie (herself included) mini swarm she is as well.

I don't think I ever believe Howlrunner is a viable option. She just gets targetted first and dies. I'd rather take anyone than her. I'd rather take Winged Gundaark as he's less points when he gets targeted out first from the pack. If you play with anyone who's played against Howlrunner before, they just target her and she dies.

In a big TIE swarm Howlrunner is probably worth the points if you can get one round where 5 or 6 other TIEs get rerolls. If you get more than that out of her it's just gravy.

So,by out-of-formation, do you also mean spread out at range >1 from one another to remain safe from Assault Missiles and Ruthlessness?

Well...not just for that reason, but yes.

The way I fly Tie Swarms is to have at least two groups of Tie Fighters. They are either equal or one is a flanker. The main group flies straight on at the enemy formation while the flankers come in on the sides. The enemy will go after one or the other. Whoever they go after, that group slows down considerably. The other group speeds up very fast. The idea is to have them facing at one group as the other hits them in the flank. After that first pass, everyone just breaks formation and....well....swarms.

I've also done it with three groups of two, but it's been harder to get right. It's too easy for one group to get smashed alone.

I like to have a couple of Academy Pilots to stick in front of other ships and try to trip them up. I then have a few other Tie Fighters ready to take advantage if that happens and firing (from outside of arc) at the bumped ships. It might take some getting used to when planning your dials, but all the Tie Fighters can do a variety of cool manuevers. Sharp turns and barrel rolls are great. Anything to stay out of an arc.....or to try to bump someone. I'll barrel roll into where I think someone is going to go if I think it will help. When you have 6 or so Tie Fighters swarming enemy ships, it can be difficult for them to plan on where to go, especially if they know you like to bump them. You can really limit people's options when you do that.

Some of the named Tie Pilots really stand out in this type of environment. Backstabber is amazing! If you can get him on the flank of the enemy and out of their arc and just firing at a safe Range 2, then he's golden. Mauler Mithel is great like this, but he can get expensive. Still, if you are able to get within Range 1 and not in their arc, he will put some hurt on a ship. My favorite ship to use in the front of the standard group is Dark Curse. If I can arrange it so that he's the only one in range, I'll giggle as the enemy tries to TL or Focus on him while my flankers hit them. Even Night Beast will shine when he green moves and can Focus and something else (barrel roll or evade).

The first pass is the most brutal, which is why it's important to try to hit your enemy before they can hit your main formation. You will lose ships as you won't always be clever enough to stay out of their firing arcs and they will get lucky. Still, the number of times I've had one Tie vs. one of theirs and just sharp turn, barrel roll to keep firing 2 shots at them each turn.

I admit that it's not as tournament effective these days with the whole idea of how many ships you lose. Still, it's a ton of fun and very thematic. It's not all about the tournament.

So,by out-of-formation, do you also mean spread out at range >1 from one another to remain safe from Assault Missiles and Ruthlessness?

Well...not just for that reason, but yes.

The way I fly Tie Swarms is to have at least two groups of Tie Fighters. They are either equal or one is a flanker. The main group flies straight on at the enemy formation while the flankers come in on the sides. The enemy will go after one or the other. Whoever they go after, that group slows down considerably. The other group speeds up very fast. The idea is to have them facing at one group as the other hits them in the flank. After that first pass, everyone just breaks formation and....well....swarms.

I've also done it with three groups of two, but it's been harder to get right. It's too easy for one group to get smashed alone.

I like to have a couple of Academy Pilots to stick in front of other ships and try to trip them up. I then have a few other Tie Fighters ready to take advantage if that happens and firing (from outside of arc) at the bumped ships. It might take some getting used to when planning your dials, but all the Tie Fighters can do a variety of cool manuevers. Sharp turns and barrel rolls are great. Anything to stay out of an arc.....or to try to bump someone. I'll barrel roll into where I think someone is going to go if I think it will help. When you have 6 or so Tie Fighters swarming enemy ships, it can be difficult for them to plan on where to go, especially if they know you like to bump them. You can really limit people's options when you do that.

[... lots of stuff about flying TIEs ...]

I admit that it's not as tournament effective these days with the whole idea of how many ships you lose. Still, it's a ton of fun and very thematic. It's not all about the tournament.

A nice attempt but not really much of a guide to TIE Fighters so much as a set of opinions.

As already mentioned here Howlrunner is certainly nice but saying she is a must have is going a bit far. You'll also see discussion about what the best 16 point TIE Fighter can be and while Dark Curse is in the discussion Backstabber is just as big and that's leaving out the Black Squadron Pilots with an EPT used.

Speaking of the BSP you really should have expanded on the wonderful uses of the generic TIE Fighters. The AP is great for so many things I'm not even going to try to list them. For a point more you get the Obsidian which is PS 3 giving some benefits over the PS 1 AP but perhaps a few drawbacks as well. Then you get the BSP as the cheapest EPT carrying ship in the game. That slot gives the BSP a wide range of functionality including some very useful support options when it has something like Draw Their Fire or Wingman. It is definitely a shame that the article didn't go into the wonders that are generic TIE Fighters.

Well howlrunner is a must in 7 ties. If you have a 5 tie (herself included) mini swarm she is as well.

I don't think I ever believe Howlrunner is a viable option. She just gets targetted first and dies. I'd rather take anyone than her. I'd rather take Winged Gundaark as he's less points when he gets targeted out first from the pack. If you play with anyone who's played against Howlrunner before, they just target her and she dies.

If you're going after Howl, you need to be sure you can actually kill her. Otherwise, her PS is high enough that she can usually get off one attack, and she usually has Swarm Tactics to allow a neighbor to get off another. She's basically the Imperial version of Biggs.

Personally, I love her in a mini-swarm with only 2-3 other TIEs. If the opponent goes hard after her, then that means they're ignoring the heavier hitter on their flank (a Phantom or Defender is great here, along with Backstabber), and my list isn't crippled if she dies. If they don't go after her, then she and the Academies will usually do a good amount of damage tearing into the opponent's flank while I try to occupy them with my big gun.