With so many YTs and Deci's flying around, swarms seem to be a decent counter, but my local tournament scene usually gets shortened to 60-minute rounds due to time constraints.

Are swarms still viable in 60-min games, or are they easy points for the "Big" turret ships?

a tie swarm won our store Tournament. They seemed to finish games just fine, Coran/Dash combos seemed the slowest.

edit we had 75min rounds.

It is a fair concern in 60 minute rounds. Recently I lost two games with a 7 tie swarm at a tournament. One game ended with a 2 hull deci, the other with a 1 hull deci.

Short rounds? play 4 shuttles.

They're easy points but may also be your best chance at bringing down that big ship.

The sad thing is that it gives them all the reason to "slow play" for a win and they may not even need to work too hard at it. I mean they just need to take out one TIE Fighter for a full win while you'll almost certainly need to take out that big ship for the win. With the turret they can hit you while running leaving you the responsibility to chase them down. With no time limit you may try to regroup instead of start futile pursuit but with a short window for the kill you may get stuck pressing on which isn't going to help you.

They're easy points but may also be your best chance at bringing down that big ship.

The sad thing is that it gives them all the reason to "slow play" for a win and they may not even need to work too hard at it. I mean they just need to take out one TIE Fighter for a full win while you'll almost certainly need to take out that big ship for the win. With the turret they can hit you while running leaving you the responsibility to chase them down. With no time limit you may try to regroup instead of start futile pursuit but with a short window for the kill you may get stuck pressing on which isn't going to help you.

Keep in mind that as long as the player is putting down their dials and moving their ships in a timely manner, running away is not "slow play", it's a viable strategy for as long as the winner is determined by MOV points.

Keep in mind that as long as the player is putting down their dials and moving their ships in a timely manner, running away is not "slow play", it's a viable strategy for as long as the winner is determined by MOV points.

I know that. It's just that when the big ship gets a lead it can be such an uphill battle under the time crunch that anything less than "fast play" can leave the swarm unable to catch up.

To put things another way if play speed were rated 1-10 somewhere in the range of 4-7 should be considered standard speed, 8-10 would come close to blinding fast play (a game at speed 10 would be nearly impossible to keep up with) and 1-3 would be slow play that should be disqualified. What I'm saying is that if the game is played at speed 6-7, or higher, the swarm may have a chance in 60 minutes but if it is played at 4-5 then the chances will go down even when "slow play" can't really be evoked.

Moral of the story, FFG still hasn't implemented a partial scoring system it really **** well needs

Moral of the story, FFG still hasn't implemented a partial scoring system it really **** well needs

That could be but there are many ways to do partial scoring.

Maybe no one uses ordnance but an argument certainly could be made that any upgrade that is discarded over the course of a game should be counted as points defeated.

I am a firm believer that scoring based on hull points remaining as percentage would be a good thing, although not sure how that would be done effectively, or some kind of propensity scoring system, where efficacy is calculated on list v list basis and then scored.

this all or nothing scoring system really leaves a lot to be desired. There has to be some way to score games that are far closer than they appear, instead of just using the KFH scale:

"Killed Fat Han: If yes = win

"Killed Fat Han: If no = loss

"Killed Fat Han: If yes did you take Fat Han or equivelant and it lived = win

"Killed Fat Han: If yes did you take Fat Han or equivelant and it died = loose

"Killed Fat Han: If yes did you take Fat Han or equivelant and both died = tie, move on

(i know that isnt the way it REALLY is, but after a few events in and lots of smaller events, thats how it feels)

My current strategy against Fat Han is actually to kill more of his support ships than he can of mine, and than evade fire until time is called. Although I think they're aren't many ships that can do this against Han because of his buzzsaw and speed, but it seems to work for Prototypes and PS 9 Dash.

I agree that MOV should be based on % damage dealt to a list instead of points destroyed, although that might make Phantoms even stronger.

No matter the system they choose to score matches in X-Wing, some ships will be positively affected others negatively. Bringing down the point differential for a full win made it easier to fly swarms last season. Switching to MOV made it better to fly more tanks longer lasting ships.

What about introducing half damage for half points destroyed mechanic?

You could base it off hull and shields, or just hull if you wanted to make shields more powerful.

If you're going for 60 minutes you need a swarm that can bring the pain faster and stand a greater chance of scoring hits on elusive ships like Corran, Phantoms, etc.

This means adding Alphas in or special pilots like Backstabber, M. Mithel., etc.

If you have time, try and field test something like:

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter 18
Swarm Tactics 2

"Mauler Mithel" — TIE Fighter 17
Swarm Tactics 2

Alpha Squadron Pilot — TIE Interceptor 18

Alpha Squadron Pilot — TIE Interceptor 18

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Plus, the other problem with a classic swarm is that there are increasing ways to penalise a big mob of cheap ships flying in close proximity - ruthlessness, the mara jade crew card, assault missiles, far more ships capable of carrying bombs, captain oicunn playing TIE bowling, etc, etc.

You need a squad which can break formation effectively. I'm half tempted to resurrect the TIE/ln all-stars:

Howlrunner

Night Beast

Winged Gundark

Mauler Mithel

Backstabber

Dark Curse

That's 97 points, leaving 3 points to strap elite pilot talents onto Rashon or Mithel - I'd say Swarm Tactics on Howl (since at least one other TIE is probably flying wing to her, even if you break formation) and Veteran Instincts on Mithel.

Short rounds? play 4 shuttles.

I don't know - I took out a shuttle in one round of shooting with my 5 Green Squadron Pilots last night.

Short rounds? play 4 shuttles.

I don't know - I took out a shuttle in one round of shooting with my 5 Green Squadron Pilots last night.

But you didn't kill four...

Plus, the other problem with a classic swarm is that there are increasing ways to penalise a big mob of cheap ships flying in close proximity - ruthlessness, the mara jade crew card, assault missiles, far more ships capable of carrying bombs, captain oicunn playing TIE bowling, etc, etc.

With the meta circling the toilet bowl of large turret ship + elite small ship, I still haven't run into a single one of these upgrades, except the occasional jade oicuun. The poor guy does not enjoy taking the remaining 6 ties to the face, though.

Short rounds? play 4 shuttles.

I don't know - I took out a shuttle in one round of shooting with my 5 Green Squadron Pilots last night.

But you didn't kill four...

One's all I need for a win though.