I just flew my first tie swarm today. After playing a few epic games, I felt I was up to the challenge of managing seven tie fighters in a standard game.

A few things were driven home with this first attempt:

Howlrunner is going to go fast. I stuck ruthlessness on her. That was probably a mistake, even though it did score a hit fore she was vaporized. In fact, I'm actually wonder if eight Academy pilots would be more useful than Howlrunner and six others? She helped with four other attacks before going down. Another attack and three mor hull might have been more useful.

Asteroids are not a swarm's friend. They caused me to have to split my forces and I did end up running over a couple throughout the game due to congestion. I need to work on this.

Formation flying is more than choosing the right maneuvers on the dial. I messed up my formations several times by using barrel roles that threw of subsequent fighters moves. I think this will get better with experience.

All in all, it was a fun game, and I won! It was interesting to have the attitude that I know a ship might be doomed by a maneuver, but that his fellow wing mates we going to capitalize form his sacrifice. I pretty much focused all the time, evade really wasn't a useful option.

Anyways, the reason I am posting, is I'd like to hear what the conventional wisdom of six fighters plus a leader vs. eight fighters is. I see the lack of an obvious primary target to be a good thing, but I'm wondering if there are combos that work better than Howlrunner.

Howlrunner is really a force multipler for TIEs. Running 8 works a little differently to running 7, as you can split up your forces but the 7 TIE swarm is more powerful.

Learning to formation fly well is a huge part of it. Howlrunner wants to play defensively, because you just want her to survive and boost everyone else. Personally I don't like to run her without a defensive mod- hull, stealth, or shield- and Determination can be a point well spent too. Also consider a Black Squadron wingman for her with Draw their Fire to suck up crits that hit her. Abuse the hell out of the Evade action to keep her going.

My favourite 7-TIE swarm is:

Howlrunner, Hull Upgrade

Black Squadron, DtF

Backstabber

Academy x4

I flew

Howlrunner

*V.I

Backstabber

Curse

Academy x4

At a local tournie last sunday to stomp on all the bloated wave 5 turrets infesting the meta. Unfortunately only took third due to some ridiculously fortunate green dice from an opposing tie.

Flying a swarm is a different beast than anything in X-wing, and much more challenging and nuanced than just shoving x amount of ships down someone's throat (thanks arcs and the maneuvering system). Most of it is just practice, you'll get it if you keep trying

I would highly recommend not using ruthlessness when you're more likely to peg your ship's than the enemy's, though

Veteran Instincts would be my EPT of choice with Howl, since you can do the impossible and arc dodge the likes of Soontir and Phantoms. It's cheap and it keeps your power piece around longer. Would probably exchange curse for hull or shield upgrade, though. Awesome as he is, he's hard to use when no one wants to shoot him

My biggest problem with the swarm, though, is people just refusing to blank out on green no matter how many rolls I force. It's an unfortunate reality of 2 attack ships (efficient though they are). I'm going to try addressing the problem by shrloping two academies into a single Doom Shuttle and see how that works

note that's Howl (V.I), Stabber, Beast, 2 Obsidian, and Omnicron w/ Vader. I want the Ties shooting first so Vader can hand of god what's leftover off the table.

I have found the best way to keep Howlrunner alive is with Push the Limit and practice flying. I try to keep Howlrunner out of range one shots at all costs. Your opponent will many times take bad shots just to try and hit Howl. Use that to your advantage. I find that you can get some academies in range one and they will many times be skipped as your opponent will take a shot at Howlrunner. The other key for me was adding in some interceptors. I add in an alpha and a saber with PTL. This gives your opponent a harder choice of facing two three dice attacks with a reroll which they can't ignore and Howlrunner which they can't ignore. The interceptor hits incredibly hard with Howlrunner rerolls. My best swarm list is Howl w/ptl , alpha int, saber w/ ptl, 3 x academy pilot.

A Rookie swarm would be:

4 x Rookie

Tala + Ion Pulse

or

4 x Rookie

Proto + Refit as blocker

I'm actually wonder if eight Academy pilots would be more useful

That would come to 96. The 8 TIE Swarm usually has 4 Obsidians in it.

If you don't want to fly with Howl

I'd recomment 6 Academies + a 28 point ship like:

Shuttle + HLC

Shuttle + Gunner + FCS

Shuttle + AS + EU

Shuttle + FO + SJ

Shuttle + V + EU

Shuttle + FO + V

Turr + PTL

Jax + LW (he will hardly be lonely though)

Maarek + ATC

...

Don't get me wrong, I liked the re-rolls Howlrunner added. It just became apparent that she has to be in the thick of things to use her ability and that she became an obvious target for my opponent. That limited her lifespan in the game to a point that I thought there might be a better alternative.

I'm going to try the Black Squadron tie with Draw their Fire, the round or two this could extended her presence on the board would be a good use to the the extra points.

Thanks for all the feedback, wingmates. I think it's got me going in the right direction. I find it amusing that it took me this long to really appreciate the imperial ships that came in the starter set. But it's also kind of cool that these very ships can still be effective.

Has anyone tried a XXXZZZ swarm, and if so how did it go?

I prefer 8 Academies. Howlrunner has to stay in the middle of a tight formation to work, which makes focussing easy. With 8 Academies you can choose which one flies first and assign you fire optimally. And you can fly open formation, in case Phantoms or Assault Missiles are about.

After looking more closely at draw their fire, It's more a gamble on trying to soak up damage than a sure thing. I think I'm more in your camp, Rumar. Adding three more hull and two attack dice seems to be better than one or two rounds of Howlrunner goodness. I'm going to try Howlrunner one more time, being more conscientious of trying to keep her alive for an extra round or two. Probably without an EPT and with a hull or shield and a black squadron draw their fire. But then I'm going to try eight ties. The majority of my first game was played without any named pilots, and the academies still managed to deal out enough damage to win.

Eight TIEs is certainly workable, but I find 2-dice attacks with no rerolls are just not quite effective enough. A Howlrunner swarm does take finesse, it's not an easy list to fly, but it can be quite rewarding.

My actual favourite swarm (which I didn't post earlier because it doesn't have an extra-defensive Howlrunner and it's only 6 ships) is this:

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27

Push the Limit 3

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter 18

"Backstabber" — TIE Fighter 16

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Soontir and Backstabber flank while Howlie and the academies act as an anvil for the opposition to smash themselves against. Howlie is protected by not necessarily being the best target (an opponent that ignores Soontir and Stabber on their flanks is probably in trouble).