When S&V came out there was a lot of talk about Feedback Swarms, Hot Shot Blaster Swarms, etc. but I never see 6+ ship S&V like this showing up in List Juggler. They're not even showing up in the lower brackets suggesting this list archetype is not just fairing poorly in a competetive sense, but is barely being played at all. And I'm not seeing many discussion or batrep threads in the forums about these kinds of lists.

Obviously swarms face some numerical challenges in the current meta (esp. MoV attrition and AGI creep). Even though this is thing, however, I am wondering how many of you have experimented with 6+ ship S&V builds? Have they been terrible? Or so-so? Or really good, but you're just not telling anyone about it? Any favorites?

I played around with 7x Binyare Pirates + Feedback Array. Although I'm sure I can be playing better tactics, it has seemed like a fairly situational build to me. The feedback arrays are not that effective against high shield/hull 4R or 5R lists. By the time you start bugzapping for final kills in the mid- or end-game the pirates are already whittled down somewhat so it's pretty painful to take the feedback damage.

I think someone won a SC in the San Francisco area with one. No one in my area has that many Most Wanted packs.

Had a player reach top 4 out of ~30 at the store championship I ran with a feedback array Pirate swarm, but I screwed something up and lost the tournament data (long story), so it never got submitted to List Juggler.

Takes a lot to build it (4 Most Wanted and 4 IG-2000's), but it can be really effective - Lots of 2 die attacks at big beefy ships like the Falcon or a Decimator, or automatic damage against agile & fragile ships like Interceptors.

I have been using plenty of scum z-95s and y-wings and have been doing pretty well. Mostly flying miniswarms rather than a pure swarm (4 z-95s or 2 z-95s and 1-2 y-wings alongside some other ship). 5 ships in scum is pretty swarmy if they include a y-wing or two, especially with BTL y-wings being kinda like two ships (or ship and a half) taped together.

All too often I find the MVP of a match ends up being a z-95 or y-wing who got in the right place at the right time.

I'm a huge fan of four or five Headhunters as a unit for Rebels and Scum both. They're pretty hardy, and deliver death by a thousand cuts. The real trick is deciding what to bring with them, and I usually turn to a single Large ship (depending on what I think I'm facing). I don't like to run full swarms much nowadays because I think they're a little too limited, versus 5 ships and an anchor or 2-4 ships with upgrades. You can absolutely control the board with 7 or 8 Headhunters, but their dial and firepower slide downhill fast once they start dropping off. I like to have something with either great maneuverability, repositioning, or spike damage to fly alongside or separate to the swarm block.

Here's a youtube video showing a feedback swarm in action:

I like to run 5 M3-a with mangler cannons. Works very well against both large ships and fast ships.

I like to run 5 M3-a with mangler cannons. Works very well against both large ships and fast ships.

You should write some battle reports. I'm really interested in seeing this list in action as it's one I've thought about since they leaked this ship.

I think the biggest problem with this sort of list right now is how much stuff you have to buy just to be able to play it. Feedback Arrays aren't so common right now, as they don't come in many packs. I dunno what they're in, but it's certainly not easy to get 6 of 'em.

I'm sure that as more comes out, FA will become more popular and we'll start to see it pop up. Be patient. I definitely wanna try this sorta thing sometime

No tourney experience but won a few friendlies with this list:

Laetin A'shera (18)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Stealth Device (3)

"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Keep the M3's behind the Z screen. Serissu is not super threatening and Laetin is just going to swallow red dice whole.

...unless I'm rolling...

7 Cartel Spacers for the lolz. Too bad they get one shotted way too easily.

5 Mangler Scyk swarm is also really good. Nothing like landing crits on Decimators for days!

Feedback Arrays (2 of them) come in the Aggressor pack. Not many players will be able to run more than 4 of the bug zapper Z's without borrowing some cards. Similar problem with Hot Shot/Failsafe swarms, where you only get one in Most Wanted and one in the Aggressor pack.

I kinda like running Xizor with some Feedback Zs and whatever filler you can cram in there. You can go two Z-95s and a Warthog (or Drea), 4 Z-95s, and I think when the YV-666 comes out doing Xizor with two Feedback Z-95s and a basic freighter (with Tacticians!) could be fun. The PS2 YV-666 projects to be around 29pts, and can house multiple Tacticians.

I like to run 5 M3-a with mangler cannons. Works very well against both large ships and fast ships.

You should write some battle reports. I'm really interested in seeing this list in action as it's one I've thought about since they leaked this ship.

Seconded. I've liked the look of 5x Spenglers for a while, but lack the models to try it. I figure it would have some brutal matchups against turrets and agility 3 ships with shields, but 3x Spenglers with a 40 point ace is also a viable option.

I've seen 2 variants of the Bin Pirate swarm, including the Feedback Array, on Vassal

The list has some problems:

- The Z is no TIE fighter in terms of it's stats. It is surprisingly easy to kill 2 Zs in one turn, whereas you can usually only get 1 TIE. This is unfavorable for a swarm in general, but particularly bad for the Feedback Array swarm, which really wants all of it's pieces in play when it closes to the crucial R1 distance.

- The Z is also no TIE fighter in terms of it's dial. You're bringing 8+ clumsy ships with limited hard turn options, no post-dial re-positioning, mediocre green options and arguably the worst of the available K-turns. Bumping will be an issue, and terrain will be a headache.

- No Howlrunner. You won't be able to convert any fraction of your blanks into crits, keep your focus for defense or shoot any dice at PS 8. You also don't have a nice piece of 3-4 agility bait sitting at the rear of your formation, tempting your opponent to take high variance shots instead of R1-R2 shots against your generics.

Zs are great, efficient fillers, but I don't think they can carry a list on their own.

Terrible for me.

I got my arse handed to me twice in a row by 3 bannannas, 2 ABT warthogs and Mangler Laetin (sp?)

I've seen 2 variants of the Bin Pirate swarm, including the Feedback Array, on Vassal

The list has some problems:

- The Z is no TIE fighter in terms of it's stats. It is surprisingly easy to kill 2 Zs in one turn, whereas you can usually only get 1 TIE. This is unfavorable for a swarm in general, but particularly bad for the Feedback Array swarm, which really wants all of it's pieces in play when it closes to the crucial R1 distance.

- The Z is also no TIE fighter in terms of it's dial. You're bringing 8+ clumsy ships with limited hard turn options, no post-dial re-positioning, mediocre green options and arguably the worst of the available K-turns. Bumping will be an issue, and terrain will be a headache.

- No Howlrunner. You won't be able to convert any fraction of your blanks into crits, keep your focus for defense or shoot any dice at PS 8. You also don't have a nice piece of 3-4 agility bait sitting at the rear of your formation, tempting your opponent to take high variance shots instead of R1-R2 shots against your generics.

Zs are great, efficient fillers, but I don't think they can carry a list on their own.

I have been using tie and z-95s a lot lately and I really don't think the differences are very pronounced when thinking about their pragmatic use. I never felt like it would have changed the outcome of a match if I had used the opposite faction's option. I don't have much to say about feedback array except I am no advocate of it.

-Z-95s and ties have the same mean and mode shots to destroy, mean is always within a few percent as you shift the attacker's strength into high damage or low damage. Significantly as well, the ties have a higher chance of dying in a single shot. That is, period. The distribution is simply more spread on ties. I heard someone mention in my local group "well I have seen more z-95s die in one shot than I have tie fighters" however, in a strict, hard way, any attack that would one shot a z-95 would also one shot a tie, regardless of the result of the added agility die. If indeed there are more z-95s being one-shot then ties, it is not a result of the stats alone.

-The dial differences are not game changing. I sometimes wish ties could 1 forwards or bank sometimes. I sometimes wish z-95s could 1 hard. The greens are all the same except a 3 forwards swapped for a 1 forwards. I sometimes wish I could barrel roll with z-95s. I sometimes wish I could take target locks with ties.

-Serissu can give the opposite side of that coin, and the z-95s can personally take and hold onto TLs to bolster their own attacks--especially at opportune moments where a howlrunner might not have lasted. Ties are chained to howlrunner to get better attacks. Z-95s are chained to serissu to get better defense.

My point being, on the field, when you think about how you use them, they really do perform remarkably similarly, and most often are left alone while taking shots and inching their way closer to range 1 on choice targets. In a list comprised of only 1 or the other, I might pick ties because I like barrel rolling. However, in a list with any other ships choices, the faction is the one that dictates the choice.

I've made top 4 with an FA swarm in a 30+ SC. It's my favorite list right now but I haven't played it against the updated Phantom. In practice, I really only use FA as a kill shot and/or last resort (bumped or on an obstacle) and only when necessary. I was initially concerned about the dual Agressor builds but find that, just like with anything else, if you throw a bunch of attack dice at them, they go down.

No tournaments, but 4-0 in friendlies with:

Serissu (20)

+ Elusiveness (2)

+ "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

+ Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

3 x Cartel Spacer (14)

+ "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

+ Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

= 100

I usually run with evade tokens, to maximize defense. General principles are stay in formation and concentrate firepower.

Imo, Z-95s are just incredibly difficult to fly in an archetype that's already difficult to fly

The problem of coordinating multiple ships is exacerbated by one of the most rigid ships in the game and every time I put them on the table I pine for my glorious 1-turn, 5-straight, 2 k-turns, evade action, barrel-roll tie Fighters.

Running 5 of them (2 feedbacks) with Predator + thrusters Xizor is good fun, though.

I've seen Z swarm played well, but even when it goes without a loss in a tourney, it's over 100-150 MoV below the top spot, so it think there's a combination of factors that keep it from hitting the table more frequently.

I've done pretty well with a 6 ship scum swarm, my first time ever doing a 6+ ship list for any faction.

I've been running 3 binayre's, 2 thug's with autoblaster turrets, and palob with blaster turret for a even 100 points.

I do a 5 semi-swarm:

Mux ICT GLITTERSTIM

Y ICT BTL R4

Y ICT R4

Z

Z

For those that play the Feedback Swarm...do you fly in one block formation? Or do you fly in two block formations? I'm thinking that it might be better to split it at times. Possibly.

I have played Xizor Takes a Nap (Xizor + 4 Feedback Zs). I keep the Z's together in formation. It means less bumping into one another if they ion themselves. It also means that if you get in range of an arc dodger, you can put the hurt on it. I have gotten 3 Zs within 1 of the Red Baron...hahahaha