When two more Swarm lists go up against each other, is there something that one should do apart from just Focus Firing and then K-Turning? I.e., if the opposing Swarm is just Focus Firing and K-Turning, should you be doing something different?

I know it somewhat depends on the specific lists being run, but in general, is there some other tactical aspect or aspects that should be considered?

Thanks for the insights.

Block. If you can park one of your ships in front of your opponent's and get them all to collide and lose their actions, the rest of your squad will be at a great advantage.

Block. If you can park one of your ships in front of your opponent's and get them all to collide and lose their actions, the rest of your squad will be at a great advantage.

Thanks, I'll remember that.

Also, is there a recommended distance from the opposing swarm, before said swarm has flown past you, when you should plan to execute a 3 or 4 K-Turn? I.e. Anticipating that in the movement phase that you're performing said K-Turn, your opponents will fly past you.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a swarm player, but your swarm's composition matters. For example, Rebel and Scum Swarms can take a Target Lock on ships that are in range, but out of arc, while Imperial Ships can reposition with Barrel Roll, or take an Evade if they don't have a shot, if someone's shooting at them. That's about the extent of my advice in the area, but best of luck!

A thought in swarm-on-swarm is to try and avoid the head-on joust; come in from a flank, or from a front corner, if you can. This improves your ability to return focus fire and, depending on the angle, allows you to turn to return fire without having to rely on a K-turn and this allowing you to retain actions.

Remember the goal is to mass fires -- which doesn't mean you have to mass ships. You want the *arcs* to overlap but the ships don't necessarily need to be flying together.

One tactic I've used successfully using that concept in a near-head-to-head is an outward break or blossom. My formation splits left and right at 90 degrees to the oncoming formation, *then* K-turns. It leaves the opponent with a dilemma: which group to follow, or follow both? If they turn to mass on one group, the other group is behind them; if they split, once you K-turn you've massed fires on the center of his split formation. If you do this where you move last due to higher PS or initiative, you can really screw your opponent up. It does require some patience to execute, but I've smoked BBBB lists doing this maneuver with a bunch of Z-95s.

Always remember that when you're facing another swarm, taking the joust to them is a big gamble (and the same can be said of jousting any list into a list of equal or greater numbers of enemy ships). If you trust your piloting more than you trust your dice, attack at an angle.

When you've set-up a not-head-on fight, most of the things said in this video basically apply:

...With the caveat that the The Maneuver exists in X-Wing (the K-turn), because it's a game first and a simulation second, and a game wouldn't be a lot of fun if there was nothing you could do after the guy got behind you.

Sorry to bump an older thread, but I've been playing with swarms and small-swarms a lot lately and would love to instigate discussion on the topic.

I personally love the viability of the Straight Swarm in this game, be it TIEs or Headhunters. Everyone else has given solid advice, and the crux of it comes down to having more shots than your opponent in a Swarm-to-Swarm match. As far as tactical options, well, the basic idea is to have a more advantageous deployment and encounter than your opponent. You're both bidding on numbers, so anything you can do to weight your numbers more than theirs is important; have more shots at the same targets, have fewer ships within range of your opponent, etc etc.

If it is at all possible, have your own ships angle through the obstacles more directly than your opponent. the tighter and larger your block of Swarm, the better. I've been using a lot of Headhunters lately, so anticipating movement is huge due to their dial and lack of Barrel Roll/Boost. TIEs are much easier for positioning, although I find the shields on the Headhunters are worth more than the TIE dial and AGI.

The absolute most important thing you can do is anticipate movement, and swing things in your favour (generally speaking, having more arcs on your opponent). Try to see where they will Bank, Turn, or K-Turn. TIEs love using their 1-Turn to keep you in arc, while Headhunters have the 1-Straight and 1-Bank to come in slow and plink away. What do you have? What does your opponent have? Where will they want to change angle, or turn around? Can you bring shots to bear when they do so? If you can't, stay out of arc if possible.

Always seek to put your opponent at a disadvantage. It isn't always easy to see where and how that applies, but you want to exploit any advantage you spot. Always commit to fighting on your own terms, and refuse to engage on the enemy's terms. Bump, block, and zoom out of range when you need to; don't be afraid to give up your shot if the opponent is also without a target. The advantages here are different for the different sides: Headhunters can Target Lock for a future round, while TIEs can Barrel Roll to gain distance or a favourable next-turn maneouvre.

With a Swarm moreso than any other list archetype, you must be mindful of the future. Do not let the present cloud your judgement, and always look to press the advantage of your numbers!

There is a lotta little tactics you might use in different situations. For example, pay attention to who moves first and where k-turns land. If you move second, park your ships in your opponent's k-turns the turn you joust, and then k-turn yourself after. Your opponent is forced to turn about, slow boat forwards, or bump. Your k-turn should land after his ships move.

Other tricks I like to use is to place asteroids such that deploying in the middle of the edge is unsuitable and to protect a horizontal lane through the middle. Deploy to get in file or double file, fly straight to the horizontal lane and turn. Your formation should be in a line formation moving towards the enemy. If your opponent cant shuffle his formation, you will meet his squad in file or double file.

Agree on blocking. Generally swarms want to slow-roll into range and get two turns of massed fire. If you move first, accelerating one guy up to full tilt and parking where your opponent will land creates a massive 'traffic jam'. Said fighter will probably be shot down in the ensuing mess - because he'll probably have several range one shots on it - but it means that for a critical opening volley, you'll have target locks/focus tokens and they won't.

Plan your approach. Swarms are swarms, but some formations take up less space than others. If you deploy second, you can force him to come to you and asteroids can help break up his formation.

Going down the flank helps too. if you can force him to do a hard turn, then a 3 x 2 box becomes a 2 x 3 column - which usually means either his back two ships are out of range in the first shot, or his front two ships fall a range band closer, giving you some easy targets. One common trick is deploying in a corner and heading along your board edge - as noted, you can then turn into line.

One big problem with swarm-on-swarm fights - at least for the classic swarmer, the TIE Fighter, is that your opponent often has a slower minimum speed than you do.

If you want to outmanouvre your opponent - easier with TIE fighters versus headhunters rather than the other way around - then split a swarm into two partial pinwheels. The pinwheel formation is a cock-eyed square, such that you can turn the ships by 45' and the corners just miss each other - if you set up this way, you can manouvre freely, banking or turning, and the ships will stay nailed to each other without colliding. It reduces the amount of manouvres you need to keep track of, which is a godsend. A TIE swarm broken up into two pinwheels sort of behaves like two manouvreable large base ships.

Roll better then your opponent.

The rule of 11:

As an imp i have a motto "don't joust when you can flank" and i stand by it, even with the defender i'll never come it straight on if i can use superior movement to get where a large base ship cant.

Remember people, this topic is for Swarm vs Swarm matches, not swarms vs arc-dodgers or large ships or whatever.

For swarm vs swarm, your tactics will depend on various factors in each individual match-up. Who has the lower pilot skill in general? Who has the lowest pilot skill ship and who has the highest pilot skill ship? Who has initiative? Who has more ships? Who has more variety of ships in their list?

If your ships outnumber your opponent's, it is recommended that you keep them together in a loose formation, so that all of your arcs overlap but not too tight so that your ships can easily split and block a wide area of space in front of the group when the need arises. If you have more ships than your opponent, than that means your ships are (theoretically) weaker than your opponent's ships on an individual level, and your advantage comes from your superior numbers. Staying together ensures that advantage of mass is maintained, splitting up will give your opponent the opportunity to prevent your ships from uniting their fire each turn.

If you are outnumbered, you might want to split your list into 2 groups, one of which will act as bait while the other acts as a flanking force (edit: your opponent is the one that chooses which is the bait and which is the flanker, but there are subtle things you can do to influence their choice). You attack from 2 separate but converging angles, and your opponent should be forced to choose to attack one of your groups or the other. Whichever group they don't attack is your flanking group, and you use the bait group to tangle them up and deny them actions and k-turns while your flanking group attacks them. This is assuming your opponent is keeping their whole list together, if they split against you, unite your forces and attack with full force against whatever fraction of their list you can isolate from the rest.