Pffft, 16 TIE Fighters. You go for 8 TIE Phantoms and autowin against everything. Seriously, what beats that at 200 points besides for 7x Shadow Squadron? You also get below the 12 of one ship limit that apparently exists. Can I have a source please?

You think TIE Fighters moving in formation is beautiful, just wait until you see synchronized cloaking and decloaking.

You also get below the 12 of one ship limit that apparently exists. Can I have a source please?

Its a limit in the epic play rules that many people have adopted into any large point game.

Yesterday a friend played a casual 200 pts local hobby store game, casual. His opponent ( a kid ) purchased 16 basic ties. "my tie goblins will smash you" He deployed a "tie brigade" 8 ships abreast, ordered in columns. The.only obstacles were 2 asteroids plus one debris ( bad ).

The kid rolled badly and my friend selected two Y wings with Assault Missiles plus bombs...he won.

But...is this a common tactic, or just a weird move made by a 14 years old kid? Napoleonic x win, warhammer fantasy x wing...

First of the OP said it was a casual 200 point game. It was not an epic game, so it didn't have to follow the "only 12 of each kind of ship" rule. It was also not a standard 100 point game. So it is clearly in the area of, "what fun types of games can we make up for ourselves to play" for that reason I don't see anything wrong with 16 TIES. I mean if it is a casual game where you have already made some changes to basic game set up and you don't want your opponent to play 16 TIEs you just tell them so. You two are making up the rules at that point.

As for missiles on Y-wings, dumb kids do dumb things, mistaking missiles for torpedoes doesn't even make the list.

On to the original question, this whole line my ships up across the play area thing. My guess is this kid just didn't know a better way to deploy them. It isn't a good way to do it, but it may not have even occured to him to put them in front of each other or better yet stagger them into a pinwheel formation.

If I ever fielded 16 TIEs (which I want to try out now) I think I would group them into four groups of 4 in pinwheel formations.

Two rows of eight TIEs is just a standard swarm but, y'know, bigger. It's not like it's all that weird, especially if Howlrunner's in there, somewhere.

It's hardly "Napoleonic" to fly in formation, people've been doing it for a really long time in this game.

The key element was the Assault Missiles! The Ties needed to break formation to avoid their increased damage capability!

I...yes, thank you, I understand that the Assault Missiles were the problem, and that breaking formation against them is a good idea.

I also know that Y-Wings don't have a missile slot, so I've gotta say, I'd be really surprised if someone started shooting Assault Missiles at me from Y-Wings, right? Which means, since I really wouldn't be expecting Assault Missiles, why would I break formation?

Two rows of eight TIEs is just a standard swarm but, y'know, bigger. It's not like it's all that weird, especially if Howlrunner's in there, somewhere.

It's hardly "Napoleonic" to fly in formation, people've been doing it for a really long time in this game.

The key element was the Assault Missiles! The Ties needed to break formation to avoid their increased damage capability!

I...yes, thank you, I understand that the Assault Missiles were the problem, and that breaking formation against them is a good idea.

I also know that Y-Wings don't have a missile slot, so I've gotta say, I'd be really surprised if someone started shooting Assault Missiles at me from Y-Wings, right? Which means, since I really wouldn't be expecting Assault Missiles, why would I break formation?

Which is one of the reasons it is a good idea to take a look at your opponents list before you begin. A comment of "Hey, so you are taking Assault Missiles with your Torpedo slots..." or evern "You know their is a 12 ship limit" (if you actually believe their is for non-standard, non-epic play) Either way a lot of the problems discussed in this thread would have been addressed. Oh, and it is also a really good idea to check to see how many Assault Missiles your oppenent has if you flying a TIE Swarm.

It was the most casual play..."eh man, wanna play? Eerrr...ok. Give me 10 minutes to open my blisters... ". That kind of game.

The question is...does people out there fly shoulder to shoulder?.

Actually, due to things like rules of engagement and war crime law, war is pretty much as fair and balanced as it could be.

Not been my experience of warfare. What about yours?

Well considering your name, your experience of warfare was retreating and leaving the Spartans to die ;)

It was the most casual play..."eh man, wanna play? Eerrr...ok. Give me 10 minutes to open my blisters... ". That kind of game.

The question is...does people out there fly shoulder to shoulder?.

You can't do formation banks if your ships are in contact. They will bump. Basic hypotenuse problem. Actually, you need about the width of a maneuver template between ships abreast if you plan on banking them together.

I think the same. Perhaps you can go 5 straight first turn, Immelman the second and then break. Not very difficult move.

Where did anyone say the kid was flying them with their bases touching? All the OP said was in a line.

The were shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps there was a gap of one or two milimeters...no more.

Apparently the ancient Greeks must have played WH: Fantasy to have come up with the phalanx formation. So did the designers of chess for laying out the pawns in a horizontal row.

Or maybe it's just a common sense way to organize a large number of similar units that can only attack forward? The kid clearly has the makings of a strategist in his DNA for intrinsically understanding the strength of the phalanx, although he needs some help with life choices, like spending $250 on a Core Set and 14 TIE Fighter Expansions.

While a base-to-base phalanx is not an ideal formation in X-Wing, it can be thought of as a primitive precursor to the more advanced formations we use in X-Wing now (off-set, pinwheel, etc.).

Apparently the ancient Greeks must have played WH: Fantasy to have come up with the phalanx formation. So did the designers of chess for laying out the pawns in a horizontal row.

Or maybe it's just a common sense way to organize a large number of similar units that can only attack forward? The kid clearly has the makings of a strategist in his DNA for intrinsically understanding the strength of the phalanx, although he needs some help with life choices, like spending $250 on a Core Set and 14 TIE Fighter Expansions.

While a base-to-base phalanx is not an ideal formation in X-Wing, it can be thought of as a primitive precursor to the more advanced formations we use in X-Wing now (off-set, pinwheel, etc.).

Now if extending shields to other ships was a thing, the Phalanx might be worth something.......

Actually, due to things like rules of engagement and war crime law, war is pretty much as fair and balanced as it could be.

Not been my experience of warfare. What about yours?

Well considering your name, your experience of warfare was retreating and leaving the Spartans to die ;)

Yeah. Stupid Spartans! They kept greasing each other up with my spear oil.....