Is it always common to put Swarm Tactics on Howlrunner?

What is another common...or ideal EPT to put onto Howlrunner?

Thanks,

determination

I have played with Howlrunner + Stay on Target + Stealth Device. She atracts a lot of firepower and an extra green dice plus Evade token helps...a lot. And if the enemy has foresighted your dial...simply change maneuver. She must live to give another round of bonus !!!

swarm has picked up in usefulness now that phantoms aren't so dominating anymore

I still prefer either V.I or nothing.

I'm not sure Stay on Target is the best choice for Howlie. For example, lets say all of your TIE's are doing a bank move to focus fire on an enemy ship, but a number of enemy ships are going to have shots back. You don't really benefit from Howlie if you change her move to escape firing arcs because now she's no longer giving your other TIE's her re-roll.

Stealth or hull are probably the most you should spend to keep howlie alive - she's going to die no matter what you do so no point making her too expensive (sort of like Biggs). A black squadron with draw their fire sometimes helps though.

Another idea would be to put Push the Limit on Howlrunner and always take focus + evade. Then have a black squadron with wingman to take the stress away so she can always stay range 1 to the rest of your swarm. I haven't tried this, so I can't say with certainty whether it's really good or not...

I used the Black Squadron Pilot + Draw Their Fire at the last tournament I went to, and it can be incredibly useful for eating crits that would either kill Howlrunner or eliminate her pilot ability. Combining that with Hull Upgrade would give her an enormous amount of staying power compared to normal, at relatively low expense.

Cool. Thanks

I wouldn't put anything expensive on her, and her ability is far more valuable than the actual firepower she offers.

Veteran Instincts, Determination, Swarm Tactics are all nice. Elusiveness is possible but it's a bit expensive and not too powerful.

Mauler Mithel - Veteran Instincts is good again (especially if both he and Howlrunner have it), otherwise Calculation is quite nice.

Black Squadron Pilot - theoretically you can give them anything, but their firepower isn't really enough to justify Ruthlessness, Predator is okay but Howlrunner is more cost-effective (at the cost of nailing you into formation). Draw their Fire is nice, and Wingman is another good one. Swarm Tactics is the final one - a Swarm Tactics chain of TIEs firing first is disconcerting.

A regular opponent of mine puts swarm tactics and stealth device on howl then 'chains' swarm tactics through a sucession of black squadron pilots with an academy at the end.

Its pretty fearsome as its a lot of ships all shooting at PS8

If you can nail Howlrunner early it falls to bits but hes won store tourneys with this list.

Is it always common to put Swarm Tactics on Howlrunner?

What is another common...or ideal EPT to put onto Howlrunner?

No.

It's hard to pick an "ideal EPT" for Howlrunner because people may put different things around her. Swarm Tactics can let other ships shoot earlier. Determination can allow her to discard an occasional critical although having a BSP w/ DTF pulling off crits may be preferable. PtL allows her to do action stacking but her you may want a Wingman around to pull the stress. I guess Stay on Target could be useful but the problem with it is that using it likely destroys your formations and makes Howlrunner less effective. Maybe you could put Predator on her if you want to give her a little more offensive bite but that is really questionable.

What might be an ideal EPT for Howlrunner? Maybe they'll come up with one that allows a ship to forgo attacking for a much better defense although that would put more pressure on her wingmen to compensate.

I've seen Push The Limit to get her a Focus + Evade for protection.

Looking at this again. Was thinking Decoy would be good on HR, especially if she was close to say Kir Kanos Interceptor Ace or Krassis Trelix in the Firespray.

Looking at this again. Was thinking Decoy would be good on HR, especially if she was close to say Kir Kanos Interceptor Ace or Krassis Trelix in the Firespray.

The only problem with Kir Kanos is that both Turr, Jax, and especially Fel are so mutch better then him, if you are going for the Ace's. His ability and lack of an EPT just doesn't cut it in my book. Those three can do so much more than him, for only a few points more.

You take Determination when you want to keep her ability active until she dies, not in the hope of discarding random Pilot crits.

If you have the points for it, Hull and Determination makes her pretty **** tough.

Imho.

Looking at this again. Was thinking Decoy would be good on HR, especially if she was close to say Kir Kanos Interceptor Ace or Krassis Trelix in the Firespray.

Decoy might be useful to bring a low PS HLC to the top of the firing order to strip shields. But that's only helpful if A) there's a big gap in Pilot Skill between HR and the HLC carrier and B) somewhere else in the fleet you have the ability to deal crits (like a mangler or vader crew).

So I'm not sure it worth 2 pts to boost Krassis from 5 to 8, and in the case of Kir Kanos.....no. You're spending 2 extra points to add value to an overpriced interceptor, and the gain is questionnable at best.