Just to get my $.02 worth of TIE/Ad excitement. How about a variation of this list, made to close into range 1 and stay there. As close to impossible to hit as can be done, and at R1 with the extra attack die even TIE/Ad can get some real damage through.

Commander Alozen (25):

- TIEx1, Expert Handling, Sensor Jammer, Proton Rockets, Stealth Device

Zertik Strom (26):

- TIEx1, Expert Handling, Sensor Jammer, Stealth Device

Carnor Jax (26):

- Royal Guard TIE, Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Shield Upgrade

Your opponent will not get an extra attack die, Carnor makes his attacks and defense lose focus, Sensor Jammer with no focus available makes his already reduced shots exceptionally bad by consistently stuffing one of his hits, Expert Handling to ensure his TL's get discarded even if he takes them, and all this shooting at Ag 4 (or autothrusters). I'm not sure EH will be all that useful on PS 5/6 ships, but other than fiddling around with the EPT slot I'm not sure how much more evasive we could possibly make a list.

I just crafted a list like that as soon as I saw him. All the lols! I dropped Alozen for 3 academies to block focuses as well as add pain.

I am also thinking Elusiveness on Strom. Against two attack ships your changing one to an eyeball and rerolling the other, and the reroll can't be modified again. It's absolutely brutal. Even against 3 dice, they are averaging one blank. You alter the other two and you become wildly hard to hit.

Ordnance is the only fear. All range 1 cannons are 3 attack already. I would almost consider Shield upgrade over stealth to weather even more crits against things like autoblasters, marksmenship and manglers

Great against swarms, not so great against anything with 3-dice guns, horrible against a list with cannons or a mobile turret that can shoot you while it flies away.

Sensor Jammers on an already tanky ship just make it even more crippling when Carnor Jax dies first. It's unlikely that your opponent will choose to shoot at the Advanceds instead of Carnor, and then your Sensor Jammers are wasted and you'll wish you had Accuracy Correctors or ATC when your Advanceds are rolling 1 hit each. Expert Handling is a horrible EPT on a ship that can already Barrel Roll. It's not even a combo with Carnor because they're just going to be Target Locking Carnor first anyway.

Also depends greatly on your opponent's ability to control range against you. If they can force range 2 on the first exchange using the rule of 11, you will be in trouble.

edit: Just realized I could have been more succinct by just saying that this list is an upgrade soup. Too many points spent on upgrades that aren't really doing much for you.

I think Expert Handling is overkill on the Advances. I'm going to try and kill Carnor first no matter what.

Great against swarms, not so great against anything with 3-dice guns, horrible against a list with cannons or a mobile turret that can shoot you while it flies away.

Sensor Jammers on an already tanky ship just make it even more crippling when Carnor Jax dies first. It's unlikely that your opponent will choose to shoot at the Advanceds instead of Carnor, and then your Sensor Jammers are wasted and you'll wish you had Accuracy Correctors or ATC when your Advanceds are rolling 1 hit each. Expert Handling is a horrible EPT on a ship that can already Barrel Roll. It's not even a combo with Carnor because they're just going to be Target Locking Carnor first anyway.

Also depends greatly on your opponent's ability to control range against you. If they can force range 2 on the first exchange using the rule of 11, you will be in trouble.

edit: Just realized I could have been more succinct by just saying that this list is an upgrade soup. Too many points spent on upgrades that aren't really doing much for you.

Lol: Of course this isn't a super-competitive list, it was never meant to be. On the other hand, if I had a penny for every time somebody underestimated Sensor Jammer I would never have to worry about paying for a Worlds trip again. Sensor Jammer is at its best at close range. Your opponent either bumps, has to spend actions on repositioning (Barrel Roll especially), or K-Turns, any of which cost him the focus he needs to hit you. Even if they get to focus, high PS ships are forced to use their focus every time they fire, making it realistically possible to hit them even if they have Ag 3, low PS ships are forced to take damage they could have focused to avoid in order to have a realistic chance of hitting you in return. Either way, forcing their focus spend is a big deal. Even when an opponent manages to stick the range 2 exchange, they will need to do so using ships at PS 8+, else Carnor will boost in and make focus useless anyway. Assuming they manage all that, it still only helps for a single round of shooting before you get into knife range. I really don't see what cannons have to do with anything, all of the defenses are equally effective against them as they are against primary weapons, and the TIE/Ad is one of the few Ag 3 ships with enough health to weather a shot from an HLC.

I agree Expert Handling is a poor choice, and noted as much in the OP, it's there for the lols. It is the only upgrade here that could be accused of not doing anything (or certainly not doing enough to justify its inclusion). If you wanted to make this somewhat competitive, you could trade EH and the Prockets in for some actionless economy choices like Predator.

Clearly this list suffers from a Pilot Skill range that leaves it vulnerable to repositioning elites. Still, it could be a very entertaining list to fly and will have more game than most folks would expect when you set it on the table across from them.

Commander Alozen (25)

Predator (3)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

TIE/x1 (0)

Zertik Strom (26)

Predator (3)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

TIE/x1 (0)

Carnor Jax (26)

Push the Limit (3)

Autothrusters (2)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Total: 99

How bout this?

If you're looking at a list with a ship you don't want to shoot at at rsnfe 3 (because Autothrusters), a pair of ships you don't want to be at range 1 of (Jax + Strom), I think we need to pair it with a Decimator (or Lambda) + Tactician. Let's just give our opponents a series of bad options.

I'm thinking, as opposed to Alozen, I'd rather see some regular TIE fighters in there...

Carnor Jax (26)

Push the Limit (3)

Autothrusters (2)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Stealth Device (3)

Total 34

Zertik Strom (25)

Predator (3)

TIE/x1 (0)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Total 29

Mauler Mithel (17)

Opportunist (4)

Total 21

Black Squadron Pilot (16)

Intimidation (2)

Total 18

If you manage to get everything to work right, which is surely easier said than done, you have Mauler Mithel rolling 5 dice (and everybody else except the BSP rolling hard too) vs a -1 Agi target that isn't getting its bonus die in return fire.

I always find it funny how much people underestimate SJ. That thing is like liquid gold. That said, not sure if I like it on the advanced. I do think it needs some ATC lovin. Not a fan of AC regardless of the forum hype.

The pillow-fisted of that list is just begging for a "THIS is a knife" reference

From experience, swarms and mini-swarms are the types of ships that get the most range 1 engagements (mainly because they block like mother******s) so I'll be trying a Strom + mini-swarm

The Predator variety seems right up the alley to deal with opposing mini-swarm ships

Predator, ATC Strum (29)

Howling Howlie (18)

The Stabber of Backs (16)

3 Academies (36)

a nice and very basic way to start experimenting

My question with Strom: is it all range 1 bonuses, or just the extra die? For instance: can a ship within range 1 of Strom use autoblaster? Does Strom negate Scum!Boba's ability? What about Kavil with an autoblaster turret firing outside their arc? If Strom and Jax are on opposite sides, can Strom spend an evade token at range 1?

The fact that I had to work this hard to find even a few questions and edge cases means they wrote Strom's card text really well.

My question with Strom: is it all range 1 bonuses, or just the extra die? For instance: can a ship within range 1 of Strom use autoblaster? Does Strom negate Scum!Boba's ability? What about Kavil with an autoblaster turret firing outside their arc? If Strom and Jax are on opposite sides, can Strom spend an evade token at range 1?

The fact that I had to work this hard to find even a few questions and edge cases means they wrote Strom's card text really well.

It's just the extra die. "Range combat bonus" is specifically defined in the rulebook on page 10:

Range Combat Bonuses

Depending on the range between the ships, the

attacker or defender may roll additional dice during this

attack (see “Roll Attack Dice” and “Roll Defense Dice”

on pages 11–12). Range combat bonuses only occur

when a ship is attacking with its primary weapon.

Talonbane Cobra won't like this very much. Then again, you'd probably be building around PS9 rather than his ability.

Anyway I'm probably with Ficklegreendice for now; mini-swarm will get some good mileage out of Strom's ability. May be worth seeing how the list plays with this setup, and then build from there.

Low PS Interceptors might like him as well, they can block and loop around, keeping at range 1 most of the time without nearly as much fear of 4-dice return shots. Strom (VI, x1 Title/ATC), Jax (PTL, Autothrusters) and 2 Alphas (Autothrusters) is 99 pts and could be fun as a hyper aggressive list.

I... I really want to joust a swarm with that...

Knife fights become furballs that you cant maneuver around without overlapping.

If you want to knife fight with a Tie Advanced you would want to take Adv sensors to get TL and focus actions to help your 3 dice attacks. That is what made B-wings such a monster in those cluster furballs in the wave 3 age.

Accuracy corrector won't work as well unless you plan on shooting through a furball at range 2-3 but in a cluster you usually have no problems finding targets at range 1.