At only a few point more than regular ties is any point to not using them instead?

Simple numbers, really. I prefer fielding Interceptors myself, but four regular ties are cheaper than three ints.

In other words, regular ties are good if you want to just flat out overwhelm the opposition. In a 300 point game, you can field 12 squadrons of regular ties. Or 11 if one of those is Howlrunner.

If you're using your TIEs as a screen then you want that screen to be as cheap as possible. That will leave room to ADD Interceptors to your screen as counter punch. The extra speed also lets them get to where they need to be quickly, which you don't need in a screen fighter. 4 TIE squadrons or 3 Interceptor squadrons for about the same points. The 3pt difference might not seem like much (1% of your fleet build) but it's 37% of the cost of a base TIE. And you don't get any increase in survivability with that 3pts. Interceptors are still 3 Health squadrons.

Survivability doesn't increase, but overall damage is significantly higher. Faster speed means you're more likely to engage on your own terms, more dice on initial attack, and especially counter. Even if they die in one attack, they go down swinging.

They certainly seem worth the 3 pts to me, even as a throwaway screen. I've had eyeballs decimated with no consequence. At least Squints would be dealing damage on the way out.

Plus they get even more out of Howlrunner.

I missed the extra attack die. I was thinking that both eyeballs and squints had 3 dice. Still, if you're short on points for a screen, I'd rather have more TIEs then be short using Interceptors. A screen needs at least 3 squadrons in my opinion / limited experience. 6 x 8pts = 48pts to screen two ships. 4 x 11pts = 44pts and is a much thinner screen.

A Star Destroyer in roughly the middle of the board with a cloud of TIEs around it is able to reach out and hit a whole lot of area with a Squadron command. Make those Interceptors, and the long arm of Imperial might clouds a great deal of the battlefield.

if by "few points" you mean "almost 150% the cost"

the interceptor is strictly anti-squadron (even tie fighters are better versus ships because you have more of them). You take them when there's a squadron you need dead or otherwise incapacitated

I would bring howlrunner with those intercepters. Imagine a swarm of intercpters each attacking with 5 dice.

Oh and better yet, counter is an attack so each interceptor should get to counter with 3 dice as well. So one might want to bring Fel. That way the enemy would either attack Howl and get damaged by Fel or attack Fel and get damaged by all the interceptors getting additional dice and get Fel's 3 counter dice..

I'll probably try to use both if possible. A lot of vanilla TIEs to wade in and engage then send in the Interceptors to hammer those pesky Rebs.

I'll probably stick to only one or two per fleet, just enough to keep a ready-reserve that can be flung at a bomber squadron using a token command when need be. ie I will use a small number of them as actual interceptor role fighters.

Other than that, the numerical superiority of the basic TIE is better in my opinion as a space superiority fighter. Using the 4 TIE vs 3 Int comparison, you get an extra 33% hull points to soak damage, more ships to ensure that Swarm keeps working, greater coverage of space to engage enemy fighters as a screening force, and more benefit from Howlrunner's ability. You also gain 33% more anti-ship firepower making them more useful once the fighter war is inevitably won by the glorious Imperial forces.

So in a fighter heavy 300 point Imp list, (say two Vics as ships) I would bring 2 Int's, 5 TIE's, Howlrunner and 2 TIE bombers. Just like the Int's, the bombers would be kept as a command token activated reserve to fling out and blast flanking rebel ships combined with side battery fire from the star destroyers.

Where am I getting all these tokens you ask? I'm in love with Tarkin.

Mind you, as a thought, a combo of Mithel, Fel and an Advanced could put a lot of hurt on a group of rebel fighters and can all be activated together using a Vic's squadron command all for only 45 points.

Move the advanced in first and shoot, then Mithel and do the passive damage and shoot using the advanced for swarm re-roll. Then Fel comes in and shoots with the swarm re-roll as well. Spread the damage around as you want to take advantage of Fel's ability when the Rebels have to shoot at the advanced.

Mind you, as a thought, a combo of Mithel, Fel and an Advanced could put a lot of hurt on a group of rebel fighters and can all be activated together using a Vic's squadron command all for only 45 points.

Move the advanced in first and shoot, then Mithel and do the passive damage and shoot using the advanced for swarm re-roll. Then Fel comes in and shoots with the swarm re-roll as well. Spread the damage around as you want to take advantage of Fel's ability when the Rebels have to shoot at the advanced.

Then use Admiral Chiraneau to move Fel next turn for more area-of-effect damage on anything that's still standing, if you want to get more use out of his ability.

As a Rebel commander I'm really scared of the potential backlash of the counter 2 and the extra dice rolling for Squints. While not quite tougher than the Eyeball that extra speed and punch just might be just enough to make them an awful nuisance to fighter heavy builds. Swarm is also just awful, and I can see them being at least paired up together, or even flying at the same speed as fellow TIE/ln or Advanced squadrons as dampeners (Escort). They have a -lot- of potential fragile as they might be, and while they'll dread coming up against stronger anti-squadron ships and enemy Escort types flown well, they're still going to be irritating at the least because of the speed and Counter.

Agreed. Groups of Tie Interceptors are truly frightening as anti-squadron attackers, probably the best offensive anti-squadron unit in the game. A good Rebel player will likely want to keep a Neb B Escort Frigate within medium range of his squadrons to act as anti-fighter support since Counter doesn't do jack against ships.

Mind you, as a thought, a combo of Mithel, Fel and an Advanced could put a lot of hurt on a group of rebel fighters and can all be activated together using a Vic's squadron command all for only 45 points.

Move the advanced in first and shoot, then Mithel and do the passive damage and shoot using the advanced for swarm re-roll. Then Fel comes in and shoots with the swarm re-roll as well. Spread the damage around as you want to take advantage of Fel's ability when the Rebels have to shoot at the advanced.

Then use Admiral Chiraneau to move Fel next turn for more area-of-effect damage on anything that's still standing, if you want to get more use out of his ability.

Use Admiral Chiraneau with Mithel and Fel. "After you move, each squadron engaged with you suffers one damage." Since Chiraneau lets Mithel move every turn, that's 1 damage on potentially every rebel fighter every turn.

The Empire certainly has some pretty amazing squadron combos.

Edit: That depend entirely on pairing with other ships or squadrons. Rebels have better pilots that operate solo.