Was recently inspired by Hothie's "Drunken Shark" series of articles and I think I'm going to be running a 7 TIE swarm for the majority of wave 7/8. That being said. I like his list of:

Howlrunner

Backstabber

Black Squad with DTF

Obsidian x3

Academy

But I'm confused about his splitting of the squad. In the 4 TIE "detachment" do you put Howl, the Black, an Obs and the AP? Then fill out the other detachment with Backstabber and 2x Obs? I can't figure out the optimal separation of ships. Any thoughts? Did I miss something key in the article?

It might but just a typo, but your list appears different. In the article I saw he was running 3 APs and only one Obsidian. Your list looks like it has 3 Obsidians and only 1 AP. Is that right? You dropped Swarm Tactics on Howl for the extra Obsidians?

If so that probably changes the split. I suspect that in his version Howlrunner was with the 3 Academies, but it would make sense to have the Black near hear because of DTF. Looking again at his pictures I think he grouped Howlrunner with the Obsidian and Black while Backstabber had the 3 APs.

This is the version that was in the final article summarizing all of the points he had covered. I also think it will be better in the TLT meta we are heading into because of the PS3 advantage over the likes of syndicate thugs and gold squads. hopefully I can blast one of the 4 off of the board before he even gets to shoot.

Could you give me a link to the article please? thinking of starting to fly a swarm this wave too.

If you're worried about Twin Laser Turrets, then I'd definitely aim for PS3-4 pilots - I've been having fun with Black Squadron Pilots with Crack Shot and it's great fun, because you've actually got the firepower to punch out even a Y-wing or B-wing before it shoots.

(My squad at the moment is Howlrunner with Push The Limit & Stealth Device and 5 Black Squadron Pilots with Crack Shot)

Note that if you're building for Twin Laser Turrets, Draw Their Fire ain't gonna help you much as it doesn't stop you getting hit.

On the other hand, turrets aren't too bad for a TIE/ln as you only take damage 1 hit at a time and can't suffer criticals.

Not building for TLTs in particular, the Black is just there to take a little heat off of howl. Alternatively I could drop the black down to an Obsidian to give Howl Swarm Tactics to bump the AP up to PS8 during combat