If you are flying a swarm, howlrunner never hurts - just know she'll be shot at first, so SD isn't a bad idea...

Here is an example of a Howlrunner swarm that I would use.

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[unnamed Squadron]
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Click to change squadron details

100 points

Pilots
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Black Squadron Pilot (17) x 3
TIE Fighter (14), Ruthlessness (3)

“Howlrunner” (24)
TIE Fighter (18), Ruthlessness (3), Stealth Device (3)

Omega Squadron Pilot (25)
TIE/fo Fighter (17), Weapons Guidance (2), Ruthlessness (3), Stealth Device (3)

You might notice that there is a theme.

Just got to be careful that ruthlessness does not affect one of your other ships if you are running a swarm. The card says you must choose another range 1 ship of the defender other than yourself. Yourself meaning the ship that triggers ruthlessness. This does not protect other ships in your swarm that are also taking range 1 shots that turn.

I'm going to be testing a howl swarm with epsilon leader.

Howl with PTL can get focus and evade and have the stress removed by epsilon's ability. Also epsilon will allow for consecutive K turns

Oh I know, that's part of the fun :-)

I would not put a 3pt ept on a 14pt ship for 3hull. >< And then mass them.

Anyway. Sadly Howl has some of the same issue. You gotta make sure you control range, dont let her be an easy target.

I liked Black DTF the best before TLT meta. Its still good versus most things: VaderATC, Palpatine etc.

Nowadays its very very important to get Obsidians, as TLT will hurt.

Howl should buff at least 3 other ships imo. So 4 ties minimum for a miniswarm.

The nastiest TIE swarm I've seen involved Howl with Determination and Hull Upgrade, and two Black Squadron pilots with Draw Their Fire. You don't want to shoot Howlrunner because she's the hardest TIE to kill (4 hull, and even if the Black Squaddies let you deal a crit, there's a chance she'll discard it), but you don't want to ignore her because she's giving out all those free rerolls to the focused, lower-PS TIEs who haven't shot yet.

"Howlrunner" (18)

I played howlie in a 5 elite tie list and she was golden.

Howl

Ptl

Stealth

Epsilon leader

Omega squadron

Ptl

Mauler Mithel

Ptl

Black squadron

Ptl

I was against a rebel swarms kinda build so the PS advantage worked out great and epsilon leader lets you abuse ptl in ways never before possible. A really fun list to fly when my only intention was to compare the new ties to the old and it ended up being fairly solid!

Whenever I see Howlrunner on the table, she usually dies long before she adds much to the game. I'm on the side of gamers that tend to find better uses for the points.

Sorry to interrupt you all

But the question was not how awesome your swarm squads are (yes, I know they are ) , the question was when does Howlrunner pay off. How many TIE fighters should at least be with her.

Personally, I feel that Howl needs at least 4 ties with her. I know some people fly Howl + 3 (I prefer 5 academies if the points permitted it). The less ties you take with Howl, the less of a priority it is to take her out.

I would never consider Howl + 2.

"Howlrunner" (18)

Cool Hand (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Good vs TLT. Swarm spam / block vs large turrets.

Overwhelming # of ships vs Miranda.

Swarm is good.

Is cool hand even a legal card yet?

Personally, I feel that Howl needs at least 4 ties with her. I know some people fly Howl + 3 (I prefer 5 academies if the points permitted it). The less ties you take with Howl, the less of a priority it is to take her out.

I would never consider Howl + 2.

I wont consider anything below Howl +5

If I am at +4, another slightly cheaper TIE (mauler, backstabber, dark curse) ends up doing more damage for less points.

Sorry to interrupt you all

But the question was not how awesome your swarm squads are (yes, I know they are ) , the question was when does Howlrunner pay off. How many TIE fighters should at least be with her.

5 or more.

If you consider howlrunner as an academy that gives out predator to other ties she breaks even with 2 other ships 12+3+3 = 18 points. Assuming you want increased value out of her (and who doesn't like value) you should run her with 3 other ships. Hence the beauty of howl + 3 academy mini swarms.

My go to imp lists are almost always howl w/ swarm tactics, backstabber, two Academy pilots, and throw in your favorite ace. I've run it with whisper, soontir, vader, rexlar... Works well with any of them. Howl is well worth it with three other ties, especially when she is making one of them an 8.

My general thought on flying her is this,

1. don't add any upgrades (maybe apart from determination, but that's a big maybe)

2. realise that she will get shot first, so always take an evade with her, try to stay at R3 with her for the first engagement

3. did she survive, great, if not, to bad, but at least the didn't shoot at the rest of your swarm

Sorry to interrupt you all

But the question was not how awesome your swarm squads are (yes, I know they are ) , the question was when does Howlrunner pay off. How many TIE fighters should at least be with her.

It's been a while but someone crunched the math, I believe that the answer was howl plus 3. Tournament data at least seems to support it as anchor +howl with 3 ties was pretty dominant for a while.

I thought ages ago someone figured out that Howl was worth 2 academies, that is, the damage output decrease by destroying 2 academies was the same as destroying Howlrunner when facing that list, assuming Howl hadn't fired yet.

I would think that based on the premium for ept ties + predator would mean that Howl + 3 Academies is slightly less points than 3 predator BSPs, but would also mean that there would be a slightly higher damage output for the extra tie (being howl). So I would say if you have enough room for 4 ties, you should at least find room to make one of them Howlrunner.

A 2 dice attack with F yields 1.5 <booms> A 2 dice attack with F and a Reroll yields 1.83 <boom>. Typically you're losing a ship in order to field Howl. So, the .33 added boom needs to be greater than the 1.5 from the additional ship. Therefore, math says you have to have 5 shots aided by Howl in order to break even.

But then as others have said, there's the fact that Howl is often targeted first and can stay at R3 with an Evade - meaning the rest of your squad stays alive longer, especially if that means she gets a shot in while an academy would have been killed before shooting.

In that regard, often I believe players make a mistake on target selection. If she's only supporting 2-4 ships, you're probably better off trying to take out the academies instead of howl. If you have 2 3F predator attacks on one, you're likely going to kill it before it gets to shoot. Then you've blocked 1.83 <booms> right there. On the other hand, you're unlikely to be able to kill Howl before the Academies shoot (R3 gives an extra agility die, evade token gives an extra hull, and PS8 denies the second predator reroll), so you're going to be taking the full force. And then you can easily take out the R1 academy the next turn, preventing a 3 dice return fire, and leaving Howl supporting 0-2 ships... At this point she has supported a maximum of 5 shots (if it was Howl + 4) total, which "makes up" for the extra Academy you could have had instead... But with a reduced quantity of ships shooting, even Howls reroll is not worth as much. Plus this is about the time that they have to start breaking up formation due to rocks and your ships and the like.

Howl +3 works for me (it even rhymes!). I tend to give her hull upgrade over SD, but either option makes her a pain to target first.

With my remaining 44 points, I always go with an offensive threat like Vader with Proton Rockets.

This ensures that even if Howl is focused down, she's essentially soaked 4 hits for Vader who's worth almost twice as much.

I believe there was several discussions on this last year, when Whisper+mini Swarm was one of the big dominant lists, so I'll do my best working off long-term memory.

I believe the math came out that Howl+3 Ties vs 5 Ties was close to break even (I think the 5 Ties had a slight edge, but were worth a couple extra points). There was the offensive output that was already mentioned before. However, the 5 Ties give the edge based off durability (diminishing returns as Howl starts to lose wing-men, thus more hull is always nice) and more tactical options (primarily blocking). So, if your list had the other 40+ points that could make use of howlrunner, then it could work out nicely (case in point: 2014 World Finalist list of Whisper+Howl+3 APs). I personally would try to get 5 APs in there for the other benefits, but say whisper would need to be cheaper.

So, don't run howl if you only have 3 ship mini-swarm, have to think about it at a 4 ship mini-swarm, and usually best to have her in the squad at a 5 (or more) 'mini'-swarm.

I'm curious to how well she'd run with PTL and the TIE mkII upgrade...

Not recently because of the meta changes, but I used to run a 6 TIE swarm that was designed to fire before PS5 for the most part that included a "protected" Howlrunner to try and maximize my damage. ​Howl + PtL and Stealth, Mauler, Backstabber, Black Squadron + VI, Black Squadron + DTF, and an Academy with a 1 point initiative bid. Taking Focus and Evade, coupled with the extra defense die from stealth, the ability to suck a crit with the BSP + DTF, and keeping Howl at the back of the squadron usually meant my opponent wasted a lot of shots trying to hit Howlrunner in the initial volley or took shots at my other TIEs after they had already fired. Yes I would loose a TIE or 2 in the joust, but by keeping Howlrunner alive longer her bonus got to help out my other TIE a lot longer into the game then she usually would provide.

Putting Howlrunner into a mini-swarm depends how many points I have available. If I have 42, I'll run Howl + 2 APs but I think that is pushing her effectiveness. I really think she needs 3 other TIEs in the mini-swarm to be effective. At that point you are talking 54-60 points so I need to consider Howl and 3 APS, other named TIEs or 5 APs (at 60 points).

Part of it also depends on what you like to fly.

3 is fine. Remember she doesn't only work with ties. Shuttles and interceptors and Firesprays all like her ability too.