Epsilon Leader's ability reads: "At the start of the Combat phase, remove 1 stress token from each friendly ship at Range 1."
Has anyone tried running Epsilon Leader as part of a TIE Swarm, with the TIEs having Push the Limit?
Something like this:
Epsilon Leader (19 points)
4x Black Squadron Pilot
-->Each with Push the Limit
1x Obsidian Squadron Pilot (filler)
100 points exact
If so, how was it? Was it fun to play? Was it strong?
haven't tried that but used him as a wingman for soontir a bit which was interesting.
Sounds like an interesting idea, but a 17 point tie is no longer a swarm ship imho. And still dies like a 12 point tie.
I think you are going to run into issues with everyone trying to fit into the range 1 bubble and bumping lots.
Sounds like an interesting idea, but a 17 point tie is no longer a swarm ship imho. And still dies like a 12 point tie.
I think you are going to run into issues with everyone trying to fit into the range 1 bubble and bumping lots.
Howlrunner. I think people are quite competent with range 1 bubbles. And it dies like a 15 point TIE, because it is of the FO variety.
Sounds like an interesting idea, but a 17 point tie is no longer a swarm ship imho. And still dies like a 12 point tie.
I think you are going to run into issues with everyone trying to fit into the range 1 bubble and bumping lots.
Howlrunner. I think people are quite competent with range 1 bubbles. And it dies like a 15 point TIE, because it is of the FO variety.
He's talking about the Blacks, which are still old school TIEs. They are still tougher though, since they'll most likely have evade and focus at almost all times. The problem here is that the opponent will focus down one of them, making most of the evade tokens useless.
Also, I'm not convinced that a PTL Black is worth more than Night Beast, who has similar action economy, better pilot skill and costs two points less. This is generally a problem of all mid teen cost TIES; they compete with Night Beast, Backstabber and Dark Curse. I think there is a place for Blacks, but as support ships with Draw Their Fire, Wingman, that sort of thing. Push The Limit is much stronger on FOs, specifically Omega Pilot/Ace/Leader.
Ah yes, I missunderstood that, I thought he was talking about Epsilon Leader (I mixed up the point cost there).
I would consider running her in a normal TIE swarm to have a weaker white K effect.
You can run her with three shuttles. Those shuttles become way more agile.
Though the build that intrigues me most is two shuttles, Epsilon Leader, and Soontir.
She can help shepherd the space cows, and provide bug-out support if ol' Fel gets double-stressed or something.
Would be interesting to try something like this:
Colonel Vessery
- Crack Shot
Epsilon Leader
Dark Curse
Omicron Group Pilot
- Fire Control System
- Fleet Officer
- Rebel Captive
Seems like a pretty strange combo, but who knows, it might just work. What I have in mind is formation flying and knife fighting. Fleet Officer provides focuses for the TIEs, leaving them free to evade or barrel roll. Epsilon Leader ensures whitish turns for Vessery and the OGP and S-loops for himself. Both EL and OGP provides target locks for Vessery. Dark Curse is sort of the odd one out, but seeing as he's so annoying he's usually 16 points well spent.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
You could do Epsilon Leader with PTL Howlrunner and either 5 Academy TIEs, 4 Epsilon Squad TIE/fos, or 4 Black Squads with Crackshot.
Howlrunner Turtles up and tries not to die in the first round. Epsilon Leader clears her stress. If Howlrunner gets burnt down Epsilon Leader is there to permit chain K-Turning.
If you're running a swarm action economy, then logically you want offensive, not defensive action economy.
Because an opponent can (and will) focus down ships in a swarm, having 4 ties focus+evade is marginally better than just focus - 3 evade tokens won't get used in many situations, as only one tie will be shot at.
And when you compare the cost for those useless evades - PTL black vs academy pilots - it just doesn't make sense.
And you won't get offensive action economy on ties that is better than howlrunner + swarm.
So, if you want to make epsilon leader work, look for action-starved ships that want to use their actions offensively and have access to PTL. I think defenders & bombers maybe?
I almost think Epsilon Leader is better with TIE FO's because they have more red maneuvers than normal Tie Fighters. I like them with S-loop as it gives them a lot of options.
Epsilon leader can make one hell of a fortress. Just bump into those shuttles each turn and they can indefinitely stay put. Thrown in Advanced Sensors and the shuttle can still perform actions.
I've ran Ep leader with howl, mauler, omega squad and black squad all with PTL (cept Ep leader) and stealth device on howl. I ran it as a fun list to try out my f/I's alongside my l/n's but the list performed waaay better than I thought. It's 3-0 so far and I thought I'd get wiped with just 5 ties at 100 points
Edited by RauhughesI think Howlrunner, Ep leader, and 5 academies would have some merit. Maybe through PTL on Howlrunner for evade and focus every round.
I ran Omega Ace with push and Epsilon yesterday, 3 times I got Omegas ability of, twice it was 3 crits.
You're probably better off runiing Epsilon as part of a traditional Howlrunner swarm.
Howlrunner and 6 Academies is 90 points. Make an Academy Epsilon Leqder and now you're at 97, so PtP or Hull on howl or whatever. Now you have Howlrunner's crazy bonus /and/ the ability to do semi-white mass K-turns with all of your ships.
Omega Leader (ptl) [24]
Howlrunner (ptl) [21]
Epsilon Leader [19]
3 Academies [36]
total: 100
I've thought about this nonsense but need another blue core firs.
Or without blue core:
I really like this idea:
Epsilon Leader + Twin Ion Engine Mk2
Howlrunner + PTL
Night Beast + Twin Ion Engine Mk2
Mauler Mithel + Shield Upgrade + PTL
Black Sq. Pilot + Opportunist
Total: 99pts
Epsilon Leader removes all of the stress tokens that you get from PTLs, and also clears any stress the Black Sq. pilot might have so he can use his Opportunist. He'll most likely get to use his Opportunist, as he attacks last, and by that point the defender will have had to defend against several attacks already--Mauler's PTL'd attack, Night Beast's focused-evaded (or focus barrel roll?) attack, plus Howlrunner's re-rolls all around.
I put shield on Mauler because I think he'll be attacked first, but also because I had five extra points and didn't see any reason to give everyone else Twin Ion Engine mk2. I don't like the idea of Targeting Computer because it's slightly redundant with Howly.
Edit to comment: I probably wouldn't fly this when opponents are flying 4 Y TLTs, as that list can remove 2 TIE fighters per round (and certainly at least 1 and 1/2 TIEs). This list wouldn't have a chance.
Edited by ZiusdraI got all excited because I thought I had a brilliant double defender build with epsilon leader, but I looked today and it's two points over the line. Daaaamnit.
Colonel Vessery (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Rexler Brath (37)
Push the Limit (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
"Epsilon Leader" (19)
Total: 102
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
I figured it was beautiful. Two sources of target locks for vessery's ability, E.L to clear the stress from brath's PTL, and to enable vessery and brath both to use their red hard turns more easily.
Vessery with Vi so he can shoot before brath, using brath's Tl and hopefully stripping away shields before brath lights the target up with Tl/focus hlc to try and flip crits with the focus.
Any way to rejig this list so kt works? Mangler canon on brath? Doesn't seem nearly as good. 
The HLC isn't needed, drop it and trick the Defenders out. Don't replace it with Mangler, though. You could go with PTL on both Defenders to get more use out of Epsilon Leader, losing the nice order of fire. Leaving Vessery with VI and getting both Defenders TIE mk2 also is an option, leaves you with 3 points for an Ion Pulse Missile, Advanced Homing Missile, Stealth Device for Epsilon Leader or just initiative.
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/323322/4k-all-day
Had fun with this list. Won a few casual games with it.
Yes, I have ran Him, Howl with PTL and 4 Epsilon Squads. It's pretty sweet actuall. Being able to K-turn off the start and K-turn back is a pretty neat trick to have
I've ran Ep leader with howl, mauler, omega squad and black squad all with PTL (cept Ep leader) and stealth device on howl. I ran it as a fun list to try out my f/I's alongside my l/n's but the list performed waaay better than I thought. It's 3-0 so far and I thought I'd get wiped with just 5 ties at 100 points
I think I will try this sometime. It is similar to the kind of build I was referring to.