Hi, I'm a pretty new player and I'm thinking about taking a TIE Swarm to my next tournament. Here are the two options I'm considering:

Classic 8:

4x Academy

4x Obsidian

Or:

5x Academy

2x Alpha Squadron Interceptors with Auto thrusters.

Any advice on which will give me the best chance at tournament success?

Thanks!

I believe you will find that TIEs without Ms. Howlrunner are frustratingly underpowered and will have a tough time damaging all but the most lumbering of ships. Based on that, I would take #2 withe Interceptors to get some oomph in the list.

Ms H. With PTL then some Academy and Obsidians to your flavor. You may also want to look at adding Backstabber or Mauler.

Perhaps the answer is in your opponent's list. Versus low Agility targets 8 generic Ties are more than OK.

8 allows you to spread out and doesn't limit you to formations.

Against a super Dash or IG, ideally what you want is to have a loose blob of all/most of your ships directly in front of one so that it gets bumped no matter what.

Awesome tips, thanks! Since I have limited ships at the moment I'm going to try this variant in a friendly game today.

Howlrunner, swarm tactics, stealth device

4x Academy

1x Saber Squadron, predator, stealth device

Cheers!