I've tried this list a couple of times now. Still haven't managed to pull a win, though there were some close calls.

Maybe it is because there isn't much synergy between ships?

Tie Aces (100 points)

Howlrunner (18)

Backstabber (16)

Dark Curse (16)

Night Beast [Targeting Computer] (17)

Zeta Ace (18)

Epsilon Squadron (15)

I gave the TC to Night Beast because of his free Focus action. Figured maybe he could Focus/Target Lock in a turn.

Dark Curse and Zeta Ace have ended up being the survivors in each battle. But green dice often fail the fragile little ties.

I can usually maintain swarm formation until the enemy barrels into me. Then it becomes a furball and Howlrunner's power only occasionally kicks in.

Any advice on how to tweak or fly this list better would be appreciated.

I've used similar setups before myself in the Epic+ battles my friend and I do with 400-ish points, and the TIE Fighter Aces have always acquitted themselves well. I personally like running mods on five TIEs over six TIEs, but then I only have 5 (2 starters and expansion). If you're leaning that route, Stealth Device on Dark Curse does make him even more annoyingly hard to hit.

It would be cool to trick out 5 ties instead of flying 6. But in the end they are pretty fragile and have very few attack dice.

Have you found it worthwhile to sacrifice 2 attack dice and another hull in order to outfit the other Ties with Hull Upgrades and/or Crackshot?

It would be cool to trick out 5 ties instead of flying 6. But in the end they are pretty fragile and have very few attack dice.

Have you found it worthwhile to sacrifice 2 attack dice and another hull in order to outfit the other Ties with Hull Upgrades and/or Crackshot?

He's talking about Epic, where you have 400 points and can use the TIEs to deal with threats that they can handle (low agility targets). In a 100 point battle, you don't have that luxury. So yeah, 6 TIEs with 2 attack each can struggle against certain builds. Even with Howlrunner re-rolls. You probably want to either go with 7 TIEs or work in one or two ships with more attack dice. If you keep howlrunner, they can benefit from her re-roll too.

Here's an 'old-school' list slightly updated:

Howlrunner w/ Swarm tactics - 20

2 alpha interceptors - 18 x 2 (36)

backstabber - 16

Obsidian - 13

Epsilon - 15

99

Or you could embrace the crack (everyone's doing it):

Howlrunner w/ crack shot - 19

2 alpha interceptors - 18 x 2 (36)

3 black squadron pilots with crack shot - 15 x 3 (45)

100

I tried this out for the hell of it as well. I only have 5 tie fighters so I ended up giving a few upgrades, I do have 2 fo fighters as well. Did not run dark curse as I think you should just make them all as offensive as possible.

Omega Ace - Push the Limit

Howlrunner - Push the Limit

Mauler Mithel - Push the Limit

Backstabber

Epsilon Leader

All very offensive skills where hopefully you can flank with mithel or backstabber to unleash some pain. Ptl on omega so he can tl and focus for auto crits and on mithel so he can hit hard. Ptl on howl so she can evade and focus to keep her alive longer. Epsilon removes stress from everyone while they're in formation. Eventually I would break apart and use epsilon as a blocker to deny aces their actions and split backstabber and mauler mithel to try to flank with them. And just constantly focus and evade with howl to try to keep her alive. Haven't flown it yet but I'm sure it would get wrecked to a lot of things but it might be fun if you get behind some opponents with the right ties before they get smoked