I'm about to leave work and pick up some TIE f/o's and have been trying to theorycraft some lists.

But the struggle is real...

Is it just me or do the TIE f/o and Gozanti TIE fighters lack any obvious synergy? Most of them seem like 25-point aces. I was hoping for and expecting some more options for swarm, but I haven't been able to figure out anything that would be even close to the traditional Howl swarm.

Anyone have any combos they're looking forward to trying?

It is the opposite for me. I want to run 5 or 6 named Ties and let the opponent stress on who the priority target is going to be.

Is that the one that I need to stay out of range one of, does that one hurt worse out of arc. I think the variety in pilots has the opportunity to swarm the enemy senses, fly'em wild.

For 34 points you can bring Youngster with Squad Leader and Epsilon Ace. Epsilon Ace can give up his action to grant another ship an action at PS 12 until he takes a damage card.

A swarm is and should likely continue to be comprised of mostly TIE Fighters. You're not wrong in your assertions. FOs are a little inefficient, so it's generally a bad idea to fly several. Run a TIE Swarm, with or without a named or two, and splash in your favorite FO Ace for fun and flavor.

FOs have plenty of synergy with Howlrunner

but yes, they're pocket aces. They're there because they're ******* awesome and don't need no synergy

Omega Leader slots in pretty much anywhere; sacrificing some two shite academies for a PS 8 PTL that ignores ALL THE MODS is an easy decision that gives the swarm some unprecedented late game power. Juke + Relay makes him an independent beast (who still won't say no to some howlrunner re-rolls)

Zeta Leader is not for swarms if you intended on using him with Howlie. That stress is killer when you're trying to joust (i.e, you can't joust while stressed). Dude's a flanker, and 3 dice + PS 7 for the stupid low cost of 20. Give him predator for the same cost as a crappy Red Squadron and let him flank

For 34 points you can bring Youngster with Squad Leader and Epsilon Ace. Epsilon Ace can give up his action to grant another ship an action at PS 12 until he takes a damage card.

Assuming that you have PTL on some other ships with appropriate PS that are within range one of Youngster and within 2 of each other, Epsilon Ace can hand off an action to a ship at PS 12, that uses that action for Squad Leader, that then triggers PTL for a second action at PS 12.

It would be hard to keep track of because of the way that actions would nest and you'd have to be careful of the order you passed actions because a ship using Squad Leader needs a higher PS than the ship that is being granted the action.

For 34 points you can bring Youngster with Squad Leader and Epsilon Ace. Epsilon Ace can give up his action to grant another ship an action at PS 12 until he takes a damage card.

Assuming that you have PTL on some other ships with appropriate PS that are within range one of Youngster and within 2 of each other, Epsilon Ace can hand off an action to a ship at PS 12, that uses that action for Squad Leader, that then triggers PTL for a second action at PS 12.

It would be hard to keep track of because of the way that actions would nest and you'd have to be careful of the order you passed actions because a ship using Squad Leader needs a higher PS than the ship that is being granted the action.

There might be a better combo of ships for this but, even though there is only one extra action, everyone gets at least one action at PS12 until Eplison Ace gets a damage card.