I have to say, having never been a TIE swarm player, that I am most excited for all these new TIE/fo options.

Zeta Leader (+1 red die for a stress) seems really powerful with Wired and Weapons Guidance.

Omega Ace (spend TL+F for all crits) with PTL is already a favorite of mine.

Epsilon Leader (super Wingman) seems good, but doesn't quite synergize with Zeta Leader the way I first expected, and has proven hard for me to make effective.

Juke and Comm Relay have me excited....

And you get the point. There's so many sweet options with the TIE/fo platform!

So the question is how to make four of these named pilots work effectively as your entire squad, if possible. My test games have various Quad-fo lists at 3-0 so far, albeit against low quality competition.

The biggest problem I'm having in list building is that I'm hitting 89 or 90 points with preferred, must-have upgrades on four uniques, which is too much to take a fifth filler ship, and just leaves me slapping a few hull/shield upgrades or Stealth Devices on the ships. If there was ever a time I wanted to play 102-point limits, this is it.

So, thoughts? Is Quad-fo going to be viable?

To me, swarms become less viable if there are less than five or six ships. You go into the match with a bunch of red-shirts not expecting them to all make it. I think cheap ships, there is enough room to put one or two better pilots. I think the TIE FO'S are pushing the squad point cost where a full swarm of hem might be difficult to put enough on the board all at once. I think you will more likely see a mix of old and new ties, with the better FO pilots bring the only ones fielded.

Just four...

That is asking a lot out of only 16 HPs.

Yeah that's gonna get eaten alive by TLT lists and PWT+ace.

I also wouldn't run just four named headhunters (not that it's an option) too light on hit points and firepower.

it's not the HP so much as lack of offensive output

currently, only Omega and Zeta Leaders can punch above your typical Omega Juke + Relay, and the lot of them together only hit 95 points

currently, I'm most comfortable adding either Omega or Zeta Leaders as powerful filler aces to lists (such as Omega + 3 scimitar bombers) or fielding them as part of a slightly larger swarm

3 omegas (juke + relay)

Howlie (crackshot)

Wampa

[99] - can include zeta ace

or

Omega Leader (juke + relay)

Zeta Leader (predator)

Howlie (crackshot)

2 Blacksquadron (crackshot)

[98]

Wow. Three tie advanced pictures in a row.

Four? I'm flying five! Epsilon Leader and a quartet of PTL Omegas!

it's not the HP so much as lack of offensive output

currently, only Omega and Zeta Leaders can punch above your typical Omega Juke + Relay, and the lot of them together only hit 95 points

Eight dice isn't so bad if it's two HLC attacks but because it's four two attacks that'll have trouble punching through.

it's not the HP so much as lack of offensive output

currently, only Omega and Zeta Leaders can punch above your typical Omega Juke + Relay, and the lot of them together only hit 95 points

Eight dice isn't so bad if it's two HLC attacks but because it's four two attacks that'll have trouble punching through.

less so with juke; moreso without re-rolls

had Omegas routinely punch through aggressors when they could be bothered to roll hits

oh, and another potential nail in the four FO coffin

Glaive (Tie/x7, Juke) [34 assumed]

3 Omegas (Juke, Rely) [66]

the Defender's speed, bulk, and 3 dice add a lot of qualities that the knife-fighting FOs cannot get by themselves

I have to say, having never been a TIE swarm player, that I am most excited for all these new TIE/fo options.

Zeta Leader (+1 red die for a stress) seems really powerful with Wired and Weapons Guidance.

Omega Ace (spend TL+F for all crits) with PTL is already a favorite of mine.

Epsilon Leader (super Wingman) seems good, but doesn't quite synergize with Zeta Leader the way I first expected, and has proven hard for me to make effective.

Juke and Comm Relay have me excited....

And you get the point. There's so many sweet options with the TIE/fo platform!

So the question is how to make four of these named pilots work effectively as your entire squad, if possible. My test games have various Quad-fo lists at 3-0 so far, albeit against low quality competition.

The biggest problem I'm having in list building is that I'm hitting 89 or 90 points with preferred, must-have upgrades on four uniques, which is too much to take a fifth filler ship, and just leaves me slapping a few hull/shield upgrades or Stealth Devices on the ships. If there was ever a time I wanted to play 102-point limits, this is it.

So, thoughts? Is Quad-fo going to be viable?

But I've never actually flown a quad FO list, and even though your opponents aren't good it seems decent. With Comms Relay and shield upgrades or whatever you have decent health. You have good mobility with that crazy stupid dial they have.

Normally I run 3x Crack Squadron, 3x Omega Crack Squadron. That list is ******* crazy.

I mean quad Royal Guards seems playable, and quad FO trades a little offense for PS and more survivability.

The problem with FO aces is that there are only two that work as aces: Omega Leader and Zeta Leader. Omega Ace's ability is nice, but it's a lot of effort to set up two crits, which many popular ships have no problem dodging. Epsilon Leader is also good, but of course doesn't function as an ace.

A 4 ship list I've been looking at using FO aces is:

The Inquisitor (30)

-Juke

-AT

-TIE/v1

Omega Leader (26)

-Juke

-Comm Relay

Zeta Leader (21)

-Wired

Storm Squadron Pilot (23)

-TIE/x1

-Accuracy Corrector

100/100

In competitive play no, the four Tie/fo build will be vaporized.

The list can only (excluding range 1) produce a max of 8 hits per turn. You do still have to roll the die, with focus the average is 6 hits. Any ship with two or more evade die is going to be hard to hit.

That said in theory if X-Wing is balanced then 100 points is 100 points and all equal point games should be close. In reality at tier 1 level list builds all lists are not equal.

Build it, fly it, and let us know how you do. That the only way to really know.

Just four...

That is asking a lot out of only 16 HPs.

Brobots?

Just four...

That is asking a lot out of only 16 HPs.

Brobots?

nah, offensive dice mods out the ass with that list which four Fos would lack

probably the single greatest problem with spamming them, especially after seeing what 3 juke Omegas can accomplish with howlrunner (and what they can acomplish after the "alpha strike" of re-rollable jukes, which basically involves them picking off the wounded survivors over the rest of the game)

Just four...

That is asking a lot out of only 16 HPs.

Brobots?

My Quad-FOs did face Brobots the other day. Granted, my opponent had never tried them, and he made the mistake of jousing my formation with one 'bot while the other lolled around on the other side of the board. Needless to say, under these circumstances, my FOs scored a quick win.

How many attack dice do they have.

Two.

Any way of getting over three.

Not really, none that are good, so no.

Can they do okay against twin LOL turrets?

No.

Three strikes, they're out. Welcome to the new age of X-wing comp. Thanks for playing.

Just played a 3xjuke, comm Omega w/Academy and Zeta Ldr.

They were up against super Dash with mangler and 3 Zs with hull.

The two defences dice melted to Juke especially with Academy blocker. And 3 dice with focus and evade was empty to almost never take damage from Dash.

How many attack dice do they have.

Two.

Any way of getting over three.

Not really, none that are good, so no.

Can they do okay against twin LOL turrets?

No.

Three strikes, they're out. Welcome to the new age of X-wing comp. Thanks for playing.

none of these things are actually accurate (Apart from 2 red dice) nor are why four FOs aren't the best comp

first of all, Juke compensates hard for 2-dice and is what makes the generic omega worth playing

second of all, TLTs aren't terribly difficult to kill for high PS maneuverable pilots when they're rolling 0 agility thanks to the Juke effect

no sir, the only real reason the list doesn't work is because you can't fit five Juke + Relay Fos in a single list. Four, unfortunately, are a bit too susceptible to shite dice ruining your day

I REALLY want a quad TIE/fo list to work, but I don't think it can....for me. I think that whether you go all /fo or mix/match with /ln, 5 is the smallest squad size that is feasible. Of course, all theory on my part.

I've played with a list of both 4 and 5 FOs. It is much easier to win with 5, as 4 is very unforgiving to an early loss. These FOs are tough though. That shield, Com Relay, and 2 S-turn can make them VERY hard to hit. My FOs tend to laugh at TLTs.

Just not going to happen as awesome as I want it to be.

Yeah that's gonna get eaten alive by TLT lists and PWT+ace.

I also wouldn't run just four named headhunters (not that it's an option) too light on hit points and firepower.

Yup, i ran Palpmobile and Poe/Doni/Farrel in 2 games against Brobots with 16 HP and comparable firepower yesterday. I mean they even have autothrusters going for them, and i generally respect Brobots a lot. Just that 16 hp is not much and i had one decent hit (4 hits/crits) with Vader and Poe respectively against the cannon buff bot. That was all it basically took. I generally crippled them on one turn and killed them on the next despite their speed and maneuvrability. After that the lone bot was not enough to penetrate Vaders or Fels defenses or Doni and Poe just regenerated a few shields back after getting hit.

Against FOs that would not have been a lot different i think.

Slightly OT question. When comparing squads one of the things I look at his Total Hit Points (or Health). While I understand that shields > hull, I don't know how to compare when the number of ships are different. In the example above while both BroBots and Quad /fo have 16 HP the spread is obviously different. 4H/4S x 2 vs. 3H/1S x4. While it is unlikely, it is possible to one shot a /fo. Not going to happen to the IG-2000. However by giving my opponents more things to shoot at, I can hopefully reduce focused fire on any one ship. So while 16HP is 16HP how do you factor in number of ships?

As always, thanks for helping us new guys out.

They may be buff, but they're still TIE Fighters.

I think the recipe for FOs is either a single buffed ace with a varied list (e.g. Omega Ace or Omega Leder with Palpmobile + ace) or with minimal upgrades in a larger swarm, probably one that includes some standard TIEs. The middle road just doesn't seem viable.