I know there has a way to take down the increasingly popular TIE Fight Crackshot heavy swarm using Scum unique Pilots like Talonbane Cobra, Xizor, Serissu and the like, I just haven't been able to find it. I refuse to fight swarm to swarm because I believe in quality over quantity (to say nothing of the expense of having to actually buy all the components).

I placed fourth in my last tourney with a dual Starviper list but ultimately crumpled in the final round against one such swarm. In my latest few games I tried to take on similar lists to see if it was fluke, and got my teeth kicked in.

So lets work the problem. I would like to know if any loyal(ish, because we're pirates and unsavory types, so it's fluid as we know) Scum players have any nasty tricks to try against this fresh hell...

Something along these lines I can work with very well:

Talonbane Cobra (33)
Kihraxz Fighter (28), Crack Shot (1), Shield Upgrade (4)

Prince Xizor (40)
StarViper (31), Veteran Instincts (1), Virago (1), Autothrusters (2), Advanced Sensors (3), Glitterstim (2)

Syndicate Thug (27)
Y-Wing (18), Twin Laser Turret (6), R4-B11 (3)

Right off the bat, If you can equip a ship with Sensor Jammer, you can at least make the attack a little less effective. Of course you should try to stay at range 3. Also, maybe using bodyguard on your lower Ace. If you can use it, Glitterstim helps, especially if you don't have a focus.

Arc dodging also helps. They can't inflict damage if they can't shoot you.

Just a couple ideas off the top of my head.

By the way, I am a Scum player. Love those shinanagins. (I think I spelled that right)

You hit on most of the points I lean towards. As for sensor jammer, I hadn't thought of that.

Glitterstim I feel is much stronger than Crackshot. Especially if you've got the upper hand in Pilot Skill than you can weather that crap storm of return fire that much better.

I still wonder which pilots to lean on. In most Crackswarms, the prevailing PS is 4, so arguably you'd only have to be at PS5 to shoot before the majority of your foes.

Here's something that should do well:

N'dru w/ lone wolf, glitterstim, cluster missiles (and guidance chimps when available) = 25

Palob w/ expert handling, twin laser turret, K4 droid & moldy crow = 34

Guri w/ predator, virago, sensor jammer & autothrusters = 40

99

So N'dru nukes one TIE fighter before it gets a chance to fire. He'll probably die to return fire, but with glitterstim + lone wolf, maybe not! And if he survives, your opponent will probably try to finish him off. Meanwhile your other two get into a great position (ideally somewhere that makes it difficult for the TIE fighters to shoot at them). Between Palob's ability and Guri's sensor jammer, it should be hard to kill either of them quickly, and they dish out consistently good damage that cannot be entirely avoided (and at PS5, so higher than crackswarms).

When Wave 8 is out, you can also try Serissu instead of N'dru:

Serissu w/ Juke, 'heavy scyk' & tractor beam = 25

What's nice about her is that Palob 'enables' Juke nicely, and once the tractor beam hits, the other two will deal even more consistent damage. Serissu also makes it next to impossible to kill either of the other 2 ships while she's alive. Alternatively, if you feel her damage is lacking, you have enough room to take a flechette cannon instead (it at least deals 1 damage).

Are you set on playing that exact list above? I ask because I feel your Y-wing is a bad inclusion if your aiming to beat swarms. Now dorsal turret kavil on the other hand..

In general theres a few things you can do:

1. Arc dodge. Get something nasty in their flank/rear and go to town. The full turtle guri build is custom freakin built for this btw.

2. Alpha strike. Optimally you want to remove at least a couple swarm components before they strike. (N'dru, R1 TBC, HLC crackbots etc)

3. Bombs! Lol but no seriously. I threw this last one in there since you are running a chassis that can pack them.

Lastly it depends on the swarm. I've been mulling over taking a mini swarm to my next event and while they all include crackshot delivery the ace(s) differ greatly. El presidente, tractor vess (crack black tractor) or vader etc will all cause some serious headaches on their own.

This would be the list I would run based on my tendencies.

Palob (34)

Opportunist

Blaster Turret

Recon Specialist

Moldy Crow

Guri (40)

Predator

Autothrusters

Virago

Sensor Jammer

N'dru Suhlak (26)

Lone Wolf

Assault Missiles

Glitterstim

Guidance Chips

Total 100

I like Palob with Opportunist as this will add 1 more red die to a basically unmodified green die roll. On his first attack, he should have banked away a multitude of focus and have a target lock. I'm no mathwing, but this should give a good chance of taking out his target. N'dru in my opinion should use Assault missiles as I'm assuming that these TIEs will be bunched together. If you really want to make sure this attack goes thru; using Glitterstim, Lone Wolf and Guidance chips will give you that great chance of at least one hit, which will trigger Assault Missiles special effect.

Depends on the swarm, but the universal rule when fighting a swarm is to break it up. If you can force it to come at you piecemeal, you'll eat it alive.

I know it's less of a use of his abilities than cluster missiles, but consider N'Dru Sulhak with Assault Missiles and Guidance Chips. Even against a 'normal' target, it's still a 5-dice attack with massive dice mods, but against a tightly packed swarm it's amazing.

Normal Twin Laser Turrets are a bit fail, but scum have a really good pilot in the form of Kavil - with Engine Upgrade, unhinged astromech, and predator, and he's a bugger to pin down and really hard for TIEs to both get arcs on and dodge at the same time.

I'd agree that sensor jammer is good, too. Crack Shot/Juke swarms are great at taking away people's green dice rolls but they still only get a two dice red roll themselves - making them very vulnerable to this sort of thing, especially if you've got stress mechanics up your sleeve. It doesn't help that a TIE fighter's green dial isn't that great, and one stressed or ioned ship in a tightly packed swarm can screw up a whole turn's maneuvers.

Equally, block and mess them up.

A TIE swarm with Crackshot must be Black Squadron/Omega Squadron. Hence, Binyare pirates will get the drop on them in the movement phase.

Pirates with feedback arrays can pile into the middle of the swarm, block it, and still zap someone, green dice or no. For that matter, a couple of Kamikazes with Deadmans Switch can go head-to-head with a swarm. Fly in aggressively, break up his formation, and he's likely to be hesitant to shoot you whilst your in amongst his men.

I think you guys are on the right track. And the Sensor Jammer is clearly awesome for this kind of work, I suppose I might get one for testing. I'm leaning towards Advanced Sensors because the guys that I'm playing against are top notch, store championship regulars that are freakishly good and the ability to swap the order of maneuver actions could be essential in arc-dodging.

Thanks for the ideas, keep 'me coming!

Lone wolf glitter cluster missiles is terrible on NDuru. I have a hard enough time getting the range and opportunity to contend with arc dodging aces when I can't effectively hurt them in only one range band. Homing missile crack glitter is far and away superior. And if you want to rwally chase the PS game VI Nduru instead of crack. What makes Nduru a gpod gambit vs crackswarm is his extremely high chance to remove a tie before it shoots. Similarily talonbane glitter crack homer is a playable vs swarm for the same reasons as Nduru. I like the sensor jammer option for survivability on Vypers, but I fall in to the cheap and efficient 37 point Xisor camp VI AT title FCS.

With Talon Nduru Xisor you typically remove 2 Black squads at range 3 then next round pick up another 1.5 ties. Most crack swarms are completely behind the game once it is 3 ties vs xisor.

I played my crackswarm against Xizor, Y-Wing with TLT and Talonbane. I won that one 100-0. At range 3 focus on the TLT, but don't waste the crackshot, trap Xizor and crackshot him to pieces, then clean up talonbane

I'm in agreement with you Sarcon. Without being able to delete tie fighters right away, three scum aces will loose the match quick. The inverse is the missiles and crackshot deleting ties before they fire. 4 dead ties in 2 rounds of fire is an entirely different match.

My Scum Aces list is:

Boba Fett - VI, EU, Gunner

Kavil - VI, TLT, R4 Agromech

N'Dru - Lone Wolf

I'm on the fence about what's a better play after N'dru makes his first run and snaps off his missle. I can't decide if Talon should follow up with another cluster missile or just go for blanket damage with the assault missile.

Here's what I have so far:

Prince Xizor (38) - StarViper

Veteran Instincts (1), Virago (1), Advanced Sensors (3), Glitterstim (2)

Talonbane Cobra (36) - Kihraxz

Crack Shot (1), Assault Missiles (5), Glitterstim (2)

N'Dru Suhlak (25) - Z-95 Headhunter

Lone Wolf (2), Cluster Missiles (4), Dead Man's Switch (2)