I'm trying to put together a decent Imperial Swarm list. I've been playing the game since Wave 2 and, surprisingly, had never really bother to fly Swarms back or now. Just want to get some input on what makes up a good swarm list. I know your flying needs to be on point. I have 3 Tie/fo and 4 regular Ties (might have to buy another blister pack though cause I seem to be missing 1 each of obsidian, academy and black squadron). I was leaning more towards doing all PS1 or PS3 generics but I wanted to see what some seasoned swarm pilots might suggest.

Stay away from PS1 if you can. PS2 is common enough in Stresshogs, TLT K/Y-wings, Shuttles (Vader/Palp) to justify going for Obsidians. Having one PS1 blocker might be sensible though.

General consensus is that if you're running 5+ generics, then you should strongly consider taking Howlrunner (preferably with Hull Upgrade & Determination). Blocking is the key to victory.

Other than that, Crack Shots are the new hotness because they deal with both high defense and give you the alpha needed for regen lists. Blocking is harder to pull off with fewer numbers, but Crack is far more reliable at pushing damage through. For example, even if you block a Soontir, you could still be throwing 2v4 or 2v5. Having Crack Shot essentially turns it into 2v2 or 2v3 situation - that's a big deal.

I've been having fun with a mini TIE swarm.

"Omega Leader" (21) with Comm Relay (3) and Juke (2)

"Zeta Leader" (20) with Weapon Guidance (20) and Wired (1)

Mauler Mithel (17) with Predator (3)

"Epsilon Leader" (19)

Academy Pilot (12)

The TIE f/os are grouped together and the TIE l/ns are paired nearby. "Zeta Leader" stays near "Epsilon Leader" so ZL can use his ability most turns.

Basically what zerotc said.

Although I will mention that 8 academy pilots is pretty good. PS 1 matters little. You block everything to deny actions and shoot 'em up at R1 (ideally). Laying on the hurt when you chuck that many dice is inevitable...

Crack shot swarm is also good, but 7 TIE swarms still remain effective. With Rage out, its possible to run Youngster in place of howlrunner (and epsilon leader to help mitigate the stress), but then Youngster becomes basically the same as howlrunner and will be the first ship you lose...

With Rage out, its possible to run Youngster in place of howlrunner (and epsilon leader to help mitigate the stress), but then Youngster becomes basically the same as howlrunner and will be the first ship you lose...

Well, Youngster has range 1-3 on his ability, so he can stand at the back with an evade, Howlrunner can't.

With Rage out, its possible to run Youngster in place of howlrunner (and epsilon leader to help mitigate the stress), but then Youngster becomes basically the same as howlrunner and will be the first ship you lose...

Well, Youngster has range 1-3 on his ability, so he can stand at the back with an evade, Howlrunner can't.

Well, you can keep youngster REALLY far back to avoid being shot for a turn or maybe even two, but then you risk having youngster separated from the rest of the swarm, and then killed. Depends on what you're up against and relative positioning, but at the end of the day, youngster is replacing howlrunner in terms of role and desired target priority...

You also need to stay in R1 of Epsilon Leader in order to shed stress, and shooting down Epsilon Leader would really limit Rage's utility.

It will be interesting to see how opponents react to a Youngster in the back though.

Or, you can use the stress. Bulk out your swarm with Wired Omega Squadron and Black Squadron pilots....

That came to my mind too, but it just feels wrong to not take Crack Shot instead in that situation.

As you can see, swarm players are much anticipating the youngster Rage combo, but it is still fairly new and untested. You mentioned that you know that your flying will have to be on point and i think part of that is managing your opponent's targets (protect Howl) but also a good way to break once you lose Howl and keep the damaged ones in harder to reach spots. When i win with a swarm I'm usually down a few ships (almost always lose Howlrunner) but I've never finished with more than two undamaged TIEs out of the 4-6 survivors.

With all that out of the way, here's my favorites:

"Obsidian Squad" 6 Obsidian and Howl with stealth; 99pts

"Howlrunner's Wingman" 5 Academies, 1 Blacksquad with Wingman, and Howl with PTL; 97pts for initiative or a hull/stealth (focus+evade is just as good as Hull, but with a Wingman you get to do it every turn!)

"Obsidian White" 2 Epsilon squads(for ps1 blocking), 4 Obsidians, and naked Howl; 100pts