What happens if you fly a swarm, but not in formation, from round 1? For example, if you have an 8 TIE swarm and you deploy them all in a broad line, only keeping in mind the asteroids and maybe any generics the opponent has placed?

I suppose the strategy would be to pick a target and flank it with as many TIES as possible, but to what degree does this work?

(Some background: on youtube there's a strategy vid from someone who claims that flying a swarm is a good idea because 'you want to present as small a target as possible'. I don't think that reasoning really works, because keeping your ships close only means that if one goes down, the attackers will most likely have an alternative target in their arc, whereas if you're everywhere, they will run out of targets more quickly when focus-firing. But I could be totally off with regards to the basic principles here.)

What happens if you fly a swarm, but not in formation, from round 1? For example, if you have an 8 TIE swarm and you deploy them all in a broad line, only keeping in mind the asteroids and maybe any generics the opponent has placed?

I suppose the strategy would be to pick a target and flank it with as many TIES as possible, but to what degree does this work?

(Some background: on youtube there's a strategy vid from someone who claims that flying a swarm is a good idea because 'you want to present as small a target as possible'. I don't think that reasoning really works, because keeping your ships close only means that if one goes down, the attackers will most likely have an alternative target in their arc, whereas if you're everywhere, they will run out of targets more quickly when focus-firing. But I could be totally off with regards to the basic principles here.)

It works great actually and it's a great way to trap Super Dash and against Super Dengar Rendar.

Flying your TIEs in one neat Napoleonic brick accomplishes nothing except looking good visually.

Flying a Swarm without formation is... difficult, but potent.

See, the Swarm works best when you can concentrate fire, absolutely melting enemy ships under the weight of so many red dice.

Similarly, the Swarm works worst when its ships are crashing into each other, preventing its own actions.

Formation Flight is the easiest method of achieving the first while preventing the second.

However, it does have its own flaws.

Flying without formation means you must keep your ships concentrated on your opponents from multiple attack vectors, while also keeping your ships from bumping into each other with multiple mobility vectors.

This is to say, you'll ​need to be playing several rounds deep to keep that up, and any chess player can tell you that's a difficult trick to pull off.

​Playing X rounds deep is a chess term, meaning that you're thinking X rounds ahead of the current board-state. Think about planning around your opponent, predicting them 4 rounds in a row, or at least being able to think "If he does this, then I'll do that" throughout that timespan, in such a way that you're still getting the damage out effectively, and not hurting your own action economy.

Formation flight actually encourages more bumping. Not only from human error ruining everything progressively over the course of a few turns and non-intelligent initial set up formations, but from just general errors with manuever choice and enemy ships. When any enemy ship bumps one ship in a formation, all the ships behind it are hitting it also.

You start off in your formation and turn one you do assorted barrel rolls and varied straight maneuvers. Now you're spread out in a loose cloud that can react to anything easily and can flow through asteroids like water through a colander.

It's not very hard to do. It's actually easier to manuever this way, you no longer care about formations and manuevering as part of a whole. Each ship is its own entity that can be treated separately and given the best manuever possible.

I did very well in the first few waves with Swarms not flying in formation. I think it's better than formation flying.

The downside can be that you don't have Howlrunner to modify dice. Beyond that, though, Tie Fighters have great movement dials. This takes advantage of that. I use bumping quite a bit for strategy. There is a lot you can do with it. A little Academy can get in R1 and out of arc with more important ships and do more damage than one would expect.

I prefer that style than formation flying. I highly approve.

Thread tracers might make formations necessary, too. For a good alpha strike.

For me,the swarm isn't 6 (in my case...) separate ships - it's one big entity...

100 points, 12 attack (15 at Range 1) with up to 5 rerolled dice, 15 hull... Little peices get chipped off as the ship gets damaged but it trucks on until the last hull point...

Seriously though, Ties are rubbish - they really are and bringing 5 friends with you is (is my opinion) the only way to fly them... I can set up in a tight 2wide, 3 deep and I can snake that baby around asteroids till the space cows come home... You want to kill one? Sure go ahead, now let his 5 buddies take some shots at you...

Break late game Or let the odd ship fly with independence so that you can block or catch something unaware, but I think the strength comes from starting together

I'm pretty much a complete newbie, but so far I've loved flying a tie swarm like a swarm of insects or a school of fish. Breaking and swirling around obstacles, exploding in all directions when attacked. Really disorientates some players.

Best moments of the game so far have been when I have managed to get the whole swarm surrounding a target, all out of arch, drilling it with fire, and reforming the next round.

Is it competitive? No idea.

Is it a little mentally taxing? Sure at times, but not having upgrades to worry about balances that out really.

Is it fun? Yes, much.

Bugzapper swarm in an asteroid field is deadly.

Breaking up a formation mid game isn't an actual strategy, it's just something that ends up being necessary.

Unless you have Howlrunner, you don't gain anything from a formation. Flying in 2 groups of 4 alleviates that a bit but you still have a micro version of the same problem. You fly in a tight brick and your opponent can arc dodge you with 1 K-Turn or boost or BR. They can't do that against a cloud of TIEs.

Seriously though, Ties are rubbish - they really are and bringing 5 friends with you is (is my opinion) the only way to fly them... I can set up in a tight 2wide, 3 deep and I can snake that baby around asteroids till the space cows come home... You want to kill one? Sure go ahead, now let his 5 buddies take some shots at you...

I've played the game since before Tie Interceptors. Tie Fighters were the only real ship for Imperials to fly. They are fantastic little ships...if you know how to fly them. A swarm actually swarms you. A Tie FORMATION is not a Tie Swarm, no matter what the general community calls it.

Seriously though, Ties are rubbish - they really are and bringing 5 friends with you is (is my opinion) the only way to fly them... I can set up in a tight 2wide, 3 deep and I can snake that baby around asteroids till the space cows come home... You want to kill one? Sure go ahead, now let his 5 buddies take some shots at you...

I've played the game since before Tie Interceptors. Tie Fighters were the only real ship for Imperials to fly. They are fantastic little ships...if you know how to fly them. A swarm actually swarms you. A Tie FORMATION is not a Tie Swarm, no matter what the general community calls it.

Oh please enlighten me, whst is the difference...?