I'm headed to a small local tournament. Having troubles deciding on my lists which is somewhat unsurprising. Did have an interesting swarm idea though...

Swarm (100)

Sienar Test Pilot (20) - TIE Adv. Prototype

Adv. Homing Missiles (3), TIE/v1 (1), Guidance Chips (0)

Epsilon Squadron Pilot (16) - TIE/FO Fighter

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Epsilon Squadron Pilot (16) - TIE/FO Fighter

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Of course, I've never flown that many ships outside of epic so a day of this might be much.

Either that or I'll fly some variation of my Vader/Juno/36 points left list.

A swarm usually wants Howlrunner in there unless there's something else going for it. She gives every ship within Range 1 a reroll, which for 2 dice ships is a bit like having focus/target lock on every attack.

Thing about Howlrunner though is that she locks every ship flying with her to the TIE fighter's dial: Epsilon Squadron Pilots can't push their dials to the max nearly as well.

One of the old Wave 4 archetypes is the miniswarm: you have a pack of four to five TIE fighters, one of which is Howlrunner, as the core: deals respectable damage and can take a lot of fire. You then use the rest of your points to field an ace pilot tailored to take on what your TIEs may struggle with.

Howlrunner says "shoot me first" a lot, not that the TAP doesn't but Howlrunner is also more effective in tight formations. In epic I've flown the swarms a bit loose (read wild, no formation, striking at different speeds and angles) to avoid arc dodging my low PS.

Also, my wife kicks butt in non-Howlrunner swarms so not fully buying in. She's better at blocking though...

I do agree though that a list of all double red looks a bit anemic.

What are your thoughts behind the MKII engines on the Epsilons?

Two points and more options on green post red maneuver... It's the thought anyway.

I was just curious. The FO dial is already much better for shedding stress than the TIE/LN. Are you expecting the FOs to do more red because of the s-loops?

What's the concept for the list? Do you plan to fly it in formation?

It's probably something I should practice. My sole swarm experience flying them has been less formation and more aggressively engage. Best pattern example... That scene in ep6... "There's too many of them". It was effective. The variation in distance and speed left little room for my opponent to move forward. Works well on star fighters and limited agility big ships.

That said, I have NOT flown the new TIE FO yet. My dial knowledge clearly shows. I didn't realize it had more green.

Also.. Rude awakening today. Meta here really shifted suddenly. So many torpedoes. *shudder*

I have found that even without Howlrunner or Epsilon Leader around to force formation flying, it is generally better to fly TIE swarms in a group so that they can focus down a target. The first time I flew an 8-TIE list was in a tournament. I split them into two groups and I was unable to bring all my firepower to bear against a target. I lost. I flew them in formation after that and won all the subsequent games including a rematch against the list that beat me in round 1.

However, I have heard that the "dragnet" method of spreading out to catch something like a Fat Han or Dash can be effective too. Just haven't tried it. I'm much too in love with Howlrunner.

FOs are great little ships. Their dial is almost interceptor good; they're just missing the 4 green straight. The S-loops give great repositioning ability. But they still have the TIE problem of not enough attack dice. The two best pilots are Zeta Leader, who can almost always get a third red die, and Omega Leader, whose ability meshes perfectly with Juke and Comm Relay. They're relatively expensive and you can't get real swarm numbers with them. Six with generics, but no more than five with the aces.