I am hoping to have a chance to play in the Hangar Bay format sometime in the future, so I figured I had better start looking at developing a list in another faction. These TIE fighters seem pretty good, and PS4 seems like a good place. I want to combine Tractor Beam Yorr with as many Crack Shots as I can manage, but I realized Yorr has some small potential with a very under-utilized card, Elusiveness.

Elusiveness reads: "When defending, you may receive 1 stress token to choose 1 attack die. The attacker must reroll that die. If you have at least 1 stress token, you cannot use this ability."

I think this may be a way to finally keep Howlrunner alive. If Howlrunner uses this on every attack (because Yorr pulls the stress) her survivability should skyrocket.

Therefore I have:

Captain Yorr (24+2)

Tractor Beam (to enable the 1000 paper cuts)

Electronic Baffle (in case of more than two stress, and the multi-stop)

Howlrunner (18+2)

Elusiveness

Omega Squadron Pilot (17+1) x3

Crack Shot

This is 100 points even. I could go to Black Squadron pilots with crack shot (14+1) to save 3 points per TIE, but I don't really know what to do with 9 points.

I had considered the Emperor, but I don't have him (yet) and I think he is more effective the fewer ships you have, because each die rolled is more important.

Anything else that would be a good tweak?

That's a great list! I'd worry about it's ability to finish after the first few engagements. Also, you'd have to fly in pretty tight and mixing in a large base is not always easy. Still...cool.

The problem with Elusiveness is that the actual benefit (re-rolling one attack die) is crap. 2 points and suck a stress just for 50/50 odds of negating one damage is not a good deal (actually only 25% chance to negate damage if the opponent is sitting on a focus token).

Howlrunner will be much more durable with Push the Limit (and the fact this card exists is another reason Elusiveness is garbage in comparison). Evade+Focus gives far better protection than Elusiveness can.

You would have to drop baffle or tractor beam, but honestly, I don't think you need tractor beam. Howl re-roll + crack shot is more than enough to make your TIEs deadly, and tractor beam just sacrifices your strongest gun (the shuttle's 3 die primary that is also benefiting from Howl re-roll, but tractor beam does not)

The problem with Elusiveness is that the actual benefit (re-rolling one attack die) is crap. 2 points and suck a stress just for 50/50 odds of negating one damage is not a good deal (actually only 25% chance to negate damage if the opponent is sitting on a focus token).

Howlrunner will be much more durable with Push the Limit (and the fact this card exists is another reason Elusiveness is garbage in comparison). Evade+Focus gives far better protection than Elusiveness can.

You would have to drop baffle or tractor beam, but honestly, I don't think you need tractor beam. Howl re-roll + crack shot is more than enough to make your TIEs deadly, and tractor beam just sacrifices your strongest gun (the shuttle's 3 die primary that is also benefiting from Howl re-roll, but tractor beam does not)

The real reason I went for Elusiveness was trying to make a bad card work, but my "claimed reason" is that you can use it on every incoming attack, and suck the stress to Yorr with the baffle. PtL would be way better if Howlrunner is only getting shot once or twice, but Elusiveness is probably better against a swarm.

Tractor beam doesn't benefit from the Howlrunner reroll, but reducing agility for the other attacks could net more damage pushing through than a single three dice attack. It is situational for sure.

I'm mildly considering dropping to two Crack Shot Black Squadrons and two Academy Pilots. It loses a Crack Shot but puts an extra body on the board, and Acadamys are pretty darn good blockers.

Edit re: Elusiveness, It also really works great against people shooting with an R4 Agromech. If you make them re-roll, they can't re-roll it again and if they have an R4 it means they are unlikely to have a focus.

I just did a mild bit of Math, and as long as you are able to use Elusiveness twice a turn due to Yorr taking the stress, it is statistically as good as an evade token against unfocused shots. You need 4 shots coming in with Focus for it to be the same effectiveness as an evade. It also increases variability, which seems to be the new hotness in game theory. I want the bad cards to work so much!

The other problem is Elusiveness doesn't actually work with Yorr. Stupid ruling, I agree, but if you "do something then receive a stress token" Yorr can help. If you must "take a stress to do something" Yorr is no help because, per said stupid ruling, you didn't actually take the stress and therefore can't do 'something'. It's a stupid ruling because it feels like such an arbitrary distinction, yet allowing Yorr to help "take stress, do X" cards would only provide the slightest boost to severely underused cards, like Elusiveness and Lt. Lorrir. Like I said, stupid ruling.

The other problem is Elusiveness doesn't actually work with Yorr. Stupid ruling, I agree, but if you "do something then receive a stress token" Yorr can help. If you must "take a stress to do something" Yorr is no help because, per said stupid ruling, you didn't actually take the stress and therefore can't do 'something'. It's a stupid ruling because it feels like such an arbitrary distinction, yet allowing Yorr to help "take stress, do X" cards would only provide the slightest boost to severely underused cards, like Elusiveness and Lt. Lorrir. Like I said, stupid ruling.

I liked your post, but really I want to un-like it because that is the opposite of fun. Back to the drawing board.

The other problem is Elusiveness doesn't actually work with Yorr. Stupid ruling, I agree, but if you "do something then receive a stress token" Yorr can help. If you must "take a stress to do something" Yorr is no help because, per said stupid ruling, you didn't actually take the stress and therefore can't do 'something'. It's a stupid ruling because it feels like such an arbitrary distinction, yet allowing Yorr to help "take stress, do X" cards would only provide the slightest boost to severely underused cards, like Elusiveness and Lt. Lorrir. Like I said, stupid ruling.

I liked your post, but really I want to un-like it because that is the opposite of fun. Back to the drawing board.

I would un-like it, too, if I could! I love Lt. Lorrir, but he sucks. The Yorr ruling unfortunately holds him and other poor cards back unnecessarily.