I am really thinking this tie master must face off against Paul Heaver with a classic rebel list and find the best scum player ever and have a three way dance for galactic champion!

It's just as good as it's always been. And I mean pretty much always. Even in Fat Han and Phantom days they were still rolling 7-8 ships and just throwing crazy dice. The endurance to do so is really all that keeps it down. I'd venture to say it's just as, if not harder to pilot than Imperial Aces. The Empire requires skills for success, not shields, regen, turrets, or HP.

I love playing X-wing and all ships are fun regardless of faction and type really (though I'm not a turret flyer; love single seat fighters), but flying TIEs are the most challenging and frustrating....but give me the greatest joy.

So what was the list that won yavin exactly?

5 blacks with crackshot, obsidian, and an Academy?

Links to video

Howlrunner w/ Crackshot

Black Squadron w/ Crackshot x3

Academy Pilot x3

100 points.

So what was the list that won yavin exactly?

5 blacks with crackshot, obsidian, and an Academy?

Links to video

Howlrunner w/ Crackshot

Black Squadron w/ Crackshot x3

Academy Pilot x3

100 points.

I hate when people see any list played at that level and assume the list is that good. Swarm is the exact same as it was before this master. He could have played the magic HWK list and probably still wrecked face with it. Much respect for the endurance alone though, so many rounds so many ships just gives me a headache thinking about it.

The TIE swarm is pretty badass though. It's the benchmark for balance.

The reason you don't see it much is it's a six to eight element squadron. The reason two and three ship squads are so successful is because there's so much less to manage. The number of movement combinations for a TIE swarm is much harder for both players to predict.

That's a very elegant trade-off.

The classic problem with Academy Pilot TIE fighters supporting Howlrunner is that she tends to be space debris by the time they fire. This way, at least you've got four Crack Shot fighters firing before most generics, which is enough to seriously inconvenience ships, and you've got a crack shot barrage to break stealth devices but still have one more ship to block with than a normal Black Squadron swarm.

Above all, respect to the pilot. Very glad to see the TIE swarm still showing the new kids what it can do in the right hands!

I wanted to write an ode to Academy Pilot to capture his unsung greatness. But I will settle for a simple Haiku.

Academy Pilot

Disrespected too often

Killed Fel in Madrid

Slightly OT question on formation flying the swarm. As hard as it is for me to fly in formation (still practicing but not enough) once I get above 4 ships I find it even harder to fly them individually in the furball. At least in formation I can picture what I want it to do. I just have to figure out how to execute. Once the swarm comes apart, keeping what is going on with who becomes even more difficult for me. Thoughts?

Slightly OT question on formation flying the swarm. As hard as it is for me to fly in formation (still practicing but not enough) once I get above 4 ships I find it even harder to fly them individually in the furball. At least in formation I can picture what I want it to do. I just have to figure out how to execute. Once the swarm comes apart, keeping what is going on with who becomes even more difficult for me. Thoughts?

TIEs are fast. I haven't tried this, but I've often wondered if the swarm should take a peek at the IG-88 method. You want to scrum in the middle and then bug out the other side. Fly far away from the enemy ships and turn around. Then you can sort of regroup at your leisure. Sometimes I'll have one or two TIEs able to pursue and so I let them while the others regroup and they just get torn apart before the others can get back to support them. And those meager 2-dice attacks aren't doing much if you don't have the power of the swarm converging. That's why I think you want to just do a bunch of fly-bys instead of getting caught knife-fighting. On the other hand, TIEs have decent knife-fighting capabilities with the 1-turn.