I'm a new player, last week I joined our local Padawan league flying a TIE swarm w/ Howlrunner.

For this week I was excited to try out the new list I cooked up. After having a lot of maneuverability issues with the swarm I wanted something with fewer ships, but not the loaded-up three ship lists that seem common. I wanted to aim for four ships, and find a way to make all of them potential threats. The points were tight, but here's what I came up with:

Inquisitor + TIE/v1 Colonel Vessery + TIE/x7 + Crack Shot Zeta Leader + Wired + Comm Relay Backstabber 100

So basically two of the other ships can target lock to feed locks to Vessery, plus TIE/v1 lets the Inquisitor do a Target Lock with a free Evade. Wired feeds into Zeta Leader's pilot ability, and Backstabber acts as a flanker hoping to be the least threatening thing on the table.

How did it work out? Pretty well actually. I won against my opponent with two Jumpmasters (Manaroo + Contracted Scout) and Palob flying the Moldy Crow. He killed Zeta Leader, knocked the shields off Vessery, and got Backstabber down to one hull so it was a pretty solid victory. We ran into some bumping and maneuvering issues late in the game that bought Manaroo a couple extra turns to take turret shots at us but in the end Vessery was on his tail and even guys who were pointing the wrong way can feed locks so they've got something useful to do with their actions.

Overall the list worked out pretty well but I may try to make some tweaks. One thing I found is that I'd like to have the ship that feed locks to Vessery be a PS6 or less so that I can lock, fire with Vessery+lock, then use the lock again to fire on the ship that took the lock action. Right now that's not possible as both the other ships with lock are higher PS than him. I'm thinking of swapping Crackshot for Veteran Instincts to improve this, as well as look around for potential lower PS pilots that can lock and hopefully get some sort of synergy out of doing so. Also, I totally forgot to use Crackshot all game because I was proxying the card and just had it on a printout. Next time I'll make an actual card for it to help remember. It's pretty much filler anyway, just because I had an extra point.

If you're looking to keep the same core of that list, (Inquisitor, Vessery, Zeta Leader), I'd consider dropping Backstabber down to an Academy pilot. You can drive him straight into the fray as a blocker, and use the points freed up to give Push the Limit to the Inquisitor.

If you're also willing to put Adaptability on Zeta instead of Wired, you can get all three of your aces to PS 8 by swapping Vessery's crackshot for VI, which will work nicely with Vessery's ability. (This also frees up a point to put Autothrusters on the inquisitor)

Some good ideas there I think. The reason I was originally using Backstabber was to be more of a threat than an Academy pilot. While my opponent is dealing with the other three ships, he can come around a flank and hopefully get good use out of his extra die, which he was able to get several times over the course of the game.

But, you've got to weigh that against the benefits of 4 extra points for dropping him down to a basic TIE to enhance your other ships which may yield a better return value. So with 4 extra points I can get Push the Limit on Inquisitor with one extra point. Or I can put Autothrusters on Inquisitor with two extra points. I like the synergy between Wired and Zeta Leader's ability though so I'm not sure yet if I want to drop that. It's better to get my locks off Inquisitor when I can (rather than Zeta) because of the free Evades from TIE/v1. Doesn't look like there's much to do with the leftover 1-2 points though, you need that one extra from dropping Wired

Theoretically you could also use all 4 points giving Inquisitor some Guidance Chips and Missiles but I'm not sure that's the best use of the points.

So maybe Zeta Leader does need a swap-out. I'm not opposed to using a different model in his place, just got to find something that looks good for a similar price. If I take Autothrusters instead of PTL on Inquisitor then I can replace Zeta Leader with Omega Leader + Juke + Comm, that might be a good way to go.

Edit: I can also consider taking out both Zeta Leader and Backstabber and getting one really beefed up ship in their place, which could be another way to make room for getting both PTL+Autothrusters on Inquisitor.