I'm trying to come up with a TIE Swarm list to compete in the current meta. I'm noticing there's really no talk about it since last spring and most players are considering the as-yet not legal wave 9 ships. Putting wave 9 aside for a week or two what do you all think have been the natural evolution of the TIE Swarm list up to the end of August?

I'm trying something out tonight...

5 Academy

1 Epsilon (TIE F/O)

1 Omicron Shuttle, Reinforced Deflectors, Tractor Beam

Update us how your squad did....

The successful tie swarm as of late has been (afaik):

Howlrunner (19)

-crack shot

Black squadron pilot (15)x3

-crack shot

Academy pilot (12)x3

7 ties 4 crack shots and howlrunner support. I don't think it gets much better currently.

Competitively, I'd agree.

6 TIE fighters all with Crack Shot, with the 'spare' points sunk into TIE/fo fighters (Omega Squadron) or Mauler Mithel and Scourge (If you want to stay purely with 'old' TIEs) works well, but the extra fighter can make all the difference when it comes to a long-term brawl. More importantly, having a couple of fighters to block at PS1 gives you a critical edge against PS3 Contracted Scout Jumpmasters - the other game-dominating jouster at the moment.

The other option - which I've used and which is okay but not amazing - is seven Academy Pilots and Youngster with Rage, or four Academy Pilots and four Obsidian Pilots. again, getting an eighth ship gives you an edge, but lacking Crack Shot can really, really hurt against some opponents - especially Soontir Fel, where the difference between getting one hit through and not is massive.

I got a regional bye with a 6-TIE swarm consisting of Howlrunner and 3 BSPs with crack shot, 2 APs and Omega Leader with Juke and Comm Relay. It was really nice having Howlrunner rerolls on the turn I would take the TL, and he's also great against aces while the APs can block just about anything at 99 points.

I've also had good results flying OL with 4 BSPs and Wampa for a non-formation flying swarm.

I've been playing this with some great success, carnor is there to mess up the U-boats:

Carnor Crack (98)
Carnor Jax — TIE Interceptor 26
Push the Limit 3
Autothrusters 2
Stealth Device 3
Royal Guard TIE 0
Ship Total: 34

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter 18
Crack Shot 1
Ship Total: 19

Black Squadron Pilot — TIE Fighter 14
Crack Shot 1
Ship Total: 15

Black Squadron Pilot — TIE Fighter 14
Crack Shot 1
Ship Total: 15

Black Squadron Pilot — TIE Fighter 14
Crack Shot 1
Ship Total: 15

I ran the sam list as Whippoorwills a while back. Was pretty fun, but Carnor felt awkward as Range 1 was not where an Interceptor really wants to be, plus the PS 8 sometimes sucked. Still, it offers some flexibility as you have an ace + kind of a swarm.

Lately I went with

“Omega Leader” + Comm Relay + Juke (26)

“Howlrunner” + Crack Shot (19)

“Scourge” + Crack Shot (18)

Black Squadron Pilot + Crack Shot (15)

“Zeta Leader” + Crack Shot (21)

I like that it has pretty high PS, a way to throw lots of dice, even though it's just 5 ships, and the late game power of OMG Leader. Went 4-2 in the Polish Nationals even though I had a fever (and you don't want to play 5+ ship swarms for 6 rounds in one day feeling off ).

Update us how your squad did....

I got talked out of it. Encouraged to play a "stronger list" vs a powerful triple alpha jumpmaster. I paid the price for my lack of vision. Tabled.

In theory, my list would work. Shuttle takes the hits, big hits are somewhat cushioned. If the shuttle is ignored, it smacks things with the tractor beam for the TIEs to beat up on. The conversation that killed it for me was that my biggest fear was what the other person immediately picked up on without any prompting from me.

Frankly, I need to overcome the fear of jumpmasters... I realize I need to get range one and play in close, but accomplishing this feat has not been easy. I think my approaches have all been too predictable.

Frankly, I need to overcome the fear of jumpmasters... I realize I need to get range one and play in close, but accomplishing this feat has not been easy. I think my approaches have all been too predictable.

Swarms are good against Jumpmasters, they joust them pretty well. If you have low PS ships you might slow roll at the beginning and then blast ahead to block their focus action. Black SQ might take one down before they can shoot (with their higher PS and crackshot) Worst case they down one TIE Fighter with their ordanance.

Last game I played against 2 U-boats and a party bus it went 19 - 100. I only lost Howlrunner.

Tie Swarms are actually a U-boat player's nastier opponents. Academy pilots can block and without actions, those torps are worthless. If you run Black-crack then that is a lot of ships firing before the U-boats. Even if none of that goes the Swarm player's way then look at what Scouts can do to Tie fighters. A single torpedo needs to be quite lucky to one-shot a Tie, particularly if the swarm player Evades on the crucial opening Joust. That means the Scouts will struggle for quick kills and will be reduced to trying to nibble the Tie to death with their 2-dice PWTs (not easy against Agility 3 ships with an evade).

I am not saying it will be a foregone conclusion but I definitely think that Tie swarms are one of the toughest match-ups for triple Scouts.

The successful tie swarm as of late has been (afaik):

Howlrunner (19)

-crack shot

Black squadron pilot (15)x3

-crack shot

Academy pilot (12)x3

7 ties 4 crack shots and howlrunner support. I don't think it gets much better currently.

Yep, this is pretty much the epitome of TIE Swarm at the moment.

I've been running something similar but with the APs replaced by a /D defender (either Maarek with Adaptability or Ryad with Crack) but it's not as good.

That's some good info all around. What would be the Swarm's hardest counter?

Assault missiles are definitely a hard counter but are rarely taken unless someone knows they will be facing a swarm since they are expensive and under-performing against individual targets. Ion torpedoes to a somewhat lesser degree.

Seismic charges, proton bombs and Thermal Detonators are very effective against swarms (even more so for Rebels with Sabine) but require a certain amount of luck and skill to use effectively. SLAMming K-wings are probably the best way to deploy these.

Ruthlessness is a great EPT for Imperial players.

Stress and Ion tokens are good as they force individual ships to either break formation or become a shackle for their wing mates.

Poe and Luke are both strong against swarms as their abilities are much more effective against numerous weak attacks than against a few powerful attacks. Aces in general (particularly with repositioning) are the hardest counter for swarms as most members of the swarm will be low PS making them easy to arc dodge.

Lone Wolf is great for the same reason as defensive rerolls excel against weaker attacks. Sensor Jammer is handy for ships with the system slot as it forces the swarm to spend lots of focus tokens to get any damage through.

More generally, anything that can block at low PS can make a mess of the Swarm's formation. Once it is broken up, it becomes much harder for the swarm player to capitalise on their chief advantage of piling lots of a attacks onto a single target. Careful of Biggs is also great as he can force half the swarm to target him instead of their preferred target. Again, anything that prevents a swarm for coordinating their attacks will hurt them quite a lot.

There have been some good squads listed so far.

I ran across another build that could be kind of interesting.

It was in a Thrawn's Boot Camp video on youtube.

Academy x7

Scimitar Squadron x1

Total 100 pts

Eight ships is a lot to manage, but are there any thoughts on whether this has enough teeth?

Kevin

Massed TIE fighters are nice. The problem is 'cracking' agility 4 or similar targets. Personally if I wanted an 8-ship build, I'd go with Youngster with Rage - the ability to block with a couple of ships then 'trip' rage on the ones with a Range 1 shot is the key to that list, and I think a better use for your handful of spare points than three extra hull for a TIE bomber.

If running Raging Youngster then I would seriously consider adding Epsilon Leader for extra stress removal.

Howlrunner (19)

-crack shot

Black squadron pilot (15)x3

-crack shot

Academy pilot (12)x3

7 ties 4 crack shots and howlrunner support. I don't think it gets much better currently.

Black squadron pilot (15)x5

-crack shot

Academy pilot (12)x2

7 ties, with 5 crack shots, but no Howlrunner support.

Kevin

I'm personally leaning towards the 6 ship Crack list.

Howlrunner

2x Omega Squadron

3x Black Squadron

All with Crack Shot

I'm personally leaning towards the 6 ship Crack list.

Howlrunner

2x Omega Squadron

3x Black Squadron

All with Crack Shot

I haven't tried that combination yet, but I have run:

3x Omega Squadron

3x Black Squadron

All with Crack Shot.

And it works pretty well.

Though I'm wondering if it'll hold up in the high PS meta I'm in.

With a PS4, there's the possibility of losing one of the swarm before it even shoots.