The first 8 ships I picked up were TIEs. A mixture of core sets and expansions allowed me to run 8 Academies very early on. Soon I moved onto using Howlrunner.

I've not used it in a couple of years now but I've got the urge to tonight for a couple of league games.

From what I've seen so far of the League I might see Palp Aces on either a Deci or Shuttle. No Uboats.

Could 6 Academies and Howl with Swarm Tactics do the business or would it just go down in a ball of flames?

Also, what to do with the spare 8 points?

Currently Black Squadron Ties with Crackshot seem more popular as it helps to burn through the defenses of high-agility opponents. This results in a slightly smaller swarm but apart from that, yes, Howlrunner + Swarm is still very effective.

Currently Black Squadron Ties with Crackshot seem more popular as it helps to burn through the defenses of high-agility opponents. This results in a slightly smaller swarm but apart from that, yes, Howlrunner + Swarm is still very effective.

Two things @Karhedron...

1. Does a Crackshot squad still take Howl? That's 6 TIEs by my maths.

2. You've got my twin brothers comment in you sig, Very nice

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

Brain space isn't my strong suit

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

This is indeed the best one out there. It won a massive regional is Spain and then I won at Yavin with it. It has a superb mix of damage, blocking and resilience. There are very few list to which it has no answer

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

This is indeed the best one out there. It won a massive regional is Spain and then I won at Yavin with it. It has a superb mix of damage, blocking and resilience. There are very few list to which it has no answer

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

That is basically it, you need to be good at predicting enemy movement and utilize the barrel roll on the Academy Pilots.

And in general, hope you don't run into BroBots or Kanan-Dash, they are just about the only hard-counter lists out there to the TIE Swarm.

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

That is basically it, you need to be good at predicting enemy movement and utilize the barrel roll on the Academy Pilots.

And in general, hope you don't run into BroBots or Kanan-Dash, they are just about the only hard-counter lists out there to the TIE Swarm.

There is very little chance of running into those tonight. The guys I'll be playing are likely to use the following...

T-65s. G1-As. Decimators. Phantoms. They would be my guesses based on how I've seen them play before.

So send the Academies out. Jam the enemy up with them. The others follow behind and make the most of them being actionless.

And in general, hope you don't run into BroBots or Kanan-Dash, they are just about the only hard-counter lists out there to the TIE Swarm.

Out of interest, what is about these lists that Tie Swarms find hard to crack? What does Kanan-Dash look like? I have run Lothal-Dash plenty of times and it is very good but I usually want Kanan on the Outrider which would preclude him from piloting the Ghost. Super-Dash is normally 58 points which would not leave much spare for a Kanan-VCX100.

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

That is basically it, you need to be good at predicting enemy movement and utilize the barrel roll on the Academy Pilots.

And in general, hope you don't run into BroBots or Kanan-Dash, they are just about the only hard-counter lists out there to the TIE Swarm.

Glittercrack bros are horrible for swarms, yeah. As I found out to my cost running a similar list (3 APs replaced with TB/D/Adaptability Maarek) for the first time at UK nationals. No local Brobot players. Fought them twice in succession at Nats having just killed Dash-Ghost

Superdash is a little more manageable as long as you forget the idea of getting Howl's bonus and just break up to cover as much ground as possible with firing arcs. Neither Dash nor the Ghost on average kills a TIE in one shot, so you should be able to get some weight of fire down.

And if you can block Dash, you're golden.

Obsidian Squadron is still good

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

That is basically it, you need to be good at predicting enemy movement and utilize the barrel roll on the Academy Pilots.

And in general, hope you don't run into BroBots or Kanan-Dash, they are just about the only hard-counter lists out there to the TIE Swarm.

Glittercrack bros are horrible for swarms, yeah. As I found out to my cost running a similar list (3 APs replaced with TB/D/Adaptability Maarek) for the first time at UK nationals. No local Brobot players. Fought them twice in succession at Nats having just killed Dash-Ghost

Superdash is a little more manageable as long as you forget the idea of getting Howl's bonus and just break up to cover as much ground as possible with firing arcs. Neither Dash nor the Ghost on average kills a TIE in one shot, so you should be able to get some weight of fire down.

And if you can block Dash, you're golden.

I'd be very surprised if I see a Dash or a VCX tonight. Even if I see Brobots they won't be flown by someone who knows them inside out. Phew!

Obsidian Squadron is still good

Can you elaborate?

Obsidian Squadron is still good

Yes they are good. The shield and improved dial are great. You can add Comms Relay to bank an Evade token on Turn 1 making them even more durable.

The problem is that this rapidly escalates the cost and before you know it, you lose the principle advantage of a swarnm which is weight of numbers.

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

This is indeed the best one out there. It won a massive regional is Spain and then I won at Yavin with it. It has a superb mix of damage, blocking and resilience. There are very few list to which it has no answer

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

i actually fly them as a single group

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setup like that. PS1 at the front, then a row of 4, with Howl tight against the left-most 4. Board edge on the right, in this case

outside ones move 5, next 4 and next 3.

howl on the left moves 2 and BR behind, it gives you great options for turning in and blocking.

Tie swarm won our monthly last Saturday. The guy has played it a lot so he is awesome with it.

I think it's still as dangerous as it's always been but its a high level of skill to not mess it up ( I don't possess that skill ). It being so high skill it's just too easy to mess it up and over a long day it's high risk.

Tie swarm won our monthly last Saturday. The guy has played it a lot so he is awesome with it.

I think it's still as dangerous as it's always been but its a high level of skill to not mess it up ( I don't possess that skill ). It being so high skill it's just too easy to mess it up and over a long day it's high risk.

I'm thinking for two games it's worth giving a go. No one is going to expect to see so many ships coming at them. Can't remember the last time I saw a swarm at our FLGS. I may have been the last person to run it!

I figure I can concentrate for two games in an evening. I hope so anyway!

The current best TIE swarm is still 3 Academy, 3 Black Crack, Howl Crack. It's very good, if you know what you're doing with it, but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of brain space which is why you don't see it as much as other top tier lists at big tourneys.

This is indeed the best one out there. It won a massive regional is Spain and then I won at Yavin with it. It has a superb mix of damage, blocking and resilience. There are very few list to which it has no answer

What is the approach? Fly them as a 3 and a 4? Block with the Academies whilst the cracks hit hard with rerolls?

i actually fly them as a single group

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|o||o| |o| |o|

setup like that. PS1 at the front, then a row of 4, with Howl tight against the left-most 4. Board edge on the right, in this case

outside ones move 5, next 4 and next 3.

howl on the left moves 2 and BR behind, it gives you great options for turning in and blocking.

Thanks! I will keep this mind tonight. Just need to keep a close eye on movement order so I don't mess myself up.

Swarm is viable, but not if you encounter Dengaroo

Obsidian Squadron is still good

Yes they are good. The shield and improved dial are great. You can add Comms Relay to bank an Evade token on Turn 1 making them even more durable.

The problem is that this rapidly escalates the cost and before you know it, you lose the principle advantage of a swarnm which is weight of numbers.

Obsidian Squadron is Empire.

Yes they are good. The shield and improved dial are great. You can add Comms Relay to bank an Evade token on Turn 1 making them even more durable.

Obsidian is Howlrunner's squadron (she is supposedly Obsidian Leader, whilst Night Beast is Obsidian 2 and Gundark Obsidian 7), not TIE/fo fighters. Obsidian Squadron is:

• Howlrunner, Night Beast, Winged Gundark, Obsidian Squadron Pilot x 4

As a rule, a TIE swarm hates the following things:

• Fast moving long range turrets - Dash Rendar is the archetype of this; he can one-shot a TIE fairly reliably, and (because he can bank 3 and boost, whilst a TIE can't move faster than speed 3 if it wants to turn) is able to keep the range open. If you can pen it in and block it, it's fairly easy to kill, but doing that against a good pilot is easier said than done.
• Stuff that applies against every attack die (rather than tokens) - Autothrusters are the most common example. If you find your first exchange of fire against interceptor (or equivalent) aces at range 3, take evades and try and preserve your squad rather than bothering to exchange shots. You're literally wasting your fire. A similar worst case scenario is the scum version of Boba Fett, although this time at close range. Once he's in amongst a swarm he's getting unlimited red and green die rerolls, and with glitterstim unlimited focus to boot. Hurting him is a bugger. Lone Wolf Dengar is a similar situation - this time with only 1 reroll, but gets that reroll and all the focus, all the time thanks to overclocked R4.

Could 6 Academies and Howl with Swarm Tactics do the business or would it just go down in a ball of flames?

Enormous ball of flames.

Well - that's overstating it, but allow me to explain: Howlrunner is amazing. Doubly so on TIE swarms. Every time a nearby buddy fires, they get a 1-die reroll. Since TIEs only fire 2 dice anyway, you should rarely need more than that unless you're at range 1, and you get many, many more uses out of the reroll than a smaller number of bigger guns.

Howlrunner's big weakness is this:

• She doesn't affect her own shots
• She needs to be still alive at the point the rest of the squad fires
• She's in a TIE fighter

(1) is fair enough - she's only 18 points for a PS8 fighter, after all - but (2) and (3) together mean that using her to lead a mob of PS1 fighters is a no-go. She'll fire, then she'll die to return fire, and the goons in the other eyeballs get no benefit.

If you want Howlrunner to help, take PS4+ pilots, who get to fire before PS2-3 generics waste their squad leader.

Hence the 'classic' crack swarm:

• Howlrunner (Crack Shot), Black Squadron Pilot (Crack Shot) x 5 plus a few upgrades

This works well - it has lethal opening salvo firepower (on a par with torpedo and missile lists). But it does struggle sometimes with being blocked because your lowest PS is 4 - jumpmasters move before you, and being blocked can really mess up a tight swarm (and to get the best out of howlrunner you have to fly a tight swarm).

Hence the variant mentioned, which won the UK Systems Open (in fact, mentioned above, I realise):

• Howlrunner (Crack Shot), Black Squadron Pilot (Crack Shot) x 3, Academy Pilot x 3

This costs you a couple of crack shot attacks, but gives you some warm bodies to block with, and an extra TIE firing (useful for massed damage against targets who can't evade fire well, like a zero-agility VCX-100 or VT-49)

If you really want to take academy pilots en masse, then I'd suggest taking a non-howlrunner squad:

• Youngster (Rage), Academy Pilot x 7

Youngster isn't as good as Howlrunner, but he's more flexible - at range 1-3, you are on a longer 'choke chain', which means you can afford to break the swarm up into 2-ship elements in a spread-out 'dragnet' if you want to (useful when trying to pin Dash Bloody Rendar down), and you can keep him out of the line of fire of torpedo boats (setting up seven TIEs for a head-on run, with Youngster off on one flank away from the 'block'). Most importantly, Rage is an action, so if Youngster takes a torpedo in the face, anyone who's already triggered Rage still gets their benefit.

You don't have to use Rage all the time - it's better to hold onto it unless you've got a range 1 shot, because managing the stress takes some doing. But it does give you an eight TIE fighter, which can be very useful, and getting to reroll all three dice can cause some impressive damage

Obsidian Squadron is Empire.

Sorry, I was thinking Omega Squadron. D'oh!

Obsidian Squadron is still good

I agree...Howlrunner (w/ determination and hull upgrade) and 6 Obsidian Squadron Pilots is one tough flying/hitting/avoiding list.

Swarm is viable, but not if you encounter Dengaroo

Swarm CAN manage Dengaroo (a well-built swarm will one-round a Jumpmaster) but you have to survive the approach well enough, which is a tough ask.

The TIE Fighter now comes in two flavors (a third on the way) and has a whole mess of great new pilots and upgrades to choose from. When flown well, a TIE swarm is still something to be feared. Presently, I see Crack Shot being used a lot by those that fly such lists.