So, with all the fighter support out there with yavaris, FCT, etc. There seems to be, on the rebel side at least, a lot of boosted Bwings hitting the table. throw in bomber command center as well and you can dish out a lot of damage that your defense tokens are largely useless against.

So, What's the best strategy to counter this?

Lots of fighters? slicer tools? bomb them before they bomb you?

Not only are Bwings strong against capital ships, they can hold their own once engaged. they have lots of hull, and 3 AS dice.

Interested to hear successful strategies for dealing with the new rebel threat.

So, with all the fighter support out there with yavaris, FCT, etc. There seems to be, on the rebel side at least, a lot of boosted Bwings hitting the table. throw in bomber command center as well and you can dish out a lot of damage that your defense tokens are largely useless against.

So, What's the best strategy to counter this?

Lots of fighters? slicer tools? bomb them before they bomb you?

Not only are Bwings strong against capital ships, they can hold their own once engaged. they have lots of hull, and 3 AS dice.

Interested to hear successful strategies for dealing with the new rebel threat.

Keep Initiative. as an Imperial Player, you'll find that two TIE Fighters can take two B-Wings on, as long as they have initiative (either through Squadron Command in the Ship Phase, or being in the Squadron Phase itself)... Even if they don't just flat out win the engagement (Decent Rolling on one turn drops a B-Wing, leaving you only facing 1 which has no rerolls)... Etc.

I've been seeing Howlrunner'd, Flight controller'd Interceptors One-Shotting my B-Wings from Distance 5 away, most recently.... Certainly, you can gear to take them head on, and gear to do it cheaper than they are... But you still need to maintain the Anti-Ship Solution with your Ships...

Tie fighters and x-wings never looked so good since Wave 3, IMO

I find that with sufficient TIE Interceptors, I can, in fact, take the sky from you.

Arty Tlrcs and stay the hell away

Next wave

I think if you don't have a carrier/squadron themed fleet, you have to bring some anti-squadron capabilities to the board. I've been running only 6 squads, 3 X-Wing, 1 HWK, 1 B-Wing, and Keyan. X-wings and HWK hold their own and helps me push my 2 bombers with Yavaris. Plus Yavaris is good AA fire.

If you're Imperial, Dengar plus 2 Aggressors could allow you to jump around to kill bombers. I'm not sure I'd bring Tie Fighters or Interceptors to try and stop Yavaris from pushing bombers. I would just take the AA shots and grab some easy points from you.

Also, gunnery team will let you get those fighters in your main fire arc. Now your opponent can't make you chose between their ships or squads.

Kill the capital ships?

The Hotness is unfortunately still Rhymer and bomber friends - insane threat range and now with re-rolls from bomber command..

I think a demsu with multiple slicers can work, triple tapping the carrier... bringing interceptors, mithel, ig88 to quickly dispatch the Intel and beat up b wings definitely works, but if you run in to no squads lists in a tourney, 3 hull blue anti ship can be tricky to use...

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

TIE Defenders incoming!

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

TIE Defenders incoming!

Really looking forward to those little buggers, assuming they're not too expensive.

The Hotness is unfortunately still Rhymer and bomber friends - insane threat range and now with re-rolls from bomber command..

That's not Hotness.

That's definitely Room-Temperature Normality.

At best, its ​lukewarm.

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

Very true. That's why I tend to go with TIE Fighters over Interceptors. Counter isn't all that great anymore with Intel around, and Fighters+Howl are usually more than enough firepower for significantly cheaper. The blue anti-ship die isn't great on either of them, but you can bring a lot more Fighters than Interceptors.

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

Agreed, no way to really gauge how many bombers you are going to run into in a tourney neither... so then it comes down to match ups and that is pure luck based, unless you can accurately predict the list compositions of the entire tourney, then make the best list you can against that meta, then hope your matchup s come perfect... hard but not impossible...

Very true. That's why I tend to go with TIE Fighters over Interceptors. Counter isn't all that great anymore with Intel around, and Fighters+Howl are usually more than enough firepower for significantly cheaper. The blue anti-ship die isn't great on either of them, but you can bring a lot more Fighters than Interceptors.

I would disagree here. In my mind TIE Interceptors are great as long as they're taken in moderation and with the intention of winning a squadron fight.

Tie fighters and intercepters can get value on attack runs on ships. The important thing in not leaving the Ties exposed and stranded. This means putting addional threats in the form of ships in the firing arc of a opposing ship. This will force the oppenent into hard choice on how to spend his limited attacks.

I'm looking at a lot of older tools that we dismissed before. Gallant Haven suddenly looks like a good tool in the squadron fight. Flight Controlled X-Wings supported by Farr are pretty great. Imperials, as ever, remain even better at obliterating squadrons. TIE Interceptors and/or Fighters in a swarm seem like a well priced solution, especially supported by Howl. Mauler is amazing in these situations and Fel isn't exactly bad. I've also watched Bossk and Ruthless Strategists used extremely well.

But as always, the theoretical Anti-Squad superiority of the Imperial fighters is tied up in tissue paper hulls which become a liability when there's no squadrons to shoot. Really bugs me that I can't take these fun Howlrunner + Tie/In dicefests to a tournament because if I run into a squad-lite list I'm suddenly fighting a battle down a good 60+ points.

Very true. That's why I tend to go with TIE Fighters over Interceptors. Counter isn't all that great anymore with Intel around, and Fighters+Howl are usually more than enough firepower for significantly cheaper. The blue anti-ship die isn't great on either of them, but you can bring a lot more Fighters than Interceptors.

One day I'll take the 10 TIE Fighters, Dengar, Rhymer, Howlrunner squadron that I've always dreamed of.

I would say good fighter screen but recently there has been a lot of upgrades like intel that keeps squadrons from getting tied up.

Tie fighters and intercepters can get value on attack runs on ships. The important thing in not leaving the Ties exposed and stranded. This means putting addional threats in the form of ships in the firing arc of a opposing ship. This will force the oppenent into hard choice on how to spend his limited attacks.

I agree, except gunnery teams are a thing... also, 10 fighters does 5avg damage against ships with big old variance... 5 bombers does 5 damage to ships, little variance, and at nearly half the cost... bomber/strategist is likely the way to go here for the imps, vs fighters/interceptors/howl

The weakness of the Yavaris strat is Yavaris. As with any synergy strat once you start taking out the important pieces it really starts to fall apart. Yavaris isn't exactly hard to kill but with all the fighters around you have to be prepared to piece trade. For example: a list built around Yavaris (flight coordinators +commander) + B-wings, taking a Demo run at Yavaris or might not be a bad move. Yes, Demo is more expensive than Yavaris but you completely hole the B-Wing strategy once the flight upgrades are off the table. B-Wings are good but once they get back to being slow they are easy to avoid and you should be able to capitalize. It's also pretty easy to neutralize Yavaris if you concentrate on it with 3-4 non-flotilla ships.

Same goes for all the fighters supported by flotillas. Kill the flotillas and the fighters end up not doing too much.

I find that with sufficient TIE Interceptors, I can, in fact, take the sky from you.

I want to see someone trying this. . . then cry as they run into Flotilla and Escort Frigate AA dice. . .

The point isn't necessarily for the squints to survive. The point is to kill enemy bombers and trade up. So, your ships don't die to those bombers while they kill enemy ships.

In a vacuum:

4 TIE Interceptors: 44 points.

4 bwings: 56 points

All squints getting thrown in in one activation: 9.5 damage. Within reason to kill 2 bwings.

2 bwings shoot back and kill an interceptor while taking damage.

You are now up 28-11 and likely to swing it to a final 56-22 or 56-33 trade and your ships pound enemy ships.

Yes, they died. But they bought you that time to get after the ships.

The point isn't necessarily for the squints to survive. The point is to kill enemy bombers and trade up. So, your ships don't die to those bombers while they kill enemy ships.

In a vacuum:

4 TIE Interceptors: 44 points.

4 bwings: 56 points

All squints getting thrown in in one activation: 9.5 damage. Within reason to kill 2 bwings.

2 bwings shoot back and kill an interceptor while taking damage.

You are now up 28-11 and likely to swing it to a final 56-22 or 56-33 trade and your ships pound enemy ships.

Yes, they died. But they bought you that time to get after the ships.

Not when you start adding in Jan Ors or Escorts like YT-1300's