Most Imperial lists with squads are either a Rhymer bomber ball or the flying circus of aces. I never see swarms of regular ties or interceptors locally and rarely online. I can think of several reasons why. You can't command them all easily, so lots will have to make do with just the move or shoot which loses some efficiency. And they die pretty quick to AA fire which their numbers don't really help them with directly.

What kind of upgrades would it take for us to see this kind of a squad build be competitive?

I'd try it with something like this in a list I think:

Officer Upgrade - pts ?
SQUADRON COMMAND - if all squads activated by this command are the same, double the number of activated squads.

Officer Upgrade - pts ?

SQUADRON COMMAND - if all squads activated by this command are the same, double the number of activated squads.

As if Rhymerballs needed more help..

exclude ships with bomber keyword.

Or maybe an upgrade for imperials like gallant haven, but working exclusively for tie fighters and interceptors?

Whenever one of your squadrons is killed deal 1 damage to another squadron at Distance 1.

True, it does work with Rhymer pretty well..at least indirectly.

So what kind of upgrade would encourage swarms of ties or ints, but not just end up making Rhymer better?

One of the reasons I was thinking about this is the Corellian Campaign coming up. We don't know many details yet, but the impression Ive had so far is the unique cards will be limited and possibly lost. If most imperial lists are leaning on the aces for their squads, then will they suffer a lot for that in the campaign?

Maybe a better question is are there people having reasonable success with aceless imperial squads?

Edit, BorbaFett, that's a good idea. Shmitty, make it 1 damage to a ship or squad at Dist 1 and I'd like to try it.

Howlrunner

Thing about squadron heavy builds is too things.

1. A lot of point investment in squadrons so unless they are bombers that is alot of your firepower gone.
2. Even more investment into ships with good squadron to point value.

So to sum it all up if you take a lot of squadrons your are taking a lot of your potential firepower from your ships and unless those squadrons have good anti-ship values and the bomber trait that is a lot of potential firepower gone,

exclude ships with bomber keyword.

Or maybe an upgrade for imperials like gallant haven, but working exclusively for tie fighters and interceptors?

"Before a friendly squadron with Swarm at distance 1 suffers damage from an attack from a ship, reduce the total damage by 1."

No idea on type of upgrade/cost though.

I feel 14 blue, even non bomber dice is reasonable anti ship fire. Like how 8-10 black non bomber A wings are alright.

It's not nothing, but it's not great, either. That's 7 damage optimistically, of you can throw out 14 squadron commands per turn.

In that case, you have almost no ship board firepower, comparatively, and your awesome 7 damage just got a lot crappier.

exclude ships with bomber keyword.

Or maybe an upgrade for imperials like gallant haven, but working exclusively for tie fighters and interceptors?

"Before a friendly squadron with Swarm at distance 1 suffers damage from an attack from a ship, reduce the total damage by 1."

No idea on type of upgrade/cost though.

Maybe like the jamming field on a flotilla? This seems pretty strong. Would null a lot of AA fire. It would still be hard to make use of all the ties easily, but I'd probably try something with this in a list.

12 TIE Fighters

Howlrunner

Major Rhymer

128

2xEHB Gozantis

56

ISD2

120

304 points. Add in whatever commander and upgrades you want. You have 13 squadron activations by ship. If you face no squads, 7.5 anti-ship damage. Not overwhelming, but cannot be ignored.

Gozantis and howlrunner, and an isd

Maybe some card that turns the TIEs into mosquitos against capital ships (i.e forcing rerolls). Even better is a unique squadron that also gives them Zika.

Too soon?

Maybe some card that turns the TIEs into mosquitos against capital ships (i.e forcing rerolls). Even better is a unique squadron that also gives them Zika.

Too soon?

Way too soon, go with West Nile, the Zika upgrade can wait until the next c wave.

It's not nothing, but it's not great, either. That's 7 damage optimistically, of you can throw out 14 squadron commands per turn.

In that case, you have almost no ship board firepower, comparatively, and your awesome 7 damage just got a lot crappier.

Assuminng they are firing, 14 blue non bomber is 7 expected. If we wanted to be optimistic ae might hope for 10 or more.

12 TIE Fighters

Howlrunner

Major Rhymer

128

2xEHB Gozantis

56

ISD2

120

304 points. Add in whatever commander and upgrades you want. You have 13 squadron activations by ship. If you face no squads, 7.5 anti-ship damage. Not overwhelming, but cannot be ignored.

Gozantis and howlrunner, and an isd

I know I can make these lists, but I don't think they are very competitive, mainly due to the fact that I never see these lists in any tourneys or at least placing anywhere, either locally or from reports I've read online. I wanted to see what people thought was the bar to make them more competitive.

Personally I fear the damage ships can do to the squads, and the difficulty in getting them all activated with commands makes the trouble seem too much. I think it's possible just solving one of those issues might make them competitively viable.

I crushed a double Liberty, double flots, and xwing and Jan with one of these just the other day.

exclude ships with bomber keyword.

Or maybe an upgrade for imperials like gallant haven, but working exclusively for tie fighters and interceptors?

"Before a friendly squadron with Swarm at distance 1 suffers damage from an attack from a ship, reduce the total damage by 1."

No idea on type of upgrade/cost though.

No because Dengar.

I personally think TIE Fighters are the best squadron Imperials have. They don't need anything else, they do their job, and they do it well.

A new named Tie fighter squadron for 14 points with the same game stats as Mauler but with this special ability:

"Friendly Tie fighters and tie interceptors within distance 1 may ignore the effects of Jamming fields for their attacks."

This would not actually increase the survivability directly but will encourage imperial players to operate Jamming fields knowing that their Tie Fighters will benefit from their protection but be unhampered for their own attacks and so increase survivability.

A second option for a named tie fighter could have the following special rule.

"At the start of each turn other Friendly Tie fighters within distance 1-2 of this squadron can replace the swarm rule with an evade defence token."

A new named Tie fighter squadron for 14 points with the same game stats as Mauler but with this special ability:

"Friendly Tie fighters and tie interceptors within distance 1 may ignore the effects of Jamming fields for their attacks."

This would not actually increase the survivability directly but will encourage imperial players to operate Jamming fields knowing that their Tie Fighters will benefit from their protection but be unhampered for their own attacks and so increase survivability.

A second option for a named tie fighter could have the following special rule.

"At the start of each turn other Friendly Tie fighters within distance 1-2 of this squadron can replace the swarm rule with an evade defence token."

I hope he means Scatter. Evade has only a slight amount of limited use.

I think he may mean evade- its protection from ship AA.

Logistical problem with it anyway, where do all those tokens come from? How do you know which token is for which stand? Non-unique squadrons don't have their own card.