So I picked up a TIE Striker today and I played a Pure Sabacc/Ryad/Vessery x7 list just to try out the Swarm Leader ridiculousness with him. He got one six dice shot off and then died fast, focused down in a hurry to remove the biggest threat from the board. His build was 27 points w/title, Swarm Leader and Lightweight Frame.

So I'm looking at my next Striker build (I'm determined to love this ship and get the most bang for the buck out of it, and I'm thinking Countdown w/title and Stealth Device for 23 points might be not only the best loadout for him but also the best Striker build. Stealth Device always gives him 3 defense dice, +1 range 3 +1 obstacle, which is objectively better than Lightweight Frame which is usually bypassed by the range 3 and obstacle bonuses. Plus his ability guarantees that he keeps Stealth Device until he dies, and he's going to survive AT LEAST four attacks and probably more if you play conservatively and make use of his Evade action.

Thoughts? Better loadouts for him? Better TIE Striker build ideas in general?

define "best"

also, yes

just don't bother wasting point on him; your opponent is basically guaranteed to leave him for last

he's imperial tarn mison, the guy no one wants to shoot but who therefore always seems to be at range 1

...Plus his ability guarantees that he keeps Stealth Device until he dies...

Not quite a guarantee - after the ability triggers the first time he gains a stress, so unless you have some way to siphon that away, the ability won't trigger again after he performs a green move (or some other stress removing mechanism).

However, if an attack only pushes through a single damage, then you wouldn't trigger the ability, thus remain unstressed for any further attacks.

With Stealth and Evade, you improve your chances of not getting hit by follow-up attacks once you are stresses, but you're not guaranteed.

...and he's going to survive AT LEAST four attacks and probably more if you play conservatively and make use of his Evade action.

If he's only taking damage from his own ability, he's going the survive 3 (successful) attacks, he would not survive the 4th.

Played a game with him and he died in two rounds to a single TLT. TLT's are his bane and turn him into a generic Striker.

Played a game with him and he died in two rounds to a single TLT. TLT's are his bane and turn him into a generic Striker.

Totally missed this...tlts ruin his ability. Tlts will also ruin any other striker

Countdowns ability also turns off the title, so he is slow and stuck on greens. He will probably best be a TL'er for Vess and be a nice blocker, since if he misses and ends up in range one he only takes 1 damage. Could also be a nice addition to a howlrunner swarm for the extra die. One hull upgrade could also do wonders for the guy.

I've played against Dutchess and she is no joke in the "Catch me if you can" department. A **** pest buzzing around. I never tried to kill her, just if she ended up in my sights I took a stab at her. Had to save her for last in both games, then ended up killing her. She is way to maneuverable to waste time hunting her down early game.

I tried ps 10 duchess. His arch dodging shenanigans are no match for a falcon. I tried to avoid the falcon and let my beefier ships deal with it. But u just cant avoid a turret all game when they are gunning for you.

Played a game with him and he died in two rounds to a single TLT. TLT's are his bane and turn him into a generic Striker.

Totally missed this...tlts ruin his ability. Tlts will also ruin any other striker

Yup, 100%

We're drowning in TLTs in my local community.

So unless TLTs are nerfed the TIE Striker can sit on the shelf, alongside the TIE Advanced.

Man, TLTs ruin a lot of otherwise good ships. I wasn't really thinking about them but yeah... any squadron with a couple of TLT Y-Wings will wreck "Countdown". Rebel Ys with Stressbots even moreso.

Played a game with him and he died in two rounds to a single TLT. TLT's are his bane and turn him into a generic Striker.

Totally missed this...tlts ruin his ability. Tlts will also ruin any other striker

TLT ruin many things

Turrets in general broke everything.

Gunner/Luke/IGGy B also screw him up. Duchess is the best in a vaccuum. Countdown has his place though.

Played a game with him and he died in two rounds to a single TLT. TLT's are his bane and turn him into a generic Striker.

Totally missed this...tlts ruin his ability. Tlts will also ruin any other striker

"3 (tie) strikes and your'e out"

"Lightened frame" should added a free evade when defending from an attack with more attack dice than the number of defence dice you are defending with, that would have made this upgrade worth it.

more like TLT spam ruins strikers

adaptives and ps 5 should allow you to dive into range 1 of at least one of them

I've played with the PS4 Generic with the title, Lightweight Frame, and Wired thought that it was decent. Probably not a top tier competitve ship but it was a lot of fun to play.

I think both duchess and countdown will find thier places.

So far, I've only played with Duchess. However, I love flying him. The ability to choose whether or not to use the Aileron makes him extremely nimble, and also very zippy. I'm still trying to work out a good EPT pick, though.

Strikers are in the best position of any ship to get into Range 1 of a PS2-4 TLT carrier. I've found them to be very effective against enemy TLTs, in fact....

Also confused why so many people are referring to "Duchess" as a he, seeing as "duchess" basically means a female with a political rank equivalent to that of a duke. It's probably safe to assume the art of the female pilot on the adaptive ailerons card is meant to be "Duchess," in fact.

Because Sterling Archer's codename is Duchess, and why would you not love that? Cue the Kenny Loggins!

So I picked up a TIE Striker today and I played a Pure Sabacc/Ryad/Vessery x7 list just to try out the Swarm Leader ridiculousness with him. He got one six dice shot off and then died fast, focused down in a hurry to remove the biggest threat from the board.

And this is why Pure Sabacc shouldn't be Swarm Leader. It creates too much of an obvious first target. Stacking as many dice as you can isn't always the best strategy.

Instead, I really want to see if I can put together a good list that has Swarm Leader on some other ship, and Pure Sabacc as a secondary threat.

Because Sterling Archer's codename is Duchess, and why would you not love that? Cue the Kenny Loggins!

Oh, I see.

I've never seen Top Gun, so the reference was lost on me.

Haven't played with a Striker yet, but just to be clear... the wording of his ability also nullifies most negative "status effects" from attacks, right? For instance, when using his ability he doesn't take ion or tractor beam tokens, or any effect that is triggered by hitting with an attack, because he is the source of his damage, not the original attack?

Because Sterling Archer's codename is Duchess, and why would you not love that? Cue the Kenny Loggins!

Oh, I see.

I've never seen Top Gun, so the reference was lost on me.

Haven't played with a Striker yet, but just to be clear... the wording of his ability also nullifies most negative "status effects" from attacks, right? For instance, when using his ability he doesn't take ion or tractor beam tokens, or any effect that is triggered by hitting with an attack, because he is the source of his damage, not the original attack?

Yes, all dice results are cancelled so the attack doesn't hit, no effects that require a hit to off, etc. It's similar to Wampa's ability to cancel all dice results and simply deal a facedown damage card to the target.