Swarm Leader + Whisper...

By Dave Grant, in X-Wing Squad Lists

List:

Phantom - Whisper (41): Swarm Leader, Fire Control Systems, Advanced Cloaking

Advanced Tie - Vader (35): Tx1, Advanced Targeting, Stealth Device, Swarm Tactics

Tie - Academy (12)

Tie - Academy (12)

So Whisper gets up to 7 dice at close range - preferably with focus and target lock. Tactics lets him shoot at PS9 (very important to re-cloak vs other ace-y types), allowing Vader to finish them off (if needed) with auto-crit. :-)

Thoughts???

Swarm tactics is an interesting way to get around the PS problem when giving Whisper swarm leader.

A couple of problems that you possibly might run into, firstly the list is 100 points which means that you might run into problems against lists that run PS9s with any sort of bid. Connected to that you also have a conflict where Vader wants to move last so he can arc dodge but Whisper wants to shoot first so he can re-cloak. Obviously there are games where it doesn't come into play at all, but there are somewhere it might cause you some problems.

Secondly, swarm tactics only works at range 1, which might be difficult to maintain given that they are both quite squirrely ships, Whisper with his decloak and vader with his arc dodging. As soon as you lose range 1 you have Whisper down at PS7 which is a bad place for him to be. Also swarm tactics only works in the combat phase so there is potential for PS8+ aces to dodge Whisper's arc.

I don't have a solution for the PS conflict problem, but for the second problem you could consider swapping their EPTs so that Whisper has VI and is a natural PS9 and can just do his normal nasty things, then giving Vader swarm leader. Yes he will only be throwing 4-5 dice plus a crit, but it gets around the problem of keeping them at range 1 of each other. I think your list has a lot of synergy as it is now but I'm not sure how well it would translate to the table when it constrains the way you have to fly.

Initially this could be good, but as the game goes on, Whisper's PS might become a liability if you can't get Swarm Tactics to trigger. I think VI and then Swarm Leader for Vader is the way to go just to be safe. Then you can put Intel Agent on Whisper if you want.

Edited by tortugatron

Could try Decoy on Vader. Gives you a wider leash, although it'll put Vader's PS at 7 during the combat phase.