Okay....I like the look of the TIE striker.

Given unpleasant experiences facing Dash Rendar and Manaroo, I also like the way it looks like it flies - it's no faster than a normal TIE in a dead run, but it's manoeuvrability is amazing - a TIE fighter can't change course at faster than speed 3, whilst a TIE/sk can do big, loping speed 5 banks, or speed 3 'hard turn' segnor's loops like IG-88D.

A squad with strikers and a support ship could work, but their inability to fly slow might be awkward - staying within range 1-2 of a TIE shuttle or Lambda might not be easy. Besides which, I'm weird and like the visual of a squad all equipped with the same fighter. The fact that the card art for everyone except Black Squadron and the Trainee shows Scarif is nice, too.

I'd really like to try flying a mob of them - either 4 black squadron scouts with Predator or 5 Scarif Defenders, all with Ailerons and Lightweight Frame.

I could take 4 Imperial Trainees and 'Countdown', or some list with the three named pilots and one generic, but - at least until I get my head around the funky manoeuvring, I think having everyone at the same pilot skill is going to be a very good idea!

What I need to get my head around is tactics. A 3-dice attack is pretty respectable, but I'm still going to need to "swarm" the squad to get hits through. At the same time, adaptive ailerons means I want space to move freely. I'm thinking of flying the Scouts in pairs, and trying to keep the board as open as possible.

I think Rocks are a better idea than debris - with 4 health, losing one to clipping a rock is not the end of the world, and with adaptive ailerons (and predator for the scouts), losing actions isn't catastrophic. By comparison, a stressed TIE/sk has problems, as its dial collapses from a dial close to a TIE interceptor to something more like a TIE punisher.

I think I'd just really like 5 Scarif Defenders to work because I'd like to have a squad which works "straight out of the pack" without needing cards I don't own. I know people have done pretty well at events with 5 cartel marauders, and - unlike that one - this has PS3 which gives it a slight edge against a twin laser turret mob.

Alternatively, I could always forgo Lightweight Frame and only put it on unique pilots. It's a good card, but on the generic pilots, maybe not good enough for the cost.

• Duchess - Adaptive Ailerons, Veteran Instincts, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons

or

• "Pure Sabbac" - Adaptive Ailerons, Trick Shot, Lightweight Frame
• "Countdown" - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons

or

• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame

Thoughts? Anyone had much use out of strikers en masse, as opposed to just taking Duchess?

I've looked into this, and I've concluded that its not 'top tier'.

I used to run 4 Royal Guards with push the limit oh so long ago and it was a really fun list (and competitive too until the pancake menace emerged to deal with phantoms back in wave 4/5)

Anyway, the problem is that the TIE striker, despite its 4 hull, is squishy and lives/dies by positioning. Its extremely vulnerable to turrets whether you have Light-weight Frame or not. Dengaroo in particular has a field day mulching through these ships one at a time since they do not have good damage mitigation. Bossk also can make very short work of them, although here the Strikers have a bit of a chance even if Bossk nukes one before it fires because the Strikers can easily concentrate fire on Bossk and maybe get an okay damage trade.

This is the first list I tried:

4 BS scouts w/ predator, AA & LWF = 25 x 4

100

I'm not sold on light-weight frame, and predator helped a bit, but I wonder if Expertise is a better choice (since it frees your action for pure defense----something the lower PS ships really need). Adaptive Ailerons is pure gold though. Great upgrade and totally worth its 0 points!

Here's something I think would be much more effective:

2 BS scouts w/ expertise & AA = 24 x 2

3 Imp trainees w/ AA = 17 x 3

99

You have tons of blocking potential and the Scouts can put out decent damage while reasonably protecting themselves with evade tokens. The only weakness is stress on the Scouts shuts down their damage mod. For that reason, its probably best to use AA for turning around and save the S-loops for situations when they are not going to get shot.