Okay....

Being one of apparently a relatively small group of madmen who want to fly multiple generic strikers, I thought I'd post a thread here - so I've got somewhere to talk about how they do, what problems I'm having, and seek advice from the assorted wise experts and fiendish tactical genii who lurk on these forums. Any advice is welcome.

Starting observation:

• I know the TIE striker isn't an instant, easy-to-use, win through the card's rules option. But, especially at low pilot skill, it strikes me as a ship which encourages and rewards creative use of the maneuver templates (remember those things?), which appeals to me far more than the latest 360' attack with XYZ upgrades to maximise damage and remove your ability to roll evades.
• I've already got them, and intend, at least for a while,.to stick with them. I'm much more interested in trying to make a squad work using different tactics, formations and maneuvers, than changing around the contents of the squad.

Now, comments on the forums aside, my experience with the TIE striker is essentially non-existant; a single, not at all serious, game against a good friend who'd not played in ages.
He was using Biggs, Luke and Han, whilst I used 5 Imperial Trainees (because they're the ones apparently based on the death star) with Adaptive Ailerons and Lightweight Frame. I won, but not without three of the strikers getting turned into dust bunnies.

The Good :

1. Firepower. The reason I know at least one player who has done well - as in "store championship winning/multiple time cut-making well" with five Cartel Marauders in Khiraxz is that people don't realise just how nasty five 3-dice attacks in succession are. Even with what I will admit was bad flying leading to poor concentration of fire, and taking a higher-pilot-skill-kill before ever shooting Biggs was reduced to one hit point and Han's shields were blown out as well in the first shooting phase. You essentially have the raw firepower of a TIE swarm but with the advantage that it's coming in three-dice lumps, rather than two-dice, making it better at coping with things like agility 2 targets with Lone Wolf.
2. Medium speed maneuver flexibility: The two tricks that really got my attention were 1) the ability to use Adaptive Ailerons to bank one way then do a speed one hard turn the other way (a trick I've seen Blue Ace do when the Force Awakens core set came out, and is very nice for chasing a higher pilot skill big ship) and 2) the ability to do an Adaptive Ailerons bank and then pull a Koiogan turn or Segnor's Loop, giving you a lot of flexibility in how you get your nose around, from an effective 'speed 4 Koiogran Turn' that's hardly uncommon in edium fighters, to something that's more like IG-88D's special Segnor's Loops. The fact that both of these tricks are available to a non-unique pilot is impressive.
3. Fast sweeping turns: A thing fighters find themselves doing a lot (like it or not) is chasing large ships with turrets and engine upgrades. A small ship doing a speed three turn (the fastest possible without using boost -if you even have it - and leaving yourself with a shot but no tokens) trying to chase a large ship doing a speed one bank followed by a bank boost loses ground at about one range band a turn. The TIE/sk, by comparison, can use Adaptive Ailerons and a speed three bank, and keep pace. This is likely to make them good (for their points, at least) at hunting down big ships like Emperor Palpatine or Manaroo.

The Bad :

1. Agility: two green dice do not an elusive target make. More importantly, the Lightweight Frame upgrade doesn't actually trigger in an irritating number of situations - any time a striker gets a bonus agility against a three-dice attack, losing Lightweight Frame effectively eliminates it. This means that a striker is surprisingly vulnerable to fire at range 3, or from obstructed shots (especially now Trick Shot s a thing for people with 'spare' EPTs), and 2-dice attacks, from people taking weapons criticals, or a 'normal' TIE swarm, or potshots from Manaroo or an ARC-170's tail guns, or whatever, can sting far more often than you might expect.
2. Slow Turns: The TIE/sk likes narrow gaps and tight corners as little as an X-wing. Whilst it has a speed one turn on its dial, it can't do one straight away; it has to do a straight or bank. Whilst it can duck, weave and barrel roll with the best of them, you want obstacles to be spread out, so you can speed around them rather than needing to weave through them.
3. Minimum Speed: Very much a issue in jousts or near-joust situations - when you are a lower pilot skill than your opponent, having an effective minimum speed of three is a problem.

The Probably Irrelevant

1. Pilot Skill - if you want five ships, then you're never going to have great PS. PS3 Scarif Defenders win the pilot skill game against many 'heavy swarms' = Cartel Marauders (Khiraxz Pack) are PS2, four Blue Squadron Novices (Baby Blues) are PS2, Twin Laser Turret Gold Squadron or Syndicate Thug Y-wings (TLT spam) are PS2 or PS1, and my previous squad of Epsilon Squadron TIE/fo fighters are PS1. They also get to set up correctly positioned in responce to Palpatine's deployment. However, PS3 doesn't really make a difference against PS4 Black Squadron Pilots (the core of a Crack Swarm), PS5 Tansarii Point Veterans (Mindlink Scyks), or Manaroo, and obviously does nothing against named aces (even the generally-low-PS-for-aces unique TIE defenders).
2. Durability - a hull value of four is obviously better than three, as an Interceptor has. But not massively better, especially since you can take a critical hit on that damage card. I tend to find TIE/fo fighters surprisingly tough for their cost, but in part that's because it's amazing how often it's a single critical that that shield eats (because you cancel criticals last, with an agility 3 ship, the one hit that sneaks through is generally a critical a quarter to a third of the time in my experience). By the time you've thrown in the TIE/sk's limited green dice compared to a TIE/fo, TIE/in or Protectorate Fighter, it actually feels quite fragile. Still, it does meet the "generally not going to be one-shotted even with bad rolls" minimum, which is enough for a cheap generic.

I do have a game night kit tonight, where I'm cheerfully expecting to get murdered three times over by lists people are honing for systems open and store championships - but I'm going to have to play them sooner or later, so might as well get on with it...



Starting Squad:




(These aren't my strikers, by the way - they're Haslo's , from another thread - but I don't have a picture of mine)

The Squad:

• 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

As a starting set of plans:

1. I want the asteroids spread out, and ideally a bit inwards from my board edge. Ignore the fact that they have a good maneuver dial - threat deployment more like you would for a force of large ships.
2. I have the firepower advantage over most opponents, but lower pilot skill and not especially tough ships, plus the problems of high minimum speed. A head-on joust is unlikely to be in my favour.
3. Because they're fast and I have no howlrunner-equivalent, there's no reason to deploy in a tight pack - flying them in ones and twos and trying to come at my opponent's squad from multiple angles is probably the best idea.
4. Aim to engage at medium range - at range three, my opponent has the advantage because he gets a defensive range bonus and I don't (well, I do, but immediately lose Lightweight Frame as a result) whilst at range one the offensive range bonus means four-dice attacks which can one-shot even the slightly hardier TIE/sk. Equally, with three-dice attacks I'm not as dependent on the attack bonus for range one as a two-dice TIE fighter would be, and at medium range it's a lot easier to catch a slippery ace in multiple arcs of fire.
5. That means fly slow - adaptive ailerons and speed one moves unless I know I need to move faster (chasing a fleeing opponent, for example).
6. My usual deployment of side-on to the board edge is probably worth it. Adaptive Ailerons banking plus a speed one turn plus a barrel roll is almost exactly the same as a speed one turn into the board (a common opening move with TIE fighters), but with the ship's heading tweaked round a further forty-five degrees. That means, provided I've got the space before hitting the obstacles, I can come about in one turn if I'm facing the wrong way, without being stressed. That does poke the leading corner of the ship beyond the range 1-2 regoing on the edge of the board where you're garuanteed to be clear of obstacles, through, so be careful where you deploy (you'll essentially be where a speed 3 turn would have put you at your furthest point into the board.

I'm definitely intrigued.

I love the Striker, and would like to see them do well. These are all good things for me to keep in mind for my squad (2 generics, 1 ace, and a phantom.) Keep us posted on how your tactics develop.

Hmm. I've never thought of the Striker as a mini-Swarm ship, I've just been planning on using a couple as a filler for various ace-heavy lists. Interesting.

I like your enthusiasm. I would be tempted to fly:

• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Scarif Defender - Adaptive Ailerons
• Duchess - Adaptive Ailerons, Swarm Leader, Lightweight Frame

Depending on tasts, substitute Duchess for a different Named Pilot, or the EPT for another one. To me, that "sometimes" one extra fickle green die is a waste of 8 points.

Question: what is the 'killer app' that makes this much better than, say, 5x Avenger Squadron Pilots? or 5x Alpha Squadron Pilots with Autothrusters?

Adaptives and far more flexible dial i guess

Sloops, baby!

I want to share a little anecdote. I was facing Dengaroo and had an Imperial Trainee thrown in there. The Trainee was coming from the side of Manaroo, but pretty close to her front. So close that Adaptive Ailerons would result in a bump. The good news is that there was a rock in front of Manaroo, so I knew she would try a speed-2 turn in my direction. I activate first, Adaptive Ailerons to overlap, then turn 1 to get in her way. A TIE interceptor wouldn't have been able to successfully block her because the boost happens second, after it's already overlapped and lost its action. Manaroo activated, was blocked, and Backstabber on Nightbeast were able to finish her off. That experience really opened my eyes to just how different TIE strikers are.

I lost the match, but brought Dengaroo down to 3 hull. It was very exciting. The TIE striker and Night Beast were the last ships and they ended up surviving far longer than I anticipated, but I guess that's what happens when Dengar has no Manaroo and about 12 stress on him.

Another thing to add to the good list IMHO:

After the first joust many lists have added stress to your ships thinking that they have made your life more difficult. In my opinion they have done me a favour by opening up all those slow manoeuvres when my ships need tight moves. Usually this happens in the thick of the asteroids.

My advice for playing Strikers is don't get caught up trying to turn in the middle of a furball. Use the advantage of your ailerons to zoom out of range then turn around for another pass. When facing non-turret ships you can catch them chasing one target while the rest of your strikers strafe the enemy from multiple sides and out of arc. I have found straight jousting eliminates the maneuverability that is the only advantage the Strikers have over most ships.

Agreed on the avoid the furball turns.

I have used atleast 1 striker in every imp list since they came out, including running Sabaac in a local tourney. Whenever im asked how they perform i state "They are weird. Theyre a hit and run type ship since they have bad low speed but can turn around on a dime given enough space" - its quite hard to get range 1 with them, and usually if you do its difficult to get another shot at all (even if you factor in the 2s/k turns) without being in a REALLY bad spot in the process.

They can sit at range2 pretty reliably, a 1bank away into a 1turn towards your target moves more sideways than forward, but it requires a lot of open space (no ships, no rocks).

The best way ive been getting use out of them is use them as the "second force" as i call it. Theyre not evasive or tanky enough to be the main target that draws attention, but theyre powerful enough to hammer the nail down the rest of the way the intended tank (defenders?) already did. Sabaac removes the need for range1 entirely, and long as he keeps his distance and flies smart he keeps his ability for awhile too (curse tlts though...).

Will admit though, i own 3 of these things and until recently i was running all 3 lol. Two of these with the title alone is worth replacing a decked out Ace to me, but then again the way i play/fly kinda caters to their strengths (im a flanker/syke player, whatever it looks like im doing im probably not even if its a better decision than what i am planning to do). The more of these you have the more hectic it is for your opponent to keep track of any individual one of them. NEVER underestimate the power of being able to choose where that pre-maneuver "boost" goes, had countless times someone tried to block my 2k and i just went another direction.

What's the official ruling on the Strikers ailerons? Do you lose your action if you bump with it or is it just your regular dial revealed maneuver?

I believe developers have stated multiple times that it is intended to not, but the rules are ambiguous at the moment. For the sake of sanity I'd say you keep your action since it's not like Ailerons has it's own perform action step. We probably should not be pushing the argument that the action component is in "free" maneuver executions.

Designers say no and rules clearly state yes

I say strikers arent x7s, so throw them a bone eh?