I've been running Duchess pretty light, with Title and VI only for 24 points. She's pretty mean for 2 academies worth of points!

When you are pitching 14 red dice at one target on turn ONE...You WI know you are doing striker things with strikers.

Oh that poor poor assaj.....She will be missed.

RIP.

I flew 4 Black Squadron Pilots tonight with Lightning Reflexes, AA, and Engine Upgrade. I talked it over with several folks at the game store, and they all agreed that LR doesn't key off of AA, but we played it that way for fun anyway. The Strikers flew across the board! Man, they really feel fast and maneuverable. But they died super fast. The games were generally over quick.

For the long run, we'll play it correct, but I wanted to try it tonight by bending the rules.

has anyone gotten operation specialist to work? esp with dodgy things like Tie Strikers?

3 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

has anyone gotten operation specialist to work? esp with dodgy things like Tie Strikers?

Operations specialist works pretty well on the upsilon. My current favorite is:

Starkiller base pilot (40)

-FCS, Op Spec, Gunner

You can always coordinate and When you shoot you end up fully modified. Could pair with a couple ace strikers to make defensive use of the focus if you miss.

I've been trying kylo with snap shot ops spec fcs. It's an interesting way to get your mods rolling.

13 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Actually the Tie Striker really needs dice modification and high PS to get the best of its positioning ability.... Thus VI and... Palpatine. She works great as a cheap ace next to expensive things like Whisper.

She's really good when not getting shot at, which means you can also take Duchess and something else and use two low PS ships are efficient distractions. I did find 2, with Duchess and Pure Sabaac or Countdown to work well.

I have never flown Palpatine and I don't think I ever will. I haven't bought the Bat Wing and I am not thinking I will. I don't really want to play tournament level stuff. I don't care for the big ships.

I did fly Pure Sabaac in the mission that came in the Falcon (mission 4) and it was really good. I found it quite maneuverable to zip around and fire. I did enjoy it quite a bit.

I run the Duchess with AA title, Light Frame and Adaptability for only 25 points, TIE Strikers can be fast with AA or slow down if you use the Duchess ability making her a lot less predictable compared from the Countess K turns.

The TIe Striker 2 S-Loop is very useful in flanking your target

I flew my strikers for the first time yesterday in a "friendly" game against my two boys... The lists we flew were entirely thematic, they had asked if I had the ships to fight the Battle of Scarrif.. I said no, I don't have 100 TiE fighters.. I do have a few though. While I'm no swarm player by any means I ended up flying the empires finest;

Pure Sabacc, Swarm Leader, Title, Mk 2 engines

3 x Black Sqn Tie's, Juke, Mk 2 Engines

Countdown, Title, Mk 2 Engine.

The boys list was also Scarrif based, with a U-Wing, 2 Rookies and Garven.

I realise the OP only has the 1 striker but either can be used in the same role as they filled for me with different condiments.. Pure Sabacc with Swarm Ldr can throw potentially 7 dice at range 1, I know people are finding the current red dice meta irritating as it "makes it less about the flying", on the contrary I find it's now all about the flying. You can have all the dice you want, if you can't hit me... they aren't much use. So I ran Sabacc with the tie's as a mini swarm, my ineptitude during set-up aside (I placed one of the black sqn's behind him and promptly bumped on turn 1....) the concept was simple, against the list I was facing.... Sabacc can choose to use the evades the ties have for the alpha strike or he can "go his own way...." and let them keep the evades to trigger their Jukes, depending on target. He himself has an enormous target on his front, back, sides everywhere... so he will go down fast. Used as a flanker instead (I used countdown for that) with lone wolf, outmaneuver or predator gives him a different shine but he's still a target. I don't find that LW frame is as useful as the Mk 2 engine because I don't want him stressed (stress shuts down the aeilerons for those that are unaware) so having a large amount of green I find helpful as it makes them less predictable.

I really enjoyed flying the Striker and I'm planning on putting some lists together to see what else I can get out of them. The mobility they have is amazing but they are very, very easy to kill, no auto-thrusters, no shields, 2 agility. Probably THE arc dodge fighter as if your getting shot at, imo you're doing it wrong (in a striker). As someone that loves to fly A-Wings though, I find them more fragile but also more punchy on offense.

I've had a lot of use out of Duchess with VI, AA, and Lightweight Frame, which is a pretty affordable 26 points for a hyper-mobile and unpredictable ship. She's not particularly durable, but having the choice to use or ignore the Adaptive Ailerons makes her fantastically good at arc dodging and range control. It's worth noting you often want to aim for Range 2 with her, as more often than not you won't get any benefit from Lightweight Frame at Range 3.

I've played around a bit with Pure Sabbac as well. He's pretty neat, and can be a really threatening cheap flanker with the title and Trick Shot for 22 points, but he's going to die fast. So use that to your advantage to get clear shots with your other ships! Lightweight Frame and Targeting Computer are both worth considering as upgrades, to either give him a little more use out of his pilot ability, or to add to his offensive punch.

As for what to fly with them, I've been going for Crackshot Quickdraw and VI Backdraft, both with Homing Missiles, FCS, title, and Guidance Chips. Alongside Duchess you've got a PS 9+ triple ship alpha strike that can often just flat out take a ship off the board before it gets to fire. I manage to kill a PtL x7 Ryad two games in a row before she got to shoot...

I guess I don't play a lot of games vs. high PS aces. I am more used to facing mid PS or generics.

Im actually starting to change my opinion on LWF. Initially and i think i said it in this thread too that i'd rather not run a striker at all than run without LWF if i couldnt find the points.

It never does anything. Once in a blue moon i'll get an evade from it, usually via focusing, but usually im not even getting the die from it because im obstructed or range3. Strikers are also good targets for 2die ships since it denies LWF outside range1. I really wish it triggered before obstacles or r3 bonuses.

Sabaac is still the winning pilot to me. Dont need range1 to hit hard and strikers excel at flanking strats, since they really dont want multiple ships infront of them due to AA movements.

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

Im actually starting to change my opinion on LWF. Initially and i think i said it in this thread too that i'd rather not run a striker at all than run without LWF if i couldnt find the points.

It never does anything. Once in a blue moon i'll get an evade from it, usually via focusing, but usually im not even getting the die from it because im obstructed or range3. Strikers are also good targets for 2die ships since it denies LWF outside range1. I really wish it triggered before obstacles or r3 bonuses.

Sabaac is still the winning pilot to me. Dont need range1 to hit hard and strikers excel at flanking strats, since they really dont want multiple ships infront of them due to AA movements.

I've been running a squad with Wampa, Omega Leader and Maarek Stele, and experimenting with VI Sabacc vs Adaptable Duchess. I may have to consider cutting the LWF, which would allow me to bump Maarek up to Rexlar or add Mk II Twin Ion Engines and a 1-point initiative bid.

I've had LWFrame save me like two points of hull on two attacks. Total disagreement. LWF is great. Especially with palpatine or a saved focus.

Yeah, LWF can be pretty bad.

Until Dash with HLC rolls 4 natural hits, and you roll 3 natural evades plus an evade token.

Agh, who am I kidding? That never happens...

This is an interesting discussion because a lot of people seem to be more willing to play Special Forces TIEs now that they can equip Lightweight Frame. But I'm always so pressed for points that it's hard to fit it in my squads. TIE/sf can also take Sensor Cluster, which further complicates things. So is Lightweight Frame worth it?

I guess it comes back to trade-offs. Lightweight Frame is the right call often, but sometimes your squad just needs those 2 points for something else. However, I have notoriously good green dice luck, so my experiences are more in line with those of Blail Blerg than Vinehart01. And yet, when my TIE interceptor blanks out, it's sad; but when my TIE striker blanks out even with that 2 point upgrade attached, it's a different kind of frustration. Anyway, thanks for letting me muse outloud in this thread.

Last thing: since I have 2 Special Forces TIEs, I'll definitely be picking up a second TIE Striker, and then I'll be able to run more Imperial Trainees. Exciting!

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

This is an interesting discussion because a lot of people seem to be more willing to play Special Forces TIEs now that they can equip Lightweight Frame. But I'm always so pressed for points that it's hard to fit it in my squads. TIE/sf can also take Sensor Cluster, which further complicates things. So is Lightweight Frame worth it?

I guess it comes back to trade-offs. Lightweight Frame is the right call often, but sometimes your squad just needs those 2 points for something else. However, I have notoriously good green dice luck, so my experiences are more in line with those of Blail Blerg than Vinehart01. And yet, when my TIE interceptor blanks out, it's sad; but when my TIE striker blanks out even with that 2 point upgrade attached, it's a different kind of frustration. Anyway, thanks for letting me muse outloud in this thread.

Last thing: since I have 2 Special Forces TIEs, I'll definitely be picking up a second TIE Striker, and then I'll be able to run more Imperial Trainees. Exciting!

I haven't found any use for anything except Quickdraw from the SFs though.

And calculated conservation of (motion) focus, or token passing or palpatine make great use of LWframe. for both striker and SF.

Old gramps really keeps things together.

I've been wanting to run them with something like this. They can evade every turn, both get a Focus, and 1 gets a TL while RAC gets to do what RAC does but now one of his hits can't be canceled.