Trying to deal with my local meta, lots of Bossk. So here is one list I'm considering.

Quickdraw- Swarm Leader, Title, FCS, Primed Thrusters, LWF. -37

Howlrunner- Crack Shot-19

BSqP X 2- Crack shot -15

Acadamy Pilot -12

for 98 points. Gives me a Bid Against other Aces, like Say Fenn. A blocker or 3. I think it's solid. Turret Ships tend to dislikes this many ships.

I could drop Howl and the BSQ's down to Academy 's adding a 6th Ship....

Dude, spend the Imitative to Upgrade the Academy to Wampa. At PS4 it will be Easier to fly in Formation and he can do unblock able damage, he is a threat that diverts attention away from QuickDraw as well.

So there are two reasons that I think Quickdraw isn't a good carrier of Swarm Leader:

1) unlike some EPTs (Expertise) it has no synergy with her ability, and in fact makes her a large enough target that they'll attack her anyway

2) It does nothing for her rear arc, and the /sf is trivially easy to outmaneuver.

If you're going to put Swarm Leader on a small ship *looks at Swarm Leader Decimator thread*, I'd suggest a TIE/x7 platform, probably Vessery or maybe Duchess. QD with FCS will feed Vessery lots of TLs, and that should give enough points for a small swarm.

10 minutes ago, iamfanboy said:

So there are two reasons that I think Quickdraw isn't a good carrier of Swarm Leader:

1) unlike some EPTs (Expertise) it has no synergy with her ability, and in fact makes her a large enough target that they'll attack her anyway

2) It does nothing for her rear arc, and the /sf is trivially easy to outmaneuver.

If you're going to put Swarm Leader on a small ship *looks at Swarm Leader Decimator thread*, I'd suggest a TIE/x7 platform, probably Vessery or maybe Duchess. QD with FCS will feed Vessery lots of TLs, and that should give enough points for a small swarm.

There are nobler ways to play this game than Spamming Defenders.

The Tie SF maneuvers just fine, your problem is target priority, she will get focused quickly. I think Swarm Quick draw can work, but think of the ship as an alpha striker, similar to how you would fly a Bomber or something that peters out quickly

52 minutes ago, iamfanboy said:

So there are two reasons that I think Quickdraw isn't a good carrier of Swarm Leader:

1) unlike some EPTs (Expertise) it has no synergy with her ability, and in fact makes her a large enough target that they'll attack her anyway

2) It does nothing for her rear arc, and the /sf is trivially easy to outmaneuver.

If you're going to put Swarm Leader on a small ship *looks at Swarm Leader Decimator thread*, I'd suggest a TIE/x7 platform, probably Vessery or maybe Duchess. QD with FCS will feed Vessery lots of TLs, and that should give enough points for a small swarm.

it absolutely works with her rear arc, but yeah probably not the best swarm leader.

52 minutes ago, DarthCognis said:

There are nobler ways to play this game than Spamming Defenders.

The Tie SF maneuvers just fine, your problem is target priority, she will get focused quickly. I think Swarm Quick draw can work, but think of the ship as an alpha striker, similar to how you would fly a Bomber or something that peters out quickly

'spamming' Defenders? One of them is hardly 'spamming'. Did someone playing Triple Defenders do something unspeakable in your soda while your back was turned or something?

Vessery is probably the best small platform for a Swarm Leader; he can pick up TLs for free as long as he has a buddy, can Focus himself, and gains a free Evade - the full stack with only needing one friend.

I think Vessery (Swarm Leader, TIE Engines mk.II, TIE/x7, 37), Quickdraw (Expertise, Title, FCS, Lightweight Frame, 37), Wampa, and an Academy Pilot is probably solid. They'll probably try to focus down the TIE Fighters fast, though, to keep you from using the Vessery railgun more than once, so swapping Expertise to A Score To Settle and the TIE Fighters to TIE/FOs for that extra hit point would be viable too.

@kitandthevoices , you're absolutely right. I just briefly misread it again. *sigh*

@iamfanboy I'm going to disagree with your first point regarding synergy with her ability. As there is no "once per round" on SL, you just need a big enough swarm that there are at least 4 evade tokens looking at the enemy, QD happens to be cheap enough that that's not an impossible arrangement. Of course it should be mentioned that TIEs without focus are very hit or miss, so they're just feeding the leader until the leader dies... Unless they're drawing fire on their unprotected selves, in which case thank your opponent for letting the leader take more shots.

@Ronu here's my favorite Swarm Leader QuickDraw:

(36) TIE/SF Fighter: •"Quickdraw" (29)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
Special Ops Training (0)
•Swarm Leader (3)
Electronic Baffle (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)

(16) TIE Fighter: •"Youngster" (15)
Rage (1)

(48) 4x TIE Fighter: Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 100/100

QD isn't so much a ship in this list as she is a 10-12 dice attack that forces the opponent to play only half of their list against a rage mini-swarm.

And it's funny you mention an abundance of Bossk because I once (out of several attempts) blew a fearless-cluster Bossk of the board before he fired

Lose Primed Thrusters and go up to a black crack with your last tie. Ace/Miniswarm is a strong archetype, and QD being able to get two 5 die shots per round is hilarious.

Okay so why are so many of you of the opinion a bid is not needed for a list like this? At least 3 responses are do something to up chuck the bid, ignoring things like Fenn or Dengar who might have bids arc dodge you and then take out a ship before or fires, and if That's the lead ship your in bigger trouble.

You need two or three points to get init at PS9 typically, sometimes more.

It's not worth what you sacrifice to get it, especially when Quickdraw is often not the prime target, and has the rear arc to make it a lot harder to dodge him.

@Ronu in a word: blockers. I don't feel the need for a bid in my list mainly because I have four good blockers. That is of course personal preference, I'm more confident in my ability to block an ace than I am out dodging them.

In addition to that my list involves 'baffling rage' which is incompatible with repositioning and allows me to sneak attack an ace that wants to activate after QD; Fenn is a relatively easy target this way.

So, @Ronu how has your QuickDraw Swarm been working out for you? I'm thinking about taking Baffling-Rage to a tournament this week, but I wanted some feedback on whether an FCS setup might be more reliable. I'm also curious if you held on to the bid and whether that has served you well against my expectations, with FCS there's more flexibility on using your action for barrel roll...

(Also @ anyone else who has tried FCS + Swarm Leader on QD)

On 5/14/2017 at 9:18 PM, nitrobenz said:

@Ronu here's my favorite Swarm Leader QuickDraw:

(36) TIE/SF Fighter: •"Quickdraw" (29)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
Special Ops Training (0)
•Swarm Leader (3)
Electronic Baffle (1)
Pattern Analyzer (2)

(16) TIE Fighter: •"Youngster" (15)
Rage (1)

(48) 4x TIE Fighter: Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 100/100

This, this works VERY well. I tried it last week. I flew it like a complete moron, but it still put through some hurt. Until my green dice betrayed me!!!!!

2 minutes ago, Wiredin said:

This, this works VERY well. I tried it last week. I flew it like a complete moron, but it still put through some hurt. Until my green dice betrayed me!!!!!

Those green dice!

Just now, nitrobenz said:

Those green dice!

My opponent took off 3 ties with 3 range 2 shots in one round. Oh, round 2 by the way. My green dice only work for A-Wings it seems...

1 hour ago, nitrobenz said:

So, @Ronu how has your QuickDraw Swarm been working out for you? I'm thinking about taking Baffling-Rage to a tournament this week, but I wanted some feedback on whether an FCS setup might be more reliable. I'm also curious if you held on to the bid and whether that has served you well against my expectations, with FCS there's more flexibility on using your action for barrel roll...

(Also @ anyone else who has tried FCS + Swarm Leader on QD)

@nitrobenz it flys surprisingly well. A couple of games the bid didn't matter. However for matches that did guaranteed to reposition, or shoot first depending on what was on the other side of the table has been big. The combo with Howlrunner kinda caused my opponents to struggle with Targeting priorities not wanting lesser Ties to Reroll, but QD pulling in extra modified shots was not a better option either. It also helped that QD wasn't hurting himself when fire came his way allowing for additional uses vs going pop quite so easily.

2 hours ago, nitrobenz said:

So, @Ronu how has your QuickDraw Swarm been working out for you? I'm thinking about taking Baffling-Rage to a tournament this week, but I wanted some feedback on whether an FCS setup might be more reliable. I'm also curious if you held on to the bid and whether that has served you well against my expectations, with FCS there's more flexibility on using your action for barrel roll...

(Also @ anyone else who has tried FCS + Swarm Leader on QD)

Been flying this for a little while (about 8 games so far, 4-1 with it in RXT season 6 Vassal league where my loss was in the finals):

Rexler Brath (37) w/ Expertise (4) , Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1) , TIE/x7 (-2)

"Quickdraw" (29) w/ Swarm Leader (3) , Fire-Control System (2) , Lightweight Frame (2) , Special Ops Training (0)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

This pretty much happened every game. I shoot basic primary setting up FCS with Quickdraw. Opponent doesnt want to shoot Quickdraw with a 5/6 dice shot coming back, and Rex is flanking, so they either have no shot, or dont want to spend a billion rounds shooting him, so they take out the academies first. Fine with me. After academies are dead, so is one or two of their ships, then they work on Quickdraw. By the time Quickdraw is dead, they are on their last ship that is hurt and now have Rexpertise to finish off (who is 40pts, so unless they have a 40+ pt ship, they cant run), which is really hard to do with just a single ship.

In the semi's I faced a Swarm Leader baffle quickdraw, youngster rage, howlrunner, 2x BSP. That combo is very mean, but I was able to keep my distance, and gave opponents Quickdraw an academy to deal with, while I took out Youngster. He took out another academy, then my quick and rex took out a BSP, then his Quickdraw and my quickdraw basically killed each and it was Rex vs Howl and a hurt BSP. And they couldnt do much after that. Good game and that Swarm Leader/Baffle + Youngster and Rage combo hits super super hard. Luckily, it was on my academies and not Rex.

Just having Swarm Leader on Quickdraw keeps her alive because nobody wants that revenge shot. Some games I didnt even use it, or maybe just once, but it acts as a scare tactic and Quickdraws ability grows stronger as ships are removed from the board. The baffle Quickdraw, invites ships to shoot her cause she already spent her revenge shot.

I might drop Rex down to Vessery. I hardly ever used his ability, mainly wanted him for PS, and Expertise failed me so many times. In the finals my first three Rex attacks, I rolled three blanks, then 2 blanks and 1 hit. Then an eye and two blanks. Brutal. Vessery re-rolls are needed badly.

So I thought others might be interested in this, as I went to a local Store Championship finished 7th, and could have easily won.

Round 1 vs Kanan Biggs with Zeb Shuttle docked.

Biggs had R2-D2 and IA. Kanan had Rey, Recon Spec, FCS, TLT, Title and tactical Jammer. Zeb just the title.

the PS 1 and 4's initially got between Biggs and the Ghost and separated them, Allowing me to wear the Ghost down first limiting damage from the TLT. Lost QD and Howlie but took the win.

Round 2 was Double Yt1300's Rey and a resistance Sympathizer

dont recall the load outs. Got the sympathizer early. Opening tried to get the Wingmen and left QD alone who managed to work around the finish Rey off.

Round 3 Dengar and Tel.

Expertise Dengar loadout and Tel VI loadout

game was tight. Took Tel out with the Academy from a Range 3 through an asteroid. Same round I lost QuickDraw, not a terrible trade off. Left a slightly hurt Dengar against the two BSP's and the Academy pilot. Bit of maneuvering and I had one BSQ and the Academy behind Dengar range one needing 4 damage to finish him, and my dice went ice cold. I pushed one damage through even with focus on my side. Dengar finally got the better of me but I got half of Dengar and Tel.

Round 4 was vs a Vader Sabocc and Stridan.

Vader had Pred, Title, ATC, EU Sabocc had VI AA, LWF Stridan had FCS, Intel Agent, and Systems officer.

First time playing this person, and he made a mistake. Tried to Flank not expected to turn my entire Swarm in his direction expecting me to go after the large ship and burn it down quick. So 5 ships with Sabocc and range 1-2 of all of them and Vader 2-3 of them all. 4 shots fired at Sabocc with extra dice from Squad Leader and a Whopping 1 damage total, nothing fired at Vader. Lost a BSQ in the exchange, ended up losing mostly due to dice the rest of the game. Flew really well was in the right places at the right times and was causing everyone headaches. List is a keeper.