One alternative:

• 2x TIE Defender
• 2x TIE Fighter

TIE Defenders have the same hull:points ratio but come with the benefit of speed 5 and can avoid being one-shotted. The ability to absorb 3 attacks minimum allows this guy to tie up a good flank of an Acehole ball while the other one ties up the second flank.

How I see the sequence:

Turn 2:

• Alpha strike with two Defenders on opposite sides of enemy fighter ball. Force their intel to choose.
• Close in with Demo on Yavaris, line up for double arc.
• Demo might take a hit or two, but two Defenders should be tying up most of the engagements.
• Raiders and Gozantis should move within black range of fighter ball.

Turn 3

• Defenders should be alive if you're lucky (bless that 6 HP).
• Feed in your two TIEs to tie up fighters.
• Flak the ball with the smaller ships. Flechettes should trigger on most of ships you fire at.
• Yavaris goes down but stays in action. Demo should make a sharp turn getaway and position onto other ships. Force his acehole ball to decide if Demo is worth chasing (unlikely to catch up).

Turn 4

• Acehole ball is neutered after losing a few fighters and not having Yavaris.

Turn 5

• Profit?

If you were fighting this list?

Deep bid so I can choose to go second, camp in my corner and score points (or give you an uphill slog with Solar Corona). Delay activation until Adar and Yavaris are left. Use Adar's GR to activate Jan first to free Wedge, then swing Wedge to attack the TIE/D closest to Demolisher. Un-toggle Wedge. Then activate Yavaris to double-tap Wedge to kill the TIE/D with six dice and attack Demo if it's in range. Double-tap the other TIE/D with whatever else it's locked down with, maybe B-Wings or Luke. Or jump all four fighters first with Shara, since it's not like you have intel and if she's stunned forever by the Raiders, your fighters aren't moving up to attack mine and I get free bombing runs on anything you bring into range.

No fighters left, all fighters begin attacking Demo as soon as it's in range.

Oh, and to stop a Demolisher run I'd have my GR-75s moving up flanking the Yavaris, so you can't get a run on my Nebulon without first running over a GR. It's enough space so I have a turn to anticipate, move my B-Wings into position, and unless you kill-ram the GR-75 for your after-move Demo attack, I'll have three B-Wings with two BCCs and Yavaris with a token ready to serve you six attacks that peel shields. Luke's there too, and BCCs can finally tell him where to aim.

I'm this thorough to explain it because how do you get around this? Bid deeper so you can go second and force it to move to you?

15 minutes ago, Norsehound said:

If you were fighting this list?

Deep bid so I can choose to go second, camp in my corner and score points (or give you an uphill slog with Solar Corona). Delay activation until Adar and Yavaris are left. Use Adar's GR to activate Jan first to free Wedge, then swing Wedge to attack the TIE/D closest to Demolisher. Un-toggle Wedge. Then activate Yavaris to double-tap Wedge to kill the TIE/D with six dice and attack Demo if it's in range. Double-tap the other TIE/D with whatever else it's locked down with, maybe B-Wings or Luke. Or jump all four fighters first with Shara, since it's not like you have intel and if she's stunned forever by the Raiders, your fighters aren't moving up to attack mine and I get free bombing runs on anything you bring into range.

No fighters left, all fighters begin attacking Demo as soon as it's in range.

Interesting strategy. To continue our theoretical play:

• This is why I bring six activations -- I can jump one of the two Glads in last (or not).
• I could also start committing TIE Defenders into your squadron ball with my first move in the squadron phase if you haven't jumped Shara in yet.
• I like to separate my TIEs into two blobs to prevent them all from getting engaged.

Who knows! Some of this comes down to deployment and the nuances of ship activation order. In the end nothing beats more practice with high level players.

I'v run 45p fighter screen that worked well on 75-100 squadrons. I use:

Valen

Mauler

Black squadron

Tie

But they were for huting not blocking. I reccomend quantity over quality here. Above squadron list give you maximum of 2 round squadron block

Demo might be able to first-last against the flotilla flanking Yavaris to try to get in, but I strongly doubt Demolisher is going to survive if Yavaris is available to triple-tap all three B-Wings against it. Once you've lost Demo that's your major offensive piece off the table, and it's down to your other GSD without the move-attack advantage. Without knowing what's on those GSDs, I can't predict how well they'd be able to jump over the Flotillas to get to Yavaris, which is this lists' strongest playing piece, making Squadrons OP.

So six activations could be good. If I'm conscious that I have to slow down Demo, I might just try to get the CR-90 to block you, or deploy two flotillas against Demolisher to make you brick through two while my B-Wings get into position. In fact, knowing Demo is on the table I may decide to take the first bid just so I can annihilate Demolisher before it has a chance to activate. Then I pick the objective that won't force me to move too much, which is the one weakness of this list- it can't cross board distance fast.

Your TIE/Ds are coming in two (or three activations) at a time without Flight Controllers, wheras I can activate up to six attacks from one activation and two-dice AA spray. Once all your fighters are committed, it's a matter of getting my strongest response fighter, Wedge, to throw six dice against your activated fighters... potentially twice. You think a TIE/D can survive two six die attacks? There's enough points that I can shuffle the list to get Toryn in there, probably by removing the intel officer off the CR-90. So, now Wedge can get a re-roll in addition to his two six-die attacks against whatever activated fighter crosses his path. With Adar Tallon, Wedge can make three response shots from your alpha strike.

By separating your fighters, I have fewer things to chew through before my Bombers can be in position to start shredding capital ships apart. And with two escorts in this list, you won't be shooting at Jan soon enough to deny me intel. Besides, you don't benefit from Rieekan... I can remove fighters from being locked down by destroying them. If I can get Yavaris to concentrate those attacks, those fighters won't be trapped for long.

And... I agree with high level play. I've not run this list myself... this is all knowledge gained from playing Mythics so often and playing on the strengths I see in this list he created. I've made a few tweaks, like running a CR-90 instead of a Pelta and my squad composition is a little different, but I know how all these tools work. I've been finding it very hard as the Empire to consider counters to this thing, which is why I hate Rebel squadron advantages so much and why I have been so vocal about it before Worlds.

The only way to beat this list evidently is to take a deeper bid and play to your objectives to win. When one considers actually fighting this list, you get into the mess of how to deal with maximum squadrons packing 4+ health with a lot of bonuses stacked on top of them.

10 hours ago, Norsehound said:

You think a TIE/D can survive two six die attacks?

From Wedge? Everytime. He never hits. And in fairness his avg dmg from 6 dice is 3. So its only 50% of the time he actually does kill Tie Defender. But its Wedge, so he doesnt.

21 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

From Wedge? Everytime. He never hits. And in fairness his avg dmg from 6 dice is 3. So its only 50% of the time he actually does kill Tie Defender. But its Wedge, so he doesnt.

Can confirm, my Wedge with Flight Controllers last night rolled 6 Crits and 1 Accuracy. Toryn rerolled the Accuracy into another Accuracy. I was unhappy, to say the least.

22 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

From Wedge? Everytime. He never hits. And in fairness his avg dmg from 6 dice is 3. So its only 50% of the time he actually does kill Tie Defender. But its Wedge, so he doesnt.

Hah! How many times did my Wedge blank out against you? Like 1 damage from 18 dice? God I hate Wedge so much.

2 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

From Wedge? Everytime. He never hits. And in fairness his avg dmg from 6 dice is 3. So its only 50% of the time he actually does kill Tie Defender. But its Wedge, so he doesnt.

I was being generous by allowing him three chances to kill one Defender (Adar, 2x Yavaris) with six dice at the end of the activation. Toryn Farr can also help him out in every one of those attacks. It's a bit too comical to assume that out of 18 dice with a re-roll for each one, he can't muster 6 hits. At least the TIE/D doesn't have counter...

I can tell you from my experience on the receiving end, Wedge doesn't disappoint. Luke however couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. The reason he's in that list I mocked up is because he's another token-carrying Escort.

I can attest conflicting anecdotal confirmation that Wedge indeed does hit, and hit hard. Yes the average is 3. But that's usually making it often he can kill for 6 dmg. Plus Adar Tallon and Toryn rerolls on both or all 3 rolls. Since there's an extremely high chance of there being 1 die not a hit, Toyrn is basically in effect a 7th die, with a 6dmg cap: Thus, Wedge's efficacy after toryn is 3.5 avg hits. x2 = 7 dmg. Enough overkill for consistency. add Adar Tallon, and you're giving out 10.5 average hits.

Notably, Adar Tallon is present in all the Aceholes lists.

Anecdotal and mathematical.

Wedge kills Tie Defenders. Say no to Wedge. Join Mothers against sky rage.