Here are some thought about squadron management in a fighter heavy environment.

Some basic tips are to always try to match the right tool for the job and don't always try to kill as many of the enemy as you can just because you can. It is often MORE important to keep the enemy in place and occupy him. As long as you bring the right squadron to the right place you will become victorious. Make sure to leverage your ships anti squadron firepower whenever you can it will give you that extra edge that you need. Don't rely solely on the power of your bombers to deliver the victory. If your ships are not threatening enough you can find your fighters becoming the prime target and your weak ships easily destroyed.

If your enemy has "Intel" squadrons in play you need to make sure you disperse your fighter screen so they can't leverage their Intel and attack you with impunity. This is when tying up the enemy might be more important then killing them outright. If you keep the distance between two squadrons at 3 then an enemy squadron can't engage them both using distance one. Also be very aware of the range of those Intel ships, the Rebels have range 3 and the Imperial ones range 4... this is very important for the positioning of your squadrons in general.

When you fear that the enemy are about to launch an attack which you feel you can't stop directly make sure to position squadrons in the way to mitigate the impact. Better if the shoot at your squadrons than your ships. You can react later and use the anti-squadron guns on the ships to retaliate. In this case it is important to study the range of enemy bombers and any bonuses they might get. Place your defensive squadrons in a way they don't easily fit to do lots of damage, don't get over zealous though... no problem if one or two bombers can shoot. You need some reserves to counterattack or to attack their ships in return with your bombers.

Down below is a mixed Rebel fighter wing positioned for delivering a devastating blow under the protection of two Escort Frigates (in a perfect world that is ).

The idea here is to get maximum defense from the ship on the approach and forcing any attack to either spread out or risk a devastating counter attack. It will be very hard for any Imperial fighter attack to attack this line without any serious casualties. The two X-Wing squadrons on the corners are placed with a distance of 3 from each other, that makes it impossible to engage them both with the same squadron and also more or less impossible to anything inside the fighter formation without first destroying any of those corners.

Jane Ors are also sitting good int the middle ready to "brace" for impact!!

On the far flanks slightly behind are your A-wings, they make the best flank protection and have the speed to get anywhere if an attack do come. In the middle is one Y-Wing squadron in front of another X-Wing squadron and will entice the enemy to attack it but will only be able to do so with limited numbers due to the Escort tucked in behind and the other Escorts on the flanks. Remember that Y-Wings are cheap and the best to actually soak damage for the points spent. You rather want the enemy shooting at them rather than anything else. Pretty much anything in the Rebel side can bomb with reasonable efficiency anyway.

Having at least one E-Wing can always be a plus if you find the points, they are great against Imperial Interceptors. Fly up an X-Wing and attack one and tie up another and then snipe with the E-wing from behind. If this formation is attacked you can either go after their fighters aggressively or just try an tie them up and send out your bomber against unprotected ships. The key there would be to engage as many opponents one on one and mitigate any Swarm effect as much as possible. Try to destroy Tie-fighters in away to mitigate the Swarm effect, don't let the Empire dictate the positioning game.

A good carrier commander never bunch their fighter up in one big ball... it is too easy to simply lock it down even with Intel ships on their side...

Here the Imperial Carrier commander sent his Bombers (should not happen but it is just for show) in a bunch together with an Intel ship and the leading escort is engaged with an X-Wing while the four bombers are engaged with the A-wings. They are all set up so the "Intel" ship only can make ONE of those Rebel squadrons heavy. They all are about three distance apart and one distance from their enemies. Always send Counter fighters against bombers, these A-Wings could hold them up for at least two turns, three most likely if nothing else change, that is 35 Rebel points versus 48 Imperial points.

Here is a more compact form of an aggressive formation ready to launch at the enemy. It does try to leverage their "Intel" ship and keeping it safe while still sort of spread out to prevent any one just boxing you in. As I said before... don't be so stuck on the fact you need all your Y-Wing to attack. A-Wings and X-Wing attack just fine. Your "Intel" ship should be able to nudge enough squadrons away from any enemies to get a sizable part forward to attack the enemy. Notice how the Escorts are spread out, you want to be able to move at least some of them after being attacked to start dictating which ships are attacked and by whom. In this instance the A-Wing are there to entice the enemy to attack them and make it a bit harder to get to the meat of the formation without you in turn being able to start laying down the hurt when you start activating fighters.

If you also can keep some Escorts close to the formation it should be safe.

Here is some simple pointer of why you want to separate your squadrons. In order to capitalize on the Swarm effect and engage all your squadrons they need to use four Tie-fighters. Problem here is that if that X-Wing kill just one Tie-Fighter they loose the Swarm on it and on one of the Y-Wing and those Tie-Fighters will not chew through those Y-Wings anytime soon after that.

Perhaps they instead do this...

Which might lead to this when you activate...

If you are lucky you will even get to save that lone Y-Wing but otherwise it is a sacrifice well worth it. Obviously the rest of the Imperial squadrons are tied up elsewhere...

Below are some Imperial bombers that slipped past your defenses and took a bombing run of your cruiser. Just send in a lone A-Wing squadron to keep them busy. In this instance there are no "Intel" ship in range to help them. Make sure to position the A-Wing so any "Intel" ships can't reach them. Remember that your first focus must be to neutralize your opponents offensive anti-squadron capacity, bombers only needs to be occupied until you can deal with them properly.

So... depending on your fighter strength and the opponent your goal should be the following.... neutralize the enemy anti-squadron capability if they have Bombers that are a threat, otherwise the priority is to get your bombers to their targets safely.

Never rush your squadrons out ahead unless there really is a huge reason to... make sure your ships are protecting them as good as possible until you are ready to strike. If you play it right you can mitigate the speed of the Imperial forces by simply make it unappealing to attack you.

Also remember that if your capital ships are weak and the enemies ships firepower is greater you MUST attack them and that can be difficult if you face something like this...

I have experimented allot and fighters/bombers don't work efficiently if they don't have any powerful ships to back them up... weak ships forces that side to attack instead of having the enemy charge at you to avoid getting shot up. The Rebel force at the start of this post is also pretty strong but in my experience this Victory task-force are quite brutal. Both of these forces are about 400-425p or so. I have found that to many flimsy ships just make it hard to dominate the field properly which also make your squadrons weak. This is not an ultimate army of any kind, just an interesting one to play with some tactical challenges. In general it does not care about number of activation, it is all about pointing those noses and shoot while the Tie put out the smack if they get too close or they try to flank you.

I have found that about two Aces work the best in a full carrier fleet and I always take a mix of cheap and expansive squadrons, some Rouge is always good.. For the Empire I like about 12-13 Squadrons and about 9-10 for the Rebels at roughly 400p... just scale it up from there. This is when you have about 1/3 fighters. I actually find that fleets just work less good if they have less than about 15% fighters and the Empire are the best at fewer point in fighters since they get cheap access to Good cheap superiority Tie-fighters/interceptors. I would most likely never go below 4 Tie-fighters and 2 -interceptors in any Imperial fleet at 400p.

If i go for a carrier heavy fleet I usually get 5-10% in a Commander (400p game), 30% squadrons, 45-50% Ships and 10% in ship upgrades. If I get 15% squadrons I will put around 5% more point into ship upgrades. I also find that piling on several ship worth of upgrades just lead to a weaker fleet. Make sure every upgrade are either cheap and neutral or really meaningful. Don't throw on upgrades just because you can. Only very select few ships should ever get all upgrades and Carrier fleets are not the place for it.

In general I like 600p games on regular sized tables a bit more interesting, if give a bit more versatility and utility tools to the fleets which open up the tactical possibilities and more upgrades for the ships in general can be afforded.

uh hate to tell you but imperial fighter balls are a thing because of Rhymer

I know how that all work and it does not really change much at all in the general theme of thing, that is just one thing you need to watch out for and your fighter screen need to be a bit further out. You don't need to stop all attacks just enough so you can counter effectively and lock them down, they still rely on that "Intel" ship to make it work.

I have stopped Rhymer doing any serious damage many times. Problem is when you rely on such a one trick pony it rarely work against someone who are good at placing their squadrons to neuter it.

Great article!

Great stuff! Another one showing obstacle shenanigans with squadrons would be good for new players. Like bwings waiting on the station. Push with fct. Bomb with yavaris activation. Or Jonus waiting on an asteroid to guarantee his effect goes off. Most new players dont even realize obstacles block engagement.

Yes... I actually forgot to mention how important obstacles are to how you position ships and squadrons in relation to each other. Obstacles are great for bombers in particular but even fighters especially Snipers and Counter fighters can make good use of them just remember they don't keep enemy squadrons in place if they are placed in them, obstacles are mainly for defensive purposes.

You then have Jamming fields which are great defensive tools and will make thing hard on the one that like to attack you. The fact that both get reduced dice is not really important it is all about positioning your squadrons in good positions and really counter your enemies moves. I like Jamming ships for both the Empire and the Rebels. I really think many people don't realize just how good a well positioned Jamming field really are tactically.

My article was not really to tell how to use Rebel ships I just happen to show it that way the same strategy works on both sides even if they differ some due to difference in speed and durability etc...

What is important for the Rebels is to mitigate the Swarm effect and you NEED to spread out for that to work and it will. Spreading out and using cheaper squadrons (even z-95 Headhunters if needed) will work and it work for the Empire as well due to speed advantage.

What is important is the distance three between your anchors which are usually your Escort squadrons, space them out vertically by that amount and then at least one distance deep and staggered in relation to the front Escort... sprinkle bombers, utilities and stuff in between and A-Wings on the extreme flanks. If you have Jan Ors in the middle of that formation she will brace pretty much everything except your A-Wings on the flanks and hopefully most of the ships can be Jammed as well if you use that. Anything that tries to jump in will also eat flak from your ships, another reason to use Jammers, flak from ships are not affected by it.

A decent Rhymer ball should have access to some anti squadron abilities. If the ball gets pinned by an A-Wing on either side with no way to Intel them both using Dengar then you send 2 Tie-Int to clobber one while intell frees up the other. In an emergency fire sprays or even tie bombers with flight controllers can be used to fight your way out of engagement but then they aren't attacking ships that turn.

I like to include at least 2 of IG88, Sabre and Mauler in a larger bomber force. The first two act as assassins trying to kill Jan or Dengar so I can then pin enough squadrons and Intel my own boomers onto bombing runs. Mauler helps by applying the last point if I roll poorly and is also invaluable if I come up against large 134 point opposition.

It is about activation and pinning them all down eventually... with too many Aces or expensive squadrons you quickly run out of squadrons to react with... that is why you NEVER run them in one big furball. The picture was not about a practical example as much about the idea of how to use a counter fighter, same holds true for Interceptors... at this point you are committed and obviously will throw more fighters against the opponent AND threaten to bomb their ships too.

I have tried it several times and it just is relatively easy to counter... throw in a Jamming field and destroying those Rebel fighters without easy access to Swarm and it will be a pain.

A good spread out defense will usually see Rhymer (remember that Rhymer himself need distance 1 to attack) able to get at most two bombers on target... after that they are swarmed by rebel fighters and the Intel ship is downed. It just don't work well in practice even against smaller fighter forces who are more geared towards defense rather than offence. In a smaller fighter force the Rebels should mix Z-95, X-Wings and A-Wings.

I'm not saying you can't pull it of I just say that there are proper ways of dealing with it. Accepting a few bombers getting through is OK if it means you stopping them then and there after that. But good positioning and ship maneuvering can often make it very difficult to hit a prime target. There might be Frigates, Corvettes or Flotillas in the way and you don't want to waste your efforts on them when there is a large capital ship breathing down your neck. Positioning of ships and their escorts are almost as important in this equation.

13 minutes ago, jorgen_cab said:

A good spread out defense will usually see Rhymer (remember that Rhymer himself need distance 1 to attack)

Rhymer is a squadron friendly to himself at distance 1, so he can attack from medium range. . .

Just now, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Rhymer is a squadron friendly to himself at distance 1, so he can attack from medium range. . .

Yes... saw that in the FAQ... a bit strangely written but OK... three attacks can get through which is not that bad most of the time.

Problem is getting them there in one piece in the first place unless you want to waste those attack on a Corvette or Escort Frigate instead of the MC-80 or Assault Frigate.

5 minutes ago, jorgen_cab said:

Yes... saw that in the FAQ... a bit strangely written but OK... three attacks can get through which is not that bad most of the time.

Problem is getting them there in one piece in the first place unless you want to waste those attack on a Corvette or Escort Frigate instead of the MC-80 or Assault Frigate.

Yep. It has to say 'Another friendly ship/squadron' for it to not apply. Like Toryn Farr.

Also, is it really a waste of points? You are still hitting a ship, and that ship could be important, like Yavaris. Also, those attacks could be devastating, with, say, Boba Fett and Maarek Steele. . .

Edit: And if you can reach a CR-90, can't you reach an MC80? Or do you mean a waste of points because the damage won't be crippling/all those expensive bombers are attacking a cheap ship? In the first case, you have to consider the fact that you can get it over multiple turns, just like any Bomber Wing. You're paying a bit ore for more turns of bombing. Worth it, no? In the second, you can either attack the expensive ship, as first case above, or kill more small ships. If the ships are there, they're likely important, so why not kill them?

As Rebel, you will never have the alpha strike unless you go A-wings, wich can do little to call it "alpha" or E-wings, wich normaly will not engage and do the same little thing as A-wings.

You basically resumed pretty well all about postitioning when facing a Rhymmer ball, split A-wings around to avoid the Intel on all of them so the enemy would be able to free just a few from the ball. Then pray for the dices.

The problem comes when the Rhymmer ball consists on a heavy anti-fighter screen such as TDef. Thats the perfect combo.

1 hour ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Yep. It has to say 'Another friendly ship/squadron' for it to not apply. Like Toryn Farr.

Also, is it really a waste of points? You are still hitting a ship, and that ship could be important, like Yavaris. Also, those attacks could be devastating, with, say, Boba Fett and Maarek Steele. . .

Edit: And if you can reach a CR-90, can't you reach an MC80? Or do you mean a waste of points because the damage won't be crippling/all those expensive bombers are attacking a cheap ship? In the first case, you have to consider the fact that you can get it over multiple turns, just like any Bomber Wing. You're paying a bit ore for more turns of bombing. Worth it, no? In the second, you can either attack the expensive ship, as first case above, or kill more small ships. If the ships are there, they're likely important, so why not kill them?

I find that if they are forced to jump into a dispersed Rebel formation it is going to be hard to get much more out of them with all the fire and ship anti-gun coming at them at that point. If you also have all those expensive Aces around you will not afford that many squadrons to protect their approach.

And I would usually consider a flotilla or corvette or even an escort frigate a necessary sacrifice, but then I don't buff the smaller ships to the point they become a liability if I lose them, I rather have an extra small ship to run interference with, prefect against fighters and ships.

I just find the tactic one dimensional and rather obvious so you know what to do when you face it, that is all. I find predictability to be rather easy to counter most of the time. Does not mean you or I will be able to stop it every time.

2 hours ago, xerpo said:

As Rebel, you will never have the alpha strike unless you go A-wings, wich can do little to call it "alpha" or E-wings, wich normaly will not engage and do the same little thing as A-wings.

You basically resumed pretty well all about postitioning when facing a Rhymmer ball, split A-wings around to avoid the Intel on all of them so the enemy would be able to free just a few from the ball. Then pray for the dices.

The problem comes when the Rhymmer ball consists on a heavy anti-fighter screen such as TDef. Thats the perfect combo.

All Fighters Follow Me! can hand you a very nice Alpha strike with your speed 3 fighters as well. There's also the old YT-2400 end of turn Alpha trick as well.

With the jamming Field you can sort of force a confrontations on your terms as the Rebels as well, works quite nice.

I have used a Rhymer Ball 3 times, I leave it spread out mixed with their defense force till they move in for the attack.

So... I experimented on some strategies and tactics, especially with Rhymer... I really like to run with Rhymer and Howlrunner... they both give my taks-force a good balance of anti-ship and anti-fighter capacity.

Only squadron important stuff listed here...

Empire

Victory II (The Corrupter, Boosted Comms and Flight Controllers)

Victory II (Extra Hangars and Flight Controllers)

Gozanti (Jamming Field, Extra Hangars and Vector)

Light Cruiser (Centicore)

Squadrons: Howlrunner, Rhymer, Lambda Shuttle, 5 Tie-fighters, 2 Tie-Advanced, 2 Tie-Interceptors, 3 Bombers

Rebels

Assault Frigate Mark II B (Boosted Comms)

Nebulon B Escort (Flight Controllers, Flight Commander)

Nebulon B Escort (Flight Controllers, Flight Commander)

Nebulon B Support

GR-75 (Jamming Field, Extra hangars, Flight Commander)

CR-90 B

Squadrons: Jan Ors, Tycho Celshu, HWK-290, VCX-100,

The lists were about 500p or so with large fighter focus in both.

In this particular battle I run with the idea that the Rebel did manage to deploy in a way to run down a flank and the slow imperial Star Destroyer obviously had problem turning to face which isolated one if the Star Destroyers for the Rebels to concentrate on. This obviously prompted the Imperial forces to launch a fighter strike.

Here are the basic setup... (pictures not from actual game but a setup representing the battle)

The Imperial fighter screen was protected from the Jamming Field as was much of the Rebel fighters screen.

This is NOT what you should do... this turned out to be a total disaster.

By attacking the forward echelon of the column the offensive force and eventual supporting Tie's was quickly overturned and also out of effective command range for about 1/3 of the fighter force. Even when the attack was made against the Jamming vessel could the allied forces turn and support with relative ease and aslos concentrate fire on the closest Star Destroyer with several Nebulon B, Y-Wings and the Corvette in the flank, quickly forcing the Imperial force to Jump into Hyperspace and retreat.

The fighter scree at the front is actually weak for a reason, basically to draw in that attack... anyone who see an easy way to get in and place their fighters will quickly realize it was a mistake.

But...

When the attack came at the back of the force the momentum of the Rebel fleet placed their entire formation out of position and by the time they turned to get control they were not only down in anti-fighter capacity the fleet was also caught in the crossfire between both Star Destroyers and the light cruiser. Above all Imperial fighters was under command and could be activated while many Rebel fighters was out of command.

I might also add that in no instance did the initial attack actually destroy any ships. When the Flotilla was attacked I just rolled extremely bad but in case of the Nebulon B there really was no real hope of destroying it in one attack (even if the attack was in their side arc). At least not as long as it was undamaged before the attack. At most I did three hull damage with one critical damage. Having a support Nebulon B that replenish shields help the Rebels and a Repair ship is always helpful as well but was not present in this task-force. I always have that in a Rebel fleet at 600p. I can't also stress how important the Flight controllers are on those rebel Escort ships. In a fighter furball it just is great how you can move fighters so they can either shoot in the the squadron phase or move activated squadrons that destroyed their opponent so they can pin down some other squadron.

So what I'm trying to say is that relying on a specific list build is not they way to go.... using it tactically with sound tactics in the game is the key. I did also try a more heavy Ace based Rhymer ball and it never worked and melted much faster due to too much point spent on the initial bombing run. In fact just Rhymer and a few bomber and a single Tie-advanced manage as much damage as those aces did but having the anti-fighter support coming in after them was much more important than protecting the initial strike. In most cases those bombers and Rhymer survived equally well. In the case the Imperial strike came at the rear all bombers survived and managed to ravage the Rebel formation further.

In my experience a slightly more balance force give you more options rather than a single strategy. Obviously the above battle are only one of many ways it can unfold and depend heavily on the mission objective. I should also note that I go into my battles with the intention of NOT LOSING not to win. That means as long as I'm not beaten I'm OK, even with a draw. For me it is a more realistic way to approach a fictitious battle and less as a game and I like scenarios and campaigns rather than single battles. Others don't and that is fine too, just wanted to explain why I devise tactics as I do.

For me it is obvious that you NEVER engage unless you clearly see that you have an advantage or the enemy/opponent make some mistakes you can exploit. I usually like to maneuver and use my fighters to force my enemy to make mistakes that put me in position to isolate part of their task-force and move in and dismantle them piece by piece. If that is not possible I will try to stay away. Of course everything also depend on my overall mission. It will be a high priority to claim any victory points. if I can claim all victory points without firing a single shot all the better... I win and no reason to engage and risk anything.

54 minutes ago, ouzel said:

I have used a Rhymer Ball 3 times, I leave it spread out mixed with their defense force till they move in for the attack.

Yes... you need to protect them until you are ready to attack. You don't want to leave them in a place to be easily pinned down. Though you can't spread them out too much either because that narrows down the area in which they can be effective and the opponent can shut it down from doing any serious harm. I think there is always a fine line you have to tread.

I would never even be afraid of luring my enemy into attacking my bomber force and me then Swarm and destroy most of their fighting force. Usually works better without Rhymer though because with large part of the enemy fighting screen lost you don't really need Rhymers ability that much any more as long as you can easily activate and chase down the enemies ships.

I always like to have a solid mix on my fighter balls. I have made two 134 pt wings

Semi perfect fire ball

Rhymer, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Dengar, 2x fire sprays and mauler

Neo rhymer ball

Ryhmer, Dengar, tempest, maarek Stele, jendon, 2x tie defenders, tie advanced

Oh... one more little tidbit about Jamming Fields... Imperial Bombers become completely powerless under a Jamming Field since they loose their only one Die. Y-Wings at least got to throw one blue die but try to throw them into the fray outside the Jamming fields if possible.

25 minutes ago, chr335 said:

I always like to have a solid mix on my fighter balls. I have made two 134 pt wings

Semi perfect fire ball

Rhymer, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Dengar, 2x fire sprays and mauler

Neo rhymer ball

Ryhmer, Dengar, tempest, maarek Stele, jendon, 2x tie defenders, tie advanced

I have tried several similar attack patterns in my testing scenarios and these expensive squadrons always perform much less effective than something more tasked at doing just one thing backed up by the proper Ace. Say a counter strike from Howlrunner with a bunch of Tie-fighters/interceptors which is more bang for your buck.

Trust me.. I have done many simulated attacks with different combinations. An initial strike with just one Tie-defender, Rhymer and three to four Tie Bomber will do as much damage and all those aces you then have much more points on pure bad a$$ Tie-fighters/interceptor coming in and destroying any Rebel fighters reacting to the initial attack.

I does require that you orient your striking capability on large activation's and not small ones. You need at least two larger ones at 4-5 squadrons and a medium with at least 3. In my scenario above the initial attack was made with 5, 5 and 4 squadron activation so a total of 14 squadrons swarming the enemy, that is a sick amount of anti-fighter dice just melting the opposition unless they can counter even harder than I do. Make sure to place your Tie-Advanced under your Jamming Field after the initial counter attack.

Few number of squadrons will get out positioned badly... imagine you jump in 4 squadrons to attack, the Rebels activate a bunch of their X-Wings and Aces to support them with 4-5 activation and place them so your counter strike is difficult to make. They most likely kill your Advanced and perhaps put some serious injury in Darth Vader. You jump in with three more squadrons and kill one X-Wing... the Rebels then tuck in the rest of ALL their fighters pinning ALL of your squadron down in then sequence they want to engage them, isolate and concentrate on them in turn to kill them and making sure you MUST divide your firepower due to strategically placing their X-Wings so you can't focus fire them. By this time you are in a death spiral and you will not be able to escape since pretty much everything is pinned down and no Intel ship will fix it unless you have several of them and the only thing you can do is retreat at that point.

All of the Aces you listed are really good and Tie-Defenders are good to just not for this purpose. Regular Tie-Fighters have more of an alpha strike than a single Defender points wise but you need the number of activation to make it work. When the Quasar hit space those Tie swarms will just become that much more lethal.

Just to see how sick you can strike with just a bunch of Tie-s.

Victory II class Stardestroyer with Corrupter (5p), Extended Comms (4p) you might through in Flight Controllers here as well since you will eventually activate squadrons to fire in engagements.

Victory II class Stardestroyer with Extra Hangars(5p) and Flight Controllers (6P).

Throw in a Gozanti with Bomber command but I usually don't find the points for it.

Note that the points you spend here to augment your striking capability have nothing to do with spending points in your allotment for squadrons.

Step 1: Send in Rhymer with three bombers to attack a ship, that can be four black dice with a potential re-roll that get to go FIVE distance, that is why you have Extended Comms on that ship... it is a decent attack force for 43p. It is rare that any initial counter strike kill more than one Bomber and rarer still Rhymer since he is much harder to kill. If they target him you should not really worry, if he is destroyed it is not that important.

Step 2: Activate one Tie advanced, Howlrunner and three Tie-fighter (or interceptors) jump in and start destroying the most dangerous Rebel anti-fighter squadrons. The advanced get four dice, Howlrunner four with a re-roll and the Tie-fighters a whooping five dice with a re-roll, all this for a wave two attack at 51p. You place them in a pattern to protect Howlrunner from any counter attacks... if you feel conservative then send two Advanced in the first wave. These are real life Ace killing Tie-Fighters for 8p a pop.

Step 3: Your Jamming ship activate and send in two Tie-fighter and two Tie-Interceptor. If you can place them so Howlrunner can give them extra dice that is four dice for the Tie-fighters and five for the Interceptors for another 38p. Or you trade in one of the Interceptors for a regular Jump-master for some Intel. Intel is important in the next turn if you want to shift your Tie-fighters around and avoid them getting killed of or better focus fire enemy fighters. Run in the Jamming Field... -1 dice will serve you better than the Rebels since you have weaker hulls and have access to that Swarm re-roll. There is a huge difference of an X-Wing using 3 or 4 dice on a Tie-Fighter not so big if you go from five to four dice with a re-roll. Even more important against A-wings counter dice down to one.

Total of 133p and 13 squadrons. Once the enemy fighters are gone you send in all your squadrons to focus fire on enemy ships... Tie-fighters are expandable and those ships supported with some bombers will go down fast after that. You might replace a Tie-fighter for a spare bomber. Once you have space fighter supperiority you can allays withdraw damaged Tie to the station to repair them and the go after the ships again. Their high speed usually make sure they have time to do this at least once.

You might consider the Tempest Squadron to go in with Rhymer since they have Bomber and only cost one more point than a regular Advanced.

When Sloan comes along I will be loving generic Tie builds backed up by flight controllers and Chiranau to get more from your squadrons without eating into the 134 limit. This may let me burn through Galant Haven and Biggs effects.

I am thinking...

Howlrunner, 8 Tie-F, 6 Tie-B for 134 points

or

Howlrunner, 4 Tie-I, Sabre, Rhymer, 5 Tie-B for 133

A fleet of Sloane,ISD, 2 Quasars or 2 VSD and 1 Quasar could activate them.

I support @Jorgen_cab's preference for specialist tie fighters and bombers rather than the more multi roll Tie-D. Trying to kill off Tycho and Shara with generic Tie-Ds was a nightmare last game. Not enough accuracies to prevent scatters and we were locked down for 3 turns where I could have been bombing.

5 hours ago, Mad Cat said:

When Sloan comes along I will be loving generic Tie builds backed up by flight controllers and Chiranau to get more from your squadrons without eating into the 134 limit. This may let me burn through Galant Haven and Biggs effects.

I am thinking...

Howlrunner, 8 Tie-F, 6 Tie-B for 134 points

or

Howlrunner, 4 Tie-I, Sabre, Rhymer, 5 Tie-B for 133

A fleet of Sloane,ISD, 2 Quasars or 2 VSD and 1 Quasar could activate them.

I support @Jorgen_cab's preference for specialist tie fighters and bombers rather than the more multi roll Tie-D. Trying to kill off Tycho and Shara with generic Tie-Ds was a nightmare last game. Not enough accuracies to prevent scatters and we were locked down for 3 turns where I could have been bombing.

The Quasar will give some rather interesting new options for a heavy carrier build. The only thing to watch out for though is in lack of ship guns that can threaten the opponent if you only go with the Quasar and and no real capital ship to support it. It obviously depend on the size of the game and so on but I generally found that you need some decent ships with guns on them to control the space you want your fighters to fly through to keep it clear of enemy ships otherwise you end up with your fighters in the middle of the opponent fleet and that might hurt really bad.

The Tie Defender have its uses... it is a perfect for defending a pair of Raiders or why not attach two Tie Defender squadrons to a group of Light Cruisers where their Command cruiser can activate them with a single activation or someone else if you deploy the Centicore. Have them move fast up on the flanks and attack with both ships and fighters that way.

The Defender and all other squadrons have its uses but I don't think the Defender is designed to be a generic superiority fighter, it is too expensive and not strong enough in its offence for the number of points it cost. I also think that the defender and a bit more expensive squadrons might work better in a more defensive capacity in a fleet that mainly use them for defense and don't have access to large activation's. In general I don't think that spending less than 50% of your squadron allotment will end well for a fleet against another fleet that concentrate on squadrons. This also fit well with the Star Wars universe.