Is the FO swarm viable?

By DarthCognis, in X-Wing Squad Lists

All renditions I like have five-6 TIE FO's

Omega leader is popular in all of them, but I think her 26 point cost is deceptively impactful on the swarm as a whole, especially since she doesn't contribute as much to the alpha strike. I think Zeta leader is the autoinclude, and that Omega Ace swarm leader has....potential. Ive even been playing with Omega pilots to see what spamming various EPT lodouts will do.

I leave the optimizing feedback to you

I don't think you understand the "Alpha Strike" concept . You're using ships that only get 2-die Primary Weapons. That's not an Alpha Strike, no matter how many times you do it in a round. An Alpha Strike is one or more brutal attacks that can tip the game in a single round of combat.

Swarms do "death by a thousand paper cuts" and no ship is better at it than Omega Leader with Juke and Comm Relay.

Swarm Leader is a little different. That one attack could sometimes be considered an Alpha Strike. If you're going to do Swarm Leader in a TIE/fo list, do it like this:

Omega Squadron Pilot (21) - TIE/FO Fighter
Swarm Leader (3), Hyperwave Comm Scanner (1)

3x Omega Squadron Pilot (22) - TIE/FO Fighter
Juke (2), Comm Relay (3)

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Total: 99

I recommend an Omega Squadron Pilot over Omega Ace because then your Swarm Leader shoots at the same PS as the ships you're taking evade tokens from. This is advantageous because the other Omega Squadron Pilots can Juke their attacks and probably do more damage than they would have after Omega Ace robbed them.

I disagree about Zeta Leader being auto-include in a TIE/fo list, but it's your list. Fly what you like.

I had a GREAT time running a 5 FO swarm recently. It was....

99 Points
4 X Omega Squadron's with Snap Shot
Omega Leader with Juke

Omega Leader still does pretty well with just Juke, and the four snap shot Omega's can really lay some hurt down. At 99 points you can take initiative against another swarm as well!

I do agree theres potential for Omega Leader swam leader, but I haven't figured out how to make it happen yet. Maybe an SF with that new tech upgrade that lets you use the target lock? I have no idea.

The question becomes are you getting your return on investment over a /LN swarm. If you're putting 6 /FOs in the squad, then you're left with 10 points to play with. Assuming you leave the other 5 at Epsilons, this leaves you 1 point short of a standard OL build. And really without both Juke and Comms Relay, OL doesn't really have the bite that he normally does. So you would have to downgrade to a different ace, which is logical to choose Zeta Leader in that case. Two Crit results doesn't seem to really justify Omega Ace, Epsilon Leader might be situationally a good choice, but seeing as they have an excellent green dial, and no self stressing, I don't think he's worth it, Zeta Ace kinda defeats the purpose of flying in a swarm, and Epsilon Ace might be a decent choice, especially for a 2 point upgrade. Going with Zeta though, you find yourself wanting additional modifiers to utilize that extra attack die - I would suggest Wired (since you know he's going to be stressed) as a cheap upgrade option. With 4 points left, you could then perhaps equip him with Sensor Cluster, though I'm not sure that the math works out that this is better than just putting Predator on him (though it does give him a defensive bonus via Wired that Pred doesn't). And that does leave you with 2 points for Epsilon Ace. Alternatively, if we were to spread those 10 points out among the ships, you could upgrade 3 to Omegas with Crackshot. Not sure which would be the better 6 /FO swarm.

But as I started with - is this better than a /LN swarm? For 3 points, each is gaining a shield and a better dial, though this is marginally useful for a swarm. I suppose the Sloop is useful, but the extra greens not so much. So in order to make it better, the /LN would have to be running 7 ties. Which means Howlrunner plus 10 points of upgrades, which these days is probably 3 black cracks plus crack on Howl herself. My guess is that the lack of a shield won't make up for the extra attacks, cracks, and rerolls that Howl provides.

But you could go with a combination squad. Omega Leader w/ Juke + Comms; Howlrunner w/ Crack; Zeta w/ Crack (or wired if you prefer); Omega w/ Crack, Black w/ Crack. It gives you 3 /FOs and 2 /LN, increases either OL or HR's life expectancy (either is a good thing), provides 4 rerolls via Howlrunner, which almost makes up for the loss of a ship in the /FO swarm (ignoring ZL ability it comes from 9 hits to 8.8125 hits, but over 5 attacks instead of over 6, so probably better overall anyways). And once Howl is killed off, none of the ships need to maintain formation. You could even discuss subbing out the Omega Squadron with Scourge or Mauler Mithel, or sub the Black Crack with Backstabber if you prefer more 3 dice attacks.