I can't say how excited I am to play Sloan and a TIE swarm. Part of me really wants to just take 135 points of TIE fighters. No named characters no more expensive fighters. It would be like that old dorito commercial, Kill all you want I've got more. But in any swarm force multipliers are just so good, so Howlrunner almost seems like an auto include. Dengar, though not quite as obvious really helps the ships he is hanging about with. But if I put them in I will need some escort for them. Black squadron seems pretty cool, but only three hull and no tokens means his escort won't last long. TIE Advanced survive better, but they don't have swarm so they won't get to reroll that counter dice Dengar give them.

To make mattes worse as I price out the rest of my fleet I only have about 100 points left for fighters. All in all I'm not getting that overwhelming numbers advantage that should be the hallmark of a good TIE Swarm.

I know I am not the only one out there working out the best TIE swarm to use with Sloan. So what are you all planning on.

Don't give me a list of Imperial Aces. Yes, that will be a good list, but you can't call it a swarm, really,

There isn;t really a good reason not to use Howl, Mauler, Dengar and 1 jumpmaster. Even soontir and Ceina should join the fun.

No need for escort: alpha strike all of their fighters. Add rhymer for Sloane cuts to their ships if they refuse to come out from under their 2 blue AA blankets off Yavaris. With how activations work, youll easily find something to attack.

You don't need excessive investment to make Sloan work... In a recent game against a strong Rebel fighter force I just had Howlrunner, Rudor, 2xTie-fighters, 2x Tie-Interceptors, Lambda, 2xFiresprays.

I used my Raiders and Firesprays to draw out their fighters in a bad spot and overwhelemed them.

My Ties then proceeded to support my ISD to hunt down the rest of the opposing fleet that basically fled the field after their main fighter threat was gone.

Howlrunner, 7 Tie fighters, Tempest squadron and 4 Tie bombers for 133. (upgrade a Tie to Black squadron if you want a second escort but then Howlrunner doesn't benefit another unit)

The fighter elements should sweep the sky backed up by flight controllers on all or half of them. Depending on the expected retaliation tempest can join them to protect Howlrunner for a turn or can join in with the bombers. If the enemy have 120+ points of fighters then stay close to your ships to chip in flak and remember Tie-Bs with flight controllers are quite good to abrade double brace Aces.

Once space superiority is achieved the fighters can switch to anti ship and stripping brace tokens.

For the fleet - a Quasar, VSD-I carrier and a VSD-II capacitor gunship I think.

Dengar. Howlrunner. Mithel. Nlack Squad.

And

6 Jumpmasters.

132pts.

Jumps have 4 hull and swarm.

54 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Jumps have 4 hull and swarm.

And "super-cloak"

6

4 hours ago, Hrathen said:

I can't say how excited I am to play Sloan and a TUE swarm. Part of me really wants to just take 135 points of TIE fighters. No named characters no more expensive fighters. It would be like that old dorito commercial, Kill all you want I've got more. But in any swarm force multipliers are just so good, so Howlrunner almost seems like an auto include. Dengar, though not quite as obvious really helps the ships he is hanging about with. But if I put them in I will need some escort for them. Black squadron seems pretty cool, but only three hull and no tokens means his escort won't last long. TIE Advanced survive better, but they don't have swarm so they won't get to reroll that counter dice Dengar give them.

To make mattes worse as I price out the rest of my fleet I only have about 100 points left for fighters. All in all I'm not getting that overwhelming numbers advantage that should be the hallmark of a good TIE Swarm.

I know I am not the only one out there working out the best TIE swarm to use with Sloan. So what are you all planning on.

Don't give me a list of Imperial Aces. Yes, that will be a good list, but you can't call it a swarm, really,

You will have another problem with the Tie Swarm.

They are hard to activate.
10 squadrons are a good number that is still able to handle with activations. But 16 Tie Fighter (128 points) have to fly on their own. Because activating them is hard. So you are wasting squadrons.
Sure, two ISD Carrier can activate 12. Or the new Quasar can as well activate 6. But from experience i have to say that everything over 10 is hard, and 12 should be the maximum.

The list from @Ginkapo is already really good. And still 10 squadrons. And if you use Tie Fighter instead of Jumpmaster, you will be able to fit 9, for a total of 13.

Cant wait to utterly destroy tie swarms!!! Muhhhhaaaaaa,(evil rebel laugh)

No really, its super fun playing tie swarms, reminds me ROJ in the final battle!

1 hour ago, Tokra said:

That's like using Ackbar without ships with red dice.

so not true.

23 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

so not true.

Sure, you can use ships without red dice for him. But i call it stupid and wasted.
It might even work, but i find it still bad.

In regard to squadron amount it surely depend on what ships you bring, but I'm not shy in putting squadron commands on my squadron command one ships if necessary in turn two to four to capitalize on the extra offensive capacity of quantity of squadrons. Rogue squadrons should also be considered, even with Sloan.

For the rebels I like 6-9 squadrons and for the Empire 8-12 squadrons in a 400p game.

Quantity do have advantages in the threat they pose and can be beneficial in the positioning game during the first two turns and better at protecting ships and forcing the opponent to commit out of position.

Quantity will also make it easier to force the opponent to spread their fire with good use of the escort ability or just positioning of your squadrons.

6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Dengar. Howlrunner. Mithel. Nlack Squad.

And

6 Jumpmasters.

132pts.

Jumps have 4 hull and swarm.

You're paying 50% more compared to a Tie Fighter for a 25% hull increase, and you lose an attack dice. You're better off saving points by taking ties and using the stronghold title to give them anti-flak protection. Or upgrade a few to Interceptors for true squadron-shredding potential.

I think four ties will be more than adequate for the rebel scum you'll be flying against. I mean, really, who in that group is going to challenge you?

4 hours ago, Tokra said:

Sure, you can use ships without red dice for him. But i call it stupid and wasted.
It might even work, but i find it still bad.

A list type I commonly fly is 2 torpedo frigates and an HMC80. . . the torpedo frigates do most of the work, and the '80 acts more as a deterrent.

I've been considering if Sloane will make a phantom swarm worthwhile

12 ties, 6 for the first wave, 6 more for the second wave when those die

11 hours ago, Tokra said:

That's like using Ackbar without ships with red dice

Until you realise that the only ship this statement includes is the MC30 Torp frigate, with which I find the added accuracy chance helps with its obscenely high damage output. Not counting yet to be released Hammerheads and the omnipresent (even in Ackbar fleet) flotillas.

Edit: Forgot the CR90B, but upgrading to an A with Ackbar is some pretty obvious stuff.

I have a different criteria on ships wasted on Ackbar.

messing around with this I created a list before the nerf of 12 tie fighters with a shuttle and Rhymer. With the nerf I would probably take howlrunner instead of rhymer. The ships I used was 4 gozanti class cruisers, 1 arquittens, and 2 raider-I with EHB.

The idea was to use relay to activate 2 squadrons with each ship from a distance. The list was mostly to see about activating the most squadrons as possible and have a high activation. It was just a concept idea and a list I would never have used.