thats about it. why shouldnt i run that?

can i expect to lose two-three ties before they even shoot?

is it the stress?

Maybe two before they shoot. Three greens with a focus can still be tanky. Problem is the round after. You cant kturn, and all your ties will be stressed again with no mods. That round will be horrible for you.

You might have to civil war it. Have front 4 ties rage, back four only take a focus. Then next round, the front four block, and the back four all rage. That way you get two rounds of four ragin ties and four non-raging ties...???

So,it might work as long as raging occurs only at the best moment...like if the first engagement is lined up just right

You could also use Epsilon Leader to remove one of the stress from each tie.

You have to hope youngster is not killed first, if that happens you are just a whole load of ties no upgrades.(especially if he's killed before you can attack)

I've played it. Not against any recent top-tier meta stuff, but it's fun and surprisingly good.

Against anything good, youngster dies in the first round of combat. After that once crucial round, you're left with double-stressed naked academy TIEs. In other words, you have to kill at least half your opponent's list in that one round. Against a JM5K it's unlikely, and any given ace will just laugh at your swarm.

On the whole, it is a jank list, relegated to the third tier, but fun to play nonetheless.

It's both really.
You can atleast expect to lose 1 tie, and the stress is rather crippling.
If you want to try youngster/rage out, you might want to consider something along these lines.
Epsilon lets you lose some of the awful stress, so you can do a green maneuver and lose all of it.
You lose 2 ships, but get 4 ships with crackshot and ps 4 as the lowest. Howl could be substituted for anything since you have rage already (like scourge), but I think it would be cool, since it forces the opponents hand. If they kill howl, you have youngster, if they kill youngster, you still have howlrunner rerolls. You can murder jumpmasters before they shoot a torpedo, you shoot before jess pava, and half of your lists shoots before any PS5.

You could also remove howl for twin ions.

"Youngster" (15)
Rage (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

"Epsilon Leader" (19)

"Howlrunner" (18)
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Because Rage gives you Focus and rerolls for stress, for TIE Fighters already get Focus and rerolls without stress thanks to Howlrunner.

Your damage output goes up very slightly, but now you can't k-turn as you're stressed and in fact TIEs have bad greens so you've completely wrecked your squad.

As mentioned above, Rage stacks on the stress in a bad way; using Rage means turning around is going to be slow going. You could simply hard burn out of the fight altogether, but more than likely, rocks and enemy ships are going to make a Hit & Run difficult. There is also the problem of efficiency; unless they're in Range 1, TIE's don't have the attack dice to use all three rerolls available; Howlrunner is usually more than enough for a TIE Fighter.

Having said that, if you're looking for something similar:

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Push the Limit (3)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Push the Limit (3)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Push the Limit (3)

"Youngster" (15)
Expose (4)
Shield Upgrade (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)
Push the Limit (3)
Shield Upgrade (4)

Total: 99

This list essentially turns all of your TIEs into X-Wings. Expose, Push for Focuses. 3 dice, or 4 at range 1; with a reroll, and focus token. Squad Mom & Dad both having Shield upgrades to make them a bit tougher to kill. Not exactly the most well-rounded of lists, but definitely fun to play once or twice.

It's not a terrible idea.

A better idea is:

Quickdraw w/Baffle, Swarm Leader, FCS

Youngster w/Rage

4 Blacks

*not my list* but it is loads of fun and puts on the hurt.

I've used it, and even won quite a few competitive event games with it - including against pre-deadeye & R4 nerf torpedo jumpmasters.

Things to remember:

• This is not a "Youngster Swarm". It is a TIE fighter swarm.
• What I mean by that is don't get hung up on Rage. The moment you start thinking "I could put in Epsilon Leader to remove stress" or "I could put in a TIE Shuttle with Inspiring Recruit" you are spending too many points on Youngster's ability and should just have taken Howlrunner instead
• He is not there as an alternative to Howlrunner. He is there as an alternative to a four point initiative bid (largely irrelevant with PS1 ships) or to upgrading four Academy Pilots to Obsidian Squadron Pilots (also largely irrelevant these days as PS2 is something you rarely see and it still leaves you behind PS4 and PS5 elite generics).
• If you never use Rage, it's not something to cry about.
• Only use it on a couple of ships per turn, max.
• The time to use rage are if:

1. The TIE fighter is damaged and is blatantly dead this turn. If you don't have to cope with the consequences of stress, you might as well get the best shot you can (or, more likely, have a focus token to try and keep yourself alive long enough to shoot, and still have rerolls when you do).
2. The TIE fighter is going to break off from the fight this turn - if you're attacking one ship, expect to kill it, and it'll take quite a few turns to line up on another one, you probably have time to shed the stress.
3. If one ship absolutely must die this turn regardless of the consequences. A good example is if you've got a ship that's going to drop an area effect bomb if it gets to activate next turn, or can run away and regenerate shields (Miranda Doni is a good example of both of the above)
4. If you've got a really, really good shot. The big advantage of Rage over Howlrunner's ability is that you can reroll up to 3 dice. This is largely meaningless to a normal TIE fighter, but at range 1, you will notice the difference.

• The big thing that a Youngster-led swarm gains over a Howlrunner-led swarm is not Youngster, it's that 8th TIE fighter. Taking Howlrunner means a maximum of 7 TIE fighters. That extra warm body (or two, because people using Howlrunner often default to 6 ships in return for stuff like Crack Shot) makes a big difference when it comes to blocking and trapping people - which is actually a lot more important than it was now that bloody TIE/x7 defenders actually give a monkeys when they get blocked.
• Essentially, use a couple of TIEs to block, then two to three more to 'kill' - Rage them and only them - and the rest stay stress-free to respond next turn and/or chase down the (hopefully injured) trapee if the Octahedrons Of Inevitable Betrayal let you down and you don't finish them off.
• Above all, remember that the biggest advantage of not really obsessing over Youngster's ability (in addition to Youngster's ability itself) is that it lets you fly as a swarm, not a 2x4 brick. Youngster works at range 1-3. This means you can fly your squad in pairs, or fours, rather than one mass that's a nightmare to thread through obstacles.

Quote

Against anything good, youngster dies in the first round of combat

• Astech is not mistaken here. Youngster may have a unique 'dot', but he's a 16 point TIE fighter and will die like a mayfly in a jet engine if you let anyone shoot at him. My response is to say he's going to die if your opponent really wants him dead, just like Howlrunner or any other TIE fighter, deal with it. However, if this really bothers you you can fly him some distance away and still benefit from his ability. Against Contracted Scouts I tended to set up the 7 academy pilots to accept the joust with the Jumpmasters and Youngster on one flank behind some obstacles, where he could still let TIE fighters Rage if I got a good opportunity, and joint the fight once the furball had begun.

Thank you for the write up Magnus Grendel!