This season I was able to make it to two store championship events. The first was at GMI Games, and I brought 5 TIE strikers. I had been meaning to write up a battle report, but I let it sit too long, and I can't remember enough of the details, to do it justice, so here's the summary with a few highlights. First, the squad

5x Scarif Defenders (Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame)

My first round was against Rear Admiral Chiraneau crewed by Kylo Ren, alongside Countess Ryad with Lone Wolf. While we were able to kill Chiraneau, he dodged arcs/mitigated damage enough that all my ships were limping, and it was easy clean up for Ryad. 0W-1L

In round 2 I faced Manaroo, Fenn Rau, and Old Teroch, all with Mindlink. The strikers were amazing! We weaved through the asteroids and set up a kill box sort of thing on Fenn, taking him out early. Then we started putting damage on his other two ships, and the race was on. In the end, All my ships died, and Manaroo had just 1 hull left and 3 hull on Old Teroch. Shouldn't have wasted shots on Old Teroch until Manaroo was dead. Oops. 0W-2L

(Preparing for kill box: the TIE strikers facing Fenn Rau do Ailerons followed by K-turn and Segnor's loop accross Fenn Rau, setting up a nasty crossfire)

Round 3 , I faced a local friend, running Jan Ors, Dutch Vander and Garven Dreis. It was a landslide victory for TIE strikers, able to quickly close range to deny torpedo shots, and dog their targets with all manner of maneuvers, thanks to Adaptive Ailerons. I felt bad for beating him so badly. 1W-2L

Round 4 I faced a very intimidating squad consisting of Colnel Vessery with Swarm Leader, Omega Leader with Juke & Comm Relay, and another Countess Ryad, this time with something besides Lone Wolf, but it's been so long I can't remember. Here's the opening

I lose a striker here, which is typical, but we do minor damage to Omega Leader and Ryad. I'm feeling the pressure.

Here's a big cluster where I decided Omega Leader needed to die. And she did. A nice block on Ryad resulted in more damage on her.

Attrition. We're losing strikers at an alarming rate, but his damaged defenders are just as deadly as when they started. Something happens here that I don't have documented, and we manage to kill Vessery!

Apologies for the blurry picture. Lots of crazy maneuvering happened here, where Ryad learned that barrel roll is a really good trick against low-PS pilots. She jumps the green TIE striker, killing the red one, and taking more damage.

Even more damage is exchanged - we're now 1 hull each!

She runs to regroup, then follows up with a K-turn. Here, I expect the 3-straight, with the flexibility of making it a K-turn or just barrel rolling to dodge my arc. So I Adpative Aileron Straight 1, execute a speed-1 turn to the right, then barrel roll back and left, closer to that left-most asteroid...

...and it works! After her K-turn, a barrel roll towards the asteroid won't clear my ship, leaving Ryad at range 1. He thinks maybe he can dodge the arc, or at least get out of range 1 by barrel rolling the other way, leaving Ryad with just an evade token. I roll 2 hits, she rolls blanks and eyes, and explodes. I actually beat Ryad this time! I think his successful barrel rolling early on influenced his choice, and he should have taken a focus and eaten the unmodified range 1 shot, but we'll never know.
2W-2L

Round 5 was against a relatively new player running Ello Asty, Jess Pava, and Braylen Stramm. Not much to say in this match, so I'll let the pictures do the talking, but I do want to highlight my favorite thing about strikers: their own version of formation flying!

(Cluster Mines happen here, nuking a TIE striker who hits all three tokens)


Can you see where the strikers are in relation to Ello in the above photo, compared to the one below? That was accomplished in a single activation. They completely blow my mind sometimes with how maneuverable they are (and how cool they look doing it)!


3W-2L

So out of a field of 45 players, I ended up 16th. Not too bad! And it was a lot of fun planning these maneuvers to make a sort of starfighter dance. I learned two things from this tournament. First, wings up! In all the games I won, I positioned their wings up, and I think they roll better that way (totally not serious).

The second thing I learned is related to setup. We are so used to setting up our ships at the front edge of Range 1, but I have to be reactive to where my opponent sets up. If I can turn across my board edge to regroup before an attack, it makes a big difference. The problem is that the requisite Ailerons movement often makes it impossible to fit those kind of maneuvers, but if I place along the back edge, I'll be able to move my fighters behind the asteroids to react to my opponent's placement.

I can't get enough of TIE strikers, which you will see in my next report below.

Today I went to my second store championship with TIE strikers. I seriously considered another squad with Captain Kagi, Zertik Strom, and Carnor Jax. But I felt so anxious every time I thought about the tournament, which was a sign that it wouldn't be a good day flying that squad. I started to lean on TIE strikers again, but I didn't want to have to borrow them again; I only owned three. Well, at game night Friday evening before the day of the tournament, I saw strikers in the store, and remembered a squad I wrote up in case I had 4 TIE strikers:

4x Imperial Trainee (Adaptive Aileron, Lightweight Frame)
Omicron Group Pilot (Darth Vader)

I really liked the sound of this squad because of its strong Rogue One theme. I also had a lot of practice with both shuttles and strikers, so I figured I'd give it a try. I bought my 4th striker and ran the squad on Friday, and I was ready to go! When I arrived, I was feeling calm, and a bit eager to see what my squad could do. (Also, a little tired because we stayed up until 12:30 AM playing HotAC, and had to leave by 8:30 AM to get to the tournament on time). I decided to be focused on the games, so only a few photos were taken. The tournament was held at Linebreakers, and they did an amazing job. 43 people showed up, making it another relatively large Store Championship.

Round 1
Joey brought the scum, with Fenn Rau and Old Teroch, identically kitted out with Autothrusters, Attanni Mindlink, and Concord Dawn Protector. Manaroo flew with them, using Guidance Chips, Proton Torpedoes, Attanni Mindlink, Rigged Cargo Chute, and R4 Agromech.

I brought my strikers to the middle of the field where it looked like we were going to converge, and the first round of combat was uneventful. I brought my Doom Shuttle up - and Fenn Rau plowed right into it to avoid the Vader damage. A sweet maneuver that would prove invaluable. I should have kept my ships bunched up to prevent that, but it's been a while since I've Doom Shuttled, and it's really difficult for strikers to pull tight maneuvers with their Ailerons.

In the end, we got some killer lucky dice on Old Teroch, taking him out the round we also destroyed Manaroo, leaving 3 trainees to fight Fenn Rau. We got him down to 1 hull, and he destroyed two of my strikers. It was so intense, and time was called when I had 1 full-health striker left. Could I have defeated Fenn Rau? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, this was one of the most intense, exciting games in recent memory. Or maybe I just had that much fun with strikers. Joey ended up in the Top 8.

0W-1L

Round 2
Robert brought a variation of what he practiced with against me the night before. Then, he had 5x Prototypes with Cruise Missiles and Guidance Chips. Today, he dropped a ship to add some tech:

4x Green Sq. Pilot (Cruise Missiles, Guidance Chips, Crack Shot, Snap Shot)

Ooh. Bad news. Now he had the PS advantage and Crack Shot. Once again, my shuttle did very little. I think I got to attack once, and use Vader and that was it.

And then Snap Shot happened. You see, Adaptive Ailerons is a mandatory maneuver , so it triggers Snap Shot. We took crit, after crit from those weapons. It was awful, but I wasn't completely out of the fight because once his Cruise Missiles were all used up, those two dice had a hard time getting through at range 3, whereas our 3-dice attacks were a bit more accurate. Unfortunately, I forgot one of his A-wings still had his missile, and he zoomed out to destroy my second to last fighter. Here's the end photo, where he killed my last fighter before I got to shoot.

It was a really fun match, and I felt like I needed a break after trying to figure out how to dodge his range-1 arcs and Snap Shot. At this point, however, I'm starting to regret taking the shuttle instead of five PS 3 strikers.

0W-2L

Round 3
Sigh. I had such high hopes for this squad, and now it looks like it could be a repeat of the previous tournament...or worse. I looked at my opponent's squad, which contained Whisper - yep, it's worse.

Whisper (Advanced Cloaking Device, Fire-Control System, Agent Kallus, Veteran Instincts)
Howlrunner (Adaptability)
Rexler Brath (TIE/D, Flechette Cannon, Adaptability)

Based on his deployment and the obstacles, he had to split fire on the opening engagement, meaning all my ships survived, which doesn't usually happen. So I measure range with the shuttle, and it can shoot Whisper. I get 3 hits. Whisper blanks out. Completely. That's 3 damage, and Darth Vader deals the killing blow. Suddenly this game looks winnable. It wasn't just winnable; it was a landslide victory. I Vader Howlrunner the next turn, and I blocked Rexler's 4-speed Koiogran Turn so he landed on a rock. We dance around him a bit, and he's unable to break through our defenses. Here's an awful blurry image of the second-to-last round before my 100-0 victory.

1W-2L

Round 4
Well, that last round certainly brightened my spirits, though I felt really bad for the guy. Nobody likes to see Whisper go out like that. Ryan was my next opponent. He also brought an Imperial squad.

Quickdraw (Adaptability, Fire-Control System, Lightweight Frame, Special Ops Training)
Omega Leader (Juke, Comm Relay)
Pure Sabacc (Veteran Instincts, Lightweight Frame, Adaptive Ailerons)
Wampa

I realized that if I delayed the shuttle, maybe I'd be able to hit them on hull after my strikers took some shields off. So I did that. It was a good strategy, I think, but I had a new lesson to learn: when Quickdraw shoots a ship, start by shooting Quickdraw back with that same ship. I thought I could suss out which target to choose by starting with my Range 1 shot on Quickdraw, hopefully erasing her shields in a single round. She lost 1 shield, and then destroyed the striker that hadn't fired yet! Ah! Not a good start. Next round the shuttle comes up, and I ignore Quickdraw to shoot Omega Leader, who was blocked. She spent the evade, so Vader just removed her shield. It was enough, and my strikers took her out. We also took the rest of Quickdraw's shields when she did not have a target lock on the ship in her arc. The shuttle then got two consecutive rounds of Vader on Pure Sabacc (oh, how I wish I had pictures of that!). Wampa folded, and now it was back to turning our attention on Quickdraw.

I can't describe to you all the maneuvers. There are so many options, and it's so much fun! Quickdraw was difficult to pin down because I was wary of both arcs. I set up a great kill box...except the part where one of my strikers was on an asteroid. The one shot I did have was enough, ending Quickdraw, and earning me yet another win.

Three uses of Darth Vader. Suddenly I'm not feeling so sad about bringing the Doom Shuttle.

2W-2L

Round 5
Okay. If I can win, I will tie my previous Store Championship record. Let's do this, Brent!

Fenn Rau (Attanni Mindlink, Autothrusters, Concord Dawn Protector)
N'dru Suhlak (Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Scavenger Crane, Attanni Mindlink)
Bossk (Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Scavenger Crane, Attanni Mindlink, Boba Fett, 4-LOM, Cikatro Vizago)

I wish I had the deployment photo, but here's the end of the first round of combat. We always start off lined up with gaps in the asteroids, but we move around to, ideally, approach as one force. There are times where I like to have a flanking group, but I didn't face a squad where that appealed to me. Flankers can get picked off if you don't manage range and synchronized engagement right.

We had taken 5 shields off of Bossk, and I think two strikers each received two damage. Lucky for us, the overzealous N'dru landed on a rock, unable to unleash his Concussion Missiles.

Next round we block Fenn, and the Doom Shuttle hands him a Direct Hit. We also destroy Bossk. I wish I had more to say about this match. It's just all tied up in the maneuvering, which you would see on video, but I can't describe it to you here. Know this: TIE strikers are squirrely, fun, and dangerous! Anyway, we got N'dru in a kill box and destroyed him, but just as with Quickdraw in the last match, our Fenn kill box didn't entirely work. And just like that previous match, it didn't matter: Fenn died anyway.

3W-2L

I was pleased with my performance today. The Doom Shuttle proved invaluable, and even though it made the A-wing matchup very hard, I liked having the PS 1 Imperial Trainees just as much as the Scarif Defenders. Then they posted standings and I was floored. No, I didn't make the cut, but

10th place - 671 MOV

Wow! Out of 43 people? Yeah, I was feeling really good about myself! I had the 4th highest MOV out of all the players, not that it mattered that much with only 3 wins. Still, I was impressed with how great these TIE strikers can do!

Do I think generic TIE strikers are competitive? Absolutely. Are they the top-tier most reliable/easy to use? Not a chance. You've gotta put practice in. I do think that having five ships really helps to mitigate poor dice rolls which are bound to happen to all players. If I ever win my first match, so I'm at the top half of the field, I'll feel better about extrapolating the results of my performance in regards to the value of generic strikers across the meta. Right now, I think I just don't do well enough to say they are top tier. That said, every game was close ! (Except for Whisper's blank out. Sorry, Zeke). I had a chance even against Attanni squads because of the sheer number of attacks. I honestly can't see myself flying anything but TIE strikers at tournaments for quite some time.

Finally, a picture of me sporting my 2014 Winter kit Darth Vader medal on my Darth Vader shirt, next to TK-15054.

P.S. And some swag

The coin in the pictures is the same one, and it's really cool. It has a relief of Tarkin on one side, and the Imperial cog on the other. Linebreakers will start using these at all their Star Wars events as tounament prizes, and they are each worth $5. Very cool idea to have Imperial credits!

The TIE fighter pilot was for scoring well in swiss, the trading cards are for using a squad builder with a bar code to enter my squad, and the alt art pilot cards and Engine Upgrade were participation prizes - except for the Omicron Group Pilot, which GMI Games produced for one of their tournaments, and I used it in my squad today.

UH OH...

Great write up. Makes me wish I had taken pictures of my Store Championship so I could post them in my battle report. I flew Pure Sabacc. Adaptive Ailerons make the ship so much fun to fly. In fact, picked up my third TIE Striker this week.

Strikers may be the single most fun ships to fly in the game. They force both players to rethink with their unique movement, they can turn on a dime and reward great movement.

Of course it helps that they look outrageously cool.

For anybody interested, here are the ListJuggler entries for the 2017 GMI Games and Linebreakers Store Championships.

Nice to see the TIE/sk corps flying strong. I do enjoy flying them, and especially well done with taking fel out early - there's something very satisfying when the formation starbursts in a spread of segnors and koiograns and your opponent parks right in the middle of it to the phrase " well, that's a kill box ..."

Ello (I assume it's Ello in Black One) looks much the same in the first picture of that game - there's something deeply intimidating about flying into a crossfire from 4+ ships.

Sorry to hear about Snap Shot. Yup, it hurts like heck. If it makes you feel better, if you ever want to try flying the TIE/sk elite, Pure Sabbac is a right [censored] with Snap Shot because he delivers a 3-dice attack, and with PS6 and Adaptive Ailerons, he's disconcertingly good at getting that arc of fire to places it really shouldn't be.

One other thing to warn you about, which I got the benefit of at an event a couple of weeks ago, is the Accuracy Corrector/Twin Laser Turret combination you see pop up on the Ghost and Havoc . Because Accuracy Corrector cancels all results and then adds 2 hits, there are only 2 red dice 'in play' - which means that lightweight frame suddenly does jack.

Interesting about the Omicron Group Pilot. I dug out the appropriate miniatures and cards because I was wondering about flying the TIE/sk elite with Vader in a shuttle as a change from 5 scarif defenders. May have to give the 4 trainees a try instead; I'm always a fan of ships before aces.

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Do I think generic TIE strikers are competitive? Absolutely. Are they the top-tier most reliable/easy to use? Not a chance. You've gotta put practice in.

Agreed totally. They're not easy to use, but they're a joy to fly, and you really feel good when you get them to work. The fact that you have several options to reach roughly the same point - but in sliiiiightly different positions (like less than a base width from one another) - makes it difficult to eyeball manouvres without a lot of practice. I know at least one person who uses Pure Sabbac and pointedly leaves the ailerons off , to make him easier to fly.

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I honestly can't see myself flying anything but TIE strikers at tournaments for quite some time.

Also agreed.

My favourite comment from the last event I played in:

"It's like being attacked by a swarm of bees!"

(Cue Eddie Izzard quotes)

My games with a TIE/sk mob are here - sadly no pictures

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

My favourite comment from the last event I played in:

"It's like being attacked by a swarm of bees!"

Yeah, I got a lot of both raised eyebrows and compliments on my squad. It's both thematic and deadly. Wish I could have had just one more win to make the cut and really show what these things can do.

You mentioned the kill box, and I think you nailed it: TIE strikers excel at kill boxes due to Adaptive Ailerons and their great dial. Only trouble is that it's a whole bunch of unmodified shots. Next time I take this out for a spin, I'm going to give Operations Specialist a try to get more focus tokens for attack.

Speaking of which, I ALWAYS use focus for defense if I have the chance. Is that how you play generic strikers, too?

Awesome work Parakitor.

Being a long-standing advocate of FIVE. CARTEL. MARAUDERS!! I'd love to give 5 TIE Strikers a go, because they outclass the Scum ships in almost every way (until Gund For Hire arrives, anyway!)

The variant I really want to try is 4 x Imperial Trainees with Ailerons, LWF and Countdown with Ailerons, Hull Upgrade. Countdown is an utter pest if you can get him healthy into a one-one-one endgame.

OK, you guys need to stop! I don't WANT to buy 3 more strikers after work... with cash...so my wife cant track the evidence.....

Seriously, awesome reports, my kinda list. Coming from the guy who terrorizes with 6 Z95s regularly.

Great write up! I'm very new, but I love the idea of a very monuverable swarm.

How would you fly this squad against an equally good player who is flying four StarViper MK II's?

28 minutes ago, Toimu said:

How would you fly this squad against an equally good player who is flying four StarViper MK II's?

...very carefully? If you are talking about the new PS 5, all with Trick Shot, that would be something. If you mean the PS 3, all with Autothrusters, that would be much easier for the PS 3 Scarif Defenders than the PS 1 Imperial Trainees with Doom Shuttle. That said, the Doom Shuttle loves seeing ships with little or no shielding.

I mentioned above that there are times when you want to send two groups to do a pincer maneuver. This isn't one of those times.* If we fly straight at them, all we need is one ship in arc and we can destroy it. I think the big thing to keep in mind is that if the Starvipers move last, you have to be very careful about maneuvering so as not to give them a chance to arc dodge. This often means using bank + Segnor's Loop hugging asteroids. Now, the nice thing is that Starvipers need to use their action to barrel roll to get their crazy maneuverability, and that's not great with five attacks incoming...I guess a single focus token doesn't do much either, but it's better than nothing. I feel like the strikers having one more ship tips the match in their favor.

*Actually, if you can converge your split forces, it means that not every ship has to do a red maneuver the following round, because the flankers can give chase and keep their focus tokens, which helps offense. I think it might work, depending on how the Starvipers deploy.

I gotta buy me some strikers.

How about equipping the Lambda with Tractor Beam just to get that -1 agility on the defender? You'll need to drop a LWF on one of the Strikers, but it could work?

Strikers are amazing. I only own 3 but i have commonly used 1 as a filler or a pair and they almost always do major work.

Everyone underestimates these things and they pay horribly for it.

Parakitor, great write-ups. I've been running a list with 3 strikers (Imperial Trainee, Countdown, Duchess) and Capt Yorr (with General Hux and Inspiring Recruit) and find the strikers fun to fly. The lack of target lock does result in some extreme red dice variance at times.

12 hours ago, Supernatural said:

Parakitor, great write-ups... The lack of target lock does result in some extreme red dice variance at times.

Thank you. Yeah, the dice need to love you. Before I settled on Vader, I thought of trying Systems Officer + Intelligence Agent to keep the shuttle relevant even if it had no shot. Having a target lock for range 1 shots sounds so nice! It's definitely on my list of things to try.

Oh no, dont try systems officer.

You could get away with it on Stridan but on a more costly-friendly ship (tie bomber with mk2 giving 9 greens) that range1 limitation is brutal. I tried that when they first came out and i was CONSTANTLY ending up just barely out of Range1 of my strikers. Stridan would cost a lot more and only have a few greens, but making it R1-3 would remove any positional problems.

Well, I guess I'll stick with the Lord of the Sith. Thanks for sharing your experience.

10 hours ago, Vineheart01 said:

Oh no, dont try systems officer.

You could get away with it on Stridan but on a more costly-friendly ship (tie bomber with mk2 giving 9 greens) that range1 limitation is brutal. I tried that when they first came out and i was CONSTANTLY ending up just barely out of Range1 of my strikers. Stridan would cost a lot more and only have a few greens, but making it R1-3 would remove any positional problems.

It's also quite difficult to sync up movement between the shuttle and Strikers with ailerons anyway, when trying to shoot has to have priority over staying in rigid formation doubly so. But what about Fleet Officer instead?

Double focused trainees/ slooped focused trainees help with offense in a different way Vader does, but providing consistency is certainly something worth considering with low-PS strikers with LWF in my book.

1 hour ago, DampfGecko said:

It's also quite difficult to sync up movement between the shuttle and Strikers with ailerons anyway, when trying to shoot has to have priority over staying in rigid formation doubly so. But what about Fleet Officer instead?

Double focused trainees/ slooped focused trainees help with offense in a different way Vader does, but providing consistency is certainly something worth considering with low-PS strikers with LWF in my book.

I can't do Fleet Officer without Advanced Sensors. The way I fly shuttle + 4 ships, the shuttle is often overlapping the back ships. Self bumping also slows the shuttle's advance, keeping it's guns in the fight a round or two longer. This bumping tactic is why I think Systems Officer may work better in this squad.

Fleet Officer could work, I'd just need to change my flight path for the shuttle, and completely forget about its turn and stationary maneuvers. It's definitely easier to keep Fleet Officer range rather than Systems Officer range when the shuttle leaves combat. Both have merits. With how often my strikers K-turn and S-loop, extra focus tokens would be very welcome.

P.S. I've played 45+ games with Adv. Sensors + Fleet Officer shuttle supporting 4 Alpha Sq. Pilots. It's a very similar squad, with similar strategy, but the strikers utilize slightly different tactics. Either Officer is worth a try, I think.

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With how often my strikers K-turn and S-loop, extra focus tokens would be very welcome.

Can you fit in Yorr/Recruit/Baffle?

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Speaking of which, I ALWAYS use focus for defense if I have the chance. Is that how you play generic strikers, too?

Most of the time. On an attack, if it's literally going to stop only one non-critical damage and I have a range 1 shot, I might consider keeping the token....but to be honest I'd probably spend it. Keeping strikers alive means retaining your edge of numbers.

One nice thing with low PS generics is that whilst you can have your focus tokens 'stripped' by defending before you get to shoot, you never end up in the situation which aces often have to deal with, where you shoot, focus, maybe do a point of damage or two, then get shot back....and roll three eyeballs on defence.

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The variant I really want to try is 4 x Imperial Trainees with Ailerons, LWF and Countdown with Ailerons, Hull Upgrade. Countdown is an utter pest if you can get him healthy into a one-one-one endgame.

Indeed. I'm normally not a fan of "one named pilot in a squad of generics" because the one named pilot tends to get wasted first, at which point who cares what their name was?

Jess Pava plus 3 x Blue Novices, and Countdown plus 4 x Trainees seem like a nice option, though, because their special ability is that they're tougher, so it's arguably in your favour if your opponent tries to take them out first (provided Countdown only gets shot at by one opponent at a time).

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How would you fly this squad against an equally good player who is flying four StarViper MK II's?

As noted, carefully.

Standard rules; concentrated fire, come in in a kill-box from multiple directions to avoid having to do red moves with everyone.

Aim for range 2; range 1 suits the viper's awesome speed 1 dial moves, and banked barrel-roll where it can shimmy position and direction to taste, range 3 where autothrusters work and lightweight frame doesn't belongs entirely to the starviper.

At medium ranges, the viper's lack of speed 3 turns or speed 5 straight means it has difficulty avoiding concentrated fire, and with 2-3 arcs lined up on it, it's not all that much tougher than a TIE/sk. Add in the fact - as noted - that boost or barrel roll requires your action: often a bad shot with focus is as good as a good shot without one - something people often forget. Obviously there are exceptions - Fearless Protectorates, for example.

Really great responses everyone! Thanks for the initial write up also! Hopefully I'll get to test out some of this soon.

Well, even if Countdown is shot at multiple times GENERALLY the highest PS attack is the meanest (TLT users exception).
If only he had an EPT. Wired would be amazing on him, as it would dramatically reduce his odds of being vaporized while stressed.

Any striker can potentially die to 1 shot, Countdown will require a minimum of 2 unless you got caught kturning. So even if he does get focus fired and killed, odds are hes the only casualty and the rest are unharmed.