On 7/30/2017 at 8:01 AM, Parakitor said:

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.

I'm very fond of Shuttles with AdvSen + Fleet Officer/Hux, so I totally get what you mean about self bumping with it. I'm just thinking that if you are self-bumping most of the time anyways, then you really shouldn't have to worry about the Range 1 issue of System Officer, since you are often touching a friendly. I prefer Inspiring Recruit in the other crew slot to tech against stress control, but SysOff seems like a potential good choice.

Updated with my Striker Squad's games at this weekend's store championship:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/26568470#26568470

On 07/08/2017 at 8:52 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Updated with my Striker Squad's games at this weekend's store championship:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/26568470#26568470

Nice! I'd love to see some photos of your strikers in action. What exactly is "the dragnet"?

10 hours ago, Vandenberg said:

What exactly is "the dragnet"?

My guess was "bait" for a trap. You make it seem like one Striker is forced out of formation and is an easy target. They go for it, but the other 4 get a shot.

14 hours ago, Vandenberg said:

Nice! I'd love to see some photos of your strikers in action. What exactly is "the dragnet"?

Essentially, splitting up and coming in from several angles.

My usual deployment for 5 strikers is on one end of the board in a W, facing across the board. If the enemy's something nice and easy to catch, you head towards them and take them head-on with 5 3-dice attacks.

Flying a dragnet means breaking up the formation in the first turn or two - so the outside guy might do straight 1/bank 3, the next two bank 1/straight 3, and the last two bank 1/bank 2 , giving me three groups heading in broadly different directions.

Splitting up your squad is a risk, but against opponents that are slippery, fast, and prone to fight from long range (Miranda Doni and Dash Rendar are two obvious examples), getting massed shots on them isn't as important as getting shots at all - if you just chase them, they'll stay at range 3, where they're trading shots at an advantage, continuously whittling you down.

If you split up your squad, you get one or two closing from behind, but the same from in front, and one from the side.

When I flew an 8-ship TIE swarm, I literally would deploy four pairs of TIE fighters, split up equally along my board edge, and run a net from board-edge to board edge, so wherever Dash went he'd have a pair of TIEs closing from in front.

Just wanted to let @Parakitor know that you are the reason why we had to order 3 more strikers. My SO loves them (went 3rd at her 2nd tournament with Whisper Duchess Sabacc) and she will now try the striker swarm. So thanks!

Which should be a great match against my 4-5 A-Wings!

Excellent. And you're right - that sounds like a good match! A swarm of A-wings versus a swarm of Strikers should be glorious to watch...

There's a TIE striker metal/enamel 'pin badge' that the Disney Store does, if I remember correctly. I ought to get one myself.

Good luck to her - and well done! If she can fly a TIE phantom competitively well, she can certainly cope with the (lesser) mind-wibbling mess that is maneuvering TIE strikers en masse.

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

There's a TIE striker metal/enamel 'pin badge' that the Disney Store does, if I remember correctly. I ought to get one myself.

Perfect! Soon her birthday, too! Thanks!

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Good luck to her - and well done! If she can fly a TIE phantom competitively well, she can certainly cope with the (lesser) mind-wibbling mess that is maneuvering TIE strikers en masse.

That was back in February. She always places way better than me, which is great because the only time she spends any time with Xwing is when we play together at home. So I guess she's a natural

On 7/30/2017 at 4:31 AM, 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.

A couple months ago I flew 3 Trainees (AA and LWF), Countdown (AA) and a Scimitar (MKII, Shuttle, SO and FO) in a three round tournament and went 3-0 (if I recall). The target locks were actually pretty easy to pass around despite the range 1 limitation because the bomber had green 1-2-3 speed straight and bank maneuvers, and as it got stressed from FO I was doing greens anyway. It's also handy to allow the strikers that were most likely to be focus-fired both a focus and an evade, or just having a token after slooping/k-turning.

Back in March when I started flying strikers it was with Stridan, and the range is incredible as it allows him to hand out tokens (Hux + AS) and generally be useful even after he's made his first pass, but I later upgraded the strikers to the three named pilots and tried out Hux on the lambda, and got better results after getting used to the range 2 limitation, but Systems Officer was always difficult to use in that list with the space cow's limited greens. I found that the Bomber with the TIE engine makes it much easier to use Systems Officer than the lambda, but obviously not as easy as with Stridan.

On 7/30/2017 at 11:01 AM, Parakitor said:

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.

That sounds fun; I'm gonna give it a try, thx for the idea!

On 7/23/2017 at 5:51 AM, Parakitor said:

5x Scarif Defenders (Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame)

... 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) ...

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

They photograph so well too. With the wings up, their Tie solar panel shapeliness is on full display.

I love flying my Black Squadron Scouts with predator. It really helps for those turns of self-bumping, k turning, or flying over obstacles.

On ‎28‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 5:59 PM, Bullox said:

They photograph so well too. With the wings up, their Tie solar panel shapeliness is on full display.

I use the wings to show which direction I used for the Adaptive Ailerons move (wings up = stressed, wings down = straight, wings tilted left/right = bank).

It really gives the squad a dynamic look as you see them bank and weave around things!

On ‎30‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 7:25 PM, Gersun said:

I love flying my Black Squadron Scouts with predator. It really helps for those turns of self-bumping, k turning, or flying over obstacles.

I was wondering about that. I was just worried that whilst the reroll is nice, the firepower lost by not having the 5th ship is an issue.

More striker-related shennanigans

I got lucky quite a few times in the games, but I managed to get a 3-0 game night kit win with 5 Scarif Defenders yesterday. Satisfyingly, each game involved Nym getting turned to scrap very quickly....

On ‎28‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 11:37 AM, darthlurker said:

A couple months ago I flew 3 Trainees (AA and LWF), Countdown (AA) and a Scimitar (MKII, Shuttle, SO and FO) in a three round tournament and went 3-0 (if I recall). The target locks were actually pretty easy to pass around despite the range 1 limitation because the bomber had green 1-2-3 speed straight and bank maneuvers, and as it got stressed from FO I was doing greens anyway. It's also handy to allow the strikers that were most likely to be focus-fired both a focus and an evade, or just having a token after slooping/k-turning.

Back in March when I started flying strikers it was with Stridan, and the range is incredible as it allows him to hand out tokens (Hux + AS) and generally be useful even after he's made his first pass, but I later upgraded the strikers to the three named pilots and tried out Hux on the lambda, and got better results after getting used to the range 2 limitation, but Systems Officer was always difficult to use in that list with the space cow's limited greens. I found that the Bomber with the TIE engine makes it much easier to use Systems Officer than the lambda, but obviously not as easy as with Stridan.

Twin Ion Engine MkII and Systems Officer is a nice combination! The one thing I do miss with the strikers is the bonus of Target Lock.

I've been wondering about a Thread Tracers-armed TIE bomber as another option to pass out locks - you don't get the advantage of focus/evade defence, though, and I can attest that evade tokens on bloodied strikers are worth their weight in gold.

I think the main thing about the TIE shuttle is it's ability to - you know - turn around . Stridan is nice - his huge range is cool, and that 4-dice big gun doesn't have to fire many times to justify itself, but its speed 2 green banks on a big ship are probably faster than you want. The Lambda can fly slower, but it's annoying to keep on target.

The bomber/shuttle may not keep up with a TIE striker, but it at least has a Koiogan turn (and it's a nice 'clear trouble' speed 5 one, too).

Yet more striker-related shennanigans

I really do need to try a ship with some control elements as a 5th ship.

Lambda and TIE shuttles are nice, but I feel like some sort of control-armed ship (an ion pulse missile bomber?) is the only way to reliably get an answer to the repeated nemesis of my squad; Miranda Doni. I really think some means to throw Ion or Stress tokens is going to be needed to make an impact on her.

A Scimitar with XX-23 S-Thread Tracers and Ion Pulse Missiles might be nice. Or - once they arrive - Nu squadrons with Flechette Cannon might provide control elements which can actually keep up with the strikers...

It might be worth dropping to Imperial Trainees (PS3 to PS1 isn't exactly much of a sacrifice these days).

I find myself just defaulting to the TIE strikers. I even pointedly considered flying my TIE/fo squad, but passed, because I'd miss the sheer 'wieldyness' of generic strikers (plus their firepower).

So Curious, how are the Strikers holding up in this Harpoon era? Seems like more and more swarm hate happening especially on a competitive level. More bombs coming, now at them from PSw bombers which might make the PS’s a questionable choice?

Also with the PS 1’s you can drop one striker for 2 TIE Acadamy Pilots, which allows for some close control.

8 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Yet more striker-related shennanigans

I really do need to try a ship with some control elements as a 5th ship.

Lambda and TIE shuttles are nice, but I feel like some sort of control-armed ship (an ion pulse missile bomber?) is the only way to reliably get an answer to the repeated nemesis of my squad; Miranda Doni. I really think some means to throw Ion or Stress tokens is going to be needed to make an impact on her.

A Scimitar with XX-23 S-Thread Tracers and Ion Pulse Missiles might be nice. Or - once they arrive - Nu squadrons with Flechette Cannon might provide control elements which can actually keep up with the strikers...

It might be worth dropping to Imperial Trainees (PS3 to PS1 isn't exactly much of a sacrifice these days).

I find myself just defaulting to the TIE strikers. I even pointedly considered flying my TIE/fo squad, but passed, because I'd miss the sheer 'wieldyness' of generic strikers (plus their firepower).

I've been replacing the shuttle with a Tractor Beam Nu Sq. Pilot in the Vassal League. I want to say it has performed admirably, but it's actually been kind of lackluster. I've managed one good set up of Tractor Beam to pull a Y-wing into a kill box. It can definitely keep up with the strikers, which is a plus. I keep thinking that I should just go all in on 5 PS 3 strikers, but then I remember just how many shots the Cygnus ships can pull away from my strikers. I think it needs more practice. Here's the Nu's upgrades: Tractor Beam, XG-1 Assault title, Linked Batteries, Advanced SLAM.

1 hour ago, Ronu said:

So Curious, how are the Strikers holding up in this Harpoon era? Seems like more and more swarm hate happening especially on a competitive level. More bombs coming, now at them from PSw bombers which might make the PS’s a questionable choice?

Also with the PS 1’s you can drop one striker for 2 TIE Acadamy Pilots, which allows for some close control.

Harpoons are frightening, but I actually haven't played against them yet. Ever. I need to see if some of the locals will test that against me. I think it's a really tough fight.

Bombs are always a problem. I faced a bomb squad, and it was tough, but I managed to keep a few ships out of the blast radius. If PS 2 comes back, then it's back to 5 Scarif Defenders. It sounds like Flight Assist Astromech is calling the Rookies and Novices out to play, which could be a challenge at PS 1.

Great write-ups, both here and the boardgamegeek ones. I've been having fun with Countdown along side Vader and Quickdraw but now I'm itching to buy 4 more and try this.

I've seen this, and it looks like a ton of fun.

Major Stridan — Upsilon-class Shuttle 32
Advanced Sensors 3
General Hux 5
Systems Officer 2
Experimental Interface 3
Ship Total: 45

"Duchess" — TIE Striker 23
Expertise 4
Lightweight Frame 2
Adaptive Ailerons 0
Ship Total: 29

"Pure Sabacc" — TIE Striker 22
Veteran Instincts 1
Lightweight Frame 2
Adaptive Ailerons 0
Ship Total: 25

Go ahead and give it a try. You can plan a green with the shuttle, ADV sensors for Hux, get stressed, do the green, hand out the TL while un-stressing your self, and that leaves the strikers open to do something besides focusing, and Duchess can keep the focus for defense.

@SoontirFelTGE , looks like a really fun squad! I'll have to give it a whirl...but the whole reason I jumped into the TIE striker squads was because I need more than 3 ships. It just isn't enough for me right now. Soon I may give it a go, though, because I really miss flying the Upsilon.

But I'm starting to feel like maybe 5 ships isn't enough...dare I start flying 8 Academy Pilots? Perhaps this urge to fly more ships is why I've always been such a HUGE fan of Epic play.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

@SoontirFelTGE , looks like a really fun squad! I'll have to give it a whirl...but the whole reason I jumped into the TIE striker squads was because I need more than 3 ships. It just isn't enough for me right now. Soon I may give it a go, though, because I really miss flying the Upsilon.

But I'm starting to feel like maybe 5 ships isn't enough...dare I start flying 8 Academy Pilots? Perhaps this urge to fly more ships is why I've always been such a HUGE fan of Epic play.

8 TIE fighters is fun, but I'll warn you - I had a try with them a few weeks back - you will miss the manouvrability of strikers. It's the inability to turn at high speeds that 'normal' ships don't get.

If you want to try an 8-ship swarm, I'm a big advocate of the Rageswarm. You need to ration your use of Rage, but it's a nice back pocket ability to have:

• Youngster - Rage
• Academy Pilot x 7

The big swarm is an awesome close-range squad - so many warm bodies to block and so many bonus range 1 attacks but it can be a nightmare to move. Plus, you do really feel the loss of that 4th hit point.

If you want a big swarm with a nice trick to it and don't want to try Howlrunner (because 'a' she's not great with academy pilots because she has to still be alive when they attack and 'b' she's corralling your entire squad into a nice harpoon-able, bomblet-able lump), then a 7-ship swarm might be more your thing:

• Delta Squadron Pilot - TIE/x7
• 6 x Academy Pilot

I can assure you that whatever people expect to see as the seventh ship in a TIE swarm, it won't be an all-up 3-attack, 3-shield, free-evade-token TIE Defender!

13 hours ago, Ronu said:

So Curious, how are the Strikers holding up in this Harpoon era? Seems like more and more swarm hate happening especially on a competitive level. More bombs coming, now at them from PSw bombers which might make the PS’s a questionable choice?

Harpoons hurt. I've had two games against them, and both times there have been a lot of splash damage.

The first time, because whilst I remembered all the conditions that set them off, I forgot you can spend an action to remove the dratted things.

The second time, it was a PS-lots imperial alpha strike which lobbed three into my squad and killed two strikers with a nasty chain reaction.

In some ways the increased toughness of the striker is a pain against harpoons. Most times I've been shot by them, it's done 3 damage (either three hits or one and a direct hit critical). Whilst I like that they don't die, if they died they would never get harpooned. Concentrated fire makes them almost as good a swarm killer as assault missiles, but cheaper and more accurate because of the target lock reroll.

At the same time, don't despair! Strikers can afford to take a single non-critical damage card and keep right on rolling. That 4th hit goes a long way.

I still won that game with the chain reaction - luckily - because he'd really stripped his squad bare of post alpha strike capability (no action economy in favour of Veteran Instincts, no Lightweight Frame or Engine Upgrade in favour of Guidance Chips) and the strikers can afford to trade 2 ships for 1 and still have the numerical advantage.

Against an ordnance-heavy squad with 2-3 missiles in the opening salvo, losing 1 striker before it can fire is kind of inevitable unless you can play range games (easier with Cruise missiles than harpoons). Losing 2 was unlikely but is now going to be pretty common, because whatever we say, if you want to have all 5 able to fire, you will realisticaly have at least 2 within range 1 of one another.

On the other hand, if you were facing 4 missile-armed ships (say, Deadeye Gamma Vets), then losing 2 strikers wasn't too uncommon there, and the game was still winnable.

12 hours ago, Parakitor said:

I've been replacing the shuttle with a Tractor Beam Nu Sq. Pilot in the Vassal League. I want to say it has performed admirably, but it's actually been kind of lackluster. I've managed one good set up of Tractor Beam to pull a Y-wing into a kill box. It can definitely keep up with the strikers, which is a plus. I keep thinking that I should just go all in on 5 PS 3 strikers, but then I remember just how many shots the Cygnus ships can pull away from my strikers. I think it needs more practice. Here's the Nu's upgrades: Tractor Beam, XG-1 Assau

Hmm.

The problem is that the Tractor Beam seems the wrong kind of control tool. It offers reduced enemy defences (great for 2-dice attack ships) and movement control (great for keeping a bead on something with less manouvrable ships. Where I have a problem it doesn't tend to be needing to yank someone into a kill-box; Strikers can make kill boxes just fine - it's pinning Miranda [censored] Doni in place long enough to actually make one without her just bank 3/SLAM 3-ing off at nearly half again faster than the top speed of a striker whenever she's uncomfortable.

To stop that, I need Ion Tokens or Stress.

I honestly wondered if 4 XG-1 linked/flechette gunboats might be an interesting squad - they have the speed and manouvrability, and the toughness, too (they're essentially T-70s) but whilst they have incredibly accurate shots (3 dice, focus, 1 reroll, no range combat bonus at range 3!) the fact that each shot only does 1 damage makes them pretty lacklustre in actual punch.

Maybe a pilot with Ion Pulse Missiles might be worth a try?

3 hours ago, SoontirFelTGE said:

I've seen this, and it looks like a ton of fun.

Major Stridan — Upsilon-class Shuttle 32
Advanced Sensors 3
General Hux 5
Systems Officer 2
Experimental Interface 3
Ship Total: 45

"Duchess" — TIE Striker 23
Expertise 4
Lightweight Frame 2
Adaptive Ailerons 0
Ship Total: 29

"Pure Sabacc" — TIE Striker 22
Veteran Instincts 1
Lightweight Frame 2
Adaptive Ailerons 0
Ship Total: 25

Go ahead and give it a try. You can plan a green with the shuttle, ADV sensors for Hux, get stressed, do the green, hand out the TL while un-stressing your self, and that leaves the strikers open to do something besides focusing, and Duchess can keep the focus for defense.

Looks fun! Strikers do really well with token-generating support ships....

Observations:

• What's experimental interface for? The only ACTION upgrade card you have is Hux, who causes stress when triggered - so using Experimental Interface to trigger him would double-stress yourself.
• The Upsilon has the advantage of Tech slots. Provided you're not going to collide with someone on your maneuver, Pattern Analyser does the same job as Advanced Sensors for a point less - and leaves your systems slot free for a fire control system for that lovely 4-dice big stick on the front of the shuttle.
• Hyperwave Comm Scanner for a point lets you deploy the shuttle at PS12 - meaning you deploy your first ship at PS8, which will give you the strategic advantage over a lot of squads.
• Maybe I'm just not good enough at planning turns ahead, but I find I segnor and koiogran my strikers a lot . Predator is a point cheaper and still gives you dice modification when pulling a red move. Plus, it stacks with focus tokens (whether from Hux or Duchess' own actions) by providing rerolls the striker cannot normally get. With Pure Sabbac getting a lock from the Systems Officer, the shuttle getting a lock from Fire Control and everyone getting focus from Hux, that's a lot of firepower...

Oh - one other thought versus harpoons:

• Remember that Harpooned only applies after the attack resolves - meaning if you are killed by a harpoon missile, you never receive the Harpooned condition.
  • If a striker is locked by two ships with harpoon missiles, and takes 4 hits from the first one, you might want to consider not spending any green tokens on your defensive roll if it's the difference between dying and surviving on 1 hit:
    • If you survive the first missile on one hit, the second missile will kill you and set off the splash damage.
    • If you don't survive the first hit, the second target lock will 'fizzle' and there will be no splash damage. The second attacker will still get a primary weapon shot, but if (for example) it's Darth Vader or Tomax Bren, big hairy deal.
• Remember that removing a harpoon may kill you (if you have only 1 hit left) but it will never trigger splash damage because you discard the condition before rolling for damage. Since a 1-hit-left-and-harpooned striker is almost inevitably going to be your opponent's first target in the combat phase, and 99% of the time your opponent shoots first in the combat phase if you use a striker swarm, if you can't get to a safe blast range of your squad-mates, there's a real argument for setting the dratted thing off yourself and saving the enemy the bother. After all, there's a 50/50 chance it'll be a dud and waste their shot on a crippled target and not give them a free damage splash.

You, Sir, have all my respect.

5 Tie Strikers. *bows*

4 hours ago, Arma Quattro said:

5 Tie Strikers. *bows*

awesome report, I only own one striker and have only had the chance to fly multiples once but it was a ton of fun. this is what I ran,

PILOTS

“Duchess” (28)
TIE Striker (23), Predator (3), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

“Pure Sabacc” (27)
TIE Striker (22), Predator (3), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

Black Squadron Scout (23)
TIE Striker (20), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Veteran Instincts (1), Lightweight Frame (2)

“Countdown” (22)
TIE Striker (20), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

I've been wanting to buy three more for a while now but havn't had the chance, reading this really brings it back to my mind, they are so much fun. I don't know if I'd have the guts to bring this to a tournament bt casually it's great!

Incidentally the only tournament I won (4 ship restriction, not this list) Countdown was a big star in

6 hours ago, Mightybeard13 said:

Incidentally the only tournament I won (4 ship restriction, not this list) Countdown was a big star in

Yeah, I like the sound of him. But I still haven't flown the named pilots. Maybe I tried Pure Sabacc once. I heard of this great squad with the 3 named pilots and Captain Yorr with General Hux. Every time I'm about to pull out that squad, I look at my 4th TIE striker, lonely in my carrying case, and I end up flying 4 Trainees w/ Doom Shuttle. I really should branch out.