It occured to me that I never played a TIE swarm, having come late to the game, and I want to try one that doesn't instantly falter against anything my opponent has because I use the old lists from waves past that ignore new upgrades. So, does anyone have any advice on how to best build one with only TIE and/or TIE/fo? Crack Shot swarm? Models and cards are not an issue.

Best I played in my swarm time:

Swarm (100)

"Howlrunner" (19) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

@SOTL has a great blogpost about a 5ship swarm, I've flown a very similar version myself to my first tournament in 2016

1 hour ago, Estarriol said:

Best I played in my swarm time:

Swarm (100)

"Howlrunner" (19) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (15) - TIE Fighter
Crack Shot (1)

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

Academy Pilot (12) - TIE Fighter

This swarm won Yavin 2016, so can be considered 'as good as it gets' as of that point; anything 'better' is going to involve something newer - I have a sneaking suspicion you might do well with a few Snap Shot TIE fighters instead of the academy pilots, giving a 50/50 snap shot/crack shot mix.

I haven't won anything 'major' with it, but I'm undefeated with this swarm:

Howlrunner w/ VI = 19

Scimitar w/ title, operations specialist & intel agent = 20

5 academy pilots = 60

99

I'd say its not as 'easy' to fly as a regular swarm, because you have to get used to the bomber in there. But the reality is, its not that hard. Thanks to the range 1-2 on Ops Spec, the bomber doesn't actually have to remain that close to the other ships, and really, keeping it back a bit is helpful since your opponent will want to kill it ASAP once he realizes how good Ops Spec is for this list.

The secret to success: Evade! Take the evade action in the opening turn of shooting. After that, any ship that is damaged should continue to evade (howlrunner probably should be evading all the time, since she tends to be focussed on). But the rest of your ships can focus or barrel roll as needed to maximize effectiveness.