8 hours ago, Infinite_Maelstrom said:

What, Lambda shuttles with R2 astromech? Yes Please!

Ya know what? If you want your entire list to be four OGPs...sure, go for it. I'd LOL.

(EDIT: although given FFG's love for making OP large-base ships, maybe it does make sense to add a 'small base only' exclusion to it, after all - fits the thematic feel of 'swarms' better that way, I suppose...)

23 hours ago, Jadotch said:

Formation Tactics
Title 0 Points
Ties Only. Imperials Only.

If there are 2 or more other friendly ships in range 1-2, you may roll 1 additional attack dice. If you do, you must immediately cancel out an attack dice of your choice.

While it is not ground breaking, it slightly increases the accuracy of a swarm of TIEs. For a standard TIE at range 2, you would roll 3 dice and cancel out your least favorite of the roll. It helps but it is nothing overpowering.

PS I would rename it "Attack Formation" for fluff.

1 hour ago, Jadotch said:

PS I would rename it "Attack Formation" for fluff.

How is that not identical to 'Predator'? That has you effectively roll 3 dice and keep the best 2...

Also: not a fan of the upgrade in question (whatever it becomes) being range-limited. Guessing you weren't playing the game in the early waves...it was...kinda boring looking, nevermind INCREDIBLY slow and tedious to play...

Swarm fighter (title 0 or 1 point) (Tie only)

When attacking an enemy ship with your primary weapon if that ship has been attacked by another swarm fighter this round, reduce its agility by 1 for this attack.

You may only equip this title on ships with less than 3 primary attack dice.

Keeps from being too strong against 0 agility ships which already have it rough against a swarm while making your reds more effective against everything else.

50 minutes ago, xanderf said:

How is that not identical to 'Predator'? That has you effectively roll 3 dice and keep the best 2...

Also: not a fan of the upgrade in question (whatever it becomes) being range-limited. Guessing you weren't playing the game in the early waves...it was...kinda boring looking, nevermind INCREDIBLY slow and tedious to play...

First, you have an optional reroll by some other means. Next, it is slightly more powerful than predator, because you can actually see the dice results, predator it is up to chance. You would not reroll a hit to get a critical. (Well I would not.) But most anyone would choose a crit over a hit. And last, you are not modifying dice. This is a niche factor, but ships like Omega Leader would not be effective against it.

On 01/08/2017 at 11:33 PM, Thormind said:

Side A - Strength in numbers : Start the game with this side face up. When making an attack, if you have at least 3 other friendly ship at range one of your ship, roll 1 additional attack dice. If you have only 1 ship left on the playfield, flip this card.

Side B - Last man standing : If you have only one ship left on the playfield, it rolls 1 additional attack dice and all its maneuvers are green.

Assuming 0 point cost it could be 8 TIEs with a slightly better, decentralised Howlrunner. Second, Omega Leader in last man standing mode? Wow.

I think a swarm title should be less about offense or defense and more about the classic superiority through numbers (without increasing the ships on the board above 8, or course). Perhaps something along the lines of:

Strength in Numbers (Title, 0 points, Imperial only)
You must treat your pilot skill as the number of friendly ships in play, to a maximum of 8. You cannot equip this card if your primary weapon value is greater than two.

Thereby giving the classic swarm a PS8 alpha strike with up to 24 dice, plus PS8 repositioning until everything dies. On the other hand, aces will gradually lose their inherent skill when tied to a swarm. The restriction is to prevent TIE strikers from equipping it, since 5 of them would be rather scary at PS5. Even so, TIE/Fos, Bombers, TIEs, SFs, Aggressors and the like might finally see mass generic play. On aggressors, the 4x TLT gets a mild buff, but at PS 4 everything that was going to lose still loses, and everything that would win still wins.

I've had any number of thoughts on generic swarms, and they often boil down to the following:

• I'd love to see squadron mechanics, as that gives you a means to bolt rules onto a force of generics that (for once!) doesn't apply to the unique versions of same.
• Swarms do actually still work. They're not easy to use, but they work a lot better than a lot of people give them credit for.

If I was going to look at TIE fighters and TIE/fo specifically and try to improve them with a title rather than adding new gaming mechanics, my thoughts would be:

• The TIE fighter is very manoeuvrable and acceptably tough for its cost
• The TIE/fo even more so; add a comm relay and you have something with the durability of the TIE advanced and the manoeuvrability of the TIE interceptor
• Their weakness is, as noted, firepower
• Their raw firepower is fine; a TIE swarm can throw enough dice to turn an agility 0 ship into swiss cheese very quickly, but because it comes in two-dice dribs and drabs, anything with really good green dice and/or automatic evade results against any attack (one of the worst examples of both being Fenn Rau) can tank as many two-dice attacks as you care to throw at it.
• Just increasing their firepower is wrong (see above), and the best way to do it is either prevent opponents evading, letting them shoot at a target when it's not got its defences in place or allowing you to 'lump' together their firepower.
• The first already exists (crack shot), but is an elite, hence restricted to Black Squadron Pilots or better.
• The second already exists (snap shot), but is an elite, hence restricted to Black Squadron Pilots or better.
• The third also already exists (swarm leader) but is an elite and unique, making it nice for a ship supported by a TIE swarm but naff all use for the swarm itself (because a Swarm Leader tie fighter is likely to get obliterated in the opening salvo of the game)

More than anything, I think Swarm Leader would have been the way to go. Imagine, in theory, if a TIE swarm all had swarm leader. Against some targets, six focused two-dice attacks are the order of the day. Against others, four unmodified two dice attacks and two focused four-dice attacks will be far better.

in short; the mechanic I think swarms need already exists - it's called swarm leader, and the rule is simple, effective, and already on an upgrade card that's legal for use in games. What we lack is any means to 'attach' it to swarm ships in any useful quantity (irritatingly, this is another area where Youngster's pilot ability falls over - if he could confer Swarm Leader I suspect he'd see a **** of a lot more use)

Swarmy McSwarmface - 0 points title

When this ship attacks, you may assign any number of ships within range 1-3 a weapons disabled token. You roll 1 extra dice for each token assigned this way. At the end of the combat phase, remove all weapons disabled tokens from your ships.

If this ship is destroyed, you must attach this title to the highest costed ship that shares the same type as the equipped ship. Discard all other titles on that ship.

Indeed. A title which (a) let you equip Swarm Leader and (b) let you 'salvage' it when the pilot with it gets killed would work nicely.

Given that Swarm Leader is 3 points, and 8 Academy Pilots are 96 Points, 1 point for the title would be about right.

Title

1 Point

Your Upgrade Bar gains [Elite]. When this ship is destroyed, assign this title and one [Elite] upgrade to another friendly ship of the same type within range 1-3.

On 2017-08-01 at 2:40 PM, MegaSilver said:

Why is everyone worried about the ties but not the Zs? ☹️

What is omnipresent in the lore, Tie or Z? :-)

I like the "last man standing" part of the title. IMO one of the big problem with swarm is to finish the job once the bulk of your squad is out. It also make sense to have the last pilot standing being better than the other ones. He did survive longer.

How to fix Imperials:

Title:
Imperial Doctrine - 0 Points
TIE ONLY / Imperial Only
You may equip up to 2 different Title upgrades.
When the number of damage cards assigned to you equals or exceeds your hull value, you are not destroyed until the end of the round.
If you are a "unique" pilot and do not have already the {EPT} upgrade slot in your upgrade bar, you may equip one EPT upgrade to your ship.

That helps ALOT of ships. Even the Punisher.