Anyone else running 3 strikers + 1 Ace?

First time I saw it @Biophysical was running them with Raxler. It was awesome!

So I tried this and had tons of fun:

@Parakitor did a great write up here with a lot of pictures of two tournaments flying 4-5 TIE Strikers!

@Magnus Grendel

Also did a great write up on BoardGameGeek about a bunch of matches played with 5 TIE Strikers!

Here is my silly idea:

"Pure Sabacc" (22)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Duchess" (23)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Black Squadron Scout (20)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 96

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Running OL w/ Stealth Device + 3 named strikers. Working out alright. Sabaac takes the heat off OL for sure, allowing him to get his TL and not get attacked. I went 2-2 with 3 named strikers and a lamda shuttle at a store champs, so I figured OL would be an improvement.

Might swap OL out for Double Edge with LW + TLT + LWF. Allows him to skirt the edge and plink away while Strikers cause their chaos. Gotta get a few more games in with OL before I decide to swap though.

Two trainees and sabacc all with AA/LWF gives you plenty of room for an EPT of choice on sabacc and an ace. Ryad/QD are nice to joust while strikers flank.

My fun choice would be Rhymer with snap, ops spec, tactician, LWF. Leave your shield tokens at home.

Why not 5 strikers?

VI lwf sabecc

VI/crack duchess

And 3 scouts make a list

Or duchess down to countdown for ps 3s

All good ideas....

I think have settled on this goofiness.

Whisper at PS9 and 4 dice probably makes the target use a focus or evade.

Duchess takes an evade from Sabacc or Whisper or both to roll between 4-6 dice.

And Sabacc adds a 5th attack die with Opportunist after 2 shots have likely used up remaining evade.

Once Sabacc is hit once he can still roll 4 dice for a round or two since Duchess/Whisper are probably forcing the target to burn tokens.

Duchess is still dangerous with 3 dice at PS8 so you dont have to use Swarm Leader 100% of the time if it doesnt make sense.

Systems Officer to give Sabacc a TL or Duchess a TL once Sabacc dies first.

Super fragile list....but should throw 4-5 dice attacks for a few rounds!

Your using evades constantly so its not 100% glass cannon territory.

Somebody won a Store Championship in Bakersfield with Captain Yorr and the three named TIE striker pilots. Very impressive. The only thing I remember about upgrades is that Your had General Hux. I haven't played with the named strikers much, so I really want to give this squad a try.

EDIT: Maybe it wasn't Bakersfield. I'm trying to locate the squad via List Juggler. Stay tuned.

EDIT 2: Yes, it was Otto's Video Games and More. I remember now. But the squads aren't posted on List Juggler. Bummer.

Yeah, Bio and I have been looking into the idea. I think it has potential.

So far, my favourite aces to pair with the triple strikers are Rexler and Quickdraw. Ion is so potent in this new, evolving meta, that its really nice to have.

Also, Countdown. This guy is auto-include if you're taking a bunch of strikers. His ability is so valuable on an otherwise fragile ship! Best of all, he doesn't really need any upgrades (except Ailerons of course!). LWF is meh on him----better to go with hull upgrade if you have the points, otherwise leave him at 20.

@Parakitor

@blade_mercurial

Messing around with this....

Genral Hux basically gives the 3 defenders Push the Limits.

That is not a bad idea. Hux is a strong card and the decimator is not easy to destroy. That's very similar to my Rexler list (obviously, Rexler fills the 46 point slot instead of a decimator). The reason I like Rex in there is because of the ion cannon. It messes with Nym nicely and potentially screws up 4 ship rebels (that is to say, if can force them to choose: stay range 1 of biggs but none/little targets to shoot, or ditch biggs so they can get the shots they want).

56 minutes ago, blade_mercurial said:

Yeah, Bio and I have been looking into the idea. I think it has potential.

So far, my favourite aces to pair with the triple strikers are Rexler and Quickdraw. Ion is so potent in this new, evolving meta, that its really nice to have.

Also, Countdown. This guy is auto-include if you're taking a bunch of strikers. His ability is so valuable on an otherwise fragile ship! Best of all, he doesn't really need any upgrades (except Ailerons of course!). LWF is meh on him----better to go with hull upgrade if you have the points, otherwise leave him at 20.

Yeah, I've been eyeing Ion defenders for a bit, too. I think that's a really solid call. Unfortunately, I usually have points packed so tight that I can only fit Tractor Beam, which still isn't a bad way to go.

Haven't tried Countdown yet, but your glowing recommendation has just caused me to move him up higher in my list of ships to try.

I played a couple of causal games with the following list. I was surprised by how effective they were. They are really fun ships to fly. I wish generic interceptors were this maneuverable.

Tomax Bren (24)
Crack Shot (1)
Fleet Officer (3)
Systems Officer (2)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE Shuttle (0)

Black Squadron Scout (20)
Crack Shot (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Black Squadron Scout (20)
Crack Shot (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Black Squadron Scout (20)
Crack Shot (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

10 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Somebody won a Store Championship in Bakersfield with Captain Yorr and the three named TIE striker pilots. Very impressive. The only thing I remember about upgrades is that Your had General Hux. I haven't played with the named strikers much, so I really want to give this squad a try.

EDIT: Maybe it wasn't Bakersfield. I'm trying to locate the squad via List Juggler. Stay tuned.

EDIT 2: Yes, it was Otto's Video Games and More. I remember now. But the squads aren't posted on List Juggler. Bummer.

The store championship I played in over the weekend, the winner was Whisper/Omega Leader/Yorr - Yorr's ability is a very nice one with aces, because people really aren't used to them being able to use their red moves.

Really using and abusing the ability, you want Inspiring Recruit and Electronic Baffle - which is an issue with the three named TIE strikers because of points.

• Captain Yorr
• Duchess - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Pure Sabbac - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Countdown - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame

Gives you 98 points.

That means you can fit in Veteran instincts on Sabbac and Duchess or Inspiring Recruit and Electronic Baffle on Yorr and 'free' upgrades (probably Adaptability) on the Strikers.

Alternatively, you could take both, and earn the two points by taking Lightweight Frame off Countdown - with Yorr to 'soak' stress, you can probably get away without it.

Alternatively, you can take Veteran Instincts on the strikers and sub out Yorr for an Omicron Group Pilot with Vader aboard - I know @Parakitor has had some good games with a doomshuttle supporting strikers; he can give you a better feel on the strengths and weaknesses of the pairing.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The store championship I played in over the weekend, the winner was Whisper/Omega Leader/Yorr - Yorr's ability is a very nice one with aces, because people really aren't used to them being able to use their red moves.

Really using and abusing the ability, you want Inspiring Recruit and Electronic Baffle - which is an issue with the three named TIE strikers because of points.

• Captain Yorr
• Duchess - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Pure Sabbac - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
• Countdown - Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame

Gives you 98 points.

That means you can fit in Veteran instincts on Sabbac and Duchess or Inspiring Recruit and Electronic Baffle on Yorr and 'free' upgrades (probably Adaptability) on the Strikers.

Alternatively, you could take both, and earn the two points by taking Lightweight Frame off Countdown - with Yorr to 'soak' stress, you can probably get away without it.

Alternatively, you can take Veteran Instincts on the strikers and sub out Yorr for an Omicron Group Pilot with Vader aboard - I know @Parakitor has had some good games with a doomshuttle supporting strikers; he can give you a better feel on the strengths and weaknesses of the pairing.

I have the base squad you listed costing 95 points, so you have a few more options:

Captain Yorr (24)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Pure Sabacc" (22)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Duchess" (23)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 95

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My apologies. Then you can pack Veteran Instincts, Baffle and Recruit in the same squad.

( @Parakitor talked about wired as a good 1 point EPT, and I'd second that, but Yorr makes it kind of pointless as you should never be stressed). You could even grab a tactical jammer for the shuttle.

I was looking at Reinforced Deflectors to help protect the shuttle from alpha strikes.

Without an engine upgrade, how does one keep the shuttle nearby without limiting the movement of the strikers? I have not put this list on the table yet, so it might not be too difficult, but it is not nicknamed the albino space whale for nothing.

The striker is quickly becoming my new favorite ship to fly with how nimble it is. After trying out a two striker/deci build, this is my next setup I want to try out. Quad budget aces:

18 hours ago, HungryFFG said:

I have the base squad you listed costing 95 points, so you have a few more options:

Captain Yorr (24)

"Countdown" (20)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Pure Sabacc" (22)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

"Duchess" (23)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)

Total: 95

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

If I remember correctly, "Countdown" had no Lightweight Frame, which made room for Tractor Beam and Inspiring Recruit on Yorr, in addition to General Hux.

16 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

( @Parakitor talked about wired as a good 1 point EPT, and I'd second that, but Yorr makes it kind of pointless as you should never be stressed). You could even grab a tactical jammer for the shuttle.

I'm pretty sure it was Ficklegreendice that suggested Wired, and I just about fell out of my chair because of what a good idea that is for strikers.

20 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Alternatively, you can take Veteran Instincts on the strikers and sub out Yorr for an Omicron Group Pilot with Vader aboard - I know @Parakitor has had some good games with a doomshuttle supporting strikers; he can give you a better feel on the strengths and weaknesses of the pairing.

I'm usually not a fan of the Doom Shuttle, but it just clicked for me this time around. Obviously, the squad excels when there are no shields on your opponents' ships. Which is tough because the shuttle shoots before the strikers. There are a couple of ways to get around this. The first is to delay the shuttle. I'm not sure I like this idea because the shuttle can take a lot more attacks than the strikers, and once he's out of the fight, he tends to get ignored until he's just about to make it back into combat, and then gets destroyed before he can do more. If they pour fire into the shuttle first, I'm happy. It's why I prefer 4 TIE strikers + shuttle over 5 TIE strikers.

The second method is one I didn't realize until my Store Champ tournaments were over. A fragile ace like Fenn Rau will intentionally dive into the shuttle to avoid being shot. One way to handle this is to simple K-turn or S-loop all your fighters to shoot at the ace that now has no action (or only one token from Mindlink or something). But the idea I like even better is to take advantage of the spread deployment of strikers, and make sure at least one ship can zip in front of the shuttle. When it looks like an ace might try that trick, maneuver one of your fighters to block the shuttle in place. When the ace dives in, he'll hit the striker instead of the shuttle, and you'll be free to Vader his sorry afterburners. Bonus: the shuttle doesn't need to perform a stationary maneuver, and is free to turn left or right to pursue other elements of the opposing squad. Self-blocking is, I feel, a very important tactic when using the shuttle because it allows it that one extra round in combat to do some serious damage to key parts of the squad.

I have yet to face Bomblets, but I think they'll be tough on a 5-ship squad that sticks pretty close together. Snap Shot is also bad when Adaptive Ailerons forces you to move slow before your actual maneuver. But overall, the 4 hull on the strikers make them pretty resilient.

16 hours ago, HungryFFG said:

I was looking at Reinforced Deflectors to help protect the shuttle from alpha strikes.

Without an engine upgrade, how does one keep the shuttle nearby without limiting the movement of the strikers? I have not put this list on the table yet, so it might not be too difficult, but it is not nicknamed the albino space whale for nothing.

Deploy with the shuttle behind your strikers - you can bump yourself first turn to not move but not stress yourself either (this is why @Parakitor is a big fan of advanced sensors on it). Start it on the flank and have it 'arc' across the board.

Range 1-2 around a big ship is actually a pretty huge area; it's not that hard to have it cover the combat zone. Range 1 is pretty awkward to keep, which is why I'm not so much of a fan of the Systems officer (except on Major Stridan, where it's a very good buy)

15 hours ago, LHyoda said:

The striker is quickly becoming my new favorite ship to fly with how nimble it is. After trying out a two striker/deci build, this is my next setup I want to try out. Quad budget aces:

The Empire has some surprisingly good 'pocket aces' - and that looks like a rather nice list.

If I had any suggestions, I might suggest Trick Shot - Adaptability puts Countdown from PS6 to PS7, which is a nice-to-have but doesn't really 'jump' that many people's pilot skill - you're still going to have to play cagy with him to get a full-bore shot off before he takes damage...which means obstructed shots are not all that unlikely.

44 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

I'm pretty sure it was Ficklegreendice that suggested Wired, and I just about fell out of my chair because of what a good idea that is for strikers.

Fair enough. It is a really good ability for cheap ships - I love it on TIE/fo fighters, too; it's hard to get enough copies (given that it comes in the core set and the TIE/sf) but I kind of want to try a TIE/fo swarm with Wired and Primed Thrusters.

Wired Black Squadron Scouts sound like an interesting squad, too. 3 of them leave you 30 points for a more capable 'ace leader', and their ability to segnor without being useless afterwards makes them a lot more flexible.

On 8/8/2017 at 2:36 AM, Parakitor said:

I have yet to face Bomblets, but I think they'll be tough on a 5-ship squad that sticks pretty close together. Snap Shot is also bad when Adaptive Ailerons forces you to move slow before your actual maneuver. But overall, the 4 hull on the strikers make them pretty resilient.

Bomblets + Nym's turret (whatever it is) are REALLY bad for strikers, unfortunately. The big problem is that in order to shoot Nym, your ships have to fly at him and therefore, you can't avoid getting one or more strikers smacked by bombs each turn he's alive. You can mitigate this a little bit with clever use of ailerons + s-loops (to keep guns on target yet not too close), but only so much. The fact is, flying Nymgar is 'easy-mode' compared to flying strikers against them. Your opponent doesn't have to think too carefully because he's always able to damage your ships while you have to think furiously and very carefully to keep your ships alive long enough to take out one of his two ships (Nym preferrably first). It makes for a very frustrating match on the striker side. This is why I like Ion cannon so much----it takes some of the frustration out of the equation when you know exactly where Nym is going and where his only bomb drop option will be.

Snap Shot is nasty against Ailerons, no question. Fortunately, its not a very common upgrade, so not something that you have to worry too much about (again, ion cannon helps a bit here too).

Another idea is to zoom forward with one striker to block, and slow roll with the others. Hopefully, Nym's "Genius" technique will only catch that one striker, and next round the damaged striker will be able to S-loop out of range and not get hit again. In this way, you can spread damage around your fighters. Of course, the next round has problems because your trailing fighters will have a heck of a time getting out of the blast radius.

Hey, what if you cross the streams? So, when you slow roll, instead of doing "Adaptive straight - 1 straight," as you approach, you do "Adaptive bank away - turn 1 in" towards Nym. Now everybody is aimed at Nym at a roughly 45 degree angle. Next round, you should be able to "Adaptive away (back towards your own edge) - Segnor's Loop away" so that you still have guns on him, but are far removed from the blast radius. Heavily dependent on asteroids, so it won't always work, but maybe it can give a leg up?

But it definitely sounds like an uphill struggle. This is another matchup where I think the Doom Shuttle will really earn its points. It takes a while to burn down, and can draw fire away from your fragile TIE strikers if it's presenting a crit threat to Nym or Dengar, who each have quite a bit of hull. An early Major Hull Breach, Blinded Pilot, or Weapons Malfunction could be really helpful.

On 8/9/2017 at 0:14 PM, Parakitor said:

Another idea is to zoom forward with one striker to block, and slow roll with the others. Hopefully, Nym's "Genius" technique will only catch that one striker, and next round the damaged striker will be able to S-loop out of range and not get hit again. In this way, you can spread damage around your fighters. Of course, the next round has problems because your trailing fighters will have a heck of a time getting out of the blast radius.

Hey, what if you cross the streams? So, when you slow roll, instead of doing "Adaptive straight - 1 straight," as you approach, you do "Adaptive bank away - turn 1 in" towards Nym. Now everybody is aimed at Nym at a roughly 45 degree angle. Next round, you should be able to "Adaptive away (back towards your own edge) - Segnor's Loop away" so that you still have guns on him, but are far removed from the blast radius. Heavily dependent on asteroids, so it won't always work, but maybe it can give a leg up?

But it definitely sounds like an uphill struggle. This is another matchup where I think the Doom Shuttle will really earn its points. It takes a while to burn down, and can draw fire away from your fragile TIE strikers if it's presenting a crit threat to Nym or Dengar, who each have quite a bit of hull. An early Major Hull Breach, Blinded Pilot, or Weapons Malfunction could be really helpful.

Its really hard to theorize because there are currently a few Nym builds still floating around (it will eventually narrow down to one dominant build due to the 'sheep mentality' that dominates human thinking). But I would say the most difficult build for Strikers in particular is Advanced Sensors + Engine Upgrade (+whatever turret). The problem with this build is that, as I said, you cannot escape getting hit by a bomb simply because your strikers have lower Pilot Skill. There's ZERO player skill involved here (and that is somewhat frustrating) because after you are done moving your ships, your opponent just has to decide which of his options is likely to get the most damage out of his bomb (with Advanced Sensors, he can barrel roll or boost before revealing dial, and with 'genius' he can decide to drop the bomb before or after the move).

Having said that, you are on the right track. You still have to try. Spreading out your ships and picking unexpected combinations of Ailerons + move to avoid potential blasts is all you can do. However, at the end of the day, bad RNG can cost you this game. If one bomb happens to get 2 damage on a striker and then Nym's PS10 turret manages to deal another 2 damage, that striker is just gone before it gets a chance to fire. Maybe you can come back from that, but when it happens (and it will, unfortunately!), it will put you into 'uphill battle' territory...

...Wow. I've never seen that Nym before. That sucks.

In regards to losing a striker before it fires, that's no biggie. Happens all the time. The problem is that one striker is touching Nym, so he's effectively neutralized 2 ships of mine. I'm going to say it again:

That sucks.

@Parakitor

Genius/Advanced Slam Nym is a nightmare for low hp ships below PS11. My main problem with Nym is they made him PS8.