Quickdraw Missile Swarm

By Ohnoeszz, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Has anyone played something like this? There's a lot of pure firepower and it has a sort of ace + miniswarm appeal to it.

"Quickdraw" (29) 40

Swarm Leader (3)

Fire-Control System (2)

Cruise Missiles (3)

Targeting Synchronizer (3)

Special Ops Training (0)

Guidance Chips (0)

Sienar Test Pilot (16) 20

Cruise Missiles (3)

TIE/v1 (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Sienar Test Pilot (16) 20

Cruise Missiles (3)

TIE/v1 (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Sienar Test Pilot (16) 20

Cruise Missiles (3)

TIE/v1 (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

In the current PS 10+ meta Quickdraw would need VI. Also Swarm Leader dosn't make sense with Agressors who cant Evade.

Forgett this, I was thinking Of Siena Specialists.

Edited by Hannes Solo

I like it. Thats **** of an alpha strike if you can get it to work

I think the key is getting it to work. If it does, great. It's an insanely painful amount of dice.

However, as your opponent, I would be watching for you to do the 4 straight and to pull off the 5 dice missile barrage, and doing everything I can to avoid it.

25 minutes ago, Biggsy_boy said:

I think the key is getting it to work. If it does, great. It's an insanely painful amount of dice.

However, as your opponent, I would be watching for you to do the 4 straight and to pull off the 5 dice missile barrage, and doing everything I can to avoid it.

Agreed. This list would require you come at the target from different angles, and have to accept that you're not going to get those missiles off every game.

Sometimes keeping a ship alive is more important than rushing in.

I ran that 20 point sienar test pilot x5 a couple of times and it can be great but the low ps makes getting the cruise off on the i initial joust very, very hard. I played around with a thread tracer in their to help but it was always good just not great. And after thr initial encounter i aleays broke formation and scattered which could lead to the swarm leader being less effective. To sum it up: the list can definitely work but be aware that any good player is going to take advantage of your low ps and inability to get a target lock on initial engagement.

But you can get target locks on the initial engagement...

Targeting synchronizer makes it so that any ship shot by Quickdraw can be cruise missiled regardless of PS. As long as Quickdraw gets a lock at PS 9, you'll be able to fire his cruise missile and 1 of the sienar's.

Those sienars have white 3 speed turns which provide good maneuverability and 4 die cruise missiles (5 is nice but unnecessary). I think it's worthwhile pushing the sienars forward, just ahead of Quickdraw, into the range 3 for their target lock on the opening engagement... If the enemy turns into range one you have locks and evades on your 3 dice range 1 shots and otherwise you have cruise missiles.

After the initial engagement, you can still line up cruise missiles by kturning sienars (5 cruise dice for a 4 speed k) and having Quickdraw shoot the most convenient to provide a target lock through FCS/Targeting synchronizer.

Hey, that's pretty similar to what I tried when I got my hands on cruise missiles:

(43) TIE/SF Fighter: •"Quickdraw" (29)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
Expertise (4)
Fire-Control System (2)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)

(57) 3x TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (19)
Guidance Chips (0)
Cruise Missiles (3)

Total: 100/100

Basic bombers are the same price (16) be as Sienar testers, which I considered, but I have more bombers. Ultimately for my list the problem was keeping coverage with my arcs while still moving fast enough to make the cruise missiles hit hard. When Harpoons spoiled I tried it again (dropped QD's elite to Adaptability) and found that it's relatively easy to lay an inescapable net of missile arcs when moving slowly.

@Ohnoeszz makes very good points about the k-turns and speed 3, but then you're looking at a wait and strike rather than an alpha strike.

The beautiful thing about the new missiles and TSynchronizer is that you don't have to spend the lock, which means you can fire all the missiles at once. Guidance Chips are a must though if you really want to do that.

Okay, so I got to play this list the other day against Rey(Finn)-Poe(bb-8 intensity). I set up center table and he set up to his right along the edge.

Turn 1 I 2/3 bank and barrel roll left as he goes straight up the table edge around asteroid 1.

Turn 2 I 4/5 forward the sienars - no range so focus. He turns his two PS 8s towards me and ends up range 2/3 from the sienars. 1 straight Quickdraw and focus for defense.

Combat - He sees focus on my four ships and decides to save glitterstim on Rey. Quickdraw shoots first at Rey - blanks but takes target lock from FCS. He shoots a range two sienar which rolls 3 evades twice in a row against 4 and then 3 hits. The 3 Sienars then unload their 5 dice cruise missiles for 5 hits each using focus+chips. Rey uses Finn and Refills to survive with 2 hull remaining.

He called it there with the YT nearly down and my list near untouched. Lucky defensive rolls aside, this alpha strike is ridiculous. Even had he PS killed the sienar, it's an easy trade to make for hitting Rey hard. This feels like a pretty strong list.