was screwing around with youngster recently just to see if I could find some use for him and this is what I've come up with

I feel like it's not especially worth it but I was curious what you thought

this is another one

The problem is that starting with youngster with expose is a bad call, because expose itself is a pretty bad call.

To make it work, you need 2+ actions, and it's expensive, and it lowers your agility.

The thing is, there are enough TIE fighters with an easy-to-trigger 'have a bonus attack die' ability (backstabber, mauler mithel, scourge) and starting with them is a better plan if you think TIE fighters lack punch.

If you really want to make expose work, I'd recommend:

• Youngster
  • Expose
• Night Beast
• Chaser

Just because those two have the cheap action economy to support it (Night beast gets a free focus action on a green move, whilst chaser can pick up that focus after night beast spends it.

A better use for Youngster is 7 academy pilots and Rage. Don't over-use the ability, but having it in your back pocket for range 1 shots is a very nice option.

Finally, the other option which might work (but I've never tried it) is squad leader.

Squad leader is essentially co-ordinate but restricted to lower PS ships. As long as you've got a lower PS ship with enough action options and power to 'eat' the free actions, youngster plus 1-2 adaptability black squadron pilots can throw a lot of free actions at a PS4 or lower ship - something like an upsilon shuttle, or decimator, or generic silencer pilot springs to mind....

I considered rage but it seems like its not that exciting when you only have 2 dice. I figured you were better off upgrading to 3 dice and finding cheap focus giving ships and hoping enough of them survive to shoot

this is probably a really dumb idea but what about a bunch of sf ties with wingman? (and youngster with rage)

31 minutes ago, Ihavebadluck said:

this is probably a really dumb idea but what about a bunch of sf ties with wingman? (and youngster with rage)

It wasn't a Youngster list, but I had a friend who used to fly a pair of TIE/SFs with Wingman, Pattern Analyzer, and Fire Control System. With a TL from last turn and FCS, they'd pull a red (say, a S-Loop), use Pattern Analyzer to take an action before receiving stress, then Wingman to clear the stress. It was pretty neat. What's nice about Youngster in such a situation is that he'd be... less necessary? If he's targeted first, the list won't fully break down. You could only really fit 2x fully loaded.

You can't quite fit 3x Omega Specialists with Wingman and LWF. Maybe you'd want to use TIE MK.II instead for the green banks. Hrm. Maybe?

For rage and 3-dice ships, I've got another friend who sometimes runs three Auzitucks (the named pilots and a PS 3) with Rage and Inspiring Recruit. They've all got extra crew: Lowhhrick has an extra IR and Experimental Interface, so he can also Reinforce. The generic has Jan Ors, and Wulffwarro has Kyle Katarn (so will wind up with Focus/Focus/Evade). It was surprisingly nasty. Rage on those 180 degree arcs hits hard and is trickier to avoid than you'd think.

5 hours ago, Ihavebadluck said:

I considered rage but it seems like its not that exciting when you only have 2 dice.

It is and it isn't. The point is that upgrading an Academy Pilot to Youngster with Rage only costs you four points, so you can fit him in the 8-ship TIE swarm - one of the only things you can do in such a squad to help the squad as a whole. It's fundamentally an 8-ship TIE swarm with Youngster as an afterthought (much like the 4 PS3 pilots don't really make much difference in a 4 academy/4 obsidian swarm).

With 2 dice, I wouldn't bother triggering rage. The key to using it is to only use it on two ships in your squad at once, max. You don't want large swathes of your squad stressed and unable to K-turn or generate tokens.

Where Rage works well is when you have a range 1 shot. An 8-ship swarm has incredible ability to block off vast chunks of the board - especially if your opponent is trying to fly a large-based ship past you - and the real meat of your punch comes when you block a ship and then get a sizeable number of range 1 shots at a target with no tokens.

That's where rage comes into its own; because whilst Howlrunner gives you a reroll with no downsides:

• With 3 attack dice, it's more common than you'll like to wish you could reroll 2+ dice.
• Howlrunner has only a range 1 bubble. Not so great when you want to spread out and catch people in a 'dragnet'
• Howlrunner has to still be alive at the point the other ship attacks. Fortunately, TIE fighters are really tough, so....no....no, wait, it's the other thing, isn't it?
• Howlrunner is that critical bit more expensive, so can only ever fit in a 7-ship swarm. Every extra warm body in a TIE swarm adds exponentially to their threat level, because it's not about how many TIEs you have in total, it's about how many you have that haven't been one-shotted at higher pilot skill (let's say 2), arc dodged (let's say 2 more), unable to fire because they bumped (1 more) or had their attack soaked by a once-per-turn trick like C-3PO (1 more). As a result, going from 7 to 8 ships can feel like an effective doubling of firepower...

5 hours ago, Ihavebadluck said:

I figured you were better off upgrading to 3 dice and finding cheap focus giving ships and hoping enough of them survive to shoot

There are a lot of TIE fighters who have "+1 attack die" pilot abilities and they are all good choices.

5 hours ago, Ihavebadluck said:

this is probably a really dumb idea but what about a bunch of sf ties with wingman? (and youngster with rage)

It's not a dumb idea. The main issues are:

• you won't get 'a bunch'. Getting 3 TIE/sf and youngster with...anything limits you to 28 points per TIE/sf - meaning a pretty much 'clean' TIE/sf generic.
• Rage is probably the upgrade TIE/sf need least - with cheap upgrades like fire control system, advanced optics and targeting synchroniser they can easily get double-modified attacks.
• TIE/sf aren't exactly blessed with an amazing green dial, so shifting that stress once you receive it is awkward. Wingman could work but then you're ruining the benefit of Rage (the fact that it's cheap) by spending a lot of points on stress control.

Youngster + the two named TIE/sf might work, though. He essentially acts as an 'extra' EPT for Backdraft and Quickdraw, which opens up all sorts of possibilities.

• Rage:
  • Giving the TIE/sf wired means you can use that stress whilst you burn through it.
  • Not needing a Fire Control System means you could pack a Sensor Jammer, which can help a lot in the right circumstances (versus target locked missiles, for example)
  • Combine with Electronic baffle and you can easily self-trigger Quickdraw's ability - in the 'PS 11 or bust' stupidity we're currently seeing, a PS9 ship being able to fly into range 1 then shoot before you can move or generate tokens can be lethal!
• Debris Gambit
  • Whilst this is nigh on useless for youngster himself (because you might as well just evade), it offers a sort of 'fake evade action' to the TIE/sf, which emphatically doesn't have that option normally.
  • Not having to give up your EPT for the option means Backdraft and Quickdraw can still have Veteran instincts, expertise, or whatever and still have the option to generate evade tokens.

• "Quickdraw"
  • Spec Ops Training
  • Expertise
  • Fire Control System
  • Cruise Missiles
  • Advanced Optics
  • Lightweight Frame
• "Backdraft"
  • Spec Ops Training
  • Expertise
  • Fire Control System
  • Cruise Missiles
  • Advanced Optics
  • Lightweight Frame
• "Youngster"
  • Debris Gambit
• 1 point initiative bid

how does electronic baffle work with rage? can you do it twice seperately and then shoot twice with quickdraw or is that not how it works? (I'm assuming it is the latter)

Quickdraw only shoots the first time each round she removes a shield token. You could take 2 damage to discard 2 stress, but you'd only attack once.

ah yes didn't read it right