I am so happy, that swarms got another run for their money!

Personally I love Z-95's and although I wished it had been the Scum version (just for the sake of being Scum) it was pretty exciting to see a 7 ship list. The last true swarms that were flown in the worlds meta, were way back in 2015, and in 2016 their was one list in the top 16 with 4 Syndicate Thugs (but can you really call that a swarm?)

It got me as far as flying my 5 Zeds and Party Bus (which indeed is Scum) again.

Let me know what you think! Do you think Swarms will make a large re-entry in the meta, or have I gone mad?

That’s one expensive list. 7 Z packs plus 7 TAPs. Well maybe not too bad, 210 bucks or less if you get a deal on cards and ships. Some worlds lists are crazy expensive.

40 minutes ago, GrimmyV said:

That’s one expensive list. 7 Z packs plus 7 TAPs. Well maybe not too bad, 210 bucks or less if you get a deal on cards and ships. Some worlds lists are crazy expensive.

There is 2x guidance chip in jumpmaster.

There are 4 XX-23 tracers, that makes 4 Inquisitor's TIE expansions. The guidance chips can be had elsewhere. 3 harpoons also requires 2 Guns for Hire.

It's maybe not the absolute most real-world expensive list around, but it does require quite a few purchases that you wouldn't likely want otherwise (multiple TAPs and all those Zs).

Oops, my old eyes thought those poons were tracers.

recalc:

Z-95 * 7

TAP * 4

G4H * 2

Toilet seat plus either one more TAP or second Toilet Seat.

thats 165 plus 60 plus either 45 or 60. Yeah it’s more pricy than I thought. It’s definitely gonna be cheaper to purchase cards on the after market.

That a lot of money to give for FFG !

I hope the new tie from Han Solo movie will allow Imperial to do swarm with secondary weapons !

Hard to be excited about this honestly. Not because 7 ships isn’t cool to see, but the fact they have teeth. Those Z’s will pack a punch, and so much so early on that the clean up isn’t too difficult especially against 2 ship list and low agility list. When we see real swarms without the added teeth do well then I can be excited

Why does this list work? Why so many XX23s?

Just now, Blail Blerg said:

Why does this list work? Why so many XX23s?

Getting everyone target locks for easy mods attacking and holding Focus for Defense. Also 6 K turn 1 tracers and everyone gets Locks ect.

38 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Why does this list work? Why so many XX23s?

Points and redundancy I would imagine. First, there's no way to fit another 4 point missile into a seven ship list without giving up all the Tracers, and Z-95 swarms can't overwhelm high agility targets without missiles.

Even if you could increase the number of missiles (for example, five cruise missiles, one thread tracer, one naked Z), you're simply begging for your opponent to kill that tracer carrying Z before it fires, and that's not hard for most lists to do - four damage into a 2 Agi ship that fires at PS2? I feel like most current lists can do that pretty reliably. And even if your ship survives to fire, best case scenario you get three hits, and it isn't hard to imagine scenarios where you get two or one. If you're trying to hit a Ghost with an evade token and Lowhhrick, or Timewalk Asajj, or Optics Poe, you're going to miss some times, and failure to get those TLs and those missiles off will lose you the game. Hence the need for backups. Alternately, it gives you the flexibility to change targets. Say you've managed to get the Inquisitor with your first or second tracer, and you get lucky with your Harpoons, killing him with two. You have one left, but you can't shoot it without a TL. Not to worry, you still have two more thread tracers to fire off at another target so that that third missile might go off this turn as well. It also means you can afford to send a Tracer Z or even two (depending on your opponents list) off to block and still get those TLs.

Finally, I remember hearing Blair discuss on a podcast ages back that the extra die serves a token stripping role. Where a two dice primary attack with a single modifier might blank put or be evaded naturally, a three dice attack with a focus and GC where there's no range three bonus is more likely to hit, or at least give three hits, which is much harder to evade naturally. It forces the opponent to choose whether to spend tokens on an attack that won't actually do damage, or let it hit and give an extra modifier to the surrounding Zs. Either way, those Zs have a higher chance of hitting, either through stripped tokens or their own now double modded shots.

These are my thoughts, obviously, I'm sure Blair could add more detail/correct me if I'm wrong. I hope not though - I have basically this list (concussion missiles instead of Harpoons) packed to play tonight, so hopefully I at least basically understand it.

12 hours ago, GrimmyV said:

That’s one expensive list. 7 Z packs plus 7 TAPs. Well maybe not too bad, 210 bucks or less if you get a deal on cards and ships. Some worlds lists are crazy expensive.

I played against Blair at Fresno, CA regionals and I can confirm he was borrowing a lot of it. Why not? We all have a bunch of ships just sitting around.

6 minutes ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

I played against Blair at Fresno, CA regionals and I can confirm he was borrowing a lot of it. Why not? We all have a bunch of ships just sitting around.

Yup. Mostly because I don’t get out to play nearly enough.

First, I love that this did well.

Second, you do know he could of borrowed some of this? Like, there are people out there with friends that let them use their ships and cards.

And finally, the tracers have another use. They can be used to trigger the harpoon condition.

More power to those that can fly swarms, anything over 4 ships and I may as well give up.

On 2/25/2018 at 3:09 PM, Wookiee_Slayer said:

I am so happy, that swarms got another run for their money!

Personally I love Z-95's and although I wished it had been the Scum version (just for the sake of being Scum) it was pretty exciting to see a 7 ship list. The last true swarms that were flown in the worlds meta, were way back in 2015, and in 2016 their was one list in the top 16 with 4 Syndicate Thugs (but can you really call that a swarm?)

It got me as far as flying my 5 Zeds and Party Bus (which indeed is Scum) again.

Let me know what you think! Do you think Swarms will make a large re-entry in the meta, or have I gone mad?

$192 on e-bay as of right now.