XW 2.0 list-building & beginner tips: TIE Swarm & Dash-Kyle

By nightskyy, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Posted at
  • Howlrunner
    • Elusive
  • Iden Versio
    • Trick Shot
  • Academy Pilot x 5

Thoughts:

  • Well, it's a 7-ship TIE swarm. Which is always a good thing. And with Iden Versio guest starring as 1.0-Draw-Their-Fire-Black-On-Steroids, she's the ideal wingman for Howlrunner - and for a low initiative swarm in general.
  • With Reinforce hoofed in the pods, and harpoons no longer a thing, in theory the swarm should be back, big time.
  • You'll need to be very careful of Punishers or Scurrgs, because Trajector Simulator is still a thing.
  • The main trick problem with it will be manoeuvring the swarm (as you correctly identify); you desperately need to keep formation to benefit from Iden and Howlrunner, so moving round the obstacles is the big challenge.
  • You do lose out to higher initiative swarms; with Iden, you shouldn't be losing many fighters before you can shoot but you will have to soak the fire of any non-initiative 1 enemies.
    • Fortunately, there aren't too many of them out there; X-wings are now 4-to-a-squad, for example, so are unlikely to get a kill. Black Scouts and especially Sabers present a 5-ship threat with 3 dice and the manoeuvrability to flank your swarm, though.
    • Missile-heavy forces are a possible threat. Jonus & Cluster Missile Scimitars are the one force I wouldn't want to consider trading red dice with; ten rerolled 3-dice attacks walking back and forth through the swarm can leave a lot of damage to deal with, and with multiple 3 dice attacks rather than fewer 'heavy hits', Iden is much less likely to be a game-changing ability.

  • Dash Rendar
    • Kanan Jarrus
    • Bistan
    • Lone Wolf
    • Stealth Device
  • Kyle Katarn
    • Moldy Crow
    • Elusive
    • Jyn Erso
    • Stealth Device

  • I'm very hesitant about using Kyle as a focus buddy for Dash.
    • Not because Moldy Crow and Dash's ability isn't awesome, and not because the idea of Focus/Evade (or Rotate/Force/Evade as needed) isn't going to make Dash a bugger to hurt - especially with stealth device.
    • Because Kyle's ability now requires him to keep Dash in his arc. Now fortunately this means primary or turret, but still, it means leashing Dash "I'm going this way now" Rendar to the much-improved-but-lets-be-honest-here-still-about-as-manouvrable-as-an-arthritic-yak HWK.
    • This goes double because whilst Lone Wolf has always been a great pick in Dash-and-Ace, I'm not so convinced it works as well with Dash-and-support ship.
  • Now If you can keep Dash in Kyle's arc, and you can keep the two of them at range 3 of each other with the enemy between them, you've got a winning combination. The question is what proportion of the game can you manage that.
  • Bistan will provide insane firepower; double-tapping Dash's turret is huge, especially against swarms that can realistically be one-hit-killed by a 4-dice attack. With Force + Lone Wolf, you should have enough mods on that attack to provide a credible kill-shot against (say) a TIE fighter.
Edited by Magnus Grendel