I'll admit that my test base has been pretty small, but so far we are not seeing any successful lists under 4 ships. What is everyone else experiencing?

So far it seems that expensive ships are way to easy to shoot down and don't get their points back.

I haven't seen a lot of Tie Formations, but I know they will be popular. I'm seeing not so many formations, which Aces can try to dodge the firing arcs. I am seeing people flying smart most of the time.

What are other people seeing? Same effect? More aces? Big ships?

My sample size is pretty small, but I've seen a 2 ship list (Dash and Wedge) do pretty well. Admittedly, no-one's put a full TIE swarm on the table yet, and I haven't put my beloved five Cartel Marauders on the board... This is also based on just over half a dozen games, so it's a long way from being any real indicator! ?

4 minutes ago, Jarval said:

My sample size is pretty small, but I've seen a 2 ship list (Dash and Wedge) do pretty well. Admittedly, no-one's put a full TIE swarm on the table yet, and I haven't put my beloved five Cartel Marauders on the board... This is also based on just over half a dozen games, so it's a long way from being any real indicator! ?

I don't have 5 Kihraxes, but I did go with 3, a Tractor Beam Scyk, and Gand Findsman and I have not lost a game yet. The amount of firepower it can dish out is good. The dials are very nice on those ships. I'm very happy with it.

I don't think 2-3 ship lists can handle that list. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

3 is the minimum for me, but they're very strong...in scum

Scum has Boba and Sabine, which can be exceptionally tanky in the right circumstances while also being fast enough to not stare down an entire swarm at a time

Add in Palob, who is quite durable and makes your entire squad more difficult to kill (by virtue of stealing mods), and Serissu and you've got yourself a party

Sabine (fearless, title, perceptive, tactical scrambler) leading a moldy, Lando Palob and a Swarm ion Seri is just a tank of a list

Otherwise, I've always put at least 4 ships down

4-5 ships seems to be the way to go. We don't have a good way to points fortress or have a ridiculously tanky fully loaded ship (I personally feel that this is a good thing).

That said, seems like some two-ship lists will do well but only if they can handle 4-8 ship lists reasonably well.

4+

But I’m not sure if that’s the meta or that’s what people want to fly because 2.0 lets them get away with it for now.

I don't see how a 2 ship list can work against a decent sized list, but I guess I'll see it at some point.

In my Imperial lists I feel a bit under-gunned if I don't have 4 ships on the table. Even with a Defender, a 3 ship list seems pretty fragile for the Empire and doesn't seem to have a lot of synergistic options unless a Phantom or Lambda is in the list with an expensive crew member.

Most of my Imperial lists are leaning toward the mini-swarm + Ace or 2 Ace + 2 Filler archetype.

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

So far it seems that expensive ships are way to easy to shoot down and don't get their points back.

Welcome to X-Wing Waves 1-3 where people were begging to make Uniques and Upgrades actually worth taking... hehe.

Oh, how we've come full circle in 6 Years

4 Ships seems to be a minimum, with plenty of 5-7 swarms doing well.

What exactly constitutes a swarm? I don't think 3 Kihraxes, a Scyk, and a Findsman constitute one.

I expect 3 ship lists to be the lower end, with most in the range 4-6

Liked 2 ship lists in 1st edition but I built them tanky. Haven't found a way that convinces me in 2nd edition yet

24 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

What exactly constitutes a swarm? I don't think 3 Kihraxes, a Scyk, and a Findsman constitute one.

In the early waves of 1.0, anything with >4 ships was considered a swarm. This was because some mix of four Rebel ships XXXX/YYYY/BBBB was pretty much the norm, with anyone trying to run fewer ships doing something with large ships or aces (e.g. "Heroes of Yavin" was only XXX and it was considered an Aces list). So, if you had more than four ships you had a swarm on your hands, though this was reserved to list with TIEs until the Z-95 came out.

Was BBBBX consdiered a swarm build? Probably, but at that time the meta was already rapidly shifting toward 2-3 ships, thanks to Whisper who soloed Swarms with ease.

2 hours ago, heychadwick said:

I don't have 5 Kihraxes, but I did go with 3, a Tractor Beam Scyk, and Gand Findsman and I have not lost a game yet. The amount of firepower it can dish out is good. The dials are very nice on those ships. I'm very happy with it.

I don't think 2-3 ship lists can handle that list. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

Good to see someone talking about the K Fighter! I ran a similar list last week at FLGS and found it to be very strong. I went with 3 Kihraxz, a tractor Syck and L337 Escape Craft with Tactical Officer for the white Coordinate to boost action efficiency.

4 Cartel Marauders with Cluster Missiles and Contraband Cybernetics is hitting the table this week, and I wouldn't mind trying 5 naked Marauders.

To answer the original question, we've had a robust 2.0 scene at the FLGS since GenCon. Lists with 4+ ships (all factions) are having more success than 2 or 3 ship lists. If you're going to fly with 2 or 3 ships you better be able to withstand the amount of guns that are coming your way.

Kindof sortof off topic bc I haven’t proxied anything/followed things super closely—do we have an idea on points for the Auzitucks yet? I never actually got to fly 4 in 1.0, and I’m really wanting to try it for 2.0 at some point (and I wouldn’t be opposed to being able to include a named Wookiee in there ?)

54 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I don't see how a 2 ship list can work against a decent sized list, but I guess I'll see it at some point.

Double Defenders can lay some serious slaughter down unless the opponent takes some specific precautions - spreading out to cover wide areas - basically playing zone defense to counter the crazy maneuvers the Defenders will pull.

Personally, I have several 4-5 ship lists I want to fly, but a few very fun 3 ship lists. It all depends on my mood at the time. I don''t think the current game limits anyone in any way - you can build a big or small list and still be viable, as long as you built smart and fly smarter.

3 minutes ago, Bad Idea Comics said:

Double Defenders can lay some serious slaughter down unless the opponent takes some specific precautions - spreading out to cover wide areas - basically playing zone defense to counter the crazy maneuvers the Defenders will pull.

Exactly what I was going to say. I played a Ryad/Rexler list and was able to down 4 rebels: Jake, Y-wing Norra, Wedge, HWK (forget the pilot) only losing about 3 shields total. Having that amount of maneuverability, 3 dice attack and defend with a free evade was just more than they could deal with. Pick of the weakest ones first (Jake) and worked my way up. Granted it was only 1 game, but there is no reason to think I couldn't ever do it again.

1 hour ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Welcome to X-Wing Waves 1-3 where people were begging to make Uniques and Upgrades actually worth taking... hehe.

37 minutes ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

In the early waves of 1.0, anything with >4 ships was considered a swarm.

Oh, I was around during those years, but if you didn't take all the same ship I don't recall it being called a swarm.

Actually, I really liked when generics were strong. It was sad for me when they were rendered useless in 1.0.

22 minutes ago, xbeaker said:

Exactly what I was going to say. I played a Ryad/Rexler list and was able to down 4 rebels: Jake, Y-wing Norra, Wedge, HWK (forget the pilot) only losing about 3 shields total. Having that amount of maneuverability, 3 dice attack and defend with a free evade was just more than they could deal with. Pick of the weakest ones first (Jake) and worked my way up. Granted it was only 1 game, but there is no reason to think I couldn't ever do it again.

It's one very specific case where the points really are worth it. You can still get shot to pieces if you fly poorly - a Jonus barrage bomber list should scare the pants off any list for sheer efficiency, but Double D's will outfly them if allowed to get even remotely close. Again, those bombers flown with precautious precision will be a nightmare for the Defenders - run a staggered formation and be ready to K-turn to get back on target and Defenders have fewer maneuver options.

The cagier you are, the more you can squeeze out of lists with fewer ships that are nonetheless powerful. Vader + Super Defender is awesome, but my main list involves Soontir, Rexler, and Whisper (I've seen a version where Soontir is swapped out for Redline to trade some closing ability for some early game heavylifting).

If this is the case will a cheap Sol be handy in a list to counter formation swarms?

1 hour ago, Dengars Toilet Paper said:

If this is the case will a cheap Sol be handy in a list to counter formation swarms?

Possibly. I've been seeing some players looking at trajectory simulator as a possible counter tech to swarms.

Three is the smallest I've run. Soontir, Rexlar and Lt. Sai in a super-Lambda.

Rexlar is a monster.

I've run RAC Vader. That was one of my favorite archetypes in 1.0

RAC is a tank.... different to 1.0, but his weakness is way less prevalent, and his dice mod isn't range restricted anymore