Went 3-1 at a 16 player tournament today and took 3rd. Lost in round 2 because I hadn't figured out how to optimally deploy them on round 0, but I figured it out in rounds 3 and 4. Importantly, rounds 3 and 4 were the first times I think I've ever killed 2 full health ships in 1 round of firing, certainly in 2.0. First I killed Jan and Blount in 1 round, even after he had managed to isolate and kill my Bandit at range 3 on the approach the previous turn. Next game I killed Redline and a TIE bomber on the first exchange and also exposed a Fuel Leak on their other TIE bomber with Concussion missiles, and only lost 1 Z that round (and only 2 total) even though 4 of them ate a trajectory'd proton bomb.

I think this list is way stronger than any 7-ship swarm I've seen or played so far. So the strategy is to use Swarm Tactics so all 6 ships are attacking at I5, which allows you to order your attacks in a way that maximizes the effects of your missiles and lock actions. You shoot with the Clusters and naked Zs first, doing some spread damage hopefully while still being able to concentrate fire. Then you attack with Airen Cracken's concussions, hopefully flipping up some damage cards. Then you use Cracken's ability to pass a lock action to the other Z with Concussions (who has focused) with perfect information of what ship should be attacked next in the case that you already managed to kill 1 ships (which is highly likely).

The barrel roll action on the Zs is a nice option to have now, there were several times during the tournament where a Barrel Roll off of Cracken's attack allowed one of my ships to attack that wouldn't have otherwise been able to, either because it had blocked their ship or been arc-dodged. He's also very unlikely to get attacked first I've noticed so long as you keep him in the back (but not too far back or he won't get to use his ability).

For my opening deployment, I've found that most players will counter deploy the Bandit by placing on the opposite corner and trying to force me to come across the rocks and turn into them, so a 4-ship staggered formation with the 2 concussion missile carriers deploying at a 45 degree angle next to the back 2 Talas and then doing a 3-straight the the 4 offset ships and and 1-bank in with the concussion carriers forms them into a vertical 2-wide column that can then turn in easily and become a 3-wide phalanx.

Airen Cracken — Z-95 Headhunter 36
Swarm Tactics 3
Concussion Missiles 6
Ship Total: 45

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Concussion Missiles 6
Ship Total: 34

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Cluster Missiles 5
Ship Total: 33

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Cluster Missiles 5
Ship Total: 33

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Ship Total: 28

Bandit Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 23
Ship Total: 23

11 hours ago, Tvboy said:

Went 3-1 at a 16 player tournament today and took 3rd. Lost in round 2 because I hadn't figured out how to optimally deploy them on round 0, but I figured it out in rounds 3 and 4. Importantly, rounds 3 and 4 were the first times I think I've ever killed 2 full health ships in 1 round of firing, certainly in 2.0. First I killed Jan and Blount in 1 round, even after he had managed to isolate and kill my Bandit at range 3 on the approach the previous turn. Next game I killed Redline and a TIE bomber on the first exchange and also exposed a Fuel Leak on their other TIE bomber with Concussion missiles, and only lost 1 Z that round (and only 2 total) even though 4 of them ate a trajectory'd proton bomb.

I think this list is way stronger than any 7-ship swarm I've seen or played so far. So the strategy is to use Swarm Tactics so all 6 ships are attacking at I5, which allows you to order your attacks in a way that maximizes the effects of your missiles and lock actions. You shoot with the Clusters and naked Zs first, doing some spread damage hopefully while still being able to concentrate fire. Then you attack with Airen Cracken's concussions, hopefully flipping up some damage cards. Then you use Cracken's ability to pass a lock action to the other Z with Concussions (who has focused) with perfect information of what ship should be attacked next in the case that you already managed to kill 1 ships (which is highly likely).

The barrel roll action on the Zs is a nice option to have now, there were several times during the tournament where a Barrel Roll off of Cracken's attack allowed one of my ships to attack that wouldn't have otherwise been able to, either because it had blocked their ship or been arc-dodged. He's also very unlikely to get attacked first I've noticed so long as you keep him in the back (but not too far back or he won't get to use his ability).

For my opening deployment, I've found that most players will counter deploy the Bandit by placing on the opposite corner and trying to force me to come across the rocks and turn into them, so a 4-ship staggered formation with the 2 concussion missile carriers deploying at a 45 degree angle next to the back 2 Talas and then doing a 3-straight the the 4 offset ships and and 1-bank in with the concussion carriers forms them into a vertical 2-wide column that can then turn in easily and become a 3-wide phalanx.

Airen Cracken — Z-95 Headhunter 36
Swarm Tactics 3
Concussion Missiles 6
Ship Total: 45

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Concussion Missiles 6
Ship Total: 34

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Cluster Missiles 5
Ship Total: 33

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Cluster Missiles 5
Ship Total: 33

Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 25
Swarm Tactics 3
Ship Total: 28

Bandit Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 23
Ship Total: 23

I'm still iffy on how Swarm Tactics applies when chained, Init on the boosting pilot's card or init that the boosting pilot is engaging at but I have a few lists built around the upgrade. My most recent game was last Thurs and I made sure to check if it was okay with my opponent. He is of the opinion that RAW it boosts based on what the pilot engages at and we gave it a go. Serissu, 3 Tanisarri Point Vets and a Cartel Spacer. 1 tractor beam (one of my favorite upgrades in the game now), 3 HLC, and a Jamming Beam on the Spacer. He was running a Boba/Guri (both fat, though Boba didn't have perceptive copilot, it did have seismic which ended up making one end of the table empty for no other return). Through a combination of bad flying, lack of familiarity with how I fly my ships, and really bad dice rolls on his part I was able to corner Guri with Boba outside of effective support range and chip her down finishing her off after a quick chase brought short by a tractor into Serissu's HLC arc. He conceded the match after I tossed Boba face first into a debris cloud causing him to roll for the initial overlap (came up crit) and to roll again when he passed through (came up crit again). Swarm Tactics let me use attacking first that he'd given me due to his higher bid (wanted maneuver info for Guri and Boba) brutally at I5.

It's based on the initiative of the boosting pilot, but they resolve sequentially and you get to determine the order they resolve, so you just resolve the highest initiative pilot's swarm tactics first and then go down the line from there. It's not based on the printed initiative value either, so you use whatever the pilot's modified initiative value is.

Swarm tactics does not interact with abilities like Roark that changes what initiative your pilot engages at without actually changing its initiative value. Pretty much every list that I've tried that is able to Swarm Tactics 4 or more ships up to I6 or I5 has been very strong so far so long as they're mostly rolling 3+ dice, so I'm not surprised you did well with that list, and I like the synergy with tractor and HLC.

20 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

It's based on the initiative of the boosting pilot, but they resolve sequentially and you get to determine the order they resolve, so you just resolve the highest initiative pilot's swarm tactics first and then go down the line from there. It's not based on the printed initiative value either, so you use whatever the pilot's modified initiative value is.

Swarm tactics does not interact with abilities like Roark that changes what initiative your pilot engages at without actually changing its initiative value. Pretty much every list that I've tried that is able to Swarm Tactics 4 or more ships up to I6 or I5 has been very strong so far so long as they're mostly rolling 3+ dice, so I'm not surprised you did well with that list, and I like the synergy with tractor and HLC.

Most of the match I was having to use my primaries instead of the HLCs due to arc but I got allot of chip through, especially after hitting Guri or Boba with the Tractor Beam. Only needs 1 token to reduce their defense. The HLC kill on Guri was just gravy.