I want to run First Order. How common is an Upsilon supported by Tie Fighters? In such a list, what would be a good number of TFs?

33 minutes ago, Nohwear said:

I want to run First Order. How common is an Upsilon supported by Tie Fighters? In such a list, what would be a good number of TFs?

It's not a bad list at all.

The First Order has far fewer platforms than other factions, but as an upshot has much more flexibility on those platforms - the upsilon can be a command ship, a 'big gun' battleship, a stress/ion control platform, or a combination of several of these. Equally, the TIE/sf can do a decent impression of either an X-wing or a TIE bomber, depending on how you equip it., and has a few tricks unique to it.

A 'good number of TIE fighters' is hard to measure, because it depends very much on who the TIE fighters are and who the shuttle pilot is.

I would be leery of having less than three - upsilons are great but you need enough firepower to shoot something persistent off your backside if it gets behind you, and that's enough for three named pilots, including a heavier special forces TIE as one of them.

Suggestions:

• Uber-Elite
  • Lieutenant Tavson
    • Perceptive Copilot
    • Advanced Optics
    • Hyperspace Tracking Data
    • Electronic Baffle
  • "Quickdraw"
    • Fanatical
    • Fire Control System
    • Special Forces Gunner
    • Shield Upgrade
  • "Midnight"
    • Fanatical
    • Pattern Analyser
  • Only 3 ships, but all deploy at initiative 6 and two activate and engage at initiative 6 to boot. Quickdraw and Midnight are both brutal in a fight - despite flying 'just a TIE fighter', Midnight is one of the best one-on-one duellists going - and whilst Tavson may have trouble lining up that frontal big gun, anyone caught by it is going to know they've been shoved, with a 3/4 chance of 4 hits off the primary weapon.
• Maximum Swarmyness
  • Starkiller Base Pilot
    • Tractor Beam
  • Epsilon Squadron Pilot x 5
  • Using the 60-point, primary-4 ship for a tractor beam seems unintuitive but linked battery makes the tractor beam 4 dice too, meaning you can reliably tractor agility 3 targets and/or realistically reposition rather than just tractor medium-base targets (especially since - aggressor aside - they tend to be lower agility). Dropping a target's agility by 1 and potentially dragging it into (or out of) range 1 of 5 TIE fighters can be extremely painful, and unlike, say, "Howlrunner", it's not like your support ship is going to be easily assassinated, being a 12-hit-point battleship....

Or anywhere between the two, really. Captain Cardinal works okay instead of the starkiller base pilot - you'll lose at least one TIE/fo but gain focus rerolls on both attack and defence, and can drop in some cheaper named TIE/fo pilots (lieutenant rivas is awesome with ion or tractor cannons in play). Equally, Quickdraw and Midnight could be replaced with 3 or so of the '2nd tier' TIE/fo pilots, like "Scorch", "Longshot" and "Null". Don't underestimate these little ships, especially with support from a command ship - you might want to look at Hux as an option for this reason.

After thinking it over, I have decided to try the Uber-Elite list mentioned above. I will likely change things a bit as I gain experience and get my own ideas.

I have been toying around with the squad below. It's been pretty successful, especially since I have 2 coordinating ships, and the shuttle is a concern for aces, since it feeds off small base ships that get stressed.

Squad - 197 Points

Qd with targeting syncronizer and other sfs with rockets is interesting.

I've also run 6 epsilon cadets with muse it was ok.

i recently played this list in Hyperspace Format against Rey/Poe , Rey/Zari Bangel/Red squadron expert and Quickdraw/Muse/Longshot/Scorch/Null and its 3:0 so far.

Lieutenant Tavson 62

-Captain Phasma 5

-Petty Officer Thanisson 4

Quickdraw 45

-Fanatical 2

-First Order Gunner 10

-Fire Control System 3

Longshot 33

-Fanatical 2

Omega Squadron Ace 31

-Fanatical 2

List Total 199

Sounds like you did well.

I'm not too familiar with the Upsillon or is crew. How did you use them?