I've got a tournament tomorrow and have zero practice. While I can rely on one of my other, truer lists... I had the notion of trying to fly a crazy gonzo list of maximum TIE Fighters to see if they're okay again.

400 pts.

Most Wanted - Fighter Ambush - Superior Positions

ISD-II // Avenger / Pryce / Reinforced Blast Doors / Leading Shots / Expanded Hangar Deck

Quasar Fire I // Sloane / Squall / Taskmaster Grint / Boosted Comms / Expanded Hangar Bay

Gozanti Class Cruiser // Comms Net

Gozanti Class Cruiser // Comms net

Howlrunner

Mauler Mithel

Valen Rudor

7x TIE Fighters

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Ideally I'd slam into their battle line with fighters and capital ships simultaneously, so my fighters can live while my opponents have to choose between clearing the field or shooting at my capital ships.

This is posted less than 24 hours before the tournament, I'm curious what holes and strategies people have for this list. I'll probably have to do a lot of obstacle hiding to keep the TIEs alive from incidental fire.. but I think I have carrier capacity for all of my TIEs. Ultimately I may not take it but I'll throw it out there.

4 TIE Bombers (who don't benefit from Sloane) cost the same as Howl and Dengar, which allows you to drop both Expanded Hangar Bays, RBD and BCC for ECM, Leading Shots, one of the 3 amazing Quasar titles and a bid. Heck, you could upgrade the ISD1 to a 2. I love running this kind of thing, good luck at the tourney and let us know how it goes!

I was looking over Packerman's list (and your feedback there Jabba) and thinking it was a good idea. But I kind of want to try putting my own spin on it. I'm still open to tweaking this right before the tournament...

Ultimately flying all these TIEs sounds fun, I just don't want to be in a situation where some unforseen flaw means I'm losing every game because I didn't see it early.

Ok, did a few tweaks to this list using some pointers from Packerman. Made some aces, uprated the I to a II for more firepower and took on Pryce.

My concerns at this point are;

1. No Intel... here's hoping I can send lone TIEs to lock the enemy down or just annihilate anyone trying to catch my fighters out of position.

2. Sloane is on the QF to try drawing the enemy in for a quick kill, ignoring the ISD. Otherwise on the ISD she's a pretty big target and will get focus-fired quickly.

I confess a large part of why I want this list to work is because I want to champion the lowest common denominator. TIEs get a pretty bad rap because of how crappy they are on the outside- I want to try a strategy where they actually work well. So, let's do it! If this hits the table tomorrow I'll try to get some play by play notes... I'm the TO, so my attention's going to be divided.

2 hours ago, Norsehound said:

Ok, did a few tweaks to this list using some pointers from Packerman. Made some aces, uprated the I to a II for more firepower and took on Pryce.

My concerns at this point are;

1. No Intel... here's hoping I can send lone TIEs to lock the enemy down or just annihilate anyone trying to catch my fighters out of position.

2. Sloane is on the QF to try drawing the enemy in for a quick kill, ignoring the ISD. Otherwise on the ISD she's a pretty big target and will get focus-fired quickly.

I confess a large part of why I want this list to work is because I want to champion the lowest common denominator. TIEs get a pretty bad rap because of how crappy they are on the outside- I want to try a strategy where they actually work well. So, let's do it! If this hits the table tomorrow I'll try to get some play by play notes... I'm the TO, so my attention's going to be divided.

I ran my list against an ace heavy empire list. If you get your fighters in there at the correct activation sequence they will cause some major damage. Ties throwing 5 dice and using accuracies to flip and lock down (if you get two of them) tokens is disheartening for your opponent. I would drop the Gozanti and add more ties. Dengar and some sort of escort to protect Dengar and howl runner for 1 turn. Black squad is a cheap throw in.

Welp.

First round was a bye on account that I'm the TO. First opponent of the day was a Raddus bomb in the second round, my ISD was toast in one activation. The list was designed to kill two-ship meta-strong lists, so after round 2 I was left with one quasar, two Gozantis, and my TIEs against his entire list. I killed nothing and got tabled because my best ship was devoured. Part of the problem was setting Pryce to turn 2, and I have zero experience with Pryce.

Next game was a lot better, facing an MC80/Yavaris/2x GR-75 list with assorted fighters as first player in Fighter Ambush. I was able to out-deploy him and get my QF/ISD on the outer edge of the MC80, trapping the Yavaris inward, and with his fighters seperate from Yavaris I pounced and annhilated them (Ten Numb, Keyan Farlander, and Jan Ors were all that was left by the time Yavaris entered range). Thing is, I didn't pass a speed token to the QF in time for it to slow down and it ended up in front of the MC80... dying and depriving me of sloane to use with the rest of my fighters.

I'm kind of thinking I don't need the Quasar, at least not without practicing with Squall to use it well. It felt like the TIEs did exactly what they were supposed to but the rest of the list fell apart. I needed a better answer to Raddus drops.

My own take on the TIE fighter apocalypse

Sloanes carriers of Death
Author: Alpharius

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54 points)
- Squall ( 3 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 67 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Darth Vader ( 3 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 163 total ship cost

Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
- Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 72 total ship cost

12 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 96 points)
= 96 total squadron cost