[Hyperspace/FO] 5sf Passive Sensors + Missiles 200pts

Zeta Squadron Survivor [TIE/sf Fighter](32)+Concussion Missiles (6)+Passive Sensors (2) =40×5

Well, this is a list I met threatened me most in October store event in Shanghai - fortunately, the player failed to catch the point of the list and therefore let me steal a victory.

However, once another veteran player used this, I was hurt.

Ships upgraded with ballistic weapons (torpedo/missile) and Passive Sensors are always friendly to the players and are easy to use, especially these TIE/sf - the player may let them use the Passive Sensors to perform a Lock action while engage, and may trigger to perform a linked white rotate action or not afterwards, just depending on the target's position.

That is ... emm

I really hope FFG may change the effect of the Passive Senosrs, limits the choice of action to Lock and Calculate while the Charge of the Passive Sensors is inactive.

The list is called "Passive Aggressive" for a reason...

It's a really, really good list; TIE/sf are nice and beefy and massed concussion missiles delivers a heck of a punch at long range - firstly denying the range defence bonus and then delivering successive 'concussion hammer' effects to a damaged target with subsequent missiles. Plus, as you say, it's simple to fly and effective as long as the ammunition holds out.

It's beatable - the main weaknesses of the list are:

• Passive Sensors leaves you with no tokens prior to your activation - and lock-dependent weapons leave you with no defensive tokens at all. A TIE/sf is tough but 6 hits and 2 agility isn't that tough - getting at least one initiative kill isn't too hard.
• Whilst it's hard to stop them getting a lock, it is still possible - any ship which is jammed is going to drop from a 3-dice locked attack to a 2-dice unmodified one.
• The squad spends some 40 points on long-ranged firepower; faced with a threat up close and personal - say, fearless protectorates - it's going to struggle.

2 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Passive Sensors leaves you with no tokens prior to your activation - and lock-dependent weapons leave you with no defensive tokens at all. A TIE/sf is tough but 6 hits and 2 agility isn't that tough - getting at least one initiative kill isn't too hard.

That needs fire power. If you want to shot 1 TIE/sf down in the first contact, most likely you need 3 ships in range - if any parts of these are in range 2, that means the TIE/sfs survived may launch missiles to attack back.

Sacrifies one to shot down half or more a squad is a worth deal as I calculated.

6 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Whilst it's hard to stop them getting a lock, it is still possible - any ship which is jammed is going to drop from a 3-dice locked attack to a 2-dice unmodified one.

It's possible but not actually works in a tournament, because we will not have that many ships capable to jam in our tournament lists.

8 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The squad spends some 40 points on long-ranged firepower; faced with a threat up close and personal - say, fearless protectorates - it's going to struggle.

These TIE/sf have no needs to fight against you at the close range. They may just fly a white straight 5 to move through your formation, and activate their Passive Sensors. While they engage, they may perform a white Lock action followed by a white Rotate action to use its Heavy Weapon Turret to launch missiles - and that's the point I hate most and hope FFG to fix.

Bait them and attack their flanks. A lot of ships can mitigate one single missile shot. Use cover (clouds better) and hope your opponent waste munitions. Have always an escape route. Be patient. Don't worry if you spread some damage. You need to survive to the first engagement and start to remove ships later.

They want to fly in formation to focus fire. I'm against close range unless you can do a lot of damage or you are flanking.

The board edges are your friends, wait (and don't chase them) until they must turn and expose their flanks.

But if you don't have mobile ships and you are playing jousters, forget all what I said (except the board edges advantage). Look for a favourable first engagement and destroy things quickly.

I think overall the problem isn't just with the Tie sf, swarms are very strong in general at the moment. Expensive ace ships struggle to survive no matter how good at out manoeuvring they are as there are too many arcs on the board and large low agility ships just get melted, not to say swarms are broken, I think aces and low agility ships need a little more love and specific upgrades to help them.