Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics

Mauler Mithel

Winged Gundark

Darth Vader with Cluster Missiles

Night Beast

Run Vader with NB and the other three TIEs together. Makes your opponent choose which group to go after, Howlrunner and her goons or Vader. Either set packs a punch. Not completly sold on the Cluster over Concussion missiles, but with the possible 6 damage over 4 I like the odds.

So what do you guys think?

5 ship Empire builds are a risk as the rebels can easily kill 1 or 2 on the first pass, leaving you potentially outnumbered by superior ships.

The key to making this list work is to evade the initial head to head and isolate enemy ships.

You are playing an Imperial list and u wanna win a Falcon instead of the Slave I .. hmmmm?

The list I would suggest to play is ..

Vader - Swamp Tactics
Howlrunner - Swamp Tactics
Obsidian Sq. Pilot
Academy Pilot x3

This list I asked my friend to pilot it in the KR event last weekend and he made into the top 4 in the preliminary rounds.

This is the same list im considering running as well - Im still kinda new to the game but I played it today and have the 3 pilots go up front while I put the other 3 ties behind this may be wrong? I dont know if you usually want deploy everything in a row or not but I managed to take out a Y-wing in one round which was pretty sweet. I like the imperials alot though that speed 5 manuever seems so good!

Only 5 ships, and seperated. Not too strong.

If your opponant focusses on one half of your force, you are going to be seriously outgunned. You will be facing 3 or even 4 X-wings against only 3 or 2 of your ships.

I have run a 5 ship imperial squad very effectively. What I have done is run two tie advances with cluster missiles together, and the other group has howlrunner, night beast and mauler mithel. On occasion I run the two advances on either side of the board and they come in strong at an angle to my opponent. Against the 3 reb build it does very well, your opponent has to focus on the lower costing ties to stand a chance, they have no hope of taking out the advances before they loose their missiles. I am not saying my squads the best, because I myself am still tinkering with it, however, a 5 tie squad can be done. In most cases it actually throws your opponent off, because no one expects or play tests against 5 tie quads.

I see this list as a finesse list. Play defensively until your opponent picks which group to engage then flank with the other. You'll need to try and focus on one ship at a time and be careful about moving plus avoiding collisions.

Some changes I'm thinking about making:

Drop Night Beast for an AP and give Vader Marksmanship. The free focus can be nice but I'm not sure if it'll come into play with the green moves on TIEs.

Move Swarm to Mauler. This would allow Gundark to fire last, hopefully getting a crit against an unshielded ship.

If you run your original list, and I'm playng against you, here's how I play it:

Rebels: focus on Mauler and Howlrunner. Once Vader shoots his missiles, he's not nearly as effective. You'll have to use target lock and either focus or evade to make him effective, and I'll have lots of room to maneuver once mauler and Howlrunner are gone, and a decided points advantage to boot.

Imperials: I use my Academy Pilots to "block" you, then hammer away with my named pilots. Again focusing on Howlrunner and Mauler. Imp games go to time, so you'll have to get some kills with those missiles. And you'll have to really maneuver well to not lose your actions.

Very solid tactical choices. Now what would you do playing with this list? Or do you think it should be scrapped and start over with something new?

I dunno. Let me run some simulations and get back to you. Short answer, play unexpectedly.

Maybe set up as:

Howlrunner and Gundark

Vader

Mauler and NB

TIEs are fast, so usually they want to get right into the fighting. Instead go 2 straight, then maybe next round have vader do a 1 bank one way or the other, depending on what your opponent does. Maybe bank him toward Howlrunner to try and get re-rolls on each of his missiles. try and get some shots in before vader uses his missiles to try and take down a Rebel's shields.

Think outside the box. And have fun!

hothie said:

Just so you know, I do not think howlrunners ability works on secondary weapons… way to think outside the box though.

atmsalad said:

Yep. Howlrunner's card ability does restrict the rerolls to primary weapon attacks only.

Jim

Well it did really good against Wedge, Luke and Dutch last night. I managed to keep the three ties together without a single collision, from them. Vader Barrel Rolled for a kill shot, and put himself smack dab in front of an asteroid screwing his next move though. Even managed to not lose a single ship.

Now I'm wondering if I can find some way to get a second swarm tactics in there to boost the AP. Time to crunch some numbers…

Qapla187 said:

Emrico said:

Fair enough. My mistake. sorry about that.

This is an Imperial list I'm looking to run, maybe.

Mauler

Howlrunner

Backstabber

Tempest Sqd. TIE Adv. w/Cluster Missiles

Academy TIE x2

Named guys make a flanking force well the other group takes in in the teeth. They should hold up for a turn or two, at least long enough to get off the missile attack. One option was maybe dropping Backstabber for a Black Sqd. TIE and then give Howlrunner Swarm Tactics.

BigDogg said:

• Howlrunner + Swarm Tactics
• Mithel + Squad Leader
• 3x Academy Pilot
• Tempest Squadron Pilot + Concussion Missiles

It worked out okay; I won one game, and was savaged by a 4-ship X-wing squad in the other. Squad Leader is in there to ensure that the Tempest Squadron Pilot can fire his missile with Focus, but I've since concluded this isn't the most efficient way to do that. I'd be curious to know how well someone else does with a similar list.

So after some playing around I'm kinda stuck on Vader's upgrade. Marksmanship or Swarm Tactics? With the former I have a better chance at crits and it effects both shots with the Cluster Missile, but does it outweigh the lesser TIE shooting at PS9, before everyone except Vader or Wedge? I'm curious what the group consensus is…

personally, I like marksmanship. Plus, with Darth's ability you can TL and use marksmanship on the same turn without outside help.

BigNateNZ said:

Yes, but Target Lock + Marksmanship for two measley attack dice seems a bit much to me. Of course, if you got him into range 1 I'd be all over that. He could use Marksmanship + Evade when he's at range 2, so it's still a viable upgrade. Honestly, I'm getting bored with Swarm Tactics, so even though Marksmanship has really laughed in my face when I tried to use it in the past, I'm ready to give it another try.

Sorry, forgot to mention 'When you wanna use your cluster missles' (gotta stop posting at 3am)

And I did. Had 2 full wins and a mod loss. Took 2nd overall.

Final list was:

35 Darth Vader, Cluster Missiles, Swarm Tactics

19 Mauler Mithel, Swarm Tactics

18 Howlrunner

15 Winged Gundark

13 Obsidian Squadron Pilot

100

First game was 4 ship rebels. Nothing too exciting.

Second game was more rebels. Last two turns were something else. Mauler at range 1 had 2 hits and two crits. Blew the rebel scum into space dust. Next turn my opponent "took a wrong turn" and his 3 remaining ships flew off the table in what is now known as "The Jared Maneuver". Did a left turn when he meant to do a right. Funny thing was we had just discussed ship orientation and choosing the right turn not 5 minutes prior.

Third game was a Vader Swarm Train. Both Vader's did a lot of circling and giving each other dirty looks, but very little damage to be had. Ended up going to time.

Good fun was had by all, and now it's time to Escape The Death Star!