This is a bit off the wall, but has potential to wreak havoc on the enemy large ships. Vader fires his missiles first, then uses swarm tactics to allow the Storm Squad pilot to shoot. That should strip shields, then Maarek fires and we hope for a crit, (not an unlikely event) in the following rounds we can easily hold to range 1 and out of fire arcs of most ships, probably by breaking formation and presenting no real easy options for shots.

The alternate is to use Assault Missiles for the splash damage, though hits may drop due to lack of target lock re-roll. However, against a large ship, their is a good chance 1 hit from each will go through. If it's all small ships, I'd fire against three separate targets that are in range 1 of each other, so each takes missile damage and splash damage, plus a few other ships may get 1 or 2 splash damage as well.

Total Squad Points: 99

Pilot: Darth Vader
Tie Advanced x1 (29)
Upgrades:

• Swarm Tactics (2)
• Homing Missles (5)

Pilot: Maarek Stele
Tie Advanced (27)
Upgrades:

• Push The limit (3)
• Homing Missles (5)

Pilot: Storm Squadron Pilot 1
Tie Advanced (23)
Upgrades:

• Homing Missles (5)

Very interesting. The obvious problem is if you get some bad rolls on your missiles and don't manage to take out or severely damage at least one or two ships you may be in trouble without a lot of firepower. Of course the target lock reroll helps with that. Its a bit of a gamble but certainly worth a go. It would be nice to see a list like this have some success and maybe give us more reason to buy more than 1 or 2 Advanced

I like the concept. You might consider dropping maarek's missile for marksmanship. He won't have the same round one punch but he'll be able to use his pilot power more consistantly. It would also clear up two points to use on something like squad leader or elusivness or give both of the missile boats deadeye. I don't think the lack of firepower will be that bad since Advances have the best agility to hit point ratio in the game so you should be able to hold your own even if you aren't destroying the enemy at a rapid pace.

I could drop PtL on Mareek, keep his missile and give him Marksmanship. That would make for an interesting set up.

I'm going to try both missile types and see what I like most.

Good suggestions though.

If you are trying to choose, 3 Homing Missiles is hands down the winner (assuming you are building vs. all comers). Most Swarm builds are using Agl 3 ships with Focus and/or Evade, you will be lucky to hit with more than 1 assault missile. Even if you do, 1 point against everybody is less useful than killing 2 or 3 ships outright.

Homing Missiles will be much more effective against the Soontir Fel and Millenium Falcon builds as well. Fel with PTL and Stealth hates, hates, hates to get hit by a Homing Missile at range 3. He is too far out to Barrel Roll/boost out of your arc, and denying him both his bonus Agl for range and the evade he grabbed with PTL makes him much, much more killable. You will almost certainly hit him, and if one of the first two shots hits that third shot against a focusless, stealthless, damaged Soontir Fel is generally fatal. Against a true swarm, 3 shots with Focused Homing Missiles also has a very good chance of killing 2 TIEs on that first pass, which will dramatically reduce the damage you take that first turn where the swarm is still in formation. Even if an assault missile splashes 6 ships if none of them die you will take a ton of return fire.

I think it is Homing for the win, I was curious about Assault, so I'll play test both.

Apart from hitpoints and missiles, what does that build have over the following list?

Darth Vader (Swarm Tactics, Homing Missiles)

Soontir Fel (Push the Limit, Stealth Device)

Turr Phennir (Veteran Instincts, Stealth Device)

Nothing, played many variations of the list you show. It's highly effective. I was looking for something different and not often seen.

Fair enough. I like the idea of throwing down 3 TIE/Ad though, especially when TIE/Ins are scarce!

KineticOperator said:

Just playing devil's advocate, even if you don't kill more than one tie with the assault missiles it will make mop up much easier should you weather the initial volly. Personally I'd proably tend toward the kills too but there is something to be said for creating a lot of "wounded gazzeles", especially since the advance uses two reds and will probably need more turns to take out a fresh tie than an X-wing would.

If I play my normal lunch game tomorrow, I will give them a try.

Von's point was my thinking behind Assault Missiles. If it's all small ships, fire at 3 seperate ships all within range 1. If you get only 1 damage on each, you still get 3 splash and that is several kills and maims.

As I said, I'll test both and report back

Sure, let us know how they work. In my experience, you will be lucky to get even one hit on a single TIE with Assault Missiles. I play a 3 TIE/Ad squad pretty regularly, and have tried both missiles. At this point I prefer this for a 3 TIE/Ad squad:

Darth Vader (Squad Leader, Engine Upgrade)

Marek Stele (Cluster Missiles, Push the Limit, Engine Upgrade)

Storm Squadron (Engine Upgrade)

They are interceptors with less firepower and more durability. I haven't missed the firepower as much as I expected, between the multiple actions and the Engine Upgrade they are good at maneuvering for range 1 shots with no return fire. Like interceptors, they suffer vs. large ships which is why I have Cluster Missiles instead of Concussion. The squadron in this exact configuration is 3-0 so far, but I think that is largely because nobody really has any experience against it. Having said that, if I want to run an Imperial Missile list I use this:

Darth Vader (Homing Missiles, Squad Leader, Engine Upgrade)

Tempest Squadron (Homing Missiles, Engine Upgrade)

Tempest Squadron (Homing Missiles, Engine Upgrade)

Squad Leader is crtical in this so that your TIE/Ad can all have Focus/Target Lock when they fire. I generally use SL to get the shots off from the Tempests first, since Vader can TL/Focus whenever he wants. SL is also critical because the PS for Tempests suck and it gives them a chance to Barrel Roll/Boost at PS 9 if needed. This list is much less robust, if your missiles miss you are sunk.

Again, let us know how it works for you. I am the only person I have seen use 3 TIE/Ad so far, it would be nice to hear how it works for someone else.

Englishpete said:

pretty cool build. i was thinking along the same sort of lines by pairing vader and maarek. heres my build:

Total Squad Points: 100

Pilot: Darth Vader(29)
Upgrades:

• Determination (1)
• Assault Missiles (5)
• Engine Upgrade (4)

Pilot: Maarek Stele (27)
Upgrades:

• Push The limit (3)
• Homing Missles (5)

Pilot: Turr Phennir (25)
Upgrades:

• Veteren Instincts (1)

I think PTL in Maarek could be realy good as he gets to use focus whan he fires his missile. Vader with Boost is crazy good. Turr adds firepower and gets to fire when vader does as welll I did consider marksmanship on Maarek but i think the extra action from PTL will give hom more options to barrel roll and focus fire or combine focus fire with target lock at times to maximise the hurt and abuse his crit giving ability. Im going to test this build out this weekend. will let u know how it goes.

This is a great discussion guys, I'm going to fly the list as is and change missile types first, then mess with the pilot set up if that fails. I have high hopes for this though.

It's a bit novel, but it will be unexpected.

I tried the initial list…they were destroyed. Switched swarm for squad leader…little better…marek had marksmanship…never got a chance to use it…although everyone did manage to get their missiles off the second game…first game was miserable. And I was going against Horton w/ION and Torps, Tycho w/PTL and Concussion, and Wedge w/droid of some kind…..took wedge out round two…just never had the opportunity to get a TL and Marksmanship with Marek (that could have made the difference).

~Ron

It's going to take some learning that's for sure :-)