Is there a use for them? Everyone brings Howlrunner. But what about her friends Backstabber, Mauler Mithel, Nightbeast, Winged Gundark and Dark Curse? Is there still room for them in builds? If so how come they aren't in more builds?

Backstabber and mauler are great for increased damage, especially if you get expose on them. Dark curse plus stealth device is insane. The rest I'm not in love with but those three at least are good.

Winged Gundark is the only one I almost never use. All the others have found places in various squads.

Agreed on Curse with Stealth….nasty!

Gundark and Night Beast are the two that I don't use.

Mauler and Backstabber are great damage dealers.

Dark Curse with Stealth is very tasty, I discovered that one thankfully.

When Wave 3 hits, there will be a crazy amount of ships that will be attacking with both Target Lock and Focus. Dark Curse is a natural defense against them, so I expect to see him flying in nearly every Imperial squad with Wave 3. And yes, when you add Stealth Device to him it makes him almost impossible to hit, much less kill. Backstabber is good if you can use him well. Mauler is more of a suicide pilot, so you hope to take out at least 17 points with him before he dies, or to do at least 4 hits with him. (As a rule of thumb, I use a shield upgrade costing 4 points to equate to 1 hit.)

Night Beast has his places, and he's tough to kill when he can hide behind his tokens, but him not being able to take his free action while stressed really put a damper on running him in squads. There was a long discussion about this in the rules forums, and James ruled he cannot gain his focus after executing a green maneuver after being stressed beause the free action happens before removing the stress token.

Winged Gundark is nice against Falcons, but he's not anything to build around.

Mu0n said:

Agreed, Gundark is really the only one i don't see in a lot in squadrons. The reason might be that if already you get to range one, you really want Mithel for one more attack… If his capacity was not range 1 only the story would perhaps be different.

Howl and Mithel are still the stars of a 7 ship swarm.

Backstabber is the cheapest ship with 3 attacks if used properly, and is possibly the most used filler if you have the points and don't know what to take else.

Night beast basically is the cheapest 2-action ship you get and therefore a vey good choice. I have seen him in a lot of lists that emphasize on actions, for example with Vader, Fel, Phennir and the like…

Dark Curse is really nasty if you stay disciplined and focus defensively or evade. He counters everything but Gunners, and people are still arguing if you can fire missiles at him at all. Fit in a stealth device and you have a very cheap ship nobody really wants to shoot at since chances to hurt him are really minimal. On an average 2 hits against you, if you evade you need to roll one more on 4 dice, which is not that hard…

Night Beast and Winged Gundark are both PS 5, pretty cheap, and have useful but not powerful abilities. They are worth the points (mostly because of PS), but will never have a squad built around them or be a superstar so most people don't really even think about them. If you have a few extra points they are worth it, but don't overthink it. The best thing about their abilities is that you don't need to build a squad around them to use them, just stick them in the lineup and don't forget to use their abilities when the opportunity arises.

Backstabber and Mauler are both pretty good, but I prefer Backstabber. As someone else pointed out Mauler's need to close to point blank makes him a suicide jockey, plus his ability only comes into play once you are at range 1. Backstabber is best flanking (obviously), and the fact that he can get his extra die from any range lets you use him much more often and at less risk than Mauler. Even at range 1 both Mauler and Backstabber will be trying to get out of firing arcs so they don't get splatted, and if they do Backstabber is throwing as many dice as Mauler would have, but he also got those extra dice on the run up.

Dark Curse is excellent defensively, which lets you move him into range 1 without too much worry about him getting splatted. At that range he is throwing 3 dice too, so if you are aggressive with him (which his ability lets you do) he can have nearly the offensive punch of Mauler or Backstabber. Curse is actually my favorite TIE. He isn't the most powerful, but he is defnitely my favorite. With a Stealth Device and just a bit of luck he can single handedly frustrate and even destroy Han, which is a sight to see when it happens. No rerolls and no focus makes him a real chore to take down.

ForceM said:

You can fire missiles at dark Curse, as long as you are spending a target lock. If you're using Deadeye, no. Dark Curse prevents you from spending focus tokens or rerolling, but you can still spend target locks against him, especially for missiles.

hothie said:

spending a target lock allows you to re-roll any dice you choose.. so you can still spend it yes.. but you can't re-roll the dice anyways.. so why bother spending the target lock?

For using missiles, as was the question, at least as far as I understood it from ForceM. Alternately with Dutch's ability, but that would have to be highly situational.

Gundark and Night Beast are my least used named TIE pilots. But I still use them if points allow, any special talent above standard pilots is a bonus and can be used. Dark Curse is my favorite amongst the lesse named pilots.

Use Mauler Mithel with the Expose upgrade card, and try to put in range 1, you will use 5 dice to attack, do it and tell us the results, greettings.