Wow... my post is at the top of this page from November of last year... that was a massive wall of text lol

Why does it see very coincedental that the necromancer has a skull in power armor for a forum image?

Let's do something with this: Converting the topic to Countering TIE swarms in the wave 4 meta

With wave 4, swarms actually see a decrease in power, as the new Phantom tends to put a damper on their ability to get damage through, and the Z-95 makes an excellent 17-point PS2 with assault missiles available for the rebels. That, with an increased focus on stress tokens and critical hits, makes the TIE fighter potentially far weaker than before. In fact, I almost want to say, rather than what can counter a TIE swarm in wave 4, what changes would you make to your TIE swarm to make it viable in wave 4?

One major item has been missed: PILOT SKILL. If you know you are going up against a Swarm, you know that most of their ships will probably by have low piloting skill, most likely 1.

The thing to remember about piloting skill is better is better, it doesn't matter how much better. Wedge's pilot skill of 9 beats a academy pilot but so does a red squadron pilot's 4. If you know you are going to be fighting a swarm pick mid-range pilot skill ships. You will save a bunch of points and still get all the advantages better pilot skill. If you don't know for sure that you are facing a TIE swarm (with lots of academy pilots) but you think it might be a good chance of facing a swarm, use a range of pilot skills.

It's also worth noting that while (for example) howl runner may have a higher PS than, say, a PS 2 x-wing, he isn't going to take advantage of it in the movement phase. He is going to move to stay in formation with the rest of the swarm. And though he will shoot first, he wont do enough damage to kill anything. So really, in a swarm situation the effective PS of everyone in the swarm tends to average out to that of the lowest PS of the swarm. Any movement decisions have to be made at the point the first ship moves (at least until they break up the swarm). Skills like Squad Leader changing things up a bit in the shooting phase, of course.

I was reading about the commentary on the new Empire models, and saw a couple of builds that incorporate one of the new ships and a "mini-swarm" of Ties, forcing the opponent to decide what to focus on.

Too lazy to read this whole thread at this point but

Blount-Assault Missile, Shield Upgrade

Cracken-Assault missile, Hull Upgrade

3 Bandits-Assault Missile

5 Assault Missiles + Blount to strip Howl's stealth and deal guarantee'd splash damage, and Cracken can boost up a Bandit by giving them a focus to use with their misssile

it probably would suffer against everything else though

I hav ehigh hopes for the E-wing as a counter due to it's high attack and it's ability to maneuver even better then an A-Wing, trying PTL, R7-T1, Outmaneuver. I'm currently running it with an A-Wing and a Y-wing, but I want to try replacing the Y-Wing wiht a B-Wing - or, when it comes out, the K-Wing. I REALLY like hte E-Wing, and I want to make it work. Any thoughts?

Any thoughts?

Just one - notice the date of the OP and that of the post before yours.

dont bother trying to build a counter to the tie swarm in competitive play. They are not played enough to bother. Just have some idea of what tactics you should use with your list should you run into one.

dont bother trying to build a counter to the tie swarm in competitive play. They are not played enough to bother. Just have some idea of what tactics you should use with your list should you run into one.

When did I mention competitive play? I explicitly stated it's what my only other player here uses.

dont bother trying to build a counter to the tie swarm in competitive play. They are not played enough to bother. Just have some idea of what tactics you should use with your list should you run into one.

When did I mention competitive play? I explicitly stated it's what my only other player here uses.

And exactly where did you explicitly state "blah blah blah"? I don't see it in this thread.