In honor of the new pilots coming out soon, I thought I'd try some Interceptor Swarms, and was wondering what y'all thought would work out well

*Edit*
I am assuming 100 point fleets.

You mean in a 100pt game?

In a 100pt game, 5x Alpha Squadron Interceptors = 90pts.

Anything that uses chain swarm tactics to have them all shoot first!

Anything that uses chain swarm tactics to have them all shoot first!

Carnor Jax could fly with 4 Alpha Squaddies and afford a single Swarm Tactic.

You could alternatively afford 2x Sabers + Swarm alongside 3x Alphas.

I love Turr, so my List (in a 100pt game) will probably be more like:

1. Turr + Stealth Device and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Or

2. Turr + Veteran Instinct + Targeting Computer and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Or

3. Turr + DareDevil and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Edit: I haven't tried them yet though (didn't have enough Interceptors on hand), will probably try build #3 on Sunday

I love Turr, so my List (in a 100pt game) will probably be more like:

1. Turr + Stealth Device and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Or

2. Turr + Veteran Instinct + Targeting Computer and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Or

3. Turr + DareDevil and 4 Alphas (total of 100 points)

Edit: I haven't tried them yet though (didn't have enough Interceptors on hand), will probably try build #3 on Sunday

Why not Turr + PTL? That way you can boost AND barrel roll after attacking

(Alternatively, one of the two alongside an Evade action, if you somehow can't get out of firing arcs with the combo)

The reason? I don't have PTL yet , I'm eagerly waiting for the Imperial Aces pack.

The reason? I don't have PTL yet , I'm eagerly waiting for the Imperial Aces pack.

I'm also assuming you don't currently own 5 interceptors, lol

lol, Yea, I'm working on that, I purchased 3, need 2 more.

edit: My Interceptor numbers will shoot up when the new expansion comes out, I have pre-ordered 3 copies.

edit 2: I plan to be able to field 2 flights of Royal guards and 2 flights of 181st (points willing of course)

I'm currently torn.

5x Alpha Squadrons + Targeting Computers (20 points each)

3x Alpha Squadrons, Saber Squadron Pilot + Squad Leader, Lieutenant Lorrir (18, 23, and 23 respectively)

3x Alpha Squadrons, 2x Saber Squadron Pilot + Swarm Tactics (18, 23 respectively)

There are also several "4x Alpha Squadron + 28 point Named Interceptor" that tantalize me as well.

ya i was going to say turr + ptl + 4 alphas, and after aces, you could do VI + targeting comp on turr instead, giving you tl over focus as an option for his regular pre shot action if oyu KNOW ur going to dance out of everyhting. But turr does get more and more tricky to use properly with more ships on the table (as opposed to say 3 with him and fel and vader). So maybe one of the new gusy with 4 alphas. Would prob lean towards carnor jax ( whichever is the 8 skill guy). Unfortunately you cant put ptl on that and i dont think the targeting computer would be super usefl, could maybe play one avenger for rookies etc.

the 3 builds you listed a couple posts up , i liek the second best but would prob do a royal guard interceptor with VI over the squad leader saber.

squad leader makes no sense for interceptors, I don't see that an interceptor will not use his action for himself (you need every action you have)

Ptl is by far the biggest push for interceptors; as far as 5 int lists go, I like the 2 sabre + swarm + 3 alpha one, PS4 is the way to go nowadays.

I fly 5 alphas, where 3 have stealth device. I go slow at the beginning to stay away as long as possible, the ones with stealth in the front, using evade tokens like crazy. Then, when fight is at R2 I jump forward and do close fight and try to stay close every turn to have as many 4 dice attacks as possible, rolling and boosting to be out of arc or in the way for action denial.

Works ok so far :-)

This meets the criteria you asked only if you really squint your eyes:

Cowall+ PTL + stealth

Saber + PTL + stealth

Kir+ stealth

Backstabber

Not an all interceptor list and only 4 ships but I'll probably fly it before many of the 5 ship all interceptor squads.

This meets the criteria you asked only if you really squint your eyes:

Cowall+ PTL + stealth

Saber + PTL + stealth

Kir+ stealth

Backstabber

Not an all interceptor list and only 4 ships but I'll probably fly it before many of the 5 ship all interceptor squads.

For a certain definition of "Interceptor", and a certain definition of "5", eh?

well, what he told you was 'true', from a certain point of view.....

Personally, I tried 5 Avenger squad interceptors. Really nice against all those rookies and blues, but with more and more lvl4's now days its probably not the best.

5 Interceptors is a strange animal. You have more maneuverability than with TIEs, but you are low PS so you will move first. You have more damage on each individual ship, but you have 5 ships vs a 7 TIE swarm, so your damage output isn't actually that much better, if at all.

You can ditch one alpha for Howlrunner to get better rerolls on the rest of your ships. The damage ends up being slightly better as long as you stay in formation. You actually have slightly better damage output compared to a 7 TIE swarm, but you have 6 less hull, so it's almost assuredly a worse squad. I'm coming to the conclusion that Interceptors (and probably also A-wings) are overcosted across the board by 1 point.

99 points

Howlrunner + Stealth (21)

Saber + PtL (24)

Alpha x3 (54)

Kept it at 99 points for initiative, since you have three PS1s that can be used for blocking. You could upgrade the Saber to a Royal Guard for an even 100 points.

This meets the criteria you asked only if you really squint your eyes:

Cowall+ PTL + stealth

Saber + PTL + stealth

Kir+ stealth

Backstabber

Not an all interceptor list and only 4 ships but I'll probably fly it before many of the 5 ship all interceptor squads.

For a certain definition of "Interceptor", and a certain definition of "5", eh?

Like I said... You really have to squint your eyes... And that's not an asteroid, it's a 5th ship...yes...yes...

I didn't ran any numbers (and I'm sure MajorJuggler have or will) but from my experience (gut feeling) the damage from the interceptors should be better. With 5 of them you have 15 dice vs 16 from a 8 TIE swarm. But you roll 3 dice with every interceptor attack, so you are more likely to score 2 or even 3 hits. There are not many ships out there that do good vs 2 hits, and besides the A-Wing (and a single droid pimped X-Wing) only Imperials can dodge 3 hits. Against the 2 dice attack from the TIE fighters I see X-Wings getting away all the time with no hits scored against them. I'm not talking about any support combos here (Howlrunner etc), just plain ships.

The downside is their lower hull. One or two unlucky rolls at def and the game's gone. With an interceptor build you are depending on luck (well, more like not having bad luck early in the game).

I didn't ran any numbers (and I'm sure MajorJuggler have or will) but from my experience (gut feeling) the damage from the interceptors should be better. With 5 of them you have 15 dice vs 16 from a 8 TIE swarm. But you roll 3 dice with every interceptor attack, so you are more likely to score 2 or even 3 hits. There are not many ships out there that do good vs 2 hits, and besides the A-Wing (and a single droid pimped X-Wing) only Imperials can dodge 3 hits. Against the 2 dice attack from the TIE fighters I see X-Wings getting away all the time with no hits scored against them. I'm not talking about any support combos here (Howlrunner etc), just plain ships.

The downside is their lower hull. One or two unlucky rolls at def and the game's gone. With an interceptor build you are depending on luck (well, more like not having bad luck early in the game).

They definitely worship the gods of Dice.

I didn't ran any numbers (and I'm sure MajorJuggler have or will) but from my experience (gut feeling) the damage from the interceptors should be better. With 5 of them you have 15 dice vs 16 from a 8 TIE swarm. But you roll 3 dice with every interceptor attack, so you are more likely to score 2 or even 3 hits. There are not many ships out there that do good vs 2 hits, and besides the A-Wing (and a single droid pimped X-Wing) only Imperials can dodge 3 hits. Against the 2 dice attack from the TIE fighters I see X-Wings getting away all the time with no hits scored against them. I'm not talking about any support combos here (Howlrunner etc), just plain ships.

The downside is their lower hull. One or two unlucky rolls at def and the game's gone. With an interceptor build you are depending on luck (well, more like not having bad luck early in the game).

It depends on the agility of the defending ship, defender focus, attacker focus, the attack range, and if Howlrunner is present. I tallied up all the shots from the 2013 Worlds Final Match and used that as a reference and then ran the numbers. There were:

• 15 shots at range 1
• 23 shots at range 2
• 9 shots at range 3
• 4 shots at range 3 through a rock

Then I ran several nested loops, evenly weighting the occurrence of ships with 1, 2, and 3 agility. The defender has focus 50% of the time, and the attacker has focus 2/3 of the time.

Here are the average damage results:

TIE Fighter: 0.6964

TIE Interceptor: 1.2122

Interceptor does 74% more

TIE Fighter with Howlrunner: 0.9407

TIE Interceptor with Howlrunner: 1.5864

Interceptor does 68.4% more

However perhaps the most realistic comparison is a TIE Fighter supported by Howlrunner, compared to a TIE Interceptor by itself. In this case the Interceptor only does 29% more damage.

Lets also look at some total squad damage:

• 8 TIE Swarm (no Howlrunner) damage: 8*0.6964 = 5.57
• 7 TIE Swarm with Howlrunner damage: 6*0.9407 + 1*0.6964 = 6.34
• 5 TIE Interceptors (no Howlrunner): 5*1.2122 = 5.61
• 4 TIE Interceptors with Howlrunner: 4*1.5864 + 1*0.6964 = 7.04

We can also use this to get a fairly accurate Figure of Merit on the combat strength of each squad. From Lanchester's Laws, a squad's power is: N^2*A*D

where N is the number of ships, A is the attack damage, and D is the defense. D is the same for all of the above ships (3 hull, 3 agility), so the only difference is number of ships and damage. If we take A as the average damage per ship across the squad, then the Figure of Merits are:

• 8^2*0.6964 = 44.6 (8 TIE Swarm)
• 7^2*(6.34/7) = 44.4 (7 TIE swarm with Howlrunner)
• 5^2*1.2122 = 30 (5 Interceptors)
• 5^2*(7.04/5) = 35.2 (4 Interceptors + Howlrunner)
• 6^2*1.2122 = 43.6 (6 Interceptors, fictitious example)

So the Interceptors lose across the board. It takes 6 naked Interceptors to equal 8 naked TIE Fighters.

Conversely, a ship's point cost should be proportional to:

(A*D)^0.5

So, going from a 12 point PS1 TIE Fighter to a PS1 Interceptor should cost:

12*(1.7)^0.5 = 15.6

But a PS1 Interceptor costs 18 points, so you are paying 2.4 points for boost and a better dial. If you can't utilize the added maneuverability, then you are going to be outgunned, sometimes by a significant amount. I personally think that Interceptors are overcosted by about a point.

A squad mixed with TIE Fighters and low PS TIE Intercpetors is a potential disaster, because the TIE Interceptors are going to get focused down first, making them a complete waste of points except for basically one or maybe two rounds of firing.

4 Interceptor squads and 3 Interceptor squads, although undeniably fun to fly, are horribly outgunned by any competitive squad. Some Figure of Merits are:

3^2*1.2122 = 10.89

4^2*1.2122 = 19.36

If you want to get a 3 TIE Interceptor squad to be equal on paper to a 7 TIE Swarm, then you need to work some maneuverability magic and make a large number of the enemy ships have zero shots. In theory, this happens when:

7^2*(6.34/7)*X = 3^2*1.2122

where X is the percentage of shots (somewhere between 0-1) that the TIE swarm can take, so:

X = ( 3^2*1.2122 ) / ( 7^2*(6.34/7) ) = 0.24

So, what this says, is that a 3 Interceptor squad has to make the 7 TIE Fighters have zero shots on three out of four of their TIEs each round. Obviously the reality is more complicated because you have higher PS ships that can snipe the Academies, and the Interceptors will be able to get in range 1 more often. But, the above is meant to show that 3 Interceptor builds, and Interceptors in general, do poorly in tournaments not merely because they are high risk and can die in one dice roll, but because there is such a high point cost on their maneuverability that they are fundamentally out gunned.

Here are the average damage results:

TIE Fighter: 0.6964

TIE Interceptor: 1.2122

Interceptor does 74% more

TIE Fighter with Howlrunner: 0.9407

TIE Interceptor with Howlrunner: 1.5864

Interceptor does 68.4% more

However perhaps the most realistic comparison is a TIE Fighter supported by Howlrunner, compared to a TIE Interceptor by itself. In this case the Interceptor only does 29% more damage.

Lets also look at some total squad damage:

• 8 TIE Swarm (no Howlrunner) damage: 8*0.6964 = 5.57
• 7 TIE Swarm with Howlrunner damage: 6*0.9407 + 1*0.6964 = 6.34
• 5 TIE Interceptors (no Howlrunner): 5*1.2122 = 5.61
• 4 TIE Interceptors with Howlrunner: 4*1.5864 + 1*0.6964 = 7.04

I knew I could count on your math :-)

Now your numbers show that the interceptor squad is doing quite good compared to the normal TIE fighter. As I experienced myself the actual damage-on-ship output seemed better with interceptors.

While the difference between 0.6964 and 1.2122 doesn't seem like a lot, it means that there is damage on the target from the interceptor vs no damage from the TIE fighter, which might result in the target being destroyed by the interceptor and therefore not shooting back.

Also, a 7-TIE swarm with Howl looks good damage wise, but I have yet to see a player that is able to keep all 7 in close proximity to Howl, or a game (between players that know what's going on) where Howl survives more than 4 - 5 rounds of fighting (and stays with the swarm).

Finally, I know you are a fan of Lanchester's Laws, but that doesn't include the maneuvers available to the different units/ships, and the way these maneuvers are used. LL gives a good overview of your squad's strength, but too many factors are left out (basic maneuvers, boost, stress recovery). I would say in the hand of an experienced player both 5 interceptor swarm and 8 TIE swarm should show about the same effectiveness; only during a normal tournament the amount of dice rolled is high enough to give you that unlucky moment (early one-shot-kill) that costs you the game, and probably the tourney. So by using the interceptor swarm you cannot expect to do better, but it will look better for the spectators and there's a fair chance that you can blame the dice for a lost game :-)

(of course it was your choice to run such a high risk squad)

Also, a 7-TIE swarm with Howl looks good damage wise, but I have yet to see a player that is able to keep all 7 in close proximity to Howl, or a game (between players that know what's going on) where Howl survives more than 4 - 5 rounds of fighting (and stays with the swarm).

The most apples to apples comparison is actually the 8 TIE Swarm vs the 5 Interceptor swarm. Both squads do the same damage, neither is dependent on Howlrunner, but the TIE swarm has 60% more health. I think that points to a pretty decisive victory for the 8 TIE swarm.

Got the interceptors and played a 5 interceptor swarm, 4x Alphas and 1x Turr with Daredevil (I want to try it out for fun, didn't even get the chance to use it, I should have used Veteran Instincts, especially going against Luke and Wedge)

It was fun! but of course, my opponent made tons of mistakes in maneuvering.

By the end, 4 interceptors survived and 1 died. The one died was a 1-shot full health kill, at range 3. The other 3 have 1 hull each, and each of them have a critical penalty to them ( 1 have weapon malfunction [reducing damage by 1], 1 have structural damage{ reducing its agility by 1}, another have stunned pilot (overlapping gets one damage), 4th one have Console Fire {easiest one to get rid of})

my attempts to get rid of the weapon malfunctions and structural damages were futile.

My friend played an x-wing squad of Wedge-Luke-Biggs, all with Marksmanship, and each of their corresponding droids (target lock one, regenerate shield one, increase agility one).

I got lucky that he chose to do marksmanship every round, didn't even increase the agility of Biggs once.

Next I'm going to try Vader with engine upgrade and Daredevil. I call it "Vader finding his chocolate covered coffee beans".

I'm thinking of running a 4 Interceptor squad when Aces comes out. 4x Royal Guard with either VI, PtL or DD.

I never weigh in on lists and I love this analysis:

It depends on the agility of the defending ship, defender focus, attacker focus, the attack range, and if Howlrunner is present. I tallied up all the shots from the 2013 Worlds Final Match and used that as a reference and then ran the numbers. There were:

• 15 shots at range 1
• 23 shots at range 2
• 9 shots at range 3
• 4 shots at range 3 through a rock

Then I ran several nested loops, evenly weighting the occurrence of ships with 1, 2, and 3 agility. The defender has focus 50% of the time, and the attacker has focus 2/3 of the time.

Here are the average damage results:

TIE Fighter: 0.6964

TIE Interceptor: 1.2122

Interceptor does 74% more

TIE Fighter with Howlrunner: 0.9407

TIE Interceptor with Howlrunner: 1.5864

Interceptor does 68.4% more

However perhaps the most realistic comparison is a TIE Fighter supported by Howlrunner, compared to a TIE Interceptor by itself. In this case the Interceptor only does 29% more damage.

Lets also look at some total squad damage:

• 8 TIE Swarm (no Howlrunner) damage: 8*0.6964 = 5.57
• 7 TIE Swarm with Howlrunner damage: 6*0.9407 + 1*0.6964 = 6.34
• 5 TIE Interceptors (no Howlrunner): 5*1.2122 = 5.61
• 4 TIE Interceptors with Howlrunner: 4*1.5864 + 1*0.6964 = 7.04

We can also use this to get a fairly accurate Figure of Merit on the combat strength of each squad. From Lanchester's Laws, a squad's power is: N^2*A*D

where N is the number of ships, A is the attack damage, and D is the defense. D is the same for all of the above ships (3 hull, 3 agility), so the only difference is number of ships and damage. If we take A as the average damage per ship across the squad, then the Figure of Merits are:

• 8^2*0.6964 = 44.6 (8 TIE Swarm)
• 7^2*(6.34/7) = 44.4 (7 TIE swarm with Howlrunner)
• 5^2*1.2122 = 30 (5 Interceptors)
• 5^2*(7.04/5) = 35.2 (4 Interceptors + Howlrunner)
• 6^2*1.2122 = 43.6 (6 Interceptors, fictitious example)

So the Interceptors lose across the board. It takes 6 naked Interceptors to equal 8 naked TIE Fighters.

Conversely, a ship's point cost should be proportional to:

(A*D)^0.5

So, going from a 12 point PS1 TIE Fighter to a PS1 Interceptor should cost:

12*(1.7)^0.5 = 15.6

But a PS1 Interceptor costs 18 points, so you are paying 2.4 points for boost and a better dial. If you can't utilize the added maneuverability, then you are going to be outgunned, sometimes by a significant amount. I personally think that Interceptors are overcosted by about a point.

A squad mixed with TIE Fighters and low PS TIE Intercpetors is a potential disaster, because the TIE Interceptors are going to get focused down first, making them a complete waste of points except for basically one or maybe two rounds of firing.

4 Interceptor squads and 3 Interceptor squads, although undeniably fun to fly, are horribly outgunned by any competitive squad. Some Figure of Merits are:

3^2*1.2122 = 10.89

4^2*1.2122 = 19.36

If you want to get a 3 TIE Interceptor squad to be equal on paper to a 7 TIE Swarm, then you need to work some maneuverability magic and make a large number of the enemy ships have zero shots. In theory, this happens when:

7^2*(6.34/7)*X = 3^2*1.2122

where X is the percentage of shots (somewhere between 0-1) that the TIE swarm can take, so:

X = ( 3^2*1.2122 ) / ( 7^2*(6.34/7) ) = 0.24

So, what this says, is that a 3 Interceptor squad has to make the 7 TIE Fighters have zero shots on three out of four of their TIEs each round. Obviously the reality is more complicated because you have higher PS ships that can snipe the Academies, and the Interceptors will be able to get in range 1 more often. But, the above is meant to show that 3 Interceptor builds, and Interceptors in general, do poorly in tournaments not merely because they are high risk and can die in one dice roll, but because there is such a high point cost on their maneuverability that they are fundamentally out gunned.

That said...

Do not confuse the issue with facts!