As a budding Swarmist, I would like to seek some advice from my elders.

How do you deal with foes who are smart enough to employ blockers against your formation flight?

How do you deal with Assault Missile/Bomb fleets?

I look at the relative positions of mine and their ships at the end of the round and what ships they have to block with. I will then see if a block is possible and do one of four things.

1. Can I K-Turn over the top of the enemy. That really puts them out of place. Take into account their moving first for the block move.

2. Can I disengage my formation safely by moving to the side and then plot moves to re-engage?

3. Can I move short and straight at them? We'll all fire and I may just have to eat that.

4. Ram them and put up with it. worst case, several ships from both sides will not be shooting each other, but mine will be void an action.

One thing to bear in mind as well is swarm can allow you to do the blocking as it only works on shooting.

My high PS guys are usually in back with Swarm so that the low PS move first and don't inhibit my high PS.

When I lose out on initiative and my opponent will likely block, I tend to set up a bit wider. I also like to force the first engagement as a bank maneuver, which can also spread out my ships just a bit more and make the formation a little less predictable. It is okay to move 1 or 2 ties out of Howlrunner range to avoid the block if u know it is coming, especially if you can have that ship shoot passed the blocker into range 1 of other ships. It will at best split up your opponents focus, and at worst, give this ship a range 1 shot with focus, which will likely deal the same damage as having howl.

Other advice, if you are running multple ships with the same PS, be mindful if the order you move those ships, as you can sometimes negate the number of ships that lose actions. For example, you have 2 APs lined up, an enemy blocks the movement of the first AP, causing the second AP to bump the back of AP1. Instead of moving the front AP1 first, move AP2 first, who may avoid the block altogether. At best this lets AP1 bump into AP2 instead of the enemy PS1, letting both APs shoot and one keep an action. Of course, you can also use this to make any wounded APs bump into the enemy, denying some shots at them. Etc etc etc.

It's interesting as I approached Swarm from my use of 4 Ints and 3 X's and Swarm Tactics you came at it from true Swarm play :-)

After my initial roll-out (which requires a bit of finangling), I typically have my swarm set up thusly:


Academy, Academy, Academy
Obsidian, Obsidian, Obsidian
..............Howlrunner

The side that is going to be closer to the enemy (my Primary Flank) is usually back-set a row.

May I ask what advantage the Obsidian's bring?

The three points you save could get Howl a Stealth Device or a Pilot Talent.

Just a thought.

May I ask what advantage the Obsidian's bring?

The three points you save could get Howl a Stealth Device or a Pilot Talent.

Just a thought.

Advantage over all the PS1 and 2s out there (Rookies, Blues, Acads, Golds).

May I ask what advantage the Obsidian's bring?

The three points you save could get Howl a Stealth Device or a Pilot Talent.

Just a thought.

Besides, Howlrunner has PTL and a Stealth Device already, lol. I didn't include that in the list, as I was just showing my formation.

I've gotten the discipline to avoid USING PTL until I'm confident that she'll do a Green the following turn and stay in the formation. If she's the best shot they've got, I've played it wrong ;-)

Thx for the clarity :-)