I tried out a new interesting list this past Friday at my FLG campaign and thought I would share the list and get some thoughts on improvement for it or just other ideas for it. It was themed off of Black Squadron at the Battle of Yavin since I had the idea for it while watching the end of A New Hope. I made a slight tweak to it before the third game I used it in so I will post both versions of it for criticism.
The List:
Darth Vader
Engine Upgrade
Squad Leader -> Adrenaline Rush
Mauler Mithel
Determination -> Veteran Instincts
Dark Curse
Backstabber
Black Squadron Pilot
Veteran Instincts
The first version of the list comes out to 100 points. I found I wasn't using Determination and Squad Leader much and felt it would be more useful to push Mauler to PS9 with Vader and give Vader Adrenaline Rush since I was making a lot of k-turns for the extra shots and getting out of arc. The list comes out with 2 PS9 and 3 PS6 ships. Dark Curse and Vader give solid survivability while Mauler and Backstabber bring some heavy hits.
I ran the list against 2 4 ship rebel lists (don't remember the details on the first, the second was Dutch, Garven, and 2 Blue's). The first one was a solid win with only 2 damage taken across the entire list. The second was a loss though it was down to one ship on each side and I feel that the loss was due to me still being fairly new and not the fault of the list. Shooting first with everything was huge as it let me take out a B-wing the first turn of combat. Would have preferred to get Dutch, but he was at range 2 from most of my ships so I went for one I could kill first. The third was against a 5 ship Empire list with Vader (assault missiles and squad leader), 2 avenger squad interceptors, and 2 academy pilots. That one also went fairly well.
Overall, I found that shooting first with almost everything in the list was a rather huge advantage, and while it may not have as many fighters and Howlrunner like a typical swarm, it made up in it with the survivability of Dark Curse, Vader, and being able to bring down a ship before it could become a problem. I've been considering putting Draw Their Fire on Vader, though I'm not sure if it will be worth the investment (to protect Mauler and Backstabber since most people tend to avoid a Vader with no missiles). So, input, criticisms, ideas?