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Hey guys, I just started X-Wing and bought 2 core sets, a Tie Phantom, and a Tie Advanced. I am going to a 100 point tournament this weekend and I wrote a list that I'm just not sure about. It appears to be a rendition of the Tie spam that I saw at the FLGS when we all started the game. Most of the people are fairly experienced and there might be a Fat Han and Double Decimator list in attendance.

Whisper (Tie Phantom) - Swarm tactics, advanced cloaking
Mauler Mithel (Tie Fighter)
Dark Curse (Tie Fighter)
Night Beast (Tie Fighter)
Black Squadron Pilot (Tie Fighter)
~100 points
Thanks for any and all input!

Not a bad list. Problem I see is that you can possibly run into list that can fire before whisper, and if that happens, the phantom is gone. I would drop Swarm Tactics and give Whisper Veteran Instincts. I know you dont have the card (Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 expansions). If you can borrow that card, it will make him PS9.

Good luck.

I'll try and get that, thanks!

Yeah, Whisper is a lone hunter and really won't benefit from being shackled to TIEs to give them PS7. Vet Instincts and ACD are the "standard" options, but you can adjust as needed.

You could run it a couple ways.

Vader w/ Swarm Tactics
Whisper w/ ACD, FCS, Recon,
2 TIEs

Whisper could use Vader to get PS9, or just run off on her own depending on the matchup. Between her firepower and Vader's durability, life should be ok.

Vader w/ Swarm Tactics
3 TIEs
Shadow Squadron w/ Recon, Stygium

Trade Whisper for another TIE. Stygium Phantoms need to be kept at long range to mitigate their 2 agility, but can still hit quite hard.

Or you can go full swarm with basic pilots of everything, giving you 6 ships. Could be silly, but fun.

ALot of folks will argue with me, I like both phantom pilots. However i run Echo instead. That movement when decloaking is absolutely amazing for what it can do for you. DO some test moves, You can damn near dance around your opponents planes. It's a trade off. The focus, Or that extra move. I run echo with Veteran Instincts adv cloak and gunner. Works very very well.

I really would like to run Echo but since I am such a new player and have only used the phantom twice (lost both games), I am going to stick to what I am more familiar with. What about this:

Tie Advanced - Vader, Swarm tactics
Sigma Squadron (Phantom) - ACD
Night Beast (Fighter)
Obsidian Squadron (Fighter)
Academy pilot (Fighter)

ACD is risky on lower PS ships since you have to survive on 2 agility 2 shield 2 hull. Sgygium is cheaper and helps lower PS by giving you more tokens. Add a Recon specialist providing 2 focus and you're sitting pretty.

Otherwise, looks fine.

What is better for Vader, swarm tactics or squad leader?
Tourny is this Saturday so I need to settle on a list and get at least one practice game in x) I looked at recon specialist and I would rather have Night Beast, especially if I am running Vader with squad leader to hand out focus. So possible final draft:

Vader Advanced - Squad leader or swarm tactics
Shadow Squadron Phantom - Stygium
Night Beast
Obsidian Squadron
Academy Pilot

As always, thanks for any replies!

Generally I prefer Swarm Tactics. Squad Leader doesn't really "add" anything, it just lets you shuffle an action around. Swarm Tactics lets you jump up pretty high in PS, which can make a big difference.

As for the choice between Recon and Night Beast, I would highly recommend the Specialist. Uncloaked Phantoms draw lots of fire and aren't terribly durable, but with 2 focus tokens and an evade, they can survive quite well.

This list just lost to Dash Rendar and Han Solo and I see your point. I'll make the revisions and run the recon but for comforts sake I'm sticking with the action shuffling. Thank you for all the help

 Arrathon wrote:
ALot of folks will argue with me, I like both phantom pilots. However i run Echo instead. That movement when decloaking is absolutely amazing for what it can do for you. DO some test moves, You can damn near dance around your opponents planes. It's a trade off. The focus, Or that extra move. I run echo with Veteran Instincts adv cloak and gunner. Works very very well.

The real issue is PS. Whisper is PS 9 (with mandatory VI), which means you're at least tied with any non-VI enemy pilot and at least get the choice to either move second to arc dodge or shoot first to recloak. Echo, on the other hand, is only PS 8 so you're vulnerable to a lot more ships (Corran being one of the biggest threats) and Wedge/Han/Vader/Fel now move after you AND shoot before you. And when those ships have boost/BR or 360* turrets available your superior maneuverability is mostly negated. So Echo can dominate when nobody is taking high-PS phantom counters, but once the metagame adapts to phantoms PS 8 is way too dangerous and you need Whisper.

 Chumbalaya wrote:
ACD is risky on lower PS ships since you have to survive on 2 agility 2 shield 2 hull. Sgygium is cheaper and helps lower PS by giving you more tokens. Add a Recon specialist providing 2 focus and you're sitting pretty.

I disagree. SPA gives you a one-shot evade action on the first turn of combat, but after that you're rarely going to be in a situation where you're willing to give up shooting to take a cloak action. ACD might not help your defense dice much (though even a lot of high-PS lists have some low-PS meatshields), but it does give you a decloak action every turn that makes you a lot less predictable.

 riverhawks32 wrote:
What is better for Vader, swarm tactics or squad leader?

Swarm tactics, no question. Squad leader is one of the worst upgrades in the game because it takes away an action from one of your best ships and gives it to a weaker ship. It's only useful in the incredibly rare situation where Vader has no target to shoot at and doesn't need to take defensive actions. In any other situation you want to keep Vader's action for himself. Swarm tactics, on the other hand, doesn't cost anything (other than the EPT slot and points) and makes another ship PS 9. So a huge bonus for free, or a tiny and very situational bonus at a huge cost. Your choice.

Good argument on swarm tactics, I'll bring that. Stygium performed pretty well so I'll give it another chance (I'll test this at least once before Saturday). So...

Vader Advanced - Swarm tactics
Shadow Squadron Phantom - Stygium
Night Beast
Obsidian Squadron
Academy Pilot

Just an update, I went 2-2, losing to an e-wing, b-wing, a-wing list and lost to an echo/decimator list. I did beat a decimator, 2x tie list and a 2x y wing, 2x z95 list. Overall I was happy, going to buy a lambda next week I think. Thanks everyone

Sounds like a respectable showing, well done.