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Has anyone tried a Tie/FO crack swarm?

I was thinking:
Zeta Ace + Crack Shot

Omega Squad + Crack Shot

Omega Squad + Crack Shot

Epsilon Squad

Epsilon Squad

Epsilon Squad

You only have 6 ships, but have the same hit points as a Tie fighter swarm of 8. Three crack shots and the FO is more maneuverable than the regular TIE.

What do you think?

I want the Tie FO to be good, so badly. I just don't see that much synergy between their aces, leaders, and their grunts.

There isn't synergy, but even with a regular TIE fighter list, only Howlrunner really provides synergy. It's a tradeoff for them each having a shield, a better dial, and targeting computer.

Why not go all the way and take a full crack swarm? You have to take some regular TIE fighters to do it, but it's going to be way more effective than a TIE/fo swarm with fewer crack shots.

Optimally, that's what, 3 Blacks and 3 Omegas? Doesn't feel like a lot of bodies for Ties...

Even if you go full Blacks, that's not more people on the board... I like the Yavin Open winner's squad, though...

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Optimally, that's what, 3 Blacks and 3 Omegas? Doesn't feel like a lot of bodies for Ties...

Sure, but the OP's list only has six TIEs. All you lose is three shield HP, but having three more copies of crack shot is going to keep your ships alive longer by taking enemy ships off the table faster and removing their red dice.

I have been having a real fun time with Soontir Fell wRoyal Guard TIE, Stealth Device, Autothrusters, PtL, Howlrunner w/Crack Shot, 3x Black Squadron Pilot w/Crack Shot.

I really wanted to make the TIE/fo good, I still keep going back to regular TIEs though.

Fo sucks the only one worth anything is omega leader.

The basic tie is still the best fighter in game it's nearly 10% more points efficient than the knock off fo.

Having some PS1 fighters mixed into a Crack Shot swarm is a good thing; it provides you with some blockers you can use to screw around with other swarms, Contracted Scouts, etc, etc.

That said, building a Crack Shot swarm around the TIE/fo is a bit of a red herring. Crack Shot is essentially ordnance - you're building for a maximum strength alpha strike. Which you don't get with TIE/fo fighters, because it has no more firepower than a TIE fighter but significantly lower numbers.

'Thrown in' Academy pilots in a black squadron swarm work okay because they're cheap enough that you can still get a decent number of fighters. The extra few points for TIE/fo fighters means that you need to think carefully about including them.

Zeta Ace isn't amazing with crack shot. Given his ability, he's one of the few pilots who seems tailor-made for Wired.


If you want to use a pure TIE/fo force, then if you wanted to do a Crack Shot swarm, I might suggest accepting 5 ships rather than the usual 6 with 'old style' TIE/ln fighters;

You don't have Howlrunner, but you can provide a sort of 'dispersed howlrunner' in the form of Weapons Guidance.

5 x Omega Squadron Pilot (Crack Shot, Weapons Guidance).

It's not as good as the Black Squadron equivalent because you're short one shooter in the initial pass. However, it should be better able to fight after the initial pass - a TIE/ln swarm will normally lose Howlrunner in the first pass, denying her bonus in rounds 2-3 and onwards, whilst you retain your Weapons Guidance bonus on each of the survivors regardless of who you lose, plus after the initial pass, the superior dial of the TIE/fo should (in theory) let you fight better.

Plus, a 5-ship Omega Squadron force can fly approach with much less care for formation than 6 ships trying to remain within range 1 of Howlrunner.

Fo sucks the only one worth anything is omega leader.

Omega Leader is amazing but expensive (for a TIE fighter) - the others can be surprisingly good for their cost, though, much like some of the named TIE/ln pilots.

Zeta Ace is the other one you see quite a bit, and for good reason - he's very shooty for not many points, and with Wired up is surprisingly tough for something that looks like a TIE fighter.

Epsilon Ace...... He costs 17 points. Don't expect miracles, but a PS12 pilot, under any circumstances, is annoying as hell to the "Veteran Instincts Is Life" ace-obsessed crowd. Bonus points if you use Decoy to hand that PS12 to someone much more dangerous.

Epslon Leader - I see his ability. I agree it's an amazing ability. I don't see any practical use for it in a TIE/fo squad; with the green dial of a TIE interceptor, did you really have trouble getting rid of stress? Theoretically, in epic games, he pairs well with Youngster/Rage, but it seems like an over-complex plan.

I thought about using 5 Omega Squads, but that just didn't seem like enough firepower on the board.

I wanted to use the TIE/FO for a very simple reason, with only a couple exceptions, they really can't be one-shot like standard TIES. A lot of the ships available and that people use are 3 red dice. The TIE/fo takes 4 damage to kill so unless they are running a phantom or VCX (or you put your TIEs in range 1 of a 3 damage ship - which you should be able to avoid most of the time), they will have to shoot twice at one tie to take it out at a minimum.

Full Crack swarm is nice, but I prefer having some pilot skill 1's on the table to block movement. (I tried a Holwrunner, 3 black squad crack x4 + 3 academies and the acedemies blocking was key).

I love Epsilon Ace. Sure, throwing points at him makes him even more annoying, but even at 17 pts, as locarno24 said, he's annoying to begin with.

Fo's are not significantly tougher that ln's when you look at the maths, and I've seen enough z-95's one shot to know heavy investment in a four hit point ships a mugs game unless it's a phantom.