SW Armada: The Wave 6 TIE Swarm
Wave 6 is about to hit the tabletop and with it the TIE Swarm is back.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that changes Wave 6 is bringing to the game and how I am going to be building fleets for it. The new FAQ which dropped last week shook things up as well. With these two big changes hitting at the same time the meta really feels like it is in an uproar and anything is possible. Of the new Imperial stuff coming out I’m really interested to see if Sloane and a swarm of fighters might be able to fill some of the Rhymer sized hole in our hearts. To that end I’ve come up with a couple lists featuring Sloane the Quasar-Fire. Lets take a look at them.
The Sloane Swarm
The Tie Swarm
Faction: Galactic Empire
Commander: Admiral Sloane
Assault Objective: Targeting Beacons
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona
Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
– Stronghold ( 5 points)
– Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
77 total ship cost
Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
– Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
– Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
– Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
74 total ship cost
flagship Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
– Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
– Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
– Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
– Leading Shots ( 4 points)
123 total ship cost
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 “Howlrunner” ( 16 points)
1 “Mauler” Mithel ( 15 points)
4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)
2 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 22 points)
Points: 396/400
Swarm Tactics
This is a pretty simple list built around swarms and Sloane. Two Quasar Fire IIs push a horde of TIEs at the enemy, backed up by a VSD. This list should make super quick work of any enemy squadrons. The Quasars get red anti-squadron dice which will hit huge swaths of enemies. Add in Kallus and Ruthless strategists on one for extra kick. Between flight controllers and Howlrunner the squadrons also have a super mean attack vs other squadrons. Mauler Mithel is just a bit of icing on the cake. Meanwhile high counter values and Stronghold means that attacking my squadrons may hurt your worse than it hurts me.
Once the enemy squadrons are taken care of the TIEs are free to swarm enemy ships, striping them of shields and defense tokens. Thats up to ten additional attacks a turn, each of which has a very high chance of doing something. The Victory is then supposed to come in last and clean up enemy ship striped of defensive tokens. Leading shiots allows it to get in the hits it needs since it will hopefully not me worrying about defense tokens. Disposable Capacitors allows it to greatly extend it threat range one turn to catch meddlesome light ships.
The fleet is a little low on activation with only three ships, but since none of them are easy kills it should be able to survive a bit of shooting. It should have little to fear at all from enemy squadrons and can really lay some hurt on defenseless enemy ships. Even the toughest enemy ship will be in danger once stripped of its defense tokens.
TIE Swarm- Demo Version
Demo Swarm
Faction: Galactic Empire
Commander: Admiral Sloane
Assault Objective: Targeting Beacons
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona
Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
– Stronghold ( 5 points)
– Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
77 total ship cost
flagship Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
– Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
– Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
– Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
– Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
98 total ship cost
Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
– Demolisher ( 10 points)
– Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
– Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
75 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
23 total ship cost
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 “Howlrunner” ( 16 points)
1 “Mauler” Mithel ( 15 points)
3 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 24 points)
2 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 22 points)
Points: 387/400
Demo Tactics
The second fleet I can up with is a slight variation on the first. The core is still there, with the two Quasar Fires. The squadrons are the same save that I have dropped one TIE Fighter. The big change is that the VSDII has become a Gladiator with Demolisher and a Gozanti. This fleet will work pretty similarly to the first. The key idea is still that the Quasars and squadrons can taken out enemy squadrons early and quickly then move on to strip enemy defense tokens and shields. Demolisher fills the role of the finisher, picking off crippled enemy ships.
While this fleet lacks the solid presence of a really hard to kill ship, it is overall faster and more flexible. A large point bid for first player and four activations instead of three increase your chances of getting to make crucial moves when needed. This is especially important given Demolisher’s role in the fleet. The Gozanti is a bit of a weak point, as it it has little role other than a blocker and activation. Still, just giving the activation to the fleet is important.
Final Thoughts
These are just a couple of the fleets I’ve been thinking of using once the new wave drops. Both are obviously intended to make heavy use of the new ships, so we will see if they prove to be optimal at all. In any case I am very excited to get to try to build some really traditional Imperial TIE swarm lists and hope they can find a place in the meta.
That’s it for this time folks! Let us know what fleets you are looking forward to running, down in the comments!
