TIE Advanced Teardown

I have heard the opinion more than once that the TIE Advanced is the weakest ship in the game. My natural inclination is to question it and get to the bottom of why this opinion came into being.

Others have pointed out and shown that the TIE Advanced is supposed to be roughly equivalent of a X-Wing and if you judge it by its movement dial and stats to a degree it does make sense however I want to approach it from a different angle. Rather than judge it for its current inability to be used as a swarm or for any of its other perceived shortcomings I want to find some uses for it that might make you consider it in your lists.

Since it doesn't lend itself to being taken in a swarm of only TIE Advanced models I believe it's is used in more of a command ship style capacity. Almost like a support ship in a lot of ways. One way to use it that I thought of was the following for 35 points.

Maarek Steele with Cluster Missiles and Opportunist

Now Maarek seems to be a little confusing at first. This is a pilot ability that really wants to roll a lot of dice in order to insure that it has a chance to get used. Having 2 Attack dice base does not a recipe make for guaranteed crits. However his ship has a Missile Slot and with the introduction of Imperial Aces we have access to Opportunist. Suddenly he can roll a lot of dice and in this role could serve in an anti-swarm capacity.

This build could be added to a swarm list (5 Obsidian TIEs for instance) and because it is nearly the same number of hit points as another two TIEs the list doesn't lose much thanks to amount of firepower that build puts out. Also being Pilot Skill 7 doesn't hurt and if you can find 1 point you can easily add a Munitions Failsafe to insure you don't completely miss on your Cluster Missiles. I think there might be a place for running direct anti-swarm counters in a swarm list of your own.

In staying with that concept; I call this list I Have You Now! and it is 100 points.

Darth Vader with Expose and Shield Upgrade
Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics
Mauler Mithel with Swarm Tactics
x2 Academy TIE

Here we get Darth Vader who can reliably use Expose on thanks to having two actions. You can easily gain an Evade token and then use Expose so that you don't leave yourself in a vulnerable position. Vader is a bit more tanky as well thanks the addition of Shield Upgrade. Howrunner and Mauler run a mini-swarm with their own Swarm Tactics to help make sure those Academy TIEs get to fire. It is only five models but it has the hit points for six and that is pretty standard for an elite TIE swarm. Lastly you get some reliability when attacking thanks to Howlrunner and Vader potentially rolling 4 Attack
dice if he finds himself at Range 1.

I came up with another list that i've won a couple of games with that also utilizes Darth. I call it Darth's the Boss and it is 99 points.

Darth Vader with Squad Leader
Captain Jonus with Seismic Charges
x2 Gamma Squadron with Concussion Missiles

This list is designed to have an initial alpha strike with high reliability against a single target with the concussion missiles. Ideally you move the bombers up and focus, they move, you move everyone else up and use Darth to give the now in range target locks to the bombers. They then dump their missiles into a ship able to re-roll two dice out of four, change one blank to a hit and use a focus token if needed. You also have access to the Seismic Mine as well in order to help deal with swarms as well as to give you something to do it you get an ion turret. One damage is less of a big deal to a TIE bomber than it is to most other fighters. Darth is there essentially to maximize efficiency of the bombers every turn. The main downside is that the movement dial of the TIE Advanced isn't really compatible with the TIE Bombers and that you need to stay somewhat close together to take advantage of everything.

I think the TIE Advanced could use a small boost similar to the one the A-Wing is getting in Rebel Aces but I don't believe it is a bad ship. You do need to build your entire list around it but I think it could find a place for those who are looking for a bit of diversity or just thinking outside the box.

In this weeks The Wookie Won I show a list I created (that has likely been created elsewhere but it was new to me) called Synergy Smuggler for 100 points.

Dutch Vander with Blaster Turret, Hull Upgrade, and R5-D8
Garven Dreis with Hull Upgrade and R2-D2
Kyle Katarn with Blaster Turret, Hull Upgrade, Moldy Crow, and Recon Specialist

If you use this list the right way it can be surprisingly reliable. For the first two turns I only move 1 and bank focus on Kyle until we engage on Turn 3/4. Garven hangs back to jump on any ship that starts to close whereas Dutch and Kyle stay next to each other. It is pretty important to keep Garven close to the group to insure his ability works. Actions should be: Garven does Target Lock, Dutch does Target Lock and gives one to Kyle and Kyle does a Focus action. At the start of the Combat Phase Kyle gives Garven a Focus oken. At the start of the combat phase The activation order always goes: Garven attacks now having a Focus token and a Target Lock. He gives the Focus token to Dutch. Dutch attacks  using his Focus and Target Lock. Then Kyle attacks with his focus and Target Lock. Ideally every turn all three ships can attack using Focus and Target Lock thus insuring that those three dice reliably put some hurt on whoever you are shooting.

Lastly a variant of the above list

Dutch Vander with Blaster Turret
Kyle Katarn with Blaster Turret, Moldy Crow, and Recon Specialist
x2 Rookie Pilots

It does seem to beef up the list in terms of raw firepower and I do like the addition of another model but you lose Garven's Focus manipulation ability.

We will return on Thursday!