Elite Wing

One of my favorite Imperial lists right now is one that I have been calling Elite Wing. It consists of all six of the named TIE fighter pilots with 3 points to spare. My most common build is the following:

Howlrunner with Stealth Device
Mauler Mithel
Backstabber
Dark Curse
Night Beast
Winged Gundark

The advantages of this list are:

Reasonably high Pilot Skill (5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8 respectively)
A range of special abilities
Six models
3 Evade on all models

The disadvantages are: 

Potential traffic jams from having six models.
Only 2 Attack Dice base
No Shields
Models that can die in one hit reasonably easily.

I prefer to take a Stealth Device on Howlrunner as she is a common target and because of the way I run her. I usually form my TIE's into two groups. One group consists of Howlrunner, Mauler, and Winged Gundark. The second group is Backstabber, Dark Curse, and Nightbeast. I generally set the first group in a position to rush straight forward into the waiting jaws of my enemy. This is because all three have abilities that maximize shooting and I really want to be at Range 1 when I do so. So of the three targets shooting at Howlrunner usually makes the most sense. Hence the Stealth Device in order to survive a turn of eating volleys.

I keep a little distance with the second group as they have more defensive abilities with the exception of Backstabber who loves to go after people from outside their firing arc if at all possible. Backstabber is also the lone operator in the group and sometimes I will send him off alone on a flank to prowl for the right opening. I tend to do strafing passes letting one group rest outside of arc while the other three perform their attack passes. This means I should have no less than three models attacking at any given time. This also helps reduce my exposure during turns where I lose two or more models.

I think this list is strong but it is not very tolerant of mistakes and requires some finesse to get the most out of. Extreme diligence is required during the movement phase in order to prevent self sabotage. Strict focus fire is also a necessity. Prioritize your targets and insure their destruction. I have also found that I Evade quite often in order to help survive being destroyed in one volley. However even with this I generally lose one model a turn starting on turn 2 so keep attrition in mind when calculating future turns.

To wrap things up here is my ranking of the six named TIE pilots based on personal experience.

Howlrunner
Mauler Mithel
Backstabber
Winged Gundark
Night Beast
Dark Curse


Howlrunner is a AoE re-roll attached to Pilot Skill 8 for 18 points. Being useful and a bargain is how you end up on top of the ranking. Mauler comes second with his still very respectable Pilot Skill of 7 and ability which adds an attack die at Range 1. Helping to shore up a weakness of the TIE platform is huge so for 17 points he is second. For the same reasons as Mauler but with a condition attached Backstabber comes third. Winged Gundark has a damage buff and for TIE fighters I rank any form of damage increase over defense so he comes fourth. Night Beast is fifth. His ability is useful but you wont always get to use due the necessity of K-Turns during attack runs. I am not a big fan of defense buffs on TIEs in general. So Dark Curse comes last because his ability is solely defensive and situational.

Until the tournament for The Wookie Won we are going showcase ideas for 75 point lists as that is the tournament's point level. Here is a list that has been playtested successfully already It is 73 points.

75x75 - Big Beef

x2 Blue Squadron with Advanced Sensors
x1 Gold Squadron with Ion Cannon Turret

This list is very tanky for starters with 24 total hit points. A pair of B-Wings is never a bad thing to base a list off of and the Y-Wing, though not very maneuverable, does not care thanks to its turret weapon. All the models have Pilot Skill 2 which makes activation go a little easier and you will hit before Academy TIEs. Lastly you have the Ion Cannon Turret which lets you control single models (like Soontir Fel) and help slow down targets so that the B-Wings can pivot and destroy them. There are 2 points open for upgrades like an R2 Astromech on the Y-Wing or you can leave them unspent if you simply want to guarantee initiative.