Star Wars X-Wing: Black TIE Party
I hope your tuxedo is clean: The TIEs are back in town and have some new tricks with the TIE/fo buddies. It’s a Black “TIE” Party!
Hello again BoLS Readers & Star Wars Aces, AdamHarry here with some X-Wing fun! I wanted to take a look at some of the newest kids on the block – the TIE/fo (first order) Fighters and how they can work with your existing TIE fighters. There are many more combos out there to be discovered but I wanted to keep my focus on just this one type of list for now. Let’s talk TIEs!
The Pilots
I want to introduce the linchpin first. The combo is built off of maximizing and utilizing this ability to it’s max. Bring in our Ace:
The “Omega Ace” ability seems pretty hard to pull off. You have to have both a Target lock and a Focus on the ship. So you’re either planning a turn or two ahead (good for you!) or you’re not getting this ability off. However, when you CAN pull this one off it’s generating a minimum of 2 crits. Notice it doesn’t say “change all your hits/focus” to crits – its says “change ALL of your results to crit results” – that means blanks, too!
So how do we pull this off? Great question! Looking at our upgrade options we have the new “tech” option and also an “Elite” piloting skill. My gut reaction is to go with ‘Predator’ as an upgrade – then again that’s my gut reaction to pretty much any card with that option! Next up, I’m looking at Veteran Instincts. Why? Well Omega here is a PS 7, VI would push him to PS 9! That’s not too shabby either. But there is one other card I like to go through with my mental check list these days: Push the Limit.
Ding-Ding-Ding! If bells aren’t going off then you need to check your alarm because we just hit the jackpot! His ability requires TWO actions to really work. This card give him second action at the cost of receiving stress. It also gives you options like being able to barrel-roll into position. You don’t need the re-roll from Predator because ALL of your results change anyway and VI (while nice) probably isn’t going to really change your orders too much. This guy is going late in the turn most of the time. So, who can we add to help him out?
The new “Epsilon Leader” isn’t bad! He’s a little pricey – but he’s a new First Order TIE so he’s got a shield and a new fancy tech upgrade (we’ll get to that in the list below). The real kicker here is that his ability will help you drop that pesky stress! If you can fly in formation that is… This one isn’t particularly game breaking but dropping the stress (plus adding Epsilon’s two dice to the attack pool) is exactly what you need. He will be able to mirror Omega’s moves and (if you bought one of the new starter sets) he’s the second TIE/fo you have! I like getting to use all my toys.
“Okay AdamHarry, that’s not bad but you’re not blowing my mind or anything – what else you got?” Well I’m glad you asked. We’ve only spent 39 points on ships so far – 42 if you count Push the Limit on Omega, so we have a lot of space to work with. Also, we’re trying to maximize the amount of damage Omega can generate. Crits are great and all but we still have to drop those shields. And the best way to do that is “throw some dice at the problem” in my opinion. Sticking with our theme of TIE fighters there are two other pilots that come to mind:
Mauler Mithel is a natural fit to this list. He’s also PS 7 so you can alternate between him or Omega depending on who has the best shot. Do you need to drop shields? Send in Mauler first. Are their shields down? Send in the crit machine and have Mauler play clean-up. If you can get both these guys into range 1, Omega is generating 3 crits and Mauler is rolling 4 dice! Predator on him isn’t a bad call, either…
Backstabber may see out of left field – but that’s exactly where you want him! If you can move him into a flanking position and get a range 2 shot, Backstabber is throwing 3 dice. While he’s only PS 6 (so he shoots after Omega and Mauler) he’s also getting to generate those shots a turn or two earlier. And he’s 16 points. The swarm is coming together.
We’re at 75 points right now. And we’ve only added one upgrade. We need someone that can help everyone out and seriously up our shield dropping potential. Sounds like we need to check in with an old friend. And she’s the final piece to making this mini-Death Star fully operational:
Say hello again to “Howlrunner” – one of the baddest TIE fighters in the galaxy! We’ve talked about using Howlrunner in swarms before and we’ve even made a few other lists with her in it – but I think this one takes the cake. Not only is Howl going to be able to help drop those shields, she’s giving all the other pilots that extra re-roll which is huge, statistically speaking. Remember, every other ship here is just about helping Omega setup the killing shots with 2-3 crits. Howlrunner assisting the other 3 ships generate extra hits is what she’s there for. You have to drop those shields for the crits to take their toll.
At this point we’ve spent 93 points. You’ve got a TON of options with those 7 points. I think both Squad Leader (2) or Swarm Tactics (2) on Howlrunner are solid choices. Either passing out a free action to Omega (for the Focus/Target Lock with Squad Leader) or making one of the lower PS TIEs shoot at PS 8 (before Omega to drop shields) seem like a good choices to me.
In fact if you ran Howlrunner with Squad Leader, you could swap Push the Limit off Omega for Expose. Now your crit machine can generate an obscene 4 crits at range 1. It’s not as reliable but it’s a risk vs. reward thing. Here are two sample lists:
The Lists
Black TIE Party 1.0 – 100 points
“Omega Ace” – TIE/fo – 23 points
- Push the Limit
“Epsilon Leader” – TIE/fo – 21 points
- Weapon Guidance
“Mauler Mithel” – TIE Fighter – 20 points
- Predator
“Backstabber” – TIE Fighter – 16 points
- None
“Howlrunner” – TIE Fighter – 20 points
- Swarm Tactics
I added “Weapon Guidance” to Epsilon just to help with hit %. Being able to spend a focus to change a blank to a hit is just upping the chance to drop a shield before Omega unloads.
Black TIE Party v.B – 100 points
“Omega Ace” – TIE/fo – 24 points
- Expose
“Epsilon Leader” – TIE/fo – 21 points
- Weapon Guidance
“Mauler Mithel” – TIE Fighter – 19 points
- Swarm Tactics
“Backstabber” – TIE Fighter – 16 points
- None
“Howlrunner” – TIE Fighter – 20 points
- Squad Leader
I swapped out “Swarm Tactics” on Howlrunner for squad leader to open up “Expose” for Omega Ace. I then moved “Predator” off Mauler and put “Swarm Tactics” on him. Now he can pass out his PS 7 to Epsilon Leader so they can both shoot before Omega to drop shields.
Again, the entire point of these two lists is to maximize Omega Ace’s crit potential. Is this the end-all-be-all? Nope! Is it going to clean house at the next tourney? Maybe. Is it risky putting all your TIE eggs into one basket? Definitely! But is this list different and fun to play? I guess you’ll have to try it out an let us know in the comments below.
“My name’s Omega Ace and I like to party.”
