As all of my tournament and practice plans across the weekend fell through, I did not get an opportunity to put Fel back on the table. I had been preparing for a limited event format, where the rules were as follows: Extended format, but one of your ships/pilots must be from wave 1. I knew Soontir was going to be part of that list, and his previous partnership with the Grand Inquisitor made him a solid second choice. Not wanting to stick with 3 ships, I decided to fly a TIE/ln and something else. The something else was easy (Whisper or Duchess,) but I thought pretty hard about my TIE selection. As I spent a while thinking about the role of the 2.0 TIE, I also developed the core of this article.

The Imperial TIE fighter is a cheap, no-frills machine; without secondary weapons, a hyperdrive, or even a life support system, it was able to be mass-produced for the war effort for a relatively low cost. In X-Wing TMG, the TIE/ln is everything above, with only 2 attack, 3 agility, 3 hull, and no shields (just guts!) The pilots range from 23 points (tied for being one of the cheapest options in the game,) up to a (still cheap) 40 points for the 2 squadron commanders we have available. For upgrades, the chassis carries only a single Modification slot, which the fragility of the ship makes unappealing. Over half of the pilots have the Talent slot (anyone with an Initiative value of 3 or higher, in fact,) which is far more useful in general, and especially so on the TIE/ln.

The TIE/ln has a somewhat diverse action bar, consisting of the Focus, Evade, and Barrel Roll actions. As for pilots, the TIE/ln has one of the most diverse selections available, with 3 generic options and 10 unique aces to lead your lists. They can be separated into a couple of different groups, which makes discussing their benefits somewhat easier.

For generic options, you start off with the classic Academy Pilot. A mainstay of Imperial lists since the very release of the game, the Initiative 1 Academy has no talent slot, and costs a meager 23 points (down 0.5 points from his 1.0 cost, interestingly enough.) The Academy makes an excellent blocker, and for how cheap they are, they epitomize the “swarm” trait of the ship. At Initiative 2, for a single point more, the Obsidian Squadron Pilot’s only real benefit over the Academy is the ability to Initiative-match most other Imperial generics. You lose out on some blocking capability to compensate, but that may be worth it for some strategies. Finally, the Initiative 3 Black Squadron Ace comes with a Talent slot for a slight increase in cost to 26 points. BSAs were the backbone of many swarm lists in First Edition, their EPT slot allowing them to carry the then-ludicrous Crack Shot upgrade. Since that upgrade has lost a lot of versatility in 2.0, so has the BSA, and they are currently a rare sight in most lists.

Starting off the unique pilots, we have 2 junior aces that focus on improving their own action economy. First off, for 28 points, Baron Valen Rudor, who has been booted from his 1.0 TIE Advanced Prototype, has the ability to take an action after any friendly ship at Range 0-1 defends. This allows Valen to evade as his action and, after defending, fire back at Initiative 3 with a focus token (so long as he isn’t stressed,) or Barrel Roll out of other arcs to avoid taking more shots. Meanwhile, Night Beast is largely unchanged from his 1.0 counterpart, allowing you to take a free Focus action after fully executing a blue maneuver. For 26 points, this makes Beast a fairly effective filler ship, who can be left to his own devices and generally end up with both available green tokens.

On both ends of the Initiative spectrum, we have pilots who can (sometimes) add another die to their attacks. At 32 points, both “Scourge” Skutu and “Mauler” Mithel can add another die at Initiative 5. Which is easier to trigger depends on your lists tactics; Mauler needs to be in range 1 to roll an additional die, while Scourge needs only to have his target in his bulls-eye arc. Both make effective fillers when you want a higher-initiative TIE to come in as a flanker, but don’t have a lot of points to work with. At Initiative 1, “Wampa” also has the ability to add another attack die, though his 30 points are well worth the way he does so: Wampa gains his extra die so long as his charge is active, but he it loses each round after he is attacked. If you can manage to keep him out of the line of fire, Wampa becomes a cheap 3-attack ship, and if you fly him in your formation, he works out as blatant target that should be attacked at least once each round, meaning your opponent either splits their fire or focuses down a single 30 point ship instead of your more valuable pilots.

Originally introduced in Battlefront 2 as the squadron the player character starts off in, Inferno Squadron has been introduced to X-Wing in the form of 4 TIEs, all at Initiative 4. Except for the squadron commander, each pilot also costs an even 30 points. Gideon Hask shares the above ability to add an additional die to his attack, this time with the caveat that his target must already have a damage card. At Initiative 4, this may be difficult to trigger, but as with most squadrons, the Infernos work together to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Del Meeko similarly works off of his opponents being damaged, but rather than being aggressive, his ability is more defensive: He allows friendly ships at Range 0-2 to re-roll a defense die when defending against damaged attackers. Seyn Marana brings it all together, taking the ability “Wampa” held in 1.0. When she attacks, she can cancel a critical result to deal a face-down damage card (under shields) to her target, without them rolling defense dice. This, naturally, allows Del and Gid to trigger their abilities.

As for squadron commanders, the TIE/ln currently features 2 of them, both at the (compared to other TIE pilots) expensive cost of 40 points. Iden Versio is the more defensive of the two, having perhaps the best single-use ability in the game: She can spend her non-recurring charge to simply cancel all damage that would be dealt to a friendly TIE/ln at Range 0-1. This can be used to save an important ability for your squadron (like Howlrunner or Del Meeko,) prevent a ship from exploding in an alpha strike (such as those offered by most current Rebel lists,) or simply frustrate your opponent as a ship they were counting on to be gone is still there despite a perfect attack. Notably, this ability takes effect as they are taking damage, meaning after your defense dice have been applied and all tokens are spent. Howlrunner, the 1.0 Queen of the TIEs, has returned in all her former power, and then some. Her ability (otherwise unchanged from 1.0) now affects her own attacks, allowing any friendly ship at Range 0-1 to re-roll an attack die while making a primary weapon attack. Naturally, she sits at the head of nearly any list with more than 2 TIE Fighters.

Talents

Given the TIEs low hit point scale, despite the large list of Talent upgrades in the game, there are few worth taking on the TIE/ln itself. Perhaps the best options are those that cost only a single point: Marksmanship, Crack Shot, Trick Shot, and Ruthless. These add small bonuses to your TIEs for the smallest cost available, keeping you from losing too large an investment when your fighter inevitably goes down. Juke and Elusive are a couple of other options that I weigh pretty highly, especially on the higher Initiative pilots, to help protect your investment while not giving up much of their already meager offense.

Modification

Again citing the low hull and absent shield value of the TIE/ln, adding any modifications to your ship seems like the height of folly. Ironically, the most useful upgrades (those which increase your defenses,) are the most expensive options due to the chassis’ high agility. In all but the most niche builds, I would avoid putting anything in this slot.

Rather than give ways to fly single pilots like normal, I am instead going to look at some different ways to combine the abilities of the TIE/ln pilots to make around half of your list. Each chunk of TIEs below can serve as a single large ship, and most of them can have a TIE dropped off of them to make up around 1/3 of your list as the equivalent of a solid medium ship. The benefits of versatility and attack options will often outweigh the loss of single-ship attack power for taking these options over a single, expensive ship, and will also help conserve points in a tournament environment, since their value is taken in 6-8 chunks instead of 2.

The Action Block

These 4 pilots serve to work together to maximize your available actions. Valen is the key pilot here, carrying Squad Leader to allow him to spread his post-defense action to a squad-mate. The Initiative values are paired off to allow wing-pairs to operate on their own, but another version would be to replace the OSP and Night Beast with another BSP, bringing the trio down to 84 points.

The Classic Mini-swarm

As mentioned above, Howlrunner is normally the key component to any list containing more than a couple generic TIEs. This is the cheapest options to allow her on the table with 3 wing-mates, forming a 4-TIE block that all can dual-modify their shots… IF their low Initiative and hull values allow them to remain on the board long enough to shoot. This set-up has been a staple of Imperial lists since early 1.0, when it used to cost 54 points (4 points less than the 2.0 conversion.) Obviously, dropping a single Academy pilot brings them down to just 89 points while not sacrificing much in terms of efficiency.

The Juking Trio

This trio is possibly the most effective set in this article. Howlrunner powers a dual-modification on this trio of Initiative 5 pilots, allowing each of the other pilots to sometimes get off a 4-dice attack with a focus token and a single-die re-roll. Juke allows the team to be far more defensive against heavy alpha-strike lists while still helping them to push through damage, but can be left off to bring this set-up down to 104 points.

The Extra Die Quartet

Bringing all 4 TIEs that can roll an extra attack die could cause your opponent no end of headaches, especially since this is the only group on the list that doesn’t have to fly ANYWHERE near one another. Having just 1 flanker can sometimes force a mistake from your opponent; having 3 or 4 can easily become a nightmare! Dropping any of these TIEs still lets you bring a useful flanking element to your list as a distraction from your main forces, and could be as cheap as 62 points (though the 94 point version without Gideon or Wampa is most recommended.)

Inferno Squadron

This is the most commonly seen version of the TIE mini-swarm from the early 2.0 meta. Seyn brings Marksmanship to help her guarantee a crit to burn for her ability, which in turn helps Del and Gid trigger more frequently. Iden can be used to rescue one of her squad-mates or herself from their first death, keeping the element on the table for another attack, possibly even another round. I flew this myself a bit at first, and generally decided that my favorite modification is to replace Gideon with Howlrunner, exchanging a situational extra attack die for the consistent re-roll she provides. This, naturally, makes the group cost 144 points, but still leaves room for several of the Imperial’s best aces.

The Effects Block

This is my most recent creation, and while on the surface it may seem chaotic, it really works somewhat beautifully together. Howlrunner and Iden are their natural, commanding selves, with Howlrunner carrying Swarm Tactics for the sheer purpose of powering one ship: Wampa. At Initiative 5, Wampa is FAR more likely to pull off his extra die, and makes target priority a bit more of a challenge. Valen helps the squad survive incoming fire, usually by Squad-Leadering an evade onto the most likely target after he is shot at if positioned to force your opponent to split their fire. If anyone had to go, I would likely remove Valen from the list, as his contribution isn’t quite as impactful as Wampa’s extra die, or the powerful abilities of Howlrunner or Iden Versio. This would bring the group down to a far more manageable 123 points, allowing a far larger threat to help distract opponents from the TIEs.

The Imperial TIE Fighter is a versatile and inexpensive ship, whose low offense is easily compensated for with overwhelming numbers and powerful abilities. There is a reason that most Imperial commanders only feel secure with a squadron or 2 of TIE Fighters at their disposal.

As usual, I wanted to close out the article with a squad showing off the ship’s most common application – in this case, the TIE Swarm. In 1.0, the “Crack-Swarm” took the game by storm once its full power was realized, and it wasn’t until the advent of the Aztichuck Gunship and the Reinforce action that it finally faded from view. In 2.0, despite Crack Shots reduction in power, I believe this may still be a viable way to run 7 TIEs in a single list.

Please let me know if you’ve got any other ways you like to run TIE Fighters, or if there’s anything you’d like to see me talk about.

Next time: Soontir Fel (hopefully) returns!