Is the Tie advanced the type of ship that would be useful having more then one of? Is the game geared more towards quantity or do you think something like Darth Vader and Marek Steele teamed up in their tie advanced would be a pretty lethal combo?

 I'm not a Marek fan. I do like the cost effective basic advanced tie tho. Vader is bananas good.

I plan to run Vader + Tie/ln swarm.

 I know Marek isn't considered near as good as Darth Vader but is he bad for his points period? 

 He is not bad… he just seems bad when you compare him to Vader, who is the King in this game… Advanced Ties in general are very good. I have 2 of them, of course one is Vader and the other depends on the point level I'm playing at. Marek is actually quite good with marksmanship because on a card flipping crit situation he gets to pull 3 damage cards, look through them and then choose which one to give you… It gives him pretty good odds of handing you a direct hit double damage card. Now for 2 points more you get Vader, so if its one or the other then there is no contest, its all Vader, but Vader and Marek together can be good if the points level is right… you probably wouldn't want to play the 2 of them at 60 points or anything but in high point games of 100 or more, its something you could try.

 but even barring marek , is having multiple Tie advanced for useful then multiple tie fighters or is the best build generally going to be vader in an advanced and a couple tie fighters.

 I think Vader + 5 TIEs is going to better than Vader and Maarek/TIE adv. and 2-3 TIEs. 

 Get a second for tournament purposes, just in case.  It's a cheap way to get to 100 points.

fiddybucks said:

I concur.  Admittedly, I haven't tried playing imperials at 100 points, so I'm speaking from limited experience and theory craft.  But ties are best in liberal servings.  The force multiplier abilities (like Howlrunner's) really start to become powerful with more pilots.  Abilities like that are worth building a large squad around.

qwertyuiop said:

That is the same line of thought I had. Gives you more options and it possibly forces the other player into thinking, what if he fields two tie advanced?

 It will be interesting to see what the interceptor is like perhaps it will be the better option then the 2 tie advanced + 3 tiefighters vs vader + 5 tiefighter builds that appear to be either or for the current choices.

I think Vader with Swarm Tactics and a Skill 2 TIE Advanced next to him would be really good.

I own three TIE Advanced, but I have never ran more than one.  But its not because TIE Advanced aren't good, but rather a bunch of lowly TIEs are great.  Howelrunner only costs 18 points he is skill 8 and lets anyone within 1 of him reroll one of their attack dice with primary weapons.  I played last night and my friend accused Howelrunner to be broken good.  I don't think he is broken, and he is only one of many great pilots in TIEs that you can get on the cheap.

Also remember that an Academy Pilot only costs 12 points,  That is less than a Y-wing spends on weapon upgrades.  Give Vader or Howelrunner swarmtactics and the penalty of the low skill is cut in half.

Last night when my 12 points academy pilot was shooting before Luke, well it just felt good.

To Field a squadron of TIE Advanced just takes the Imperials in a tactical direction that just is as popular right now.  I say do it and let us know how it goes.

 Fun fact: Howlrunner is actually a "she"

 I can't really try it out until I get a chance to play a game which could happen this weekend or next week but if I ran Vader and 2 other tie advanced say a tie advanced "swarm" lol would I probably lose ? and if so why would that be?

 Compare a TIE Advanced to an X-Wing.  The TIE Advanced trades an attack dice for an agility dice.  TIE Advanced have missiles instead of torpedoes.  TIE Advanced have barrel roll, and better maneuvering, but can't get droids.  Of the two ships I would prefer a TIE advanced to an X-wing.  I see lots of games with three X-wings.  There hull and shields are the same.

I think it might be a good idea to take Expert Handling, at least on Vader to keep him from being shot by Torpedoes.  Stay as close to you opponants as possible where your superior maneuvering and barrel roll will help you stay out of their firing arcs.

If you take Mareek give him Marksmanship to get him more Crits.  Some of those crits are really punishing.

Focus your fire on a single ship, Even Luke with R2 D2 will go down pretty fast if you focus on him.

I don't think anyone has played this game enough to know what lists just aren't going to work.

 I think you might be smoking crack (I keed I keed).

X-Wings are better cause of astromechs

Astromech's are good, no doubt about it.  But you have to pay for them.  Barrel Roll and Evasion are free.

One Astromech droid (I forget his name) allows you to spend an action to gain a point of agility.  Compare that to spending an action to get a evasion success, or even spending an action to put yourself outside of a firing arc.