Serissu Swarm. Thoughts?

By droz69, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Playing around with a 4 Scyk swarm. Not a lot of Hit points, but it's nastyness can't be ignored.

Serissu

- Squad Leader

- Scyk Upgrade

- Mangler Cannon

Tensarii Point Veteran

- VI

- Scyk Upgrade

- Mangler Cannon

Tensarii Point Veteran

- VI

- Scyk Upgrade

- Mangler Cannon

Tensarii Point Veteran

- VI

- Scyk Upgrade

- Mangler Cannon

that's 4 Scyks, 3 of them get rerolls on their defense dice, all with 1-3 cannons which will negate range 3 defense dice (also a bit of a mini marksmanship), and attacking at 8, 7, 7, 7. Issue is very low HP, and no defense against turrets for the most part. Thoughts?

The approach will be mean. Getting to where you an then outflank is going to be hard. Also, Serrisu will be shot down pretty fast. Maybe start them off all separate and have them meet in the middle?

I think I'd rather go with 4 cheaper generics and Serrisu made defensive.

My thoughts on Serissu is that his ability is comparable to Biggs. He will get focus fired first and all your other ships will not get the benefit of his ability. Unless you can somehow get out of enemy arc but still be within range 1 of your ships. This might work on an initial pass where your ships are at range 3 and Serissu is out of range. At least with Howl you will always get the benefit of her ability as long as she is still alive.

I'm not sold on Serissu's or Xizor's abilities yet.

Don't put a cannon on Serious. He will definitely get targeted first and killed while probably only firing once. You want to give your opponent a difficult choice. Shoot at the Heavy Sycks who are throwing 3 attack dice with the ability to crit and that are getting a defense buff. Or they shoot at serious who isn't throwing as much red dice but is buffing the squad. Having not played against the squad I can't tell how you would prioritize targets. However, I do think you should buff Serious defense up as much as possible. That way your opponent doesn't really want to shoot at him or if he does, he might not kill him.

I'd put PTL and maybe a HU or SD on him for the points you save by dropping the cannon. PTL to focus and evade. You want to make him as unattractive as a target to shoot at. You kind of want your opponent to target the Heavy Sycks. Also, HU or SD might give him a little bit more longevity.

Currently PS 7 doesn't mean jack (might change in the newer meta). You'll still don't out PS by phantoms and most other builds. Really PS 4-7 might as well be the same. I would either run predator on a Veteran or upgrade to A'Shera.

Personally my favorite Syck swarm build is:

Serious + PTL + SU

Cartel Spacer + Title + HLC x 2

Cartel Spacer + Title + HLC + HU

Comes in at 99 points. Not really anything to spend the last point on. Goal here is to get Serious to stay alive for at least 2 combat rounds. He'll survive a crit a bit better than Howl. So if they shoot at Serious, they'll have 3 HLC blasting at them. If they decide to target the heavy Sycks, you'll get the defensive buff. It throws 14 attack dice at range 3 while denying that range bonus. It should severely cripple any large base ship in 1 round of fire.

Edited by Jo Jo

At the very least, I would throw a stealth device on Serissu

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Taken under advisement

maybe once S&V comes out ill play test and change my mind but Scyks dont look like an efficient use of list points. they have same damge output, defense, and damage sustainability as a tie fighter for a few points more. they have similar dials and true the first damge it takes is on the shield but still

I think scyks with HLCs will fly similarly to how 4x sigma phantom flies. If all 4 survive to be able to shoot, something's dying lol.

PS 7 means nothing. PS 5 is good enough to fire after your opponent's talas or daggers. Phantom eliminated PS bidding from the game unless you can get to 9+ so PS 7 means you're firing before someone's chewy... With 13 health that doesn't matter.

I was going to do with the following list:

Serissu (PtL, Stealth Device)

Tensarri Vet (Ptl, Heavy Scyk, Ion Cannon) x2

Tensarri Vet (Ptl, Heavy Scyk, Flechette Cannon)

Basically fly them just like Imperial Interceptors with a slightly different dial, and more flexibility in guns.

why VI? i dont think itll be that useful to go up to PS7 form 5. I think you're better off with DTF!!!

Serissu

4x Heavy manglers

That's a proper serisswarm. As many ships as possible to benefit from serissu while still tossing out as many red dice (and crits) as possible.

maybe once S&V comes out ill play test and change my mind but Scyks dont look like an efficient use of list points. they have same damge output, defense, and damage sustainability as a tie fighter for a few points more. they have similar dials and true the first damge it takes is on the shield but still

It's got a slightly slower but better dial - don't underestimate the advantage of having both a speed 1 turn AND a speed 1 bank in a close furball - relatively few ships have both.

Other than that, it also has the Target Lock action, and a base PS of 2, not 1.

I don't think it's bad, but I agree that the Heavy Scyk is much more useful than the basic version (aside from in a support role like Serrisu)

maybe once S&V comes out ill play test and change my mind but Scyks dont look like an efficient use of list points. they have same damge output, defense, and damage sustainability as a tie fighter for a few points more. they have similar dials and true the first damge it takes is on the shield but still

It's got a slightly slower but better dial - don't underestimate the advantage of having both a speed 1 turn AND a speed 1 bank in a close furball - relatively few ships have both.

Other than that, it also has the Target Lock action, and a base PS of 2, not 1.

I don't think it's bad, but I agree that the Heavy Scyk is much more useful than the basic version (aside from in a support role like Serrisu)

I was going to do with the following list:

Serissu (PtL, Stealth Device)

Tensarri Vet (Ptl, Heavy Scyk, Ion Cannon) x2

Tensarri Vet (Ptl, Heavy Scyk, Flechette Cannon)

Basically fly them just like Imperial Interceptors with a slightly different dial, and more flexibility in guns.

This list has very little offensive bunch. Best case scenario you are landing 4-5 hits a round. Barely enough to kill an X-wing. Granted you will likely be able to stress-ion a target, but Phantoms would laugh at you while 1-shotting a ship a round.