Who's the the Scum ship/pilot you want to have left when you and your opponent are down to your last ships?

My money's on Guri:

Veteran Instincts

Auto Thrusters

Virago

Fire-control System

Hot Shot Blaster

She might lose the PS bid, but having thrusters and FCS, she'll be able to pick her opening to get into range 1 when she wants and have TL+Focus when she comes in for the kill.

I honestly don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to back up and ask what makes a good closing ship to begin with?

Help me understand the theory behind the opening/mid/closing portions of the game.

I'm assuming good closer is something that is survivable and most likely the last ship on the board because it is diverse, evasive and powerful enough to finish the game. Closers are such: Luke Skywalker, Tarn Mison + R7, Chewbacca, Whisper, Soontir, Rexlar Brath, B-Wings in general.

As for scum, I would have to say either Kath Scarlett with K4/RecSpec or Guri with PtL. Scum ladies are just insanely powerful and can hold their own for the long run in a fight.

I honestly don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to back up and ask what makes a good closing ship to begin with?

Help me understand the theory behind the opening/mid/closing portions of the game.

Self-sufficiency -- qualities like good damage output, good damage avoidance or regeneration, good/unpredictable maneuvers, high PS to react and shoot first.

To me, Boba might be the best. The problem is getting him to the endgame, since his pilot ability compels you to wade into danger early and often.

I honestly don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to back up and ask what makes a good closing ship to begin with?

Help me understand the theory behind the opening/mid/closing portions of the game.

I can tell you who sucks at closing. Like I really hate ending up with a single non-named tie fighter versus Luke. That's pretty much an auto loss unless Luke has some nasty crits on him.

A good closer should have a decent dial tied to decent damage output either natively or through upgrades. Durability is a must. I don't think Luke is the best closer by far, but he's really good one v. one against 2 attack dice ships, especially if he's packing R2-D2 and Lone Wolf. PTL Soontir is an awesome closer just because of his air superiority factor. Coran is totally hellish to face in the end game as is any Phantom.

But a closer is truly a guy(gal) that can last the fight to make it to the end game so it's a pilot that does grab aggro right at the start. I think we at this point design our lists with our opponent's target priorities in mind. If you've got a scary ship that throws lots of reds he'll probably get focus fired on first. So you try to sneak another ship in there that is less threatening yet effective once the pack has been thinned out.

I don't see a lot of dominant closers in the Scum retinue, but I'm sure I'm overlooking something.

Does that mean that in the beginning of the game, you want to specifically target the closers, so that they won't be around for the end of it? Ignore the filler (TIEs and Zs), and go for the heart of the list?

Does that mean that in the beginning of the game, you want to specifically target the closers, so that they won't be around for the end of it? Ignore the filler (TIEs and Zs), and go for the heart of the list?

In general, yes. There can be exceptions and you have to take it on a case-by-case scenario. If you have a credible opportunity to destroy or maim the closer, then you should take it. If you can deploy or maneuver in a way that makes that achievable, you should go for it. But you should also be wary of tunnel vision -- if you have four range 1 shots at TIE Fighters, or 4 range 3 shots against Soontir, you should start killing off some TIEs.

Identifying the closer can be hard to do because it comes down to matchups. The way I see it, you do your best to trade kills with your opponent until you're down to a matchup that you can handle or have a distinct advantage with. Finding that matchup and getting down to it is the hard part, but sometimes it's pretty easy to see who you'll end up facing like when you're up against Wes/Wedge/Luke. You've got to kill off the offense in that list before you get completely vaped (especially if Wedge is running Opportunist). In the most likely case you end up facing an untouched Luke with R2-D2 and you're hating life.

If you can identify the closer and he's someone you don't want to face because he'll matchup too well against you, kill the bastid. Filer pilots can close too so they should get your attention as well. Certainly Z's aren't the most intimidating ship to face in the end game, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't get prioritized if the present an easy target. But if comes down to facing that ship that is the rock to your scissors, it's best to have hi, out early and leave the Z's for last. I would give them below average marks for closing...unless that Z pilot was N'dru

Exactly. There is no 'one thing' that makes you good, but being 'last man standing' means you're generally only facing a single opponent, so abilities to mitigate or regenerate a limited amount of damage per turn become very important - because you can't do that much damage per turn.

As a result, anyone with decent evade dice and focus/evade (Soontir), or the ability to regenerate shields (R2-D2) become more valuable than in earlier turns, where several fighters can bring you down with concentrated fire. Equally, if you have insane manouvrability and higher pilot skill, outmannouvring the enemy becomes easier once there are less of them (Phantoms).

Lone Wolf is just good because if you're the only man left, you must be getting the value out of the talent - it's priced assuming it won't work every turn or that you'll have to alter how you want to fly to benefit. Obviously in the endgame it's much more useful - and that, combined with N'dru's pilot ability, make him a feasome little fighter for less than 20 points.

After a cursory look, I'd identify the following natural Scum closers:

Kavil w/ Blaster Turret & Agromech

Kath Scarlett

Boba Fett

Guri

Almost any Aggressor.

Maybe Lone Wolf N'Dru

If you can save a Hot Shot blaster on your closer until the endgame, so much the better...

Laetin might become a real pain no?

Unhinged, engine upgraded Kavil might throw people for a loop by being way more maneuverable than the Y-s people are used to.

Given the right list, Xizor might be a contender. Sure, his ability isn't as good as Guri's once it's down to just him but his ability makes it likely that he'll be the last one to go down. He's got a PS that is about as high as you're going to find on a Scum ship which is important on an arc dodger.

Laetin might become a real pain no?

My first scum builds were around Laetin thinking the same thing. But his pilot ability doesn't really work in a one on one: "After you defend against an attack, if the attack did not hit, you may assign 1 evade token to your ship." That would mean, that you'd get your free evade after your opponent shoots at you, which is pretty pointless if you're only facing one ship.

But he's still is good enough to earn the nickname, "Late Game" Laetin for me.

Does that mean that in the beginning of the game, you want to specifically target the closers, so that they won't be around for the end of it? Ignore the filler (TIEs and Zs), and go for the heart of the list?

Tarn mison with r7 astromech is the best closer in the game because he has an extremely strong defensive ability, but an ability which only triggers once a round. This means he is the worst ship to have survive until the end or the game because, all things being equal, my 25 point tarn is up against a pair of z95s/tie fighters or a moderately kitted medium fighter like an x wing or something.

Tarns ability is to potentially nullify one whole attack per round. If he is being attacked only once per round, he has a good chance of taking zero, or little damage, if he's attacked multiple times, his ability only neutralizes the first shot and he's relatively defenceless against the others.

One of my list making strategies is to create a list of heavy hitters plus tarn, giving my opponent the clear imperative to attack the heavy damage dealers while tarn flies around seemingly innocuous. I hope to kill enough opponents ships that by the time tarn is left by himself he's only got one or two enemies shooting at him, in which case the opponent suddenly realizes he should have taken him out when he had enough guns to penetrate his defence. Now that 25 point ship is worth its weight in gold. Three attack and very hard to actually deal damage to with one or two ships.

The only serious drawback to this plan is if the opponent is left with a dodgier ship than tarns x wing, which isn't hard to do. Most ships, given the amount of open space on a late game board, can fly circles around an x wing, making sure not to take shots while landing their own. X wings without the r2 astromech suck pretty hard at flying all by themselves.

So, maybe I shoiod have said "tarn is almost the best closer in the game" - a well kitted interceptor would probably work better, but then again, it would also be much harder to fly an interceptor in a list the same way as you might fly tarn so as to ensure he makes it to late game.

I hear a lot of this about Tarn & R7 - dude's never worked for me, whenever I get my opponent to reroll hits or crits they inevitably roll the same number of hits or crits anyway.

I maintain X-Wings are good ships, but even a kitted out Luke or Tarn is in trouble on their own against 3+ attack dice arc dodgers. You can't shoot what you can't see.

Honestly Palob Godalhi is a pretty good late game pilot. His ability is to strip a focus or evade token from an enemy at Range 1-2, which-- if the enemy can't TL or stack tokens-- has a nice damage reduction effect. If it's an ion turret he's got, against a small ship 1-on-1 he's probably got the game wrapped up. The only defense against him is staying at Range 3, or having Autothrusters. These are limited for obvious reasons.

IG-88C/D are both very good late gamers, for different reasons. PtL C can boost while stacking focus/evade on top of 3 defense dice (Autothrusters for even more madness) and arc dodge or mitigate damage like it's his job. IG-88D has options, which means the opponent has to account for those options. Winning a PS bid at 6 isn't likely, but having a ship that's able to capitalize on arc-dodging in the face of this maneuverability is also unlikely.

"fat" Kavel... Blaster turret/R4 mec/PTL and engine upgrade... gives you a pretty tanky 4 point turret that is useable most of the time. you can use PTL to boost into range or out of arc... blasting out of arc allows you to fire out of arc...

IG-88A is incredible late-game as well. Regeneration + 3 agility + lack of incoming fire...

Xizor with VI, AdvS, Inertial Damps, Autothrusters. That's a hyper-maneuverable ship able to handle almost any one-on-one fight, and with the right pilot ability to make it to the endgame.

I had a game last night that was me with Laetin and a Cartel Spacer Scyk vs. a wounded Kath Scarlet (Scum). The large ship was actually hard to move around well. Yes, the extra shot from the rear was good, but I was able to stay at Range 3 and ping shots forward. Laetin had a Mangler Cannon. Often, that would force Kath to use her Focus and maybe get a shot it. I was also surprised at how well the 2 shot Scyk did, too. I do like Tie Fighters and you will be surprised at how often they will cause damage.

I killed Kath. I did mention she was hurt, right?

Large ships aren't always the best closers. They can be hard to move around. Of course, depends on what the large ship is, really.

Xizor with VI, AdvS, Inertial Damps, Autothrusters. That's a hyper-maneuverable ship able to handle almost any one-on-one fight, and with the right pilot ability to make it to the endgame.

I've been thinking the same, only possibly swapping AdvS for accuracy Corrector, that way if Xizor is in an enemy arc he can save his Actions for defense and still hit reliably.

Ig88b with lone wolf, mangler cannon, autothrusters and advanced sensors

auto-thruster Star-viper for sure (not a huge aggressor fan, might just be how the ship looks or the prevalence of 2 ship builds which trigger my Wave 5 PTSD)

Guri definetly has the solo advantage on paper, but in my experience our royal highness Xizor will be 100% intact by the time he's the last ship on the table and he'll be said last ship almost 100% of the time

The difference between PS 5 and 7 is pretty slim in the old, repetitive, stale, thank-god-it's-gone meta, but nowadays it might actually amount to something (hopefully we're getting more variety, we have Aggressors, after all) and while Xizor's ability doesn't look like it makes a **** difference when he's alone, it is almost single-handedly responsible for getting him to the late game in tip-top shape (if only because your opponent won't ever want to shoot him before-hand)

In my experience with Scum so far I'd have to go with Kath, and Ion Turret Kavil.

Kath is obvious - she's tough and tanky, has great action economy with the right build, (K4, PTL and engine upgrade is my fave so far) and she's best flown moving away from the enemy at all times, so she'll get 3 green plus turtle most turns, but shoots with 4 red.

Kavil is less obvious - but that's why it works so well.

Because he doesn't appear nearly as much of a threat with an ion turret as he does with the more obvious Blaster Turret and R4 build, he tends to be ignored until later in the game. But With VI or PTL and an engine upgrade he can dodge arcs pretty effectively and he almost never misses. If he's still close to full health towards the end of the game he's nearly unstoppable despite his low damage output.

In my experience with Scum so far I'd have to go with Kath, and Ion Turret Kavil.

Kath is obvious - she's tough and tanky, has great action economy with the right build, (K4, PTL and engine upgrade is my fave so far) and she's best flown moving away from the enemy at all times, so she'll get 3 green plus turtle most turns, but shoots with 4 red.

Kavil is less obvious - but that's why it works so well.

Because he doesn't appear nearly as much of a threat with an ion turret as he does with the more obvious Blaster Turret and R4 build, he tends to be ignored until later in the game. But With VI or PTL and an engine upgrade he can dodge arcs pretty effectively and he almost never misses. If he's still close to full health towards the end of the game he's nearly unstoppable despite his low damage output.

That's a good point. A 4-dice ion turret cruising around following the other player's closer as it slowly drifts off the board is something that's going to happen more than once, I'd bet.