Alright folks,

I tested the StarViper in competitive environment and came to a conclusion:

My personal feeling from my experience is that the Starviper is fun to fly but it is not competitive. The base version is overcosted by 2 points.

You'll need Autothrusters, badly. So you can't fly 4 of them. If you fly 3 + AT + whatever you might fit in for 19 points, you are going to miss the 4th Starviper!

A Z-95 is no replace for a StarViper (not even N'dru Shulak with Lone Wolf).

The base version should cost 23 points, the PS3 version 25 points.

So you had the choice between higher PS ot AT.

You are going to need to shoot first if you want to stand a chance against BBBBZ or a swarm list.

So, I'm sorry to say that I'm done with them for tournament play.

Maybe a single Gury or Xizor may add well in a list with other ships.

Maybe I will fly them again at some point at a tournament, as long as it is a named pilot.

Maybe there will be another title or a Refit at some point in future...

But right now the noname pilots belong to casual play only.

2 Vigos with autothrusters, 3 Soldiers with Inertial Dampeners. All PS3.

Bobba with Engine upgrade and Outmaneuver and 2 enforcers with autothrusters. Can take hits and give hits a lot

Bobba with Engine upgrade and Outmaneuver and 2 enforcers with autothrusters. Can take hits and give hits a lot

Or 2 Enforcers with AT & Boba with VI, EU, tac

I took Guri, Boba Fett, and a pirate to the Vancouver regionals and Guri was MVP in many games. She can struggle a bit if every ship is higher PS than her but she absolutely massacres generics.

I ran her with Predator, Autothrusters, Virago, Adv Sensors, Inertial Dampeners. Her ability to arc-dodge and reach just silly places is awesome. She can even harass ships with higher PS by simply moving to a place they can't reach. And nobody wants to give her a free focus token so she can chase ships all over the board.

I've ran this list with a friend(we both played it once)

Syndicate thug + Autoblaster turret, 20

Boba fett + veteran instincts, engine upgrade, Inertial Dampeners, 45

Prince Xizor + Veteran instincts, Autothrusters, 34


Both times the list won, vs a rouge squadron of x-wings(wedge, janson and klivian), and the classis 58Dash+42Corran list. It mauled over both lists, no problem. Strangly you feel a need to fire at the "thug" of all things. It really worked well.

Hi all,

Read most of the thread; but not all, so apologies if this list has been posted earlier. I'm taking this to a small tourney and, if I'm truthful, not expecting too much from it, but hey, it looks fun -

Guri - PTL, Virago, Autothrusters, AS, Inertial Dampeners: (40pts)

Black Sun Vigo - Autothrusters: (29pts)

2 x Black Sun Soldier - Feedback Array: (30pts)

Cheers

Baaaa

don't PTL Vipers; you're locking away an amazing dial (for some really lacking greens, I might add). Whole heatedly recommend predator

On that note, you don't really need sensors between Predator and Guri's ability so you can cut dampeners for a Jammer

a more durable Guri is a happy Guri

So far, I am 4 - 0 with this and will be using it again on Tuesday.

Guri:
PtL, Title > Sensor Jammer

Palob:
Blaster Turret, Opportunist. K4 Sec Droid, Title

Black Sun x 2

So I played this against, Dash/Jan & Rear Admiral Jax (twice) and I cannot remember the fourth game.

I feel that four ships are where Scum is right now. Target priority becomes an issue with this list if the opponent has never faced off against Palob before.

So Dash was firing unmodified five dice HLC due to me stealing his focus. Jan died afterwards once I took ALL her focus tokens and she was unable to fire her PS10 Blaster Turret. Stripping the tokens and then firing a focus/target lock 4 dice attack hurts but it does mean you need to play slow to get the combo going. Guri doesn't care about the slow play as this actually suits the PtL quite nicely.

Rear Admiral was constantly target locking or boosting via engine upgrade so I wasn't able to take any tokens from him until Isard kicked in, much to the annoyance of my opponent. When the choice is a range 3 shot against a focused/autothrusting Guri or against a range 2 HWK with focus/evade, what do you go against? The curse of Carnor was in full effect all night and Carnor was dying in the opening salvo almost every game.

I feel the Viper is good but it isn't the workhorse people expect/need it to be. Without an evade action it cannot survive as long as Interceptors/A-wings/Aggressors and PtL only really enhances its punch. For 39+ points, you expect more and to get more you need another, juicier target. . .

I think a lot of the current Scum & Villany ships have the problem of being focused out. I think the new K name fighter will really help out Scum. They are cheap enough and do 3 attack dice, which is too nasty to ignore. I think Starvipers and even Scyks will work better once they are in the mix. I imagine it's like having an X-wing with an elite Tie Interceptor. Chase after that elite and the generic X-wings blast you...or vice versa. Or imagine X-wings mixed with Tie Fighters. Ignore the Ties to blast the X-wings and you suddenly have these annoying Tie Fighters in R1 with TL and Focus on you.

I too have been playing with some lists. A loaded out Xizor with 4 Binayre+Feedback Array performs VERY well, but I don't have much fun flying it.

So, I've been attempting Xizor with 3 Autoblaster Y-wings. After MANY games and not a single win, I've given up on the list. FFG over nerfed the Autoblaster. That range 1 is just too short. I've even tried Kavil+EU and it still isn't effective. If the range is so short, the damage should be higher! (The cannon has a 3 attack rating) I personally wish it was a range 2 like all the other turrets and then the 2 attack ratting would be fair.

Thus far, I've had the most success when running two base Starvipers with Autothrusters. They can survive the opening joust and then easily slip behind their target next round (or end up blocking them). They are hard to predict (lots of white moves!) and hit hard.

I think that the autoblaster Y is one of the most cost effective ships there is for 20 points, throw in the unhinged and it's also super maneuverable for the scum. I went to top 16 with 2 of them and Dash and the Ys were key in killing Corran, Soontir, Jake, etc...and did most of the damage to IG 88s even though I lost that game. We have local player that wins a lot with the Xizor 3 autoblaster list and took them to Top 8. I think it's a very good list and that autoblaster Ys are great teamed up with Xizor, maybe it just doesn't fit your style.

I am starting to warm towards Star Vipers in general, too, though.

Y-wings, as aggressive fighters, does not play into my style very well. The Starvipers do. They are the ship that I wanted the Defender to be, but wasn't. Glad to hear this list is working for others.

What about:

IG 88 B

Mangler

FCS

Authrusters

2 points to spare, maybe Wingman to bleed some stress off of the Starvipers which have some trouble getting rid of it. Could also go with VI, Adrenaline, Inertial Dampeners, etc.

2x PS 1 Starviper, 2x Autothrusters

Why not? Seems competitive. No HLC though.

What about:

IG 88 B

Mangler

FCS

Authrusters

2 points to spare, maybe Wingman to bleed some stress off of the Starvipers which have some trouble getting rid of it. Could also go with VI, Adrenaline, Inertial Dampeners, etc.

2x PS 1 Starviper, 2x Autothrusters

Why not? Seems competitive. No HLC though.

What about:IG 88 BManglerFCSAuthrusters2 points to spare, maybe Wingman to bleed some stress off of the Starvipers which have some trouble getting rid of it. Could also go with VI, Adrenaline, Inertial Dampeners, etc.2x PS 1 Starviper, 2x AutothrustersWhy not? Seems competitive. No HLC though.

Yeah, I call this IG & The Stooges. The Vipers provide a nice anvil for the Aggressor to be the hammer for. I'd like it way more if I didn't have to choose between HLC and Autothrusters, though. :/

You could ditch autothrusters on one of the Starvipers and upgrade the Mangler to HLC.

a "2-straight" barrel-roll would have made them "something." Not top tier, but something worth playing. S-Turn just doesn't bring enough to the party I'm afraid.

a "2-straight" barrel-roll would have made them "something." Not top tier, but something worth playing. S-Turn just doesn't bring enough to the party I'm afraid.

Segnor's Loop is pretty strong. One of the best moves on the dial (plus having ALL the 1 moves---so great). Thing is, its effectiveness is limited more by the player's ability to get value (strong positional advantage) out of it, so its no wonder that its value seems poor when you can't figure out good uses for it.

The REAL problem for the star viper is that its awesome dial and potent action bar set its point value higher than people would like. If you can't find ways to leverage these 'strengths' through list building or play style, then yeah obviously, they are gonna seem like weaknesses. The Star Viper 'needs' a list built around it to get the most out of its dial and action bar. That's been my experience so far, anyway. Oh yeah, and the named pilots are far easier to figure this sort of thing out with, so I think that's why they are getting more use generally speaking.

What I think really helps the generics is some ability or card that allows action passing because the Star Viper really wants to double up on its actions but usually doesn't want to go the 'push the limit' route because of the lack of green (not terrible, but definitely not as good as an interceptor or a-wing, and its not even an option for generics anyway). Other than squad leader, there's not a lot of that available for scum at the moment though.

All the generic viper needs is a 2 point reduction or, more to the point, free thrusters

The named pilots should have no trouble using their great dials plus action independent abilities/predator/FCS or action step independent sensors

All the generic viper needs is a 2 point reduction or, more to the point, free thrusters

The named pilots should have no trouble using their great dials plus action independent abilities/predator/FCS or action step independent sensors

I get it that everything gets compared to the UNDER-PRICED B-wing, but the Starviper is right on. 4 of these in a 100 point squad are dangerous. And they are cheap enough to get 2 (w/ Autothrusters) and an upgraded Firespray of choice.

I honestly think this game would benefit from a few ships getting an overhaul. That's not possible, so FFG has done what they can to balance. I'm looking forward to the Raider!

the B-wing is not underpriced, it is priced correctly relative to the gold standard that is the Tie Fighter

anything less efficient and lacking tricks (such as the Y-wing's 2ndary weapon turret with optional title) is going to have a hard time accomplishing anything in this game (See the X-wing)

the named pilots get tricks through some rather stellar abilities, plus potential shenanigans from virago (though I found it isn't necessary, just slap predator & thrusters and go nuts)

i believe that they should have had the system slot from the beginning, and Virago should have allowed the other slot not included. And the Vigo should have had access to an EPT.

i believe that they should have had the system slot from the beginning, and Virago should have allowed the other slot not included. And the Vigo should have had access to an EPT.

I'd even say the Virago should have a cannon slot or even a second system upgrade (given that the base StarViper got a system upgrade slot)

Not really a Starviper build, but what about three of those PS 5 Kirahxzes with 3 Veteran Instincts with a PS 1 Starviper, autothrusters, and a one point initiative bid?

Always surrender initiative to the Dash player to shut down his omniscient cheating reactionary movement BS. If you opponent goes for your PS 1 SV autothrusters will help.

you can't really "react" to super Dash with special-ks, considering they can neither boost nor roll

if you want to hunt down Dash, Xizor's your guy (V.I, FCS, thrusters; Inertial if you're cheeky or Predator w/sensors + thrusters if you have a bid in your squad)

i believe that they should have had the system slot from the beginning, and Virago should have allowed the other slot not included. And the Vigo should have had access to an EPT.

I'd even say the Virago should have a cannon slot or even a second system upgrade (given that the base StarViper got a system upgrade slot)

Would you trade your torpedo slot for a cannon, Chardan refit style?

in a heartbeat. But it would still be overcosted