Just ran 5 manglers (cartel spacer, heavy scyk, mangler cannon 20 pts) vs a han(3po, falcon, VI)/Corran(R2D2, FCS, PTL, Engine Upgrade) list over vassal. unfortunately for him he left "fat han" at the mercy of a swarm that didnt care about range while Corran tied to flank- 3 turns of mangller fire, 2 direct hits and 2 other crits later I traded 1 Scyk (and heavy damage to another from the turret) to corran to finish off Han.

PTL corran is pretty predictable, and the Scyks are maneuerable enough to keep him in arc, despitee the possibilities of boosting and barrelrolling- or perhaps it was just my opponent. I got some good rolls 2 turns after killing han- one mangler dropped corrans shields completely, and a second finished him off.

Congrats on the Scyk victory! When my FLGS buddies are done with regionals, I'll bring my Scyks back. I really want them to work, but they keep dying in one shot a full health (with Focus tokens).

Sometimes it's best to Evade and rely on the mangler's natual dice, at least against low evasion targets like Decimaters and Falcons.

My injured Scyk baited a bunch of turret fire but I knew it was coming and was keeping it out of short range with an evade token.

Just ran 5 manglers (cartel spacer, heavy scyk, mangler cannon 20 pts) vs a han(3po, falcon, VI)/Corran(R2D2, FCS, PTL, Engine Upgrade) list over vassal. unfortunately for him he left "fat han" at the mercy of a swarm that didnt care about range while Corran tied to flank- 3 turns of mangller fire, 2 direct hits and 2 other crits later I traded 1 Scyk (and heavy damage to another from the turret) to corran to finish off Han.

PTL corran is pretty predictable, and the Scyks are maneuerable enough to keep him in arc, despitee the possibilities of boosting and barrelrolling- or perhaps it was just my opponent. I got some good rolls 2 turns after killing han- one mangler dropped corrans shields completely, and a second finished him off.

I ran 4 Manglers with Serissu in a Tournament and lost all four games. So congratulation for a Scyk-Victory!

I ran this a couple of days ago to see what it could do and it started well... ended badly.

Game 1 vs Soontir Fel, 3 Tie fighters, Omicron shuttle with Vader - won 80-0

Game 2 vs Soontir Fel, Dark curse, Academy pilot, bounty hunter - lost 38-20. One more round would have almost definitely killed the bounty hunter who had 1 HP left, agility down 1 point from a crit, and stress and hard turns were red. Lots of lucky green dice helped.

Game 3 vs Scum Boba and Kath - lost 100-0. Boba ended up on an asteroid 2 turns in a row with 5 and then 4 manglers shooting at him but I could not even get past the shields when I had the golden opportunity.

This list puts way too much down to lucky dice but it is fun to try.

This list puts way too much down to lucky dice but it is fun to try.

The Scyk list is pure luck with the dice. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but its fun.

I don't understand all the Scyk hate. They have 3 health just like a TIE fighter or TIE interceptor does. A non-heavy one is costed about the same as a /ln, and the Cannon variety starts at 18 points (Flechette), 20 for a full 3 dice. The few games I've run as scum, I've loved having a pair of these (flechette/ion pair) on the flank. Great control pieces!

Personally, I don't think they work well with Manglers or HLCs though, as they start to cost too much.

I like them too. You are correct that they can be run like a tie swarm and I have had some success with this. You can also run them as cannon carts with manglors, HLC, or others which will get the cheap ones towards 20 points each.

I do not like two things.

First, you are paying a two point premium over a base tie fighter for what exactly? 1 additional PS? THEN you pay another 2 points to hang a cannon on it. I think the Heavy Syck card should be 0, not 2.

Secondly; I always run out of upgrade slots if I am trying to make it a proper arc-dodger. It needs a test-pilot type of card to get there and there is not one right now.

In the end, it is a better swarm ship than an A-Wing, but costs more than a Tie fighter. It can be built up as a proper arc dodger, but not as well as an A-Wing or interceptor, and does not have the dial to compete with either. The only new thing it brings is a cheap platform to hang ordinance; which coincidently is exactly what the packaging said when you bought it. As such, they make nice support ships, and a counter to the standard Z-95 chaff.

My only complaint is the 2 point Heavy Syck cost.

I Really like these with Guri.

I ran 5x Mangler Sycks in the Mesa Regionals last weekend. My record was a sad 2-4.

Round 1 - I totally destroyed a Boba Fet and an IG-2000. Boba died in the second round of firing after receiving a couple of Direct Hits. IG followed shortly after. My offensive dice were on fire, my defensive dice were okay enough.

Round 2 - I lost in a rather close battle against scum Boba and Kath. I never rolled a single evade the entire battle (had a couple of focused evades, but not nearly enough) and my red dice were fairly pathetic also. Boba still almost died... he had one hull left and Kath had no shields and 1 harmless crit.

Round 3 - Another loss. Can't remember the list now... but I know it didn't have a Boba. I do remember that I rolled almost no hits and another very poor round of green dice.

Round 4 - Another Boba and Kath list. Red and green dice fired on all cylinders. Boba died in the second round of firing and Kath lived 2 more turns. I think I only lost 1 ship there.

Round 5 and 6 - I don't recall the lists now... I was already in a haze from too much gaming. But I know that it was all bad dice for both of them.

Conclusion - This list is 100% dice. At PS2 you need to have at least 4 ships survive the first round of combat so they can return the heavy alpha strike. The only games I won were the ones were all 5 ships survived the first round. I had a couple close games where only 1 ship died in first round. The other 2 games I lost 2 ships before firing and usually lost the game 2 rounds later.

This is just my opinion based on experience. But I think I'm done playing these guys for now.

What about mixing swarms, HLCs and control a little bit? It could be good in the current meta of 2 ships and damage mitigation/avoidance, plus I also love control, swarms and this little ship

1.- HHFZZZ

HLC Scyk (x2)

Flechette Scyk

Z (x3)

BBBBZ is competitive, and probably BXXZZZ is not far off. A HLC Scyk is the most efficient source of red dice in the game barring EPTs and ordnance (5.75 points per die), if we switch BXX for two HLC Scyks and a Flechette one we got more red dice than a 8 ship swarm! Of course some of the Flechette Scyk's damage will be canceled, just try to use it against high agility ships or ships highly affected by stress.

So yeah, use the three Zs to screen your Scyks and shot away from range 3. Probably very hard to fly (specially against arc dodgers), but with potential.

2.- MIIFZZ

Mangler Scyk

Ion Scyk (x2)

Flechette Scyk

Z (x2)

A mixed control swarm! Crits, two ions, stress and blockers, any ship caught in the fire od this squad will be rendered useless. A good chunk of the damage may be canceled, but that will mean that you'll be ioning and stressing like crazy anyway. Besides, damage cancelation against damage mitigation/avoidance is not a problem; swarms have a hard time damaging high agility ships with only 2 red dice per ship, whereas 3 red dice ships have an easier time getting some damage through.

Remember to use that 5k on the Scyks! Scyk cannons work in part as an Accuracy Corrector too, increasing the average damage of the Scyk from 1 to 1.5 when it's actionless.