Buzzsaw Whisper

35 point Stealth Device Soontir

Mauler with VI

You have 3 points left, so a hull/stealth could go on Mauler, or you could just keep the initiative bid for when you face other PS 9's. You could go Targeting Computer on Mauler because why not and still be reasonably safe initiative bid wise.

Either way you get to see where Dash ends up and then move, which should help significantly.

I actually like this build quite a bit, whisper hates rebel captive and mauler can scoop that stress for you.

What does a Buzzsaw Whistler look like?

Buzzsaw Whisper is this:

Whisper (Veteran Instincts, Fire-Control System, Gunner, Advanced Cloaking Device) 44 points

It's usually very efficient, and almost guarantees that Whisper will hit, then get the focus and cloak.

I really like ParaGoomba Slayer's build and will try it. I had one already, which is similar except only two PS9 pilots:

Soontir (Push the Limit, Royal Guard TIE, Autothrusters, Stealth Device)

Whisper (Veteran Instincts, Fire-Control System, Gunner, Advanced Cloaking Device)

Backstabber (Engine Upgrade)

99 points

A buzzsaw is a ship that utilizes the broken game ruining Gunner + FCS combo. The other upgrades on Whisper would be VI and ACD. This is the typical build for Whisper and it comes to 44 points.

You can also pull off a 4 ship PS9 build with imperials. Granted the ships are not as decked out

Maarek Stele, title, VI, ATC

Mithril Mauler VI

Turr VI

Tetran Cowell VI

Extra guns, but way less dice mods

I've also used a similar build:

Buzzsaw Whisper, Soontir as above and Dark Curse w/ Stealth Device. Dark Curse is great for blocking and being a nuisance to kill, but unfortunately lacks punch. Backstabber with hull upgrade might be better. Rebel Captive is annoying, however. On the plus side, Dash + Corran are not too difficult thanks to having 2 PS 9 heavy hitters and a nimble blocker. Mauler won't be able to block but if he can get into range 1, definitely has more punch and he is certainly an asset vs rebel captive

The biggest weakness for this type of build is stress-dealers. If they are not prevalent in your meta, then don't worry too much about it, but if they are common/become more common, it might be worthwhile to drop Whisper for Predator + HLC Rexler. He isn't hamstrung by stress as much. Alternatively, once the Raider drops, predator vader w/ EU, title + ATC could be a good replacement for Soontir (Vader doesn't like stress much, but at least he doesn't outright die when double stressed like the baron does).

Panic Attack isn't a thing in my meta besides for one player, who uses my ships when he plays and is rather inexperienced, so besides for Rebel Captive I would have no problem with weaponized stress. And against Rebel Captive I have 3 equal pilot skills to shunt stress with. Hell, I could not PtL with Soontir and give him the stress for a focus if I wanted.

Stressbot is kind of scary though lol.

Panic Attack isn't a thing in my meta besides for one player, who uses my ships when he plays and is rather inexperienced, so besides for Rebel Captive I would have no problem with weaponized stress. And against Rebel Captive I have 3 equal pilot skills to shunt stress with. Hell, I could not PtL with Soontir and give him the stress for a focus if I wanted.

Stressbot is kind of scary though lol.

Sounds like this could be a really good list for your area then!

Stressbot is scary, but unless dice crap out on you, you actually have enough firepower to kill that y before he even gets a shot (in theory anyway...)

I've seen Soontir (without SD), Turr Phennir with VI and Whisper run together.

It's pretty frustrating to play against but all the ships can fall apart at a breeze or last the entire game.

I've seen Soontir (without SD), Turr Phennir with VI and Whisper run together.

It's pretty frustrating to play against but all the ships can fall apart at a breeze or last the entire game.

Yeah I've played that same build too. In fact, it won me a store championship tourney, so its got a special place in my heart

VI Turr fills the same role as Mauler, but is slightly better but of course you can't pad Fel and Whisper with as many goodies, so that's the tradeoff. They're very similar though and I think they can do equally well.

2 things:

1.) What about leaving Mauler out and going for a 21 point initiative bid? My fetish for novelty troll builds makes this one quite tempting, and the TIE Fighter autodies in this build so why feed your opponent ~20 points? If you lose one of your workhorse ships and the TIE fighter, but you kill one of their fat turrets or whatever you're probably losing if time is called.

2.) If you replace Gunner with Rebel Captive on Whisper that frees up some points for both an initiative bid and a Stealth Device/Hull Upgrade/Shield Upgrade on Mauler. It would also patch up Whisper being slightly easier to kill compared to non-bumped Soontir. You do lose that obnoxious gunner FCS shenanigans, but at the same time you need your non-Tie Fighter ships to last a while.