This much-maligned little ship is actually one of my favourite designs in X-wing, so I've really been trying to find a use for them. Unlike most others I don't think they're useless or directly overcosted, but there is definitely a problem with their implementation in this game.

Personally, I don't run any Scyk without the title and a cannon. 90% of the time I'll also slap on a stealth device and run them with Serissu:

84 points

Serissu (32)
M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (20), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Stealth Device (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Cartel Spacer (26) x 2
M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (14), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Stealth Device (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

With a Z or something to be used as a flanker or a blocker. Keep these guys in formation at range 3, preferably behind asteroids. For an undamaged Scyk that's 3 + 1 range + 1 asteroid + 1 stealth device + 1 Serissu = 7 defense dice. Of course, this is not always practical but you should get at least the first one or two turns under these ideal conditions. For me, that was enough to dodge the incoming fire from imperial aces and then have Serissu one-shot Soontir through an asteroid in the first round of shooting.

So, the Scyk can be useful. My big problem with the ship is that there is a very, very limited span of options with it. Personally, I don't see it viable without the title, SD and a cannon (Mangler or HLC). I treat the PS2 Scyk as a 23 to 27 point ship due to the necessary upgrades (Mangler/HLC and SD/Hull/Shield upgardes.) The other Scum ships are so flexible that the Scyk feels really restricting. Why was there no illicit slot? This alone may have made the ship far more attractive.

Has anyone else had some measure of success with this little guy? What do you think is wrong with the design and how do you think it can be improved?

27 points just for 3 hlc cannons on ships that get 1 shot is a tough pill to swallow.

I have run Scyk's in swarms, as support ships and other ways and my experience is

1). They cost too much to run as a naked or mangalor cannon swarm. Further, Serrisu helps, but also costs too much compared to Howlrunner.

2). They do not work as arc dodgers, and they do not have an ace that can pull off three actions when fully tricked out like Soonter, Jake, or Tycho.

3). They do not work as brawlers as they do not have enough health.

The only way they kinda work is with an HTC or MC as the throw in ship for a 3+ ship build with more threatening targets. If your opponent has one less ship that you, they tend to focus on something big like an IG-88 or Firespray, allowing the M3 to float around and take pot shots until you make a mistake and they are an easy target. If you have 20-23 points left and are wondering what to fill it with, you may wanr to re-consider your list IMO. The lack of 3-turn hurts in this roll, but that seems to be a Scum theme.

Evidently it is on the list to get fixed, so for now, buy 1 or2, not 6.

I want to love scyks, I really do. But every time I start kitting one out, I start looking at warthogs and go for them instead. If you leave them naked, I would almost always grab equal numbers of Z-95s instead. Maybe if the title was cheaper I would use them more, but I'm also starting to think about doing a control list with a flechette and ion combo supporting a heavy hitter. Unfortunately I think I will still gravitate towards warthogs for having almost triple the health as these guys.

mangalor

HTC

roll

Is that Mandalore's sister planet?

I, too, find the Heavy Taser Cannon lacking.

Yes, at least the Scyks have Barrel Roll.

The Mangalor is a modified mangler cannon outfitted for Mandalorian ships

it's exactly like a Mangler cannon, it just costs 2 more points

I too find there is a lack of heavy tasers (range 1 cannons with ion and guaranteed damage ala feedback? maybe only usable while bumping?)

http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/Mangalore

Yes, at least the Scyks have Barrel Roll.

I want to love scyks, I really do. But every time I start kitting one out, I start looking at warthogs and go for them instead. If you leave them naked, I would almost always grab equal numbers of Z-95s instead.

Agreed. For a weapons platform, they do not have enough agility vs. health to justify the difference in cost versus a Y wing or even a Hawk. If I want a swarm, Z95's are of more value.

I kinda feel like the Scyk was a result of FFG being overly cautious of power creep. They didn't want us to have to many HLC in one list so they upped the cost. They didn't want us to have a cheaper Interceptor/Awing so it's less maneuverable. They didn't want it to make the Z obsolete so it don't have a illicit slot for scummy shenanigans. And last but not least it has barrel roll over boost so we can't put on AT to help it survive.

The end result is a ship that, point for point, kinda sucks at all available roles.

Its one and only boon is the cannon slot. The problem is that cannons for the most part aren't cheap, to justify the cost you need to know that the ship is going to live to use it. It's just not practical to put 1/4th your list into a ship that can and will die to a single volley of fire. The only thing that compares is something like Soontir but he's deceptively tanky with all the evade and focus tokens he builds up, not to mention AT. Hell even the Awing has 4 health, puting it out of 1 shot range for most practical scenarios.

If we had a better range of cheap cannon options they might see more use. Perhaps they could FAQ the Flechette Cannon to either be able to stack up to 2 or more stress or allow it to deal more then one damage. It's also possible that maybe the tractor beam is good enough to be worth spamming on a cheapish platform. Or maybe we can just get a new scum only cannon to use

Nal-Hutta Scatter Cannon -3 cost- -1 range(1-2?)- -4 red- Scum only

Upon attacking receive 1 stress. If this ship is already stressed then equiped ship takes 1 hit ignoring shields.

Also be nice if we got a Scyk only modifcation that either let us gain the Illicit slot or possibly boost.

Hollow Hull(Mod) -0 cost-

This ship may take one Illicit upgrade at a discount of -2. Minimum 0

Or a slightly more fun if perhaps a tad harder to balance idea

Hollow Hull(Mod) -2 cost-

This ship may take up to two illicit upgrades.

Having a horde of doped up pilots or a lunatic loaded up with explosives and what amounts to a laser shotgun seems fairly scummy to me

I think they could be made more interesting with a really simple fix...

Car'das Smuggler

Mod - 0 points - "Increase this ship's PS by two. You cannot equip another card that further increases PS."

This would mean that the basic model jumps ahead of other swarms, which is always nice on a ship that can barrel roll, and is no longer prey for the Predator ept.

Serissu is now also moving later than the big hitters like soontir and whisper.

There's also a cost, as the PS increase snaffles up your Mod slot. Who knows, the Tansarii might even see some play, as 17 points for a PS7 EPT ship isn't too shabby, opening up some nice wingman, decoy, outmanoeuvre, squad leader tricks...

So, basically a free vet instincts that uses your mod slot instead of ept - what do you think?

I guy at my FLGS does very well with a scyk mangler swarm. Five of them all with manglers. During the tournament when he debuted it he took out fat turrets and escort and tie interceptors. Against my modified tie swarm he's about 50/50, just depends which one of us makes a mistake first. Basically, I'm not seeing a problem with them.

I think one of the designers said they were concerned about 4 ships flying about with HLC's, thus they probably got pre-nerfed a bit.

I guy at my FLGS does very well with a scyk mangler swarm. Five of them all with manglers. During the tournament when he debuted it he took out fat turrets and escort and tie interceptors. Against my modified tie swarm he's about 50/50, just depends which one of us makes a mistake first. Basically, I'm not seeing a problem with them.

It's difficult to base anything off a small playgroup. A good player can get away with just about anything from what I've observed. You have the obscurity to take into account also, you don't see them often so alot of players are less accustomed to predicting the dial. A good player with a bad list can stomp a bad player with a good list.

That being said if I had to list the problem it's that we can now take 5 special Ks that have more hit points and get the range 1 attack bonus. The only thing we trade off for having alot more hitpoints on the table is the mangler effect that is of dubious value depending on what you're fighting.

The Scyk by far is the biggest head scratcher since Alex and Frank have been leading the design of X-Wing. In another thread I was quick to defend those gentlemen as the task they had of designing an entire new faction and not letting anything broken slip out into the game was an unenviable one. That being said the Scyk has almost nothing going for it.

Its got a poor dial. It can't go slow as it's lacking a 1 straight and at the same time it can't go fast as it has no 5 straight, the 4 is white, and has no 3 turns. It also can't boost without equipping EU which mean not only means that it's maneuverability is limited but it also can't take a very important defensive upgrade: Autothrusters.

So what does it have defensively? Well it's a 3 agility ship so at first blush it looks like it could have some decent survivability but then is offset by the fact that it has the least total hitpoints of any ship in X-Wing with just 1 shield and 2 hull. Yes it can take an evade action but that just means you aren't using an offensive action.

Offensively, it's pretty much just offensive (and by offensive I mean it has offended my sensibilities). Yes you can equip the title so that you can upgrade it to a glass "cannon" but you are also paying a tax to do so. As if Heavy Laser Cannons weren't costly enough. And speaking of the title, we were already well past the point where Missles and Torpedoes were considered dangerous, so again, why the tax? Now obviously ordnance does have some saving graces and my general dismissal does a disservice to Proton Rockets, an otherwise fantastic little bit of power. The problem here is that while the Scyk has the potential to use "Prockets" to their fullest potential they are yet again hampered by the fact that the combination of their flawed dial and lack of survivability typically won't allow a swarm of them t alpha strike you without suffering casualties before they fire. Same with a swarm of cannon wielding M3-A's. You can do a swarm of 5 with Mangler's but with just 3 dice attacks you are still limited on overall firepower. 4 with HLC's looks imposing but they are still going to die incredibly easy.

I wish they wouldn't have given it a title at all and instead migrated at least the cannon and missile slots directly onto the upgrade bar. Taking it a step further it also could have gotten a boost action native to the action bar so as to equip Autothrusters as well as to give it even greater latitude in repositioning. That clearly would have made for an aggressively costed ship that would have been able to have great impact in swarms but also as a single add on to a list where it makes for a tough decision on who your opponent can reasonably ignore. Who knows, maybe these ideas are over the top and would have made for an overpowered ship.

In the end, I don't know how the heck to try and fix what we have now given how it was built. As I alluded to previously I don't hold it against Alex, Frank or whoever else was involved in it's design as it was a daunting task they had before them. Clearly they went conservative instead of letting something overpowered sneak through.

I suppose it's easier to buff a ship than to nerf it. I'm just not sure what they can do to improve the Scyk, since people are generally unhappy with most aspects of it. Would it be enough to lower the costs to be much more in line with the TIE Fighter aces *with* the Heavy Scyk title included?

2x Cartel Spacers w/ Title, Ion Cannon

2x Cartel Spacers w/ Title, Flechette cannon

Ndru with Clusters, Glitterstim, Lone Wolf

99 Points

Its an interesting list. In the first couple of turns, you have a lot of range and control with the Scyks. You also have Ndru who can drop the hammer on a critical target for one round (averaging 7 hits from the cluster missiles) and reasonably hope to survive the poopstorm he finds himself in. I am still tweaking the build, but timing for Ndru is critical - you have to hold him back slightly to keep him alive until you commit him. Once committed, go for broke and try and cause as much damage as possible before your lack of HP starts to tell.

I bought four of these little devils. So far I have flown two of them, once. I want badly go like them, they look so cool. I just can't justify the cost. To add injury to insult they are also loose on their pegs. Maybe the kahzharc consonant fighters will pair awesomely with them somehow..

I like them in Epic. 4x Tansarii Point Veterans w/ title + ptl + mangler + stealth with 1x Serissu w/ same upgrades punches the huge ships while probably weathering the bulk of the storm.

They should erreta the title down to 0 and if they suddenly become too strong they can raise it to 1.

They've changed the phantom there's no reason they can't help other ships the same way.

[A good player with a bad list can stomp a bad player with a good list.

One of the reasons this is such a good game.

But overall I agree with your post, I just wanted to provide a contrasting point of view to further the discussion.

Although most of us CAN'T take 5 Khiraxhgdhgfs yet.

Well lets take a look at its so called counterparts and see where they went.

First of all the MA-3 was supposed to be a customizable ship in other words you can build it into a glass cannon, a control ship, or an interceptor. But lets take a look at possibly the most common one the interceptor.

So the MA-3 cost 14 points has TL Focus BR and Evade where the counterparts both have boost so EU is going to be needed. That bumps it from 14 to 18 points the cost of an interceptor that has 1 shield over hull and 1 less firepower. An interceptor with Targeting computer would be 20 points but still have 3 firepower. So lets give it a populat interceptor build the push the limit EPT, well for that you are going to need the high skilled generics the green squadron saber/royal guard squadron TPV pilots. So to upgrade from cartel spacer to TPV is 3 points the same cost from Alpha to Saber. So for the EPT + EU you would spend 24 points about the same as a Saber PTL but saber has 1 more firepower, and 1 more point than a green PTL where the green has 1 less skill but 1 more shield.

However the biggest cruch to this build is the dial. PTL doesn't work as well on a MA-3 as it does on the A-wing and TIE interceptors because there is no green hard turns on the MA-3. The green hard turn allows you to make full use of your movement even if you are using PTL to do 2 actions a turn. If you don't have a hard turn and using PTL you would often have to use boost to make the complete turn taking away 1 of your actions thus negating the advantage of the PTL to do 2 actions a turn. Now lets just say that the MA-3 cost 2 more points but had a green hard turn either speed 1 or 2. Yes it would cost more but the PTL would have been very efficient and allowing for focus and evades each turn along with the boost and barrel roll or if it got into good position and with a higher pilot skill than green or saber focus and TL. It would have been the most expensive interceptor but it would have the best performance. However with its current dial PTL is not something you want to put on it.

I've pre-odered 5 Kihraxz Fighter. I hope, they will perform better than my 4 M3-As which I had pre-odered last wave. If they won't, I'm going to pre-oder only one till two ship next wave to see what they are capable of.

Btw, I like the paint scheme of the Kihraxz and M3-As, it's like a sub-faction of the scum. Hope, we see more of them.

My advice: Play the M2-As along with a tanky ship like Firespay or other large base ship. You need a ship which draw the fire or which is a bigger threat/ easier target to your opponent.

Good analysis there marinealver. Sounds like a cheap upgrade that would give it green turns would improve it a lot. Although possibly not something they would do if it would make PTL auto include on another ship.

Which is too bad IMO. I don't mind an occasional auto include, as long as they are kept in check and don't break the game.

The scyk would be much better by just moving 1 point from the ship to the title. At 13 points the basic one would compete with the z-95. If you want it as a hlc-platform, the price is rather fair at the moment. Or give it an alternative title for the heavy scyk title that gives it defense(miniautothrusters?) and it would be fine.