The Heavy Scyk title should increase hull by one.

What the Scyks need is a new subfaction

I'm not convinced anything could "fix" the M3-A, in the sense of making it competitive in tournament play.

The Scyk was the answer to a question nobody was asking.

The dial is kind of bad. The statline is atrocious. The available upgrade slots are extremely limiting and throwing more points on it is a bad idea anyway. The named pilot abilities are underwhelming.

If you "fix" all that, you just have a new ship...

So why not make a new ship instead?

They did, but they made the mistake of giving it an unpronounceable name: "Kirhacxazeoiszx."

I really want to know why the heck the Scyk doesn't have an illicit slot? That alone would have saved the ship for me.

There must have been a reason for the lack of illicit. Have no idea what it was though. I can't see any of the current selection of illicits leading to an OP Scyk.

I'm not convinced anything could "fix" the M3-A, in the sense of making it competitive in tournament play.

The Scyk was the answer to a question nobody was asking.

The dial is kind of bad. The statline is atrocious. The available upgrade slots are extremely limiting and throwing more points on it is a bad idea anyway. The named pilot abilities are underwhelming.

If you "fix" all that, you just have a new ship...

So why not make a new ship instead?

They did, but they made the mistake of giving it an unpronounceable name: "Kirhacxazeoiszx."

Really bizarre that the Kihraxz has almost exactly the same dial. Maybe its so that Serissu can run alongside 4 Kihraxz and keep them safer for 1 turn. She goes down so easily that it hardly seems worthwhile though ...

There must have been a reason for the lack of illicit. Have no idea what it was though. I can't see any of the current selection of illicits leading to an OP Scyk.

Serrisu + PTL + Stealth + Cloaking Device

I'm not saying it's broken, but it's probably the kind of thing that makes the designers nervous.

There must have been a reason for the lack of illicit. Have no idea what it was though. I can't see any of the current selection of illicits leading to an OP Scyk.

Serrisu + PTL + Stealth + Cloaking Device

I'm not saying it's broken, but it's probably the kind of thing that makes the designers nervous.

28 points to make a 3 HP ship with no bite and a terrible dial BARELY worth it?

Not sure why that would make designers nervous.

What about a pair of modifications?:

Hutt Cartel Refit: Scyk only. Reduce cost of attached upgrade cards by 1 point to a minimum of 0pts. Excludes EPT. 0pts

Makes a big difference for the cheapest cannons.

Car'das Refit: Scyk only. Gain an Illicit upgrade slot and +1 hull value. 0pts

Makes for a more expensive but higher quality Scyk,

I really like the idea of Heavy Scyk adding a hull point.

The main thing for me is that they have no 1 forward, which means you have this great cannon but you can't slow roll with it. And you can't even tak eInertial Dampeners to stop for a round to maintain range.

The M-3A is "supposed" to fill two roles: that of the TIE fighter and that of the TIE Interceptor. The trouble is it does neither well. Without either boost or decent high PS pilots it can't fill the interceptor roll very well, and is too expensive to fulfill the TIE fighter roll. I would like the fixes available able to enable both of these build to be viable.

Firstly, I'll look at the TIE fighter type of role. The ship just needs to be cheaper. The dial is fine, the lack of an EPT or boost is not a problem. But a point of PS, the difference in the dial, the ability to target lock without any ability to gain extra actions and the upgrade of a hull into a shield, does not add up to 2 points of value. We don't need more of these, we just need the ability to field more of them so that they become an efficient swarm of mini-swarm ship. I think Mjor Juggler's cost prediction puts them at just over 13 points, so can we take something off them to reduce their cost by 1pt? How about a title (therefore making this ability not available to Heavy Scyks), that costs -1 point but reduces your PS by 1, call it "Tansaari Point Training Ship" maybe? For variety I think we need another generic, so how about a PS4 for 15 points?

Secondly, what does the Scyk need to be a better elite Interceptor-type ship? Predominant amongst the interceptors are the high PS elite ships: Fel, Jax and Turr. All of which have abilities that improve their offensive capabilities or mobility. Neither of the named pilots for the M-3A fit this role - Seri is Howlrunner and A'Shera is Dark Curse. Hence a good start to making elite heavy Scyks more viable would be new named pilots that increase the ship's offense or mobility. These ships will obviously be making use of the Heavy Scyk title, probably with a cannon, so they would need some abilities that work with that set up. They also need decent PS. I would like to see new named pilots at PS 7 and 9, both with an EPT. Here's some ideas for pilot abilities:

- "At the start of the combat phase you may make a free boost or barrel roll action."

- "When you acquire a target lock, also assign an evade (or focus, maybe) token to your ship."

- "When you declare an attack with a [cannon] secondary weapon, remove one focus or evade token from the defender."

Cost again is an issue. This ship is going to clock up costs fairly quickly, but given that you can't just easily change the heavy scyk title, the options for how to deal with this are limited. I think the best way to go would be with a cannon option built specifically for this ship at the right price. This is where the Procket-cannon idea might fit. Given that this way of building the ship is designed to work as an arc dodging, close-in knife-fighter, how about making it cheap, but only range 1-2? Cost 3, 1 dmg, R 1-2, +1 dice per agility (max 3).

Thirdly... I actually think there's a third build for the Scyk. It's the pseudo B-Wing that you can make with Mangler or HLCs. a slow-rolling long-range jouster. I think the suggested extra hull point might fit nicely with this ship. I also had this idea: After attacking with a [cannon] secondary weapon you may make an additional attack with your primary weapon. Perhaps put the both on an M-3A only modification for a point or two (need to do some maths to work out the exact value). Alternatively to 1 hull, you could allow it to fit a second modification of up to 3 points (or reduced cost by 3 points as with X1 title) to give it more flexibility.

Cheerio,

Ben

Advanced Directional Thrusters (0 pts)

Scyk only. Modification.

When performing a barrel roll you may use the 1 Bank template.

AND...

When you execute a Turn manuever you may instead execute a Tallon Roll of the same speed and bearing.

Here's something crazy -- do the barrel roll with the 1 (hard turn) template instead. 90 degree reposition, and unique to Scyk.

I was going to suggest this. Make them able to use any 1-speed template when rolling - this would give them some pretty cool options that no other ship has.

I think dropping the base price by one and making the Heavy Scyk card cost 3 points but also grant an additional point of hull would be enough to let the Scyk see some play.

With -1 cost to the generic pilots, the right cost for title + built in hull is actually 1 point, not 3. Yes I have run the numbers. :-)

Some not so off the top of my head ideas.

-0pt illicit upgrade or tech upgrade. 1pt for both.

They should have had illicits all along. Tech would be fun on a ship this customizable.

-modification that requires you take the heavy Scyk and a cannon that give you another mod slot and a hull upgrade.

Think about the new mist Hunter title. Forces you to take 2 things and then you get a benefit. Something similar here.

-light interceptor title. Lose the shield, gain boost.

Makes it a real interceptor. Can now take thrusters.

-medium interceptor...

There are lots of options for a fix if the Scyk had the upgrades slots it needed. WHEN it gets an aces style pack I think adding slots, a Scyk only cannon (or a unique scum only cannon), and some decent pilots with EPTs would do it.

The parameters of any good solution:

1) A solution can't make the Heavy Syck title not worth taking.

1b) The solution should make that title more valuable

2) it must offer value worth [cost of solution] more than the cost of the title, plus ~1 point that the Syck is already over costed.

2b) for instance: the solution can be worth 6 points, but only cost 3.

3) the solution cannot make the Scyk fill a role already filled by another Scum ship.

4) an ideal solution will allow at least 2 different viable builds on a Scyk, notwithstanding synergy with any given pilot ability.

That's what I see. I think I'm missing at least one thing. I'll post my proposed solutions separately.

Proposed Syck solutions:

Modification (heavy Scyk only): when defending against a primary weapon, you may change one of your results to [evade].

Makes green dice less fickle. Makes the ship more survivable against PWT, but doesn't have an effect against TLTs or Ion Turrets. Bonus: actually incentivizes people to bring Torpedoes and missiles.

I'll leave it to others to say how much it's worth, and what the name should be.

The reason the scyk does not have illicit is to give the scum headhunter a niche as a cheap platform to carry illicit upgrades.

Proposed Syck solution:

Modification (Heavy Syck only)

After performing a Green maneuver, you may perform a free action.

This may be worth a point or two over the Heavy Syck tax, but taking this modification uses both the title slot and the modification slot. If the current wording would make the ship OP or too expensive, an easy nerf would be requiring the Title but disallowing any secondary weapons. You'd then be limited to a 2 Red dice ship- with no Boost- but it would have crazy action economy.

Proposed Syck solution:

Modification (Heavy Syck only)

After performing a Green maneuver, you may perform a free action.

This may be worth a point or two over the Heavy Syck tax, but taking this modification uses both the title slot and the modification slot. If the current wording would make the ship OP or too expensive, an easy nerf would be requiring the Title but disallowing any secondary weapons. You'd then be limited to a 2 Red dice ship- with no Boost- but it would have crazy action economy.

That's interesting, but it's basically a more expensive "Night Beast," and I don't see people taking him too often. You could put this on Serissu or Laetin for a bit of a PS boost, I suppose. I think I would change it from any free action to a free evade action but allow you to keep your secondary weapon. This has two effects:

1) You aren't going to get an easy TL + Focus combo, which I think would be too powerful.

2) Taking the title and losing the secondary weapon is counter to what this ship should be about.

3) It emphasizes the "interceptor" part of M3-A Interceptor. These things should be maneuverable little guys similar to A-wings and TIE Interceptors. But we've seen that their dial doesn't really match up. The free evade would help them shore up defenses (especially since they can't take Autothrusters). Thematically, you could explain it as a pilot being able to juke more on a green maneuver since it is an easy maneuver to make.

I would really like to see this on Laetin. I think he could become a big headache for an opponent.

Honestly, I still think it's too powerful. You could put it on a Tansarii Point Veteran with Push The Limit, execute a green maneuver, overlap a base, but still trigger PtL because you get a free action. On turns where you don't collide, you get 3 actions with Push the Limit! Focus-Target Lock-Evade, anyone? Soontir does that, but he's only one ship. I'd hate to see a whole squad of these things.

So let's talk about pricing. A free evade every turn is basically like a free hull point every turn. That's impressive. It's at least worth 4 points, right? Maybe 5? But since these guys are already overcosted by about 2, how about just 3? So with the title and this mod, you're looking at 5 points. On a Cartel Spacer, that's 19 points. If you didn't put any secondary weapons on them, you could fly 5 Cartel Spacers with a free evade on a green maneuver, but with only 2 attack dice. You know, I still don't think anyone would do that. They'll still melt under focused fire.

How about we try and put secondary weapons on. 19+7 for an HLC is 26. It's just shy of running 4 of them. If you ran 3, you'd have 22 points left over. For 9 points you could upgrade them all to Tansarii Point Veterans. Now you have 13 points left to spend on EPTs. I think PTL or Predator would be good choices. That's another 9 points. You now have a 3-ship squad with 9 total hit points, throwing 12 attack dice, with a 4-point initiative bid. Doesn't sound too good.

Thanks for listening to me think out loud. My conclusion is that this would be a decent upgrade and probably wouldn't imbalance things. You'd probably only want 1 or 2 Scyks with this new modification and then fill out your list with something like a Firespray or YV-666.

Proposed Syck solution:

Modification (Syck only)

Once per round, when a friendly ship at range 1-2 receives a focus, evade or blue Target Lock token, you may receive one also.

This would give a bit of action independence for stressed or bumped ships, and could actually give a lot of extra survivability to ships that end up with both the focus and evade tokens. Hillarity woukd ensue the first time A'shera is missed by an attack, gets an evade token, and then 3 more Scyks end up with the evade token- who are then able to hand another one right over to her. (When you come at the King, you best not miss.)

This would also help lower PS ships get target locks on higher PS ships, thus making it easier to land Torpedoes.

It would work best in groups or swarms of Scyks, but has also would work well in mixed groups.

I think many of the Scyk's problems actually stem from the design of the Starviper. As an interceptor the Scyk by rights should have had boost rather than barrel roll. Unfortunately with the creation of Autothrusters the number of ships with native boost had to be restricted. If Scum as a faction started with the Scyk, the aggressor and the Starviper all having access to AT would be a little over the top (I don't mean overpowered here, more too little variety).

BR is great action for sure, but with Boost Scyks would have been able to take AT and increased there survivability at a relatively cheap cost. The Starviper with it's increased action economy is really missing the evade action, but with both Boost and BR here was no room. I would have given the Starviper BR, TL, focus and evade, while the Scyk would have Boost, TL, Focus and BR. Both would have likely been costed at 1 pt less, so 24 and 13 respectively.

15 pt Scyks w/ AT would have been viable. 13 points Scyks without are slightly tougher TIEs.

With the heavy title, you get a Mangler for 19 or 21 with AT. An Autoblaster for 20 (much better when the ship has boost). A HLC for 22 or 24 with AT. For the PS5 with EPT you get the equivalent of an Royal Guard interceptor (TPV w/PtL, mangler) for 25pts with one less PS but a shield (worse dial, but cannon plus TL makes up for it somewhat), add AT if desired for 27. Royal guard interceptors are still viable ships, so presumably would the elite mangler Scyk.

Finally the title should have added all three slots (if they knew that Extra munitions was coming I think it would have been likely). I still don't like the idea that they need to pay for the ordnance slots though, but I firmly beeline they do need to pay for the cannon slot as cannons are all priced at a native 3 attack dice. 9 points for an extra 2 attack dice (HLC), and 6 points for an extra 1 attack dice (mangler) is appropriate.

Unfortunately my analysis of the issue stems all the way back to development, because that is where the fundamental issues happened. I'm not sure there is a sure fire way to fix the Scyk at this point. But that being said the best way to fix a ship is almost always better pilots. It is hard to evaluate the Scyk when it's two named pilots are poor (Laetin would see [some] play with an EPT) or a support ship (Serrisu is great but is an enabler and not a finisher).

All interceptor class ships really should have boost in my opinion.

I think many of the Scyk's problems actually stem from the design of the Starviper. As an interceptor the Scyk by rights should have had boost rather than barrel roll. Unfortunately with the creation of Autothrusters the number of ships with native boost had to be restricted. If Scum as a faction started with the Scyk, the aggressor and the Starviper all having access to AT would be a little over the top (I don't mean overpowered here, more too little variety).

BR is great action for sure, but with Boost Scyks would have been able to take AT and increased there survivability at a relatively cheap cost. The Starviper with it's increased action economy is really missing the evade action, but with both Boost and BR here was no room. I would have given the Starviper BR, TL, focus and evade, while the Scyk would have Boost, TL, Focus and BR. Both would have likely been costed at 1 pt less, so 24 and 13 respectively.

15 pt Scyks w/ AT would have been viable. 13 points Scyks without are slightly tougher TIEs.

With the heavy title, you get a Mangler for 19 or 21 with AT. An Autoblaster for 20 (much better when the ship has boost). A HLC for 22 or 24 with AT. For the PS5 with EPT you get the equivalent of an Royal Guard interceptor (TPV w/PtL, mangler) for 25pts with one less PS but a shield (worse dial, but cannon plus TL makes up for it somewhat), add AT if desired for 27. Royal guard interceptors are still viable ships, so presumably would the elite mangler Scyk.

Finally the title should have added all three slots (if they knew that Extra munitions was coming I think it would have been likely). I still don't like the idea that they need to pay for the ordnance slots though, but I firmly beeline they do need to pay for the cannon slot as cannons are all priced at a native 3 attack dice. 9 points for an extra 2 attack dice (HLC), and 6 points for an extra 1 attack dice (mangler) is appropriate.

Unfortunately my analysis of the issue stems all the way back to development, because that is where the fundamental issues happened. I'm not sure there is a sure fire way to fix the Scyk at this point. But that being said the best way to fix a ship is almost always better pilots. It is hard to evaluate the Scyk when it's two named pilots are poor (Laetin would see [some] play with an EPT) or a support ship (Serrisu is great but is an enabler and not a finisher).

All interceptor class ships really should have boost in my opinion.

Errata the heavy title card to also add on a hull.*

*Read that idea somewhere and think it works great.

I think many of the Scyk's problems actually stem from the design of the Starviper. As an interceptor the Scyk by rights should have had boost rather than barrel roll. Unfortunately with the creation of Autothrusters the number of ships with native boost had to be restricted. If Scum as a faction started with the Scyk, the aggressor and the Starviper all having access to AT would be a little over the top (I don't mean overpowered here, more too little variety).

BR is great action for sure, but with Boost Scyks would have been able to take AT and increased there survivability at a relatively cheap cost. The Starviper with it's increased action economy is really missing the evade action, but with both Boost and BR here was no room. I would have given the Starviper BR, TL, focus and evade, while the Scyk would have Boost, TL, Focus and BR. Both would have likely been costed at 1 pt less, so 24 and 13 respectively.

15 pt Scyks w/ AT would have been viable. 13 points Scyks without are slightly tougher TIEs.

With the heavy title, you get a Mangler for 19 or 21 with AT. An Autoblaster for 20 (much better when the ship has boost). A HLC for 22 or 24 with AT. For the PS5 with EPT you get the equivalent of an Royal Guard interceptor (TPV w/PtL, mangler) for 25pts with one less PS but a shield (worse dial, but cannon plus TL makes up for it somewhat), add AT if desired for 27. Royal guard interceptors are still viable ships, so presumably would the elite mangler Scyk.

Finally the title should have added all three slots (if they knew that Extra munitions was coming I think it would have been likely). I still don't like the idea that they need to pay for the ordnance slots though, but I firmly beeline they do need to pay for the cannon slot as cannons are all priced at a native 3 attack dice. 9 points for an extra 2 attack dice (HLC), and 6 points for an extra 1 attack dice (mangler) is appropriate.

Unfortunately my analysis of the issue stems all the way back to development, because that is where the fundamental issues happened. I'm not sure there is a sure fire way to fix the Scyk at this point. But that being said the best way to fix a ship is almost always better pilots. It is hard to evaluate the Scyk when it's two named pilots are poor (Laetin would see [some] play with an EPT) or a support ship (Serrisu is great but is an enabler and not a finisher).

All interceptor class ships really should have boost in my opinion.

Your point about Boost is well-taken. It would have been too much to have 3 Autothruster ships right out the gate. However, I'm not sure I want Boost on my Scyks anyway. They usually have secondary weapons, so I'd rather see them get the ability to slow-roll.

Also, I'm not sure I agree that Scyks needed all three slots. They aren't huge bomber craft. And I think the idea of a small ship that can carry the weapon you need is a good one. It wouldn't make much sense to have extra munitions since they're so small.

This would be too convoluted, but what if the title cost 0 and added 0 to the cost of one torpedo, 1 to the cost of one missile, or 2 to the cost of one cannon. That gets you variable price, but it feels clunky, to me.

But the fact is that I'm still flying these guys anyway, so I don't know what it is keeping others from taking them.

Hmm.

I like the Scyk have alot of fun with them. If your wanting to buff them though. I have some suggestions.

1. A small ship cannon

Mentioned previously. Cannon *Small Ship Only* Range 1-3 Base 1 Red You may roll additional attack dice equal to your agility value, to a maximum of 3 additional dice. Cost 4 points

Or if we want to make it a bit more unique

Cannon *Small Ship Only* Range 1-3 Base 1 Red You may roll additional attack dice equal to your agility value. You cannot use focus with this weapon. Cost 4 points

That give the potential for a whooping 5 dice cannon but Makes it a bit more luck based to hit something.

2. Modification. Scyk only. You can add 1 to 3 red dice to your attack roll. Reduce your agility next turn by the same amount. 5 points.

This can potentially net you a Silly amount of dice for an attack but at the cost of making you a sitting duck next turn.

3. Modification. Scyk only. Increase PS +1 and add Boost to your action bar. 5 points.

4. Modification. Reflective armor. Increase your Shield and hull value by 1. 5 Points.

5. Modification. Scyk only. Heavy Loadout. Increase Armor and Shields by 2 each. Reduce Agility by 1(2?). 4 points

It's fine as a swarm ship. Compared to the TIE Fighter it's fine.

It's fine as a cheap cannon ship.

The problem with it are turrets and the hyper action economy that the nuanceless 2 ship meta possesses.

It's in the same boat as the Defender, X-Wing, and Starviper. If all they'd have to deal with were swarms and BBXX they'd be viable, albeit slightly pricey and with certain advantages they could leverage against normal lists.

Maybe these thing blow because half the ******* meta right now has an HLC as a turret with Push The Limit, not because their title card is overpriced (I don't think it is btw) by 1-2 points.