Can I choose which attack to use opportunist on when attacking with CMs? For instance the target has a focus. Can I use the first attack to try to strip the focus then use opportunist for the second?

Can I choose which attack to use opportunist on when attacking with CMs? For instance the target has a focus. Can I use the first attack to try to strip the focus then use opportunist for the second?

Yes, this works. But, for the same price, I think you'll find that Lone Wolf+Glitterstim yield more average damage.

Thanks guys! I've read several threads but they all seem to indicate that opportunist happened first in the attack sequence.

Thanks guys! I've read several threads but they all seem to indicate that opportunist happened first in the attack sequence.

It applies to any attack. Any attack that meets the conditions. The second roll for cluster missiles is legally a second attack. The only difference is there is no "Declare Target" step.

The new question is: how much should you spend on N'dru? I see a lot of LW+ Cluster+ glimmerstim... That's a 25pt z-95. Can you recoup that before 4hp fails? Is 3 more points for a hull worth it?

Theoretical 28pt xwing-

3/2/2/3 PS 6

N'Dru @28pts-

3*/2.5/2/3 PS 7 + glimmerstim

(3* because Lonewolf + cluster Spike + ability is probably similar to 3 red. 2.5's to simulate LW reroll)

I was loving him at 22pt with LW and hot shot blaster... 25 seems to be pushing it for me... 28??? Eh.

Depends on the rest of the list, is N'Dru going to draw agro or are they going to let him get the flank? What else do you want to fit into the list?

The new question is: how much should you spend on N'dru? I see a lot of LW+ Cluster+ glimmerstim... That's a 25pt z-95. Can you recoup that before 4hp fails? Is 3 more points for a hull worth it?

Theoretical 28pt xwing-

3/2/2/3 PS 6

N'Dru @28pts-

3*/2.5/2/3 PS 7 + glimmerstim

(3* because Lonewolf + cluster Spike + ability is probably similar to 3 red. 2.5's to simulate LW reroll)

I was loving him at 22pt with LW and hot shot blaster... 25 seems to be pushing it for me... 28??? Eh.

Depends on the rest of the list, is N'Dru going to draw agro or are they going to let him get the flank? What else do you want to fit into the list?

That^

If you have another big threat in the list, then they'll typically ignore Ndru at least during the first exchanges. Many players will discount a Z95 add not a huge threat. But, if he gets off his missile while maintaining range, he's likely to roll 6+ damage across the two attacks. He carries a big, albeit pricey, stick, but IMO he has done his job if he lives long enough to fire that missile. Can often pay for himself by clearing a similarly priced target single handedly, or close to it.

The new question is: how much should you spend on N'dru? I see a lot of LW+ Cluster+ glimmerstim... That's a 25pt z-95. Can you recoup that before 4hp fails? Is 3 more points for a hull worth it?

Theoretical 28pt xwing-

3/2/2/3 PS 6

N'Dru @28pts-

3*/2.5/2/3 PS 7 + glimmerstim

(3* because Lonewolf + cluster Spike + ability is probably similar to 3 red. 2.5's to simulate LW reroll)

I was loving him at 22pt with LW and hot shot blaster... 25 seems to be pushing it for me... 28??? Eh.

From my still limited experience with him, 25pts seems like a sweet spot.

Those missiles can really give you an early edge in the fight, and Lonewolf+Glimmerstim should allow you to live long enough to unleash them. Once they are out, and you chose your target wisely, he should have paid for himself, and suddenly your opponent won't really bother with him, he's just in a Z-95...

25 pts is half the value of a IG, a TLT Y-Wing, a Tempest with AC and Cluster Missiles... there is a lot of early damage that N'Dru can make to oay for himself.... just don't build your list around him, complete it with him.

Since I play s&v rarely I decided to put together some builds for casual play. One is N'Dru and 3 Khrixz fighters. The others is a Z95 swarm with N'Dru. Not necessarily competitive but fun. There are two more on the boards getting balanced.

Thinking of doing the same thing with Kavil.

Sunday I played a rebel squad with Roark, Craken, Blount and a Bandit. Went up against 3 named Tie Advanced. With swarm on Cracken and Blount and 3 ships firing at PS12 the first volley was good but not great. Mid point of the game my opponent had only Vader left and I hadnt lost a ship. Then his dice got hot. An unmodified procket attack that revealed one hit and four crits! The HWK had suffered 2 crits earlier and with the TLT donut hole he was vulnerable. Vader got close enough to suck the exhaust out of his engines, rolled an unmodified 3 hits and Roark was gone. Got down to Cracken vs Vader, each with 1 HP left and a badly chosen maneuver put me on a rock. BANG! Game over. It was a good game with a fun build.

For heaven's sakes! 24 points tops for N'Dru. I use this dude a lot and he goes boom quite easily. I'm even cringing to think of spending nearly a quarter of my squad points on him. Still, with VI+Clusters+GlitterStim that's a hell of a punch he's packing.

BTW, am I the only one who thinks VI is a no-brainer on him?

I love VI on N'dru. It gives you an edge even when you're not activating N'dru's ability. PS 9 on a cheap, punchy platform does really nice things for a squad.

P.s. A roll of 4 hits followed by 5 crits with the combo Above, and two major explosions and the rest direct hits will kill a decimator. Unlikely, but eventually somewhere it will happen.

If you deploy well then N'dru can make a huge difference, if he gets to fire that missile with glitterstim then he's going to hurt something. If your opponent ignores him then he's getting a whole lot of dice up the jacksy, if he chances after him early he increases the chance of triggering LW and his ability and may get an early cluster to the face. This also gives the rest of your squad the chance to focus down the rest of your opponents list.

Over spending on a headhunter is a big mistake four hit points behind two dice does not last very long even rerolling a blank.

I run Ndru with lone wolf, inertial dampners and cluster missiles as part of a squadron with

four Binayre's Pirates (no upgrades)

and

Mux with mouldy crow title and TLT

I've had no end of good games with him so far, i've lost one in about eight games and that was a bit of a learning curve.

The z95s pirates and mux take on one ship at a time (reducing it to PS0) while ndru attacks from the flank and *hopefully* targets the biggest/least agile thing with the clusters althought ive found just getting them off at *anything* to make them pay for themselves to be as useful.

Dampners have been brilliant so far, especially for helping him stat at distance or get in the right range when he is.

Over spending on a headhunter is a big mistake four hit points behind two dice does not last very long even rerolling a blank.

I'd agree if he's your juiciest target, however I run him with Bossk and Palob. No one goes for N'dru first. PS7 is not too shabby, he attacks before the majority of opponents and anything that can kill him in one turn without him getting a missile off is kinda wasted chasing him over one side of the board while Bossk tears into the rest of his squadron.

Over spending on a headhunter is a big mistake four hit points behind two dice does not last very long even rerolling a blank.

I'd agree if he's your juiciest target, however I run him with Bossk and Palob. No one goes for N'dru first. PS7 is not too shabby, he attacks before the majority of opponents and anything that can kill him in one turn without him getting a missile off is kinda wasted chasing him over one side of the board while Bossk tears into the rest of his squadron.

25 points in a fragile ship I'd noble him quick before he ever gets those missiles off, probably at range three with an HLC on vessery.

I've seen more headhunters one shot than I have tie fighters and that's why I'm very weary of putting so many points on a named.

I'd put lone wolf on him and be done personally.

There is that but then you're pulling a 42 point ship out of your line to tackle 25 points on the flank!

If you dont kill him and he gets those missiles off you're losing more than you gain there. Even if you do you've had almost half your list in a standard game pulled out of the way of the majority of the enemy.

(im assuming Ndru will be isolates because only an idiot runs him in a pack)

Over spending on a headhunter is a big mistake four hit points behind two dice does not last very long even rerolling a blank.

I'd agree if he's your juiciest target, however I run him with Bossk and Palob. No one goes for N'dru first. PS7 is not too shabby, he attacks before the majority of opponents and anything that can kill him in one turn without him getting a missile off is kinda wasted chasing him over one side of the board while Bossk tears into the rest of his squadron.

25 points in a fragile ship I'd noble him quick before he ever gets those missiles off, probably at range three with an HLC on vessery.

I've seen more headhunters one shot than I have tie fighters and that's why I'm very weary of putting so many points on a named.

I'd put lone wolf on him and be done personally.

With respect if it's vessery shooting at me at range 3 I'm not too worried. He won't have a target lock on me because I move after him if his ability triggers then that means I've already got a juicier target closer than him which I'll still get to launch at first with a bit of luck. It depends on what else is in your list but if over a third of your list is heading off to one side of the table away from my other stuff then I'm pretty happy with that. You'd then need to be extremely lucky to one shot N'dru even with an HLC. N'dru is all about launching at the first real opportunity so if I've already launched then Glitterstim will be up so it increases my survivability even further.

Yeah it's a bit of a gamble but that's what playing scum is all about, if N'dru draws fire from Bossk and launches at a juicy target then I'm a happy scumbag.

There is that but then you're pulling a 42 point ship out of your line to tackle 25 points on the flank!

If you dont kill him and he gets those missiles off you're losing more than you gain there. Even if you do you've had almost half your list in a standard game pulled out of the way of the majority of the enemy.

(im assuming Ndru will be isolates because only an idiot runs him in a pack)

I'm not one of those players that sets up and goes straight I never joust but instead disrupt the enemies formation by making them turn to follow my faster ships.

Seeing me set up opposite then pulling hard turns is not unusual.

There is that but then you're pulling a 42 point ship out of your line to tackle 25 points on the flank!

If you dont kill him and he gets those missiles off you're losing more than you gain there. Even if you do you've had almost half your list in a standard game pulled out of the way of the majority of the enemy.

(im assuming Ndru will be isolates because only an idiot runs him in a pack)

Well he'd be set up on a flank away from the other ships so by going for him first I'm going where the scum players not expecting me to go I'm pulling him off course hopefully through a dense asteroid field and I'm putting ships in range two of n'dru cancelling his ability.

You're flying through a dense asteroid cloud in a defender? You're braver than i thought

There is that but then you're pulling a 42 point ship out of your line to tackle 25 points on the flank!

If you dont kill him and he gets those missiles off you're losing more than you gain there. Even if you do you've had almost half your list in a standard game pulled out of the way of the majority of the enemy.

(im assuming Ndru will be isolates because only an idiot runs him in a pack)

Well he'd be set up on a flank away from the other ships so by going for him first I'm going where the scum players not expecting me to go I'm pulling him off course hopefully through a dense asteroid field and I'm putting ships in range two of n'dru cancelling his ability.

I'm not one of those players that sets up and goes straight I never joust but instead disrupt the enemies formation by making them turn to follow my faster ships.

Seeing me set up opposite then pulling hard turns is not unusual.

Not quite sure how you're getting friendly stuff in range 2 of N'dru? With Vessery I'd deploy Palob smack in the middle but parallel to my board edge, Bossk would be red zeroing on turn one to allow Palob to catch up with him and leaving N'dru time to jet off in front. This should allow his first encounter to trigger LW and his ability.

Over spending on a headhunter is a big mistake four hit points behind two dice does not last very long even rerolling a blank.

I'd agree if he's your juiciest target, however I run him with Bossk and Palob. No one goes for N'dru first. PS7 is not too shabby, he attacks before the majority of opponents and anything that can kill him in one turn without him getting a missile off is kinda wasted chasing him over one side of the board while Bossk tears into the rest of his squadron.

25 points in a fragile ship I'd noble him quick before he ever gets those missiles off, probably at range three with an HLC on vessery.

Lots of assumption in this quote there is.

First, unless you took VI on Vessery, N'Dru will move after you and shoot before. We'll keep that in mind, but VI is a decent EPT for Vessery so it is possible.

Second, the N'Dru player is not a drone, he'll try to get himself into range 1-2 of Vessery (or his other target of choice). Both players have a different goal, but assuming that you will overplayed your opponent every time is presumptuous. So possible, but far from garanteed. And again, that's assuming that Vessery was the target in the first place, the N'Dru player should not blindly go for Vessery if the conditions are not right.

Third, to one-shot N'Dru with a HLC, you actually need to roll a perfect attack while your opponent rolled nothing. A Focus+TL HLC attack versus a lonewolf+focus 2 dice defense will actually average 2 damage. That's pretty far from a garanteed one shot. Possible, but I would not personally count on it.

Fourth, that's putting a 42pts + ship against a lone 25pts ship, of course it should have an edge. But meanwhile, I certainly hope that the rest of the 75pts is also doing something, just like the 58pts- should from the Empire side.

So basically, that face up would be up to the first engagement, how both player maneuver around it. Is it in range 2 or 3? If 3, yeah, advantage Vessery (if N'Dru went for him).... but if N'Dru got into range 2, Vessery is now in a world of pain, because those 2 Cluster Missiles with Focus and Lonewolf will average 4 damage, assuming that Vessery kept the focus for defense (in that case, one-shotting N'Dru is far from garanteed)... and crippling Vessery like that is well worth the 25pts.

And that's the thing. I said it before, and I'll say it again: N'Dru is not a center piece, you don't build around him like you would with Kath or Xizor. You don't bring him expecting him to survive until the end. Ultimately, you want him to, but you should not expect it. He's a kamikaze, a distraction, a tank buster, a tool... a scum. Your goal with him is to make his 25pts worth it.

And finally (as someone who love flying with Defenders, you should know this by now): It's not because it's not working for you that it is necessarily bad. I don't get why some people love to argue against a unit as if they were the authority on what's good and what's not. Seems to happen a lot. ''Defenders are bad!''... ''I've had success with them, they're great''... ''No they're not! Your opponents must suck!''.

N'dru and LW love the TLTs for staying out of the way.

Throw Mux in to replace a Thug and you can make some poor ace shoot last.