I hear a lot of people say that Scyks are over costed because the designers wanted to avoid having five Scyks equipped with Heavy Laser Cannons. However, to fit five in a list, you'd have to make the title free and drop the Cartel Spacer down 1 point from 14 to 13. That's 3 points off the ship, which is significant.

Anyway, seeing as we can't run that many, I was wondering if anyone has actually tried running four of them with Heavy Laser Cannon? How well/poorly does it work? You could even upgrade one of the Cartel Spacers to Laetin with Stealth Device or just give two Cartel Spacers each a Stealth Device or Hull Upgrade.

What if we compare it to another well-known Scum list: dual Aggressors. If you went with Hull upgrade on the Scyks, you have 14 total hull/shield compared to the 16 in the IG-88 list. All of these hull/shield points are behind 3 agility. A major difference is the presence of Autothrusters on on the Aggressors, giving you more endurance on top of the hull/shields. However, you get more attacks per turn. Rather than having IG-88B allow you to reroll, you can actually deal damage with four Heavy Laser Cannon attacks. But then again, you don't have a recurring target lock from Fire Control System like the droids do, so it's less likely to get that damage to stick. You also lack the 1-straight in the Scyks, but as small-base ships, they'll move just as far forward with a 2-straight as IG-88 will with a 1-straight. And finally, while multiple cannons compensates for IG-88B's ability, you won't have anything similar to what IG-88A, IG-88C, or IG-88D have to offer.

I'm thinking of picking up two more Scyks and trying this out, but I'm curious to hear if anyone has flown these before.

I really like the Scyk. Its unique, has a cool little sleek shape and I love the fact that its like a giant cannon with a cockpit and an engine.

So for that reason, I am not really interested in running it without some kind of cannon.

I don't have 4 Scyks, but I have tried out 4 on VASSAL. I ran the somewhat 'obvious' 4 HLC build:

Serissu w/ 'heavy', HLC & swarm tactics = 31

3 spacers w/ 'heavy & HLC = 23 x 3

100

You could also put Juke on Serissu since she really wants to be evading all the time (she's usually the first target).

So yeah, its not terrible. It is really dice dependent though. That first turn of shooting almost decides the game for you. If you get killer defense rolls such that nothing dies, and then your quad 4 die attacks put on some hurt, you are in a great position. But if the dice go belly up and even with Serissu taking evade, or benefitting from her re-roll (if someone shoots at another Scyk) you can still end up blanking out on some defense and suddenly you are down to 3 scyks. It might not seem like the end of the world, but the next round of shooting is tough. Now you no longer have the range 3 advantage (in fact, some shots will be at range 1, and you lose the HLC there). That's really the killer turn, because you will lose a Scyk on the 2nd turn of shooting, and if you already lost one, half your list is gone and its really tough at that point. If however, the dice have been going well, then it could be the opposite and your opponent's list could be decimated.

I think to do really well with this list, your approach has to be flawless. I am wondering if I was going about it wrong though. I didn't try the list that much, but I think if I were to give it another go, I would aim for all ships in range 2. To accomplish this, I think I would fly all 4 abreast rather than in a box formation. The reason is because that second turn at range 1 is killer. If the first turn of shooting is at range 2, then you can use your awesome 5k-turn to clear the enemy bases and get another round of HLC fire in. Of course, the downside is that you will be stressed and so no attack mods, but hopefully your opponent will be in the same situation.

Another idea would be to spread out more. Maybe draw the opponent through the rocks and even if they manage to focus fire one down, you will have a chance to grab target locks and then you are looking at some TL + focus shots...

That's based on my limited experience, of course...

Plus they cant boost and do all that other shenanigans that aggressors can

Aggressors can move fast and zip around dodging arc, unlike the scyke

I bought three and wish I didn't

Don't think I ever used them more than once

@ blade_mercurial

I wonder if it would better to split them up into two groups and try to have one group flank while the other goes head-on. I wish I had more time to practice stuff like this.

I've wondered about this too. Would the 4 hlc really hold up given a good advance strategy? I also keep looking at a similar build with the mangler and stealth device instead of HLC. Would the trade off of 1 attack be worth the one additional evade? I think most would say no. Looking at 4 dice attacks you look to the phantom. at 25 points basic with 2 shield and 2 hull but only 2 evade the HLC Scyks sound look a good deal at 23 pts. At the sametime how many 4 phantom lists have you seen? I bet none.

Like blade said, I can see the first round deciding the game. with 16 dice you can do alot of damage in one round. looking at a tie swarm 8 ships can also put out 16 dice of damage but with twice the hull. I just don't see how a full Scyk list works as well as other lists. I like the idea of the 4 Scyks, but it comes down to how you fly them. You need a solid advance that can focus down a ship round 1 without exposing Serissus, who will with a little luck save you from losing a ship round 1. I'd like to hear how anyone does with this list in a tournement setting. Or with extended practice.

Well, I watched Theorist play a very similar list in the team covenant spring tourney on VASSAL. He didn't win the tourney (there were over 50 players) but he came pretty close.

His list had the the HLC cartel spacers, but instead of Serrissu,, he ran a generic Viper:

Blacksun Enforcer w/ Shield upgrade & flechette torpedo = 31

Most people would consider it a terrible addition, but it serves a valuable purpose: he ran it ahead of his HLC's and used it as an early game blocker to protect the HLCs from modified return shots. He would also grab a TL when it was being ignored, and if anything k-turned, hit it with the flechette torpedo and then kill the actionless ship.

Typically, he would lose the scyks fast even with the blocker, but as to be expected, when the dice were going well, those HLCs did a lot of damage. One thing I noticed, and I think a lot of people don't seem to realize this, even though it seems obvious, is that 3 agility ships become much harder to destroy as your opponent loses the ability to focus fire. 3 agility is quite a good defense against 2 attack, and is even pretty solid against 3 attack dice if its an unmodified shot. So while the first scyk died fast, the 2nd took a little longer, and it was very tough to kill the last scyk (with that viper repeatedly getting in the way to deny actions).

Another interesting thing was, even at PS1, the star viper was a serious end game threat. One game he managed to defeat a full health Wedge 1v1 with the viper, and there was another 1v1 where the viper won out, but I forget what ship he was up against. The flechette torpedo was a big help on both occasions.

I'm starting to ramble here, but I managed to talk to him about his thoughts on the list and he agrees that the cartel spacer, regardless of what cannon you stick on it, is not ideal. Higher Pilot skill is desireable because against other generics, you can kill them without simultaneous fire coming into play. Also, being able to equip an EPT for better action economy helps either with more consistent firepower or longevity (ie predator or push the limit). So since then, I've turned to the Tansari Point Vet and I think its the way to go.

TPV w/ predator (or push the limit), 'heavy', HLC & hull = 32. Its pretty expensive for 3 hull +1 shield, but its 4 attack always modified that ignores range 3 defense bonus (but only 3 attack at R1), so firepower is close to a phantom, and durability is slightly better with the extra green (a generic phantom typically runs for similar points with a few upgrades).

You could run one of these guys as long range support and you still have 68 pts to build the rest of your list. I like running them in pairs and I've been looking for a good third ship. I've tried Kavil, Drea and Torkhil but I think I have settled on Palob. The final list I've been using and enjoying is:

'Predatory Scykos'

Palob w/ predator, twin laser turret, moldy crow & engine = 36

2 TPVs as above = 32 x 2

100

All are PS5 which is pretty good against other generics (very nice against crack shot swarms, since killing one with a single HLC shot has decent odds). I really like Palob here because he is annoying enough to draw aggro. With the previous versions, my opponent would always go for the TPVs first, but ignoring Palob means he has more opportunities to steal tokens (and even if they are taking TL to bypass him, I'm fine with getting shots against unmodified green dice).

I do like the idea of teaming up vipers and Scyks though and I've wanted to explore that further. I've been thinking something like:

Laetin w/ 'heavy', HLC & stealth = 30

2 Vigos w/ autothrusters = 29 x 2

1 binayre pirate = 12

100

The pirate blocks, the vigos draw aggro and Laetin plugs with the HLC from the back. The only thing I don't like about it is I really don't want to lose the vipers, so I wonder if it would be better to run Serrissu (everyone wants to kill her first anyway), but then HLC doesn't fit...

I guess I'll end my rambling there!

Well, I'm off topic now, but I've got a store championship tomorrow and I was planning on bringing

2x HLC Cartel Spacers
Talonbane w/ Veteran Instincts
N'Dru Suhlak w/ Lone Wolf, Cluster Missiles, Glitterstim.
TOTAL: 100

I have no idea how it will do, but I know I'll regret not taking at least 1 Scyk. But some of the lists above got me thinking about trying something new.

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)
-Lone Wolf (2)
-"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)
-Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Guri (30)
-Virago (1)
-Sensor Jammer (4)
-Predator (3)
-Autothrusters (2)

Palob Godhali (20)
-Ion Cannon Turret (5)
-Recon Specialist (3)
-Moldy Crow (3)

TOTAL: 99

The major thing here is that the TPV gets an offensive and defensive reroll. He stays back while the others go in. Guri's ability and upgrades mean she can focus on repositioning with her maneuvers. Palob will have to die first so they can attack Guri. The one thing I don't like is having only 3 ships.

I like both of those lists.

Talonbane & N'dru are great ideas to draw attention away from the HLC scyks. Lots of firepower and no easy target choices for your opponent!

My only concern is that without blockers, Talonbane could die fast. I'd be tempted to switch N'dru out for a pair of binayre pirates, but if you can control engagement range well, you might not need 'em.

The second list is right up my alley (I am partial to 3 ship lists). My only concern here is the TPV and Palob seem stretched just a wee bit thin: TPV would like hull or something to keep him alive a bit longer and Palob would probably prefer twin laser turret. Actually, you could run blaster turret on him----with recon specialist its not bad, and then you have room for maybe crack shot on Palob...

My only concern is that without blockers, Talonbane could die fast. I'd be tempted to switch N'dru out for a pair of binayre pirates, but if you can control engagement range well, you might not need 'em.

I really like this idea. I may try this out tonight.