I'm going to a local tournament next weekend and I am trying to finalize a list so I can practice with it some. I've seen on the forums and a couple podcasts that Scum may be emerging as the faction of efficiency/dice modification (to me, that's about the same thing). I agree with this premise, but I also think Scum can excel at various types of control.

I tend to like the BTL-A4 title and the Gunner/Bossk combo. What do you all think of these?

Pirate Ion Control:

Thug - R4 Agromech, BTL-A4, Ion Cannon Turret (25 pts)

Bug Zapper x2 (28 pts)

Moralo Eval - Ion Cannon, Gunner, K4 Sec, Bossk (47 pts)

YVYYZ:

Thug - R4 Agromech, BTL-A4, Ion Cannon Turret (25 pts) x2

Z-95 (12 pts)

Slaver - Ion Projector, Gunner, Bossk (38 pts)

I've focused almost exclusively on Scum purchases. I have Most Wanted, YV-666, Firespray, Aggressor, Y-wing Expansion, and the original Core Set. Thanks for any feedback!

I think I like your 2nd list better. It appears to have a tad more firepower and durability.

What about something like:
Syndicate Thug (26) x 2 Y-Wing (18), Bomb Loadout (0), Ion Cannon Turret (5), BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0), Proximity Mines (3)

Latts Razzi (48) YV-666 (33), Cluster Missiles (4), Gunner (5), Bossk (2), Tactician (2), Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)

Use thugs to cover the rear of Latts, drop proximity mines so if they move over Latts you get some nice hits, and just go to town. Just keep them running into the front of the space bus. Oh, and just for fun, Latts can throw a lot of stress with the tactician. Alternately, drop the missiles and Pursuit Lasers for Engine Upgrade.

I haven't flown a space stapler yet although it's on my list.. have you found it to be better than a firespray? I ask because while I agree the second list looks better I might opt for the first if it contained a firespray instead.

I wouldn't say better, it's different. The Firespray is a large base ship that wants some finesse, the YV-666 is more like a meat grinder, I tend to ram it into ships, or use the 0 speed maneuver to frustrate their blockers. From there you just start grinding away at ships with Bossk/Gunner.

So far Latts is my favorite pilot for it, I typically use it with Weapons Engineer, Bossk, Gunner. Acts as support for a Black Sun Ace and Talonbane. The target lock discard for -1 agility on enemy ship is great, turns everyone into Wedge. Shoot last with Latts, if you miss the first shot who cares, now you get 2 more target locks and a focus. Shoot again.

In the list I posted, Latts would mostly just use the TL for it's own shooting. The Clusters are there to allow that first round of double stress on a target, but you could easily drop them.

What about something like:Syndicate Thug (26) x 2 Y-Wing (18), Bomb Loadout (0), Ion Cannon Turret (5), BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0), Proximity Mines (3)

Latts Razzi (48) YV-666 (33), Cluster Missiles (4), Gunner (5), Bossk (2), Tactician (2), Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)

Use thugs to cover the rear of Latts, drop proximity mines so if they move over Latts you get some nice hits, and just go to town. Just keep them running into the front of the space bus. Oh, and just for fun, Latts can throw a lot of stress with the tactician. Alternately, drop the missiles and Pursuit Lasers for Engine Upgrade.

I think I like your 2nd list better. It appears to have a tad more firepower and durability.

But I'm not convinced that they can provide more support than another BTL Y-wing. Certainly the play style would be different.

I haven't flown a space stapler yet although it's on my list.. have you found it to be better than a firespray? I ask because while I agree the second list looks better I might opt for the first if it contained a firespray instead.

What about something like:Syndicate Thug (26) x 2 Y-Wing (18), Bomb Loadout (0), Ion Cannon Turret (5), BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0), Proximity Mines (3)

Latts Razzi (48) YV-666 (33), Cluster Missiles (4), Gunner (5), Bossk (2), Tactician (2), Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)

Use thugs to cover the rear of Latts, drop proximity mines so if they move over Latts you get some nice hits, and just go to town. Just keep them running into the front of the space bus. Oh, and just for fun, Latts can throw a lot of stress with the tactician. Alternately, drop the missiles and Pursuit Lasers for Engine Upgrade.

I've played builds with Tactician on Vassal, but I don't believe that it's been in any of the ships I've bought so far. One thing that's occurred to me is that Bossk crew will leave the ship stressed quite often. Are you able to use EU often enough to be worth the points?

I personally would not use EU on it, but I know a lot of people feel naked without Boost. I'm going to give the list a go on Sunday, it looks hilarious if you can set it up correctly.

Tactician is in the TIE Phantom.

My thought on Engine Upgrade is that it is important if you are at a higher pilot skill. I've flown Bossk twice: once with Veteran Instincts and once without. I found it quite useful when I had the higher Pilot Skill. However, it can also be very useful if you're trying to block and get Ion Projector to trigger.

It seemed to me, though, that even with Engine Upgrade, the YV-666 cannot shake a pilot off of its tail very well at all. If you want U-turns, you really need Daredevil.

I run my YV with two TLT Y-Wings which are normally a more tempting target than the YV or a control element. I agree that when your YV is the juiciest target on the list it can be difficult to keep stuff in arc. Engine Upgrade is helpful but against a real arc dodger it's tough.

I haven't flown a space stapler yet although it's on my list.. have you found it to be better than a firespray? I ask because while I agree the second list looks better I might opt for the first if it contained a firespray instead.

The Gunner/Bossk combo is incredibly powerful, and that's only possible on the YV. Also, it's much harder to avoid the 180 degree arc than it is to avoid 2 90 degree arcs. The YV's arc actually starts about 1/3 back from the front of the base, this gives you a lot of extra area that the ship can threaten.

I agree gunner is good but I'm not sure bossk crew is honestly. It competes with better cards but more importantly each time it triggers you lose your full stop and 2 turns and you can't control when that happens. I think tactician would be stronger here. Not to mention it would open up EU.

I haven't flown a space stapler yet although it's on my list.. have you found it to be better than a firespray? I ask because while I agree the second list looks better I might opt for the first if it contained a firespray instead.

The Gunner/Bossk combo is incredibly powerful, and that's only possible on the YV. Also, it's much harder to avoid the 180 degree arc than it is to avoid 2 90 degree arcs. The YV's arc actually starts about 1/3 back from the front of the base, this gives you a lot of extra area that the ship can threaten.

I agree gunner is good but I'm not sure bossk crew is honestly. It competes with better cards but more importantly each time it triggers you lose your full stop and 2 turns and you can't control when that happens. I think tactician would be stronger here. Not to mention it would open up EU.

But you've already boosted to get the shot before you become stressed. Plus with K4 you want to using a green manoeuvre anyway, which will clear the stress. I think it has pretty good synergy with this build.

Hmm maybe your right. The synergy is excellent for sure. Guess I need to get my hands on one and try it!

I really like Bossk/YV666 and really want to find a great build for him, the biggest problem is his fragility. Yeah he has 12 hull but it drops pretty quick with 1 agility and a limited dial. (Here's hoping for some defensive scum crew in wave 8)

The best way to deal with this is to make your other targets appear more threatening.

I find that if you put down Talonbane Cobra, everyone guns for that poor bastard...he's a nice defensive buff for the YV-666!

I find that if you put down Talonbane Cobra, everyone guns for that poor bastard...he's a nice defensive buff for the YV-666!

He can be true, but if you're going to buy him you need to spend the points making sure he'll do something worthwhile, N'dru with LW, glitterstim and cluster missiles might be better; I did 8 damage to a falcon in one turn with that once.

Very quick (and not that exciting) list:

I find that if you put down Talonbane Cobra, everyone guns for that poor bastard...he's a nice defensive buff for the YV-666!

He can be true, but if you're going to buy him you need to spend the points making sure he'll do something worthwhile, N'dru with LW, glitterstim and cluster missiles might be better; I did 8 damage to a falcon in one turn with that once.

Hes definitely on par and 8 damage is going to be pretty common now with chimps running around. GC should be just enough to allow him to swap LW for VI too.

In fact now I'm wondering about a swarm of cluster missile 95 'fleahunters' with that loadout.. deci-who? Palpmo-what? Heres 32 fully modified shots to the face led by ps9 ndru.

If you're talking about control lists i faced two trandosion slavers with k4 tactician and ion cannon plus two black sun soldiers. The YVs almost always had a shot with a tl and focus. Granted they are vulnerable to arc dodgers but they are a pain to face (imo that is).

I took Bossk and Boba Fett on Saturday. I loved the list.

Here is the squad as explained by its creator and proponent, VaynMannen.

Here are my additional thoughts about the squad.

And here is my tournament report.

The list is

Boba Fett (48)

Firespray-31 (39), Veteran Instincts (1), Tactician (2), Glitterstim (2), Engine Upgrade (4)

Bossk (51)
YV-666 (35), Veteran Instincts (1), “Mangler” Cannon (4), K4 Security Droid (3), Tactician (2), Outlaw Tech (2), Engine Upgrade (4)

TOTAL: 99

The list has control in Tactician and consistent dice modification in Glitterstim, Fett's ability, K4 Security Droid, and Outlaw Tech. Engine Upgrade + Veteran Instincts lets you do a little arc-dodging which is fantastically useful. I highly recommend you give it a try and see what you think.

Thanks Budgernaut, that's a great thread with a lot of good tactical and list building discussion. I'd be very interested in playing with that list, but I don't have all the necessary upgrade cards.

Probably the "best" (loosely used) list that I've come up with for a Firespray and YV-666 is this one:

Mando Merc.; K4 Sec; Crack Shot; GlitterStim; Ion Projector (43 pts)

Latts Razzi: Gunner; K4 Sec; Bossk crew; Ion Projector (45 pts)

Binayre Pirate (12 pts)

100 pts total.

This would have a pretty unique play style. All the ships want to get in the thick of things; to cause mayhem with 2 large ship blockers with Ion Projectors. Both the Merc and Latts have the K4 Security Droid, so their shots can always be modified. Further, both of them are PS 5 which allows for a unique synergy.

As long as both of them are around, Latts and the Merc select the same ship for their TLs. They can change who moves first, but the Merc always shoots first and Latts always burns her TL to weaken the enemy defenses. This means that there will be a super strike on one turn where the Merc burns his CrackShot and GlitterStim while attacking an R1 enemy. Then, Latts will fire a shot that will either cause damaged or allow Gunner/Bossk to trigger for a second, fully modified shot. On the off chance that the TL isn't needed for the second shot, the Z-95 can benefit from LAtts help as well.

During this whole time, Latts and the Merc are trying to set combo-blocks. Most pilots will become very predictable when they are trying to avoid 2 large ship bases that might ion you.

Admittedly, I didn't have the Tacticians until the day of the tournament when I picked up two TiE Phantoms at 20% off. I totally understand how you feel.

I like that list. It looks very interesting to fly. Have you practiced with it at all? I may give something like that a try in a few weeks when I get tired of my current build.