I have loved the raw efficiency of Ndru Suhlak using the Lone Wolf ept since I saw his card. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make a list that I liked, or felt had the tools to deal with other competitive lists. This weekend I had a thought and wanted to see if my logic would hold up.

Boba Fett - Veteran Instincts, Tactician, Engine Upgrade, Glitterstim

Ndru Suhlak - Lone Wolf, Cluster Missiles, Glitterstim, Guidance Chips (when TAP is released)

Syndicate Thug - Twin Laser Turret, R4 Agromech

I would run Boba and the Thug closer together at the start and try to flank with Ndru, my goal would be to have Boba and Ndru be able to shoot whatever scared me most on the first pass and hopefully remove it outright. I have flown it once and got pretty thoroughly trashed, but I made quite a few piloting mistakes. (It was my first game on vassal, and my first game flying Scum) I think I am most worried that Ndru is too predictable and so all the points put into giving him a sucker punch won't do much. Thoughts?

edited because I'm dyslexic.

I, too, was trying to get N'dru to work for store championships. This was my list:

Talonbane Cobra (28) [29 total]

-Veteran Instincts (1)

N'dru Suhlak (17) [25 total]

-Lone Wolf (2)

-Cluster Missiles (4)

-Glitterstim (2)

Cartel Spacer (14) [23 total]

-"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

-Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Cartel Spacer (14) [23 total]

-"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

-Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

TOTAL: 100 points

Like you, I tried to have some big threats (and tempting targets) to pull the enemy away from N'dru. And like you, I wasn't able to get my list to work.

I had several problems that I identified.

1) I felt like I couldn't concentrate fire very well since 1/4 of my list was trying to sneak around the enemy (that's N'dru).

2) I had a really hard time keeping N'dru beyond range 1-2 of his allies. Maybe I just needed more practice.

3) The pilot skill of 7 was really limiting in trying to get those cluster missiles off.

But perhaps there are solutions.

1) I may have been too nervous about letting N'dru take his time getting a target. With Lone Wolf, he should be able to handle himself. And once he gets the Cluster Missiles off, that could be an enemy ship, so if your decoys are getting thrashed, you should be able to even things up once N'dru gets the missiles off.

2) Again, I should have been more patient with N'dru and let him naturally get his target.

3) Against higher PS pilots, just give up on the Cluster Missiles. Use those on lower PS ships like the Emperor's shuttle or TLT Y-wing.

And that's about as far as I got with using N'dru. I've been really excited to use that combo, but have only been able to fire the Cluster Missiles once and that wasn't even in the Lone Wolf range, so the shot was worthless. After 4 or 5 games, I gave up on this list and went with Bossk/Boba. I'll come back to it after store championships are over, I think.

I like the solutions you have there. After my game I had also decided that Ndru needed to be able to take his time so I spent some time in vassal figuring out ways to block Boba in (like a Lambda with aces) for a turn or two so Ndru could get to where he needed to be without rushing. I do think figuring out how to fly Ndru successfully will take some effort and time. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I'm sorry I'm new to forums and when I got home I realized I hadn't actually asked the questions I was thinking when I wrote my original post.

1) I haven't seen Ndru in any of the higher level lists, I definitely could have missed him and if I have I would love to see the list. If he hasn't been used, why? I see a very efficient ship that needs a skilled pilot to realize his full potential. (I realize that most answers to this will be speculation)

2) Does the list fill in the (potentially large) weak spots that Ndru has?

My thought process for my list was that Boba would provide some control in the form of tactician on a high ps platform with a large base boost for some re-positioning. I figured Boba would be durable enough (though not as much as an IG-88) to keep the list going and be an end game ship. The thug was thrown in for some consistent damage that could stay away from the fight making it easier to keep everything outside of range 2 of Ndru.

However I worry that Boba's large base + boost will be hard to keep clear of Ndru's bubble, rendering the points spent on him mostly useless. I also worry that the list may be a little fragile. I toyed with the idea of a IG-88b instead of Boba for a more durable ship, but I wanted the higher PS of a VI Boba to deal with the aces that are so prevalent in the meta today.

Does what I'm thinking match up with reality? I haven't flown Scum before this list, most of what I think I know about Scum has come from watching other peoples games. Am I missing some obvious tools to fill out my list?

I think N'dru is just a real challenge because instead of just moving to get a positional advantage over your opponent, you have to move Boba and the Thug to where you think you can draw the enemy so that N'dru can release his payload. You want to set up a situation where Boba+Thug are on the opposite side of your opponent's ships from where N'dru is.

I think using Boba and the Thug are actually great choices for N'dru's companions. To explain why, let me illustrate what happens in my list. N'dru will go up one side of the playing field while the other three go up a different side. I try to pace N'dru so he doesn't arrive to the party too early. Eventually, I get the enemy pinched between N'dru and the rest of my forces. Unfortunately, now N'dru and my other guys are headed straight for each other. That means that within a turn, N'dru will probably be within range 1-2 of the other guys. That's a problem! It means I need to turn my support crew away from the conflict and get as far from N'dru as possible, but that means potentially exposing my aft to enemy fire and getting chased down. Boba and the Thug partially solve this problem because they can still take shots while "running" from the enemy, so by getting out of N'dru's way, they aren't losing shots.

Aside from theory-craft, I have no idea how well N'dru does competitively. I'd like to see what others think on this subject as well.

OP- that's almost the exact list I've been flying. Only difference is first the title, Slave 1. But also I like to run clusters on boba as well and VI over LW.. no R4. It's a beast of a list.

The other change I've been working on is kavil + crackshot for when I want to crush hard on arc dodgers. Fitting that last point has been extremely hard though.

Anyway vet instincts is preferable to LW. It facilitates the strike much better and without positioning options LW just doesn't jive with this list because boba likes to be stuck in and the tlt doesn't..

N'Dru loves Lone Wolf, but right now he's a little fragile and lacks mobility. It's difficult for him to move fast enough at the start of the game to approach your enemies and actually get out of R1-R2 of your friendly ships.

I think that Cloaking Device + Stygium Particle Accelerator will be the answer to fixing N'Dru, since the initial decloak will give him a bonus evade token, and a big boost forward to help flank enemy ships. If you ever find N'Dru in range of allies and all his abilities would switch off, you can activate the Cloaking Device to gain the extra greens and evade token, then use the decloak to re-position yourself for following turns. The whole thing will cost 23 points. Pretty solid for our wanna-be X-Wing pilot.