So what ships are we nominating when we use him. Do we automatically have him target the hardest to kill ship? The highest ps?

I've been having him target the second highest ps the opponent has because I usually have a focus for that first attack.

Thoughts? Am I using him completely wrongly?

Edited for an over-abundance of question marks.

I personally love Kallus on the Decimator and the Phantom. With the Decimator, I target the ship that I think will give it the most problems. For the Phantom, I target the ship I want off the board the quickest.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Empire doesn't have that many Crew slot ships to choose from

1. Decimator. Rear admiral Chiraneau already has similar ability, so in too many cases kallus won't work at all

2. Phantom. Works nicely on super-tanky phantom, but you'll find that simple Recon specialist works better against most foes, because you're not seeing lots of attacks from same ship at you.

3. Lambda. Not really worthwile, Lambda wants to stay cheap. and wil hardly benefit a lot from it with her dial and 1 evade

4. Firespray. This one sounds more interesting, especially when we remember that eteran Engine Upgrade Fett was and is one of the better ace-hunters. Add autoblaster for hilarious ace-hate

5. the new tie shuttle. same as with lambda, you want him cheap and want to keep out of fire, it's a support choice, when enemy ace starts exchanging blows with it, it's dead no matter how hard kallus tries

I think the Firespray is probably the best call. It has a nice balance of attack and defence, so the ability works well with it.

There are two schools of thought. Either pick that one guy who you're going to target with everyone in your first pass, and burn him down extra fast, or else (and I think this is better) pick the other ship. If you know who you're opponent's end-game ship is going to be, then take that one; because the best case scenario is finding Fett facing a one-on-one against the target Kallus nominated.

Plus, it means you have some protection from being shot in the back whilst you deal with the first ship.

The Firespray and the Phantom really do get the most out of Kallus. The Decimator rolls 0 greens and the Shuttle only 1.

I have been theory crafting Kallus on the Firespray. Krassis+HLC+Kallus comes in at 45 points. I LOVE putting Expert handling on the Higher PS Firesprays. Boba with EH and Kallus is only 43 points. You could add EU for another 4, but I doubt you'll need it with his ability AND EH.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Isn't marking omega leader useless? He just target locks you and turns off kallus.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Isn't marking omega leader useless? He just target locks you and turns off kallus.

I suppose that makes omega leader really want to target lock the phantom so it is an element of control but I'm pretty sure the phantom was going to get locked by omega leader either way...

Yeah it's more of a draw play on my behalf. If I mark him, he's somewhat compelled to mark the Phantom in return. If he doesn't he opens up a potential world of hurt, if he does, it frees up the rest of my ships. Defensively, Kallus isn't doing anything here. It's more the threat of him forcing a rethink of OL's ability. It's worked reasonably well so far.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Isn't marking omega leader useless? He just target locks you and turns off kallus.

I suppose that makes omega leader really want to target lock the phantom so it is an element of control but I'm pretty sure the phantom was going to get locked by omega leader either way...

Hard for Omega to TL Whisper if she is out of range. If flown right, Whisper could fly in after Omega moves, get her shot and (with the help of Kallus) take out Omega in a single round. For this reason, Kallus is not a waste to target Omega. Even if Omega does TL your Kallus ship, that means it cannot TL the others...

Even if you pick the "wrong" ship you will still get rerolls from him anyways. Obviously some ships would be better to target.

The Firespray and the Phantom really do get the most out of Kallus. The Decimator rolls 0 greens and the Shuttle only 1.

I have been theory crafting Kallus on the Firespray. Krassis+HLC+Kallus comes in at 45 points. I LOVE putting Expert handling on the Higher PS Firesprays. Boba with EH and Kallus is only 43 points. You could add EU for another 4, but I doubt you'll need it with his ability AND EH.

I actually sort of like the idea of the old Bounty Hunter with Kallus. Throw in Slave 1 and Long Range Sensors, and you start the exchange with TL, mini-focus, and a free action to do an Evade. You can just fly away to range 3, firing out the rear arc if you want to re-load that Target Lock. At 35 points it's not a lot for what it brings, and it's a reasonable platform to add missiles to boost your alpha strike, because you'll have the Target Lock from LRS.

I thought It was just run at Ezra until you get force pushed.

Everybody forgets about ole Commander Kenkirk. Here is a pretty tanky Decimator build:

Commander Kenkirk (44)
Determination (1)
Moff Jerjerrod (2)
Agent Kallus (2)
Ysanne Isard (4)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Total: 57

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

TLTs will still eat you alive, but you are pretty immune to crits.

The Firespray and the Phantom really do get the most out of Kallus. The Decimator rolls 0 greens and the Shuttle only 1.

I have been theory crafting Kallus on the Firespray. Krassis+HLC+Kallus comes in at 45 points. I LOVE putting Expert handling on the Higher PS Firesprays. Boba with EH and Kallus is only 43 points. You could add EU for another 4, but I doubt you'll need it with his ability AND EH.

I actually sort of like the idea of the old Bounty Hunter with Kallus. Throw in Slave 1 and Long Range Sensors, and you start the exchange with TL, mini-focus, and a free action to do an Evade. You can just fly away to range 3, firing out the rear arc if you want to re-load that Target Lock. At 35 points it's not a lot for what it brings, and it's a reasonable platform to add missiles to boost your alpha strike, because you'll have the Target Lock from LRS.

I've been looking at Krassis with Guidance Chips, Slave I, Extra Munitions and either Homing Missiles or Assault Missiles. Kallus might make a decent crew for him. I'm not sure that he's worth 44-45 points though.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Isn't marking omega leader useless? He just target locks you and turns off kallus.

I suppose that makes omega leader really want to target lock the phantom so it is an element of control but I'm pretty sure the phantom was going to get locked by omega leader either way...

Hard for Omega to TL Whisper if she is out of range. If flown right, Whisper could fly in after Omega moves, get her shot and (with the help of Kallus) take out Omega in a single round. For this reason, Kallus is not a waste to target Omega. Even if Omega does TL your Kallus ship, that means it cannot TL the others...

I mean... If omega leader is flown right then that plan should be easy to counter as well. I'm pretty sure when discussing strategy it's pretty weak to assume one player is going to just play badly.

I'm coming around to naming Omega Leader. Sure he can shut it down by Target Locking you, but to state the obvious:

1.) He has to have a Target Lock.

2.) That target Lock has to be on Kallus' ship.

Stone37's reference to Whisper illustrates a work around of requirement 1. Having ships that are preferred targets for Omega Leader gets around requirement 2. Say you have the aforementioned Bounty Hunter with Kallus and Soontir Fel facing off against a squad with Omega Leader. Fel is far and away the right choice for OL to target. The Bounty Hunter, then marks OL with Kallus, and starts taking pretty powerful, TL/mini-focus shots at him to clear him off the board for Fel. Alternatively, OL target locks the Bounty Hunter, then the Hunter goes after someone else, or just fights OL with unmodified dice. It will take OL a long time to work through the Bounty Hunter's 10 hit points, its not exactly reliant on major dice modifications for its defense.

A lot of the lists I've faced lately have had a single ace, with either a miniswarm or a control/turret element. That makes it an easy enough choice, really; ace gets the Wrath of Kallus.

Otherwise, I tend to rank it in terms of danger to the ship carrying Kallus. In a Phantom, I've been marking Omega Leader a lot, or VI Vader/Poe. The only exception is against Dash/Corran. Dash may be the bigger threat with that turret, but I've grown tired of seeing Corran run away, regen, come back, and double-tap to victory. I want burn him down, fast.

Isn't marking omega leader useless? He just target locks you and turns off kallus.

I suppose that makes omega leader really want to target lock the phantom so it is an element of control but I'm pretty sure the phantom was going to get locked by omega leader either way...

Hard for Omega to TL Whisper if she is out of range. If flown right, Whisper could fly in after Omega moves, get her shot and (with the help of Kallus) take out Omega in a single round. For this reason, Kallus is not a waste to target Omega. Even if Omega does TL your Kallus ship, that means it cannot TL the others...

I mean... If omega leader is flown right then that plan should be easy to counter as well. I'm pretty sure when discussing strategy it's pretty weak to assume one player is going to just play badly.

I've boldfaced the part of my reasoning that you left out...

Board control comes in various forms in X-wing. Forcing your opponents to do what you want them to do is the easiest path to victory.

I've been running Kallus on Whisper for a couple of weeks now. In half of my matches Kallus has done nothing because the ship I targeted got destroyed right away or never fired at or was fired upon by Whisper. In the other half of my matches Kallus has easily made his points back by converting 2+ eyeballs into hits/evades over the course of the game.

Most of the time the Kallus target is easy for me to pick. The ship that wants to be around at the end of the game or if it's a two ship list, which ever one is most likely to be shooting at Whisper. So fat turrets and PS 9+. So between Corran and Dash, I'd go Dash since he has a turret and Whisper can't arc dodge him. Deci-Phantom; well that depends on who has initiative. If I am shooting first, then I'll probably Kallus the Decimator, if he is shooting first I may need to Kallus his Phantom to try and keep Whisper alive a little longer.

So far I'm 8-0 with this list but half of the games have been against newer players. I'm taking it to a tournament later this month but I'm not super confidant right now, I need some more practice.

Omega Leader w/ Juke, Comm Relay

Whisper w/ VI, FCS, Kallus, ACD

Carnor Jax w/ VI, Royal Guard, Stealth Device, Autothrusters

99 points.

I'm going to stick with omega leader being a bad choice under the context I originally made my statement in. With kallus on a phantom OL is likely going to want to lock the phantom and eat it anyway so you're basically just sweetening the pot for what was already going to happen.

I can definitely see value if you're riding kallus in a less important/priority vehicle like a bounty hunter since then you actually make target lock priority hard but if OL was going to shoot you anyway you're gaining not much.

Omega Leader w/ Juke, Comm Relay

Whisper w/ VI, FCS, Kallus, ACD

Carnor Jax w/ VI, Royal Guard, Stealth Device, Autothrusters

99 points.

That looks like a fun list! I personally don't have a lot of luck with non PTL Interceptors. I have flown a pair of Alphas as part of a swarm with a little success.

I personally would trade out Jax for Soontir and FCS on Whisper for PTL on my Interceptor. I'm going to have to give this a go soon...

I'm going to stick with omega leader being a bad choice under the context I originally made my statement in. With kallus on a phantom OL is likely going to want to lock the phantom and eat it anyway so you're basically just sweetening the pot for what was already going to happen.

I can definitely see value if you're riding kallus in a less important/priority vehicle like a bounty hunter since then you actually make target lock priority hard but if OL was going to shoot you anyway you're gaining not much.

Isn't Omega Leader going to want to lock something that he's likely to get shots on? It seems like there's a limited return on locking a PS9 Whisper. Omega Leader is likely to never get to fire a shot at Whisper, if he does he's probably throwing two unmodified dice against Whisper's four. Whisper's 4 (or 5) red dice will chew through Omega Leader's 3 dice + evade fairly quickly even if they are unmodified.

The Firespray and the Phantom really do get the most out of Kallus. The Decimator rolls 0 greens and the Shuttle only 1.

I have been theory crafting Kallus on the Firespray. Krassis+HLC+Kallus comes in at 45 points. I LOVE putting Expert handling on the Higher PS Firesprays. Boba with EH and Kallus is only 43 points. You could add EU for another 4, but I doubt you'll need it with his ability AND EH.

Holy mother of god, your Krassis comment got me spitballing on my own and I came up with what looks like an insanely fun time with Kallus on board. Granted it's an absolute points albatross but is going to be lethal while he's alive.

Krassis + Kallus + Guidance Chips + Slave 1 + Extra Munitions + Concussion Missle + Autoblaster + whatever bomb you want just because. Comes out to 51 points with a 2 point bomb.

Range 2-3, 4 dice plus a re-roll via Krassis ability. Convert one blank to a hit via concussion, convert one die to a crit via GC, convert a focus to a hit via Kallus. I haven't done any math here but I would guess you would get 4 hit/crit results fairly routinely, with multiple crits frequently.

Range 1 Autoblaster gets pretty nasty too.

Obviously Kallus only works against the one ship but he's going to help keep you alive a bit longer too. The bombs are mostly because you already have EM equipped and why not. At 51-54 points he's got a giant target on his back. This is really just for fun but it's got fun in spades for casual games.

I'm going to stick with omega leader being a bad choice under the context I originally made my statement in. With kallus on a phantom OL is likely going to want to lock the phantom and eat it anyway so you're basically just sweetening the pot for what was already going to happen.

I can definitely see value if you're riding kallus in a less important/priority vehicle like a bounty hunter since then you actually make target lock priority hard but if OL was going to shoot you anyway you're gaining not much.

I agree.

I mean, even if you manage to shoot at Omega Leader one round without being Target Locked, what does Agent Kallus actually do for you? You're already going to take the Focus to increase your damage on the one round you might actually get to use the focus. The following round you might end up Target Locked, since you have will a TL of your own on Omega Leader from FCS.

Just seems unlikely that Kallus is likely better off not targeting Omega Leader most of the time. Of course, if you don't have a better Ace to pick, then I'd probably do it too.

So far I've only put him on whisper, generally speaking I name a ship with higher ps than whisper or a ship that can attack more than once.