Several weeks ago, in an attempt to try to come up with some sort of small-based Scum list to fight the diverse current meta, I took a new list to a Store Championship than included, amongst other things, two Scyks with Ion Cannons. I have never been clobbered so badly in my life. 0-4, with 100 MOV, and only destroyed two ships all day. I swore I would never take a Scyk to another tournament ever again. I took some time following that tournament to try to develop some sort of 3-4 ship Scum ace type list that could counter TLT’s + something, ace/fat turret, three-aces, Palp-aces, and 4-5 tie lists. Unlike Rebels or Imperials, all of the Scum choices have flaws that relate directly to them being over-costed. Two aces, moderately upgraded, will wipe out almost 70 points or more. Scum do not have many good offensive options between 20 and 30 points. I looked at Y-wings and Hawks, but Xizor and Talonbane cannot stand on their own, they do not work together well, and they both cost too much to have in a single list and have anything to speak-of left over.

Then I found the Autoblaster Cannon card…long forgotten. 3-dice, range 1, no defensive rolls or tokens except for crits. The best scum delivery method for a cannon is a Scyk, and if I want to use it on a turtled-up Soontir Fel or Whisper, I will need a high PS.

Enter PMS Serrisu, with VI, Title, Stealth Device, and the Autoblaster cannon…31 points.

Xizor needs a damage sponge, so I went with Talonbane with Engine to boost into range 1 for the 5-dice attack, and PTL to back it up with a focus or TL.

The best scrapper Scum has is Guri. While the title with a System upgrade is nice, she really does not need it and with only 4 points to spare, I settled on Calculation (she always has 1-2 focus tokens thanks to her ability) and Autothrusters.

“ Scyk’s Revenge”, 99 points., 13-hit points, all offence, and PS 10/9/5.

I tested it in about 12-15 casual games for over two weeks, and did not lose one of them. The list seems to provide a target priority problem in that all three ships are equally as dangerous. It is very difficult to focus on all three at once, and whichever ones are ignored will hurt my opponent badly. So. Despite my previous proclamation, I took the list to a store tournament (16 players, 4 rounds of Swiss, no cut) last weekend, and this is how it went.

Game 1: Thomas

Thomas flew: Wedge with R2D2, Adv. Proton Torpedoes, Shield Upgrade and Outmaneuver

Ten Numb with FCS, Autoblaster, Marksmanship, and Shield Upgrade.

The rocks were clumped in the middle of the board, and Thomas set up Numb in front of Wedge in the far left corner from me. I lined up in the lower right third of the board with Talonbane on the inside and Serrisu on the outside. Thomas shot his ships forward reasonably quickly, while I banked all three of my ships in; Talonbane across the bottom, Guri taking the first diagonal lane toward his ships, and Serrisu taking the upper diagonal lane through the asteroids.

The initial engagement has both of Thomas’ ships still moving ahead straight, but with a large rock between them and Guri in the lane, and Talonbane along the bottom. Serrisu was screaming across the top to catch up. Then I made mistake #1. Knowing that he could not make the hard turn to face Guri to joust, I should have pulled him forward and behind both ships. Instead, I barrel rolled left to meet him directly as he cleared the asteroid. One round from Guri and Talonbane at range one will not quite take out a B-wing, and he returned with the Adv. Proton Torpedo to Talonbane who lost his shield, one damage and the crit that loses his action bar until he rolls a hit. Guri took some damage from Wedge as well.

I flew Talonbane away to clear the crit (it took three rounds), hard-turned Guri and barrel rolled left to block the 2K that I know was coming. Serrisu flanked in from the right. I blocked Numb, but Wedge cleared the 4K past Guri by 1-milimeter. Serrisu was the only one with a shot and blanked. Guri took a range 1 from Wedge and had only one hull left. Guri then S-looped, Wedge moved forward slowly to clear the crit towards Guri, and Numb did the same away. Talonbane wondered around trying to fix the crit, and Serrisu dropped in right behind Numb.

Numb died

Guri died

Talonbane cleared his crit.

I chased Wedge around and got him down to 2-hull, twice, but he kept slipping away and getting shields back. Serrisu took 2-damage at one point and was down to 1-hull. Talonbane took another crit – damaged cockpit - and was now PS 0. Serrisu K-turned to start pulling in behind Wedge. Talonbane came around a rock and instead of boosting out of arc, focused and TL’ed for what was going to be a range 1 shot. I forgot he was PS 0, and wedge took him out before he could fire. Serrisu shot again and stripped Wedge’s shields...back down to 2-hull.

Wedge K-turned and was at the lower left edge of the board, facing back towards the middle. I brought Serrisu in behind him, about range 2. I was not close enough to hit him with the Autoblaster, so I barrel rolled left towards the bottom of the board to get out of arc. I figured he would bank towards me to dump his stress, get a shield back, and try to block. Instead, he tried to block with a 3-turn towards the bottom of the board, about 1.5 bases in front of me. Serrisu 3-K’ed, clearing him for a range 1 with an Autoblaster and that was it.

1-0, MOV 131

Game 2: Tyson

Tyson brought: Horton Slam w/ R5-D8, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Autoblaster Turret and Hull

Dutch Vander with R5-K6, Plasma Torpedoes, extra Munitions, and Autoblaster Turret

Gold Squadron pilot with R5 Astormech, Plasma Torpedoes and Auto Blaster Turret.

This list seems odd, but I immediately got concerned over the Autobalster Turrets. All three of my ships want to be in range 1 for their abilities to work, but all three of these have a range 1 turret. A nice counter to my list.

The rocks were once again in a bunch about the center of the board. He set his ships up in the far right corner. I set mine up in the near left, with Guri off to the middle a little bit. Tyson shot his ships forward, and I did the same, banking Guri to get in line with Talonbane and Serrisu. We continued forward as we were starting to do a lap when I cut Guri inside one of the rocks to see how he would react. He took the bait and started to turn in, the gold squadron leading around a large rock, and Dutch and Horton cutting behind the rock. Horton did his thing by handing out TL’s to everyone around him, but Guri was the only one in range. I shot Guri forward across the top of the rocks, but slow-rolled the other two figuring that they would chase the ship they had locked. Horton and Dutch continued to bank towards Guri, but the Gold Squadron hung back to take aim at Serrisu and Talonbane.

Guri got stuck in a wad with Horton and Dutch between three large asteroids. I sent Talonbane in behind them, and in the end, only Talonbane was left. Meanwhile, the Gold Squadron pilot was chasing Serrisu around the top edge of the board, but not having much success. Once Talonbane entered the fight, it was over quickly.

2-0, MOV 299

Game 3: Devin

Devin brought: Col. Vessery with VI

Omega Leader with Juke and Comm relay

2-Zeta Squadron Pilots with Comm Relay

I was feeling really good about this match as I had tabled almost the exact same list the Thursday before. The rocks were a bit more spread out, but still roughly in the middle. Devin spread his ships across the middle of the board, with Vessery closest to my right. I deployed my ships in the lower right corner, Guri on the inside and Serrisu on the outside. Devin started by charging all of his ships forward 3-4, and starting to pull the Zeta pilots towards the middle of the board. Guri 1-banked towards the middle, and Talonbane and Serrisu went straight ahead three. There were two large rocks along the right edge, and I wanted to get in that gap. Devin continued his path the second round, with Vessery about even with the first rock. Guri 1- banked back straight to engage again. Talonbane banked-in to cut off Vessery between the rocks. Serrisu continued straight to try to get behind him. There was some long range shots traded between Vessery and my two ships resulting in Vessery loosing 1 shield token.

Round 3 and it was on. Guri moved forward in front of the Zeta’s to engage. Omega Leader tried to get through the back towards Talonbane, but was blocked by his own ships. Vessery tried to stop short to engage Talonbane, but went too far and Talonbane flanked him for a range 1-shot. Serrisu was coming around behind, but not close enough for an Autoblaster shot. Guri got one of the Zeta’s down to 1 hull, and Serrisu and Talonbane did the same to Vessery.

Now comes mistake #1. I thought about pulling Guri out of the fight and circling around, but I got greedy and tried to S-loop to flank the Zeta’s. I forgot two things. Tie FO’s have both a S-loop and a 1-turn. One of the Zeta’s S-looped opposite of Guri, Omega Leader turned in to flank Guri, and the other Zeta turned hard to block Talonbane. Vessery shot forward and bumped Guri. Talonbane did not bump the Zeta, but was very close, and Serrisu moved forward about 5-mm from the Zeta.

Now comes mistake #2. Serrisu used the Autoblaster on the Zeta and blanks out. Talonbane should have just shot the Zeta, but decides to take out Vessery instead…and does. Omega leader and one of the Zeta’s kill off Guri, but the other Zeta hits Serrisu hard, stripping the shield and giving her a damaged cockpit-PS 0.

Talonbane 5-K-turns to get to Omega Leader and 3-bank Serrisu to try to get him out of there. Once he moves his ships, I have Omega leader facing back at Talonbane at range 1, and a Zeta right behind him, and the other Zeta is trying to turn around. I have to take out Omega with one shot, but he uses his token and I only get him to 1-hull. Talonbane takes a pounding, but is still alive. I try to bank Talonbane out of there, but the other Zeta comes around and finishes him off.

We spend the next 15 minutes with me dancing PS 0 Serrisu around with the three FO’s, two with only 1 hull left, in hot pursuit. The game ends with me hard turning and barrel rolling to tuck behind a rock as I wait for Omega Leader and the healthy Tie to continue the chase by banking past the rock. Expecting him to go around the rock, he instead tries to cut over the rock with the healthy Tie, bumping me. Omega Leader then gets stuck behind him Rather than 1-health Omega Leader being flanked and right in front of Serrisu, it is reversed and Omega Leader is now flanking Serrisu at range 1.

Game over.

2-1, MOV 335.

Game 4: Ty

Ty brought: Miranda with TLT and Tactician

Biggs with R2-D2

Poe with R5-P9

The rocks were all in a tight blob in the center again. Ty puts Poe in the far right, with Biggs and Miranda inside of Poe. I line up in the lower left with Serrisu on the outside and Guri on the inside.

Ty turns all three to face the left side of the board.. I send Guri and Talonbane forward, but 2-turn Serrisu to the right. Ty then turns Biggs and Miranda into towards the middle, but keeps Poe going to my left. I turn in Talonbane and Guri towards the center, and have Serrisu dashing from left to right along the near edge. Ty then inches Miranda and Biggs forward at the edge of the rocks. Guri pulls into range 1 of Miranda, but Talonbane is blocked by a large rock and has to go around. Poe starts to turn in behind near the left edge of the board, but is a long way off. Serrisu is still making her way to the right board edge. Talonbane loses a shield to the TLT. Guri has no choice but to shoot Biggs and takes off his shields.

Miranda banks to the right to start going after Serrisu. Biggs comes in behind and bumps, regaining a shield. Poe starts shooting past the skirmish to pull in behind Serrisu which is just now beginning to turn back along the right board edge. Guri S-loops behind Biggs. Talonbane 1-banks short of Miranda, but Biggs is out of arc. Guri hits Biggs again, but he is still alive, and Talonbane removes all of Miranda’s shields in one shot. Miranda fires back at Talonbane and he loses a shield and takes one card.

Biggs banks to my left, Miranda starts to move fast towards Serrisu to my right. Poe is closing on Serrisu quickly. Serrisu moves to get into range 1 of Miranda. Talonbane rolls in behinds Biggs, but he is just out of arc. Guri moves forward and bumps Talonbane. Serrisu takes another 2 hull out of Miranda, but between Poe and Miranda, is down to one health. Serrisu and Talonbane have no shots. Poe and Miranda finish off Serrisu. Talonbane and Guri get un-wadded and start to chase after Biggs again as he starts to regain his shields. Poe is still trying to get back into the fight from finishing off Serrisu in the opposite corner, about the time Talonbane and Guri get Biggs boxed in. Miranda then shows up within range 1 and in arc of both of my ships, but also Biggs. Crap. Talonbane finishes Biggs with one shot. Guri rolls 2 hits and 2 crits and gets Miranda down to 1 hull. If Miranda did any damage that turn, I do not recall.

Miranda’s only move next turn sends her over a rock, which finishes her off. Guri and Talonbane circle around and hit Poe hard, not quite killing him. The final move of the game, Ty tried to talon-roll to get Talonbane in arc, but Talonbane 5 K-turned just past him and unloads with 4-hits.

3-1, MOV 504, 4^th overall (behind #3 by 5 MOV).

I am happy with how I did.

Take-aways:

1). I have is that for two weeks I was running this list very defensively because of the low overall hit points and my poor history with the ships. When I did that, I was successful. The games I got into trouble in this tournament, I was much more aggressive and it did not work out well.

2). I am going to try to keep Serrisu closer to Talonbane. He needs the defensive help. Honestly, I forget to use Serrisu’s pilot ability about half of the time because it is not integral to how I am using the ship

3). Talonbane is a real house-wrecker when ignored

The next Store Championship is in about a week, and I think I am probably going to run this list again.

​

Since the last tournament report, I have continued to practice with this squad. Of the dozen or so games in the past two weeks, I have only lost one to a Miranda/Eskege list. Multiple TLT’s continue to be a difficult match-up. Despite some hesitation, I took Scyk’s Revenge to a store championship and MJ’s Cards and Comics in Wasilla, AK. This is how it went:

First, I swapped out the Stealth Device on Serrisu for a Hull Upgrade. In the games I have been playing, that extra hull seems to have been more reliable than stealth.

The SC was a smaller affair (12 people). There was another large gaming tournament this weekend (no X-Wing) and some of the other regulars had conflicts. Four rounds of Swiss, no cut.

Round 1: Luke

Luke brought: Poe with VI, AT, and R5-P9

Ello with VI, AT, and R2-D2

Gold Squadron Stressbot with E3-A2, BTL-A4 and TLT

The rocks (we both brought the big rocks) were loosely clumped about the middle of the board. I gave initiative to Luke so my Serrisu would move after Poe, and Talonbane moved after Ello. Luke put the Stressbot in the middle of his side of the board, with Ello to my right of it, and Poe near the upper right corner. I put Guri at Range 2 from the lower left, Serrisu in the left corner, and Talonbane next to Serrisu.

Luke moved his ships forward moderately (2 generally). I 1-banked Guri to the right towards the center of the board. Talonbane and Serrisu moved forward 4, with Talonbane boosting. The second round was more of the same with the Stressbot and Ello moving towards the gap between two rocks near Luke’s edge of the board. Poe was moving forward faster to get around a rock not quite halfway towards the middle of the board, on the right-hand side. I shot Talonbane and Serrisu forward to prepare to turn in between the far two rocks on the left side. Guri moved diagonally to cut Poe off from joining the fight.

Luke moved the stressbot forward in between the two rocks parallel with his edge of the board, on the upper left hand side. I think Ello bumped behind him. Poe finished his wide turn around the lone rock on the right side. Guri moved continued to close, barrel rolling to the right. Talonbane and Serrisu turned in to flank the Stressbot. Guri and Poe exchanged Range 3 pleasantries without any meaningful effect. Ello had Talonbane at Range 2 through the asteroid and was unable to push damage through. Talonbane and Serrisu, at range 1, got into the Stressbot’s hull.

The Stressbot did a 3-bank to move out of fire. I think it was at this point that Ello T-rolled left to wedge himself between the Stressbot and a rock, facing back towards his edge of the board. Talonbane banked-in TL’ed, and Focused about half a centimeter away from Ellow. Serrisu filed in behind Talonbane. Poe shot across the middle of the board from right to left to try to help, but Guri S-looped behind him.

Ello, with an Autoblaster Cannon shot from Serrisu and a 5-dice TL’ed and focused **** from Talonbane, exited the battlefield. Poe fired at Talonbane and stripped the shield and maybe one hull. Guri stripped all of Poe’s shields.

I figured at this point the Stressbot would continue to run, and I wanted to take care of Poe while I had him. I figured he had two options, 3-Turn right between the rocks that Ello and the Stressbot just came through, or try to T-role left and line up Talonbane. The stressbot banked slowly towards the near edge of the board. Guri, facing a pile of ships, did not have anywhere really to go, so I turned her towards the stressbot. I banked Talonbane right towards the near edge of the board to block the T-roll, and I had planned on 1-turning Serrisu left to drop in behind Poe if he turned right. Instead, Luke 3-banked Poe to bump Serrisu, blocking her so she could not move, and taking Poe out of all arcs. I think Guri and Talonbane shot at the Stressbot, but it was still alive.

The problem then was that there was no way I was going to get a shot on Poe in the next two rounds because all of my ships were pointed at the Stressbot. The Stressbot K-turned, managed to double-stress Talonbane, but was destroyed shortly thereafter with all three of my ships closing upon him. Meanwhile, Poe was taking a long clock-wise tour of the other side of the board getting all of his shields back.

Poe came around the upper right corner of the board with all three of mine making the turn about the lower right to meet him. I blocked Poe with Guri to deny actions, but then I bumped Serrisu behind Talonbane. The mistake meant that Serrisu was at Range-2 with his primary rather than Range-1 with the Autoblaster. The result, with the help of some green dice, Poe lost his shields again, but I was out of position (again) to finish him off. Poe screamed past my ships toward the bottom of the board. Talonbane had to do a green straight to clear the stress to K-turn (the rocks prevented a reasonable means to turn around). Guri and Serrisu turned into the asteroids to try to corral Poe again.

Three turns later, Poe was back to full health on the near edge, and all three of my ships had him locked in again. This time, with Serrisu landing three hits from the Autoblaster, Talonbane finished him off with 5-stars at range 1.

1-0, 200 MOV

Round 2: Stephen

Stephen has been one of my main sources of practice over the last month working on this list. He also won the last tournament with the list he brought today. He was quite familiar with my list, but I had not faced his yet.

He brought: Poe w/VI, R5-P9, and AT

Miranda w/TLT, Adv. SLAM, and Tactician

2-Bandit Squadron Pilots, naked

The rocks were mostly clumped on the left side of the board, with three in a line around the side, two between them and the middle, and one more just on the right side, a little towards the near edge. Stephen set up the Bandits in the upper left corner, with Miranda behind them, and Poe about a third of the way from the right edge, facing the right edge. I lined up Guri, Talonbane, and Serrisu, left-to-right, in the lower right corner. Stephen moved his ships ahead cautiously (2-forward) and brought Poe in behind. I moved ahead slowly on the first turn, but then 4 straight the next.

I think the next three moves decided the game. The rocks were arranged such that there was one semi-diagonal lane through the middle from right-to-left. Stephen had gotten his ships where the only way the Z’s and Poe could make it was with a 1-turn, which none of his dials had. The last round, I had drifted Guri into the right end of that lane. I brought Guri in hard, and Talonbane and Serrisu closed in behind. Stephen managed to get Miranda turned in to face, but the Z’s and Poe were forced to go around the outside of the rock. Miranda and Guri traded shots, and I got a couple of shields off of her quickly.

Miranda had an escape route with a 3-bank to the left which could have been followed by a SLAM to clear her (and probably shooting back with the TLT and regaining shields). I moved Guri and Talonbane in to block it as best I could, Serrisu came in behind and bumped, I think. Stephen somehow got the K-wing past the block, but was left with Talonbane at Range-1 and another ship, also facing her. Stephen’s big problem is that the Z’s had bottled up the lane through the rocks behind the skirmish, keeping Poe out of the fight. It was either this round or the next, that he had to simply K-turn Poe around to go back to where he started because the lane was so clogged with ships. Miranda took heavy damage this turn. There was some return fire, but nothing significant.

Miranda’s only option was to 2-turn, right, around the rock. I was worried that she would SLAM again right to stay out of arc of Serrisu and Talonbane, so I send Guri over the rock to block. This put her right in front of both Z-95’s. Miranda did 2-turn, right, but did not SLAM away. Talonbane had her within arc, but not Serrisu. At the end of this round, Talonbane was down to about 2 hull. Serrisu had lost a shield, and Guri had a little bit of damage.

Miranda SLAM’ed towards the lower right corner of the board to get out there. Talonbane flowed, but more slowly having to clear a stress token from PTL’ing several turns ago. Poe started to circle around to help Miranda, but he had a long way to go. Serrisu and Guri were still wadded up with the Z’s.

Over the next three or four rounds, Talonbane dispatched of Miranda relatively quickly in the lower right corner of the board, but Poe had gotten within range of him afterwards as Talonbane was turning around. Guri and Serrisu were in the opposite corner of the board cleaning up the Bandits. Talonbane started making a bee-line towards his pals through the middle of the board with Poe pursuing (Talonbane was down to 1-2 hull at this point).

The game ended with Poe K-turning at the left edge of the board, but the next round moving slowly forward to clear the stress. Serrisu K-turned behind him for the range 1-shot, and Guri was directly in front of him with the same. I was running Talonbane away. I had boosted him to range 3, behind an asteroid, but did not PTL and focus. Serrisu did not quite kill Poe with his shot, so at range 3 through a rock, Poe got two hits through as Talonbane blanked out with 5-green dice (two focus, three blanks, no token). Guri then finished off Poe.

2-0, 365 MOV

Round 3: Tim

Tim brought: Trandoshen Slaver w/Tactician, Bossk, and Gunner

2x Thug Y-Wings with TLT and Unhinged

Binayre Pirate

Not to take anything away from Tim; he is an excellent player, but I lost this match before we started. Tim flew almost perfectly, luring me in with the Thugs, but then flying away with the YV coming in behind. Dual TLT lists are difficult for this list, but the sight of the YV-666, with its huge arc and crew on top of the TLT’s caused me to panic a bit. Of all the combinations I worked through in my mind, this was not one of them, and I was not sure how I was going to pick it apart.

The rocks were as before, somewhat clumped to the upper left corner of the board. Tim set up in the upper right corner, YV on the edge, then Pirate, and the two Thugs. I set up in the opposite corner, Serrisu on the outside, Guri on the inside. My plan was too simply get to the opposite side of the board as quickly as possible to get behind the YV’s arc, and figure it out from there.

Tim moved his ships 2-forward (I think), while I launched mine ahead 4, boosting with Talonbane. The second round, he banked the Thugs in a bit, keeping the Pirate and YV moving slowly forward. I took the bait. Instead of circling around the end of the rocks, I turned in early, Talonbane leading the way. Tim banked the Thugs back to the right, and turned the YV in behind them facing my ships.

I was in trouble.

I banked Talonbane away to the top of the board and tried to hide him behind a rock. I stopped Guri and Serrisu between the rocks on the edge. Tim had Talonbane with all four ships. The Slaver missed with his first shot, but then clobbered him with the second. The TLT’s finished him off. Guri managed to take a shield of the YV, but that was all.

I really had nowhere to go. I could bank away as I did with Talonbane and not get any shots and probably lose a second ship. The other option was to just charge the YV, get this game over and go get a sandwich before the final match.

I took the second option.

Tim banked with the YV, and the Pirate moved up even with the Slaver, I think flying over a rock on the way there. The Thugs split right and left, turning away from the near edge of the board. Both Serrisu and Guri 3-banked right, landing about 2-inches in front of the YV. Between the two of them, they got into the Slaver’s hull. The return fire was surprisingly painless. The Z had no shot, the TLT’s only got one shot through (I think on Guri), and the VY accidently got one hit through, so no Bossk/Gunner trigger.

The next round, Tim stopped the YV, and brought the Z in about 90 degrees, in between my ships and the YV. The Thugs continued to wonder about at Range 3. Guri S-looped left behind the YV, and Serrisu K-turned behind it. The lack of dice modifiers resulted in the YV not quite being finished off. I think only one of the Thugs had a TLT shot which did not amount to much. Tim then 1-banked the Pirate to try to block the YV to force the bump from behind, but the Z just barely cleared, so the YV moved ahead one to clear the stress. Serrisu and Guri tucked in behind and finished it off and the Thugs continued to plink away from Range 3.

I turned both ships to the left, facing the bottom of the board to start on the Y-Wings. Guri bumped into the back of the Z trying to get to a gap in the rocks. Serrisu bumped into the back of Guri. The Thug on the left K-turned while the other circled around on the right side, plinking away the entire time.

I knew the Y-Wing on left would have to go 1- or 2-forward to clear the stress, so I sent Guri over the rock to try to get Range 1 on it. It went…poorly. I rolled a crit going over the rock; Console Fire, and just barely bumped the Y-wing. No shot. The Z had K-turned and took Guri out. Serrisu lasted another round or two, but there was little she could do.

I still had time to get a sandwich.

2-1, MOV 403.

Round 4: Colin

Colin brought: Guri w/Title, Sensor Jammer, Glitterstim, Predator, and AT

2x Black Sun Soldiers w/FBA

2x Binayre Pirates w/FBA

One might think that with no cut, there was no point in trying too hard this match. However, with only 12 players, Tim was the only undefeated player and 6 of us were at 2-1. Further, Tim had only beaten one other of the 2-1’s besides me, and the other four had all beaten up on each other. Head-to-head would yield a circular problem, so it would boil down to MOV. If I did well, and Tim lost, I would win. Having won two tournaments last year with Bugzapper swarms, I am very familiar with my opponent’s squad. I had a chance.

Colin brought two debris and one rock, and we set them up across his side of the board, relatively tightly. He set his ships up in formation in the upper right corner. I set mine up in the opposite corner in the usual formation. My plan was to shoot across the board (again), swing around and flank his Guri to take it out first. Colin moved his ships forward 2, while I went full speed towards the opposite side of the board. The third round, he started to bank into the middle of the board as I cut the corner between two rocks in the upper left corner.

Colin then wadded his Z’s up (4 ships, two different pilot skills) trying to turn in around a rock. Guri was on the inside and barrel rolled to my left to get around the obstacle. My Guri and Talonbane 3-banked in to get within Range 1. His Guri did not survive, but Talonbane also took some damage into his hull as most of the bugzappers had a shot at him and Serrisu was too far away to give him a defensive reroll.

The next round, his bugzappers continued to fall all over themselves, but generally back toward the upper middle of the board to engage Guri and Serrisu which had just arrived. I tried to pull Talonbane through the mess to avoid the FBA. All three of my ships got zapped (Talonbane down to 1-hull, and Guri and Serrisu lost their shields), but two of his Z’s had major damage.

Talonbane K-turned near the bottom edge of the board while the fruckuss continued to roll along the top edge of the board towards the right edge. Two or three of his Z’s were down to one hull, and Colin was unwilling to zap away one of his ships to further damage mine. Serrisu took an injured pilot crit at some point making him PS 0. Guri and Serrisu whittled away three of the Z’s over the next two rounds. By the third, Talonbane made it back from his tour of the other side of the board and finished off the last Z.

3-1, 603 MOV.

Tim won his last game finishing 4-0, so I took second.

My final thoughts on this list is that I think it is competitive, although TLT’s do pose a hard counter. When I started, I kept Guri and Talonbane together and used Serrisu as a flanker. I shifted this strategy to use Guri as a flanker instead. She can survive better on her own and Talonbane needs all of the defensive help he can get, which Serrisu provides. I also swapped out the Stealth Device on Serrisu and put in Hull. I have not run it enough to be conclusive, but I think it works better.

Looking to Wave 8, there is not much to change. The general consensus is that all three Scum ships are a bit over-costed, and I would concur. Even bumping the back a few points each would only yield 5-6 points available for additional upgrades, and none of the new ones seem to provide much help over things that already exist.

My goal was to avenge my terrible showing in the January SC by finding a place for a Scyk in a competitive list. With Wave 8 out soon, I think I am done with this list for now. If nothing else, my work with this list over the past 6-weeks has made me a better pilot.

Cool

Nice write up!

My feeling is that the autoblaster is not essential, but feel free to disagree (you've flown it and I haven't). However, by dropping it for a mangler, you get one point to add lone wolf onto Guri, allowing her to be more durable vs Twin lasers. You lose the auto-damage at R1, gain better damage at R2-3 and turn Guri into your 'twin laser answer' so that particular matchup is not so poor for you.

Of course, your flying must be pretty good, because not many people can boast those kinds of results with arguably three of the worst ships in the game (currently...) so congrats on getting them to work!

The point behind the autoblaster is purely for high agility aces. Oddly, I have not run into much of those is tournaments, at least the Imperial ones which are particularly hard to push damage through. I practiced against them, mostly Palp-aces, and she murdered them. Against most of what I was up against this weekend, she was not the biggest threat although she was helpful. Serrisu suffers seriously from a lack of action economy, having no means to modify dice half of the time because os stress or using her lone action on something else.

I do not like Lone Wolf on Guri. She us a brawler, and unless she is the last ship on the board, she would rarely use the ability. I think this last weekend I would have gotten more utility out of crackshot, but I did pushbdome crits through with Calculation. The 99 point initiative bid is useful with this list, so you are stuck with a 1 point ept on Guri.

Well, I was thinking of a minimal change to address the issue against Twin Lasers (that you expressed).

Here's another idea that Wave 8 will introduce:

Xizor w/ attanni mindlink, virago, FCS & autos = 37

Guri w/ attanni mindlink & autos = 33

Serissu w/ attanni mindlink, title, 'mangler' & hull = 30

I've been using mindlink a bit and its pretty nifty. It 'fixes' the action economy problem: every turn, all of your ships will have focus tokens, all day every day. Xizor will also have free target locks, meaning he's free to boost or BR whenever he needs to. If Guri ends in range 1, that gives you an extra focus option for everyone. Serissu can always evade, or if not getting shot at, TL.

High PS aces become more problematic if you are not good at blocking them, but overall your damage levels stay the same (better at R2-3 but worse at R1). You also lose a bit of Pilot Skill. But your ships are much harder to kill. And I mean much. Tokens make a big difference in my experience.

The list will be hard to fly, but as long as you're up for the challenge of learning it, its very doable

I think Mindink is going to be good on Guri as she always seems to have focus tokens around. It will certainly help Xizor's and Talonbane's action issues. I like your list, but would sub in a G-1A or Y-wing to be more of a damage sink for the prince.

Maybe, although with Serissu there, Xizor is an extremely unattractive target with 3 agility, one or two focus, re-roll from Serissu and possibly autothrusters. Serissu in comparison is likely to have focus + evade, which is also good, but slightly easier to get damage through (and she has one less hull and can't use her own re-roll)

A turret w/ mindlink is also good though, because it almost never has to perform red moves...

Maybe, although with Serissu there, Xizor is an extremely unattractive target with 3 agility, one or two focus, re-roll from Serissu and possibly autothrusters. Serissu in comparison is likely to have focus + evade, which is also good, but slightly easier to get damage through (and she has one less hull and can't use her own re-roll)

A turret w/ mindlink is also good though, because it almost never has to perform red moves...

I've been testing mindlink shenanigans with Manaroo (with rec spec) and Guri with FCS, autothrusters and cloaking device. Manaroo moves, gets to focus tokens, gives a free one to guri. Guri's free to use her action to BR or boost since she already has a focus and gets free TLs. Start of combat manaroo passes her focuses off to someone (in the list I've been trying, drea with tlt and r4-b11, for 2 focused/TLed attacks), guri hopefully gets a free focus and passes it off to manaroo if she does. If drea doesn't need the focuses (or is dead, since she's tended to die first), now guri's running a minimum of 3 focus tokens every round, up to 5 if she focuses herself and is in range 1. If she gets in too bad of a position, she's free to use her action to cloak for 5 agility and still have 1-4 focus tokens from mindlink, her ability and manaroo passing themto modify her defense dice.

Guri's free to sloop her heart away as desired since, again, she's getting all the free focus tokens she could want and has free TLs to boot. Manaroo just flies circles doing greens when needed after guri stresses her out. half the time manaroo's ended up flying around by herself nowhere near the combat, letting guri and drea do their things.

Don't forget that when Manaroo passes off her tokens (and she has to pass them all), she immediately gets a focus token because of mindlink (which is not optional). So often it might be better to activate Guri's ability first then Manaroo's (since both are start of combat). Its convenient though, because you can do it in whatever order seems likely to give you the most focus

Don't forget that when Manaroo passes off her tokens (and she has to pass them all), she immediately gets a focus token because of mindlink (which is not optional). So often it might be better to activate Guri's ability first then Manaroo's (since both are start of combat). Its convenient though, because you can do it in whatever order seems likely to give you the most focus

Depends who she's passing them to. Drea doesn't have an EPT slot, so she has no mindlink in that list. If I'm passing tokens to her with manaroo, you want to do that first before guri gets her focus, so that manaroo gets a focus back from guri's ability. If you're passing tokens to guri, it doesn't matter which order you do it, since manaroo gets her 1 focus back either way.