Okay so tried cloaking device on Talonbane. It failed every time. However instead of usign cloaking like Whisper or Echo as a relocation and defensive device I found out it works great as a extra maneuver such as a 2 straight or 2 barrel roll. Much like a Klingon Bird of Prey cloaks right before an attack run then decloaks swoop in and destroy stuff.

So this build I call Bird of Prey. (side view looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey, take a closer look if you don't believe me)

Talonbane Cobra

• Push the Limits
• Cloaking Device
• Engine Upgrade

I tried playing him with a Dirty Harry (Dengar w/title & predator + R5-P8) and a Bynree.

at first I tried Shield upgrade (big mistake always go for EU) and didn't do that well. Was able to finish off a TIE advanced (untill I reminded my opponent of his palpmobile he wasn't using). The next game I tried EU with cloaking device. Didn;t got a chance to use cloaking device but the boost was great. I should have played him more agressivly cloaking at the first turn then decloaking high speed maneuver and boost to range 1 to kill a ship before it has a chance to attack.

So now the question is what to fly him with. Dengar was nice but I felt that was too many points and a 2 ship build is not that good any more. I am thinking of maybe Palob to steal focus and evades tokens form other ships to help Talonbane as he sweeps in for the kill.

He pairs well with two thirds of the wolfpack but to get your build in there you'd have to cut some corners.

Bring Manaroo! If she can hand him focus av target lock he's free to work on positioning.

He wants Manaroo with K4 droid as a compation and VI. PS11 boosting, no stress and focus+TL from outside source

'd

He wants Manaroo with K4 droid as a compation and VI. PS11 boosting, no stress and focus+TL from outside source

'd

Does Manaroo's ability count as spending a focus token to trigger OR4?

How exactly did you use cloaking device on Cobra? To jump out of the battle? It lacks "recloaking" option after the shot like Whisper.

Also I think Manaroo was what Cobra needed to be viable. Have to try it though.

He wants Manaroo with K4 droid as a compation and VI. PS11 boosting, no stress and focus+TL from outside source

'd

Does Manaroo's ability count as spending a focus token to trigger OR4?

No, she does not spend the token, just assigns it to another ship.

How exactly did you use cloaking device on Cobra? To jump out of the battle? It lacks "recloaking" option after the shot like Whisper.

Also I think Manaroo was what Cobra needed to be viable. Have to try it though.

He's using it purely as repositioning tool. Use the 2 forward from decloaking, then your regular maneuver. You can travel an alarming amount of space in a single turn. I played against a Talaonbane with cloaking, but its cloaking broke after the 2nd roll. Then Talonbane died to HLC and Dengar fire. Its a pretty gimmicky card and really doesn't make Talonbane any better.

I still think you put Glitterstim and VI on Talonbane and call it a day. If he survives his alpha strike, then its a win.

We have always referred to that ship as the Klingon, simply because none of us had ever heard, could remember, or pronounce the Kihraxz. (side note spell check agrees, Klingon a word Kihraxz is not)

Well, the cloak does give him 2 extra green dice on approach.

Get yer Trekkie crap outta dis forum!

It seems like everyone says TalonBane isn't up to snuff, but I do so love charging straight at two or three ships with him after popping Glitterstim.

It seems like everyone says TalonBane isn't up to snuff, but I do so love charging straight at two or three ships with him after popping Glitterstim.

The real problem is that secondary weapons laugh at him. Tlt is already bad for him because no thrusters and low agility but they also turn off his ability at range 3 and make him look like a huge nerd. He's a fun pilot but his ship is stuff as a frozen turd and as tanky as one too. It's just too easy to pop him and remove a ton of points and punch if you're relying on him as your ace.

He wants Manaroo with K4 droid as a compation and VI. PS11 boosting, no stress and focus+TL from outside source

'd

Does Manaroo's ability count as spending a focus token to trigger OR4?

No, she does not spend the token, just assigns it to another ship.

Remember she assigns all of her tokens Focus, evades, Target locks (Red and Blue) to one other ship, not just one token.

It seems like everyone says TalonBane isn't up to snuff, but I do so love charging straight at two or three ships with him after popping Glitterstim.

The real problem is that secondary weapons laugh at him. Tlt is already bad for him because no thrusters and low agility but they also turn off his ability at range 3 and make him look like a huge nerd. He's a fun pilot but his ship is stuff as a frozen turd and as tanky as one too. It's just too easy to pop him and remove a ton of points and punch if you're relying on him as your ace.

Hmmmm. He's so much fun though.

Who could he be run with to make him work?

Cloaking Device was exactly what so many of our small base scum ships needed, too bad it's so flimsy. Huge disappointment.

Maybe it should have de-cloaked you and then stressed or ionized you when it conked out, rather then losing the upgrade? Maybe it should have cost 3-4 points and not had the possibility of being discarded. Maybe it'd be fine with a 1/8 chance of being discarded, on a [crit] result with an attack die.

Either way, it's just not quite reliable enough to form a game plan around, and that's a shame because it's conceptually a supremely fun card.

I 100% agree that K-Fighters shall henceforth be known as "Klingons".

For them, it is always "a good day to die!"

How's a list like this look? Dengar has a couple chances (Extra Munitions) to put a crit on with Proton Torpedos + Guidance Chips, then if he does he can use Boba Fett. This is obviously the biggest threat, which may take some of the heat off for Talonbane to do his thing.

Dengar (52)
JumpMaster 5000 (33), Extra Munitions (2), Proton Torpedoes (4), Boba Fett (1), Punishing One (12), Guidance Chips (0)

Talonbane Cobra (34)
Kihraxz Fighter (28), Crack Shot (1), Glitterstim (2), Stealth Device (3)

Binayre Pirate (14)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Glitterstim (2)

It seems like everyone says TalonBane isn't up to snuff, but I do so love charging straight at two or three ships with him after popping Glitterstim.

The real problem is that secondary weapons laugh at him. Tlt is already bad for him because no thrusters and low agility but they also turn off his ability at range 3 and make him look like a huge nerd. He's a fun pilot but his ship is stuff as a frozen turd and as tanky as one too. It's just too easy to pop him and remove a ton of points and punch if you're relying on him as your ace.

Well the whole point of the cloak is NOT the 2 extra green dice but the movement from out of range to range 1. Now of course against a TLT Box this will never work (few things do) but you could get another use from the cloak where glitterstim is a alpha strike one time use only.

Cloaking Device was exactly what so many of our small base scum ships needed, too bad it's so flimsy. Huge disappointment.

Maybe it should have de-cloaked you and then stressed or ionized you when it conked out, rather then losing the upgrade? Maybe it should have cost 3-4 points and not had the possibility of being discarded. Maybe it'd be fine with a 1/8 chance of being discarded, on a [crit] result with an attack die.

Either way, it's just not quite reliable enough to form a game plan around, and that's a shame because it's conceptually a supremely fun card.

I find it very reliable. It gives me a free 2 straight which really is the only purpose behind the scum cloak.

The biggest problem I see is that everyone wants to treat it like the Phantom cloak as a permanent +2 agility as long as you fly it right. Scum cloak is not + 2 agility. Sure with SPA on a Hwk it is a great panic button but nothing more than that. You really want it as a cloak to prep a 2 straight followed by a 3 or 4 speed maneuver, boost if necessary to get within range 1 or TL/focus for a range 1 attack.

Instead of SPA I might recommend EU as the modification. The cloak should not be seen as a defensive tool but an offensive maneuver boost.

So I tried the build again. Did okay, not great but then again I did make some mistakes.

So flew the Bird of Prey with 2 Thugs (TLT build) and a Bynre Pilot. There was one little maneuver I tried with Talonbane in the jousting and that is to cloak then decloak following a K-turn. The first round I made a mistake and picked the 4K instead of the 5K but that let me be within range 1 of Bigs and dealt 4 hits to him. However a VCX with TLT finished off as for Klingons it was a good day to die.

in the second round I did made some mistakes which cost me a thug as I did that trick maneuver but did get 5 hits on Nera (B-wing). Funny thing is my cloak worked 3 times yet I had a chance to do a cloak a 4th time but I thought I was already at range 3 and took a focus figuring that 4 agility with a focus is better than 6 agility. Unfortunately Talonbane ate a 3 attack range 2 shot and perished.

So what did I learn.

At range 3 Talonbane cobra takes A LOT of shots. Everyone goes after the PS 9. Although in the second round my opponent was new so I told him to go after the Thugs with TLTs as they finish off ships. He did kill one first right away but then after the decloak and K-turn to 5 dice attacks Talonbane has this Aura around him that just AGROS everyone in the FLGS.

I have been having a bit of luck with talonbane with attanni mind link fitted, being able to get the focus + tl/boost(if you have EU fitted) give him a lot better action economy than PTL and he's not so worried about stress as he can always get a focus from the link, I have also found than N'Dru with concussion missiles and guidance chips takes some heat off of talonbane as no one seems to want to eat a 5 dice missile that turns two blanks to hits.

This is the list I've been running recently, using the cloaking device as a cheap reposition tool rather than relying it for too much

Cobra commander (100)

Talonbane Cobra (31) - Kihraxz

Attanni Mindlink (1), Cloaking Device (2)

Black Sun Ace (24) - Kihraxz

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Tansarii Point Veteran (21) - M3-A "Scyk" Interceptor

Attanni Mindlink (1), "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2), Tractor Beam (1)

N'Dru Suhlak (24) - Z-95 Headhunter

Attanni Mindlink (1), Concussion Missiles (4), Feedback Array (2), Guidance Chips (0)