So I was scrimmaging around with some new Scum toys, specifically looking to try out Expose/EI Zuckuss and Tractor Beam Serissu.

So when looking for a third ship, it occurred to me Drea Renthal might be a fun, unexplored option (for me anyway) for torpedo delivery. With Guidance Chips and Extra Munitions, combined with Drea's ability to regain TL for use with the Torpedo shot, I started flipping back to the torpedo page of my card notebook. Proton Torpedoes are a great choice these days, obviously, and would be with Drea given their native soft focus.

But then I started considering Ion Torps. One point more than a Proton Torp, same total damage potential, but trading off the soft focus crit ability in favor of an area ion effect. The economics aren't bad with GC and EM, and fielded next to one or more ships that are throwing high numbers of attack dice, the ability to bring multiple enemy ships under control to set up potential R1 crippling strikes from your volume dice throwers is very attractive.

Is this a great, overlooked option in our new ordnance meta?

With guidance chips and Ten Numb can auto hit ion torpedoes.

Drea seems to be great at any torpedo with Target Lock and Guidance Chips.

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of using Drea as a torpedo boat. You could even throw R4-B11 on there to make them re-roll their defense dice.

I think ion topps will be good on tie bombers with tie shuttle Jonus backing them up with various officers to give focuses and locks. Same thing with assault missiles.

Quite honestly, I had never thought to try them because I think I simply overlooked the fact they can still deal 4 damage.

In my scrimmaging, I was shooting them at a Decimator and getting splash ions on its TAP escorts. Perfect setup for Expose Zuckuss to one-shot them, if the green dice do that fickle thing they do.

But yeah, running Fleet Officer on a TIE shuttle is going to be bonkers. A TAP with Title gets a TL+F Procket shot, and you can even Juke it for good measure.

I ran Drea with Ion Torps at a recent tourney. She wrecked face against swarm squads. In one instance, she Ioned 3 Z-95s and 2 K-Wings, allowing 4-LOM and Kavil set up for a perfect shot the next round. Recommend her with Unhinged Astromech, just to make clearing stress the next round that much easier.

I'm not sure how to feel about ion torpedoes -- they're just a point or two too expensive to fit into a normal niche. Not that they're not worth the points (once you throw on GC and/or EM); but it's harder to find a spot for a five-point upgrade than it is for a three- or four- point upgrade.

I would say they have their place, as long as there are at least two of them, ideally at least two sources of ion tokens in the list, otherwise big ships will just ignore them, and you're paying a pretty serious premium (2 points and no shield damage vs plasmas).

I wonder if three rebel Y wings might be viable with Ions?

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Ion Torpedoes (5)

R3-A2 (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Extra Munitions (2)

Ion Torpedoes (5)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

"Dutch" Vander (23)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Targeting Astromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Against Jumpmasters, you will hopefully alpha one off the board, while simultaneously controlling the second turn of combat with your ions. Against Palp Aces, you alpha the shuttle, hopefully, then the stresshog gives you some anti ace capabilities, alternatively you're shooting two ion cannon as them with TL and focus more often than not. Your one point bid should let you force Adaptability A-Wings to move first to give you the chance at TL, your ion splash effect will be useful against Crackswarms. I guess you're weak against... Brobots? BBBBZ?

Worth a try for sure!

I've played a list using Drea, Kavil, and Guri a handful of times now, and haven't lost once. I always give Drea Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, and R4-B11. Haven't even tried her with Guidance Chips yet, but when I get the TAP, I'm sure it will be far more brutal than it already is. I'll need to try and squeeze in the points for Ion Torpedoes one of these days just to see how they play in comparison. I'll probably have to shave down Guri a bit or trade her out for something else.

Side note, Kavil is fantastic with the Blaster Turret and R4 Agromech. Throwing out 4 attack dice with a Target Lock outside of arc is just beautiful. Haven't found the perfect EPT for him yet, though.

Slightly more viable due to GC, but still; a good swarm player will just fly two-by-two and if he/she isn't using Howlrunner then you've gained nothing but more arcs to worry about.

I've played a list using Drea, Kavil, and Guri a handful of times now, and haven't lost once. I always give Drea Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, and R4-B11. Haven't even tried her with Guidance Chips yet, but when I get the TAP, I'm sure it will be far more brutal than it already is. I'll need to try and squeeze in the points for Ion Torpedoes one of these days just to see how they play in comparison. I'll probably have to shave down Guri a bit or trade her out for something else.

Side note, Kavil is fantastic with the Blaster Turret and R4 Agromech. Throwing out 4 attack dice with a Target Lock outside of arc is just beautiful. Haven't found the perfect EPT for him yet, though.

I usually run him with Predator, but that's redundant if you're running him with an R4. VI perhaps?

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of using Drea as a torpedo boat. You could even throw R4-B11 on there to make them re-roll their defense dice.

and then you remember her PS5, requirement to get TL for the shot, and that the game PS is over the top PS8+ mostly

Blacks, Wampa, Omicrons and Scouts are on every other table, and none of those particularly enjoy getting hit in the face with a protorp.

I know this isnt quite the place here, but the Ion Torps do wonders in the Aturi Cluster campaign games.

I findthat many people in my area have overlooked them, and after using them a few times in that campaign, I'm very tempted to start using them in competitive 100 point games.

Someone on these forums recommended Ion Torpedo about 6 months ago. I had to go back and look it up as I didn't even recall what it did. I thought it didn't do the damage as well. I was pretty surprised when I found it does the damage AND does the Ion. I've been using it every now and again.

Ion Torpedo is the best in Epic games. You really can control the table when you take a ship with it. Swarms of ships are nasty in Epic, but when you can ionize a cluster of them, it's much more manageable. CR-90 likes it as it gives them the control they need to then keep things at range.

I've been playing Mission 1 with the Senator's shuttle and it saved me one game. It was useful in every game that I played, but there was one game that I was able to stop him for that one more crucial turn.

I wonder how Ion Torpedo would do with Wedge. I'm not sure for tournament play, but Wedge loves it due to removing one green die. There is a much greater chance of hitting.

Overall, I think there are too few ships in most tournament lists these days. It's all 3-4 ship lists most of the time. I don't really see it happening too much to become a thing.

I know this isnt quite the place here, but the Ion Torps do wonders in the Aturi Cluster campaign games.

I findthat many people in my area have overlooked them, and after using them a few times in that campaign, I'm very tempted to start using them in competitive 100 point games.

I did discover this last week! I bought my Ion Torpedo for my X-wing instead of going to PS 3. I already bought a Shield Upgrade and will have to wait for PS 4 before I can get another Modification, but I'll be more than happy when I can. I'll have 2 Ion Torpedoes, Predator, and Guidance Chip for them!

"Ion Torpedoes previously overlooked now viable?"

"Short answer 'yes' with an 'if' long answer 'no' with a 'but'" - Rev. Lovejoy

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of using Drea as a torpedo boat. You could even throw R4-B11 on there to make them re-roll their defense dice.

Smiley is THE reason that the pirate queen is the best torpedo carrier in the game, period. Kinda want to run her with Manaroo these days to set up that lock.

It's odd to me that people salivate over jump masters' deadeye+R4 agromech+chips combo. Yet Kavil has access to the exact same mechanics, but at PS 7, for essentially the same cost, and there's no mention whatsoever of it. For a few points more you can give him a dorsal turret after the torpedoes are gone.

Kavil has a much smaller firing arc and worse dial.

Kavil has a much smaller firing arc and worse dial.

And he is far less resilient and has a small base with no barrel roll, making him exceptionally slow by comparison.

I understand the cost-effectiveness of jumpers, but they have flaws. One of those being PS 4+ killing one before it shoots. There are very few lists that can kill a PS 7 ship before it unloads.

And judging by more recent tournament results, triple U-boats are falling to less conventional double U-boat+something else lists.

Something like this:

32: Kavil, Plasmas, EM, chips, deadeye, R4 agro

34: Jumpmaster, Protons, EM, chips, deadeye, overclocked R4, Boba Fett

34: Jump master, Protons, EM, chips, deadeye, overclocked R4, Zuckuss

Total: 100

This has the advantage against triple U-boats given the PS 7, ability to kill deadeye, and its ability to use focus tokens defensively since they're unlimited.

^^^ How is that relevant to Ion torps? Whydidnt you make a list using them? Isnt that what the discussion is about?

So I was scrimmaging around with some new Scum toys, specifically looking to try out Expose/EI Zuckuss and Tractor Beam Serissu.

So when looking for a third ship, it occurred to me Drea Renthal might be a fun, unexplored option (for me anyway) for torpedo delivery. With Guidance Chips and Extra Munitions, combined with Drea's ability to regain TL for use with the Torpedo shot, I started flipping back to the torpedo page of my card notebook. Proton Torpedoes are a great choice these days, obviously, and would be with Drea given their native soft focus.

But then I started considering Ion Torps. One point more than a Proton Torp, same total damage potential, but trading off the soft focus crit ability in favor of an area ion effect. The economics aren't bad with GC and EM, and fielded next to one or more ships that are throwing high numbers of attack dice, the ability to bring multiple enemy ships under control to set up potential R1 crippling strikes from your volume dice throwers is very attractive.

Is this a great, overlooked option in our new ordnance meta?

Ion Torpedoes/Pulse Missiles flown near Dace Bonearm?

^^^ How is that relevant to Ion torps? Whydidnt you make a list using them? Isnt that what the discussion is about?

Drop the crew and upgrade both the Protons or kavil's Plasmas. You don't need me to hold your hand. I just figure as long as we're expanding our thinking about ordnance delivery, we might as well expand it for ordnance platforms too.

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of using Drea as a torpedo boat. You could even throw R4-B11 on there to make them re-roll their defense dice.

Smiley is THE reason that the pirate queen is the best torpedo carrier in the game, period. Kinda want to run her with Manaroo these days to set up that lock.

Been running her with plasma, em, GC, r4-b11 and auto blaster turret since GC came out. It is great when combined with two uboats (1 with boba proton). She gets stressed to hell, but as someone who has ran stressbot not an issue. I took it to Rochester regional and went 4-2 and should have had another win. Tons of fun to play, and the look on imp aces when I get 4 hits and then I make them reroll all their evades is priceless.