Ive been playing twin casters for a whopping 5 games now and im having trouble keeping them in sync. They are super fast and they seem to do really well when they are getting guns to bear on the same target, but when I split, their 3 dice attack is meh.

Has anyone come up with good strategies for keeping fast big ships on point with eachother?

If you are on vassal, watch darthdane fly them. He has mastered this.

I think it's a matter of treating them differently. Ketsu should be used more like a jouster, or a primary-arc only ship. Ventress is used to circle the engagement, without having to adjust her mobile arc too much.

I wouldn't start them near each other, and I wouldn't be afraid to let the enemy come at you, if you need to adjust based on where they set up (say they set up opposite Ventress -- have her turn towards Ketsu's end, adjust arc to face enemy approach, and then let Ketsu come soaring in to take advantage of the [extremely obvious] switch & bait.

That being said, Ventress w/ Latts is your tankier build, so you could alternatively have her be the one mixing it up, while Ketsu comes in for a nasty flank.

I would recommend you to watch Brobots matches (dual aggressors), there are A LOT of them on the internet. You can transfer a lot of tactics (especially starting points) to dual shadow casters

I think it's a matter of treating them differently. Ketsu should be used more like a jouster, or a primary-arc only ship. Ventress is used to circle the engagement, without having to adjust her mobile arc too much.

I wouldn't start them near each other, and I wouldn't be afraid to let the enemy come at you, if you need to adjust based on where they set up (say they set up opposite Ventress -- have her turn towards Ketsu's end, adjust arc to face enemy approach, and then let Ketsu come soaring in to take advantage of the [extremely obvious] switch & bait.

That being said, Ventress w/ Latts is your tankier build, so you could alternatively have her be the one mixing it up, while Ketsu comes in for a nasty flank.

I would recommend you to watch Brobots matches (dual aggressors), there are A LOT of them on the internet. You can transfer a lot of tactics (especially starting points) to dual shadow casters

I don't believe watching a Brobots match will give him much more than seeing two of the same ship flying in a list. Brobots are normally built to do the same thing with exact same loadouts where as ArbitraryNerd mentioned, Ketsu and Asajj are two very different animals. After playing a couple games with each of these, albeit not in the same list, Ketsu is definitely the "rush up the field jouster or run away and rush back in later" type where as Asajj can work the perimeters and circle the fight and keep her mobile arc on the side facing the fight while flying forward. IMO, I don't think it's safe to say that flying Ketsu/Asajj will be like flying Brobots.

shadowcasters?

oh, you mean the Lancer-Class Pursued Craft

I personally feel that, unless you're an absolute god at x-wing, the build is just lacking due to the restrictions of having a piddly two 3-dice primaries with no special modifiers (beyond re-rolls and focus) if you don't manage to tractor-beam something

large bases with speed 3 greens are very difficult to manage around obstacles, but at the same time you need those obstacles to break up enemies because you're not dicing anything to death any time soon

one of the biggest strengths of Ketsu/Asajj I've noticed is intentional bumping (either blocking or running your ass into a block) because you still get their pilot abilities to trigger regardless. With careful use of obstacles, the pilot ability trigger is often worth far more than your action

and if you're going up against something you know you can bully, ketsu can just ram herself into a lower PS and t-beam him into some good damage

in order to facilitate this, I think glitterstim is the go to illicit even outside sabine

plus it helps if you have an exposed Lancer and will be taking concentrated fire.

I feel like dual casters is going to be hard to pull off. As someone else said they will likely struggle on focus fire since they're so big and fast. I really like a fang with a shadowcaster since they're both fast and you can run the shadowcaster around the outside/behind while the fang knife fights and dances inside for some sexy focus.

I played against them with a buddy last week. He likes the ship but after we played two matches he wasn't sold on dual casters. The control is great but they have a hard time putting out damage.

Maybe there is a special build for them to make them work but we came to the conclusion that you are probably better off with one, Ketsu or Assajj, and some other ship(s) to provide the firepower. Both pair pretty well with a pair of TLT thugs, a couple of Z95s wouldn't be terrible, or one of the many other Scum large ships decked out.

yeah I am afraid the era of the two ship list is over (except maybe dash lothal, but note the 4-dice offense on both of them)

the caster puts out very little damage for its cost, which is compensated for by its control capabilities (or durability in stimmed Sabine's case) but stacking too far in that direction can leave you with too little damage output

which is sad because the Caster finally introduces what PWTs should've been all the **** time they were dominating wave 5-6

could've saved everyone a lot of agony

If you are on vassal, watch darthdane fly them. He has mastered this.

Will do, thanks

I think it's a matter of treating them differently. Ketsu should be used more like a jouster, or a primary-arc only ship. Ventress is used to circle the engagement, without having to adjust her mobile arc too much.

I wouldn't start them near each other, and I wouldn't be afraid to let the enemy come at you, if you need to adjust based on where they set up (say they set up opposite Ventress -- have her turn towards Ketsu's end, adjust arc to face enemy approach, and then let Ketsu come soaring in to take advantage of the [extremely obvious] switch & bait.

That being said, Ventress w/ Latts is your tankier build, so you could alternatively have her be the one mixing it up, while Ketsu comes in for a nasty flank.

I am learning this, thanks for your input. So you are saying orbit with dash, joust with ketsu. Im into it.

I feel like dual casters is going to be hard to pull off. As someone else said they will likely struggle on focus fire since they're so big and fast. I really like a fang with a shadowcaster since they're both fast and you can run the shadowcaster around the outside/behind while the fang knife fights and dances inside for some sexy focus.

yeah nigel that is literally the point of the whole post. figuring out how to fly them to make focus fire work.

yeah I am afraid the era of the two ship list is over (except maybe dash lothal, but note the 4-dice offense on both of them)

the caster puts out very little damage for its cost, which is compensated for by its control capabilities (or durability in stimmed Sabine's case) but stacking too far in that direction can leave you with too little damage output

which is sad because the Caster finally introduces what PWTs should've been all the **** time they were dominating wave 5-6

could've saved everyone a lot of agony

Hi fickle, I appreciate your posts but this one wasn't useful at all. I wasnt asking about how competitive it was, just how i can keep both ships on point. So i appreciate you feeling like you want to come in raining on my parade, BUT I was talking about how to fly them together. Thanks!

did you just completely ignore the previous post with all the pics on them?

people really have tunnel vision when it comes to generating negative responses, as if they're just begging for an opportunity to feel slighted

did you just completely ignore the previous post with all the pics on them?

people really have tunnel vision when it comes to generating negative responses, as if they're just begging for an opportunity to feel slighted

No it was good stuff that felt too long to put in a quote. I didn't actually realize it was you who posted that. I appreciate THAT post. I feel slighted (slightly less so now) by your other post. However, Thank you for that input, I agree that two three dice attacks are not optimal, but If you can guarantee hits, it might not be too bad. Im thinking predator/gunner combos or something similar to strip tokens and make them keep rolling evades.

To the original question:

"Has anyone come up with good strategies for keeping fast big ships on point with eachother?"

My answer while piloting IG-88s was ion cannons. I knew that if I hit, I would have a good idea where the enemy would be next turn and know where to position myself to deal the fatal strike (while avoiding damage). The sudden increase of dice modifications make that harder now.

Dual Shadowcasters do not have that option, but I guess that it amounts to the same challenge: finding a way to limit where your opponent can go or can do. My answer would be debris (as obstacle placement and illicit upgrade slot). If you litter the field with them, add gyroscopic targeting so you can move your turret even while stressed and have other upgrades to increase your damage even while stressed (predator, Dengar, etc), then maybe you could create a nightmare for other lists to navigate.

Let me emphasise the "maybe", and suggest borrowing those cargo shutes instead of buying 4 Shadowcasters (you'll never use 4 in epic).

I'd think pretty hard about Fearlessness on both Casters. They have the high speed and large range 1 area to trigger it fairly often. It also augments their main weakness of low damage output. With Ketsu's ability and the Shadowcaster title, you can engineer a lot of opportunities to use it, as well. You can get full mods with Dengar on one of the ships, and any number of good offensive crew on the other. If there's points, Gunner on the one with Shadowcaster title is probably a good bet.

This is all strictly theoretical, but it seems like there's something there.

Considering Fearlessness doesnt specify "primary arc" it can trigger a fair bit. Adds more reasons to not get in this thing's way

Ive hardly faced this thing, but the few times i have it felt like a lone wolf even when it wasnt alone. It behaves so weirdly compared to other ships.

I'd think pretty hard about Fearlessness on both Casters. They have the high speed and large range 1 area to trigger it fairly often. It also augments their main weakness of low damage output. With Ketsu's ability and the Shadowcaster title, you can engineer a lot of opportunities to use it, as well. You can get full mods with Dengar on one of the ships, and any number of good offensive crew on the other. If there's points, Gunner on the one with Shadowcaster title is probably a good bet.

This is all strictly theoretical, but it seems like there's something there.

I wish

unfortunately, with fearlessness you have to be trading dice at range 1 (Enemy has arc on you) which is not the caster's strength, not enough remotely

PTL is basically mandatory in order to stack focus + evade to keep the expensive thing in the fight for as long as possible

From the NZ Nationals Top 4. The lesson being, keep them together, don't be afraid to bump. It was brutal.

Ketsu Onyo + Veteran Instincts + Dengar + Glitterstim + Inertial Dampeners + Shadow Caster Title + Counter Measures

Asajj Ventress + Predator + Latts Razzi + Glitterstim + Glitterstim + Counter Measures

I'd think pretty hard about Fearlessness on both Casters. They have the high speed and large range 1 area to trigger it fairly often. It also augments their main weakness of low damage output. With Ketsu's ability and the Shadowcaster title, you can engineer a lot of opportunities to use it, as well. You can get full mods with Dengar on one of the ships, and any number of good offensive crew on the other. If there's points, Gunner on the one with Shadowcaster title is probably a good bet.

This is all strictly theoretical, but it seems like there's something there.

I wish

unfortunately, with fearlessness you have to be trading dice at range 1 (Enemy has arc on you) which is not the caster's strength, not enough remotely

PTL is basically mandatory in order to stack focus + evade to keep the expensive thing in the fight for as long as possible

You've got 10 hit points, 2 AGI, and access to Glitterstim. You can take a hit, particularly when you're dumping 4 dice + a hit into them.

10 health 2 agi just vanishes in my experience

Esp if it's half your list

I think the point though is if you're running two large ships with 2 agility like Lancers, in the first few rounds of engagement, you have to maximize your damage to potentially wipe out an opposing ship first round and mitigate as much damage incoming at the same time. Glitterstim and Countermeasures can do that for Ketsu and/or Asajj. Being able to take two Glitterstims is an even bigger deal that now there's two rounds of combat Ketsu and/or Asajj can get a major boost in damage and survivability. I kind of think of it as Dengaroo but most of the damage is being outputted by Dengar whereas with these two ships, you have to coordinate a focus fire. Dengaroo succeeds and they're 2 agility ships, but it's the combination of their pilot abilities and kitting them out correctly that can get the job done. I personally still won't run specifically two Lancers. One because I don't want to buy a second yet or maybe at all, and two, I've already played solid lists that incorporate a YV-666 or Kath to partner with a Lancer.

I don't know about dual Shadowcasters, but I do know that Shadowcaster, Party bus is a hell of a lot of fun.

Just watched this last night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A94TiR10i0 Dual Shadowcasters take down 2 Jumps + Party Bus. . If link doesn't work, go to Youtube and search for Hangar 19. It is the Crossroads Classic 2016 - Swiss Round 2. There are some other interesting Wave 9 lists that are streamed, as well.

Dead Man Switch x2