4 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

I ran a Mangler/HLC/Guri Mindlink list at the Seattle Regional last month. It was my first Regional, and I've only been playing about a year. And I did not practice enough beforehand. But, I managed to go 3-3, 45th out of 110, with two of the losses being awful **** close. It suffered against stress-lists, of course, although not as badly as you might fear. You really have to control that initial engagement; it sets the tone for the rest of the game. And pray to the Green Dice Gods. Scyks aren't not top tier, but they certainly can surprise people. I say do it.

I will.

Happy to hear Scyks are doing allright and people have run underdog ships with good effect. Go Scyks!

I'd say no, there's really no reason to fly them, hopefully some of the new pilots will give us a reason.

New pilots are pretty much never a bad thing.

Lae'tin would probably see play in a heartbeat if FFG would have given the EPT. They seem to be learning that lesson REALLY slowly.

Their generic is as good as the Protectorate Fighter, by the numbers, and in many cases I find it slightly superior - the shield is handy against an early crit or Vader, the Mangler pumping crits can hurt like heck against the big fat ships (Ghost, Decimator, in particular), and for a generic, I think I'd honestly rather negate a green die at Range 3 than get a bonus at Range 1 - getting that kind of range on a ship just doesn't come up all that much.

Trouble is, small base generics aren't doing that great in general right now. This is why almost all the lists above are Mindlink'd, where they can do respectably. And they just don't have much in the way of Aces - we have a no-EPT-dud at PS 7, and Serissu, the bodyguard ace. So what the scyk really needs is for generics to come back into play, or more aces. At least the new expansion should provide us more of the latter, eh?

I haven't run it yet, but while of course Laetin would be better with an EPT compared to without, I think Laetin is a good choice for some cheap control at 23pts. with the Heavy title and an Ion Cannon. You can sit back at range 3 with an Evade token while dropping Ion Tokens on people without the range penalty. At that range, you are less likely to be arc dodged by higher PS, and you are going to be 4 dice + Evade token to be hit by primaries, so more likely to keep that token against multiple attacks and are likely not a high threat target to begin with compared to someone up in your face like Fenn Rau. If you have some leftover points maybe through a Stealth Device on, but I probably wouldn't bother. If Laetin did have an EPT it would like just be another Mindlink, or maybe Juke.

On 2/8/2017 at 6:01 PM, Reiver said:

Trouble is, small base generics aren't doing that great in general right now. This is why almost all the lists above are Mindlink'd, where they can do respectably. And they just don't have much in the way of Aces - we have a no-EPT-dud at PS 7, and Serissu, the bodyguard ace. So what the scyk really needs is for generics to come back into play, or more aces. At least the new expansion should provide us more of the latter, eh?

This may be the actual problem - I think you hit it on the head. I can't justify a generic unless I just don't have the points for it, and then I"m usually picking a different ship rather than run the generic

I wish, even if it broke the game, that they would FAQ all pilots PS 6 and above get an EPT if they don't already have one except for maybe the VCX and Kwing. Imagine what that would do for a whole lot of ships (Laetin, Graz, Arvyl, Dutch, Horton, Emon, Kir Kanos, etc.)

Scyks are now in a place where if TIE Fighters were good then the Scyk would probably get in on that discussion, at least with the C-ROC arrives. But while the game is in a state where TIE Fighter are bad then the Scyk will remain bad.

but the tie fighter has some uses, just from it's numerous pilots. I still think Wampa is useful. Omega Leader is used (not quite the same) Howlrunner saw use. I've seen Serissu used a little, but not competitively. Crackswarm was a thing, even casually I've used some of the FO pilots bc of their abilities and seen something similar with the other named tie pilots, scyks need a reason to be flown. Not to open another can of worms, but the Kihraxz probably wouldn't have sold either if it didn't have the Crackshot card in it. It was outdated before it was released. Making the pilots useful would help, especially in casual play where Graz or Laetin could at least be flyable.

That's all past tense. Right now (2017) there are no competitive TIE pilots - even the great pilot abilities can't rescue a statline rendered obsolete by /x7.

On 10/17/2016 at 10:13 AM, Delta57Dash said:

Well the generic still sucks compared to academy pilot, but they are worlds better with the title now.

But how about the super charrdan refit I mean the light scyk which makes a cartel space cost just as much as a Academy Pilot?

Will be trying out Swarm Leader Fenn with four Tansarii Vets with Light Scyk and Attani Mindlink soon.

13 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

But how about the super charrdan refit I mean the light scyk which makes a cartel space cost just as much as a Academy Pilot?

It think the Light Scyk title puts the Scyk on par with the Academy Pilot. There are some tradeoffs but I think they fill much the same role with similar levels of effectiveness.

Someone that gets all mathy on it might prove my impression of this wrong, the Scyk getting a shield as its first hit point and face taking a face up card as its second should be more or less a wash with the TIE's 3 hull points. There are some cases with damage that avoids shields where the Scyk is at a disadvantage but I don't think that those are common enough to worry about.

This list would be pretty intriguing too.

Tansarii Point Veteran (17) x4
Attanni Mindlink (1)
"Light Scyk" Interceptor (-2)

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)
Swarm Leader (3)
"Light Scyk" Interceptor (-2)

Serissu (20)
Adaptability (0)
"Light Scyk" Interceptor (-2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

29 minutes ago, WWHSD said:

It think the Light Scyk title puts the Scyk on par with the Academy Pilot. There are some tradeoffs but I think they fill much the same role with similar levels of effectiveness.

Someone that gets all mathy on it might prove my impression of this wrong, the Scyk getting a shield as its first hit point and face taking a face up card as its second should be more or less a wash with the TIE's 3 hull points. There are some cases with damage that avoids shields where the Scyk is at a disadvantage but I don't think that those are common enough to worry about.

I haven't tried to math it out but I don't expect the survivability of a Light Scyk will be much worse than a TIE Fighter. With 3 Agility they tend to block some hits anyway and with crits being canceled last I bet it won't make a huge difference in most cases. That one point of shield is very likely to block a crit that a TIE would take on the chin so it seems like it should balance out.

Like some other people have mentioned; TIE Fighters were solid because of the cost, but they were good because of Howlrunner. Scum doesn't have a pilot in any ship to bring that sort of strength to Light Scyks yet, hopefully we see one in the CROC pack.

Attani mindlink vets with HLCs are fine and absolutely competitive. I'm less enthused by the light Scyk.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

But how about the super charrdan refit I mean the light scyk which makes a cartel space cost just as much as a Academy Pilot?

Then it's in the same spot as the TIE Fighter. And the TIE Fighter has been outclassed by the TIE Defender as the baseline for cost efficiency.

I guess I'll found some Light Scyks+a Scum Ace better than an Empire+Aces.

I mean, you can Dengar/Bossk/Asajj/Ketsu+4 tie figEHM Scyks.

You can play with mindlink swarm.

And now scums have a crackswarm too.

The thing is that Empire doesn't have the Scum's tools. And don't forget the 1 bank, that is GREAT for blocking.

And the 3 bank green after a 3-5 Kturn is pretty amazing.

In fact, as an Accademy Pilot (so no PTL+2 hard green) a Light Scyk is a better Tie Fighter.