I'm running Whisper and two Deltas at a tournament this weekend.

I'm happy with it overall but I have one question.

Without crew on Whisper I'm at 97 points.

Should I put a crew on (I like Kallus), or should I make the stronger initiative bid?

I'm not going to drastically change anything and I won't be removing TIE MK II from the Deltas.

Cheers

I pretty much never run Whisper without a crew of some sort. Even Intel Agent makes a huge difference to how that ship flies. Kallus is a solid choice, and I've gotten some epic use out of Tactician. All three of those will keep you in with a bid, if you're not pulling those Mk2 engines off.

Intel Agent will still leave you with a 2 point bid, which is usually enough to at the very least tie most lists, if not beat it, while also giving you a safety net against those who may be pushing PS10+, PS9 when you lose initiative to an aggressive bid, and overall utility for the Deltas.

On the one hand, Whisper REALLY wants to shoot first. On the other, Rec. Spec. or Kallus on her is super useful. I'd say play three games against a list that you think hard counters the build both with and without the crew, then make your decision based on feedback from those.

On the one hand, Whisper REALLY wants to shoot first. On the other, Rec. Spec. or Kallus on her is super useful. I'd say play three games against a list that you think hard counters the build both with and without the crew, then make your decision based on feedback from those.

My next three games will be at the tournament so I can't do that. I've got to make the choice before Sunday and I have time for maybe one more game.

These days Whisper has to contend with Vader, Poe, Rey etc all being higher PS than her - in which case your bid makes no difference.

The only notable PS9 bid wars you might get into are Imperial aces and Dengaroo. Aces normally only have one PS9 in the team (along with Carnor/Inq/Vess and Shuttle) and Dengaroos have a whopping bid anyway, due to being a bit underpriced.

So I'd suggest taking Kallus. In every single example above he's going to help you to survive by freeing Whisper up to evade.

Good luck!

In that case my recommendation is go with either Int. Agent and 2 points or Rec Spec and **** the initiative bid. I'd expect to run into quad TLT and other 9's, so either the extra tokens or the decloak foresight is a must.

Kallus gives you pseudo focus against the ship that fires before you cloak, allowing you to evade action, and again when it come times to shoot.

What would you rather have - 2 greens and a focus, or 2 greens and a pseudo-focus (that can't be stripped or 4-lom'd) and evade?

There aren't a vast amount of PS9s who don't want to give you init anyway to be honest.

The only one that really sticks out is Dengar and if Whisper gets in a bad spot near him, she just turtles, hopes for the best, and chases Manaroo.

A decent bid is good, but 2 points is probably plenty. I'd stick Intel on and be done.

Agent Kallus is definitely worth his 2 points. I'd agree with the comment above - even if you're shooting last, being decloaked with a focus and evade is probably better than being cloaked with just a focus.

Kallus gives you pseudo focus against the ship that fires before you cloak, allowing you to evade action, and again when it come times to shoot.

What would you rather have - 2 greens and a focus, or 2 greens and a pseudo-focus (that can't be stripped or 4-lom'd) and evade?

Thanks for the responses guys.

I figure if I take Kallus it makes Whisper stronger. At least against whatever I deem the biggest threat (or higher PS). Decloak, take evade. Get shot at, hopefully Kallus and Evade does the trick. Shoot, Kallus, get TL and then cloak again.

Kallus gives you pseudo focus against the ship that fires before you cloak, allowing you to evade action, and again when it come times to shoot.

What would you rather have - 2 greens and a focus, or 2 greens and a pseudo-focus (that can't be stripped or 4-lom'd) and evade?

Against 1 target. Granted we are seeing a resurgence of 2-3 ship builds; but with TLT back on the table as well as other nines I don't like Kallus' odds.

Against tlt, Recon spec gives you two tokens to defend with, Kallus gives you (kind of) three tokens to defend with - double focus against one ship, and an evade. Against tlt spam they're pretty even, assuming you leave the Kallus'd tlt until last.

What really makes a difference in that situation is sensor jammer.

I'm not saying Kallus is bad, I'm just saying that from personal experience the Rec. Spec's total of three focus after Whisper hits has been more versatile than Kallus' single target; and I value that versatility in a tournament setting.

I do not want to fly against Whisper on Sunday.....

I'm not saying Kallus is bad, I'm just saying that from personal experience the Rec. Spec's total of three focus after Whisper hits has been more versatile than Kallus' single target; and I value that versatility in a tournament setting.

I'm arguing precisely that Kallus provides more versatility in tournament settings. That double focus comes at the expense of an evade, and against tlt Kallus gives you two focus opportunities anyway (not as good but significant).

So recon shades it against tlt spam, but it does nothing against dengaroo or imp aces or Rey or Poe. If I were playing a single match and I knew tlt spam or tie swarm were my opponents, I'd probably prefer recon. In literally every other matchup I'd prefer Kallus.

I really like your idea in running some Deltas with Whisper, very nice! I know there are many builds with her and I have the lease experience of the posters here, but the build I always lean towards mathematically is: “Whisper” – Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device + Agent Kallus

Interesting,

I fly Whisper with Gunner, which lets me wreck face AND take the Evade and not worry about Init.

Interesting,

I fly Whisper with Gunner, which lets me wreck face AND take the Evade and not worry about Init.

Gunner is a great set up if you have the points. but if you aren't shooing fist an uncloaked phantom can get hurt quick

Interesting,

I fly Whisper with Gunner, which lets me wreck face AND take the Evade and not worry about Init.

Gunner is a great set up if you have the points. but if you aren't shooing fist an uncloaked phantom can get hurt quick

True, unless you are Lone Wolf Echo with Kallus, Jammer, and Palp.

Interesting,

I fly Whisper with Gunner, which lets me wreck face AND take the Evade and not worry about Init.

Gunner was considered but I'd have to lose MK II from the Deltas and have no initiative. Kallus gives me that nice green dice boost too

I'd go with Kallus. With all the tricks these days to get rid of tokens (or prevent them), especially at PS9+ (Old Teroch, Wes Janson, Bumpmasters, stresshogs, etc), Kallus is a perma soft focus token. And as others have said, if you come across folks shooting at you first, you can take an evade, and hope you roll evade focus, and block 3 hits.

Just ran two common matchups' expected damage:

rey w/focus & finn vs 2 green whisper:

- Recon (f/f): 2.2

- Kallus (e): 1.3

TLT w/focus vs 4 green whisper:

- Recon (fff): 0.45 (100% chance to keep a focus)

- Kallus: (fe): 0.15 (99% chance to keep the focus, 59% chance to keep evade)

- tokenless, no Kallus: 1.05

So clearly Kallus is better against Rey, no surprise there. But also against a tlt, Kallus is a better bet for the one guy you've set him on, and you have a very good chance of keeping your tokens for the next attacks.

The real problem for both builds, then, becomes burning down a tlt before it shoots, because it jumps up to 1.05 damage per tlt after Whisper is tokenless, and she will be tokenless by ship four no matter what crew you've got on her...

Just ran two common matchups' expected damage:

rey w/focus & finn vs 2 green whisper:

- Recon (f/f): 2.2

- Kallus (e): 1.3

TLT w/focus vs 4 green whisper:

- Recon (fff): 0.45 (100% chance to keep a focus)

- Kallus: (fe): 0.15 (99% chance to keep the focus, 59% chance to keep evade)

- tokenless, no Kallus: 1.05

So clearly Kallus is better against Rey, no surprise there. But also against a tlt, Kallus is a better bet for the one guy you've set him on, and you have a very good chance of keeping your tokens for the next attacks.

The real problem for both builds, then, becomes burning down a tlt before it shoots, because it jumps up to 1.05 damage per tlt after Whisper is tokenless, and she will be tokenless by ship four no matter what crew you've got on her...

True true, which is a problem for whichever crew you choose if you're going against a quad TLT list. I question how likely that is, but Whisper is the master of Range control (er, short of Echo). So I would state that if you're in range of 4 TLTs, you're doing something wrong. The ideal range control would be to have all 3 of your folks shooting at R3 of just one of them. 4v2, 3v2, 3v2 for 8 damage isn't unreasonable (though not a guarantee). Presuming a single modifier for each attack and no modifiers for defense, your expected damage is 5.5. So you'd likely have a single TLT coming your way from Round 1, but you should be able to kill him the second round before he shoots, and at the same time being in the donut hole of at least 1 of them with Whisper. If they want to shoot at her and split fire between the Defenders and her, then that's a win. But even then, she's eating 2 TLTs max, and has at least a F token for one of them. Perhaps the lesson learned here is to Kallus the TLT you plan on attacking last so you get the most benefit from defense from it.

Good points.

I don't expect to see quad TLT. Quite possibly two with a large base ship though.

I need to carefully choose who will get the Kallus effect.

Drop the Mk IIs.
Take Gunner.