An idea I've been puttering around with...

• 24 - Serissu (20)
  • Crack Shot (1)
  • "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)
  • Guidance Chips (0)
  • XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)
• 19 - Black Sun Soldier (13)
  • Cluster Missile (4)
  • Guidance Chips (0)
  • Scavenger Crane (2)
• 19 - Black Sun Soldier (13)
  • Cluster Missile (4)
  • Guidance Chips (0)
  • Scavenger Crane (2)
• 19 - Black Sun Soldier (13)
  • Cluster Missile (4)
  • Guidance Chips (0)
  • Scavenger Crane (2)
• 19 - Black Sun Soldier (13)
  • Cluster Missile (4)
  • Guidance Chips (0)
  • Scavenger Crane (2)

The idea is to slow play the squad and pick one target to nuke. Serissu fires the Tracers to grant Target Locks across the board, then the Z-95s drop 24 dice into the target. If something dies, mine or theirs, all of the Scavenger cranes activate and I get missiles back. Serissu makes the Z-95s a bit more dodgy.

Obvious benefits: Low-evade ships will be feeling the pain here. A good turn will remove a Decimator or Ghost, and leave the Falcon or Palpmobile reeling. Defenders will run out of tokens very quickly, making it a dice race. PS3 pilots beat out Quad TLT squads, giving me first shot.

Obvious drawbacks: This squad is very much a Glass Cannon. I'm going to have troubles with ships that pair high health with decent evasion, like the Jumpmaster or Shadowcaster. Paratanni will be an issue, especially if I can't drop a ship a turn.

Why clusters, out of curiosity? Guidance Chips is only once per round and the counter-synergy always bugs me. Might just be me though.

The idea was sheer volume of dice. 4 ships each shooting a pair of 3-dice attacks comes to 24 dice. In addition, a kill with Cluster Missiles will always trigger the Scavenger Crane, since it would be by definition at Range 1-2.

That said, I could definitely see varying the loadout or build a bit. Concussion Missiles are far more accurate for the same cost. Other thoughts...

1. Swapping Cluster Missiles for Concussion Missiles makes for one highly accurate target instead of two inaccurate ones.
2. By downgrading the Black Sun Soldiers to Binayre Pirates, that 1 point I save could be invested in a Defender-killing Homing Missile... and I might even get to keep my Target Lock for subsequent rounds.
3. I could swap out Serissu for another Z-95. This definitely hurts my defensive capabilities, but it would allow for either multiple Thread Tracer usage (with the Scavenger Crane), or an additional another missile.
4. N'Dru Suhlak could take Serissu's place. While he would need to stay away to be truly effective, a 5-dice reloading Homing Missile could prove deadly in the right circumstances.

The other advantage to Clusters is that they're easier to use with Scavenger Crane since the ranges overlap. If you get a kill at range 1-2 you automatically get them back.

2 hours ago, DeathToJarJar said:

The other advantage to Clusters is that they're easier to use with Scavenger Crane since the ranges overlap. If you get a kill at range 1-2 you automatically get them back.

Precisely! Alternately, if one of my ships loses the Crane, they can run interference, die... and trigger everyone else's Crane again.