Cartel Spacer, Heavy Scyk, Heavy Laser Cannon, Pulse Ray Shield = 25 points.

4 of these is 100 points.

16 AGI3 hit points, regen on everyone, 16 attack dice. Alternatively, give two Hull Upgrade instead.

You've been able to do the four HLC squad for a while, but the extra hit point from the errata on the title goes a long way. Additionally, the meta has a few elements that prey on low ship count lists that 4 ships are resistant to. The big fear is that you lose a Scyk before it can fire, but returning fire with "only" 3 HLCs can still net you a good trade in a joust, and having the fourth hit point goes a long way to avoiding that. Regen is icing on the cake.

You can do better. 3 HLC veterans Mindlinked + Inaldra w/Mindlink, light scyk.

Oh, and 2 pulse ray shield.

Give to those 3 HLC focus+evade had no price. And if you wanna shoot down a little light Inaldra, just go on.

Eh, spike damage still pops them, bombers still murder them.

When 4 naked Sigma's become meta, I will get concerned.

So now we're getting worried we may actually see Scyk's on the table in a somewhat competitive manner?

Oh, the humanity.

PS 2 and range restrictions behind 4 health is not so threatening (especially when you ion yourself)

Just take one HLC-Scyk plus something else. It is most often the mixture of different ship types which makes a squad dangerous.

As an ardent Scyk fan, I love it Biophysical.

I think Scyks with Mindlink and Mangler Cannons is still the way to go. They're just mini TIE/x7s at that point except you can have four in a squad because they start out at 22 points.

Double actions every turn, an effective 3/3/3/1 statline. Yes they lose the White K-Turn but the rest of their dial is way better and right now Attanni vs TIE/x7 has them more resilient to stress.

Genesis Red by himself just rolls up to Defenders and laughs at their token stacks like "Focus/Evade? That's cute", and at a higher PS than all the important Defender pilots too.

• Inaldra - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Tansarii Point Vet - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Tansarii Point Vet - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Genesis Red - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon

Season to taste you've got four points to spare. One of them could go up to an HLC, or a Veteran could be swapped out for Palob easily. Pulse Ray Shields for Genesis and Inaldra is legitimate. A Veteran could upgrade to Serrisu.

35 minutes ago, Mangipan said:

I think Scyks with Mindlink and Mangler Cannons is still the way to go. They're just mini TIE/x7s at that point except you can have four in a squad because they start out at 22 points.

Double actions every turn, an effective 3/3/3/1 statline. Yes they lose the White K-Turn but the rest of their dial is way better and right now Attanni vs TIE/x7 has them more resilient to stress.

Genesis Red by himself just rolls up to Defenders and laughs at their token stacks like "Focus/Evade? That's cute", and at a higher PS than all the important Defender pilots too.

• Inaldra - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Tansarii Point Vet - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Tansarii Point Vet - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon
• Genesis Red - Mindlink, Heavy Scyk, Mangler Cannon

Season to taste you've got four points to spare. One of them could go up to an HLC, or a Veteran could be swapped out for Palob easily. Pulse Ray Shields for Genesis and Inaldra is legitimate. A Veteran could upgrade to Serrisu.

24 points, not 22

Serrisu with Mindlink, Mangler, and Heavy Scyk is 27

Inaldra with Mindlink, HLC, Pulsae Ray Shield, and Heavy Scyk is 27

Ventress with Mindlink and Latts Razzi is 40.

That leaves 6 points to splash around on other upgrades. I think that Serrisu and Inaldra will setup a dilema in targetting priority. Do you take the easier shot at Serissu or do you trying to shoot the modifers off of Inaldra?

Ventress diversifies the squad a bit by bringing in something a bit meatier.

1 hour ago, Biophysical said:

Cartel Spacer, Heavy Scyk, Heavy Laser Cannon, Pulse Ray Shield = 25 points.

4 of these is 100 points.

16 AGI3 hit points, regen on everyone, 16 attack dice. Alternatively, give two Hull Upgrade instead.

You've been able to do the four HLC squad for a while, but the extra hit point from the errata on the title goes a long way. Additionally, the meta has a few elements that prey on low ship count lists that 4 ships are resistant to. The big fear is that you lose a Scyk before it can fire, but returning fire with "only" 3 HLCs can still net you a good trade in a joust, and having the fourth hit point goes a long way to avoiding that. Regen is icing on the cake.

I think the potentially more effective Scyk build using Pulse Ray Shields is going to be 4x Tansarii Point Vets with Ion Cannon and Mindlink.

Ion control removes all of the deficit of the Pulse Ray Shield, and Attanni Mindlink really patches up the Scyk action economy. Could also think about Tractor Beams on that list somewhere, to really make the ion move quite rude/eliminate lower PS return fire/make the ion shots more accurate.

Not really, but Quinn can empty the space out immediately.

Tansarii Point Veteran (16) x 3 M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (17), Attanni Mindlink (1), “Light Scyk” Interceptor (-2)

Tansarii Point Veteran (26) x 2 M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (17), Attanni Mindlink (1), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Pulsed Ray Shield (2), “Mangler” Cannon (4)

I tried with HLC but ended up at 102 points

I've regularly run 3x TPV with Heavy Scyk, Mindlink, Mangler alongside Serrisu with Heavy Scyk, Mindlink, Tractor Beam, and Stealth Device. Its a fun little list, only problem is trying to turn around.

For the record, the OP comment in the title was meant to be a little tongue in cheek. My main point was to look at massed Scyk cannons and think about what you can really accomplish with the new stuff soon available.

I feel like the meta is in a good place to bring Heavy Laser Cannons. Defenses are high, but not so high that you are forced to go to non-attack means (like bombs) to go through them. Look at the most recent meta's main ace, Fenn Rau. Common thought was that he was mainly vulnerable at Range 2, because Autothrusters, the title, and a stack of Focus kept him safe at Range 1 and 2. Vs an HLC at Range 3, things at art looking not so good for him, though. If it generates 4 hits, he's taking one no matter what. If you get the more likely 3 hits, any below average die roll is allowing damage through. Being able to bring that huge Range 3 band into play agaisnt aces is a tremendous boon to a lower PS squad.

I've been running 4 Scyks a bit recently (the one Innese mentioned above), and they are quite good. I am not sure your HLC list will work as well.

With HLC, you want both dice modification and range control. Your list has the benefits of independence of maneuver and fire, but not action economy. In order to stay at range 2 (or 3), you'll have to Barrel Roll. If you do that, you won't get dice modification.

Don't get me wrong: if you have a TL from a previous round, you're better off with the burst damage of an HLC. I just don't know if you can get that TL often enough to justify the upgrade from Mango cannon. Similarly, Serissu is a great defensive bonus, and might be better than Pulse Ray Shield.

Then again, and this is important, the 2 lists fly very differently. So you might have more success with the HLC list than my experience with the Mango list would indicate.

5 hours ago, Cerve said:

24 points, not 22

How many points is Inaldra? I even had her in my list come on man you're better than that.

It's certainly an interesting squad.

What has me blinking is how suddenly TPVs have been devalued - now that there's a pilot with an EPT and a special ability for less (Yes, less PS, but who ever cared about that?)... if you're not taking 2+ TPVs, you're never taking one.

Likewise, the lowly Light Scyk Cartel Spacer just lost its job description as a low-cost blocker before they even got the chance - there's a fun little PS1 pilot that does it even better. (This one I mind less; the moment I saw there was a PS1 in the pack it was almost certain to be the case.)

... On the bright side, at least they have a bonafide ace, eh? Can we find anything silly to do with him?

34 minutes ago, Reiver said:

It's certainly an interesting squad.

What has me blinking is how suddenly TPVs have been devalued - now that there's a pilot with an EPT and a special ability for less (Yes, less PS, but who ever cared about that?)... if you're not taking 2+ TPVs, you're never taking one.

Likewise, the lowly Light Scyk Cartel Spacer just lost its job description as a low-cost blocker before they even got the chance - there's a fun little PS1 pilot that does it even better. (This one I mind less; the moment I saw there was a PS1 in the pack it was almost certain to be the case.)

... On the bright side, at least they have a bonafide ace, eh? Can we find anything silly to do with him?

I wouldn't want to waste Sunny as just a blocker tho

You'd use an Academy Pilot for the same job, back in the day.

Sunny is even better at the job - the Scyk packs more manouvers, and Sunny even has a special ability! - for the exact same price. shield-then-autocrit isn't that far from 3 hull, so I'm pretty sure Sunny is a straight up improvement.

Can you use the shield to get a free ion token during the initial joust? That'll make a big difference in scyk overall viability.

Not sure if PRS will push them from rubbish to OP. I run a pair of HLC Cartels as it is since its pretty likely they will butcher someone with 2 or less agi. If anything the telepgraphed 1fwd helps more than the regen, since often you go from Range3 HLC to Range1 with a scyk dial. Those two HLC cartels are great assets but i wouldnt in my wildest dreams ever consider them op.

15 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Can you use the shield to get a free ion token during the initial joust? That'll make a big difference in scyk overall viability.

We won't know for sure until it's FAQed but the FAQs for Garven and Miranda both imply yes - they can pay the cost of their regen (drop a die, spend a focus token to pass it to an ally) even when they have full shields, so I assume that'll be true here.

The really interesting thing with this is Ion Cannon Scyks I think. Being able to do a 1 forward when your target is doing an enforced 1 forward will really change the play for them. I've been playing them a bunch recently and the lack of a 1 straight has hurt SO MUCH so many times.

There are a number of different changes you can do with Scyks. What if you start to change out some of the ships a bit?

Serissu (20)
Push the Limit (3)
"Mangler" Cannon (4)
Pulsed Ray Shield (2)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Cartel Spacer (14)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Cartel Spacer (14)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Cartel Spacer (14)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Total: 100

Do you fire at Serissu, even though she only has a Mangler? Or do you fire at at the HLC Scyks? If you fire at Serissu, she can token up with Focus + Evade to help her. Maybe regen a shield if she lives. If they fire at the Spacers, then Serissu helps them live a little bit longer (hopefully).

You can also drop the Mangler on Serissu to maybe an Ion Cannon and go for a Hull Upgrade instead of Pulsed Ray Shield. Or drop her to a Tractor Beam Cannon and give her a Shield Upgrade!