I'm playing around with my current stock of Imperial lists. Been flying around with the /sf a lot but was hoping to have fun with the Strikers again.

Currently have a local league match coming up and am tempted to give the following a go:

Whispering Strikers (97)

"Whisper" (42) - TIE Phantom
Veteran Instincts (1), Fire Control System (2), Operations Specialist (3), Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

"Pure Sabacc" (28) - TIE Striker
Expertise (4), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

"Duchess" (27) - TIE Striker
Lone Wolf (2), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

Aside from the weird movement shenanigans and it's "fun" potential, I fear it'll blow up spectacularly fast...

Would appreciate any feedback on it.

I'd suggest VI on Duchess, she'll dodge and fire at things whisper is afraid of. Otherwise, it looks like alot of fun.

Seems squishy...but cant help but think i would run with this if i had another striker..

I love Lone Wolf Duchess. I love Phantoms. Unfortunately in my experience they don't pair well together. I think @Nyxen has the right idea for Duchess in a list with Phantoms.

Agreed. Comments:

• Lone Wolf is fine, but with three light fighters, you really need to be ganging up. In an ideal world, the last one standing will be Whisper (normally your best bet for an end-game fight), so Lone Wolf is likely to be wasted points.
• Expertise is an expensive upgrade for Pure Sabbac. It doesn't take much fire to take out his pilot ability - I always liked Veteran Instincts to try and make sure he got at least one 4-die shot off. Still, you've only got so many places to spend points, and with a 4-dice attack, you'll feel the difference between the 'modify one die' of predator and 'modify all dice' of expertise. Plus I guess it does let you evade every turn.
• Operations Specialist? You've only got three attacks in a turn, two of which are (should be) 4-dice attacks, and one of which should a lot of the time be target lock/focus-ed. You cannot afford to be missing with the few attacks you have, and a free focus token will be pretty bloody poor compensation if you do. I'd probably take one of the classic crew for Whisper - Agent Kallus (for squads with obvious endgame one-on-one duels), Rebel Captive (which makes Whisper a nightmare for action-dependent aces to duel) or Gunner (to make the most of that 4-dice attack and Fire Control System)

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Agreed. Comments:

• Lone Wolf is fine, but with three light fighters, you really need to be ganging up. In an ideal world, the last one standing will be Whisper (normally your best bet for an end-game fight), so Lone Wolf is likely to be wasted points.
• Expertise is an expensive upgrade for Pure Sabbac. It doesn't take much fire to take out his pilot ability - I always liked Veteran Instincts to try and make sure he got at least one 4-die shot off. Still, you've only got so many places to spend points, and with a 4-dice attack, you'll feel the difference between the 'modify one die' of predator and 'modify all dice' of expertise. Plus I guess it does let you evade every turn.
• Operations Specialist? You've only got three attacks in a turn, two of which are (should be) 4-dice attacks, and one of which should a lot of the time be target lock/focus-ed. You cannot afford to be missing with the few attacks you have, and a free focus token will be pretty bloody poor compensation if you do. I'd probably take one of the classic crew for Whisper - Agent Kallus (for squads with obvious endgame one-on-one duels), Rebel Captive (which makes Whisper a nightmare for action-dependent aces to duel) or Gunner (to make the most of that 4-dice attack and Fire Control System)

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Yeah, you raise some very good points @Magnus Grendel (see, this is why I'm usually crap at this :D)

Re: Lone Wolf, I guess that's a point. They're flimsy as it is, so it'll be about maximizing that damage output. I can see how something towards dice modification (ie, Predator) might be better use of points. Or just buff her up with VI as well.

RE: Expertise, yeah that was mainly because every time I seem to fly Sabacc his 4 dice are extremely fickle, to the point where I think he's actually mocking me I've used him with a mix of VI, Predator and Expertise popped up just because I had the points (something which I usually don't, when I'm pairing him with SFs or Defenders). At the moment, I might run with it and see how it goes.

RE: Whisper Crew, yeah I remember from a tournament someone running it and it stuck as in "to try later". I usually follow the "conservative" route and have Kallus, but I hadn't really thought about the points you made there. I really like the idea of Gunner on it, actually. Again, those dice can sometimes be incredibly frustrating. Good to maximize them (and FCS) with Gunner, perhaps.

As it is, I'll be giving this one a go:

"Whisper" - VI, FCS, Gunner, Adv. Cloaking Device (44 pts)

"Pure Sabacc" - Expertise, Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame (28 pts)

"Duchess" - VI, Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame (26 pts)

98 pts total

To quote Ian McShane in American Gods: "It'll be glorious, win or lose"

16 minutes ago, bahourmat said:

As it is, I'll be giving this one a go:

"Whisper" - VI, FCS, Gunner, Adv. Cloaking Device (44 pts)

"Pure Sabacc" - Expertise, Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame (28 pts)

"Duchess" - VI, Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame (26 pts)

98 pts total

To quote Ian McShane in American Gods: "It'll be glorious, win or lose"

Definitely. You've got three potentially very dangerous ships. "Normal" imperial aces - the Inquisitors and the Soontir Fels - tend to hide behind a wall of green tokens and emphasise evasion over firepower. This list swings very emphatically the other way, and - if you can get the drop on someone - punching out even quite a large ship at high pilot skill is far from impossible.

Gunner is a particularly nice crew for Whisper, because not only does it give you a second (now target locked) bite at your original target, but in addition to giving you an improved chance to hurt your opponent, Whisper's pilot ability gives you that lovely free focus once she's disappeared back into cloak if you hit . Missing therefore not only means you have the irritation of wasting a 4-dice attack, but also means you're more likely to be hit by return fire as well .

If this squad has a weak spot, it's turrets. PS10 Duchess has repositioning ability as good as - arguably superior to - Soontir Fel, but lacks the defensive ability if someone can get a shot. Lightweight Frame Agility 2 is also no match for Autothrusters Agility 4 at long range..... something like Rear Admiral Chiraneau, or Han, can be a right irritant.

But good luck! It's an elegant looking squad, and as long as it's enjoyable to fly (and I find TIE/sk great fun to fly - my default squad at the moment is 5 scarif defenders), it's the right choice...