2 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

The upgrade that I keep coming back to is Hull Upgrade.

You simultaneously extend your survivability and bolster your Half Point Threshold.
If you out-initiative the opponent, your shots should be enough to wipe most opponents straight up.

Plus it does synergise well with Ruthless. 25 hull is enough that I'm prepared to sacrifice the odd point of damage on my ships for a hit on an enemy - it's not something to over-use but you've only invested 5 points across the entire squad, so if it triggers twice in a game it's probably justified its cost. It's a very powerful effect (blank-to-hit automatically) so the fact that it's Empire-specific is rather nice, given that Crack Shot is a no-go.

I always consider Ruthless in the following way

• Am I turning 3 hits into 4?
• Am I guaranteed damage if I trigger ruthless? (i.e. does the resulting number of hits exceed the maximum evades the target can generate)
  • Goes double if one of the hits is a critical and the target is unshielded
• Is the extra damage likely to net a kill?
  • Goes double if the ship has not fired yet (and therefore won't fire if destroyed)
• Do I have a target for the Ruthless damage who is not going to be shot at by the enemy?
• Is the defender a more valuable ship than one of my TIE/sk? (with 5 hull for only 30 points, they're pretty expendable if you can trade 1-for-1 for unique pilots)
  • Can they repair damage if I don't finish them off this turn?

2 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

I don't know what you are talking about.... Black Five clearly got shot down by those rapidly approaching tangos.

Well, there were so many shots going back and forth, it's hard to keep track. We'll make sure they get a medal, anyway.

It's kind of nice that we're actually having a serious discussion about using Ruthless. I never thought that would happen.

Was thinking if a mix of Intimidation and Outmaneuver could be fun... has the potential to really shut down green dice, as well as Heroic, which is bound to be very popular in Hyperspace now.

I think Intimidation is a nice option on a Reaper. The bloody things have such a high minimum speed I tend to find myself flying into things whether I like it or not - so I might as well consider packing Death Troopers and Intimidation on Feroph and turning him into a battering ram!

I'm not sure about intimidation plus outmanoeuvre. Reducing an opponent's defence roll by 2 is cool and all, but I suspect in practice that the first die you remove is worth a lot more than the second, since it's wasted against any agility 1 target and (assuming you're intimidating a target that's crashed into you rather than the other way around) the remaining green dice is/are probably unmodified anyway.

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

It's kind of nice that we're actually having a serious discussion about using Ruthless. I never thought that would happen.

I guess the fact that they've removed most of the 'default' talents (and modifications, and everything else) means the second-tier cards get a closer look. The thing Ruthless always needed to work was the ability to put more expendable minions into a squad - which a general cost reduction of TIE/sk and TIE/ln has achieved.

48 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I guess the fact that they've removed most of the 'default' talents (and modifications, and everything else) means the second-tier cards get a closer look. The thing Ruthless always needed to work was the ability to put more expendable minions into a squad - which a general cost reduction of TIE/sk and TIE/ln has achieved.

Absolutely. I found myself Thursday night at the game store toying with the idea of Ruthless, and then I'd shake my head and say, "What are you thinking? You know this is bad!" But the more I looked at it I realized that the drop in price of strikers along with loss of other talents changes the equation. It's worth looking into.

Another option, for an I3 swarm:

4 Black Squadron Scouts

Duchess with Fifth Brother, Hull Upgrade

194 points (space for Talents, some Seismics, or 6-point bid)

I realised also that with Countdown and Sabaac now a full 10 points more than a Scout, I'm just not considering them for lists.

Just got done watching Rogue One. So pumped to put some Strikers on the table!

For Hyperspace, is 5 Sentinels + "Vizier" any good? Probably not, but I think I want to try it.

3 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Just got done watching Rogue One. So pumped to put some Strikers on the table!

For Hyperspace, is 5 Sentinels + "Vizier" any good? Probably not, but I think I want to try it.

That's the best way to do it
Haven't tested it, but it's on the To-Do list under the "I can't believe it fits" category, as is Feroph/Kallus, 4 Blacks and 12 points of wriggle.
I have suspicions that it will be good until you face a genuine swarm or get double-initiative killed

My first test will be tomorrow night.
Still deciding... minimum of 5 Strikers though.
Outmanoeuvre or Hull Ruthless (with or without Duchess.... drop one Ruthless/Hull upgrade for Duchess).

...
In Extended, Afterburner Blacks seem interesting in the same way that Afterburner Sentinels were Interesting, only they Initiative Kill unprepared Swarms.

Not sure on varying Initiatives.... but, I have realised that Duchess with Ruthless, Fifth Brother & Hull, Two Blacks and Two baby Strikers fit with one point to spare (if Hull is attached to two of the nameless Strikers). Two reasonable blockers, two that block/attack at mid-initiative and a Super Duchess.

I feel like that might be eggs-in-one-basket though. Drop Brother on Super Duchess, and you get Hull For All.... better?

14 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I'm not sure about intimidation plus outmanoeuvre. Reducing an opponent's defence roll by 2 is cool and all, but I suspect in practice that the first die you remove is worth a lot more than the second, since it's wasted against any agility 1 target and (assuming you're intimidating a target that's crashed into you rather than the other way around) the remaining green dice is/are probably unmodified anyway.

I like the theory of Intimidation and Ruthless on the others. Really makes the Ruthless do significant work against that initial target. Feroph and Blacks will really enjoy that.
Unfortunately, Vizier does not have a Talent.... Feroph, though.... Too expensive to make a good punching bag?

6 hours ago, Rossetti1828 said:

I realised also that with Countdown and Sabaac now a full 10 points more than a Scout, I'm just not considering them for lists.

Yep.
I was hoping that all original named Strikers would go to the same price point (Duchess' 42), but.... alas. It was not to be, therefore neither are Countdown and Sabacc.

3 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

I feel like that might be eggs-in-one-basket though. Drop Brother on Super Duchess, and you get Hull For All.... better?

I dunno. Fifth Brother is a big deal for Duchess' capability - there's a reason he went up in cost, because he provides defensive as well as offensive benefits, and now without access to afterburners Duchess can expect to have to deal with being shot at a lot more often.

3 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

In Extended, Afterburner Blacks seem interesting in the same way that Afterburner Sentinels were Interesting, only they Initiative Kill unprepared Swarms.

If you wanted to try the Striker Display Team, then the points cost allows you to field Planetary Sentinels with Afterburners, but upgrade their leader to "Duchess" - that seems like the best option. Yes, Black Squadron Scouts get an initiative advantage but Afterburners on Strikers tend to be for 'positioning movement' rather than in the thick of it, since the TIE/sk doesn't have a speed 3 turn or advanced manoeuvre like the interceptor. Duchess, on the other hand, benefits hugely from afterburners because if she's dials in a speed 3 move she has two 'optional' speed 1 moves she can choose to use or not on the fly...

5 hours ago, Parakitor said:

For Hyperspace, is 5 Sentinels + "Vizier" any good? Probably not, but I think I want to try it.

I think my big concern is Vizier having a different initiative. Using his pilot ability with a squad of cheap generics, you're basically saying "when Vizier does a loop, you can give an action to someone else doing a loop at the same time" - which isn't a bad ability since Strikers tend to do red moves a lot.

3 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

Feroph, though.... Too expensive to make a good punching bag?

Depends how much you use Ruthless, I guess. A key thing with Ruthless is that you should only be using it rarely. Predator is a more expensive and less reliable dice modifier, which gives you an idea how often it's anticipated you'd actually use it even if you have the option to. One of the main reasons I think Ruthless gets such a bad reputation is people using it whenever they have a chance to and then realising they've gutted half their own squad!

5 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Just got done watching Rogue One. So pumped to put some Strikers on the table!

Been playing with Nantex recently, but I have to admit I just like the TIE striker and I don't think that's ever going to change. Rogue One is quite possibly my favourite Star Wars movie for a whole variety of reasons - the fact that they added new ships which we'd never seen before but which made sense (because atmospheric dogfights in the era were a new thing on-screen) is one part of it.

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

....the fact that they added new ships which we'd never seen before but which made sense (because atmospheric dogfights in the era were a new thing on-screen) is one part of it.

God Yes.
Pity that they just about all bit the dust.... but it was there .

...

*will admit to not seeing the obvious with the Duchess/Sentinel Afterburner squadron

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

If you wanted to try the Striker Display Team...

....and I never knew how much I wanted a batch of Strikers painted up in The Roulettes colours until now.
This requires further thought.....

...

With Ruthless, I am guilty of the Pinata Kill.
I think I need to work on my internal maths better.

NUMBERS TIME
Let's see what it looks like:

Assuming 4 Attacking Strikers, R2 and Focus for both attacker and defender :
vs 0 Defense (Big Ships) , without Ruthless you expect 9 Hits and add only 2 more with full Ruthless Strikers. If it is Reinforced, you go from 5 Hits to 7 .... not a particularly useful trade, and obviously shouldn't be done if you are already hitting for 1 without Ruthless.
vs 1 Defense (ARCs) , you go from 6-7 Hits to 9 (or a dead ARC)
vs 2 Defense (XWings) , you go from 5 to 7-8 (a downed T70)
vs 2 Defense 3 Force Jedi, you go from 4 hits through to 6-7... 7Bs better be wary/take out that Ruthless Target first.
vs 3 Defense (Aces that screw up/get caught), 3-4 turns in to 5-6 (maybe a Silencer... if you are feeling lucky) .
vs 3 Defense 3 Force , it goes from 2-3 to 4 making it through... so a CLT Jedi Ace if you somehow manage to Mind Trick them to get where you want them to/survive their initial attacks. You Are Not Killing Vader With Ruthless Alone... Unless He Is Drained of Force.

Basically, 4 Ruthless-Active Strikers add 2-3 Damage.... whilst probably losing you a basic Striker/Half A Reaper in the process.
This assumes that you can spare a Striker/Reaper in the first place.
This assumes that you don't shoot with that close range Ship (add 3 Hits minus Defense).

Also useful to know:
Choosing to not Ruthless on the first two attacks but actively having it as an option in the second two attacks will result in a single damage lost from maximum overall in all cases... probably as expected.
The difference to choosing Ruthless earlier rather than later is basically negligible (but subtly in favour of choosing Ruthless later.... by, like, 0.02 hits overall). This falls in line with the general idea to take your lesser attacks before your stronger ones.
Interestingly, it is also negligible as to whether you shoot with the Close Range Ship first (if it gets a shot) or last.... but is subtly in favour of the Close Range ship shooting first then being obliterated for the Emperor (by a similar margin to above... and this is different to normal, where attacking with the 4 Dice last is better ).

Situational, of course.... but good to know.
Being in a Ruthless Mood will cost me up to 4 Hull to remove 2-3 from the opponent.
A substandard trade, but worth it (?) if it wipes a key piece (especially in a low ship count list).

Also, Reinforced Feroph expects about 4 Hits from Four 3 Dice Focus Attacks within that Reinforced Arc.... Evade Stealth Feroph takes 4-5, but is not arc-restricted in defense.... and Focus Stealth Feroph suffers 5. No ModSlot Feroph suffers 5-6 damage.
So.... Kallus for Offense Assistance is still on the table as a good choice for defense-oriented Ferophs, as you can expect him to be there for at least one turn longer than a Focus oriented one.

Well... this has been a productive knowledge night.

35 minutes ago, Vespid1311 said:

NUMBERS TIME
Let's see what it looks like:

Assuming 4 Attacking Strikers, R2 and Focus for both attacker and defender :
vs 0 Defense (Big Ships) , without Ruthless you expect 9 Hits and add only 2 more with full Ruthless Strikers. If it is Reinforced, you go from 5 Hits to 7 .... not a particularly useful trade, and obviously shouldn't be done if you are already hitting for 1 without Ruthless.
vs 1 Defense (ARCs) , you go from 6-7 Hits to 9 (or a dead ARC)
vs 2 Defense (XWings) , you go from 5 to 7-8 (a downed T70)
vs 2 Defense 3 Force Jedi, you go from 4 hits through to 6-7... 7Bs better be wary/take out that Ruthless Target first.
vs 3 Defense (Aces that screw up/get caught), 3-4 turns in to 5-6 (maybe a Silencer... if you are feeling lucky) .
vs 3 Defense 3 Force , it goes from 2-3 to 4 making it through... so a CLT Jedi Ace if you somehow manage to Mind Trick them to get where you want them to/survive their initial attacks. You Are Not Killing Vader With Ruthless Alone... Unless He Is Drained of Force.

Basically, 4 Ruthless-Active Strikers add 2-3 Damage.... whilst probably losing you a basic Striker/Half A Reaper in the process.
This assumes that you can spare a Striker/Reaper in the first place.
This assumes that you don't shoot with that close range Ship (add 3 Hits minus Defense).

Nice analysis!

My view is an entirely qualitative (rather than quantitative) one:

• You are voluntarily and automatically inflicting 1 damage to trigger ruthless. Therefore, since you are at best* inflicting 1 damage for 1 damage, you will never 'break even' with ruthless in a damage race. The closer you can get to a 1-for-1 ratio, the better.
• It can therefore only be worthwhile if used judiciously, to either guarantee damage on a target more valuable than the striker you're sacrificing, or to guarantee a kill on...well, frankly on most targets.
• Your observation on the numbers seems about right; my view is that unless you're desperate, or the target is heavily on fire, agility 1-2 targets are the best victims. The ideal time to drop ruthless is not to try and sacrifice a striker - it's an option not to ignore but it's rarely the best plan - but when you have multiple range 1 shots, because if you have multiple range 1 shots you also have multiple range 1 candidates to spread the damage about on.
• It's especially nice because it works when stressed. Range 1 shots with no other dice modification tend to happen when TIE/sk pull their assorted silly combination segnor or koiogran moves.
• The goal is always to generate more hits than the target can possibly roll evades. I tend to make the decision on whether I've got a 2-hit (or 3-hit at range 1) attack before modification and/or a critical. If I do, then ruthless looks tempting.
• Never use Ruthless to add one damage to a blank roll unless it's reliably going to deliver the deathblow to a ship.
• Stuff like droids, ARCs and TIE fighters will always deliver a return on invested damage too low to really justify over-using ruthless unless it's a named pilot and a big force multiplier (like "Sinker" or "Howlrunner").
• If the enemy squad has more hit points than you, by and large forget the upgrade and concentrate on flying. 5 Khiraxz or X-wings are a good example; aside from very occasional "I just need 1 extra hit!" moments where a kill will prevent an attack, leave it be.
• Blocking with a single ship isn't easy, especially given the TIE/sk has a ludicrous minimum speed, but if a ship manages to survive a turn on 1 health, turning it into a kamikaze becomes tempting - the ideal use of MAXIMUM RUTHLESSNESS is to leave a ship overkilled by 2-3 damage cards, since overkill has no effect.
• Ultimately, it's not about doing more damage with ruthless than you take. You can't do that. Ever. It's about the damage you do to the enemy squad being less than the damage you take - including both their attacks and self-damage. If you can do that, then Ruthless lets you double-down on that advantage.

Essentially, Ruthless/Hull TIE/sk are as close as the craft gets to a 'classic' jouster - you want to pretend to be mini-x-wings, and press in and engage from range 1 if you can, where you get lots of bonus dice leading to blank red dice you can't normally do anything with, and with multiple candidates to soak the damage from Ruthless. Outmanoeuvre TIE/sk want to pretend to be slightly hefty TIE interceptors and come in from the flanks.

There may be some argument for fielding a trio of Ruthless pilots and a pair of Outmanoeuvre pilots, or vice-versa. Send the latter up the flank whilst the main group closes for a more-or-less fair fight. The trick will be synchronising it so everyone comes into engagement range at the same time without access to afterburners.

* disregarding critical effects and other damage-multiplying shennanigans

Also - it's extended only, but I just realised something.

I wonder just how ridiculous and uncontrollable a squad of Five TIE Reapers would be?

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Also - it's extended only, but I just realised something.

TIE Reaper

39

Scarif Base Pilot

I wonder just how ridiculous and uncontrollable a squad of Five TIE Reapers would be?

I think uncontrollable is the word. But now you have four of them with Vader, Seventh Sister, Palpatine and Sloan - 199 points - and that might be worth exploring.

So I'm wondering from those of you who regularly flew lists like 5 Strikers + Wampa before the new points, what your basic strategy for engagement was? I'm also wondering what you normally take as your action - focus or evade - assuming you don't need to use it to roll into position.

It seems any time I try to practice the Striker swarm it just gets picked apart. The two green dice seem to be its biggest detriment. Then I find if I take the evades, the ships have trouble on offense with no mods, but if I take the focus, it hurts them even more on defense.

For example, I tried flying (using new points) 6 planetary sentinels with one cluster mines (I got the new device pack) and two seismic charges against a list of Boba (Maul, Slave 1) and two I4 Fangs (Fearless). I suspect this type of fang list is ideal to chew through ships like Strikers and would perform poorly against higher initiative aces, but still. I flew the Strikers pretty well as a unit and got them all lined up for an alpha strike against the fangs, but they just couldn't put through enough damage. With that many strikers, I found it easy to maneuver the fangs into range 1 and trigger their abilities. Boba just swooped in and out of the Scum list. Scum took out a Striker each round while suffering no casualties (half points on Boba and one fang).

One other note. As usual with so many ships, the seismics were basically useless. I did drop the cluster mines and liked the way they locked off a portion of the board behind me.

32 minutes ago, dadocollin said:

It seems any time I try to practice the Striker swarm it just gets picked apart. The two green dice seem to be its biggest detriment. Then I find if I take the evades, the ships have trouble on offense with no mods, but if I take the focus, it hurts them even more on defense.

I would always take focus. Evade only helps the one ship being shot at, focus helps every ship (hopefully all of them) shooting.

Range control and arc control is the key to beating Protectorates, I guess. If you've got a range 1 engagement, then, yes, you're going to struggle to hurt them.

The best suggestion I can make is to not fly them as a unit - the key against fangs is to have the opening engagement be not against a unit (if by that you mean a W or M shaped 'block') but a crescent of TIE/sk closing from several points of the compass:

_ X _

/ l \

The aim is that if the Skull Squadron pilot boosts or rolls in one direction to get range 1 (and hence Concordia Face-off) on one or two ships, they end up at range 2 of the ships on the other side of the 'arc' - 3 focused range 2 shots should do for a Protectorate with only a little luck.

Boba Fett and Fangs were one of the original reasons I switched from TIE fighters to TIE strikers when they first became available - no amount of 2-dice attacks can do reliable damage past a million rerolls and automatic evades. 3-dice attacks at range 1 have a fighting chance, but you always want to be engaging from range 2.

Trying to do that whilst staying in formation is impossible, so you need to fly your fighters fast and loose.

Also; one observation that's been useful when facing Protectorates - their slowest speed straight/bank move is speed 2. So if you can place yourself within two base lengths of the ship in its forward arc, it can't fly slow enough to get you in arc without pulling a red move - and if it's been using its linked boost or linked roll, it can't do that.

1 hour ago, Rossetti1828 said:

I think uncontrollable is the word.

I know. But the WTF factor when your opponent sees the squad makes it feel worth trying.

43 minutes ago, dadocollin said:

So I'm wondering from those of you who regularly flew lists like 5 Strikers + Wampa before the new points, what your basic strategy for engagement was? I'm also wondering what you normally take as your action - focus or evade - assuming you don't need to use it to roll into position.

It seems any time I try to practice the Striker swarm it just gets picked apart. The two green dice seem to be its biggest detriment. Then I find if I take the evades, the ships have trouble on offense with no mods, but if I take the focus, it hurts them even more on defense.

For example, I tried flying (using new points) 6 planetary sentinels with one cluster mines (I got the new device pack) and two seismic charges against a list of Boba (Maul, Slave 1) and two I4 Fangs (Fearless). I suspect this type of fang list is ideal to chew through ships like Strikers and would perform poorly against higher initiative aces, but still. I flew the Strikers pretty well as a unit and got them all lined up for an alpha strike against the fangs, but they just couldn't put through enough damage. With that many strikers, I found it easy to maneuver the fangs into range 1 and trigger their abilities. Boba just swooped in and out of the Scum list. Scum took out a Striker each round while suffering no casualties (half points on Boba and one fang).

One other note. As usual with so many ships, the seismics were basically useless. I did drop the cluster mines and liked the way they locked off a portion of the board behind me.

It depends on what you’re up against. I faced Rey/Poe playing Duchess + 5 Sentinels and kept them all together to basically hunt and annihilate one ship. Against Fangs I would split up my forces.

playing so many strikers is new to me and I’m not used to it. This is why I want to take them to a local tournament to see what I can do with them and how to play against certain archetypes.

I intend to fly these a lot on the current Vassal League. I'll link to the log file of my matches when they're posted so you guys can watch them. If I have a particularly informative match, I'll post screenshots so we can discuss maneuvering dos and don'ts here.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

I intend to fly these a lot on the current Vassal League. I'll link to the log file of my matches when they're posted so you guys can watch them. If I have a particularly informative match, I'll post screenshots so we can discuss maneuvering dos and don'ts here.

Do you usually split them up or fly them together?

25 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Do you usually split them up or fly them together?

Ideally split them, but recently I've flown them together to limited success.

When you have all low-initiative generics, you want to have a pretty neutral setup, so I spread them along the back of my deployment edge so they can group up to attack whichever side my opponent deploys on. The problem is, a lot of my opponents deploy in both of their corners, waiting for me to commit before they commit. Due to Ailerons, strikers don't have a lot of ways to delay committing.

If I try to move upfield while spread out, it is easy for the opponent to get a shot at a striker from each of their ships, while it's less likely that I'll have shots with each of my strikers. That's a terrible way to start off the match.

Usually I'll move towards one corner with all my ships, and that enemy ship will either stall or turn away. Meanwhile enemy ships in the other corner cut across the diagonal into the obstacles to get a flank on my squad. (Pictures would help here, sorry I don't have any handy).

So what I'm wrestling with is "How do I keep a loose, spread out approach without having my fighters picked off?"

I think I really like having three obstacles in my side of the board: two in the corners and one between them on my edge. This allows me to quickly put half the obstacles behind me so I can have more maneuvers after the engage.

17 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

I think I really like having three obstacles in my side of the board: two in the corners and one between them on my edge. This allows me to quickly put half the obstacles behind me so I can have more maneuvers after the engage.

That's a really good suggestion. Thanks!

16 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

*All Of The Ruthless Things*

That is possibly the best write up of Ruthless I have seen.

12 hours ago, Ryuneke said:

Do you usually split them up or fly them together?

So far, I have flown mostly in a very specific formation (obstacle dependent, points indicate facing direction) :

Board centre

^ ^ >
7 >

corner

Formation is
1 2 3
5 4

As a general rule, I will use Debris and/or Asteroids.
Yes, they are higher risk for Strikers.... but Ailerons over Debris followed by Blue move and an Action can surprise people and both force the opponent to try to fly around them.... which leads them to funnel themselves into choke points.
Speaking of which, I generally will place a Rock/Debris halfway up the board and Range 2.5ish... this can make it difficult for less mobile swarms to go around and the faster aces trying to slow roll (think anything without a 1 Straight) may find themselves in an awkward spot if trying to turn in.

Again, opponent dependent, if there is not a jousting block in my corner, I aim to have everyone to move in such a fashion that each team pointing down a board edge will point in the same direction as their team (as in 1 and 2 fly together up their edge, 3 and 4 together up their edge) and the corner 5 will dial in a 1 Straight and Ailerons as required (sometimes moving first if I want to be cautious and keep it stuck in the corner). Note that the edge runners may end up facing the middle of the board, either on a 45 or a 90 degree angle... as long as the two ships are fairly close together.
From here, they then start trying to envelope an enemy ship/formation.

If necessary, this formation also allows relatively easy modification to run up one board edge in a basically straight line.... perfect for turning from an envelope to a broad gun line and then back to an envelope if they are foolish enough to try crossing the middle of the board.

If I suspect that an opponent can out joust me and has higher initiative/player 2 at equal initiative, I instead line them up across my board edge in the middle and try to keep a relatively open obstacle field near me. Strikers move fast enough and well enough to reconfigure as required and the opponent moving through obstacles to get to me means that I may be able to choke a lane with firepower and/or bodies. I find that this may create stragglers against a highly aggressive mobile list, though... but it can create a net in one quadrant of the map, so that is good too.

1 hour ago, Vespid1311 said:

Formation is
1 2 3
5 4

I've used that one, too. It's a nice setup - easy to turn into a wall heading along either board edge or to spread out into a net moving across the board at a 45' angle.

I'm not sure how to adapt for 6. Given Duchess' different Initiative, I guess field an 'arrowhead' in one corner and then deploy Duchess separately?

1 hour ago, Vespid1311 said:

As a general rule, I will use Debris and/or Asteroids.
Yes, they are higher risk for Strikers.... but Ailerons over Debris followed by Blue move and an Action can surprise people and both force the opponent to try to fly around them.... which leads them to funnel themselves into choke points.

Always debris, all the time, for me. The ability to 'skin dance' across debris is a trick unique to the TIE/sk and TIE reaper, so the more there are, the better your choices. Small - or at least 'thin' - debris for preference. The fact that whilst it stresses you, it doesn't automatically cost you your action step means that if you plan going through it, it has basically no effect provided you can roll a single unmodified attack die and not roll a critical hit that is on only one face of the eight sided die what do you mean loose stabilizer...

I had my first game with strikers in a while last night, against a mix of classic rebel fighters (two X-wings, two Y-wings with Ion turrets, and a B-wing, all I2 generics).

Due to a combination of too-strung-out deployment and some bad choices, it didn't go well, but I have to admit having six TIE/sk on the board was a refreshing change. I think I should just have formed them - in this case - into a block and gone eighteen-rounds-rapid - I did what I usually do after too long not playing X-wing - try to get too clever with my deployment.

Waiting for the rebels to pass through a narrow gap and then pouncing from both sides sounds good in theory, but (1) the flankers were engaging somewhat ineffectually because it was long range because strikers aren't that fast and with 6 ships they don't have afterburners, and (2) he'd sensibly put his slightly tougher agility 2 X-wings playing tail-end-Charlie.

If I'd been using 5 outmanoeuvre Black Scouts, then trying to 'flank' the formation would have been more sensible, as it was, pursuing them meant I was moving first into a narrow gap currently filled with rebel ships.

Also Ion Turrets are a pain in the neck with low agility small ships. That's why the surviving ship from the 'blocking' force is currently heading the wrong way.

Overall thoughts? 6 TIE/sk is an imposing amount of ship to engage. I think 5 plus Duchess is a nice force, but I have to admit I did feel the pain of I2 vs I1; which is going to be an issue in a lot of generic v generic matchups. Duchess did do well trying to claw it back, but ultimately I called it with one damaged TIE/sk versus a lightly damaged Y-wing and (more importantly) an intact B-wing.

I think I'd rather have 6 strikers than 5 and a reaper - because if you're trying to bring a 6-ship squad to bear, you're using a lot of board space - having a big base with some serious turning circle issues, especially one in a fixed initiative order, becomes a rather big deal.

I'm thinking of 2 reapers and 3 strikers.

Feroph - death troopers

Vermeil - informant

3x sentinel.

Comes to 200

What do you think? I'm fairly new and just going off of 'rule of cool'.

I would fly the reapers at full speed around the board edge and turn in when I think I can get a block off.

12 hours ago, player4622003 said:

I'm thinking of 2 reapers and 3 strikers.

Feroph - death troopers

Vermeil - informant

3x sentinel.

Comes to 200

Looks fine, and I was thinking of something similar. Also it'll easily be the best-looking squad on the tabletop.

There are several options for the 11 points of crew/upgrades. Death Troopers I've never tried out, but looking at Hyperspace now, I think Resistance A-Wings and Fang Fighters will be popular, and those are ships that like to stress themselves. You could go for Hull Upgrades on the Reapers, or Kallus on Feroph for offensive mods.

Feroph might well be good. I'm a big fan of death troopers for the reasons @Rossetti1828 suggests - Vermeil I've never quite managed to get to work as well - because you've got to have your opponent token-less when you roll red dice to trigger his effect, and he's the first person in your squad to shoot. I know he's good with Vader as crew, but I'm unconvinced without.

Feroph with Death Troopers and Intimidation is expensive but one heck of a battering ram.

One five-ship formation to experiment with is:

• Captain Feroph
  • Intimidation
  • Death Troopers
  • Shield Upgrade
• Black Squadron Scout x 4
  • Ruthless