Couple of things found on the interwebs:

There was a whole minute dedicated to the Ruthless Strikers at the UK System Open (just shy of the one hour mark) on the 186th Podcast.
Phrases used include "terrifying" and "genius".
I am most pleased.
https://soundcloud.com/186th-squadron-podcast/episode-77-boba-fett-where

Also, just finished watching some Gold Squadron recordings of the Texas System Open.
Tyler Tippet (of Scum and Villainy podcast fame) flying Duchess + 5 against Boba Fenn.

This is good to watch from a positional/movement standpoint.
The opening moves are nice to watch and the set up for entry seems pretty good to me.

However, I want to look specifically at about 14 minutes in.
Boba is potentially glommed up in between the gas clouds and the oncoming swarm.... but all Strikers move in between the same gas clouds, rather than having Yellow exploit its out-of-formation position to close up the option to its right side.... allowing Boba to freely change his dial with Slave One and get an action.
Boba theoretically loses all shields there (more if Red didn't just eat all of Fenn's dice), may not be as effective with Cluster Mines and is in a worse position for next turn.
As it stands, Reinforce and strong dice helps Boba lose just the one shield.

Tonight's Vassal League exploits consisted of counting to 200 with TIE strikers and Decimator. Turns out Rear Admiral Chiraneau with 4 Planetary Sentinels is 200 points on the nose.

I was up against 4 i3 TIE/ba's with Advanced Optics. It was his first time flying them, and his dice really weren't helping. I did kind of miss having i3 fighters of my own, but like I said, dice were rather one-sided, and I only lost 1.5 strikers.

I am really liking flying strikers in pairs. It allows me to setup kill boxes without being stressed, and I can fly them a little looser so I don't have to worry about overlapping my own ships.

Chiraneau is interesting. I don't know why I chose to fly the Decimator. I am a firm believer in combined arms, so although I love flying 6 strikers, I also like having a ship with a different defense profile. Actually, for that reason Chiraneau might be better with 4 Alphas, but that's extended. And I saw what happened to my opponent's 3-agility ships when they rolled bad. I'm more comfortable with strikers at this point.

I want to see if I can make a gif of the match so you can see my flight path over the course of the match. Don't know when I'll get around to it, but I want to.

@Vespid1311 I am definitely going to check out those links. Thanks for sharing!

8 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

There was a whole minute dedicated to the Ruthless Strikers at the UK System Open (just shy of the one hour mark).
Phrases used include "terrifying" and "genius".
I am most pleased.

Josh Wood - that's the person I leant them to! I shall let him know that he's officially a terrifying genius.

And I'm glad the squad worked. Since the first time I used it I've been a fan of Ruthless and it's always irked me how a lot of tournament players refuse to give it a second glance. The moment we saw "black squadrons with 6 points of upgrades" it just jumped at me, and I'm glad I recommended it to him (along with a quick lesson on the noble art of shooting your mates at critical moments for fun and profit )

The comment was exactly what I was hoping for; with I1 and I2 generics being so tempting, having I3 and - frankly one of the only offensive-boosting talents still legal - the firepower 5 strikers can drop is scary as heck. Seeing 3 vultures turned to shrapnel before the swarm can shoot is a horrifying thought.

Kudos to everyone (especially @Vespid1311 ) for the experimentation and strategy work..

...Now I just have to persuade him to give the bloody things back .

On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2020 at 8:28 AM, Vespid1311 said:

QUESTION ONE - Ruthless: Spread or Soak?
I chose to partially spread my Ruthless around.... I gave one ship 2 Ruthless Soaks and left the previously damaged one with one hull remaining (accepting that I am probably losing that ship anyway, but thinking that 3 Hull vs Two Shots was enough).
This turned out to be an unbrilliant decision.... I lost two ships that turn due to three focused attacks against unfocused Strikers. Obviously, the long range XWing took a shot at the nearly eliminated Striker and got it. The other two XWings took focused shot on my three-hull Striker and popped it too... I stand a better chance when taking 3 mid-range shots with 5 Hull than I do taking 2 mid-range shots with only 3 Hull. In fact, if I spread Ruthless to 3 ships, that offers me the best potential for survival that turn (from 70% chance of kill with 2 Shots on 3 Hull, to 45% with 3 Shots vs 5 Hull, to less than 40% in the fully spread scenario).
It might pay off to destroy one yourself and reduce the risk of losing two.

It's a matter of taste. If you've got a target you know isn't taking fire (or only 1 shot, or whatever) it may be worth soaking. 3-and-a-bit attacks is a bad place to be because one-and-a-bit attacks is precisely the amount of damage where hull upgrade should make you safe but a single point of damage puts you in serious risk of being taken out.

I'll always be hesitant to kill my own ships rather than damage several, but if there's multiple attackers to take advantage of the wounded bat it might be the best plan.

On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2020 at 8:28 AM, Vespid1311 said:

QUESTION TWO - What Firing Order against a 1 Agility, Focused 6 Health Ship?
I am a believer in shooting your weakest shots first so as to draw tokens out before your power punches hit... so I went R2-R1-R1.
Turns out that this is wrong.... the Most Wrong.
The Correct Answer is R1-R1-R2.
Reasoning: Without Focus on the R2 ship, even with Ruthless you are unlikely to guarantee 6 damage goes through in 2 Shots against that target.... and that goes more if you shoot with the 3 Dice Ruthless-no-focus first. You are more likely to lose one of your likely 2 hits from that gun, making it nearly impossible for the R1 Focus Ruthless to kill it (you need criticals in your favour).
However, shooting both R1s at the target first, I am rolling 7-8 Hits 85% of the time and I wipe that target about 80% of the time, freeing up a shot to go elsewhere.
Sometimes going against your regular shooting order is beneficial... particularly with Focus Ruthless into a 1 agility ship.

Depends on the nature of the defences. Evade, for example, will only ever block one hit, regardless of when it's spent.

Reinforce, or action-free rerolls like Boba Fett or Gravetic Deflection, aren't going away, so shouldn't affect your attack order either.

The big drivers are:

• Focus tokens. Focus tokens are less effective the less green dice an attacker has. Therefore you want them to be tempted to use it on 'weaker' defense rolls against range 1 and 2 attackers, not range 3.
  • If you're not able to do that, you really want them to over-evade; spending the focus to get 2 evades against 1 hit, or similar, which suggests using range 2 not range 1.
• The number of targets - if you get a kill (which you obviously want to) then the biggest driver to me is who has the best 'other' target when the squad's main target goes down. You can't guarantee if you'll get that kill in 3 attacks, 2, or even one-shot the target (okay, with a 6-hit X-wing you're not getting the latter).
  • Making sure you save the two ships who can both combine fire on target #2 for last is a big deal - which is the case with your example; a range 1 attack is awesome but often means only one enemy is in arc....
• Ruthless. You may want to leave shots where you think you'll want to use ruthless for later in the attack; a range 1 shot may get 4 hits out of hand, and (if that's the only range 1 attacker) can't use ruthless on themselves.

Let's give this a try

The decimator is a wonderfully imposing presence, and aesthetically looks great alongside strikers.

Sadly I've not made it to my LGS for a couple of weeks, but can't help but notice the following images from last week's games and the facebook thread:

Well shoot, I guess I have to try it out now. Still nervous about Ruthless, but I'll give it a shot!

I tried a modification of the swarm since I only own 3 striker dials right now, but definitely see the need for the hull upgrades. My list:

"Duchess" (42)
Ruthless (1)
Fifth Brother (11)
Ship total: 54 Half Points: 27 Threshold: 2

Black Squadron Scout (34)
Ruthless (1)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 40 Half Points: 20 Threshold: 2
Black Squadron Scout (34)
Ruthless (1)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 40 Half Points: 20 Threshold: 2

Academy Pilot (22)
Ship total: 22 Half Points: 11 Threshold: 2
Academy Pilot (22)
Ship total: 22 Half Points: 11 Threshold: 2
Academy Pilot (22)
Ship total: 22 Half Points: 11 Threshold: 2
Total: 200

I was thinking Duchess/5th would be better, but honestly found out you don't really need 5th brother anyway. I may pick up a 4th striker and try something else in the last 40 point slot. The Protons were AMAZING though. I only played one game, against some jank, and won 200-149 I think. You really lose TIES fast! I was thinking that blocking would be better than more shots, I was wrong. More shots = more better.

@Jyico I'm impressed you tried Proton Bombs in a 6-ship list. Nice work. How was Ruthless (other than wanting Hull Upgrade)?

7 hours ago, Parakitor said:

@Jyico I'm impressed you tried Proton Bombs in a 6-ship list. Nice work. How was Ruthless (other than wanting Hull Upgrade)?

Its interesting. I named the three ties "Geoff, Jeff, and Ze German Jeff", the list was called "training day". Hilarity ensued. Ruthless works so well you won't need 5th Brother anymore. Or you can just keep evading with Duchess I guess and keep 5th brother. Ties are quick enough that they can get where they need to in one turn (5 straight, just line it up). I think my opponent was expecting me to kill my own ties. But you can get them close, bring a striker in behind, and use the ties to cause bump havoc. I almost wish the ties also had intimidation. I can't wait to try again, I think I'm going to bump the ties to PS3 and give them Ruthless as well. Maybe Just get another striker lol. Or two more. The protons didn't wreck much because it was a 3 ship high hull high shield list I went against... but I can see them being terrifying against a swarm!

In these Dangerous Days, the citizens of the Galactic Empire need something they can look up to....

Meet Matt Stryker:

....Test Pilot (and/or paint scheme), and leader of The Rapiers, Aileron Aerobatic Squadron:

...
I will probably go back and clean them up a bit later, maybe add some deep Imperial Blue lines somewhere.
Turns out painting straight lines on TIE panels is pretty hard, even when going with the panel direction, especially after 10+ years not painting... but still reasonably happy with how they have turned out. Masking Tape is your friend.
...

I haven't played for a few weeks, thanks to the Covids, but let me get a few more things out there.

After playing double-digit numbers of games with 199 points of:
2x Intimidation/Hull
2x Ruthless/Hull
1x Ruthless
I have come to the conclusion that it is at least as good as the Maximum Ruthless Strikers.
The Maximum Ruthless has the advantage of no unique or "shoot me first" ships, cycling Ruthless ships is much easier than thinking of the positional requirements of Intimidator Strikers, remembering which Strikers have Intimidate and therefore can not contribute with a stronger Ruthless Bash (and also leads to times whereby you walk attacks back because you realise that you used Ruthless from a ship that doesn't have it....)... and it is super easy to calculate points at the end.... and you don't have to worry much about some ships losing more points than the others....
....
...but the Intimidators have a MUCH higher potential.
Wiping Intimidated T70s is a breeze. T65s? Hilarious. IGs do not like them. Stressed ships tend to be easy targets.
That 1 point bid can be the difference. I am seeing a lot of I3.
Just be wary that the Intimidators cost more and have a target on their heads.... from both the opponent and you.
I have not found the 4 Hull Ruthless ship to be a significant weakness as the Intimidators tend to be the opponent's priority.
I have found it more challenging to get an Intimidator to get into the correct spot.... I tend to set up with my Initmidators on the inside of my Ruthless ships, but it is easy to get them into reversed positions (meaning that the Intimidator is trailing the Ruthless ship, not the other way around.... less-than-ideal) or for the Ruthless ship to have a better flightpath into/through the fray.
I have no intention of swapping one Intimidator for Intimidator Vagabond as an I2 Intimidator: All I3 is too flexible, and Strikers need that flexibility.

I feel that both versions have reasonable match ups against 5As... you just have to threaten them and/or get close enough to make Ruthless a factor.
5X is only a problem if you get blocked/you block yourself and/or over-commit on Ruthless.
Fireballs are an interesting proposition.... they are just as survivable as you, but are more manoeuvrable when they want to be and able to clog up everything. Be aware that they can jump you better than the other way around.
Droids are ok.... if they have struts, see if you can goad them on to rocks and then let your Ailerons do the work. They are then very predictable. This is one match where changing targets based on changing board state is quite a good thing.... but you have to know your aileron/movement combinations well, potentially setting a manoeuvre that works with multiple Ailerons. This is challenging, but can lead to some Very Unexpected moments, like hurtling over an asteroid to arc dodge/chase a different target whilst they are pointed at the complete wrong direction. You don't necessarily have to eliminate them, just keep them out of the fight for a few turns. Ailerons are simultaneously a help and hindrance against Buzz Droids.... it makes them easier to pick up, but also easier to drop off.
Boba is, and always will be, an issue. Still working this one out.
Double Repositional Aces are difficult to pin down... my work around is to fly as a complete squadron and ensure that I always can threaten to point in their direction. If they have to dial in a non-committal manoeuvre, you will catch them eventually. If they bug out, but you weren't chasing them anyway, you have removed them from the game for several turns. If they turn in to you, and you call them on it, you probably win.

Of my wins, I can safely say that at least 3 of them were last-turn-come-from-behind wins, and at least 3 were Dice Variance strongly in my favour.... but the majority of my wins have been a combination of surprising flying on my side of the board and the opponent either not expecting that level of firepower or testing new lists/variations of what they were otherwise used to.
With the way I fly, tending to stick to a relatively close-ish formation, the most important thing is that I have all guns on One target in the opening. Five 3+ dice, potentially with blanks-to-hits, will absolutely Ruin anyone's day.

Key points from losses:
- Remember that opening obstacle placement diagram, specifically an obstacle halfway up the board edge? I am reconsidering these. Each of my losses had at least one of those obstacles get in the way, either through opponent design or poor flight choices from me. I don't know what to do here other than fly better or choose smaller obstacles.
- Always be mindful of threatening your opponent with your ships. If you get in to a position whereby a strong flanker can safely get in behind/around your Strikers for whatever reason (obstacle placement and sub-standard flying on your behalf, usually), you are definitely going to have a bad time. The Striker Sloop Bloom will only help you so much, and you probably can not do it with everyone anyway.
- Be wary of changing targets..... sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders. If in doubt, wipe a target first.
- Managing your speed and angles is key, and learning when to start fast or slow is Huge. If you Need to jump an opponent (such as they are obviously not going to stay directly opposite you) or clear an obstacle field, letting your Ailerons and 1 speed manoeuvres do the job won't cut it. If you want to make the opponent cut across the board to get to you, zooming off to their side of the board is likely to get an average engagement.
- Don't be afraid to block yourself/ailerons in order to slow yourself down.... just don't do it on a turn when there is potential for an engagement. That ends badly. Also know that it significantly changes your next moves.
- Related to the above, don't get your formation so tight as to make Ailerons+Manoeuvres impossible to pull off. This also goes back to obstacle placement.... an open field is a friendly field. You get to place three of them, make sure they count.
- I said it above, but it bears re-iterating.... the most important thing in the opening engagement is that I have all guns on something.... anything. I don't necessarily care that I have someone flanking me (I generally have positioned myself in such a way that I threaten them in the turn prior).... but I definitely do care if an opponent slips my net because it means I have not done my job properly.
- PRACTICE. I spent two-three weeks not playing, then played Woefully in the next two games. Poor Positioning, poorer decisions. This is NOT a squadron that you can just come back to at any point in time and have a good feel for, even with nearly-set opening series. You can claw your way back against an average opponent... but not against a good one.

I am averaging maybe one-two Intimidation per game... but with significant variations. Last game night, I did not get any in my two games... the week before, 3 in as many turns.
Capitalising on it is a non-trivial matter, but even one shot on that target is likely to be useful.
I rarely feel like they are not worth it... even if only for mind games.

We're facing an extended environment lately. I'm curious on how you would fly the Striker Swarm there.

I'm looking at these lists:

1) 5xSentinels with Duchess (with an Upgrade)

2) 5xI3 Strikers with Crack Shot

Got a couple of games coming up. What should I try?

On 4/24/2020 at 10:05 PM, Ryuneke said:

We're facing an extended environment lately. I'm curious on how you would fly the Striker Swarm there.

I'm looking at these lists:

1) 5xSentinels with Duchess (with an Upgrade)

2) 5xI3 Strikers with Crack Shot

Got a couple of games coming up. What should I try?

....
What even is XWing?
I haven't played basically since my last post.... 😛

5 Sentinels with Duchess is probably not effective.... too much capable of thumping it in return. Might make hyper-mobile Aces a touch twitchy though.... so... maybe?

I have played with Crack Strikers before the points update and found it to be moderately effective.... so having Hull Upgrade there would be pretty good. I'd be willing to bet that it would be better than Ruthless simply for the lack of self-damage.

I have no idea if it would be effective, probably not, but I want to try out Vagabond with a Skilled Bombardier, Afterburners and.... something (Proximities or Protons come to mind... pity you only get one Connor Net or Cluster Mine...).

Had a game at home yesterday, I was playing rebels. The striker list my SO settled on is not the most optimized, but it is simple:
4x Sentinels, 2x Sentinels with a shield, at 198 total.

On 4/24/2020 at 2:05 PM, Ryuneke said:

Got a couple of games coming up. What should I try?

I think the 5 sentinels with Duchess is quite ok, but also 2x ion bombs with delayed fuses , apparently.

I gave Guri/Fenn a couple of days off and played two games with 6 Strikers (2 with Ion Bombs and Delayed Fuses).

It's been a while since I played 6 of these guys and I forgot how hard it is to fly them and how much fun it is at the same time. Had the first match against my Guri/Fenn list and played really bad. Dialed in the wrong moves, bumped into my own ships. 3 Strikers got oneshotted but the remaining 3 killed Guri and halfed Fenn. Still lost the game in the end.

Second game against Han+stuff. Setup in a simple 3 x 3 Formation and approached more careful. The Strikers cornered Wedge and the X-Wing exploded. The firepower of this list ins insane but it could be very depressing if you're rolling blank, blank, focus again and again. Han got hit by two Ion Bombs, landed on a rock and died.

I'm not sure if it's better keeping them together or split them up (a bit) creating multiple fire solutions. The Ion Bombs are really powerful and threatening. I think I am keeping the list as it is for extended.

Got 4 more games in.

I setup like this:

^ ^ ^
X X X
B X B

All Strikers facing forward. The B Strikers are carrying the Ion Bombs. I tried different setup options (mentioned here in this thread) but wasn't happy with it. I really want to fly them in a tight formation at the start of the game to produce as much threat as possible. The mobility of the Striker allows me to split up early without problems. Putting the bombs on the Strikers at the back gives them more protection.

Every game I learn something new about this list and I am slowly starting to get the hang of it. But still...these ships are so dice dependent.

I think it's a list that needs a ton of practice to really shine.

On 6/21/2020 at 10:30 AM, Ryuneke said:

I think it's a list that needs a ton of practice to really shine.

I like that list more than 5 with Duchess. I think a few bombs in a Striker list can really make a massive difference.

Did anyone else laugh maniacally when they saw that Black Scouts got CHEAPER again....
...
Or was it just me?

Full Ruthless can now take a Bomb
Intimidation/Ruthless now all have Hull Upgrade.

Imean... I haven't played in months....
But I am a Happy Camper/Hunter.

Also - with the new cards in the latest wave; find myself wondering about a mob of strikers with suppressive gunners.

Snap Shot/Suppressive Gunner "Pure Sabbac" feels like he has some potential mileage.

On 11/2/2020 at 6:53 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Also - with the new cards in the latest wave; find myself wondering about a mob of strikers with suppressive gunners.

Snap Shot/Suppressive Gunner "Pure Sabbac" feels like he has some potential mileage.

That is a LOT of points on a fragile frame.

It is. But 15 points is not dramatically more than the 12 points for Fifth Brother, who is practically nailed to Duchess.

Also, given how the red dial is the best bit of the striker, Ion Limiter Override sounds kind of awesome. A 90' turn segnor PLUS a barrel roll is kind of ridiculous.

18 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

It is. But 15 points is not dramatically more than the 12 points for Fifth Brother, who is practically nailed to Duchess.

Also, given how the red dial is the best bit of the striker, Ion Limiter Override sounds kind of awesome. A 90' turn segnor PLUS a barrel roll is kind of ridiculous.

Fifth Brother can help keep Duchess alive though. Snap Shot & Suppressive Gunner don’t directly do much for defense.

Edit: Also, I’m probably not up with all the meta tech, but I kinda like Duchess naked. Never even really considered Fifth Brother with her...

Second Edit: I really like the idea of ILO on Strikers!

Third Edit: I guess I hadn’t really read Suppressive Gunner closely. Missed the bit about the Deplete. That does help defense.

Exactly. Sabbac gets a 3 dice snap shot, and can't modify the focus result he's more likely to roll than not into anything useful - so you might as well trigger Suppressive Gunner.

A free, undodgeable point of damage is nice, but a deplete applied after they move but before they shoot is nice too.

Plus it works on your regular attack as well.

Duchess/Fifth Brother gives you a force charge, meaning a modified attack during a loop or turn. Add in Duchess' supreme squirrelyness to dodge arcs and I5, and she's very effective - doubly so with an optional post-red-move barrel roll stacked on the optional pre-red-move ailerons.

Except Suppressive Gunner is a mod and Snapshot doesn't let you mod.

19 minutes ago, Hoarder of Garlic Bread said:

Except Suppressive Gunner is a mod and Snapshot doesn't let you mod.

Yep. Spending results is modification.