It needs to happen.

What about Cloaking Device, Stygium, Deadeye, Harpoons, Hull Upgrade, and Chips for 35 points?

Too much of a good thing?

40 minutes ago, Boba Rick said:

It needs to happen.

What about Cloaking Device, Stygium, Deadeye, Harpoons, Hull Upgrade, and Chips for 35 points?

Too much of a good thing?

Deadeye is a bit of a waste on a PS9 ship, especially when you're only ever really going to use it once. I'd go VI. You could throw on Munitions Failsafe and BMST or Inertial Dampeners for free.

He (and all Kihraxz for that matter) lacks any native action economy, making PtL or Mindlink very desirable upgrades if you're throwing mods which give extra actions.

Personally, I'd build around his ability. Fearlessness, Inertial Dampeners, Vectored Thrusters for 29 points.

It's not going to happen

All you really have over Rau is PRS with those funky ion discharge thingers. Not really the stuff of legends there, esp with secondary weapon dominance basically invalidating half his ability

Talonbane will never be fantastic, because the scariest things at range 3 are munitions, HLC dash and TLT. As ficklegreendice says, secondary weapons ignore his ability. I think the best way to use him is to take advantage of his strong offense and remove enemy threats before they can pop him. With that in mind, I like to load him with disposable offense, like a big missile.

Talonbutt Cobra (33): Crack Shot, Harpoon Missile, Guidance Chips, Vectored Thrusters, Glitterstim

On the first turn of the engagement, lock an enemy and harpoon them. Try not to let talonbane get shot, by sticking at r3 against primary weapons and/or jamming another threat up close to the enemy. Pop crack to push through as much damage as possible. Only pop stims first turn if it looks like talonbane is gonna die otherwise (ie target locket and/or in range of multiple powerful weapons).

On the following turns, bung talonbane right up in your enemy's grill and just shoot them to bits. Generally I will take target locks and then if talonbane is taking 4+ red dice I'll pop stims.

I like pairing him with ketsu so he hits even harder.

42 minutes ago, gadwag said:

Talonbutt Cobra (33): Crack Shot, Harpoon Missile, Guidance Chips, Vectored Thrusters, Glitterstim

I would be inclined to go for VI over Crack Shot (you also might as well throw Munitions Failsafe on there; not like it costs you anything). It should all but guarantee that you'll at least get the missile off, and then if he lives the round you've also given yourself the best chance of getting in a range 1 shot.

Fair enough. VI won't work with ketsu's tractor shot but otherwise that's a reasonable defense against incoming high-PS missile strikes. I prefer using the extra tractor and crack shot to really push through the damage (perhaps overkill). Ketsu's pre-combat tractor helps with pushing enemies onto rocks to keep talonbutt alive

I didn't bother adding munitions failsafe because really if that missile misses, you're in a world of trouble already. But yeah may as well have it.

Great stuff guys, especially on WHEN to pop stims. That is hard to learn!

Talonbane basically want's EU so he can get within range 1 and throw 5 dice attacks. Varski title will help with the discount.

Cloaking device and Vector thrusters can also help with getting him in position but the issue is keeping him alive. There isn't a cheap option for getting Jabba's butt out there for the illicit tokens to keep cloaking from fizziling outright on its first use.

8 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Cloaking device and Vector thrusters can also help with getting him in position but the issue is keeping him alive.

Don't. Talonbane's always been a guided missile; he deals too much damage for people not to kill him, so you should be looking to get him in there and trade. Then the rest of your squad mops up.

I run the following, does decently well in tournaments, but does get eaten alive by the autoblaster-accuracy corrector Nym builds if your dice aren't favorable...the list really does live and die by it's red dice.

Fenn Rau : Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Concord Dawn Title

Talonbane : Expertise, Vectored Thrusters

Zuckuss : Veteran Instincts, Fire Control System, Tractor Beam, Mist Hunter Title

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

As I said, it lives and dies by it's red dice. I've had instances where I've cleared Dengar, Nym, even a Fair Ship Rebels Super-Boosted Biggs in one round of shooting.

I've had instances where I had 15 target-locked and focused/expertised Red Dice roll 15 blanks in one turn and get rerolled into 15 blanks in one turn.

But the list is a gambler's list. You gotta fly it fast and aggressive, get in your opponent's face, and hope the dice gods are with you.

Once Guns for Hire comes out, I'll fool around with some upgrades on Talonbane, but I'm thinking just add Black Market Slicer Tools and leave it at the 2 point bid (the list right now is 100 points, with GoH, it's 98)

Forget about missiles! Pulsed Ray Shield is what he needs (plus is the thing he can get that Fenn Rau cannot)

Talonbane Cobra: Engine Upgrade, Autothursters, PSR, Vaskai, Attani Mindlink/Expertise, Cloaking Device/Maybe Ion Dischargers (34-38p).

Talonbane Cobra (1 hp+): PSR, Vectored Thrusters, Hull Upgrade, Vaskai, Attani Mindlink/Expertise, Cloaking Device/Maybe Ion Dischargers (33-37p).

10 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

It's not going to happen

All you really have over Rau is PRS with those funky ion discharge thingers. Not really the stuff of legends there, esp with secondary weapon dominance basically invalidating half his ability

Rechargeable. Harpoon. Missiles.

You get something vaguely approximating a 4 die primary, Fenn only gets that at R1.

Tbane for me gets [ept], Harpoon Missiles, Scavenger Crane, Engine, Autothrusters, Chips.

Not sure what the EPT should be though. Probably VI. Or A Score to Settle. Mindlink, if the squad supports it.

But from some testing, I'm not convinced Vaksai makes him up to current competitive standard. It makes him good, it doesn't make him broken-good.

10 hours ago, DR4CO said:

Don't. Talonbane's always been a guided missile; he deals too much damage for people not to kill him, so you should be looking to get him in there and trade. Then the rest of your squad mops up.

Yeah, Talonbane was one of the Reasons why the Kirhax's nickname is the "Klingon", Today is a Good Day to Die.