Scum Ace Alpha Strike

By surly88, in X-Wing Squad Lists

After reading Phil's article about the new Veskai Khiraxz I started tinkering about my own list.

Out came this:

Captain Nym (Scum) (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Collision Detector (0)
"Genius" (0)
Guidance Chips (0)
Havoc (0)

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Crack Shot (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Scavenger Crane (2)
Guidance Chips (0)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Vectored Thrusters (2)
Vaksai (0)

N'Dru Suhlak (17)
Deadeye (1)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

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Haven't played it yet, just brainstorming so far. I really like the combination of Nym and Talonbane on paper actually since both can dish out a reasonable amount of damage in their alpha strike at PS 9 / 10.

For the remaining points I considered Serissu, also with a missile, but with a useful setup it's 2 points too expensive. So I added NDru, which can hit quite hard just as well. I consider him a suicide alpha striker actually that probably won't last long.

Any feedback? : )

29 minutes ago, surly88 said:

N'Dru Suhlak (17)
Deadeye (1)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Whilst deadeye is a nice general-purpose tool for the lower PS missile carrier, N'Dru should be fine without it because he's carrying a range 1-2 missile, not a range 2-3 one; he can move into range 3 and target lock and the higher PS opponent cannot move in 'under' his missile range.

For the same price, Fearlessness turns a cluster missile from shoddy, to acceptable in N'dru's hands, to impressive with glitterstim, to downright terrifying, giving a pretty decent chance of two four-hit attacks from a ship the price of a generic T-70 X-wing.

32 minutes ago, surly88 said:

Captain Nym (Scum) (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Collision Detector (0)
"Genius" (0)
Guidance Chips (0)
Havoc (0)

Nym does Nym things. The lack of a systems slot is the only real weak spot in this build, but to really make your money's worth you'd want at least fire control, arguably accuracy corrector or advanced sensors, and that's a lot of points to free up from somewhere.

33 minutes ago, surly88 said:

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Crack Shot (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Scavenger Crane (2)
Guidance Chips (0)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Vectored Thrusters (2)
Vaksai (0)

My only concern is that Talonbane isn't all that tough. If you're going for a missile alpha strike squad, you need to account for missile alpha strikes and token-stripping attacks coming back at you at PS10 and PS11. Especially given the defensive bit of his ability won't apply when facing an enemy missile squad, is it worth looking at Veteran instincts/Glitterstim rather than Crack Shot/Scavenger Crane?

I agree with the above comments about N'dru. However, I would rather throw LW on him. Still very useful for the missile, and useful in the long game.

Nym is fairly standard, but I'd like to see some more utility on bombing. While you can't afford Advanced Sensors, Trajectory Simulator would still give you some choices.

I think you can ditch Munitions Failsafe on Talonbane. Scavenger Crane, Harpoons, VT, GC, are all excellent choices. However, while Crack Shot does make for one **** of an Alpha strike, I might choose VI, as mentioned above, or, my personal choice, PTL. Gives him more utility in the long game.

Cool idea; reminds me of Stay on the Leader (et al.)'s Rebel alpha strike. I feel like you might want all three ships at PS 10+ with this strategy. Using your Serissu idea and Magnus Grendel's VI/Stim, what about:

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Guidance Chips (0)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Vaksai (0)

Captain Nym (Scum) (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Collision Detector (0)
"Genius" (0)
Guidance Chips (0)
Havoc (0)

Serissu (20)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Missile) (2)

Total: 99

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Edited by TheHumanHydra
28 minutes ago, TheHumanHydra said:

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Guidance Chips (0)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Vaksai (0)

I like this build a LOT. Sit at range 3 with 4 green dice, throw Harpoon missiles to soften them up, then charge into Range 1, popping Glitterstim for 5 modified red dice. If there's a point to spare, I'd add Vectored Thrusters in the open mod. slot.

Edited by BlackOne
3 hours ago, BlackOne said:

I like this build a LOT. Sit at range 3 with 4 green dice, throw Harpoon missiles to soften them up, then charge into Range 1, popping Glitterstim for 5 modified red dice. If there's a point to spare, I'd add Vectored Thrusters in the open mod. slot.

It was Magnus Grendel's idea. :) There is an extra point, but I thought the bid might be most useful in an alpha strike list.

Thanks for the feedback!

19 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Whilst deadeye is a nice general-purpose tool for the lower PS missile carrier, N'Dru should be fine without it because he's carrying a range 1-2 missile, not a range 2-3 one; he can move into range 3 and target lock and the higher PS opponent cannot move in 'under' his missile range.

For the same price, Fearlessness turns a cluster missile from shoddy, to acceptable in N'dru's hands, to impressive with glitterstim, to downright terrifying, giving a pretty decent chance of two four-hit attacks from a ship the price of a generic T-70 X-wing.

While Fearlessness sounds awesome, I really have my doubts that a 4 HP ship with PS 7 and no form of repositioning will make it into range 1 of your opponents ark and staying alive to get his missiles off. So yeah, thumbs up for style points, but I can't really see it working here.

To be fair I'm considering swapping Cluster Missiles for a 3rd Harpoon though.

Honestly the list is really only looking for a cheap 3rd Harpoon Carrier, so I guess changing Cluster to Harpoons seems like a decent choice.

19 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

My only concern is that Talonbane isn't all that tough. If you're going for a missile alpha strike squad, you need to account for missile alpha strikes and token-stripping attacks coming back at you at PS10 and PS11. Especially given the defensive bit of his ability won't apply when facing an enemy missile squad, is it worth looking at Veteran instincts/Glitterstim rather than Crack Shot/Scavenger Crane?

Yeah definately something to consider :)

I had Stim already in the list but swapped it to Crane instead. I guess I can see both working.

14 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I agree with the above comments about N'dru. However, I would rather throw LW on him. Still very useful for the missile, and useful in the long game.

Yeah LW is nice on NDru, played him about a year ago this way. Not sure if I like it more than Dead Eye when he carries a Harpoon though.

14 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I think you can ditch Munitions Failsafe on Talonbane. Scavenger Crane, Harpoons, VT, GC, are all excellent choices. However, while Crack Shot does make for one **** of an Alpha strike, I might choose VI, as mentioned above, or, my personal choice, PTL. Gives him more utility in the long game.

Munition Failsafe is free on him, so since there's nothing else I might as well take it ;)

13 hours ago, TheHumanHydra said:

Cool idea; reminds me of Stay on the Leader (et al.)'s Rebel alpha strike. I feel like you might want all three ships at PS 10+ with this strategy. Using your Serissu idea and Magnus Grendel's VI/Stim, what about:

Yeah it's pretty similar to his list I guess. My list with Serissu basically looks the same as yours, only thing is that I want Extra Muni on Nym and can't really find anything to get that last point.

I considered playing Serissu with Adaptability, which would give me PS 11 / 10 / 9:

Captain Nym (Scum) (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Collision Detector (0)
"Genius" (0)
Guidance Chips (0)
Havoc (0)

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Guidance Chips (0)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Vaksai (0)

Serissu (20)
Adaptability (0)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Missile) (2)

Total: 100

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