So if you want to list a swarm of 12 point ships for scum, what would be the "howlrunner" for scum?

The only person I can think of is her sort of defensive sister Serissu... Although I heard it isnt as effective as people think...

Thought? Opinions? Experience? Post it!

It was called mindlink, and it's now very limited.

I think your best option for a "Howlrunner" in Scum is either Jabba on a YV-666 and give everybody Glitterstim, or something that attracts a lot of attention, like Fenn Rau or something.

In general, Scum don't like to fly in packs, and I think if you're going for a massive Scum swarm, you might as well just fly them all spread out over the board to catch people in tons of arcs and block everyone.

Serissu is the closest analogy, and yeah, she’s not super good. She can pair nicely with aces, but in a swarm there’s no real incentive not to just focus her down first. Your opponent chooses whether or not to trigger her ability, not you.

For a Scum swarm, I don’t really think there’s a clear analogy. That said, N’Dru is always a solid cheap ship, and Z’s can always roll with Harpoons.

Thweek?

Scum don't have a Howlrunner equivalent. I'd say the closest you can get to Howlrunner in a Scum swarm is Quadjumpers with tractor beams, increasing damage output by removing defensive dice instead of giving a free reroll. Torkil Mux is also a fairly cheap control/support ship that I usually stick on my Scum swarm lists. The current build I fly uses Mux, 2 Quads and 2 Z-95s+Sunny Bounder for a 6 ship swarm.

23 hours ago, Ailowynn said:

For a Scum swarm, I don’t really think there’s a clear analogy.

Nor should there be. Scum is a bunch of freelancers each out for themselves; Howlrunner represents coordinated Imperial tactics.

It's part of "faction flavor."

The closest thing that I fly, and is along the same line of thought as @Enigami:

- Ventress with title

- Sunny and 3 * Z-95

(Upgrade to taste)

Ventress' job is to put the tractor beam and either prevent one opponent from shooting back or make it easier for the rest of the swarm to finish it off. Works well most of the time.

Scum have quite a few ways to reduce enemy ship's agility.

Inaldra with Heavy Scyk and Tractor Beam is pretty cheap, but also squishy. *edit* Forgot to say Crack Shot *

A Quadjumper.

Latts Razzi piloting a YV-666, although this only works for one attack.

Any Lancer with the Shadowcaster title, particularly Ketsu Onyo, or with a Ketsu crew.

//

It's also worth mentioning Torkil Mux, who sinks someone's pilot skill to 0, which can give all your ships a chance to PS kill them, or at least not get PS killed BY them. That's not the same effect as a Howlrunner, but it does something potentially strong.

Problem with Tractor Scyks is they can miss. Also can't tractor AND attack in the same turn. Not sure I'd want to depend on a squishy tractor ship that might not even land the tractor beam, but it is an explorable option.

Problem with Latts Razzi as you mentioned is that only works for 1 attack, and you've a large number of other ships that won't benefit.

Lancer is interesting though, hadn't considered it because of its cost and no guarantee of landing the tractor beam but it by itself is a good ship anyways.

Quads I prefer mostly because Gunrunners should be moving first, meaning as long as they can get into position with their maneuver the target WILL being tractored, and if they still have a target afterwards they're free to fire. 5 HP is also kinda nice for being just outside of one round kill range of an AC/AB or TLT Ghost.

On 2/25/2018 at 12:40 PM, Wookiee_Slayer said:

So if you want to list a swarm of 12 point ships for scum, what would be the "howlrunner" for scum?

The only person I can think of is her sort of defensive sister Serissu... Although I heard it isnt as effective as people think...

Thought? Opinions? Experience? Post it!

serrisu. M3-a ace. she is awesome and cheap enough to squeze into many a list.

also one of scums very few true support pilots.

I was wondering if a Black sun soldier with thread tracker, stealth device and scavenger crane ( 19 pts) wouldn't be a good Scumy howlrunner. scavenger crane is not guarantee to last but with the swarm configuration it may be triggered multiple times, you could get a lot of reroll with the thread tracker.

Serissu has the same effectiveness whether she's next to 1 ship or 5 ships. Her ability is triggered by the number of attacks the opponent makes, which is the opposite of Howlrunner and closer to IG-88A.

The equivalent for Scum would probably be Tracer Thread Missiles.

There is no similarity.

I would say Torkhil. Having an entire swarm attack before a ship gets to attack is brutal.

Torkil Mux (19)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Intelligence Agent (1)

Binayre Pirate (12)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Binayre Pirate (12)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Binayre Pirate (12)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Binayre Pirate (12)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)
Guidance Chips (0)

Binayre Pirate (12)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

As @Ailowynn mentioned, Serissu is the closest direct equivalent to Howlrunner, but focused on defense instead of attack, and so clearly nowhere near as good.

@theBitterFigmakes a good shout with Torkil Mux, though. Forcing an ace to shoot at PS0 can be a massive difference maker for a list.

"Binayre Pirate with XX-23 and Guidance Chips " is the Howlrunner for Scum, its also cheaper and not unique.

7 hours ago, Enigami said:

Problem with Tractor Scyks is they can miss. Also can't tractor AND attack in the same turn. Not sure I'd want to depend on a squishy tractor ship that might not even land the tractor beam, but it is an explorable option.

Problem with Latts Razzi as you mentioned is that only works for 1 attack, and you've a large number of other ships that won't benefit.

Lancer is interesting though, hadn't considered it because of its cost and no guarantee of landing the tractor beam but it by itself is a good ship anyways.

Quads I prefer mostly because Gunrunners should be moving first, meaning as long as they can get into position with their maneuver the target WILL being tractored, and if they still have a target afterwards they're free to fire. 5 HP is also kinda nice for being just outside of one round kill range of an AC/AB or TLT Ghost.

I forgot to say also Crack Shot on a Tractor Inaldra. Haven't tried it, but cracking that once kinda cracks every other shot which follows.