"You see, to contend with Xizor is to lose." - Xizor

Welcome to card of the day!

Today's card is the Tiltle Upgrade StarViper Mk.II

This fix card reads:

- STARVIPER ONLY. TITLE.

You may equip up to 2 different Title upgrades.

When performing a barrel roll action, you must use the [Bank Left 1] or [Bank Right 1] template instead of the [Straight 1] template.

What do you think of it? Is it weak or strong in this meta? What squads would you use it in? Any neat interactions to note? What strategies should you use in a game? Any rules questions you have? How effective was it at mitigating the StarViper's weaknesses? Anything at all you want to say about the new StarViper, this is the place!

I have flown StarVipers from the beginning, and their main weaknes was the points cost. That has helped a lot with this Upgrade card and have given the SV an Awesome BR! I love it!

I currently run Guri + SV MK II+ Virago + PTL + Advanced Sensors + Autothrusters. Add illisit if points. It is an absolute blast to fly and you can go so many places :-) .

But you have to be good at knowing when to Advanced Sensors + PTL or just PTL, because sometimes you can get to a much better spot by just PTL, but are then locked in "normal" green mode at least 1 turn.

Focus is always the main priority to take as an action or for free if R1 with Guri "if you dare counting on beeing R1".

Vipers die horribly to blanks on greens, so just dont be sad when it happens, because why are they shooting at you in arc with that Uopgrade set-up ;-).

Cheers

I think this title is good and realy helps the starviper perform, the repositioning options the banked barrel roll brings make it hard to predict, and if you can move after your opponent, it makes getting them in arc a lot easier.

The downside (for the viper in general) is its low ps skills on the likes of Guri (probably the best viper pilot ability) making taking advanrage of the barrel roll harder. Thweek's capability to almost guarantee going last helps - but need Virago to pack a decent punch. Generally the reliance on the Virago title limits the number of these you can fly. Without the system and illicit slots a starviper can struggle to perform - often this limits you to one per squad (although some people far more skilled than me have made multiple vipers work quite well).

All in all this title has pushed the Starviper up into the competitive mix and made it real fun to fly..... but can't help feel in current game its not quite enough.

Requires you to play StarVipers, so as fun as it is, it's average at best.

Stupid good fun. I adore Mk2 StarVipers, Guri in particular. Intensity, Virago, Mk2, FCS, Autothrusters, plus Glitterstim if you have the points.

But yeah, Vipers still suffer from being very expensive and very low PS.

Best trick with it for me is to block someone on the approach, at 45 degrees on the corner of their base. dial in a hard 1 , then roll in the same direction, and end up behind them. It's great. The banky barrel rolls add so much flexibility.

One of my favourite cards on one of my favourite ships.... It give the craft the "agility" it looks like it has.

But the Viper should have had two shields from the get go, and this should have only been -1 cost. Xixor would not risk his precious life in a ship with only one shield!

Mk2 is in particular, good for outstanding flexibility when flanking. The ability to circle-strafe means you can put your arc in places which are difficult to escape, and make much more useful kill-boxes with limited numbers of turns to engage.

It's also a LOT easier to get out of arc of lower PS ships, and set up blocks on higher PS ones whilst still facing in useful directions for future turns.

It really wouldn't take much for Guri in particular to be genuinely top-tier good. SHe's teetering around B tier at the moment.

I don't really rate any of the other Vipers though

Thweek suffers from his lack of an EPT slot meaning he gets poor mods, Dalan's ability is only once every other round, if that, and functionally a lot of the time he's just a higher-PS generic, and Xizor's ability is basically useless, because iut's so hard to build him to be a high enough threat that people actually want to shoot him over his allies, instead of just picking off his allies. Maybe with Swarm Leader and evading allies (with Debris Gambit, maybe).

Mk. II has made the 'Viper very nearly competitive. I no longer get a sick feeling in the pit of my gut when contemplating bringing them out. I almost start to feel bad when dropping them for a specifically casual game. But I've been flying (and dying) them from the start. They are an Aces-style ship, without Aces PS. Fly perfect? You stand a good chance at a win. Make a mistake? *poof* Either way, fly well and you'll have at least a couple moments in the game when your opponent will say, "Wait, what just happened?" And that's lovely. The card's only real weakness, from a Competitive perspective, is that it is balanced. I so dearly want to competitively field a StarViper-only squad, but the current meta simply won't let that happen.

But ****, those things are fun to fly.

now if only they weren't so dependent on 3 green dice, I'd actually be able to fly them to consistent effect

they're fine ships, and Xizor is sweet when harpoons aren't around to **** in his bed, but I'm probably going to sell mine because it's impossible to play them when they're getting killed through stims/xizor AND dtf on manny (which triggers seemingly every attack) because 3 blanks seems to be the norm for me

there's little less fun than bringing more dice + mods to bear on an opponent and then getting savaged by 5 natural hits from ghosts and rey while inflicting only a fraction of that damage against ships with lesser agility. That's basically autoloss because just one isn't going to come safely out of a protracted dice-fest against all these super turrets, especially when the dice decide to never roll even average results

hopefully other people are better able to leverage them because, imo, they're as fixed as they're gonna get or honestly need to be.

That barrel roll is amazing, Xizor is the man, and Thweek is the greatest court jester

...but if we're being 100% honest, Virago is still a flick to the **** and should be rolled into the Viper's base profile at no additional cost If FFG can taketh away, they can surely giveth back to the same faction (albeit a different ship)

I took 3 to the Seatlle Regional and had a lot of fun. Mk2 was a good balanced fix. The all ‘Viper list is tricky to use, but that is probably because it is balanced. Wierd repositioning on high PS would be broken. I bought 2 GfH to get ‘poons and Ks, but I’ve only been using the SVs.

Here is the latest iteration of my list:

* Nest of ‘Vipers (97)

•Guri (32) - StarViper
Push The Limit (3), StarViper Mk.II (-3), Autothrusters (2)

Black Sun Assassin (30) - StarViper
Predator (3), StarViper Mk.II (-3), Autothrusters (2)

•Thweek (35) - StarViper
Plasma Torpedoes (3), StarViper Mk.II (-3), Autothrusters (2), •Virago (1), Fire Control System (2), •Cloaking Device (2)

2 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Requires you to play StarVipers, so as fun as it is, it's average at best.

30 pt Thweek is amazing.

- SV MK II

- Virago

- Autothrusters

- FCS

Go in with a bid and grab the highest pilot skill of the other side. I have most the local Kansas City players cursing Thweek when they see him across from them.

I enjoy the barrel rolls a lot, but they are very tempting and this may lead to overthinking the moves. Maybe it's just that I need more practice.

I like the pilots with access to EPT, since PTL or Attanni are very strong on this ship (haven't tried intensity yet). I feel like I don't like Thweek, since he had no EPT.

One thing that bugs me with the Starviper is the hit points for its cost. Another shield or a few points of discount would be needed to compete at the top. Like it is now, flying it is very unforgiving and has no room for errors, since a lot of points are on stake with only one shield.

4 hours ago, Trespasser 989 said:

30 pt Thweek is amazing.

- SV MK II

- Virago

- Autothrusters

- FCS

Go in with a bid and grab the highest pilot skill of the other side. I have most the local Kansas City players cursing Thweek when they see him across from them.

Such a fun build. haven't quite got people in my area openly cursing his name, but I've definitely put the fear of Thweek in 'em.

I'll just leave this here...

1 hour ago, flooze said:

I enjoy the barrel rolls a lot, but they are very tempting and this may lead to overthinking the moves. Maybe it's just that I need more practice.

I like the pilots with access to EPT, since PTL or Attanni are very strong on this ship (haven't tried intensity yet). I feel like I don't like Thweek, since he had no EPT.

One thing that bugs me with the Starviper is the hit points for its cost. Another shield or a few points of discount would be needed to compete at the top. Like it is now, flying it is very unforgiving and has no room for errors, since a lot of points are on stake with only one shield.

Mostly my solution to overthinking is to dial in a move that doesn't bump or cross a rock, and work the rest out when I've done it, unless I'm in one of those set-piece positions where a 1-hard-roll-back gets me an amazing chase setup.

A reasonable title had it not been released alongside Harpoon Missiles, which rendered it irrelevant. Whoops.

That said, I really, really wish it had granted the basic StarViper either an Illicit or System slot; a System slot would certainly have helped solidify its position as an E-wing equivalent and been a lovely addition to a side that has very little in the way of Systems tech.

And yes, this would have made Virago hilarious. As it should be.

Thweek with StarViper mkII is secretly Scums best pilot

5 hours ago, Reiver said:

A reasonable title had it not been released alongside Harpoon Missiles, which rendered it irrelevant. Whoops.

Since when do fixed firing arc only weapons make anything irrelevant?

3 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Since when do fixed firing arc only weapons make anything irrelevant?

when harpoons were released alongside Xizor's fix

seriously, not only does the trigger for the facedown damage bypass Xizor's ability (contrast with Kylo Ren) but the splash damage also **** with his range 1 requirements

bleh

Thweek don't care, though. Harpoons can't copy ps or abilities

1 hour ago, ficklegreendice said:

when harpoons were released alongside Xizor's fix

seriously, not only does the trigger for the facedown damage bypass Xizor's ability (contrast with Kylo Ren) but the splash damage also **** with his range 1 requirements

bleh

Thweek don't care, though. Harpoons can't copy ps or abilities

OK, so Xizor doesn't like Harpoons.

Dalan, Thweek and Guri aren't overly fussed about them, though.

11 hours ago, Reiver said:

A reasonable title had it not been released alongside Harpoon Missiles, which rendered it irrelevant. Whoops.

That said, I really, really wish it had granted the basic StarViper either an Illicit or System slot; a System slot would certainly have helped solidify its position as an E-wing equivalent and been a lovely addition to a side that has very little in the way of Systems tech.

And yes, this would have made Virago hilarious. As it should be.

I think MK2 giving an Illicit would have been interesting, especially with Virago giving another. Adding an evade action would have been cool too.

I OFTEN poopoo rules creep from addative rule fixes via cards and errata rather than simply changing the point costs of cards and posting a tourney point list. However, I think this fix card is a successful use of this method I hate. Playing SVs is now different than playing any other ship...and that is cool on its own. They are by no means an easy button, but I think they are good enough to see much more play.

A moment of silence for the fallen Lt. Lorrir.

5 hours ago, Commander Kaine said:

A moment of silence for the fallen Lt. Lorrir.

Ha, yes - there's not entirely no reason at all the poor Lt shouldn't be allowed to skip the stress part.

It'd be such a quick and easy bit of errata, too.