Well the Ghost thread was a roaring success so I'm making another one. What do all y'all think of the Scyk?

It has some interesting advantages over the other two Scum light fighters (Z-95 and MG TIE):

Shields that the TIE doesn't have

Agility that the Z doesn't have

Cannon and Torp slots that the others don't have (which are arguably better)

Way more pilots

It suffers of course from being more expensive than the others and still popping rather quickly, but it's a cool ship, sort of the Scum A-Wing.

How would you use this ship? Have you flown it? Seen it flown? What does it do?

(And yeah it's pretty much the exact opposite of an M3 Abrams isn't it?)

• I like to toss Sunny into my Scum lists, flank with her and see what shakes out. Either they turn and try to deal with her, or there's that random menace on their tails. Her ability is a "nice to have" rather than something to depend on, but when she does trigger, my opponent usually tilts in some form. 4 evades? Yeah, I've had it happen. 4 crits on a range one shot? Yep. Rare, but it happens. Usually blanks are more common....
• I haven't... really had success with any of the Scyks though in 2.0. Seems to be hard to squeeze in a ship like this into a list. I love them, find them fun, but don't find them particularly "war winning" and was probably better leaving them at home.

My favorite part about these posts is:

• Cool Pictures
• Funny Pictures
• Talking about X-Wing

The first time I put Scum 2.0 on the table way back I ran a variation on this list: (With considerably more Upgrades on Boba)

I really genuinely like Inaldra. Not really a ship that Big Base ships want to ignore, but also definitely not a ship anyone wants to be shooting at instead of the other stuff.

Also comically expensive compared to 38 pt Lulo ( But lets not go there )

I am the Saw Gerrera now.

6 HLC generics sounds really fun, might need to try that. Have to admit, I have yet to fly these things in 2.0.

One of my favorite 1.0 lists was three Tansari Veterans with HLC, Stealth Device, Expertise, and the title. That's not how things are meant to be flown in 2.0 though, I'm imagining it's a very different ship now

I ran Scyks often in 1.0. Sunny is one of my favorite pilots in the game, because her ability is hilariously fun. The other Aces are middling, but those Tansarii Point Veterans punch above their weight when hard pointed correctly. There isn't a cheaper AG3 protorps platform in the game--you can be thoroughly punished by one should you ignore it. Wish they'd have gotten a 3 turn though. That more than anything limits them as their approach vectors are sadly predictable. You could do a whole lot worse than Serissu alongside fragile Fangs. She's their BFF.

10 minutes ago, Kieransi said:

It has some interesting advantages over the other two Scum light fighters (Z-95 and MG TIE):

Shields [and HP] that the TIE doesn't have

Agility that the Z doesn't have

They're a best of both worlds action bar too - the white roll and evade of the TIE, the lock of the Z.

[cries in 3-hard]

The one banks (that the TIE lacks) and one hards plus the white roll (that the Z lacks), let it slow roll a lot better, which help a lot for munitions and bullseye-based weapons. The blues are kind of limited but it doesn't matter because you don't usually get stressed except on a k-turn, after which you probably want to one back anyways so it's fine.

Cannons are a very unique slot to have on such a cheap (soon cheaper...?) ship, but the potential budget builds are stuff like:

Cartel Spacer + HLC: 32 points, bullseye only
Cartel Spacer + Tractor Beam: 30 points, can't do damage, probably shoots last
Cartel Spacer + Ion Cannon: 33 points

All seems pretty marginal? And right now, missiles in general are bad and torpedoes are expensive, and in either case the low initiative Scyks probably can't get locks and the higher init ones are too fragile for the expense? (Eg: Proton Torps Serissu is 52 points, and will maybe shoot once before dying?)

3 minutes ago, Boom Owl said:

Also comically expensive compared to 38 pt Lulo ( But lets not go there )

it is too late, now

(40 points) (38 points)

I have been meaning to get them to the table, but there has been a lot of Hyperspace tournaments in my area in the last few months and I haven't made time to put them on the board.

I think Sunny or a Cartel are the best of the bunch, but at 31 or 29 points respectively that isn't saying a whole lot. Serissu has a great ability (and it finally works on herself!) but she is a bit pricey for a two attack die ship. Genesis Red and Quinns Jast have good abilities paired with "meh" initiative.

I feel like Scyks really should have had Boost>red Focus on their action bar. It would be similar to a B-22; yes you can link an action but you wouldn't do it every turn because the blue maneuvers are limited. They have stiff competition for their "role" and price point in the Z95 and MGT. Z95s are about as durable (minus 1 agility but 2h/2s) but a lot cheaper and MGTs ignore rocks while still being cheaper. And all three ships have the same attack value.

The Hardpoint is nice to have, but the ships have the problem of being a little too expensive once you fit an additional weapon on them. Quinns is acutely aware of this issue. She really wants to have a Missile or Torp to get mileage out of that pilot ability, but 40+ points for an I3 that can only take four hits is a hard sell. The M3A has the old ordnance carrier problem of the Punisher. They really want some extra weapons but once you equip them they have a hard time earning their points back before they pop.

The price decrease in January was a step in the right direction, but they need to come down a little bit more still. The unique pilots could really use a discount.

@Kieransi get back to me when it's K wing time

Sunny and me were best buds back in 1.0. Slap the heavy title and linked batteries on Sunny for lots of fun. Had her in a list with Fenn and Asajj, and Sunny did most of the damage because people ignored her.

Now...eh. I still love Sunny’s ability, but there isn’t a great way to get rerolls. Probably for the better, but I still miss it. She’s not a bad filler at 30, but so is Seevor in the Mining Guild TIE.

Also have a fondness for Quinn Jast. With her ability working on anything equipped with charges, the idea of slapping Crackshot or Stealth device amuses me, though I haven’t found it particularly effective.

Genesis Red has such a cool ability, but the culling of token stacks nerfed him a little. Still, against ships with an initiative of 3 and lower he can get reliable double mods or force the enemy to take locks instead of foci.

Now that I think of it. Has anyone tried flying him against Phantoms? Starting the Combat Phase with Lock, Focus and Evate sounds nice.

Ion Cannon Scyk is the cheapest 3-red-dice ship which isn't charge-based, and the only one which can fit 6 per list. It also has the better defensive statline than the cheap Imperial 3-red ships. More agility than strikers. More hit points than TIE interceptors. Less action economy, but still a pretty decent dial if you aren't stressed.

Now, I don't think 6x Ion Cartel Spacers is a good list, I think they can be the basis of a good list. While I think Ion weapons are good, they can have some weaknesses. It isn't always easy to kill a lot of high-hull ships. One or two probably aren't too much of a problem, but it can get tough. Meanwhile, a full-spam list of low-init ships can be a liability at times. But they're solid enough ships on their own. Between 2-4 as filler or as the body of a list with an ace seems like that might still have enough mass for the Ion to be useful, at the same time as diversifying the threats enough to cease being one-dimensional.

To that end, I've had a bunch of fun with 4x Ion Spacers + Fenn Rau. Fenn, without Talent or bid, is still a potent tool to use against higher-init ships, and he'll be able to punch through high-health stuff. He'll also be good at taking advantage of ships locked into Ion moves with his 5-dice range 1 attacks.

//

Named pilots look like they've got a lot of fun tricks.

Sunny Bounder + HLC seems neat. While she doesn't have great Initiative for bullseye attacks, it seems like a potent filler ship, since her 2-dice aren't too bad, either.

Quinn Jast just seems like a lot of fun. So many cool tricks to do with his pilot ability to recharge things like Crack Shot, Stealth Device, or Afterburners. Seems like a good spot to put a Composure/Afterburners build. Probably not that *good* but nifty stuff.

3 ion scyks and palob still fits I think. Genesis and Palob are bros.

Ion Scyks were one my favourite Scum fillers. I really must give them another go.

3 hours ago, Kieransi said:

How would you use this ship? Have you flown it? Seen it flown? What does it do?

(And yeah it's pretty much the exact opposite of an M3 Abrams isn't it?)

The Abrams is M1, isn't it? M3 would be a Bradley.

Or, if you're going back a ways, a Stuart

or a Lee

I love Interceptors, but what’s an M-3A? Kidding aside, are there any Interceptors running about? save Soontir?

Quinn Jast is a lot of fun to throw on the table, and give weird builds to. Regenerating Advanced Proton Torps can be particularly devastating to throw on him, so long as you have something coordinating an action or providing a lock. But otherwise near-limitless Afterburners are fun!

Sunny is of course her usual fun self. And generics are your best bang for the buck. But I have to give a shoutout to Laetin. In 1e he lacked a Talent slot... But in 2e he has it, and that means you might as well staple Juke to his card. Despite his lower initiative value, Laetin can possibly refresh his Evade while using it to keep him alive. And if someone of higher Initiative whiffs him, he can be one of the few pilots to pull a shot off with Juke and a Focus token. For 43 points, you can take Laetin with Juke and an Ion Cannon, and there’s a lot worse you could be doing with 43 points.

I like that little bugger, have 6 (mistakes were made, but they are an excellent repaint base). I ran mixed Scyks and Kihraxzes squads in 1ed, as they had so similar dials. No longer though...

2 Ion Scyks sounds fun (*putting on a far too long squads-to-fly list*).

Sunny is fun! Especially the really rare instances where she gets up to 4 crits. But having no linked actions, she has problems to get the mods.

3 hours ago, Burius1981 said:

Ifeel like the Scyks really should have had Boost>red Focus on their action bar. It would be similar to a B-22; yes you can link an action but you wouldn't do it every turn because the blue maneuvers are limited.

That would have been really good. Oftentimes they are a tad too slow and die therefore. The 5k though, adversaries tend to forget, its quite useful for putting in some distance. But a linked action would have made them a true Interceptor!

4 hours ago, Kieransi said:

6 HLC generics sounds really fun, might need to try that. Have to admit, I have yet to fly these things in 2.0.

One of my favorite 1.0 lists was three Tansari Veterans with HLC, Stealth Device, Expertise, and the title. That's not how things are meant to be flown in 2.0 though, I'm imagining it's a very different ship now

Ohe of the better pilots at the club tried 3 Hlc Scyks and Mining Ties. But he stopped flying that squad. Difficult to proc.

3 hours ago, svelok said:

Cannons are a very unique slot to have on such a cheap (soon cheaper...?) ship, but the potential budget builds are stuff like:

Cartel Spacer + HLC: 32 points, bullseye only
Cartel Spacer + Tractor Beam: 30 points, can't do damage, probably shoots last
Cartel Spacer + Ion Cannon: 33 points

All seems pretty marginal? And right now, missiles in general are bad and torpedoes are expensive, and in either case the low initiative Scyks probably can't get locks and the higher init ones are too fragile for the expense? (Eg: Proton Torps Serissu is 52 points, and will maybe shoot once before dying?)

it is too late, now

(40 points) (38 points)

This. Also: Iden Versio 40pts, Howlrunner 40pts (at least Serissu got a little bit cheaper, at the original 43(?) it was even more glaring).

Tractor Beam Serissu at Ini 5 works, she anyway wants to be in the middle of her pack, enabling more damage dealing by her wing. But she is expensive, and draws even more hate and aggro to her with tractor equipped. Doubt she will survive long enough to make her points back. I met her build like that one time, I immediately made her target priority 1 and killed her easily (ironically with Mining Guild Ties).

I flew Genesis Red with tractors a few times. But with so many force users now, he is chanceless, esp at his ini. His pilot ability procs no longer.

Quinn hurts from getting expensive fast while being pretty flimsy, and hurts esp from reloading ruleswise now reloading only one thing. If she (and only she) could reload both ordnance, talent and afterburners, she would be truely awesome. My impression of her in 1ed was she is too slow, she gets killed while reloading, as she cannot put enough distance in from enemy arcs when she is reloading and thus toothless. Or she goes the long way round (difficult without 3 turns), but then the battle is already over one way or the other when she comes back. (But good players certainly can make her shine).

Most interesting usage I've seen was a local of mine used Genesis Red w/ Proton Torps in a squad with Palob w/ Moldy Crow, L337 in escape craft and Fenn Rau (before pts adjustment). Either lock Palob if there isn't a ship to lock that already has green tokens and use the Proton Torp later or lock onto ships that already have gained their token(s). Worked well against Sigma Phantoms if he moved after them. Proton Torp incoming with focus and evade gained from ability is pretty solid.

I tried Sunny, Serissu with ion cannon, and three Khiraxz Cartel Marauders. Their non-red dials are the same making it easy to fly in formation, and you get 4 x "3" dice attacks, with potentially a 5th from Sunny, randomly enough to be scummy.

Is it great? No.

Is it eye-popping on the table? Yes

With regards to Quinn Jast being expensive, 45pts buys you Quinn with Afterburners, Heavy Laser Cannon, and Crackshot. Crackshot is my preferred talent on him, because it’s cheap and replenishable.

And if you’re plan is to slow-roll in, you could always grab Overseer Yushyn for 26pts and make Quinn a bit more... Interesting...

11 minutes ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

And if you’re plan is to slow-roll in, you could always grab Overseer Yushyn for 26pts and make Quinn a bit more... Interesting...

Has FFG fixed the wording, that the combo works now ruleswise?

Just now, Managarmr said:

Has FFG fixed the wording, that the combo works now ruleswise?

Is there an issue? Start of Engagement Phase, Quinn’s at Range 1 of Yushyn, takes a disarm and replenishes a charge, Yushyn converts the Disarm into a Stress.

It’s an interesting combo, but it’s not like the Scyk is loaded full of blue maneuvers. So taking a Stress instead is onlu advantageous if Quinn’s maneuver next turn doesn’t need to be anything other than a 1-bank or 2 to 3 speed straight.

8 minutes ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

Is there an issue? Start of Engagement Phase, Quinn’s at Range 1 of Yushyn, takes a disarm and replenishes a charge, Yushyn converts the Disarm into a Stress.

It’s an interesting combo, but it’s not like the Scyk is loaded full of blue maneuvers. So taking a Stress instead is onlu advantageous if Quinn’s maneuver next turn doesn’t need to be anything other than a 1-bank or 2 to 3 speed straight.

The issue surrounds Yushyn's timing and Paying Costs. Since Quinn wouldn't gain the disarm token if Yushyn uses their ability to switch it for a stress, RAW Quinn doesn't gain a charge back on her upgrade.

40 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

The issue surrounds Yushyn's timing and Paying Costs. Since Quinn wouldn't gain the disarm token if Yushyn uses their ability to switch it for a stress, RAW Quinn doesn't gain a charge back on her upgrade.

Hmm... Ok, I can see how that can be interpreted. Looks like we’ll need a FAQ, but again... it isn’t like it’s a game-breaking combo. So we probably can expect a ruling sometime around Wave 8.

I took Scyks and Kihraxz to the UK Open. Went 3-3 at the end of the day, but two of the defeats were insanely close run affairs (one went right down to the last roll of the dice after time was called).

Of course, I've been rolling with the Cartel ships since they were released in first...

My open list included Tansarri Vets with HLC and Crackshot. I know their abilities don't stack, but Crack helps make up for the 2 native dice if you end up at range one. HLC worked beautifully on them with the Black Sun Aces blocking, and was brutal against medium / large bases.

Favourite moment of the day was catching a Vader k-turn with a HLC shot to finish the Sith Lord off.

I'd happily fly that list again, although may swap a BSA out for Genesis Red with HLC, and Crack for Marksmanship.