A pseudo Howl swarm style squad for Scum relying on Fearless (/cringe) to bring the passive mod. No Iden equiv (Serissu is to expensive to fit), slower, 1 fewer green a piece, very positioning dependent, more hp, can mitigate up to 2 crits each, not formation locked, can have double mods (focus or Lock + Fearless if ends up nose to nose) off a K-Turn once per round per ship but usually will end up with just a focus or a lock off the K. Among a few other lists I've got brewing I'm probably gong to give it a go next chance I get. Sadly not Hyperspace legal due to Contraband Cybernetics (/grrrr).

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Black Sun Soldier (27)
Fearless (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Total: 198

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

2 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

A pseudo Howl swarm style squad for Scum relying on Fearless (/cringe) to bring the passive mod. No Iden equiv (Serissu is to expensive to fit), slower, 1 fewer green a piece, very positioning dependent, more hp, can mitigate up to 2 crits each, not formation locked, can have double mods (focus or Lock + Fearless if ends up nose to nose) off a K-Turn once per round per ship but usually will end up with just a focus or a lock off the K. Among a few other lists I've got brewing I'm probably gong to give it a go next chance I get. Sadly not Hyperspace legal due to Contraband Cybernetics (/grrrr).

It looks...interesting.

2-dice attacks benefit a lot from Fearless' "just make it a hit" result - the firepower increase they'll get at range 1 is humungous, with nearly 85% chance of 3 hits. It's the same reason I find Ruthless a lot scarier than people give it credit for.

Your dial....could be worse (speed 1 straight is a nice bonus not available to most swarmers), though the red barrel roll is painful, and the contraband cybernetics could avoid the painful death normally awaiting fragile light fighters caught without tokens in a red move.

I do wonder about using a swarm with Fearless. It has its limitations - because there are only so many ships which can get into a target's range 1 frontal arc, and there's a pretty good chance several won't be there after the engagement phase because the odds are they'll be taking range 1 attacks at higher initiative (because you always assume you shoot last with a swarm). Getting more than, say, 2 ships to benefit from the ability in one turn seems unlikely.

By comparison, if you were wanting a gunned-up z-swarm, I wonder if missiles might do you better. Cluster Missiles give you 3-dice attacks at range 2, which is probably easier than the range 2-3 missiles to get locks and then subsequently have valid shots with. Ion missiles are a nice idea, too, because there are few things scarier than being ionized in front of a swarm.

On 7/5/2019 at 2:51 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

It looks...interesting.

2-dice attacks benefit a lot from Fearless' "just make it a hit" result - the firepower increase they'll get at range 1 is humungous, with nearly 85% chance of 3 hits. It's the same reason I find Ruthless a lot scarier than people give it credit for.

Your dial....could be worse (speed 1 straight is a nice bonus not available to most swarmers), though the red barrel roll is painful, and the contraband cybernetics could avoid the painful death normally awaiting fragile light fighters caught without tokens in a red move.

I do wonder about using a swarm with Fearless. It has its limitations - because there are only so many ships which can get into a target's range 1 frontal arc, and there's a pretty good chance several won't be there after the engagement phase because the odds are they'll be taking range 1 attacks at higher initiative (because you always assume you shoot last with a swarm). Getting more than, say, 2 ships to benefit from the ability in one turn seems unlikely.

By comparison, if you were wanting a gunned-up z-swarm, I wonder if missiles might do you better. Cluster Missiles give you 3-dice attacks at range 2, which is probably easier than the range 2-3 missiles to get locks and then subsequently have valid shots with. Ion missiles are a nice idea, too, because there are few things scarier than being ionized in front of a swarm.

Whoot. I can actually reply now!!!

I was aiming at avoiding the need for locks (mainly due to the issue with low Init locks, as you did point out) and centering on improving the primary attacks. The point blank in target's front arc restriction of Fearless is an issue, but unless I find a way to shoehorn in Drea (at 49 pts bare? Ya, right...) or take the just as restrictive (possibly even more so) Predator the passive mod I was going for is going to have to rely on that. I HATE Fearless with a passion due to what it requires for it to be used. The pilots are basically putting blasters to their own heads to try and get an edge... IF anything I might swap Contraband Cyber for Deadmans (to make it thematic to what appears to be FFG's opinion of the faction), but then that opens up getting burned down out of range and damaging squad mates for 0 return on the risk... 😑

I've been toying with Intimidation on Z-95s. Can't quite tell if it's viable or not, but if you somehow manage to bump two Zs on one enemy ship that would reduce its Agility by two. I figure no green dice is better than more red dice 😆

I made a list swapping one Z with Torkil Mux to really drive the opponent mad. That leaves a bit of room to play around with Illicits - say 2 Deadman Switch for the front early blockers and 3 Cybernetics for the rest.

6 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

I HATE Fearless with a passion due to what it requires for it to be used.

In my experience, what it requires to be used is Concordia Face-off . It's a great talent for the Protectorate Fang (and pretty good on Boba Fett), it's just not that great as a faction-wide signature talent.

Fearless + Deadman's Switch is a nice combination, but definitely not something you can use en masse....