I made the jump to 2.0 back in April. Since then I’ve been on a mission to put all my ship models on the table at least once. E.g.: I have four Z-95s, so I want to fly at least one list with four Z-95s.

This past weekend I finished flying all my Scum. I started with them because they were my home faction in 1.0 and still dear to my heart. Now I want to write down my impressions of the ships before I move on. To be clear, I haven’t flown every pilot, nor is there any guarantee that I gave these an optimal loadout. These thoughts may not ring true for everyone, particularly since I’m a 100% casual (literal) kitchen-table player. But I figured that if I was writing them down, I might as well post them for posterity.

Any feedback or discussion is welcome, but again, I’m writing this mostly for myself.

————————

Aggressor Assault Fighter: I have two. By coincidence, the first ship on the list was the last I flew on my journey through Scum. I took a minimalistic A & B along with a tooled-up Zuckuss (more on him later), and I loved them. It always feelsbadman when you really want to pull a basic maneuver that’s just not on your dial, and IGs never have that problem! Also, A’s ability is phenomenally strong; if you’ve got three IGs out there (optionally with one as crew D), then you can have one do a turnaround and it can still end up with two Calculates donated by its friends. That’s incredible! I’m going to have to fly these guys some more!

BTL-A4 Y-Wing: I flew my two Ys as straightforward front-arc double tap generics. They weren’t remarkable, but they were solid. I’d take them again, though I probably won’t invest much imagination into lists focusing on them.

Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter: I have one. Only flew it once, but I’m keen to fly it more. It’s priced acceptably for the 2-dice bowtie, and it has plenty of slots & potential shenanigans.

Escape Craft: What a lovely little support ship! It’s already worked its way into several of my lists, and I bet it’ll show up in several more. It’s not amazing, but it’s good enough to make its mark. The cost increase of Tactical Officer hurts, but it’s still probably worth eating that in a lot of cases.

Fang Fighter: I have one. Regrettably, I’m just not good at playing super acey ships like this. They’re interesting in concept, but the risk/reward that they bring doesn’t seem to work out for me very often. I could see getting rid of it.

Firespray-Class Patrol Craft: I have two. One of my absolute favorite ships from 1.0 is back, and this time it’s got more turnaround options, a native boost, and 1-hards! And it’s on a medium base, so it’s a little more maneuverable! And it’s costed better!! This sucker fits my playstyle perfectly, with tricksy front-back action that helps preserve time on target while letting you be squirrelly. I flew mine mostly naked, but these have a crazy amount of slots that you could use to tool them up into monstrosities.

G-1A Starfighter: I have two. These were another of my favorites from 1.0, and in 2.0 they represent one of the more fascinating listbuilding mysteries to me. On paper, they’re a big ugly flying brick—basically a less-good B-Wing. But 4-LOM in particular can be tooled up to be devastating. I’ve flown him several times, and he remains perhaps the #1 standout pilot that I’ve used in the faction. Zuckuss is probably less good in general, but he’s still very capable, and every time I fly him, I feel like I move closer to finding his optimal build. Flying them together is great too, though of course the biggest problem is that there can only be one Mist Hunter; if you could somehow put a reposition action on the other guy, you’d be in business. I think at some point I’m going to have to fly both of them as generics and see what clues that gives me about making the most of the named guys.

HWK-290 Light Freighter: I have one. I need a do-over with flying this; my one game where it saw table time was with a bizarre list that spent way too much time self-bumping or ending up on rocks. I can tell this is way more capable in general than it was in 1.0, though, which is exciting.

JumpMaster 5000: I have one. The terror of 1.0 is a lot less scary now. It’s quirky but not as bad as everyone says. Manaroo with IG-88D on board served as a decent little support piece for a list that wanted one. I do think the mobile arc is a trap, though; given the cost of the Punishing One title, you may as well just take it and pretend you only have a forward arc, so you’re not wasting actions flinging your arc around. (Either that or you REALLY want Agile Gunner.)

Kihraxz Fighter: I have one now; that’s down from two in 1.0, and I could even see getting rid of the one. Honestly, I just haven’t gotten much value or enjoyment out of the thing. It feels like a less-good version of multiple other ships. The pilots have some situational abilities, but the chassis itself has yet to click with me.

Lancer-class Pursuit Craft: I have one, and it’s zippy and fun. Definitely a capable ship with good upgrade potential. Need to fly it more and try out some zanier combos.

M12-L Kimogila Fighter: I have one. I like the Kimo in concept, as it scratches a similar how-do-I-make-this-work itch as the G-1A does. Thus far, however, I have yet to make it work much.

M3-A Interceptor: I have two. These frustrate me in 2.0. I feel like all I can ever get them to do is explode prematurely. I’d like to find a build for at least one of them that lets them contribute without going down in flames when my opponent sneezes. Part of the problem is that you have to put upgrades on them to get the most out of them, and they turn into a super fragile points sink quickly. I want to make these work but right now I’m not seeing it.

Mining Guild TIE Fighter: I have one. Seevor is love; Seevor is life. Seevor 4-eva.

Quadrijet Transfer Spacetug: I ended up with three because they were on clearance and I was curious. I wish I’d kept it at one or zero. Talk about a wacky dial and a bizarre action situation with their tractor array! Yeah, you can mitigate their weirdness somewhat with Pattern Analyzers, but then you’re still stuck trying to clear stress with their troublesome blues. I fundamentally don’t get this ship, though I have the feeling that there’s a trick to it, and it’s not just hot garbage.

Scurrg H-6 Bomber: I have one. Oddly enough, this is another ship that I don’t feel I “get.” It strikes me as a more expensive Y-Wing with a bigger base and an extra red die, which... isn’t bad, but (as with the Y-Wing) doesn’t really stoke my imagination. Its maneuverability is okay but not great. Maybe I would get more out of this if I used bombs and ordnance more often, but I usually don’t. I’m not necessarily in a hurry to get rid of this, but I’m not sure if I’m going to get a lot of joy out of it either.

Starviper-class Attack Platform: I have two. And oh yeah, these are fun. I’m pretty terrible at arc-dodgy aces, but these have so many shenanigans on their side that I can’t help but enjoy them. Bendy barrel rolls are always a good time. And I like it that they have decent enough blues to not make you feel too hamstrung when you need to pull a red. I need to thoroughly explore the named pilots at some point.

YV-666 Light Freighter: I have one. I honestly wasn’t expecting much out of this, but I was pleasantly surprised. That big base can still scoot around reasonably quickly even though you can’t give it a reposition action. The 180 degree arc is magnificent for taking shots that don’t seem like they ought to be possible. It’s still not my favorite ship, but I enjoyed using it, and it’s got some fun pilot abilities—I’ll have to take it out a bit more.

Z-95-AF4 Headhunter: I have four, down from five in 1.0. Oh but what a bummer these have turned into—and I can’t even put my finger on why. I flew Zs all the time in 1.0 and felt like they gave pretty good value as a swarm/filler ship; nowadays, though, I don’t feel like I can get them to do much, shiny new red barrel roll notwithstanding. All they seem to do is take the occasional potshot and die horribly. But like I mentioned, I can’t figure out why they struggle so much harder now than in 1.0; if anything, I’d expect them to be better because of the native reposition. As it is, I’m considering paring down to just one, but solely so I could fly a Nashtah Pup—I don’t even see much point in them as filler when you could take a generic MG TIE instead.

2 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

M3-A Interceptor: I have two. These frustrate me in 2.0. I feel like all I can ever get them to do is explode prematurely. I’d like to find a build for at least one of them that lets them contribute without going down in flames when my opponent sneezes. Part of the problem is that you have to put upgrades on them to get the most out of them, and they turn into a super fragile points sink quickly. I want to make these work but right now I’m not seeing it.

• Sunny. Done. 30 points of flanker that either attracts attention away from your main force, or chips at the rear elements of your opponent's list with the real risk of hitting hard. Optional: Autoblaster upgrade for cheap potential to throw 4 red dice on occasion, or out of arc unblockable crits.
• I'm trying to experiment with Serissu as a budget ace. I5, cheap and the dial isn't entirely bad, if lacking in blue. Keep her under fifty, upgrading only her firepower, and selflishly use her ability only for herself. No promises this is good, I'm a lousy aces player to start with.

23 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

(1) Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter: I have one. Only flew it once, but I’m keen to fly it more. It’s priced acceptably for the 2-dice bowtie, and it has plenty of slots & potential shenanigans.

(2) Escape Craft: What a lovely little support ship! It’s already worked its way into several of my lists, and I bet it’ll show up in several more. It’s not amazing, but it’s good enough to make its mark. The cost increase of Tactical Officer hurts, but it’s still probably worth eating that in a lot of cases.

(3) Fang Fighter: I have one. Regrettably, I’m just not good at playing super acey ships like this. They’re interesting in concept, but the risk/reward that they bring doesn’t seem to work out for me very often. I could see getting rid of it.

(4) Firespray-Class Patrol Craft: I have two. One of my absolute favorite ships from 1.0 is back, and this time it’s got more turnaround options, a native boost, and 1-hards! And it’s on a medium base, so it’s a little more maneuverable! And it’s costed better!! This sucker fits my playstyle perfectly, with tricksy front-back action that helps preserve time on target while letting you be squirrelly. I flew mine mostly naked, but these have a crazy amount of slots that you could use to tool them up into monstrosities.

(5) Mining Guild TIE Fighter: I have one. Seevor is love; Seevor is life. Seevor 4-eva.

(6) Starviper-class Attack Platform: I have two. And oh yeah, these are fun. I’m pretty terrible at arc-dodgy aces, but these have so many shenanigans on their side that I can’t help but enjoy them. Bendy barrel rolls are always a good time. And I like it that they have decent enough blues to not make you feel too hamstrung when you need to pull a red. I need to thoroughly explore the named pilots at some point.

(7) Z-95-AF4 Headhunter: I have four, down from five in 1.0. Oh but what a bummer these have turned into—and I can’t even put my finger on why. I flew Zs all the time in 1.0 and felt like they gave pretty good value as a swarm/filler ship; nowadays, though, I don’t feel like I can get them to do much, shiny new red barrel roll notwithstanding. All they seem to do is take the occasional potshot and die horribly. But like I mentioned, I can’t figure out why they struggle so much harder now than in 1.0; if anything, I’d expect them to be better because of the native reposition. As it is, I’m considering paring down to just one, but solely so I could fly a Nashtah Pup—I don’t even see much point in them as filler when you could take a generic MG TIE instead.

Nice write-up. I'll comment on those I've added numbers, because I don't have the others. Been playing Scum since July 2018.

(1) Tried all the pilots (Han Solo most than others), with many different upgrades... but this one didn't work for me. It rests on the bag foam, waiting one day to finally have 3-attack dice and be useful.

(2) This one, on the other hand, is amazing! Almost all of my Scum lists have it. Generally, I go for L3-37 to reduce costs.

(3) The ship that made me join X-Wing. I love to fly it, but it's quite flimsy. Nothing beats watching the horror on my opponent's face when Fenn Rau rolls 5 dice with lock and focus! Old Teroch is a great debuffer. Sadly, the two I4 named characters aren't hot stuff. Could be a bit cheaper, though...

(4) The workhorse of the faction. Outstanding ship - even naked, it delivers. Can't go wrong having at least one. Boba Fett is really good, Emon Azzameen shenanigans are cool and Krassis Trelix special back-shooting is useful. Kath Scarlett is too costly for what she does and Koshka Frost is just a cheap (and worse) Boba.

(5) Captain Seevor is great, Ahaav has his niche use and the generics are cheap blockers. But they die to a breeze.

(6) I have yet to learn how to fly these things correctly, but everytime I pick a bank-1 to do a barrel roll, I can't help but laugh at my opponent's expression! Couldn't find real use for Prince Xizor and Dalan Oberos, while Guri and I3 generic are good.

(7) These haven't done anything of note for me. Missiles are simply bad in this edition (or, so to speak, the single-slot ones) to make this being useful. The Bossk pilot from the Ace pack might change my views on this ship, though.

For the M3-A Scyk, a deceptively survivable build I found was Laetin A’Shera with Juke, and Autoblaster. 42pts. If you want, you can give him a Hull Upgrade (7pts), or a Stealth Device (8pts).

Laetin isn’t a high Initiative powehouse, but he can be a decent pocket ace. 42pts to 50pts leaves plenty of room for whatever else you want to run alongside him. As laughable as it might be to give a Hull Upgrade to a Scyk, I’ve been doing just that to represent my Dunelizard models since v1 and it makes the damned thing surprisingly survivable. I found it to be worth the 7pts. Laetin’s big thing is Evade tokens, and you want to take Evade actions with him most of the time. He tends to really work best if you have something on hand to coordinate a Focus so he can get both tokens and really mess someone up. But that said, ideally you have him Target Lock on approach when things are at range, and then Evade as the scrum starts so you can get the benefit of a reroll plus Juke. A Steath Device gives him a good anti-Biggs scare, as not a lot of players like the prospect of throwing two to three dice at 4 to 5 greens plus an Evade, particularly if there’s something tankier around. Overall he can be fun. He’s not Serissu, but he also doesn’t cost as much.

Quinn Jast is an underplayed pocket ace that is surprisingly fun to play, as well. He’s only initiative 3, but his ability allows you to load him up with Afterburners or a Stealth Device, and recharge it in the middle of the game. I like the Afterburner build the most, and 43pts will get you Marksmanship, Autoblaster, and Afterburner. So that’s not too shabby.

Lastly Genesis Red NEEDS to be fielded next to Palob and/or the Moldy Crow for maximum lols. Or in a pinch, anything with a Perceptive CoPilot. Genesis really doesn’t need much more than a hardpoint mount of your choice, and maybe Elusive or Marksmanship if you’ve got an Autoblaster.

@CoffeeMinion You and I must have very different tastes. My favorite type of ship is the heavy fighter not-quite swarmable ship. So I was excited to hear your experiences with several of the scum ships, but they just don't seem to fit your playstyle. Khiraxz, Fang fighter, Quadjumper, M-3A (okay, that one is spammable) - at least you had fun with the Starviper. This is in no way a criticism of you. I just think it's cool how we all have different playstyles and lean towards preferred ship types/roles.

Terrific write up. I also spend much time trying to crack a perfect 4-Lom's list. I think he just needs to be in a list somewhere to be bait and built cheaply, but it's so hard not to put advanced sensors on ther.

I do think that the cheap K fighters are pretty good ships for what you pay for, they just really want a boost action somehow.

Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter: the only option that seems worth the price atm is solo with trickshot and greedo. Funny that Greedo seems to work best with Solo of all characters.

Fang Fighter: I have had good results with every pilot option other than the initiative 1, I would recommend not flying more than 1 fang as it feels best as a flanker(and with the price on fang's if you run multiple you dont have any ships to face off with your opponent and create space for a flank.) Yes concordia wants you to be in front arc to proc, but honestly if you can get behind something, it is pretty easy to stay in their rear arc until you kill it with all the reposition+focus options.

Kihraxz Fighter: This was actually my favorite ship in 1.0 because you could build it however you liked then, now its bloated with slots it can't use and its a little vexxing that the picture of engine upgrade in 2.0 shows a kihraxz, yet this ship cannot equip it, talk about insult to injury ( https://xwing-miniatures-second-edition.fandom.com/wiki/Engine_Upgrade ) The kihraxz still has a great knife fighting dial(1 hard's and 2 talon's are beautiful maneuvers) Everyone looks at Talonbane, but Graz+outmaneuver is just as dangerous and usually easier to pull off.

Lancer-class Pursuit Craft: I plan to try Ketsu with seasoned navigator, title, and fearless, if it doesn't kill, it will cripple and make a target quite vulnerable. Seasoned navigator and Zuckuss are curious upgrades I have not seen used often that may work with this ship because of it's blue options.

M3-A Interceptor: This ship has a few tricks that might work, it feels like you only want to run 1 M3-A or perhaps just named pilots, Serissu with HLC is fairly cheap and not terribly hard to line up, Sunny with anything is very cheap and usually worth the price, Laetin is a fly you just can't swat(even more so with elusive for that one time rng was against you, Genesis Red has potential.

Starviper-class Attack Platform: Most fun ship in the game, and I dare you to change my mind. I wish there was 1 more high initiative pilot(bring back thweek) Guri in the hands of someone very skilled is almost impossible to get a shot on and is very good at changing a situation from Guri being chased, to Guri chasing her hunter.

YV-666 Light Freighter: This is a sleeper, we will eventually get good crew options for it, in fact we already have a few combinations that work alright, why are the named pilots priced so high? Despite this I am definitely trying out Moralo with a Bossk Z-95 flanking the enemy to split the enemies forces.

Scum's ships arent in the greatest spot, but most of them have 1 pilot that can perform well with a particular set of upgrades.

Give Kihraxz the Vaksai title somehow and they would instantly become as effective as X-wings.

Side-thought, Can large bases just get a firepower increase across the board? It's silly that FFG keeps making them cheaper to the point some Large bases cost comparable to the price a generic small base. I dont want to see a mini-swarm of large bases, I want to see a large base that costs twice the price of a small base, put out the same firepower of 2 small base ships...

imagine if the Decimator was allowed to make an extra attack at initiative 0, boom suddenly enough firepower to explain it's price and ships with reposition(almost everything in the game) have the possibility of dodging the attack regardless of their initiative, Personally the VCX-100 is the only large base that feels worth the price of 2 small ships, Upsilon Tavson used to feel solid too, but I haven't looked at him since the ship got whipped from being overused.

2 hours ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

Quinn Jast is an underplayed pocket ace that is surprisingly fun to play, as well. He’s only initiative 3, but his ability allows you to load him up with Afterburners or a Stealth Device, and recharge it in the middle of the game. I like the Afterburner build the most, and 43pts will get you Marksmanship, Autoblaster, and Afterburner. So that’s not too shabby.

Hrrm....

47pt gets me Composure, Afterburners and APTs...

Infinite double mod R1 5 die attacks...

Theoretically.

It's certainly something the other guy will work frantically hard to not let happen again.

My 2 other threats are Latts and Asajj. So quite an intimidating distraction.

8 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

Hrrm....

47pt gets me Composure, Afterburners and APTs...

Infinite double mod R1 5 die attacks...

Theoretically.

It's certainly something the other guy will work frantically hard to not let happen again.

My 2 other threats are Latts and Asajj. So quite an intimidating distraction.

IF they're paying attention to what is in your list it is unlikely to happen the first time, unless you're able to hold Quinn beyond range 3 from the initial engagement. Then she might work for finishing off a damaged ship.

21 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

IF they're paying attention to what is in your list it is unlikely to happen the first time, unless you're able to hold Quinn beyond range 3 from the initial engagement. Then she might work for finishing off a damaged ship.

I'd be fairly confident of putting her in a spot it would be suicide to target. I also gave Latts Autoblasters and BT-1, with Asajj able to guarantee a minimum of 1 stress for the crit....

However, having just given it a brief whirl on Fly Casual, I'm out on the afterburners>composure. No 3 hard, basically. Vastly limits the usefulness of the trick. Still neat with Quinn, but not at all worth the Composure, APT combo.

Autoblasters/Marksmanship/Burners is a nice call. Still might try just Prockets for scary lols.

3 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

However, having just given it a brief whirl on Fly Casual, I'm out on the afterburners. No 3 bank, basically. Vastly limits the usefulness of burners. Still a neat trick with Quinn, but not at all worth the Composure, APT combo.

? Scyks have all 6 bank maneuvers. Did you mean 3 turn?

6 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

? Scyks have all 6 bank maneuvers. Did you mean 3 turn?

Yes, sorry, late edit

Hrm. My Scum Impressions:

1. Aggressor/IG-88 - Haven't flown with or against them.
2. BTL-A4 Y-Wing - Kavil is a decent-enough hitter (but was amazing before the January Adjustment). I know Drea can work well, but Drea flown with bad ships (like Scum Z-95s) doesn't make them good.
3. Customized YT-1300 - When Han Solo first came out, those 4-dice (maybe even 5 dice!) obstructed turret shots were a PAIN. Dude didn't seem to keep up though. Also, Trick Shot has gone from 1 to 4 points, so that's pretty hefty.
4. Escape Craft - Does it's thing decently.
5. Fang Fighter - I loved flying these. Fenn/Old T/Kad with a variety of talents is one of my favorite 2e lists. Haven't flown them in ages, so I don't know how they've held up. They can get toasted pretty quick when engaging at the wrong range, though.
6. Firespray - Boba is decent. I haven't done too well when I've tried to fly anyone else, but the ship seems OK on paper... Gotta get around to flying 3 sometime...
7. G-1A/Misthunter - 4-LOM was a beast before the nerfs. Probably still decent, but there's so much not-nerfed stuff out there to fly.
8. HWK-290/Moldy Crow - Nifty ship. Massively nerfed. Kind of hard to justify these days. It needed nerfs, but maybe got too many?
9. Jumpmaster - No Comment.
10. Kihraxz - Here's where I really differ. These ships are, I think, pretty solid. Sure, as a generic it's an X-Wing that's a bit more boring. But that's not too bad, and if you can get a good pilot ability, they're solid. Talonbane and Graz have extra-red-dice pilot abilities, at reasonable prices. Viktor Hel with a Stealth Device is a pest, one of the few remaining stress-dealers in 2e.
11. Lancer - Ketsu is probably Scum's best pilot. Those tractor effects just bully folks around so hard.
12. M3-A Interceptor (Scyk) - I like them more than they deserve. Decent-enough dial, fairly cheap with Ion cannons, and Serissu is a legit good ship, when kept cheap. Turns out, Init 5 is really good.
13. M12-L Kimogila - Eh. Medium bases are just harder to fly, so this mostly winds up being a bad B-Wing. There's cool tricks with the limited Pilots, but not really worth it.
14. Mining Guild TIE - Still haven't put it on the table. Flying against a few as filler, they're OK, could be worse.
15. Quadrijet Spacetug - Tractors are total bullies when you're in range, but these things pop easy. Like most scum stuff in January, probably got over-nerfed. 28 was too cheap, 32 seems excessive. 30?
16. Scurrg - Haven't flown against them, I don't think.
17. Starviper - These things rule. Focus-linked actions with those amazing barrel rolls make for a really fun generic to fly. Fully loaded Guri can be a monster, but probably beyond my skill level.
18. YV-666 - I stink with these. It's harder to find a great crew option for them these days, IMHO, but they're probably not trash.
19. Z-95-AF4 Headhunter - These just feel bad to me. They're overpriced at 24, particularly considering Rebel Z-95s come in at 23. I understand not wanting to give the Illicit slot away for free. Red barrel rolls with weak blues mean they don't fly too well. They don't hit hard, but giving them missiles is far too expensive.

my turn...

1. Aggressor/IG-88 - still missing action efficiency they need. adding a 3rd ship with IG-88 crew is not bad but still doesn't make these guys good.
2. BTL-A4 Y-Wing - Kavil is still a solid ship, Drea has been nerfed out of the game.
3. Customized YT-1300 - Still on the fence with this guy. I own one but have never flown it. 2 dice attacks don't do enough and trick shot hand with title is just hard to get working. gas clouds probably have hurt trickshot enough to make this ship sub-par now.
4. Escape Craft - Great support ship. Still good without tactical officer.
5. Fang Fighter - one of scums most fun ships. fragile but devastating in the hands of a skilled player. Wish they could take a shield upgrade tho.
6. Firespray - probably one of scums most nerfed ships. despite that its still good. Boba is costly but those rerolls are nasty.
7. G-1A/Misthunter - 4-LOM and zuckuss are both decent. Advanced sensors going up to 10 really hurt 4_LOM but he's still solid without it.
8. HWK-290/Moldy Crow - Torkil Mux is making a bit of a comeback. 18pts for title is pricey. I don't think Dace Bonearm or the generic hawk will ever see play.
9. Jumpmaster - don't sleep on Dengar. he's actually solid despite the horrible movement dial. his double tap can really swing the game.
10. Kihraxz - generics looking good at 38pts. Talonbane is cheap and hits hard but not easy to fly with that dial.
11. Lancer - Ketsu and Asajj are both strong. Even Sabine is playable with the title.
12. M3-A Interceptor (Scyk) - don't own any but I think as a filler ship its time is not far off thanks to autoblaster.
13. M12-L Kimogila - solid. tank but scum has a few other options here. as a one of Torani seems really good tho.
14. Mining Guild TIE - Captain Seevor is really good. don't think the other pilots are worth it just now.
15. Quadrijet Spacetug -

    Quote

    Tractors are total bullies when you're in range, but these things pop easy. Like most scum stuff in January, probably got over-nerfed. 28 was too cheap, 32 seems excessive. 30?

    <<< AGREE!>>>
16. Scurrg - very solid but slow. the recent nerf to veteran turret gunner has made the named pilots look a bit more attractive than the generics.
17. Starviper - great ship. iv tried guri and she is amazing but very hard to fly well. black sun assassin generics are seeing more and more play. I always toss up between generic starvipers and generic fang fighters... both are great.
18. YV-666 - iv had some success with Bossk/greedo. hits very hard. id fly this ship over Customized YT-1300. 3 dice primary with tricks is just very solid.
19. Z-95-AF4 Headhunter - cheap filler but im not seeing it played much at all. this ship needs help. its just not making it into any 3-4 ship lists unless its on board Bossks ship as the pup.

8 hours ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

For the M3-A Scyk, a deceptively survivable build I found was Laetin A’Shera with Juke, and Autoblaster. 42pts. If you want, you can give him a Hull Upgrade (7pts), or a Stealth Device (8pts).

[...]

Laetin’s big thing is Evade tokens, and you want to take Evade actions with him most of the time. He tends to really work best if you have something on hand to coordinate a Focus so he can get both tokens and really mess someone up.

[...]

Quinn Jast is an underplayed pocket ace that is surprisingly fun to play, as well. He’s only initiative 3, but his ability allows you to load him up with Afterburners or a Stealth Device, and recharge it in the middle of the game. I like the Afterburner build the most, and 43pts will get you Marksmanship, Autoblaster, and Afterburner. So that’s not too shabby.

Lastly Genesis Red NEEDS to be fielded next to Palob and/or the Moldy Crow for maximum lols. Or in a pinch, anything with a Perceptive CoPilot. Genesis really doesn’t need much more than a hardpoint mount of your choice, and maybe Elusive or Marksmanship if you’ve got an Autoblaster.

These seem like some good, concrete suggestions. Thank you! I definitely want to make the M-3A work.

7 hours ago, Parakitor said:

@CoffeeMinion You and I must have very different tastes. My favorite type of ship is the heavy fighter not-quite swarmable ship. So I was excited to hear your experiences with several of the scum ships, but they just don't seem to fit your playstyle. Khiraxz, Fang fighter, Quadjumper, M-3A (okay, that one is spammable) - at least you had fun with the Starviper. This is in no way a criticism of you. I just think it's cool how we all have different playstyles and lean towards preferred ship types/roles.

Yeah, I’m totally comfortable with different people having different playstyles. I think that factors into the question of whether a ship or pilot is “good” or not. Objective tournament results are something you can’t really argue with, but that doesn’t mean your personal preference is always going to match those.

7 hours ago, Whalers on the moon said:

I also spend much time trying to crack a perfect 4-Lom's list. I think he just needs to be in a list somewhere to be bait and built cheaply, but it's so hard not to put advanced sensors on ther.

My favorite 4-LOM is still:

4-LOM (49)
Elusive (3)
Advanced Sensors (10)
Qi’ra (2)
Mist Hunter (2)
Jamming Beam (0)
Total: 66

The beam is obviously just there as filler; if you’ve got points, a HLC might be worth considering. I can also respect swapping Qi’ra for 0-0-0 or even IG-88D. But this guy here is just a big pile of ugliness for your opponent to deal with, and the price leaves room to include some real wingmen. Qi’ra lets you laugh at obstacles that you’d otherwise have to deal with. Elusive makes you stupidly durable. And AdvSens is mandatory... sorry!

5 hours ago, DakkaDakka12 said:

Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter: the only option that seems worth the price atm is solo with trickshot and greedo. Funny that Greedo seems to work best with Solo of all characters.

Fang Fighter: I have had good results with every pilot option other than the initiative 1, I would recommend not flying more than 1 fang as it feels best as a flanker(and with the price on fang's if you run multiple you dont have any ships to face off with your opponent and create space for a flank.) Yes concordia wants you to be in front arc to proc, but honestly if you can get behind something, it is pretty easy to stay in their rear arc until you kill it with all the reposition+focus options.

Kihraxz Fighter: [...] The kihraxz still has a great knife fighting dial(1 hard's and 2 talon's are beautiful maneuvers) Everyone looks at Talonbane, but Graz+outmaneuver is just as dangerous and usually easier to pull off.

[...]

YV-666 Light Freighter: This is a sleeper, we will eventually get good crew options for it, in fact we already have a few combinations that work alright, why are the named pilots priced so high? Despite this I am definitely trying out Moralo with a Bossk Z-95 flanking the enemy to split the enemies forces .

Some great thoughts here! I am totally gonna try Scum Han + Greedo; that just sounds thematic and fun. I think I might try Kad Solus in the Fang because you’re right—the Fang is a flanker, and Kad still gets tokens even if he does a turnaround. I’ll gladly try Graz, too; that seems like an easy option. And maybe you’re right, maybe the 666’s best days are ahead of us, even though it’s already basically okay.

3 hours ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

• HWK-290/Moldy Crow - Torkil Mux is making a bit of a comeback. 18pts for title is pricey. I don't think Dace Bonearm or the generic hawk will ever see play.
• Jumpmaster - don't sleep on Dengar. he's actually solid despite the horrible movement dial. his double tap can really swing the game.
• Kihraxz - generics looking good at 38pts. Talonbane is cheap and hits hard but not easy to fly with that dial.

I ran Torkil in my one ill-fated HWK game, and I think there’s something to him. Nuking someone’s initiative hurts! I agree that Dace is in a bad spot, though at least he’s cheap for decent initiative.

I do need to come back and fly Dengar...

And I agree, Talonbane is hard to use with this dial. Maybe I just need to fly a naked generic and see where that gets me. Or I definitely liked the Graz idea earlier.

10 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

The cost increase of Tactical Officer hurts, but it’s still probably worth eating that in a lot of cases.

You don't need the tactical officer on the escape craft, especially if you're running L3. I used to run her without the tac officer even when it was 2pts.

10 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

M12-L Kimogila Fighter

R5-P8 and contraband cybernetics, and you're laughing. 50pts, and it's very similar to Wolffe

10 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Starviper-class Attack Platform

Scum's secret sauce. Crack shot on the assassins is brilliant. A very underrated ship

10 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Z-95-AF4 Headhunter...I don’t even see much point in them as filler when you could take a generic MG TIE instead.

The mining TIEs coming in at the same price is the real bummer for the Z. It's arguably a better ship than it was in 1.0 with a barrel roll and a new 4k on the dial, but it's hard to justify taking a Z over a TIE.

6 hours ago, DakkaDakka12 said:

imagine if the Decimator was allowed to make an extra attack at initiative 0, boom suddenly enough firepower to explain it's price

Darth Vader crew goes a long way towards what you want. Have a look at Dalli's builds in the following thread:

yeah zs are really boring right now.

kimogilas are fat pigs, awful.

Nice!

Aggressor - Looked at these guys plenty and played against them a little. Seem really good, either a tooled up pair with a cheap 3rd or as a cheap threesome. Some of their combos and upgrade synergies are very neat. However, they do seem to need a decent level of expertise, they can explode quickly, even with 3ag, and are obviously stuck at I4. They have a lot of potential imo.

Y Wing - Generics are boring. Might be usable I guess... Kavil is excellent. I5, 4/5 dice Ion is no joke and he's massive value with just that. For a few dollars more, he can be made quite the beat stick and can pack a few nasty surprises.

Fang - Fantastic ship. Only the I4 and Joy are not really worth taking, the others are all brilliant and can be fielded in just about any combination with decent results. Keep upgrades to a minimum, these things are not for tricks. And don't make positioning errors.

Firespray - Faction workhorse, spot on. Also the best workhorse of all the workhorses. And can ace. It's super good.

G1-A - A bit gimmicky now, in these efficient times, but very Scummy and decent at it. 4-LOM is 4-LOM. I actually prefer Zuckuss, he's a blast and can be a real swinger. But I load him up proper-

(45) Zuckuss [G-1A Starfighter]
(0) Jamming Beam
(2) Electronic Baffle
(10) Advanced Sensors
(4) Trick Shot
(2) Mist Hunter
Points: 63

It's ridiculous. Obviously variance prone but sheer weight of dice averages out, greens come off worse. It's not particularly hard to have him shooting the whole time, with the appropriate level of suicidal abandon.

Kihraxz - Struggled with this one. Cumbersome and doesn't have a lot to protect it, 1 shield and no boost makes for something of a sitting duck. So its a blunt instrument for me, but they can clearly be good for just clubbing things to death.

M3-A - Only just getting into this one, but my experiences with cheap 3ag, 4hp Interceptors gives me some hope that I can find a decent flanker/pest here. Serissu ofc, but Quinn Jast is interesting. I have literally just fallen in love with Autoblaster Sunny after 2 whole games on Fly Casual....

Lancer - Ketsu, obviously. Asajj seems really good to me, too. Her ability can combine with some nasty things. Heightened Percep+Lock+1 force, with title, comes together for a really good 1st strike. Good slots are minimal but entirely useful.

There may be a case where Sabine, Title, IG crew works...

Quad - Too easily outmuscled by other cheap hull boats now. Still capable of providing a list with that necessary twist, interfering with best laid plans, but it's not that easy.

Starviper - Glorious ship. None of the pilots can be written off, not even Xisor. Don't get it wrong though....

YV-666 - Definitely seems a sleeper that may be waking up. Huge arc, lots of health behind reinforce and a whole slew of nasty nonsense to unleash. Starting to get into this one.

Z - Feels rubbish. Latts Nashtah Pup is amusing.

20 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Kihraxz Fighter: I have one now; that’s down from two in 1.0, and I could even see getting rid of the one. Honestly, I just haven’t gotten much value or enjoyment out of the thing. It feels like a less-good version of multiple other ships. The pilots have some situational abilities, but the chassis itself has yet to click with me.

I think they are great jousters. Go for the cheapest Generics. They even got cheaper! I like having 3 in a list. Fly them in a line. They have a great dial for fighitng. The 1 bank and 1 hard turn makes them really good at turning in on flankers. They are similar to an X-wing that doesn't have Boost. (The linked Barrel Roll and Focus is good. -not true) They aren't anything special, but just don't ask too much from them.

2 hours ago, heychadwick said:

I think they are great jousters. Go for the cheapest Generics. They even got cheaper! I like having 3 in a list. Fly them in a line. They have a great dial for fighitng. The 1 bank and 1 hard turn makes them really good at turning in on flankers. They are similar to an X-wing that doesn't have Boost. The linked Barrel Roll and Focus is good. They aren't anything special, but just don't ask too much from them.

They don't have linked Barrel Roll and Focus.

Been taking frantic notes over the last couple days
came up with this (including SEVERAL suggestions) mentioned here

Viktor Hel (44)
Crack Shot (1)
Stealth Device (6)

Ship total: 51 Half Points: 26 Threshold: 3

Hired Gun (33)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

Ship total: 46 Half Points: 23 Threshold: 4

Hired Gun (33)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

Ship total: 46 Half Points: 23 Threshold: 4

Captain Seevor (30)
Ship total: 30 Half Points: 15 Threshold: 2

L3-37 (Escape Craft) (26)
Ship total: 26 Half Points: 13 Threshold: 2


Total: 199

50 minutes ago, Boreas Mun said:

The don't have linked Barrel Roll and Focus.

I must be smoking the space crack. Or I have been flying my Vultures too much.

20 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Kihraxz Fighter: I have one now; that’s down from two in 1.0, and I could even see getting rid of the one. Honestly, I just haven’t gotten much value or enjoyment out of the thing. It feels like a less-good version of multiple other ships. The pilots have some situational abilities, but the chassis itself has yet to click with me.

😔

6 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I must be smoking the space crack. Or I have been flying my Vultures too much.

I would fly them with linked Barrel Roll, that's why I prefer Belabuls, because of linked Boost and Barrel Roll.

3 minutes ago, Boreas Mun said:

I would fly them with linked Barrel Roll, that's why I prefer Belabuls, because of linked Boost and Barrel Roll.

Linked would be great, but I still stand by my assessment of them. They are cheap and take effort to kill (not in one shot, and probably 3), have 3 red dice, and are great with a 1 hard turn. I find them excellent as bulk jousters who aren't easy to flank.