In semi-serious preparation for thinking about maybe attending ONE hyperspace trial this year, and in an attempt to replace my frustrating and beloved Scum with slightly more reliably janky CIS, I have been fielding a fairly wide variety of drone lists. Generally, my lists include one Belbullab carrying Kraken (after a few iterations with other Relays), two Hyenas with a huge variety of load-outs, and some set of three or four generic Vultures, sometimes with ESC, sometimes without. This iteration saw Sear and Kraken accompanying three Precise Hunters and two Baktoids - one of which had Diamond Boron Missiles and the other carrying Barrage Rockets. The plan was to abuse those i3 bullseye effects without chasing them, and using whatever locks were available to throw a variety of missiles around as the situation dictated. The two Baktoids also carried FCS, as they were generally expected to be locking, and also equipped Munitions Failsafe as I had the points. And all the drones equipped Grappling/Landing Struts, because it's such an entertaining mechanic.

My opponent for the evening turned out to be the only other local who owns - let alone runs - CIS. He brought Sear with T175 and Soulless, four Trade Fed Drones, DBS404, and Trade Union with Proton Bombs and Cluster Missiles. I had the two point bid and took the initiative.

Here is the immediate aftermath of turn one. We both slow-rolled (me less so), with me abusing my Struts. My opponent's DBS404 is on the left, while his Sear is on the far right. I am expecting a flank with his Sear and 404, while the TFD's are expected to gum up the middle. I'm not sure where his Bomber is headed. And I decided I didn't much care. My plan after this round was to use the Hunters' bullseye ability to punish whoever landed in front of them, and lock with #3 to enable the Baktoids to use their ship ability.

Dials down after round two. My Barrage Baktoid plinked one hull off of his TFD #1, as did he Diamond Boron Baktoid - which only managed to plink one hull off of BDS404 and no further effect. on the other three targets. Lame. My Hunter #5 suffered one damage from four shots. So. An acceptable round for me. My opponent did a lot of unintentional self-bumping here, which our dice collectively decided I should not be able to capitalize upon. I also forgot to use my Munitions Failsafe on the that stupid bloody Barrage Rocket attack.

Round three engagement. I locked my opponent's Missile/Bomber with my Baktoids, and took an unfortunately too-aggressive bump on my Sear. My opponent's Sear, on the other hand, was able to roll out of arc and strip my shields with no return fire. His Cluster Missile bomber put one damage onto my Hunter #5. I only managed to put one more point of damage onto his Bomber, but dropped his 404 to one hull, and put one damage his Drone #1, unable to concentrate firepower in any more effective manner.

End of round four. My Sear was unable to deal that one last point to 404. It took him four attacks, but my opponent killed Hunter #5. I stripped one more hull off his Bomber and needed three attacks to kill his one wounded TFD. Dice variance...what are you going to do?

End of round five. DBS404 suicided over the rock. One of his drones suicided over a rock. His Bomber put two damage onto my Barrage Baktoid. My Sear hurt his Sear plenty, while his Sear one-shot my Hunter #3. I killed a Drone, and he put some damage onto my now-DBM-less Baktoid. Again, dice variance was both a help and a hinderance this round - on both sides. It still feels like anyone's game, but I feel like I have a slight positional advantage, due to the Struts.

Round seven was time, and I forgot to take a picture. I killed his Sear, and he killed a Baktoid. Final "official" score was a win for me, 137-111 (I think). We went ahead and played it out, and I finished with half a Sear, half a Baktoid, and half a Hunter.

Conclusions:

1) I think that Kraken is just plain better than T175. I had only one turn where Kraken was unavailable to me, while he only had T175 activate twice. I just hope that FFG decides to buff the other Relays rather than nerfing Kraken with points adjustments: Kraken feels fair at 10 points - it's the others that feel too expensive.

2) I was only able to use Sear's pilot ability twice, and my opponent never. While it feels more relevant than Wat's ability, I think I will stick with the Feethan as my Kraken carrier in future.

3) I'm still on the fence concerning Drones vs Hunters. I did manage ONE initiative-kill. And their ship ability activated about once per round per three ships. But the extra points could go elsewhere, and the relatively unblockable Drones are just **** solid.

4) Missiles still just feel bad, even on a platform designed to abuse them (Baktoids). I've toyed with Trade Union Bombers, Separatist Bombers, DBS-404, and Bombards. None of them *feel* right, somehow. And the Coordinate Bomber just feels too **** expensive. I think...I think, given my proclivity for jank, that I will make a few more attempts to make the Bombards work. But maybe Hyena Bombers just aren't that good. Maybe moar Drones is the way to go.

edit: Having my ships custom-painted was a massive **** joy in this near-mirror match!