Yikes, what is that resistance player doing there?

Nice flying, and nice writeup! Those starvipers are incredible ships when flown well, so I'm not surprised they were able to bring down the mighty clone army (I've been saying for a while now that vipers are a key competitive piece in scum right now).

Good to hear the even ran well and a good time was had by all!

Well done Nathan and thanks for the shout out. Can't wait for OTC and Team BEEF (NZ).

2 hours ago, gadwag said:

Yikes, what is that resistance player doing there?

Nice flying, and nice writeup! Those starvipers are incredible ships when flown well, so I'm not surprised they were able to bring down the mighty clone army (I've been saying for a while now that vipers are a key competitive piece in scum right now).

Good to hear the even ran well and a good time was had by all!

Taking the delayed joust strategy. He set up diagonal to me, and then we both went straight and turned in the middle. I took the opportunity to form a big column with my ships to prevent his turning around. Yeah I dunno. It's a tough matchup for him, the more I see of this Resistance squad, the less I like it. It's mostly a jousting squad, but far from the best at jousting.

StarVipers did mean things. I definitely need more practice with or against them, they don't fly like other ships.

Definitely exceptionally well run and enjoyable!

Oooh. 4 PS3 Starvipers with a bid... that's an interesting list. Do you think that's an exceptional list?

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Seems like this list did seriously well for you.

What is the trick with the blocks?

Also what kind of starting positions are used?

3 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Oooh. 4 PS3 Starvipers with a bid... that's an interesting list. Do you think that's an exceptional list?

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Seems like this list did seriously well for you.

What is the trick with the blocks?

Also what kind of starting positions are used?

I believe the bid is mostly there due to lack of better (any) options for those points. It's a good list, has a bit of beef to it, solid firepower and weird flying patterns. Felt especially rough to me with them all getting to move last with that nasty barrel roll, and only spending the points for I3 (rather than paying for I5/6 repositioning)

Probably the biggest trick to blocking I used with this squad was exploiting activation order, and bumping my ships into themselves. For example, with the block of 4 Torrents, I could move the back ones first 1 straight and barely move. There's enough ships to cover a lot of space and give them no where to go. And understanding a block is far more valuable than trying to have every single ship shooting the same target, because it will escape with repositions, or get green tokens for defense. There's more to it, but hard to simply explain, lots of practice!

My set up started in a corner, with Sinker on a board edge facing the opponent zone, the 4 Torrents in a block next to him, and the 1BP facing the other ships, with distance to fit a 4 k-turn behind the torrents before Sinker moved. From there, there was a few things I had preplanned, but was fairly open for different maneuvers and angles.

18 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Oooh. 4 PS3 Starvipers with a bid... that's an interesting list. Do you think that's an exceptional list?

Starvipers are fantastic. A full squad of 4, or a pair of them with something complementary, is fantastic

20 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Oooh. 4 PS3 Starvipers with a bid... that's an interesting list. Do you think that's an exceptional list?

4 Vipers is good, maybe even Good, but I don't think it is Great.

Crack Shot, all day erry day. Predator is not as reliable and, in my opinion, should be costed the same as Crack Shot (what ever that happens to be costed at the time). They fulfill similar-but-different roles. Crack Shot if you don't expect to Bullseye much, Predator if you think you can do it repeatedly with the same ship.
Those extra points are solely because there is nothing else to spend it on.... and the bid is Super Useful against many lists with I3. I had only one game against an I3 that had an actual bid (3x Supernatural Fire Control Inquisitors and Soontir Fel... As difficult to fly against as it sounds), and the rest were cases were Sinker archetypes, so I passed off the bid to make sure Sinker didn't get any crazy ideas like taking Locks.
It's the Odd Barrel Roll that truly makes them shine. At I3, you can create all sorts of unusual blocks or positional difficulties for your opponent if you move first, and if you have the space to reposition can dance around some arcs easily whilst still pointing at you. One situation had a nearly-blocked Viper with 3 sets of arcs pointing at me barrel roll around an ARC and just beside an Asteroid in such a way that I could Hard 1 out next turn and dodge all ARCs pointing in different directions. Soontir wishes he could reposition like that. I had several games that had some literally circling the opponent for a few turns because of how obstacles were set and how the opponent had to move for whatever reason (be it Rocks or Stress). The roll also allows you to set up some very interesting nets.
They can fold fairly easily if concentrated and/or blocked. A little negative dice variance goes a long way.... but, similarly, a little positive dice variance (as with all 3 Agility/3 Attack ships) means that they also can laugh off small numbers of small shots. The fact that they only reposition after they move should give you a reasonable idea of how to fly them and against them. Stress does limit them a little bit too, but not as much as most other ships.
Anything with multiple I4+ with ordnance/strong attacks causes nightmares and/or straight up deletion.

It's a list that wins or loses on its first main engagement. Get it right, and you should be in good stead for the rest of the game. Get it wrong, and you are unlikely to claw the game back (barring variance). It rewards a lot of practice, particularly for considering the barrel roll.

2 hours ago, Vespid1311 said:

4 Vipers is good, maybe even Good, but I don't think it is Great.

Crack Shot, all day erry day. Predator is not as reliable and, in my opinion, should be costed the same as Crack Shot (what ever that happens to be costed at the time). They fulfill similar-but-different roles. Crack Shot if you don't expect to Bullseye much, Predator if you think you can do it repeatedly with the same ship.
Those extra points are solely because there is nothing else to spend it on.... and the bid is Super Useful against many lists with I3. I had only one game against an I3 that had an actual bid (3x Supernatural Fire Control Inquisitors and Soontir Fel... As difficult to fly against as it sounds), and the rest were cases were Sinker archetypes, so I passed off the bid to make sure Sinker didn't get any crazy ideas like taking Locks.
It's the Odd Barrel Roll that truly makes them shine. At I3, you can create all sorts of unusual blocks or positional difficulties for your opponent if you move first, and if you have the space to reposition can dance around some arcs easily whilst still pointing at you. One situation had a nearly-blocked Viper with 3 sets of arcs pointing at me barrel roll around an ARC and just beside an Asteroid in such a way that I could Hard 1 out next turn and dodge all ARCs pointing in different directions. Soontir wishes he could reposition like that. I had several games that had some literally circling the opponent for a few turns because of how obstacles were set and how the opponent had to move for whatever reason (be it Rocks or Stress). The roll also allows you to set up some very interesting nets.
They can fold fairly easily if concentrated and/or blocked. A little negative dice variance goes a long way.... but, similarly, a little positive dice variance (as with all 3 Agility/3 Attack ships) means that they also can laugh off small numbers of small shots. The fact that they only reposition after they move should give you a reasonable idea of how to fly them and against them. Stress does limit them a little bit too, but not as much as most other ships.
Anything with multiple I4+ with ordnance/strong attacks causes nightmares and/or straight up deletion.

It's a list that wins or loses on its first main engagement. Get it right, and you should be in good stead for the rest of the game. Get it wrong, and you are unlikely to claw the game back (barring variance). It rewards a lot of practice, particularly for considering the barrel roll.

This explanation makes sense to me. Have you flown this squad btw?

Is your take table exp or theory?

That is my experience over the course of 30-ish games with Crack Assassins, with a Hyperspace Trial and the System Open as the Acid Tests, and maybe 5 or 6 with Predator.