On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 8:22 AM, Rossetti1828 said:

I find I often loose my Strikers too quickly. After the first engagement I'm usually tempted to do airelons/2-sloop moves off to the side or behind the enemy ships, as this always looks like a really good position to be in. (As well as being difficult for the opponent to predict - with 3 turnaround and 3 airelon options, that's 9 potential positions to be in.) However - staying in a close dogfight does not favour Strikers in the long run. I think I should learn to be more patient and disengage/re-engage more frequently, unless I'm confident of getting the kills I need.

Black Squadrons with Elusive might be tolerably good for that flying style though. I'll wait for that inevitable points drop so I can fly five of them.

Duchess works well with Elusive, since she can have Fifth Brother and that means a rerolled result of a focus is still useful (rerolled green dice aren't that great if you're still trying for 'just' evade results).

On the Black Squadron Scouts, less so. You've got the rate-of-fire of that many red dice but you do lose a lot of punch with no tokens. Black Scouts with Predator are a threat on the flip-over if you can line up the bullseye, but that's hard to do reliably. The best trick is the most important thing I can advise with strikers:

• Try to engage at range 2.
  • At range 3, primary weapons loose too much damage to that bonus green die
  • At range 1, 4-dice and 5-dice attacks are much more of a thing, meaning it's far more likely you'll lose a TIE/sk before it can engage, and your high minimum speed means you may not have room to disengage (especially from large base ships).
• Try to engage out of the 'corner' of your firing arc when coming in at an angle.
  • This is relatively hard to explain, but if you come in like this l l on a target above you, then continuing to engage next turn means a red move.
  • If you come in like this / \ on the same target at 45' or more to the target's heading, then next turn a speed 1 bank/speed 1 turn will put you on their tail without making a red move.
  • Straight/Turn and especially Bank/Turn are the striker's party pieces. Leave red moves to Duchess, who's got modifiers whether she gets actions or not.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Duchess works well with Elusive, since she can have Fifth Brother and that means a rerolled result of a focus is still useful (rerolled green dice aren't that great if you're still trying for 'just' evade results).

On the Black Squadron Scouts, less so. You've got the rate-of-fire of that many red dice but you do lose a lot of punch with no tokens. Black Scouts with Predator are a threat on the flip-over if you can line up the bullseye, but that's hard to do reliably. The best trick is the most important thing I can advise with strikers:

• Try to engage at range 2.
  • At range 3, primary weapons loose too much damage to that bonus green die
  • At range 1, 4-dice and 5-dice attacks are much more of a thing, meaning it's far more likely you'll lose a TIE/sk before it can engage, and your high minimum speed means you may not have room to disengage (especially from large base ships).
• Try to engage out of the 'corner' of your firing arc when coming in at an angle.
  • This is relatively hard to explain, but if you come in like this l l on a target above you, then continuing to engage next turn means a red move.
  • If you come in like this / \ on the same target at 45' or more to the target's heading, then next turn a speed 1 bank/speed 1 turn will put you on their tail without making a red move.
  • Straight/Turn and especially Bank/Turn are the striker's party pieces. Leave red moves to Duchess, who's got modifiers whether she gets actions or not.

1 Bank into 1 or 2 Turn is just a killer combo. I love this move. You move to the side slightly, but turn your guns in the opposite direction. Very hard to predict, as only aileron ships can perform this wiggle maneuver. Anything else is forced to do a 1 or 2 Turn and then perhaps Boost. And its just not the same in terms of where you end and how you can play with firing arc angles. Also... Left 1 Bank into Right 1 Bank and Barrel Roll is just another way of doing a Left 3 Bank, while maintaining the arc directed at the same area.

What I found, that I struggle the most against, are bigger ships with double turret. I flew Vader, Stele and Duchess against a YT-2400 with a Bistan on board and Trickshot... It utterly wrecked me with Range 3 five dice attacks. Given he only had Focus for mods, but still... Vader no like.

Thought: I want Snap Shot Sabaac.
Problem: I4, Squishy.

Last night's test:
Sabaac - Snap Shot, Shield
Soontir Fel - Swarm Tactics, Shield
Whisper - Crack Shot, Afterburners, Passive Sensors, Fifth Brother.

All ships are reasonably manoeuvrable when they want to be and can jump the opponent to a certain extent (be that aggressively or defensively), all ships have some form of threat. Soontir makes it almost certain that you get at least one 4+ Dice attack from Sabaac.

Theoretical Ideal engagements would have Snap Shot trigger and Sabaac not lose the bonus, or perhaps a 5 Dice Punch from Sabaac and 4 Dice from Soontir to clear house.

I had two games but, unfortunately, they were marred by variance (both had one turn of silly good attacks from me whilst taking nothing in defense despite tokenless Soontir/Sabaac)... they were also against a player who is in the testing stage of Sun Fac/Chertek/Grievous and then the same newer player as last week, so it was a bit of an unfair test from that perspective.... But, some things can be concluded:
- Against Fragile Ships, such as the Nantex, the double I6 power punches are lethal.
- That Sabaac can not be ignored. In both games, he managed to remain above his critical Hull value. In both games, Snap Shot did some work. In both games, he got that delicious I6 5 Dice attack.
- As expected, it feels a little odd to tether Soontir to Sabaac in the early stages, but it is doable if you fly slowly with Sabaac (a lot of switchback ailerons/Hard 1s +/- Barrel Rolls make this easy). Soontir can move quickly when Sabaac wants, so that is fine.
- Flying through rocks near Nantex is scary but doable, especially if they have to go through them to get to you.
- Grievous soaks up Way Too Much damage
- The shield on both Sabaac and Soontir were Very useful.

EDIT
I think it is probably ok at a local level. Might get outflown by an ace player, might have difficulty with beef... requires further testing. Was certainly Fun though.
END EDIT

That Whisper is a Monster.... but you can also fit Afterburners/Passive Sensor Vader if you want to go the Three I6 Attacks (+/- Snap Shot) path. I chose Whisper because I have a really cool Cloaking Alt-Art Whisper and I am a much better Phantom pilot than an X1 pilot... but I have also not tried Vader before. This requires testing... for Hyperspace purposes.
Essentially, you are flying two ships in the early part: Sabaac/Soontir and Whisper (or Vader). As all ships can move, you wait and see what your opponent wants to latch on to first and then sweep in with the other. If they don't commit in the first couple of turns, as long as you can bring all of your ships on the same target in the initial engagement you should have a moderately good day.
Sabaac just can not be ignored... and that feels good (as long as you don't put Soontir in a precarious position because of it... don't be afraid of doing the Brave Soontir Run Away thing when necessary, because if they are pointing at Soontir in that circumstance, Sabaac has free reign to Snap and Punch (if still breathing).

Still really want to try a Jendon list with Targeting Snap Sabaac and this Soontir... but it makes for awkward points placement afterwards. I guess you could fully load everyone (get your Fifth Brother on Sabaac, Palp on the Shuttle), or ignore Targeting Computer and change to a basic Omicron with Palp and use it as a Coordinate Vessel (Sabaac always enters with Lock/Focus/Evade/Fifth Brother and Palp).... but they are still somewhat Squishy and that looks like it would be really awkward to fly.