My regular opponent just received his Starhawk (UK), and we played a 600pt game with it tonight. He ran a Starhawk II with Unity, Linked Turbolaser turrets and Agate as Admiral.

I brought Sloane fighter Wing with an ISD, VSD and a pair of Gozantis with 150pts of mixed fighters - 10 squadrons in total.

I easily cut through his fighters but his flak was just shocking. Two rerolls of the red dice on each fighter left me squadronless by turn 5.

Starhawk arrived late to the battle because it's as slow as a moose, but my VSD and ISD between them put 28 dice in to it on turns 4-6, and the only damage it had taken was from overlapping an asteroid field.

I mean it wasn't doing a huge amount of damage each turn because I was avoiding its double arcs - about 5/turn from its front arc and my VSD survived 2 turns in its face - but how do you get damage to stick, and matter?

What's everyone else doing to deal with these giant armour plated chicken drumsticks ?

It's 2/3rds of an SSD. Plan accordingly.

As far as general strategies;

-it's highly vulnerable to slicer tools unless the Rebels invest points into countering that.

-Without a double arc, it's front arc is inferior to an ISD-2 until close range- And said front arc is pretty narrow.

-Like the SSD, it's slow and expensive- Proper bombers are very scary. Also, if the starhawk is flakking, it's not double arcing, which weakens its firepower to a level you should know how to deal with.

-Bring objectives that force it to come to you.

-Focus on the rest of the fleet, preferably drawing them out before the Starhawk can get into place.

I did a Demo triple tap on one (IO is pretty good against Agate/Walex, even though DCO was stopping the crits) which didn’t outright kill it but allowed 2 Gozantis and an Arq to finish it off.

It’s got a lot of shields, tokens, and hull. A fleet able to throw a stupid amount of firepower at a single target is a good answer, which there’s some pressure to do anyway. It’s also bad at escaping if you can manage to trap it for a few turns with something really tanky or get some skirmishers around to the sides.

Basicly what @The Jabbawookie said. Token overload is key here. Force it to burn its brace(s) with big attacks and accuracies(if Agate).

What worked for me was an Onager / Kuat combo, Kuat was the bodyguard and tanked the SHs front twice, while the Onager chipped in some damage from downtown.

And be wary of its Salvo counters. I can add quite some damage. My demo with last first took a lot of chip damage against it and then was almost killed by the return salvo.

Killed one with my Kitten swarm Romodi fleet when testing it. Just over whelmed it with consistent damage that limited its defense options, then hit it from extreme range with an Onager. Took 4 turns but it finally burned.

Yes, Starhawks have counter with salvo

4 hours ago, Spectre8174 said:

Killed one with my Kitten swarm Romodi fleet when testing it. Just over whelmed it with consistent damage that limited its defense options, then hit it from extreme range with an Onager. Took 4 turns but it finally burned.

Turn 4 seems like bad piloting by the Hawk player. Outside of slicing the thing as long as you take an Eng that ship can last well into 5/6 with the right list. Assuming no token but a redirect is used that's 28 dmg needed. If hawks are going down before end of turn 5 they've been flown wrong, or are in the wrong list.

12 hours ago, Squark said:

Without a double arc, it's front arc is inferior to an ISD-2 until close range- And said front arc is pretty narrow.

Not quite, 4 red vs 4 red at Long range, ISD gains 2 blues over the SH at medium (1 blue extra compared to the Mark2) So it's nothing major and with the right tools the SH easily out hit the ISD at medium range.

12 hours ago, Squark said:

-it's highly vulnerable to slicer tools unless the Rebels invest points into countering that.

Very true, but with 2 officer slots (at least 3/4 of which are anti-slicer (eng cap, skilled off, vet cap) and Leia officer on a repairing Goz, enemy slicers will have a very hard job getting off anything worthwhile and also surviving without Tua or Activation advantage.

12 hours ago, Squark said:

Focus on the rest of the fleet, preferably drawing them out before the Starhawk can get into place.

This is the best bit of advice for taking the Hawk I think. Due to the ship, a bid is easy to get in a Hawk list so you want a good bid of your own. Drawing it out, last thing you want to do is let the Hawk player set up where they want and dwindle along speed 1 scoring points.

12 hours ago, Squark said:

Like the SSD, it's slow and expensive- Proper bombers are very scary. Also, if the starhawk is flakking, it's not double arcing, which weakens its firepower to a level you should know how to deal with.

I've seen a few small squad balls and jamming fields around Hawks, even got a list with JF in myself, I think squad wise Rhymer would be the one to have at range, with speed 2 on the hawk, Rhymer keeps the squads flexible and stops you being cut off completely by Shara and a jamming field.

My advice to take a Hawk:

Small fighter wing, at most they have Unity Bombers (as pointed out above by another that means they aren't shooting your ships) so take just enough to hold up and annoy.

A good selection of ships, you want either multiple shots or a few double arcs to start getting tokens burnt. Demo, kittens, Onager all good options here. Remember it will have Salvo back but only 1, and if they haven't brought Agate as Com or Off then their loss, your win.

Intel Off has been mentioned above but ignore that, 7tps pfft. Bring Palp (3pts) on your big ship now when the hawk is shooting you its spending tokens (good insurance as first or second player) and Palp asks questions of your opponent. Also people like Brunson, if you can mitigate some of the spikes in dmg at LR coming in then you make blue/black range easier the hawk easier.

BRING CRITS, DCO is going to be a not often seen officer (1 contain makes it a hard pick to justify) so pile on APTs and ACMs and like any big ship she'll hurt.

Lastly take a bid so you're not getting suck as 1st player with your 4/5 ships against a hawk point farming, and magniting you to 1.

I’ve only played against it once so far but I did manage to kill it on my very last activation of Round 6. So it was close. But that was also with a single SSD and a single Onager, which I feel is hardly the most effective list (though it was fun). The key? Burn through the defense tokens with continuous fire. Once my opponent started sacrificing tokens, I was able to get through to the hull.

The most destructive we’ve seen is one die in two turns of fire. In total, 5 rebel Bombers (including Norra & BCC), My own Concord getting a double arc, and a TR90. Massed defense tokens aren’t so great when you’re eating 2+2+3+1+3+4+6+4 damage groups.

The big lesson we’ve learned is the same as fighting the SSD: When you bother to hit it, hit it with everything at once. It’s not like other ships where you can still expect to kill it if you just snipe at it for a few turns or send a single combatant against it

On 2/7/2020 at 6:22 PM, flatpackhamster said:

My regular opponent just received his Starhawk (UK), and we played a 600pt game with it tonight. He ran a Starhawk II with Unity, Linked Turbolaser turrets and Agate as Admiral.

I brought Sloane fighter Wing with an ISD, VSD and a pair of Gozantis with 150pts of mixed fighters - 10 squadrons in total.

I easily cut through his fighters but his flak was just shocking. Two rerolls of the red dice on each fighter left me squadronless by turn 5.

Starhawk arrived late to the battle because it's as slow as a moose, but my VSD and ISD between them put 28 dice in to it on turns 4-6, and the only damage it had taken was from overlapping an asteroid field.

I mean it wasn't doing a huge amount of damage each turn because I was avoiding its double arcs - about 5/turn from its front arc and my VSD survived 2 turns in its face - but how do you get damage to stick, and matter?

What's everyone else doing to deal with these giant armour plated chicken drumsticks ?

I'll be honest, everything else you said just bounced off my "don't care" filter (nothing personal, I assure you), but that? THAT IS HILARIOUS! 😆

"Rebel Turkey Leg incoming sir! What are your orders? WHAT. ARE. YOUR. ORDERS SIR?!"

6 hours ago, Deathseed said:

I'll be honest, everything else you said just bounced off my "don't care" filter (nothing personal, I assure you), but that? THAT IS HILARIOUS! 😆

"Rebel Turkey Leg incoming sir! What are your orders? WHAT. ARE. YOUR. ORDERS SIR?!"

Guess it's now a StarHen. Or a StarCock

It falls to concentrated firepower. 2 empire capital ships should be able to effectively kill it. The onager has shown to be a decent counter as well. And any fast ship should be able to hit it in the sides and rear.

Basically treat it like an SSD. Burn its tokens, stay away from the front, get around it, nail it with squads

Also, don't get double arced. The 1 really wants double arcs to help shore up its less powerful sides. The 2 could care less, especially with Ackbar, but do your best to not get double arced regardless.

Would Sloane help? All those defense tokens don't help much if they get burned off quickly.

Overload pulse is awesome for burning off tokens. That is where I have had the best success in killing a Starhawk.

I have my next game tonight. Here's my fleet.

Name: Fleet 38
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Assault:
Defense:
Navigation:

Gladiator II (62)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
= 80 Points

Gladiator II (62)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 90 Points

Raider II (48)
• Darth Vader (1)
• Veteran Gunners (5)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Corvus (2)
= 68 Points

ISD Kuat Refit (112)
• Admiral Ozzel (20)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Flag Bridge (0)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Relentless (3)
• Take Evasive Action! (6)
= 161 Points

ISD Kuat Refit (112)
• Wulff Yularen (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Chimaera (4)
• Intensify Firepower! (6)
= 145 Points

Raider I (44)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
= 53 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 597

First time I have ever played squadless. I took Gladiator IIs over the more usual I for the double blue flak.

Ozzel seems like a bit of a mad choice, but he is cheap and he lets me move with much more flexibility, particularly with the Gladiators. He's also a good counter to the Starhawk's speed changing shenanigans.

My opponent is bringing a Starhawk I with Sato and the Unity title. He also has an AFmk2, an MC30 and a CR90 in his lineup as well as a heavy fighter wing.

Sloane + generic TIEs + H9s can effectively counter a Starhawk, easy. Rush 'em. Swarm 'em. Burn through those defense tokens. Their lack of defensive upgrades are their true weakness.

30 minutes ago, SupernovaShock said:

Sloane + generic TIEs + H9s can effectively counter a Starhawk, easy. Rush 'em. Swarm 'em. Burn through those defense tokens. Their lack of defensive upgrades are their true weakness.

I did try, and got my TIEs chopped in to tiny pieces for my trouble. I even had three reserve hangar decks, which gave me a total of 13 squadrons. Starhawk II with Unity is a flak monster.

I got a game in against one. I did bring it down with several turns of focused fire from an Onagar and Arq's at long range. Intel officer helped too.

7 hours ago, flatpackhamster said:

I did try, and got my TIEs chopped in to tiny pieces for my trouble. I even had three reserve hangar decks, which gave me a total of 13 squadrons. Starhawk II with Unity is a flak monster.

I think the problem w generic ties (and ints) is that they are now in a meta which is seeing more anti-squad flak firepower and options on the rise as FFG's way to counter squads. Most lightweight squads are thus more easily wiped out and bomber fleets turn to higher health squads. Maybe RHD should be exhaust or something

Total catastrophe. I took out the MC30 and AFMk2 but no damage cards on the Starhawk. Lost both ISDs. My APTs were a waste of time. Even when I did get close enough to use my black dice every roll flumped (and yes, I had ordnance experts) so I only got a single useful hit out of all four of them. His black dice attacks were a thing of woe at long range and that salvo token... it's a killer.

Have you tried using the Onager against it?

1 hour ago, flatpackhamster said:

Total catastrophe. I took out the MC30 and AFMk2 but no damage cards on the Starhawk. Lost both ISDs. My APTs were a waste of time. Even when I did get close enough to use my black dice every roll flumped (and yes, I had ordnance experts) so I only got a single useful hit out of all four of them.

I know a guy who can help you with that, at least...

But if I'd brought Screed, I wouldn't have had Ozzel to let me go through hilarious speed changes and totally negate the Starhawk's speed suckage machinery.

9 hours ago, flatpackhamster said:

But if I'd brought Screed, I wouldn't have had Ozzel to let me go through hilarious speed changes and totally negate the Starhawk's speed suckage machinery.

Dial + token, Grint, or Chimaera for the Entrapment formation.

Or if you’re feeling really mean, send Darth Vader aboard and show them why they can’t have nice things like magnites. 😊

The point is, that has a few answers. There is only one way to have true certainty for the Empire’s crits, and though far from an auto include, he’s a boon to the unlucky.