Never thought about flying CIS. But it seems to me most people don't like the pricepoint of the HMP Gunship atm.

Because of the unique movement and the look of these thing I am very interested in flying a swarm. I want at least 5 in a list.

I already posted the list here :

DGS-047 (35)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)

Baktoid Drone (34)
Ion Missiles (3)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)

Baktoid Drone (34)
DRK-1 Probe Droids (5)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)

Baktoid Drone (34)
K2-B4 (5)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)

Baktoid Drone (34)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)
Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

I went with those upgrades because:

- 5 ships/40hp
- all have the same initiative. I1 is nice because you want avoid getting blocked
- the DRK-Probe Droid is an absolute no brainer for this list because it activates Network Aim (ship ability gives you rerolls)
- K2-B4 could help your defense and keep them on the board longer (but the lack of Network Calculation is a downside). More importantely your opponent has to make decisions what I really like.
- DGS-047 is really strong. Shoot first with him, acquire a lock and everybody gets a reroll against the same target.
- Ion Missiles could be strong considering all the rerolls you have

I am not sure if this archetype will be any good.

Vs Boba + Guri

Setup: Red is DGS, Green has DRK, Blue has Ion Missiles and brown has K2. Setting up red at range 2 from the board edge gives you the option of 2 banking right and then sideslip right. I launched DRK in the end phase

As you can see the HMP basically moved a bit forward and to the right. You can fortress with these things if you want to (like Starvipers can). As you can see Guri has a ton of locks. She destroyed the DRK in the engagement phase. I deployed the second one.

I decided to two bank to create a wide firing arc.

Guri went in way to aggressive and payed the price. Blue took a ton of damage in return.

I am able to sideslip right (with a turn or bank). Both moves are strong because boba can't escape and has to defend against all the Gunships.

Blue died. Green locked Boba and DGS acqiured a lock after his attack.

I dialed in a 0 stop maneuver to sideslip behind Boba the upcoming round. A stop maneuver gives me 4 shots on Boba as well.

Made it through the shields. Now the HMP's can sideslip with a blue turn, clear the stress and calculate.

Boba disengaged.

Went straight and fired without an effect.

It took a couple of rounds to get rid of Boba because he's so tanky but I managed to kill him in the end.

It was a fun game and it showed how high the time on target is. Looking forward for more games.

I doubt the wisdom of the opponent flying Guri into the teeth of the squad, but I suppose there wasn't really anywhere to go with her. Those wide arcs would be really hard to dodge.

I met a friend of my local community yesterday and we played 3 games. I brought the 5xHMP list. I took a couple of pictures.

1st game vs Han, Jake, Miranda Doni (in the Arc-no K-Wing was available)

Setting up like that (at range 2 from the right board edge) allows you to sideslip with a 3 turn. I wanted to slow the game a bit and keep my distance. My opponent did a good job. He approached really fast so he was able to shoot at my HMPs in the turn were I usually take locks. Therefore the Gunships had no defensive mods and took some damage. I went all in on Miranda and killed her in two rounds.

Splitting up midgame isn't a problem with this kind of swarm. The 180 ° arc gives you shots almost every turn. I was able force Han into the corner here which he doesn't like.

Those rerolls are so good. DGS-047 is a key piece in this list especially in the mid-/endgame. His ability to acquire locks after performing an attack helps the whole swarm. Awesome. And he can dish out strain as well.

Won this game really quick. My opponent played against the HMP for the first time and was really surprised what they can do.

2nd game vs the same list again

My opponent learned really quick and adapted well. He knew that I will perform slow maneuvers at the beginning so he turned his ships away but was able (with excellent maneuvering) to get shots at 1-2 HMP's. My greens were cold and I lost all shields on two of my ships without dealing a single damage. So I changed my strategy and threw them into the middle of the enemy ships. This is where those Droids want to be. Cycling around the opponent with really precise shots.

I was able to kill Miranda and get half points on both Jake and Han. Never thought I would win this one after this rough start. But time was called and I only lost 100 points.

3rd game vs Han, Jake, Arvel

I changed my opening strategy again. I took one lock on every ship and calculated with the Drones in front of the formation to boost their defence because I was afraid my opponent will turn his ships in and out as well as he did before. It was the right decision because one reroll is usually enough and more importantely DGS gives you another lock. This strategy depends on your opponents playstyle and his list of course.

Only lost two shields here and stripped 2 or 3 off of Han.

My opponent did the mistake by turning Han to the left. He took some damage and had only bad options for the upcoming round. With the Sideslip being active the Drones can dance around the debris and still get lots of good shots at Han while blocking Jake as well. Thats amazing. Han died.

The A-Wings got stuck in the corner as well. Game.

Conclusions after 5 games playing this list:

- I don't think this list is bad.
- the HMP doesn't need lots of upgrades imo. Don't think you should invest many points into it because it gets expensive really quick
- the opening moves are really important because you want to acquire locks on as many different ships as possible while not getting shot. All Gunships want locks and calculates when the battle begins
- I was never a fan of Ion Missiles but I found them to be really helpful in this list. The rerolls combined with a calculate makes them really strong...
- ...but K2-B4 lets them really shine. My opponent wanted to deal damage because he had to (considering my list has 40hp) so he took the strain almost every time when he had to choose. This made the double modded Ion Missile really strong and boosted the other attacks as well if the Ion guy had no lock.
- I already talked about DGS-047 who is the star of this list. Having the same initiative as the others is key here
- It's not always the right choice to flip the Sideslip config. You have to take a look at the board state, look where your ships are and a standard maneuver would be better next round
- On the other hand you can fool your opponent by flipping the card into sideslip mode to then perform a straight maneuver.
- The 1 and 3 banks are red which is bad. I often wanted to go 1 or 3 bank (not sideslipping) which would leave them stressed and omg these guys want their calcualtes.
- I never sideslipped with a 1 or 3 bank. It never felt necessary
- It's important everyone is at I1 because you don't get in your own way and you don't get blocked. It's remarkable that these ships always have good options with good firing solutions for the upcoming round.
- Imo one of the best knife fighting piece we have in the game right now and it's a ton of fun. (Espacially if you're moving around a rock: sideslip-stop-sideslip-stop )

Do you see this as yet another example of a ship that will likely perform best in a monoculture list, or does it still have anything like potential in a mixed-chassis list?

3 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

Do you see this as yet another example of a ship that will likely perform best in a monoculture list, or does it still have anything like potential in a mixed-chassis list?

I am not sure yet. The reasons I am flying 5 of these are 1) I love lists with theme (like 5A, 6 Strikers, 3 Silencers) and 2) I am really bad at listbuilding.

Right now I am thinking that the I1 (+DGS) is the best of all pilots available. It's the cheapest one and it's moving first which is really important because these things don't want to get blocked. Furthermore I don't see any upgrade that would put them on the next level like putting Afterburners on Vader or Fith Bro on a Phantom.

Synced Laser Cannon is something you should look at but imo it requires you to bring DRK to setup locks early for rerolls. But still...then you're paying 44 pts. for an I2.

Maybe lists with 1 or 2 HMP + some Vultures/Hyenas or even an Infiltrator could be good. But now that I think about it...why not just bring a Vulture/Hyena swarm with 8 ships. I think we have to wait and see what the community will do with this ship. And yes, I do think that this ship is really strong if you hit the spam button. Like I mentioned before my opponents never expected that this list is so strong and can do so much crazy stuff (and one of my opponents was Kettch...)

Nice effects on the battle reports! Glad to see this kind of list can work, I was worried about trying to run 5 I1 ships, though been wanting to try it (when/if I can actually get that many xD).

I just recently bought a Sith infiltrator myself, so wanted to try both together so ran a list with Maul, 2 HMP Predators(I3) and 2 I1 vultures, worked pretty well though my opponent made a huge mistake on the opening engagement, so would need to try it a few more times to tell, really... It was mostly just a hodgepodge of stuff to test it (flew Kalani, and got a few extra locks with him. One of my vultures flew around with 1 hull left and just helped by having the lock on the remaining enemy ship xD

Vs Malarus (Xi) + 6 Tie's

This list is brutal.

Imo one of the worst matchups I can get flying 5 HMP's because

1) my opponent has 2 more ships
2) with Malarus ability his offense is as strong as mine but with 2 more guns on the board
3) his defense is very strong having 3 greens
4) No matter who gets the initiative he has the advantage. If I take initiative he can't block my ships but the strain tokens he gets from Malarus ability aren't a problem for him because Tie's are flying blue maneuvers most of the time and he's shooting last. If he takes initiative he can block my ships which you really don't want for your HMPs.

I took initiative in this game. He setup across from me and we jousted. I wanted to see how this goes. As I expected it took forever killing a single Tie.

I did some moves he didn't expect but if you need like 3 rounds killing the first two ships having rerolls and all is bad and usually not enough to win the game. Also K2-B4 is useless in this matchup because my ships are shooting first. Having only a single green dice against so many well modded shots means that the HMP's exploding pretty fast.

I was able to kill some of his ships but lost the game 200-125 in the end.

Conclusion:

- Facing other I1 swarms is really tough
- I think I should give my opponent the initiative next time to get some use out of K2 and more importantely setup my ships after my opponent did because you don't want to joust
- Kill Malarus first! I didn't even think about that which was a huge mistake
- If you have initiative you should setup in a way your opponent can't straight up joust you. Or you should turn all ships away and run. The HMP is capable of doing so because of the 5 straight. Try dragging your opponent swarm through the obstacles. The HMP is really strong getting into a good position
- this matchup is tough but you can win it. I learned a lot this time.

I finally managed a game. I had two of the Geonosian HMPs with Synced Lasers, a TUB with a DRK and a Discord, DFS-311, and Deadeye/Predator Sun Fac. Opponent ran Hate Kylo, Marksman/Proton Rocket Recoil, and Gunner Quickdraw. He's a relatively new player, but it was his fourth time in four weeks playing this list versus my first time with the HMP. Game ended with me taking half of Quickdraw, half of Recoil, and killing Kylo with the last shot of the game, for the low, low price of DFS-311. He almost halved both HMPs and the Hyena, and never got a shot on Sun Fac. His green dice were AMAZING - first round of fire, I put 11 red dice into Recoil rolling 10 hits, and he rolled 9 of 12 evades out of hand, and only two blanks total. And it just kept going that way. I just kept chipping and chipping and chipping, and that was all I could manage - and without those 180 arcs, I would likely never have gotten any damage on any of them, ha ha.

Just thoughts and feelings instead of pictures, I'm afraid: The sideslip can be difficult to remember, although I'm sure it will become more like second nature with some practice - it is *good*. Synced Laser was decent, if only for the third attack die. Networked Aim was *solid*. The rest of the list felt...fine? Nothing special, and well worth playing with. Without any more to go on than this one game, I think I really like the way the Geonosian/Synced Laser works.... Oooh.... Multi-Missile pods on Baktoid Prototype Hyenas.... That's some arc, baby! There are just too many lists and combinations to try!

But yeah, these are fun.

12 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

The rest of the list felt...fine?

I think that sums it up. I played a couple of more games (forgot taking pictures of course) and I felt the same way. This list (5 Hmps) is really matchup dependent. You’re doing really well against 2-4 ship lists but you’ll start to struggle against a higher ship count especially if they bring 3 dice guns with a higher initiative. But still flying these guys is extremely funny.