This seemed an obvious combo...

Rampage - SLC, Targetting Assist- 48pt

Vader - 67pt

5th Bro - 42pt

7th Sis - 43pt.

200pt .

Played one whole game against an experimental 5A, with too much Slash, too little Optics. Won by a fair few points, but running very close to giving up a fair few more. Optics may have helped polish a worried 5th Bro off and turn the tide.

I basically wanted to try out the SLC, Aimbot combo and that was all that fit with the 3 power pieces. It was certainly decent, giving me a positive 1v1 trade with a distant RZ-2 on the 1st engage and after that, the odd calc to spend here and there. SLC making for an all ranges 3v3 on the dice is obviously pretty fine. Rotate into white calc is nice .

Going forward, it's probably not a wise spend in the list. Vader vs 5 highly mobile, 3ag ships has to either switch targets regularly, or pull red turnarounds and not spend the lock if he wants to maintain efficiency and minimise set up turns. Made him a bit meh without FCS, mostly just chipping.

Rampages ability was pretty decent though, the lack of fully on the execute is very notable. It allows you to slam him into things and avoid some crucial shots, dragging out his survival. The strain helped the inquisitors abilities really stick some pain through RZ-2 defences. The cheapness of those 2 is not up for debate. Both halved but still going in the late game, made for an incredibly tilted scoreboard.

As feared, crits are going to be pretty swingy for the Brute. His 2nd damage card was Weapons Disabled. Fortunately, board state allowed me to drag him out of danger and fix it, some bonk and strain on the way through opening the door for the Force to start making real mischief.

Next time I get to play this, I'll be looking at a different load out for him. FCS is needed on Vader. A little bid wouldn't be bad, but I'd sooner stick something worthwhile on the heavy....

Planning those fast moves a turn or 2 ahead, factoring in your rotates and turns, setting up targets for the Inqs, made for some fun speed chonk.

Pic here of my approach and 1st engage.... fwiw.... Much speed from the siblings

You made this list for a pun?

Honestly, i can respect that.

5 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

This seemed an obvious combo...

Rampage - SLC, Targetting Assist- 48pt

Vader - 67pt

5th Bro - 42pt

7th Sis - 43pt.

200pt .

Played one whole game against an experimental 5A, with too much Slash, too little Optics. Won by a fair few points, but running very close to giving up a fair few more. Optics may have helped polish a worried 5th Bro off and turn the tide.

I basically wanted to try out the SLC, Aimbot combo and that was all that fit with the 3 power pieces. It was certainly decent, giving me a positive 1v1 trade with a distant RZ-2 on the 1st engage and after that, the odd calc to spend here and there. SLC making for an all ranges 3v3 on the dice is obviously pretty fine. Rotate into white calc is nice .

Just curious (because beyond theorycrafting, I have so far done little with the Brute): did you find the Aimbot more useful than you think you might have found the white barrel roll and other benefits from the Maneuverbot Configuration? I don’t think the text on either is great (slight edge, I think, to Maneuverbot, but both are cheap, and I figure you take them for the action bar), and I just have trouble believing there are many situations where I’d have (A) no stress, (B) no green tokens (Focus? Calculate? Reinforce?), and (C) have multiple ships in my firing arc at range 2-3... at the time Rampage engages. Just seems like a lot to line up. In which case, I could still see Aimbot over Maneuverbot, if you prefer rotate -> calc over roll -> (red) calc. But like, how often did you actually get a calc or two out of it?

I've heard a Vader with Vader Lego target lock never misses on the re-roll.

Is that true?

1 hour ago, underling said:

I've heard a Vader with Vader Lego target lock never misses on the re-roll.

Is that true?

I leave him on the ship, so all I can say is that Vader with Vader Lego pilot can definitely miss

8 hours ago, LeMightyASP said:

You made this list for a pun?

Honestly, i can respect that.

Pun came immediately after! The sort of synchronicity that always screams 'perfect build!' to me

2 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

did you find the Aimbot more useful than you think you might have found the white barrel roll and other benefits from the Maneuverbot Configuration?

Bears testing. Aimbot was certainly good and honestly feels maybe a little underpriced.... Not entirely sure on that, but the big benefits are double mods on your long shots and a passively acquired calc on (some of) your bumps. Given it can't really help being in harms way, generating extra hits/occasional evades could well be more useful than added manouevrability.

I don't think I stressed him at all! Just a big, wide arc of travel with that rotate>white calc thrown in. I never got 2 calcs from the bot, but I think I got 3 or 4 from it in total, plus 2 uses of the linked action. Definitely good value.

Movebot possibly wouldn't have triggered at all, but then I was playing into aim. So... It needs trying. Was certainly dumping 3 speeds all over the place and a white barrel roll would help set up a less obvious approach before engaging his ability. I'm not sure if a less obvious approach is actually necessary in this squad.

I had thought that the roll may help land the strain, but according to the text, it happens before the action step....

12 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

I leave him on the ship, so all I can say is that Vader with Vader Lego pilot can definitely miss

Pun came immediately after! The sort of synchronicity that always screams 'perfect build!' to me

Bears testing. Aimbot was certainly good and honestly feels maybe a little underpriced.... Not entirely sure on that, but the big benefits are double mods on your long shots and a passively acquired calc on (some of) your bumps. Given it can't really help being in harms way, generating extra hits/occasional evades could well be more useful than added manouevrability.

I don't think I stressed him at all! Just a big, wide arc of travel with that rotate>white calc thrown in. I never got 2 calcs from the bot, but I think I got 3 or 4 from it in total, plus 2 uses of the linked action. Definitely good value.

Movebot possibly wouldn't have triggered at all, but then I was playing into aim. So... It needs trying. Was certainly dumping 3 speeds all over the place and a white barrel roll would help set up a less obvious approach before engaging his ability. I'm not sure if a less obvious approach is actually necessary in this squad.

I had thought that the roll may help land the strain, but according to the text, it happens before the action step....

Yeah, shame his ability isn’t timed to work after any move, including a barrel roll.

Anyway, thanks for the perspective. Glad to hear you snagged a few tokens off the Aimbot. I like both Configs, I think it just really hurts that one that ANY green token blanks the text. I like the idea of Reinforcing with this thing, especially against swarm lists.

Also, just food for thought: have you considered a different Cannon setup for Rampage? I keep thinking that I love the synergy between his ability and Tractor Beam; move in, strain the target, making it easier to tractor them, then use the beam and make it easier for the whole squad to beat them up.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the Synced Cannons are great, it’s just that every time I look at Rampage in particular, I want a Tractor Beam, to make him a control piece/debuffer. And if you really just wanna kill the target, you move, strain them, and fire that 2-die primary with a bonus die at range one. Besides, that Cannon switch gives you either 3 points toward a bid, or room for Fire Control System on Vader.

2 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Also, just food for thought: have you considered a different Cannon setup for Rampage? I keep thinking that I love the synergy between his ability and Tractor Beam; move in, strain the target, making it easier to tractor them, then use the beam and make it easier for the whole squad to beat them up.

Possibly Reinforce plus Aimbot might make it too beefy for the price. I sometimes like worse but cheaper. Having to decide between pure offence/defence is a nice, balanced choice.

The cannon set up is definitely something I'll be thinking about. Even no cannon is a possibility. Just Intimidation/Movebot maybe. Tractor has appeal, but it's the sort of thing I prefer not to spend a shot on, particularly in this type of squad. The v1s kinda just peck up to killshots and Vader has to pick engages pretty carefully, being the main/only hammer. The Brute haviing a potentially double modded gun likely provides more timely damage than the tractor effect.

However, the pure disruption a tractor can cause is very familiar to me, it can switch off select enemy guns completely, even if they're not destroyed. Throw people in front of debris and they may never take another shot....

I think a definite possibility is simply taking a different Brute pilot. The strain definitely helped the v1s, but may not be crucial. Probably the main thing I like though, is just matching Init, which should never be underestimated. I4 is often very helpful when choosing your action too, ofc.

2 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

Possibly Reinforce plus Aimbot might make it too beefy for the price. I sometimes like worse but cheaper. Having to decide between pure offence/defence is a nice, balanced choice.

I don’t think I’m following you here. Are you saying you don’t use Reinforce actions on this thing? If you’re looking for cheaper, the Maneuverbot costs one point less than Aimbot.

Maybe it’s just early, and I need coffee.

10 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

I don’t think I’m following you here. Are you saying you don’t use Reinforce actions on this thing? If you’re looking for cheaper, the Maneuverbot costs one point less than Aimbot.

Maybe it’s just early, and I need coffee.

Haha, no, not quite. I mean that if there were no restriction on having a green token already, you probably have something that needs to cost more.

I was going to reinforce at one point, since I had no target on the last turn and 1 hit wasn't enough for points, but the A Wing shooting me at R2 through a gas cloud was straddling my centre line

Otherwise I had to rotate, lock, fix a crit etc.... I will almost certainly use the reinforce at some point.