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So, I finally played my first game with the EotBS, though I've been strategizing regarding their use for some time. I played our FSA player, and here's what we had:

Me:
Ika x2
Tanuki x3
Uwatsu x3
Onryo x3
Tiny flyers (Torp x5, Fighter x4, Recon)

Him:
Enterprise Dreadnaught
Independence Battleship
Princeton Gunship x2
Valley Large Airship
Tiny Flyers (Recon, Torp x3, Torp x3, Fighter x3)

Basically, he deployed his battleship and his dread in the extreme corner of the map, then moved them straight ahead along the board edge (along with his gunships). His Airship was critted early by my Tanukis, and its DR became its CR, which made it easy prey (he never managed to fix it) for my Onryos. He focused WAY too much fire on my Ikas, and though they got really beat up (4 damage each), they made it in and ate his dread, and him focusing all that fire on them made it easy for me to destroy his gunships, airship, and tiny flyers while only losing a frigate (and having 1 tanuki get a little banged up). We called it when the dread got eaten (I prized one of his gunships, so that made it 70% VP anyway). Overall, a great first game, and his tactics played directly into the strengths of my list and therefore into my hand.

What I would like to discuss, though, is the Onryo. It's gotten significant flak as being "useless" or "only useful as an attachment". I thought they handled themselves Beautifully. Basically, my problem with the Inaris, is that they serve the same role as the Tanuki- and, IMHO, they don't do as good of a job at it. I'm all about incendiary rounds to make it easier for my boarders to cap vessels. The Inari have their broadside rockets, but the fact that they're broadsides limits their functionality, especially as they're only for a very specific distance of engagement, which somewhat precludes their use along with the other toys the Inari have (their main turrets and bombs) making it an either/or proposition. The Onryo, on the other hand, wants to get close. It has the movement to do so, and can stack all of its offensive abilities (incl incendiary rounds) onto 1 target, softening it up, then the next round unleash its sonic generators to weaken their ability to resist boarding and (with their elite crews) make short work of the targets at hand. I found the squad of 3 of them to be a terrific complement to the Ikas, and after taking out the Airship, they reduced all defensive countermeasures on the Dread by 4, and I can't tell you how much it vexed him to be fighting off the Ikas with a CC of 1 and an AP of 8.

Mind you, having 3 sonic generators going off has its potential to go south- it's possible you'll hurt your own Onryos more than the enemy, making them useless that round (though with only 2 hitting each of them, vs 3 on all other vessels, it's less likely), it's possible the target you really care about will be unaffected, etc. Yet, it's a limited risk. If the Onryos are less than useful, at least they are still at full DR and CR and will likely survive the (hopefully weakened) AA which follows. If you don't do anything to your desired target, well, there's a 1/3 chance of that, and hopefully you at least weakened something else in the area.

Now, I'm not saying 3 Onryos are better than 3 Inaris. The whole all stop, rotate and unleash incendiary rockets until they come to you thing is nice. But I didn't choose FSA, and that's not my style. What I am saying is that I think 3 of them are a better compliment to a list containing an Ika (doubly so if there's 2), as they fill a role you can't fill with another unit. After having played this game, I expect the list above to form the core of my forces, and I expect to have the 3 Onryos in every game I play, so I'll let you know if my opinions on them change going forward.

A good read, seems people have been too afraid over on the main SG forum to use them let alone share about it, same with the Bansan.

Id just like to add, i think play style has a lot to do with it too. Generaly with the Inari, i have them pulling forward vanguard duty. Rockets are less useful early on i find anyway due to ships getting the full AA. So i tend to start them flanking forward for deployment to get them into turret range,and im going to assume this will stay the same once i get my hands on onryo of my own with the extra dice and Incendiary mar bring it to a nice 20AD across the 4 ships). The rockets i find are more for mid-late game, when things start pushing past them to get at your main fleet. By that time the mediums/larges should hopefully be already on fire with lowered AA, or those damn smalls can get a face full or rockets each. Anyway, i look forward to trying the Onryo out for myself soon.