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I've been going over my new scum ships and trying to get something playable put together out of the new stuff and rebel converts.

Being fairly new at this I'm sure I've overlooked something, but I would appreciate any advice.

Scum 100pts

Kavil (30)
24
2 R4 Agromech
4 Blaster Turret

Syndicate Thug (24)
18
0 BTL-A4 Y-Wing
2 R4 Agromech
4 Blaster Turret

N'dru Suhlak (19)
17
2 Lone Wolf

Binayre Pirate (12)

Binayre Pirate (12)

3 Points left, could buy Suhlak a hot-shot blaster in case someone gets around him, an EPT for Kavil, or something else, not entirely sure where it's best spent.

I figure Dru flies around on the edge to double dip his ability and lone-wolf and hopefully cause problems before he dies, and the rest would likely fly somewhat together. Kavil actually wants to have his target outside of his own arc so he would likely end up veering away from the rest of the herd eventually. Binayres seem like good extra muscle for the points I had remaining.

I can tell already that I don't have a great answer for things dodging my arcs, aside from Kavil, and he's only PS7. Would it be worth introducing VI to get PS9 at this point? I could take a different Y-wing configuration, or a hawk, or really anything else, but the thug seemed to fit the points and up close he'll be chucking 3 dice twice a round (until he flies past and starts having problems turning around *and* having a focus to power the turret). The list has more health than a 7-tie swarm but way less agility too, similar firepower under ideal conditions (thug is pointing the right way with a focus, kavil can keep people out of his arc, etc) though more ways for things to go wrong too.

Anything I could do differently to make it more successful? Barking up the wrong tree entirely?

Yeah in my experience, BTL4A and Blaster do not get a long. So if you want to use Thug with title (and you should because it's a fairly strong upgrade for 0 points) drop the R4 and upgrade the blaster to an Ion. You also now have 4 points to slap Cluster Missiles on N'dru. Which is awesome.

I could see switching out to an Ion that doesn't require focus to fire, although the Agromech still seems beneficial since it acts kind of like a poor-man's FCS. If I manage to bank a TL one turn, he can focus+targetlock then targetlock again. Of course the cluster's wouldn't fit on Dru in that case...

And rolling an extra attack die for both cluster missile shots *plus* rerolling a blank per shot is pretty cool... But I wonder if one strong double attack on my flanker is worth the opportunity cost of one of my line ships having focus+TL every turn has an action and can shoot.

Also, what about VI for Kravil, isn't running around at PS7 going to get me into hot water?

when I used kavil I put an unhinged astromech and an ion turret on him, also put torpedoes on but never used them.

a 4-shot ion cannon outside of arc is pretty beastly. I did 2 full orbits of an asteriod just doing 3 hard right turns (made green by the astromech) and blasted away at whatever was close enough. soon as attention was on me, being able to fire outside of the arc was great, as it let me dodge my opponents arcs without worrying what way I was aiming.

the astromech card that lets you gain a target lock when you spend a focus is really useful with the blaster turret, as (by my reading) it means you spend the focus to shoot the turret, and so can immediately gain a target lock at the target before you roll your dice.

Yeah, that's the primary benefit of the R4 Agromech. He's there to let scum use a focus token to fire the blaster turret and still have a way getting rerolls for the shot. Rebels can get them from multiple synergistic sources (one or more y-wing pilots, I think, plus craken can give actions, hawks can hand out focus etc), but scum have none of that synergy so the R4 agro is what lets them use it.

I was thinking that the 4-shot blaster turret would be solid damage, kind of scum's only real heavy turret to answer to larger turret ships and what not. But Ioning stuff is good too, as long as you can bring enough firepower to put the gimped targets down.

Unhinged does seem kinda nice on a Y, fly around a lot faster than people would expect and with a turret...

Give Kavil VI so you at least tie with phantoms, upgrade the other y-wing to an ion "turret". That leaves one point free, and I'd just keep it as an initiative bid.

Cool, thanks.

Now if a Slave1 would just materialize somewhere I regularly shop so I could have an *actual* VI card