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This tournament already over lost first round, 1 pt loss 2nd round and a bye. My defense dice hated me first game, and damage deck hated me 2nd game. Might have won 2nd round if I had one more turn, 1 hull point left b-wing with Xizor on his tail should do it.

Talonbane Cobra
- Inertial Dampeners
- Veteran Instincts
- Engine Upgrade

Prince Xizor
- Virago
- Accuracy Corrector
- Veteran Instincts

Serissu
- Heavy Scyk Interceptor
- Mangler Cannon
- Hull Upgrade
- Veteran Instincts

The biggest problem is that nothing in your list synergizes with anything else.

Cobra is pretty solid, but is better served with something like Predator or Lone Wolf instead of Veteran Instincts since he's a natural PS 9. Or equip him with neither, drop Engine Upgrade to save some points and give him Glitterstim and Crack Shot. Get him into range one, take a target lock, blow Glitterstim, and let him go to town with five modified red dice. If need be, blow Crack Shot for even more pain.

Drop Zixor altogether. The StarViper is underwhelming to say the least and the Prince needs a swarm to hang with him to take advantage of his pilot ability. It would be wise to drop Serissu as well. Thirty points on that ship is just too much for what it brings to the table.

If you're really wanting to fly Cobra, try something like this:

Talonbane Cobra (28)
Crack Shot (1)
Glitterstim (2)

Black Sun Ace (23)
Crack Shot (1)

Black Sun Ace (23)
Crack Shot (1)

N'Dru Suhlak (17)
Lone Wolf (2)

Total: 98
View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Imo, glitterstim is an auto include for talonbane

As others have said the Viper isn't that great but if you are set on using it I'd suggest something like this,

Prince Xizor; Veteran Instincts, Virago Title, Engine Upgrade, Sensor Jammer, Glitterstim
Talonbane Cobra, Predator, Glitterstim

Binayre Pirate x 2

General idea being to arc dodge with Xizor and use the Z95's as spare HP for Xizor (or more likely they get shot up first) and use the Glitterstim if you get in a bad spot, and yep I've gone with Sensor Jammer again, I think it's a strong card especially if Xizor or Cobra can force the use of Focus tokens at their high PS

Scyk's are pretty much beyond redemption as they are more or less overcosted TIE fighters and piling more bells and whistles just makes it worse

Svipers have native boost dude, EU somewhat superfluous. Autothrusters prolly the better shout, and 2(?) pts to spend elsewhere or bid for Initiative.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Svipers have native boost dude, EU somewhat superfluous. Autothrusters prolly the better shout, and 2(?) pts to spend elsewhere or bid for Initiative.

Shush the EU was meant to go on the other ship, only up to 4 coffee's so far !

Guri is a good standalone Viper pilot that can be slotted into a lot of lists. Xizor only really works if you build the list around taking advantage of is ability.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Guri is a good standalone Viper pilot that can be slotted into a lot of lists. Xizor only really works if you build the list around taking advantage of is ability.

Guri is okay I just think the ability is a bit weak due to a combination of R1 meaning extra red dice and her average PS meaning opposing aces get to blast her first which can cause you to have to use the focus defensively rather than offensively, Xizors ability, if flown well, makes your opponent have to make a choice every shot

Another thing to try for Talonbane is supporting him with Kaa'to Leachos with bodyguard. That way, you are agility 3 in most situations, and get a massive 5 evade dice at range 3.

Something like:

Talonbane- 37
-Predator
-Glitterstim
-Engine Upgrade

Kaa'to Leachos- 17
Bodyguard

Cartel marauder- 20

Binayre Pirate- 12

Binayre Pirate- 12

For a total of 98 points. Talonbane is your main beatstick, with the Cartel marauder supporting him. Kaa'to sucks focus off of a headhunter, and uses that to fuel bodyguard. The second Pirate is there for redundancy, but you could drop it to upgrade the Marauder and add feedback arrays.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
and her average PS meaning opposing aces get to blast her first which can cause you to have to use the focus defensively rather than offensively,

Another way to look at this is: you get the opportunity to see whether you need your focus for defensive purposes against enemy aces before you have to decide whether to use it offensively (and your opponent will have had to have used their own focus offensively without knowing whether they really need it or not). Focus is generally more efficient when you're lower PS than your opponent.

The bigger issue with Guri is that her ship is fragile arc-dodger, and her ability is only really awesome if she moves second.... both of which she can't really do with middle-of-the-road PS.

Thank y'all for your input on this.

After much internal debate with myself I came to the conclusion that the only change I would have made with hindsight was to give Talonbane a shield upgrade instead of the engine upgrade, since he died both times to the exact amount needed both times. As to glitterstim I personally don't think it is auto include because dice can and will betray you at the worst possible times, whereas inertial dampeners will never fail you when you need a 0 movement when Fel or Whisper arc dodge into your arc instead of your normal move which would put you in their arcs.

Turnup Jedi would it surprise you that Serissu actually dealt almost as much damage as Talonbane, note he would have done more if it wasn't for a very nice 5 hit roll against Poe who only rolled 1 focus without a focus token. Now I am not saying Scyks are good, just both oppenents dismissed them. I was counting on it and it paid off for me. He also allowed Talonbane 3 more turns of shooting that he wouldn't have had otherwise.

As to Xizor he didn't quite impress me as a wow, but he ended up doing the most useful damage of the three since he had the most consistant output.

That Serissu did OK is more testament to the quality of the mangler than the ship, and also likely somewhat down to messing with your opponent's target priorities. I had similar recently where I under prioritised a Defender which I could have easily taken down and subsequently got mauled by the HLC it was packing.

As for Glitterstim, it makes each dice a 75% chance of a hit, and with Predator (or some other reroll mechanic), I've landed 5 hits with TC on multiple occasions, 4 hits is almost guaranteed. While ID are universally useful, with both a wide choice of 1 speed as well as faster manoeuvres, the Khiraxz doesn't benefit as much as some of the Large ships do, but I guess it's value depends on how well you generally anticipate opposing manoeuvres.

I can understand the instinct to try and preserve your ships longer, but it's dealing more damage that will win you games.

 Azreal13 wrote:
As for Glitterstim, it makes each dice a 75% chance of a hit, and with Predator (or some other reroll mechanic), I've landed 5 hits with TC on multiple occasions, 4 hits is almost guaranteed. While ID are universally useful, with both a wide choice of 1 speed as well as faster manoeuvres, the Khiraxz doesn't benefit as much as some of the Large ships do, but I guess it's value depends on how well you generally anticipate opposing manoeuvres.

I can understand the instinct to try and preserve your ships longer, but it's dealing more damage that will win you games.

Azreal nailed it, really.

Cobra will use Glitterstim only when the time is right and it won't be his only way to modify dice either, as you'll at least a target lock and at best an ability to let you reroll some dice.

Miradorm wrote:


Turnup Jedi would it surprise you that Serissu actually dealt almost as much damage as Talonbane, note he would have done more if it wasn't for a very nice 5 hit roll against Poe who only rolled 1 focus without a focus token. Now I am not saying Scyks are good, just both oppenents dismissed them. I was counting on it and it paid off for me. He also allowed Talonbane 3 more turns of shooting that he wouldn't have had otherwise.

Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist...

But it does seem like an odd target priority, given it's ability makes the others harder to kill but doesn't save itself you don't really need to chuck that many red dice at it, even with 3 agi, before it goes pop

 Turnip Jedi wrote:


Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist...

Am I the only one, or did anyone else read this with an "Eyeore sigh" tone of voice?

I read it in more of a mad scientist zeal tone... like the dad from Invader Zim.

I have been having some real issue with the Sycks, mostly because they look really cool, are fairly cheap, and have a generic ps5. I want to use them, but I find that the cost of the title kinda guts the ship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do the Kihzarx fly?

Still on my to-buy list.

I almost choked on my coffee this morning when I read the fluff text on one of the generic StarVipers. So apparently it is one of the most formidable starfighters in existence? Pity.

I almost choked on my coffee this morning when I read the fluff text on one of the generic StarVipers. So apparently it is one of the most formidable starfighters in existence? Pity.

It really is. But sadly so much of its damn potential is tied up in either the pilot abilties and the Virago title. It's a very good ship, but I don't think you'd ever get much mileage out of two starvipers. The difference between generics and xizor is like the difference between Han and a generic outer rim smuggler....