Peregrine wrote:IMO it's not a great list. The first thing you have to ask yourself is why you aren't flying Whisper/Redline/Fel, and it's tough to see how this list has much of an advantage.
Not flying Whisper because 1) I didn't have the practice, 2) I find whisper is actually less maneuverable than Duchess (especially with coordinate support), 3) whisper wants to shoot first while Redline wants to move 2nd (though that's less an issue with Kagi) and 4) I'm trying to future proof my list from the points adjustment in January.
But even if you're going with these ships the upgrades are pretty poor. Duchess is ok, the force point lets you evade to activate juke and still focus, and there are worse options than a shield upgrade on an ace. Redline's cluster missiles are probably a waste of points, it's pretty situational that they'll be better than a 3-die primary attack and those 5 points could be spent elsewhere (including on a bid, which is critical at PS 5).
The clusters were a bit disappointing, but they worked well in 2 or 3 of the 4 games. I'll probably be reevaluating them, but when I did have 2
TLs they did work nicely. If only Redline had 2 torpedo slots. Protons and advanced protons would've been ideal.
Kagi is an ok trick as an ordnance counter, but the upgrades are a waste. Krennic is extremely expensive, both in costs and upgrade slot, for an extremely situational buff to a ship. Tua is terrible on anything but a decimator (and probably still bad there), by the time you get to activate her you'll be so close to dead that you're unlikely to get much benefit. Palpatine, on the other hand, gives you a much stronger buff for those points and crew slots and is a clearly better option.
Yep. Tua was a waste. I specifically tracked how often it triggered & how much damage and it was totally underwhelming on the shuttle. I may use her on a Deci like RAC but not on a lambda.
Krennic was kind of a test for future use with the Grand Inquisitor. I think he'll really help inquisitor's 2 dice attack be much more relevant. With Duchess I was often rolling 2 hits or hit-focus and I didn't want to "spend" the paint result. But w/ inquisitor in a few test games Krennic was almost essential.
Before reading this I actually came to the conclusion independently that Palpatine could be really handy on Kagi as both of those abilities allow you to stay out of enemy range to use the ability.
I don't _think_ I'd use Palpatine in this build, primarily because I'm thinking Sloan would be better given a lot of 4-lom and various stress shenanigans in my local meta. But it's a thought.
The updated version of the list is looking more like this:
“Duchess” (42)
Juke (4)
Fifth Brother (12)
Shield Upgrade (6)
“Redline” (44)
Advanced Sensors (8)
Proton Torpedoes (9)
Proton Bombs (5)
Captain Kagi (48)
Admiral Sloane (10)
ST-321 (6)
Total: 194
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
I might even drop the title on Kagi (possibly to add back clusters for Redline), or swap out proton bombs for proximity mines...
Children of Stirba 
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