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So, I didn't see this anywhere either:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5282

Preview of the Scyk interceptor. Looks like it comes with a pair of new cannons as well.

Yep. I think the Mangler will become the more common (turning 1 hit into a crit), but the Flechette (cancel all damage but 1, then assign a Stress) looks to have some nice uses also...though the high PS Scyk using it on a Keyan B-Wing is just asking to be boned.

IMO flechette sucks, I really have no idea what FFG was thinking when they limited it to working on ships that don't already have a stress token. Sure, it's cheap, but for only 1 point more you get a vastly superior ion cannon. Compare:

Ion cannon: 3 dice, capped at 1 damage, forces the target to make a white 1-straight next turn (keeping any stress it already had, not triggering R2-D2, etc).

Flechette cannon: 3 dice, capped at 1 damage, encourages the target to make one of several possible green maneuvers but allows the option to make any non-red maneuver at the cost of keeping the stress.

The only possible use I can see is movement control against large ships (which take two ion hits to do anything), but even then it's not doing a whole lot. It really needed to either allow double-stressing a target or not have the damage cap, as it is I can't imagine ever using it.


As for the rest:

Syck: unless the dial is absolutely amazing the ship just sucks. It's too fragile, and adding any upgrade guns makes it even more of a glass cannon. If you want swarm ships take z-95s, if you want good ships take one of the multiple good options scum have. The only one I'd even consider using is the PS 8 unique, since the defensive "Howlrunner" buff has a lot of potential if you can keep it in formation.

Mangler: situational, but useful. "Conventional" cannon ships are going to take the HLC most of the time because the range-1 blind spot doesn't matter when you have four red dice with your primary gun, but the Outrider and Aggressor are going to love having a decent range 1-3 option for their special cannon-only rules. And I guess it's still a 3-point discount over a HLC if you want an upgraded gun on a b-wing or TIE defender but really need those extra points somewhere else.

The Mangler is also going to be great on Ten Numb, as it means he can reliably trigger his ability with having to take Marksmanship or drag Etahn along.

The Flechette Cannon is clearly worse than an Ion, but to be fair it does cost less. I can see it being useful as part of Ion Control builds - its a re-usable way to Stress something from any range without Stressing yourself, and stuff which ends up Ion'd and Stressed tends to die. 2 B-Wings with Ions and 2 with Flechette?

Mangler Cannon looks like the real gem in this box.

Outrider-based ships love it, as it is still a firepower increase, without the range limitations or damage caps of other cannons.

IG88-B loves it for similar reasons, as it means that you can use its ability at all ranges, without a damage cap (Ion, Flechette) for cheaper than running both HLC and Autoblasters.

Ten Numb- Every time he shoots, he is guaranteed to get a shot through. Doesn't matter if you've got agility 10, an evade token, and Serrisu next to you. You are taking a hit.

Kath Scarlett- Similar to Ten Numb in that her ability now comes into play every shot- your opponent must now chose between "Cancelling all hits and getting stressed" and "Taking a Crit" every turn.



While I can see their reasoning on the Flechette Cannon (make it weaker than flechette Torpedoes, in exchange for firing multiple shots a game), the fact you have to actually hit with it, and can't stack stress,, makes it a lot worse (Especially since most ships which can take the cannon can also take torpedoes).

Also, did anyone else notice that the Scyk's second generic has PS5? Depending on cost, this could be pretty useful.

If only Blount's Z-95 could take a cannon...

 streamdragon wrote:
If only Blount's Z-95 could take a cannon...

Blount with Ion Missiles is fun against big ships.

Edited for after thought

I see some potential of running a 4 heavy laser cannoned syck squad with serissu in the lead

Serissu
Veteran Instincts, “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon

Cartel Spacer #1
“Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon

Cartel Spacer #2
“Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon

Cartel Spacer #3
“Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon

A PS10 heavy laser cannon will be great help vs phantoms so there is also that.

I am beginning to suspect that the Scyk will have an A-wing quality maneuver dial, but possibly more focused on maneuverability than speed. Comparing it to a prototype pilot, it costs one point less (more on that in a second), has one point more PS, and one point better Pilot Skill, in exchange for one shield. It also swaps boost for barrel roll. Also, y'know how I said it costs one point less? This is assuming that both have the option to upgrade with a secondary weapon, or both don't. While the Heavy Scyk increases points by two, it adds a Cannon/Missile/Torp. Chardaan Refit decreases cost by two, and removes a missile option. This seems to be FF trying to do an A-wing style ship right, with it starting cheap and getting expensive when adding options. For this reason, I suspect that it will fill an A-wing style role of fast, cheap harasser, instead of being pure cannon fodder.

Edit:

Aaaand if the second generic is PS 5, that looks kinda like how I run my Green Squadrons (with Vet Instincts to help with maneuvering), so now I really think this.

 pizzaguardian wrote:
I see some potential of running a 4 heavy laser cannoned syck squad with serissu in the lead

IMO this is a pretty bad list. It's going to win games in one turn when your dice are good, but it's way too inconsistent. You've got 12 HP with no real defensive abilities (the re-roll isn't very much help because Serissu is the first to die) and a crippling range-1 blind spot where enemy ships gain damage and you lose damage. An opponent with fast ships that can rush into your blind spot on the first turn of shooting can potentially cripple you in one turn. So really what you've done is created a weaker version of the 4x phantom list that nobody plays because it's too fragile and inconsistent.

Also, Serissu is a bad option in this list. Your only hope of avoiding one-sided losses from your close-range blind spot is to spread out your ships and ensure that anything that gets into one ship's blind spot is in HLC range for the others. Keeping everyone in tight formation where you can use the re-roll means putting all of your blind spots in the same place and making it as easy as possible for your opponent to avoid your HLCs entirely.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
For this reason, I suspect that it will fill an A-wing style role of fast, cheap harasser, instead of being pure cannon fodder.

The problem with this is that "fast, cheap harasser" is not a useful role in X-Wing. You win games by killing ships, not by taking weak ships that spend the whole game flying around the edge of the table without ever contributing any damage. There's a place for the cheapest possible ship as a swarm/blocker/meatshield/etc, but that role is already claimed by the z-95 and the scyk is going to have the same problem as the a-wing: it isn't worth spending points to upgrade your cheap meatshields.

I was thinking of something along these lines:

Cartel Spacer + Heavy Scyk + Mangler Cannon 20

Cartel Spacer + Heavy Scyk + Mangler Cannon 20

Cartel Spacer + Heavy Scyk + Mangler Cannon 20

Guri + Virago + PTL + Autothrusters + Sensor Jammer

Guri has the staying power and the other three should really be able to hand out the crits.

 Peregrine wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
For this reason, I suspect that it will fill an A-wing style role of fast, cheap harasser, instead of being pure cannon fodder.

The problem with this is that "fast, cheap harasser" is not a useful role in X-Wing. You win games by killing ships, not by taking weak ships that spend the whole game flying around the edge of the table without ever contributing any damage. There's a place for the cheapest possible ship as a swarm/blocker/meatshield/etc, but that role is already claimed by the z-95 and the scyk is going to have the same problem as the a-wing: it isn't worth spending points to upgrade your cheap meatshields.

From my experience, I find that the step from "Z-95" to "A-wing" maneuverability can be a real boon. Admitedly, the A-wing offers a couple advantages over the Scyk (such as lower PS and an extra shield), but I don't think we should write the ship off completely.

Ya know what I love? Ion control.

Ya know what else I love? Synergy.

So I propose this list:

Serissu, Wingman, Heavy Scyk, Ion cannon 27

Kaa'tos Leeachos, Wingman 17

Cartel Spacer, Heavy Scyk, Ion cannon 19

Dace Bonearm, Squad Leader 25

Binyare pirate 12

5 ships, 2 ions, extra damage from Dace who hopefully stays stress free between green maneuvers and two wingmans and let's Serissu or the Cartel Spacer focus and evade, Kaa'tos can steal a focus for double focus shots or steal an evade and use focus to defend himself. Everybody gets Serissu's neato Howlrunner esque buff and the Binyare is just happy to be brought along as an extra body and do space-pirate-y stuff.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
From my experience, I find that the step from "Z-95" to "A-wing" maneuverability can be a real boon. Admitedly, the A-wing offers a couple advantages over the Scyk (such as lower PS and an extra shield), but I don't think we should write the ship off completely.

Sure, that upgrade in maneuverability is nice, but it isn't free. To go from an a-wing to a z-95 you're paying 25% more points on each of your ships (and losing a point of PS), which adds up quickly on a ship that is often taken in groups of two or more. I can't see how the Scyk is going to be any different when its only viable role is the same as the z-95: being the cheapest possible ship you can use in a swarm or to fill the last few points in your list.

Azeroth wrote:
Cartel Spacer + Heavy Scyk + Mangler Cannon 20

This makes no sense. You're paying 20 points for a ship with a 3-dice gun, 3 agility, 3 HP. IOW, you're paying +2 points over a PS 1 TIE interceptor (a ship most people consider pretty bad) to get +1 PS and a hit turned into a crit. And you lose the boost action and ability to get a 4-dice shot at close range. Wost of all, you're spending only 3 points less than a HLC Scyk for a much weaker ship. Why would you want to do this?

 bocatt wrote:
So I propose this list:

This is a terrible list. You have very poor damage (two ships capped at one damage per turn and some 1-2 dice primary guns), no real durability, no maneuvering options or turrets, and lots of points wasted on very bad ships. Leech has one of the worst pilot abilities in the game, you'll almost never be in a position where you want to take a token away from one of your own ships so all you're really getting is a z-95 with an EPT. And for only a slight increase in points you can get a z-95 with an EPT and an amazing pilot ability. Your HWK is just unbelievably bad. Sure, you're adding a point of damage to one ion shot per turn, but you know what also adds a point of damage every turn? Any 25 point ship that isn't a HWK with no turret. Finally, why are you taking two copies of wingman? Other than red maneuvers you only generate one stress token per turn, and you can clear that with a green maneuver. Are you incorrectly assuming that this will let you use your HWK's ability more than once per turn?

What are you talking about? 20 points for a 3 damage 3 agility ship WITH an ability turning a damage into a crit. BTW, they also have a shield and 2 hull rather than just 3 hull. And making a comparison to a ship on the imperials side is pointless, it isn't like scum could take that ship instead. Like you said, I don't get the 4th damage die at range 1 - with only 3 hull, I wouldn't want the ship at range 1. I keep it back and it takes a potential damage die away from my opponent.

These ships could do very nicely against Decimators, falcons (non chewie) and the YT2400. throwing lots of crits onto those ships can be huge.

Peregrine wrote:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
From my experience, I find that the step from "Z-95" to "A-wing" maneuverability can be a real boon. Admitedly, the A-wing offers a couple advantages over the Scyk (such as lower PS and an extra shield), but I don't think we should write the ship off completely.

Sure, that upgrade in maneuverability is nice, but it isn't free. To go from an a-wing to a z-95 you're paying 25% more points on each of your ships (and losing a point of PS), which adds up quickly on a ship that is often taken in groups of two or more. I can't see how the Scyk is going to be any different when its only viable role is the same as the z-95: being the cheapest possible ship you can use in a swarm or to fill the last few points in your list.

I tend to run the A-wing as a 4th ship in a build (So, Ace/Bigs/Ywing/A-wing or something), so the stacking costs aren't as big an issue. Also, The lists with a z-95 often run at around 96 points, so it becomes a choice of what I use as filler (slightly better maneuverability, or a missile, etc.).

Azeroth wrote:What are you talking about? 20 points for a 3 damage 3 agility ship WITH an ability turning a damage into a crit. BTW, they also have a shield and 2 hull rather than just 3 hull. And making a comparison to a ship on the imperials side is pointless, it isn't like scum could take that ship instead. Like you said, I don't get the 4th damage die at range 1 - with only 3 hull, I wouldn't want the ship at range 1. I keep it back and it takes a potential damage die away from my opponent.

These ships could do very nicely against Decimators, falcons (non chewie) and the YT2400. throwing lots of crits onto those ships can be huge.

Go ahead. Get a crit on Leebo

 bocatt wrote:
So I propose this list:

Other than red maneuvers you only generate one stress token per turn, and you can clear that with a green maneuver. Are you incorrectly assuming that this will let you use your HWK's ability more than once per turn?

 bocatt wrote:
I am confused. Is that not the intention of the ability? Is there a rule that states you can not gain more than one stress token per turn? Dace's ability is not an action, the trigger does not require you to to be stress-free to activate. It simply states, if X, you may do Y then gain a stress token. If this was not the intent then I misunderstood and it's back to the drawing board.

Read the card again. The HWK's ability explicitly requires you to be stress-free when you use the ability.

N'dru Suhlak and Lonewolf go together like ice cream and apple pie. There's no point wasting his EPT on anything else.

Exactly. That combo is so powerful that taking the other z-95 is a really bad idea.

Kaa'tos is a fine intermediate with an EPT slot for Wingman. He cannot gain evades on his own, so taking one from a Scyk with double actions (from Squad Leader) is a valid option. He can also take a second focus from a Scyk , making his shots more reliable where as the Scyk doesn't really care as long as one of 3 dice hits. His low PS does hurt though.

But this is just a bad idea. Your Sycks are better than your z-95, so why are you transferring tokens from your best ships to your weaker ships? It might make a bit of sense if Leech had an awesome gun, but he's just a z-95.

It's not supposed to be manueverable or high damage. Thats what the "control" key term means. It means your opponent can't fly circles around you and they can't stress and destress. At will.

Control lists suck. You aren't bringing the game to a conclusion, so eventually you're going to fail to hit with your ion cannons and your opponent will make you pay. And this is especially true since you've only got two ion cannons. One of them is going to die immediately (your other ships aren't worth shooting at), so now you can only control one ship at a time. Everything else will be free to kill your second ion ship, at which point you're left with a couple of z-95s and a HWK with no gun.