So the onager I have messed around with it a lot, and I believe I am ready for my final impressions. I played around with both ship variants and all the titles and it’s a really fun ship. It changes the way the game needs to be played turtling up really is not an option against an onager list, and it really creates a whole new dynamic to list building.
So when I was looking at the onager ship types I was much more heavily drawn to the Star destroyer variant, and that is still my preferred variant even though it costs more. I still think this is one of the few ships in the game that both variations will see table time, and the testbed variation might even see more play than the SD variation by virtue of point cost alone, but let me explain why I like the SD variant a bit more.
First you have more dice practically in the rear, the salvo token on the testbed is pretty forgettable in all honesty yeah it’s something, but it’s kind of lame with one red one blue, but with 2 red and two blue you would be surprised how much of a difference that makes, not to mention 2 anti squadron dice for a better salvo against squadrons. You also swap a blue for a red and gain a black out the side meaning it is a bit more dangers to flank you than just a testbed, factor in the gain of a turbolaser slot for the cost of the support team slot and you can get great consistency with the LTT upgrade. On top of all of that the SHCBT crit effect (the Blue Superweapon) is the better effect and the SD variation of the onager has the ability to really cash in on that crit effect with 5 total dice able to add up to 5 damage as opposed to the testbeds max of 4. Also OBPC (Red Superweapon) is not bad on the SD variant ether practically with Sunder as the title as it gives that title quite the reach.
Now with all my gushing about the SD variant, it fulfills more of the battleship type roll in a fleet and it just happens to have a super weapon to go along with it. the testbed if you are just looking for an artillery piece look no further.
In addition to being a great artillery piece the fact that the testbed can take engine techs and effectively go speed 4 makes it quite the potent flanker, so you have an artillery piece that can flank your opponent as well. At the end of the day I would recommend if you have the points to upgrade to the SD variant to do so, unless you have a very particular plan for the support slot. However if you don't have the points the testbed is still a great option.
So we talked briefly about the superweapon but I just want to dabble a little bit more with both of them.
As far as raw damage is concerned SHCBT is the best choice, but if you are looking for range OBPC is your pick. While OBPC crit is pretty lackluster it did shine for me in one case when I first lasted a ship and ended up taking off 3 squadrons from the table as well, I have never gotten it trigger on another ship that was to close, but oh well. You can however increases the reliability of OBPC crit doing something with the help of a new squadron that I have not seen on the table until I have him a whirl with this idea, Hondo.
So with Hondo’s ability to move around squadrons at distance one of him that have already been activated it is fairly easy to through a squadron next to a ship and then light it up with OBPC. Now I am not saying that you should always have hondo in a list with OBPC, or even if you do to always use his ability in place of just attacking, but he does help you leverage the crit effect more effectively, and in so doing help you deal with a really pesky squadron. Things can get really crazy when you add in mauler to the mix and you have mauler trash a bunch of squadrons, and then pull one out to get lit up by OBPC as well.
As far as these super weapons are concerned, the SD variant really can take ether or it’s not a huge deal I do think it prefers SHCBT over OPBC, but both work just fine I do like the SD variant with sunder and OPBC for that extra range to trigger Sunder. Now the Testbed, really just wants that range from OPBC, sure it has a better chance to trigger SHCBT with 4 reds instead of 3, but with how you can upgrade the SD variant it can basically become a sure thing, and has a higher max damage output with it. I gave it a try on the testbed and I was just not really that impressed with it.
let's look at the titles now that I have gotten some time with them.
So a lot of people like cataclysm, and don’t get me wrong, one of my favorite builds involves cataclysm, however for me it’s mostly for the fun with officers’ ozzle and hondo turn one punch. This upgrade is really 7 points as I can’t think of a reason to not bring hondo along to get a turn one punch in. Now outside of that is it good? For me it’s kind of meh. I really still stand where I stood on this card with my initial impressions its nice and gives you some flexibility if you made a mistake in where you placed your ignition token poorly, but if you had just not placed your token badly you would not need to have the card it feels a bit like a crutch to me after the turn one punch, and don’t get me wrong it is nice to have that flexibly if you make a mistake, but if that’s all your taking it for I guess I just use the old adage git gud. Maybe I am missing something, if this was triggered at the start of your activation I could see it being really nice, but because its at the start of the ship phase you should have been able to anticipate where your opponent would be and place the token accordingly.
Rakehell I was really excited to try this out, and while it sounds good in a vacuum it its very match up dependent on how useful it acutely is. If you are playing against demolisher and another onager staying in the back field at speed zero is a really bad idea, in addition if your opponent has a lot of fast long ranged ships staying a speed zero is really not a good idea. It requires a specific matchup of two lists that want to turtle, and well rackhell can out turtle them all. I guess it’s nice in that in all matchups I have had it players always try to jump on it while it is at speed zero this can really make them over extend, and if you come up against a list that wants to turtle you can out turtle them. It’s fun and cool and unique but in practice in most matchups its just is not practical.
Sunder Expensive, but the fact that it lets you rip an upgrade off a ship before engagement really even begins is quite nice I think its a little better on the SD variant than the testbed, both are a fine option, but the blue dice can give the SD variant a bit more reach with this title. You will almost always be spending more points on the title then what you take off, but taking off a key upgrade like ECM, ATP, Leading shots or even boosted coms can be huge. The other upgrades that get rid of upgrades require you to be at close range this guy can trigger from essentially across the table, and that is why you pay a higher premium for it, but it is a very solid title and can really put a kink in your opponents plans.
How do we upgrade our Onager? The Onager is really solid for what it is a big gun ship, I can see it taking the place of an ISDs in some lists, however the greatest weakness of the Onager is its defensive capabilities, so in most cases I would take some kind of defensive officer like Brunson or tua In the officer slot. I cannot fathom a reason you would not take a super-weapon on this guy just pick one of the two. This is the first combat ship to have two weapons slots and that is the primary way this ship gets dice fixing Ordnance experts and veteran gunners are not bad options on the testbed, Weapon battery techs is also really nice as well to help trigger special crits more often. Fire-control team is not terrible with the sunder title and your super-weapon crit, and Gunnery Chief Varllian is good as well, but I think she best on the SD due to the extra dice you get on your salvo attack giving you more options to switch dice in and out on her, and pairs really well with WBT to really letting the damage pile on with the SHCBT super weapon.
How about the testbeds support team slot well Auxiliary shield teams is not bad as ships will do all they can to get into your sides and rear this gives you a bit more defensibility on your sides. Engine Techs makes this guy a flanking monster just get into the rear of your opponent and your relatively weaker defenses won’t really matter all that much. You also have medical team its one point and gets rid of a crew faceup damage card when it's dealt to you if you are not worried about a bid and have at least one point to spare it's likely worth it, if you are not using this slot for something else, this is really an underrated card. Lastly in this slot nav teams again I find this card underrated, as other members of this community have shown with how easy it is to get tokens it's actually pretty solid if you want to keep your onager in the backfilled and slow roll it up, but still keep its guns pointed at a target while you confire this is actually a really good option for that strategy.
Lastly that sweet turbolaser slot on the SD variant. For me there are only three options for this slot, but I can see the argument for others, first LTT I mean I love this card it is I think by far my favorite upgrade card I just love it and on a ship that has little dice mitigation like the onager it’s a god send, and works so incredibly well with salvo and your side arcs it’s just..
However I do think it has some strong completion with H9’s especially when paired with WBT, and sunder. Use Sunder to strip ecm then latter H9 lock up brace, and profit. It’s so simple but absolutely deadly against any ship in the game it can pick off the small guys by accruing the key defense token, or strip that ECM making brace irrelevant on bigger guys.
The last option for the turbolaser slot at least to me is Quad Turbolaser Cannons when paired with sensor teams it’s odd but this works pretty well. It’s not my favorite, but it can lock down tokens you can pair it with sunder and WBT to good effect, however because sunder triggers on blue or black crit not a red crit even with WBT it’s not a guarantee it will happen personally I like H-9 more, but there are a few corner cases where you would likely rather have this setup, but it is quite expensive.
Some argue for TRC+needa to get the red crit guarantee, but seams to give up a lot for so little, XI7 are a bit counterproductive to the SHCBT super-weapon maybe if you are using OBPC, XX-9 are not terrible when paired with Fire-Control Team, and the rest well they are ether just plain bad or are a modification and that keeps us from taking them as we would much rather have our super-weapon.
Here are some of my favorite lists/builds I used when messing around with the onager.
Screeding for Crits
Onager Star Destroyer (110) • Admiral Screed (26) • Minister Tua (2) • Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6) • Weapons Battery Techs (5) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) • Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers (7) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) = 170 Points
Gladiator I (56) • Captain Brunson (5) • Local Fire Control (4) • Assault Concussion Missiles (7) • Demolisher (10) = 82 Points
Raider II (48) • Iden Versio (6) • Disposable Capacitors (3) • Heavy Ion Emplacements (9) • Corvus (2) = 68 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Darth Vader (1) • Comms Net (2) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 29 Points
Squadrons: • 3 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (33) • Ciena Ree (17) = 50 Points
Total Points: 399
This list is all about striping the sweet shields off your opponent’s ships. The onager is built to get into the fight and get as many crits as possible with Screed WBT and GCV, salvo often and put blue and red crits on GCV to feed your ignition attack the crits it craves. Salvo on a Demolisher that is likely going second is actually kind of nice.
Cataclysmic Squall
Onager Testbed (96) • Admiral Ozzel (2) • Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5) • Cataclysm (5) = 118 Points
Quasar Fire I (54) • Governor Pryce (7) • Boosted Comms (4) • Squall (3) = 68 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) • General Romodi (20) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) = 83 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Darth Vader (1) • Comms Net (2) = 26 Points
Squadrons: • Colonel Jendon (20) • Maarek Stele (21) • Morna Kee (27) • Mauler Mithel (15) • Black Squadron (9) • JumpMaster 5000 (12) = 104 Points
So this list is all about hyper aggression you have ozzle officer and Hondo to Power a crazy long range shot from Cataclysm and Squall with Pryce turn one to get last and through a bunch of squadrons at your opponent turn one. Really your goal is to chew through as much of your opponent’s firepower before they engage you on turn 3, really annoying to play against.
Bare bone long bomb
ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112) • General Romodi (20) • Minister Tua (2) • Entrapment Formation! (5) • Gunnery Team (7) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) • Spinal Armament (9) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) = 169 Points
Onager Testbed (96) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5) = 105 Points
Gozanti Assault Carriers (28) • Taskmaster Grint (5) • Comms Net (2) = 35 Points
Gozanti Assault Carriers (28) • Comms Net (2) = 30 Points
Squadrons: • Mauler Mithel (15) • Hondo Ohnaka (24) • Black Squadron (9) • JumpMaster 5000 (12) = 60 Points
Total Points: 399
So just ordnance experts and OBPC on the onager, but with IF it can still get really scary.
Big boy salvo
Imperial I (110) • Admiral Motti (24) • Minister Tua (2) • Local Fire Control (4) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • High-Capacity Ion Turbines (8) • H9 Turbolasers (8) • Chimaera (4) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) • Entrapment Formation! (5) = 175 Points
Onager Star Destroyer (110) • Captain Brunson (5) • Weapons Battery Techs (5) • H9 Turbolasers (8) • Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5) • Sunder (10) = 143 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Comms Net (2) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 30 Points
Squadrons: • Valen Rudor (13) • Ciena Ree (17) • 2 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (22) = 52 Points
Total Points: 400
Had a lot of fun with this guy WBT Sunder and H-9 are a simple match made in heaven, after ECM is gone this two big boys will outlast pretty much anything you can through at them due to the extra hull from motti and their salvo tokens pilling on extra damage, as a side note I like Motti slightly more now, but only on/in a list with a decent amount salvo token as in a weird way motti gets not only more hull out of the ships, but more damage as well as they have to generally at least attack a ship one more time than normal in order to kill it, giving you more opportunities to salvo.
The Onager is a great ship and is really going to change the landscape of the game. They are going to bring a lot more diversity to the imperial side. While you will definitely see ISD+Onager, I have a feeling the onager will start to push the ISD out of other lists so instead of seeing an ISD in every imperial list you will likely start to see some onagers instead, and as a largely and imperial player (at least for the time being) it’s nice to have another large ship option. Until next time have a great week!
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