I was pretty hyped for the Lucid Voice title when we first saw it. However once we found out flack guns existed It became much less appealing. Why spend 8 points when you could get something similar for 3 points? Maybe you really need that offensive retrofit slot and I mean reserve hanger decks is pretty sweet for the CIS. However we also change a blue die to a black die so maybe leaning on an ordnance crit will help it play out. That however is just more points and is it worth it? Ironically Lucid Voice seems to not have a clear purpose.
Let's compare Lucid Voice to a flack guns build:
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Flak Guns (3)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 118 Points
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Lucid Voice (8)
= 120 Points
Even if we go bare bones on our Lucid Voice it still comes out more pricey than a flack guns+DBY-827 combo. So why are we spending extra points if we don’t need to? It would seem that in order to get value out of lucid voice we need to rely not only on its flack range, but on freeing up the Offensive retrofit slot and that swap to a black dice.
Filling the offensive retrofit slot is pretty easy to get value out of with the CIS and swarm squadrons so I can see the case for that, however is an extra reserved hanger deck make taking lucid voice over flak guns? I would say no, at least not alone. So we need to lean into that black die, so a black crit seems the best way to get more value from that die. However we also need to make our black dice more reliable as well, to really make the crit happen. We end up with something looking like this:
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Lucid Voice (8)
= 132 Points
With this we can get use from the offensive retrofit, and we lean on that extra black dice a little bit harder for crit effects and we can fairly reliably trigger that effect with ordnance experts. Sounds all well and good, but our flak guns friend can up the ante.
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Flak Guns (3)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Invincible (5)
• Thermal Shields (5)
= 132 Points
While staying the same cost the flak guns version is able to take invincible and thermal shields to up its durability, and get an extra salvo from local fire control teams making it easier to get value from its boost to salvo. So how can our lucid voice compete with this? Well with ACM it will likely output more damage, but you could argue the ability to more liberally spend salvo particular with dby-827 and a black die kind of negate that. So maybe we could switch to a Carrier and not a dreadnought to get the extra durability?
Providence Carrier (105)
• Shu Mai (4)
• Thermal Shields (5)
• Intensify Firepower! (6)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
• Lucid Voice (8)
= 136 Points
We would lose access to ordnance experts making our crit effect less reliable so we need to compensate for that with a well timed Shu Mai. We also lose a bit of effectiveness from LTT as the carrier only has two red out the side as opposed to the 3 of the dreadnought, but as long as we have a way to power IF that kind of makes up for it. However at this cost point the flack gun ship can strap on external racks and can now with easy access to salvo and ex-racks out damage to our build.
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Flak Guns (3)
• External Racks (4)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Invincible (5)
• Thermal Shields (5)
= 136 Points
Alternatively we could keep our dreadnought and add Wat Tambor for some durability, however this still gives us the issue of how to get access to liberal use of salvo, and keeping up on damage fortunately I think both of these issues have solutions. First in order to get more use from salvo we take General Grievous as our commander, not only will he allow us to spend a salvo more often, because we can ready it or get it back in some way he increases the value we get from freeing up the offensive retrofit slot to take received hanger decks so I think that is a win win, and he is also the CIS cheapest commander option. Now to deal with the damage output make our ship a slow roller to and take QBT as our second turbolaser for increased damage output, and we end up with something like this:
Providence Dreadnought (105)
• Wat Tambor (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Lucid Voice (8)
= 142 Points
We come in at 142 not including Grievous as our commander 6 points more than the comparable flak gun version. Unless the flack gun version also uses grievous as the commander the extra 6 points will go to picking up a different CIS commander as the next cheapest commander is TF-1726 at 26 points. Reserve hangar deck does have a lot of value in a Grievous list and so I think this is the best case for Lucid Voice.
However the build is not without its flaws, while the Invincible thermal shields can weather big shots pretty easily the Lucid Voice has to take the shot and activate to repair the damage with Wat. It is also really expensive to get the build to a level where I think it can out compete the flak gun version, and it might just be more points efficient to take a cheaper version of the flak gun version. While I do like this build of Lucid Voice it seems that flak guns are still simply able to outcompete Lucid Voice in point effectiveness making the reason for Lucid Voice unclear. I think Lucid Voice is only justifiable in a Grievous list that really wants that reserve hangar deck slot, and maybe and I mean a big maybe a TF-1726 list that wants B2 rocket troopers. I might be wrong and maybe someone can hear the muting's of Lucid Voice better than I can and will find it a home, but I unfortunately don’t think it will see much play. Until next time have a great week!
Comments