Star Wars X-Wing: Scum Ships After Wave 9?
Is the Scum & Villainy faction going to run out of ships after Wave 9? Not a chance…
Hey all you X-Wing Aces! With Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters a new energetic splash of Star Wars: X-Wing hype has hit us all. We’ve seen new ships and the latest wave is hitting stores from Fantasy Flight Games. We got a great look at all the new X-Wing T70’s and TIE f/o in action on the big screen – and It was AWESOME – but it did leave me wondering, “what about those Scum & Villainy players?” Well, I wasn’t the only one asking that same question…
via FFG Community Forums, user Hantheman
TFA brought us no new Scum ships (with guns anyway), so lets head back to the cartoons and legends to see what can pop up.
From The Clone Wars/Rebels cartoons we have:
- Kom’rk/Gauntlet fighter: This ship spans all three current eras of Star Wars. It was first used by the Mandolorian Deathwatch Faction in the PT Era; Galus Vez raced Hera in his Gauntlet which he named the Splendor in the OT Era, and Bazine Netal claimed Delphi Kloda’s Sparrowhawk after killing him in the ST Era. This ship is cumbersome due to its huge wings to make into a 1/270 model on a large base – but it could be done, I think.
- Banshee / Shadow Caster: Asajj Ventress’s bounty hunting ship after quitting the CIS, and bounty hunter Ketsu Onyo’s ship share the same yet to be named class. I’m expecting this to pop up sooner or later.
- Personal Luxury Yacht 3000: Used by the pirate Hondo Ohnaka, smooth operator Lando Calrissan, smuggler/jedi Mara Jade, among others, this ship has a good chance of showing up but whether it’ll be a scum ship is not a certainty.
- SS-54 assault ship: Bounty hunter / mercenary Sugi’s personal ride – only one owner is known but considering how FFG made ships like the Kihraxz and the TIE Phantom which had no known users – might be possible.
- Sarisa-class gunship: A gunship used primarily by the Pyke Syndicate – really little info about this. Not likely.
Iconic scummy ships from Legends:
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- CloakShape fighter: Weak, slow but tough fighter long obsolete even during the Clone Wars. Super customizable, able to replace and incorporate entire systems to keep it up to date. Is an ideal scum ship for systems and tech upgrades.
- Drexl-class starfighter: little info about this craft but it can have an astromech.
- G1-M4-C Dunelizard fighter: A very similar ship to the M3-A Scyk – can be considered a medium fighter version. Can carry additional crew or an astromech.
- GAT Blastboat: Powerful turret equipped gunboat.
- HH-87 Starhopper: A Clone Wars era Hutt ship. Weak firepower, decent agility, tough. Still use during the OT era.
- Ixiyen-class fast attack craft: A ship that borders between small and large (similar size to the Aggressor). Fast and well armed for a ship it’s size.
- M12-L “Kimogila” Multi-role Starfighter: Hutt ship that inherits a lot of design cues of the M3-A Scyk. Tons of forward firepower.
- M22-T “Krayt” Gunship: A M12-L “Kimogila” that swaps some forward firepower for a turret.
- Pinook fighter: Cheap and garbage starfighter – unlikely unless FFG decides to produce a ship that costs less than 12 pts.
- Preybird-class starfighter: Large intimidating heavy starfighter. Used by smugglers, pirates and mercenaries.
- R-41 Starchaser: Somewhat similar to a Z-95 but can carry a cannon.
- R60 T-wing interceptor: Cheap squishy interceptor originally designed by the Rebels who decided to sell it rather than to use it themselves. Can load torpedoes.
- Rihkxyrk assault fighter: Heavyly armored version of the Ixiyen. Slow and sluggish with tons of forward firepower.
- Scurrg H-6: Big powerful fighter-bomber. Likely to show up sometime as its already in the Armada game.
- Toscan 8-Q starfighter: Bare frame starfighter – very customizable.
- Vaksai Starfighter: Upgraded Kihraxz. Heavily customizable usually with better engines, systems and weapons.
Edited to add more small and large ships:
- Supa Fighter: a Large maneuverable ship with the durablility of a Y-Wing, carried laser and ion cannons and missiles. The Black Sun used this starfighter to replace the StarViper for freighter escorts.
- Gauntlet starfighter: Small ship with laser cannons, laser cannon turret and torpedoes. Used by Black Sun and Tenloss Syndicate.
- Alpha-3 Nimbus: Small clone wars era ship, scrapped or decomissioned by Galactic Empire in favor of the TIE Fighter. Armed with laser cannons and a specialized non-standard astromech (which Imperials and other users mostly didn’t use due to various problems with the design). Known to be used by Hutts and Mandolorians.
- Aka’jor-class shuttle: Small (around HWK sized) shuttle used by Mandolorians. Sold unarmed, but easily upgradable to be an armed shuttle.
- Gladiator-class Assault Fighter: unknown sized Manodolorian fighter. Armed with laser and ion canons. E-wing era ship.
- Pursuer-class enforcement ship: Large patrol boat. Armed with blaster cannons, ion cannon turret and torpedoes.
- GX-1 Short Hauler: Large transport / shuttle. Armed version had a laser cannon turret.
- YT-5100 Shriek Bomber: Large bomber which looked like a YT-1300. Armed with a quad laser turret, torpedos, missiles and a bomb bay. Used by Han and Wedge in EU but were old ships by then.
- Z-10 Seeker Scout: Large long range scout. Armed with an autoblaster cannon. Used by mercs and othe private interests.
- ILH-KK Citadel: Large sturdy civilian armed transport. Armed with laser cannons, ion cannon turret, missiles and a tractor beam.
- YT-2000: Another large large YT-class freighter, of which the Otana, from X-Wing Alliance, was the most famous.
- Various Gymsnor, HWK, TL, VCX, YT, YG, YV, YZ series freighters: Too many individual models to list. All are Large or Huge ships.
- Conquerer-class assault ship: Large assault ship – Guri’s Stinger is the most famous – armed with laser cannon turrets and ion cannons.
- Baudo-class yacht: May not be a class per se but yachts built by Mendel Baudo. The Pulsar Skate is the most famous of these.
Potential huge ships:
- E-9 Explorer Scout: Gozanti sized scout craft. Armed with laser cannon turrets and could be armed with torpedoes.
- Action series bulk freighters: Civilian bulk freighters that have been known to be refitted as smuggling ships, frigates and escort carriers.
- AEG-77 Vigo: Freighter converted to a convoy escort.
- Minstrel class yacht: A Huge yacht favored by Hutts. The Dragon Pearl and Star Jewel are most famous of these. Can act as a carrier for Z-95s and similar small ships.
So yes, that is a TON of ships. It’s not like Fantasy Flight Games is going to run out of ship ideas anytime soon. But if I had to narrow it down to my top 5 here’s what I’d go with:
E-9 Explorer Scout
I just like the look of this ship and as a transport, it seems like a great fit for the “Big Ship” size games.
YT-5100 Shriek Bomber / YT-2000
I’m combining these two ships into one option simply because the YT-5100 is very similar to the YT-2000 – either designation would work for me. But aside from that they have the same basic design which is a riff on the YT-1300’s shape. Depending on how you designed these to work in game they could function like a bomber or a big beefy fighter (like the Millennium Falcon) – this would fit into the the Large Ship Roll and give the Scum faction something familiar, yet different.
Ixiyen-class fast attack craft
This is another cool looking Star Fighter used primarily by Mercs and in particular the Black Sun. Plus the name is a mouthful to say so it fits perfectly with the rest of the Scum Fighter craft!
Kom’rk/’Gauntlet’ fighter
Any starship that was favored by the Mandalorians is a ship worth taking note of! The Kom’rk-class fighter/transport already has a famous unique version – ‘The Gauntlet‘ piloted by Pre Vizsla was an iconic strike craft that the Death Watch leader used. As far as size – this ship is listed between 52-68 meters. That’s pretty large for a pure fighter… It might be better suited as a Big Ship.
Drexl-class starfighter
This trippy little bird-of-prey was a short range fighter. It has room for two pilots, but really I wanted to include it because it has room for an astromech droid. And anytime you can fly a little unhinged as a Scum pilot…you SHOULD!
I picked a lot of the bigger ships in the list and I skipped over a lot of the fighters. I realize that X-Wing is more about fighters and not the Large ships… but I like the bigger ships better. I blame Dash Rendar.
What do you think? What Scum & Villainy ships would you like to see? Did we leave any off in either list? Let us know in the comments below!
Top pic – “Scum and Villainy” by artist AJ Paglia
