Scourge Capital Ships: Let the Mythical Creatures Rise!

Let your wails rise to the heavens above and let the gnashing of teeth fill the air. . . 

Sorry about that, I was feeling a bit over the top I guess you could say. . .

Well here we are, at last. The Big evil creatures of the Scourge! There are some very interesting ships in this section that can change a battle. So lets talk about your Vanguard and Flag ships shall we? Maybe even turn the masses into some Jelly loving fans while we are at it!

Heavy Cruisers:

Shenlong-class Heavy Cruiser:

The Shenlong is like its little brothers the Sphinx and the Yokai except it learned a few new tricks. . . Mind you, I HATE HATE HATE these tricks. . . Not going to lie, I almost want to become a jelly for these tricks. Almost.

The Shenlong as you notice has a few special abilities. The first is special to a total of five ships in the game currently. Four of those are Scourge, so you will see most all of them today. The ability Stealth is pretty nice, it allows a ship to shoot a single weapon while Silent Running. Now, why is shooting a single weapon so good? Well, when you are Silent Running, your Signature goes to 0", you cant turn and normally can not shoot. The other thing is has to do with how Close Action Weapons are worded. Close Action Weapons are allowed to be used IF you could shoot a weapon this activation, so Stealth lets you shoot not only an Oculus weapon you also get your Close Action attack. This is really useful for sneaking in and being annoying as possible since even the Shaltari have to be in at least 12" to even shoot you.

I will go into the second ability with the next ship.

 Raiju-class Heavy Cruiser:

Ohhhh the Raiju, not only does the Raiju have a Furnace Cannon (Scourge Burnthrough Laser), it has Stealth so you can use Silent Running and shoot evil lasers at people. What more could there be possibly to like! Well lets take a look at Partial Cloak shall we?

Currently, the Scourge are the only ships with Cloak and it comes in two variants. We will go over Partial Cloak now. Partial Cloak means you can not gain more than a Minor Spike until you are crippled. This means you can go weapons Free and only have a Minor Spike. Really. . . REALLY! Who thought of this cruel joke! I blame Dave. 

As you notice both of the Heavy Cruisers have Partial cloak. They are evil. . . but not as much as the next two.

Battlecruisers:

Basilisk-class Battlecruiser:

We all should remember the Basilisk. It was the Scourge Battlecruiser that we saw on the Kickstarter. Well here she is and she is ready to sink her fangs into you with a vengeance. Not only does she have Stealth, allowing her to go Silent Running AND shoot a weapon. She is the first ship with Oculus Beam Phalanx's. Shooting an impressive 3 shots with Damage 2 with a Lock of 3+! 

How could that get any better you may be asking? Well she also have Full Cloak. Where as the Heavy Cruisers can only ever have a Minor Spike until they are crippled, the Battlecruisers do not gain spikes. Yup you read that right, They. Do. Not. Get. Spikes. 

How crazy is that! This baby can go Weapons Free all the time and never gain a spike! Thankfully she is not THAT tough or it would be a pain to cripple. 

Manticore-class Battlecruiser:

On to the Manticore! The first Torpedo wielding ship we see for the Scourge (sadly not the last either) and it is the older, wiser, more sadistic brother to the Wyvern and Yokai! 

The Manticore has a single Corrupter Torpedo as part of its arsenal as well as the Plasma Tempest and an Oculus Beam Array so it has a great selection for Running Silent. Never needs to go Weapons Free, and its torpedoes launch so many swarms of Razorworms into a ship damaged by it that swarms are not really the word for them!

You read that right as well. Torpedoes that carry Razorworms. . . what better way to kiss an opposing battleship but with an ever growing supply of Razorworms! So how the weapon works is when you damage a ship you start a number of fires (equal to the remaining hull of the ship I believe), well you roll for them. These fires can not be repaired and at the end of every turn you roll your remaining hull value and for each 6 add another fire token to the affected ship. . . *shudders* What sadistic son of a monkey. . . I blame Dave!

On to the Daddy ships!

Battleships:

Daemon-class Battleship:

So far we have seen a trend. There Scourge have a Combat set of ships that revolve around using Weapons Free and what better way to end that but with the Daemon! The Daemon is a monster in terms of Firepower. Like it's UCM counterpart the Beijing, the Daemon is packing a lot of firepower. We have a nice mix of the Shenlong and the Raiju all into a single ship and it screams death and destruction.

As always, Battleships have an increased Signature range so always take that into consideration.

Dragon-class Battleship:

Onto the Carrier Battleship of the Scourge. What the UCM can do the Scourge already had and sometimes it is better. The Dragon is a great example of this in a way. It is a nicely upgunned version of the Hydra and the Manticore and while it is Launch 5, instead of two squadrons, it has two Corrupter Torpedoes to spread the word of the Scourge and to bring the heathens to the enlightened future. . . 

The Dragon is a menace and while it is a toss up on which one of the Battleships I would rather not see across from me more, I will say that they worry me equally. 

Thoughts:

We finally wrapped up the Scourge! What a menace they are. I mean, really, stealthy ships that can launch torpedoes and do not gain spikes! How cruel could you be Dave! 

Joking aside, the Scourge have a very strong Battlecruiser presence I think. The use of those ships and how you balance them out with Cruiser's and Frigate's will tell the tale in the end. 

Can you stop the unrelenting advance of this alien menace or will you become a Host?

All images of units from the Dropfleet Commander Core Rulebook belong to Hawk Wargames (C) 2016