Scourge Ship Overview Frigates

Scourge Overview:

Before we start, I feel the Scourge are one of the most dangerous factions. They have the most consistent damage with most all of their weapons are 3+ and Scald is one of the most dangerous Weapon Special Rules to me personally. . . 

Frigates:

The Scourge have some really specialized frigates and I am excited to go over these with you!

Gargoyle-class Strike Carrier:

The Strike Carrier of the Scourge is a workhorse! It is fast, has Scald so it can hurt ships when it is not in Atmosphere (or even when it is and makes those lucky 6's) and can just be a pain. Not much to say here, it is a Strike Carrier and as such you will likely have at least 2 to may 6 in a fleet.

Djinn-class Frigate:

Oh the Djinn. . . while 4 points more than the Taipei and only d6+2 where the Taipei is d6+4, the Djinn has Scald. . . Scald is just plain evil. . . so, how scald works is that while you are in Scan range of a ship (6" for most Scourge ships) all damaging shots increase the armor of the defending ship by +1. So a 3+ ship is now 4+, a 4+ is 5+, and a 5+ is 6+. So with an average of 5-6 shots on that d6+2 roll the Djinn is a force to be reckoned with. . .

One other thing to consider is that the Taipei is a Lock of 4+ while the Djinn is Lock 3+. So, if you are rolling 8 dice with the Taipei, 1 will likely crit and you will hit with 3 more where as the Djinn with 6 dice will have 2 crits and 2 hits. This seems like the same but the crits take 2 Point Defense Successes to negate so to negate the Taipei you need 5 successes (15ish dice) and the Djinn needs 6 (18ish dice) per unit. Even just negating the crits would be 2 for the Taipei (6ish dice) and 4 for the Djinn (12ish dice)

Expect to see these. . . oh yes. . .

Harpy-class Frigate:

The Harpy. . . Seriously, one of my FAVORITE frigates in the game. This is a great gun Frigate in my opinion. At 42 points you are getting a fast moving frigate that have a single shot gun that hits on a 3+ but does 2 damage when it hits. So while 1/3rd of the time you will miss, 1/3rd of the time you will crit and just deal 2 straight damage to the enemy ship. This means most frigates *cough* PHR *cough* will be crippled and likely blow up or something nasty.

Two of these are 84 points and are a solid Frigate hunting group I think. a group of 4 is getting scary, and if you are going to scare the bejesus out of cruiser and bigger targets, 8-11 of these can be a terrifying battlegroup to come across. . .

Charybdis-class Frigate:

The Charybdis is one of the cheapest frigates in the game (I believe only Strike carriers are cheaper and Voidgates do not count. . . ). On top of that it has a Bombardment 4 weapon! However it lacks the special rule that the PHR Medea-class Strike Carrier has, so its bombardment attacks have to be done at Low Orbit for no Penalty. Still, 70 points for 2 of these shooting 8 dice mean it is a match point for point for the Madrid and better at bombardment than I think anything else out there. 

I believe that these will be in lists. They are great at helping you thin the herd so to say on the ground and provide a nice escort to the Gargoyle. 

Scylla-class Frigate:

 The Scylla is an interesting frigate. It has the ability to attack ships in orbits above it with no penalty. At a 4+ it is one of the weaker lock values in the faction but 2 shots each means 1 will hit on average. You are literally killing them with pings and prods.

Fun ship but I have not used it. It will be fun to see across the table, while making me wish Corvettes released faster!

Thoughts:

The Scourge have some of the more specialist Frigates out there. From having the only bombardment Frigate to having a Frigate that can snipe targets while in Atmosphere, the Scourge have a WIDE variety of tactics associated with different uses and combinations of their combat centric frigates. Add into that, that each Scourge frigate can go to Atmosphere and lie in wait. . .well it will be interesting to say the least to see what people come up with.

All images of ships with points are owned by Hawk Wargames (C) 2016