Dropfleet Commander/Tactics/Scourge

Why should words be wasted on prey?

With Battle For Earth out, dreadnoughts and destroyers now have official rules, along with the new monitors.

The changes that came with the new fleet builder didn't upend Scourge fleet building quite the way they did for some other factions, but they did boost a few ships that didn't see much play previously.

Main tactics page

Why Play Scourge

High damage weapons with above average Lock values, focused on optimal output at close ranges.

Their strictly offensive range of speedy, fragile, and Atmosphere-rated frigates provide a variety of sneaky wolfpack tactics.

Special Abilities

Scald: Scourge weapons with this ability reduce armor rolls against their damage by 1 while within the ship's scan range.

Stealth: This allows you to fire a single weapon (and use launch assets) while on Silent Running (no, it has never been made clear what happens to your signature when you launch while on Silent Running. Most people play it so you lose Silent Running status but don't gain a spike).

Cloak (Full or Partial): Ships with this ability negate spikes to some degree so long as they are not Crippled, with Partially Cloaked ships blocking the Major Spike condition and Fully Cloaked ships ignoring spikes altogether.

Corruptor: Scourge torpedoes that achieve successful penetration in the form of a Critical Hit unleash a hot, steamy load of Razorworms inside their victim's defenseless hull, starting "Fires" every turn.

Ships of the Line

• Light Tonnage:
  • Nickar-class Corvette: These angry little rays hunt enemy strike carriers. They evaporate under return fire though. Do note that their guns lack Scald (or did, until recently), which combines with their randomized number of shots to make their damage output prone to wild fluctuation.
  • Gargoyle-class Strike Carrier: Scoring unit and the fastest and least durable strike carrier (voidgates don't count, they aren't strike carriers).
  • Harpy-class Gun Frigate: Fun sized Oculus Beam platform. A bit overpriced. Pair with a bigger ship to finish off cripples if the big guns don't quite kill their target.
  • Djinn-class Close Action Frigate: Nasty little killer that can hide in atmosphere before pouncing. Do so; it'll be shot to pieces in moments if you try to make the run in normal conditions. These things are absolutely lethal. A group of four can easily cripple a cruiser, and a group of six can take a solid bite out of anything.
  • Charybdis-class Bombardment Frigate: The Scourge bombardment platform is this tiny thing. If you go for a bombardment strategy then don't linger with them; shoot, then move on to the next cluster. You have the advantage of being able to bombard while in atmosphere, meaning the enemy will have to send corvettes after you or try to hit on 6s with other weapons.
  • Shedu-class Monitor: The slowest ship the Scourge have (it can't even Max Thrust or Course Change), this guy won't exactly be hitting your opponent's backfield. What it can do is shoot between orbital layers without a penalty, and the detector rule lets it Active Scan as much as it wants to light up enemy ships. Useful to give your oculus ships some extra range.
  • Lamassu-class Barge: Drops a single bulk lander and has bombardment guns to support your troops, but it's slow. Like slower than a battleship slow (though it lacks the Monitor rule, so you can Max Thrust). Take a couple of them as second wave drop or use Max Thrust to contest clusters in the middle by turn 2.
  • Scylla-class Vertical Launch Frigate: Play tower defense games with your opponent by dropping these into atmosphere and using their Reverse-Grav cannons to act like a mobile Military Sector!
  • Succubus-class Destroyer: Straightforward Oculus pair + CA gun destroyer. Now also has an anti-atmosphere weapon for killing enemy strike carriers. GIVE SUCC
  • Incubus-class Destroyer: Loses all but one Oculus ray in exchange for a cruiser-type Furnace BTL, giving it crazy damage potential and Flash application. In other news, the Ifrit is now on suicide watch. BTL was nerfed (honestly needed to be), but a couple of these are still probably better than an Ifrit.
  • Revenant-class Destroyer: Single squadron launch + Heavy CA makes this a danger close sort of mini-carrier. A weird little guy because carriers usually want to stay far away, but the CA needs to get close. Battle for Earth bumped it up to two fighters/bombers, making it a very good option, though technically still less efficient than a Hydra as a pure carrier.
  • Cloaking Crest: Scourge get the first optional ship module in the form of a 5pt cloaking crest, which grants Stealth and Partial Cloak to a mounting destroyer.

• Medium Tonnage:
  • Yokai-class Light Cruiser: Scourge light cruisers have paper-thin defences and rely on silent running and speed to get in close, fire their guns, and theoretically get out again. The Yokai doesn't have the hilarious CAWs of the Strix and has the slight advantage of some range on her guns, so is marginally more survivable. Like UCM light cruisers, has the advantage that it doesn't need Weapons Free to get max damage output. Quite the contrary, the Yokai's firepower is split across three weapons systems, meaning they do indeed need to go Weapons Free. This tends to make the Strix a better option if you go for light cruisers. A pair of these can work great as a kill team. Keep them back as long as you can, fly in when ships have already engaged, blow something up with ten oculus shots, and then probably watch them die.
  • Strix-class Light Cruiser: Must be hard to get life insurance if you crew this ship. The Strix puts out a devastating CAW volley and then dies the moment an enemy sneezes on it. Enemy frigates can kill Strixes. Buy them in pairs, don't expect them to survive, and sell their lives dearly. The biggest issue with a pair of Strixes is that four Djinn will almost always do the job better and for fewer points. Only bring them if you can't fit more Djinn into your list or you're really worried about debris fields.
  • Chimera-class Troopship: Poorly armed but hauling troops, much like the San Francisco. The major difference being that Chimeras are faster and flimsier, so it can be a challenge to keep them alive long enough to drop bulk landers into a midfield cluster over several turns. Handle with care.
  • Hydra-class Fleet Carrier: Scourge bombers have the Scald rule and can be quite nasty; the Hydra that carries them into battle is another paper-thin Scourge cruiser. Remember launching gives you a minor spike, and make sure the enemy has something else to worry about.
  • Ifrit-class Cruiser: Carries a set of the Scourge dual-mode Burnthrough Lasers. Toss a pile of middling dice looking for that sweet 8 damage spike, or throw a single die with pinpoint accuracy to light the target with Flash and possibly land a crit chain.
  • Sphinx-class Cruiser: The standard Scourge cruiser, with decent gunnery and okayish defences but really needs to use silent running until ready to make the kill. Best used so their CAWs can finish off a damaged enemy. The Sphinx's weaknesses are the usual Scourge tinfoil armour and the way it has a shorter scan range than its main enemies.
  • Wyvern-class Cruiser: A less-crazy Strix, cruiser-grade defences mean the Wyvern is more likely to survive an attack run, and they don't have to come in pairs. Use if you actually need some cruisers to survive for some reason.

• Heavy Tonnage:
  • Raiju-class Heavy Cruiser: Now we're getting nasty. Scourge heavy cruisers are a BIG step up from their lighter brethren, particularly in defence (not really sure what you mean here, it's just 2 more hull). The Raiju can actually survive sustained return fire long enough to get shots with the Scourge dual-mode burnthrough weapon. Don't be afraid to take the flash option early in a turn, your oculus-armed ships can benefit greatly from the range boost.
  • Shenlong-class Heavy Cruiser: Covered in Oculus Beam Arrays and packing Stealth + Partial Cloak, it can put out a lot of firepower . But it lacks the extra shots and complete immunity to spikes found on the Akuma for 35 points and doesn't have the Daemon's complete Fuck-You package, so for now this class is stuck with the unfortunate title of Third-Best Pricey Beamspammer.
  • Akuma/Basilisk-class Battlecruiser: OMG OVERPOWERED! The Akuma/Basilisk has both Full Cloak and Stealth, making it completely immune to spikes while above 50% Hull and able to fire a 3 shot Phalanx on Silent Running. Because of their ability to strike with a tiny zone of possible return fire and negate most of the risks of going on an all-out offensive, you'll see at least one of these in every competitive Scourge list at the moment.
  • Banshee/Manticore-class Battlecruiser: Plasma Tempest CA bruiser and Scourge Torpedo carrier. Struggles to live up to its brother's hyper-efficient reputation since it pays for Stealth and Cloak but doesn't have to go Weapons Free to fight at full power, and can't utilize a Silent Running+Stealth shot and launch its torpedo in the same turn. As of the FAQ, a ship with Stealth can use Launch Assets while using Silent Running. This means that the Banshee/Manticore can fire its entire complement of weapons on SR, unlike its sister ship which is required to go Weapons Free to do the same. Still pretty weak, though possible changes to the torpedo rules could help.

• Superheavy Tonnage:
  • Daemon-class Battleship: Beams, Beams, and more Beams, with a side of two BTLs and Plasma CA. Caps out at a potential 22 damage on Weapons Free before counting Close Action. Its massive damage ceiling and improved armor don't quite make up for lacking the Stealth and Cloak shenanigans of the Scourge Battlecruisers, but it's a good looking ship and a fine bruiser in a less-competitive game. Linking all of the oculus beams helping this ship immensely. It now has a crazy amount of firepower without even needing to go weapons free.
  • Dragon-class Battleship: A bit of a mish-mash here. Has the same Furnace BTL and basic Oculus Array as the Daemon, but trades in the pair of 3 shot Phalanxes for a pair of torpedoes and a hangar of 3 Launch assets.
  • Nosferatu-class Dreadnought: Remember that time the Akuma had fair and balanced traits? Here's another Full Cloak and Stealth vessel for you. Carries a heavy 8 shot Super Oculus Phalanx on its nose, a quartet of Oculus Beam Arrays on its tentacle wings, a Plasma Flood (low accuracy high quantity CA), and Launch 5 of Fighter/Bomber assets. Try to ignore the fact that Battle for Earth put all of the oculus beams on the right side. The names of the weapons tell you where they're supposed to go.
  • Cthulhu-class Dreadnought: Replace the Oculus Phalanx and Plasma Flood of the Nosferatu with a massive FURNACE TRIAD and a high accuracy Plasma Cyclone. Now that the two dreadnought options have the same launch capacity, the Nosferatu is usually the better choice. Never mind, the Nosferatu was dropped back to 5 launch.

Building a Fleet

Each class of Scourge Frigate is specialized in a particular method of killing, so a wolfpack or two of your choice is effective and encouraged.

Compared to most other factions, Scourge is far more reliant on their light ships for a variety of different roles. Their only bombardment ships are light, their corvettes don't have Outlier, and a kill team of Djinn has a spot in almost every Scourge list. This all means that Pathfinder battlegroups are at a premium in Scourge lists, and you will often find yourself wishing you could take more. The thing to do in this case is to attach some of your light ships to larger battlegroups that can afford the extra SR. Carriers and troopships are good candidates for this, since they rarely need to move quickly. Remember that the only penalty for moving out of battlegroup coherency is an increase to SR, so it's not the end of the world if they can't stay within 12" of each other.

Tactics

Scourge frigates are extremely fast, and some of them are pretty powerful too. This gives you the option for a pretty amazing alpha strike with a last-first activation. What you do is take a group of 4-6 Djinn and put them on the bottom of your strategy deck turn one. Max Thrust them up the field and activate them first turn two to kill something important like a troopship (you don't have quite enough firepower to reliably take out a battleship or dreadnought). Your SR should be low enough that your opponent will have limited ability to react. You're likely to lose the Djinn, but if you sell their lives dearly it can be worth it.

If you don't want to go quite that crazy, use Scylla instead. They don't deal as much damage as Djinn, but they'll be hiding in the atmosphere by the time your opponent gets the chance to counterattack.

Counter-Tactics

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Common Playstyles

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