We know that Guns for Hire isn’t far away, it’s been on sale at Gencon since Thursday and should be with the rest of the world in a few weeks.

We know that Guns for Hire is going to make the Kihraxz freaking awesome and the Star Viper all kinds of fun.

And if you read my last post you know that I am more than a little excited about the Harpoon Missile.

I’ve given the Star Viper a run out with the new title online and it was all kinds of confusing entertainment, those barrel rolls are cool. I don’t think that the Star Viper is going to have a strong presence on the top tables at tournaments. It’s a huge amount of fun, but I’m not convinced it’s all that good. The Khiraxz though, could be a bit of a monster.

I very much doubt the expansion is going to be out in time for UK Nationals in a months time but that doesn’t mean I can’t look forward to flying it and get some preparation in! Even in it’s current “under-powered” state I think the Kihraxz has definitely got bite. The combination of Homing Missiles, Guidance Chips, and Glitterstim is about as reliable an alpha strike as you can put together, add in Crackshot and it gets very punchy. The main issue that I have is the relatively low Pilot Skill, except of course for the mighty Talonbane.

The Kirhaxz has often been compared to a Scum T65 and that’s probably not far from the truth in terms of flying it. They’re less durable than a T65, the shield to hull balance is not as good, and as ever two green dice isn’t brilliant…

But they do come with “the best move in the game” a hard one. They miss the hard three for sweeping in, but if I had to chose between a hard one and a hard three I’d go for the one every time. They also come with the illicit slot which gives access to a whole host of toys.

My pre Guns for Hire list is very simple, it’s a missile delivery system. It relies on alpha striking a ship off the table in the first engagement then hoping the consistent damage output of the Kihraxz can make up for it’s lack of mobility. Better to burn all three munitions taking a ship off the table than burn two and leave a limping enemy. It’s an all or nothing list. At 98 points it should be able to outbid a fair few lists that feature in the meta at the moment.

Talonbane Cobra Black Sun Ace Black Sun Ace Crackshot Crackshot Crackshot Glitterstim Glitterstim Glitterstim Homing Missiles Homing Missiles Homing Missiles Guidance Chips Guidance Chips Guidance Chips

My Kihraxz are hunters, picking their moment to terrorize and bully a foe, hence their Nightlord’s inspired colour scheme. Ave Dominus Nox.

Get it wrong and it’s going to get horribly killed. As most of my lists are it’s going to be vulnerable to the big hitting turrets. Dash, RAC, Rey, those big turrets are going to really hurt unless I can get enough damage through on them early on. Arc Dodgers are also likely to be a problem unless you can smash them off the table early, but one good shot should be able to punish any ace that lands in a bad spot.

In a few weeks this can happen, which also weighs in at 98 points!

Talonbane Cobra Victor Hel Captain Jostero Crackshot Crackshot Crackshot Glitterstim Glitterstim Glitterstim Harpoon Missile Harpoon Missile Harpoon Missile Guidance Chips Guidance Chips Guidance Chips Vaksai Vaksai Vaksai Stealth Device Stealth Device Stealth Device Vectored Thrusters Vectored Thrusters Pulse Ray Shield

A mere 7 upgrades per ship! The Stealth Devices will let the ships be that little bit more durable in the initial exchange. Give a hint of regen to the lowly PS4 Jostero and a re-positioning option to the higher Pilot Skills ships means that they should be more versatile. Obviously there are going to be loads of build options on the Vaksai Kihraxz but this is what I’m looking forward to running initially.

But all this is for the future, for this weekend it’s a trip to Worcester Wargames for five rounds of their 40th Anniversary Tournament, and some fun to be had with “old” Khiraxz. I’ve never been before so it’s a first visit, first and possibly last tournament with this particular alpha striking Nighlord’s list!

40 odd people turned up, and there was a massive mix of lists on show, a really diverse meta. Obviously the regulars were there: Dash, Nym, Dengar etc. but there were plenty of less standard issue lists around.

I flew against an 8 ship Z-95 swarm, 3 T-65s, Imperial Aces, a bunch of rebels and Dengar and Fenn, and I went 2-3 for the day, two games I lost by one hull (so frustrating!)…

But what are the lessons of the day?

Homing Missiles, Guidance Chips, Crackshot and Glitterstim as a combo is utterly savage. Watching a Wookie evaporate under two missiles and a primary shot was somewhat eye opening, seeing 3 of 8 Z95s just disappear in the opening salvo was brutal. Dropping Dengar to one hull was agonizingly frustrating… These things punch through damage like almost nothing else I’ve flown.

PS11 > PS5 Well duh! my final game against Luke with his VI Vader and Quickdraw with cruise missiles liquidated one of the PS5s in the opening shot, I was still able to kill Vader and Sabacc in his list before Quickdraw put the final damage through on me.

5 health is good, better than 4 that’s for sure, but 2 green dice, poor action economy and only one shield are an issue.

There is no word more gratifying in the English Language than “Crackshot”, I mean you kind of feel like a douchebag when you say it, then stuff dies and you feel less of a douchebag so it’s ok.

When all is said and done the Kihraxz is pretty handy… if only they could have a re-positioning option, or maybe regen, perhaps even both then they’d probably be REALLY good…

Games don’t last long with this (which gives plenty of time for messing around with picture for Instagram.)

Admittedly I didn’t run into any “heavy meta” lists today, probably thanks to not winning my first game (One hull left on dengar… ONE HULL!) so I didn’t get to see how they’d fare against more competitive lists but they were so much fun, and will be even more so in a few short weeks.

I’m not entirely convinced how they will function as a squadron (but will blatantly be trying them anyway), this build is an all or nothing list and when it does all it is scary. I didn’t fail to get 4 damage on any of my missile shots, and only against the PS11 Alpha-striking Imperials did I not get to fire all three munitions in the list. However throwing one into a list (especially with harpoons) will carry a lot of threat. Hopefully there will be plenty of Vaksai in the future.

Next weekend is a bank holiday weekend. So that’s a triple header then…

REBELS AND A CERTAIN SCUM LIST WILL RETURN

If you’re looking for tournaments local to you head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.