Drazi

[CheesyRobMan]

I'm thinking about maybe having a go with Drazi. Does the fleetbox give you a good basis, or is it more worthwhile picking and choosing? (In either case counters might be the way forwards anyway, but I like painting far too much to stick with counters for long...)

 

[Burger]

Warbirds, Strikehawks and Sunhawks are definitely what you need lots of. Forget about Storm/Nightfalcon and Fireraptor. Firehawk is not bad in big games, but for the most part you're better off sticking to Skirmish and Patrol level ships.

Buy whatever gets you most of these

 

[Ripple]

Have to agree with Burger...

Sunhawks, under second edition you want really large numbers of these as the variants of these are the core of the fleet.

Warbird (and variant) and Strikehawk are good as well, but you will only really need about 3 to 5 of these for most games now. They used to so much better than the other ships you needed a pile of them.

Firehawks are actually very nice, I would want a couple.

Stormfalcon, Nighfalcon are attractive enough models, but rarely pay for themselves. A squadron of skirmish ships are much better, and activates just as welll, plus splits up late in the game to help keep bore sights lined up.

Fireraptor I really wanted to like, but frankly its a waste of space in the game. The example of Mongoose using the Drazi as a joke race, here for comic relief rather than as a serious option, despite being the largest empire inside the league.

Ripple

 

[locarno24]

Agreed again. Swarmy ships are the drazi's forte - sunhawks are nice and cheap, but the real stars of the show to my mind are the Solarhawk and Darkhawk variants - Slow loading maybe, but on a skirmish hull, who the hell cares? A solarhawk's main gun puts out more hurt than the main laser of some warships.

Warbirds are less necessary now that they're no longer hull 6, that matter that hull 4 no longer matters so much, and that manouvre to shield them! is gone.

Strikehawks, on the other hand, are rather nice - the catapult offering more flexibility to the sky serpent, at the cost of one beam dice and 2 twin-linked dice for fighter and launcher.

Put simply, if you can avoid bringing anything bigger than a warbird, you're probably on to a winner.

 

[Tolwyn]

Mhm, strange question, but is there a way to play the Drazi in a Quality over Quantity way?

 

[Burger]

Mhm, strange question, but is there a way to play the Drazi in a Quality over Quantity way?

No, take high level ships and you will lose.

 

[Triggy]

You can afford to take one Battle PL ship but that's about it really. Also, if you do, you have to make up for it in lower PL ships. However, this is a viable tactic if you go all out for the lower PL ships and give your Stormfalcon/Nightfalcon a chance to shine...

The others are right though that for Raid PL games, a couple of Firehawks are the way to go for your larger ships and Sunhawks/Warbirds and their variants are going to be the mainstay of your fleet.

 

[Ripple]

I've tried the Nightfalcon a few times, it just doesn't pay. The Sky Serpents are great, and they can get there now... but it just doesn't carry enough and they rarely last more than one shot.

Stormfalcon is chancy. It's small for a battle level hull, and has no defense. So all it takes is concentrated fire and your dead. At least with a die based defense there is a chance of rolling hot, or with something like a geg it gets better as the number of weapons increase. Shield as a defense has the same issue. It's a fixed number, once you have it accounted for you can just add up the expected damage and nothing is wasted.

The damage out put is nice, but not spectacular. So a risk for a moderate reward. Firehawk gives you better bang for the buck.

Ripple