Did it meet your expectations?

Or

Did you feel a little disappointed?

Im actually pretty excited to be finaly getting it this week, but i wonder if it'll turn out to be all that it's cracked up to be.

I have a few different builds with it, but for a ship that costs as much as it does, I find I can only squeeze in 2-3 ties, or maybe one heavy hitter ship, and a tie.

With the Decimator having 0 agility, it really can get Focus fired down fast.

Even with the defensive build for it, I wondered if the other pilots will see much play.

I won't know till I try it, but what are some builds to those who already have it, what have you used with success?

What were you flying against?

Here are some builds I've come up with

Patrol Leader

Rebel captive

Mara jade

Fleet officer (may switch this out)

Tactical jammer

Howlrunner

Swarm tactics

Academy pilot

Mauler mithel

99 pts.

I guess the idea is have howl stay close to the Decimator. Making it a PS8, and hide behind it for that extra defense

For now the officer is to give howl a focus she can can use her action to evade if needed

My next build is

Admiral chair

Expose

Experimental interface

Mara jade

Rebel captive

Black squadern

Ruthlessness

2x academy.

The ties here are blockers, and the black hopefully breaks my opponent formation.

With Mara jade and captive, the idea is to hurt anyone who shoots at the Decimator by giving the stress, and a deterrent and also keep ships from getting into range one, bit again I wonder if it'll get Focus fired down.

And here is my last build that I thibk I like the most

Captian kirk

Ysanne

Determination

Rebel captive

Omnicron

Vader

2 academy

So which of these three do you like the most?

Have yas tried something similar?

If so how did it work out?

Really appreciate the feedback

I wonder if kirk is the pilot who will get the most use.

I thought heard say the one who runs into things not as good as it sounds, basically gets focus fired down fast

I love the decimator. It very rapidly became my favorite ship. Isaard is pretty much a must on it though. I'm partial to

rear admiral

Expose

Isaard

EI

Mara

Weapons engineer

For 63 points

5 focus and TLed dice a turn is just brutal. I combine him with echo for anti swarm or 3 academy ties for blocking (more effective).

My favorite and most used build so far is, Kenkirk with Isard, Moff Jerjerrod, Intel Agent,and Determination and then flavor to taste with Ties or a Shuttle. It does pretty good and is very tanky.(read -can absorb a lot of damage before dying)

I have enjoyed the Decimator thus far, but it is not a bold prediction to state that it will NOT be the equal of the Falcon or YT-2400 IMO. They have nothing that really compare to Fat Han/Chewie or Dash.

It is, in its own way, an excellent ship, and the Rear Admiral has been my favorite. A build similar to what ForgottenLore listed has been my go-to and it's pretty nasty.

Otherwise, Oicunn plus Predator is a nice trim build, add Rebel Captive and/or Anti-Pursuit Lasers for flavor.

I love the decimator. It very rapidly became my favorite ship. Isaard is pretty much a must on it though. I'm partial to

rear admiral

Expose

Isaard

EI

Mara

Weapons engineer

For 63 points

5 focus and TLed dice a turn is just brutal. I combine him with echo for anti swarm or 3 academy ties for blocking (more effective).

I've looked at putting echo or a defender in there but 2 ships, one squishy, and the other with no agility, I'd think the Decimator would die fast.

Just wouldn't be enough dmg to kill enough I assume.

That's why I opt for the ties instead. More targets to shoot at

there are tons of decimator builds.

sometimes you may want to consider being frugal too.

Lke someone said, Oicunn Predator is a very nice lean build, 45 points. That means you ahve the bulk of your list to do other degenerate things with.

Oicunn Gunner Predator

Omicron Vader

Obsidian

Obsidian

Aim for that big O. BIIIIG OOOOOO

I have enjoyed the Decimator thus far, but it is not a bold prediction to state that it will NOT be the equal of the Falcon or YT-2400 IMO. They have nothing that really compare to Fat Han/Chewie or Dash.

Which really goes to support that Rebels are in fact EZ mode.

5 focus? I'll assume that a typo.

Sorry, 5 focused and TLed dice. Once you are in range 1.

what about Kirk with Izard? you get a 11 hull tank with at-least ONE evade maybe two.. it would be like a 11 hull TURRETED B-wing!!!!. and then toss on predator and ANOTHER decimator flavor to taste... just wish Expose didn't cost an action!!!! choices choices!!!

what about Kirk with Izard? you get a 12 hull tank with at-least ONE evade maybe two.. it would be like a 12 hull TURRETED E-wing!!!!. and then toss on predator and ANOTHER decimator flavor to taste... just wish Expose didn't cost an action!!!! choices choices!!!

Experimental Interface then it's like you have HLC... same cost and everything

what about Kirk with Izard? you get a 12 hull tank with at-least ONE evade maybe two.. it would be like a 12 hull TURRETED E-wing!!!!. and then toss on predator and ANOTHER decimator flavor to taste... just wish Expose didn't cost an action!!!! choices choices!!!

Experimental Interface then it's like you have HLC... same cost and everything

i changed my post to a 11 hull turret B wing... have you seen the dial for it though.. lol makes the space cow seem maneuverable!!! actually it as NO red maneuvers so stress cant really hurt it.... Or am i just not seeing something correctly so besides costs i am NOT seeing a down side to running expose and IE...??? Now by the end of the game i can see it flying around with 50 stress tokens?? lol

So far the census is, it didn't disappoint.

Just wondering, the builds I listed, do they seem reasonable?

Seems like to get the biggest bang for your buck is to go with ties.

You have a pretty big and durable ship already, so ties just seem like the perfect fit

Only thing I don't like about having that mentality is are we going to only see one or two builds all with the same thing?

You could probably get a firespray In there but again that is only 2 ships.

Just doesn't seem like the imperial style

Where they usually have power in numbers

@Krynn, There seem to be quite a few schools of though with Decimator builds. All 3 named pilots seem to have their advocates, (which is a sign of good design), so I would expect to see a fair few various builds.

what about Kirk with Izard? you get a 12 hull tank with at-least ONE evade maybe two.. it would be like a 12 hull TURRETED E-wing!!!!. and then toss on predator and ANOTHER decimator flavor to taste... just wish Expose didn't cost an action!!!! choices choices!!!

Experimental Interface then it's like you have HLC... same cost and everything

i changed my post to a 11 hull turret B wing... have you seen the dial for it though.. lol makes the space cow seem maneuverable!!! actually it as NO red maneuvers so stress cant really hurt it.... Or am i just not seeing something correctly so besides costs i am NOT seeing a down side to running expose and IE...??? Now by the end of the game i can see it flying around with 50 stress tokens?? lol

yeah, not as bad as the shuttle but the down side would be cost and having to do a green move to remove stress token to be able to use Isard again.

EDIT: yup, what he said!

I knew i was missing something..lol

I am finding tactical jammer allows it to be a very big blocker to allow for a smaller ship to get an extra turn of cover or to get in closer. Decimator got tore up, but so did the other ships.

Also Decimator vs a swarm with Oicunn proved very short. Ditto with the assault missile.

Played with it again, now people expecting me to ram them, then stayed ar range 3 the whole time making it look like I was going in for the ram (because that is what everyone was expecting).

I have enjoyed the Decimator thus far, but it is not a bold prediction to state that it will NOT be the equal of the Falcon or YT-2400 IMO. They have nothing that really compare to Fat Han/Chewie or Dash.

Which really goes to support that Rebels are in fact EZ mode.

I don't think that's the case, or least, that's not what I meant. The Rebel turreted ships are, IMO, better (by design), which maintains one of their factional strengths, but the Decimator is by no means poor. It merely gives the Imperials another tool in the toolkit while keeping the Rebel turreted big ship advantage intact.

I think the Rebels overall have a couple things that make them more straight-forward, not easy. Namely, their defense is generally based on hull/shields rather than Agility and turrets help (greatly) offset some lack of maneuverability. These are just how they play and I think it helps them be easier to grasp than positional-based defense (arc dodgers) that rely on movement and green dice. I think this is really just a design choice, not favoritism or bias.

The only things I really think FFG have done wrong is allowing combos (such as C3PO/Falcon title/R2D2 [or Lando]) that creates situations where a ship cannot be damaged by normal 2- or 3-dice attacks without even the risk of failure, thus creating unbeatable scenarios, particularly in the end game. Even that, however, requires skill to set up those endgames reliably. There is no "E-Z" button and people set themselves back by assuming that there is.

It didn't disappoint in my game yesterday! (not to poor salt in Theorist's wounds or anything).

http://www.twitch.tv/sozinsky/b/592472272

It's pretty long, but Kenkirk (pred/gunner/isard) was the man of the hour! If I rebuilt the list I'd probably think about trying to work in rebel captive, and/or try out the PTL/engine/isard trick. But hey its solid as is.

Like Krynn007, I'm expecting to get my hands on the Decimator this week. I'm a little ambivalent, however. Though I've rarely flown a TIE Swarm, I'm still of the school of more > better. Putting a majority of my points into a single ship, no matter how fat, just strikes me as too risky. But with even the Patrol Leader being 40 points, it'll be hard not to put a majority of one's points into the VT-49.

Now, obviously, I'm gonna do it, in order to take it out for a spin. Still, I wonder how often I'm going to continue flying it afterwards. That said I really am looking forward to putting Mara Jade and/or Fleet Officer on a Lambda.

Now for the real challenge

Making effective use of the torpedo and bomb slots

Now for the real challenge

Making effective use of the torpedo and bomb slots

Seismic charge on the Rear-Admiral, maybe He has the highest PS, so he has the best chance of landing it on enemies.

The charge also has "synergy" with Ruthlessness

Flechette on Oicuun, makes things easier to ram (or to fly past and pewpew safe in the knowledge that the enemy can't k-turn)

Wouldn't really advocate ordinence (good ole points that may or may not do anything), but at least those options are cheap and theoretically useful

Now for the real challenge

Making effective use of the torpedo and bomb slots

Seismic charge on the Rear-Admiral, maybe He has the highest PS, so he has the best chance of landing it on enemies.

The charge also has "synergy" with Ruthlessness

Flechette on Oicuun, makes things easier to ram (or to fly past and pewpew safe in the knowledge that the enemy can't k-turn)

Wouldn't really advocate ordinence (good ole points that may or may not do anything), but at least those options are cheap and theoretically useful

Yeah, I'm a fan of cheap ordnance. For most ordnance, there's a higher opportunity cost when your alternative is a three-dice turret. With bombers, I'll give up on my two dice laser in a hearbeat to launch something, but a three-dice turret not so much.

The Decimater does not disappoint!

Defense just sucks, so go 150% offensive.

Favorite build so far, have had since GenCon, is Oicunn, Dauntless, EU, gunner, ruthlessness, Mara Jade, proton bomb.

Yeah, I'm a fan of cheap ordnance. For most ordnance, there's a higher opportunity cost when your alternative is a three-dice turret. With bombers, I'll give up on my two dice laser in a hearbeat to launch something, but a three-dice turret not so much.

Agreed. If I remember right, Seismic Charges can be farted out without resources cost pre-manuever so you're just paying points there. That's something at least.

The Decimater does not disappoint!

Defense just sucks, so go 150% offensive.

Favorite build so far, have had since GenCon, is Oicunn, Dauntless, EU, gunner, ruthlessness, Mara Jade, proton bomb.

I agree that most defenses suck, but there are quite a few of them that I consider pretty useful to have on your 12 hull ship. Ysanne is actually one of them. She's conditional, but once she's triggered the once a turn nigh-garanteed evade can negate a surprising amount of damage especially if the decimator only takes damage later in the game when there are less ships around to shoot it (tends to happen if you field a mini-swarm, which are far more attractive targets to swat down before focusing on the big guy)

Otherwise, there's always the popular Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire

Now for the real challenge

Making effective use of the torpedo and bomb slots

The first time I try it out I'll be pairing it with 2 ion shuttles. By happy coincidence, I also have 2 points spare, so I'll most likely throw on a flachette torpedo to stress out an opponent on the initial approach. With a little luck, the shuttles will then be able to keep that target locked down until either the Decimator finishes it off or its friends.