So, yesterday at the tournament I attended there were about 7 decimator lists out of 17 players. I've never had any luck against the things, can anyone suggest some good build ideas for dealing with them?

Rexler Brath + Predator + HLC is a pain to any Decimator when you deal 3-4 damage and all the cards are flipped faceup.

I've found I can beat a decimator by mobbing it with my entire squadron, the downside is that you are at the mercy of whatever else your opponent has brought to the table whilst doing so.

Braths ability will wreck any big ships day, maarek in the future will do well, ten numb will land you crits.

You could rush it with a-wing and blast it with prokets.

It's not got alot of defensive measures so you just have to pile on the red dice, you don't want it alive endgame.

Lots of red dice, and lots of crits.

Ethan A'baht with 8 pts of upgrades of your choice and 5 Z-95 bandits. LOTS of crits will get through, and eat away at all those hull points.

Large Turrets are superior to any single thing in every single way (except R2-D2 & PTL E-wing, strangely enough, but only in a straight dice off)

Therefore, you must drown them in dice. Swarms of any kind are billed as the counter to these ships because they only get a single 3 dice attack (+gunner + predator etc) per turn. And I do mean swarms, since mini-swarms just never seem to cut it. Tried Zs and even four of them just don't last against the snorefest that is turrets. Ties last surprisingly well and have the maneuverability to keep up/get in the way, but you really need 5 or more to bring the damage necessary. 3 B-wings have it well if you bring something for possible phantoms.

Basically, it's impossible to outplay them and they are very hard to play poorly so your only hope is to collide with them with bigger #s before you're left with one-two ships and the game becomes essentially impossible to win.

Mara on a decimator geared towards ramming will quickly ruin a swarms day.

Large Turrets are superior to any single thing in every single way (except R2-D2 & PTL E-wing, strangely enough, but only in a straight dice off)

Therefore, you must drown them in dice. Swarms of any kind are billed as the counter to these ships because they only get a single 3 dice attack (+gunner + predator etc) per turn. And I do mean swarms, since mini-swarms just never seem to cut it. Tried Zs and even four of them just don't last against the snorefest that is turrets. Ties last surprisingly well and have the maneuverability to keep up/get in the way, but you really need 5 or more to bring the damage necessary. 3 B-wings have it well if you bring something for possible phantoms.

Basically, it's impossible to outplay them and they are very hard to play poorly so your only hope is to collide with them with bigger #s before you're left with one-two ships and the game becomes essentially impossible to win.

Wow you are a glass half full kind of guy huh lol. Swarms definitely counter them. I won a tournament with an 8 z swarm and had to play decimators and falcons. To heat a good decimator you have to either chuck a ton of dice at it with swarms, mitigate it's damage with the falcon, or bring another decimator. Those are the most consistent ways.

Large Turrets are superior to any single thing in every single way (except R2-D2 & PTL E-wing, strangely enough, but only in a straight dice off)

Therefore, you must drown them in dice. Swarms of any kind are billed as the counter to these ships because they only get a single 3 dice attack (+gunner + predator etc) per turn. And I do mean swarms, since mini-swarms just never seem to cut it. Tried Zs and even four of them just don't last against the snorefest that is turrets. Ties last surprisingly well and have the maneuverability to keep up/get in the way, but you really need 5 or more to bring the damage necessary. 3 B-wings have it well if you bring something for possible phantoms.

Basically, it's impossible to outplay them and they are very hard to play poorly so your only hope is to collide with them with bigger #s before you're left with one-two ships and the game becomes essentially impossible to win.

Wow you are a glass half full kind of guy huh lol. Swarms definitely counter them. I won a tournament with an 8 z swarm and had to play decimators and falcons. To heat a good decimator you have to either chuck a ton of dice at it with swarms, mitigate it's damage with the falcon, or bring another decimator. Those are the most consistent ways.

Not really glass half either way, I just hate turrets for turning the game into a dice-off (always get a shot --> always dice to roll, barring incredible misplays involving space-peanuts) and warranting very specific squads to ensure you even have a chance.

Games against turrets will always boil down every turn to "can I reliably out-damage (out-roll) a 3-dice + modifiers ship sitting on a crap ton of hull and shield?" If the answer is no, you will probably lose because whoever designed turrets thought it'd be fun if there was no way to out-maneuver them. Why they couldn't be more decent like a Firespray, I really don't know.

But oh well, this is the turd we were handed and it's the turd we'll have to swallow until god knows when. Until then, it's just a matter of manipulating probability by keeping the fat-ass in your arc, abusing his lack of greens (range 3 is not a bad place to be in this regard), and hoping he doesn't get lucky because a few rolls in his favor will drop your ships and quickly make it statistically improbable that you will pull out a win.

Oh, and I forgot my favorite part. If you go after it, make sure you commit . The **** thing is worth no points in a tournament setting if it's anything less than dead, which makes running laps around the table one of its players favorite tactics (and because of a 360 arc, they give up exactly nothing for utilizing it no matter which way they run).

It's a situation imp players have had to deal with for years now you can't blame us for taking some payback.

I'm really hoping wave six brings a change though wave four to six is long enough to suffer the turret heavy meta, let's see something new.

It's a situation imp players have had to deal with for years now you can't blame us for taking some payback.

I'm really hoping wave six brings a change though wave four to six is long enough to suffer the turret heavy meta, let's see something new.

Vader Gunner Decimators with Auto thruster Fel will be sticking around.

Lots of dice. This has always been the best way to beat large, turreted ships. There's a reason that Biggs Walks the Dogs was the list to beat before Phantoms. It's hard to beat that many dice focused on a single target.

Concentrated fire or HLC's. Yes decimators are tough but they also take up almost half or more than half of your squad points. Also it is about time the Imperials got a ship that has a turret on it.

4 Blue "Bs" with advanced sensors... Concentrate all fire on the deci.. don't waste squad points on something maneuverable!! you want red dice LOTS of them!!!

Hello from the same tournament, OP. Same answer for Decimators as for Fat Han when he was about: lots of firepower, concentrated, with crits if you can.

You don't really need any particular get-up to beat a Decimator, or even two; just shoot it with what you have. They go down really easy.

Rexler Brath + Predator + HLC is a pain to any Decimator when you deal 3-4 damage and all the cards are flipped faceup.

A 47-point TIE defender is a free win to any Decimator list that matters. Any real decimator list would probably only face it in round 1 of a tournament anyway, since pretty much anyone will trash a list that spent half it's points on Rexler, so your odds of fighting a well-built Decimator, which would have actually put up a fight and thus won it's first round, will be low.

Bring swarms, or miniswarms, or your own large ship. Blinged-out elite ships aren't going to get the job done unless it's Corran and the Decimator is built poorly.

Y-wings, especially with the droid that limits the maximum damage sustained. Shut down Admiral Crunch with expose.

"Alright, that's 4 hits and a crit on your y-wing"

*removes 3 shields and places 2 stress tokens on y-wing*

"Wait your- ohhhhhhh. Crap"

YWings with Ion Cannons. Bwings with Tactician.

These two ships cause me the most trouble when in numbers.

I've been flying a lot of Patrol Leaders lately, and PTL Corran has been my bane. 3-4 dice double-taps are murder, and keeping R2D2 from repairing his shields to full while overcoming his Focus and Evade tokens is nearly impossible.

I also had great luck the first time I faced one. I flew Predator Rexlar, Howl with Swarm Tactics, two Academies and Backstabber. With two ships shooting at PS8 before Rexlar, it provides a greater chance for him to attack a target without shields to maximize his ability. Howl's reroll also pairs well with Predator give Rexlar the ability to modify two dice per attack against a PS3+ target.

Just beat one down in a couple turns with:

Etahn + FCS

Airen Cracken

Tala Squadron

Luke Skywalker + EI + R7

Lost Luke by the end of the game but everyone else was still alive

You want ships with high attack values as well as ones that can not break a sweat as 4 attack dice comes in. Aside from Kenkirk Decimators have no damage natural reduction.

HLCs work great against decimators. Critical hits may help but they only apply an effect that may hurt them or may not. Damaged engines is nothing that a decimator will sweat at.

I had pretty good luck against an Oicunn Stressimator/Buzzsaw Shuttle list with

Dash

PTL

Nien Numb

HLC

Outrider

EU

(filler)

Blue Squadron

Gold Squadron

R2-D2

Deci list something like this:

Oicunn

Rebel Captive

Tactician

Tactician/Gunner not 100% certain which

Dauntless? (again not 100%)

Buzzsaw shuttle w/tactician

(filler)

Academy

My first time playing with Dash and first game against a Decimator, ultimately I lost due to unfamiliarity with the Deci's dial, and dice, fickle fickle dice, but it was Oh so close....

I lost my B & Y wing early on between Deci & Shuttle's concentrated fire. Didn't even manage to take out the AP due to edit: poor /edit attack rolls on my part and brilliant defence rolls by my opponent. Several turns later I'm left with Dash at 1 hull after repeated rounds of ramming (unfamiliarity with the Deci dial meant I flew predictably with Nien and got rammed) and finally NO stress left from rebel captive & tactician. At one point Dash had four stress.... ouch!

AP was long dead now & Buzzsaw had positioned just right to catch me in arc at range two after my manouevre. My options were limited, focus & fire on the Deci and let the Shuttle kill me next turn or attempt to clear the shuttle arc and take out the Deci on 3 hull then come back for the shuttle at my leisure.

This was make it or break it time. A barrel roll got me just out of the shuttle arc so that I was safe next turn, IF I survived. Next it was time to take out the Decimator. HLC cannon turret for the victory? Oh no. I rolled and ended up just short.

Only two of my red dice came up with hits, the other two didn't matter because I had no focus available to flip anything. Oicunn returned fire and It was GG.

Closest game I've ever had, and edge of your seat finish for sure.

I've only played with one once, but it seemed to me it doesn't live long with it's 0 green dice. What's the big problem?