Got the chance to play a version of my speculative 3 Star Destroyer build last night. When Wave 1 comes out, I'd like to try it with Motti and XX-9 Turbolasers on everything, but this is what I had:

3x Victory-II Class

Grand Moff Tarkin

293

Intel Sweep, Precision Strike, Fire Lanes

The goal is to gain more points than the opponent from objectives, making up for the potential loss of a Destroyer from bombers. Ideally, the enemy objective ship can be destroyed quickly in Intel Sweep, the Fire Lanes can each be controlled by one Destroyer, and I'm rolling enough dice to gain an advantage from Precision Strike. Since the Objectives are a critical part of this build, I wanted to test to see if the list was as well suited for them as I'd hoped.

My initiative bid won, but my opponent had also chosen Precision Strike, so I kept first player and selected that Objective. He got the Concentrate Fire tokens, but his list was 2x Corvette and 2x Nebulon-B, so half of those tokens were wasted on the first turn as other commands were banked.

Setup saw my 3 Destroyers placed more or less in formation, while he put Dodonna's Pride and 4 X-wings, including Luke, on one corner, and the rest of his fleet on the other, aiming to flank me hard and avoid my firing arcs. In this he was effective...perhaps a little too effective. I started my Destroyers off at speed 1 and slowly trundled forward, forcing him to take a wide berth around me, and it was turn 3 before we exchanged even the lightest fire. The X-Wing swarm started off powerfully: Dodonna's Pride scored a crit and selected Structural Damage, putting a second damage on me, which was a crazy combo with Precision Strike. The fighters that activated then discarded hits to flip my damage cards face-up, triggering it again and resulting in 3 damage, 2 face-up, and 30 points. It seemed like a fight skewed in their favour.

However, a Destroyer with a banked Repair token can fix 2 damage cards in one turn, and once I had no face-down damage cards, the X-wings were forced to hit my shields. Luke scored some more hits, but Dodonna's Pride was forced out of range by the concentrated fire of 2 Destroyers, and the threat of Asteroids. He had placed 3 asteroids in a row at setup to hem my destroyers onto the other half of the board and allow the Pride room to get behind me, but my left-most Destroyer had been placed pointing the gap between them and threaded the needle. Now, with the asteroids behind me, the Pride couldn't bank tightly to get behind me without colliding with them, and it had taken the crit that deals extra damage on collision. So, assaulted only by fighters, my Destroyer was able to completely repair itself, and shrug off the minor damage to its shields from the bombers.

On the other flank, the three rebel ships did a good job of keeping out of range of my main guns, but in return, were able only to hit me with weak broadsides. My closest Destroyer took several hits, eventually losing multiple shields, but redirects prevented me from taking hull damage. Meanwhile, all three of my Destroyers banked to the right, each managing to execute a 90 degree turn by game's end, meaning they were all pointed in a straight line, and the rebel ships were forced to fly alongside them, each ending in the forward arc of at least one. I was behind on objective points for most of the game, but it took only one turn of full firing to destroy one Corvette and score 5 victory tokens.

The rebel's cautious approach saved most of their fleet, as if they had been any more aggressive their remaining, damaged, ships would almost certainly have been destroyed. However, they failed to inflict much lasting damage, and although 6 damage cards were dealt by them in the game, none of my Destroyers had a scratch on its hull at game's end. Final score: 45 points from Objective for the Rebels, 45 points from destruction and 75 points from Objectives for the Imperials.

Conclusions: Part of the Rebel's failure this game was playing too cautiously and failing to accomplish much, but I feel as though had they been much more aggressive, they would have been destroyed entirely. Three Star Destroyers doesn't leave much room for staying out of range. The X-Wings were mostly irrelevant, and I felt I could have taken hits from more, and better, bombers without wanting for a fighter screen. What they did accomplish was entirely due to the Objective, and was easily undone with repair commands.

Awesome report thanks! I really enjoy reading well written battle reports espcially as there aren't that many for Armada yet. Which reminds me. We are missing a battle report sub-forum!

I was surprised you went for Vic 2s, but I suspect the blue dice made the scum keep their distance.

This makes me much happier that I have 3 VSDs enrt.

Well played.

With 3 VSDs you can really cover the board with your forward arcs, making an advance hard. I can't see a rebel counter to this strategy.

I don't think there is an easy counter with the the current ships. Te AF2 will change that, as well a the bwing (maybe)

That worries me as a rebel only player.

Part of the advantage of having no fighter screen is it blanks a large part of an enemy force dedicated to fighter superiority. However, a list running more bombers, Y- and B-wings, could pile on a lot of damage. This list basically accepts it's never killing a fighter all game, which gives them impunity. Selecting Precision Strike and keeping the ships out of firing arcs as much as possible would allow you to pile on a lot of damage, and victory points. The fleet could either be an Assault Frigate that goes toe to toe with a Destroyer, or Corvettes that keep to long range and take pot shots while relying on Evades.

Likewise, a Mon Mothma build with multiple Corvettes could spread out and snipe from distance. The 90 degree turn to maximize firing lines is a neat tactic, but only works in one direction, and Corvettes are fast enough to potentially find the blind spot and exploit it.

Lastly, this may be an example of bidding for initiative being an important decision. If I'm forced to pick an opposing Objective, I may be starting at a disadvantage.

Dang. I was hoping to get the jump on my playgroup with a similar list. I was thinking of just using Vic-1's three TIE squads to buy the clock out and Tarkin. Same bid, slightly different missions though. Because until wave 1 is fully out, I don't think there's much to be done about three VSD's. Even when accounting for misssions objectives.

I would like to test the this against the below.

5x Corvettes

General Dodonna

Dodonna's Pride (on a ship that the general is not on)

Keyan

2x B-wings

Luke Skywalker

Y-wing

Precision Strike - Hyperspace Assault - Dangerous Territory

299 points

Fly aggressive, the ships are fast enough to pick up objectives fast, flank when needed and punish when in a good formation. "The Vette Swarm"

Alternatively, the Rebel player could have banked his points from the initial card flips and simply fled with a 45 point margin. Running away all game would be inglorious for sure, but would essentially seal a Rebel victory.

Yea. . . I dont think rebels can take this list. . . My reasoning lies in the board size. With 3 medium ships (and lets use SkyHawk290's list as an example) There will not be much maneuver room mid game.

Rebels wont be able to go head to head until the MK2 and that does not have the firepower needed to take out a VSD. It would need the MC30c as a support craft to do that.

Personally I do not think Rebels will be able to take on good Imp lists/players reasonably until Wave 2. That is when we get the MC30c (which I personally think will be the true bread winner of the 2 waves) The MC80 while nice will likely be a HUGE point sink where the MC30 will likely cost less than a MK2 only because it has 4 Hull though it has GREAT shielding. . .

Also the ISD will be good at taking out squadrons. It wont be amazing but it will be good. Also the Gladiator is good with a 2 AS pool in the blue where the ISD as far as we know has a Red and a Blue in AS.

This list should work great till wave 1 arrives.1) The rebells capital ships can not go toe to toe with the VSDs, where the AF both outclasses the VIC on broadsides, speed and surviveability at long range. 2) The X-Wings are general fighter crafts, so you pay a point tax for their anti-squadron capabilities which are wasted here. 13 pts for a bomber with one red die is not cost-effective, but this setting will change once b- and y-wings are out - 10 pts for a 6 HP, black die bomber? Yes pls. I would guess that all-cap lists will have a hard time once the wave rolls out.

Alternatively, the Rebel player could have banked his points from the initial card flips and simply fled with a 45 point margin. Running away all game would be inglorious for sure, but would essentially seal a Rebel victory.

And also not at all out of character with the cowardly hit and run tactics of the rebels.

Alternatively, the Rebel player could have banked his points from the initial card flips and simply fled with a 45 point margin. Running away all game would be inglorious for sure, but would essentially seal a Rebel victory.

He tried doing exactly that, but as mentioned here, three Victory's covers a lot of ground, and he couldn't get out of my firing arcs. If I had been moving faster, I would have created a bigger blind spot behind me, but slow moving and tight turning left him nowhere to run.

I want to keep running this list once Wave 1 comes out, and see how it matches up to a more focused rebel list. Y-Wings would obviously have done more damage than X-Wings, but not much more (0.75 damage versus 1 damage, on average), and the Destroyer was still untouched by game's end. B-Wings could be a real problem, but I'd like to see it play out.