I recently played in a store "learning tournament" (180pts with no objectives and lists limited to the content of 1 core set). There was a good mix of imperial and rebel players so there ended up being a fair number of mirror matches. However no one brought a Vic I. My thoughts so far have been that the Vic I is meant to tackle larger, slower ships because any rebel player worth his salt wouldn't let his small base ships get within short range. But I haven't seen any Vic I vs Vic II match ups to bear this theory out.

If anyone has played a game where a Vic I went toe to toe with a Vic II I would be curious to hear how it turned out.

Here us a touney batrep that has vic 1 vs vic 2 in round 3

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/173021-armada-180pt-tournament-report/

It's more a case of choosing what you want. The VSD2's main change is the medium range dice as opposed to the short range black dice.

However, you can upgrade the VSD1 to be better at long range shooting than the VSD2 for cheaper than the VSD 2, making it better at long range fire, useful for putting damage on flanking CR90s. That ability to choose upgrades for the same or less cost becomes more and more potent as more upgrades are released by FFG.

So, the VSD 1 only looks bad now, when we have just the core set.

The Vic 2 is overall more reliable (medium range, blue dice are legit, has the slot for leading shot re-rolls)

The Vic 1 is the same bulk and squadron value for much cheaper

It's more a case of choosing what you want. The VSD2's main change is the medium range dice as opposed to the short range black dice.

However, you can upgrade the VSD1 to be better at long range shooting than the VSD2 for cheaper than the VSD 2, making it better at long range fire, useful for putting damage on flanking CR90s. That ability to choose upgrades for the same or less cost becomes more and more potent as more upgrades are released by FFG.

So, the VSD 1 only looks bad now, when we have just the core set.

Please, tell me more. Tell me how I can get this wonderful long range VSD1.

It's more a case of choosing what you want. The VSD2's main change is the medium range dice as opposed to the short range black dice.

However, you can upgrade the VSD1 to be better at long range shooting than the VSD2 for cheaper than the VSD 2, making it better at long range fire, useful for putting damage on flanking CR90s. That ability to choose upgrades for the same or less cost becomes more and more potent as more upgrades are released by FFG.

So, the VSD 1 only looks bad now, when we have just the core set.

Please, tell me more. Tell me how I can get this wonderful long range VSD1.

He is referring to the Enhanced Armaments upgrade card. If you expect to be outflanked alot, investing the 12pts saved for choosing VIC-I over a VIC-II could/may/might/will mitigate the loss of frontal firepower. Of course, the 3xBlack dice are not going to be pleasant for opponents once they start including 'Collisions' into their game play...and I don't mean the unintentional variety either.

Honestly I love Black Dice, 2 sides with Hit + Crit. The Vic I has all the potential to be as good as the Vic II, especially given the very small range band that is Medium.

On the other hand the Accuracy from Blue Dice has the potential to be very helpful as well.

It really depends on your personal preferences and play styles.

It's hard for me to take a VSD 1 over a VSD 2, just because a good rebel player will do everything they can to stay out of your front arc, and it's much easier to catch them at medium range than close range. I've considered using enhanced armament or Dominator to beef up the VSD 1, but for a couple more points I could just have a VSD 2 and consistently have the option of a really nasty medium ranged attack that isn't as situational as an upgraded VSD 1. Please enlighten me to the merits of the VSD 1 if you tend to take it over the 2... The other benefit I can see from the VSD 1 is using the leftover points for more fighters...

Honestly I love Black Dice, 2 sides with Hit + Crit. The Vic I has all the potential to be as good as the Vic II, especially given the very small range band that is Medium.

On the other hand the Accuracy from Blue Dice has the potential to be very helpful as well.

It really depends on your personal preferences and play styles.

This I think is spot on, we have several Imperal players in my group. I love the VSD II, one of the other players loves the VSD I. Both of us look at the other one and say nope, not saying we can not see some value but with our play style one fits better than the other.

Also depends on the upgrades you want. Vic I can load ordnance. Vic II can load ion cannons. While the latter is about control and precision, the former is about raw damage. So it really depends on how confident you feel about closing in on a target.

In my opinion, for the Core 180 points, Vic II all the way. But the more points get added, and the more targets show up on the battlefield, the likelier you'll be to use those black dice regularly.

Also depends on the upgrades you want. Vic I can load ordnance. Vic II can load ion cannons. While the latter is about control and precision, the former is about raw damage. So it really depends on how confident you feel about closing in on a target.

In my opinion, for the Core 180 points, Vic II all the way. But the more points get added, and the more targets show up on the battlefield, the likelier you'll be to use those black dice regularly.

Same idea here. If we are only looking at a single core set atm it is almost impossible to force any rebell player worth his salt into a VSD Is front arc at close range - that only ever happened in the first few games. Once more imp ships are available there might be a chance to narrow the maneouvring space down enough to catch rebells within close range of a VSD I. On upgrades I am pretty excited about the leading shots on a VSD II, not so much about the expanded launchers. Nobody who is not suffering from some kind of mental disorder is willingly parking anything in front of a VSD I with expanded launchers! Interesting upgrade on wave 2 however with rapid reload which gives one additional port/starboard black die, working with enhanced armament to bring the VSDs side arcs out of the 'meh' zone.

I figured I would jump back in and give an update based on the games I have played in the last few weeks.

I played a mirror match 180pts, my VSD I/Tarkin/Dominator + ties vs VSD II/Tarkin + ties. The Dominator VSD I shredded the VSD II in 2 turns once the shooting started. I think this ship build (minus Tarkin in full point games) is really promising as a suicidal hammer to throw at your opponents most powerful ship. If you pick a target that can't really get out of the way the VSD I/Dom can hammer it before dying with a good chance of taking out a significantly higher cost ship. The blue dice really come in handy for the accuracy rolls you are hoping to get to shut down the brace tokens and nine dice in one attack with a well timed concentrate fire can cripple even the tankiest ship.

The flip side of this a full point match I played against a rebel list. No black dice were thrown. To make matters worse the VSD I/Dom got focused and had it's shields stripped so fast that I only got to use blue dice on one shot. Even worse the filthy rebs used Dodonna to put a depowered armament crit on me eliminating long range. Luckily I had a repair set for next turn. This game pretty much reinforced for me that the VSD I is just not effective against small agile ships. Any ship with decent yaw capabilities going at least speed three will just never end up in that fat front arc at short range.

I recently played in a store "learning tournament" (180pts with no objectives and lists limited to the content of 1 core set). There was a good mix of imperial and rebel players so there ended up being a fair number of mirror matches. However no one brought a Vic I. My thoughts so far have been that the Vic I is meant to tackle larger, slower ships because any rebel player worth his salt wouldn't let his small base ships get within short range. But I haven't seen any Vic I vs Vic II match ups to bear this theory out.

If anyone has played a game where a Vic I went toe to toe with a Vic II I would be curious to hear how it turned out.

I have the same impressions, really. Against a rebel player (especially core set) those black dice just aren't going to see much, if any, action. Unless your opponent makes a huge mistake, in which case you should punish him, severely. Other than as a points saver, the Vic I isn't really a good choice vs rebels.

Mirror match, Vic 1 vs 2, I would give the Vic 1 a slight edge. Medium and close range are deceptively close to each other, so by the time he's rolling blues, chances are good that you'll be rolling blacks.

Or take both at 300 pts. VSD2 for longer range punch with a flanking a VSD1 to murder any pesky CR90s trying to get an end-around stern shot (set the VSD1 on the same side the CR90 is on and side-step over to get him in range before he can make the turn-3 sweep around), in addition to backing up the 2 with some extra red dice in other arcs. You also start getting good use out of Tarkin by dropping tokens on more than just one ship.

To add my two cents:

Last weekend I played a 300 point game against my friend with 3 core sets between us. He took 3 VSD1s and I took 3 corvettes and a Nebby. With 7 ships on the table you would think that there would be a fair number of range 1 shots- but nope. He wasn't able to roll a single black die all game. He just couldn't compete with the nimble rebel ships.

That being said, I think the VSD1s do still have their place, even with just the core set. It just depends on the objective. For example, the one where players are battling for control over the space station (I forget the name of that scenario- Contested outpost or something like that), I could see a bunch of black dice being nasty because they'll want to get close to you if they want to stop you from racking up victory points every round.

Agreed. You just need to either an objective that makes them come to you or targets that can't get out of the way. If I had a 3 VSD2 list and my opponent plunked down 3VSD1s I would start sweating.

I am reviving my old thread to talk about a few recent games. The VSDI one has proven pretty vulnerable to front jousting frigates. I have started taking gunnery team which has solved a lot of issues by giving multiple shots against flankers, removing the advantage of flanking the same side with multiple ships. Ignore corvettes until the frigates are dead.