Hey guys,

Im in Australia so my wave 1 hasn't arrived yet but have been doing some theory crafting. What do you think of this list?

Victory II Class Star Destroyer

Expanded Hangar Bays

Admiral Screed

Gladiator I Class Star Destroyer

Demolisher

Advanced Concussion Missiles

Engine Techs

4 x TIE Interceptors

Darth Vader Tie Advanced

Major Rhymer Tie Bomber

2x TIE Bomber

TOTAL - 296 Points

The idea is that with an Engine Tech demolisher - I can get a good hit in on a valuable target after alpha striking with a medium ranged bomber slingshot with the Vic II feat. Darth Vader, Rhymer and 2 TIE Bombers. (Activating 4 with expanded hangars). With Rhymer, my bombers shouldn't have to go out of activation range on their bombing mission so they can be a continuous threat that HAS to be dealt with. The rest of the force follows up this assault while frustrating the enemies attempts to take away the bomber threat.

Vader is there to escort the bombers and soak up as much damage as possible, while also being quite effective against ships himself. The TIE Interceptors run interference and try to disrupt enemy fighters, either being flung in during the squadron phase as as sacrifice to pin groups down or being controlled by spare squadron tokens/ commands from demolisher. They're also great at stopping bombing runs on my own capitals.

My ships close in and focus fire each enemy ship one by one following the same pattern - Bomber command to strip shields (can't use brace if it's just one damage each attack) and following up with close range assault from demolisher and (probably) long ranged fire support from the Vic.

Whaddyathink?

I think you should drop Vader to give your Victory Flight Controllers and Expanded Armaments.

You could also turn the Demolisher into a Gladiator II then.

I've actually taken a liking to Vader.

He's probably the best squadron hero assassin in the game right now. (I like him better then Fel.)

But that being said, you should ABSOLUTELY try to fit Flight controllers in your list. It makes Vader an absolute beast with 4 blue and 1 black dice that almost guarantees you damage. And the beauty of Vader is that with all of those blues, you can either count on haveing massive damage, or accuracy roles that I feel makes him probably the best squadron character assassin in the game.

I would probably drop the concussion missiles for the flight controllers, and drop a tie interceptor for either a single Tie with some more points towards an initiative bid, or another Tie Advance to screen for the super frail interceptors.

That should give you vader and the 3 interceptors for your victory alpha, and either a bit more staying power with an extra screen unit for your frail interceptors and perpetually bogged down bombers.

I think the Gladiator 2 is unneeded. With demolisher and engine techs, its easy enough to close the distance and use those black dice.

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah I like flight controllers, it's not in there because 1. I didn't buy a Vic Expansion haha and 2. I plan on activating Rhymer, Vader and the bombers with the Vic pretty much every turn so they'll be targeting ships not squadrons, with that in mind the flight controller points could be saved.

My Anti Squadron fighters are the interceptors which will be controlled by spare squadron tokens and maybe a squadron command from the Glad. The idea is that if they want to target the bomber slingshot they'll suffer because there's 4 interceptors and Vader (who won't go down easily) to punish them for it. Edit to say that with Rhymers range I can hopefully position Vader, Rhymer and the 2 bombers in a clump and never have to worry about Nebulons and assault frigates getting an easy 2 dice hit on all of them, this also means that the bombers will always be in range to be 'Escorted' by Vader. (In reality this may not work at all haha just theorycrafting).

If they go for the interceptors well, then they're playing smart because they'll eventually win space superiority, but I do get a few turns of long ranged uncontested bombing runs, in that regard changing an interceptor to a tie advanced to make their 'smart play' more difficult might be a great idea, thank you! What do you think of Soontir Fel/Tie Advanced combo as my 'ship and bomber escort' instead of just 4 plain interceptors (or three interceptors and a Tie Advanced as I'm more leaning towards now)

I think I'll stick with the Glad 1 because if it's targeting squadrons I'm probably not flying it very well.

Played a similar list, though I was lighter on squadrons and heavier on upgrades. Demolisher/Engine Techs/Assault Missiles work well. I took them on a G2, but after giving it some play I'd go G1 as well.

My squadrons were:

interceptor x2

Bomber x2

Vader

And TIE x2 (I think?)

My VSD had expanded Hangers (worked well) and Flight controllers (also worked well).

Vader and the bombers pestered an assault frigate while the rest of the squadron murdered a-wings, x-wings, and some enemy bombers. Not sure that the 3 I had doing bomber runs were effective, but I was a little light in the hangers and heavy in the upgrades.

What do you think of Soontir Fel/Tie Advanced combo as my 'ship and bomber escort' instead of just 4 plain interceptors (or three interceptors and a Tie Advanced as I'm more leaning towards now)

I think I'll stick with the Glad 1 because if it's targeting squadrons I'm probably not flying it very well.

I tried the Soontir / Tie Advance combo. I found it didn't have enough punch to be anything more then a 1-2 turn speed bump, followed by reb's simply tar-pitting my bombers into uselessness.

The thing to remember about reb fighters is that they are not only naturally tougher then imp fighters, but their hero's are MUCH more durable and threatening individually then IMP heros' So the interceptors might sound like its enough, but just wait until you run into a wall of nothing but X-wings and B- wings. That combo essentially can tear your fighters up followed by then focusing on bombing the hell out of your ships.

For that I think Vader and 3 interceptors are fine (as Vader can hunt hero's or try to one shot reg ships, and the interceptors can try and focus alpha against other ships.) But Vader alone can't hold off an entire squadron, and the interceptors are glass cannons. You will need either another Tie advance beyond vader to help with escorting duties to keep those interceptors alive, or tie fighters to give you more "tar-pitting" bodies to keep the interceptors as purely an "alpha strike craft" option.

My mileage with bombers up to this point has been kinda "meah." Rhymer's ability is nice and all, but you realistically only get one chance to use it before you get tar pitted by the reb fighters. (Only really strong in low or zero fighter lists.)

My mileage with bombers up to this point has been kinda "meah." Rhymer's ability is nice and all, but you realistically only get one chance to use it before you get tar pitted by the reb fighters. (Only really strong in low or zero fighter lists.)

This has been my experience as well. All the Rebel fighters are multi role. All the Empire fighters are specialized. Empire bombers are great against enemy ships, but they are completely dedicated to that and only that. They will lose a a fight to any rebel ship, even the Y-Wing. Therefore every point of your fighter pool you spend on them, in my experience, is one point closer to the opponent achieving fighter superiority.

Now if you run into lists with little or no fighters, the bombers will destroy.

If your running empire max out on Interceptors. With 4 main attacks an 2 counters their point cost per attack roll is #1. Add in hangers and controllers and your opponent has something to worry about. Don't be fooled into the howlrunner trap; she's the first to die and a point sink.

my experience is that there's a reason they made Admiral Chiraneau

personally, having faced it, the interceptors + howlie have been crazy . Once you engage the enemy (Speed 5), they can't move to threaten howlie. Meanwhile, you're farting out 6 dice (4 + howlie + FC) with swarm, + 3 dice counters with swarm (they are technically attacks).

The only thing that beat them: gallant haven. Holy hell that title is a thing of beauty!

But that was beaten by rhymer + chiraneau, in the sense that I had to fling my ships out of bubble range to engage the bombers. It would have been an even match at that point, but soon my name will become fickleantisquadrondice

anyway, howlie's amazing, engagement is the secret to using pilots with distance dependent abilities (howlie, soonts) because engaged squadrons can't move & imp fighters are fast , flight controller is great for punching through rebs, and don't underestimate the power of stupid fragility in large numbers