Hey guys !

So, while I honed my skills as a Rebel admiral in the past couple of games, I wanted to make a list with the Insidious Gladiator and be squadron heavy at the same time. The idea was that the enemy is likely to flee away from being in range of the Gladiator, so having lots of mobile squadrons would catch up with ships that try to get away. In addition, if the enemy shies away from combat, I need to ensure squadron superiority to rack up points.

Also, I feel that Insidious really needs to play with objectives to get the most out of it, forcing the enemy to keep in mind his damage from behind ability and trying to avoid it and going into a trap. I don't think that this title card is as good as the Demolisher in ship to ship damage but I like its ability to mess with the enemy's battle plan.

It's been a while since I made an Imperial list so C&C is more than welcome ! Especially with the squadron parts

Admiral : Screed

Victory-I (73)

-- Screed (26)

-- Expanded Hangar Bar (5)

-- Weapons Liason (3)

-- Admiral Chiraneau (10)

-- Expanded Launchers (13)

Gladiator-II (56)

-- Insidious (3)

-- Gunnery Team (7)

TIE Fighter (8)

TIE Fighter (8)

TIE Fighter (8)

TIE Fighter (8)

TIE Fighter (8)

Darth Vader (21)

Soontir Fel (18)

TIE Bomber (9)

TIE Bomber (9)

Total : 299 points

Objectives : Advanced Gunnery, Hyperspace Assault, Superior Positions

So, the idea of the Gunnery Team on Insidious is that because the opponent will likely try to avoid it, I might only have one hullzone with optimal fire lanes. The idea isthat because of the short range of the Gladiator, it might not be possible to have good fire positions on two arcs, so I would shoot at a ship with one and do an anti-squadron barrage of two blue dice to help out with the squadron superiorirty. n addition, with Advanced Gunnery that will likely be on the Victory, both ships will have a mean killzone that the enemy will try to avoid.

In terms of objectives, Hyperspace Assault and Superior positions both favour the Insidious, while Advanced Gunnery favours the Victory. If they pick Advanced Gunnery, I'll position the Victory to make the opponent flee its arc and get caught by the Insidious. If he is foolish enough to take Hyperspace Assault, I'll position the Hyperspace objectives to flush him out into the killzone of the Victory by scaring him with an Insidious dropping in his rear arcs. Superior positions will help ensure that they get caught in the killzones of both ships !

You have Fleet Ambush picked and discuss Hyperspace Assault...is that an error?

I would argue that if you're spending the points anyway: Expanded Launchers is a better fit on Insidious over your Vic-I. I also question Fel in the list...perhaps Mithel would be better with Chirpy? Since you can direct him and he still "works" when vader gets trashed (he seems to die pretty easy in all my games tbh). I think Fel would be better with at least one more advance in the fleet.

Oh snap, I indeed meant Hyperspace Assault ! Thanks for pointing out

I was wondering about Expanded Launchers on the Insidious, but I was thinking that the enemy would go out of his way to make sure Insidious never fires by staying away and the idea was to catch them with the Victory I, hence the Expanded Launchers there

It's a good point about Mithel as well over Fel, I'll see what can work

I applaud your thinking outside the box and going with Insidious, but I feel like any imperial list not running Demolisher is in some sense of the word "kidding".

My first instinct was Insidious for my glad. Sup Positions is my objective after all. It is kind of hard to justify not taking "The" Demolisher though..it's just the best 88 points you can spend o_O

I applaud your thinking outside the box and going with Insidious, but I feel like any imperial list not running Demolisher is in some sense of the word "kidding".

Thanks ! Demolisher is indeed a superb card, but it's been in every Imperial list in my meta and Rebels are starting to adapt tactically to counter it (not only in list building, but in tabletop maneuvers). Once the initial shock of the Demolisher has faded away, the Rebs are usually smart and mobile enough to work around it.

while I love trying new things, I do have to agree that the flexibility of demolisher is hard to pass up if running only one GSD

if you were crazy enough to run multiples, though...

Demolisher and Skreed (also in a GSD) go running around the front. Suddenly, bam! in jumps Insidious from hyperspace. Oh, what fun that would be

thing about GSDs that is heavily emphasized because OMGMISSILES (which, to be fair, is a good reason to be distracted), is that they're still great squadron support even as a GSD-1 (Squadron 2; room for Flight Controllers and an officer such as Veteran Cap or Wulf). If you got them in bulk, you can afford to be quite flexible.

most likely more viable at 400 points, though. I imagine myself buying two GSDs so I can have them and a Tarkin VSD cruise around the galaxy, just being badass

Hey Fickle ! Yeah, the Demolisher is a good card, but I'm really trying to get Insidious in, just for fun. Demolisher is indeed good for straight up early game pressure, perhaps we should work Insidious as late game pressure/finisher !

I've reworked the list a little, I'd love to get your opinion on this !

Admiral : Tarkin

1) Victory-II (85)

-- Tarkin (38)

-- Expanded Hangar Bar (5)

-- Admiral Chiraneau (10)

2) Gladiator-I (56)

-- Insidious (3)

-- Weapons Liaison (3)

-- Nav Team (4)

-- Assault Concussion Missiles (7)

3) Mauler Mithel (15)

4) Soontir Fel (18)

5) TIE Fighter (8)

6) TIE Fighter (8)

7) Darth Vader (21)

8) TIE Bomber (9)

9) TIE Bomber (9)

Total : 300 points

Objectives : Most Wanted, Hyperspace Assault, Superior Positions

So, the goal here is to have the VSD work as a Carrier and spamming squadron Commands for fighter superiority while still throwing supporting shots. We have 2 squadron groups : Vader and the Bombers, Soontir, Mauler and the TIE Fighters in another.

I swapped the objective for Most Wanted so I could force a Rebel ship into combat (probably their biggest one), rather than having him flee around, or having him flee around and pass on the firepower it brings, which will still allow me some flanking moves from the GSD