Hello,

I am a complete beginner but my friend and I have each a core set and like to play deathmatches. I play imperial and typically our games are 2x VSD vs. 2x CR90 and 2x Nebulon-B and a smattering of squadrons on each side.

I regularly get beaten. The VSD looks impressive on paper but in practice I never manage to prevent his CR90 from getting in my rear arc. they are simply too fast. Also, he plays 4 ships vs. 2 which is a huge advantage if you alternate activating ships. He'll get to move one Cr90 in a far away corner and forces me to move my VSD in front of his Nebulon-B.

I am struggling also to understand in which formation to deploy my VSD. Right now, what works best is to put the VSD quite close to each other with a screen of fighter in front and move forward at 1 for the rest of the game.

What am I doing wrong?

What am I doing wrong?

Reading forum descriptions.

...sorry, couldn't resist

On a more serious note, with core sets only you won't have a lot of options as regards ship upgrades, or squadrons, so there's not much you can do list-wise.

Try deploying both VSDs in parallel formation, fairly close together near the center of the play area. Then depending on your opponent's deployment, sweep the VSDs together left or right so your target ship (probably a Neb-B) will have to pass through both front arcs.

You might also want to outbid your opponent so you can go first, thus preventing him from going first AND last. If you go second, you may want to choose Advanced Gunnery (so your non-flagship VSD becomes a murderwedge), Contested Outpost (which you can deploy as close as possible to you, then easily camp at speed 0 then 1 to force him to close in) and Minefields (which lets you build a funnel forcing him to attack you head-on).

I am a complete beginner but my friend and I have each a core set and like to play deathmatches. I play imperial and typically our games are 2x VSD vs. 2x CR90 and 2x Nebulon-B and a smattering of squadrons on each side.

Have you considered not playing deathmatches? 2 VSDs are incredibly easy to outmanoeuvre in that type of situation. With unlimited turns the Rebels can take their time getting the CR90s into your rear arc then slow right down. You just can't turn quick enough to stop them. After a couple of turns you'll have the Neb-Bs in your rear arc too.

If you play objectives and the six turn limit then your opponent can't just fly around you and kill your VSDs with a couple of damage per turn. DiabloAzul has already covered the three objectives I'd suggest if running 2xVSD, so I won't go over those again.

In terms of list, if it's core set you'll be running Tarkin. Try Defence Liaison on both ships, you can use the Liaison to change your top dial to Manoeuvre once per game, use that to get two clicks at speed one and corner on your opponent's flanking ships, or potentially even drop speed to 1 unexpectedly with the free token and make them overshoot your VSD and end up back in your front arc.