Hello guys !

So, it's been a while since I played Imperials and I wanted to try different things from the current meta !
Namely, going for a low ship count compared to the 3+ imp ship lists that are in favour since Gencon. The idea is to have a powerful and Resilient VSD with an aggressive and mobile GSD which role is to support the VSD.

C&C is appreciated

1) Victory I (73) - Tarkin (38), Dominator (12), Gunnery Team (7), Expanded Launchers (13), Enhanced Armaments (10)

2) Gladiator II (62) - Admiral Chiraneau (10), Engineering Team (5)

3) Major Rhymer
4) TIE Bomber
5) Howlrunner
6) Soontir Fel
7) TIE Interceptor

Advanced Gunnery
Hyperspace Assault
Minefields

300 points on the spot !

The Strategy :
The goal with Tarkin and the Dominator is to spam Engineering Commands and Engineering tokens to get 6 Engineering Points per turn and keep repairing shields to spend for the blue dice to boost the attacks (and hopefully get accuracies for the nasty black dice from the front arc). Enhanced Armaments is there to deincentivize flanking (and still hit Blue dice to the face).

The Gladiator will work as a micro carrier and escort for the elusive Rhymer wing spamming Squadron Commands. Chiraneau will keep the Bombers free while they will draw interception and the two anti-squadron barrage will help the fighter screen take out its ennemies (or even kill the squadrons that try to keep up with the Bombers through Squadron Commands). Engineering Team is there because Tarkin will provide Engineering tokens anyways so might as well take advantage of them That way it gives a free engineering command equivalent per turn for the Gladiator.

The Fighter scren is designed to work without any Squadron commands thanks to Counter, Howlrunner and Fel. The TIE Interceptor will be the bait and hopefully will get a couple of 3 dice Counter attacks with Swarms before dying

For objectives, Advanced Gunnery for the Dominator obviously, Hyperspace Assault for the Dominator too and Minefields in order to funnel the enemy fleet right into the firing arcs of the Dominator and the Glads (and if they try to go in the minefield, they'll be chased by the Rhymer wing).

Maybe consider dropping Howlrunner and the interceptor and replace with Vader and 1x Advanced. These complement Soontirs ability really well causing your enemy to think twice about attacking or allowing you to tie down their squads if you get the pouncr freeing up your bombers, it also has the advantage of being much more resilient if they get the jump on you. The escort ability also works for Fel as far as I am aware prevting him from getting targeted until Vader and the Adv are destroyed.

If you need to shed points I would suggest dropping the Enhanced Armament especially noting the Gunnery Team. Also worth considering a low bid as you have less ships, this will allow you to pick second and ensure you choose Objectives suitable to your two ship list, forcing them to play to your Rhythm.

Looks like a fun list. However, Tarkin is expensive for a two ship list - Motti might be a good idea for some extra hull points on the table. You can spam repair on the Victory and that should allow damage control or firing off the extra blue dice from Dominator.

I would also try and take Demolisher for your Gladiator, perhaps instead of Chiraneau. This will take some of the heat off your flagship as both ships are now a high threat.

Maybe a TIE advanced could be a nice combination with Fel, to add a black die for anti-ship from Rhymer, soak up enemy fighters, and allow best use of Fel's special ability.

Good luck!

first, main thing, you cannot use Expanded Launchers and Enhanced Armaments together on the VSD1, they are both modifications, which you can only use one.

So I somewhat modified the list:

VSD1 (total: 130)

Tarkin

Dominator

Gunnery Team

GSD2 (total: 77)

Engineering Team

Admiral Chirpy

Squadrons (total: 67)

Rhymer

TIE Bomber

Soontir

TIE Advance x2

This leaves 26 additional points to be spent.

I swapped out the reg TIE Interceptor and howlrunner for 2 reg TIE advance. Reasoning is that if you are keeping your squadrons close, they can easily blast soontir out of the sky and then focus on your bombers. The TIE advance will help protect all your other squadrons and will also allow soontir to proc frequently. Also TIE Advance have a slightly better ability to damage ships, so Rhymer helps them as well if you go against an all ship build.

Personally I am not sure Tarkin will be the best Commander for this build. Tarkin really wants multiple ships with high command value. My recommendation is to drop Tarkin for screed. Both VSD1 and GSD2 can benefit greatly from Screed since they both utilize black dice. So if we use Screed, that would give you a total of 38 points extra when using the same build as I posted above. But if you want to use Expanded Launchers or Enhanced Armament still, it would bring you down to 25 or 28 points extra, respectively.

Also recommend supping up the GSD2 a little more. Since you want to use it to help support fighters and act as additional anti-squadron fire, GSD2 is what you will want. But I would recommend adding ACMs (especially if you switch to screed), this will give you extra damage that cannot be mitigated. So with ACMs, switching to screed, and using either EL or EA, you would still have 15 or 18 points left that you could add additional seasoning to your fleet.

Just my thoughts though

first, main thing, you cannot use Expanded Launchers and Enhanced Armaments together on the VSD1, they are both modifications, which you can only use one.

Erm, I may have this wrong but I think you can take both because Launchers are 'ordnance' and Armaments are 'turbolasers'. At least, that is what Battlescribe tells me!

first, main thing, you cannot use Expanded Launchers and Enhanced Armaments together on the VSD1, they are both modifications, which you can only use one.

Erm, I may have this wrong but I think you can take both because Launchers are 'ordnance' and Armaments are 'turbolasers'. At least, that is what Battlescribe tells me!

You could, however, you are missing the caveat of "Modification"

A Ship can only mount one "Modification".

We're not talking about upgrades here, we're talking about Upgrades that are marked, in italics, on the card, as "Modification"

Page 13 Rules Reference, "Upgrade Cards"

• A ship cannot have more than one upgrade card with the “Modification” trait.

Battlescribe is incorrect in this matter.

Battlescribe is incorrect in this matter.

Darn, so that means my planned Assault Concussion Missile and H9 turbolaser happy meal isn't legal.

Battlescribe is incorrect in this matter.

Darn, so that means my planned Assault Concussion Missile and H9 turbolaser happy meal isn't legal.

Actually you can take ACM and H9, because they aren't modifications Expanded and Enhanced have "Modification" written at the top of the card and the RRG states that you can't take both

I too was using Battlescribe and it doesn't tell the list is wrong when you have 2 modifications

@kami : First, thanks for reminding me about the 2 modifications bit ! I've been away from my cards and I completely forgot about that

I thought about taking Advanced to have Fel proc sooner, but the idea was to have porcupine strategy with the Fighter Screen. Basically, with Howlrunner and Interceptors, each time the enemy will attack an Interceptor, the Counter will throw 3 dice instead of 2 that can reroll one dice for a total potential damage of 3. The idea is to have Howlrunner behind the two Interceptors to provide that and force the guy to fire at the non named Interceptor first, taking these 3 dice with reroll to the face + the proc from Fel.

I thought about Screed too, but I don't have any upgrades like ACM that take advantage of crits. I could rewrite it though ! The idea was Tarkin was to give Engineering tokens each round in order to get 6 Engineering points per turn with the Dominator so O can use its title ability more often

The idea was this Tarkin build isn't to store tokens for flexibility (in which case I agree with you, ships with higher command are preferred), but to spend the Engineering token each turn to recover Shields. This is why I've put the Engineering Team on the Glad, meaning I'll get 3 engineering points which is the equivalent of a free Engineering Command per turn on top of the Squadron Command.

I do agree about your points for the Gladiator and Rhymer. I think Rhymer can be great to buff a Bomber wing that is unsupported by Squadron Commands due to allowing the ball to shoot in the Squadron phase at medium range without moving instead of range 1. So I'll drop him and free up points to buff the Glad up.

I think I'll keep Enhanced Armaments instead of Expanded Launchers on the Dominator (because it's going to be flanked more easily), put the Expanded on the Gladiator, remove Rhymer for a regular TIE Bomber.

I've got 7 points to spend, and I was thinking Gunnery Team on the Glad would be good. Any suggestions ?

If you can squeeze out an extra point, engine techs on the gladiator is nice. Or maybe Sensor team to get some accuracy to support your multiple black dice barrage. Given the gladiator is short ranged I don't think you get much mileage out of gunnery teams.

I agree that Engineer Techs is good in a Glad That said it requires Nav commands or Nav tokens to trigger while I plan to use Squadron commands

I agree with you for Gunnery Team, the idea was to be able to shoot the AF barrage from the same hull zone as another one I'd shoot. Sensor Team is also a good idea, I don't know which one to take yet.

Okay, so with the comments you guys have made, here are a few modifications for the list

Victory I - Tarkin, Dominator, Weapons Liaison, Gunnery Team, Enhanced Armaments

Gladiator I - Insidious, Chiraneau, Gunnery Team, Expanded Launchers, Engineering Team

Howlrunner

Soontir Fel

TIE Interceptor

TIE Bomber

TIE Bomber

Same objectives

Insidious is more interesting for late game and Glad 2 doesn't really bring anything to manage a Bomber Wing.