Long and short of it is I got wrecked by a Mark II and one MC80. 3 accuracy's, massive damage would have 1 shot my VSD if I was not running Motti and even with him a token and a repair command the ship was toast after it's next activation. What can Imps do to counter this sort of massive firepower being thrown at us?

Nothing.

Glad to help.

Well...depends what else you had really. A VSD is not going to ever fare too well against an MC80 and AF with Ackbar alone.

Gunnery team mind you doesnt help the Rebels in this situation.

The other night, I lost to an ISD, Glad and 133 points of fighters, a Rhymer ball and a Howlrunnerr swarm. I was playing Akbar + MC80 2x AFIIB and Han Solo. I t was close, I nearly tabled my opponent, and the MC80, spamming engineering

( with Raymus) after turn 3 was indestructible !!

Against approx. 200 points of rebels....

Make the VSD with Corruptor and long range comms, and add as many Tie Bombers as you can find!

Meanwhile run your Raiders around his front and start firing ACMs.

Basically ackbar will force imps to do gladiator boxing (well boxing in general, raiders are looking at filling this roll as well) in order to stay competitive

So your 100 points took on 200 points and you are wondering why it died?

"We cannot repel firepower of that magnitude"

How the tables have turned

"We cannot repel firepower of that magnitude"

How the tables have turned

Rebels should have brought some whales in RotJ ...

Then the Imperial Commanders would go like: "OMG they got the Guppies! Do they got Ackbar? Yes of course! And Enhanced Armament and of course Gunnery Teams. And we are sitting here with speed 0 because of direct orders from the Emperor and we can't even use our defense tokens! ... Its a TRAP!"

Another reason why VSDs should be able to take defensive retrofits. (Not to mention the whole defensive retrofit icon is on the ship thing.. sigh)

As was already mentioned, using a Rhymer ball along with Boosted Comms is the way to go here.

I found that for those of your currently unable to field an ISD, it will seem frustrating to face the MC80 and Ackbar. Trust me when I say they did a pretty slick job of balancing the two ships, especially when facing eachother. Long story short is the ISD will actually move fast enough when you need it too to eat said guppies when they don't want to be that close. Depending on upgrades you may even be able to one shot the thing into non-existance.

Rhymer, Bombers, Tie Advanced, Boosted Comms and Chiraneau will put the hurt on an MC-80. It's death by a thousand cuts. The swarm negates almost all of the MC-80's ability to negate damage.

Try this list out :-)

SHIP: Imperial I-class Star Destroyer 169

Admiral Motti

Admiral Chiraneau

Gunnery Team

Expanded Hangar Bay

Boosted Comms

Heavy Turbolaser Turrets

Relentless

Major Rhymer 16

TIE Bomber Squadron 9

TIE Bomber Squadron 9

TIE Bomber Squadron 9

TIE Advanced Squadron 12

Boba Fett Slave 1 26

Firespray-31 18

Firespray-31 18

Aggressor Assault Fighter 16

SHIP: Victory I-class Star Destroyer 96

Wing Commander

Gunnery Team

Boosted Comms

XI7 Turbolasers

Total Points: 398

I have no solution on paper ...

You need to force the Rebel player to choose one of your missions.

You need to deny the Rebel to take advance of his firepower.

Its not easy but i think thats the way to go.

In the new wave (meta) VSD are good support ships. The ISD has the speed and needs to get down the throat of the rebel player. The isd has 4 blue dice while the rebs have 1 or 2 so you need to be at medium range asap.

If you can head on ram an mc80 with an ISD you will ram/shoot it to death in a couple of turns.

So your 100 points took on 200 points and you are wondering why it died?

No, I'm wondering how with just wave 1 you can take it on. Apparently just bombers.

Well...depends what else you had really. A VSD is not going to ever fare too well against an MC80 and AF with Ackbar alone.

Gunnery team mind you doesnt help the Rebels in this situation.

It helped because his Frigate obliterated one VSD in his first attack, Ackbar giving him 2 red dice. My other VSD was then in LOS so he attacked it added another two red dice. So yea, gunnery team helped a ton.

In the new wave (meta) VSD are good support ships. The ISD has the speed and needs to get down the throat of the rebel player. The isd has 4 blue dice while the rebs have 1 or 2 so you need to be at medium range asap.

If you can head on ram an mc80 with an ISD you will ram/shoot it to death in a couple of turns.

What kind of support VSD would give? Fire support? A big blob of a slow-moving obstacle that is able to obscure your opponents shots?

The VSD II brings some clever support in Wave 2. It can act as a carrier or as fire support, 3 red and 3 blue with Heavy Turbolaser Turrets and a Gunnery Team is no laughing matter and if they are shooting this, they are not shooting your ISD. I'm liking my VSD in wave 2.
For 4 more points I can get Boosted Comms and command three squadrons with it at long range. Three bombers is no small threat (especially if one is Rhymer)

Yeah fire support, as long as the target is in the front arc and squadron support.

Just like the roles right now. Maybe I am going to stick with VSD only in wave 2 ... you can get 5 of those in a 400 points list ... so far for 'fire support'

Another thing you can do is make sure all of your ships approach at about the same time. You don't want 3 Star Destroyers, but only 1 of them is actually in firing range, because it'll take ALL the fire and even if it survives, your return fire will be awful.

Also you want ALOT of ships - to force your opponent to activate his Mk2's and MC-80's BEFORE you move your Star Destroyers into range. I expect I'll need to field at LEAST 3 Raiders in order to make this happen.

These are simply alternatives to the more practical squadron-heavy build.

Well...depends what else you had really. A VSD is not going to ever fare too well against an MC80 and AF with Ackbar alone.

Gunnery team mind you doesnt help the Rebels in this situation.

It helped because his Frigate obliterated one VSD in his first attack, Ackbar giving him 2 red dice. My other VSD was then in LOS so he attacked it added another two red dice. So yea, gunnery team helped a ton.

That wasnt the situation you described. It now helps in this new situation

From Various Posts I am seeing a general trend of there being 2 major strategies, one is to load up on big toys and the other is to load up on Squadrons(Bombers) that will distract from your own ships (now that there are enough points for a decent amount of both) If you have 3-4 Squadrons running up a Flank/Rear and a Star Destroyer (of any type) in the front/other flank, redirect becomes a lot less useful when you are getting hit on all sides.

As much as we gripe about 40k on these forums one valuable lesson I learned as a Dark Eldar Player (and a little bit from Deathwing) is to play the objectives not the opponent. Choose the missions that aren't about killing your opponent's ships if his can take more punishment than yours and if your opponent is built around keeping a close formation spread out the objectives to force him to split up. It may feel different to play this way but it certainly gives the underdog a chance

Another thing you can do is make sure all of your ships approach at about the same time. You don't want 3 Star Destroyers, but only 1 of them is actually in firing range, because it'll take ALL the fire and even if it survives, your return fire will be awful.

Also you want ALOT of ships - to force your opponent to activate his Mk2's and MC-80's BEFORE you move your Star Destroyers into range. I expect I'll need to field at LEAST 3 Raiders in order to make this happen.

These are simply alternatives to the more practical squadron-heavy build.

All we need is more arrogance.

I have been very successful with: "No, you are not going to blast my VSDs. Because its just not POSSIBLE. Yes, try it you Rebel scum, take your chances and DIE like the others."

Seems like the lists with MC80s and Ackbar out there winning all over.