Well, as an Empire player who refuses to use an ISD, I simply don't have access to any real defensive upgrades: especially ECMs.

Wait Wait wait!!

Your telling me you decided to play Armada, a game basically built so fanboys can make pew pew noises with Star Destroyers, and your a IMPERIAL PLAYER but you REFUSE TO PLAY THE ISD!?!?

I am confused :/

Unnatural isn't it?

He could just mean the Imperial-II

As the Imperial-I is just as unable to take a Defensive Retrofit as a Victory Class SD is...

that's all there is to it

ECMs by themselves also aren't going to save you on their own. They're a once per round deal, and if the enemy can concentrate Home One modded shots on your ship then it's going down regardless. Either way, you're relying on your positioning to save you (though, the ISD's ass being as fat as it is, you better cover up with ECM)

Once per round brace is better than dying.. there's really nothing nothing else to say besides that..

sometimes, they're interchangeable.. there's really nothing else to say besides that

doesn't mean you don't take them on arses as wide as the ISD (or mon cal), because that lovely lady won't be avoiding any broadsides anytime soon. Just means don't get too caught up in them, because they'll be valuable but they won't pull your ass out of the fire.

that's all there is to it

ECMs by themselves also aren't going to save you on their own. They're a once per round deal, and if the enemy can concentrate Home One modded shots on your ship then it's going down regardless. Either way, you're relying on your positioning to save you (though, the ISD's ass being as fat as it is, you better cover up with ECM)

Once per round brace is better than dying.. there's really nothing nothing else to say besides that..

sometimes, they're interchangeable.. there's really nothing else to say besides that

doesn't mean you don't take them on arses as wide as the ISD (or mon cal), because that lovely lady won't be avoiding any broadsides anytime soon.

I don't know what you mean by interchangeable. Can you expand on this?

You said: "ECMs by themselves also aren't going to save you on their own."

I'm saying that they will When you absolutely need to Brace, 7 points is a steal pay, even if it's for once a turn, or once per game due to IO.

Well sure, in your example (which has nothing to do with my statement) xi7s are indeed all or nothing.

Maybe I misunderstood your statement, then? Because I thought you said having XI7s on more than one of your ships is redundant. If that's not what you're saying, then there is no disagreement here.

ECM is a nice upgrade. Gets a little costly to put on all ships though.

There is, however, another, much bigger, problem for me: number of ships that can take ECMs in my fleet is exactly 0.

Is my fleet unviable? No it isn't. I manage quite well in fact.

Not trying to be smug here, but instead point out what I'm sure other Imperial players have realized: the ECM is not mandatory.

they won't

a ship with ECM is still very easy to drop if not commanded well, due to token weaknesses to multiple takes and ECM once-per-roundness. I say this to draw attention to the fact that positioning, not ECM, will be your ultimate savior

of course, like I said 3 times now, you take them on large ships because no amount of great flying is going to make it easy to avoid fire when you're that huge

they won't

a ship with ECM is still very easy to drop if not commanded well, due to token weaknesses to multiple takes and ECM once-per-roundness. I say this to draw attention to the fact that positioning, not ECM, will be your ultimate savior

of course, like I said 3 times now, you take them on large ships because no amount of great flying is going to make it easy to avoid fire when you're that huge

Sure, we might as well add that player skill is even more useful than positioning. I can strawman all day instead of addressing the effectiveness of ECMs directly.

@OP, Strictly speaking Imperial here, Raiders and pincer tactics work really well against Home One and congo lines. If you manage to block the ship from moving and then throw your entire fleet into the Rebel ship, you will out-attrition and win the fight. At that point, it becomes a numbers game and Imperial ships trade much better than Rebels. I've had my MC80 rammed to death in a single turn from a Raider, a Engine Teched Gladiator and a ISD-I. Block the MC80, shoot, then go all in on it: 8 HP goes away real quick.

That's why I think Ozzel is an amazing admiral, since you can quickly go from speed-1 la-di-da to speed-3 you're dead on the ISDs and other ships.

huh. . . weird. . . I expected shmitty to comment on this.

Well, as an Empire player who refuses to use an ISD, I simply don't have access to any real defensive upgrades: especially ECMs.

Wait Wait wait!!

Your telling me you decided to play Armada, a game basically built so fanboys can make pew pew noises with Star Destroyers, and your a IMPERIAL PLAYER but you REFUSE TO PLAY THE ISD!?!?

I am confused :/

Unnatural isn't it?

As much as I love ISDs...VSDs are FAR FAR sexier.

I also have an aversion to bandwagons; and I quite like being in the minority of Imperial players that do not take that behemoth.

I read the card and instantly bought +3 Nebulon packs for Intel/XI7s.

I could only afford one, so I only got one.

Simple Economics.

Yeah... coming from Magic and GW.. the 3x Nebs I got on sale costed the same as one of my dual lands so..

But your Dual land ... will only go up in price ... Can't say the same thing about this toys ...

that is one good thing about being basically the only rebel, there's no band wagon to make you feel derivative

even if there was, there'd be no MC-80 in it apart from Home One, aka the reason this thread exists

Well, as an Empire player who refuses to use an ISD, I simply don't have access to any real defensive upgrades: especially ECMs.

Wait Wait wait!!

Your telling me you decided to play Armada, a game basically built so fanboys can make pew pew noises with Star Destroyers, and your a IMPERIAL PLAYER but you REFUSE TO PLAY THE ISD!?!?

I am confused :/

Unnatural isn't it?

As much as I love ISDs...VSDs are FAR FAR sexier.

I also have an aversion to bandwagons; and I quite like being in the minority of Imperial players that do not take that behemoth.

Wait, you're serious?

that is one good thing about being basically the only rebel, there's no band wagon to make you feel derivative

even if there was, there'd be no MC-80 in it apart from Home One, aka the reason this thread exists

You use Ackbar? That's the rebel bandwagon

Well, as an Empire player who refuses to use an ISD, I simply don't have access to any real defensive upgrades: especially ECMs.

Wait Wait wait!!

Your telling me you decided to play Armada, a game basically built so fanboys can make pew pew noises with Star Destroyers, and your a IMPERIAL PLAYER but you REFUSE TO PLAY THE ISD!?!?

I am confused :/

Unnatural isn't it?

As much as I love ISDs...VSDs are FAR FAR sexier.

I also have an aversion to bandwagons; and I quite like being in the minority of Imperial players that do not take that behemoth.

Wait, you're serious?

Deadly. When I saw them as the release ship, I danced for joy.

My second favorite? Carrack-Cruisers. I really want one of Mel's :\

ECM is a nice upgrade. Gets a little costly to put on all ships though.

There is, however, another, much bigger, problem for me: number of ships that can take ECMs in my fleet is exactly 0.

Is my fleet unviable? No it isn't. I manage quite well in fact.

Not trying to be smug here, but instead point out what I'm sure other Imperial players have realized: the ECM is not mandatory.

Seven of our eight possible ships can't use ECMs. It's not that ECM isn't mandatory, it's that it's largely unattainable. Which is why I started this thread. Not to argue that we're screwed, but to get a conversation going about what we can do.

that is one good thing about being basically the only rebel, there's no band wagon to make you feel derivative

even if there was, there'd be no MC-80 in it apart from Home One, aka the reason this thread exists

You use Ackbar? That's the rebel bandwagon

nope. Garm (and the appropriately named Defiance)

will have to play Ackbar soon, however. Can't have our imperial boys going in not knowing what to expect

that is one good thing about being basically the only rebel, there's no band wagon to make you feel derivative

even if there was, there'd be no MC-80 in it apart from Home One, aka the reason this thread exists

You use Ackbar? That's the rebel bandwagon

You mean congowagon. Ackbar's nice but I'm really liking Mothma w/ CR90s and MC30s.

Well, as an Empire player who refuses to use an ISD, I simply don't have access to any real defensive upgrades: especially ECMs.

Wait Wait wait!!

Your telling me you decided to play Armada, a game basically built so fanboys can make pew pew noises with Star Destroyers, and your a IMPERIAL PLAYER but you REFUSE TO PLAY THE ISD!?!?

I am confused :/

Unnatural isn't it?

As much as I love ISDs...VSDs are FAR FAR sexier.

I also have an aversion to bandwagons; and I quite like being in the minority of Imperial players that do not take that behemoth.

Wait, you're serious?

Deadly. When I saw them as the release ship, I danced for joy.

My second favorite? Carrack-Cruisers. I really want one of Mel's :\

Those things look so bland and unimaginative they're almost NASA.

You're an odd duck, Mister Spike.

Those things look so bland and unimaginative they're almost NASA.

You're an odd duck, Mister Spike.

He's not alone.

I love the straightforward design of the Victory class Star Destroyer and the Carrack Cruiser, too.

I also love the particularly bland Cloakshape fighter. Don't ask me why.

Of course, a childhood spent reading books and playing games featuring the Victory probably gives it nostalgia points for me that some others don't get.

Well sure, in your example (which has nothing to do with my statement) xi7s are indeed all or nothing.

Maybe I misunderstood your statement, then? Because I thought you said having XI7s on more than one of your ships is redundant. If that's not what you're saying, then there is no disagreement here.

My original statement alluded to the opinion that if you are fielding more than one ISD you only need to equip one with xi7s. In reference to a comment someone made about only have one copy of the card.

Those things look so bland and unimaginative they're almost NASA.

You're an odd duck, Mister Spike.

He's not alone.

I love the straightforward design of the Victory class Star Destroyer and the Carrack Cruiser, too.

I also love the particularly bland Cloakshape fighter. Don't ask me why.

Of course, a childhood spent reading books and playing games featuring the Victory probably gives it nostalgia points for me that some others don't get.

I too like the VSD, because it makes the ISD look even bigger by providing a scale

the ISD is definite nostalgia fodder, but the phenomenon of habituation exists even there. For that reason, a fleet of 2 VSDs and 1 ISD looks so much cooler than 3 ISDs to me

Those things look so bland and unimaginative they're almost NASA.

You're an odd duck, Mister Spike.

He's not alone.

I love the straightforward design of the Victory class Star Destroyer and the Carrack Cruiser, too.

I also love the particularly bland Cloakshape fighter. Don't ask me why.

Of course, a childhood spent reading books and playing games featuring the Victory probably gives it nostalgia points for me that some others don't get.

I'm with you on that one. I've always been rather fond of it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he's wrong (tastes rarely can be called that), just that his tastes are a bit peculiar from my point of view.

I like the elegant, clean lines of the ISD over the "this is the prototype" look of the VSD.

And the Carrack is just completely uninspired in my opinion.

Depending on how bad the XI7s get, you need to invest more points in engineering. Not to repair your ship, but to do the 1-point shield moving to bring your shields to the damage, not the other way around. Against an Ackbar wall of fire list like 2AF + MC80 ackbar like to bring that's the first strategy I'd like to try.

There may be no superior defense strategy other than this, other than dodging enemy fire and getting into their un-optimal arcs (by racing ahead of a conga line or trying to get behind them). Since I like running VSD-ISD lists my head is chewing on ideas to try countering it in a shoot-out.

Those things look so bland and unimaginative they're almost NASA.

You're an odd duck, Mister Spike.

He's not alone.

I love the straightforward design of the Victory class Star Destroyer and the Carrack Cruiser, too.

I also love the particularly bland Cloakshape fighter. Don't ask me why.

Of course, a childhood spent reading books and playing games featuring the Victory probably gives it nostalgia points for me that some others don't get.

I'm with you on that one. I've always been rather fond of it.

I actually like the Cloakshape too! I also like Y-Wings for the same reason.

It's not really the look, perse, as is the case with Carracks...it's the function.

I like the hardy, reliable, usefullness of the ships. Reading about the Carrack as being such a powerful, but small, warship that was many times more powerful than it's size indicated made me love the little bugger...plus the simple look is something I kinda dig. It's kinda like when people talk about the Falcon and how it's "ugly" but still looks awesome for: reasons.

Well, I find the YT-1300 gorgeous in-and-of-itself...never understood the "hunk of junk" "fugly freighter" views on it.

I really love the "squished" nature of the VSD over the ISD. It looks more "business-like" and menacing with a smaller vertical profile ratio. Coincidentally this is why I've also fallen in love with Vindicators and pray for the days they are implemented into Armada so i can run a "Star Destroyer Light" taskforce with a VSD flag flanked by Vindys.