Yes. I'll dub it with a silly name.

I faced a similar list last night, and how reliable it was at what it did put me on the back foot - so I'm doing some tweaks and adding a little to it myself...

Here we go.


[ EMPIRE FLEET (400 points)
1 • Imperial I-class Star Destroyer - Grand Moff Tarkin - Gunnery Team - Leading Shots (159)
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Flight Controllers (79)
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Ruthless Strategists (77)
4 • Major Rhymer TIE Bomber Squadron (16)
5 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
6 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
7 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
8 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
9 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
10 • TIE Advanced Squadron (12)
11 • JumpMaster 5000 (12)
12 • Objectives - Precision Strike - Fleet Ambush - Minefields (0)



Imp-I with GT and Leading Shots... Yes, Leading shots only triggers on the Front attack, but I've got GTs to try to maximise that... The Damage is glorious... Yes, its not a II. No, there is no ECMs... Its a Risky Play. I've got Tarkin for Tokens to hopefully maximise repairs and damage output to not need it... Plus, I have 2 Victories that also need to be dealt with.

Speaking of which... Flight Controllers make TIE Bombers reliable little Anti-Squadron Menaces, throwing their Blue-Blacks... Team that up with Ruthless Strategists, and I should make a mess of even opposing Rhymer Balls, by sheer weight of Dice Damage... And if they have less hull then I do, then totally bonused... If they happen to be Counter Attacking Menaces of Doom, then I've got Intel to either push my way past, or stay so strategists do their jobs and just Bomb ships in Rhymer Ranges anyway...

Tarkin is someone I'm wanting to get back to using a bunch more... When I switched to Rebels, I used a whole Lotta Garm, and he seems to be the closest equivelant...

Objectives, meh, they're pretty straight forward... Contested outpost might be better than Fleet Ambush too - I'm not sold on those as choices... I've got 2 Weeks before I get to trial it in a Game or two... Then a further 2 weeks to tweak the list before trying it out one or two Final times before Store Champs on the 28th of Feb... (Gaming is only every 2 weeks).

I think Dengar would be nice over the Jumpmaster to give all your bombers Counter 1 while they get shot at. Plus he has tokens for greater resilience and a black die for anti-ship duties.

Looks like fun to try, and very Star Wars with all those triangles flying at you!!

I too am loving the ISD-1 as a bigger badder Gladiator or VSD-1. Everyone is taking a lot of ECMs, which makes people take Intel Officer to counter - so even on my ISD-2 I was only getting one decent brace per game. I figure save the points and focus on more attack!

I think Dengar would be nice over the Jumpmaster to give all your bombers Counter 1 while they get shot at. Plus he has tokens for greater resilience and a black die for anti-ship duties.

Looks like fun to try, and very Star Wars with all those triangles flying at you!!

I too am loving the ISD-1 as a bigger badder Gladiator or VSD-1. Everyone is taking a lot of ECMs, which makes people take Intel Officer to counter - so even on my ISD-2 I was only getting one decent brace per game. I figure save the points and focus on more attack!

The only issue with it becomes "Do I sacrifice a Bomber for Dengar"? Because that's really the only place that points will come from...

How about going Motti for the extra hull points, and using the points saved for boosted comms for the VSD's? Or maybe Dengar. I'm worried your VSD's will find themselves out of range to contribute their commands when they need to...

How about going Motti for the extra hull points, and using the points saved for boosted comms for the VSD's? Or maybe Dengar. I'm worried your VSD's will find themselves out of range to contribute their commands when they need to...

The whole fleet generally trundles as a pincer, and together at Speed 2, in my previous playtests... I've not needed the Boosted Range.. Maybe its all the practice I got pushing squadrons around up until now...

I really want to use Tarkin here... I default to Motti far too often , and this was partly a change.

Very cool build. Great to see some Tarkin builds, this look like it works very well. Would be great to see it in action

Lighter on the Squadrons, but, Tarkin now on a Victory.

Won't need to bank TarkinSquadron Tokens and I can concentrate on the other Tokens instead.

Don't know if I like it as much...

[ EMPIRE FLEET (399 points)
1 • Imperial I-class Star Destroyer - XI7 Turbolasers (116)
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Grand Moff Tarkin - Flight Controllers - Boosted Comms (121)
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Ruthless Strategists (77)
4 • JumpMaster 5000 (12)
5 • TIE Advanced Squadron (12)
6 • Firespray-31 (18)
7 • Major Rhymer TIE Bomber Squadron (16)
8 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
9 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
10 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)

.... Decided it was Not Enough Bombers.

... So More Bombers...

Testing on Sunday...


[ EMPIRE FLEET (400 points)
1 • Imperial I-class Star Destroyer - Leading Shots - Relentless (117)
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Grand Moff Tarkin - Flight Controllers - Boosted Comms (121)
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Ruthless Strategists (77)
4 • JumpMaster 5000 (12)
5 • TIE Advanced Squadron (12)
6 • Major Rhymer TIE Bomber Squadron (16)
7 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
8 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
9 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
10 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
11 • TIE Bomber Squadron (9)
12 • Objectives - Precision Strike - Fleet Ambush - Dangerous Territory (0)

Based on my recent experiences, I am very much loving this kind of list. It's the *consistency* of damage output that really does the trick. Ruthless Strategists with a ton of Bomber hull, plus the 75% chance of dropping squadron damage from a Bomber, means you drop enemy squadrons FAST. I saw 3 X-Wings and Jan Ors melt under weight of fire with my similar take on this list. Only thing I can say... maybe keep it down, don't let everyone know about how awesome this list is!

Based on my recent experiences, I am very much loving this kind of list. It's the *consistency* of damage output that really does the trick. Ruthless Strategists with a ton of Bomber hull, plus the 75% chance of dropping squadron damage from a Bomber, means you drop enemy squadrons FAST. I saw 3 X-Wings and Jan Ors melt under weight of fire with my similar take on this list. Only thing I can say... maybe keep it down, don't let everyone know about how awesome this list is!

I for one appreciate you sharing this with the community. This is what makes the FFG gaming community great! People sharing and bouncing ideas off of each other to further improve the competitive structure of the game. This is a very fun list, I run something similar with 2 ISDs and 1 Raider.... Hit fast and strong with the bombers and clean up with the ISDs .... Losing a fair deal of my bombers to heavy X-Wing squadrons tho.... Not really sure how to deal with that but I like the concept of running those flight controllers! I will give that a whirl! Thanks!

Curious for your take...

What if you instead ran this with double ISD? Something like this:

399/400

ISD I: Wing Commander, Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms, Expanded Bay, Leading Shots

ISD I: Tarkin, Ruthless Strategist, Quad Laser Turrets, Leasing Shots

Squadrons:

Rhymer

5 x Bombers

1 x Firespray

1 x Advanced

1 x Jumpstar

You lose some hull pts and a ship activation, but beef up your ISD intensity. What do you think? Just as good? Worse?

I'm not 100% sold on it at the moment... I'd personally be much happier with a 3rd Victory and some upgrades instead - but I only have the 1x ISD and the 2x VSD...

I think if you were going double ISD, you'd look at the -II upgrade... At least one one of them, to protect the Admiral.

At the moment, I rely on the second Victory being Back-of-Center with Boosted Comms, so its still able to provide a direct role in the battle but stay out of the thick of it until you're able to crush things completely.

Gotcha. So your formation is kind of a triangle pointing backwards?

For the most part. Its a very loose inverse Wedge formation... I think my Formation Instructor back at RAAF College would have wanted me to refer to it as a Loose Claw.

The ISD is out more on the Edge as a Flanker, where as the two Victories are Staggered. Mostly because, until you hit short range, it discounts Gunnery Teams somewhat, giving people a choice of who to engage, and often its potshots at leading Vic until ISD catches them, or Potshots at ISD until the Victories Drive a Rhymerball Roughshod over them...

Very cool. A variation of this could possibly be 2x ISD I and a VSD I. Your VSD would be carrier (flight control & boosted comm), with interceptors and Dengar. One named ISD and one with leading shots, or maybe quad turrets. Instead of a bomber group, it would be a destroyer group w/ anti squad support.

Pretty much I love your list idea but I desperately want to fly 2 ISDs, haha.

Regrettably, I only own the one, and everyone else I know who owns one is also going to be flying Imperials...

... Perhaps if I get another big Commission Paint job between Now and the End of February, I'll be able to get a second one...

My main concern with this altogether is the lack of ECM... This is likely to get chewed to pieces by a Rebel running MC80s with Ackbar and a decent protective squadron .... I have been running Rhymer balls and have tried a plethora of tactics and have been still running into problems with freaking Ackbar and 2 MC80s with squads.... They negate your brace and its downhill reallllllly fast....

My main concern with this altogether is the lack of ECM... This is likely to get chewed to pieces by a Rebel running MC80s with Ackbar and a decent protective squadron .... I have been running Rhymer balls and have tried a plethora of tactics and have been still running into problems with freaking Ackbar and 2 MC80s with squads.... They negate your brace and its downhill reallllllly fast....

I will state honestly that, previously, I've been not that shocked by it... If the Brace is ACCd, the Brace is ACC'd... I've still got the Redirects and aggressive use of the Contain Token if I have to...

27 Points to Recover it, and you lose out on Black Die Goodness to do it... If They're willing to throw multiple Ackbar Ships to kill my ISD, then so be it... They can't do that AND kill my Victories, which is where my damage will come from...

Running 3 Victories is much the same way - and I've seen that done very effectively...

I guess the concept is "Don't Panic".

You can do fine without the ECM. Sure it's a good card, and there could be times you'll miss it, but its not the über-card many make it out to be.

Sounds like I need to get painting bombers...

Which do you like better? The first iteration of the list or the 3rd (with Tarkin on a Victory)?

That said, is this an aggressive list? Fly right at the opponent and joust or is it more of a finesse list?

I think I'm aiming to this:

I intend to run it mostly as a Pincer... Precision Strike gives me plenty of opportunity to lay points up with my bombers, TarkinTokens let me remove damage with Engineering more efficiently...

In the past, when I've run variants of this list (not quite as dedicated with the Anti-Squadron), I'ts still been the cut off / envelopment play that a pincer gives you.

In that light, looking at this for mostly a compromise... I think this is how it'll run, the moment I finish painting the ISD:


EMPIRE FLEET 399/400

1 • Imperial I-class Star Destroyer - Imperial-class Star Destroyer (110) - Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (6)
• Total : 116 • Code : e15t5
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Victory-class Star Destroyer (73) - Grand Moff Tarkin (38) - Flight Controllers (6) - Boosted Comms (4)
• Total : 121 • Code : e1c1w2g3
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Victory-class Star Destroyer (73) - Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Total : 77 • Code : e1w4
4 • JumpMaster 5000 - JumpMaster 5000 (12)
• Total : 12 • Code : e23
5 • TIE Advanced Squadron - TIE Advanced (12)
• Total : 12 • Code : e12
6 • Major Rhymer TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (16)
• Total : 16 • Code : e8
7 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
8 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
9 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
10 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
11 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
12 • Objectives - Objectives (0) - Precision Strike (0) - Fleet Ambush (0) - Dangerous Territory (0)
• Total : 0 • Code : e0a3a7a10

I really like this last setup. However what do you think about Contested Outpost and Superior positions instead?

I'm fearful of fleet ambush after the last few games I've seen. And it would be sweet to set this fleet up knowing where the enemy will be.

How do you like this list?

Victory Shredder-Ball

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 399/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)
- Corrupter ( 5 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
7 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 63 points)

After running my Shredderball today against a DualMonCal list who had Luke, Wedge, Xs, Dutch, Ys and Jan...

I'd love to take that list.

I'm short a Victory, and Short a pair of Bombers... (The bombers could be a Firespray instead), but the short a Victory...

I'd trade Dengar out for a Jumpy - the Counter is okay , but its not needed, a standard Jumpy got it done for me today... But those points would be a second Ruthless Strat on the other Victory...