Edit: list revised!

I've got a comp coming up and I wanted to try something out that was entertaining and something completely away from the norm. I keep seeing Gladiator/ISD/MC80 heavy lists with 2 capital ships most...and wanted to try something else. I'm fairly new to the game but so far I see that Interceptors deal heavy damage. Victories are solid warships and whilst slower keep rebel ships that want to pick a fight in their front arc longer.

The goal is for the Victories to act as carriers, 2 Vic 2's for ranged combat, with the 3rd acting as a close range brawler. I may see if I can shave some points and get the second Victory 2 X17's.

Victory 2 - 85 points

-Motti

-wing commander

-flight controllers

-x17 turbolaser

Victory 2 - 85 points

-wing commander

-flight controllers

Victory 1 - 73 points

-wing commander

-boosted comms

-Expanded launchers

Fighters

-Howlrunner

-Interceptor

-Interceptor

-Interceptor

-Interceptor

-Fighter

-Fighter

You are going to need a commander, Motti would work well. My only other suggestion would be to swap howlrunner in for soontir. Howlrunner plus flight controllers plus interceptors is brutal.

So I have to spend the points and add a commander basically? I'm using the armada fleet builder.

Alternatively how about I drop the Tie Bomber swarm...and simply take as many interceptors/ties as I possibly can?

I've noticed how good they are at plinking shields down...and it an enemy choses to spend a turn attacking fighters my VSD's can get in close for damage.

List edited!

Alternative idea: drop X17 and add in another tie fighter?

I'm considering running a three VSD carrier list as well. I would recommend putting a bomber group back in. TIE Interceptors will chew up enemy fighters like you wouldn't believe, but against capital ships they only have a 50/50 chance of doing one point of damage, and that's only at Range One. So you're talking 3/4 damage if they are all in range.

I personally consider the VSD-I a better carrier, simply because of its lower cost means that you can bring more fighters. If the idea is to have a carrier list, you want to bring as many fighters and bombers as you can for those carriers to command. The only difference between the two classes of VSD are Blue versus Black dice. You're not going to spend much time at Medium range, and Black dice have a MUCH higher damage output (though no Accuracy results). So you're throwing equal dice at Long Range, and closing the gap between Medium and Close range isn't too difficult.

Also bear in mind that VSDs can't turn. They just can't. So the only time you want to get close is when you have your opponent whittled down or you're facing something as slow or slower than you are, like other VSDs or MC80s. Against anything faster, you're going to fire those blue dice once and then your opponent will be behind you. And your VSDs will never turn to re-engage. But if you had some bombers to command, they could deal with any fast flankers (Corvettes, Raiders, MC30s, etc.). And if you're closing on something slow, you can get into black dice range, unload, ram, unload, ram, repeat as necessary.

So with your list, if you swapped the IIs for Is, you're saving 24 points. That puts XI7s on your remaining two ships (which you'll want with no blue dice for reliable Accuracy). Drop the Wing Commanders (assume you're going to spam Squadron commands until at least turn three or four) and the Rapid Reload (again, if something's to your side, it's going to be behind you and you're never going to catch it). Put Boosted Comms on all three.

And now you have a choice - you can take a Fighter/Bomber mix or all Bombers, but I wouldn't recommend all fighters in a carrier list. You're spending points to make your squadrons more effective, but they won't be effective against enemy ships so you're essentially wasting your points. If you go with the former, then I would suggest putting Flight Controllers on one or two ships (depending on Fighter group size) to enhance their alpha strike. If you're going with pure bombers, take Ruthless Strategist instead. If your opponent comes after you with their own bombers, you can engage them with yours, and use the bomber's high hull of five to deal out serious damage with your ship's anti-squadron fire. If all three VSDs have range, that's a guaranteed three damage on each enemy ship plus whatever the bombers and anti-squadron dice roll. That should be enough to take out even Y-Wings.

I also can't stress enough the importance of taking an Intel ship (Dengar or a vanilla Jumpmaster). If your opponent has a smaller fighter screen, he's not going to come into your Ruthless Strategist range or engage your fighters directly. He's going to try and tie your bombers up as long as he can. If you don't have Intel, your bombers are going to get stuck somewhere and not be doing their job.

So the basic idea is to keep your VSDs back against anything fast or any situation where you're outnumbered. Let your Bombers and red dice do the heavy lifting to start. But don't be afraid to engage against an enemy that can't quickly get behind you, because your ships have eight hull each and can put out the hurt at close range. Black dice are the best dice for raw damage.

Oh, and for an Admiral I would personally take Tarkin. Now you can give a Squadron token to each ship every round, giving you an effective squadron value of four.

One of our League-Buddies had a lot of success with a list very similar to this:


[ EMPIRE FLEET (398 points)
1 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Flight Controllers - Boosted Comms - Slaved Turrets (89)
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Flight Controllers - Boosted Comms - Slaved Turrets (89)
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Admiral Motti - Quad Laser Turrets - Slaved Turrets (108)
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 • Dengar Punishing One (20)
11 • ''Howlrunner'' TIE Fighter Squadron (16)
12 • ''Mauler'' Mithel TIE Fighter Squadron (15)

Personally i wouldn’t bother with the solitary VSD II - it is true that he gives your fleet some long range shooting, but he will find himself outgunned by most fleets. I would go for all ISD I's and concentrate on closing the gap asap to get your brawlers where they want to be.

To that end, you are probably going to need nav commands most turns to help keep the enemy in your front arc, so I would go for Weapons Liaison instead of wing commander - its cheaper, and give you a bit of flexibility with any banked tokens (probably nav) to change to squadron command when needed or conc. fire command when you get in the mix.

As for the carrier fit out, I always like to max out the TIEs and the number you can activate - 12 squadrons with Flight controllers, swarm re-roll and Howl hit like a hammer on activation, with mauler jumping in to the mix last and causing havoc. The survivors will also help to plink ships to death, helping out the slightly lackluster VSD I's with no turbo-laser/ordnance upgrades. I haven’t gone for boosted comms as i think expanded hanger bays are crucial for winning the initial squadron encounter, plus you want to keep them in and around your VSDs for protection and join in the brawl.

Victory 1 - 73 points

-Motti

-weapons liaison

-flight controllers

-expanded hanger bay

Victory 1 - 73 points

-weapons liaison

-flight controllers

-expanded hanger bay

Victory 1 - 73 points

-weapons liaison

-flight controllers

-expanded hanger bay

Squadrons

-Howlrunner

-Mauler

-Advanced

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

-Fighter

Okay...lets get kinky:

Okay, I think we have a solid list.

"The Victory Fleet"

I had success with:

VSD-I

Tarkin

Defense liason

VSD-I

Defense liason

Boosted coms

VSD-I

Defense liason

Boosted coms

Dengar

Firespray X2

Rhymer

Mithel

Advanced x3

Most wanted; hyperspace; superior positions

Tarkin gives you more squadron activations and crucially timed nav tokens....

What makes me hesitant about taking Tarkin is he eats up alot of points at the expense of making my VSD's less durable. A 10 hull rating is nothing to sneeze at, more so when it's 3 10 HP ships that are rolling around.

If I read this correct, Tarkin basically changes all command dials to 1 dial he chooses. So I could put squadron commands on all of my ships?

With Tarkin you choose a token at the start of the turn. Each of your ships gains that token. This is in addition to your command dial. So if you choose a Squadron token and flip a Squadron dial, you activate your squadron value +1, so 4 on a VSD.

And if you don't need the squadron command with the liasons our could change it for repair or (probably) navigate. Motti never give me enough hull so... I fly this one taking the more advantage I could for boosted coms and spamming squad comand, when the enemy is in position I speed 2 and park in front of an enemy ship. It works more often you could imagine.

You could change superior position for mine fields. I take it cause it gives me an stupid amount of points. I get 120 as average XD

And I feel that Defense Liaison synergizes well with Tarkin, but I feel more comfortable sinking those points into Ruthless Strategists. Of course, I'm running almost a pure bomber list with a few escorts, so I need all of the AF damage I can get. But with a squadron heavy list, I just assume I'll be spamming Squadron commands until turn three or four.

Motti never give me enough hull so...

This. Six hull over the entire fleet is a very nice boon, especially if you're trying to shave that fourteen points. But two additional hull on a single VSD isn't likely to save its life. It might, might keep two VSDs alive, but chances are you're still going to lose the same number of ships you would have without Motti, just the survivor might have a few extra hull points left. And don't forget, if your flagship dies, you lose those two hull immediately.

Alright...alright....

I recognize the fowl stench when I was brought back into this thread: Governor Tarkin it is

Okay I THINK! we might be locked in here....I was curious what 3 objective cards would work best with this list?

My idea here is to keep squadron commands going and using the fighters as one big fist...close range with the SD's and blast the hell with everything I have.

Some thoughts:

Precision Strike

-Bank on being able to throw Engineering Commands in some latter turns - you want to be able to quickly get rid of any face-down cards that hit your Victories. Use that ENG value to do so.

Contested Outpost

- You're built for a slow roll. Make your enemy come to you, into your guns, before pouncing.... Its a bit tricky to make sure you're all aiming in the right direction at the right time with Victory Class SDs, but you have your Squadrons to help kill them when they DO come to the station. You're still packing 9 command, which is impressive to try to go through to overtake the station.

Superior Positions

- Slow rolling again, less about being able to aggressively maneuver your ships to be able to strike Rear zones, and more about defensively denying your opponent the chance to do so. An Echelon Abreast formation (a Diagonal Line) usually helps with that... Then your Bombers (and even fighters, once the enemy fighter cover is done) can go to try to score those points... The best part is, your enemy is completely setting up first - so you CAN and SHOULD decide on setting up a victory fortress echelon formation right from the get-go.

Some thoughts:

Precision Strike

-Bank on being able to throw Engineering Commands in some latter turns - you want to be able to quickly get rid of any face-down cards that hit your Victories. Use that ENG value to do so.

Contested Outpost

- You're built for a slow roll. Make your enemy come to you, into your guns, before pouncing.... Its a bit tricky to make sure you're all aiming in the right direction at the right time with Victory Class SDs, but you have your Squadrons to help kill them when they DO come to the station. You're still packing 9 command, which is impressive to try to go through to overtake the station.

Superior Positions

- Slow rolling again, less about being able to aggressively maneuver your ships to be able to strike Rear zones, and more about defensively denying your opponent the chance to do so. An Echelon Abreast formation (a Diagonal Line) usually helps with that... Then your Bombers (and even fighters, once the enemy fighter cover is done) can go to try to score those points... The best part is, your enemy is completely setting up first - so you CAN and SHOULD decide on setting up a victory fortress echelon formation right from the get-go.

These are my exact Objectives on a three VSD build. I think they are all very strong.

Sweeeeeet

I take the same but contested outpost. I take hyperspace assault to put an VSD-I on the face if my enemy is brave enough to choose that XD I never have the chance but... the others are like Christmas

My god...this list was awesome to play...and stuuuuupid flexible when it came down to it.

I faced a list tonight, ISD 1 - naked, Victory 1 - Motti/boosted comms and another Victory 1, with 4 tie bombers (with rhymer) a fire spray, an advanced and dengar.

Precision strike played right into my hands...it was glorious...I killed Motti in one go....and just went hunting.

The Interceptors were out right cruel...5 dice just decimate the enemy bomber force.