So looking for some help building a list for an upcoming tournament. The only restriction I have on the list is I want to take triple ISD's, I've dropped the cash so I want to get them out there and blowing stuff up.

This is what I'm thinking at present:

Admiral Motti

ISD II - Gunnery Team, ECM

ISD II

ISD II

Opening Salvo, Fire Lanes, Minefield

Nice and simple.

But what I want to know is if you were taking 3 ISD's, how would you work it?

Step

1) Spend a silly amount of money for 3 plastic ships.

2) put them on the table

3) ???

4) Profit!

Seriously though, that's a ton of hit points to burn through, but their range is unimpressive. Mesa thinking you had best get up close and personal as quickly as possible. Make them ram you as you have much larger bases than their toys. And for the love of all that's holy, you need to focus on and kill ackbar as quickly as possible. (I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty of him)

If I ever get 3 ISDS I'd probably have 2 ISD-1S (Both with Gunnery teams) and 1 ISD-II with Gunnery team and ECM ( this is 372 points in total)

+ Motti and that is 397.

That's a heck of a lot of money I would have to spend for a 3 ISD fleet that I'd probably never use, so I probably won't in the near future anyway.

Obviously you need an ISD-II to take ECM to protect Motti.

After that I think 2 ISD-Is to get gunnery teams all round and maybe an XI7, leading shots, Avenger or Relentless upgrade to use up the points or go for an initiative bid.

You could be aggressive and go for Vader as admiral but I think Motti is good insurance when flying through a bomber blob.

Here's something to think about:

ISD-II

- Admiral Screed

- ECM

- Overload Pulse

ISD-I

- Avenger

- Leading Shots

ISD-I

- Leading Shots

- XI7 Turbolasers

So the ISD-II hits something with OLP before Avenger unloads and does a good 8-10 damage. If you use Leading Shots and aggressively re-roll your black dice (i.e. roll everything that's not a Hit/Crit), you can get a good nine or so damage against something that can do nothing to stop it. A Concentrate Fire command should bring that to ten or higher. The other ISD-I is just there to mess up your opponent's day even further. Yes, you lose the Motti bump, but that's not going to make much difference. If your opponent has done 11 damage to an ISD, they shouldn't have much trouble doing the last three. And you guarantee that OLP trigger and, worst case scenario, you can flip a blank black die to Hit/Crit.

Biggest drawback to this list is there are no squadrons. I guarantee you that someone will come with a swarm of A-Wings and then it's death by 1000 cuts.

I really don't think you need gunnery teams too much with 3. I included 2 YT-666's for the 7 hull. Use ruthless strategists to carve up any bomber/fighter force that comes after you. Just keep the 2 YT's close to your ships. With 3 ISD's you have a lot of firepower and if you deploy to one side it should be harder for you to get flanked.

3 ISD1

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 396/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

2 YV-666s ( 30 points)

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Seriously though, that's a ton of hit points to burn through, but their range is unimpressive. Mesa thinking you had best get up close and personal as quickly as possible. Make them ram you as you have much larger bases than their toys. And for the love of all that's holy, you need to focus on and kill ackbar as quickly as possible. (I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty of him)

Yup, hoping the prospect of Opening Salvo is enough to sway them to one of the other objectives, which should allow me to channel them with minefields or force them to come meet me head on with fire lanes.

Akbar is the bane of my life, although for the most part the local meta is fairly heavy on Imperials so I hopefully shouldn't have to face him too much. If I do I'll be following your advice and trying to take him down asap.

If I ever get 3 ISDS I'd probably have 2 ISD-1S (Both with Gunnery teams) and 1 ISD-II with Gunnery team and ECM ( this is 372 points in total)

+ Motti and that is 397.

That's a heck of a lot of money I would have to spend for a 3 ISD fleet that I'd probably never use, so I probably won't in the near future anyway.

This is a list I have been swaying towards as I do love my gunnery teams on ISD's, and really lament the desicion when I field them without.

I've had good successes running two(2nd in my last tourney), so in a moment of weakness decided to drop the cash for a third. Might as well have some fun with them .

Obviously you need an ISD-II to take ECM to protect Motti.

After that I think 2 ISD-Is to get gunnery teams all round and maybe an XI7, leading shots, Avenger or Relentless upgrade to use up the points or go for an initiative bid.

You could be aggressive and go for Vader as admiral but I think Motti is good insurance when flying through a bomber blob.

I was tempted by Vadar, but think it's just too many points for an 'alright' ability. I also can't wait to see the look on an opponents face first when they see 3 ISD's and then when they see it's Motti leading them .

Here's something to think about:

ISD-II

- Admiral Screed

- ECM

- Overload Pulse

ISD-I

- Avenger

- Leading Shots

ISD-I

- Leading Shots

- XI7 Turbolasers

So the ISD-II hits something with OLP before Avenger unloads and does a good 8-10 damage. If you use Leading Shots and aggressively re-roll your black dice (i.e. roll everything that's not a Hit/Crit), you can get a good nine or so damage against something that can do nothing to stop it. A Concentrate Fire command should bring that to ten or higher. The other ISD-I is just there to mess up your opponent's day even further. Yes, you lose the Motti bump, but that's not going to make much difference. If your opponent has done 11 damage to an ISD, they shouldn't have much trouble doing the last three. And you guarantee that OLP trigger and, worst case scenario, you can flip a blank black die to Hit/Crit.

This, on the whole, I like. The synergy between the ships is really nice. The only problem I have is it kinda sets up a specific activation order, which an opponent can take advantage of if they know what they are doing. You can find yourself in the situation were activating the Avenger before the others is more beneficial, leaving some upgrades a little useless, even if it is only for a turn or two.

Biggest drawback to this list is there are no squadrons. I guarantee you that someone will come with a swarm of A-Wings and then it's death by 1000 cuts.

Yup. Squadrons may be the death of me . So far though there has been a significant lack of squadrons in the local meta, or else I probably wouldn't be toying with this idea. Last tournament I only faced 4 Tie's in each of my first two games, and Dash and 2 YT-1300's in my last. Knowing my luck it will be a different story on Saturday though.

I really don't think you need gunnery teams too much with 3. I included 2 YT-666's for the 7 hull. Use ruthless strategists to carve up any bomber/fighter force that comes after you. Just keep the 2 YT's close to your ships. With 3 ISD's you have a lot of firepower and if you deploy to one side it should be harder for you to get flanked.

3 ISD1

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 396/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Contested Outpost

Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)

- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)

2 YV-666s ( 30 points)

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

This is a really interesting idea. Up front I don't think I'll use it at the weekend, as as I've said squadrons don't seem to be taken too much locally. But it's something I'd like to use in the future and certainly the best use for YV-666's I've seen, which I'd written off completely.

Thanks for the help folks. You've given me a lot to think over .

Could try this.

Flagship

Imperial Class 2 Star Destroyer.

Ozzel.

140pts.

Fleet ship.

Imperial Class 1 Star Destroyer.

110pts.

Fleet ship.

Imperial Class 1 Star Destroyer.

110pts.

Squadrons.

5 TIE Fighter Squadrons.

40pts.

Grand total 400pts.

I have run the three ISD list and without fighter support you are in serious trouble. I ran mine with Motti, but that leaves another issue, that of making damage stick. With no available Turbolaser upgrades (points are sparse in this list) damage just wasn't going through.

I also learned you MUST protect the ISD-II's with ECM's

You have to attack from different vectors. Attacking in a line doesn't create enough tactical flexibility.

If I were to try the 3 ISD list again with no squadrons this would be my list.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

Indeed, the larger the ship, the more of 2 core flaws it has :

1) It reduces the number of attacks in your list by taking up more space.

2) Its defense tokens are vulnerable to a high number of attacks. Both your ships and defense tokens are going to be nimbed on by many many squadron or small ship attacks without much to be done against it. I had the case today where an ISD was destroyed in 2 turns due to a bajillion smaller attacks.

Besides, you pay for Squadron 4, and I don't think it's without reason : they allow to actually have a decent point defense for ISD 1s or can help project damage at range for ISD2s. On top of that, they give you some measure of deployment control so you can delay the placement of your key pieces. You don't have to swarm an ISD with 8 TIEs while waiting for your opponent to run out of squadrons to deploy, but 1 or 2 x 2 is just enough to see what the enemy has.

I just played a full ship list with 1 ISD and 2 Victory, against a dedicated Bomber list (B-Wings) from a friend and the pain was keenly felt