My local shop is starting Armada events and I was thinking on taking this list to the first one. No idea of what kind of meta I will be facing.

395/400

Admiral Motti

ISD II (flagship) - 143

-Relentless

-Needa

-Electronic Countermeasures

-Leading Shots

-Turbolaser Reroute circuits

2x VSD I - 90 each

-Ordnance Experts

-Expanded Launchers

6x Tie Fighter Squadron

The plan is for the ISD to hang back and shoot at long range while the VSD advance and engage their fleet, trying to take out big targets with their massive amount of black dice. The fighters are there to tie up any bombers and will hunt them down in packs of 3. My biggest concern is that this list seems like it really wants the initiative with that many black dice. Maybe cut a squadron or two? What are people's thoughts?

I would say that Relentless isn't going to be particularly useful here - if what you want the ISD to do is to sit at distance and take pot shots, then you don't really need him to be as responsive as that, and you have the Gladiators for flexibility. I would say that Avenger would be more useful - use the Gladiators to soften up the targets and encourage your opponent to exhaust his defence tokens, and then hit him with the ISD so that he can't use them.

The Needa/Turbolaser Reroute combination is quite clever, I like it! And combined with the Leading shots, it leaves you likely to get the hits you want at a distance. I would say that Electronic Countermeasures is maybe a bit unnecessary - again, if you're planning to sit at distance, the need to use your defence tokens that heavily isn't going to be high.

I'd try to find the points to kit out one of your gladiators with Demolisher - it is SO useful to be able to attack after moving. For your second gladiator, you could swap out expanded launchers for Proton torpedoes - fewer dice to throw, but cheaper and churns out face up damage cards.

My temptation would be to swap two TIEs for Howlrunner - she gives a humble TIE fighter some much needed potency, and has the defense tokens to allow her to stay in the fight a little longer.

I don't see any GSDs he has 2 VSDs. I would also keep ECMs on the ISD-II, you may want to stay at range but with mostly front firepower and assuming you are not going to all-stop and get caught with no defence tokens you won't stay at long range for long.

I think expanded launchers on VSDs is very points extravagant. You are slow and some enemies will easily slip past your front arc on occasion. Your default front battery is also pretty scary so no need to boost it further. Use your 26 points for Gunnery teams on the flagship and maybe flight controllers on one VSD with boosted comms maybe. Then look at upgrading a Tie Fighter with Howlrunner.

This is where I am at in the evolution of my Imperial Fleet list. (I played a lot of lists, but this one is the one I am actually spending play time perfecting). I started with the three ships and have stuck with them, evolving only upgrades and squadron formation.

So far the list has gone 4-2-0 and is in it's sixth evolution, getting slightly better each time. It took third in a very competitive field at our SC last weekend over three games going 5-5, 5-5, 8-2 and then after a tweak, went 9-1 in a league game Tuesday.

I have found I like the ISD-I far more than an ISD-II, these ships are meant to deal out huge damage in a short time and both the VSD-I and ISD-I can do this. The Raider is working well getting in behind the enemy or supporting the squadrons in anti-squadron duty. The squadrons are more than a match for most opposing squadron groups and are also good at shield plinking.

I chose Objectives that benefit my list or at least do not disadvantage it. With 6 squadrons, I could use the positional objectives like Superior positions, but that can also back fire badly. I accept that I will almost always go second and the objectives reflect that as well.

Motti's Marauders

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

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

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Expanded Launchers ( 13 points)

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Impetuous ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Wulff Yularen ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

6 Aggressor Assault Fighters ( 96 points)

The issue your originally posted list has is it cannot react to changing fleets or battlefield conditions. A good player will quickly circle you, destroy your Ties and then plink you to death as the 2 VSD's cannot react fast enough. I have found that a single VSD poses such a huge threat and looks weak enough that it gets attacked first. With Motti, this gives you time to unleash a couple of very nasty frontal attacks whilst absorbing incoming fire, then limp out of the battle. If you get lucky, your opponent will break off some forces to try and finish you off, but that will play to your advantage.