So I typically go with a very ship-heavy build and just use my squadrons to soak up sweet, sweet points and distract enemy bombers. I just got my second set of Imp Squadrons in and have game night Monday so wanted to see what folks thought. I figured Soontir Fel would be a good fit with all of the escort to help give a little bit of punch back when they start trying to burn through the escort, but, again, I'm new at the squadron activation heavy bomber build so have at it, forum friends.

The Thousand Cuts

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Minefields

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Heavy Turbolaser Turrets ( 6 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)
2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)
1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
1 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 8 points)

Looks good, I'd drop the Tie Fighter and the Wing Commander freeing up 14pts, Add Wulff Yularen (+7pts) and Flight Controllers (+6pts)

Drop the SW7 Ion Batteries (-5pts) upgrade the Demolisher to ACM from APT (+2pts).

So that should give you 396pts

With Relentless (2 dials) and that many squadrons, you are going to be activating them every turn pretty much after the first, maybe 2nd. So round 1 take a Squadron token, then with Wulff you can activate 5 every round as he gives you a token of the type you just spent, so you can keep that Squadron token the whole game. Which means you can activate Soontir / Vader / Dengar / Tie Advanced / Tie Advanced with the flight controllers adding a blue dice to each of them, to get in a crippling alpha strike on enemy squadrons, then you can activate Vader / Rhymer / Tie Bomber x3 (vader because crits cause damage on his black dice).

The SW7 aren't going to do much for you, chances are with a ship doing nothing much but activating squadrons and only 2 ship activations, your blue dice will be side arc, and they are only a 25% chance of an accuracy, and tbh you always want one to spend minimum, not a great investment, if they worked on AA dice they would be fantastic, alas they do not.

And the APT, with 2 ships, your going to need to be **** careful with that Gladiator, ideally moving it into range at a ship that has activated already and giving it a 4 dice side arc, the ACM will add 2 damage, meaning you should be dishing out 5-6 damage average, then add 2 that cannot be braced, they are awesome for stripping shields, or crippling something that has no shields. In conjunction with your squadrons bad news for enemy ships. If you had player one and could double or triple tap with Demolisher, the APT might pay off, but even then that is 6 damage extra on a triple tap from the ACM.

Edited to add : Get rid of Most Wanted and add Advanced Gunnery, you have no GT so if your opponent feels crazy you will get the full benefit, Contested Outpost is fine, I'd switch Minefields to Superior Positions, with that many Squadrons you have an excellent chance of being able to rack up many many VPS from rear arc damage.

Took everything to heart and made the modifications. The only remaining question: would I want precision strike given how many ships I have with bomber?

Thanks!

Took everything to heart and made the modifications. The only remaining question: would I want precision strike given how many ships I have with bomber?

Thanks!

No probs, I like to keep my hand in, especially as I post fleets of my own asking for feedback.

You could, you only have 4 bombers though, Ideally you take Advanced Gunnery so they won't pick it, meaning either Contested Outpost or Superior positions are the two choices, either of which work, Contested outpost you can slow roll the ISD II towards the station front arc on, and park your bombers on the station, you can activate the nastys to get rid of opposing squadrons asap, then have them join the parked ball, Demolisher can lurk at the rear for something trying to fast flank the ISD II.

Superior Positions, gives you a clear advantage, you get to see their whole set up, more importantly they have to guess where to set up to get to grips with you, and then you have your whole 9 squadrons to get on them rear arcs.

Took everything to heart and made the modifications. The only remaining question: would I want precision strike given how many ships I have with bomber?

Thanks!

No probs, I like to keep my hand in, especially as I post fleets of my own asking for feedback.

You could, you only have 4 bombers though, Ideally you take Advanced Gunnery so they won't pick it, meaning either Contested Outpost or Superior positions are the two choices, either of which work, Contested outpost you can slow roll the ISD II towards the station front arc on, and park your bombers on the station, you can activate the nastys to get rid of opposing squadrons asap, then have them join the parked ball, Demolisher can lurk at the rear for something trying to fast flank the ISD II.

Superior Positions, gives you a clear advantage, you get to see their whole set up, more importantly they have to guess where to set up to get to grips with you, and then you have your whole 9 squadrons to get on them rear arcs.

Makes sense. We're still working on figuring out how to utilize deployment, so I've stayed away from Superior Positions because I don't always feel like I know how to capitalize on it.

With two ships it seems like I'll need to wait for them to come to me in any event. I was thinking a pretty tight formation; a Gladiator out by itself without a full gunship ISD or raider support is kind of asking for trouble.

I'm usually a big fan of activation advantage and gunships so this is taking me out of my comfort zone but I know in the right hands it's a nasty build.

Well I am looking forwards to hearing how this plays out for you. Good luck.

Well I am looking forwards to hearing how this plays out for you. Good luck.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

We'll just say more research is needed. I went second into activation advantage and my opponent chose Contested Outpost.

Long story shot, I funneled his MC80 through obstacles and between my ISD and Demolisher took it out before his other ships could get into truly. With his flagship/main gunship down and my fleet pristine, he conceded at the end of turn 2, but the Rhymerball was up against the MC80 in the event that it went longer.

I'm glad for a good clean win, but I didn't really get to try much of the strategy, unfortunately.

Well I am looking forwards to hearing how this plays out for you. Good luck.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

We'll just say more research is needed. I went second into activation advantage and my opponent chose Contested Outpost.

Long story shot, I funneled his MC80 through obstacles and between my ISD and Demolisher took it out before his other ships could get into truly. With his flagship/main gunship down and my fleet pristine, he conceded at the end of turn 2, but the Rhymerball was up against the MC80 in the event that it went longer.

I'm glad for a good clean win, but I didn't really get to try much of the strategy, unfortunately.

Yes it certainly was a quick game, at least your objective choices did their job.

It is a fairly strong build, but you are going to struggle against a high ship activation fleet, but that is the beauty of Armada, there is always a counter.

Well I am looking forwards to hearing how this plays out for you. Good luck.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

We'll just say more research is needed. I went second into activation advantage and my opponent chose Contested Outpost.

Long story shot, I funneled his MC80 through obstacles and between my ISD and Demolisher took it out before his other ships could get into truly. With his flagship/main gunship down and my fleet pristine, he conceded at the end of turn 2, but the Rhymerball was up against the MC80 in the event that it went longer.

I'm glad for a good clean win, but I didn't really get to try much of the strategy, unfortunately.

Yes it certainly was a quick game, at least your objective choices did their job.

It is a fairly strong build, but you are going to struggle against a high ship activation fleet, but that is the beauty of Armada, there is always a counter.

That's my concern because the Rebel players I play against are finally realizing the beauty of TRC/corvette and mc30 spam. My hope against those is that my ISD can handle some (why I took the 2 instead of the 1 and gave it some gunner capabilities) and my Rhymerball can support and take on smaller ships that don't have as good anti-squadron capabilities.

Of course, If this doesn't work I still have my Double Victory Double Raider Demolisher Build I'm trying to tool around with (STILL IN ALPHA, NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT VERY MUCH NEEDED BECAUSE I KIND OF HATE THE VSD)

Well I am looking forwards to hearing how this plays out for you. Good luck.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

We'll just say more research is needed. I went second into activation advantage and my opponent chose Contested Outpost.

Long story shot, I funneled his MC80 through obstacles and between my ISD and Demolisher took it out before his other ships could get into truly. With his flagship/main gunship down and my fleet pristine, he conceded at the end of turn 2, but the Rhymerball was up against the MC80 in the event that it went longer.

I'm glad for a good clean win, but I didn't really get to try much of the strategy, unfortunately.

Yes it certainly was a quick game, at least your objective choices did their job.

It is a fairly strong build, but you are going to struggle against a high ship activation fleet, but that is the beauty of Armada, there is always a counter.

And that's exactly what I learned in the rematch.

I told him, in the spirit of fairness (and because he's a little newer than me) that I was bringing the same list. He brought a double mc30 double Neb Rieekan list. Of his objectives (Most Wanted/Fire Lanes/Intel Sweep) Most Wanted seemed the least odious so I picked that and took first player to mitigate SOME of the activation advantage.

Then I learned why you keep Rhymerballs back, and how it's very difficult to do so, esp. against, say, a Salvation kitted Yavaris.

Long story short, I sunk both of his MC30s (including his objective ship) but there was no way to both keep my ISD (my objective ship) back and utilize the gladiator vs TRC kitted Rebel fleets. I put up a fight, but the distance advantage of the Rhymerball/Boosted Comms combo was negated and I just couldn't put enough hurt on his ships before he closed on me.

I may try it one or two more times, but I feel infinitely more comfortable with a 3-4 ship activation gunship build and just enough squadrons to go after theirs and rack up points that way.

Why the Gladiator II? Why not I?

Why the Gladiator II? Why not I?

Because I was dumb. I've since embraced the 1, but I don't know if I'll have enough chance to perfect a Rhymerball before Regionals. I'll probably stick with my gunships and slowly try to get better at squadron deployment.