I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories about this load out and how to best utilise it's potential.

I'd also like to ask if it can be used more than once per activation?

How about you give us a build out to comment on. Put some work into the idea before we work/help on it?

I tried it with 1 glad with proj experts

frankly I'm not a huge believer in this upgrade in general and the Gladiator is not a great platform for it in particular.

I have a thread in the fleet forum called five ship imperial build u can check out and add to if u like, it's a wip list that is struggling to get the best out of gladiator in an offensive role ( don't even start lol)

I'm thinking about pro ex and their synergy with Tarkin specifically but also synergy wit my list in general

I've seen Projection Experts successfully used on a Corvette that essentially served as an activation + shield technician in the early game, and a flanker in the late game. Since the ship is pretty maneuverable, you usually know which shields you won't need going into the later turns, so just flat-out giving them away isn't too bad. I'm sure it'd serve as a useful objective ship depending on what was going on, so it's not entirely without options.

A Gladiator could potentially work in a similar way, if you planned to use it as a late game finisher or a ship to discourage the opponent from getting in close. However, that's still a significant points investment, and critically it prevents you from having Engine Techs, which provides a huge amount of versatility to the Glad and its threat range. Even further, Demolisher is usually too good/cheap an upgrade to skip, meaning a Projection Experts Glad would probably end up being your fleet's 2nd/3rd Gladiator.

Maybe an ISD + 3 Gladiators list could fit it in and see how it works, with the Projection Experts Glad guarding one of the ISD's flanks and feeding out shields to whoever needed 'em. One could try it out, but I'm definitely skeptical at the outset.

I haven't tried it but considered using it on a Glad 2 with ruthless strategists - 74 points (ie a naked victory) and might make for a good escort for your ISD.

I'm very skeptical. The Gladiator's role is to be a short-ranged assault ship and the Projection Experts are sitting in the Engine Techs' chairs.

Projection Experts are more a Rebel thing, really. And even then I almost never see them fielded.

Within my personal build I'm struggling to get the best out of the gladiator, starting from the top I can run a 'clon' but have no points to boost anything else in the fleet , it's not optimal for my list.

Something like demolisher/ engine techs is within reach .

A few examples of how I've fared - getting in close but not getting enough shots off to kill (naked demo)

Moving to intercept but getting outmanoeuvred by smaller ships ( no engine techs)

Trying to outmanoeuvre a mc80 but leaving the tiniest fraction of base in range and getting a bloody nose that's taken 2 turns of engineering to save but left you unable to manouver (poor speed choice, lack of tokens)

Insidious is always an option too if your picking a list with a low bid and minimal points to spend, used it to great effect once to outmanoeuvre a three ship neb formation that was queued up outside of close / med range of my gunships

Gladiator with projection experts within my list could work as I can form defensive strategys to ensure the glad never has to engage and can dedicate a good number of turns to boosting another important ship like the Isd or my flagship/ objective ship.

The gladiator should give offensively and defensively but I think the defence aspect gets overlooked due to recent success on the offence and I'm looking forward to looking into it in my next few battles, with some Tarkin.

Imo it's pretty useless. Projection experts is really niche. The only really good target is an mc80 assault with ecm and redundant shield, preferably with raymus and engineering spam. Add eng teams and redemption to taste.

That's up to seven shields back per round...sounds like a lot, and it is, but anything less than this is probably not tanky enough to be worth it.

I agree with most sentiments here. I don't think Glads are good platforms to deploy Projection Experts. I think PE are for CR90 support ships and MC80's.

so this is no good??

Tarkin Liason Regeneration Force

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

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

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)
- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)

Sky cake, Give it a try and see!

In the first instance I'd drop the DLs off the glads and downgrade one glad to a Raider 1.

Then put ordnance experts on the remaining 2 x glads.

I think you still have 19 points left at that stage. You could throw in 2 ties for another deployment or some ordnance.

so this is no good??

No, it's no good. You just spent 213 points primarily on being an IV drip of shields for one ISD. Instead you could've bought a second ISD and had points to spare. Even with Tarkin jamming the Engineering button hard in addition to the Gladiators selecting Engineering as their command, you're transferring two shields per Gladiator per turn but at a net loss of one shield per Gladiator (5 total Engineering points).

If you really want to use Tarkin's tokens to help keep an ISD in the fight in a more cost-effective manner, I might recommend waiting for wave 3

In a Tarkin list could I get away with upgrading to glad 2, equipping projection experts and flanking an Isd, using Tarkin to nav. engineering or concentrate fire on the dials depending on the engagement. With the right deployment the Isd should obstruct a lot of the gladiators incoming to mitigate the negative shield. My Isd replenising 3 + 2 shield in a turn appeals as does the appeal of extra red dice support from the glad.

Maybe six points upgrading a glad to a glad 2 gives a lot more synergy between the Isd and the gladiator just with the extra dice and aa support even before projection experts are considered?

In a Tarkin list could I get away with upgrading to glad 2, equipping projection experts and flanking an Isd, using Tarkin to nav. engineering or concentrate fire on the dials depending on the engagement. With the right deployment the Isd should obstruct a lot of the gladiators incoming to mitigate the negative shield. My Isd replenising 3 + 2 shield in a turn appeals as does the appeal of extra red dice support from the glad.

Maybe six points upgrading a glad to a glad 2 gives a lot more synergy between the Isd and the gladiator just with the extra dice and aa support even before projection experts are considered?

It's still so many points and not using the Gladiator well. If the Gladiator is obscured by the ISD then it's attacks back (just flak, basically) are generally also going to be obscured. Gladiators are geared towards short-ranged high-damage combat with enemy ships. They can't do much of anything just sitting back and being a shield buddy for an ISD. Consider that for 5 more points than a Gladiator-II + Projection Experts you can get a naked VSD-I, which between Engineering commands and tokens can also heal 3 shields on itself every turn with Tarkin but also can be relied on to actually attack enemy ships.

I actually tried this in a tourney.

IIRC I had a mini rhymer ball, a PE demo and ISD with lots of upgrades and a raider

It was an experiment as I had actually seen some list someone had put together right before leaving and I re-built my list in the car thinking it might be fun to try PE

It was a total flop. If your ISD is getting focused you need 2 PE glads to make any sort of difference and at that point you are investing a lot of points just to gimp the primary role of the gladiator.

For you to use PE you have to keep throwing eng commands on the glads which means no nav to modify that threat range and get the extra manouverability, no real chance to throw an anticipatory CF and frankly if you want to use your glad properly it has to be in the face of the enemy and PE is for ships that want to sit back. It's un-natural, basically an anti-synergy. It's one of those bad options game developers throw into a game so people feel clever about not choosing it.

One round of shooting from an enemy demolisher on my ISD is all it took to drive home that the piddly couple shields the glad was throwing while being egregiously out of effective range and having its threat range gimped by not having engine techs was NOT the way to run the ship and having more of them would have been throwing good points after bad, so to speak. I have seen well used PE on rebel fleets where a CR90 is kept tucked behind a more powerful ship and is used as a cheap shields battery and when given Jainas Light and TRCs it can actually still contribute offense while being shielded by the big ship it's supporting.

Leave PE where they belong, in care-bear rebel hands.

So I guess I will give PE a miss, I sincerely doubt il be back next week boasting about what a game changer it is!

One final gladiator related question then.... If you only had points enough for one or two upgrades on a glad which card / combo would everybody choose?

For only 2, I'd say Engine Techs & Ordnance Experts, or Engine Techs & APT if you're running Vader. But seriously, find room for Demolisher.

Just a thought to make it work, but what about using a Glad-II with PEs to help keep your Demolisher alive? It seems the thread is focused on keeping an ISD alive, but I think keeping Demo in the game one turn longer would be better and more likely to not be wasting the Glad-IIs points. Plus, the Glad-II can help protect demo from fighters and can throw out its miniscule (but occasionally useful) red dice as well.

The theme of the post seems to be to avoid pro ex at all costs and stick to offence, or sub out a lightly upgraded glad for a naked vic.

I'm gonna trial both and report back

So I guess I will give PE a miss, I sincerely doubt il be back next week boasting about what a game changer it is!

One final gladiator related question then.... If you only had points enough for one or two upgrades on a glad which card / combo would everybody choose?

I find Engine Techs and Ordnance Experts to be invaluable, but an Ordnance upgrade of some kind (Assault Proton Torpedoes, Assault Concussion Missiles) helps a lot and don't forget the amazing Demolisher title! Gladiators are one of the few ships in the game that seem to handle being kitted out with upgrades well. Usually it just waters the ship down.

For only 2, I'd say Engine Techs & Ordnance Experts, or Engine Techs & APT if you're running Vader. But seriously, find room for Demolisher.

Yep, what he said.

I did a tourney recently where I gambled on not having Ordnance experts on my demolisher. It basically cost me 2 games.

All my opponents chose hyperspace assault which is normally a field day (helped my first game to a 10-0) but the other 2 were unmitigated disasters. Nothing says lady luck hates you like double arcing the rear of an MC80 for a grand total of 5 points of damage and no APT procs. I will never run demolisher without some sort of reroll/dice modification mechanic again.

I did a tourney recently where I gambled on not having Ordnance experts on my demolisher. It basically cost me 2 games.

All my opponents chose hyperspace assault which is normally a field day (helped my first game to a 10-0) but the other 2 were unmitigated disasters. Nothing says lady luck hates you like double arcing the rear of an MC80 for a grand total of 5 points of damage and no APT procs. I will never run demolisher without some sort of reroll/dice modification mechanic again.

no screed or vader neither???

I did a tourney recently where I gambled on not having Ordnance experts on my demolisher. It basically cost me 2 games.

All my opponents chose hyperspace assault which is normally a field day (helped my first game to a 10-0) but the other 2 were unmitigated disasters. Nothing says lady luck hates you like double arcing the rear of an MC80 for a grand total of 5 points of damage and no APT procs. I will never run demolisher without some sort of reroll/dice modification mechanic again.

You have opponents why picked Hyperspace Assault? Lucky.

Yeah, OE is probably the best 4pts you can spend on a Glad.