Here is the latest list I intend on running based on Long range firepower!

(And victorys, lots of victorys)

Tarkin Doctrine

Author: Clontroper5

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 398/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes

Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)

- Weapons Liaison ( 3 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Defense Liaison ( 3 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)

My plan with this is to slow roll forward in a dense Phalanx spamming CF commands. This will allow me to focus down enemies at long range with multiple 4 reds plus a reroll Attacks(3+cf+cf token) If I need to engineer or nav I can switch to it with Tarkin tokens otherwise just keep chucking red dice. I intend on being 2nd player to use my objectives. The obvious weakness right now is Fighters but since I have powerful long range guns I think I can Focus down carriers such as Yavaris quickly along with simply tanking the damage with engineering commands

Do you guys think xi-7 or gunnery team is the way to go? Precisely applying pressure or just pummel Everything!

You are spending 40 points on the turbolasers and liaison chaps. I would instead arm 3 of your ships with both XI7s and Gunnery teams to get you 7 shots out of your front, 6 of them with the XI7 bonus. The last ship is vanilla but you put Tarkin on that so making his ship lass of a threat and a little less of a target.

You then have 3 points left for an initiative bid (meh) so Tarkin's ship could have its Weapons Liaison back.

Perhaps you could do two with Gunnery Teams and two with XI7s? Gunnery teams though will also help with your one identified weakness, enemy fighters.

Honestly, I'd drop the XI7s in favor of Intel Officers. You're likely just getting red dice for most of the game and your primary concern will be having your attacks Evaded or just kind of defense-tokened down to mediocrity. Intel Officers should assist with that problem.

Edit: I should note that obviously would cause problems with the current Liaison setup, so if that's not your bag then that's understandable. In that case I'd consider Heavy Turbolaser Turrets because you're unlikely to get Accuracy results reliably to make the XI7s really do their job.

And for what it's worth I think VSDs are hands-down the best Tarkin ship as of wave 2. Once flotillas show up, he might be making a comeback.

How very... Wave I of you.

If your strategy is going for the long range kills, I'd lean slightly toward Gunnery Teams over XI7. 4 reds at long, even with a reroll, aren't pushing through a whole lot of damage to really capitalize on the XI7's, doubly so with the increase in the use of small, dodgy ships that YOU YOURSELF have catalyzed .

Gunnery Teams will not only help you crap out more absolute damage, but as Snip pointed out, help mitigate your squadron weakness a bit. The drawback of the GT, of course, is you've only got the one CF token and dial, so you only get the reroll/+1 die on one of the two shots.

Drop 1 VSD and take 9 more TIE Fighters

5 is the magic number of damage one needs to get the most out XI7 Turbolasers.

Clon, what is "phalanx formation" as you've described it? Are you deploying them in a line, 4 wide? Or 2x2?

Clon, what is "phalanx formation" as you've described it? Are you deploying them in a line, 4 wide? Or 2x2?

Probably side by side but I could see myself doing 2 by 2

So generally everyone thinks GT is better hmmm

Also D-liaisons are really important to the play style. If I don't have those this fleet will lose ALOT of killing power or Survivability

Clon, what is "phalanx formation" as you've described it? Are you deploying them in a line, 4 wide? Or 2x2?

just a dense formation.

Probably side by side but I could see myself doing 2 by 2

Yeah. Can I recommend trying this:

Deploy 1 Vic (probably tarkin), so he can slow roll in behind the other 2. Thus, 3 push forward abreast of one another, the 4th rolls in behind. This will let you cover the rear of anyone attempting to come in behind you; they risk taking a full front from Tarkin depending on how you angle him, (and it will depend on your deployment and your opponent's list of course). I'd also ditch the XI7's and liasion on Tarkin, and give him APTs and OE. (This Vic has a decent chance of actually getting in black range shots). If they don't come in behind you...great! That means they are either in the murder frontal zone, or hanging on your flanks but at long range, which means they also aren't going pushing out enough damage. I'd love to see you get a couple Bombers in there too to hang out in back with Tarkin to lay on the hurt, but that means sacrificing some Tie Fighters, and you are already light on squadrons.

So generally everyone thinks GT is better hmmm

...

I don't. I'm actually inclined to tell you to ditch the XI7's too. Why? You want your enemy to be lulled into a false sense that the frontal murder zone is not as nasty as they first believed, thus risking them actually flying into your face.

Clon, what is "phalanx formation" as you've described it? Are you deploying them in a line, 4 wide? Or 2x2?

just a dense formation.

Probably side by side but I could see myself doing 2 by 2

Yeah. Can I recommend trying this:

Deploy 1 Vic (probably tarkin), so he can slow roll in behind the other 2. Thus, 3 push forward abreast of one another, the 4th rolls in behind. This will let you cover the rear of anyone attempting to come in behind you; they risk taking a full front from Tarkin depending on how you angle him, (and it will depend on your deployment and your opponent's list of course). I'd also ditch the XI7's and liasion on Tarkin, and give him APTs and OE. (This Vic has a decent chance of actually getting in black range shots). If they don't come in behind you...great! That means they are either in the murder frontal zone, or hanging on your flanks but at long range, which means they also aren't going pushing out enough damage. I'd love to see you get a couple Bombers in there too to hang out in back with Tarkin to lay on the hurt, but that means sacrificing some Tie Fighters, and you are already light on squadrons.

Yeah you could drop the XI7s (on everything, I don't think they'll generally help much) for another TIE Fighter + Howlrunner. That's enough for two VSDs to activate in one turn and should throw a cost-effective monkey wrench into bomber plans, which will cause problems for the VSD swarm.

Yeah you could drop the XI7s (on everything, I don't think they'll generally help much) for another TIE Fighter + Howlrunner. That's enough for two VSDs to activate in one turn and should throw a cost-effective monkey wrench into bomber plans, which will cause problems for the VSD swarm.

Yeah, this is probably the way to go. You'll still be somewhat vulnerable to MSU swarms, but should make you quite competitive against all but the most defensive (Jan + Haven ) squadron-heavy builds.

So would gun teams or an extra deployment help more against MSU lists do you think?

Even so, still going to be tough when Clon is getting back 3 shields per round.

Gunnery teams I think would be best for this fleet. I also liked Snipafists idea of Intel officers coupled with gunnery teams, you should be able to handle most types of ship fleets, from one or two big ships to MSU's.

I'd suggest an inverted wedge formation.

V V

V V

A line abreast is suicide with this group against any broadside fleet. They can fly to one side of your line and the ships on the far side will barely get to shoot. An inverted V acknowledges that your opponent will be going to one side or the other of your formation and gives you the best chance to rotate to face them.

And the Defense Liaisons will be key. They'll let ya get the Nav commands you need to rotate your formation.

So would gun teams or an extra deployment help more against MSU lists do you think?

I don't like gun teams. I think you should consider "fanning out" (ie, spreading the phalanges of your phalanx) as you move up.

This will get you close to a 180 degree arc of red dice on your front VSDs AND (more importantly) allow you to (maybe) start taking some side shots.

If you take out the XI7's, you could add in 2 tie bombers. That gives you 4 tie fighters and 2 bombers. In a pinch, if you need them, tie bombers actually don't suck against other squadrons. Send 1 in first so you can trigger swarm for your basic ties.

This is an interesting list, Clon and I've been thinking of something similar to this for a while. Would love to play against this :-)

I'd suggest an inverted wedge formation.

V V

V V

A line abreast is suicide with this group against any broadside fleet. They can fly to one side of your line and the ships on the far side will barely get to shoot. An inverted V acknowledges that your opponent will be going to one side or the other of your formation and gives you the best chance to rotate to face them.

And the Defense Liaisons will be key. They'll let ya get the Nav commands you need to rotate your formation.

Good Luck.

Its the list I wanted to run.

But got Dared into 5 Vics instead.

So would gun teams or an extra deployment help more against MSU lists do you think?

For what it's worth, I've found that due to their poor maneuverability, VSDs gain the most benefit from good deployment (and conversely suffer the most from bad deployment) of any ship in the game. Anything that can draw out your deployment while the enemy has to commit his meaningful ships is to your benefit.

I'd suggest an inverted wedge formation.

V V

V V

A line abreast is suicide with this group against any broadside fleet. They can fly to one side of your line and the ships on the far side will barely get to shoot. An inverted V acknowledges that your opponent will be going to one side or the other of your formation and gives you the best chance to rotate to face them.

And the Defense Liaisons will be key. They'll let ya get the Nav commands you need to rotate your formation.

actually I found that if I spam nav on the ship that is out of range I can rotate the line abreast formation 90 degrees. But echelon or a wedge could potentially work better for sure

I guess I should have said that I struggled getting line abreast to turn effectively and have had better luck with this formation.

I think your best bet against MSU is to keep your ships close together for supporting firepower. That will require practice in maneuvering.

ok i played my first game with the list on vassal and must say I am please with it.

I used it with gunnery teams: [ EMPIRE FLEET (395 points)

1 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Grand Moff Tarkin - Weapons Liaison (114)
2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team (83)
3 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team (83)
4 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team (83)
5 • TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
6 • TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
7 • TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
8 • TIE Fighter Squadron (8)

I went aginst 3 glads and 2 raiders all with apt and OE 2 glads had engine techs and ofcourse demolisher on one of them. he also had 2 agressors. we called it turn 4 but it was probably goin gto end up at 132-400 in my favor, a good win

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