Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 400/400

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)

- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

- Veteran Captain ( 3 points)

- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

1 IG-88 ( 21 points)

3 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 36 points)

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)

2 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 18 points)

1 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 8 points)

This list be slanted more to anti squad but still packs 5 non bomber blacks which aren't bad... objectives are of question however...

Especially blue objective... don't know what to take there... the only objective I like is contested outpost and I hope my opponent picks it every time...

Thoughts??

Looks a good list. I might be tempted do drop a tie advanced to a bomber and upgrade the fighter to an interceptor.

Minefields is a default Imperial blue objective and can be useful to funnel the enemy a particular way.

Intel sweep could be good. place your fleet in a corner and your 3 objectives in a line towards the middle you intend to travel with one of the ISDs. As only one ship per side can claim objectives there will be a scrap for the 5th one that you place last and you arrange for the rhymer ball and both ISDs to discourage the enemy from claiming it.

I like Superior positions. Yes your ships are big and not fantastically manoeuvrable (better than VSDs though) but your fighters can gain you many extra points. Forget tokens for a moment however it is the deployment advantage that is the main killer. 2 ISDs can be fast and could line up to hit rebel broadside fleets on the nose or tackle Nebs from the flank etc.

For blue I like Superior Positions for the rhymerball, especially with high squadrons, once you remove the opposition, positioning squadrons behind a ship with rhymer becomes powerful and you can start raking in those objective tokens. The key is the wording in that if you attack the rear and do damage, it does not matter if they redirect it because you accomplished the two things which was attack the rear and do damage.

For Red, I like precision strike, because if I can get damage card on an enemy, I can start attacking with my bombers to start flipping damage cards and get my tokens. Your list might not be the best for that since you are light on bombers.

For yellow, I like firing lanes, I just stack them up as close to my edge as possible and make the enemy come to me. if you get all three in a round that is 45 points a round, which is almost guaranteed in rounds 1 and 2 for 90 point advantage.

Just my opinion

My reservations about precision are this, people usually only take it if their list wants it, and when they do, the second player buff is extremely dubious, especially in a two ship list... so they get first player advantage while I get almost no advantage whatsoever...high activation fleets like screed, dodonna, reiken sporting apt's love this objective...

Red

Advanced Gunnery - Sure, free Gunnery Teams for the first player is nice. But then your opponent is giving Super Gunnery Teams to an ISD, and no one wants that. You'll rarely, if ever, see that one played. And if your opponent does choose it, play aggressive with that ISD, because it should be able to kill **** near anything in a single activation. But be sure to play aggressive, not suicidal. That's 220pts if they sink it.

Precision Strike - This is the most balanced of the objectives, though it favors ship and bomber swarms for flipping the cards. Bear in mind, too, that you get tokens for face up damage cards. So your ISD could slap something around and deal a crit, which is a token, and if you do the math ahead of time and see that you'll be dealing a crit to the hull with some damage to spare, you can sacrifice a Hit to get another token (provided it already has face down cards). And you're right, the second player bonus isn't much of a threat, so it's a safer one to take as first player.

Most Wanted - No. Just no.

Opening Salvo - Again, no. You'll gain four dice, your opponent will only pick it if they have a lot of ships, and all they need to do is put a single face down card on an ISD to get 60+pts.

Yellow

Contested Outpost - This one I'd recommend the most. You have two Command 3 ships that want people to come close. And if they don't try to take the station away, that's 120pts they're handing to you. They could kill your non-flagship ISD, you could fail to kill anything, and the final would be a 5-5 loss with an MoV of 8. It makes bomber positioning incredibly easy (i.e. right in between your opponent and the station). Honestly, this is one of the tougher objectives to win against a Rhymer list, because you have to go right where your opponent wants you to, or give them 120pts.

Fire Lanes - This could be a good one, but I don't like it. It's very easy to misjudge and land on top of an objective, giving it to your opponent. And you have to debate whether to stack the tokens or spread them out. Field them near your deployment zone, or toward the center of the table? At Long Range, you have six dice, which only goes up to ten at Medium. Yes, you have sixteen at Close Range, but by then you either have to stop or fly by, and your side batteries combine for six. This is an easy one for someone else to take away from you, and it's very easy to screw it up and overlap.

Hyperspace Assault - No small or medium ships, so not really of value to you.

Fleet Ambush - No. Never. Just don't do it. Your opponent will only choose this objective if A) All of the others are SO bad for them this is the only one that gives them a shot, or B) they have something that will annihilate you turn one. Something like a B-Wing swarm. Remember that they get to go first. So if they deploy a carrier and a bomber swarm, their bombers will get to make an attack run, followed by the carrier's gun batteries. Now you have two Motti ISDs, so the likelihood of a single ship activation destroying one is low, but you'll be hurting.

Blue

Superior Positions - You have a dedicated anti-squadron force here. So you'll have a decent shot at keeping those fighters off your back. And remember, squadrons don't have to be Bombers to get the tokens. So an Advanced with its 75% chance of damage can fly into a rear arc and get fifteen points. What's more important here, is the huge advantage this gives you. Your opponent deploys their entire fleet first. You are going to get out deployed unless you play another dual ISD list. A swarm list will place some throwaway ships or squadrons until both your ISDs are down, then position their fleet to kill yours. Now, they have to deploy everything. Do they spread out to mitigate your deployment advantage? Do they cluster? Where are your squadrons going to be coming from? I love using this objective as second player, because I can set my fleet up in optimal position after my opponent has done so sub-optimally.

Minefields - Never a bad choice when you have Star Destroyers. You can use the minefields to channel your opponent into a killing field for your ISDs. Just make sure you leave a wide enough path for the ISDs to both fit through. And you can send your squadrons with Boosted Comms through the minefields to do some murderatin'. Your opponent either has to fly into one of the worst killing fields of the game (front arc of two ISDs), suffer the mines to flank you (and with good placement/poor maneuvering, that might be multiple mines per ship), or play for the draw.

Dangerous Territory - Not terrible. You get the nice benefit of not suffering damage when your massive bases overlap obstacles. But I don't like objectives that force my ISD to fly around collecting things. ISDs want to fly at the enemy and annihilate them. Plus, they're very maneuverable for a Large ship, but that still doesn't make them super maneuverable. You would have to focus a lot on flying and less on fighting.

Intel Sweep - As mentioned above, this can be useful. I find it too risky, personally. If you want to get to the third objective first, you have to fly your objective ISD pretty fast and hard, which could isolate it from its friend. Or if you fly both together, you could easily find yourself out of position or outflanked. And if your opponent has a fast, dodgy ship, they can swoop in for the fifth objective, then run away and collect the two they put down, handing them 75pts.

Overall, my recommendations:

Red - Advanced Gunnery or Precision Strike (definitely the second if you read my list proposals below)

Yellow - Contested Outpost

Blue - Superior Positions or Minefields (the first takes less thought, because placing those minefields is almost an art form)

Also, I'd recommend dropping the third TIE Advanced and the TIE Fighter, and adding two TIE Bombers. Then you have the same squadron build I took to the Cambridge Regionals (second place, tied for first on tournament points), which can be very effective. I went with three Motti VSDs over two ISDs.

Red

Advanced Gunnery - Sure, free Gunnery Teams for the first player is nice. But then your opponent is giving Super Gunnery Teams to an ISD, and no one wants that. You'll rarely, if ever, see that one played. And if your opponent does choose it, play aggressive with that ISD, because it should be able to kill **** near anything in a single activation. But be sure to play aggressive, not suicidal. That's 220pts if they sink it.

Definitely take Precision Strike. So many people don't think twice about putting AG in their ISD/MC80 carrier lists. As your opponent, I'd pick Advanced Gunnery against this list every time with most lists, particularly if I were running a Player 1 boom-and-zoom type list (DeMSU, MC30 MSU, CR90 swarm). Those lists generally will kill at least the one ship they target (yes, even a Motti ISD), and it's really hard for you to get a good trade for 238 points.

If the ISD were upgraded for firepower, I might think twice about taking it, but with absolutely no battery upgrades on either ISD (Leading Shots, XI7, OE, SW7, etc), that front arc isn't terribly scary. Especially since you're likely to have a pretty hard time getting close-range shots with your AG ISD as Player 2. That makes it 2x(3R/2Bu), which isn't going to kill anything but a particularly unfortunate CR90.

Meanwhile, that MC30 that's going first can just point his side arc generally at your front quarter and get the exact same benefit you do (Player 1 only has to target different hull zones, they can still take the double shot on the same ship), then zip off to safety.

Precision Strike may not give Player 2 a huge advantage directly apart from the opportunity to build directly for it, but there aren't a lot of other builds out there that do PS better than yours.

I vote Precision Strike, Contested outpost, Superior Positions. (The only other one I'd consider is Minefields. It can be very nice to let them decide. Mines? or ISDs?)

Thanks for all your feedback guys ... I'm really curious as to why most wanted would be such a bad objective for me... picking the ships feels very powerful... I can stick one of my ISD's down in such a way so that in order to hit it, they would have to go through the ryhmer ball and past another ISD... I can also leave the ball to activate in the squadron phase in such a place that makes setting up last first tougher

Thanks for all your feedback guys ... I'm really curious as to why most wanted would be such a bad objective for me... picking the ships feels very powerful... I can stick one of my ISD's down in such a way so that in order to hit it, they would have to go through the ryhmer ball and past another ISD... I can also leave the ball to activate in the squadron phase in such a place that makes setting up last first tougher

It doesn't matter which ship you pick, your opponent is playing for a bonus 110 points. Against a list that doesn't include a big ship you would be playing for a bonus that isn't as high.

Also, with only 2 ships you are just giving yourself 2 extra dice. Against a 4+ ship build your opponent will be getting more dice than you.

So you are giving away more points for less advantage.

What Amanal said. If you face a swarm list, like six CR90s or four CR90s and some MC30cs, your opponent will love all of those extra dice. And you would be forced to choose a fairly insignificant ship that could just be hidden away.

against popular sentiment , im gong to try most wanted in the list anyways

I just played a Motti twin ISD list at a regional (came 4th)

My obj were

Precision strike

Fire lanes

Sup positions

Played each obj over the course of the tourney

Precision strike I racked in 10 tokens

Fire lanes got me 12

Sup positions got me 5 - this game was against eventual tourney winner and he didn't like any of my objectives.

Ma22a, thanks for sharing... I originally has precision strike and superior positions in mind for this list as they seem like no brainers... could you share your list perhaps and some more details about the the lists you faced for each objective??? Thanks again