Greetings from the land down under!

I have decided to forcefully incorporate the VSD into my current builds and I was hoping the sages in this forum could lend me a hand.

We know that the VSD comes in two iterations, the mark I and II variants. The mark I being ostensibly more popular as it is cheaper and it is hard to justify the 12 pts you would have to pay for the mark II/ replacing blacks with blues.

I usually just take enough of a fighter screen to last to turn 3 ( 50-70 pts of fighters). I also enjoy using Vader as my fleet admiral.

Here are two builds I have thought of using:

VSD I

• Title: Dominator
• Officer: Support Officer (50/50 include or Veteran Captain)
• Weapons Team: N/A
• Offensive retrofit: N/A
• Ordnance: APT
• Turbolasers: X17

VSD II

• Title: Dominator
• Officer: Veteran Captain
• Weapons Team: N/A
• Offensive retrofit: N/A
• Ion Cannons: SW 7
• Turbolasers: X17

So any suggestions and comments are completely welcome, I'm also open to just running them bare bones. Also I'm the only Imperial Commander in my circle, the Rebellion is heavily popular in my group.

@Dariusman, the proponents of the VSD are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You and I, my friend, are all that's left of their religion.

I haven't played a VSD2 in a LONG time. I do not think the points are worth it.

I think the VSD1 is still the best carrier in the game. I actually think Boosted Comms is its best upgrade. 77 points thats it. Go use the remaining 323 points.

Sad thing is I don't think it's something they will "fix" I feel it will be more their MO to release a medium base ship in the point range that somewhat replaces the VSD (perhaps a touch lighter in hit points and shields and a touch faster and more manouverable)

i made a 3 VSD list with 10 squadrons I may start flying.

VSD1 - Rapid Reload, OE, Intel officer/Needa+TRC/Nothing = Good support ship to cover flank. Add Dominator to make it ISD-level scary.

VSD2 - Needa+TRC/Intel officer+H9, Dominator, Gunnery, SW7 = Pocket ISD2

I like the VSD 2. Using that as an outlier that can control opponents movement is so much fun!

I still run VSD-Is (VSD-IIs are dead to me right now, and it's become something of a joke in my meta) on occasion and I run 2 in a fleet I've used the last two weeks at casual Armada night (might use it at a store tournament next Saturday, we'll see...).

I'm a big proponent of running VSD-Is upgrade-light. Adding Boosted Comms or Expanded Hangars (+Flight Controllers optional) can help with their carrier duties if you're running them as carriers. If you're relying on them as gunships with someone like Vader, I'd strongly recommend adding either Intel Officer to them (with or without Slaved Turrets, they've done all right with me that way) or Heavy Turbolaser Turrets, especially if you're springing for the Dominator upgrade (a buddy of mine prefers that configuration and it can get pretty mean). I strongly recommend against filling their ordnance slot. My VSD-Is will get 1, maybe 2, black dice shots in per game and so I find the points spent on ordnance upgrades there to be far less cost-effective than the same ordnance upgrade on a Gladiator or Raider, for example.

There's also nothing wrong with running VSD-Is completely naked. They're a solid chunk of hull and shields for a low cost.

@Dariusman, the proponents of the VSD are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You and I, my friend, are all that's left of their religion.

And yet, we now know that even that original quote was a lie.

Just as it is a lie here

The only reason I stopped flying VSDs was I started flying Rebels...

... Every time I go back to Imperials, its with VSDs... Because anyone who considers them a Joke, is often punked by them.

In casual games you can always add 1 movement to the VSD and increase its point cost by 10 or so if your opponent agrees. That would make it much more viable.

The newly released Interdictor comes with a "Engine Retrofit" card. 12 points - Increase your nav chart by 1 speed and 1 click.

(Ok I'm dreaming but that would make the VSD1 amazing)

The newly released Interdictor comes with a "Engine Retrofit" card. 12 points - Increase your nav chart by 1 speed and 1 click.

(Ok I'm dreaming but that would make the VSD1 amazing)

It doesn't need Fixing.

Attitudes need Adjusting.

That's all.

I was toying around with the idea of of vsd1, apt, h9, oe.... buuuut 90 point vsd makes me just want the isd, or a glad and a raider... the problem I see is the more you build a ship towards carrier role, the less maneuverable it has to be, and the more you build it towards an anti-ship role the more maneuverable it needs to be... so vsd is right at home as carrier, but takes a lot of effort and setup to be as effective in the anti-ship role as say a glad, or an ISD, or even a raider...

The newly released Interdictor comes with a "Engine Retrofit" card. 12 points - Increase your nav chart by 1 speed and 1 click.

(Ok I'm dreaming but that would make the VSD1 amazing)

It doesn't need Fixing.

Attitudes need Adjusting.

That's all.

I was toying around with the idea of of vsd1, apt, h9, oe.... buuuut 90 point vsd makes me just want the isd, or a glad and a raider... the problem I see is the more you build a ship towards carrier role, the less maneuverable it has to be, and the more you build it towards an anti-ship role the more maneuverable it needs to be... so vsd is right at home as carrier, but takes a lot of effort and setup to be as effective in the anti-ship role as say a glad, or an ISD, or even a raider...

The VSD-II used to be the preferred "let's load this up with upgrades and make it a heavy gunship" option for Imperials in wave one, but the ISD (particularly the ISD-II) has solidly stolen its thunder in that regard.

I find being extremely tight on points and configuring your VSD towards a particular purpose is more effective. ISD gunships (with all the trimmings) can bring the fight to enemies but VSD gunships (with 0-2 upgrades only) do fine as flank guards, picket lines, and area deniers with some red dice harassment you can rely on. My basic feeling is the VSD's main downside (poor maneuverability and speed) is primarily addressed by simply having more board coverage with more ships/squadrons so there aren't big safe spaces for enemy ships to go to. The more superfluous upgrades you take, the less ships/squadrons you're bringing to fill those holes and thus the worse your VSD(s) will perform.

I love VSDs. Squadrons make up for their lack of speed, and Boosted Comms with Rhymer increases their threat range to Long Range plus Medium Range.

Upgrade the VSD with an Interdictor flying partner....

Thanks for the great tips, I really like the VSD but I often just can't justify loading it up with points when you have the ISD so close by. But I still believe in this old warhorse.

With very clever deployment it should work well. Maybe even baiting the opponent to it. Perhaps running just a horde of them naked will be good.

I am focusing on the VSD because demolisher got banned in my local circle. Tensions still get high when they see a gladiator so I want to ease off them for a bit.

I ran vsds as a 3 ship carrier build...outside of that...meh

Plenty of Upgrades to come to change things up...

Spinal Mounted Turbolasers.

Quad Turbolaser Batteries.

The new Ion cannons...


PLENTY of things could shake them up in teh coming months.

The wave 4 announcement did come as a sudden but pleasant surprise.

I recently ran a modified 5 ship build.....

And it included not one, but two VSD's!! I don't know what came over me.

I switched Admiral from Screed to Vader, and ran Demo x1, VSD(SlavedTurrets) x2, Raider 1 x2, which added a whole lot of backbone, and long ranged damage dealing capacity to my usual glass cannon, no long range build, and I quite enjoyed it.

Having the 2 VSD's being able to chuck 5 red dice each with a reroll from Vader, meant having a target they could both hit 10 red dice! a big big change in the damage dealing dynamics of the usual 5 ship build. Neither of them survived the battle, but they were actually useful.

I guess my largest beef was really the fact that wave 1 we only had 2 ships as an Imperial player, and I was pretty sick and tired of things flying rings around them. Now I have gone back to them after a good long break, they can be worthwhile.

TLDR : VSD's are off my embargo list.

I ran a VSD2 last night with Gunnery teams, Xi7s and defence liasion (commander was Tarkin).

It did really well actually, much better than I thought it would, gunning down a neb B and two corvettes. Every shot it took was right in that medium band where a VSD1 would not have gotten any effective fire.

Of course in the end it died to TRC90 fire and a few bombing runs.

Sure it has VERY real limitations, but I was pretty happy how it went.

When I first heard of the interdictor I'm hopeful that it's map control abilities will really give VSD heavy lists a helping hand.

However whatever works for the VSD should work even better for an ISD.

I also tried out the modified VSD II build with some user suggestions and dominator. It did surprisingly well and managed to gun down Yavaris and a corvette before it got to activate their bombers.

I do agree it's mobility is a huge liability and could be overcome a little by smart map deployment.

I recently ran a modified 5 ship build.....

And it included not one, but two VSD's!! I don't know what came over me.

I switched Admiral from Screed to Vader, and ran Demo x1, VSD(SlavedTurrets) x2, Raider 1 x2, which added a whole lot of backbone, and long ranged damage dealing capacity to my usual glass cannon, no long range build, and I quite enjoyed it.

Having the 2 VSD's being able to chuck 5 red dice each with a reroll from Vader, meant having a target they could both hit 10 red dice! a big big change in the damage dealing dynamics of the usual 5 ship build. Neither of them survived the battle, but they were actually useful.

I guess my largest beef was really the fact that wave 1 we only had 2 ships as an Imperial player, and I was pretty sick and tired of things flying rings around them. Now I have gone back to them after a good long break, they can be worthwhile.

TLDR : VSD's are off my embargo list.

Sounds like fun. Though, with those points, I bet you dont have room for squadrons, and you'll have a rough time vs mass squadrons. (People who say they don't when their list literally has no AA I've found tend to underestimate their theoretical opponents.)

Did you have room for a 15+ bid also?

Hi Blail,

Aye no squadrons, only way to deal with it as built is kill stuff faster than it can kill you! lol it was good fun.

Fleet was :

Raider I : Darth Vader (80pts)

Raider I Ordnance Experts : APT (53pts)

VSD : Slaved Turrets (79pts)

VSD : Slaved Turrets (79pts)

Gladiator I : Intel Officer : Engine Techs : Ordnance Experts : ACM : Demolisher (92pts)

Comes in a 383pts. So some room to play around, I took OE on 2 ships even with Vader, allowed some aggressive re-rolling, but not 100% essential, though I am unsure what else you could run instead.