Imperial Air Superiority

By Red Castle, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

I've been thinking about using the ISD I as a spacecraft carrier. I like the idea of being able to activate 6 squadrons for the first strike and then continue to active 5 per turn at long range. Here's what I came up with for a Air Superiority fleet:

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

[ flagship ] Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Admiral Montferrat ( 5 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)
2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)
1 Boba Fett ( 26 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)

So first turn I take a squadron command on both the ISD and Victory. As soon as I meet the good condition, I switch my command for a Squadron one on the ISD and launch Rhymer, 3 Bomber and 2 Tie Advanced to attack at medium range. Then I use either the Squadron Token on the Victory or switch for a sqaudron command to send Dengar and possibly Boba Fett with an AS boost. Next turn, I can do it again with Dengar there to allow them to move or attack even if engaged.

The one thing that I'm not sure about is switching Boba Fett for 3 Tie Fighters. Or I could keep Boba Fett and switch the victory for a Gladiator, since I don't really need a second carrier, it would allow me to give a X17 Turbolasers to the ISD to help a little bit in offense.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

[ flagship ] Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Admiral Montferrat ( 5 points)

2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)
3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
1 Boba Fett ( 26 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)

If your main focus is going for space superiority, I would strongly recommend beefing up your anti-squadron capabilities. Two Advanceds and Boba Fett are not going to be able to hack their way through a Rieekan Aces group, or even a standard Jan/X-Wings build. They'll also get picked apart by an Imperial Aces setup.

With that ISD, I'd drop Wing Commander for Flight Controllers, and get some serious anti-squadron punch in there. Howlrunner, Mauler and four Interceptors should be able to chew up just about anything. It's a serious glass cannon, but the TIE/Ints are throwing six dice plus Swarm, Mauler hits everything for one damage then throws five plus Swarm, and Howl throws four. With an average roll, each Interceptor plus the Mauler splash damage could destroy a TIE Bomber or an X-Wing (without Jan and her pesky braces). Your alpha could easily take out Wedge and Dutch, or with some good positioning, you could take out Vader without suffering Soontir damage, then kill Soontir himself. Plus, at Speed 4/5, you can hold them back and choose your time to strike, so you could even save points on Boosted Comms.

Against a Rhymerball, you could punch out three or four Bombers, leaving Rhymer and his escorts flopping around like a krayt dragon with its teeth knocked out.

Edited by reegsk

I first intended to bring Howlrunner and 2 Tie Interceptor at first in the list with the Victory Class. My Airforce looked like this:

-Major Rhymer

-3 Tie Bomber

-1 Tie Advanced

-Dengar

-Howlrunner

-2 Tie Interceptors

The idea was that the ISD controlled the Bombing team (Rhymer, Tie Bombers, Tie Advanced and Dengar) while the Victory with Flight Controllers ordered the fighters (Howlrunner and the Tie Interceptors) around. Then I thought that a second Advanced could be needed to escort the Bombers (one on each side) and that Boba could bring more pain to enemy ships. I also thought about replacing Boba for 3 Tie Fighter to occupy the enemy fighters for a turn or 2.

Boba isn't as great as he is on paper. First, he has to be at Range One when he activates, which won't happen all of the time with ships. Second, he just deals one point of damage. Your opponent chooses which arc to place it on. So it's always going to hit shields, and probably on the far side of the ship. Overall, I just don't feel like his abilities and tokens merit eight more points.

I'm a big fan of this for anti-squadron:

- IG-88

- Mauler Mithel

- 2 x TIE Advanceds

- Dengar

If the above is pushed around with Flight Controllers, Mauler can splash damage, then Iggy can eliminate things like Soontir Fel and Dengar, without suffering any damage in return. And the two of them can reliably kill Jan Ors in two activations. The 10 hull from the two Advanceds also mean that Mauler and Iggy will be around to do it in the next turn, too.

Well, I could always go with this:

-Major Rhymer

-3 Tie Bomber

-1 Tie Advanced

-Dengar

-Mauler Mithel

-IG-88

And 2 points left.

Will have to think about it, I still like the idea of a second Tie Advanced to protect the Bombers and Boba stats versus ship (1blue and 1 black with Bomber and Rogue). But it's true that Mithel and IG can help a lot in case I meet a squadron heavy force.