Wing Commander

By tenchi2a, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Wing Commander
Author: tenchi2a

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
= 178 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
- Vector ( 2 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Jamming Field ( 2 points)
= 40 total ship cost

Raider-II Class Corvette (48 points)
- Instigator ( 4 points)
= 52 total ship cost

1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
2 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 22 points)
5 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 40 points)
2 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 18 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)

The tactics of this fleet are hard to miss fighter superiority.

The fleet can activated up to 9 squadrons per turn to overwhelm rebel fighters screens.

With the raider and assault carrier in close support allowing the ISD to move in for the kill

any comments or questions are welcome.

for reference I have: 2 IDS, 3 VSD (1 from box, 2 from the starters that me and my friend split),1 gladiator, 1 raider, 2 Imperial fighters packs, and Rouges and Villains pack.

Edited by tenchi2a

Fel works really well with Tie Advanced in your force to guarantee the extra free damage when the escort rule kicks in. Without them he is just an expensive fighter with the defence tokens so the new interceptor character in the Corellian campaign would probably be better. I would ditch fel for Dengar to keep your bombers free of interference, letting them move away from X-wings and shoot ships. A tie adv to protect him and rhymer will help too and they are still decent anti ship once you achieve squadron superiority.

Jamming field is interesting when you have lots of fighters. I suppose swarm, Howlrunner and the flight controllers will mitigate it somewhat for your side and not for the rebels.

Fel works really well with Tie Advanced in your force to guarantee the extra free damage when the escort rule kicks in. Without them he is just an expensive fighter with the defence tokens so the new interceptor character in the Corellian campaign would probably be better. I would ditch fel for Dengar to keep your bombers free of interference, letting them move away from X-wings and shoot ships. A tie adv to protect him and rhymer will help too and they are still decent anti ship once you achieve squadron superiority.

Jamming field is interesting when you have lots of fighters. I suppose swarm, Howlrunner and the flight controllers will mitigate it somewhat for your side and not for the rebels.

1. your are probably right about Fel, but I don't have Ciena Ree and don't like using Bounty Hunters in my Imperial themed decks. Plus I would need to free-up points somewhere else to get Dengar.

2. The Jamming field brings most rebel ships down to Tie anti-fighter levels while Flight Controller restores the lost die.

will see how it works if its not what is't cracked up to be may drop it for the Dengar switch

Edited by tenchi2a

Relentless WITH Wing Commander....? How much flexibility do you need?

Ok, I get it, you win the squadron battle, but then what? 3 bombers and a tonne of AA fire susceptible 3 hull squadrons?

Relentless WITH Wing Commander....? How much flexibility do you need?

Ok, I get it, you win the squadron battle, but then what? 3 bombers and a tonne of AA fire susceptible 3 hull squadrons?

this is a fleet to fight against small to med fleets ship sizes with full fighter support that are common in my area.

for Fleets with larger ships I use my "Death Squadron" fleet

just a clarification I don't play in any tournaments.

Edited by tenchi2a

Why have you got Vader as Admiral?

Your ships are all designed to be Carriers, nothing to direct boost the ships firepower, making Vader a real expensive choice, that ultimately is not going to add much to your fleet.

I noticed you keep saying in this thread, and the other thread, "this fleet is designed to fight small to med ship fleets with full squadrons." How do you know what you are playing against?

You need some Tie Advanced. Squadron Vader would be miles better in this "build" than Admiral Vader.

Soontir, counter 2 or take 1 damage if you do not shoot at him, with Escort, that is auto damage, because he cannot be shot at, OR you place him outside the Escort bubble, and use him as a proxy escort himself, people have the choice then, counter 2 from Soontir, or 1 damage and fire at Vader/TieAdvanced.

Mauler - simple everyone take 1 damage, and keep him inbetween Vader/Soontir

Howlrunner- adds a dice to everyone with Swarm, including Soontirs counter, making him counter 3

Fine, you don't want to take Dengar, he adds a ton of utility and threat to your squadrons, plus he also allows engaged squadrons to move, Mauler loves him.

You can take

Vader/Soontir/Mauler/Howlrunner/Dengar for 90pts, and they are point for point the best synergy in anti squadron you will find, and this is one of the KEY strengths of the Imperial faction, they get amazing squadron synergy.

Alternatively you might like to try something like this out.

ISD I : Admiral Motti, Wulff Yularen, Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms, Expanded HangerBays, ECM, X-17 TL, Relentless.

Raider I : Agent Kallus Ordnance Experts, APT, Quad Laser Turrets, Impetuous#

Gozanti Cruiser : Phylon Q-7 Tractor Beams, Bomber Command.

6 x Tie Interceptor

1 x Major Rhymer

5 x Tie Bomber

Precision Strike Fire Lanes Superior Positions. (394/400pts)

I play mostly with a group of friends who play mostly theme fleets.

We are all ex tournament players who had enough of the got to get the new meta cheeses and out cheeses everyone else cheeses that most of these tournaments boil down to.

Vader/Soontir/Mauler/Howlrunner/Dengar for 90pts

2 questions

1. does this ever work I've seen it use on youtube and at my local store but it always get wiped out buy the rebel fighters and the fleet loses.

2. it there something against fighters squadrons in tournaments I'm missing because everyone seems to be against have more then the heroes/villains

Edited by tenchi2a

Yes it works, or I would not have posted what I did about it.

And really cheeses? there are no cheeses, everything has a counter, this is not Magic, or WH40K.

With flight controllers

Vader throws 4 blue 1 black, each blue dice having a 75% chance of dealing 1 damage, and the black dice 50% 1 damage, 25% 2 damage

Mauler does 1 damage to everyone he lands in engagement range of, he gets a bonus dice from Howlrunner, and the FC, so 5 dice, with a reroll

Soontir gets 6 blue dice, with a reroll

Howlrunner gets 4 dice (usually place her first.)

Dengar gets 5 blue dice, with a reroll

Then your opponent gets to shoot back, either at Vader, who gets counter 1 from Dengar, and has a 75% chance of dealing damage, and 1 point from Soontir, or they fire back at Soontir, who has counter 4 with a reroll. Inside 2 rounds you can wipe out virtually anything.

Alternatively you swap Howlrunner for IG-88, who ignores Escort and Counter, and is a superb way to take out Luke, Wedge, or Jan Orrs. or any other Ace hiding inside an Escort bubble.

The issue with Anti fighter squadrons is twofold, they tend to have very low HP, and are pretty lackluster dealing damage to ships. But for them to be effective they need carriers to activate them, and juice them up, which means you have a fleet that can wipe out enemy squadrons pretty effectively, but is severely lacking in ship damage dealing capacity.

So the trick is to take Objectives that will get you the points, but that runs the risk of your opponent coming with a ship killing fleet with a minimal fighter screen, you might kill his 4 A-Wings really quickly, but then you have most of your points sunk into something not very effective for dealing with his ships.

That fleet I posted, the ISD can activate all 6 squadrons at once, that means you can get a huge alpha strike in the the 6 T/I, and usually counter will finish off the stuff they jumped on, and then for the rest of the game, your ISD activates Rhymer+5 T/B (your ship killing power.) The Raider can help the T/I its really good at dishing damage to Rebel Aces, or it can flank and cover the ISD, or finish of something the Bombers just mauled.

The Gozanti allows your bombers to be much, much more efficient damage dealing platforms, and it can use the Tractor beams to harass small, fast Rebel ships, to keep them in range of the Bombers.

Edited by TheEasternKing

just may be my area but small squadron builds like this seem to get one shot then get overwhelmed

the rebel fleets in my area tend to use all or most of there fighter limit

ex. last game played against Han, 4 x-wings, 2 a-wings, 2 b-wings

another was luke and 8 x-wings

No Mithel? I would use Tarkin in this list personally.

My version!

Flight Commander, Lyraeus Edition
Author: Lyraeus

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 395/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)
= 106 total ship cost

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)
= 106 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)
- Vector ( 2 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 79 total ship cost

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)
1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

My version!

Flight Commander, Lyraeus Edition

Author: Lyraeus

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 395/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike

Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush

Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)

= 106 total ship cost

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)

= 106 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)

- Vector ( 2 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)

= 79 total ship cost

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)

1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

An interesting list. I have not considered the Interdicters as carriers before. With Tarkin giving everyone a squadron token each turn, you can easily activate all of them to do lots of damage.

My version!

Flight Commander, Lyraeus Edition

Author: Lyraeus

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 395/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike

Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush

Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)

= 106 total ship cost

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)

= 106 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)

- Vector ( 2 points)

- Flight Commander ( 3 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)

= 79 total ship cost

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)

1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

An interesting list. I have not considered the Interdicters as carriers before. With Tarkin giving everyone a squadron token each turn, you can easily activate all of them to do lots of damage.

4 squadrons per Interdictor but that Engineering token is important as well.

not to concerned about it anymore

my ride to all the games in my area just bailed on the game

claiming the game is to balanced in favor of the Imperial and quit

so I have all these minis and no one to play with.

so going to be selling my entire collection

not to concerned about it anymore

my ride to all the games in my area just bailed on the game

claiming the game is to balanced in favor of the Imperial and quit

so I have all these minis and no one to play with.

so going to be selling my entire collection

NOOOOO Dont go! Silly friend, I trounce Imperial players all the time. . .