Wrote up some thoughts on how to get the most out of the Interdictor aside from its Experimental upgrades.

I'm not sure it's a great ship without them, but I do see some potential.

http://concentratefire.blogspot.com/2016/08/playing-interdictor-without.html

nice writeup

It's a pretty good summary.

My thoughts:

1. You're absolutely right about lackluster power out of any single arc, so double arc (or advanced gunnery) is essential there.

2. I agree about Ion Cannon batteries being the best candidate due to the fact that it increases damage and works on both shots.

3. Intel officer may be another strong upgrade to limit damage reduction from defence tokens.

4. Combat Interdictor may end up being a good flagship/dedicated antisquadron platform.

So, experimental upgrades aside, Interdictor may end up being a good support ship/flank protector.

I got my first game in with it tonight.

I'm in agreement on Ion Cannon Batteries. That looks like it could really rock.

Engine Techs+Nav might be the way to go to set up your double-arcs. If you're going to fly your Interdictor aggressively, then it also helps you set up range-1 shots for targetting scrambler to trigger.

Blue dice end up being pretty reliable, so you're doing slow/steady chip damage.

The most interesting comparison for performance might be the AFMKII rather than the Vic. If you throw Spinal onto an A, you've got a set of four dice shots for about the same cost as the Interdictor. The AFMKII has always been a slow, steady chipper. The Interdictor requires closer range, but with more blue reliability, more hull and engineering, and lower speed. So far, I've really wanted to trot out the Suppression, but I could definitely see use for trotting out the combat, specifically in a Vader list where you could keep chucking red dice with rerolls. The double contain is mostly unnecessary and the ship seems to scream Vader, either for continuing to fire red dice throughout the game or for specifically crit/accuracy fishing on blue dice.

You forgot to mention the extra die on the rear and that they are 2 blue 1 red compared to 2 red. Other than that you hit on everything nicely I think. Table time!

My opinions on the Interdictor:
I see two ways to take this ship, either as a healer ship or a control ship.

I see the Suppression variant getting the most play because of the two control slots.

Target Scrambler is going to be one upgrade: Take it every time, it's amazing.

The next upgrade should either be the 2-point map denial, or the 8-point G-8s.

Interdictor title is going to be a must-have because of my argument for the Suppression variant.

Needa is a great buy on the ship because you can replace a double Contain for a cheap, and solid damage negator. Titus can find his own Gozanti ride.

Some Ion cannons can be good, but it depends on your activation order and what your list wants to do. The cheap MS-1s are good if you're going first, but you should never shoot first with this ship.

Therefore, I like the following setups:

My opinions on the Interdictor:

I see two ways to take this ship, either as a healer ship or a control ship.

I see the Suppression variant getting the most play because of the two control slots.

Target Scrambler is going to be one upgrade: Take it every time, it's amazing.

The next upgrade should either be the 2-point map denial, or the 8-point G-8s.

Interdictor title is going to be a must-have because of my argument for the Suppression variant.

Needa is a great buy on the ship because you can replace a double Contain for a cheap, and solid damage negator. Titus can find his own Gozanti ride.

Some Ion cannons can be good, but it depends on your activation order and what your list wants to do. The cheap MS-1s are good if you're going first, but you should never shoot first with this ship.

Therefore, I like the following setups:

Healer

Wulf Yularen + Projection Experts

Recycles Engineering token, for 8 Engineering, 2 of which heals the ISD in front of it, while you get back 3 more shields.

You can also replace Wulf with a Comms Net Suppressor.

Control

Q7 Tractors + G-8 + Interdicter

You want first, you want the Q7s on someone not yourself who activates first

Speed 2 turns into 1, and then when he moves without a nav command next turn, he doesn't actually move because G-8s say so.

I'm very excited to use the Interdoctor healing set up with targeting scrambler as a support ship for two glads, who now have some defense/healing behind their all out offensive bum rush style that tends to get them killed at times lol

I am going to pick up 2 of these tomorrow. Going to try running them in as many fashions as possible. I intend to try it in concert with the Dominator since I havn't used that ship in ages. Lets see if we can keep the Dominator in business.

Domination
Author: Wes Janson

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 393/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Dominator ( 12 points)
- Captain Needa ( 2 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- MS-1 Ion Cannons ( 2 points)
= 121 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Ion Cannon Batteries ( 5 points)
- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)
- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)
= 147 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Suppressor ( 4 points)
- Admiral Titus ( 2 points)
- Slicer Tools ( 7 points)
= 36 total ship cost

6 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 66 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)

The suppression refit is all about board control with the combat refit all about direct and indirect combat support. The suppression refit you put all your movement shenanigans on plus target scrambler. On the combat refit target scrambler all the way and keep it just behind the front line. With your extra red dice as sniping support but the target scrambler keeping your other stuff alive

I am going to pick up 2 of these tomorrow. Going to try running them in as many fashions as possible. I intend to try it in concert with the Dominator since I havn't used that ship in ages. Lets see if we can keep the Dominator in business.

Domination

Author: Wes Janson

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 393/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Most Wanted

Defense Objective: Contested Outpost

Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)

- Dominator ( 12 points)

- Captain Needa ( 2 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

- MS-1 Ion Cannons ( 2 points)

= 121 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)

- Darth Vader ( 36 points)

- Projection Experts ( 6 points)

- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)

- Ion Cannon Batteries ( 5 points)

- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)

- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)

= 147 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Suppressor ( 4 points)

- Admiral Titus ( 2 points)

- Slicer Tools ( 7 points)

= 36 total ship cost

6 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 66 points)

1 Bossk ( 23 points)

I built something very similar. Great minds

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 396/400

Commander: Admiral Konstantine

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Contested Outpost

Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)

- Avenger ( 5 points)

- Wing Commander ( 6 points)

- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)

= 131 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)

- Admiral Konstantine ( 23 points)

- Interdictor ( 3 points)

- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)

- Engine Techs ( 8 points)

- Targeting Scrambler ( 5 points)

- G-8 Experiemental Projector ( 8 points)

= 138 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Suppressor ( 4 points)

- Admiral Titus ( 2 points)

- Slicer Tools ( 7 points)

= 36 total ship cost

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)

4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

1 JumpMaster 5000 ( 12 points)

Thinking this.. I'm not certain on tractors on avenger, not taking dengar, flight controllers or sensor team for avenger...

Other concerns is engine techs seem mandatory in early game to catch fast fleets, or to keep within close range in order to benefit from scrambler, or keep konstantine operational

All in all excited to put it in the table, and really hoping that at the end of the day I don't wish I just had demo n Motti instead...

So, I guess the next question will be how much do you want to pay for this thing. It's not an especially points efficient ship on its own. What would be the ceiling for cost?

For me, I will likely try to keep it under 110 at the most. Seems like it needs to be less than an ISD.

As someone having the same debate with a few friends, here are my notes:

1. I think tractor beams is a mistake, because this is only a medium base ship. That does nothing for an ISD1 breathing down your neck, and you can't use it until you activate.
2. G-8 is good, but the targeting scrambler is better.
3. Both the grav well and grav shift upgrades could have some real legs, depending on objectives and the rest of your list.
4. This ship does not punch hard but it does punch consistent. The AF2 is a good comparison, as it's very unlike the VSD, which is more of a one-punch pony.

So how do you make it work?

My thoughts are similar to Shmitty, but I think you almost always want the Suppression version to make your damage profile as stable as possible. I think SW-7 maybe the way to go so that you have a very stable damage profile and know that with the targeting scrambler and repair value, you can survive a punching match even with a heavier ship by just grinding them down.

I also think with a medium base, repair capability, targeting scrambler, and engine techs, this ship could be a fantastic blocker. Just ram it right into the middle to break up a formation and then let it grind. It will be surprisingly hard to kill in a single turn, though it will have to watch out for heavy bomber builds.

That all sounds about right. I'm leaning towards a Suppression Refut with Ion Cannons and a Scrambler as the stock arrangement. I'll try out the other upgrades to see if I can get mileage out of them, but those seem like a solid base.

The Scrambler just seems more and more like a reusable Lando, which would be pretty amazing.

That all sounds about right. I'm leaning towards a Suppression Refut with Ion Cannons and a Scrambler as the stock arrangement. I'll try out the other upgrades to see if I can get mileage out of them, but those seem like a solid base.

The Scrambler just seems more and more like a reusable Lando, which would be pretty amazing.

"Oh you thought your demo triggered APT's? Go a head and reroll all those crits..."

Its an interesting ship to put Needa on as well if you plan to keep opponents at long range.

An Interdoctor design with scrambler, Wulff (or vet captain) and Projection experts is my favourite. May as well take the Interdictor name and a G8 or G7 but try and keep the costs reasonable so no SW7 for me.

I'm liking Grav Shift Reroutes to move obstacles around. Depending on the new missions in the Corellian expansion you could select all three of your missions where the Grav shift can really effect things. Station Assault and contested outpost are similar missions and you can move the station towards you own table edge while building up a wall of asteroids in front. Hopefully there will be a blue mission where a similar benefit can occur and you can design your fleet around protecting the bases such as Interdictor + 3 VSD-Is + fighters.

So, I followed up the article on getting the most out of the Interdictor without using the Experimental Retrofits with a look at how those upgrades might interact with various objective choices.

I'm thinking that in many cases the Interdictor is going to get you 20-40 points more on objectives per game. It also opens up some fun choices as the 1st player where you can use your opponent's objectives against them.

For more click here: Interdicting Objectives

@wes -I'm missing something. Why do TRC on a VSD II? It doesn't have evade.

@wes -I'm missing something. Why do TRC on a VSD II? It doesn't have evade.

"Apology Accepted... Captain Needa..."

@wes -I'm missing something. Why do TRC on a VSD II? It doesn't have evade.

Yes it does, I has a brace, a redirect, a contain, and Captain Needa.

I firmly belive that is why it has 2 contain tokens. 1 is for Needa.

@wes -I'm missing something. Why do TRC on a VSD II? It doesn't have evade.

Yes it does, I has a brace, a redirect, a contain, and Captain Needa.

I firmly belive that is why it has 2 contain tokens. 1 is for Needa.

I just think it has it to go along with the tank theme. You can prevent a total of four crits (if you burn both contains) in a single round... That can be he difference between being killed or crippled by a bombing wing vs surviving and repairing yourself

I just think it has it to go along with the tank theme. You can prevent a total of four crits (if you burn both contains) in a single round... That can be he difference between being killed or crippled by a bombing wing vs surviving and repairing yourself

At this point, it should be clarified default crits... Yes, in the framework of a Bomber Wing hitting you, that certainly makes sense...

But most of the ships designed to put crits on you, are putting non-default ones on, which the Contain won't help against (yet), and thus, an Evade might be useful for a dice mitigation tactic beforehand...

I just think it has it to go along with the tank theme. You can prevent a total of four crits (if you burn both contains) in a single round... That can be he difference between being killed or crippled by a bombing wing vs surviving and repairing yourself

At this point, it should be clarified default crits... Yes, in the framework of a Bomber Wing hitting you, that certainly makes sense...

But most of the ships designed to put crits on you, are putting non-default ones on, which the Contain won't help against (yet), and thus, an Evade might be useful for a dice mitigation tactic beforehand...

Most non default crit effects (at least in my meta) are thrown by black dice ships. Evade will do nothing for you at that range anyway. Luckily they gave us targeting scramblers too!

I just think it has it to go along with the tank theme. You can prevent a total of four crits (if you burn both contains) in a single round... That can be he difference between being killed or crippled by a bombing wing vs surviving and repairing yourself

At this point, it should be clarified default crits... Yes, in the framework of a Bomber Wing hitting you, that certainly makes sense...

But most of the ships designed to put crits on you, are putting non-default ones on, which the Contain won't help against (yet), and thus, an Evade might be useful for a dice mitigation tactic beforehand...

Most non default crit effects (at least in my meta) are thrown by black dice ships. Evade will do nothing for you at that range anyway. Luckily they gave us targeting scramblers too!

I am not disagreeing - But we can't ignore the fact that Blue Crits will be making a comeback due to the Interdictor...

And we must be aware of the future proofing that Commander Sato will toss into the mix

Also, if the Damage Control Officer does what we suspect, then bonus, too.