I may have written a special edition article about this elsewhere......

YOU'RE a Special Edition!

Mostly. I am a Legend in my own mind.

Lost another battle as Imps without magic. This time I had 2 ISD Is and a pile of interceptors commanded by Konstantine.

The enemy had 2 Liberties with Engine Techs and two transport flotillas commanded by Madine. He also had a 20-point init bid so he went first and last.

I never had a chance. Despite my 2 tractor beams and Konstantine the enemy just zipped around the map with impunity, giving me nothing but long range exchanges.

Will keep trying. Back to the drawing board.

So the challenge is simple. Play 10 games straight without using Demolisher or Major Rhymer and post your results!

With the new waves out you have far more options and so I put the challenge to all of you.

Mikael Hasselstein has taken the challenge and done great! Are you prepared to take the challenge?

I've only used Rhymer once and that was just recently. Demolisher I used a ton, but with all the new stuff I haven't been using it at all. In fact I've been using regular gladiators a bit lately - when defended by interdictors they can actually survive at range 1!

ISDs are still bosses... Interdictors are versatile and fun - and I will say that my new favorite toy to play with has been the Warlord VSD with Sensor Team and Quad Turbolaser Cannons - trying to come up with the perfect build to make that really shine has been fun.

I don't have a log of my wins and losses but I think I'm slightly over .500 in terms of winning casual games. For tournaments though, I've stuck with rebels because TRC90s are just unreal.

So the challenge is simple. Play 10 games straight without using Demolisher or Major Rhymer and post your results!

With the new waves out you have far more options and so I put the challenge to all of you.

Mikael Hasselstein has taken the challenge and done great! Are you prepared to take the challenge?

I get to play so irregularly, that I haven't used either in ages. In fact, I've never done the Rhymerball thing and will probably not until after it's passe (mostly by accident of circumstance).

I may have written a special edition article about this elsewhere......

YOU'RE a Special Edition!

Your face is a special edition!

I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me.

He's all yours Moff Matt...

(goes rummaging through the garbage compacter for his lost meds)

Your face is a special edition!

Yer DANG RIGHT it is...

... Do you know how many times its had to be Rebuilt so far?

FOUR TIMES.

....

Don't let people fool you. Field Hockey is *not* a Non-Contact sport when you're a Teenage Boy forced play in a Women's Competition because the Mens starts at 18 years old....

Lost another battle as Imps without magic. This time I had 2 ISD Is and a pile of interceptors commanded by Konstantine.

The enemy had 2 Liberties with Engine Techs and two transport flotillas commanded by Madine. He also had a 20-point init bid so he went first and last.

I never had a chance. Despite my 2 tractor beams and Konstantine the enemy just zipped around the map with impunity, giving me nothing but long range exchanges.

Will keep trying. Back to the drawing board.

What speed did you start at? What commands did you use from the beggining?

I'd have run at speed three and spammed nav from the get go against that.

wait. FIELD Hockey!!!?

I by no means consider myself an Imperial player, but I've won three games in a row with this list. It's too bad playing with ISDs always seems so dull to me, or I might keep flying it

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 399/400

Commander: General Tagge

Assault Objective: Most Wanted

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes

Navigation Objective: Minefields

Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)

- Intel Officer ( 7 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

= 145 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)

- General Tagge ( 25 points)

- Intel Officer ( 7 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

= 170 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Suppressor ( 4 points)

- Comms Net ( 2 points)

= 29 total ship cost

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

5 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 40 points)

Tried it and handle the rebel player ok, but got handed my behind by the imp players with demolisher

Chalenge accepted. Have to gather more miniatures.

My TOKIO EXPRESS 2.0 list (without Gladiator)

Screed 26

7* Raider I with ACM or APT (or mix of them with FCT - depend of FFG FAQ)

That give me 383 pts.

I start playig with this list from our Nationala (if gather models to that moment)

Tried it and handle the rebel player ok, but got handed my behind by the imp players with demolisher

Lost another battle as Imps without magic. This time I had 2 ISD Is and a pile of interceptors commanded by Konstantine.

The enemy had 2 Liberties with Engine Techs and two transport flotillas commanded by Madine. He also had a 20-point init bid so he went first and last.

I never had a chance. Despite my 2 tractor beams and Konstantine the enemy just zipped around the map with impunity, giving me nothing but long range exchanges.

Will keep trying. Back to the drawing board.

What speed did you start at? What commands did you use from the beggining?

I'd have run at speed three and spammed nav from the get go against that.

Speed 3 and Nav commands.

He had 4 ships to my 2 and also had initiative. His Liberties just waited till I moved, blasted one of my Star Destroyers, and sailed past with Engine Techs.

Using Madine, nav tokens from the Comms Nets, and Nav commands he was able to just Tokyo drift around my ships and strafe me Doom-style.

So the challenge is simple. Play 10 games straight without using Demolisher or Major Rhymer and post your results!

With the new waves out you have far more options and so I put the challenge to all of you.

Mikael Hasselstein has taken the challenge and done great! Are you prepared to take the challenge?

why handicap myself?

they are obviously good. its like going to a job and leaving your best tool for it at home cuz you like challenges.....

So the challenge is simple. Play 10 games straight without using Demolisher or Major Rhymer and post your results!

With the new waves out you have far more options and so I put the challenge to all of you.

Mikael Hasselstein has taken the challenge and done great! Are you prepared to take the challenge?

why handicap myself?

they are obviously good. its like going to a job and leaving your best tool for it at home cuz you like challenges.....

Because they can be a crutch to Imperial players. What fun is it if every single Imp player uses Rhymer and Demo? Really.

Learning how to use a neat trick to win (like Demo or Rhymer) can hinder a player's learning of the fundamentals.

Demolisher makes it too easy to come to grips with an enemy and attack.

Use a Raider as a primary attack vehicle and it gets much more difficult. Instead of jetting in and out with no enemy response you must instead present your opponent with difficult choices. Park 2 or 3 raiders next to an enemy so they can't destroy them all or - if they have initiative - they must move that ship first and lose a good tactical position.

Needing to get squadrons into range 1 to attack ships teaches you about predicting enemy movement, clever placement of squadrons as "mobile minefields", and use of upgrade cards which enhance your bomber wings.

It's also a good way to discover the 'hidden treasures' in the Imperial list that might never get a day in the sun so long as Rhymer/Demo is the tip of the spear. And, in turn, this will make you even better when you do finally bring out the terrible twosome.

I am temporarily retiring my standard rebel squad screen for the exact same reasons that one would temporarily retire Rhymer/Demo. I found a screen so good that it is becoming a crutch.

So my Rebel equivalent is giving up Bwings and squad screens over 70 points for 10 games. Currently at 0-1 because I flew my decked out Liberty poorly (right into Bwings).

Challenge accepted. I tend to run lists with no upgrades and no named characters save the Admiral. I like being the faceless evil

However my next planned game is 900pts, so I may need to add the odd upgrade card here and there to make the points... unless I fancy a 100 point first turn bid

I have played 6 games with no Demolisher or Rhymer. So far with 4 wins.

Bossk (who I wouldn't normally use) has won me 3 of those games.

After the battle pass with my VSDs & Interdoctor against MC30s or TRC90s the Hounds tooth Just hunts down the cripples and finishes them off as my ships plod on conducting repairs and engaging other targets. The extra dice set to an accuracy is perfect against CR90s stopping them from redirecting from their rear shield.

I have played 6 games with no Demolisher or Rhymer. So far with 4 wins.

Bossk (who I wouldn't normally use) has won me 3 of those games.

After the battle pass with my VSDs & Interdoctor against MC30s or TRC90s the Hounds tooth Just hunts down the cripples and finishes them off as my ships plod on conducting repairs and engaging other targets. The extra dice set to an accuracy is perfect against CR90s stopping them from redirecting from their rear shield.

That'll work until your opponent's learn to not shoot at him unless they're committing to killing him

I have played 6 games with no Demolisher or Rhymer. So far with 4 wins.

Bossk (who I wouldn't normally use) has won me 3 of those games.

After the battle pass with my VSDs & Interdoctor against MC30s or TRC90s the Hounds tooth Just hunts down the cripples and finishes them off as my ships plod on conducting repairs and engaging other targets. The extra dice set to an accuracy is perfect against CR90s stopping them from redirecting from their rear shield.

That'll work until your opponent's learn to not shoot at him unless they're committing to killing him

True enough, this then means he is still allowed to go around not being targeted. His damage out put may not be as bad, but he will have free reign to do as he likes, so either way it is a win.

Yeah provided you can get consistent Engineering tokens to it (Wulff, Comms Net, Tarkin), an Interdictor with Projection Experts (the "Interdoctor," Target Scramblers strongly recommended) can still make a nuisance of itself by healing the shields on other ships. I tried a 2 VSD 1 Interdoctor 1 Gozanti fleet a few weeks back and with Tarkin handing out Engineering tokens, you've got dial+token healing for 3 shields on each VSD and the Interdoctor can add 2 shields to a friend+1 for itself or just regenerate 4 for itself. It's not invincible by any means, but when combined with a Target Scrambler it gives your ships an extra turn or two of life, which is pretty impressive.

So the challenge is simple. Play 10 games straight without using Demolisher or Major Rhymer and post your results!

With the new waves out you have far more options and so I put the challenge to all of you.

Mikael Hasselstein has taken the challenge and done great! Are you prepared to take the challenge?

why handicap myself?

they are obviously good. its like going to a job and leaving your best tool for it at home cuz you like challenges.....

As some have stated, it limits your overall ability in the game. Not using demolisher and or Rhymer means that you have to be more creative and learn different tricks.

I played two games this weekend, Both against diff Rebel Craken swarms. one I used 2 ISD 2s and lost 7-4. game was close. I used Tarken and defence liaisons and had leading shot XI7s on my ISD2 with ECMs. tarken with Defence liaisons really gives you ships a ton of flexibility when needed so I liked how that worked. would probably try it across a fleet with 3-4 ships instead of just 2 big ones.

Second game I used the Healing Interdictor set up with Target S. but I also had overload pulse and screed on it backed up with an Avenger ISD1 and a AA raider 2 with sooter and 2 advanced. Had first activation and I just flew the ISD 1A aggressively and overloaded pulsed 2 ships in one turn.... one shot them both so that worked well. I tabled the 2nd person but I think he missed the combo when looking over my fleet so he flew in looking to slug it out with me and that worked to my advantage as I made him play hyperspace assault. Im going to keep experimenting with what my 3rd ship set up in that list will be but I like how that combo plays.