Hi,

Some time ago I wrote a thread about tournament advice for a tournament I was going to. You guys gave me great advice despite I only owned the Core-set and a extra VSD. For those that remember I got a 8th place out of 8

I am going to participate in yet another tournament only I own a bit more this time:

Core-set

1 VSD

1 ISD

1 Gladiator

2 squadron packs.

So what I wanna discuss is what would be the strongest build in my position. I play almost every weekend against my brother (Rebel Scum) - lately I have had some wins by going Ship heavy using mostly Screed.One of my builds looked like this:

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Navigation Officer ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 176 total ship cost

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
= 66 total ship cost

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Warlord ( 8 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Overload Pulse ( 8 points)
= 115 total ship cost

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)

Here I end up losing my squads but they still get to deal quite the damage. I sometime lose my Gladiator but my combo where I use the VSD's OVerload Pulse where my crit is guarantied due to Screed and then hit that same ship with the ISD that has Avenger enables me to destroy a lot of ships very fast.

At the moment I am trying to make som squadron heavy lists because I love playing with tons of squads - but I am starting to feel that it is more safe to go ship heavy.

When I play with squadron builds I always want to use the ISD 1 as carrier due to two offensive upgrades that can make me active 7 squads with token but this ends up with me only having two ships that will then be either a VSD or Gladiator. And I could go with two VSD and a 13-14 squads but when I own the ISD it feels a bit foolish not to use it.

For those who managed to read through all this text my question is: What kind of experience do you have when playing empire on this issue of ship heavy vs squadron heavy. One thing that annoys me greatly is that empire squads are better than rebels when going 10 vs 10 due to their massive synergy - but when I have crushed the rebel squads my own tend not to pack much damage on ships whereas x-wings have bomber.

Owning what I do how would you build a fleet - please feel free to comment on the example above and state what you would do different/upgrade.

For the Empire.

ISD looks good. I would prefer leading shots over SW7. If the OLP combo works just discard the blue accuracy to reroll your missed red and any other blue accuracies in your dice pool.

Demolisher needs APT or ACM to benefit from Screed. Engine techs too if you can and maybe Ordnance Experts.

VSD could be replaced by a raider II with OLP but you don't have the model. I would drop to a cheap VSD-I and change Avenger for Relentless. Ditch Warlord anyway and start adding more squadrons. Dengar +2 Tie-Advanced should keep your bomber ball unpinned for shots on turns 2-4 before they all die assuming a reasonably strong enemy fighter CAP.

Sorrry for the long delay on reply: would this work better then?

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 173 total ship cost

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
= 73 total ship cost

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 85 total ship cost

3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)

Would it be a smart move to just ditch the naked VSD and get Tarkin (even though there will only be two ships) and a lot more squadrons?

Second list looks solid. It's a pretty standard ISD/VSD/Demo that performs just fine. You'll want that VSD for squadron activations.

What about objectives - are there others there are more suited for my build?

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Your red objective is going to be rough. Most Wanted is going to be hard to leverage, because you lack a defensible, low-cost "throwaway" to designate as your own objective ship. With Gunnery Teams on the ISD, you don't have a great Advanced Gunnery objective ship--the VSD doesn't hit very hard here, Demo doesn't need Advanced Gunnery, and Gunnery Teams means you get no advantage for making your ISD the objective ship. And I wouldn't drop Gunnery Teams from the ISD. Precision Strike could work in your favor, but it could just as easily come back to bite you even worse. Opening Salvo is right out: a three-ship build isn't going to get a lot of benefit from it, especially when two of them are big capital ships that will almost definitely have hull damage at the end of the game. I think Most Wanted is probably the least bad option here, but you're really going to have to focus on your target ship, and trade Demolisher up in a big way to make it count.

Hyperspace Assault is a good choice for your yellow, but it can be a bit of a tough nut to crack tactically. I'd say if you're going to try it out, stick with it. Because while I do think it will help you here, but you're likely to have a few rough games while you learn how to use it. Your basic list has a bit of a vulnerability in that slow, slow VSD: if you get out-deployed badly enough, it's very possible that that VSD will be out of the fight for the whole game. Hyperspace Assault mitigates that problem by letting you put it in any of three places, where you want, when you want. Alternatively, you can use it to drop Demo all up in the other guy's grill, from behind, as early as turn 2. I can tell you from experience that that's a baaaad feeling, having to choose between Demolisher behind you and an ISD-2 in front. Contested Outpost is another good option for this fleet, but it'll lead to a very different style of gameplay, where you fortress up around the outpost and flex menacingly at the other guy with your angry triangles.

Dangerous Territory is a fine blue choice. Really anything but Superior Positions will pretty reliably work for you here, and it's pretty much a matter of which you prefer. DT, MF, and IS are all relatively low-risk low-reward objectives, so you're not losing a lot by taking any of them with a fleet like this.

TL;DR: Good choices, I wouldn't change them.

You make a lot of good points Ardaedhel. Thanks for the comments guys it is making me feel more confident in this list.

But one finale thought though - Would it be worth it to throw 1 or 2 upgrades away and go with Tarkin instead of Screed? Or is that merely a choice a style?

I have seen a lot of discussion on which one is better of those two and people do sure make a lot a great points.

Ideally you would put boosted comms on the Vic to make it extremely usable. Not sure what I would drop though, potentially leading shots, but that seems extreme as that is a useful card.

Tarkin is great, but in this case Screed will make the Glad sing and help ensure decent damage with the ISD.

Thanks for all the comments guys!