How do you beat the meta with big ships?

By Nostromoid, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Assuming that any tournament will have flotillas on every table, and plenty of either Rebel swarms or Rebel bomber lists, how do you counter that most reliably with Star Destroyers? I'm curious what everyone's approaches are, be it Rhymer for steady damage at range, Motti to weather the storm, or rerolls to pop little buggers.

VSDs, ISDs, 'dictors. I really want to make these work. Seems like I need to find a way to counter bombers, speed, and scatter all at the same time, and still be a threat on my own. What's your approach?

Three Bomber Nose-Punch.

Its worked in one tournament so far... And the Double Interdictor basis has the natural ACC+Damage Generation to wade in and drop Flotillas Incidentally while punsihing larger ships with double-arcs.

I'm sure I've seen it somewhere, but what's in the fleet?

Really dig vsd2 with gunnery teams and leading shots. .. deploy across from flotilla and drive at em speed 2... or jump it in with hyperspace objective. .. you'll need a fighter cover so don't forget to take one. .. otherwise it can pop 2 flotilla from medium no problem. ..

Same way as before - gunnery teams and intel officers. Have a lot of HP and go for BCC flotillas first.

Pretty much what pt106 said - Gunnery Teams + Intel Officers help a lot. H9 Turbolasers also strongly recommended. If the flotillas are hiding in the back, don't forget that ISDs have a speed 3 setting when appropriate. Obstructed shots are fine so long as you've got medium range; long-range shots can also add up provided you can manage the Scatter token with H9s and/or Intel Officer. Once the flotillas are reduced/removed, the remaining squadrons will have a tougher time of it without the regular squadron commands.

If your meta is consistently flotilla+squadron heavy you can also/instead take out the other part of the equation by going heavy on anti-squadron squadrons (TIE Fighters/Interceptors/Imperial ace flying circus). This is a very risky choice, though, as you're going to be in for some bad times when you don't come up against a fleet your built to counter and you spend 90+ points on squadrons that only do a good job against other squadrons.

How's this boring-ass list look? I don't love it, but I tried to include at least some kind of answer for the things I expected to face, and keep a respectable initiative bid. I kind of expect it to get hosed by Cracken swarms, so I'm actually contemplating another tractor beam on the naked Gozanti, though that would wipe out the initiative bid.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 393/400
Commander: Admiral Motti
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Minefields
[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Captain Needa ( 2 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 169 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 31 total ship cost
Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Admiral Titus ( 2 points)
- Veteran Gunners ( 5 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
= 92 total ship cost
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
2 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 18 points)
2 TIE Advanced Squadrons ( 24 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
Edited by pasewi

Really dig vsd2 with gunnery teams and leading shots. .. deploy across from flotilla and drive at em speed 2... or jump it in with hyperspace objective. .. you'll need a fighter cover so don't forget to take one. .. otherwise it can pop 2 flotilla from medium no problem. ..

Unfortunately, flotillas and other small ships dodge vsd front arcs no trouble.

I think he meant ISD... That's the ship with that particular load-out.

I think he meant ISD... That's the ship with that particular load-out.

ISDs cannot hyperspace and arent limited to speed 2

Doh! You quoted SkyCake and I was looking at the ISD w/ GT & LS list Pasewi posted just above your comment.

Really dig vsd2 with gunnery teams and leading shots. .. deploy across from flotilla and drive at em speed 2... or jump it in with hyperspace objective. .. you'll need a fighter cover so don't forget to take one. .. otherwise it can pop 2 flotilla from medium no problem. ..

Unfortunately, flotillas and other small ships dodge vsd front arcs no trouble.

They can't all avoid it at the same time. .. also I'm noticing people are keeping their flotilla at slower speeds while issuing squadron commands making it not too difficult to get a shot in a flotilla. ..

Really dig vsd2 with gunnery teams and leading shots. .. deploy across from flotilla and drive at em speed 2... or jump it in with hyperspace objective. .. you'll need a fighter cover so don't forget to take one. .. otherwise it can pop 2 flotilla from medium no problem. ..

Unfortunately, flotillas and other small ships dodge vsd front arcs no trouble.

They can't all avoid it at the same time. .. also I'm noticing people are keeping their flotilla at slower speeds while issuing squadron commands making it not too difficult to get a shot in a flotilla. ..

Well they arent against me dammit. Think most overcompensate in fear of Konstantine.