Countering the Double ISD List

By ClebSorcerer113, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

So I had this crazy idea run through my head after seeing how the double star destroyer list has brought home first place multiple times in tournaments. I couldn't help but come up with a rebel list that might pack a punch and potentially deal with this impressive force:

x1 MC80 Battle Cruiser: -General Dodonna -Gunnery Team -Leading Shots -X17 Turbolasers -Spinal Armament -Medical Team (141pts)

x1 MC80 Battle Cruiser: -Gunnery Team -Leading Shots -X17 Turbolasers -Spinal Armament -Medical Team (130pts)

x1 MC80 Battle Cruiser: -Gunnery Team -Leading Shots -X17 Turbolasers -Spinal Armament (129pts)

I also considered maybe putting in Rieekan for a maximized kamikaze style assault instead of Dodonna, but figured that Spinal Armament might be the better choice considering Dodonna is cheapest, and how you will quickly see that the dice in this list really add up fast.

The main strategy is to stay tight and either gain up on 1 destroyer if they go wide and split, or just hit each of them twice with your 3 ships if they pair up.

Your getting 3 blue and 4 red dice base, +1 red for Spinal Armament and potentially +1 more red dice for concentrate fire.

Then subtracting the 1 blue for leading shots, assuming you are in medium range, you will throw out 2 blue, 6 red, rerollable dice (at both destroyers due to Gunnery Team) from each cruiser every turn potentially hitting both destroyers with 2 frontal attacks (16 dice total!)

You will certainly trade blows, but 1 more ship means up to 48 rerollable attack dice every turn compared to the two ISD's 32 rerollable attack dice. Nice touch is the turbolasers almost completely counter redirect, though I cant' decide if it would be better to use Heavy Turbolasers instead.

This doesn't account for Bossk, IG-88, or Dengar, though it packs a serious punch in terms of sheer anti-ship firepower.

Anyways, this is how I would approach the situation. but I haven't played either of these lists so I don't know how it would fair other than it would put a serious beat down on the 2 destroyers.

Totally would love to see someone show up with this sometime, but if your going up against heavy fighter or fast ship lists forget it, this would be trash.

Then again, trade one of the cruisers and take 13 Y-wing squadrons and you might have a quick gg -yeah, now that I think about it that is way better.

Most two ISD list have a Rhymer ball of some type this list will be annihilated by bombers or worse Konstantine

Then replace the bombers with tons of anti-fighters (probably better options), but I'm just going off the imperial I saw and totally believe in adaptation to these types of situations. Love the Interdictor though, 9 repair points and the control is amazing on that thing.

That double-ISD list you saw seems to me a bit out of date. If it had won two of the most recent regionals, then yes, I'd be very much looking against it. It still might have a place in the meta, but I haven't seen anyone in my area running one.

The MC80 LIberty offers incredible firepower to the front, but with only three activations, you're bound to stumble into the opponent's best arcs while having your own shots limited or outright dodged. Part of what made that double ISD list is all of the activations, and theoretically speaking, you could do something similar with a double Liberty. Shifting to a third Liberty eats into your activation count and your squadron count.

At the moment, there are two poles to the meta that you have to worry about countering, and I say that going into wave-5, which might shift this somewhat:

1. Mass Squadrons: What the list contains is an open question, but anything from mass bombers to some of your more balanced Rebel anti-squadron bombers. It doesn't quite matter exactly what your answer is, but you'd better have thought an answer through fairly sufficiently.

2. High activation count no/low squadron lists with a couple of heavy hitters. The starting point for this is Ard's list here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/231399-moar-shrimps/?hl=shrimp

I've seen variations iterations of that list that took it as a starting point for elaboration and personal adjustment.

Finding out a list that works well enough against both of those archetypes is your real key.