Well, I tried a VSD Interdictor Gozantix2 Rhymer ball vs The Giant Tater list (Ackbar fully loaded Home One with Intel, 3 TRCRs, 4 Awings).

The Giant Tater nuked my "defensive" Interdictor in two side blasts. I was planning on using both the VSD and the Interdictor as tankier ships, after hearing they well with repair values and Tua, but wow.

I'm now starting to think that the most important part of the Interdictor is to completely flesh it out on defense: Suppression, not Combat, for 2 experimental slots, one being targeting scrambler. Either Tua for ECM or Needa for a Evade. Leaning Tua ECM though. Sadly, that precludes you from using Tua on a VSD.

Konstantine was... disappointing. Didn't get to use him.

Even the G8 Slow-downer-thingie was disappointing, especially since the MC80 and CR90s happened to have banked Nav tokens.

How much abuse can a defensive VSD and or Interdictor take?

Does it do better versus a dedicated bomber/Rhymer ball attack?

Tua and ECMs with the Interdictor constantly on engineering commands is the best way to go. Fortunately the Experimental Upgrades are all passive, so the Interdictor can focus just on repairing itself with its engineering values while the Experimental upgrades do their thing.

VSDs have always suffered problems with resiliency. Brace is too easily shut down with large dice pools and XI7s. My solution has been to try pulling the VSD out of combat as a front line ship and use it instead in a carrier role commanding 4 fighters well. Take Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms with Yularen, mixed with around 4 TIEs of your choice (Defenders, Interceptors, Bombers... or a mix of them) to soften up targets for your main guns.

Honestly, while Tua helps the VSD retain its brace token, I still wish we had better generic protection offers for the VSD and large ships in general. Running solo scenarios, I'm struck every game over how very little damage big ships are doing when shooting at fighters... even when firing two dice. If PDRs reached out to medium range, it would be worth it.

Tua and ECMs with the Interdictor constantly on engineering commands is the best way to go. Fortunately the Experimental Upgrades are all passive, so the Interdictor can focus just on repairing itself with its engineering values while the Experimental upgrades do their thing.

VSDs have always suffered problems with resiliency. Brace is too easily shut down with large dice pools and XI7s. My solution has been to try pulling the VSD out of combat as a front line ship and use it instead in a carrier role commanding 4 fighters well. Take Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms with Yularen, mixed with around 4 TIEs of your choice (Defenders, Interceptors, Bombers... or a mix of them) to soften up targets for your main guns.

Honestly, while Tua helps the VSD retain its brace token, I still wish we had better generic protection offers for the VSD and large ships in general. Running solo scenarios, I'm struck every game over how very little damage big ships are doing when shooting at fighters... even when firing two dice. If PDRs reached out to medium range, it would be worth it.

I feel exactly the same thing. Thus my irritation for how weak large ships seem.

What do you mean by pulll out of combat btw? And, does your VSD actually have a use? Or could it have been replaced with 2 Gozantis?

Whats PDR btw? Point Defense something?

Yeah all of those anti squadron cards are simply not worth their points. Not that they've been in the wrong builds or whatever, but they simply don't do nearly enough to justify their cost, especially over similar value of actual squadrons.

In my experience there's only one ship/list type that can withstand Ackbar broadsides; a Motti ISD1 w/ Reinforced Corridors supported by an Interdictor w/ Proj Exp + Target Scramblers and a Gozanti w/ Repair Crews. It's highly capable of soaking up Ackbar barrages and still live to tell the tale.

Whats PDR btw? Point Defense something?

Yeah all of those anti squadron cards are simply not worth their points. Not that they've been in the wrong builds or whatever, but they simply don't do nearly enough to justify their cost, especially over similar value of actual squadrons.

Point Defence Reroute, yeah. 5 pts is a lot for the card :/

I always imagine capital ships spewing out endless torrents of anti-squadron fire, but in-universe I suppose it is at least slightly thematic that squadrons seem to dodge it more often than not.

The key to beating any ackbar list is getting a ship in its front/rear arc. Intel officer and x17 work well vs mc80s.

Ion canon batteries on suppresion interdictor is must for me. Paired with a double arc shot and you can cause a lot of damage.

Tua and ECMs with the Interdictor constantly on engineering commands is the best way to go. Fortunately the Experimental Upgrades are all passive, so the Interdictor can focus just on repairing itself with its engineering values while the Experimental upgrades do their thing.

VSDs have always suffered problems with resiliency. Brace is too easily shut down with large dice pools and XI7s. My solution has been to try pulling the VSD out of combat as a front line ship and use it instead in a carrier role commanding 4 fighters well. Take Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms with Yularen, mixed with around 4 TIEs of your choice (Defenders, Interceptors, Bombers... or a mix of them) to soften up targets for your main guns.

Honestly, while Tua helps the VSD retain its brace token, I still wish we had better generic protection offers for the VSD and large ships in general. Running solo scenarios, I'm struck every game over how very little damage big ships are doing when shooting at fighters... even when firing two dice. If PDRs reached out to medium range, it would be worth it.

I feel exactly the same thing. Thus my irritation for how weak large ships seem.

What do you mean by pulll out of combat btw? And, does your VSD actually have a use? Or could it have been replaced with 2 Gozantis?

Whats PDR btw? Point Defense something?

Yeah all of those anti squadron cards are simply not worth their points. Not that they've been in the wrong builds or whatever, but they simply don't do nearly enough to justify their cost, especially over similar value of actual squadrons.

I mean that I take VSDs away from intending them to close and kill my enemies to slowing the approach and leaning on fighter commands for the first half (if not entire) game.

Remember that VSDs have a natural fighter 3, something that Gozantis accomplish only with Expanded Hangars or a token. Going to fighter 4 on a Gozanti means usually sacrificing boosted comms (since they take expanded hangars), and they can't take Weapons teams. VSDs on the other hand not only have hull and shields to survive glancing hits, but they can pump up to 4 with a token AND take Boosted comms to cover a wide range. Taken with Flight Controllers, VSDs can perform very powerful alpha strikes. In a meta where fighters are in ascendance I've had success running two VSDs with a suite of Interceptor aces to trap and kill enemy fighters. I also had some TIE Defenders to soften up targets before following up with my VSD attacks.

The VSD is one of the few carrier friendly ships that can take Flight controllers. Only Assault Frigates and ISDs can do so now, and they come with different parameters. The ISD is more expensive, and the A/F is rebel.

Point Defense Reroute isn't only expensive, but it's limited to Distance 1. That means ships like the VSD and ISD use it only when those bombers are already in range and peeling shields. The big ships can't use it preemptively to try weakening enemy ships as they advance. If it was for any AA shot for the reroll that would be at least useable... but the re-roll is no guarantee. I'd rather have something that lets crit or accuracy results count as damage on the AA shot, which is something I'd pay 5 points for.

Did you have a typo there? VSDs can't go to 5 activations and have Boosted Comms, even with a token.

That was a typo. The VSD can go up to Fighter 5 (Expanded Hangars, token), though they lose boosted comms. If you find your fighters aren't going that far it could be worth it, but I like the flexibility out of Boosted comms with fast fighters.

I've been experimenting with massed TIE Fighters recently with Flight Controllers support. I'm kind of surprised how effective it works- in solo matches, I've been able to wipe a mixed rebel fighter squad with only 8 TIEs.

Use lambdas for boosted range.

That is an option, though you're sacrificing 15 points per Lambda. Running two of them gets you good coverage, but then you're down 30 points. You can fit 3 TIE Fighters in that space, two-three TIE Interceptors for three points more, and TIE Defenders are only 16 points each.

Tarkin, two VSD-Is with Flight Controllers and Expanded Hangars with two Lambdas is 260 points. 140 points left with 104 points left for squadrons, but with 10 total fighter activations. What would you take in all of that? If you jam all that into fighters, how do you feel with 2 ship activations?

That is an option, though you're sacrificing 15 points per Lambda. Running two of them gets you good coverage, but then you're down 30 points. You can fit 3 TIE Fighters in that space, two-three TIE Interceptors for three points more, and TIE Defenders are only 16 points each.

Tarkin, two VSD-Is with Flight Controllers and Expanded Hangars with two Lambdas is 260 points. 140 points left with 104 points left for squadrons, but with 10 total fighter activations. What would you take in all of that? If you jam all that into fighters, how do you feel with 2 ship activations?

Horrible, I'd never take 2 VSDs! as all my ships. haha.

That's my problem with them. Those pros you talk about dont really weight the con of a VSD's cost, esp if it doesnt really get good shots.

Aso, my VSD1s rarely do more than like 4 total damage, cuz theydon't get into black range.

I've occasionally gotten into black range with mine in solo tests, because the enemy keeps advancing on them and occasionally getting their MC30s close. The one time I took my 2x VSD list in a f2f game, the APTs didn't kick. Perhaps if I freed up points to take Ordnance Experts and APTs, something could have been done. But the focus instead was on fighter space superiority. I had so many points for so much in my list *shrug*

Really the standout advantage remaining of the VSD is fighter 3, hull 8, Weapons team, offensive retrofit, for around 71 points. Nothing else in the Imperial navy can really compare, unless you drop another 30 points for the heaviest ship in the game. If you want to command a good amount of fighters and give them teeth for cheap, it's a VSD with Flight controllers.

I wish the VSD was better at its gunship role too, since I long for my gun VSDs-ISD list to be valid once more. I've compromised by stripping and downgrading by VSDs to Flight controller boosted comm versions and shove 8 TIE fighters around the board to kill things, while my Motti ISD-II tears across the board to destroy things. The ISD, compared with the innate firepower in the VSDs (meaning better than two dice at range), means I feel my list is balanced.

Without VSDs the Empire is left with extremes. Either you take a hefty ISD-I/II configured for fighter duty, or you take Gozantis and have to be happy with 2 fighter activations at a time without Flight Controllers. Anyone with more would be able to overpower and destroy those fighters easily.

It's the same sadly in the world of firepower, which is why I wish the VSD was more valid there. The closest thing to an effective fighting medium ship the EMpire has is the GSD/ARQ depending on what you want to do, and I feel players will still find the GSD more threatening. Issue is, going that way, the Empire's strengths are at close range combat... and why are you investing in your heavy ships? A kitted GSD at the same amount of points as an ISD is potentially more dangerous, especially when spamming APTs. If gun Victories were still valid, that could be the anchor for escorting heavy ships, or being the heavy ship in an MSU list. Currently you're probably better off taking an Interdictor so you can use the experimental upgrades.

Getting back to carrier VSDs, I've found them effective, especially with Tarkin telling a couple of them what to do. You don't have to boost the Fighter rating up to 5 unless you wanted a single softcore ISD for some reason (likely with Tua and ECMs for your one VSD). Fighter 4 is decent enough to threaten enemy squads and do stuff, and 8 points for two boosted comms is cheaper than taking up an activation and 15 points for a shuttle.

If you do carrier VSDs, find the most threatening fighter for what you want to do (Interceptors for AA duty, Bombers for uncaring bombing chaos, TIE/Ds for balanced roles, aces for anything), find a way to take 6-8 of them, and just spam fighter commands as the VSD is on its way to wherever. It's worked for me so far.

^{The 'problem' with the interdictor and Konstantine is that you never know how useful he is.}

^{What do i mean by this? If the opponents take Nav's then he doesnt do anything. But then you forced your opponent to take navs. and when they have fighters it can be devastating!}

^{In the national tournament i slowed a transport that was his main squadron command giver so his mc80 smashed into the back of it, for 2 turns and pop!}

^{For Konstantine you need two med/large ships within 5 meaning you have to bunch your fleet . Also sometimes you want to speed tem up, i remember making an MC30 go speed 4 so then he had a choice, fly point blank into my ISD who hadnt been yetr or bank off taking him out the game for several turns. he went for the latter,but of course he wasnt destroyed so was the interdictor worth it?}

^{My last game was great, i took slavage run and move all the debris out the way netting me 80 pts. I love the interdictor but it take a bit of practice to use.}

^{I have 'sadly' turned rebel for the CC as tehre was only one slot left so wont test it again for a while.}

Start with one. Use Tua. 'Member when VSDs went into exile after Ackbar came out? I 'member.

A slow moving ship is always going to have issues vs Ackbar. Unless we look back again and see that Rhymer/Boosted Comms/Firesprays pushed the fish out of the game for ages.

Xi7 are not an issue for VSD/Tua. They need 9 damage to punch one damage into you. ECM brace, redirect one, one damage on. Use move shield to keep one facing showing or fully repair. Not an issue as compared to the instant fold vs Xi7/8 dice battery without Tua.

If you want to use 2 def put Needa on your non Tua medium and play it according to the matchup.

-edit- do some writing on Interdictor when not on phone in regional area