My favorite way to fly an ISD-I.......

With a sister ISD-I

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Minister Tua ( 2 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 158 total ship cost

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Damage Control Officer ( 5 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 129 total ship cost

1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)
1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)
1 Morna Kee ( 27 points)
1 VT-49 Decimator ( 22 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)

...two ship activations and 4 and a half deployments?

I am not enthusiastic about that plan.

Regarding the original point of the thread, I'm on board with pt106 when it comes to ISD-I loadouts. I am curious about the H9s+High Capacity Ion Turbines combination, however, and may give that one a try in a few weeks...

ISD I w/ Flight Commander/Flight Controllers/Rapid Launch Bays/Expanded Hanger Bays/Leading Shots/Relentless +Jendon, Maarek and 3 TIE Defenders.

This will solve pretty much any problem you might have, Fighters? FC'd Defenders and double tapping Maarek shred even Biggs X-Wing balls. Ships? Shoot them then drop 4 defenders with a double tapping Maarek.

Problem solved.

1 hour ago, Snipafist said:

...two ship activations and 4 and a half deployments?

I am not enthusiastic about that plan.

Regarding the original point of the thread, I'm on board with pt106 when it comes to ISD-I loadouts. I am curious about the H9s+High Capacity Ion Turbines combination, however, and may give that one a try in a few weeks...

I just said it's my favorite way to fly it, not that it was competitive ;-)

2 hours ago, FourDogsInaHorseSuit said:

You can shoot at ranges beyond close.

I believe the point being made is that gunnery team is an expensive upgrade, which is being poorly utilised if the 2nd attack has half or less expected damage then the 1st. You are better off trying to get a double arc. Plus the slot competes with other great ISD-1 upgrades, such as Flight controllers and OE, or even sensor teams and veteran gunners.

39 minutes ago, Divad said:

I believe the point being made is that gunnery team is an expensive upgrade, which is being poorly utilised if the 2nd attack has half or less expected damage then the 1st. You are better off trying to get a double arc. Plus the slot competes with other great ISD-1 upgrades, such as Flight controllers and OE, or even sensor teams and veteran gunners.

Therefore one should use Spinals to make Gunnery team attack worth it. Also don't forget that second attack can target squadrons.

I have a rubric I follow with regards to gunnery teams. If I can get 6 dice at medium range, I'll consider it. It's not autoinclude at that level, but it's a decent choice. This includes Vic-IIs and ISD1 with spinals. (If I put Intel officer there also, it becomes even stronger, because I can swat flotillas at range). Ackbar Assault Frigates are autoinclude because of the sure arc restriction.

If I can get 7 or more dice at medium, and can be reasonably confident of maneuvering to make use of it, gunnery teams is an autoinclude for me. This is both MC80 Liberty variants and the ISD2. And the Vic2 with spinals.

I know that some consider gunnery teams to be autoinclude on a Vic2, no matter what, but I like a number of builds that use the slot for other things, or don't use it at all. Warlord with Ruthless Strategists comes to mind, or Dominator with no other upgrades.

I've recently been toying around with the ISD1 squadron alpha strike, and it's... delectable. The ISD1 supercarrier loadout--BC, EHB, and Flight Controllers--throwing 4 Interceptors, Howlrunner, and Valen or Mauler. "Here, this is my entire anti-squadron wing. Enjoy it."

I'm trying really hard to make the "just bring a bigger stick" intelless approach to squadrons work. It's... not going well. But it's all kinds of fun.

2 hours ago, pt106 said:

Therefore one should use Spinals to make Gunnery team attack worth it. Also don't forget that second attack can target squadrons.

I'm not saying gunnery teams on an ISD-1 isn't without merit, and targeting squadrons in the front arc certainly is a nice perk, however if you add Spinals I'd suggest spending a single point to upgrade to the ISD-2, which also frees up the turbolaser slot and adds a defensive retrofit slot.

Another problem with spinals and gunnery team on an ISD-1 is a lack of dice modification options on your 4 red and 3 black dice. Your options are Vader (however without the defensive retrofit or Motti, your ISD-1 may not last long) or Leading shots (only usable out of the front arc).

The last problem I can think of, is with 4 red and 2 blue dice out of the front arc, the expected number of accuracies is 1.0. That is not overly reliable and you miss out of H9, X17 and HTT options to mitigate this. Captain Jonus or Intel officer are potential fixes to this though.

10 hours ago, itzSteve said:

My latest cheap build for a ISD I: Vader/Damage Control Officer/Gunnery Team/Spinal Armament

If I have extra points to use: change DCO for Tua/ECM or Needa/Relentess (same points as DCO)

I'd strongly recommend upgrading that ship to an ISD-2. See my above post for more context, specifically about Gunnery team and spinals on an ISD-1.

In addition to this, if adding Tua for the defensive retrofit slot, you are paying a further 2 points for a slot the ISD-2 already has, using the crew upgrade slot and not utilising the dual offensive retrofit slots that the ISD-1 can boast of.

ISD-I // Boosted Comms / Expanded Hangars / Admiral Chiraneu / Flight Controllers with a Rhymer ball with Defenders and boom hurt on a stick

Anyone ever use bombers with it? Or just a fighter wing and let the big bad boy do the anti ship work? And I've been wanting to try out the ISD 1 with Arquitens, as well as dual ISD 1s. The dual ISDs could be brutal. Tractor beams, xi7s, etc. Roll in fast, hit with a ton of firepower, target dies, repeat. And if target doesn't die, two tractors can do some slowing.

14 hours ago, Mattorium said:

ISD 1- Relentless, SFO, OE, High Capacity Ion Turbines, H9s, 134 points

I Love this build because of the flexibility, Hitting power and all around versatility. The Relentless SFO combo can really help with having the right order at the right time every turn. Also H9s and HCIT on the side arcs hit so much harder. you would be surprised how flying this ship aggressively make your opponent end up in black range on the sides consistently. if you can feed a CF that's 2 reds 1 blue 3 black with a guaranteed acc and 3 blacks that have a re roll. hits very hard.

Hot diggity... I like this. I like it a lot.

Excuse me, I have a list to build...

9 hours ago, Divad said:

I'm not saying gunnery teams on an ISD-1 isn't without merit, and targeting squadrons in the front arc certainly is a nice perk, however if you add Spinals I'd suggest spending a single point to upgrade to the ISD-2, which also frees up the turbolaser slot and adds a defensive retrofit slot.

Another problem with spinals and gunnery team on an ISD-1 is a lack of dice modification options on your 4 red and 3 black dice. Your options are Vader (however without the defensive retrofit or Motti, your ISD-1 may not last long) or Leading shots (only usable out of the front arc).

The last problem I can think of, is with 4 red and 2 blue dice out of the front arc, the expected number of accuracies is 1.0. That is not overly reliable and you miss out of H9, X17 and HTT options to mitigate this. Captain Jonus or Intel officer are potential fixes to this though.

All these points are valid, however you're missing the main advantage of this build compared to ISD2 - much higher damage output from front arc in the close range (average 8.2 vs 6.1 assuming Leading Shots) while being the same in long range and still damaging enough at medium (6 dices vs 8) with a high chance to have at least one accuracy (70% vs 85% on ISD2). And it can still be equipped with defensive upgrade if desired by using Tua. For my usage this ship is preferable to ISD2 most of the time (the task I would still prefer to use ISD2 in is mass flotilla hunting).

Don't use an ISD to hunt a floated. It's beneath the 110 point price.

19 minutes ago, FourDogsInaHorseSuit said:

Don't use an ISD to hunt a floated. It's beneath the 110 point price.

If it allows me to kill both BCCs early round 3 - points well spent.