Since I've been having a lot of trouble deciding which fleet I would rather fly in the VASSAL Freshman Tournament, I figured I would put the two choices and their exact compositions up for community debate.

Double ISD Is Viable - 392/400

Imperial-1 class Star Destroyer - 120 - 140

- Defense Liaison - 3

- Gunnery Team - 7

- Quad Laser Turrets - 5

- Dual Turbolaser Turrets - 5

Imperial-1 class Star Destroyer - 120 - 140

- Defense Liaison - 3

- Gunnery Team - 7

- Quad Laser Turrets - 5

- Dual Turbolaser Turrets - 5

Raider-1 class Corvette - 44 - 58

- Agent Kallus - 3

- Ordnance Experts - 4

- Flechette Torpedoes - 3

- Impetuous - 4

Gozanti-class Cruisers - 23 - 50

- Admiral Motti - 24

- Comms Net - 2

Gozanti-class Cruisers - 23 - 25

- Comms Net - 2

Most Wanted/Contested Outpost/Solar Corona

I think the strategy of this fleet is fairly clear. The ISDs bullrush their victims, the Gozantis feed tokens to power the ISDs and their Liaisons, and Kallus wrecks any squadron hapless enough to enter his range. The fleet strongly prefers first player to allow Kallus an opportunity to lock down enemy bomber balls or allow the ISDs to destroy targets without an opportunity to escape their wrath, but there's not a lot left to sacrifice for bid IMO. The need for the Star Destroyers to weather significant amounts of fire, particularly from bombers that evade Impetuous's threat zone means that Motti is one of the only choices for this fleet. I know there are also strong opinions about the value of Gunnery Teams on the ISD-1, but in this case I feel the ability to add anti-squadron fire out of the giant front arc of the two capital ships is worth the expense over Ordnance Experts, particularly if I face a fighter-heavy list.

Seeing Double - 398/400

Gladiator-1 class Star Destroyer - 56 - 75

- Ordnance Experts - 4

- Assault Proton Torpedoes - 5

- Demolisher - 10

Gladiator-1 class Star Destroyer - 56 - 68

- Ordnance Experts - 4

- Assault Proton Torpedoes - 5

- Insidious - 3

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser - 54 - 83

- Admiral Motti - 24

- Dual Turbolaser Turrets - 5

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser - 54 - 63

- Dual Turbolaser Turrets - 5

- Hand of Justice - 4

Raider-1 class Corvette - 44 - 58

- Agent Kallus - 3

- Ordnance Experts - 4

- Flechette Torpedoes - 3

- Impetuous - 4

Raider-1 class Corvette - 44 - 51

- Ordnance Experts - 4

- Flechette Torpedoes - 3

Most Wanted/Hyperspace Assault/Solar Corona

This fleet was originally developed mostly to put the ships I own (I own two of each above) on the table. Once they got there, they showed promise as an Imperial wolfpack, and this is the fleet's latest evolution. While individually each ship is not terribly lethal or survivable, the raw number of targets means it is, in my experience, easier to close with enemy formations from one or two vectors, as closing exchanges are traded over more ships. The Raiders, Impetuous in particular, provide hellish anti-squadron lockdown and picket attacks while the Gladiators and Arquitens do the heavy lifting damage wise. I'm open to suggestions about rearranged upgrades or commanders, this fleet is still experimental. I'd like bid, but there's not a lot to give up, between Ordnance Experts for crits, DTTs to overcome flaky reds, and FT just to hold off Nora et al. I will also make the small note that where in DIIV, Most Wanted was chosen to as a red to allow me to deny the opponent points/score more of mine, here it's intended to help augment the sometimes meager firepower and improve damage output, particularly from the Raiders and Arquitens. This fleet really struggles against multiple heavy capital ships (MC80s, ISDs, etc.), so until I'm confident enough in my flying to put more dice on target at once, MW is there to add a little something extra.

I welcome constructive commentary on both fleets, whether upgrades, commanders, objectives, whatever. Both are intentionally squadron-less (must be the hipster in me with all the "MOAR SQUADRONS" floating around right now), and I'm fairly certain with careful flying and high velocities, Flechette Torpedoes will see me through. Thanks in advance guys, I appreciate it.

Keep It Simple Stupid

These both look like fun to fly. Personally, I'm on a huge ISD kick right now so I'd go with the first one, particularly suffice I think the second has some weaknesses mostly centered around the fact that you're bringing Arquitenses and Arquitenses are terrible.

I get your point on taking GT over OE, and that's fair... but, man, an ISD without rerolls is an ISD whose front arc I'm not scared of, and that's not how you want your enemy to feel about your ISDs. LS or Vader if you're going GT on there. I'd probably drop the DTT to afford them, though I haven't actually done the math on which is statistically better, DTT vs LS, so... grain of salt. One incidental advantage of DTT, of course, is that it would apply to a side arc shot if you needed it to.

Defense Liaisons is a cool choice here, with Comms Nets to feed tokens and no squadron commands to worry about. I think that will give you some great flexibility, and dangerous CF shots.

8 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Keep It Simple Stupid

I'm going to assume your advice is run the simpler fleet, which is the ISDs by a mile. There are a handful more moving parts, but I have had more time flying versions of that fleet than the wolfpack.

8 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

These both look like fun to fly. Personally, I'm on a huge ISD kick right now so I'd go with the first one, particularly suffice I think the second has some weaknesses mostly centered around the fact that you're bringing Arquitenses and Arquitenses are terrible.

I get your point on taking GT over OE, and that's fair... but, man, an ISD without rerolls is an ISD whose front arc I'm not scared of, and that's not how you want your enemy to feel about your ISDs. LS or Vader if you're going GT on there. I'd probably drop the DTT to afford them, though I haven't actually done the math on which is statistically better, DTT vs LS, so... grain of salt. One incidental advantage of DTT, of course, is that it would apply to a side arc shot if you needed it to.

Defense Liaisons is a cool choice here, with Comms Nets to feed tokens and no squadron commands to worry about. I think that will give you some great flexibility, and dangerous CF shots.

Yeah, I'm probably going to swap back to Leading Shots over DTTs. The side arc was the original logic, but I also shouldn't be allowing anyone into my side arcs anyway. When I first set out to do double ISD fleets, what I quickly discovered was that they need activations, and having both activations and not practically bare ISDs requires them to be Gozantis, and Comms Net plus Liaison neatly solves the command problem (that knowing whether CF, Navigate, or Engineering is the relevant command at any point in time). In my experience it usually ends up that one ISD is shredded, but the other is all but ignored, and guessing which, especially against bomber wings, is a surefire way to lose your shirt (and capital ships). Liaisons and Net neatly solve that, and with the advent of Wave 5, Flechette Torpedoes can actually give me a chance against Nora and Company. We'll see if this holds up the way it has in real life.

1 hour ago, GiledPallaeon said:

I'm going to assume your advice is run the simpler fleet, which is the ISDs by a mile. There are a handful more moving parts, but I have had more time flying versions of that fleet than the wolfpack.

If thats your interpretation. Everyone has different simple.

VFT Successor Fleet
Author: GiledPallaeon

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 389/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 49 total ship cost

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 127 total ship cost

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 127 total ship cost

1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

Given the ongoing trend of Impetuous' swift and almost inevitable demise early in game, I'm considering changing it up in this way. Gunnery Teams was less helpful than I had hoped, and remembering QLT was scattershot at best. To that end I picked out a quartet of squadrons to center on Valen and Howl to generally cause havoc and hell. I'm going to try to keep them close to the big boys, and let the scatters do a lot of the tanking work. Does anyone have any alternate squadron suggestions, e.g. Saber vs. Mauler?