Greetings everyone. I've just started getting Armada and figured the easiest way to get some games in is to play a tournament at a local store, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. Now I'm under no illusions that I will/should be the whipping boy for this tournament. I just hope to have some fun, and not be too embarressed. In other words, I hope I get a chance to disintegrate an enemy ship each game before going down to my inevitable defeat.

So I am hoping that everyone might have a look at this force and offer some suggestions about whether this might manage to meet my goal, or how I might make it more likely to. Bearing in mind of course that I only have the Core set, ISD expansion, VSD expansion, CR90 expansion, Nebulon-B expansion and Assault Frigate Mk.II expansion to choose upgrades and ships from.

So here goes,

Imperial II Star Destroyer (Flagship)

Commander Admiral Motti

Avenger title

Gunnery Team, Redundant Shields, Overload Pulse

Victory II Star Destroyer

Overload Pulse

Victory II Star Destroyer

XX-9 Turbolasers, Leading Shots, Gunnery Team

TIE Fighter Squadron x4

That uses 398 of the 400 points. The idea behind the build, as I see it, is to try to fight at longer ranges to keep the weaker flanks covered as long as possible while using the Overload Pulses and Avenger to restrict the opponents ability to react defensively. The TIEs are purely a throw away defensive force to occupy enemy strike packages as long as they can to let the Star Destroyers do their work.

So firstly, what objectives should I be looking at that is more likely to put my opponents ships in front of my guns? And are there any suggestions that doesn't require either cards I don't have at the moment, or tricky timing that my limited knowledge is going to be unaware of that might improve the fleet?

Very tricky build and vunerable to fighters. If you wanna work with OP then pick Screed as he helps to hit it 100 per cent. Or pick Jerry to make the VSDs more maneuverable.

I expect this will hurt a lot when the fleet is confronted with nimble Alliance ships or bomber lists. The VSD needs help not to be outmaneuvered, especially when you are new to the game. The Overload Pulse is a nice idea, but without help (like rerolls or Screed) it will fail to trigger when you need it the most.

Unless your mind is set to play Empire, I would advise to take a Rebel fleet to the tournament, given the models you own:

Flight Controller boosted XWings can give better cover than TIEs, the Assault Frigate is a great carrier for that. Salvation is a strong damage dealer and together with CR90s and Mon Mothma you can put together something fun and useable for a first time experience?

Also drop overload pulse on the ISD replace with leading shots and replace all upgrades on the second vsd with overload pulse. Replace redundant shields with ecms and replace motti with screed. You should be able to add 2 more ties and still have your 398/400.

Guys, he doesn't have Screed. He hasn't bought a Gladiator. That said OP, you should totally borrow Screed if someone will let you. Dude's great and Overload Pulse loves him.

Be aware that Overload Pulse+Avenger doesn't work the way you probably think it does. The target can spend tokens before Avenger gets to choose a critical effect, so you'll want to move that Overload Pulse to the Victory II and the XX9s over to Avenger. Avenger should also be the one with Leading Shots. If you have Electronic Countermeasures, those will probably do more for you than Redundant Shields. Redundant Shields only gets you about four or five shields back per game, but using ECM to use a brace token after they try to stop it with an accuracy result will be much more useful in most games. If you don't have ECM, that's alright.

You might also want to consider more TIEs. Never underestimate how quickly you can be torn down by bombers. That may depend on your local meta; I can run often get away with running two or three aces and calling it a screen.

For objectives I'd say Advanced Gunnery is an obvious choice with your ISD, Contested Outpost because then they have to get within range of your Star Destroyer firing squad, and maybe Minefields to punish them for trying to go around you.

I just realized I didn't give any objectives

contested out post plays to the strengths of this list they have to come to you or they loose tons of points.

Advanced gunnery: throw it on a victory

Navigational hazards

Thanks for the replies guys. And yes Screed isn't an option. The Gladiator is in my next list of purchases to get, but that won't be until after the tourney.

I'm also just wondering about dropping the Avenger title and putting the third Gunnery Team that came with the Assault Frigate (this list was first created before I bought it) on the other Victory. That should give me the opportunity to tear open two seperate Rebel ships if I can bring all 3 ships to bear.

RocketPropelledGiraffe. I did sort of think about working a Rebel fleet as well, but in the end seeing as I haven't yet got the dead eye reckoning of the manouvere tool down it might be easier for me to try the smaller number of ships. After all my opponents deserve to have me not trying to work out too much in game. And I do have some experience in other war games that should hopefully help me to see a trap developing at least early enough to know I'm about to get spanked.

Hockeyzombie. Yeah I do have Electronic Countermeasures, so I can make that change. And that does save a point. Which of course means that Redundant Shields despite being an every turn repair token seems to be fairly unnecessary. Though I guess a ship without Brace and/or Contain tokens and an Engineering value of less than 4 might find it better. I was sort of hoping to have all 6 TIEs in the fleet, but the upgrades just sort of took up the points, and I'm a bit reluctant to give up the longer range shooting on the Victory II to try to squeeze another 16+ points into the fighters.

And thanks for the advice on the objectives as well.