Well this is my first attempt at building a fleet. I'm open to any suggestions as I've only played a couple of games against other inexperienced players. I'm especially uncertain about objectives since my first couple games I've left them out as we were learning how to play and hadn't mastered the basics.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 399/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Captain Needa ( 2 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- NK-7 Ion Cannons ( 10 points)
= 188 total ship cost

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 80 total ship cost

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 85 total ship cost

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 8 points)
2 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 22 points)

Card view link

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

My current collection to draw cards from: Core Set, ISD, Home One, MC30, Gladiator, both imperial fighter packs and the first rebel fighter pack.

I plan on buying more expansions in the near future if anyone has a strong suggestion on something to get that'll help this list out.

Given the resources that you have available, the list looks fine

Depending on the context, whether you want this list for casual or competitive play, the suggestions you receive may differ.

I will provide some suggestions and food for thought.

In terms of objectives, I think Most Wanted is fine. For the other two, I would swap Fleet Ambush out with Contested Outpost, because it allows you to let your VSD to simply lumber towards the station and score 20 points per round. Your ISD and GSD can then swoop in from the sides. That's how I imagine it anyway. The objective emphasises your strengths, at any rate. I can see minefields both working for and against you. I'd personally choose dangerous territory because it allows you to ignore obstacles, which can allow for more aggresive play with your ISD and VSD.

In terms of ships:

* Your ISD has an armament of 4 blue and 4 red - with your build, it has no options for rerolling dice. You can either replace NK-7 with Leading Shots (this will grant you the option to reroll your dice) or opt for SW-7, which grants you a minimum of 4 damage when attacking at medium range with your front arc.

Now, which one is better depends on various factors. I believe that statistically, going with Leading Shots is better. However, some people have argued for reliable damage output being easier to play with. By going with SW-7, you gain 4 guaranteed damage from your blue dice, 2 guaranteed damage from Needa + Turbolaser Rerout Circuits and a guaranteed damage from Screed. This grants you 7 minimum damage for the first attack each round with your front arc out of a maximum of 12. I have tried using this and I have come to prefer it over Leading Shots because I know when I can one-shot targets or seriously damage them so that my GSD can swoop in and finish them off.

* I would personally put Assault Proton Torpedoes on the GSD, because face up damage cards can be significantly more invalidating to a ship. But I believe both options are viable.

Now to food for thought:

Competitively, there is an emphasis on activations and deployment because they are factors that weigh heavily in the outcome of a match. For instance, people tend to use flotillas to stall, so that they can activate their more important ships after the enemy has moved their ships. You may or may not have experienced this, but it will certainly appear on a competitive level. In relation to deployment, having more squadrons can also delay the deployment of ships, which allows a player to position his ships more optimally.

Hope this provides some help and have fun crushing the dreams of would-be Rebels

As far as ships go, you currently do not have any alternatives so these are pretty much given. The Gozanti and Light Cruiser expansions would be the next logical steps. The cheaper ships will allow you to have more points available for squads and really open up your options.

I do not really like Screed in the fleet, because he shoehorns you into taking crit effects for every ship which is not necessarily optimal. But I get that it is your cheapest Commander atm, and Tarkin or Vader are not the premier choice as well.

For your ship setups:

Your VSD will propably not get reliable black die shots in a lot of times, even with Screed you might trigger the ACM only twice during a game, at best. I prefer to help its red dice and take the blacks as bonus damage when the opportunity comes up. Dual Turbolaser Turrets are great for this, or Needa-TRC. Keep it cheap apart from that.

The ISD is really loaded, I would rather move Needa-TRC to the VSD and remove the Tractor Beams (One single thing to mess with speed is usually not enough to do much). NK7 to discard a single token, after a ship was hit by a full attack of an ISD, is usually not the right timing for the expensive 10 points, because most ships are dead. Even with Screed I think you will have better results with Leading Shots and Heavy Turbolasers, H9 Turbolasers, or XI7 when you have those.

Objectives: Consider Contested Outpost as a possibility.

But I think your opponents will mostly pick the red objective, you do not have a lot of great options there with your fleet and no CC box. Maybe take Advanced Gunnery and drop Gunnery Teams off your ISD to discourage anyone from taking it...

Thank you both, that advice definitely helps and frees up some points. I changed the objectives to what you both suggested, dropped the tractor beam and put the SW-7 on the ISD. I don't have leading shots yet but taking a look at the card as me eyeing the CR90 expansion. At the moment I still have Needa/TRC on the ISD but one of my next couple games I'll try him on the VSD and see which I prefer. With those changes I'm sitting at 386 points

Just before your posts were made I picked up the Arquitens Cruiser and the Rogues and Villains pack so I now have those to work with as well. The activation comments make a lot of sense. So now I'm debating on if I should try to flex the points around to fit in a Gozanti with this build or sacrifice the VSD for the Arquitens/Gozanti and more points for squadrons.

I think if you expand more towards squadron variety, along the gozanti and using the arquitens as centicore, you may be able to get some good squadron uses to support in fights