I played a double isd-1 fleet last night in a casual game and i was actually prettt impressed by how well it did.

I just put leading shots on both, was sufficient for my dice evening as it effected my red dice too for the same points as ordnance.

11 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

I played a double isd-1 fleet last night in a casual game and i was actually prettt impressed by how well it did.

I just put leading shots on both, was sufficient for my dice evening as it effected my red dice too for the same points as ordnance.

Only reason I didn't was the lack of blue dice on the sides. DTTs and OEs lets me work all arcs.

My experience says you very much need Gunnery Teams over Ordnance Experts. OE works sometimes, but you need a fleet built such that you don't need the firepower boost from a second front arc shot. With only two ISDs, I'd be shocked if you didn't need it. Dual ISDs works (mostly) and is a ton of fun. I'm hoping one of these days my dreadnought lists will finally start working well.

Just now, GiledPallaeon said:

My experience says you very much need Gunnery Teams over Ordnance Experts. OE works sometimes, but you need a fleet built such that you don't need the firepower boost from a second front arc shot. With only two ISDs, I'd be shocked if you didn't need it. Dual ISDs works (mostly) and is a ton of fun. I'm hoping one of these days my dreadnought lists will finally start working well.

Its a tough call, but I feel DTT+OE might be better on an ISD1 without high capacity ion turbines for rerolls on all arcs, and gunnery teams on a short range knife fighter is questionable. ISD2s go without saying.

Just now, Destraa said:

Its a tough call, but I feel DTT+OE might be better on an ISD1 without high capacity ion turbines for rerolls on all arcs, and gunnery teams on a short range knife fighter is questionable. ISD2s go without saying.

Try it. If it works for you, go for it. I've never had enough success with it to consider it a full success, I'm willing to believe other issues contributed more than this to the losses. I've just played ISDs for so long I rarely don't have two front arc shots I want to take. Your build is more likely than mine t be lethal, mine is a more general combatant. Be sure to update with your results.

@PT106, have anything to possibly add? I know you're the ISD1 high king. And @GiledPallaeon I will be sure to. Got a couple more weeks until the store championships to make decisions.

I agree that and isd1 will very very rarely have 2 ships in close to take advantage of gunnery teams, that said i understand your concern about the side arcs. I feel like its rare enough to have something in close range to your side arc as well, those dice only rarely get used.

I filled my weapons slot with boarding troops, which is just insane on an isd 1 (throw in avenger to increase your 1 shot potential).

2 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

I agree that and isd1 will very very rarely have 2 ships in close to take advantage of gunnery teams, that said i understand your concern about the side arcs. I feel like its rare enough to have something in close range to your side arc as well, those dice only rarely get used.

I filled my weapons slot with boarding troops, which is just insane on an isd 1 (throw in avenger to increase your 1 shot potential).

It's still nice to have the informed reroll for the red dice if you take an early potshot though.

For cheap ISD1 I would do OE/XI7 to maximize the chance of one-shotting whoever ends up in the front arc. (And/or Intel officer to deal with flotillas). I'm not convinced that 3 flotillas is the right call here. I played 2ISD fleets a lot and with 3 Gozantis I felt like I was lacking a third damage dealer. So for 5 activations fleet I would go with ISD-ISD-RDR-Gz-Gz formula.

I would also drop Tua/ECM from ISD as:

1. In this meta RBD is better than ECM in my opinion (as it is more universal)

2. I would try to keep ISD's even points wise (and as cheap as possible)

Given all tghast, you can have

2 ISD1 OE XI7

Raider1

Gozanti Comms NEt

Gozanti Motti

Ciena Ree/Valen Rudor

and still have 14 points for upgrades/squadrons/bid

Good options are: Skilled first officers on ISDs, Intel officer, Avenger/Supressor combo, maybe another squadron.

Also, keep in mind that double ISD fleet doesnt really need large bid and is often fine going second.

And don't forget to Comms net/stack CF token round 1. It help those ISD shots a lot in a critical round.

Played this against my friend @Darth Lupine with the changes you suggested @PT106, he barely scraped the win at the end, on turn six. He won by the single victory token he took on the station on turn 1. Probably would have went better had I navigated the second ISD a bit differently, but it ended up an incredibly bloody match. That Raider took MVP by far, though, racking in multiple TIE squadrons, a gozanti flotilla, and a gladiator (which happened to be his flagship). It's going to be a toss up between taking this or the six activation, single ISD1 fisticuffs fleet I have sitting in BattleScribe to the store championship in Sarasota. If you want, I'll submit the MSU version for your review, PT.

Deployment errors were made dammit.....lol.

That game was off the hook. Bloody indeed. Had you swung your lead ISD my way, I'd been forced to split to both flanks, and I'm not sure how that would've ended.

Had I deployed half a range ruler closer to center, I could have brought my entire firepower to bear two turns sooner, instead of piecemeal.

Indeddthat whole game was a bunch of oh craps......

Well, even with a single ISD I'm currently in favor of 5 activations (and turning that ISD into a christmas tree) (or a 7 activations suqadronless fleet)

Essentially, with ISDs you need to decide if you want to sacrifice them (2ISD fleets are usually doing that however I saw viable fleets with 1 ISD that was a viable sacrifice) or make them into a fortress that you can't afford to lose without losing a game.

Played dual ISD-IIs over the weekend and ECM would have been a far more beneficial upgrade than the RBD. I'd have stopped far more damage in the first place and made my redirects go further. There were other bad fleet building decisions along with my flying but not taking the ECM was clearly one of the most bad decisions.

I don't think I'll not take ECM on a ship with a single Brace token ever again.

1 hour ago, Frimmel said:

Played dual ISD-IIs over the weekend and ECM would have been a far more beneficial upgrade than the RBD.

What was the rest of your fleet? I'm somewhat surprised here as usually ISDs don't receive large attacks with guaranteed accuracy that often.

28 minutes ago, PT106 said:

What was the rest of your fleet? I'm somewhat surprised here as usually ISDs don't receive large attacks with guaranteed accuracy that often.

I'm thinking H9 equipped ships or Home One.

I'll toss in my vote for OE over GT on the ISD1. For ISD2s, which will often be able to bring the full weight of that front arc to bear on two ships at the same time and don't have a need for OE, GT is usually worth it. For ISD1's, though, while it does happen on occasion that you've got two full-battery shots out that front arc, most of the time you should be going for a double arc anyway. I don't often have an ISD1 one-shotting things, but it often gets close, meaning that follow-up from the side arc is often enough to finish the target off.

Leaving GT off also gives you access to Advanced Gunnery, which is both a great objective option for you and very nice to be able to turn back around onto your opponent if they brought it.

52 minutes ago, PT106 said:

What was the rest of your fleet? I'm somewhat surprised here as usually ISDs don't receive large attacks with guaranteed accuracy that often.

Destraa nails it:

23 minutes ago, Destraa said:

I'm thinking H9 equipped ships or Home One.

Home One and his Quad Turbolaser equipped buddy Mon Karren. And no one who threw red dice at me seemed to fail to turn up an accuracy.

Well, for this particular matchup ECM is better. However RBD is more universal so is better in general (in my opinion).

For example, if you encounter heavy bombers or TRC swarm, ECM is usually ends up being a useless upgrade.

I think RBD is worth the investment if you're going very light squadrons, because you're likely to be taking a lot of bomber shots on the chin. If you bring a strong fighter force, though, ECM is likely to do you more good in my (much more limited than pt106's) experience, because the biggest threat to the ISD becomes other heavy hitters rather than bombers.

I took ECM on my ISD2's last weekend and was glad I had them in all three games. Didn't run into a TRC swarm, though.

Final iteration of the list I took today for the store championship was the following:

++ Standard (Imperial Navy) [397pts] ++

+ Gozanti-class Flotilla +

Gozanti-class Cruisers [29pts]: Comms Net, •Suppressor

Gozanti-class Cruisers [49pts]: Comms Net, •Admiral Motti

+ Imperial Star Destroyer +

Imperial I-class Star Destroyer [125pts]: Ordnance Experts, XI7 Turbolasers, •Avenger

Imperial I-class Star Destroyer [120pts]: Ordnance Experts, XI7 Turbolasers

+ Raider Corvette +

Raider I-class Corvette [44pts]

+ Squadrons +

TIE Fighter [13pts]: •Valen Rudor

TIE Interceptor [17pts]: •Ciena Ree

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

++ Total: [397pts] ++

I took second overall, but think that I'll be making some tweaks based on performance, and the FAQ going live Monday. ISDs survived all three rounds, only losses I ever saw were in fighters, the Raider, and flotillas (only one in each instance I lost them). Suppressor I found has a great threat radius, but Avenger i rarely found being used, and will likely reallocate those points into OEs on the corvette, which would have benefitted me greatly in several situations. The double comms net gozantis were superbly useful in tokening up the star destroyers, or one of them pushing Cienna Ree and Valen Rudor at crucial times, as well as providing the occasional medium range ping/flak.

With Wave 6 dropping in a few weeks, I'm eyeballing a few possible changes to an otherwise successful list.