2 minutes ago, Diabloelmo said:

I got a game in with a Vic II last night, and I am pretty happy with the investment. Quads are a godsend for the ship, and DCaps give it a real nasty bite out at range. I didn't manage to get any value out of Gunnery Teams largely due to my opponent having his fleet very spread out, but Leading Shots seems to be a solid choice for the Ion slot. It played well as an area-denial artillery piece.

I may need to finally bite the bullet and pick up a Victory expansion, because I want to run two of them!

You also get Flight Controllers which sells for about half what the Vic costs. It's well worth the buy.

I have liked the Victories all up to now and I don't think that will change much. I have successfully used them both and never lost a game deploying my Victory fleet, usually three at 600p. Three victories supporting each other are pretty nasty, especially when you can also afford a large squadron screen and some support ships.

I have always used the Vic I as a dedicated carrier and the Vic II as a multi-role ship doing some squadron work in turn two/three and then turn to clean up duty, I rarely had much problem with its speed other than catching fleeing ships, but by that time I was already winning so it did not really matter.

Victories need support and definitely squadrons to function well due too its low top speed and bad turning abilities.

i would probably not put Quad Turbo Batteries on the Vic II, but the Vic I could definitely have some good use of them.

I tend to move my main anvil part relatively slow no matter if they are Victories or ISD, even the Hammer (flanking force) will cruise relatively slow depending on what the opponent does and the mission we play.

I suppose we all play differently but I have been very successful so far using them by flying slow and carefully and allowing my support forces to herd the enemy where I want them.

7 minutes ago, Diabloelmo said:

I got a game in with a Vic II last night, and I am pretty happy with the investment. Quads are a godsend for the ship, and DCaps give it a real nasty bite out at range. I didn't manage to get any value out of Gunnery Teams largely due to my opponent having his fleet very spread out, but Leading Shots seems to be a solid choice for the Ion slot. It played well as an area-denial artillery piece.

I may need to finally bite the bullet and pick up a Victory expansion, because I want to run two of them!

I agree that Gunnery Teams is hard to actually use in practice unless the enemy is cornered or the opposing player don't pay attention. I rarely play people that do mistakes like that... but... they do have an impact even of they are not used and that importance should not be underestimated.

I don't always put Gunnery Teams on them but if I have two I might put it on at least one of them for the controlling effect they have on the battle space.

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

You can get salty all you want about my opinion.

Medium range is quite large actually and it's very easy to get around the front of a Vic I, where as a Vic II has a much larger threat range. Plus it can take LS, which means all my dice is being rerolled, not just blacks off OE. And since I don't have OE, I have GT. You can take Vader to reroll reds, but that means you're not taking JJ which means I know where your Vic I is going to be.

I've played a lot of Vics. I know how to deploy and fly them. The only scenario I've seen a Vic I being better than a Vic II is when you're fighting MC30s because you need extra damage to push through, not Acc.

I'm going to go play in a Store Champ tomorrow with 2 Vic II so we will see what happens.

While I totally get your logic, oddly I've found Vic1s do quite well. Truly as anvils they do take up good space. If as centerpiece, then yes at Speed 1 and I do see ppl fly right into them. (Sometimes dodged, sometimes not). As a flanker though, not deployed too far, a Vic at speed 2 is pretty awesome as a sheep dog, corralling things into a kill zone. Preferably for this I still say Vic2 though.

--

and lol, that guy ran into Rieekan Aceholes and lost.

VSD-Is previously have been hands-down the superior ship for me. VSD-IIs were better overall but they weren't close to 12 points better. Seriously, that extremely steep points differential between the two chassis is horrible.

With Disposable Capacitors, though, I will need to reconsider my feelings on VSD-IIs.

Both chassis gained Quad Battery Turrets (at least for now, it's the "no duh" upgrade for any VSD in my mind), the VSD-I gained External Racks for its usually-once-a-game-short-range attack, and the VSD-II gained Disposable Capacitors. Things are looking up for the much-maligned OG Triangle.

After some games tonight, VICs definitely have potential. One of the keys is that you get a lot of power that occurs in a tradeable point range. You know the opponent can come after you and kill you, but with DC and GT, you're getting two good shots early in the game, and you should be able to get one more set of shots off before you're destroyed. If the rest of the fleet is doing its job well, that's the kind of performance you need for VICTORY.

On 06/07/2017 at 3:58 PM, Undeadguy said:

Idk I still don't get the logic of using a black dice ship at speed 1. Do you expect your opponent to come at you?

Yup. Konstantine...

Just had my first match with the 4 VSD

And i have to say, they are great. It was a match against Sloane. And i thought the Squadrons are going to kill me. But the VSDs destroyed the ships so fast, it was really insane.
The Quad Batterie is really a great boost for the VSD.

Only the boarding troopers are a bit wasted. I could only use one. And only because the enemy Gozanti used the slicer tool to change the command to squadron....
The Inquisitor was never used. But could have been useful when he would have changed the speed. I could have gone down to 0 and back to 1 after the activations. Good way to bypass the opponents speed 1 ships for the Quad Batterie.

On July 7, 2017 at 5:38 PM, Snipafist said:

VSD-Is previously have been hands-down the superior ship for me. VSD-IIs were better overall but they weren't close to 12 points better. Seriously, that extremely steep points differential between the two chassis is horrible.

With Disposable Capacitors, though, I will need to reconsider my feelings on VSD-IIs.

Both chassis gained Quad Battery Turrets (at least for now, it's the "no duh" upgrade for any VSD in my mind), the VSD-I gained External Racks for its usually-once-a-game-short-range attack, and the VSD-II gained Disposable Capacitors. Things are looking up for the much-maligned OG Triangle.

Yeah. All the new upgrades are just nuts. VSDs of both types have great options for whatever you want. There's such a huge diversity of build choices now for the VSD. THIS is what balance looks like.

VSD1 close and slow brawler Moffy J. ExRacks, cheap!
VSD2 long range high power sniper with DCs, admiral is very flexible
VSD2 xmas tree style with GT, DBT, or Dominator (lol).
VSD1 (or2) as carrier. Some combo of boosted/flight commander, expanded hangars, flight controllers, ruthless strats, corrupter. Wow.
Some sort of Konstantine thing + tractors or Boarding or whatever.

That's around 5 Tier1 capable builds for the VSD. From cheap to highly expensive. Gunship AND squadrons AND utility. (Not just squadron builds darn it).

Now the ones without much choice are the Arquitens and the AF. AF has only GH builds or Ackbar, and Ackbar is kind of not well represented via AFs due to cost and squadron hard counter.

I'm currently toying around with an "Assault Carrier" style of build in a fairly silly three-Vic list. Tua and ECM to keep it safe from the firepower it will likely attract as the flagship, FC and Expanded Hangers to allow it to toss out a nasty group of fighters, and External Racks and Quads to keep both the long-range firepower up and to force opponents to ask themselves if they *really* want to get close. At 101pts before the cost of the admiral it's not exactly cheap, but I feel the extra 30-40pts over a Quasar is a **** good deal to get a ship that can both take and give a beating whilst loosing VERY little capability as a carrier.

I turned a VSD2 into a gun boat doing CF every turn. Combo'd it with Jonas, running Warlord, Needa, TRC, Gunnery Teams and DCaps.

The idea was to secure a minimum 4 dmg (Jonas/Warlord + TRC) on two of the red dice and the rest are a bonus, especially at long range using DCaps!

I tested out my new combination of two...

Victory II; Quad Battery Turrrets, NK-7 Ion Canons, Disposable Capacitors, Veteran Gunners

This was a 600p fleet with Sloan as commander and one Quasar, Arquiten and a Gozanti with 200p squadrons.

If was a nightmare for the rebels to close in with the fleet. They managed to finally bring down one Victory by not before loosing most of their squadrons and several support ships... so victory to the Imperials.

The combination of lots of blue dice and the veteran gunners basically guaranteed the NK7 to trigger each time they fired their front guns and decently often on the side batteries.

@Ardaedhel You know what all the hype around Vics and quasars means?

Sensor teams MC30s are back!

6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

@Ardaedhel You know what all the hype around Vics and quasars means?

Sensor teams MC30s are back!

Alternatively, the H9 MC30's that never went away because they're good in every situation.

What is changing is the APT vs ACM calculus. Since I never have to worry about trying to one-shot the flagship flotilla, and we're seeing so many people try this pivot to the bigger ships, ACM may have a brief day in the sun.

Took 2nd in the Store Champ yesterday with 2 Vic II (LS, QBT, DC, GT, IO and JJ) and 2 Comms Net, Maarek, Valen, Ciena, 2 Decimators.

It was flippin amazing. At 390 points, I bid for first, which allows me spend DC at the end of a round and take 2 big shots, move up into medium and take another full armament shot at the beginning of next round. Doing that, I was able to table my first opponent, kill an Arq my second game (an ISD escaped with 1 hull....) and killed a Motti Interdictor and Goz my last game.

Being able to use 6-8 dice in round 2 is great, and being able to do it against 4 targets is even better. I did lose a Vic every game, but turns out losing a Vic and tabling my opponent still gives me a 9-2. Knowing that after my first game (I lost JJ from an Ackbar80 shot that rolled 3 Acc and 9 damage which killed him) I was able to play more aggressive with both Vics.

Quad Battery Turret is really interesting. I think it is the best turbo upgrade for a Vic, because it forces your opponent to make a hard choice. Either go faster than you and take an extra blue, or go the same speed and risk staying in your front arc or double arc. QBT and LS definitely increased my damage output through all my games. Paired with IO, I think you can forgo XI7, because you make your opponent pick between losing a Brace or Redirect at long range. IO is also ECM insurance. I found I was rolling about 2 Accs per attack with all my dice, so I made sure my damage stuck. I don't think I had any opponent Brace any of my full attacks.

Decimators were also the silent winners of my list. In my first game, I had them deal 15 damage which helped strip shields off a pair of MC30s. My second game they saved Valen. Third game they were able deal the last hull to an Interdictor after both Vics spent 3 rounds attacking it.

There was another player who took 3rd place with a Vic II, LS, QBT, DC and GT and he is also quite happy with how his Vic performed.

I think the Vic II will make a comeback this wave. Paired with Demo or an Interdictor, I anticipate seeing some very defensive lists or very aggressive ones.

Geeeeze...

Can I just say??? You guys ALL make me jealous!!!

I've had Armada since the very beginning - I've only played 2 games of it in all that time!!!! Have collected all the way up to Wave V! But am holding off until sufficient funds are available. Heheheh! I SO want to try out two VIC I's or II's with an Interdictor as the Flagship!! ...got Corellian Conflict too but haven't even opened it!!!

54 minutes ago, Alpha Xg1 said:

Geeeeze...

Can I just say??? You guys ALL make me jealous!!!

I've had Armada since the very beginning - I've only played 2 games of it in all that time!!!! Have collected all the way up to Wave V! But am holding off until sufficient funds are available. Heheheh! I SO want to try out two VIC I's or II's with an Interdictor as the Flagship!! ...got Corellian Conflict too but haven't even opened it!!!

I feel your pain, I've barely been able to scrape a dozen IRL games in since starting. Not enough locals play, though I'm working on converting them...

The Interdictor is a favorite of mine, especially as the flagship of a fleet. It's astoundingly difficult to kill if built to be a turtle, and can provide some fairly impressive board control. It does, however, fall fairly short when it comes to putting dice downrange, though it could well be another viable place to dump DCaps onto to help it reach out and plink a few points of damage onto a pair of targets at red range - especially if you already run SW-7s, as I usually do.