Original post

Playing a friend tomorrow and I have no idea what he`s bringing since this is our first game with ships from wave 3-5.

Build is 391 points so i can hopefully claim initiative.

Follow link (armada warlords hivelabs) : My build (link now leads to new build based on the experiences i had in the match)

Does my build make sense?

Plan is to have ISD II at the rear as a firing platform.

In front will be 2x Gozanti: 1 commanding 3x tie bombers and 1 commanding 2x TIE Defenders and 1x TIE Interceptors

Interceptors and Defenders will engage hostile fighters/bombers and my own bombers will focus on taking down "ships"

My Raider-II will play picket and use "overload pulse" to open up a target for my ISD to pound.

Admiral Screed to make sure I get those crits.

Comments AFTER the match

He came at me with pelta + liberty + 2x transport / Outrider, Ghost, Luke skywalker + 2x X-wing

He accidentily moved his liberty speed 3 and it got a bit ahead of his other ships. My Raider intercepted perfectly on the flank and i got 2 rounds of overload pulse before his pelta, luke and outrider pounced on the raider and killed it. That was enough however - my ISD-II got 8 hits on the first round of shooting and 12 hits on the second round of shooting. With the hits from the 3x TIE bombers and Raider, there was really nothing he could do. My ISD-II blasted through the front shields and even with pelta shield transfer and shields to maximum, that liberty was gone.

In the meantime my defenders and interceptor was battling the ghost and staying out of firing range of the 2x X-Wings. My TIE bombers moved to intercept a Transport.

I lost my Raider on round 4, but he lost Ghost and a transport. At that point it was all about mopping up, so we just called it and made a cup of coffee instead.

He had access to a lot better strike craft than he chose to use and he made a critical mistake at the start which is why I decided to include admiral titus in my upgraded build.

My strike craft worked just like I intended, but against an opponent with a lot more of them they would have been steamrolled and so would the raider have been. So I changed to the Raider I and added blast doors.

If my navigation skills are up to par, I should get more traction with ACM+Boarding troopers than with overload pulse.

QUESTIONS:

Should I stick with the Raider II + overload and complement with boarding engineers?

Should I drop boarding troopers + enhanced armaments on ISD-II and stick with Gunnery team + XX-9 Turbolasers or H9 Turbolasers? (maybe sensor team + enhanced armaments?)

I would suggest dropping repair crews. If you want to use the Gozanti to activate squads it will rarely if ever have an engineering dial to shed a damage card. I would give it Suppressor, or put Tua/ECM on one to make it hard to kill, and let it be.

9 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

I would suggest dropping repair crews. If you want to use the Gozanti to activate squads it will rarely if ever have an engineering dial to shed a damage card. I would give it Suppressor, or put Tua/ECM on one to make it hard to kill, and let it be.

You`re right of course.

Jamming field seems like the way to go. That or a second bomber command since defenders also have the bomber ability. Though the jamming field is really cheap and improves my initiative bid:)

Jamming field will mean your bombers are helpless to counter attack if they get tied up, I would stay away from jamming at all costs!

Instead of Boarding Troopers on the Raider-2, I'd suggest putting Disposable Capacitors on the Raider and moving the Boarding Troopers to the Avenger. That way you can have the Raider hit the target with Overload Pulse at long range, dance back out of any dangerous firing arcs, and Avenger gets to use its ability against the target. Then Avenger can cruise up last, park double arced on your target, and use Boarding Troopers on the target ship next round with a squadron token.

Speaking of which, move flip the ships for Comms Net and Bomber Command. BCC wants to be up close to all the squadrons, so you'll have more ships getting close to it. Comms Net wants to hang back a bit, so place it and Boosted Comms (instead of Expanded Hangars) further back near your ISD to feed it command tokens.

On 7.7.2017 at 5:17 AM, thecactusman17 said:

Instead of Boarding Troopers on the Raider-2, I'd suggest putting Disposable Capacitors on the Raider and moving the Boarding Troopers to the Avenger. That way you can have the Raider hit the target with Overload Pulse at long range, dance back out of any dangerous firing arcs, and Avenger gets to use its ability against the target. Then Avenger can cruise up last, park double arced on your target, and use Boarding Troopers on the target ship next round with a squadron token.

Speaking of which, move flip the ships for Comms Net and Bomber Command. BCC wants to be up close to all the squadrons, so you'll have more ships getting close to it. Comms Net wants to hang back a bit, so place it and Boosted Comms (instead of Expanded Hangars) further back near your ISD to feed it command tokens.

Done.

Notice also that i` ve updated the build. Link now leads to newest build rather than the one you saw, which was an intermediate between the build i used in the match and the build i` m intending to use next time:)

I like the idea of disposable capacitors, but I don`t like the concept of single use wepaons. I would need that overload pulse every round. Also with concentrate fire the Raider II does get 4 blue dice. It`s enough to get a few hits even if I nedd to use Screed. I` m thinking Raider-I with boarding troopers + ACM on my next match (possibly Raider-II with overload + boarding engineers- can` t decide).

I am honestly not sure about Screed in this fleet. He is only getting used 2 times per turn. Screed tends to like multiple raiders and gladiators, as they are less expensive than ISDs, so that means Screed will get to create more hit-crits.