Well, I can't speak for everyone, but my meta has been absolutely infested with Sloane and tie swarms. With that in mind I'm trying to work a fleet that can be cruel to squadrons brave enough to enter AA range and ships trying to skirt at long range. My solution ended up being the VSD and Qusar. The VSD IIs are kitted to blast hard from long range eliminating small/medium targets early (between the two). Then they are set for late game medium-close combat and can also dish out multiple shots with rerolls at long range. Meanwhile The quasar II is being used as an AA platform in conjunction with the squadrons. This is a defensive fleet so best case the quasar keeps the squads untouched until it has the opportunity to squall+activate them at enemy squads. (Maybe even letting a VSD tank an alpha to allow for best range/shots from squads+quasar)
The VT49s are tough and pack a punch, same goes for bossk, they can reach across the table at speed "5" using squall and swat the enemy squads hard. Jendon to let Bossk hit twice. Ruthless lets me deal finishing blows from long range and set up bossk for ace killing. FCs to make each ship hit harder, and Kallus to give me extra dice against ace swarms.

Let me know what you think.

3Spoopy5me
Author: Darth Sanguis

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Salvage Run

[ flagship ] Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 128 total ship cost

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 104 total ship cost

Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
- Squall ( 3 points)
- Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 81 total ship cost

2 VT-49 Decimators ( 44 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)
1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)

Make sure the Avenger ISD cant trooper the quasar and you should be ok.

Also, is the Sloane variant you face ace heavy? Mine is all generics, in which case Kallus is an odd choice. Unless he is Shara insurance to tech against that matchup.

Why are you paying for rogues and a dedicated carrier? Why not just use Tie bombers?

What about a GSDII with Kallus instead of the Quasar? I'm going to be trying that lineup next opportunity I get.

15 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

Make sure the Avenger ISD cant trooper the quasar and you should be ok.

Also, is the Sloane variant you face ace heavy? Mine is all generics, in which case Kallus is an odd choice. Unless he is Shara insurance to tech against that matchup.

Well avoiding ISD Avenger is certainly a goal. Sloane lists are mixed, but there have been more than a few using the imperial scatter aces to make life difficult.

13 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Why are you paying for rogues and a dedicated carrier? Why not just use Tie bombers?

A couple of reasons, one of them being damage output. It'd be nice if all I had to do was RS an enemy to death, which I suppose is one way to handle it, but 4 bombers with FCs will throw 4 black 4 blue, and use up 4 activations, and have a much higher chance of being picked off in a single shot. The VT49s do 6 black 2 blue with FCs and only use 2 activations leaving room for Jendon/Bossk which deals an additional 8 black 2 blue over 2 activations.

The second being activation reliance. If I get slicer tooled, which has become common practice for quasars in our group, my fighters can still do their thing, and the quasar can just focus on AA shots.

Lastly, I don't think I'd call the Quasar a dedicated carrier. It's more AA /Carrier.... Using kallus, RS, and it's red AA dice to light up enemy squads, the squads it does activate are just there to facilitate the AA role.


All that said, if the VT49s don't do well, bombers will definitely be my next attempt.

13 hours ago, DavidnTanya said:

What about a GSDII with Kallus instead of the Quasar? I'm going to be trying that lineup next opportunity I get.

GSD II ain't a bad option, but it also lacks the activation ability of the Quasar, that and I wanna try to give these long range reds a chance.

I'm interested in your choice of objectives. I can see Contested Outpost. But isn't it a bit dangerous to take Salvage Run with no strategic squads?

And isn't a 3-ship list also at risk with Opening Salvo? Is this objective to allow leveraging the DC shot from your Vics?

On 7/26/2017 at 4:38 PM, Darth Sanguis said:

Ruthless lets me deal finishing blows from long range...

I had to investigate what you meant here. I suddenly have a newfound respect for the Quasar. Long range AS with Ruthless Strategists? What were they thinking?
Those are all fairly strong hulls as well. That thing is going to eat squads.

On ‎7‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 1:38 PM, Darth Sanguis said:

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but my meta has been absolutely infested with Sloane and tie swarms. With that in mind I'm trying to work a fleet that can be cruel to squadrons brave enough to enter AA range and ships trying to skirt at long range. My solution ended up being the VSD and Qusar. The VSD IIs are kitted to blast hard from long range eliminating small/medium targets early (between the two). Then they are set for late game medium-close combat and can also dish out multiple shots with rerolls at long range. Meanwhile The quasar II is being used as an AA platform in conjunction with the squadrons. This is a defensive fleet so best case the quasar keeps the squads untouched until it has the opportunity to squall+activate them at enemy squads. (Maybe even letting a VSD tank an alpha to allow for best range/shots from squads+quasar)
The VT49s are tough and pack a punch, same goes for bossk, they can reach across the table at speed "5" using squall and swat the enemy squads hard. Jendon to let Bossk hit twice. Ruthless lets me deal finishing blows from long range and set up bossk for ace killing. FCs to make each ship hit harder, and Kallus to give me extra dice against ace swarms.

Let me know what you think.

3Spoopy5me
Author: Darth Sanguis

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Salvage Run

[ flagship ] Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 128 total ship cost

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 104 total ship cost

Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points)
- Squall ( 3 points)
- Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 81 total ship cost

2 VT-49 Decimators ( 44 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)
1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)

For squadrons I'd just use 2 TIE Advanced, Mauler Mithel, and Admiral Chiraneau on the quasar, that should easily deal with a swarm of TIE's especially if the quasar is giving back up fire. I would use it a bit more defensively though, so you might want to drop Squall, Ruthless Strategists, and maybe Boosted Comms and put Stronghold on there. That should help deal with swarms and free up about 40 points for your Victory's. The other option is to drop Chiraneau and use Dengar in the squadrons instead so he can give the TIE Advanced Counter 1, he does cost 10 more points though.

I tested Squall w/ 2x YV's and Valen last night - very effective. Cheaper than VT-49's and hits harder, especially with FC.

7 hours ago, TaeSWXW said:

I tested Squall w/ 2x YV's and Valen last night - very effective. Cheaper than VT-49's and hits harder, especially with FC.

The Squall title and YV-666 were MADE for each other! I am currently using a Quasar to activate 4 TIE defenders & Strom, but using Squall to move 3 YV-666 around to clean up damage in the squadron phase.

On 7/28/2017 at 10:33 AM, TaeSWXW said:

I tested Squall w/ 2x YV's and Valen last night - very effective. Cheaper than VT-49's and hits harder, especially with FC.

Yes, I played you at the SC. You had two YV-666s and Valen. Very hard to chew through, and well worth your points compared to VT-49s.

And when I mean hard to chew through, I mean hard to chew through. I was shooting at them with 5 X-wings!(Part of the problem was whiffing, though)

Just a point of interest-when Jendon has Bossk shoot again, Bossk would not receive the flight controller extra dice since Bossk's activation has already ended. So it'd be 8 black 1 blue from Bossk. Don't want you getting caught off guard if/when someone calls that out at a crucial moment