Use your speed to get into the side arcs of his MC80's and you should be quite capable of winning the game. In the set up he has, the MC's are ponderous on the turn.

Of course, if he gets you in the front arc at medium range you can start picking up Arqs for the dead pile. :-)

30 minutes ago, Englishpete said:

Use your speed to get into the side arcs of his MC80's and you should be quite capable of winning the game. In the set up he has, the MC's are ponderous on the turn.

Of course, if he gets you in the front arc at medium range you can start picking up Arqs for the dead pile. :-)

Aye, as per English Pete. i ran a similar big rebel ship fleet against nippy Arqs and suffered terribly. They're hard as **** to pin down. Let us know how your game goes!

So I guess I should just start flying at Speed 3?

I like to start at speed 2 with a stored up Nav token.

This gives you the option of all the speeds in a following turn.

Hmm Ok.

Only other issue is Deployment.

Was gonna have the Gladiator at the tail, the Conga Line flying off to form up and that way either he chases the Conga Line and the Demolisher gets in behind or chases the Demolisher but gives the fleet the time it needs to hit on his flank...

I just fought against a very similar fleet a few days ago - four Arq, Vader, two Gozanti, and an SFC. My fleet was a Leia MC80 Battle Cruiser, backed by Assault Pelta with Entrapment Formation and Projection Experts, two HH, a slicer tools GR65, and a bare minimal fighter screen (3 generic A-Wings and Shara Bey). He lost on objective points, and we roughly tied on casualties. I was able to deploy my MC80 out in front of his conga line in a hammer-and-anvil lineup, using my knife-fighters to force the line to go where I wanted it. By rushing out to meet him the MC80 mowed down three of his Arq before finally succumbing. I made two key navigational mistake that could have allowed me to beat him much harder, so I feel that my fleet had a much inherent advantage against his.

Notable weaknesses:

• Although the Arq's front arc is narrow enough to get the side arc in some of the time, it just wasn't enough to be a real threat to me at the head of the line. In practice, only the lead ship could effectively target the MC80.
• Darth Vader used an initially sideways deployment that strongly limited his navigational options. That meant Lady Vader could easily deploy her big hitter to maximize her father's pain.

I've flown a list based around an Ackbar MC30 scout + AFII that gets around the first problem by flying the MC30 in the lead position. That's dangerous for me because it potentially leaves a lot of attack dice at home, which I offset somewhat by flying the MC30 in a dedicated Scout configuration instead of as an "Ackbar ISD". But for the Empire, a Raider might do a similar job at lower cost. The remaining risk is that a skilled opponent can still catch the leader though timing since even with small base ships, the line's activation order is restricted.

For the second problem, I initially deploy the conga line ships pointing straight forward, using turn 1 and 2 yaw and speed control so that they can either conga left or conga right. I also deploy the AF early and the MC30 last in order to defer my decision about which way the line will go until as late as possible. Technically, I can swap the order of the AF and MC30, but since I use the AF for a T2 or T3 squadron command, I'd rather use my squadron's deployment padding alongside the AF which will command them. In the Empire's position, with JJ as the fleet commander, you can do something similar in a longer line, since you can get up to a whopping 90 degrees of yaw on turn 1. Just deploy the Raider dead last on the far left or right flank, with the Arq in a staggered layout (ie, one at distance 3 from the back edge, the next about distance 1, then distance 3 again, etc). Edit: Just like SgtDurandal said in his video. That I totally should've watched before posting.

YMMV, Caveat emptor, etc, and may the force be with you!

Ok so... a couple of days ago we spent the entire day putting the list through its paces against the Dual MC80 Liberty list. I won 2 games and lost 1, both were narrow games (6-4 for the victors in each round). So we tinkered, tried different commanders and well figured out that the list can do damage... but it cannot do it fast enough if facing two big ships. Also worth noting, I was second player in EVERY game.

So figured the best way would be to pair it up with an ISD II- Avenger which can wail in and deliver the knock out punch, while the Conga Line softens the target ship up. Clonisher did pretty good... but need something which can really lay in the pain.

Mind you after those games I did find myself flying them better and better. Alternating between a Concentrate Fire and Nav Commands helped the Arquitens fly rings around the Liberties. Now, they were hard to catch as they both had Nav Teams but in all seriousness, not everyone is gonna be putting engine techs on their cap ships.

So the list is gonna be looking something like this...

Arquitens Conga Line

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 396/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 186 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 60 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 60 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 60 total ship cost

1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)

I doubt we nee a new thread, since the following pretty much fits in here:

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Sensor Net

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 101 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 60 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 60 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Hand of Justice ( 4 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)
= 64 total ship cost

1 Whisper ( 20 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 Lambda-class Shuttle ( 15 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)

Thoughts?