Interdictor and targetting scrambler.

Yesterday I turned 4 black hit/crits into 2 blanks and 2 hits. My opponent was understandably very mad after that, and with the help of projection experts, none of the 3 mc30s were able to kill a single Vic-2 xD

That's why its been a staple of my Imperial builds since its release.

Its also why I say I don't care what platform its on, but since the Imps get Fleet command now, I won't be happy until the Rebels can pack an Experimental Retrofit slot somewhere... just for Targeting Scrambler.

Demolisher is only slightly less ridiculous after the Demolisher/E-techs errata. I still hate/love it.

3 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

That's why its been a staple of my Imperial builds since its release.

Its also why I say I don't care what platform its on, but since the Imps get Fleet command now, I won't be happy until the Rebels can pack an Experimental Retrofit slot somewhere... just for Targeting Scrambler.

have you been able to make the G-8 (the one that temporarily slows) work as well?? My default loadout is currently Graft **** reroute and Targeting scrambler.

Havn't bothered.

I too use Grav Shift and Targeting. I just don't put them on the same Interdictor.

Because I enjoy G7s enough to have two of them.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

Havn't bothered.

I too use Grav Shift and Targeting. I just don't put them on the same Interdictor.

Because I enjoy G7s enough to have two of them.

oh ****, I still only rock one Doctor

Reroll and dice removal effects are good against anything relying on burst damage, particularly if black dice are involved. Admonition, Mon Mothma, Lando, and Targeting Scrambler are all good options there. I wish it was a bit easier to get that kind of thing in an Imperial fleet, but you've got options.

They also work great against Avenger Boarding Troopers shenanigans for the same reasons.

Just now, Snipafist said:

Reroll and dice removal effects are good against anything relying on burst damage, particularly if black dice are involved. Admonition, Mon Mothma, Lando, and Targeting Scrambler are all good options there. I wish it was a bit easier to get that kind of thing in an Imperial fleet, but you've got options.

They also work great against Avenger Boarding Troopers shenanigans for the same reasons.

they're like a mini lando.

It's just the range 3 thing that sucks a little. Forces formation movement. My arquitten died without shooting any dice because it was one mm beyond the 3 range.

2 minutes ago, Sybreed said:

they're like a mini lando.

It's just the range 3 thing that sucks a little. Forces formation movement. My arquitten died without shooting any dice because it was one mm beyond the 3 range.

In some ways, that's better than Lando.

Since one Targeting Scrambler protects a whole Range 3 Bubble against close range attacks.

Sure, Lando protects against all range attacks, and as many dice as you want... But its once, and the ship he's on must be the target...

Scrambler is just so much more useful, overall, because of that Bubble.

Effectively, with Practice, you'll get more used to flying them in that range formation to avoid little issues like you had. That's how you improve on it.

With Lando, you can't force the enemy to target the ship he's on.

15 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Havn't bothered.

I too use Grav Shift and Targeting. I just don't put them on the same Interdictor.

Because I enjoy G7s enough to have two of them.

Mind sharing this fleet? I can never find space to run an Interdictor because of the cost.

Variants of Nose Punch.

Start with a core that is:

Interdictor Supression
- Grav Shift
- G7
- Ion Cannon Batteries

Interdictor Supression
- Targeting Scrambler
- G7
- Interdictor
- Ion Cannon Batteries

Quasar
- Squall
- Boosted

Rhymer
Tempest

To that, pick your Admiral (Motti or Tagge are favourites. Konstantine can keep them going Speed 1 and never getting any more speed out.), and then either go for more activaitons or more Fighter Cover.

The idea is to lay down the G7 tokens to cover 60+ % of the enemy deployment zone in Speed 0s. Throw the Obstacles in front of large, slow moving ships so they have to crash over them as they attempt to move forward.

Feel free to Squall your Bombers into a forward target that is at Speed 0, so you can bomb it without Defense Tokens with the first activation of the game (if you're player 1), or your first activation (if you're player 2), With 3 Bombers rolling well killing some small ships, or at least stripping all of the shields off the Nose of a large ship that can't repair them until at least turn 2... if they planned to do so...

Then have the Interdictors advance hyper-aggressively, sticking together, double-arcing and getting those Ion Cannon Batteries to strip Eng/Nav tokens if not additional Shields with Double-Arcs as you just mow through. All the while abusing your Grav Shift and/or additional strategic options you might have taken to ruin the enemy objective day.

So... play Imperials. Great.... How about a helpful hint for a Rebel player wanting to run more than one medium/large ship? I’m not kidding. I want a meaningful Demolisher solution for a Rebel medium/large ship fleet. I bring a flotilla as a sort of soft counter and it isn’t nearly enough.

Dras is right, Targeting scrambler is a much better card than Lando now that AvengerBT exists. Lando is better protection for a single ship but TS protects a fleet from AvengerBT. Give me a title on ANY existing or announced Rebel ship that adds the experimental slot and I’ll be happier.

/start soapbox/ Let me be a bit clearer. I don’t and have never found MC30s or non-Demolisher GSDs to be a problem. My issue with the spike damage builds is purely at the feet of Demolisher. The nerf wasn’t enough. The fundamental card is a problem. That title post-nerf could cost 20 and it would still be the best combat ship point-for-point that Imperials have. It is the one example of inexcusably craplousy game design in Armada. I don’t like AvengerBT, but its design doesn’t piss me like Demolisher has for several years./end soapbox/

12 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Variants of Nose Punch.

Start with a core that is:

Interdictor Supression
- Grav Shift
- G7
- Ion Cannon Batteries

Interdictor Supression
- Targeting Scrambler
- G7
- Interdictor
- Ion Cannon Batteries

Quasar
- Squall
- Boosted

Rhymer
Tempest

To that, pick your Admiral (Motti or Tagge are favourites. Konstantine can keep them going Speed 1 and never getting any more speed out.), and then either go for more activaitons or more Fighter Cover.

The idea is to lay down the G7 tokens to cover 60+ % of the enemy deployment zone in Speed 0s. Throw the Obstacles in front of large, slow moving ships so they have to crash over them as they attempt to move forward.

Feel free to Squall your Bombers into a forward target that is at Speed 0, so you can bomb it without Defense Tokens with the first activation of the game (if you're player 1), or your first activation (if you're player 2), With 3 Bombers rolling well killing some small ships, or at least stripping all of the shields off the Nose of a large ship that can't repair them until at least turn 2... if they planned to do so...

Then have the Interdictors advance hyper-aggressively, sticking together, double-arcing and getting those Ion Cannon Batteries to strip Eng/Nav tokens if not additional Shields with Double-Arcs as you just mow through. All the while abusing your Grav Shift and/or additional strategic options you might have taken to ruin the enemy objective day.

Man I want to try this just to use ICB. Ever use BCC? Or hope you roll well.

BCC is completely irrelevant for the Nose punch. It will never be in range, unless you are playing against someone who has Fleet Ambush in their Objectives and you are First Player.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

BCC is completely irrelevant for the Nose punch. It will never be in range, unless you are playing against someone who has Fleet Ambush in their Objectives and you are First Player.

Oh duh. Yea I just threw it together and those points add up fast. Vader, Tempest, Rhymer, Gamma, 4 Tie/B and Konstantine. Certainly an interesting fleet.

The limiting factors is that you can only Squall and thus "Nose Punch" with 3 Squadrons that are at least Speed 4, and Rhymer must be one of them... Leaving you 2 others... Ideally, this is Tempest (as he is a Bomber escort), and then a secondary, such as... Maarek, if you have him. (I don't).

The rest of your fighter cover won't be able to engage until the second turn. So it can be regular anti-squadron cover, or more bombers, or whatever you feel like. They won't be punching, so they don't have to be bombers for that - but bombers can be an effective followup.

Previous versions of the Nose punch put FC/FCT and Ex Hangars on the Non-TS Interdictor to launch 3 Bombers as well, but the actual ranges of that with the post-Rhymer nerf make it very difficult to implement, because your margin of error (or horizontal displacement, versus vertical across the table) is about a Centimeter and a Half.

although i love Scramblers and Lando, containing crits is no guarantee... maybe thats why i love them as it provides a moment of suspense for both you and your opponent., ive seen Lando backfire on opponent before, adding damage after reroll... anyways, for ships that can pack contains, DCO deserves mention here, because it takes much of the sting out of demos/mc30's attacks... though with the new hotness that is avengerBT skating around, you'd probably be better off with lando/scramblers...

edit: i want more projection experts, perhaps a good candidate for a promo card

I hear what everyone is saying here, but you are talking about 95 points minimum for those rerolls. How about a Vic with GT and XI7's to kill them.

Marekjendon being activated from the other end of the table. Neither demo or mc30 can stand up to it for any length of time.

4 hours ago, Sybreed said:

MC30s and Demos are ruining your life??

4 hours ago, Sybreed said:

Interdictor and targetting scrambler.

Yesterday I turned 4 black hit/crits into 2 blanks and 2 hits. My opponent was understandably very mad after that, and with the help of projection experts, none of the 3 mc30s were able to kill a single Vic-2 xD

I mean, I'm glad that worked for you, but this 1) has not been my experience, and 2) sounds like either your opponent had terrible luck, or the MC30s didn't do a great job of focus firing.

From the other side of the table: focus fire is absolutely critical to push your black dice shots through the Interdictor/TS defense. I tabled a double-TS Interdictor + VSD1 fortress list with my MC30 swarm by focus firing and overwhelming the scramblers. Yes, TS will ruin two of your shots per turn, but if you're landing six of them on the same turn, there is no reason that you should be having issues with burning through it unless you're choking on your rolls. Which happens, and sucks, but is neither here nor there in the TS discussion.

32 minutes ago, Hrathen said:

I hear what everyone is saying here, but you are talking about 95 points minimum for those rerolls. How about a Vic with GT and XI7's to kill them.

Most of them are designed to go from long or outside it, and hit you before you can do anything - you have to survive it. If killing it at range was an option, they would never be an issue ?

Rebels best trick against Demo is to draw them into a souped up megapickle.

ackbar

MC80 assault cruiser

defiance

raymus Antilles

engine techs

ECMs

RBDs

leading shots

XI7 turbolasers

will survive a full demo attack with limited damage and then one shot the demo back.

On 10/13/2017 at 10:05 AM, Church14 said:

a helpful hint for a Rebel player wanting to run more than one medium/large ship?

Add a large or medium ship. Then delete it and replace it with more bombers and a Yavaris Nebulon.

The high-activation, low bid fleets were overpowered but at least you could punish them with smart tactics and objective choices. The bomber fleets are genuinely out of hand. A smart first buy is no longer around which ships you should get first, the answer is always now "get your squadron packs and whatever ships let them activate best."

8 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

A smart first buy is no longer around which ships you should get first, the answer is always now "get your squadron packs and whatever ships let them activate best."

Kinda like how Rebels fight in the movies/cartoons then?

At Australian nationals, close to the end my opponent's Demo gets a shot on my ISD at the rear. I had two hull and two shields left on the rear . He rolls his four dice has gets 3 hit/crtis and one 1 hit, 7 in total. I activate Targeting scramblers and make him re-roll the doubles. He rolls all blanks. So from 7 hits down to 1. Lucky for me my opponent was a great sport and we just couldn't believed what happen and we both started to laugh....