3 hours ago, ImperialCaptain2017 said:

You can run, but you can't hide, rebel scum...

No worries, Geek. My cell has you covered

I am a loyal Imperial. I have a sizable Imperial fleet consisting of:

1. Sith Planet Super Star Destroyer, as seen at the 2016 NoVA Open

2. 3 x ISD

3. 3 x VSD

4. 3 x Interdictor

5. 4 x Gladiator

6. 5 x Raider

7. 4 x Gozanti

8. 100 squadrons

I have crewed captured Rebel ships with loyal Imperials to learn their tricks and I revel in the power of the Imperial Navy.

On 12/26/2017 at 6:23 AM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Dear fellow Imperials,

The Regional competitions of the past month have been an embarrassment to the Empire. Despite numerical superiority, we have allowed the Rebellion to walk away with the most victories. This is unacceptable.

To this end, I have I felt a calling from the Emperor (who, I presume, is the voice in my head) to found an Imperial Naval Academy in order to turn this Rebellious tide and return peace and stability to the Galaxy under an Imperial banner.

Therefore, I call on all loyal Imperial commanders to apply for a position within the Imperial Naval Academy in order to develop doctrines to defeat the Rebels once and for all. All applicants will be screened for their loyalty, and, once approved, they shall be polled for their competence and doctrinal insights. These shall be brought together and developed into a winning doctrine to spread among one another and to approved recruits of the Naval Academy.

Loyal commanders of the Empire,

Your applications shall be public (below), where you shall attest to your loyalty (how you have not commanded fleets for the Rebellion), and your victories in the name of the Emperor. What have been your standings at tournaments, how regularly do you destroy your Rebel opponents on the casual asteroid field, etc. Also, what extra-curricular activities have you engaged in for the greater glory of the Emperor and His Empire?

ROFL!!! @Mikael Hasselstein You STILL have it!

...don't think I'm qualified to sign up I'm afraid! NO not because I am traitorous Rebel scum, but I've only managed to play TWO games (including the Learn to Play!!!!) ever since our great game came out!!!! Why? "LYFE"!

So I guess, the analogy here would be, I'm an (potentially demoted) Imperial Officer relegated to some backwater outpost that is responsible for disposing of some Rebel contraband (maybe Y-Wings) that is supposedly very safe from a surprise attack by a certain flaming hot Rebel cell that may or may not have two unaccounted for Jedi involved!

19 hours ago, Marinealver said:

95% of Rebel pilots went to the Imperial Academy.

Haha...you made me burst out laughing at my desk - my co-worker threw me a curious glance!!!!

5 hours ago, ImperialCaptain2017 said:

Mm-hmm...yes, we know about Ensign Ackran, or should I say, Jesmin Ackbar. The Wraith Squadron mission transcripts were intercepted by Naval Intelligence some time ago, and the codenames they used are now common knowledge (besides, I read the transcripts myself to learn how to defeat the Wraiths someday).

via Imgflip Meme Generator

You are clearly not as loyal as you say you are... I suggest you cooperate fully with the ISB when they arrive.

@ImperialCaptain2017 When they arrive??? Didn't you know? Mikael IS from the ISB!!!

He is a stalwart defender of Order! Check out his achievements here: http://hnnreports.blogspot.com/

1 hour ago, Alpha Xg1 said:

@ImperialCaptain2017 When they arrive??? Didn't you know? Mikael IS from the ISB!!!

I meant "when they arrive at his doorstep in the middle of the night"

Should have been more specific, I suppose...

By the way, Moff Hasselstein, I very much enjoy your reports. Keep up the good work!

I am one of those traitors who work for both sides. I sell my exceptional skills as fleet commander to the highest bidder.

For me it is all about the money. You probably never heard of me and that’s how I like it, because it’s many bounty hunters out there who would like to see me dead.

I work in the shadows and whenever the Rebels or the Imperials want to be sure of a victory they contact me and offer me huge amounts of money.

some times they think I am to greedy, but then I remember them of the battles that suddenly went the opposite way then they thought because of l was working for the other side.

exsample the battle of Hoth when I made an excellent ambush plan together with former Lord Vader.

It went very good until the Rebels offered me a huge sum to escape from the planet. I had to admit that Lord Vader wasn’t pleased when he found out about that. But I gave him a huge discount on the plan for capturing Han Solo at Bespin. After that he forgave me and he and the Emperor hired me for a large operation where the Rebels would be crushed forever at a remote planet called Endor.

This battle also shows how fast I am to turn something around when plans don’t actually go as you wanted. Anyway there I was and everything thing went as l planed. The Rebels didn’t expect this trap and it was only for me to collect my money.

But then some family **** happened with Luke and Lord Vader. Well how was I to know that he was his long lost son. It ended bad of course and both Vader and the Emperor got killed.

There was no one left to pay me, so I just had to talk with the Rebels and make a new agreement. So again the second Death Star “suddenly “ blew up with a lucky shot :-)

The timing was as perfect as the first time. No one suspected anything. I even got a huge bonus from the workers union because now they needed to build one more.

So I hope you not think badly of me and accept me into this Imperial Naval Academy. There is so much to learn about the Empire that I can use....

I mean learn so I can be a great asset for the future plans of the empire. As long as the price is right that is.

To the rebel scum posting in this thread....

We see you. We hear you. Now, we may not have speedy torpedo boats (oh wait....Gladiators) or awesome multi role fighter-bombers (wait, wait...Defenders). But what we do have is a particular set of skills. And we are going to hunt you down.

And then we are going to blow up your ships. With extreme prejudice.

For the Empire. For the Emperor. Because we do not care about personal glory, but only for results for our Emperor.

Prepare to die.

Admiral Wolf Deralisk, Blood Squadron, commanding.

3 hours ago, Darth Lupine said:

To the rebel scum posting in this thread....

We see you. We hear you. Now, we may not have speedy torpedo boats (oh wait....Gladiators) or awesome multi role fighter-bombers (wait, wait...Defenders). But what we do have is a particular set of skills. And we are going to hunt you down.

And then we are going to blow up your ships. With extreme prejudice.

For the Empire. For the Emperor. Because we do not care about personal glory, but only for results for our Emperor.

Prepare to die.

Admiral Wolf Deralisk, Blood Squadron, commanding.

Ok rebels, we've gotten them monologuing. Time to strike while they're distracted!

Admiral Megatronrex of the Imperial <REDACTED> Service reporting in. After graduating from the <REDACTED> Imperial Academy on <REDACTED> I was assigned to <REDACTED>. It was there that I led fleet operations against the <REDACTED> as well as participating in Operation <REDACTED>. Afterwards I was promoted and reassigned to <REDACTED> in the <REDACTED> Sector where I oversaw production of the <REDACTED>. At the request of <REDACTED> I led Taskforce <REDACTED> against <REDACTED> hold outs in the <REDACTED> Sector where we discovered and captured <REDACTED>. It was after that assignment that I received my current position of <REDACTED>, being chosen for this role by none other than <REDACTED> himself. Unfortunately my role as <REDACTED> of the Imperial <REDACTED> Service keeps me from saying anything further about my assignments after that but any pertinent information may be obtained by formal request at the offices of <REDACTED> at Imperial Center.

My, but that's a lot of... <REDACTED>

I'm going to post another tactical statement to try to make this more than, again, a gag thread.

An Imperial Commander's perspective: Optimization

Putting this bluntly, the universe rewards you if you have more ships. There are two significant reasons for this.

• First is the power of being able to delay-activate your opponent's primary ship into range, where it receives damage first by forcing it to skip it's attack and being subject to yours when you are in range. This back-and-forth of whom determines the first alpha strike can quickly determine how a match will go from there on out. This is why Demolisher is so powerful, because it gets around this limitation by choosing where to deliver its alpha strike. As a whole though, making your opponent's big-bad gunship skip its activation gives you a significant advantage. This is why there has been a rise of flotillas, more than any other reason.
  
• Second is the power of spamming a key upgrade. We see this with Raiders running Screed and APTs- you can deliver as many face-up crits on a target you choose when you get into range. This is why CR-90s are so powerful with TRCs. Hammeheads with XI7s, DTTs, spinals, or intel officers for raw damage repeated on a target. The net effect of this attack spamming means a single ship receiving the damage has to blow through its defense tokens a lot quicker in response. This is also why fighters are particularly powerful, and why Yavaris is as strong as it is.

Activations and upgrade swarming give Imperial players an uphill struggle on choosing optimal lists, because for both of these things, the Rebellion does it better and more cheaply. There are two significant problems as a result of the above:

• First, Imperial ships as a whole are more expensive. We are expected to do more with less. For instance, your ISDs are so heavy in points you're expected to be able to counter-attack swarms of smaller ships. Indeed, the ISD can very capably one-shot almost any other ship in the game... though as above, it only has four damage tokens. Devestator was created for the inevitability of being swarmed to death by fighters/Multiple-small-units because it can very quickly run out of them when under attrition attack.
  
  Still, not all ships can be the toughest starship in the game. Half the Imperial inventory is made up of medium and heavy ships, which cannot be spammed and do not have the resiliency of the Imperial. Case in point is the Victory Star Destroyer, a heavy cruiser which cannot survive well against heavy ship attack barrages and struggles in the face of MSU shots. More than the ISD, the VSD has to assuredly kill the lights-and-mediums sent against it, but thanks to cards out there such as Rieekan, Cracken, and Mon-Mothma this is no longer a certainty.
  
  The only exception that comes to mind is the 'wall of victory' list of VSDs with Motti... but I've never heard of this list topping at a major event.
  
• The second problem is that when it comes to Imperial ship-spam in response, we do not do it so well. The Raider is our equivalent corvette, but it suffers tremendously from defending better at long range, but being effective at close range. Spamming APTs with screed is an adventure because Raiders can very easily be popped- unless you have first-last advantage, be prepared to lose one of them without any return. Other Empire players can offer up the Gozanti as another swarm unit, but unlike the Hammerhead, the Gozanti doesn't have any slots to enhance the firepower it puts out except taking an Intelligence officer (though going this route makes the Gozanti more expensive than it is survivable worth). Leaning on Gozantis for your swarm attack advantage is also relying entirely on Red Dice, which more than one player in my earshot has cursed for it's unpredictability.

I see all of these things when I approach the game and feel the only medium-and-above ship worth its salt on the field is the Imperial. I complain about the VSD so much because I feel we're in a universe where the extremes are better than the balance, and it's better to take both ends than try to field a force with medium elements. The only exception there is Demosliher, which fully loaded might as well be a discount heavy for what it can do. It's not as if players are flocking to GSDs to throw into tournaments, nor are they taking more than one VSD.

Other commanders are going to have their responses to these challenges and may disagree with my findings based on their experience. However as I see it, an ideal Armada list has: 1. Lots of activations to field attrition damage against singular targets and control activations. 2. Powerful upgrades on as many of those ships as possible to deliver as much damage as possible with each activation.

The result of this thinking is my ARQ battery lists. These employ three ARQs with slaved turrets and Vader as a base- putting out significant damage out of three shots on one target and Vader to ensure that they do a lot of it. Giving each ship an intel officer, now whenever I attack a ship I force it to possibly lose its brace and/or start shedding redirects if it has them. The standoff range of the ARQ allows me to continue fighting to my advantage. A healthy allotment of fighters and paired Gozantis gives me the activation and placement advantages I need before dropping down my ARQ battery into the best position.

As this list has taken on and destroyed its share of heavies (including a fully-powered Devestator/Demolisher combo) it seems this line of thinking is born out. However, none of these ships use the heavy/medium ships in the Imperial lineup, and could suggest something needs to be done to make these ships better able to survive the swarming power upgrade lists that are the most effective in the field now.

6 minutes ago, Norsehound said:

I'm going to post another tactical statement to try to make this more than, again, a gag thread.

An Imperial Commander's perspective: Optimization

Putting this bluntly, the universe rewards you if you have more ships. There are two significant reasons for this.

• First is the power of being able to delay-activate your opponent's primary ship into range, where it receives damage first by forcing it to skip it's attack and being subject to yours when you are in range. This back-and-forth of whom determines the first alpha strike can quickly determine how a match will go from there on out. This is why Demolisher is so powerful, because it gets around this limitation by choosing where to deliver its alpha strike. As a whole though, making your opponent's big-bad gunship skip its activation gives you a significant advantage. This is why there has been a rise of flotillas, more than any other reason.
  
• Second is the power of spamming a key upgrade. We see this with Raiders running Screed and APTs- you can deliver as many face-up crits on a target you choose when you get into range. This is why CR-90s are so powerful with TRCs. Hammeheads with XI7s, DTTs, spinals, or intel officers for raw damage repeated on a target. The net effect of this attack spamming means a single ship receiving the damage has to blow through its defense tokens a lot quicker in response. This is also why fighters are particularly powerful, and why Yavaris is as strong as it is.

Activations and upgrade swarming give Imperial players an uphill struggle on choosing optimal lists, because for both of these things, the Rebellion does it better and more cheaply. There are two significant problems as a result of the above:

• First, Imperial ships as a whole are more expensive. We are expected to do more with less. For instance, your ISDs are so heavy in points you're expected to be able to counter-attack swarms of smaller ships. Indeed, the ISD can very capably one-shot almost any other ship in the game... though as above, it only has four damage tokens. Devestator was created for the inevitability of being swarmed to death by fighters/Multiple-small-units because it can very quickly run out of them when under attrition attack.
  
  Still, not all ships can be the toughest starship in the game. Half the Imperial inventory is made up of medium and heavy ships, which cannot be spammed and do not have the resiliency of the Imperial. Case in point is the Victory Star Destroyer, a heavy cruiser which cannot survive well against heavy ship attack barrages and struggles in the face of MSU shots. More than the ISD, the VSD has to assuredly kill the lights-and-mediums sent against it, but thanks to cards out there such as Rieekan, Cracken, and Mon-Mothma this is no longer a certainty.
  
  The only exception that comes to mind is the 'wall of victory' list of VSDs with Motti... but I've never heard of this list topping at a major event.
  
• The second problem is that when it comes to Imperial ship-spam in response, we do not do it so well. The Raider is our equivalent corvette, but it suffers tremendously from defending better at long range, but being effective at close range. Spamming APTs with screed is an adventure because Raiders can very easily be popped- unless you have first-last advantage, be prepared to lose one of them without any return. Other Empire players can offer up the Gozanti as another swarm unit, but unlike the Hammerhead, the Gozanti doesn't have any slots to enhance the firepower it puts out except taking an Intelligence officer (though going this route makes the Gozanti more expensive than it is survivable worth). Leaning on Gozantis for your swarm attack advantage is also relying entirely on Red Dice, which more than one player in my earshot has cursed for it's unpredictability.

I see all of these things when I approach the game and feel the only medium-and-above ship worth its salt on the field is the Imperial. I complain about the VSD so much because I feel we're in a universe where the extremes are better than the balance, and it's better to take both ends than try to field a force with medium elements. The only exception there is Demosliher, which fully loaded might as well be a discount heavy for what it can do. It's not as if players are flocking to GSDs to throw into tournaments, nor are they taking more than one VSD.

Other commanders are going to have their responses to these challenges and may disagree with my findings based on their experience. However as I see it, an ideal Armada list has: 1. Lots of activations to field attrition damage against singular targets and control activations. 2. Powerful upgrades on as many of those ships as possible to deliver as much damage as possible with each activation.

The result of this thinking is my ARQ battery lists. These employ three ARQs with slaved turrets and Vader as a base- putting out significant damage out of three shots on one target and Vader to ensure that they do a lot of it. Giving each ship an intel officer, now whenever I attack a ship I force it to possibly lose its brace and/or start shedding redirects if it has them. The standoff range of the ARQ allows me to continue fighting to my advantage. A healthy allotment of fighters and paired Gozantis gives me the activation and placement advantages I need before dropping down my ARQ battery into the best position.

As this list has taken on and destroyed its share of heavies (including a fully-powered Devestator/Demolisher combo) it seems this line of thinking is born out. However, none of these ships use the heavy/medium ships in the Imperial lineup, and could suggest something needs to be done to make these ships better able to survive the swarming power upgrade lists that are the most effective in the field now.

Good writing. My current experimental list is one VSD and two Glads...still in the works.

I am confused. So are you looking for people to give advice to new Imperial players? I can do that. What kind of advice are you looking for?

42 minutes ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

I am confused. So are you looking for people to give advice to new Imperial players? I can do that. What kind of advice are you looking for?

It's honestly more of a gag thread, sorry.

2 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

It's honestly more of a gag thread, sorry.

Unacceptable!

I'm all about helping out the new players. Call me when someone needs some sagely advice.

2 minutes ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Unacceptable!

I'm all about helping out the new players. Call me when someone needs some sagely advice.

Based on your namesake, any suggestions on making rice krispie treats? Any tasty ingredients to add in, SAGELY?

1 minute ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Unacceptable!

I'm all about helping out the new players. Call me when someone needs some sagely advice.

The thing is there are already resources for helping new players (the easy answers are Cannot Get Your Ship Out and Steel Squadron so far as blogs go), so that niche was effectively already filled.

Plus any kind of in-depth article is doomed to extinction on a discussion forum. They need a blog to live on or else they die within a week.

1 minute ago, geek19 said:

Based on your namesake, any suggestions on making rice krispie treats? Any tasty ingredients to add in, SAGELY?

First off, don't use sage.

Secondly, use fruity pebbles instead.

GOD-TIER RICE KRISPIES TREATS RECIPE UNLOCKED.

1 minute ago, Snipafist said:

First off, don't use sage.

Secondly, use fruity pebbles instead.

GOD-TIER RICE KRISPIES TREATS RECIPE UNLOCKED.

What about Trix? Are they just for kids? Follow up: margarine vs butter vs Pam; WHO YOU GOT???

19 hours ago, Mad Cat said:

I should like to put myself forward for the important role of Imperial Happiness Officer. Morale of the troops and we who command them is ever in the Emperor's mind. Defeatism and rumours of Rebel victories even from within our own ranks can be more disruptive than the loss of a squadron of Star Destroyers.

Some members of the council are concerned that many of our citizens are now aware of Rebel activities. People talk. There's no way of stopping them. All sorts of citizens from Alphas to the lowest labor grades know of this defiance of the Empire. These renegades impede progress, and more importantly order. Order gentlemen. It is all that matters!

So turn that frown upside down, redouble your efforts and report suspicious yearnings for truth and freedom in any of your friends and family.

HAPPINESS IS MANDATORY.

Please be happy, otherwise you will be used as reactor shielding.

Star Wars meets Paranoia? Love it :-)

4 hours ago, Norsehound said:

I'm going to post another tactical statement to try to make this more than, again, a gag thread.

Thank you! Now, if we could get you to share this through Discord, rather than letting the Rebel filth in on our secrets, that would be preferable.

I take it you're still having trouble with it. Would it be better if I created an actual forum for the Academy?

3 hours ago, Snipafist said:

It's honestly more of a gag thread, sorry.

Hang on,

[OOC] While I'm playing with this tongue-in-cheek in persona, that doesn't mean that there isn't actually something behind it. As the invitees have found out if they have followed the link provided. I'm honestly interested in developing something that resembles a coherent military doctrine.

3 hours ago, geek19 said:

Based on your namesake, any suggestions on making rice krispie treats? Any tasty ingredients to add in, SAGELY?

We tried M&Ms recently with my son (his idea). Not bad. You can also try half Rice Krispie and half Cocoa Krispie.

My name comes from the time I was really drunk and started throwing those terrible rice cakes. I called them rice frisbee treats.

5 hours ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Thank you! Now, if we could get you to share this through Discord, rather than letting the Rebel filth in on our secrets, that would be preferable.

I take it you're still having trouble with it. Would it be better if I created an actual forum for the Academy?

Yes...I would prefer a forum, since Discord and my phone do not get along.

On 25/12/2017 at 7:23 PM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Dear fellow Imperials,

The Regional competitions of the past month have been an embarrassment to the Empire. Despite numerical superiority, we have allowed the Rebellion to walk away with the most victories. This is unacceptable.

To this end, I have I felt a calling from the Emperor (who, I presume, is the voice in my head) to found an Imperial Naval Academy in order to turn this Rebellious tide and return peace and stability to the Galaxy under an Imperial banner.

Therefore, I call on all loyal Imperial commanders to apply for a position within the Imperial Naval Academy in order to develop doctrines to defeat the Rebels once and for all. All applicants will be screened for their loyalty, and, once approved, they shall be polled for their competence and doctrinal insights. These shall be brought together and developed into a winning doctrine to spread among one another and to approved recruits of the Naval Academy.

Loyal commanders of the Empire,

Your applications shall be public (below), where you shall attest to your loyalty (how you have not commanded fleets for the Rebellion), and your victories in the name of the Emperor. What have been your standings at tournaments, how regularly do you destroy your Rebel opponents on the casual asteroid field, etc. Also, what extra-curricular activities have you engaged in for the greater glory of the Emperor and His Empire?

TO: Moff Hasselstein

FROM: Governor Preyer

**IMP/CRYPT/BLACKOMEGA**

As a Governor of the South Eastern Londonium Expanse I am committed full time to the subjugation of the pitiful Rebels of @SmurfWedge Eagle Squadron. Details of total Imperial glory in. Correlia can be found here:

But my actions have not been limited to this war zone alone. For at the call of the colours (battleship grey and star destroyer white, of course) I have crossed the galactic gulfs to grapple with the likes of Rebel scum in the NOVA and Germanic clusters.

I have long been committed to the classic ISD-Demo battle unit for more than a score of tournaments now. As @Ginkapo can attest my fidelity to Imperial Orthodoxy is if anything perhaps a little too strong and so I would welcome inclusion in an ISB-sanctioned training space.

In terms of my own contribution, I would welcome a forum in which I could outline my thoughts on TIE/D doctrine as well as the advantages of activation disadvantage.

I can further recommend Imperial officers @TheCallum and @AdmiralRyan as experts on duel star destroyers and efficacious Quasar use respectively.

I remain sir, your most trusted and loyal fellow Imperial servant,

Lord Preyer

Use Sloane.

Win games.

Prosper.

10 hours ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Hang on,

[OOC] While I'm playing with this tongue-in-cheek in persona, that doesn't mean that there isn't actually something behind it. As the invitees have found out if they have followed the link provided. I'm honestly interested in developing something that resembles a coherent military doctrine.

Is that a good idea? Do we want to splinter the forum already?

From where I am sitting the main problem the Imps have is that there arent many bloggers for imps. Biggs is a rebel, Truth is a rebel, Schmitty is a rebel, Geek is a rebel and so on... the only regular blogger for Imps is Snipa, and do we really count that anyway as him and Geek do more entry level blogging anyway. (Not that it isnt much appreciated but Mikael seems to want high level ideas).

What is missing for the imps is a culture of learning and sharing of ideas, is closing yourselves of into an elitist group going to help with that? And is it going to help the overall culture of Armada players which is very good. Quite frankly I am a little disturbed that you want to do this.

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2016/04/being-playerbase-we-want-to-be.html