I've been toying with a double ISD (Devastator & Avenger) list for about 6 months now.
Variants included 2-3 Gozantis and 2 squads of either Valen/Ciena, basic TIE-Ins or basic TIEs.
Really couldn't decide between Motti and Vader, both worked well but each presented their own problems.
With the arrival of Wave 7 I'd been itching to try a Vader Cymoon but decided on two Motti Kuats as my likely build.
After thinking that Vader Cymoons would be prevalent I tried to put a list together to specifically target those lists - by having even worse damage at long range.
Thus my Vader list was born - I still wasn't sold on the defensive side of Vader but after a last minute test run against @Phil B he convinced me it was the list to take.
So, here's the insanity in all its glory:
Devastating
Author: Kendraam
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 399/400
Commander: Darth Vader
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona
[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Devastator ( 10 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Early Warning System ( 7 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Heavy Ion Emplacements ( 9 points)
= 201 total ship cost
Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit(112 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Boarding Troopers ( 3 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 134 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost
2 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 16 points)
I was concerned about a number of issues
- having a 201 point ship which would be a huge target
- not enough hull - Motti makes this list very hard to kill but struggles with getting enough damage on target at long range whereas Vader can do long range but losing those 6 hull worried me
- bomber lists, specifically Yavaris bomber lists and I was pretty sure @RikkiP would be there. Here I hoped EWS would keep me alive, plus it's a great fit for Devastator as I'm not intending to have many defense tokens!
Now onto the batreps.
First up was Alex, we've played each other a few times before and ironically, as I'd given him a lift over to Cardiff, we'd discussed my list and what it did on the trip!
He was flying a Motti, ISD (Relentless) with RBDs, Quasar, Raider list with a nasty anti-squad contingent, Howl, Dengar, 4xTIE-In.
I wasn't too worried as I'd either be first-lasting or having the final activations.
As expected, he had the bid and, deciding not to give me first-last with BTAvenger, he picked first and my Solar Corona.
Here's the deployment
he baited me to my right with his Raider placement and my plan was to send Devastator (the right hand ISD) fast around the back to take out the Raider and Quasar while Avenger took on Relentless.
He activated the Raider first speeding up to 4 and swinging to my left to come looping around the back of Avenger.
I didn't expect this and it meant Devastator would be out of the fight for a bit so, with some fortunate flying, I banked Devastator hard left to cut off the loop around and threaten Relentless whilst Avenger jumped forward after the Quasar and to try herd Relentless into Devastator's arcs.
It appeared to work but being second was proving problematical as he could always move a target out of my ranges.
I managed to block the Raider with a Gozanti (which the Raider killed with a ram although we forgot about the corona and it shouldn't have taken damage from the Raiders initial salvo) which meant it landed in Devastator's front arc and thus died.
We both had Strategic Adviser which was ruled by the TO to work on activated ships, so we cancelled each other out.
With the Raider dead I had a decision to either block Relentless' escape and hope Darth could win the slugfest or try and slip past Relentless and probably survive, whilst Avenger chased down the Quasar. I decided to risk the ISD head-on trusting Devastator's huge dice pool and Darth's rerolls to see me through.
However, my hope of reducing Relentless' shields at long range didn't work (threw 14 blues, 7 all rerolled with Darth) as I failed to proc the blue crit for Heavy Ions.
I was now worried as with his first player he could well kill Devastator before I could fire.
But, I managed to set up a fork with Alex having to decide to activate Relentless first and lose his Quasar or try and save the Quasar leaving Relentless to Darth.
He activated Relentless and I think he needed 7 hull damage to kill Devastator.
He rolled, got the black crit for ACMs leaving only 5 hull left. I suspect the loss of a die for Early Warning saved me.
Devastator survived, I think on 3 hull looking at the pic above.
Avenger activated Boarding Troopers and the Quasar exploded; actually I recall it was a poor roll and I 'only' did 8 damage to just kill it.
Devastator then rolled 12 dice at Relentless which also went boom and a tabling was the end of the game.
The squad fight was odd with all 4 TIE-Ins dying before either of my TIEs. Flak can be deadly.
I think Dengar rolled a shot at Devastator at the end after the ships died but it didn't help.
400 - 41 and a 10-1 for my first game.
Game 2; this was against Stephen, a local player I'd also played a few times before.
He had a list I really didn't like the look of as he had a nasty looking Cymoon, Demolisher, two Gozantis and the dreaded Jendon/Maarek. His Admiral was Thrawn but he had minimal effect ( I think he set 3 CF commands intending to use them for Demo)
Again he won the bid, and again fearing giving my BTA first/last (he wasn't running Strategic Adviser having opted for Tua/ECM instead) he gave me 2nd and picked my Solar Corona.
Here's the deployment
He looked to be heading to my right but I managed to fit both ISDs on my furthest left.
Devastator at speed 3, to swing around to my left to hit the Gozantis, herd Demo towards Avenger and threaten the Cymoon's flank.
Avenger to head straight towards Demo and the Cymoon.
After the deployment and turn one's speedy approach to lure him in, I jammed the brakes on and let him come to me.
Demolisher ended up at close range of Avenger but (with great restraint) I managed to hold off using Boarding Troopers, saving them for the Cymoon.
Demo got one shotted and died but Maarek was pounding Avenger and my squads did little to help, and although flak was helping I needed to kill the carriers quick.
With Steve going first he managed to get one Gozanti around the left side of Devastator which then failed to get an accuracy to kill it out of the side arc, but did at least manage the kill shot on the other one.
Strategic Adviser was great in this game meaning I could leave both ISD activations until after Steve had moved everything.
The Cymoon and Maarek/Jendon mullered Avenger which was fortunately at long range of the Cymoon.
It was left on one hull point and with the Cymoon going speed 3 I thought he'd be able to ram me before I could fire.
I had moved the Gozantis up to Avenger's right to block the Cymoon's escape and (speaking to Steve afterwards he'd not even thought to try ramming Avenger) he went to try and go wide around the Gozantis.
He failed, rammed one and left his flank at close range of Avenger.
There were probably only millimetres in it but I think had he gone to ram Avenger, the left hand Gozanti was just far enough ahead of Avenger that it would have taken ram instead.
In any case, Avenger opened up with Boarding Troopers and External Racks and with some Vader rerolls, rolled 13 damage through the side, leaving the Cymoon on one hull.
After an engineering command healed 2 hull, Avenger rammed the Cymoon to death but shortly thereafter was killed by squad fire.
But having done it's job, just a Gozanti was left.
pic taken towards the corona on my left, the Gozanti in the distance is Steve's last ship.
Devastator swings round hard right (I love ISDs manoeuvring with a Nav command at speed 2) and tries to cut off the Gozanti's escape.
After 3 turns of relay activated squads one of my Gozantis goes down but I manage a long range shot to kill the last ship on turn 6 for the tabling.
We scored it as an 8-3 but not sure how. The score should have been 400-175 with a MoV of 225 for a 9-2 but we put down 400-185 which made it an 8-3.
Stephen did well in his next game and took 3rd place in the end, which I wasn't surprised with as it was a nicely balanced, very dangerous fleet.
Now the Final round!
I was now thinking that I might be in with a shot at winning but when Ryan, another local player I'd tousled with before, declared his fleet I was more than a little concerned.
He was running Dodonna with an MC-75, Yavaris, two GR-75s kitted out for bombing and 8 squads including Nym, Ten Numb, Dutch, Jan, 2 VCX and 2 Xs.
I was expecting him to be setup for token farming and if so to be, hopefully, running Advanced Gunnery. He was, and I would have jumped at Adv Gunnery but he picked first player.
Possibly a mistake; as we both had Strategic Adviser he would have gone last as second player.
Regardless, he picked first and, again, we played Solar Corona.
Here's the deployment
Similar to last game, we'd play on a 3'x3', and I managed to setup to his right with Devastator at speed 3 heading right for his flotillas and Yavaris with Avenger set to take out the MC-75.
Like last game I sped forward with the idea of baiting him in to meet me and then slow down and let him come into my arcs.
The bombers headed in but with the delayed activation I managed to slow down both ISDs on turn two again and then give Ryan the choice of moving Yavaris into long range of Devastator or the MC-75 into, hopefully close, range of Avenger.
He made the choice of moving the MC-75, dropping from speed 3 down to 2 and, as so often Armada games are won and lost on small margins, he ended up just a few mm into Avengers close range front arc.
The predictable happened and Avenger opened up - for some reason I decided to not use Ex Racks thinking to use them next turn. A mistake, as Avenger was on perilously low health due to bombing and the MC-75 would be going first next turn with a double arc.
The MC-75 survived the hit but only had 4 hull remaining.
However, Yavaris now had to activate and ended up in Medium range of Devastator.
Due to me dumping tokens and bombing runs, I had one tokens left and was at speed zero.
First shot killed the MC-75 and having discarded my last defense token, I threw 13 dice at Yavaris which unsurprisingly got vapourised.
Turn 4, the remaining GR-75 activated some bombers killing the low health Avenger.
The game was over though as Devastator finished off the last transport giving me victory by 400-150 and a 9-2 win with only an hour gone.
Had a total blast, Devastator is such fun to play but probably less so for my opponents, gracious though they were.
The list fared well against both Rebel and Imperial bombers but I'd like to try Rikki's bomber list or Ben's Euro list to see how it would do. I'm tempted to drop Ex Racks on Avenger and go with Ordnance Porgs instead as this would probably help out more against squads, especially as I don't have gunnery teams. I'd really like a 5th activation to deal but I'd only be able to do this by going squadronless...I may experiment.
A well organised session and Firestorm is a fantastic venue, thanks to my three opponents, each game could have easily gone very differently if not for a damage here or a mm there.
Edited by Kendraam