So have been trying some different Thrawn lists recently as my goal is to win one of the store championships in Scotland this year with a somewhat unseen admiral. After seeing the current meta at the regionals (big ships with little/no squadron support or nothing but squadrons) I would like some advice on this Thrawn list, which focuses on long range fire power and shutting down commands on big ships.

Fleet title: Thrawns Raiders

Assault objective: Close range intel scan

Defense objective: Planetary ion cannon

Navigation objective: Solar corona

399/400pts

ISD Cymoon 1: 112pts

• Intel Officer 7pts
• Quad Battery turrets 5pts
• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets 6pts
• Veteran Gunners 5pts
• Entrapment Formation 5pts
• Grand Admiral Thrawn 32pts

Raider II Corvette: 48pts

• Disposable capacitators 3pts
• Ion Cannon Batteries: 5pts

Raider II Corvette: 48pts

• Disposable capacitators 3pts
• Ion Cannon Batteries: 5pts

Gozanti-class cruisers: 23pts

• Expanded hangar bays: 5pts
• Comms Net 2pts

Squadrons: 85pts

• 2 Mandalorian Gauntlet fighters 40pts
• 1 Jumpmaster 5000 12pts
• 3 TIE Interceptors 33pts

As mentioned, the idea with this list is to shut down either heavy squadron lists or large ship builds that rely on navigating for firing arcs or on engineering for staying alive. The raiders have the ion cannon batteries to make the gauntlets raid tokens as effective as possible. Thrawn and entrapment formation will give me all the maneuverability I need to keep the raiders from harm and the ISD in arc, as well as providing concentrated firepower commands when the need arises. The Jumpmaster will keep the Gauntlets free to harass ships, and the interceptors and raiders will give me a fair amount of anti squadron when needed. Objectives will hopefully help the list, close range intel scan is good for keeping the raiders alive, as well as surprise attacks. Planetary ion cannon will help me control the opponents fleet a little better, and solar corona will give me an excellent deployment advantage and good way of getting to use my defence tokens.

Hey there! Couple of things about the list-

1. Cymoons are desperate to rerolls. With no access to leading shots, and no Intensify Firepower in this current setup, they are simply going to be too streaky to succeed competitively. You need consistency to win a tournament, can't ride hot dice through 3 games typically, even if they are hot they won't stay that way forever. Currently I would say that Cymoons are the best ISD version you can take as far as sheer damage output go, but in order to get that damage output you do not have any option to take any Admiral but Vader. Intensify Firepower is almost a requirement too, to bring up the low red dice damage floor.

2. With 4 ships and no turn modifying tech (IE Pryce or Strategic Advisor) and with only a 1pt bid, you will be very susceptible to first last attacks as second player. This means any big bidding list is going to eat you alive with little to no recourse on your part. This is a big issue for this fleet as many competitive fleets will come prepared to take advantage of a first last if they can swing it.

3. On the Raider-II's, you might look to Heavy Ion Emplacements instead of ICB. ICB is good for the double arc, but since you are going to be very reliant on them to soften up targets, you want as much damage output as you can. HIE is great if you can focus an arc, hit it twice with HIE (once from each Raider since it's exhaust), then hit it with the Cymoon. It's fairly likely at that point you with be shooting a ship completely devoid of usable shields. This is a valid tactic to kill large ships, and lets you drop intel officer as it is VERY likely that you will get 1 accuracy, which is all you need to lock down a brace if the redirects are useless. This frees up points to contribute back to the increased cost of the HIE's.

4. Raid tokens (and by extension Gauntlets) are incredibly underwhelming. Far short of locking down a command, they are a huge and easily bypassed point sink. You are better nixing them entirely and upgrading the 2 weak squads to a gozanti with slicer tools. This gets you another activation, and a better control tool for less points overall. This lets you actually contribute something to a bid, and means you can change the jumpmaster to simply another interceptor. 4 squads gives you an even number, allowing you to retain the same number of deployments and contribute another point to your bid or potentially Strategic Advisor as 6 activations means and 3 before your wombo combo 2x raider/Cymoon means you can actually generate some decent threat by forcing a target to move into arc before hitting it repeatedly. All the damage in the world is useless if you can't use it.

5. Objectives. If you bring a flotilla, in the current game there is no reason not to use most wanted. There is no downside to most wanted, just make a flotilla your objective ship and the ship you want to kill theirs. Ion Cannon is good, just watch out for strategic. Contested outpost would also be very strong as you can camp the station and force them to move into arc, your fleet is really good second player when you can force the engagement area like this. Solar Corona can be good, just make sure you are really good at deployment, cause if you don't win before turn 1, this one is going to hurt you more than help with so many accuracies being thrown by your fleet.

All in all, best of luck! Feel free to throw all of this in the trash if you think it's bunk, end of the day playing what you like and what you love and finding a way to win is what matters. These are just my opinions about seeing fleets like this played in person.

Maan I didn't even tag you @mr_mithrandir and you caught me talking about you!

For OP, Mithrandir has shown me the way of HIE DCAP VADERAIDERs. They can really put out hurt when combo'd with the Cymoon.

5 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

Maan I didn't even tag you @mr_mithrandir and you caught me talking about you!

For OP, Mithrandir has shown me the way of HIE DCAP VADERAIDERs. They can really put out hurt when combo'd with the Cymoon.

Felt my ears tingling…

you pretty much covered it. My list can be pretty swingy though… but man when it wins, it wins big.

I strongly suggest Contested Outpost with the Cymoon. He does not really want to be screaming towards the enemy. Posting up by the station or forcing your opponent to a specific area are great with those Raiders running screen.