Triple Cymoons, Can it Work?

By GILLIES291, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

So I know Triple Star destroyers just aren't recommended, low activations, no fighters and so on, but I also just really want to fly three anyways so help me make it the best I can, how is this:

Commander JerJerrod (or Motti)

Cymoon Refit

Quad Laser Turrets

Intensify Firepower

Cymoon Refit

Quad Laser Turrets

Entrapment Formation

Gunnery Team

Cymoon Refit

Quad Laser Turrets

Gunnery Team

Objectives

Advanced Gunnery

Contested Outpost

Dangerous Territory

Comes in at 399 or even 400 with Motti

Obviously weaker towards Bomber-heavy fleets but could it actually work? Motti or JerJerrod? And what would you tweak to make Triple Cymoons work?

It can work. Cymoons are better with rerolls from Vader but then you only get 3 sets of Gunnery teams and maybe a Strategic adviser.

Intensify firepower is ok with a different admiral. Here's my favourite

So compared to yours I don't take entrapment formation and have a vet captain to help keep the IF going for longer. Hondo is also a good source of emergency tokens and don't be afraid to just discard IF to use it one last time. Three turns of triple GT Cymoons slogging away should decide most games.

As for Fighters I would just ignore them and loose the Quad Lasers. Counter-1 wont kill any B-Wings or TIE-Bs until you have lost an ISD. Using GTs to shoot one ship from the front and 2 black Flak from the same arc can work but I would just grit your teeth and go straight for the Carriers.

My most recent version of this type of list had Vader with 2 Cymoons and a VSD2 with Heavy Ion emplacements to allow for more upgrades. The Ion blue crit makes XI7s less needed. All 3 ships have Gunnery Teams and QBTs. QBTs encourage opponents to slow down which is great, now they are where you want them (the Konstantine list can do this using the commanders rule too). Sometimes I never fire a QBT but they still help you win. Feel free to accelerate to speed 3 and ignore QBTs and go for a fast slash killing 2 targets and running for open space. If you plan on this strategy then delay the intense action by deploying further away or slowly with banked Nav tokens and Nav commands ready to boost to max speed. If the first shooting occurs on turn 4 rather than 2-3 the enemy have less time to bomb you or pour fire into your damaged ships as you retreat after your battlepass with a repair command or two.

I think Shields to maximum will probably be more useful than entrapment formation, realistically 3 Cymoons want to roll up nice and slow rather than zooming in, so entrapment formation isnt going to see much use. Ozzel could also work for this if you wanted to try a hit and run kinda tactic

Paging @ovinomanc3r.

Ozzel is a good option too, especially for my objectives as for contested outpost I would want to roll up on and then stop by the outpost and for the dangerous territory being able to hit the asteroids befor your enemy is good too. Thanks for the feedback. Now I'm looking at a triple Vader Cymoon list too haha. But from experience Navigation and our-activation is these beasts biggest burden. Strategic advisor is interesting too and handnt considered that.

Yes they are viable I am really starting to think they are also competitive (not easy though).

I still have a long way ahead testing but I can give you some tips.

1. Gunnery Team on all of them. It will be your AA upgrade and also improve your base punch.

2. Take some dice control. Vader is the best but right now I am lookin for a balanced level of rerolls. My last a game was with Tarkin and was ok. He is not going to fix an awful roll but with CF dial + token you keep punch as average. However more test would be needed. I am goings to skip Tarkin and move on Thrawn who allows IF.

3. Precise command is key. It is not necessarily navigation but that is usually which hurt more. Tarkin and Thrawn help on that. I also consider Ozzel or Jerjerrod options as well but I didn't test anything else than Vader and Tarkin yet. SFO or Relentless could be incredibly useful as I rarely fail for more than 1 round.

4. Focus on tabling. Bomber fleets will hurt but they have to kill around 360 of shields and hull. The supposed nightmare will have only 200 points probably. I won always tabling, 10-1, 9-2 depending on if I lost a ship or not. To do this correctky you have to know when ignore enemy squadrons. Tarkin choose to ignore them all the match. He died but he beat 1 mc80 and Yavaris on round 3 tabling and winning. It is known that a bomber wing can destroy 1 ISD in 2 rounds, well, 3 ISDs can destroy 2 ships (one big) in the same time.

5. Some bid help. All you have to fight is three pizza pieces and all your wisdom, wit and luck so if you can start choosing player good! Not a crazy bid though (you cannot anyways).

6. Not many deployment advices. Speed 2 in the middle and navigate commands the first round and maybe second too with some of them. Make sure your fleet engage at the same time. It is not so hard. If one engage first then be sure the others join right after. The first one must have a navigate command of any type to help him run away. If you save it you will probably win. Control engagement not by activations (you cannot) but with time. It takes time to put down an ISD. Delay the engagement or jump into it like a storm. The key is that it should take more than two rounds ideally. You don't need too much to define the end.

Not sure what else share now. If you are going to start with Cymoons I would recommend the simplest build:

TripleSD 111 (393/400)
=====================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 43)
+ Darth Vader (36)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Blockade Run
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

Advanced Gunnery is the worst idea. If it is not chosen you loose one valuable shot (against ships or squadrons). If it is then you reducing your chances of winning big. Yellow and Blue are easy to get. I didn't play blockade run yet but I like the idea of reaching any place with those red dice.

TripleSD 112 (399/400)
=====================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 43)
+ Darth Vader (36)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 13)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Intensify Firepower! (6)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Blockaded Run
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

This is a more defensive build. 1 blank really hurts so IF help me to save some defense tokens in those situations. It is not hard to make IF work without token supplier. IF ship is the backup so it may CF to token and use it. Remember to discard the upgrade. As I said you won't need it more than three rounds.

Final note: don't take SAd. The only fleets against it is gonna help will also take it. Anything else is gonna out activate you. So learn to play with less activation is a better option and is not so hard when you are smashing from long range. I took it once and it was useless. If I would had taken in the next builds would had been useless anyways.

For the record the other builds tested:

TripleSD 101 (399/400)
=====================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 49)
+ Grand Moff Tarkin (38)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Sovereign (4)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Blockade Run
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

TripleSD 110 (400/400)
=====================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 50)
+ Darth Vader (36)
+ Minister Tua (2)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Blockade Run
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

@ovinomanc3r have you tested Fire Lanes? If you can avoid overlapping the token, it’s going to be hard for them to contest it, and Konstantine could even force them to drive over it... just a thought.

2 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

@ovinomanc3r have you tested Fire Lanes? If you can avoid overlapping the token, it’s going to be hard for them to contest it, and Konstantine could even force them to drive over it... just a thought.

I think I played with my objetives once and was Solar Corona (awesome).

I don't like the idea of being forced to avoid a token to don't give up points but as I said I didn't test it. 90 easy points are good. It could work but how to set it up well? If you put all three together your opponent only has to spread then making harder to avoid them... but loosing one at the same time you get the other two... If you get the first three round... I add the suggestion. Definitely worth the try.

I would probably recommend dropping one of the Cymoons down to a VSD-2 in all honesty. It allows for quite a bit more upgrades, which can lead to overall more effective ships. Plus, for that initial round where you're all at long range, you're exchanging 5 Red x3 for 5 Red/1Blue x2 plus 3Red/3Blue x1.

Cymoon
Vader
GT
IF
QBT

Cymoon
GT
QBT

VSD2
Dcaps
HIE
QBT
GT

The HIE helps with the fact that you don't have XI7. Vader helps with the lack of modifiers, which obviously IF helps with as well. The extra die from QBTs is surprisingly awesome, especially when you get it twice. A lot of lists will try and outflank you to stay out of your front arc, so getting it to trigger shouldn't be that difficult. Note, I haven't actually played this, but I did play the Cymoon + 2x VSD-II variant, which I would assume runs very similar.

2 hours ago, Khyros said:

I would probably recommend dropping one of the Cymoons down to a VSD-2 in all honesty. It allows for quite a bit more upgrades, which can lead to overall more effective ships. Plus, for that initial round where you're all at long range, you're exchanging 5 Red x3 for 5 Red/1Blue x2 plus 3Red/3Blue x1.

Cymoon
Vader
GT
IF
QBT

Cymoon
GT
QBT

VSD2
Dcaps
HIE
QBT
GT

The HIE helps with the fact that you don't have XI7. Vader helps with the lack of modifiers, which obviously IF helps with as well. The extra die from QBTs is surprisingly awesome, especially when you get it twice. A lot of lists will try and outflank you to stay out of your front arc, so getting it to trigger shouldn't be that difficult. Note, I haven't actually played this, but I did play the Cymoon + 2x VSD-II variant, which I would assume runs very similar.

But then you have a ship with just 1 AA die with a significant lack of speed what will affect its capability to adapt itself to the situation. Also impossible to fly together with the other two.

If you put the VSD in the middle the your flagship is exposed (and you are being outdeployed). If you put the flagship in the middle then the VSD is easily ignored.

I also discovered that is easy to think speed 1 is the best for long range ships but that's not completely true. Cymoom at speed 3 work really fine and they will survive more frequently at that speed. Really hard to coordinate with a brick like the VSD.

I agree that the VSD adds some valuable stuff though. But I found triple Cymoon are strongly based on a good strategic and tactical approach rather than on powerful upgrades.

4 hours ago, ovinomanc3r said:

If you put the VSD in the middle the your flagship is exposed (and you are being outdeployed). If you put the flagship in the middle then the VSD is easily ignored.

2acnog.jpg

6 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

2acnog.jpg

Yes but then your flagship is a VSD ?

... also priced at 145 points.

Edited by ovinomanc3r
56 minutes ago, ovinomanc3r said:

Yes but then your flagship is a VSD ?

Thus, the choice of meme. ?

Edited by The Jabbawookie