I was doing some thinking about games in my local "meta", that is, games with my friends. About 8 of us play (me being the newbie) and I took some notes on what I commonly saw. There was a definite emphasis on bombers, slow capital ships, and a focus on objectives, namely the space station. I wanted to try and counteract this with enough firepower to hopefully squash aces and bombers and outmaneuver enemies trying to overpower me.

Name: 4x4
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Superior Positions

[Flagship] Victory I (73)

• Moff Jerjerrod (23)
• Governor Pryce (7)
• Veteran Gunners (5)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 113 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Insidious (3)
= 78 Points

Raider I (44)

• Agent Kallus (3)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• External Racks (3)
• Impetuous (4)
= 59 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)

• Director Isard (3)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Stronghold (5)
= 72 Points

Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Dengar (20)
• Howlrunner (16)
• Soontir Fel (18)
= 71 Points

Total Points: 393

Some advice.

Opening Savlo is not the best bet as red objective. 2 of your four ships won't benefit from it until medium range and the other two won't shine. Demolisher is a better title than Insidious by far, even when you look for positioning advantage. Isard shows up being irrelevant. If you say they are coming with bombers and carriers I guess you will know their command dials anyway. Also, don't take Superior Positions. That's is squadron focused fleet Christmas.

Dir. Isard was a last minute change, I originally had a Weapons Liason in that slot.

What would you recommend for objectives?

31 minutes ago, Choomie said:

Dir. Isard was a last minute change, I originally had a Weapons Liason in that slot.

What would you recommend for objectives?

Neither are that great, and Intel Officer can make a great thing for gladiator, who cannot get an accuracy out of his side arc. I would take out the Quasar and put in two gozantis. It gives you 1 more activation and is a little cheaper. I know you won't get all the stronghold and Flight Controllers, but with four squadrons, those are feeling like wasted points. This also will allow you to drop Pryce, so then you can pick up a Tua + ECMs for some extra defense. The ECMs will protect your brace from large ship dice pools. If you think that EWS could do better, feel free to try that as well. Another thing, You did say that squadrons are a problem, so an idea is for you to put Flechette Torpedoes on your raider to give it some meaningful damage to squadrons.

Objectives: These are easy if you think about it. The Red objective will NEVER get picked if you do it right. This should 99% of the time be Most Wanted, and focused firepower will allow you to take a lot of free points. This works especially well if you have a flotilla to put Most Wanted on. The Yellow Objective is fine with Contested Outpost , and the Blue Objective should NOT be Superior Positions. Anyone with bombers or fighters will destroy you in this (free points!), so a better choice is Solar Corona, which is basically the same thing, but for light squadron contingents.

Just some thoughts.

Enjoy!

Thank you both for the great feedback. I want to try out Gov. Pryce still, so I made some modifications.

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona

Victory II (85)
• Moff Jerjerrod (23)
• Governor Pryce (7)
• Veteran Gunners (5)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 128 Points

Gladiator I (56)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Demolisher (10)
= 92 Points

Raider I (44)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
= 59 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Dengar (20)
• Howlrunner (16)
• Soontir Fel (18)
= 71 Points

Total Points: 400

With this kind of fleet, will it matter if I am first or second player?

You will want your Demolisher to go first, but it isn't that big of a deal. I would try to cut Assault Concussion Missiles down to Assult Proton Torps, you save 2 points and can now put gunnery teams on the vic. I woul;d also take off engine techs for a bid and Leading shots. It will look something like this if you want:

Faction: Imperial
Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Gladiator I (56) (82 points, really simple and deadly)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 82 Points

Victory II (85)
• Moff Jerjerrod (23)( I like motti as well)
• Governor Pryce (7)( I STILL think this is wasted points in a 5 activation list, but each to his own. I would recommend TUA and ECMs)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)(gives you better rerolls than veteran gunners)
= 134 Points

Raider I (44)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)(can take out for bid)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
= 59 Points

Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• Dengar (20)
• Bossk (23) (also could be mauler or howlrunner)
= 73 Points

Total Points: 398

If you're running the medium-long range variants of either the VSD or ISD you're going to want Gunnery Teams. You won't always use them, especially if you manage to get a target double arced, but the front zone is too good not to get two shots out of it.