Recently getting back into the game I am a bit struggling to create a comprehensive Tournament Thrawn List.
I made some promising ones, but I am not yet satisfied.
I aim to play high tier, so it is quite difficult to find good lists with ideas on the Net like armadawarlords.

Thrawns ability is very flexible and empowering, giving lists with ships that can take advantage of his additional commands a huge versatility.

Also regarding possible high tier lists that I can encounter, low speed ships like the victory SD seem to be out of question.
My idea would be to have a powerful striking fleet with a capable fighter wing that can answer to all demands on the changing battlefield.

I know that it is nigh impossible to reach all these requirements as the 400 point cap is very restricting, but I love that challenge.

Also my comment about the Victory doesnt mean I would not consider them. I just fear they can be outmanuevered too easily.

So whats your experience with him? What works best? What really does not?

I've played a variation of this list several times now and it's surprisingly effective. Not sure about facing a fighter heavy opponent like Sloan or Rieken Aces but for what it's worth here it is:

I took a local Store Champs with this a few weeks back, I really dig how the list runs. It’s incredibly flexible, I faced a tie bomber cloud, lib/admo madine Fleet, and demo/quasar with aa squads, going 10-1, 10-1, 6-5, and my final opponent had even stated that he took second player and ran the whole time trying for a 6 so that he wouldn’t lose his 2nd place spot in the standings. The ability to set unsliceable squadron commands proved invaluable, and freed my ships to nav/eng/cf as needed. Highlight was probably popping dcaps on the quasar, and then firing 5 blue downrange (cf and most wanted)- turns out the quasar CAN punch!

Tie Bombers (400/400)
Empire

Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Objectives: Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Superior Positions

[flagship] Imperial I-class Star Destroyer (110)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
- Leading Shots (4)
- Boosted Comms (4)
- Strategic Adviser (4)
- Quad Battery Turrets (5)
= 159 total points

Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54)
- Boosted Comms (4)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
= 61 total points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)
- Bomber Command Center (8)
= 31 total points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)
- Slicer Tools (7)
= 30 total points

Squadrons (119/134):
1x Major Rhymer Tie Bomber Squadron (16)
1x Gamma Squadron TIE Bomber Squadron (10)
5x Tie Bomber Squadron (45)
1x Zertik Strom TIE Advanced Squadron (15)
1x Tempest Squadron TIE Advanced Squadron (13)
1x Punishing One - Dengar (20)

Demo carrier is deadly. CF/Squad command + squad token is 4 more black dice.

TRC Arqs with CF/Nav supported by IF Chimeara means you throw at 3 damage minimum and can still cruise at 3.

EHB Raiders with CF/Squad can quickly tear apart squad balls.

Tua ECM Vics or Grint Vics with Nav/Repair are incredibly hard to kill.

STM Thrawn Repair + repair token is equivalent to 8 repair points if you have 4, or 10 on an interdictor.

Dual Interdictor Repair/squad with Lambda is the Imp version of fish farm combined with nose punch.

The key to making Thrawn work is using being in a position where you WANT 2 commands, but you don't need them. With Thrawn, your ship commands can now react to the board state, instead of using Thrawns commands to react, because Thrawn should be throwing the commands your ships would normally be doing. If you run a squad fleet, Thrawn should have 2 or 3 squad commands. That way you can use all of your squads in a single round whenever you want, but also have your ships do something separately, such as nav or repair.

If you play with no squads, I like to do Nav/CF/Repair, since that tends to be the command on most of my ships anyway for rounds 2/3/4 or 3/4/5 depending on when we engage. This means my low command ships can be getting tokens or nav/repair on the rounds Thrawn doesn't throw those.

Thrawn is a bit tricky to use with a 3 command ship because you are pulled into a false sense of flexibility for those 3 rounds, so it's easy to put the wrong command after you are done with Thrawn.

From my play experiance with Thrawn. He is all about correct timing, not only about what you want your fleet to be doing but also predicting what your opponents action will be as well.

If you start using his Dials too soon, then you don't have them when they are most needed.

Too lateand either you die or your prey escapes. I cannot stress enough about timing.

I.E. if i put my ISD (i run a Kuat, RS, Ord pods build) in range for his squadrons to attack it on turn 2. That's what i want him to do, i want him to commit his entire squadron ball to the front arc of my ISD to bomb it. I try and play it off as a "mistake". "Oh no i got to close, oh well."

Once all the squadrons have taken the bait to get in a free bombing run. I then murder the entire squadron ball with mauler and tie bombers and ruthless. I've seen mutiple 6 hull ace squadrons die in one round. At this point you've murdered 1/3 of their points whilst you still at least have a few bombers floating around.

That's an extremely Thrawn thing to do and I love it.

I found Triple ISD (Cymoons) with SFO and Thrawn really powerful. It is incredible how powerful can be an extra red at long range with a navigate dial to set up the following round of fire (keeping them in arc or looking for double-arcing), another round of engineering with the extra dice, and a third round of navigation with engineering to escape the engagement safe. And all them at the right time for each ISD thanks to SFO.

Thrawn Dials as Repairs + Grint with Repair on your flagship ISD is 6 damage removed or 9 shields regained over three rounds.

4 hours ago, SgtDurandal said:

I've played a variation of this list several times now and it's surprisingly effective. Not sure about facing a fighter heavy opponent like Sloan or Rieken Aces but for what it's worth here it is: 

Hey. How does the kuat refit have XI7 turbolasers? And how did he get intensify firepower!? Was it a Cymoon and not Kuat?

@MandalorianMoose

I was often thinking of a similar list but thought that Thrawn would be wasted on so few hard-punching ships. To me the two gozantis feel like a waste for Thrawn. But I guess they are not. Do you prefer to only take Squadron commands and a concentrate firepower command or something like that? in this composition i would assume its mainly squadron commands for thrawn.

8 hours ago, Angroth said:

Recently getting back into the game I am a bit struggling to create a comprehensive Tournament Thrawn List.
I made some promising ones, but I am not yet satisfied.
I aim to play high tier, so it is quite difficult to find good lists with ideas on the Net like armadawarlords.

Thrawns ability is very flexible and empowering, giving lists with ships that can take advantage of his additional commands a huge versatility.

Also regarding possible high tier lists that I can encounter, low speed ships like the victory SD seem to be out of question.
My idea would be to have a powerful striking fleet with a capable fighter wing that can answer to all demands on the changing battlefield.

I know that it is nigh impossible to reach all these requirements as the 400 point cap is very restricting, but I love that challenge.

Also my comment about the Victory doesnt mean I would not consider them. I just fear they can be outmanuevered too easily.

So whats your experience with him? What works best? What really does not?

If you are taking Thrawn to lock all Nav's take JJ.

If you are considering Thrawn but your ships don't have an EXTREMELY beneficial shared command, beside Nav, that they all want, take someone else.

Those are the 2 golden rules of Thrawn. If you build a fleet that satisfies both of those requirements Thrawn is an amazing Admiral.

You can use Sir Mixalot Thrawn, with a Nav, CF, Squad (Note - I don't suggest repair Thrawn because it almost never is used fleet wide) for a fleet with a mid sized squad cap and no dedicated carrier. A typical ISDII/Demo/comsGOZ/ comsGOZ with mid squads uses this well for instance.

You can go Mono Squad (or my variation, 1 nav 2 squad) for slicer proof squad commands. - Personal Edit: I use Nav Squad Squad so I can lock other commands turn 1 and Thrawn Nav. It's a neat trick that lets you do a lot of things IE: double token up on all your ships, correct a poor deployment by being table to token/dial nav on the first turn, duplicate the ozzel effect if you deploy slow. Again, it's all about flexibility and unpredictability.

You can go Mono CF (but getting your fleet to consist of all combat ships AND having them all in range without horribly forking yourself is tricky, especially since you often need to resort to Raiders to get the activations up) - Personal Edit: I found success using Assault Coms Gozanti's in my CF Thrawn fleets. When coupled with a Cymoon or Chimaera ISD for IF, the assault coms can effectively toss to red with a guarenteed hit (usually 2/3 damage at a safe range, solving the forking problem) or pass the CF token on to another ship. Again, flexibility, unpredictability. No one expects a Goz to deal 3 damage at long range, and they could overextend and overexpose themselves.

A couple of final caveats - since the ruling you can token the thrawn dial Coms net Gozanti's have become really effective with Thrawn since they can do a dial and send a token same turn. Really effective if you want a carrier Gozanti but want it to throw a token in a combat fleet (IE you have 4-6 ties so you want the Goz's ONLY running squads, but the rest of the fleet needs CF so you lock a thrawn CF, and they coms net zanti's that would normally be wasted now can pass a token)

55 minutes ago, Angroth said:

@MandalorianMoose

I was often thinking of a similar list but thought that Thrawn would be wasted on so few hard-punching ships. To me the two gozantis feel like a waste for Thrawn. But I guess they are not. Do you prefer to only take Squadron commands and a concentrate firepower command or something like that? in this composition i would assume its mainly squadron commands for thrawn.

The ships aren’t necesarily hard punching on their own- but with 10 squads (8 of whom are bombers) that can me sent in at up to 5 at a time, and anywhere from 3-9 dice from the ISD and 4+ from the quasar, the damage really starts to pile on even from long range.

Thrawn let’s me push squads with both carriers without worrying about slicer tools. Then my ISD and quasar are free to use whatever commands they need (usually cf on quasar and cf/eng on isd)

The flotillas both serve invaluable purposes to the list. BCC is essential with that many black die bombers. And slicer tools I consider part of my AA plan. If I can shut down a key squad command or two, the fighter component of my wing (dengar,tempest,zertik,sometimes gamma) can survive for far longer than they should

https://intelsweep.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/the-overnight-report-euros-top-cut/

1 hour ago, Angroth said:

Hey. How does the kuat refit have XI7 turbolasers? And how did he get intensify firepower!? Was it a Cymoon and not Kuat?

The overlay is incorrect. It's a Cymoon refit not Kuat.

2 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

If you are taking Thrawn to lock all Nav's take JJ.

If you are considering Thrawn but your ships don't have an EXTREMELY beneficial shared command, beside Nav, that they all want, take someone else.

Those are the 2 golden rules of Thrawn. If you build a fleet that satisfies both of those requirements Thrawn is an amazing Admiral.

An exception to this, that I might be inclined to point out, is if you're building a Thrawn fleet with the purpose of procing Engine Techs with the Thawn dials. JJ's ability wouldn't accomplish this. It's a pretty specific instance but Thrawn can be quite useful in this regard. A Cymoon with Grint and Intensify Firepower paired with 2 or 3 Arquitens equipped with Engine Techs and Quad Battery Turrets can dish out a surprising amount of damage while being extremely maneuverability.

Another aside- the problem with Thrawn + VSD's is that VSD's REALLY REALLY want nav. So they break the first golden rule above. It's not that thrawn is BAD for them, but that JJ is usually simply much better as he can give them greater maneuverability than thrawn with the same overarching effect of being able to get that movement without locking a nav command.

Maybe if you were running something like a STM 7thfleet Chimaera ISD2 and 2x 7th fleet DCAP vic2's and mid squads to run second player objectives so you really needed repair/squad every turn I could see it. Otherwise it's best to just look somewhere besides thrawn.

14 minutes ago, SgtDurandal said:

An exception to this, that I might be inclined to point out, is if you're building a Thrawn fleet with the purpose of procing Engine Techs with the Thawn dials. JJ's ability wouldn't accomplish this. It's a pretty specific instance but Thrawn can be quite useful in this regard. A Cymoon with Grint and Intensify Firepower paired with 2 or 3 Arquitens equipped with Engine Techs and Quad Battery Turrets can dish out a surprising amount of damage while being extremely maneuverability.

Engine techs can be used off the native dial. In the example you gave I see no reason why one or the other dial wouldn't be nav every turn. I would say this is a Vader fleet, because the dice rerolls and native navs are going to be worth more I think. You could do Thrawn, but I think it would be overall a damage decrease (over the spikes and valleys you will get with Thrawn)

5 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Engine techs can be used off the native dial. In the example you gave I see no reason why one or the other dial wouldn't be nav every turn. I would say this is a Vader fleet.

Vader would certainly work with this fleet type. In the example I gave the intention would be to concentrate fire with the ship dials. The ISD to proc Grint for the token needed for IF each turn and for the extra dice and the Arqs to be throwing 3 red and 2 blue dice at long range at any ship moving faster than speed 1. But I definitely see your point with the Thrawn Golden Rule and 99% agree with it.

What about Thrawn in an Interdictor/ISD/Gozanti list with a few bombers? Interdictor with title, Proj Experts, TS, DCaps. ISD probably Kuat with Sovereign, LS, ExRacks, ECM/EWS. About 100 points of fighters, mostly bombers. Thrawn dials Nav/Sq/Sq, Interdictor/ISD do engineering dials turns 3-5/6, CF or Nav the rest. Just a thought experiment.

7 minutes ago, Ken-Obi said:

What about Thrawn in an Interdictor/ISD/Gozanti list with a few bombers? Interdictor with title, Proj Experts, TS, DCaps. ISD probably Kuat with Sovereign, LS, ExRacks, ECM/EWS. About 100 points of fighters, mostly bombers. Thrawn dials Nav/Sq/Sq, Interdictor/ISD do engineering dials turns 3-5/6, CF or Nav the rest. Just a thought experiment.

That’s essentially what I faced round one- though no sovereign, had Vader boarding team, and the dictor had dcaps as well with a big pile of bombers

5 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

That’s essentially what I faced round one- though no sovereign, had Vader boarding team, and the dictor had dcaps as well with a big pile of bombers

Interesting - I see you had no bid, did you ever feel like you needed it to go 1st?

2 minutes ago, Ken-Obi said:

Interesting - I see you had no bid, did you ever feel like you needed it to go 1st?

Honestly I prefer second with it. But I usually build to 400 and take whatever my opponent gives me. I’m happy to take the first player advantage or play my own powerful objectives

7 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

Honestly I prefer second with it. But I usually build to 400 and take whatever my opponent gives me. I’m happy to take the first player advantage or play my own powerful objectives

That's what I thought, but I was curious if you were kicking yourself in any of those 3 games for not being able to take 1st player. Thanks for the thoughts.

I'm also intrigued by a Thrawn ISD/Demo/Gozanti with lots of bombers list...

Like the OP, I'm interested in getting a good Thrawn list that fits my playstyle, but for me that means 100+ points of squadrons in it.

39 minutes ago, Ken-Obi said:

but for me that means 100+ points of squadrons in it.

That't the easiest way to do it, cause then SQ commands on Thrawn dials are a no brainer.

My favorite "CF Thrawn" is ISD-2 Chimaera (SA/GT/QBT/LS), Demo (brunson/ET/apt), Assault Goz (coms net), Assault Goz (slicer/kallus), Ciena, Valen, 2x tie fighters. It's really good.

The Thrawn list I have been having great success with is very similar to the list that did well at Euros, I have not lost a game with it yet I still tweek it but this is the current iteration.

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Superior Positions

ISD Kuat Refit (112)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Ordnance Pods (3)
= 162 Points

Gladiator II (62)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Demolisher (10)
= 79 Points

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

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

Squadrons:
• Captain Jonus (16)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Gamma Squadron (10)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• 3 x TIE Bomber Squadron (27)
= 109 Points

Comms net Gonzotis are amazing with Thrawn because you get to have your cake and eat it too. You get to pass a token and resolve a command, it's great.

I'm fine with him in a carrier ISD list and being able to concentrate fire and activate squadrons at the same time.

10 hours ago, SgtDurandal said:

If you are considering Thrawn but your ships don't have an EXTREMELY beneficial shared command, beside Nav, that they all want, take someone else.

this exact reason is what makes building a satisfactory list for me so difficult. A Kuat refit would be tempting but the 2 squadron command keep me from wanting it. I prefer the ISD 1.

Speaking of this - is the Avenger build common? I personally love the Boarding trooper Avenger disabling move. It is so devastating. Yet I rarely see it. With Thrawn she should be so much more deadly.