There are some places nearby which host game nights, but I've not managed to get along yet, and when I go along I'd like to actually have a fleet that may be playable.

I have both the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Chimaera (Thrawn has been my favourite character in the franchise since I read the books in the 90's), as well as an Interdictor Cruiser. This is in addition to the base game. I intend on getting the Imperial fighter collection, as I have the Rebel one, but I don't have that yet.

What I'd like to do is try and have Thrawn leading both the Imperial / Refit Star Destroyers into battle, as I think it would look cool. But I'd like some advice in how do to that.

I have a thought on how I might try this below, but please feel free to tell me if I've made any ridiculous mistakes with the thoughts.

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Cymoon 1 Refit (112 points)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn ( 32 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)
- Early Warning System ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Pods ( 3 points)
= 166 total ship cost

Imperial II Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Moff Jerjerrod ( 23 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
= 157 total ship cost

3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)
1 Ciena Ree TIE Interceptor Squadron ( 17 points)
1 Darth Vader ( 21 points)

Any alternative fleet thoughts you have would be nice to hear too - the only things I'd really like, is to have Thrawn on the two ISD's. If that really isn't viable, I wouldn't mind having him on one and having with the Interdictor instead.

However this goes, I'll happily take any/all advice you throw my way.

Thanks

Welcome to the game! Sorry to say you may only field one commander per fleet. Ordnance pods, leading shots and EWS aren’t allowed on the Cymoon either; I assume you mean the Kuat refit. Have you picked objectives?

The antisquadron loadout looks potent on paper, but there are a few issues. First, this fleet’s low activation count makes it harder to control where your Kuat ends up in relation to squads: they must choose to come to you. Second, it’s a silver bullet: it only pays off if they bring a decent squad investment. If you build it to kill ships, you know they’ll bring ships. Third and most importantly, you have a target of similar value that hurts a lot less to bomb. An antiship loadout would be APTs, ACMs or external racks, with a different use of the weapons team. Gunnery team and leading shots are pretty much essentials for an ISD2; I recommend ECM, but that varies from place to place. With only two activations, you want a good bid for first player (and SAd is less useful, you’ll still usually be out-activated. Brunson?) Finally, I’d think about fitting a Gozanti in when you get one to justify SAd, and swapping the bombers for plain ties or defenders. Good luck!

Essentially what @The Jabbawookie said.
If you go with Thrawn (he is quite a bit like Tarkin, the more ships get his extra command the better but fewer ships make it easier to have an eye on which ship has which command in which round) and drop JJ you already have the points for a naked Gozanti.

I too would rebuild the (probably) Kuat to more anti ship firepower. Without Intel those Bombers aren't really worth much and the RS might work on their high health but once Vader is gone they wont last long enough to get value out of it (since you will presumably want to primarily shoot at enemy ships if possible).

Vader himself, well... you don't really need the Escort and without intel he'll be caught on enemy fighters as the rest of the squads.
I'd drop him for Valen who teams up with Ciena's ability quite well and distributes punishing hits. Dropping the 3 Bombers to TIE/ln gives you more Dice against squads and more possibilities to entangle them. Dropping one would give you the points for Gunnery Team on the ISD2 and still have a 15 point bid. Also: You dont really want to command your squads with the Commands of the ISDs, so having only 4 and a Gozanti that takes care of them frees up the two heavy hitters
Fiddling all this in would look something like:

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn ( 32 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points) OR most valuably probably Gunnery Team
- Early Warning System OR Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Pods OR External Racks ( 3 points)
= 162 total ship cost  (165 with GT)

Imperial II Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Early Warning System OR Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
= 147 total ship cost

Gozanti-Class Cruisers (23 points)
- Slizer Teams ( 7 points) (shutting down a carrier to focus it down will probably be best)
= 30 total ship cost

1 Ciena Ree TIE Interceptor Squadron ( 17 points)
1 Valen Rudor TIE Fighter Squadron(13 points)

2 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 16 points)
= 46 total squadron cost

=>385 total fleet cost

I left as much as it was as I saw fit.

5 minutes ago, R4Pi3R said:

have the points for a naked Gozanti.

5 minutes ago, R4Pi3R said:

Vader himself, well... you don't really need the Escort and without intel he'll be caught on enemy fighters as the rest of the squads.
I'd drop him for Valen who teams up with Ciena's ability quite well and distributes punishing hits. Dropping the 3 Bombers to TIE/ln gives you more Dice against squads and more possibilities to entangle them. Dropping one would give you the points for Gunnery Team on the ISD2 and still have a 15 point bid.
Fiddling all this in would look something like:

Good advice, but did you mean to edit the fleet with the changes you described?

1 minute ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Good advice, but did you mean to edit the fleet with the changes you described?

I did! And I also just learned that ctrl enter submits my response ?

5 hours ago, R4Pi3R said:

Essentially what @The Jabbawookie said.
If you go with Thrawn (he is quite a bit like Tarkin, the more ships get his extra command the better but fewer ships make it easier to have an eye on which ship has which command in which round) and drop JJ you already have the points for a naked Gozanti.

I too would rebuild the (probably) Kuat to more anti ship firepower. Without Intel those Bombers aren't really worth much and the RS might work on their high health but once Vader is gone they wont last long enough to get value out of it (since you will presumably want to primarily shoot at enemy ships if possible).

Vader himself, well... you don't really need the Escort and without intel he'll be caught on enemy fighters as the rest of the squads.
I'd drop him for Valen who teams up with Ciena's ability quite well and distributes punishing hits. Dropping the 3 Bombers to TIE/ln gives you more Dice against squads and more possibilities to entangle them. Dropping one would give you the points for Gunnery Team on the ISD2 and still have a 15 point bid. Also: You dont really want to command your squads with the Commands of the ISDs, so having only 4 and a Gozanti that takes care of them frees up the two heavy hitters
Fiddling all this in would look something like:

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn ( 32 points)
- Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points) OR most valuably probably Gunnery Team
- Early Warning System OR Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Pods OR External Racks ( 3 points)
= 162 total ship cost  (165 with GT)

Imperial II Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Early Warning System OR Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
= 147 total ship cost

Gozanti-Class Cruisers (23 points)
- Slizer Teams ( 7 points) (shutting down a carrier to focus it down will probably be best)
= 30 total ship cost

1 Ciena Ree TIE Interceptor Squadron ( 17 points)
1 Valen Rudor TIE Fighter Squadron(13 points)

2 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 16 points)
= 46 total squadron cost

=>385 total fleet cost

I left as much as it was as I saw fit.

Thank you very much!

I will see about giving this a go as soon as I get a chance.
Sadly, my friend who was going to give me his old TIE expansions can't find it, so I'll just have to use the normal TIE fighters until there's a reprint of them (unless the Rogues would fit in here, as I have the Fett/Solo pack to draw from instead.

Is there a lot of use in the "bid" regarding points (using nearly 4% of my points for it seems like a lot)? I kind of viewed it like Initiative in X-Wing, where I've tended to come out OK regardless of being 1st or 2nd. Still trying to get my head around some of the subtleties.

3 hours ago, Nemesis47AT said:

Is there a lot of use in the "bid" regarding points (using nearly 4% of my points for it seems like a lot)? I kind of viewed it like Initiative in X-Wing, where I've tended to come out OK regardless of being 1st or 2nd. Still trying to get my head around some of the subtleties.

It depends on the area you play in. It took me about 10 games to get an idea how ppl bid in the area I play (usually 5-8 but as low as 12). So I said screw it and did 400 pats even for a few games because I had no idea of what a good bid was and used SA. But now my bids are competitive and it’s a crap shoot on who gets it. If I’m in an area I never played I usually put in a 10 pt bid. Hope this helps.

And note you can be competitive at 400 points, especially in metas with crazy bids. You just need the right list for it.

I'd say there are 2 core differences betweeen Initiative in Armada and X-Wing.
The first are obviously the Objectives. Because each fleet has 3 different ones, the outcome of battles between the same to fleets may differ a lot, depending on which objective was chosen.
Having initiative gives you the power to say, whether you play your objectives or your opponents.
By this, try to build a fleet that can handle most objectives and doesn't care who goes first OR build a fleet to punish your enemy for either 1: Letting you go first or 2. choosing your objectives.

The second difference is, that in X-Wing, besides first and second player, the Skill of each pilot somewhat dictates the course of each round (except you got a wild card build where everyone has the same skill). Also, you first move and once everybody moved, you attack. In Armada you shoot, then move individually with each ship. So being Firast/Second gives an opportunity by knowing where your enemy is right now, before he moved / after he moved.

And a last thing: Iirc, in X-wing, when a pilot gets killed by a Pilot with the same skill, he can still shoot back that turn before being destroyed. Through the lack of such skill system in Armada, a ship that gets destroyed before activating cannot shoot back (except that lucky son of a gun Rieekan somehow magicalle glues it together with duct tape... on the other hand, that way a ship should be indestructible for the rest of eternity bc ducttape is the "force" in our galaxy....)

For those reasons i have seen bids up to 24 points and I'm sure some daredevil outthere has even topped that...
but as the others said, you don't have to bid as high. Most of the times i barely get myself to leave out that one upgrade i might need in exactly that one situation to get a bid of 4 or 5 points... bc you know... that situation will eventually happen and then...yikes...