So some of you may have seen my screed build recently, and I am happy to say it performed very well at the store championship, finishing 5th out of 15 (first time I have ever finished in the top half). Having played it extensively now, I have decided to double up on the fire control team ISDs and swap to Vader. C+C welcome and appreciated as ever

Vaders ISD duo
Author: Alpharius

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 399/400
Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Fire-Control Team ( 2 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Heavy Ion Emplacements ( 9 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 141 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Fire-Control Team ( 2 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Heavy Ion Emplacements ( 9 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 178 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
= 30 total squadron cost

Even with Vader, it’ll be hard to fish for that crit with just two blues out the front. I think Screed is still the better choice.

True, I did consider the devastator title, or just running con firepower commands when I need them. Want to give it a couple of tries first, it's a 25% chance with a blue die with rerolls so I feel it's not to optimistic. Will also give my reds and blacks more reliability as they did on the odd occasion let me down with screed.

DCOs will be your Nemesis, coz it nullifies 36 Points you have invested!

Congrats on your finish. I've wanted to try a HIE/ACM Kuat since it all came out, but just can't bring myself to do so. With FCT taking your weapons team, it just doesn't seem that useful. I'd rather have either GT or BTs over the second crit. BTVenger HIE ExRacks (+2 points) or BTVenger ACM LS (+1 pt) both seem better for your first ship.

But with Avenger being unique, I could see the HIE/ACM/FCT combo being an interesting option on the second ISD if you wanted two up close brawlers. I personally have not tried two ISD brawlers, but from my understanding, most have better luck with a brawler and one a sniper. But let's just ignore that for a moment and see what we'd do for a second brawler.

So, I'm not as big of a fan of GT on the Kuat since it's really only powerful at close range, and it's hard to come across two short range shots. So this is where we'll place the HIE/ACM combo. So let's take a look at the probability of triggering both with Vader, Screed, and others. Both the black and the blue have a 25% crit chance. So your default 3/2 ends up yielding 57.8% black & 43.75% blue crits for an overall 24.7% of triggering both. With a CF dial, this gets a bit complicated... You want to see what you've critted before you add the die. So you end up with several path ways... Black crit / Blue Crit (CF doesn't matter what you add as you already have both. 24.7%)... Black Crit / No Blue (add blue = 33.1%)... No Black / Blue Crit (add black = 18.0%)... No Black / No Blue (No chance of triggering = 24.2%). And then after adding the die, you have a 25% of getting what you need. So you have 24.7% + 25% * (33.1% + 18.0%) = 37.5% chance of getting the double crit with a CF without an admiral.

Screed on the other hand gets to roll 3+2+CF and only needs 1 crit. Therefore, without a CF, he has a 76.3% of getting both. And with a CF, he has 82.2% of getting both.

And Vader gets to reroll all dice that aren't crits. So he has the same 3/2 split of 57.8% black & 43.75% blue crits for an overall 24.7% of triggering both before his ability. But then he will reroll all the dice to get the crits. Black crit / Blue Crit (No reroll needed = 24.7%)... Black Crit / No Blue (reroll 2 blues = 33.1%)... No Black / Blue Crit (reroll 3 blacks = 18.0%)... No Black / No Blue (reroll all dice = 24.2%). So without CF, Vader ends up with a 24.7% + 33.1% * 43.75% + 18.0% * 57.8% + 18% * 24.7% = 54.0% chance of getting both crits without a CF.

With a CF, you'd add the die you need if you only need 1 prior to rerolling, but if you don't have either, the question becomes do you add a CF and then vader, or vader then CF... Well, the first part is easy. Black/Blue (24.7% success). Black Crit / No Blue = (33.1% natural, add CF, 25% success. Vader Reroll = 75% Fail CF, 57.8% success. Overall Success = .331 * (.25 + .75 * .578) = 22.6%). No Black / Blue Crit = (18.0% natural, add CF, 25% success. Vader Reroll = 75% Fail CF, 68.4% success. Overall Success = .180 * (.25 + .75 * .684) = 13.7%) No Black / No Blue = (24.2% Natural. If you add blue first, 25% blue crit + vader reroll of blue, 75% Fail CF, 57.8% success. Total Blue success via CF-blue -> Vader = 68.4%. Vader reroll on 3 black = 57.8% success. 37.45% overall success if CF-blue -> Vader. If Vader first, then CF as needed... should be the same as the "no admiral" solution... so 37.5% chance of getting double crit. Presumably, CF-black -> Vader is not as effective since it's harder to fish for a blue crit. And CF->Vader is slightly worse than Vader->CF. So 37.5% overall success * 24.2% Natural no crit = 9.1% Overall Success). Vader with CF then ends up being successful 70.1% of the time.

Okay then. So with Vader, you're locked into a CF dial imo. Screed doesn't *require* one. Obviously something I didn't include for either of them is a CF reroll, which would help out a bit. But Screed is hands down the better choice from activating both crits. He does cost another die, but with the 8-9 dice you're rolling, there's probably a good chance that you have a blank somewhere in there anyways. Vader also helps out with overall damage beyond just the double crit, and that's not represented here. But seeing as the main point of the build seems to circle around ACM/HIE, I would highly recommend staying with Screed.

So, what would I go with given that it's a double Kuat, one with HIE/ACM and Screed commander?

Kuat (163pts)
Screed
FCT
ECM
HIE
ACM

Kuat (134pts)
BT
ECM
LS
ExRacks
Avenger

Squads (30)
Valen
Ciena

That comes in at 327. There are a few different paths you can go from here. You can add SA, Brunson/Pryce and two Gozantis w/ Comms, giving you 4+1 activations, and and 12-14 point bid. Or (and I would probably recommend this), you can grab another fighting ship. While a minimal Demo fits (APT/Demo), it leaves you with 2 points of a bid. You can't realistically fit him in the fleet. Instead, let's take a look at a Raider. You can take a Raider-II with Dcap/HIEs for 60 points. With Screed, you can guarantee they trigger. It leaves you 13 points for officers, and whether or not you fill those or not is up to how much you want first player. I would recommend Pryce on your BTVenger first, but first player is more important imo, so I would probably not add anything. Actually, I might consider dropping down to a Raider-I to save a few points to get a bigger bid. R1 w/ APTs (you have screed, so you might as well use them.. Though I really do like the ExRacks/OE combo, but it costs 2 more) comes in at 376 points. That gives you enough to add a few officers. Pryce then puts you at 383 points... which is probably a fine place to be, and you can play around a bit with R1 w/ OE+ExR... or SA or Brunson, and weigh the trade offs compared to the risk of player 1. I would probably start with R1 w/ ExR+OE & Pryce, with a 15 point bid. The R1 has one really good turn, where it can throw 5 blacks 2 blues, reroll black blanks, and then if it still has one, then Screed to use it to make a hit/crit out of another black. Prior to OE, you have a 76% of getting at least 1 blank, and I'm not quite sure how to calculate post OE easily, but figure you only have a 90% chance of getting all hits. <Edit> Duh, I'm an idiot. With OE, each die ends up with a 15/16 chance of not being blank, so for then to all not be blank would be (15/16)^5 = 72.4%... So you have a 27.5% chance of having a blank to use with Screed. </Edit> And with Screed, your second arc is guaranteed to do hit/crit (if not hit/crit + hit), so that's another 2 damage. Basically, the R1 is good for 1 shot, but it's a pretty awesome shot. You just have to know when to line up that shot so it doesn't die. And again, it'll be a balance of activations vs. damage. And I have a feeling having the activations won't matter as much, but I could be wrong.

PS - If you're concerned about DCOs, feel free to add an IO on your HIE/ACM guy .

I did play one kuat supported by two HIE emplacement raiders and the amount of splash damage they do is ridiculously good. Also the fct kuat shouldn't be underestimated and I would highly recommend it.

Also I am trying to stay away from bt avenger as I like to run things that are a little different but it is an effective combo that I'll need to try out at some point.