With all the games I have played I still have not played Thrawn. Honestly Jerjerrod could work as well or better in this list but Thrawn is protection from Slicer Tools (or Cham Syndulla).

Name: Thrawn Rhymer
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Solar Corona

Imperial I (110)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Rapid Launch Bays (6)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
• Avenger (5)
= 169 Points

Gladiator I (56)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 75 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
= 31 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Major Rhymer (16)
• JumpMaster 5000 (12)
• 2 x Firespray-31 (36)
• Tempest Squadron (13)
• Gamma Squadron (10)
= 87 Points

Total Points: 387

The idea being that Avenger dives in on my opponents big threat, triggers Boarding Troopers, drops Rhymer the Jumpmaster and 2 Firesprays, get a bombing run in on the hull zone I intend to target with Avenger to burn off Shields or at worst burn off their tokens completely. Then Avenger shoots and if the big is still standing Demo finishes it off.

There is a risk of being tabled by bringing only 2 brawlers but barring horrendous rolls this should cause damage and with Navs dialed in and a couple Engineering dials from Thrawn (or vice versa) hopefully someone escapes.

Interesting not sure I like Avenger on the flag ship but it works here. And the rapid launch bays adds an extra layer of sneaky

2 hours ago, chr335 said:

Interesting not sure I like Avenger on the flag ship but it works here. And the rapid launch bays adds an extra layer of sneaky

Yeah its not without its flaws/risks thats for sure. I had another version that dropped a Gozanti and 2 of the squads and was able to get in an Arquitens or a Raider but I think I'm gonna try this sometime soon.

Why Hondo? Assuming you don’t lose the Gozanti round 3 before activating, Comms Net gives you more tokens and denies your opponent Hondo’s freebies.

45 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Why Hondo? Assuming you don’t lose the Gozanti round 3 before activating, Comms Net gives you more tokens and denies your opponent Hondo’s freebies.

Good point, was just there for the Squad token for BT. I think your right though.

Is rhymer really necessary with only five bombers? I admit I haven't played him but I feel like even on a small ship you'll get 5 bombers in arc without his ability. If you drop him to two regulars you get more of a threat or another firespray for your launch bays.

48 minutes ago, Alpharius18 said:

Is rhymer really necessary with only five bombers? I admit I haven't played him but I feel like even on a small ship you'll get 5 bombers in arc without his ability. If you drop him to two regulars you get more of a threat or another firespray for your launch bays.

I agree that Rhymer seems less crucial, especially with the RLB combo. Captain Jonus would make an even better replacement for Rhymer IMO, he is FANTASTIC with red/black dice ships.

1 hour ago, Alpharius18 said:

Is rhymer really necessary with only five bombers? I admit I haven't played him but I feel like even on a small ship you'll get 5 bombers in arc without his ability. If you drop him to two regulars you get more of a threat or another firespray for your launch bays.

The whole idea with Rhymer with Rapid Launch Bays is more flexibility, especially against a list with lots of Squads. With the Jumpmaster and Rhymer it makes it really hard for my opponent to screen to a point where I won't be able to get in that initial bombing run. The other 2 bombers, Tempest and Gamma are there for 2 reasons. First when I do RLB I don't want the Jumpmaster to take a shot so it gets dropped just for Intel and one of the activations goes to one of those squads to get 4 bomber hits. The other purpose is to tie up squads, because they are not Heavy.

I could also drop the 2 Firesprays for 4 Bombers. I just want the Rogue because I only anticipate one Thrawn Squad dial. Any other squad activations will go to the Gozanti's so the Rogue lets me get more out of all the squads for longer. At least that is the thought.

Rhymer is still good in the right fleets. Rapid Launch bays are bad and always bad. Stay away from them. Imperial Squads are fast, rely on the speed and range not some janky deploy mechanism.

Also, Thrawn 2 ship is the right way to run this type of fleet.

I showed up just to check if @BrobaFett was in here pitching two-ship Thrawn.

Yuuuuup.

Anyway, 5 activations is not enough to reliably last/first, so it may take practice and skill to use BTA effectively. 13 points is probably enough to guarantee first either, depending on your meta. Maybe drop xx9 for a better bid.

I don't know if BTA and RLB really go together. I would expect that your opponent would just discard the redirects against the squads and you probably wouldn't do much more damage than you would with BTA alone.

But I'm super interested to hear how it runs in practice. The fire sprays should be pretty effective cleanup for that BTA, even if it doesn't get the kill, and Thrawn will let you have that squad command and the clutch nav you need to deliver the payload and get outta Dodge.

9 hours ago, rasproteus said:

Anyway, 5 activations is not enough to reliably last/first, so it may take practice and skill to use BTA effectively. 13 points is probably enough to guarantee first either, depending on your meta. Maybe drop xx9 for a better bid.

I don't know if BTA and RLB really go together. I would expect that your opponent would just discard the redirects against the squads and you probably wouldn't do much more damage than you would with BTA alone.

As for RLB, my squad game kinda sucks and I want to try this. Even with the Jumpmaster I always seem to get my squads tied up. This way I should be able to get them in place for a bombing run or two. That said I need to practice my squad game and if I do I could go with Expanded Hanger bay instead.

As for the Bid it isn't guarenteed for tournaments around hear. For casual its fairly safe. If I need a bigger bid I would probably resuffle some squads. Maybe drop Tempest for a generic bomber. Even then at tournaments I occasionally see 20+ point bids and that would take some work, or at least me getting comfortable enough with squads to drop Rhymer and Tempest for cheaper alternatives.

I enjoy trying new lists just to see what I can get out of them. I have had luck with a couple outside the norms lists, many fails as well. I just try and learn from those failures.