I'll be attending my first tournament here shortly and I'm having a hard time nailing down a list I'd like to fly. Unforutently my area is mostly X-Wing players so I'm unable to get many games in to really test much, but I watch a lot of youtube videos and threads to learn as much as I possibly can. I've been tossing the idea around of flying an ISD/Interdictor, ISD/Quasar, or a Dual ISD list. I'm leaning towards this dual ISD list but wanted people's suggestions or idea's on it first.

I have a strong bid at 380 so that I can gurrantee I get to move first and we have Pryce for the opprotuinty to last first someone. I'm nervous about the limited squadrons, but from what I've read these two I have are the best bang for buck if you're only going to fly two. I wouldnt be opposed to cutting a gozanti to add more squadrons, but my squadron activation at max is 3 currently (4 if we have a token banked.)

Vega Expeditionary Fleet
Author: carthwolf

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 380/400

Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

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

[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Cymoon 1 Refit (112 points)
- Moff Jerjerrod ( 23 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
= 161 total ship cost

Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Governor Pryce ( 7 points)
- Boarding Troopers ( 3 points)
- Early Warning System ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 141 total ship cost

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

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

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

Card view link

It’s definitely solid; nothing there that shouldn’t be. The only thing seriously lacking is dice control on the Cymoon. Swapping JJ and LS for Vader is an option, but it hurts your bid. Given how much you’re paying for that destroyer I’d think about swapping to an ISD-2. It doesn’t cost that much more, but has better dice control, better damage after a turn of approach, and ECM/EWS capability (which you take is a meta call: ECM vs larges, EWS vs swarms and squads.)

1 hour ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Given how much you’re paying for that destroyer I’d think about swapping to an ISD-2. It doesn’t cost that much more, but has better dice control, better damage after a turn of approach, and ECM/EWS capability (which you take is a meta call: ECM vs larges, EWS vs swarms and squads.)

I just made the swap that you suggested to see what it would look like and the points break down. looks like adding in ISD 2 and adding in either ECM or EWS (both 7 points) I come to a bid of 389. This does lose the dual cannon upgrades the cymoon gives. My hope with the Cymoon was to keep it at distance and use the XI7 and Spinal to really punish someone who wants to go head to head.

If we're able to capialize on the cymooons bid, what do you think of one of the formations like Entrament?

The problem with the cymoon is that 6 or with a CF respectively 7 red dice can come down to flukes in the worst possible moment. That said you'd probably be better off with DTTs instead of spinals.

I'll second @The Jabbawookie

An ISD2 with SA, GT, ECM(or EWS) and LS comes in at 165, which still gives a bid of 16. Dunno your meta but should suffice most of the time. It has less punch potential at long distance, but pretty sure more consistent strikes at medium.

Another thing to watch out for is players attempting to make your ISD 2 come in first. That can hamper efficiency by a lot.

2 hours ago, Do I need a Username said:

Another thing to watch out for is players attempting to make your ISD 2 come in first. That can hamper efficiency by a lot.

Can you go into more detail? Since this will be my first competitive armada event I’m still learning the dance of gameplay. I’m a pretty experienced Xwing player so I was hoping to just pick it up as I went.

Also if you want the cymoon remember to utilize the fleet commands intensity fire or entrapment formation works extremely well for the imperials

@carthwolf Dual ISD is obviously strong for good reason - you double down on 2 super strong ships. The problem is that it can very hard to overlap and stack that fire, and therefore bring it to bear in an effective way. Especially against a large quantity of smaller ships splitting and flanking forcing you to choose to point your good firing arcs one way and expose a weaker side/rear to the rest of the fleet (think Scariff, that's a good example of dual ISD in action, sunk by a flanking Hammerhead).

If I were playing against your fleet, just looking at the fleet as you have them here, I would immediately notice that you have your admiral sitting on a defense-retrofit-less ISD that is going to be FORCED to move early on the pryce turn of the Kuat. That's my opening. I will move my whole fleet HARD to your flagship flank, forcing you to spin hard and put your ISD's in a stem to stern formation instead of a shoulder to shoulder formation, forcing you either speed up pryce (exposing her on the already-locked-in go last turn for a bunch of free shots) letting me cripple her, or speeding up the flagship exposing JJ on the pryce turn where it has to move early and I can wait for it to creep into range and then cripple her. If you don't speed either up, you will probably self ram which is a win too cause it keeps you in position while I flank.

This is a situation that cant really be remedied, but can be somewhat mitigated. If you swap JJ to Avenger you at least trim down the Cymoon and allow you to trade it without giving up your admiral points/effect too.

@BrobaFett Well now I'm nervous haha! I havent had much time to practice with this fleet so I really have no idea how I will react to players with more experience. I've historically picked up games fast so I was leaning very heavily on that. Are there any other changes you might suggest or should i pick a fleet that is more well rounded?

Putting two big triangles on the board is great fun so I don't want to dissuade you there.

Two ISD is pretty simple to play in so far as if you corner deploy you will very rarely lose both isds. So long as you destroy more than 150 points you usually can win 6 - 7 points or so, which good enough for a strong finish without being too mentally taxing. What is extremely difficult is doing better than that consistently.

My comment was way more framed as a practical one to be aware of where important upgrades like admirals go. In this case my suggestion is to move JJ to avenger as that should be the safest ship in the fleet. Now you are free to move the cymoon aggressively and trade with it, as it's not carrying anything vital and should be under 140 pts.

But for anything beyond that on this fleet I gotta call in the expert @GiledPallaeon

I recomend reconsidering your flagship too, or at least add Tua and ECM, I have never gone for such a large bid either. Vader is great alternative as you need good rolls, you will not get second chances against a good opponent. I like entrapment on the cymoon, feed it tokens with the comms net works a treat for me but your mileage might vary. I also dropped the squads completely after one event and uped the Gozanti to a raider, its an extra threat on the table has worked well for me but most double ISD list stick with the configeration you have.

also you have a naked Gozonti if you are running two gozonti's I love to with duel ISD list is have a repair crews and comms net. Mainly I run the Repair crews to counter act the damage Moffy gives ya cause it can start to add up after a while plus with a 3 command ship it will be hard to get repair commands to active on the ship, so the repair crews will help with the amount of damage your ISD's will get pounded with. Also to help with the waiting command waiting relentless is only 3 points, and will make your cymoon a 2 command ship instead of a 3 giving you more flexibility in reacting quickly to the possibility of fighting a fast MSU which could eat a duel ISD fleet quick if you are not careful. Also on your list you don't have much reroll capabilities which if you are having an off day could hurt. Though ISD's have a lot of dice to play with reroll capabilities to turn misses or extra targetings into hits or crits can be a huge help in two or even one shoting a bunch of ships in MSU fleets

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 1:18 AM, carthwolf said:

Can you go into more detail? Since this will be my first competitive armada event I’m still learning the dance of gameplay. I’m a pretty experienced Xwing player so I was hoping to just pick it up as I went.

basically what broba said, but if I out -deploy you I place on the side of the isd 2 and force you to turn your ships into a bad formation. The same can be done on the other side, but it isn't as devastating.

Apologies for the slow reply, I'm not on here as much as I used to be. You need to do one of two things with that list: you need to dump the Cymoon or you need to dump JJ. Given the loadout of the Kuat, I recommend the former. I-2s are perfectly suitable candidates for long and medium range fire, and come with defensive retrofit slots.

Unrequested opinion: Ditch Ciena and Valen. They die quite quickly, especially if the other guy has any modicum of speed or additional forces. Use the points to beef up the I-2, it will be more expensive than the Cymoon, but it will work better without fickle reds to screw you over on a match by match basis. Feel free to spend the points to make one of the Gozs the Jerk Gozanti (Slicers, Suppressor, Tua/ECMs). If you have any more questions I'll try to get back on tomorrow or Friday to check in. For maneuver, always put the long range ISD on the outside of the curve, and the Kuat on the inside. They take a fair amount of getting used to and dearly hate being outdeployed, so be careful. Good luck.

@GiledPallaeon so I’m thinking of Audibling out of this list into am ISD2 quasar Sloan list. My wife flew against me and totally wrecked my world and it made me feel super vulnerable. I read to her what @BrobaFett said to defeat me, and well she did.

I decided may e something easier and more streamlined might be better for my first event. I build my new list tonight which is pretty stock avenger Sloan.

Man, your wife played Armada with you. That’s a big win in your favor. Mine would never.

In the UK National’s, a guy won with a pair of Motti ISD2s. It’s a really interesting list that, as a squadron heavy player, I find quite intimidating. Check it out: https://intelsweep.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/the-overnight-report-uk-nationals/

It’s appealing partly because of its simplicity. I love that there is no clear primary target and that Motti is paired with Kallus, adding extra pain to those counter rolls.

16 hours ago, carthwolf said:

@GiledPallaeon so I’m thinking of Audibling out of this list into am ISD2 quasar Sloan list. My wife flew against me and totally wrecked my world and it made me feel super vulnerable. I read to her what @BrobaFett said to defeat me, and well she did.

I decided may e something easier and more streamlined might be better for my first event. I build my new list tonight which is pretty stock avenger Sloan.

ISD/Quasar Sloane is pretty standard. It's also exceptionally fragile against aggressive MSU and Raddus, so it is definitely not perfect. I recommend Defenders as the squadron of choice, but many disagree with me. You should be able to find a fair few Sloane lists laying around if you want some inspiration.

@carthwolf Sloane is amazing and fun to play. Here's a pretty vanilla list if you're looking for one:

Name: Classic Sloane
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Admiral Sloane (24)
• Governor Pryce (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Avenger (5)
= 174 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Pursuant (2)
= 67 Points

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

Squadrons:
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Dengar (20)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• Howlrunner (16)
• Saber Squadron (12)
= 134 Points

Total Points: 400

@The Jabbawookie this is very close to what I’m playing. Some minor changes here and there to play stuff I find fun (I have a boba fett). Since I don’t play much Armada I’m mostly excited for the experience and chance to play. Travelled over 9 hours today to get to this event haha.

I love Boba for flavor, but if your bringing squads excluded in sloanes ability just do yourself a favor and switch to motti. The list will function exactly the same way, and you give yourself a nice padding which is going to make a huge difference overall.

Motti and sloane are identical points, so it should be a painless switch.

If you dont have a copy handy, borrow one!

@carthwolf

Here’s the list I came up with. I really wanted to jam Darth and or Boba and I slid with boba. With my total activations.

my ISD is pretty points heavy and I’m tempted to put Sloane on the quasar to even out my total points. The ISD does have two defensive cards. Really I’m looking to dominate the squadron fight and use my superior fighters to wisdom down the opposing large ships.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Boarding Troopers ( 3 points)
- Early Warning System ( 7 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 177 total ship cost

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

Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54 points)
- Pursuant ( 2 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 66 total ship cost

1 Boba Fett ( 26 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)
1 Maarek Steele ( 21 points)
1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
= 132 total squadron cost

I would recommend the switch to ECMs on the ISD and taking off boosted comms and pursuant. Add squall. Very good for an alpha strike that can win you the game.

On 12/7/2018 at 7:28 AM, carthwolf said:

Here’s the list I came up with. I really wanted to jam Darth and or Boba and I slid with boba. With my total activations.

If you desperately want one of the two squads, i'd go with Vader. His Escort shields Dengar and at least his attack against fighters (including his Dengar Counter 1) benefits from Sloane. Boba has a "better" roll against ships, but he is Rogue, so no Sloane benefit. And his effect doesn't really do much for you. You activate him 6 times per game and will only get his effect 4 to 5 times, given he is not killed off beforehand. Vader, between his effect and Sloans, will allways get anything, even out of 1 counter die (except ships ofc).

On 12/7/2018 at 7:28 AM, carthwolf said:

my ISD is pretty points heavy and I’m tempted to put Sloane on the quasar to even out my total points. The ISD does have two defensive cards.

Just....don't...
The Quasar, due to its lack of defense , low health and carrier role already has a target mark on it. When it dies, the ISD will have to take control of the squads. That's a point you have to consider pretty early on, cause if it dies round 3 and you didn't see it coming, your ISD won't have a squad command til the last round.

Its lack of defensive ability is also my reasoning to keep Boosted Comms. Your fighters want to harass the enemy, not guard your ships. If the enemy speeds towards the carrier, Boosted Coms (most times) gives you one more turn until it starts getting pounded (Also the sign that the ISD will need a squad command in the mix). Also, you can relay the FC backed squad commands at ridicolous range.

I'd rather put Brunson on the Quasar. With BC it can pretty much "go whereever it wants". The ISD has to angle its front on the enemy, so it isn't that free and can be kited out of Obstacle range. But that is a risk-gain call. Leaving Brunson on the ISD makes the point heavier target less desirable, but shift attention to the Quasar. Putting her on the quasar makes the ISD a more tempting (yet still intimidating) target.

20 hours ago, Cleto0 said:

I would recommend the switch to ECMs on the ISD and taking off boosted comms and pursuant. Add squall. Very good for an alpha strike that can win you the game.

EWS / ECM, as allways a meta call. Few big shots? ECM. Swarm oder squadball? EWS.
Pursuant is probably a slicer failsave or escape routine. Again, your call, but Cleo0 is more than right by saying Squall can create a devastating game winning alphastrike.

So in the End....the only thing i really feel should change is Boba.

But there too, just give a dang about my oppinion and enjoy playing your fleet

Returned from my first regionals and am very pleased with my results. This in fact was my first actual time playing opponents that weren’t playing the tutorial so I was nervous going in, mostly concerned about my working game knowledge and unfamiliarity with a lot of the objectives. I ended up playing this after some local players to the regional said I should change it up. I still added my own flairs.

Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Admiral Sloane (24)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Avenger (5)
= 174 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Pursuant (2)
= 66 Points

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

Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Darth Vader (21)
• Dengar (20)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)
= 130 Points

Total Points: 395

first off the Imp II definitely pulls its weight in the consistency category. All day it played well and it’s 4 squadron activation was very clutch at times. I was told to play XI7 over spinal and I not entirely sure that’s correct. Sloane was shutting down redirects for me and I usually hit my accuracy with the standard dice, I feel this slot could be different.

squadrons were great all day. People questioned my load out, especially my lack of generics and inclusion of Vader. Vader was a stud all weekend trading usually for double his value in points before dying. He one shot howleunner amd sontir in a single activation with the help of jendon. I do think the squadrons could be retooled but i liked the ace ball.

overall I ended in 5th with a 4-7, 10-1, 7-4 result. My first game was lost at my awful deployment, but I felt I made up enough points to not get swept out of the event. Learned my lesson ther amd didn’t repeat it again.