Hi there. Regional champ coming up this weekend and it's the first time that I'll go to an event of this size. I'm prepping a variation of a fleet that I used in a store champ with a certain success. Still there a some things that I'm not 100% sure and I would love to get some feedback.

Fifty shades of blue
Author: Hratly

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 390/400

Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 88 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Hondo Ohnaka ( 2 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 33 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer(110 points)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn ( 32 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Damage Control Officer ( 5 points)
- Boarding Troopers ( 3 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 165 total ship cost

3 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 27 points)
1 Tempest Squadron ( 13 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
2 TIE Defender Squadrons ( 32 points)
1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)
= 104 total squadron cost

The strategy here is to stack thrawn with squadron commands and let my ships alternate with nav or cf. I usually activate thrawn turn 2 to 4 and use my bombers to soften my target before sending my gladiator and bt avenger. When it works all according to plan, it hurts bad.

While I love DCO when facing a screed list, I find that most of the time it's a waste of points when the other fleet don't have special crit effect. Still I'm not sure what I would want instead. Strategic advisor could compensate for my low actication count but objectively, his effect is usefull for the engagement turn only. Pryce is interesting but it can backfire. I had a match with a friend yesterday who had an ISD with pryce and I destroyed it without him getting the chance to attack with it because he set pryce a turn too late.

I am also not 100% sold on my squadrons yet. I like the damage output of the defenders but I'm worried that facing a rebel fleet with a combination of xwings, biggs and jan will screw me big time.

What do you think?

Thanks!

Most Wanted may be safer than Precision strike. Dodonna fleets and 134 point squadron fleets could prefer it to you.

Planet Ion Cannon or Hyperspace assault would be safer than Fighter Ambush. Fighter ambush could turn our a disaster if you come up against a 134 point squadron force with Yavaris & Tallon. It also screws your normally decent deployment advantage by saving your (but not his) fighters until last.

Demolisher is great. I would probably drop ETs for more squadron points. Drop Brunson to a SFO if desperate but I like him on Demolisher. Gozanti is fine. vector can occasionally be useful if you have 2 points to spare. BT Avenger is ok. XI7s are a waste as you can turn off all 4 defence tokens on the BT turn and before or after that XI7s can drill but all your other damage from other sources can be redirected. A boosted comms on the ISD could be fun enabling you to reach out early to soften up targets or still activate squadrons if your ISD has to boost speed to avoid retaliations. BT avenger often takes a pounding and you sometimes need to get away after getting your kill.

Fighters are good. With Dengar and 2 decent escorts Mauler can be deadly (Vector makes him great) I would swap out a TIE-D for him. Getting a second ramming attack against 5 or more squadrons can really tip the fight against decent fighter oppositions like Jan/Biggs/X-Wings. Sabre squadron can also help sniping Jan especially combined with ramming damage from Mauler.

Thanks for your feedback! It's true that X-17 is useless at short range but was relatively usefull for the first volley which usually happens at long range. Still I switched it with DTT as I was lacking rerolls for this situation. Excellent suggestion switching a tie-d for mithel, not sure why I missed that but I'll defenitly do it. Vector is intereting also for positionning dengar and the escorts, I'll consider it strongly.

Thanks again!