6 hours ago, Zamalekite said:

Imperials will soon have nearly twice as many faction-specific officers as Rebels do...

It’s almost like Imps have more people on their side or something... 😉

1 hour ago, The Jabbawookie said:

It’s almost like Imps have more people on their side or something... 😉

And yet non of them are as good As Toryn....

(Although some come close, brunson anyone?)

6 hours ago, Zamalekite said:

I think the opposite - Raddus players will find it pretty easy vs SSD. They don't need to hit and run. If you drop a well kitted drop ship at the rear of the SSD to rear-ward firing power is pretty weak (especially the Command prototype) and you should be able to stay in the rear arcs without much trouble.

Forget dropping behind, drop your ship in front of it. The Assault has 5 reds, 4 blues (let's say plus 1 red or 1 blue?). But only one shot. Your MC75 Ordnance has a double arc with 3 red, 2 blue, 5 black. So the Ordnance cruiser is doing more damage per turn. Throw in APTs and that's a lot more damage. If it has ECMs it will always get its brace off, whereas the SSD may have to make some nasty decisions about braces if there's anything else shooting at it (plus may need Minister Tua+ECMs). SSD has 2 more shields and a lot more hull, but same engineering value (the SSD gets a free token, but the MC75 should have a Comms Net flotilla in support). Maybe it has Brunson (and maybe Lando on the MC75), but then that's eating up a valuable Officer slot (so maybe no DCO, or Minister Tua?).

The MC75 will (probably) lose, but if there's anything else doing damage in your fleet you should be able to trade up quite nicely.

But then I tend to run Raddus in a slightly odd way; I love dropping an MC75 in front of an ISD.

Downside is that I may have to keep running my current Raddus list - even though I've been getting a bit bored with it after a year.

1 hour ago, clontroper5 said:

And yet non of them are as good As Toryn....

(Although some come close, brunson anyone?)

Toryn and Adar are both awesome but generally Imperial Officers are better than their rebel counterparts.

On 12/12/2018 at 10:03 PM, Zamalekite said:

First of all, there are 10 Rebel Officers vs 14 Officers (which will increase to 20 with SSD)

Yes, Adar Tallon, Lando and Toryn are super useful.

Raymus is good but Grint and Yularen are better. Aresko does a similar job too for the same price. So 3 options for token generation rather than 1.

Draven is nowhere near as good as Kallus.

Derlin is not as good as Montferrat.

Bail is not as good as Pryce.

Ahsoka and Leia are handy but nothing special.

Yeah the Imperials have naff cards like Titus, Goran, Inquisitor and Isard but there's also Chiraneau and Needa who have useful abilities and Tua is awesome.

And then of course there's Brunson.

I don't know how an Imperial player can complain really.

21 hours ago, Grumbleduke said:

Forget dropping behind, drop your ship in front of it. The Assault has 5 reds, 4 blues (let's say plus 1 red or 1 blue?). But only one shot. Your MC75 Ordnance has a double arc with 3 red, 2 blue, 5 black. So the Ordnance cruiser is doing more damage per turn. Throw in APTs and that's a lot more damage.

I think Gunnery Team will be used a lot as well as DCO so the SSD can happily cancel all crit effects as well as shoot at multiple ships in front of it or on the side of it. I think Raddus will have somewhat of a difficult time getting around the SSD to get a ship in the rear with enough turns left to take it down (although certainly not impossible, and much easier with a Liberty MC80 with C&S rather than a black dice based ship).

On 2/6/2019 at 5:08 AM, Grumbleduke said:

Forget dropping behind, drop your ship in front of it. The Assault has 5 reds, 4 blues (let's say plus 1 red or 1 blue?). But only one shot. Your MC75 Ordnance has a double arc with 3 red, 2 blue, 5 black. So the Ordnance cruiser is doing more damage per turn. Throw in APTs and that's a lot more damage. If it has ECMs it will always get its brace off, whereas the SSD may have to make some nasty decisions about braces if there's anything else shooting at it (plus may need Minister Tua+ECMs). SSD has 2 more shields and a lot more hull, but same engineering value (the SSD gets a free token, but the MC75 should have a Comms Net flotilla in support). Maybe it has Brunson (and maybe Lando on the MC75), but then that's eating up a valuable Officer slot (so maybe no DCO, or Minister Tua?).

The MC75 will (probably) lose, but if there's anything else doing damage in your fleet you should be able to trade up quite nicely.

But then I tend to run Raddus in a slightly odd way; I love dropping an MC75 in front of an ISD.

Downside is that I may have to keep running my current Raddus list - even though I've been getting a bit bored with it after a year.

This sounds like an interesting perspective on using Raddus. I suppose the Aspiration could find a place in this strategy in place of the usual Profundity+Garel hh combo, to soak the first attack from the SSD before it itself attacks.

5 hours ago, Muelmuel said:

I suppose the Aspiration could find a place in this strategy in place of the usual Profundity+Garel hh combo, to soak the first attack from the SSD before it itself attacks.

Usually I find the Hammerhead is important to absorb the first hit, muck up some positioning/protect the MC75's flanks, and (if it survives) deal a good chunk of damage back (I tend not to bother with Garel as the Hh probably averages less than 1 overlap per game). A couple of times I've managed to place it in a way to cover my MC75 from a Demolisher - forcing the Demo to attack the Hammerhead first and move in before it is ready, rather than last-firsting my big ships.

But then I run Raddus on a 180-point MC80 Assault Cruiser, so if the MC75 can block something and absorb its shots while doing some damage back, the MC80 can usually clean up even if the MC75 goes down. One of the weaknesses of normal Raddus lists if that so many points and so much damage output is invested in the drop-ship you have to be much more careful where it is placed.

Against a Gunnery Team SSD that might not work as well, as it can blast all three ships. So if the SSD is first, the Hammerhead will probably just die, while not doing much.

Here's the thing. All this discussion is kind of pointless unless FFG decides to release the SSD. Which at this point I am starting to doubt will actually happen

Why the doubt? They just gave us the first news in like ages for rules, that specifically address the SSD. There is no point in mentioning the SSD in a news article and secretly plotting to not release it.

19 minutes ago, NewGandhi said:

Why the doubt? They just gave us the first news in like ages for rules, that specifically address the SSD. There is no point in mentioning the SSD in a news article and secretly plotting to not release it.

Mainly Sarcasm and frustration with the lack of news. They released the article for the new ruleset. But the SSD release date is still nowhere to be seen

Given my standard Raddus tactic is to drop a Defiance in the front arc of an ISD and ruin it, I feel that I’ll be doing much the same to SSDs.

I really want to face off against this with my double MC80A list.

Honestly, I’m way more worried about the Emperor than the SSD. Bring Intel in every ship and the Emperor. Use IO on brace and emperor on redirects. Your opponent loses every defensive token they use for a turn (save for evades). With LS/GT that is a lot of damage going through in a turn. Next turn blow braces off of Palpatine and use IO on surviving redirects. 2 turns and every non-evade defensive token is either unused or lost.

Yeah, contain, but I’m really just thinking of how to pile on the damage.

On 2/1/2019 at 12:26 PM, dominosfleet said:

I dont think tge ssd itself will have a huge impact, i think the two commanders will open up new options, piett specifically. Palp seems alright but maybe redundant. A lot of the upgrades like vader will be interesting too.

Im concerned we'll see even less rebel commanders though, so many cards in that pack are faction specific

Palp MSU may work, especially against flotillas and scatter aces.

11 minutes ago, DunaMoose said:

Palp MSU may work, especially against flotillas and scatter aces.

Name: Senatorial Business
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Emperor Palpatine

Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Solar Corona

Arquitens Light Cruiser (59)
• Emperor Palpatine (35)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 103 Points

Raider I (44)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 58 Points

Raider I (44)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 58 Points

Raider I (44)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 58 Points

Raider I (44)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 58 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Slicer Tools (7)
= 30 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Slicer Tools (7)
= 30 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 400

Will there still be a meta when it finally releases?😋

Overload Pulse Avenger will keep the SSD in line. one died the other night by round 5

2 pickles with Ackbar, Intel, ET will bring it down

But the challenge I'm looking forward to is my Cracken list

Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Superior Positions

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• General Cracken (26)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 79 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 83 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 83 Points

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• 3 x A-wing Squadron (33)
= 50 Points

Total Points: 397

On 2/5/2019 at 2:56 PM, clontroper5 said:

And yet non of them are as good As Toryn....

(Although some come close, brunson anyone?)

Umm...Brunson blows Toryn out of the water, and Pryce does better at the top bracket.

*EDIT* Gah, screen shot is apparently to big for the forum. Data from Regionals has Brunson in 40% of all Imperial lists and 61% of those in the top bracket. Pryce is in only 17% of Imperial lists, but spikes to 35% in the top bracket. Toryn is at 24% of Reb lists and essentially flat at 28% in the top bracket. Ergo, Pryce and Brunson both appear to give a significantly better competitive advantage than Toryn.

Since ffg gave the SSD quite a few ways to mitigate crits, I thought up a way to land crits on the SSD that would bypass all their crit-negating mechanics. At the heart of it is our lesser-seen upgrade Boarding Engineers:

SSD critters (184/400)
=========================
MC75 Armored Cruiser (104 + 32: 136)
+ Veteran Captain (3)
+ Boarding Engineers (2)
+ Electronic Countermeasures (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ External Racks (3)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Profundity (7)
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 + 12: 48)
+ Veteran Captain (3)
+ Boarding Engineers (2)
+ External Racks (3)
+ Garel's Honor (4)

The MC75 is the perfect delivery vehicle for BE. Armored over the Ordnance variant as it can get some dice insurance via LS. Aspiration would work here too but having Garel around to crit some more is fun. Vet Caps for the Engineers so that the ship dials can spam CF commands, but not crucial. If dropping via Raddus and/or the SSD is clean, they should attack and ram first and release their BE the next turn. I don't think the fat SSD can run out of close range by then. This combo can drop 7 guaranteed crits in 1 turn, and the SSD can at most clear 2 a turn so it should effectively cripple the SSD for the game. Also I went XI7 over HTT so that this combo can remain a little more relevant vs non-SSD fleets

4 hours ago, X Wing Nut said:

Overload Pulse Avenger will keep the SSD in line

My god, a reason to revive my jankmaster pulsetap lists? 0__0

ACMS are pretty fun, when you suddenly have 2 more hullzones to damage and strip shields of, they can be super helpful.

Hm. I’m having flashbacks to my double Liberty list that had both sporting NK7 and Intel officers. Would certainly make the SSD suffer quickly.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

My god, a reason to revive my jankmaster pulsetap lists? 0__0

Not when you run into DCO in one of the officer slots...

The Mon Karren, Intel Officer, XI7, Spinals build seems to chew through it pretty well. Maybe throw in Engine Techs to help get it in the side arcs.

All those Defense Tokens don't do much if you can only use one an attack. And with Intel Officer you only need one accuracy and there's no brace, the redirects don't help much, and you can pour damage through to hull (even getting crits through depending on which Defense Token they use).

Main downside is that you've only got three Defense Tokens yourself, which could be awkward against an Emperor Palpatine Officer.

What I find most interesting about this topic is not what will be done to kill the SSD, but how those lists will fare against everything else. Everyone loves to point out how they think they'll be able to slay the giant centerpiece, but those answers are rarely anything with balance to them. Go ahead and build that super Liberty, hopefully you can handle all the MSU, Imp 2 Ship, Riekann Aces, etc. lists.

I hope I'm wrong, but I see the possibility of an even greater game of Rock/Paper/Scissors coming soon.

44 minutes ago, geek19 said:

Not when you run into DCO in one of the officer slots...