A friend has just received his SSD, and we're playing on Monday.

400 points - What to take?

Imperials or Rebels.

Big and tanky or MSU or squadrons?

Tanky. Small bases and squads are going to bleed out fast, and they can’t easily disengage from something so big (and with red flak.) I’ve played 2 games against it, and my advice is stay out of the front and bring something to nuke those braces.

It can’t chase small ships, though. TRC90s could get into its auxiliary arcs or rear arc and the SSD will never shake it.

You only need a single A-wing.

In a 400 point game if he uses the SSD he will have a severe activation disadvantage, maybe an ordinance MC-75 can punch a good hole if you have a big enough initiative bid to first-last with it?

First-last meaning you activate your MC-75 last to get it into torpedo range, and then activate it first to fire before the enemy moves any ships and to hopefully be able to move out of their ideal range.

3 hours ago, DakkaDakka12 said:

In a 400 point game if he uses the SSD he will have a severe activation disadvantage, maybe an ordinance MC-75 can punch a good hole if you have a big enough initiative bid to first-last with it?

First-last meaning you activate your MC-75 last to get it into torpedo range, and then activate it first to fire before the enemy moves any ships and to hopefully be able to move out of their ideal range.

If you can double arc and ram the front it won’t do any more damage than a single ISD. Not saying that’s necessarily a good idea, but maybe an MC30 with admonition and Lando could survive a round while returning fire with up to 17 total dice (5 base, 2 from Ackbar, 1 from EA or the one that adds a black x2 for both sides and add one for con fire. Did I miss anything?). Alternatively I believe a wingless MC80 can get both side arcs on target while flying towards the side of the SSD, that probably can get over 20 dice. Just a few thoughts (maybe not good ones).

1 hour ago, Captain Ordo N-11 said:

If you can double arc and ram the front it won’t do any more damage than a single ISD. Not saying that’s necessarily a good idea, but maybe an MC30 with admonition and Lando could survive a round while returning fire with up to 17 total dice (5 base, 2 from Ackbar, 1 from EA or the one that adds a black x2 for both sides and add one for con fire. Did I miss anything?). Alternatively I believe a wingless MC80 can get both side arcs on target while flying towards the side of the SSD, that probably can get over 20 dice. Just a few thoughts (maybe not good ones).

why do you say mc-75 cant do more than an ISD?

Mc-75

expanded launcher

external racks

ordinance experts

5 black 2blue front, 3 red 2 black side

add the external rack most likely to side attack

while the MC-30 can put out more damage from it's side arc, it also is a lot more likely to die before making it's attack, while I can see the mc 75 surviving a bit even if you dont manage to dodge that many arcs, then again in a 400 point list the SSD will take up basically all the imperial player's points.....

I guess MC-30 works if you are confident that you can navigate your ship into black dice range without it dying on the way in, but the 75 will survive while I expect a MC-30 to die the turn after it attacks as you will probably still be in the SSD's side arc after your move.

I may need to try a MC-30 against a SSD tho as the damage is really high even if it is a one hit wonder.

Know your enemy. Has he ever used damage control officer? Certain critcal effects have massive value against a SSD. A single timely use of overload pulse is going to do more damage than any single conventional attack would. Damage control officer is a must to those in the know... but it's still a highly situational card that costs 5points and a crew slot.

Want to gamble?

7 hours ago, DakkaDakka12 said:

why do you say mc-75 cant do more than an ISD?

Mc-75

expanded launcher

external racks

ordinance experts

5 black 2blue front, 3 red 2 black side

add the external rack most likely to side attack

while the MC-30 can put out more damage from it's side arc, it also is a lot more likely to die before making it's attack, while I can see the mc 75 surviving a bit even if you dont manage to dodge that many arcs, then again in a 400 point list the SSD will take up basically all the imperial player's points.....

I guess MC-30 works if you are confident that you can navigate your ship into black dice range without it dying on the way in, but the 75 will survive while I expect a MC-30 to die the turn after it attacks as you will probably still be in the SSD's side arc after your move.

I may need to try a MC-30 against a SSD tho as the damage is really high even if it is a one hit wonder.

Oops, I meant the SSD front isn’t any better than an ISD.

On 8/4/2019 at 12:02 PM, Captain Ordo N-11 said:

Oops, I meant the SSD front isn’t any better than an ISD.

The assault prototype has 2 more blue out the front than the cymoon does

... has anyone actually flown an MC80H forward at it and fired out both sides??? That sounds... AMAZING

4 hours ago, Kylemcph240 said:

The assault prototype has 2 more blue out the front than the cymoon does

Alternatively it has 1 more red than an ISD 2. Better upgrade slots than both. But if you can use things like Admo and Lando (maybe a defensive upgrade like EWS) to live for 1 round you can put out a lot of damage. Like I said before though, I don't know if this is a good idea but it is something to consider (and something I will probably try at some point). Really the only reason to do it from the front is to stop it from moving so other things can get good shots on it.

1 hour ago, Captain Ordo N-11 said:

Alternatively it has 1 more red than an ISD 2. Better upgrade slots than both. But if you can use things like Admo and Lando (maybe a defensive upgrade like EWS) to live for 1 round you can put out a lot of damage. Like I said before though, I don't know if this is a good idea but it is something to consider (and something I will probably try at some point). Really the only reason to do it from the front is to stop it from moving so other things can get good shots on it.

Superpowers aren't to stop it moving by parking something in the front. The ideal is to park something in the side so that it rams you with either set of Shield Dials there and can't move forward *or* turn depending on how it swings...

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

Superpowers aren't to stop it moving by parking something in the front. The ideal is to park something in the side so that it rams you with either set of Shield Dials there and can't move forward *or* turn depending on how it swings...

Yes, that would be ideal. I'm not sure I could pull that off unless by accident haha.

On 8/2/2019 at 4:15 PM, RedDogReb said:

A friend has just received his SSD, and we're playing on Monday.

400 points - What to take?

Imperials or Rebels.

Big and tanky or MSU or squadrons?

No MSU. The SSD is just taking them out.
My suggestion would be Raddus with 2 big ships and squadrons.

And stay out of the front...

On 8/6/2019 at 4:42 PM, Tokra said:

No MSU. The SSD is just taking them out.
My suggestion would be Raddus with 2 big ships and squadrons.

And stay out of the front...

Interesting. I'm facing a 600-point engagement where my opponent will be fielding an Executor-II Star Dreadnought. My admiral of choice? Raddus.

I'm fielding a battle group comprised of an MC80 Command Cruiser, MC80L Battle Cruiser, MC-75 Ordnance Cruiser and 2 MC-30c Scout Frigates, with 13 squadrons of fighter support. Never fielded Raddus as admiral so i'm hoping to catch him by surprise and throw the liberty into a rear aux or rear shield.

I played the game on Monday, 400 points.

I used Empire (its what I always play), but took ISD2, Gozanti, Arq, 134 points of fighters. Not so much that I thought I would cripple or destroy it, but more that I want to get a LOT better at using squadrons.

I have to say that despite losing, I enjoyed the game immensely. Personally I didn't feel that the SSD was overpowered. Its powerful, as it should be, but is also felt balanced IMHO.

The SSD win was a narrow one - He destroyed my Gozanti and some of my fighters, I destroyed his gozanti and all 6 squadrons of tie fighters he took. However as mine were more expensive, he got the win. he also went first.

The Gozanti he only destroyed by being able to fire his front arc, and use multiple shenanigans to get it. It was only on the last re-roll he had that he got an accuracy.

I did manage to get the SSD down to 8 hull at one point, but couldn't quite get the rest to cripple it.

There have been times in other game systems where something new and powerful is introduced that I have struggled to deal with it. However here I don't feel that. Apart from the fact I'm still learning how to use squadrons effectively (in this game I jumped them forward too early and lost some to the ties before eventually getting them in return), I made a deployment mistake with the arq - This was out of the game for a few turns and its 3 reds with TRC would have helped eat both shields and defence tokens.

Hoping that soon I will join the illustrious ranks of those who have destroyed an SSD!! ;-)

I did alright with an MC80L, MC80 list with lots of bombers, I crippled it at least. One nice thing is that the bombers almost don't need carriers it's so easy for them to get to and stay near an SSD, you'll lose some to flak, Brunson, etc. but not before they deal some damage.

The best thing to bring against an SSD? Two SSDs.

Finding a fleet against the SSD is not the biggest Problem. Motti + 3x ISD Kaut with ECM will work. And 19 free points to play around with upgrades.

Raddus with two big ships will work as well.

I guess even Ackbar with a ton of MC30 might work. Each of these has 4 blue, 4 red and 6 black they can throw in.

But these fleets will struggle against other lists.

I suspect that dual ISD will perform well now that squadron-heavy lists have such a significant counter, unless I’m totally mistaken about MMJ and Yavaris being hit hard.

1 hour ago, CommanderDave said:

I suspect that dual ISD will perform well now that squadron-heavy lists have such a significant counter, unless I’m totally mistaken about MMJ and Yavaris being hit hard.

It seems, the most common SSD is with Annihilator, Kallus, Quad Laser (for counter), Gunnery Team, H9 and maybe Intel Officer. This combination is making aces nearly impossible. Even MMJ (and Co) will go down way to fast. 2 damage on Flak, 1 damage on counter.

But the two ship lists, with these aces, have as well an ISD (maybe even an Avenger). And this one can be deadly for the SSD, when it goes in last/first in combination with the double squadron attack.

The things I'd want to test against it (not had the chance yet) would be:

Btvenger

Demo

Sloane

Separately of course, and in that general order.

I think the Avenger, in conjunction with the boarding troops (as long as you have the right isd variant) could produce high enough burst damage to give the ssd a really bad day, as could the gladiator (as long as you can first/last, which shouldn't be terribly difficult against an ssd list)

Sloane concerns me a bit more because of how proficient the ssd's flak is. But the theory is fairly sound: strip the defence tokens. Those 6 defence tokens are scary, but without them the ssd can only sponge up so much damage before it pops.

Vader double cymoon might work, but I think that's completely dependent on the ssd not closing. The cymoon's will have a slight edge at long to medium range, but it's not much of an advantage since we can safely assume gunnery teams, and if it gets to close range it will just tear them up

I know this is a mostly imperial perspective, but since I don't fly rebel scum it's probably not a good idea for me to start theory crafting for them.

On ‎8‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 11:16 PM, namdoolb said:

but since I don't fly rebel scum

You and me both, brother, you and me both!!!!!

Doom pickle with max defensive build strait in the face, pins it Down, double arc. Then fly your winged mc80 strait into the now static ship, as he’s a big static arc you can drive it in just right. He will not last against a co-ordinated Doom pickle and winged pickle attack.

Don’t go with small based ships they just die to these beasts ( even mc30s just can’t last) only one that really has value is a red dice CR90 as you can get into the stern without coming to close.

Fighters are good, he’s going to keep running over them, pop them on the nose and he’s never shaking them.......it’s also a mare for his own fighters as if he gets it wrong you can place them a long way back from your own.

Just remember he’s got shots from three arcs, all but one of which are potent, which is why little ships suffer.

Sculpting the battlefield is powerful against such a long big base...obstacles just keep on giving especially if you’ve driven a doom pickle in his face.