We had a casual 9 Fleet tournament over the weekend with 3 SSD lists. My list finished 3-0 and took 2nd place. Here are my initial thoughts and experiences.
The list.
Name: ssd defenders
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Piett
Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Intel Sweep
SSD Assault Prototype (250)
• Admiral Piett (22)
• Emperor Palpatine (3)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Damage Control Officer (5)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Executor (2)
= 320 Points
Squadrons:
• 5 x TIE Defender Squadron (80)
= 80 Points
Total Points: 400
This list was probably the most squadron heavy list at the tournament which surprised me, the toughest squads I played was a list of Shara, Tycho, and 2 X-wings. Shara was a pain for the Defenders but I was able to take out all 4 Squads with a couple Defenders left. In this match my opponent had an MC-80H, MC-75, and a GR75. We played my Capture the VIP and, based on deployment I decided to run because it it would be difficult for my opponent to get his MC-75 in the fight as it was blocked out by the MC-80. In the end the SSD took no damage and neither did his ships except for hitting an asteroid field. I took his Squads and he got 3 Defenders. I got the VIP and took a very fast 7-4 win.
My Second opponent brought 2 Interdictors, Dominator, and 2 generic TIE's. We played his Station Assault. He had 1 of each Experimental Retrofit and Konstantine. Because I didn't have Gunnery Teams he bunched up in my front arc but was messing with my Speed. In general my command strategy was Nav (take 2 tokens), Squad (take 2 tokens), then Engineering the rest of the way, because of the speed shenanigans I put in an extra nav turn 5. This was a mistake on my part.
We engaged quickly, I initially focused on Dominator but in turn 3 my opponent made his one mistake by activating one of the Interdictors first (he wanted to force me to activate and move into close range of Dominator). The Interdictor finished it's move double arced by my front and side. I switched targets as I was first player and got 6 damage trough to hull in the 2 shots. This did leave me in Dominators front arc and he got a huge 10 damage shot through. Next activation I finished off the Interdictor with the side shot but didn't quite finish off Dominator. We were now bumping hard so no need for that Nav Dial. Dominator got a smaller shot through putting me over half health. I finished off Dominator turn 5 but never even got a shot on the stations. If I had that Engineering turn 5 I would have avoided half points. In the end we finished a very close points match and I got a 6-5.
Last match was SSD vs. SSD. My opponent had no squads but had a Gozanti and an Arquitens. The deciding factor in this game was Palp and my squads, we played my VIP as well. I put the VIP on the station and just stayed on the station. We ended up broadside, I used a Nav to bump and land back on the station as well. My opponent was first player which was definitely an advantage to him but thanks to Palp, my attacks, and Squads I was able to burn off all his defense tokens, he also got the crit which didn't allow him to have command tokens. Midway through the game my opponent made a mistake and put his Arquitens in my front arc, dead Arquitens and I ended up tabling him for a 9-2 because he did get half points off my SSD. Probably the funniest bit was the final damage was dealt by one of my squads.
Final thoughts,
The SSD is not going to significantly change much, they are hard to kill but the half points is no Joke and will significantly hurt your MOV. The winner of the tournament was 2-1 but had one more tournament point than I did. Palp is strong, he is gonna be great with Sloane and/or Avenger. Piett with Executor is fun, lots of command potential. Also turning a SSD is no Joke. I think the SSD is fun and will see play but isn't super competitive yet.