The Dominator title for the VSD is never seen because it's so ridiculously expensive (much like Devastator). That's a shame because it adds a heap of damage even though it does cost you shields. I'm playing a 500pt game this weekend and I'm going to try to use Dominator in a 3-VSD fleet. Here's my fleet:

Name: The Unloved Title Fleet
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault:
Defense:
Navigation:

Victory II (85)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Harrow (3)
• Projection Experts (6)
= 106 Points

Victory II (85)
• Wulff Yularen (7)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Dominator (12)
= 116 Points

Victory II (85)
• Admiral Motti (24)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Warlord (8)
= 129 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
= 28 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Commander Vanto (7)
• Comms Net (2)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
= 35 Points

Squadrons:
• 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44)
• Bossk (23)
• Zertik Strom (15)
= 82 Points

Total Points: 496

I'm planning to use Harrow to throw shields over to Dominator with its projection experts, and use the two Gozantis for passing engineering tokens. That should hopefully offset the shield loss from using the Dominator title. I've got Wulff for backup engineering token generation.

With this setup and a concentrate fire dial I can throw 10 dice - 7 blue and 3 red - out of the front arc of Dominator.

Any thoughts? I considered removing the Warlord title and putting a Gunnery Team on Dominator.

I love that title even when I don't use it since wave 1.

One idea I always liked to out in the table was with enhanced armament. To shoot the same all around the ship, but the rear zone.

It doesn't matter if you play a game with so many points you don't care about dominator. Without JJ it's still easy to outmaneuver. With EA you don't have to worry about it.

What do you think of Harrow on a Vic 1 with Minister Tua, Engine Techs and Expanded Launchers?

13 minutes ago, Baris1138 said:

What do you think of Harrow on a Vic 1 with Minister Tua, Engine Techs and Expanded Launchers?

I am a big fan of it, it's really hard for your enemy to know where it's going to end up, and it does a colossal amount of damage. ordnance Experts is mandatory for the black dice.

On this occasion though I really need the shield throwing capability of projection experts, hence the lighter armanent on it. Tua and ECM on Dominator would be nice, but then I am closing on the price of an ISD2.

It works against squadrons, too...

3 hours ago, Tayloraj100 said:

It works against squadrons, too...

Pair it with linked turbolaser turrets and that's up to 5 flak dice on a single target!

I've pretty much finalised the build for tonight's game:

Name: Untitled Fleet copy
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault:
Defense:
Navigation:

Victory II (85)
• Wulff Yularen (7)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Harrow (3)
• Projection Experts (6)
= 108 Points

Victory II (85)
• Minister Tua (2)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Dominator (12)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 125 Points

Victory II (85)
• Admiral Motti (24)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
= 122 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
= 26 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Commander Vanto (7)
• Comms Net (2)
• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
= 35 Points

Squadrons:
• 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44)
• Bossk (23)
• Zertik Strom (15)
= 82 Points

Total Points: 498

Wulff is now on Harrow, and his job is to churn engineer tokens out every turn even when Harrow wants to be doing something else, in order to be able to send shields to Dominator.

Dominator now has Tua and ECM to extend its life expectancy, and Gunnery Team to allow it to hit twice out of any arc.

I've dropped the Warlord title and a QBT from one of the VSDs to afford Dominator's upgrades.

Hope it's worth it.

If you were to run a list like this at 400 points, what would you drop / change?

5 minutes ago, RedDogReb said:

If you were to run a list like this at 400 points, what would you drop / change?

That's a tough one. I don't know. You'd have to lose one of the VSDs or both the Gozantis and Bossk (plus some upgrades).

I've just been sent the fleet my opponent's using. Ackbar with MC80 assault cruiser, MC75, AFMk2.

I'm toast.

@flatpackhamster I feel for you!

I took three VSDs to a casual game at my club a few months ago (pre Harrow etc). My oppo had maxed out on Rebel squadrons. It didn't end well for the Empire.

Best of luck in your game!

I've got 2nd player and I've chosen the following objectives:

Surprise Attack

Jamming Barrier

Solar Corona

Bit of a theme!

1 hour ago, flatpackhamster said:

I've just been sent the fleet my opponent's using. Ackbar with MC80 assault cruiser, MC75, AFMk2

Don't let him Ackbar Slice you and focus all firepower on the same ships. I'd drop an interceptor and QBTs to put gunnery teams on all vics. If he can only use Ackbar on one arc per ship you can outgun him by 4 red dice (ignoring his upgrades for the moment), adding 20 blue dice with dCaps and Dominator and you haven't even spent a command.

You could go up to 43 attack dice thrown, divided on 2 ships for one or two rounds. Can sure be enough to destroy either or both of these in one round.

4 hours ago, R4Pi3R said:

Don't let him Ackbar Slice you and focus all firepower on the same ships. I'd drop an interceptor and QBTs to put gunnery teams on all vics. If he can only use Ackbar on one arc per ship you can outgun him by 4 red dice (ignoring his upgrades for the moment), adding 20 blue dice with dCaps and Dominator and you haven't even spent a command.

You could go up to 43 attack dice thrown, divided on 2 ships for one or two rounds. Can sure be enough to destroy either or both of these in one round.

Thanks for the tip. He has Leading Shots everywhere and Expanded Launchers on the MC75 but no 'extra' dice apart from Ackbar on the other two ships.

At the moment my advantage lies in activations (5 to 4) and that he chose Solar Corona and has to set up first giving me a good chance to position my fleet well. I also think my fighters will beat Luke/Biggs/2 X Xwings which is what he has brought. Also hoping the extra Dominator Dice will help.

Game starts in 30 minutes (once I've got the kids to bed)!

Victory for the Empire!!

My opponent chose to deploy his fleet with its broadsides facing my side of the table, and travelling to the shorter end at speed 3. He was expecting me to place my ships in one corner, and his plan was to approach me in line astern formation, Ackbarring me, until the MC75 got close enough to start its black attacks.

I decided to emulate Nelson and his plan for the battle of Trafalgar. I sent my ships directly at his line, aiming for the centre. I hoped that this would mean that the front of his fleet would miss out on some of the battle because it had to turn round to rejoin the fighting.

The plan worked. On turn 2 Harrow (on my right, nearest the front of the enemy fleet) and Dominator were at red dice range, so I discarded dcaps on both of them, and used QBT and a concentrate fire dial to throw 10 blue and 6 red dice at Home One at long range. He took 15 damage which wiped out most of his shields and put 2 facedown cards on him, and one faceup which halved his engineering value.

Then I used my Gozantis to launch some interceptors and Bossk at Home one which did 3 more damage, and that really got him worried.

Next turn Home One used it's reinforced blast doors, and Ackbar's firepower started to tell with all 3 of his ships throwing heaps of red dice. The Solar Corona card meant that he kept losing accuracy dice which he could have used to pin down my brace tokens so his damage wasn't sticking enough. But Harrow was close enough to fire another 7 dice at Home One which took it back up to 7 damage cards. Then I managed to use my one of my Gozantis to double arc Home One! It blew it up.

By this time Harrow had taken attacks from 3 ships for 2 turns and was pretty much dead with all it's defence tokens discarded and 8 damage carda (Motti saved me). I repaired shields on my turn but should have done damage cards because I moved, bumped his AF then landed back on the asteroids I had started in for 2 more damage cards which blew it up.

I got the AF next turn with Bossk (that guy really hits hard, so worth it for 23 points), and turn 5 and 6 I was able to use Dominator. Sadly his MC75 was outside my front arc but with Dominator and QBT my side arcs were firing 5 dice.

His MC75 got away, and I lost Harrow and a TIE interceptor for a pretty spectacular victory!

All in all I do rate Dominator but you HAVE to be able to get in close and stay in medium range and you REALLY have to have a plan for getting shields back!

The two big discoveries were Motti who kept Harrow alive so nicely and also saved a Gozanti after it took 2 turns of attacks from the MC75 and ended up with 3 damage cards, and Bossk. I didn't even use him against fighters but he was epic.

Nice recap and a good strategy, that was well executed. The Emperor will be pleased.

Nicely done!