My group has flown the SSD only a handful of times (5), so it may just be inexperience with the thing, but it’s been largely unsuccessful. I’ve captained it twice, had it crippled in both games, and lost them both. I’ve also flown Rebel fleets against it three times, and destroyed it pretty easily with Ackbar fleets in two of those outings (once on turn four, with help from some devastating face-ups from asteroid collisions). My opponent finally got a win with it by getting some lucky dice and one-shotting a Pelta and a Neb-B in back-to-back turns... but even then, I was one card away from a crippling on it, which might have meant the win.

Did FFG go too far with the “crippling” rule? Or did they not give the thing enough shields/hull? Or is my group’s experience atypical? It just seems entirely too fragile.

We’ve also noticed that getting into even a *little* bit of obstacle trouble can lead to horrendous problems, which makes it an extremely unforgiving ship to pilot (in one of my losses, an errant dust field prevented me from taking almost any shots until about turn five; in one of my opponent’s losses, he miscalculated and nicked an asteroid on turn one, which gave him the “you cannot have command tokens” card... and he’d built his entire strategy around command tokens, so—it being a casual game—I let him draw a different card, which ended up being something equally awful, like “you cannot fire at long range,” or “you cannot use accuracies.” By the end of the game, he had both of these, and many more besides).

Thoughts?

49 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

My group has flown the SSD only a handful of times (5), so it may just be inexperience with the thing, but it’s been largely unsuccessful. I’ve captained it twice, had it crippled in both games, and lost them both. I’ve also flown Rebel fleets against it three times, and destroyed it pretty easily with Ackbar fleets in two of those outings (once on turn four, with Help from some devastating face-ups from asteroid collisions). My opponent finally got a win with it by getting some lucky dice and one-shotting a Pelta and a Neb-B in back-to-back turns... but even then, I was one card away from a crippling on it, which might have meant the win.

Did FFG go too far with the “crippling” rule? Or did they not give the thing enough shields/hull? Or is my group’s experience atypical? It just seems entirely too fragile.

We’ve also noticed that getting into even a *little* bit of obstacle trouble can lead to horrendous problems, which makes it an extremely unforgiving ship to pilot (in one of my losses, an errant dust field prevented me from taking almost any shots until about turn five; in one of my opponent’s losses, he miscalculated and nicked an asteroid on turn one, which gave him the “you cannot have command tokens” card... and he’d built his entire strategy around command tokens, so—it being a casual game—I let him draw a different card, which ended up being something equally awful, like “you cannot fire at long range,” or “you cannot use accuracies.” By the end of the game, he had both of these, and many more besides).

Thoughts?

No thoughts, just, anecdotally: 3 of the top 5 (1st, 2nd and 5th) at Calgary Prime event were SSD lists...

14 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

My group has flown the SSD only a handful of times (5), so it may just be inexperience with the thing, but it’s been largely unsuccessful. I’ve captained it twice, had it crippled in both games, and lost them both. I’ve also flown Rebel fleets against it three times, and destroyed it pretty easily with Ackbar fleets in two of those outings (once on turn four, with help from some devastating face-ups from asteroid collisions). My opponent finally got a win with it by getting some lucky dice and one-shotting a Pelta and a Neb-B in back-to-back turns... but even then, I was one card away from a crippling on it, which might have meant the win.

Did FFG go too far with the “crippling” rule? Or did they not give the thing enough shields/hull? Or is my group’s experience atypical? It just seems entirely too fragile.

We’ve also noticed that getting into even a *little* bit of obstacle trouble can lead to horrendous problems, which makes it an extremely unforgiving ship to pilot (in one of my losses, an errant dust field prevented me from taking almost any shots until about turn five; in one of my opponent’s losses, he miscalculated and nicked an asteroid on turn one, which gave him the “you cannot have command tokens” card... and he’d built his entire strategy around command tokens, so—it being a casual game—I let him draw a different card, which ended up being something equally awful, like “you cannot fire at long range,” or “you cannot use accuracies.” By the end of the game, he had both of these, and many more besides).

Thoughts?

It would be good to know what type of lists your group is running for the SSD to see if maybe that is the problem. At least in our group we found it very well balanced. It's true that if you focus fire on it is not hard to cripple it or maybe destroy it, but well equipped its attack can be very devastating so it compensates.

Personally, while I don't think the ship is broken in any way, meaning it is neither to powerful nor to weak, I do sometimes think it could have been just a tiny little bit stronger.

31 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

My group has flown the SSD only a handful of times (5), so it may just be inexperience with the thing, but it’s been largely unsuccessful. I’ve captained it twice, had it crippled in both games, and lost them both. I’ve also flown Rebel fleets against it three times, and destroyed it pretty easily with Ackbar fleets in two of those outings (once on turn four, with help from some devastating face-ups from asteroid collisions). My opponent finally got a win with it by getting some lucky dice and one-shotting a Pelta and a Neb-B in back-to-back turns... but even then, I was one card away from a crippling on it, which might have meant the win.

Did FFG go too far with the “crippling” rule? Or did they not give the thing enough shields/hull? Or is my group’s experience atypical? It just seems entirely too fragile.

We’ve also noticed that getting into even a *little* bit of obstacle trouble can lead to horrendous problems, which makes it an extremely unforgiving ship to pilot (in one of my losses, an errant dust field prevented me from taking almost any shots until about turn five; in one of my opponent’s losses, he miscalculated and nicked an asteroid on turn one, which gave him the “you cannot have command tokens” card... and he’d built his entire strategy around command tokens, so—it being a casual game—I let him draw a different card, which ended up being something equally awful, like “you cannot fire at long range,” or “you cannot use accuracies.” By the end of the game, he had both of these, and many more besides).

Thoughts?

Usually I'm hearing the opposite problem--that the SSD is too easy to fly with Moff Jerjerrod.

If asteroids are a problem, try Engineering. As for dust fields--that's the whole point of the obstacle; you want to make it difficult or impossible for your opponent to kill you. If you don't like 'em, take second player!

short answer, no. Originally i thought it would be, but with comms net and throwing those shields around, that thing can live for a long time. The SSD is in a good spot, not to OP, but powerful and versatile enough to fit into the competitive meta.

I've had a great level of success with it using this loadout at 400 points...

Star Dreadnought Assault Prototype (250 points)
- Moff Jerjerrod ( 23 points)
- Ravager ( 4 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Damage Control Officer ( 5 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- SW-7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 320 total ship cost


I think at 400 points you have to be very conscious of how you spend your engineering points and when to use JJ. A lot of times I'm spending all my engineering points to move shields instead of recovering and getting the double Yaw turn in just in time.

I think you should also be aware that if your opponent knows you're bringing an SSD, they're likely building their fleet to kill an SSD. Mix up which lists you play. Matches should be double blind.

1 hour ago, Cpt ObVus said:

My group has flown the SSD only a handful of times (5), so it may just be inexperience with the thing, but it’s been largely unsuccessful. I’ve captained it twice, had it crippled in both games, and lost them both. I’ve also flown Rebel fleets against it three times, and destroyed it pretty easily with Ackbar fleets in two of those outings (once on turn four, with help from some devastating face-ups from asteroid collisions). My opponent finally got a win with it by getting some lucky dice and one-shotting a Pelta and a Neb-B in back-to-back turns... but even then, I was one card away from a crippling on it, which might have meant the win.

Did FFG go too far with the “crippling” rule? Or did they not give the thing enough shields/hull? Or is my group’s experience atypical? It just seems entirely too fragile.

We’ve also noticed that getting into even a *little* bit of obstacle trouble can lead to horrendous problems, which makes it an extremely unforgiving ship to pilot (in one of my losses, an errant dust field prevented me from taking almost any shots until about turn five; in one of my opponent’s losses, he miscalculated and nicked an asteroid on turn one, which gave him the “you cannot have command tokens” card... and he’d built his entire strategy around command tokens, so—it being a casual game—I let him draw a different card, which ended up being something equally awful, like “you cannot fire at long range,” or “you cannot use accuracies.” By the end of the game, he had both of these, and many more besides).

Thoughts?

What's your typical build?

Yea it sounds like either (or both) that there is an issue with the build or with the opponent knowing they will face an SSD and building a counter.

51 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I've had a great level of success with it using this loadout at 400 points...

Star Dreadnought Assault Prototype (250 points)
- Moff Jerjerrod ( 23 points)
- Ravager ( 4 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Damage Control Officer ( 5 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- SW-7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 320 total ship cost


I think at 400 points you have to be very conscious of how you spend your engineering points and when to use JJ. A lot of times I'm spending all my engineering points to move shields instead of recovering and getting the double Yaw turn in just in time.

I think you should also be aware that if your opponent knows you're bringing an SSD, they're likely building their fleet to kill an SSD. Mix up which lists you play. Matches should be double blind.

No Krennic on Ravager is a cardinal sin, though. I need the rerolls.

1 minute ago, ianediger said:

No Krennic on Ravager is a cardinal sin, though. I need the rerolls.

I mean, you'd be surprised with this build.

Ravager granting 2 blue dice, and a 3rd from QBTs + SW7s means your shot is basing 7 damage before even accounting red dice... (±1 if you need leading shots for the reds) Tends to make short work of most things. Xi7s is there too to punish that hull zone with MAXIMUM firepower.

My average roll from at least 1 of my ravager shots is usually 11-13 damage.

It's not a powerful as the Executor II which typically rolls around 14-15 for the big ravager shot.

I 've sank a liberty in a single shot with the Ravager lol it's a lot of fun.

4 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I mean, you'd be surprised with this build.

Ravager granting 2 blue dice, and a 3rd from QBTs + SW7s means your shot is basing 7 damage before even accounting red dice... (±1 if you need leading shots for the reds) Tends to make short work of most things. Xi7s is there too to punish that hull zone with MAXIMUM firepower.

My average roll from at least 1 of my ravager shots is usually 11-13 damage.

It's not a powerful as the Executor II which typically rolls around 14-15 for the big ravager shot.

I 've sank a liberty in a single shot with the Ravager lol it's a lot of fun.

... As long as you're not the Liberty

8 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

... As long as you're not the Liberty

To be fair, he was using pre-nerf raddus he should have been able to avoid the attack.

I JJ'd hard after he deployed it so his Liberty was at point blank in the front arc with nowhere to run. It got it's little shot off on my SSD but suffered my wrath first activation the next round. As well as a pelta and a hammer head.

800 point games are so fun.

What would be better on the SSD, GT or the new weapons team ability that allows you to return salvo fire?

Locally, it feels slightly too good for its points. But just barely. Not enough that we’d nerf it.

we’ve also had one SSD destroyed halfway through turn 3. So it’s probably fine from our experience?

17 minutes ago, Wulff_Yularen said:

What would be better on the SSD, GT or the new weapons team ability that allows you to return salvo fire?

Gunnery Team. Hands down.

SSD not a huge fan of Onager.

3 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

No thoughts, just, anecdotally: 3 of the top 5 (1st, 2nd and 5th) at Calgary Prime event were SSD lists...

Excellent. It’s good to hear that perhaps our experience is NOT typical... we want it to be competitive at 400 points, it just seems far too easy to kill the bloody thing!

2 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

...I think you should also be aware that if your opponent knows you're bringing an SSD, they're likely building their fleet to kill an SSD. Mix up which lists you play. Matches should be double blind.

Of course. In most of the games we’ve played, we intentionally brought fleets that had had some success against other lists in the past. Now, there was definitely considerable excitement about flying the thing, so we had a better-than-average guess about it coming out to play for a couple of weeks, but it wasn’t like we were going out and building SSD-killer fleets.

In my case, I was hot on Ackbar at the time, so I dragged out a couple variations on fun old Ackbar lists (something along the lines of H1MC-80, AFMkII-B, GR75, one time with a TRC-90 & a light squadron screen, one time with no TRC-90 & more squadrons. I don’t typically feel comfortable without at least a few fighters).

In any event, I found that (particularly with initiative) it was super easy to conga line toward the SSD, then just turn away in such a fashion that he could rarely muster more than a couple long-range shots, while I consistently was able to fire a much bigger long range (sometimes medium) blast, then march back into long range again, peppering him with those big Rebel broadsides as he ineffectually gave chase, Engine Teching my MC-80 as necessary.

I hope I’m wrong, but—in addition to what it has to deal with now—the SSD seems (in my head) to be hopelessly weak against the upcoming StarHawk (especially one that’s using the Magnite Tractor Beam and the speed zero, use my defense token anyway nonsense).

It also feels like the SSD shouldn’t have to choose between Gunnery Teams and a Salvo token. It should have one natively.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Ravager granting 2 blue dice, and a 3rd from QBTs + SW7s means your shot is basing 7 damage before even accounting red dice... (±1 if you need leading shots for the reds) Tends to make short work of most things. Xi7s is there too to punish that hull zone with MAXIMUM firepower.

Ravager grants 1 dice? Unless you are assuming dial + token for the shot? But even so, it requires the die already be there, so you aren't getting blue dice at long range unless QBT triggers, which won't happen if I'm at speed 1, too, because I'm camping an objective for VPs. (And how that adds up to 7 I'm beyond understanding...)

36 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Ravager grants 1 dice? Unless you are assuming dial + token for the shot? But even so, it requires the die already be there, so you aren't getting blue dice at long range unless QBT triggers, which won't happen if I'm at speed 1, too, because I'm camping an objective for VPs. (And how that adds up to 7 I'm beyond understanding...)

I mean, this seemed like a simple set up for the SSD but I'll broadstroke a little. Essentially you have



5 red 4 blue as your base front attack. Run nothing but confire dials. With engineering captain, you'll always be able to draw engineering when you need it and JJ can cover navigation. This list typically has a coms net gozzer running nearby, so use it to give nav tokens. Deploy at speed 2. Best case they're at speed 2-3 so you can slow down when you're in black range beginning of round 2-3. Worst case, they turtle and you have to close the gap. Not hard to do with JJ and a 14" ship base. Either way achieving blue range usually isn't hard.


As for the dice layout, I'm running confires as stated above. SSDs get dial and token upon reveal. so Base [5 red 4 blue] + Ravager dial and token [+2 blue] + Qbts [if applicable+1] = 5 red 7 blue... SW7s makes that 7 blue = 7 damage no matter what I roll... Needless to say if they're at speed 1 I've already won. In my experience nothing gets chewed up faster than a ship trying to turtle from an SSD.

14 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

5 red 4 blue as your base front attack. Run nothing but confire dials. With engineering captain, you'll always be able to draw engineering when you need it and JJ can cover navigation. This list typically has a coms net gozzer running nearby, so use it to give nav tokens. Deploy at speed 2. Best case they're at speed 2-3 so you can slow down when you're in black range beginning of round 2-3. Worst case, they turtle and you have to close the gap. Not hard to do with JJ and a 14" ship base. Either way achieving blue range usually isn't hard.


As for the dice layout, I'm running confires as stated above. SSDs get dial and token upon reveal. so Base [5 red 4 blue] + Ravager dial and token [+2 blue] + Qbts [if applicable+1] = 5 red 7 blue... SW7s makes that 7 blue = 7 damage no matter what I roll... Needless to say if they're at speed 1 I've already won. In my experience nothing gets chewed up faster than a ship trying to turtle from an SSD.

Ah, I see - you are assuming it gets to blue dice range, that wasn't a comment on long-range attacks. Got it.

What's a typical full build like that look like? IE., what sort of bid does it use to ensure it gets a workable objective?

Just now, xanderf said:

Ah, I see - you are assuming it gets to blue dice range, that wasn't a comment on long-range attacks. Got it.

What's a typical full build like that look like? IE., what sort of bid does it use to ensure it gets a workable objective?

I've run this with great success.

SSD list V2

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 374/400

Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Assault Objective: Surprise Attack
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Star Dreadnought Assault Prototype (250 points)
- Moff Jerjerrod ( 23 points)
- Ravager ( 4 points)
- Captain Brunson ( 5 points)
- Damage Control Officer ( 5 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- SW-7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 320 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Admiral Titus ( 2 points)
- Repair Crews ( 4 points)
= 29 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

= 0 total squadron cost

26 pt bid? Jibbers crabst!

Still, looking at the Regional Data, gut feeling is we're certain for a JJ-SSD nerf. Only 16% of lists using that combo (still, wow) but he makes up nearly 1/4 of top-10% results? That's a bigger swing then pre-nerf Rieekan or Demo ever had!

I think that'll tone things down a bit when JJ is clarified to only work on 'large-base or smaller' (or something along those lines)….

18 minutes ago, xanderf said:

26 pt bid? Jibbers crabst!

Still, looking at the Regional Data, gut feeling is we're certain for a JJ-SSD nerf. Only 16% of lists using that combo (still, wow) but he makes up nearly 1/4 of top-10% results? That's a bigger swing then pre-nerf Rieekan or Demo ever had!

I think that'll tone things down a bit when JJ is clarified to only work on 'large-base or smaller' (or something along those lines)….

Eh, Maybe. Honestly I've had great success with it, but it's also been BTFO'd by Squad balls and Mc30s and a very well placed Raddus did it in too. We'll see.