I think the main gist is straightforward enough.  I think the Tel Travura/IG88B pair could be pretty damaging for its cost.  The Raider could back them up or chase after small ships trying to get behind the Onager.

Interdoctor Onager

Author: mj10982
Faction: Empire
Commander: General Romodi

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[flagship] Interdictor-Class Suppression Refit (90)
- General Romodi (20)
- Interdictor (3)
- Targeting Scrambler (5)
- Grav Shift Reroute (2)
- Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
- Wulff Yularen (7)
- Projection Experts (6)
= 145 points

Onager-Class Star Destroyer (110)
- Cataclysm (5)
- Commander Vanto (7)
- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers (7)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
- Veteran Gunners (5)
- Weapons Battery Techs (5)
= 146 points

Raider I-Class Corvette (44)
- Corvus (2)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
- Iden Versio (6)
- Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
- Ordnance Experts (4)
= 66 points

1 IG-88B (21)
1 Tel Trevura (17)
= 38 points

You won't need dcaps on your raider unless it's a raider 2. Raiders are fragile and I wouldn't count on you getting close enough to deliver those concussion missiles. Raiders have no redirect, so all it takes is 6 damage and you're toast. Maybe external racks instead?

With Romodi, you could swap the raider for an assault gozanti, with comms net. It could generate the tokens you need for Cataclysm and you could then swap Vanto for a strategic advisor which gives you another activation.

Leftover points could go towards more squadrons, or a second gozanti.

What about my squadrons? Its a new idea I have. Doesn't need a ship to activate and could deal alot of damage for its cost.

It looks like it has potential. The question is, if you're running 2 squads and you don't have easy ways of activating them, is it better than Bossk/Zertik? Zertik's double brace and permanent Escort make him a pain to knock out. He'll hold up an enemy squad attack for a turn or two. Bossk hits like a truck, especially once he's damaged. Zertik can ping Bossk for 1 damage to get a reroll on his attack, and then Bossk gets 5 dice (4 black) against squads and 3 dice (!) against ships.

I am a huge Bosskonite.

IG88B can throw three die (1 blue and 2 black) at every squadron at distance 1 when the squadron phase starts. Tel has escort with a green token and can recover 3 hull when he discards one even if he dies.

1 hour ago, Mj10982 said:

IG88B can throw three die (1 blue and 2 black) at every squadron at distance 1 when the squadron phase starts. Tel has escort with a green token and can recover 3 hull when he discards one even if he dies.

It’s not a bad idea at all. I do wonder how often if will happen, especially if an opponent gets an X-Wing cozied up to IG-88B, since it’s now been ruled that Escort does put a damper on his super attack.

I think I love this idea as a component of a medium fighter wing... maybe Tel, IggyB, Mauler & Dengar? Tel, IG-88B, Ciena & Valen? Tel, IG-88B, Zertik & Bossk? Tel, IG-88B, and Hondo on Slave 1, to push an Escort away from Iggy, or draw another target in close to him?

Just Tel & IG-88B feels like it would go one of two ways; either you get lucky on the opponent’s alpha, and he can’t take Trevura down, and IG can do his awesome thing, or Tel gets nailed hard and folds early, and you’re screwed. Also, it’s kind of difficult to protect one squadron with just one escort. There are times when the opponent will simply jump over/past Trevura and swarm Iggy from the other side, killing him before he can do his thing, but a second strong Escort like Zertik could help prevent that. I know this is all many more points than you want to spend, though.

7 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

I think the main gist is straightforward enough.  I think the Tel Travura/IG88B pair could be pretty damaging for its cost.  The Raider could back them up or chase after small ships trying to get behind the Onager.

Interdoctor Onager

Author: mj10982
Faction: Empire
Commander: General Romodi

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[flagship] Interdictor-Class Suppression Refit (90)
- General Romodi (20)
- Interdictor (3)
- Targeting Scrambler (5)
- Grav Shift Reroute (2)
- Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
- Wulff Yularen (7)
- Projection Experts (6)
= 145 points

Onager-Class Star Destroyer (110)
- Cataclysm (5)
- Commander Vanto (7)
- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers (7)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
- Veteran Gunners (5)
- Weapons Battery Techs (5)
= 146 points

Raider I-Class Corvette (44)
- Corvus (2)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
- Iden Versio (6)
- Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
- Ordnance Experts (4)
= 66 points

1 IG-88B (21)
1 Tel Trevura (17)
= 38 points

Ok, so to go along with my thoughts on squadron composition in the above post, I’d suggest some aggressive cuts. Let me get my scalpel. And my chainsaw. 😉

First: what’s your main plan for the Interdictor? If it’s that you want to spam Engineering and feed shields to the OSD, I would cut Vanto, move Wulff to the OSD (if you really need tokens for it, but I don’t think you do... we’ll address that in a moment), and put Taskmaster Grint (set to Engineering) on the Interdictor.

The advantages here are that you save 2 points, and you don’t need to use Vanto (he seems versatile, but he’s really clunky and difficult to use, since you can only gain the token you want after you execute your first command of a turn. So there will be times when you really wanted a token of a particular type early in your activation, but by the time you actually execute a command, and get your bonus token, you’ll have passed all of the windows to use that token, and it won’t help you until the following turn).

i think you can do better than this, however.

Your Onager really shouldn’t need tokens of any particular type very badly. Cataclysm is excellent for the first turn strike with Tarkin or Hondo, but I generally find it to be fairly useless after that; if you place your Ignotion token carefully after each move, you’ll probably get good shots on most enemy ships anyway. 9 times out of 10 when I go to use Cataclysm after turn 1, I find that I already have my token in a pretty optimal spot, and moving it doesn’t help me at all. It’s a crutch that really doesn’t give you a ton of value after that first turn, and since you aren’t even set up to do the first turn attack, I would leave it. Once you drop Cataclysm, you no longer have much need for a token generator, so you can drop Wulff/Vanto, too. If you already put Grint on the Interdictor instead, you just saved 14 points.

Now, as flatpackhamster pointed out, Raider-Is don’t need Disposable Capacitors, so there’s another 3 points. I also like the idea of ACMs, HIEs, and SCBTs all working on the enemy’s shields (and eventually, hull), but the Raider isn’t likely to last beyond one close ranged attack (depending on the target), so I think you might get just as much mileage out of External Racks here. So that gets you another 4 points. That’s 21 so far.

Now, unless I miscounted, you have a 5 point bid. Maybe that works for you. Kinda depends on how deep your opponents tend to go. Me, I say that a 5-point bid is a bid that says, “I don’t really care if I win the bid or not,” and if that’s the case, consider using those points up! If you do, you’re at 26.

NOW we’re down to it. As I see it, you’re really down to just a few cards that you could cut, and you may or may not want to. Corvus is great for two points, but is it necessary here? Likewise, I love Iden, but my theory with her is that I don’t use her unless I’m also going for first player, or I’m putting her on an HIEs & DCaps-equipped Raider-II. Why? Because a Raider-I with no serious bid is a suicide Raider. You’re likely to get one good punch in with it, and then it’s toast, and even Iden probably won’t save it. With a bid, you can last/first and jump away, and she may help you survive the approach (or retreat), and on a Raider-II, she’s mainly squadron protection. But I don’t like her on that ship in this list. If you saw off Corvus and Iden, there’s another 8 points. That’s 34 points total.

Finally, we come to the OSD. Veteran Gunners, Weapons Battery Techs, and Linked Turbolaser Towers are all good here, but (if you wanted to) you could probably cut one or two of them and be okay. Which one(s)? I leave it to you, but I think it’s a little more dice control than you need. Certainly, you could also keep all three, but let’s see what else you might want to do with all those points we saved (if, that is, you took the other suggestions).

34 points buys you Valen & Cienna, and gives you a 4-point rebate to get back something you didn’t want to get rid of, like maybe Corvus or something. If you can find just one more point, Dengar & Mauler are 35 points.

For exactly 33 points, you can get Black Squadron and Hondo, giving you another (weak) Escort and some nasty/interesting deactivation/forced movement shenanigans with Hondo. For the same price, 3 TIE Interceptors... hard to command with your fleet, but Counter 2 makes for a damaging, if fragile, fighter screen.

If you can be really tough-minded about it, you could slice off one of the two Weapons Teams or LTTs from the OSD, giving you another few points (either 39 or 41). Doing that would allow you to buy a really badassed squadron addition, like Maarek & Jendon (41points, and ALWAYS FANTASTIC), or Bossk & Zertik (38 points, and man, do I like them with IG-88B & Tel Trevura). You could also do something like Valen, Ciena, and Black Squadron.

Just some ideas. I feel like the two squads you chose are a cool combo, but they’re gonna go a lot farther if they have some decent support and other nasty backup squads. and remember, it might feel like you’re giving up a little bit of punch from your ships, but squadrons like Bossk or Maarek & Jendon can kill ships dead!

9 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

IG88B can throw three die (1 blue and 2 black) at every squadron at distance 1 when the squadron phase starts. Tel has escort with a green token and can recover 3 hull when he discards one even if he dies.

Re: IG88B IF he's activated at the right time and IF the enemy squadrons are kind enough to be in the right spot.

I'm not saying he isn't good. I'm saying that it's hard to make him work to his full potential when there's lots of other stuff that could go wrong to stop that happening.

Went with a more familiar squadron setup. Im keeping veteran gunners in case I get bad roll.  My setup depends on a successful shot against my opponents biggest ship.  Using a gozanti as a token feeder.  I want to use the Cataclysm title to ensure I can get a shot off at what I want to hit.

Interdoctor Onager



Author: mj10982

Faction: Empire

Commander: General Romodi



Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona



Interdictor-Class Suppression Refit (90)

- Interdictor (3)

- Targeting Scrambler (5)

- Grav Shift Reroute (2)

- Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

- Disposable Capacitors (3)

- Wulff Yularen (7)

- Projection Experts (6)

= 125 points



[flagship] Onager-Class Star Destroyer (110)

- General Romodi (20)

- Cataclysm (5)

- Intel Officer (7)

- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers (7)

- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

- Veteran Gunners (5)

- Weapons Battery Techs (5)

= 166 points



Gozanti-Class Cruisers (23)

- Comms Net (2)

- Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 27 points



Gozanti-Class Cruisers (23)

- Suppressor (4)

- Electronic Countermeasures (7)

- Slicer Tools (7)

- Minister Tua (2)

= 43 points



1 Ciena Ree (17)

1 Valen Rudor (13)

= 30 points

Pretty solid. I might consider different objectives, however, given that Romodi is your Commander. He’s strong anyway, but exceptionally so when you have some control over the obstacle placement. Try looking for objectives like Infested Fields and Asteroid Tactics, which let you place more obstacles than the opponent (or ideally, all of the obstacles). Romodi shines in such lists. Good luck!

You're probably right. I don't have a lot of experience playing with objectives.

My take, before reading this thread:

Romodi Onager
Author: Gilarius

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: General Romodi

Assault Objective: Blockade Run
Defense Objective: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

Onager-class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
- Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons ( 5 points)
= 136 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- General Romodi ( 20 points)
- Interdictor ( 3 points)
- Wulff Yularen ( 7 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- High-Capacity Ion Turbines ( 8 points)
- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)
- G-8 Experimental Projector ( 8 points)
= 147 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
= 61 total ship cost

3 Firespray-31s ( 54 points)
= 54 total squadron cost

I don't like the obp cannon because its easy for your opponent to avoid collateral damage. The SCBT can always be used. I also believe both gunnery slots should be used.

On 3/26/2020 at 12:31 PM, Gilarius said:

My take, before reading this thread:

Romodi Onager
Author: Gilarius

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: General Romodi

Assault Objective: Blockade Run
Defense Objective: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

Onager-class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
- Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons ( 5 points)
= 136 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- General Romodi ( 20 points)
- Interdictor ( 3 points)
- Wulff Yularen ( 7 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
- Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
- High-Capacity Ion Turbines ( 8 points)
- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)
- G-8 Experimental Projector ( 8 points)
= 147 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
= 61 total ship cost

3 Firespray-31s ( 54 points)
= 54 total squadron cost

Gunnery Team on an Onager? Why? So you can ignition attack a distant target AND use your front arc on a second target that has very politely parked itself in your front arc?

If your opponents are serving their ships up to you on platters like that, you should start playing them for money.

This may be a controversial opinion, but I personally think Gunnery Teams are a massively overused upgrade. They DO have places to be (several of them!), but off the top of my head, those places are as follows:

SSDs, ISD-IIs, Cymoon 1 ISDs, VSD-IIs, Liberty Cruisers, and *maybe* certain AFMkII builds. That’s pretty much it. Everything else either has no Weapons Team upgrade slot, or its most commonly used arc is either very narrow, throws too few dice to make GTs worth it, or the ship in general has a mission profile that just makes no sense with Gunnery Teams.

If there’s a strong argument to be made for Gunnery Teams on an Onager, I haven’t yet heard it. And in the games I’ve played with the Onager, I have wished for it exactly never. The ignition arc is so scary that opponents run from it like mad, and catching just one ship in the front arc is about all the Onager can do. The only explanation for Gunnery Teams on an Onager would be for the flak, and I really don’t think they’re worth it in that role. Especially when I look at that OSD and see that your entire dice control plan is LTTs. I don’t necessarily agree with the OP that both Weapons Team slots need to be filled on these ships, but I think you need at least one dice-fixing Weapons Team on that OSD.

14 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

I don't like the obp cannon because its easy for your opponent to avoid collateral damage. The SCBT can always be used. I also believe both gunnery slots should be used.

I am never a believer in using a slot just because it’s there. I think it’s totally feasible to only use one Weapons Team on an Onager and do quite well.

I’ll also say this about the Superweapon upgrades: I look at them as almost entirely blank, except for the “Ignition (Range):” text. The crit effects are underwhelming on both cards, though slightly better on the SCBTs... but you pay for that with decreased range, and the OBPCs can often net you another turn or two of shooting, and they’re cheaper. Don’t get hung up on the crit effects. They’re nice when they happen, and occasionally either one can be crippling for the opponent. But mostly it’s nuisance text.

6 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Gunnery Team on an Onager? Why? So you can ignition attack a distant target AND use your front arc on a second target that has very politely parked itself in your front arc?

If your opponents are serving their ships up to you on platters like that, you should start playing them for money.

This may be a controversial opinion, but I personally think Gunnery Teams are a massively overused upgrade. They DO have places to be (several of them!), but off the top of my head, those places are as follows:

SSDs, ISD-IIs, Cymoon 1 ISDs, VSD-IIs, Liberty Cruisers, and *maybe* certain AFMkII builds. That’s pretty much it. Everything else either has no Weapons Team upgrade slot, or its most commonly used arc is either very narrow, throws too few dice to make GTs worth it, or the ship in general has a mission profile that just makes no sense with Gunnery Teams.

If there’s a strong argument to be made for Gunnery Teams on an Onager, I haven’t yet heard it. And in the games I’ve played with the Onager, I have wished for it exactly never. The ignition arc is so scary that opponents run from it like mad, and catching just one ship in the front arc is about all the Onager can do. The only explanation for Gunnery Teams on an Onager would be for the flak, and I really don’t think they’re worth it in that role. Especially when I look at that OSD and see that your entire dice control plan is LTTs. I don’t necessarily agree with the OP that both Weapons Team slots need to be filled on these ships, but I think you need at least one dice-fixing Weapons Team on that OSD.

I've now played that fleet in a game; first time I used either the OSD or the Interdictor. I lost due to poor deployment. Otherwise, it wasn't too poor a fleet. Admonition one-shotted my Arquitens after I had to drop it in a silly place to be able to move my bigger ships; then the Interdictor got focussed down by Mon Karren and Admo and a CR90 as it ended up too far in front of the OSD.

Gunnery Team is ok on an Onager. Having played against one twice and now used it once, people do avoid the superweapon like crazy (with justification) however, as with all 'front arc' ships, it's very nice to be able to shoot twice; the Onager also has decent side arcs, and ships can end up in the same side arc very frequently whilst avoiding the front. It also depends on how many ships you tend to face: vs few ships, Gunnery Teams is less important; vs MSU, GT is very good. Apart from that, I agree with your list of suitable ships.

However, GT is also a threat: get 2 ships out of my arc, I can shoot both! If they have had to take evasive manoeuvres, you can win without actually using the GT to shoot with.

Changes I want to make: switch the Interdictor for a Testbed Onager with Engine Techs and run it around the mat! Two superweapons should be a lot harder to avoid! Might need a different Admiral though.

4 hours ago, Gilarius said:

I've now played that fleet in a game; first time I used either the OSD or the Interdictor. I lost due to poor deployment. Otherwise, it wasn't too poor a fleet. Admonition one-shotted my Arquitens after I had to drop it in a silly place to be able to move my bigger ships; then the Interdictor got focussed down by Mon Karren and Admo and a CR90 as it ended up too far in front of the OSD.

Gunnery Team is ok on an Onager. Having played against one twice and now used it once, people do avoid the superweapon like crazy (with justification) however, as with all 'front arc' ships, it's very nice to be able to shoot twice; the Onager also has decent side arcs, and ships can end up in the same side arc very frequently whilst avoiding the front. It also depends on how many ships you tend to face: vs few ships, Gunnery Teams is less important; vs MSU, GT is very good. Apart from that, I agree with your list of suitable ships.

However, GT is also a threat: get 2 ships out of my arc, I can shoot both! If they have had to take evasive manoeuvres, you can win without actually using the GT to shoot with.

Changes I want to make: switch the Interdictor for a Testbed Onager with Engine Techs and run it around the mat! Two superweapons should be a lot harder to avoid! Might need a different Admiral though.

Interesting. I’m still very lukewarm about GTs on Onagers, and even less so, perhaps, because I tend to run OTBs over OSDs. As weak as I think GTs are on OSDs, they’re really bad on OTBs.

I would think that for what you’re describing, Romodi would be perfect!

4 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Interesting. I’m still very lukewarm about GTs on Onagers, and even less so, perhaps, because I tend to run OTBs over OSDs. As weak as I think GTs are on OSDs, they’re really bad on OTBs.

I would think that for what you’re describing, Romodi would be perfect!

Romodi triggered 3 times. Moff Jerjerrod would have got me 3 more shots with my superweapon!

And allowed me to avoid losing the Arquitens before it ever got a shot off.

I did deploy badly though, and still rammed myself just to get a single superweapon shot at all.

I tried out my double Onager fleet this evening.

Testbed with Long range Ignition, Intel Officer, Varnillian, Engine Techs.

Onager SD with Jerjerrod, Intel Officer, Gunnery Team, LTT, Long range Ignition.

Arquitens with LTT.

3 Firesprays.

Vs Agate Starhawk, MC80 Battle Cruiser, CR90, and Comms Net Transport. Playing his Planetary Ion Cannon since my 4pt bid beat his 3pt bid.

I deployed much better, flanked with the testbed, Jerry got it to turn nicely to cover both the Starhawk and the MC80 approach. Jerry also got the Arquitens into and then out of long-range of his big ships, eating up an Ion shot plus one long-range shot from the MC80 (and 2 Salvo shots) and getting to run away on 3 hull.

Any other commander would have meant it dying and the Testbed being a turn behind and failing to shoot effectively. However I didn't use him again: 3 uses only.

My flagship bore the brunt of his attacks and died in turn 4 after dropping the Hawk, leaving the MC80 on 5 hull remaining, which the Testbed removed immediately. Meanwhile Salvo left the CR90 on 2 hull and the Firesprays finished it off.

They did a total of 10 damage between them, mostly into the Starhawk. I got 8 Ignition shots in, 4 without reply, albeit using only red dice. The Hawk had lost all of its shields and 2 defense tokens by the time it got to shoot at all.

I'll be trying that again soon! If it carries on being good, I might have to buy a 2nd Onager. TTS is good for testing ships you don't own.

The Testbed really doesn't need Gunnery Team, but the OSD likes them a lot.