Trying my first onager build. We play with a bit more points than usual.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 450/450

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Objectives ignored... we play a campaign

Imperial Star Destroyer Cymoon 1 Refit (112 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Director Krennic ( 8 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Quad Turbolaser Cannons ( 10 points)
- Take Evasive Action! ( 6 points)
= 158 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Onager-class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
- Cataclysm ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- Gunnery Chief Varnillian ( 6 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers ( 7 points)
= 171 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Suppressor ( 4 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 33 total ship cost

3 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 33 points)
1 Howlrunner ( 16 points)
1 Black Squadron ( 9 points)
1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
1 Saber Squadron ( 12 points)
= 88 total squadron cost

The idea is to have absolute squadron superiority and then use Sloane to decimate the defense tokens of opposing rebel ships. Cymoon and Onager should synergize at long range with the (albeit expensive) upgrades on the Cymoon allowing for a wide range of red dice shenannigans. 🙂

Not sure about gunnery chief Varnillan, whether she's a worthwhile upgrade, or not?

Thoughts?

My feeling is that Sloane doesn't pair very well with your fleet, which really wants Romodi or Thrawn. Sloane wants max squadrons and ships dedicated to commanding them.

I think your squadrons are certain to get killed by a heavy enemy fighter wing and pretty certain to get tied up by a light wing. No Intel, for example.

Your Cymoon is geared for generating piles of accuracies, so if you can accuracy enemy tokens why try to spend them using Sloane?

I would be tempted to run Intensify Firepower instead of TEA to give you extra damage. You have no easy source of tokens if you are planning to use your Gozanti for commanding squads. It can't toss tokens AND command squads in the same turn and you need to be commanding squads every turn with Sloane, that's the point.

Same applies to Cymoon - you have Krennic who demands one kind of dial, but you have boosted Comms which wants a second and your fleet command wants a third.

My personal feeling is that the Star Destroyer version of the Onager is maaaybe worth the extra points over the testbed, but only maybe.

I can see where you're trying to go with this but I think it's two different fleet ideas who ran in to each other at a bar and decided to hook up, and it isn't a good match.

Thanks for the input.. here's a modified version with a more streamlined approach, let's say. I've removed squadrons and added two more "obstacle" ships. Also removed Avenger as it doesn't work without Sloane in this fleet.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 450/450

Commander: General Romodi

Imperial Star Destroyer Cymoon 1 Refit (112 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Director Krennic ( 8 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Quad Turbolaser Cannons ( 10 points)
- Intensify Firepower! ( 6 points)
= 152 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Onager-class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- General Romodi ( 20 points)
- Cataclysm ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- Gunnery Chief Varnillian ( 6 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers ( 7 points)
= 167 total ship cost

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

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Insidious ( 3 points)
= 59 total ship cost

Raider I-Class Corvette (44 points)
- Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
= 47 total ship cost

Is the intention to use the raider as your main anti-squad defence? If so, my experience has been that it's really hard getting the anti-squad defence to where it needs to be. (It could be mostly me though).

That was the idea... to be both anti squadron and potential obstacle.. Maybe I should remove it and throw in 4-5 Ties instead.

If you have your raider escorting your ISD on one side of it, it's fairly easy for enemy fighters to jump across to the other side of the ISD to shoot at it, and your raider can't do that, so it can be a pain to get that otherwise-excellent flak working.

Some TIEs would work (Howlrunner and 3 TIE fighters, for example), or a pair of VT-49 decimators which are hard as nails and don't need commanding (but are heavy). Or Bossk and Zertik Strom for 38pts, which give you the power to tie down enemy fighters (with Zertik) and to protect Bossk while he wails on enemy fighters with 4 black dice (plus a blue set to accuracy once he gets injured).

On 6/9/2020 at 6:50 PM, Hamanu1 said:

Thanks for the input.. here's a modified version with a more streamlined approach, let's say. I've removed squadrons and added two more "obstacle" ships. Also removed Avenger as it doesn't work without Sloane in this fleet.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 450/450

Commander: General Romodi

Imperial Star Destroyer Cymoon 1 Refit (112 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Director Krennic ( 8 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Quad Turbolaser Cannons ( 10 points)
- Intensify Firepower! ( 6 points)
= 152 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Onager-class Star Destroyer (110 points)
- General Romodi ( 20 points)
- Cataclysm ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Weapons Battery Techs ( 5 points)
- Gunnery Chief Varnillian ( 6 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
- Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolasers ( 7 points)
= 167 total ship cost

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

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Insidious ( 3 points)
= 59 total ship cost

Raider I-Class Corvette (44 points)
- Agent Kallus ( 3 points)
= 47 total ship cost

I more-or-less agree with @flatpackhamster , but would add a couple things:

1. Insidious is an underrated little title, and I like it, but the first GSD in a list is always and forever Demolisher; it’s an upgrade that pretty much breaks the basic rules of the game, and it’s well worth the extra 7 points.

2. Ordnance Experts on that GSD. I understand this is a Romodi fleet, and you’re hoping to get those reds working for you, but there’s just nothing like following up a front-arc red dice jab with a black dice broadside haymaker, and you definitely have the points to get Demolisher and Ordnance Experts onto that GSD. I would also strongly recommend External Racks on both the Raider and the GSD. ExRax can even provide punch against squadrons, but I definitely fall into the “Raiders aren’t an effective anti-squadron plan” camp; they’re just far too easy to fly around, and even if they do catch an enemy squadron ball, most serious bomber fleets will wreck a Raider in about one turn, thank you for the points, and then ALSO go kill the primary target. That Raider will need to help kill ships.

3. I agree with @flatpackhamster that the OSD (Onager Star Destroyer) is maybe only a little better than the OTB (Testbed). If you’re looking for a place to make cuts and get some extra points, I would start by either “downgrading” to a Testbed, or removing a couple of upgrades from the OSD (or both), as it’s fairly over-upgraded.

4. The superweapon on your Onager... in most cases, I think the Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannon (OBPC) has a slight edge over the Superheavy Composite Beam Turbolaser (SCBT), but in a Romodi fleet, I think the OBPC is far and away the better choice. It’s simple geometry; the farther away you can fire, the better the chance that something will be obstructing your shots, and the more chances you’ll get to make that happen.