Imperial Fleet for Kirton Armada Store Championship

[Jonathan]

I'm due to be taking part in Kirton Games' Star Wars Armada tournament next week but I have been struggling to decide on a list. Also, it doesn't look like I will get an opportunity to play any practice games beforehand either.

With that in mind, I thought it would be best if I stick with something similar to what I know and came up with the following, which is a variation on what I started the Corellian Campaign with:

Admiral: Darth Vader
Flagship: Imperial 2 Star Destroyer
- Avenger
- Reinforced Blast Doors
- Gunnery Team
- Disposable Capacitors

Victory 1 Star Destroyer
- Boarding Troopers

Victory 1 Star Destroyer
- Boarding Troopers

Gozanti-class Cruisers
- Boosted Comms

Squadrons:
3 TIE Interceptors
Jumpmaster 5000

TOTAL = 400pts

I liked the bombers but decided to drop them in favour of making the ships better. With fewer squadrons, I didn't think I needed the Lamda shuttle either. I went for Interceptors over Fighters because of their Counter attack meaning they should tie up enemy squadrons better. The Jumpmaster I wasn't sure about, but I'm hoping it's Intel ability may be useful and it is marginally tougher than the Interceptors. I could swap one Interceptor and the Jumpaster for Bossk, but I'm worried he will be swamped by every fighter my opponent has with nothing else to occupy them.

I haven't decided on which mission cards to include either.

I was also tempted to do something very different and have a fighter list based around the new Admiral Sloane and Imperial Light Carrier, but haven't quite decided on a list for that yet.

Any opinions from other Armada players, either on the list or tactics or problems I might encounter?

[Gareth]

Speed is going to be the big problem - along with maneuverability. The victorys may struggle to get into range to use the troopers - but could be a nasty surprise for anyone daring to close in.

Interceptors definitely a good go to for random imperial fighter support, but i think the jumpmaster is kind of superfluous. You're right that Bossk would just get swamped, but perhaps if the fighters are just there as a screen it would be worth aiming for cheap and numerous and go for standard TIE L/N?

The boosted coms on the gozantis also seems kinda wasted if you have so few Ties to begin with. Perhaps slicer tools and ............name escapes me.... title that exhausts defence tokens.... that one anyway.

[Jonathan]

Yeah speed is always an issue when Victory's are involved. I'm planning to keep the fleet in close formation with the Victory's on either end and advance everything at speed 1 (or 2 if I'm feeling adventurous) and let them come into range, which they will do at some point.

I could swap all the fighters for 5 TIE squadrons and then have 5pts left over for something else. My only worry with basic TIE's is they can be easily destroyed before firing a shot, whereas the Interceptors at least get a shot back. I could go for 4 TIE's and 1 Interceptor, which would leave me 2pts for Captain Needa

I took the Boosted Comms because I expect most of the time the Gozanti will be the only ship doing squadron commands and I expect the fighters to outstrip the other ships pretty quickly. If I decide to use them just as a screen though, the Boosted Comms will be unnecessary. I might try it without as the squadrons shouldn't end up out of range for more than a turn before the ships catch up. The 'Suppressor' title is the same points as the comms and would definitely fit my fleet, I'll just have to remember to use it (I missed every opportunity to use it during the campaign!). Slicer Tools are something I haven't used before but look nice if I can find the required points.

Thanks for the feedback, has given me some stuff to think about.

[Scotty]

Commsnet might be a better bet for the Gozanti, help you make sure you've got nav or engineering tokens on the big ships when you need them.

For the same reason, Aresko or Yularen might be a good addition to the ISD instead of the Capacitors (though you'd need to find 4 more points from somewhere...)

[Jonathan]

I've just re-read the capacitors card and it is small and medium ships only, so I'll have to drop it. Shame, as the possibility of attacking twice out the front arc at long range with 8 dice would have been awesome (probably why its not allowed!). This does save me 3pts though.

I don't think my fleet is too reliant on tokens, as I will be using Vader to re-roll any attack roll I can spare the defence token for, whilst with only a few squadrons they won't need much commanding. The CommsNet might be worth it though, just requires you to have the token already banked on the Gozanti if I understand it right.

Intel Officer would be nice if I can find the points for him, as he will combo well with the Avenger title. The Tractor Pylons would help out a lot too with the speed issue. External Racks would be a good cheap upgrade for the Victory's. I think whatever I choose it needs to be something I will remember to use, so it might be better to go for something more basic even if it isn't the most effective. After all, if I don't use upgrades I've paid the points for then the points are effectively wasted!

[Richard]

An inquisition club member has been encouraging me to play resulting in me playing a lot of imperials to fight his rebel fleets. Last night we tried out the new carrier and Admiral Sloane to great effect. Here's the list if you're interested. The squadron ball was hilarious.

Gladiator 1st class with Sloane, Admiral Montferrat, Demolisher title, Ordnance experts, Assault proton torpedoes, Engine techs.

Gozanti with Suppressor title, minister Tua, ECM, Expanded hanger bay, bomber command

Gozanti assault carrier (the other one), expanded hanger bay, comms net.

Quasar with stronghold title, expanded hanger bay, boarding troops

Mauler Mithel
Howlrunner
Dengar
4x Tie interceptor squadrons
4x Tie bomber squadrons

Missions are Most wanted, Fighter ambush and Superior positions.

Dengar stacked with Howlrunner meant the interceptors were effectively counter 4 and usually obstructed due to the stronghold title. The ships were a little awkward because of how much they wanted to bunch up and you might want boosted comms instead of expanded hanger bays on one of the gozanti but that makes activating all the squadrons a little harder.

Sloane seems a very useful admiral when bringing enough squadrons to really benefit from her abilities. All those squadrons with a single blue die against ships suddenly get a lot better when they spend tokens and get a reroll. It definitely works best with high volume though.

I quite like the original Vader list but as you point out, disposable capacitors are for small to medium ships only. That does mean that Victories can take them and a Vic II can put on a very respectable showing with them. Having tried boarding troops I'm not convinced about their usefulness due to the proximity needed to utilise them. However there's no denying how brutal they become in concert with an ISD using the avenger title.

Best of luck for the Kirton event.

[Scotty]

With the victories, I'd think you'd always want your dial to be nav to get your extra click of yaw. A bit of token manipulation lets you keep doing that, but still get to do some light repairs (which you'll probably need if you're spending all your defence tokens on re-rolls).

That's a shame about the boarding troops being a bit naff Richard, I'm hoping to try out a list with a few raiders loaded with them, as they want to get in close anyway.

[Richard]

I think it may have in part down to the rest of the list but to capitalise on boarding troops you need to have a ship that will start close to the enemy and something to follow up. So in an Avenger list they'll probably be pretty good but my odd mix of carriers with just a gladiator to provide the punch it didn't have quite the same impact. On the other hand I did win both games I got into the evening.

Being able to spend enemy defence tokens is really powerful but you still need to be able to do enough damage.

[Jonathan]

I think that's why they will work on the Victory 1's, as if I get to use them whilst I have the enemy in my front arc they will face 3red/3black dice with 3 of their defence tokens flipped over. This means they either have to burn their braces/redirects or suffer the potentially horrendous damage that dice combo can put out. One of the weaknesses of the Victory 1 is that with no blue dice you are less likely to get accuracy results and I often find I roll up 6 damage but it gets braced and their potential gets wasted. The Boarding Trooper should mitigate this a bit.

I like the Sloane list, especially with the Dengar/Howlrunner combo. I was thinking something vaguely similar but with a Victory in place of the Gladiator, or possibly 2 Light cruisers, and a bit less upgrades and squadrons.

I'll see if I can rejig my list tonight and post up an amended version.

[Richard]

The gladiator is a speedy and (due to Montferrat) quite tricky ship to shoot down at distance plus demolisher means that it can zip forwards and deliver some pain. It gave the list some threat projection.

The Dengar+Howlrunner combo with interceptors was amazing but it does sort of require more than a couple of squadrons to feel like you're taking full advantage of the list benefits. Basic ties could also work but the sheer firepower of them be in the active turn or countering is just so punishing. It's only 3pts per squadron difference so I can't justify not taking interceptors. (Model collection is probably more of a deciding factor.)

I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Jonathan]

Well I have done some tweaking and the list looks like this now. I've also chosen some objectives.

Objectives: Dangerous Territory; Most Wanted; Contested Outpost

Admiral: Darth Vader
Flagship: Imperial 2 Star Destroyer
- Avenger
- Reinforced Blast Doors
- Gunnery Team
- SW-7 Ion Batteries

Victory 1 Star Destroyer
- Boarding Troopers

Victory 1 Star Destroyer
- Boarding Troopers

Gozanti-class Cruisers
- Supressor
- Comms Net

Squadrons:
3 TIE Interceptors
1 TIE Fighter

TOTAL = 400pts

As you can see it's pretty much the same, just a few minor adjustments. I decided to go for the SW-7 Ion Batteries in the hope I could push a bit more damage through with them as I often have unused accuracy results with the ISD2 due to the Avenger title (I'm assuming you can choose NOT to use the accuracy results to cancel defence tokens). Plus it will work on every attack as it doesn't have to be exhausted/discarded. Suppressor obviously combos well with Avenger (just need to remember to use it) and the Comms Net is something I haven't used before but looks worth a try for 2pts. I'd still prefer the TIE Interceptor over the Fighter, but hopefully I can use my lone fighter to tie up dedicated bombers that don't have the firepower to blow it away in one turn.

[Jonathan]

Well the tournament went pretty well as I came 6th out of 16 players, not bad for my first Armada tournament. Thanks again for the advice which turned out to be very helpful.

Won the fist two games by reasonable margins but the last game was a bit frustrating as my opponent just ran around my slower ships and won by killing off my squadrons and collecting more objective tokens. We played out the whole game but it was largely pointless by turn 3 onwards and I was tempted to concede because it was obvious no real combat would take place. Finished with 18pts and a respectable MoV of 237pts. Might post up some brief reports of the games later.