Battle for Endor: Listbuilding pt. 7 - List revealed

 

In the end, I went for a variant of my 5th list, the one with a Cymoon + Onager with the Dark Lord commanding!

Why this list, specifically, you cunning and insidious list-builder, I hear you ask... well, the reasons are many and weighty. 

Let's bream 'em down:

1. Always take the last list you made; the old ones are irrelevant.
2. I like Darth Vader, and now he's on the cheap!
3. The ARC alt art looks hot AF.
4. Used my old Cymoon+Demo+flotilla spam as inspiration, then asked myself how to modernize it.
5. Make a fleet that can go both first and second, then aim for an even 400 points.
6. Et voila: Somehow, Vader returned with an Onager!!!

Is the list perfect? Hell no. It's max offense, no consideration for defense, like a good Vader list should be! 

The squad screen couldn't be weaker, but it's something... plus it gives an additional drop during deployment. I did consider making the Onager a testbed and running it near naked to get Ciena + Valen, but no, I didn't want to dilute the concept.

I put Vader on the Onager so Devastator can do Devastator things: max aggro with no thought for survival except through the destruction of my enemies. IO + GT should give me options to strip my own tokens even if the enemy doesn't cooperate. I could have gone LFC instead, but Salvo is a crutch. Git gud. 

Onager gets IO to mirror the ISD, plus the fun Varnillian/Vet Gunners combo that I haven't used in quite a while.

I suppose Thermals can be an issue, but they always are, so whatever. Either blow up something else or just pile it on. With Vader rerolls and other damage tech, we can still do good damage. So, the problem will be "solved" by ignoring it.

IF! probably only needs to trigger 3 times per game, so CF tokens should be fine. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have MORE token tech in the fleet, but I kind of ran out of points and had to prioritize!

Squads we deal with by tabling the enemy fleet. Gonna be tricky if they have an MM rogue fleet that scatters to the four corners of hyperspace, but let's not overthink it.

Objectives are solid for the fleet. I had several other options as well, but then I decided to go retro: every objective is from the Core Set. Anyway. I'm more than comfortable going first or second.

My goal for POD play (I'm in Western Europe/Carolingian Empire) is to end up in La Ligue du Chocolat. That way I'll get to play with the new Legacy w0 stuff too!

So, wish me luck... but not too much luck!

### 400 points ###

Name: Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Intel Sweep

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Veteran Gunners (5)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 177 Points

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 157 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)

= 16 Points

Total Points: 400

Battle for Endor: Listbuilding pt. 5 - Empire Vader Dark Lord variant

Final fleet idea for Endor: take my old Vader Cymoon, but instead of Demo, use an Onager. Even managed to get a squadron "screen" in there, somehow. Probably not amazing, but I have an unnatural fasciantion for Vader and the Devastator, so...

Anyway. Now I have to make a choice, upload it to T4, and pretrend I've playtested the fleet...

### 400 points ###

Name: Somehow, Vader Returned

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Assault: Advanced Gunnery

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Volatile Deposits

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 185 Points

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Sensor Team (5)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 147 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Comms Net (2)

= 27 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)

= 16 Points

Total Points: 400

The Dark Lord

I made another 400/600 point list... I think that's going to be a thing going forward. 

Anyway. This one is Empire, not Rebel Sato scummy yuck! In case you didn't know... Empire is THE faction the cool kids play. Now that you DO know you have no excuses!

It's inspired by my very old VASSAL WC list that - as usual - ALMOST won the damn thing 😆 It used Cymon/Devastator (with Gunnery Team in that case) to get rid of those tokens ASAP and start MURDERING things. Between the Cymoon and Devastator (who was as yet unnerfed), the list could kill almost anything in no time, while using gozanti spam to stall (no damn pass tokens back then, kids).

This is a more casual take on the same archetype, padding it (by necessity) with Raiders. It's tight; I'd like some OE on those raiders, but whatever. We're all friends here and you brought your casual list, so we'll be fine. Don't look at me like that... I didn't bring IO or Pryce or any of that stuff... it's 100% casual!

The 600-point version does a few things: it fleshes out the existing ships, it adds a Dcaps HIE Raider-II, and it adds squads. Squads are fun and mannerly, and besides, at 600 points, you're going to melt if you run into a squad-heavy list. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it.

If you like these lists, go petition ARC, Legacy, or whoever to reduce the cost of Raiders slightly! All the smalls were radically devalued by the pass tokens... and all they got in return was a slight boost to Evade. Make Riader-I 42, Raider-II 44. 

### 400 points ###

Name: The Dark Lord 400

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Assault: Advanced Gunnery

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Intel Sweep

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Commander Beck (3)

• Sensor Team (5)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 179 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

• Demolisher (10)

= 74 Points

Raider I (44)

• External Racks (4)

= 48 Points

Raider I (44)

• External Racks (4)

= 48 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Munitions Resupply (3)

= 26 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

= 0 Points

Total Points: 400

### 600 points ### 

Name: The Dark Lord 600

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Assault: Advanced Gunnery

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Intel Sweep

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Commander Beck (3)

• Sensor Team (5)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 179 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Minister Tua (2)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• External Racks (4)

• Demolisher (10)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

= 91 Points

Raider I (44)

• Iden Versio (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

• External Racks (4)

• Instigator (4)

= 66 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

• External Racks (4)

= 56 Points

Raider II (48)

• Weapons Battery Techs (4)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

= 64 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Munitions Resupply (3)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

= 30 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

= 29 Points

Squadrons:

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Vult Skerris (18)

• "Mauler" Mithel (15)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• 2 x TIE Interceptor (22)

= 85 Points

Total Points: 600