Summary
I did not expect the list to perform that well. The tournament may have been very small and a lot of the most experienced Danish tournament players could not make it there, but it was still a pleasant surprise. Most opponents were simply caught off guard by the aggressive deployment and realized too late how mobile the list actually is, when many of their units were already engaged. In all three games, my opponents struggled to even get out of their deployment zone while I controlled the rest of the field. Most players already know how to deal with one or two beat sticks, but the synchronized impact of Royal Guard, Snows, Vader and the command cards often proved to be too much pressure. The general association is Vader=slow list, which is not true at all if you factor in “New Ways to Motivate them”. I am quite sure though the list will struggle a lot more if the opponent anticipates what is going to happen. Having said that, the little imperial experiment was actually more fun than most games I ever had with rebel lists. I’ll certainly try more of that in the future.
Vader: +
Vader may be expensive in terms of points, activations and the lack of long ranged damage output, but in this context he definitely pulled his weight. He went down once, but he already had done his part in that game. With Force Reflexes, he would have survived to perform at least one more attack in that situation. Overall I did not regret to take Force Choke instead though. With medics and two units of Royal Guard, Vader is already incredible hard to bring down, and Force Reflexes only triggers when you activate early. On his way in, you usually want to activate him late though. Force Choke gives you an extreme amount of control with engagement/disengagement and works pretty much as the equivalent of a second Force Push in this regard. Pierce is optional, so you can be pretty sure that you do not kill the last enemy miniature you are engaged with. If there are two minis left, you can recover Force Choke with Master of the Force in Order to kill one of them and have it ready at the start of your next activation. The constant extra damage of Force Choke adds up over the course of the game, especially if you catch some heavy weapons or specialists. One of his “Implacable”- turns brought his action economy to another level. During his first activation, he performed: Move/Attack/Force Push/Force Choke/Recover. During his Implacable Activation, he performed: Force Choke/Force Push/Move/Attack. I got an extra attack with him out of “Deploy the Garrison” just once though, and never managed to squeeze another move out of it. Commanding Presence on Krennic would have helped. I suppose Vader performs well if the rest of the list is more or less designed to make him shine.
Royal Guard: +
The Royal Guard made Vader playable to begin with. Even if they did not intercept hits for him directly, they still helped him by engaging and decimating units that could otherwise shoot. My assumption was that at least one unit would get killed before they would do anything no matter what, but often both units did not only enable Vader to do his thing, but also dealt significant amounts of damage on their own. I think Environmental Gear proved to be a better choice than Recon Intel, because usually Turn 1 is spent to move behind a line of sight blocker near the centre anyway, and the additional initial movement is usually wasted. Two Royal Guard units plus Vader make up more than half of the list, so the obvious problem is there are a lot of eggs in one small basket. You don’t want to get too far behind in activations, so this combination significantly limits the rest of the list. I think if I could somehow manage to squeeze at least one Dewback or even Bossk into the list without losing activations, the whole concept would work even better. With Spur and extra move action, the Dewback moves further than range 4. That would make the IRG look like sloths.
Krennic: +-
One way to get the points for a Dewback might be to get rid of Krennic. I cannot say he did not pull his weight though. I might have to try him a few more times and maybe in a more competitive context to decide if he is expendable. Improvised orders are the first thing about him that proved to be essential. I rarely used compel, but I can see how an opponent could use the suppression mechanics to slow down important units in case I would not have had that tool available. Annihilation Looms was also important once by reducing the movement of opposing troopers in a decisive turn. “Deploy the Garrison” requires a little bit more experience and micromanagement in order to have him close enough in the right moment, but an extra attack from Vader and a full Royal Guard unit with Tenacity in an important turn is obviously really good. Especially the Royal Guard benefits from the standby token in duels vs. other melee units, because in such situations the advantage often snowballs if you deal a lot of damage to the opposing unit early on. The combination of standby and charge makes withdrawing pointless for engaged units. Another important thing about the standby-attack is that it triggers during your opponents turn, so it can be an opportunity to immediately reengage the IRG and prevent it from getting shot at. Voracious Ambition in combination with Cunning and Improvised Orders gives an insane amount of control and pretty much guarantees the first activation, which can be even more beneficial for a melee list. A mauled Royal Guard unit in the open can be killed quite easily. If it activates first and engages another weakened unit, it can still deal a lot of damage and often survives for a surprising amount of time. Two times Krennic was also very useful in the backfield to help with units that have been deployed there via “Rapid Reinforcements”. I think my opponents would agree though that these isolated deployments were mistakes on their part which they would not repeat.
Scout Sabs: +-
I took them as a gimmick that I desperately wanted to try, so I did not have a lot of expectations. I think the additional activation was definitely important. In their role as saboteurs though, I think I have to concede to the general assumption that you play a minimum of two or none. Within the list, the single team proved to be very valuable for another reason: due to their unique ability and their white defense die, the sabs are usually extremely high in the target priority of your opponent. With low profile, corner peeking, medics, Royal Guard and Emergency Stims, they often catch quite a few attacks in the first two turns without costing you an activation. That way they made it easier for Vader, the IRG and the Snows to advance. The alternative in that price category would have been another naked core unit, snipers or DLTs for the Stormtroopers. I am pretty confident that in none of the three games snipers would have contributed significantly more to the outcome. Another core unit might be a consideration, but I am not sure if that alternative would have endured significantly more shots. It would probably also not catch any fire for Vader and the IRG at all on their way in.
Snows: +
The original idea with the snows was that they would act as a distraction for Vader and the IRG, which basically worked as intended. With just 8 activations and the huge footprint of all the units that want to get across the table, you usually have pretty much no choice but to expose some parts of your army on the way in. You want to activate almost everything late during the approach, including the Stormtroopers with the medics. The bait can also lure your opponent into moving up range 3 units against them, which can set him up for a second turn charge of the Royal Guard. The opponent has to burn through the whole unit to get to the flamer, which can be healed up to catch another shot if you hide one miniature out of sight. Point for wound, they are even more expensive than IRG. Since you have to fill the core slots anyway, they are probably worth the extra points compared to Stormtroopers. . I did not expect to use the grenades. Their purpose was to increase the threat of the Snowtroopers. The flamer might have been sufficient for that purpose though. In the last game my opponent did not have enough firepower nearby to deal with them. In these rare cases, the Flamer and the grenades are obviously even better. I also considered to add a specialist with HQ-uplink to have the option to use the flamer in turn 2. That would have meant to either start with 7 activations or to leave Krennic at home.
Stormtroopers: +-
I was very hesitant to take them without DLTs, since this seems to be an auto include for many experienced Empire players due to their efficiency. The DLTs could have done a lot of damage because opponents usually have other things to worry about until late game. It was probably still the right decision. Even without the DLTs, the Stormtroopers were still able to act as placeholders in the backfield and to help Krennic with cleaning it up. During the first two turns, it is more important for them to move near their patients and take away wound tokens where it is most needed, so you often loose some attack actions with them anyway.
Wampacave 