REGIONALS Round 3: Screed Interdictor & Rogues vs Jerjerrod Dual ISDs

Going in to round three, I was paired with Matt and his dual ISD list that had just finished steamrolling some Rieeken Aces for a 10-1 I believe. He had EWS on both the Boarding Trooper Avenger Kuat as well as the ISD2 with QLTs, Chimera, Intensify Firepower, etc. as the flagship. He had 5 activations and a bid and was able to go first. He chose my Most Wanted - the best choice by far for him. I was able to move some asteroids to his detriment. I also had deployment advantage and was able to position my Interdictor and Demo exactly where I wanted. My goal was to hit his flagship hard with the Dictor and then finish off the Kuat with my squadrons while keeping Demo in reserve as a finisher or simply to prevent me from being tabled. I set the Kuat as the objective ship in hopes that he would play more conservatively with it while I dealt with the heavier threat. Here is the setup:

I moved my Interdictor well forward with Engine Techs in the hope of hitting the ISD2 with Heavy Ions at the top of the next round. He landed on my rock and drew a critical that prevented him from shooting at long range. I kept my squadrons poised for a strike on the following round. Here is the close of round 1:

On the next round, I hit the ISD2 hard and brought it down to 2 hull remaining. My Interdictor remained unscathed. Here is the close of round 2:

In round 3, Matt activated his ISD2 first, shot my Interdictor, rammed it, and landed on the rock, which took it off the board. I then eliminated his Gozanti with a double arc from the Dictor. He really wanted to block me in I suspect. I then brought my Demo out of reserve to enter the fray. My squadrons began to hammer the Kuat as well. Here is the close of round 3:

In round 4, my Gozanti was boarded and then destroyed. My Interdictor got a double arc HIE shot on the Kuat, and Demo moved in and delivered a close range broadside. I also lost my generic Firespray, which reduced my damage output. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, the inevitable happened and the Kuat succumbed to the combined firepower of my whole list. So concluded my first regionals experience. Matt’s ISD list was potent and the EWS and flak gave me some trouble, but he was badly out deployed, which is a common theme with Dual ISD lists. The placement of the Interdictor and Demo perhaps does not look threatening, but my ability to keep Demo in reserve and prevent any sort of forking is strong and hitting one of the ISDs early and in isolation with the Interdictor while moving away from the other ISD is a very tough move to counter.

Going into the tournament, I was anticipating a lot of Sloane, Thrawn, and Rieekan/Dodonna Aces and was well practiced against all of them. Facing down dual ISDs and zombie MSUs was something of a surprise, but I feel like my fleet has the tools to deal with any of the major meta builds and was able to adapt and overcome the opposition. I’m thrilled with how the list has performed both in this tournament and in the Vassal Tournament, but may need to rethink some things when the SSD hits the table.