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I took a Gladiator today, giving it Corruptor, Engine Techs, Enhanced warheads (whichever gives 2 extra black to the front), and Tarkin as my fleet commander.

I've heard Screed is ridiculous, and plan to try him, but is Insidious and/or Assault missiles really the way to go? Do you prefer the gladiator I or II? I was thinking the II not for the range, but for the chance to get an accuracy token even when firing at short range. What do you guys think?

Also, the Sensor techs say you can turn a die to an accuracy token - if you use gladiator I and are firing from the side, you have all black die. Does that make sensor techs useless, since the black die have no accuracy marker sides?

A Gladiator can't have the Corrupter title, did you mean Demolisher or Insidious?

Right now I'm leaning towards keeping the Gladiator fast and dirt cheap. 81 points gets you a Gladiator I with Engine Techs,Assault Concussion Missiles and Demolisher which can zip up and dump black dice into some unfortunate Reb's. Expanded Launchers and Sensor Tech's is a very nice combination it just increases the cost on a quite fragile high risk ship and keeps you very focused on lining up that front arc rather than engaging to good effect from the sides as well. Same argument goes for the Gladiator II the 2 anti squadron dice is great but its more cost on an easy to lose ship.

Yeah I meant Demolisher.

So Demolisher, Engine techs and Missiles, you think?

Is sensor tech useless when rolling black dice?

My initial impression is the Gladiator is supposed to get right up into the enemy's face. For that reason, I tend to like the cheaper one better.

I ran the GSD2 with Expanded Launchers and Insidious (along with a VSD1 and VSD2...no squadrons).
Admiral Motti as Commander. The extra hull he gives the ships lets them survive the initial run. A well timed Navigate Command can almost let a GSD do an X-Wing style K-Turn to set up less agile ships (VSDs, Reb Assault Frigate, Wave 2 big ships) with a ton of black dice at medium range. His 2 dice against squadrons puts a nice hurt on most of the, with the VSDs providing some extra hits to kill smaller based squadrons (like TIEs) or to provide enough damage on tougher ones (like X-Wings) where the GSD can kill them the next turn.
For anti Squadron a GSD2 with Demolisher can be awesome. Throw 2 dice from one arc, move to a different arc facing, then throw 2 more.
Not to mention throwing 4-5 black dice (expanded + Concentrate command) at any ship is going to hurt a lot.

Sensor Tech's is useless on ships rolling only black dice. Gladiator I's have have 2 red at the front and 1 at the rear so it still gets some mileage from them, the Glad 2 has red on all sides so works pretty well for mitigating wiffed dice rolls.

I find my gladiator is doing WAY more damage than my victory. People avoid the victory for most of the game, really limiting the damage it can do. My gladiator, though, gets right up there and hits HARD, especially if it has the fire-after-moving title.

Rebels can dance around the Victory easily. It's a little tricker for them to run around a Gladiator.

Which has made me think...What about a fleet focused solely on Gladiators?

Motti's System Patrol Fleet:

Glad-II: Admiral Motti - Demolisher - Engine Techs - Expanded Launchers
2x Glad-I: Engine Techs
4x TIE Fighters
TIE Advanced

This is pretty much a silly little fleet that I probably wouldn't fly, but I think it would be fun. Personally, I'd be concerned about fighters, but this is the most I can do with an all Gladiator fleet without taking just two (IMHO taking only 2 Glads as caps hurts both them and the fighters in their fleets).

I threw together a double-gladiator fleet with 4 interceptors, rhymer, and two bombers the other day. I think it could do well. A well-timed turn of fighter squadrons to give the interceptors the jump on other fighters would take care of enemy fighters pretty quickly, and the bombers with rhymer would supplement the gladiators nicely, going after shield-cleared zones.

Or, after enemy fighters are gone, use the fighter token to activate bombers before the gladiators fire to either take down shields or force them to use up brace and redirect tokens.

 Spellbound wrote:
I threw together a double-gladiator fleet with 4 interceptors, rhymer, and two bombers the other day. I think it could do well. A well-timed turn of fighter squadrons to give the interceptors the jump on other fighters would take care of enemy fighters pretty quickly, and the bombers with rhymer would supplement the gladiators nicely, going after shield-cleared zones.

Or, after enemy fighters are gone, use the fighter token to activate bombers before the gladiators fire to either take down shields or force them to use up brace and redirect tokens.

My big problem with fielding just two Gladiators and fighters is durability versus enemy ships. The Victory can take a pounding, but the Gladiator is more like a light-ish ship. Most rebel fleets will be fielding 3+ ships, and I'm thinking that number of ships could focus their fire on one Gladiator and take it out before the other could retaliate.

This is something I'll have to try out though as I do plan on getting 2 Gladiators, and more fighter packs (as soon as I sell my SWM:SB assorted TIEs).

I ran two gladiators in a game the other day. Main thing I found about them was that they had huge turning circles - much less manoeuvrable than I was anticipating, even when using Navigation commands.

I also ran a pair of Gladiators the other day as well. With Rhymer and bombers + escorts, they actually functioned pretty well despite the large turn radius. I'll have to try them out against more people.

Engine Tech helps the GSD get around with the extra Speed 1 move (and a Yaw).

Are you serious? With a move command tightening up the "1" joint to 2 clicks, and engine techs, they should turn pretty darn well.

And scoot when they need to. I did a test list with rebels, Speed 3 Y Wings and X Wings. While I got a few shots off on the GSD, Engine techs allowed him to keep out of range or evade any blocking moves I set up. The GSDs were also able to turn inside of my Nebs (I ran a Whale with Haven title and 2 Neb-Bs) to stay within black dice range while maintaining side arc shots.
B-Wings (Spd 2) would not have stood a chance.

He also had Dominator on the GSD...so he could shoot, move, then either shoot again OR make his jump move to get a better shot...then shoot.