Targeting Scrambler vs APTs

One of my regular opponents is getting ready to head to FFG's World Championships in a couple of weeks.  He brought over a fleet he is trying out for a test game.  He had 4x Gladiators with APTs and an Interdictor Combat Refit.  He was looking for a tough matchup, so I put my own Interdictor fleet against him to see if the Targeting Scramblers could do a good job of shutting down the APTs.

I went first and chose Dangerous Territory from his objectives.  Most of the obstacles were clustered to the left side of the playing area.  I was able to use the Grav Shift Reroute on my Interdictor to pull the station towards me and push some other obstacles out of the path of his ships.  It set me up really well for the game.

He jumped his Demolisher in to hit my ISD at the end of the second turn.  The Targeting Scrambler took away the crits that he rolled and with the brace, the attack didn't even hurt my shields.

At the top of the next turn the ISD one-shotted Demolisher after using Vader to fish for the needed Accuracy result.

Once my Interdictor got in range, the Ion Cannon Batteries started doing their thing.  With re-rolls from Vader, I had a blue crit result for every attack.  The extra shield damage really added up once his Command Tokens were removed.  I am completely sold on that upgrade for the Support Refit.

Throughout the game the Targeting Scramblers saved me from 3-4 APT hits, but not all of them.  Some constant repair commands from the Interdictor with the Projection Experts kept my ships in pretty good shape.

My opponent was using Targeting Scramblers as well, but I did really well on my re-rolls and still dished out plenty of damage.

In the end I killed his Interdictor and 3 of the GSDs with no losses for myself.  The Interdictor absolutely won me this game in 3 different ways:

1. It setup the obstacles so that I easily came out ahead on the Objective.
2. The Targeting Scrambler more or less nullified hit APT attacks.
3. The high Engineering value plus Projection Experts kept my ships flying to the end.

If you are playing a fleet that relies on black dice crits for a big part of its punch, you really need to practice against Targeting Scramblers.  They aren't reliable enough to completely shut it down, but they can significantly reduce your firepower.