Had an interesting thought while reading the 'Janky B-wing' thread. B-wings are monster anti-cap ships but slow. Why not flip the script and put them where enemy capital ships will want to go?

Drop them off with an X-wing, or even pair them with Luke or Farlander for a super punch, and then just stake out an area of the map? As big as the map is, capital ships are lumbering and take time to move. They don't redirect on a dime and, even if they do, squadrons can react. So inevitable lanes will develop. Drop your B-wings off like a mini-capital ship, declare an area yours, and act accordingly.

You can make it a strong man to discourage being flanked by capital ships on one side or use them to tease opportunistic capital ships out of formation. More, you could just keep the B-wings at range 2 of your own capital ship while your other fighters rush out. Fighters rush out engage enemy fighters as per usual. But the pacing B-wings sit there daring capital ships to fly into them. If you have a weak side arc, damaged hul zone, or are going to make an exposing turn, plop the B-wings there. It's a bluff with teeth. Even a single squadron will likey either discourage capital ship presence or at the very least tie up enemy squads that could've been used elsewhere. In that way B-wings may be slow, may not be up front, but they'll still make their presence known.

Thoughts?

I like this very much. It mirrors what I have been thinking and makes me wonder how fighters will end up being used in Armada. What will the predominant strategy for fighters be? Keep them all together so you can out swarm any opposing fighters. Or split them up to threaten enemy capital ships and thus force your opponent to split their fighters up in response.

However, I wonder if the latter strategy will work due to the distance fighters can move. If I split my fighters up and the opponent doesn't. Can he move all of his to wipe out my 1 force then within another turn or so get over to my others and then wipe them out as well due to me dividing my force?

It is an interesting theory and certainly one that should be further explored. The only downside I can see is using a few expensive squadrons for board control seems like an inefficient use of points. I mentioned in another thread that b-wings while having awesome firepower, arent much use if they cant get to use it.

I still look forward to using b-wings as well as all the other rebel fighters. But in my mind, based on the information at hand, the strategies im considering do not favor b-wings.

Obviously my strategies arent the only viable ones and im sure ppl will find strategies that work well with b-wings, and i am looking forward to that because i love b-wings =)

Well you are playing on a 3x6 and Ties are extremely fast and will engage them early and hold them up by either 1 squad at a time preventing them from moving or in a cheap swarm cuasing them to take lots of damage.

It's not that the idea is bad but the Empire does have a counter to Rebel Bombrs. So you will need to tie up the Ties to keep them off your bombers. (See what I did.) If you run the B's right up the middle with only one X-Wing squad for support they will be easy prey for a swarm and the Empire can just ignore the A's until the B's and Y's are gone.

The Empire seems to have a more straight forward approach. The Capitals hunt Capitals and the Fighters hunt Fighters. It's the Rebels that need to use theirs in combination. So the Rebels will need to find ways to protect their Fighters from the Empire's Ties.

This is of course from what rules we have seen but I don't see that changing. And I like this different play style for both factions.

Thanks beatty, you put in to words what i have been feeling since the fighter article came out about the apparent playstyles for both factions. That is exactly how i see it.

I would even be as bold as to take it a step further and say that in order for the rebels fighters to truly be cost effective they NEED to get shots off at capital ships

The other thing we have to remember(this will benifit your ideas) are the objectives. Which will probably invoke locations at least part of the time, so camping with b-wings at an objective point is totally viable and valuable

The other thing we have to remember(this will benifit your ideas) are the objectives. Which will probably invoke locations at least part of the time, so camping with b-wings at an objective point is totally viable and valuable

Oh yea i had forgotten about those. Well that does change things, I actually hope the next armada article deals with objectives, and/or more rules like deployment, squad building, or the ultimate best-case scenario a full rules pdf

Well my question on that is will Fighters be able to contest or hold objectives?

Everything I have seen from previews seems to point to Capitals needing to hold objectives or are the only ships that count towards VP's. Fighters may be nothing more than support pieces. Otherwise we may see Tie Swarms rushing up to hold objectives making it a nightmare for Rebels to get there.

My thoughts are if a fighter arrives to a point and waits for the opponent to come to them they will get the first shot off unless the opponent has a Capital giving Squad Commands. That is not gong to be as easy as it seems from the looks of it. So the Deffending Fighters will have the advantage.

I agree that B-wings are an expensive piece to go unused. But, as clontroper5 observes above, area control in a game with objectives is important. So whether you're trying to possess a station or discourage pursuit while repositioning a 'wanted' ship, I think area control will prove important. B-wings are pricey but they are comparably cheap to the capital ships they will demand respect from.

And at 6 rounds in an objective based game, I suspect the actual annihilation of significant enemy capital ships will be a rarity. Losing a capital ship much of the time should be the result of a tactical blunder that hangs your big out to dry. So if the B-wings are cheap anti-cap ships, then B-wings might be a valid form of area control -- be it in general or just acting like an offensive set of shields.

So since we can expect imperial fighter groups to arrive at certain objectives/zones of control before our fighters, it would seem like having our fighters move with the squadron command from a capital ships could be more important for rebels as opposed to imps.

With limited information, I dont know for sure if that is the case or not. IF it is, what capital ships do you guys think synergize best with squadrons? I would think the assault frigate mk 2 B with its 3 squadron command pts would be a good candidate for escorting fighters to the front.

Also, you may be right r22, but from what i have gathered from the gencon demos is that ships can take a ton of dmg in a single turn (especially from the front arc of a VSDII) and those games only had 1 imp ship firing at the 2 rebels from the core set, when you get to focus fire 2+ imp capitals at the lighter rebel ships, they could go down faster than we expect especially win crits start coming in to play.

But we definitely cant know for sure until we see the game on the table for a few games

I think we will have to see the rules and objective scenarios before we will get a good grasp of what the best use for fighters will be but remember Capitals will still be the main pieces.

I love this thought.... but it might not work in some scenarios.

Nice idea R22. I haven't read all the replies, but I'm guessing it will be more/less successful depending on the objective being played.