Hello Armada Community,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've noticed myself and many individuals part of our local play group struggling to win with rebels in 180pt games. Has anyone had success playing rebels and would be willing to share some tips and tricks learned so far? Thanks.

Stay away from the VSD and focus on the objective and TIEs.

Having played in both winning Rebel fleets, and losing Imperial fleets, here's how you beat those darned Imperials:

• Focus Your Attacks: The Victory-class has a ton of shields, and the future Imperial-class is guaranteed to have more. You need to punch through them as fast as possible, preferably on the side (where the Redirect token is less potent) to get some damage through. Keep firing at that one spot as best you can, as it'll become more and more difficult to defend that one side. What helps this out immensely are cards such as Overload Pulse and H9 Turbolasers, or the future Intelligence Officer: anything you can do to prevent them from utilizing those Redirects will mean your focused fire becomes that much more effective, as you're either preventing them from using tokens (H9 Turbolasers) or forcing them to make bad decisions by spending the exhausted token (Overload Pulse or Intelligence Officer). A Victory-class without its defense tokens is nothing more than a lot of hit points.
  
• Use Dodonna's Pride: The CR-90 doesn't often put out a lot of damage when not under the effects of Concentrate Fire. Plus, that Victory-class is huge on shields. Get around their shields with this card. Even if the target ship heals it after a turn or two, pretty much all critical damage cards in this game are vicious, and some can effectively cripple the ship. You'll want to maximize the chances of a blue critical face to show up though, so this upgrade is better applied on the CR-90b which has more blue dice with which to crit (remember, your opponent gets to modify your dice before you resolve a critical effect, so you'll want as many crits as possible).
  
• Utilize the Nebulon-B Escort Refit's Squadron Command Often: It's the best way to activate your squadrons until the Assault Frigate releases (Assault Frigate Mark II B with Expanded Hangar Bay activates four squadrons when using the dial). You'll want to do it often, though not too early; you want to stock tokens on your Nebulon-B early-on, and if you over-extend your X-wings, you'll lose them. Your X-wing can easily swarm and kill TIE Fighters, but need the initiative over them. Swarm can and will tear through your fighters, and you want them in the final stages to kill that Victory-class. Anticipate when your opponent will commit his TIEs to the scrum, and activate your fighters before he has a chance to. Destroy as many individual squadrons as possible (the first bullet point again), focusing on squadrons that will trigger Swarm during the return attack. Once his fighters are destroyed, your X-wings can better focus on the big ship. By this stage, you don't need your X-wings to activate during the Ship Phase very often, so now's the time to Repair or Concentrate with your Nebulon-B.
  

• Flank Your Opponent: Sure, he's still got two red dice from the rear arc...but he's only got one shield. This will force him to spend his defense tokens more, since he can't sustain as many hits to the rear before he starts taking hull damage. Your Corvettes are fast and very maneuverable, and your Nebulon-Bs can be as well (though they shouldn't until your X-wings no longer need support, assuming you aren't playing the Support Refit, which you shouldn't unless you're strapped for points). You can very easily use your Navigate dials/tokens to get in behind him, then slow down to stay there. As a corollary to this:
  

• Get Out of the Star Destroyers' Front Arcs: This is where they do the most damage. Unless faced with a fleet made up of Gladiator-class ships, it is far better to take a three dice attack than a six-dice one. If you can minimize their dice, you can help to reduce your incoming damage.

Hope this helped!

Don't forget a bombing run with Luke and the guys in the X's

The word I am looking for is guerrilla warfare. Do not try and take on the Star Destroyers head on or even some what close. Not till your ready.

The Rebels control when the combat will start with the capitals and use that to your advantage. Play the avoidance game till you're in position to strike. You should never get caught in the Front Hull within the Medium or closer range. Stay clear of it and play on a 3x6 where the playing field is level. Repeat, play on a 3x6 where the playing field is level. A 3x3 is not for regular games and plays into the Imperials strengths of reining you in.

Getting into the VSD's rear is not a matter of if but when, just don't fly too close getting there and fall back if it looks like you might get trapped. There is no cowardice in tactical retreats or regrouping.

So go for objectives, if they score VP this is what you should focus on first. Kill points are a secondary objective for Rebels and don't give up Kill Points by just throwing your ships at a VSD hoping it will go down. It won't.

Respect the VSD for its shields and front hull zone. They are really good. You have the speed and maneuverability they don't have and we should be hearing Imperial players complaining about how Rebels won't engage them in a straight up fight.

Use Guerilla tactics, make him have to chase you in a speed chase he won't win and use your fighters to get into that close range of the VSD where it has very little to stop it if it's Ties are gone.

Having played in both winning Rebel fleets, and losing Imperial fleets, here's how you beat those darned Imperials:

Reading a lot of posts, and observing posted images of matches, it seems to me that many, if most of those Rebel players are putting themselves at a disadvantage. What are your thoughts on this?

Keep the Rebel Fleet together What I am seeing, are Rebel players giving the SD firing arcs. If the fleet is together, and keeps the fleet in the same firing arc of the SD, the SD will only get one shot at the fleet per round. Keeping the fleet together allows the Neb, and Corvette to roll 2-3 anti-squadron die at any TIE that threatens the fleet. They will be going after X-Wings anyway, but if the X-Wings are still close it will help. The Nebs for fullforce, and the Corv, I believe need to get into range 2. Keeping X-Wings alive until that turn to attack with squadron commands or good piloting will help rolls pushing for crits.

Split the fleet only for objectives.

And, place your obstacles in a line from any deployment area corner to your ships actual deployment at distance increments of 1. Anything to reduce any damage rolls or force a maneuvering command dial, or force a turn of the SD, or even cause an obstacle damage.

Having played in both winning Rebel fleets, and losing Imperial fleets, here's how you beat those darned Imperials:

Reading a lot of posts, and observing posted images of matches, it seems to me that many, if most of those Rebel players are putting themselves at a disadvantage. What are your thoughts on this?

Keep the Rebel Fleet together What I am seeing, are Rebel players giving the SD firing arcs. If the fleet is together, and keeps the fleet in the same firing arc of the SD, the SD will only get one shot at the fleet per round. Keeping the fleet together allows the Neb, and Corvette to roll 2-3 anti-squadron die at any TIE that threatens the fleet. They will be going after X-Wings anyway, but if the X-Wings are still close it will help. The Nebs for fullforce, and the Corv, I believe need to get into range 2. Keeping X-Wings alive until that turn to attack with squadron commands or good piloting will help rolls pushing for crits.

Split the fleet only for objectives.

And, place your obstacles in a line from any deployment area corner to your ships actual deployment. Anything to reduce any damage rolls or force a maneuvering command dial, or force a turn of the SD

As for splitting the fleet I am still mulling over that. In one instance if you make him chase one of your ships to the left or right they will expose their rear to the other capital. But I will agree that doing this does give the VSD a chance to fire on both if they are in range. So get them out of range. He won't be able to chase any Rebel ships down. Even the Mark II will fly circles around the VSD, which is good becuase it's broadsides are nastier than the VSD's without any upgrades.

Keeping the fleet together is good...until either your fleet gets large enough to push into multiple arcs, or you start pushing into a side arc. Most of the time, it's far better to play with maneuvering, such that your opponent never gets to shoot his front arc at you.

1) Turtle up first round, get a nav token.

2) Next turn, whizz past front arc right into side arc, using a Nav dial and the Nav token. Again, its better to take a three-dice attack than a 6 dice attack, even if it means limiting your options a little for the next turn.

Keeping the fleet together is good...until either your fleet gets large enough to push into multiple arcs, or you start pushing into a side arc. Most of the time, it's far better to play with maneuvering, such that your opponent never gets to shoot his front arc at you.

1) Turtle up first round, get a nav token.

2) Next turn, whizz past front arc right into side arc, using a Nav dial and the Nav token. Again, its better to take a three-dice attack than a 6 dice attack, even if it means limiting your options a little for the next turn.

Of course all theory craft right now, but I can't wait to try a lot of this out soon.

Yeah, for 180 point fleets. When wave 1 is out, Assault Frigates become available.

The rebel fleet actually outguns the vsd in a sniping match and out tanks it too thanks to the evade token. Use concentrate fire alot and you will smoke it easily.

Having played in both winning Rebel fleets, and losing Imperial fleets, here's how you beat those darned Imperials:

• Focus Your Attacks: The Victory-class has a ton of shields, and the future Imperial-class is guaranteed to have more. You need to punch through them as fast as possible, preferably on the side (where the Redirect token is less potent) to get some damage through. Keep firing at that one spot as best you can, as it'll become more and more difficult to defend that one side. What helps this out immensely are cards such as Overload Pulse and H9 Turbolasers, or the future Intelligence Officer: anything you can do to prevent them from utilizing those Redirects will mean your focused fire becomes that much more effective, as you're either preventing them from using tokens (H9 Turbolasers) or forcing them to make bad decisions by spending the exhausted token (Overload Pulse or Intelligence Officer). A Victory-class without its defense tokens is nothing more than a lot of hit points.

• Use Dodonna's Pride: The CR-90 doesn't often put out a lot of damage when not under the effects of Concentrate Fire. Plus, that Victory-class is huge on shields. Get around their shields with this card. Even if the target ship heals it after a turn or two, pretty much all critical damage cards in this game are vicious, and some can effectively cripple the ship. You'll want to maximize the chances of a blue critical face to show up though, so this upgrade is better applied on the CR-90b which has more blue dice with which to crit (remember, your opponent gets to modify your dice before you resolve a critical effect, so you'll want as many crits as possible).

• Utilize the Nebulon-B Escort Refit's Squadron Command Often: It's the best way to activate your squadrons until the Assault Frigate releases (Assault Frigate Mark II B with Expanded Hangar Bay activates four squadrons when using the dial). You'll want to do it often, though not too early; you want to stock tokens on your Nebulon-B early-on, and if you over-extend your X-wings, you'll lose them. Your X-wing can easily swarm and kill TIE Fighters, but need the initiative over them. Swarm can and will tear through your fighters, and you want them in the final stages to kill that Victory-class. Anticipate when your opponent will commit his TIEs to the scrum, and activate your fighters before he has a chance to. Destroy as many individual squadrons as possible (the first bullet point again), focusing on squadrons that will trigger Swarm during the return attack. Once his fighters are destroyed, your X-wings can better focus on the big ship. By this stage, you don't need your X-wings to activate during the Ship Phase very often, so now's the time to Repair or Concentrate with your Nebulon-B.

• Flank Your Opponent: Sure, he's still got two red dice from the rear arc...but he's only got one shield. This will force him to spend his defense tokens more, since he can't sustain as many hits to the rear before he starts taking hull damage. Your Corvettes are fast and very maneuverable, and your Nebulon-Bs can be as well (though they shouldn't until your X-wings no longer need support, assuming you aren't playing the Support Refit, which you shouldn't unless you're strapped for points). You can very easily use your Navigate dials/tokens to get in behind him, then slow down to stay there. As a corollary to this:

• Get Out of the Star Destroyers' Front Arcs: This is where they do the most damage. Unless faced with a fleet made up of Gladiator-class ships, it is far better to take a three dice attack than a six-dice one. If you can minimize their dice, you can help to reduce your incoming damage.

Hope this helped!

That's actually something I love and want about the GSD. I want something I can put on the VSD's flanks and make it ridiculously dangerous to approach. And hold the fighters in pocket zones between them until they can pounce. Then just march the field with this big wall of threatened space. Objectives permitting.

I use the Neb-B escort frigates. The trick is to use their improved anti squadron armament and Squadron orders to help wipe out the ties. With 2 core sets I can usually manage to kill all ties with 2-4 X-wings left.

Meanwhile the corvettes are going full speed to get behind the Star Destroyers where the shields are weakest.

If you park your X-wings in front of a Star Destroyer then after it moves (and overlaps them) they will still be in attack range the next turn, without requiring a squadron command to activate.

Watch out for a VSD with the title. I had it one-shot a Neb-B from full to dead and cripple a second in a single volley of fire. At 300 points, starter only, dual VSDs are a thing.

the victory is less scary at range 3 (3 red dice, the same as the neb, only you have dodge tokens)

it is far less scary on the sides/rear and turns like a dump-truck if you manage to slip pass it. It's basically the shuttle of Armada, only it can't stop on its own (yet)

it is almost worthless against squadrons (but X-wings can plink away at it pretty effectively)

In order to effectively use squadrons against capitals, you want to have the capital ship overlap the squadrons because then you get to move them near the ship's final position following the methods detailed in rulebook, meaning you'll be in range to fire without aid from the squadron command

both rebel ships are much faster in comparison

Currently, the sheer bulk of the Victory and the engineering points it can continuously spam makes it basically worthless to go after unless you can devote most of your attention on it. I agree with going after objectives and tie fighters, especially since the alternative is very unreasonable. The corvette, however, is pretty bad against ties so you'll want it to annoy the victory enough to force it into engineering commands which will limit its movement and ability to fling ties at you. D's pride is basically essential for that purpose, since it'll need three engineering tokens to discard debilitating criticals.

I have been really liking the CR90 (both versions). Its been the Nebs that have been the weak point in my games as rebels so far.

I have been running the CR90a’s with enhanced armament. Their nice split of arcs, speed, and rebel activation advantage makes it relatively easy to fire 4-5 dice at the same target with a multi arc attack. They also have enough speed and turning ability to stay out of close range if not medium range as well. I’m actually tempted to run a fleet of 4 of them and see how that goes (3 a’s and one b as Dodonnas Pride).

While this is less relevant at the moment, things will change up with Wave 1 and 2. The trend for Rebel ships beyond the Neb-B and the Cr90 are ships with less forward firepower, but tremendous firepower from port and starboard. The Assault frigate, plus Home One and the MonCal frigate are broadside monsters. When that happens, the Ackbar slash will become a viable tactic: form up into a line, use speed to get in between the ships, and blast away out of the side arcs.

Of course, a smart imperial player might avoid doing line abreast, and take on a wedge formation to force opponents into their forward arcs... But such is fleet tactics.

Essentially you need to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, because that bear of a Star Destroyer will crush you if you fight it head on.

Essentially you need to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, because that bear of a Star Destroyer will crush you if you fight it head on.

My rebel roommate is still getting the hang of that, of course he's only played two games, so he's not to blame for inexperience. Dodonna got smoked last night because he tried to broadside Tarkin's VSD with a Nebulon EF while in its front arc.

Life lesson kids, don't let a star destroyer point its forward guns at your Nebulon's sides.

I stacked my Nebulon with repair orders and rammed the VSD in the flank. I got a free damage through each turn, it grinded my Nebulon to space dust after 2 turns but it was easy to finish the VSD off with a shot and ram from my corvette. Guaranteed damage is always good!

I doubt my captains trust me any more though...

Mwhahahaha

Our first 300 point game was ... completely different. The Rebels dog-piled 2 CR-90B's and 2 Neb EF's onto Tarkins VSD II. The collisions half killed Tarkin. The battery fire from all 4 Rebels did the rest. That exchange left a CR-90, a fresh Neb-EF and a mauled Neb-EF to take out the VSD I

Has anyone else seen the tar-pit tactic succeed? Or was that a fluke?

So, after a game yesterday, I am going to say that Nav Team is absolutely amazing on a CR90, and will likely be running them on it pretty regularly until Engine Tech, when I'll have to make a tough choice. That extra click anywhere on the dial is so fantastic for adjusting your approach, and I was able to get a VSD two arcs of my CR90 multiple times, which, with Enhanced Armament allowed for it to pack quite a punch. And once we get Raymus Antilles (not to mention Mon Mothma and Jaina's Light) that thing is going to be silly maneuverable, and a real VSD-killer.

I'm definitely torn between Nav Team and Engine Tech. Nav Team is great because it allows you to get an early click, which can allow you to come in more or less shallow, which is great for dodging arcs. But Engine Tech is going to be usable more often on a ship without Raymus (but also at double the cost).

Definitely going to be interesting to see how each one plays out.

I see a lot about sticking and moving with rebels. Are you guys playing with the six turn limit? The first is always no shotty. If you stick and move or pick your fight, let's say another 1-2 turns total of no shooting. That only leaves 3-4 shooting turns to take down the SD. with 10 shields, 8 hull and abilities to redirect, it's doubtful you'll kill him. While he, with a gunner team, is likely to take down one of your ships, FTW.

I play Imperium, and I played a few times against some friends, and won all of those games, but my spouse beat me three times in a row with rebels (300 points with objectives).

She uses a very agressive corvette b with dodonnas pride, to inflict serious crits to my SDs. She keeps 1 nebulon at long range for shooting and repairing, and Dodonna on it, and the other Nebulon close for squadrons. The X Wings try to slip past the Ties to attack the capital ships, whenever they can.

She also rams the s#%? out of the SDs to finish them of.

It's a very agressive tactic, and she also looses a lot, but she was victorious every time, and it was awesome fun!

I play Imperium, and I played a few times against some friends, and won all of those games, but my spouse beat me three times in a row with rebels (300 points with objectives).

She uses a very agressive corvette b with dodonnas pride, to inflict serious crits to my SDs. She keeps 1 nebulon at long range for shooting and repairing, and Dodonna on it, and the other Nebulon close for squadrons. The X Wings try to slip past the Ties to attack the capital ships, whenever they can.

She also rams the s#%? out of the SDs to finish them of.

It's a very agressive tactic, and she also looses a lot, but she was victorious every time, and it was awesome fun!

She loses a lot but is always victorious!

So...she's an ork?

The only way an ork loses is if he doesn't fight, and orks always fight!

That also explains her aggression. Good luck ork marrying dude!