Hey guys,

so Armada is a growing game and until Wave 2 unleashes all sorts of hell, it seems that will be playing in an environment that might allow skewed lists to thrive, at least in an imperial v rebel match-up

Currently, the Imperials seem like an incredibly specialized faction. Apart from the Gladiator 2, both of their capital ships have a single paltry die of anti-squadron (compared to the Rebel Neb Escort and Assault mkii A) and only a one of their ships has bomber (compared to the Rebel X/Y/B wings) not counting Vader's pseudo-bomber.

peeking at the Wave 2 rogues/villians w.e pack reveals that the firespray will soon be augmenting imps with 2 blue die bombers and that the Raider will be slotting in with two different colored anti-squadron dice, but until then we have an interesting set of limitations to work with

essentially, what I'm asking is how few squadrons do you speculate (difficult to see, the future is) rebs will be able to get away with?

Will the empire's lack of bombers apart from the specialized...bomber allow for rebel capital-ship skews to thrive? Will the awesomeness of the Victory force rebels to include squadrons regardless? Will Tie Fighters throw enough dice that the lack of bomber won't matter or will 2 anti-squadron dice blow too many apart?

Between the Mkii, the Salvation title, and beautiful little A-wings, I am interested to see anyone else thinks Rebs can run capital heavy

or will 2 anti-squadron dice blow too many apart?

I had a game yesterday where a Neb-B Escort was able to shoot at six different TIEs in a single activation - I think I took a total of three damage across two squadrons.

There's so much that misses fighters (Crit, accuracy, blank) that even two anti-squadron dice don't really terrify me so far.

or will 2 anti-squadron dice blow too many apart?

I had a game yesterday where a Neb-B Escort was able to shoot at six different TIEs in a single activation - I think I took a total of three damage across two squadrons.

There's so much that misses fighters (Crit, accuracy, blank) that even two anti-squadron dice don't really terrify me so far.

While you are right at that ... the big thing is if you can get 1 damage on the tie it makes it so much easier for an xwing to finish it off.

I think that while the Imperials only have one Bomber, it shouldn't be discounted. It is pretty fast on its own, and the the VSD title can reach 5 speed. That is one heck of an engagement range. Add to that its cheap cost, and consider whatever Rhymer's ability ends up being (which I think gives them medium range?) will probably support them well, and I think they will be devastating. If it does allow for extra range, bombers engaging on turn 1 isn't impossible, and you wouldn't even need escorts with them moving like that. 11 Bombers is probably to much, but lets face it, 8 could do some crazy damage and that'd leave 200 points for capital ships. Bombers are pretty durable, and it'll take a long while for simple point defense to cleave through those. Too long, methinks.

ah-ha! Damoel with the anti-skew skew

In the case of corrupter + rhymer bombers, their weakness isn't anti-squadron fire so much as engagement rules. Heavy isn't even the issue, it's just squadrons body-blocking bombers from reaching their goal (even with Rhymer). The question of how many squadrons are needed exactly remains to be seen, but you can tie up a lot of space with minimal squadron investment.

I personally see the corruptor as an anti-flanker tool, since it can fire some 3-5 black dice further than it can hurl its red and non-Awing squadrons aren't fast enough to keep up with sneaky corvettes.

Of course, in the situation where you have a clear angle, sending 3-5 black dice up a rebel ship's nose is generally a good course of action Just creating new angles with which to threaten enemy capital ships could be considered a hefty advantage as well.

Your cap ships are not what you should be relying on to take out fighters. That's why TIEs are cheap and each get 3 blue anti-squad dice. TIEs are there to keep the enemy fighters busy while your big ships chew up rebel capital ships.

I'd like to see a mechanic through new rule or upgrade that allows fighters adjacent to a carrier type ship to allow those fighters to board and/or disembark. ..that way you could use fighter screens to tie up the opponent and run through the line and let loose the bombers...I'll probably house rule this unless ffg comes up with something like this

Both sides will need to field enough squadrons that can engage enemy squadrons. Because even if your enemy fields an interceptor-heavy (TIE/ln, TIE/in, and A-Wings) fleet, if you don't field any fighters that those will have to cope with, they'll swarm you so bad. In a 300-point battle, the Imperials could field up to 12 TIE Fighter squadrons. If all of them are attacking in a round, that's an average of 6 anti-ship damage a round. Nine A-Wings, unchecked, will deal an average of 6.75 anti-ship damage a round.

But if you get the spacing right, it shouldn't take a lot of squadrons to protect a fairly big area. You can have a pair of squadrons just over distance 2 apart and engage anything that lands between them. X-Wings are probably best for this kind of duty on the Rebel side. They have good health, good anti-squadron armament, and their mediocre speed isn't as much of a problem if they're acting as screeners. And, if they've dealt with all of your enemy's squadrons, they're pretty competent anti-capital ship squadrons, too. I think A-Wings will be pretty good, too, and they're better able to go chasing after a stray squadron. B-Wings might work, but as someone pointed out in another thread, they're better as anti-capital ship screeners than anti-fighter screeners.

All of the TIEs except bombers should make good screeners, too.

Ties are more for the Anti-Squadron use and the Empire should not have to rely on the Tie Bomber as much as the Rebels will need to lean on their Bombers. And those pesky Ties can hold up and cleave through other fighters pretty good.