After far too many core set only games I have reached two conclusions about Star Wars:Armada. I can't stand small squishy rebel ships, and I have no interest in flying clunky forward focused Star Destroyers. Enter the Assault Frigate MKII. Fast with a broadside focus and not given to falling apart the moment the enemy brings its guns to bear my Wave One purchase plan became incredibly simple, 2 Assault Frigate MKII's. Now I just have to begin the task of shaping them into a battle worthy squadron.

At the moment I have 2 ideas on where to begin with this. The rather simple Thranta Squadron using only cards from the core and 2 Assault Frigates which I hope to get some game in with this weekend, and the slightly more advanced Aiwha Squadron which may require some proxying as it has the more exciting cards like Intelligence Agent,X-17 Turbo Lasers and Flight Controllers.

+++ Thranta Squadron (299pts) +++

++ Rebel Alliance (Standard) (299pts) ++

+ Squadrons (52pts) +

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

+ Assault Frigate MkII (247pts) +

Assault Frigate Mark IIA† (110pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Enhanced Armament, Gunnery Team, •Paragon†]

Assault Frigate Mark IIB† (137pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Enhanced Armament, Expanded Hangar Bay, Gunnery Team, Weapons Liaison, •Gallant Haven†, •Garm Bel Iblis†]

++ Rebel Alliance (Standard) ++

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]

Defense Objective [Fleet Ambush]

Navigation Objective [superior Positions]

Created with BattleScribe

Garm Bel Iblis is the commander on both of my fleets as I feel the poor mans Tarkin is incredibly worthwhile when all your ships have a command value of 3. Both Assault Frigates go for the basic build of ECM,Enhanced Armament and Gunnery Team. ECM I feel is key to stop defensive tokens being shut down by Accuracy results, which is particularly dangerous to a ship with only one of each token type. Enhanced Armament and Gunnery Team go together to maximise the broadside potential. I know a lot of players have been talking up the "Ackbar Slash" but I feel it is much more likely that I'll wind up flanking and only being able to shoot from one side against a competent opponent. The 4 X-Wings are in the list to fly CAP for the frigates, with the 2B and its weapons Liason able to get them into the fight at the right moment.

+++ Aiwha (297pts) +++

++ Rebel Alliance (Standard) (297pts) ++

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]

Defense Objective [Fleet Ambush]

Navigation Objective [superior Positions]

+ Squadrons (52pts) +

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

+ Assault Frigate MkII (245pts) +

Assault Frigate Mark IIA† (113pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Gunnery Team, Intel Officer†, X17 Turbolasers†, •Paragon†]

Assault Frigate Mark IIB† (132pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Expanded Hangar Bay, Flight Controllers, Weapons Liaison, X17 Turbolasers†, •Gallant Haven†, •Garm Bel Iblis†]

Created with BattleScribe

This is more of a fleet where I tried to fit in the cards that have been being talked up on the forums into a fleet. The 2A Gets an Intel Officer to raise the stakes on the opponents defensive game and X-17's to neuter re-directs on those pesky star destroyers. The 2B gets Flight Controllers to turn its X-Wings even more murderous and the X-17's to complete the list's capacity to focus fire on a single hull zone.

Both Fleets share the same sets of missions Advanced Gunnery(To tempt imperial players.),Fleet Ambush(The Assault Frigates are happy in combat from turn one, this should help.),Superior Positions(Their rear is where I'm aiming for in the first place.). As the lists stand at 299 and 297 I'd imagine a large portion of the time my opponent will get the decision of first or second player so I don't know how often that means I'll get to play my missions in the emerging meta.

Comments,Criticisms and all Feedback are more than welcome as I plan on taking a list in this style to my first tournament at the end of June.My mains areas of concern are: are the missions I have chosen optimal choices, and does anyone have ideas on how to improve on the Assault Frigate configurations?

Gunnery Team and Paragon together in the first list are counter intuitive. One lets you fire twice at different targets from the same hull zone. The other a bonus when firing at the same target from two hull zones. One will always go unused if you're using the other.

Obviously if you want the flexibility go for it!

You're absolutely correct on the Gunnery Team and Paragon DWRR. It really is just a flexibility thing and not wanting to pass up either upgrade as situationaly they are both great to have. Its a bit like why have X-Wing rather than A-Wings in the lists(other than being cheap and not wanting to buy 2 rebel fighter expansions.), The X-wings can go toe to toe in a furball AND potentially threaten ships in a way the A-Wings cant.

I would assume that your choice to use X-Wings over A-Wings is based upon having only the core and two AFII's.

I found your build intriguing so I took a stab at it:

[ REBEL FLEET (296 points)

1 • Assault Frigate Mark II A - Garm Bel Iblis - Defense Liaison - Electronic Countermeasures - Enhanced Armament - Paragon (131)

2 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Adar Tallon - Expanded Hangar Bay - Advanced Projectors - XX-9 Turbolasers - Gallant Haven (106)

3 • X-wing Squadron (13)

4 • X-wing Squadron (13)

5 • X-wing Squadron (13)

6 • Luke Skywalker X-wing Squadron (20)

7 • Objectives - Advanced Gunnery - Fleet Ambush - Dangerous Territory (0)

http://armada.fabpsb.net/permalink.php?sq=r7c5o2d1t1f11r8o9g1d2t3f10r6r6r6r5r0a1a7a10 ]

r7c5o2d1t1f11r8o9g1d2t3f10r6r6r6r5r0a1a7a10

Each AFII has a different role in this set up. The Gallant Haven escorts the 3 or 4 of the X squadrons to the enemy team while the Paragon hangs back and peppers the opposing team or seeks out objectives.

At 296, you have a good chance of initiative, but you could increase that if you want second player as the objectives are fairly beneficial to this setup. You can increase to 298 pts by swapping Enhanced Armaments on the Paragon for XX-9 Turbolasers and a Gunnery Team on the Haven. I can't see getting to 300 pts and maintaining build integrity, but maybe one of you can.

I think that Luke is a valuable asset to this build as your squadrons are fairly limited and the Haven is really squadron focused (something I think this build benefits from). If you increase your component availability by adding a squadron expac, then we can really change things up. Having so many points invested in two ships and so little CAP support is going to be a major competitive struggle for this build, but I think it may be able to withstand a few teams. I almost want to pull some of the upgrades just to have a little Corvette to fly around for objectives and a distraction.

Objectives:

1. Advanced Gunnery - if your opponent chooses this one, you have a major advantage with the Paragon being able to hang back and pepper the same target from the one broadside. This also pulls some of the focus off the Haven which is truly the centerpoint of this build and its squadron control. I almost chose Precision Strike since all of the fighters have Bomber, but I really liked the idea of splitting the opponents focus between the two AF's.
2. Fleet Ambush - You get to send your fighters in to engage faster and your opponent's forces are split.
3. Dangerous Territory - The obvious advantage of being able to land on obstacles without effect for you, while your opponent takes damage is why I chose this. The Paragon can focus on reaching the objectives while the Haven & fighters can run interference. I almost went Superior Positions, but there wasn't as big of an advantage there.

Anyway, it was a fun challenge given the restricted components.

Space Whale!!

I am very interested to hear how a two Mark II list works out. I will like to get a second Space Whale sometime but first would like to hear how they work together in practice.

As for your idea of Electronic Counter Measures being used you are dead on. ECM feels like an auto include for me too right now. Having three defense tokens from all three types would be easy for Imperials to mess up your plans with a well timed accuracy. ECM will be huge in keeping those Space Whales flying.

I would assume that your choice to use X-Wings over A-Wings is based upon having only the core and two AFII's.

At 296, you have a good chance of initiative, but you could increase that if you want second player as the objectives are fairly beneficial to this setup. You can increase to 298 pts by swapping Enhanced Armaments on the Paragon for XX-9 Turbolasers and a Gunnery Team on the Haven. I can't see getting to 300 pts and maintaining build integrity, but maybe one of you can.

Since it's been the subject of much confusion, a reminder that the player with the lowest fleet cost chooses who goes first; they don't automatically have to go first. Therefore, spending more points doesn't make it more likely that you go second.

Rrahk, I like the idea with Dangerous Territory as the third objective but I'm not too keen on the idea of splitting the fleet . Assault Frigate work best in concert so I don't think sending one off mission hunting whilst the other tries to distract the enemy would work in practice. I'm not entirely opposed to picking up some squadron expansions, its just right now as I'm not planning on running anything focused around the squadron game I don't see the value beyond trading out the X-Wings for the potentially superior A-Wings what would the ex-packs do for this kind of list?

I would assume that your choice to use X-Wings over A-Wings is based upon having only the core and two AFII's.

Not necessarily. If you look at the Mark II's you will see they are excellent squadron support ships. Now A-Wings will be great at countering Bombers but the Mark II can more than handle its own against them. X-Wings are a solid squadron in this game and work well with the Mark II giving them Squad Commands. Excellent Anti Squadron ships in the first half of the game that become excellent Anti Capitals in the second half. They are the most versatile Squadron in the game.

Versatility was my goal here as in theory the X-Wing can project threat no matter the match up or phase of the game. Admittedly last night I got my first game in the with the first list(Thranta Squadron) and they died fairly horribly to a bog standard Tie compliment of Howlrunner and 4 Tie Fighters but once people starting going all in on Soontir,Advanced, Rhymer and Bombers then I can see this threat receding. Make no mistake however I am aware that against a fighter focused build my X-Wings will hold them up for 1 maybe 2 turns at best, that's ok its the plan!

At 296, you have a good chance of initiative, but you could increase that if you want second player as the objectives are fairly beneficial to this setup. You can increase to 298 pts by swapping Enhanced Armaments on the Paragon for XX-9 Turbolasers and a Gunnery Team on the Haven. I can't see getting to 300 pts and maintaining build integrity, but maybe one of you can.

Since it's been the subject of much confusion, a reminder that the player with the lowest fleet cost chooses who goes first; they don't automatically have to go first. Therefore, spending more points doesn't make it more likely that you go second.

Exactly, I still think a consensus is yet to be reached on which is the best choice for the deciding player especially as objective cards are closed information until first and second player has been chosen if I'm reading the Tournament rules correctly.

I got my first game in with the first Squadron last night against a pair of VSD's with light Tie Fighter support and we played the Advanced Gunnery mission with me as second player. It was a narrow victory for my Assault Frigates and gave me a much better feel for the list, some key point I noticed during the game were:

-Assault Frigates cover ground fast they need the full 6x3(I was playing on a 4x3) and I need to put a Nav Command into the stack for around turn 3-4 as the extra click is vital so I can't just rely on tokens. The difference between total rebel victory and a close fight(I left him on 2HP on the last VSD) was my Assault Frigater overshooting his rear arc at Speed 3 whilst he ran off at Speed 2 at the start of turn 5 and I couldn't catch up due to me having to slow down to not fly off the edge of the board and the incredibly wide turning circle on an Assault Frigate.
-ECM as has been stated multiple times upthread is vital, as my plan of attack was to travel full pelt between his Star Destroyers(bad plan) and soak the hits up on shields before turning into his rear the ability to still get the benefit of a single defense token no matter how many accuracy results come up saved my Assault Frigates many times over.

-The most surprising lesson of the game for me was how little value I got out of the Assault Frigate 2B whilst Gallant Haven was brilliant and is perfect for the 2A. As the opponents Tie Fighter outranged me(the speed 4 vs speed 3 problem.) I hugged my X-Wings to the Gallant Haven and took minimal damage from being attacked by his full Fighter complement. If my Gallant Haven had been a 2A it could have hosed the Ties and left the X-Wings to mop up without ever need to actually spend a squadron order. As a 2A with Expanded hangars and a Squadron token could still activate all the X-Wings if I needed to I'm seriously considering dropping the 2B for now.

Bearing all this in mind I've made a few alterations to Aiwha squadron which I'll use the next time I get a game in-

This isn't what the Paragon title says.

It says "While attacking a ship you have already attacked this round, add one black die to your attack pool."

Why can't Paragon be used from the same hull zone? Is there an errata saying you can't? If so, why can't I take my first shot from my bow to my enemy's bow, then take my second shot from my bow (using Gunnery Team) to my opponents waist, adding the black die from "Paragon"? I'm attacking from the same hull zone in accordance with Gunnery Team, and I'm targeting s ship I've already attached this round.

How does everyone else read this?

That is not quite right.

Gunnery team does not allow you to target the same ship twice while attacking.

by default, you only get one attack per hullzon and two total attacks

gunnery team lets you use both attacks out of the same arc, but at different targets

Yes, this was me misreading it. I thought it was needing to shoot at two different targets being two different hull zones. I misread the card.

Thanks for the clarification. I tweaked a few lists thanks to the clarification.

So last night I got another game in. I decided not to run the list I posted upthread instead going with this-

So the Paragon becomes a dedicated fighting ship and the Gallant Haven a dedicated Carrier. I'm going to proxy some A-Wings as I'm appreciating more and more the extra speed, the value of counter alongside Gallant Haven and that a Black dice without Bomber has nearly identical damage potential as a Red dice with. Changed the Nav objective to Dangerous territory because Rrahk is a 100% right about the benefits of being able to ignore rocks.

So I've been playing the last list I posted for a whole month now, taking it to second place in my FLGS's first tournament. Naturally it's won every game I've played except for the final round of the tournament where I decided to get cute(lets try seeing what happens when I get to be first player and picking contested outpost vs a Double Victory, Single Gladiator Motti list is a **** tier gameplan.) and thus got completely annihilated, so I thought I'd write down some lessons learned and then post my next list. So I have observed the following-

• 4 A-Wings(especially with flight controller support) is an absolutely perfect minimum fighter complement. Those 44 points have repeatedly pinned down full 100 point squadron lists, and killed star destroyer when my opponents have decided to pass on squadrons.
• It's worth repeating that ECM is vital, Assault Frigates live and die by their defence tokens. Negating accuracy is well worth 7 points.
• Intel Officer never seems to be quite as good as I thought it would be. Once the initial shock of "you can do what to my defence tokens?!?!" wears off and rationality sets in its either worth burning a token to save the ship or not so for now I'm dropping it from my lists.
• Both of the titles for the Assault Frigate are poetry in motion when the stars are right. My Gallant Haven A-Wings have butchered twice their number in squadron order activated ties, that 1 game out of 8 it happened it was perfect. It was however vs a new player who said afterwards that he would never make the same mistake again. I doubt he will and I doubt any other player who has learnt the game will send their squadrons straight at counter capable fighter under the Gallant Haven aegis. Paragon undoubtedly wins games, my first tournament match flipped from a narrow loss my way to a win when I one shotted an enemy Assault Frigate with the Paragon/Concentrate fire 2 Black Dice at long range combo. Most of the time I rarely get to line those 2 arcs up against the same ship so once again its points spent on something that alot of the times relies on my opponent making mistakes rather than me proactively setting up. Paragon is more likely to make it back into lists than Gallant Haven as for 5 points it makes picking my Advanced Gunnery objective a non-viable option for a wise opponent and sets up a lot of danger in their movement.

After my recent experience I've decided to strip everything back down to basics and rebuild from the core of 2 ECM Assault Frigates under Garm Bel Iblis are still what I want to be playing. So I give you the new model Rebel Carrier Battle Group-

The Assault Frigates have downgraded to the IIB to take advantage of lower points cost combined with higher squadron value. Nearly all of the fancy upgrades have been cut away, X-17's neuter redirect so should contribute plenty for a fraction of the cost of my previous offensive options. Paragon is still in as it can still be very much a game winner and is dirt cheap, its probably one of the first things I'd sacrifice if bidding becomes important in the local meta. The points that have been stripped go on a full fighter complement 3A,2Y,1X,2B(1 Keyan Farlander). This is admittedly an experimental composition for the squadrons to see what works for me I'm quite tempted to run 4X4Y and put flight controllers on one of my Frigates as that works out 3 points cheaper.

Objective picking as ever is a bit of struggle. Precision Strike is probably the most sensible as it turns a large bomber wing into a very efficient VP factory, but Advanced Gunnery with Paragon is straight black magic. Hyperspace Assault gives the B-Wings a hard and fast route into the action, although I am quite tempted by Contested Outpost. Minefields give me control over the obstacles and no way for the enemy to score points.

Thoughts, Comments, Criticisms are all welcome as are the experiences of other Rebel Assault Frigate commanders.

Congrats on the tourney placing.

Been following this thread with interest.

I'm interested to see how your new list works out....I've been contemplating something similar recently!

Quick question - has Garm been working well for you? I love Dodonna, but haven't run double AF lists so haven't felt the need to take Garm yet.

Garm Bel Iblis has been working wonders for me. I don't think he would prosper quite so well in a list with lower command value tokens, but as a poor mans Tarkin he's great. I've never failed to use the banked navigate and repair tokens, and banked squadron tokens are nearly as good as expanded hangars if you were were only going to be launching all the squadrons once.

All the rebel commanders are good, especially with a complimentary build. High command value ships are the build that complement Iblis so I'm loving what he does for me.

I wouldn't split your forces. Keep both AF's together. And focus down anything that gets close. I can't stress how devastating B-Wings can be to your enemy, yes they are slow. But their speed won't matter if you can plan enemy capital ship interceptions well.

I wouldn't split your forces. Keep both AF's together. And focus down anything that gets close. I can't stress how devastating B-Wings can be to your enemy, yes they are slow. But their speed won't matter if you can plan enemy capital ship interceptions well.

Ayyy, just park bwings in front of victory and watch it explode

I would drop the EC and grab advance projects. Being able to spread the dmg out among all your shield zone is great. And drop gram for donna. Which couplied with the x9 turbolasers lets you pick the face up crit card. Had the others vsd flying straight and unable to use dials.

I would drop the EC and grab advance projects. Being able to spread the dmg out among all your shield zone is great. And drop gram for donna. Which couplied with the x9 turbolasers lets you pick the face up crit card. Had the others vsd flying straight and unable to use dials.

but advanced projectors won't help you if you can't use your redirect because its been targeted with an accuracy.

I would drop the EC and grab advance projects. Being able to spread the dmg out among all your shield zone is great. And drop gram for donna. Which couplied with the x9 turbolasers lets you pick the face up crit card. Had the others vsd flying straight and unable to use dials.

No just no. Trading two of the greatest strengths of my lists for two situational gimmicks is not something I have any intention of doing.

ECM stops an accuracy, it breaks one of the core game mechanics and is invaluable on ships with one of each defence token type. Advanced Projectors supercharges one of those defence tokens making it even easier for the enemy to know where to allocate that accuracy result. If the Assault Frigate had 2 redirects like a VSD I would be with you 100% on AP over ECM, it doesn't and I'm not.

Dodonna's nice, and very nice with XX-9's. Its a cheap combo with a good pay off. I don't use it because I have other priorities which suit my need better. Garm Bel Iblis is only 5 points more expensive at 25 points to give me command values worth of tokens twice a game. Only having 2 command value 3 ships I get just as many tokens as Tarkin would hand out over the course of a game for 13 points less. I'm pretty certain that just having 2 nav tokens to spend over the course of a game is worth 25 points by itself anything else is a bonus. Turbo Laser wise I like the X-17 for the minimal redirects to neuter VSD's , but I love Enhanced Armaments. 4 Red Dice on the Broadside can damage things horrendously at long range which is where the Assault Frigate thrives.

I agree...having Garm and Enhanced Armaments along with a healthy "every other token" attack command allows you to either put 4 or 5 shots out at red distance with a reroll almost every turn of the game.

I have two variants of this list myself. My first list ran with fewer upgrades and relied more on my squadrons and base firepower. The second mirrors Dave's move to Bs to save points since we really don't care too much about fore/aft or AS batteries.

+++ Armada - Rebel - Double Assault (300pts) +++

+ Assault Frigate MkII (201pts) +
Assault Frigate Mark IIA (118pts) [intel Officer, •Garm Bel Iblis, •Paragon]
Assault Frigate Mark IIB (83pts) [Expanded Hangar Bay, Flight Controllers]

+ Squadrons (99pts) +
•Tycho Celchu (16pts)

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)
A-Wing Squadron (11pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)
X-Wing Squadron (13pts)
•"Dutch" Vander (16pts)
•Wedge Antilles (19pts)

+ Objectives +
Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]
Defense Objective [Fleet Ambush] / [Hyperspace Assault]
Navigation Objective [superior Positions]

+++ Armada - Rebel - Double Assault v2 (296pts) +++

+ Assault Frigate MkII (213pts) +

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (119pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Enhanced Armament, •Garm Bel Iblis, •Paragon]
Assault Frigate Mark IIB (94pts) [Electronic Countermeasures, Enhanced Armament, Expanded Hangar Bay]

+ Squadrons (83pts) +

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)
A-Wing Squadron (11pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)
X-Wing Squadron (13pts)
•"Dutch" Vander (16pts)
•Wedge Antilles (19pts)

+ Objectives +
Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]
Defense Objective [Fleet Ambush] / [Hyperspace Assault]
Navigation Objective [superior Positions]

I like them both but, even with my addiction to an A-Type Paragon, I think the second list will end up stronger. Squadrons are divided up by assigned capital ship.

Crikey, can't believe its been more than a month since I posted in my own thread! Been going through a bit of a slow patch on the Armada front locally only gotten a couple of games in. A brief summary of my experiments with Carrier Battle Groups is that they just don't seem to work so I've been juggling my A-Wing balance of fightyness and losing a lot more than I used to while I try to find something that fits my playstyle. So its time to start over again again with revisiting a concept from my original read of the game rules the idea that Squadrons are pretty useless at fighting ships moving at speed 3+.

Once I stripped out the fighters and their support options from my list it turns out I have enough points to play with to put a fully tooled up Nebulon B in the list. So here's my next list to try-