Realizations about the Assault Frigate

By Corellian Corvette, in Star Wars: Armada

I played 3 games (technically two, we stopped after turn 3 on the first one because we realized we deployed wrong) with a list of 2 assault frigates and 5-8 x-wings, with the list changing a little bit between games. (it was usually against 2 victory's with lots of tie fighters and bombers)

Here is what I found:

Electronic countermeasures are a MUST. First game I had with them, they proved handy, but I didn't realize how effective they were...

Second game... oh god... why didn't I take them... Nearly every shooting attack I wished I had that card. It is VERY vital, for those 7 points.

So they are almost an autoinclude.

I also took Garm Bel Iblis, but didn't like him as much as I thought I would. I would of had time filling up my ships even at movement three, usually didn't start shooting until turn 4 or 5 because how we deployed terrain, each circling, trying to find a weakness...

You want to combine Paragon with Enhanced armaments, and hopefully get that objective that works out as your gunnery team. Then, with a focus fire command (and token), Sensor team, and your second attack, your throwing 4 Red dice, 1 blue dice (if at medium), and 2 black dice, with a reroll and a sensor team to spend a die (like a blank) to change another die to a accuracy, to prevent the "half damage" action. Intel officer also adds to the frustration, but that might have been too many points. Anyways, thats 5 dice of damage, with 1 reroll, and 2 (ideally misses) being spent basically for an accuracy icon if you need it.

The carrier variant is alright, but the 2 blue anti-squadron dice of the 'A' is amazing, and I made short work of his Ties with it.

I dunno about the combat retrofit slot, might remain empty for now.

What do you think about the assault frigates?

(ps, at first I hated them, but after buying one, I had to have another. They don't look bad at all!)

only flew the one A variant so far. Will try with two frigates morrow (Paragon A, Haven B)

1. agreed about Garm. So far underwhelming.

2. counter-measures is hilarious on something that's worth the +7 points (corvette...), so also agreed. Guaranteed evade/brace is just amazing for survivability, and if you're running something like gallant haven which forces your whale closer to the enemy...yeah you need it

3. Paragon I don't agree needs to be combined with EA. x17 is so far my go-to laser and I don't see that changing unless intelligence agent sweeps me off my feet. Paragon is the bee's **** knees, though, provided you enable it.

Edited by ficklegreendice

I sadly was flying Garm yesterday on my Killer Whale and round 4 drew the crit to lose all my tokens, and be unable to obtain any new ones. Round 5 started and I cried.

Honestly haven't had a chance to fly mine but I do agree with Electronic Measures and Garm. I will be using General D and Mother Rebel unit Admiral Ackbar comes this summer.

Enhanced Armaments was amazing on my first test. Add in Paragon and getting front and side arc

I do have to say that I really love the flexibility of command tokens, but the round limitations on garm are harrowing

dude would be hilarious with round 1 and round 4 triggers but that's probably why he's round 1 and round 5

Take Enhanced Armaments, Expanded Hangers, Flight Controller, Gallant Haven.

Gallant. Haven. Card is absolutely amazing and a bargain at 8 points. In our play group it regularly stops 8+ damage a game.

Also, in regards to Bel Iblis..... He's bad. Dodonna is IMO the best Rebel admiral ATM unless you're playing some 5-6 ship Corvette shenaniganry.

Can't afford mine just yet, but all indications say this is a ship the rebellion needs. I have more faith in this than fleets of CR-90s and Nebulons. If the lighter ships are the daggers, than the assault frigate is the buckler. VSDs can ignore the stings of corvettes, but they ignore Assault frigate attacks at their own peril.

But a buckler is a light shield, 're you sure, you didin't mean a mace?

I think the Nebulons are more like spears then daggers, Mace sound good for the Assault Frigate

I'm liking the idea of Raymus Antilles on the Assault Frigate unless anyone thinks he is not a good choice. Now giong to make Electronic countermeasures standed sounds better then i throught. Had hopes for Garm but I think ill go back to Dodonna

it's hard for Raymus not to be a good choice on any ship :P

the only time where he's super auto-include, imo, though is on the Salvation. When you need to roll crits, then you need CF's extra die and re-roll (plus all the other cool **** like moving from speed 1 to 3 and extra repairs etc)

Ive been think more of SQ comand moving 3 to 4 squads in 1 turn is about as good as it gets i think

Ive been think more of SQ comand moving 3 to 4 squads in 1 turn is about as good as it gets i think

4-5 with hangers :D

Atm I am still struggling with the effectiveness of the intel officer regarding defensive upgrades. Judging from my first impressions, this guy is a really cheap counter, especially to any ship that does not bring more than one token of any sort. My enemy is able to reliably shut down the token which would benefit me the most, at least for one of his attacks. In my last games, this was the reason to stick with electronic countermeasures to at least have a good chance to use the second-most rewarding token, without having to fear for accuracy results. I see the nice idea behind advanced projectors and definitely will use them on any wave-2 ship with more than one redirect.. but on the AF, I yet have to witness a situation where that single redirect token was not blocked by either intel officer or acc for any salvo that mattered.

For combat retrofit, anybody else using the expanded hangars on the IIA? Personally I like the combination of squad 3 (4 with token) and neat anti-squadron fire from the flak..

Edited by Hesekiel

I'm liking the idea of Raymus Antilles on the Assault Frigate unless anyone thinks he is not a good choice. Now giong to make Electronic countermeasures standed sounds better then i throught. Had hopes for Garm but I think ill go back to Dodonna

Raymus is good, or you can throw him on Yavaris. And yes, Garm is incredibly underwhelming.

I've liked Garm so far actually. In my experience he's been about as useful as Mothma and saves you a few points, at least in Assault Frigate builds.

I've been using the Assault Frigate as a squadron carrier so far to pretty good effect. I've found Adar Tallon to be an absolute must to increase the efficiency of my fighters, especially named ones like Luke. I haven't gotten Gallant Haven to work well at all so far. I guess I'm just more aggressive with my fighters than some, but the distance restriction just makes it too difficult for my play style.

I'll have to try the Electronic Countermeasures, but they don't seem like they'd be that useful. I tried the other upgrade, the advanced projectors (or whatever they're called), for the super-redirect and was fairly impressed. It took about 2.5 rounds of 2 VSDs and a Gladiator focus firing it before it went down.

Anyway, definitely a fan of the big ol' space guppy, considering getting a 2nd one...

I havnt ran any dual mkII lists yet, just ran a B in a carrier roll.

I can say out of the wave 1 releases that the Salvation is my favorite ship in the game.

The Salvation with Raymus on a support refit is amazing for the pts cost especially with most of the Assault objectives that give extra atk dice

I havnt ran a 'combat' oriented MKII yet but using a 'B' with fleet controllers and adar tallon has allowed me to pretty much sweep aside ~4 squadrons of imps in a turn pretty easily

I cant wait to try a MKII A in a more direct ship to ship roll :)

What are some of the ships u run to support the MKII?

Just a question about electronic countermeasures since I'm thinking about giving it a go. Does the term "spend" in ECM mean you discard the token after you use it just exhaust it as normal?

Spending an unexhausted token exhausts it. Spending an exhausted token discards it.

I have found that Intel Officer is amazing. When your Salvation Nebulon-B gets front arc and with a CF dial and CF token you can do amazing amount of damage. Even if you can't get rid of the selected token, you will be surprised. Each ship with the officers will force tokens more and more.

I played one game so far with it, and Each broadside really did a number on the VSD. The only reason I didn't kill it was some misfortune on die results. Darn thing finished on fire but not exploding. The Frigates on the other hand.....sigh.....

I haven't had a chance to field mine yet, and budget constraints mean I don't have any other of the ships or upgrade cards from Wave 1 sadly. But as far as theory goes I was thinking about using a IIA for not only its solid firepower, but as a sort of moving cover for a Corvette using the Jaina's Light title. Anything shooting through the AFIIA to the Light would lose a die before defensive tokens are ever used, and the Light could use Ion cannon effects like overload pulse to set up the AFIIA for a really punishing broadside.

I haven't had a chance to field mine yet, and budget constraints mean I don't have any other of the ships or upgrade cards from Wave 1 sadly. But as far as theory goes I was thinking about using a IIA for not only its solid firepower, but as a sort of moving cover for a Corvette using the Jaina's Light title. Anything shooting through the AFIIA to the Light would lose a die before defensive tokens are ever used, and the Light could use Ion cannon effects like overload pulse to set up the AFIIA for a really punishing broadside.

Yikes how close do you want the Assault Frigate to be?

To get blue dice from Jaina's light you'll have the Assault Frigate in Black Dice range.

Keep Assault frigate at long to skirting medium range always.

Also, drop a load of bricks on the acclerator, and keep them there. An assault frigate not moving at speed three is a dead assault frigate.