I have a friend who I have been getting into armada. We have played a few games against each other, but I mostly classify these as learning games. We are going to be playing a few games here soon, but I need to get a good Rebel fleet.

I supply all of the models for our games, so I want to get a good build for him that he can use (that I did not create so it cannot be said I made it so my list could pound the rebel scum into space dust ). He enjoys running with a decent amount of squadrons, so a good squadron focused list would be good.

Packs I have for Rebels:

1 Core

1 Vette xpack

1 neb b xpack

2 AF xpacks

4 rebel fighter packs

Also have 2 gladiator and 1 vsd xpack in case there are upgrades that would be recommended from them.

Fattie Mark B (72)

*Big D (20)

*Enhanced Armaments (10)

*Intel Officer (7)

*Paragon (5)

(114)

Fattie Mark B (72)

*Electronic Countermeasures (7)

*Enhanced Armaments (10)

*Intel Officer (7)

*Haven [8]

(104)

5 X-wings (65)

Dutch (16)

[Total: 299]

*Advanced Gunnery (paragon)

*Hyperspace Assault (paragon)

*Intel Sweep (haven as objective ship, sweep from one side of the table to another whilst pewpewing away and keeping people honest with a floatilla of havend squadrons; can win games without firing a shot)

Fatties are very nice to learn the game with, since they're very durable (big plus when you're not getting insta-gibbed by your mistakes), surprisingly fast, and long ranged + side-arc heavy which allows them to bring powerful attacks to bare even while you're still learning how to maneuver them. Paragon is hard to use, but it's only five points and there's a nice trick to it (take the lines that make up the four arcs, if an enemy base is hit by that line then that enemy is getting hit by 5-6 dice at long range)

The squadrons, however, are a mostly defensive asset. If the enemy is squadron heavy, then he probably won't be trading well again suped-up Fatties at long range and the squadrons are really there to latch onto Haven and keep the enemy off of your ships. If not, then 5 Xs and a Y pack a very convincing punch and you can just use Haven to deliver them into striking range without getting jumped by interceptors and the like.

thanks fickle, I like the looks of list.

This should work well for him. Do you usually try to keep both fatties in formation for as much protection or would it be best to keep them somewhat seperated?

formation, within reason

the idea is to combine fire from both fatties on, ideally, the same target. This gives you an entire range ruler (relative to the enemy's position) to work with.

you do want the fatties spread ideally at least a medium base apart (nothing worse than cutting yourself off and then dealing face-down damage to both your ships )

the rest is tactical. Most often, Haven's between the enemy and Paragon (not obstructing, mind, though with EA it matters less), but you can also have paragon come in to pick at the flanks and veer away. If the main body of the enemy gives chase, they'll run into Haven's squadrons.