I've played a bunch of games, and the smaller ships (especially the CR90) just seem to stink to me. They don't do a lot of damage, and the CR gets just obliterated in a turn of shooting, it seems. Maybe I've just been unlucky in the rolls against them, but they just seem so fragile and quick to be destroyed.

Is this normal?

Hard to answer without seeing how they are being handled, but in my experience they are fine.

The cr90 is best used from range (obviously) and preferably, if you have more ship activations than the imperial player, then best used as a ship that fires when an imperial ship gets in range, then the cr90 gets out of range before it can be shot at.

The nebs work best when in tandem (imo) and at slow speeds in order to maximize the number of shots you can deal from their front arcs before the imperial ships can get close and take one out.

Finally, the af2 is a very solid ship. When coupled with paragon and either xi7's or the extra batteries, its a great platform that can withstand a lot of punishment and deal plenty itself.

Ugh the blockade runner is a pain in the ass! chasing that little mother is a huge headache.

With Rebels, you have to take advantage of each ship's strength and use them together to bring down the big Imperial ships while limiting the available targets the Empire can shoot at.

For example, while the front arc of a VSD is mean, if it doesn't have advanced gunnery and you have 2 to 3 ships in its front arc, you're forcing him to make bad decisions.

I believe the cr90 is also the most cost efficient ship points:dice-wise at this time.

The CR90 is an excellent ship.

All of the rebel ships are very good! You just have to know and use there roles or they will die horribly. They can't operate alone they need to work together and to there strengths if you do that they are very good ships.

if your ships are smelling, chances are it's a customer support issue

as for damage output, it's probably a question of use

CR-90s are the cheapest ships in the game (So far), and yet they can still double arc out 5 freaking dice. You can get two of them for around the price of a VSD-2 or an upgrade fattie. Logically, they'll appear to suck on a 1 by 1 basis. You play well enough, though, and you'll be wiping VSDs off the table in 2 rounds. There's a massive advantage to having multiple attacks, because of how defense tokens work.

as for durability, CR-90s are the squishiest ship at anything but long range. If you want them to last, bring Mon Mothma (included in the cr-90 wave 1 expansion) and suddenly they're stupid difficult to kill.

Unlike the imperials' very specific "**** your face" rounds of shooting (When they get their primary arc; short range shots to bear) rebels are far more consistent on a round by round basis. It's up to you, then, to avoid getting in the bad ranges/arcs (fortunately, CR-90s are the most maneuverable ship in the game, and with command one they only get easier to maneuver)

rebels can approximate imperial damage output with either the Salvation title (neb-b, use Raymus) or Paragon title (AFmkii title, turns your fattie into a long range VSD basically if you can achieve the condition)

rebels can exceed imperial damage output with B-wings and yavaris. get 2 double taps, throw blue blue blue blue black black black black

Rebel ships are weaker, but also cheaper. So it balances out fine. They are not the industrial behemoth that is the Empire and their smaller ships suit the fiction well.

well, the smaller ships are cheaper and weaker at close/medium range specifically (a 51/57 point NEb-b fires the exact same amount of front-arc red dice as a 73/85 point VSD)

the AFmkii is a mere point less expensive than the VSD (the mark A is four points cheaper than the VSD-2). It does not hit very hard (without upgrades, especially Paragon) but it is chuncky, and its combination of maneuverability and strong side arcs (most coverage by far, lets they ship strafe & hit and run with incredible ease) let it last a lot longer

I had the same feeling when I was playing at 180pts. It was much better when I started playing 300 pts, suddenly CR90 attacks were starting to add up and VSDs were running out of defense tokens.

edit:english

Given that I love my AFs so much that I might not even use the MC80 in Wave 2 I would say that no, they don't stink at all. I really want to see the full stats on the MC30 as well as it would be a perfect compliment, I think.

As far as I can judge, the Rebels as a whole are enjoying far more success here then the Empire. I think it comes down to what you are doing with them on table that gets them killed

I think the CR90 may actually be the best ship in the game in terms of what you get per point spent. If you take Mon Mothma as your commander, you have a ship that is faster (in terms of both ability to turn and ability to cover ground) than anything the imperials can bring by a wide margin, can effectively engage at long and medium range, and will outnumber your foe. 6 CR90A's and Mon Mothma, with nothing else, is a very strong list on its own.

If you lose a CR90 in a single turn of shooting, I have to ask why you let anything imperial close enough to it to lose it? You were either at range 1 (which means either you chose to get close to something and let it fire or it was Demolisher, which you have to plan for and then crush with the remaining corvettes, as you win that points trade), or in the front arc of a VSDII at medium range without Mon Mothma, which you should play around, but will happen once in a while and should result in 4-5 corvettes pummeling the VSD in return.

Speed 4 MC30's taking shots as the come in as the long range CR90 A's slowly strip shields. . . I suddenly Ned 2 more CR90's. . .

Oh and Rebel ships are not bad. They don't play the same way as the Imperial ships do. If you try you will fail every time. You have to use your speed and range and focus fire 1 ship down at a time.

We played the weird death match. You switch initiative. See rules at end for death match.

Anyway. My corvette flew in and solo'ed against a VSD twice. Twice. And lived. And gloriously popped the last needed damage down to bring the VSD to 1 hull. Then the AF came from behind and smashed it.

I believe now. Corvettes are the funniest things ever.

The AFs are kind of noticeably easier to pop than a VSD though. Would not recommend solo.

Speed 4 MC30's taking shots as the come in as the long range CR90 A's slowly strip shields. . . I suddenly Ned 2 more CR90's. . .

Oh and Rebel ships are not bad. They don't play the same way as the Imperial ships do. If you try you will fail every time. You have to use your speed and range and focus fire 1 ship down at a time.

Now if you spend any time in the front arc of a Star Destroyer they will live up to their name, so do not play their game.

The AFs are kind of noticeably easier to pop than a VSD though. Would not recommend solo.

The AFs are kind of noticeably easier to pop than a VSD though. Would not recommend solo.

Fatties are more "durable" than vsds

I say "durable" because their platyle of run and gun and superior maneuverability (+access to ecm) let them last far longer when played well

Vsds are chuncky but just impossible to avoid things with

Remember that Assault Frigates have 3 defense tokens they can take a big hit bit not multiple medium hits

I would go so far as to say that one of the strengths of the Corvette is that for an equivalent number of dice, it is almost always better to split them into multiple small pools than blow them all in one big pool because of how defense tokens work.

3 red + 3 blue from a VSD = average 4.5 damage, but brace brings that down by more than 2.

4 red + 2 blue from two different corvettes is the same average, but you can only brace one of them for 1 point.

I definitely think the Rebels are harder to play then the Empire. They tend to hold up to some pretty big screw ups typically. Whereas most Rebel builds are pretty dependent on piloting very well.

So, I played two games as rebels and I'm a bit disappointed too by the firepower of the rebel ships. I can understand the strength of throwing multiple shots at the same arc to eat through the defense tokens but still...

In the two games, no Imperial ships were destroyed (and no Rebel ships were destroyed either, although two of them were severely crippled by the end). I just kind of feel that the firepower is a bit meh, and that accuracy rolls are more the enemy of Rebel ships than they are their friend because you want them to spend their defense token.

Actually, when you get an accuracy, can you choose not to use it or do you have to ?