I was a bit constrained by the need to take at least one of the new fighters and both the ships. Honestly I would have rather have left the Raider off and taken another Glad. Ended up at the top table with the ISD, Raider, two Glads Bobba abd IG88. He had the MC80, MC30, a guppy and Han. My Fighters took out Han but not before he plinked out 7 damage to my capitals, Demolisher took out the MC30, the guppy took out Demolisher and that MC80 took out the ISD in two volleys flat. I took out some shields on teh MC80 and guppy, but not enough. The Raider was out of position for most of the game, and a good thing too because a single broadside from either the guppy or MC80 with Ackbar would have put paid to it forthwith.

Reb firepower under Ackbar is a scary thing. Planning to compensate.....

So here is the question. Will squadrons be able to take down large ships. See if we could get a squadron > Large Ship > Small Ship > Squadron meta going.

I suspect a dedicated B-wing swarm could do so, if unmolested. Pair Six B-wings with Nym (who stripped the brace off the ISD in turn three of the final I watched yesterday--that was the game changer right there), and that's going to be tough for any ship to weather. Avoid taking squadrons at your peril...

More realistically, though, if you have a B-wing swarm, there will be at least one MC-80 or a couple of AFIIs. For practical reasons, I imagine downing an ISD will remain a joint ship-squadron effort, even in squadron-heavy lists. At long range with boosted comms, plus enhanced armaments/slaved turrets/Ackbar/etc, there's no reason why rebels would need to rely on their squadrons alone to take down an ISD.

You absolutely want Advanced Projectors on an ISD

I beg to differ. Electronic counter-measures are a must on the ISD-II. You NEED that brace, otherwise the MC-80 will blast its shields to pieces and then hull in two rounds, as it will normally get at least one accuracy to block brace.

I have to agree advanced projector is kinda redundant since you want your front arc facing them and the double redirect means you will lose nearly all of your shields anyway. And playing from experience today that brace is a MUST against the mc80 in fact my isd today wasn't able to spend his brace ONCE today, luckily he did his damage first and I was still able to win.

As for the Brace token, that Home One tile might help keep that off the options menu for the rest of the fleet,

Had a couple of games with Mr Shadowlord today, and we certainly noticed the increased lethality of things! We were using wave one ships with a mix of wave two upgrades and squadrons.

We were both using Ackbar which was really fun (made dodging those broadsides very important)......I think our initial reactions were “wow, cant really imagine not taking him now”. I think we all need to work out some anti Ackbar tactics fast otherwise he is going to blow people right off the table (thinking about the points saved from other commanders he seems laughably good – Dodonna and a YT2400 or Ackbar......yep thats an easy choice!)

In the first game I ran all rouge squadrons while Matt ran all normal ones.......the rogues easily won the fight since the capitals were too busy surviving the blistering Ackbar broadsides to give multiple squadron commands. They were fantastic, being fast and independent of the capitals allowed them to jump into whatever arc was out of shields and pile on some key extra damage. It certainly seems like a major risk to completely ignore squadrons now. It will be very interesting to see how regular squadrons fit into fleets, particularly for imperials who look like all their squadron niches are covered by a rouge alternative. For myself I'm thinking of printing of a load of YT2400 dials and sticking them to the x-wing bases. The stats of those things are everything I wanted an x-wing to be.

Having had a taster of things to come I cant wait to get my hands on the new ships (Australia does not get Sullust events......desperately unfair!) Really interested to see how the MC80 turns out....looks like it could be built to be a fantastic support ship that cant be ignored, but can also take the attention......but will it be worth the massive points cost needed to really make it outshine an AF2? I wonder how many of these seem to be doing well at Sullust because both players are forced to take large ships?

One thing I feel is also important to remember about the mc80 sure it is as slow as a vic, but it is as maneuverable as an afmkii at speed two it still has one turn at each speed, that allowed my mc 80 to maneuver enough to slip out of the ISDs front arc before it got its red/blue shot which basically ended its chances of even harming my MC80, because with advanced projectors and Redundant shields and spamming engineering commands it basically weathered one ISD arc(not front) and 5 bomber attacks, all rolling damage, and still had shields on every face. It not only hits hard it is hard to take down. plus the defiance title can make even one arc very dangerous.

The rebel ships on their own, even without Ackbar, are very potent!

At the top table I used Home One with Rieekan, Engine Techs, and Adv. Projectors. Accompanying it were a Torpedo Frigate (Foresight) and Paragon, with 3 B-wings, Moldy Crow, and an A-wing.

Home One really shone, as it allowed the other two ships to shut down the ISD's brace token the entire time (it died on turn 3). The Engine Techs allowed it to go speed 3 and circle the Imperial fleet the whole game, strafing the whole way. It dodged the ISD and was never seriously threatened.

The Torpedo Frigate got in close to the ISD on turn 2, and Foresight allowed it to survive an ISD's front broadside. It died the next turn due to a Raider's double arc shot, but Rieekan kept him alive long enough to return fire, blowing it up. That shrimp is MEAN! I even forgot to use the Ordnance experts and Assault Proton Torpedoes on it...

Paragon did fine on its own, with just a bit of extra support from Home One. Those HUGE bases really make a double-arc shot an easier thing to pull off! And the B-wings put at least 5 or 6 damage onto the ISD before being wiped by his fighter support.

Just goes to show that the new ships are hot, but Wave 1 still has its place!

Wave 1 isn't going anywhere

The new ships don't do anything the old don't and vice versa

Can the old ships Brace Contain? What about rise to 14 hull?

I'm hopeful that Wave 2 will increase popularity of the game. Not just because the mascot has finally appeared, but because the game is more interesting with the new content. The respective fleets' flagships have appeared, and there are more things to do with squadrons now. 400 points means games will no longer feel anemic.

We will enter a better time for Armada and I can't wait!

Can the old ships Brace?

Yes...? (Unless you are a CR90, and twice if you are a Nebulon).

Do you mean contain?

Can the old ships Brace?

Yes...? (Unless you are a CR90, and twice if you are a Nebulon).

Do you mean contain?

Nah he just missed the "vice-versa"

Makes me wonder why I bothered though

Having played some 400 points battles with only wave 1: it feels quite a bit more deadly even without the new ships.

It's undoubtedly a factor of more ships

As points increase so do numbers and sources of dice

The effectiveness of defensive tokens, meanwhile, decreases as the amount of attacks increase

Long range ships, which before didn't necessarily have the punch that makes GSDs so attractive, will have the numbers to do some considerable damage even with just red dice

That's independent of Akbar, who represents another way to obtain lethal long range firepower

Sorry, I was confusing 'Brace' for 'Contain', which is something new only to this wave. I usually refer to brace as "Half-damage" practically :\

Still the rest of the point is valid, Wave 2 does change things considerably but I don't think for the worse. We're not looking at anything resembling the TIE Phantom (or even the TIE Interceptor) comparatively, in the X-Wing meta. There are bigger ships yeah but the points increase ceiling means more ships can be introduced in a fleet to better combat the big ships.

I was a bit constrained by the need to take at least one of the new fighters and both the ships. Honestly I would have rather have left the Raider off and taken another Glad. Ended up at the top table with the ISD, Raider, two Glads Bobba abd IG88. He had the MC80, MC30, a guppy and Han. My Fighters took out Han but not before he plinked out 7 damage to my capitals, Demolisher took out the MC30, the guppy took out Demolisher and that MC80 took out the ISD in two volleys flat. I took out some shields on teh MC80 and guppy, but not enough. The Raider was out of position for most of the game, and a good thing too because a single broadside from either the guppy or MC80 with Ackbar would have put paid to it forthwith.

Reb firepower under Ackbar is a scary thing. Planning to compensate.....

I took the same list as your opponent though I dont know about upgrades.

Mikael took the Jumpmaster, 2 Gladiator 1's with ACM's, 1 GSD 2 (wanted Demolisher there but the Jumpmaster killed him points wise), Raider 1, and the ISD 2 with Vader. . .

I choose (stupidly) Fire Lanes which locked me down to competing for it. . . never doing that one again. . .

The arcs of the MC80 are HUGE!!!! Just a tiny nick from a side arc and small ships cry.

Needless to say the last 2 things I had left were Han and the MC30 (which Assault Proton Torpedoes is a BEAST on . . . though I think ordinance experts are needed.)

Going forward with Akbar's initial impact, imps have some new tech to counteract it

Rather obviously, you got tractor beams for slowass vsds

You got speed 3 with very solid nav chart isds

You got Needa (because you need a evade)

And you got that smug looking prick from the raider pack that rewards you for going fast by obstructing shots from ships

In my final round game yesterday I found both Home One and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits to be amazing. The ability to turn blanks into something worthwhile makes your firepower so consistent. In the whole game, the Imperial player was never once able to Brace with any of his ships. Considering I was throwing out attacks that were doing 6-9 damage pretty consistently, it really hurt.

Am I the only one who was underwhelmed by the MC80 in the final round? I probably didn't build an effective list, as I was beyond shattered at the time! I did manage to get off an "Akbar" from both side arcs, one time, which was nice. I will just have to get used to such a slow ship

Looking forward to the IFF podcast.............

Well people were hilariously confused about how the new commanders worked

Some thought Vader just discarded rather than spent tokens (making him junk)

Some thought you needed to shoot out of both sides for Akbar (making him the most overpriced garbage in the game)

We set that straight right quick, though. The rulebook clarifies what "spending" means for defense tokens (exhaust, or discard an exhausted one) and Akbar does not need to make two attacks to trigger

Playing them correctly made them worth their points, and quite explosive fun to watch

Well people were hilariously confused about how the new commanders worked

Some thought Vader just discarded rather than spent tokens (making him junk)

Some thought you needed to shoot out of both sides for Akbar (making him the most overpriced garbage in the game)

We set that straight right quick, though. The rulebook clarifies what "spending" means for defense tokens (exhaust, or discard an exhausted one) and Akbar does not need to make two attacks to trigger

Playing them correctly made them worth their points, and quite explosive fun to watch

Am I the only one who was underwhelmed by the MC80 in the final round? I probably didn't build an effective list, as I was beyond shattered at the time! I did manage to get off an "Akbar" from both side arcs, one time, which was nice. I will just have to get used to such a slow ship

Looking forward to the IFF podcast.............

All I can say is that this didn't seem to be how any of us felt watching the final at our Sullust tournament. The MC-80 ended up getting back-to-back shots on an ISD (third activation of round 3, first activation of round 4), after Nym stripped the ISD of its brace. The MC-80 rolled 6-7 red dice twice, both were really great rolls, and that combined with the lack of brace ate up shields quick. Even with Motti on the ISD, it was only a matter of time at that point.

My mc80 2 shot a VSD, then him and an AF together 2 shot an ISD.

So not that underwhelmed, no.

My mc80 2 shot a VSD, then him and an AF together 2 shot an ISD.

So not that underwhelmed, no.

Am I the only one who was underwhelmed by the MC80 in the final round? I probably didn't build an effective list, as I was beyond shattered at the time! I did manage to get off an "Akbar" from both side arcs, one time, which was nice. I will just have to get used to such a slow ship

Looking forward to the IFF podcast.............

All I can say is that this didn't seem to be how any of us felt watching the final at our Sullust tournament. The MC-80 ended up getting back-to-back shots on an ISD (third activation of round 3, first activation of round 4), after Nym stripped the ISD of its brace. The MC-80 rolled 6-7 red dice twice, both were really great rolls, and that combined with the lack of brace ate up shields quick. Even with Motti on the ISD, it was only a matter of time at that point.

Ouch....

That's not good!

What kind of lists are people thinking of running with the mc80?

I have been trying to write some but am yet to come up with something i am happy with. It either ends up being too light on ships or too light on squadrons. Home one seems epic....but only if there are a decent number of friendlies to hand out accuracy to. Otherwise a pair of AF2s will provide more firepower.

What kind of lists are people thinking of running with the mc80?

I have been trying to write some but am yet to come up with something i am happy with. It either ends up being too light on ships or too light on squadrons. Home one seems epic....but only if there are a decent number of friendlies to hand out accuracy to. Otherwise a pair of AF2s will provide more firepower.

you're going to be squadron-light, relatively, when you're dumping that many points onto one ship

with Akbar, you might as well give up having anything more than a rudimentary A-wing screen

best I can do is

MC80-Command Cruiser

*Garm

*Defiance

*Projectors?

[136-142]

Neb Escort

*Yavaris

[62]

Neb Escort

[57]

Neb Escort

[57]

Keyan [20]

Jan [19]

B-wing [14]

B-wing [14]

B-wing [14]

[393-399, projectors pending]

as for Mon Cal versus the Fattie, the Fattie is generally just more efficient

what the Mon Cal provides is a more stable platform to load up upgrades, whether going for a really impressive activation (4 squadron + room for boosted comms and a very punchy battery armament to augment the squadron fire), a space-invaders gun platform (Defiance is ridiculous; can be used on both your Mon Cal's attacks ), or a support ship (Home One is indeed ******* bonkers)

it's also a mite scarier at medium range than the fattie while retaining a ranged and defense token flexibility that the shrimp does not exactly possess

the MC-80 is also probably the ideal platform for Silly Bombers

imagine,

Command Cruiser

*Boosted Comms (6?)

*Defiance (5)

[117]

Silly Bomber (16)

Silly Bomber (16)

Silly Bomber (16)

Silly Bomber (16)

Total: 181

boosted comms can be used to abuse Grit (scatter the bombers, force enemy squadrons to split up and fail to engage due to crit or concentrate and leave the others free) or to keep commanding silly bombers while keeping the hell away from imperials. Meanwhile, the MC-80 is throwing 8 goddamn dice from bombing runs in addition to its own considerable batteries. I'd hate to be the imperial ship that has to approach that first