The neb-b gunline: strategy thoughts?

By DUR, in Star Wars: Armada

In terms of skew lists, I find this one harder to play! Looking for recommendations here- not sure if anyone else is trying this out (gives you something to do with all your neb's you bought for xi7's :P ).

Questions I have:

How many neb-b's?

Which admiral?

Naked or upgraded?

Titles?

Fighters necessary?

I was thinking 6 TRC'd neb-b's with Garm, salvation and something to waste 20 points on (perhaps 3 escort upgrades?)

A wacky list I've been messing with is 6 slave-turretted neb-b list with ackbar for a really odd kiting list. What this has over cr90's is the wide arc, the ever-so-slightly harder to one shot nature of being blessed with double-brace, and a more respectable engineering command (especially if you banked one on T1 across the board) if you happen to survive whatever awful wave 2 combo you just got slapped with.

The ST/Ackbar one is particularly fun because you've got 5 reds on a CF per frigate from front or side. Gunline crawl, then token/dial up to a T-cross?

I think it could really make use of Turbolaser Reroute Circuits. The main issue with a Nebulon Gunline is that you're only shooting 3 (4 with a Concentrate Fire) dice, all red. Reliably hitting is going to be your primary difficulty. Also, Nebulons have to fly close to targets if they don't destroy them at long range.

Apart from Salvation, the main strength of the Neb really is squadrons

those 2 anti-squadron and 2 squadron really escort squadrons into the fray, and squadrons don't care about their narrow strong arc nor their lack of damage output at close/medium range

I think Slaved turrets might be a better option over TRC imo.

If I were to do a Neb-B Gunline in today's environment, it would have Slaved Salvation, Yavaris, additional TRC Nebs, Jan and all the B-wings that can fit.

"B-wings: You can't spell Neb-Bwings without it."®

I think Slaved turrets might be a better option over TRC imo.

Two good reasons why not:

TRC ensures a minimum 2 damage per shot. Given the number of blanks on red dice and the long range engagements making Evades extremely useful, guaranteed damage is very important for the Nebulon.

Slaved turrets has two major drawbacks: It's adding only one already unreliable red die, and it's preventing players from making anti-squadron attacks after shooting ships. The wide arcs of the Nebulon aren't great for enemy ships, but they're a great arc for firing on squadrons trying to get behind.

Well. . . I think R1H4 did some good math and found that an extra red die actually contributed a lot to more damage.

Now I would only really use Slaved Turrets with Salvation but there is a case to be made because TRC'a can change it to a crit.

Of course there is always that o e guy who will Nym or Intel Officer that only evade as early as possible.

Edited by Lyraeus

I've found a Tantive4 with Raymus to provide token support to the nebs helps heaps, especially when supporting yavaris for bwings. Also i run nebs as reverse gladiators, start slow let them come to you then booster away when they are close with a banked nav token, nav dial and engine techs with your rear shields showing to take the brunt of chasing shots!

If I were to go for the gun line I'd be looking at naked Nebs. I'd be most scared of some flanking ships being able to roll up. My solution (that I just thought of) would be to keep the ships cheap and cheerful. You can just ditch the ones on the side and hope to slow flanking ships down or have them bump while the rest escape. Throw in a AF2 to carry a general and activate a token buffer of A wings and /or YT1000.

If you're spamming Nebulon-Bs (and they do present the most efficient 3-Red front arc in the game), you need to make a strong wall of side-by-side ships and, like a claymore mine, keep "Front Toward Enemy."

Nebulon-Bs have three real strengths:

  1. Double Brace (as the only ship in the game with Double Brace, you're likely to halve a lot of incoming damage before you die
  2. Most Efficient 3-Red front arc (at a mere 51pts, you won't find better long range firepower, outside of Ackbar'ed corvettes, but Nebs can joust and maintain their efficiency, which can have advantages over Corvettes which have to skirt depending on the matchup)
  3. Great Titles (Both the Yavaris and Salvation are potent titles for their price range).

As for Admirals:

Ackbar: Not a great option, because if you're giving up your front arc you're overpaying for the Nebs best strength. Though, there could be a case to be made for a 51pt ship with 3 Red Front and 3 Red Side...and those Nebs do have really wide generous side arcs (often to their own dismay). But at 51pts, it's hard to not just up to an Assault Frigate for 20 more pts and gain two more red die on those side shots, plus much greater survivability. If you want your value out of the Neb, you gotta use that front arc.

Mon Momtha: Not a great option, because you've only got one Evade token per ship. Mothma is a really powerful leader, but she seems best suited to a Corvette heavy fleet where every ship can really milk their double evade tokens.

Dodonna: Maybe, just to save points and to couple him with the Salvation and the Yavaris' B-Wings and whatever other Bombers you've brought. Nothing fancy, but brute efficiency is never a bad thing in a points-based game.

Bel Iblis: Garm looks pretty good with a lot of Nebs, since you're getting two tokens per ship. A very reasonable choice.

Riekan: Another reasonable option, with Nebs being kind of fragile. It means that every time your opponent kills one it will still get to make its attack and then (hopefully) ram an enemy ship for one more damage, to really add to their resiliency along with their double brace.

I think Riekan or Garm is the clear winner for a dedicated Neb-B admiral.

Hmm... I'm thinking an engine-tech reikan boxing list now.... hmmmmmm!

Potentially 12 damage of ramming for two turns! And then.... they go to Yavaris heaven, where the hundreds of Yavvies have gone after blowing up immediately after double-tapping b-wings :D

edit: Bank a token, have redemption around, so you can increase the ram-tasticness to 3 turns! 36 "shield breaking" Neb-slaps!!!

++Rieekan's 1st Shield Breakers++

Flagship Expendaleader (Lemming 1)

Neb-B support, engine techs, Rieekan 89

Lemmings 2-4

Neb-B support, engine techs 59 x 3 = 177

Salvation (Lemming 5)

Neb-B support, engine techs, salvation 66

Redemption (Lemming 6)

Neb-B support, engine techs, redemption 67

General Rieekan, of course, would have preferred "Linebacker" as the task force callsign, but for some reason the other name stuck despite his repeated protests.

On a nav command, that's a 112.5 degree turn at effective speed 4 for each ship. It's got some legs!

Start at speed 1, bank a nav, bank an engineering, then nav+dial up to destruction!

Perhaps this will become the new phrase to be inserted into various rap albums:

"You done got neb-B-slapped!"

Edited by DUR

they go to Yavaris heaven, where the hundreds of Yavvies have gone after blowing up immediately after double-tapping b-wings :D

I call it Yavarhalla....