I'm wondering what people consider the basic ship to use as your main carrier when trying to build a list with a large investment in squadrons in both factions. I'm also wondering how you round out the rest of your ships. What works?

Thanks in advance for that thoughts.

VSD I is the most cost effective imperial carrier there is. Its 73 points, has plenty of hull and 3 squadron command. ISDs are decent too, they have 4 squadron command though are alot more expensive. I only play imperial so I'll leave the rebel advice to a rebel player.

AF2 is the first and last word in Rebel dedicated carriers. It's fast enough to fly defensively, and is the only rebel ship with both the offensive and weapons team upgrade slots you want for Boosted Comms or Expanded Hangar Bays and Flight Controllers. It's survivable, fast, maneuverable, and has good squadron command value.

Yavaris is a gambit. It's not reliable. It's flimsy and easy to avoid granting the double-tap. Sure, you can build for it to make it work, but then you're really building a Yavaris list, not a general carrier list. It doesn't get either Weapons Team or Offensive Retrofit upgrade slots, so you really can't kit it out for primary carrier duty.

The MC80 makes a good battle carrier, but in that case the carrier aspect of it will probably take a back seat on your build and tactics to the MC80 and it's firepower. Not that this is a bad thing, but if a pure carrier is what you're after, you're paying an awful lot for those big guns and all that hull. Despite being an early advocate for it, Independence is sadly not worth it. B-wings are not hard to get into position with practice.

And both of the other ships have squadron 1 and no offensive upgrade slot.

VSD I is the most cost effective imperial carrier there is. Its 73 points, has plenty of hull and 3 squadron command. ISDs are decent too, they have 4 squadron command though are alot more expensive. I only play imperial so I'll leave the rebel advice to a rebel player.

I agree. VSD is the best. ISD I works extremely well cause you can put hangars and boosted coms but is expensive. VSD let you work with 3-5 squadrons and play with some the same toys depending on the needs (hangar, coms, flight controllers, corrupter, even AA support with h9 and warlord if you want). But with a heavy squadron list. The VSD I with hangar/coms and maybe corupter works perfectly.

And for some tasks, a raider could work. With hangar and tarkin/yularen it manages up to 3 squads for 49-56 points.

For the Rebels I like using the AFmkII with flight controllers, wing commander and expanded hangers. This come in at 89 points.

I run 1 of these with 8 squadrons, usually a mix of Jan Ors, at least 2 X-Wing, Y-Wings and A-wings.

Then you can activate which type of squadron when you need when you need it, just keep them close.

I'm a huge proponent of B-Wings on the rebel side. I've had great success with 4x B-Wings getting catapulted around by Independence with Boosted Comms. I will caveat that with B-Wings are extremely hard to get right. They do not work well with the AFII at all. My carrier group is Independence and Yavaris with either an MC30 or Salvation guarding Yavaris' flank. It has taken me a while to get right, and I'm continually tweaking the fighter portion, but when flown right it is scary good.

As has been said, on the Imperial side the VSD I is hands down the best carrier. Absolutely great bang for your buck. Slap on flight controllers and expanded hangers or boosted comms and you're good to go. That's an absolute steal for 83-84 points.

Thanks for the thoughts so far. So in both lists it sounds like medium ships are generally the best option. If you go that route, do you then find yourself going with an ISD or MC80 and a small ship or 2-3 other small ships? Both fighter lists I built around with have about 100 points in squadrons, a medium ship as the carrier and then three smaller ships with almost no upgrades.

Next game I'm going with Moldy Crow, Nym, 2 H-6 Scurgg and Luke Shield-scoffer.

Because of Intel the bombers should get there shots off.

Run by an AF2 with Expanded Hangar bays and Raymus Antilles for a squadron value of 5.

One other thing you'll want to consider is how many squadron commands your fleet can issue relative to the number of squadrons you have. Some people and builds will want a command for each squadron, and others will have much, much less. It's entire possible (though maybe not optimal) to not need commands at all.

Your choice will depend on the type of squadrons you have, the presence of Rogue squadrons, likely squadron attrition rate, and your flying style. Generally dedicated bombers may be able to get away without squadron command support, but if you're planning on dogfighting squadron commands can be the margin between victory and defeat.

One other thing you'll want to consider is how many squadron commands your fleet can issue relative to the number of squadrons you have. Some people and builds will want a command for each squadron, and others will have much, much less. It's entire possible (though maybe not optimal) to not need commands at all.

Your choice will depend on the type of squadrons you have, the presence of Rogue squadrons, likely squadron attrition rate, and your flying style. Generally dedicated bombers may be able to get away without squadron command support, but if you're planning on dogfighting squadron commands can be the margin between victory and defeat.

It's been my experience that dedicated bombers need commands, unless you're lucky enough to jam them in the front of a large, slow ship like a VSD or MC80. Range 1 is simply too hard to repeatedly get in the Squadron phase, otherwise.

Thanks for the thoughts so far. So in both lists it sounds like medium ships are generally the best option. If you go that route, do you then find yourself going with an ISD or MC80 and a small ship or 2-3 other small ships? Both fighter lists I built around with have about 100 points in squadrons, a medium ship as the carrier and then three smaller ships with almost no upgrades.

Here's my Vassal Tournament list. This is generally how I go with slight variations:

MC80 Command Cruiser

-Garm

-Independence

-ECMs

-Adar Tallon

-Boosted Comms

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

-Yavaris

Nebulon-B Support Frigate

-Salvation

-Wedge

-Dutch

-Jan

-4x B-Wings

The following is my own developed Imperial doctrine, followed by my observations on the traitors' tactics. For either side, as a dogfighting rule of thumb, he who shoots first, and better concentrates their firepower almost always wins. To that end, I almost never run more squadrons than I have squadron command available, command plus token as an absolute last resort. Keeping that many squadron tokens on hand is a pain without either Yularen or Tarkin, who are both expensive, if often worth it.

If you are running Imperial fighters, you almost certainly have a speed advantage, which if you position carefully, can be combined with a well-timed squadron command for a guaranteed first strike. Do this, you need to blood as many Rebels as possible as soon as possible, given your one-on-one lack of HP, firepower, or both. Your fighters all have synergies, use them. Run Fel among Advanced. Run Howlrunner among eyeballs (regular TIEs) and Interceptors. Dengar is good everywhere, and his counter is vicious in large numbers. Rhymer may as well be the Archangel Michael himself taken bomber pilot form. He is almost always worth it if you can spare the points and command, even in pure space superiority lists. Ten blue at medium range is still ten blue, and your opponent won't be able to brace either. For carriers, Expanded Hangar Bay is only five points, and in my experience Squadron Command dials with something to command give a lot more bang for your buck than anything besides that critical engineering to keep your ships alive. Victories are good for cheap, survivable carriers (Corrupter is good with large bomber formations). The Imperial-1 is not be underestimated. At 119 pts, an Imperial-1 with Boosted Coms, EHB plus either five or six squadrons shuffled a turn can be devastating. And either ship can continue to fight without her escorts quite effectively.

Rebel squadrons as a rule are capable of doing their job quite well without the continuous shepherding of Imperial units, but are more expensive, and can benefit just as much from commands as their Imperial counterparts. Don't underestimate their ability to hit back after taking a hit; only the A-wing can be one-shot, and then only by Interceptors. Keep them together, make my pilots work to push through and kill everyone. If you split up, a good Imperial commander will savage you in detail. If he gives you the same opportunity, take it. Almost every Rebel unit is a bomber, so don't be afraid to let his handful of battered TIEs get away if you can finish a ship instead. You have a much better chance of that than he does. Use your HP and firepower to fight to and from your targets.

For either faction, decide before the match how much effort you are planning to spend shepherding your fighters. When in doubt, Imperial fighters need the help, while the ships can take care of themselves, and the inverse is true for the Alliance. And never underestimate the value of an ace, especially one with scatter, to be worth the additional points from the survivability granted by defense tokens. This applies to Rogues as well, and remember that even Rogues can use squadron commands effectively to jump their opponents. Long story short, remember, remember the squadron dial.

He who shoots first, and better concentrates their firepower almost always wins.

This, right here--squadron combat in Armada distilled into one sentence.

AF2 is the first and last word in Rebel dedicated carriers. It's fast enough to fly defensively, and is the only rebel ship with both the offensive and weapons team upgrade slots you want for Boosted Comms or Expanded Hangar Bays and Flight Controllers. It's survivable, fast, maneuverable, and has good squadron command value.

Yavaris is a gambit. It's not reliable. It's flimsy and easy to avoid granting the double-tap. Sure, you can build for it to make it work, but then you're really building a Yavaris list, not a general carrier list. It doesn't get either Weapons Team or Offensive Retrofit upgrade slots, so you really can't kit it out for primary carrier duty.

The MC80 makes a good battle carrier, but in that case the carrier aspect of it will probably take a back seat on your build and tactics to the MC80 and it's firepower. Not that this is a bad thing, but if a pure carrier is what you're after, you're paying an awful lot for those big guns and all that hull. Despite being an early advocate for it, Independence is sadly not worth it. B-wings are not hard to get into position with practice.

And both of the other ships have squadron 1 and no offensive upgrade slot.

To piggyback off of this, you really only take the MC80 as a carrier for Independence. Otherwise, the MKII can pretty much fulfill the same criteria for much cheaper. Expanded Hangars makes it squadron 4, but I think Boosted Coms is better for it since a token will be able to deliver the same squadron value.

Raymus is excellent at keeping you spamming squadron commands at pseudo squadron-4.

It's been my experience that dedicated bombers need commands, unless you're lucky enough to jam them in the front of a large, slow ship like a VSD or MC80. Range 1 is simply too hard to repeatedly get in the Squadron phase, otherwise.

With enough practice you can get the bombers into position pretty well with minimal assist, even with B-wings. There was a thread a while back about how you could get 2 or 3 turns of shots on a VSD or AF from a Y-wing without squadron commands, via overlaps. Granted this was in the context of Wave 1...things move faster now.

Raymus is excellent at keeping you spamming squadron commands at pseudo squadron-4.

Alternatively you can take Garm + veteran captains for 2 or 3 rounds of pseudo squadron 4, which may be enough to squeak by as it allows for some attrition without wasting potential squadron commands.