I have only played Armada about 7 times so I have a small bit of skill with the game. I have played X-Wing many times so I am pretty familiar with list building and how to make good combos. Today was my first game with the new Armada ships from wave 2. I do some reading on this forum so I have read about Akbar and that he is pretty potent. I didn't realize just potent he really is. We had two imps and two rebel players.

In the first game we ran three corvettes with turbo laser reroute circuits along with an MC-80 with a few upgrades and a token force of squadrons just enough to keep my opponents squadrons busy. My opponents ran two gladiators and an ISD with screed and a 5 named squadrons with Boba Fett, Vader and Fel plus a couple others I don't remember. The scenario was the one where you pick a ship that needs to be destroyed for double points. I had never flown the corvette so I got a little too over confident in the speed and lost one corvette after it only got one round of shooting. It did some minor damage to the ISD. The imperial squadrons weakened my corvette quite a bit and the ISD finished him. This was the very start of turn 3 and I though we were in serious trouble. That is until the other two corvettes fired. One corvette stripped 4 shields from the ISD's front and the other stripped three from the right side! Both teams were stunned! The very next turn a corvette went first and stripped three more shields and landed three hits on the hull from the left side of the ISD leaving him completely open for a 6 red dice broadside from the MC-80 which demolished it. The ability to turn dice into two hits with an evade was crippling. The home one title pretty much garunteed that the defense tokens were taken out of play. It was a slaughter not yet witnessed by any of us in this game.

We played one more game and switched the MC-80 for an MC-30 and a Neb-b to handle the names imp swarm. This wasn't quite as bad but the corvettes still wrecked a gladiator in no time. The Neb-b gutted the swarm after it killed a corvette. This game ended at round 6 with the rebels poised to totally dominate again. Rebels won 166-133.

My question to those more knowledgeable in Armada is how in the heck do you stop Akbar? We brainstormed for a while and just can't think of a good way to stop him with the current game state. Closing quicker seems like it would just give more close range dice to the rebels to go along with all the reds Akbar gives. Staying at range is suicide too. Maybe more squadrons but rebels have Neb-b's which are great against squadrons and with Akbar. Does anyone have a good counter yet?

Isds counter deployed to your mc80 (navigate and park in front of it). Tractor beams help slow those vettes down so you can pop em. Lastly a rhymer bomber group can really help.

Just a few ideas / pointers. Hope it helps!

Ackbar seems like huge trouble but he is not too bad. Wait until you find Rieekan and some MC30s...

Maybe more squadrons but rebels have Neb-b's which are great against squadrons and with Akbar. Does anyone have a good counter yet?

I would like to point out, You rarely see "Neb-B" and "great... with Ackbar." in the same sentence, at all these days...

I've dallied with it. And against it. Squadrons are the key, you just have to not Fear the Two dice the Neb B Escort puts out (and its usually the 1 AS Die Support you see) and start bombing the side arcs. A Neb-B is very succeptable to having its side arcs shot at. If its not facing the ISD or VSD directly, with the slightest bit of curve, it'll get return fire to a much more vulnerable arc.

Electronic Countermeasures are a great counter to the Home One title.

With big ships, Home One, and blue dice flying around these days, it is very hard to justify a 100pt or greater ship on the table without ECM onboard to keep it's brace available.

You really needed ECM. Thus a ISD2.

Second. You want to be jamming those wedges down Ackbars front arcs.... Which is very much a hard thing to do and what I've not been able to figure out yet.

Another option: Make them first, and you second.

Another option: Get intercept with Gladiators and blast them with black dice. AFs still die.

last option: mass sqaudrons + bombers. I hate this option. Its boring.

I'm thinking pick your targets and stick with it. Also taking upgrades to mitigate those evades are nice as are the bombers that were previously suggested. Rhymer is the way to go along with lots of generics (this is personal preference but I think the names pilots en masse is too expensive and doesn't earn their points back.

Unfortunately, Ackbar can't really be shut down like some of the others so plan your moves carefully. Thankfully the ships mentioned can't take gunnery teams so target saturation can help a little.

Dano and I grabbed a couple core sets each when Armada first came out (there was nothing else to buy to get to 300 points) and initially I felt about the same about VSD2 as the OP does about Ackbar. The more games I play in wave 2 the less I feel Ackbar swirls are the only choice. I assume this will continue, but strongly doubt Ackbar swirls will go the way of the VSD. The nice thing is that there are always deployment and maneuver decisions to be made, so strong play still trumps fleet construction as a sweeping generalization.

Does anyone else just use multiple tractor beams to make Akbar conga lines just crash into each other?

Does anyone else just use multiple tractor beams to make Akbar conga lines just crash into each other?

I've played 6 or 7 games vs the ackbar conga, all of which i had tractors on my ISDs. Not once was i able to get them to crash into each other. Two games i kept a mc30 out of the fight all together to give me a win. The other games i slowed assault frigates into my front arcs to pop em and one game i parked in front of a mc80. Its not all glory though, the two games i lost were in a row at a tourney. Opponent flew really well, the force was with him.

Does anyone else just use multiple tractor beams to make Akbar conga lines just crash into each other?

While I loved the idea of this I haven't seen it executed successfully in the couple attempts I've been at the table for. That was before the errata came out, though, and I haven't really thought much about tractors since.

Tractor beams seem like it could help and we didn't try that. Our second game the ISD did have ECM but knowing that we just deployed to ignore him and took out a gladiator instead. We also found it difficult to get the ISD front arc in play. In both games my buddies playing imps only used the front arc once since as the rebels we know it was instant death star get anywhere near it. Even running the ISD at speed three didn't make much difference. Squadrons did made a big dent in the corvettes so that might be a good route also but so far I am not sure they make their points back.

Found it difficult to get the ISDs front arc in play?

I'm so confused..

Dano and I grabbed a couple core sets each when Armada first came out (there was nothing else to buy to get to 300 points) and initially I felt about the same about VSD2 as the OP does about Ackbar. The more games I play in wave 2 the less I feel Ackbar swirls are the only choice. I assume this will continue, but strongly doubt Ackbar swirls will go the way of the VSD. The nice thing is that there are always deployment and maneuver decisions to be made, so strong play still trumps fleet construction as a sweeping generalization.

7 games is just not enough experience to combat the threat. Just keep playing and try new things.

I am just trying to figure out if you rolled 2 Double hits and then Used Turbolaser Reroute Circuits or if you used Turbolaser Reroute Circuits twice in a single attack. . .

Found it difficult to get the ISDs front arc in play?

I'm so confused..

Navigateverything commands!

I think ECM's, tractor beams, and any upgrade card that will give you more flexibility toward getting an extra click on the stick so that the star destroyers can stay in the rebs' front arcs is the counter to Ackbar builds.

Dano and I grabbed a couple core sets each when Armada first came out (there was nothing else to buy to get to 300 points) and initially I felt about the same about VSD2 as the OP does about Ackbar. The more games I play in wave 2 the less I feel Ackbar swirls are the only choice. I assume this will continue, but strongly doubt Ackbar swirls will go the way of the VSD. The nice thing is that there are always deployment and maneuver decisions to be made, so strong play still trumps fleet construction as a sweeping generalization.

Same reaction people had when the GenCon Special was shown off.

7 games is just not enough experience to combat the threat. Just keep playing and try new things.

I am just trying to figure out if you rolled 2 Double hits and then Used Turbolaser Reroute Circuits or if you used Turbolaser Reroute Circuits twice in a single attack. . .

If you mean the turn where I did 3 shields and three hit it was from getting an extra dice from the command dial plus two reds from Akbar and the blue from medium range. It was 5 dice thrown and one got turned to double from reroute circuits and we must have thrown another double because I know the blue locked out one of his tokens. Home one/Akbar/TRC is freaking nuts. We only used it one game because it feels like it was an unintended combo. Just so powerful.

There is a shift in wave 2 in power. Not in what list is the best, but rather what list is easiest to fly if you are new to the game. Back when the core came out both sides were flying straight at each other and VSDs were smoking the opposition. Rebel players had to learn how to outmaneuver VSDs and avoid GSD w/ Demolisher.

Now that we have wave 2, imperial players can't simply fly straight at the enemy anymore. We need to do more to get in front of/behind rebel ships and/or bomb the rebel flagship with boosted comms and Rhymerballs.

Conga lines are predictable and Ackbar is very expensive. I am excited to see the game change as imperial players learn how to beat Ackbar lists.

I'm thinking pick your targets and stick with it.

A million times. "Concentrate Fire," is not just a command on your dial, it's a way of life.

I'm thinking pick your targets and stick with it.

A million times. "Concentrate Fire," is not just a command on your dial, it's a way of life.

Which is what makes Akbar so good. It's fairly easy to concentrate reds.

I'm thinking pick your targets and stick with it.

A million times. "Concentrate Fire," is not just a command on your dial, it's a way of life.

Which is what makes Akbar so good. It's fairly easy to concentrate reds.

Thank gods MC is only speed 2...

But a 3-4 whale X-17 list is pretty awesome with Akbar. Paragon as a way of life!

I'm thinking pick your targets and stick with it.

A million times. "Concentrate Fire," is not just a command on your dial, it's a way of life.

Which is what makes Akbar so good. It's fairly easy to concentrate reds.

This is true. The trade-off, of course, is that you're focusing with the most unreliable dice in the game.

The ackbar problem it's that gives rebels equal damage to imperial ships to arc with wider coverage and don't need to aproach to profit. If rebels weren't agile will be fine but right now rebels seem to have the speed,agility and firepower.

The isd it's not as manouebrable as some say. It has the same moves as mk2 but move broadsides it's easier than mantain the frontal arc.

I hate to do so but with the new rebel builds the best option will be not play. Stay outside range and make them come if they want to play.

If the option to outdamage them it's not an option make them do mistakes and capitalize them.