List combos and how to counter them! It would be great to have a debate about all things we know about Star Wars Armada.

Please try to not get too heated and controversial in your debates (Ackbar + gunnery teams = OP and uncounterable?!)

The combo

I'll start off with my favourite squadron combo right now: Dengar + "Mauler" Mithil. Mithil is the ultimate anti-squadron fighter, with his effectiveness increasing with the more enemy squadrons on the board. 7 enemy squadrons? 7 damage a turn, plus whatever he throws out with his anti-squadron if a squadron command is used. Gets around escort, counter, defense tokens.

Of course, that only works if he can move. Dengar applies heavy to all ships distance 1 around him (intel), making him the perfect escort for Mithil. There are other upgrade cards that work well with this, but I think it's a neat trick to use Intel.

The counter

A few ways to handle this combo.

• If there's no TIE Advanced, just wipe mithil off the board and be done with it. he's a pretty fragile creature. Even with 1 or 2 tie advanced, it is still possible to position your squadrons to be only in range of Mithil and not the advanceds. Fire at will!
• For some reason if you can't target Mithil, get around Dengar. Most fleets will only run one intel squadron, and his intel's area of influence is only 1. that means it's possible to position a squadron to tie Mithil down. Put some squadrons at the edges of Mithil so Dengar can't affect both with his intel.
• Spread your squadrons out a bit. Mithil is best when thrown into an enemy squadron ball. This counter works especially well when only running some token squadrons (6 A-wing for example).

Anybody else out there have some cool combos to share? (and how to counter them!)

The Combo

Vader + VSD1 + Expanded Launchers + XI7 + Sensor Teams + The Dominator
Roll a whopping 10 multi colored dice which are rerollable and guranteeing an accuracy for the brace and XI7 deals with redirect.

The Counter

ECMs and Blinded Friggin Gunners

I imagine a lot of the suggestions on this page will be anti-squadron combos.

Like mine!

Howlrunner

Soontir

2 x Tie Interceptor

2 x Tie Fighter

Total: 72 pts

This is my anti-bomber fighter screen. They're fast enough to either shadow my ISD, or be launched ahead to intercept Rhymer/Dengar balls.

The idea is to get Soontir into range of bombers, as his ability kicks in even when heavy, even when a squadron is targeting a ship. As such he draws a LOT of agro (better him than his ride home). Howlrunner gives him 3 counter dice with a swarm reroll, and both he and his fellow Interceptors are attacking with 5 blues (with reroll). So far they've proven very effective against Fett/Vader/Dengar and X-Wings/Jan Ors.

The two Ties used to be a single Interceptor, however I downgraded to allow for an extra drop on deployment.

Got my third game with them tonight, against Dash and Luke - will see how we go.

The idea is to get Soontir into range of bombers, as his ability kicks in even when heavy, even when a squadron is targeting a ship.

****, that is some smart thinking there ! Never read Fel's ability that way but it's totally legit and interesting !

____

One of my favourite combos is Darth Vader + 2 TIE Bombers (or 3 if you have Expanded Hangars on the carrier) + Flight Controllers. When you only activate 3 squadrons, for 2 points per squadron you essentially change Vader's anti-fighter output from 3.25 to 4 (so, +23% damage for 9.5% added cost) and you change the Bomber's anti-fighter average output from 0.75 damage to 1.25 (so +66.7% damage for a 22% added cost).

What I really like about this is that it is a sneaky combo : okay, you might lose 3 black anti ship that can do double damage, BUT you're able to score points through killing the squadrons. Vader and a Bomber will kill an X-Wing per turn which might seem expensive for 34 points (21 + 9 + 2 points of Flight Controllers per squadron), but consider that it takes on average 4 TIE Fighter attacks to killan X-Wing (1.5 * 4 = 6) for 32 points, you get the extra anti-ship capabilities.

It might be more worth it on TIE Advanced swarms or TIE Bomber Wings however, I should make the calculations ^^.

____

For Rebel ships, being a primarily Dodonna player, I really like a very sneaky combo which is Dodonna's Pride on a B + Neb Support with XI7 on a flank. Dodonna's Pride basically allows you to choose whether to spend the crit for face up damage or to inflict the damage. If you do 3 damage and a crit, and the opponent uses its defense tokens to mitigate that, not only are they used but you choose to inflict a crit. If he doesn't use them up, you can still apply the damage. Anyways, followed up with a Support Frigate with XI7, you're pretty sure to push the damage through : if he took 2-3 shields off and didn't spend his defense tokens, you're looking at inflicting 2 damage on the hull on an average 4 red dice roll (with concentrate fire), and if he did use them, he's likely to use them up to defend against this and discard them.

Another annoying combo I love, especially on a Mon Mothma list, is 2 CR90As with Engineering Team and a Neb Support with Redemption. Now the Corvettes and the Neb Support are Engineering value 4 which is awesome with their low Command value so you can repair 2 shields when it's more worth it than going for a navigate or Concentrate Fire. Especially with Mon Mothma, allowing to use these evades, you're looking at Corvettes that regen 2 shields per turn when needed, which is pretty big considering they aren't likely to take more than side arc shots to the face. At medium range, an Imperial 2's side arc is going to average 3 damage and 1 accuracy which will likely target the redirect, but you don't care you can evade thanks to Mon Mothma to reduce the damage down to 2 and repair to go back to full shields. It's very annoying for the opponent when these little Corvettes don't die That allows me to throw a bit more upgrades on the Corvettes (1 or 2 extra), like Overload Pulse on Bs, because I know they won't die as easily if I play my cards right.

The idea is to get Soontir into range of bombers, as his ability kicks in even when heavy, even when a squadron is targeting a ship.

****, that is some smart thinking there ! Never read Fel's ability that way but it's totally legit and interesting !

Heh, it was actually something I discovered by accident during the second game I played with this list.

Well, I've been thinking about the typical Rhymer/Fireball and ways to counter it. I have one idea to pick apart really any fighter/bomber group that relies on Heavy to keep moving:

IG-88

Mauler Mithel

Boba Fett

Dengar/Jumpmaster

1/2 TIE/Adv

Flight Controllers

The idea here is to have IG-88 jump on the Intel ship. Against Dengar, a single Accuracy will lock up his Scatter, so even with a Brace two damage should get through. Then Mauler and Boba jump in and use their abilities to kill off the Intel ship. If you're only rocking a Squadron activation of four, move up one of the TIEs to keep your heavier hitters safe. While they may not be able to win the ensuing fight, depending on enemy composition, locking up a bomber group keeps it off of your ships, and you may just take a few of them with you.

My concern would be that the group is fairly expensive, with three or four named fighters, and doesn't have a ton of anti-ship capability. You're talking 106 points but only seven anti-ship dice. Still, it can override Intel pretty easily, unless your opponent brings two Intel ships.

Well, I've been thinking about the typical Rhymer/Fireball and ways to counter it. I have one idea to pick apart really any fighter/bomber group that relies on Heavy to keep moving:

IG-88

Mauler Mithel

Boba Fett

Dengar/Jumpmaster

1/2 TIE/Adv

Flight Controllers

The idea here is to have IG-88 jump on the Intel ship. Against Dengar, a single Accuracy will lock up his Scatter, so even with a Brace two damage should get through. Then Mauler and Boba jump in and use their abilities to kill off the Intel ship. If you're only rocking a Squadron activation of four, move up one of the TIEs to keep your heavier hitters safe. While they may not be able to win the ensuing fight, depending on enemy composition, locking up a bomber group keeps it off of your ships, and you may just take a few of them with you.

My concern would be that the group is fairly expensive, with three or four named fighters, and doesn't have a ton of anti-ship capability. You're talking 106 points but only seven anti-ship dice. Still, it can override Intel pretty easily, unless your opponent brings two Intel ships.

There is one potential hiccup too...

Boba does his damage when he activates, which would be at the start of the activation - so Boba has to already be engaged to deal his point directly...

If his trigger was While activating, then you could do it at any time during the activation, including the end...

I imagine a lot of the suggestions on this page will be anti-squadron combos.

Like mine!

Howlrunner

Soontir

2 x Tie Interceptor

2 x Tie Fighter

Total: 72 pts

This is my anti-bomber fighter screen. They're fast enough to either shadow my ISD, or be launched ahead to intercept Rhymer/Dengar balls.

The idea is to get Soontir into range of bombers, as his ability kicks in even when heavy, even when a squadron is targeting a ship. As such he draws a LOT of agro (better him than his ride home). Howlrunner gives him 3 counter dice with a swarm reroll, and both he and his fellow Interceptors are attacking with 5 blues (with reroll). So far they've proven very effective against Fett/Vader/Dengar and X-Wings/Jan Ors.

The two Ties used to be a single Interceptor, however I downgraded to allow for an extra drop on deployment.

Got my third game with them tonight, against Dash and Luke - will see how we go.

but with one brace, one scatter, and only three hull - Soontir is going to die quickly without an escort - maybe even by the second set of squadron activations if facing a serious CAP list

Well, I've been thinking about the typical Rhymer/Fireball and ways to counter it. I have one idea to pick apart really any fighter/bomber group that relies on Heavy to keep moving:

IG-88

Mauler Mithel

Boba Fett

Dengar/Jumpmaster

1/2 TIE/Adv

Flight Controllers

The idea here is to have IG-88 jump on the Intel ship. Against Dengar, a single Accuracy will lock up his Scatter, so even with a Brace two damage should get through. Then Mauler and Boba jump in and use their abilities to kill off the Intel ship. If you're only rocking a Squadron activation of four, move up one of the TIEs to keep your heavier hitters safe. While they may not be able to win the ensuing fight, depending on enemy composition, locking up a bomber group keeps it off of your ships, and you may just take a few of them with you.

My concern would be that the group is fairly expensive, with three or four named fighters, and doesn't have a ton of anti-ship capability. You're talking 106 points but only seven anti-ship dice. Still, it can override Intel pretty easily, unless your opponent brings two Intel ships.

There is one potential hiccup too...

Boba does his damage when he activates, which would be at the start of the activation - so Boba has to already be engaged to deal his point directly...

If his trigger was While activating, then you could do it at any time during the activation, including the end...

Maybe thinking of clever tactics on four hours' sleep isn't my best plan.

Thanks for pointing that out. It would have sucked trying it at the championship I'm headed to in a week and finding out then.

Maybe thinking of clever tactics on four hours' sleep isn't my best plan.

Thanks for pointing that out. It would have sucked trying it at the championship I'm headed to in a week and finding out then.

It was a **** good thought, and was almost there... I mean, as it is, you're still only a point away from killing him... So Support Fire from the Carrier with Ruthless Strategists is all you need to get that last guaranteed point... (Since its direct damage dealt, you are already engaging him to Mauler him at the very least, and it works even if your Carrier Anti-Squadron Fire misses, you just need to shoot at him)

... of course, the choice is Flight Controllers or Ruthless Strategists taking the same slot...