I have had a tendency to build a fleet around the ships I like to fly and the slotted in missions to suit.

But I've got to thinking, what about if you pick the missions first then match the best fleet to succeed in the mission pick.....

So you would first need a set of three compatible missions and a bid that would get you second player.

You could then with practice come up with a set play on your missions......

Just a thought from a person who always picks first player and aims to blow stuff up....

My fleet building tends to go in three steps:

1. Put together a fleet
2. Select objectives that benefit that fleet
3. Now that I've considered objectives, make fleet changes to better accomplish the objectives I'd like to take.

Repeat steps 1-3 until happy with the outcome.

My fleet building tends to go in three steps:

1. Put together a fleet
2. Select objectives that benefit that fleet
3. Now that I've considered objectives, make fleet changes to better accomplish the objectives I'd like to take.

Repeat steps 1-3 until happy with the outcome.

You see, That's pretty well me, with the exception of the "until happy with the outcome." That's more like, "until you run out of time and have 10 minutes before a Tournament and decide to do something ABSOLUTELY BATCRACK CRAZY INSTEAD."

My fleet building tends to go in three steps:

1. Put together a fleet
2. Select objectives that benefit that fleet
3. Now that I've considered objectives, make fleet changes to better accomplish the objectives I'd like to take.

Repeat steps 1-3 until happy with the outcome.

You see, That's pretty well me, with the exception of the "until happy with the outcome." That's more like, "until you run out of time and have 10 minutes before a Tournament and decide to do something ABSOLUTELY BATCRACK CRAZY INSTEAD."

Yeah, "happy" might be overselling it a bit. "Content" or "accepting of" might be more accurate terms. I'm always tinkering with things.

The problem is you can't really build a fleet around a single mission, as you have no way of knowing if that mission will be selected by your opponent....assuming you even win the initiative bid to ensure your missions are chosen from!

To that end, I think that a really cool Fleet Commander would be one that states something like: "When you build your fleet, you are only required to bring 1 Mission card"

The problem is you can't really build a fleet around a single mission, as you have no way of knowing if that mission will be selected by your opponent....assuming you even win the initiative bid to ensure your missions are chosen from!

To that end, I think that a really cool Fleet Commander would be one that states something like: "When you build your fleet, you are only required to bring 1 Mission card"

Remember the idea would be to pick a set of three missions that have very similar fleet requirements so:

Most wanted requires a fleet with a cheap fast ship that can run away, with a hard core fleet that is very capable of concentrating fire on a single large ship taking it down and then disengaging.

Intel sweep has almost identical requirements.

Hyperspace assault requires a small medium ship with good speed and long range firepower ( just the sort that you will find in the hard core fleet needed in most wanted....

So you can build a fleet specifically to succeed in all three "picked missions" + think of getting picked as first player a potential fourth mission for which you can adjust the odds of getting picked.

In truth as first play your best option is to accept you will not pick up mission points,so pick the mission with the least impact on your fleet type and kill as much as you can. this fourth mission can then be built into your fleet design.

I agree that iteration is really the only way to do this correctly.

I have a current fleet built with this concept where I did the initial draft (mostly rebel broadsiders with Ackbar), picked Fire Lanes immediately out of the missions because it is obvious, but then tinkered with the build some to change the equipment on one of the AFs before taking Advanced Gunnery (designed now so that I have one ship that so disproportionately benefits from that pick that nobody in their right mind should take it), and then filled it out with the objective I actually expect to play non-stop because the other two are terrible picks: Dangerous Terrain.

Now, as long as I keep the elements that make FL and AG such bad picks in place, I can build a list to dominate DT.

Usually I..

1. Pick an admiral

2. Select a fleet that is 'tuned' to their ability

3. Select missions that 'work' with the fleet.

Saying that it's quite rare that I get to use my missions as I tend to put in a strong initative bid.

I'm currently preparing an article on that very specific topic !

Like the "Many Paths to Victory" article from FFG said, I think that you really have 2 approaches : either you build a fleet to be aggressive and go first, which allows you to control the pacing of the battle, and as such you still need a generalist fleet. Either you build a fleet to take advantage of specific ships/admirals/objectives combos, and as such you build it to go second in order to capitalize on the objectives while still having a back up plan in case you don't get the activation order you want.

Example : With Ackbar as your commander, you can go 2 ways :

1) Build an all comers fleet with large boats and squadrons, because you'll still take advantage of Ackbar even with squadrons, if your carriers can throw 6 red dice at long range.

2) Build an arc dodging fleet that punches above its weight using lots of smaller ships that kite at long range, and using objectives to boost the efficiency of this fleet regardless of what the opponent chooses.

So, it really depends what you're trying to achieve with the game and this is what comes first.

I always design my fleet based on the ships first.... and don't even consider missions until I'm done. And there's good reason for this - I have a significantly good chance of not getting the opportunity to use my own missions regardless. Imagine if I designed my own fleet all for Mission X, and then my opponent comes in at 15 points under cap and makes me pick his missions.