So I've been thinking of how to ruin the conga line of rebel Ackbar fleets and have a highly mobile fleet.

There is a tournament next week I'd really like to win but I want to run something with activation advantage and would win initiative so I could go last and first.

I think most fleets in my area will we have two to three ships with lots of squadrons. So I decided to go with 5 ships. So here's what I've got so far.

Fleet "Crazy Train"

Admiral Ozzel

Objectives:

Advanced Gunnery

Contested Outpost

Superior positions

Flagship:ISD I, Tractor beams, XI7 Turbolaser, Avenger

2: Gladiator I: Engine techs, ACMS

3: Gladiator I: Engine techs, ACMS

4: Raider II: Impetuous

5: Raider II:

Fleet Cost: 389 pts.

I flew this against a friend tonight and he was very unlucky in rolling his fighter and bomber attacks. Had he set up differently I may have done much worse.

Please let me know what you think I could do to improve. Have you run something like this? Did it work?

**Sorry swear I was posting this in the builds forum.**

I have been running a similar list and i will say, you want instigator in there somewhere just so you can use it to tie down the enemy fighters for a turn or 2, takes more control away form your opponent.

I can see that Instigator would be good for that.Sacrifice 52 pts to a bomber wing instead of the gladiators or ISD.

Do you think that a naked raider is better than it's points in squadrons? (I don't) If you're kitting it for a reason (eg: overload pulse, instigator) then I see the worth, but even 4 TIE Fighters or Bombers is better than a naked raider IMO.

Also, I think one of the gladiators w/Demolisher is necessary. Demolisher may be the best upgrade in the game, regardless of points.

I really feel that you'll be putting at a disadvantage by not having squadrons, especially because you pay for the ability to activate 4 of them with an ISD that you won't use.

Even 5 measly A-Wings will probably ruin your day.

I believe that the general line of thought is that one Tractor Beams isn't very efficient, and that generally you should run them in multiples. I can't speak from experience myself on the matter, but personally I'd drop that Tractor for Demolisher. I'd also really recommend trying to get Ordinance Experts on those Glads, without Screed or Vader those black dice whiffs can really wreck your game.

If your serious about no squadrons, drop your engine techs and up your glads to GSD-IIs. That way everyone of your shis can throw out 2 anti squad dice. If your up against heavy bomber lists, they will melt to one or two turns of wearing 2 dice to the face from every ship in range. also, get ordance experts on your Raiders and you can re-roll your black anti squad.

Honestly the reason I added tractor beams is no one in the local meta has been using them. And the last tournament I played in I spent two games chasing after ships with an ISD that could have kept the enemy within short range if I had been able to slow them down.

I have seriously considered the GSD II's but that is a significant investment in additional points and sacrificing the mobility with engine techs would be really hard as I've mentally tethered a Raider to each gladiator.

Honestly I had a higher bid last night playing this same list because the Raiders both had SW-7's. But I already knew my opponent would have a higher bid than me. I dropped them both to get a more likely bid for initiative.the Sw-7s never came into range of another ship but did keep 6 tie fighters busy most the game.

I seriously doubt 4 a wings would ruin my day 4 hull and less squadrons don't scare me I'm pretty good at overlaying multiple layers of antisquadron fire. I am worried about 5 to 6 bombers. But if I'm going to make sure I have initiative and activation advantage then dropping a Raider for 5 TIEs could help survive a couple rounds of bombers.

Remember that with Tractor Beams they lose a Navigate token before decreasing in speed, so if they have the token, they won't actually have their speed reduced.

The tractor beam is not a card used to slow down enemy ships. It's a bullying tool against smaller vessels.

The opponent knows the Tractor Beam is coming, he will bank Navigate Tokens in response or will throw Nav Commands. But for every Nav Commands he throws, it's one less CF, one less squadron activation. Both of these Commands are effective ways to increase the firepower of CR90S, Neb Bs, etc.

Ships that throw a ton of dice and have decent defensive capabilities will rarely try to dodge arcs as much.

Overall it's a good upgrade, but people were expecting it to stunlock ships with a single Q7

@machinebede : 4 A-Wings themselves are not scary. 4 A-Wings activated by a MC80 with Ackbar and XI7 to drill through your shields and follow up with 5 red dice is. That's one shot material against your Raiders right there, and will probably cripple your Gladiators. Raiders have a very small AA barrage range, and regardless of how effective it is, squadrons that can zip around at speed 5 can dodge it.

And, because you don't have Gunnery Team, any turn spent at shooting the squadrons is a turn not spent shooting at his ships.

Don't be overconfident with full ships against squadrons. The GenCon special lost 10-0 in the finals of the Worlds against squadron lists.

I thought the consensus on Worlds was that match was lost in deployment. I'm not discounting 4 a wings being deadly with a shot from an MC80 I just think if I'm giving an Mc80s a side arc shot on a Raider I'm wanting him to shoot and kill a Raider instead of another ship.

I'll most likely be practicing against a guy that always runs rebels this week. So I'll find out if I can really keep raiders out of those side arcs. I've done it twice before but it placed the Raider completely out of effective range for the rest of the match. Though it did halt the Mc80s movement with a collision.

I thought the consensus on Worlds was that match was lost in deployment. I'm not discounting 4 a wings being deadly with a shot from an MC80 I just think if I'm giving an Mc80s a side arc shot on a Raider I'm wanting him to shoot and kill a Raider instead of another ship.

Deployment played a lot, but discounting the squadron activations the Rebel player popped quite frequently would be a major analysis mistake. 8 A-Wings every turn for a couple of turns without the ability to do anything against that will drill through shields and make them ripe for the taking by the ship's battery armament.

Perhaps the opponents in your local meta are not yet fully versed in the squadron tactics because they're using them either defensively or to kill other squadrons, but even humble TIE Fighters can be an absolute PITA when running amok shooting at ships.

On their own, they won't do much, but when paired with a ship that can follow up with a shot, you're looking at good damage.

EDIT : I'm not saying that you should not play no ships lists, just be aware of how weak you'll be when facing squadrons

Perhaps the opponents in your local meta are not yet fully versed in the squadron tactics because they're using them either defensively or to kill other squadrons

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here--are you saying those are not legitimate uses for squadrons? Cause... that's just not so.

I thought the consensus on Worlds was that match was lost in deployment. I'm not discounting 4 a wings being deadly with a shot from an MC80 I just think if I'm giving an Mc80s a side arc shot on a Raider I'm wanting him to shoot and kill a Raider instead of another ship.

Deployment played a lot, but discounting the squadron activations the Rebel player popped quite frequently would be a major analysis mistake. 8 A-Wings every turn for a couple of turns without the ability to do anything against that will drill through shields and make them ripe for the taking by the ship's battery armament.

Perhaps the opponents in your local meta are not yet fully versed in the squadron tactics because they're using them either defensively or to kill other squadrons, but even humble TIE Fighters can be an absolute PITA when running amok shooting at ships.

On their own, they won't do much, but when paired with a ship that can follow up with a shot, you're looking at good damage.

EDIT : I'm not saying that you should not play no ships lists, just be aware of how weak you'll be when facing squadrons

That is my greatest concern. The local meta is heavily squadron based at the moment. But that means fewer ships. As long as I can somewhat control which ships get feed to the Rhymer and rebel bombers I think I can squeeze out a win nlby knocking out the enemy fewer enemy ships within the first 4-5 rounds

Just from experience with a no squadron Rebel fleet, you will need at least a few squadrons in order to tie down your opponent's for at least a couple of turns. Especially if you are playing an objective like Superior Positions. For an Imperial fleet, if you just need some 'speed bumps', go with a few TIE Interceptors; or Fel with a couple of TIE Advanced.