Hey guys, long-time gamer, first-time extreme gamer. Getting into X Wing has renewed my interest in actually taking Armada seriously, so I thought I would try my hand at building a fleet of my own creation. I like the mobility and the ability to make split-second decisions and adapt to changing game conditions that having a lot of squads affords me, and it seems like having access to that mobility is one of the keys to winning as the Rebellion.

Assault Frigate Mark 2B seems like a sensible flagship for a lot of reasons; it allows me to provide a healthy degree of support to my Aces while getting a few hits in of his own on the inevitable ISD from a safe (red) distance. Nebulons will creep along at speed 1 and do much the same thing, until Keyan and friends are able to safely dogpile damage once the shields are down. Ample support from generic X and A Wings will keep the heat off of Aces from enemy squads while they get where they need to go.

At least, this is how it all works in theory. I'm still fairly new to the game, with just shy of 10 games under my belt. Any help poking holes in the strategy and getting the fleet where it needs to be would be much appreciated, thank you!

Doodle’s Ace Squad (399/400)

Objectives:

Advanced Gunnery

Firing Lanes

Minefields

Ships:

Assault Frigate MK2B (Flagship)

Gallant Haven

General Riekaan

Adar Tallon

Ruthless Strategists

Electronic Countermeasures

Heavy Turbolaser Turrets

Nebulon-B Support Refit

Salvation

Tactical Expert

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris

Projection Experts

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Squads:

Keyan Farlander

Wedge Antilles

Dutch Vander

X Wing x3

A Wing x2

You've got the bones of a pretty good list going, and the best way to learn what works for you is to try and keep trying, see what worked and what didn't, and then change it up for next time. But I'll raise a few points for you to consider.

You have your admiral riding on Gallant Haven. If you look at the GH card, it has very limited range (distance 1). That means your squadrons have to stay close to it to make it worth its points. You're using GH to protect your squadrons until they get into combat, at which point you want to use Yavaris to double-tap and amplify their effectiveness. In order for Yavaris to trigger, they have to be stationary for that turn, meaning they're in combat positions (ie, not at standoff range) the turn prior to Yavaris's double-tap. That necessitates GH being in the thick of the fighting for at least an entire round before the bulk of your offensive power strikes. The AF2, while it is still quite survivable, is most comfortable at range. Particularly, having it in the middle of the fight virtually guarantees that it will be focused, putting your admiral in significant danger.

All of your squadrons require activation to perform to their fullest extent (that is to shoot and move in the same turn). However, you currently have the ability to activate only 6 squadrons per turn, but are bringing 8 total squadrons. Not only that, but in order to use Adar to his fullest potential, you really want to have an extra activation to support the squadron he's just deactivated, which means you'd optimally want 9 squadron activations. This shortfall can be mitigated by using squadron commands tokens on all of your ships, but you also have no way of enhancing your token acquisition (Raymus Antilles, Veteran Captain, or Garm Bel Iblis are all options to consider for augmenting your squadron commands with tokens).

Yavaris is widely-known, widely-feared (rightly so), and vulnerable to certain types of attacks (basically anything that can bore into her sides). As a result, she often gets focus-fired first. I would think twice about using Projection Experts to siphon the shields off of a ship that is very valuable to you and a very high priority target for your enemy. Particularly given that you need an engineering command to use it, and you really, really want Yavaris to be using as many squadron commands as she possibly can. That said, I have seen somebody with a Rieekan list use PE to siphon all the shields off of a zombie right before it died, and it is a hilarious sight to behold.

Heavy Turbolaser Turrets are most at home on ships that hit very hard. And by very hard, I mean ISD's, upgraded MC80's, and MC30's. Even on those, though, their value is pretty dubious; on an AF2, they don't buy you much. In this case, I'd either do away with it entirely, or replace it with TRC or XI7.

I don't know how much value you'll get out of Ruthless Strategists. I could definitely see using it for the Dano Damage Blackhole* on zombie named squadrons, particularly if you're wading that AF2 into the middle of the squadron fight. On the other hand, you have a pretty strong anti-squadron showing right now anyway (96 points of primary anti-squadron fighters), and you'll *probably* get more mileage out of Flight Controllers. That said, I can see the value in RS on here, so if it's working for you, no reason to change it.

The Tactical Expert is a good idea on Salvation for now while you're still getting a feel for predicting what commands you'll need ahead of time, but I would recommend that you look at it as "training wheels": see if you can mentally predict when you *would* have wanted that CF, and once you're able to duo so with some accuracy, swap that guy out for something else. Particularly in a ship with only two commands, within a few games you should start being able to see what is likely to happen 1-2 turns ahead, and planning accordingly.

Love the TRC's on both Nebulons. Don't stop being beautiful.

*listen to the most recent Intensify Forward Firepower podcasts if you don't know what I'm talking about here

I was gonna offer some feedback, but uhhhh...

Ardaedhel kind of crushed it.

/Thread?

Wow, thank you for all of that helpful feedback! I've made some adjustments to what I had. I ended up ditching one of the A Wings, partially to bring parity between the number of squadron commands I have access to & the number of squads in the fleet, and partially because a few of the tweaks I made put me slightly over the point limit and the 2nd A Wing seemed like the least necessary piece of kit I had to work with at the time. The Heavy Turbolasers on the MK2 have been replaced with XI7s, I didn't actually realize how useful those would be until I reexamined the card after your suggestion. Here's what the new list looks like

Doodle’s Ace Squad 399/400

Commander: General Riekaan

Advanced Gunnery

Firing Lanes

Minefields

Ships:

Assault Frigate Mark II B (Flagship)

Gallant Haven

Adar Tallon

Flight Controllers

Boosted Comms

X17 Turbolasers

Nebulon-B Support Refit

Salvation

Tactical Expert

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris

Raymus Antilles

Engineering Team

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Squads:

Keyan Farlander

Wedge Antilles

Dutch Vander

X Wing x3

A Wing

Thanks again! That was a lot of help

That is a solid list now go practice it until you cant lift your range ruler anymore.