Store Tournament Build Feedback

By WindShear34, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Hello all, I am entering a store tourney in a bit and would like some feedback on a few possible lists.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 393/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

1 YT-2400 ( 16 points)
2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Enhanced Armament ( 10 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 YT-2400 ( 16 points)

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 393/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Engineering Captain ( 6 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 YT-2400 ( 16 points)

I would really like feedback on the last list I have played it before but just can't seem to do much good with it for some reason.

Do you have turbolaser reroute circuit cards?

I do indeed. I have thought about using those but they are a point or two more expensive and I may want to save my evades while at long range.

I'll focus on the last list, just to scope the discussion.

You've got a lot of things going on here that are good ideas, but you really need to pick one to lean into.

A good example is XI7. My rule of thumb (not everyone agrees with me, but I'm always right so ignore those people) is that you either take it on everything or on nothing. Specifically, you take it on everything that you expect to be hitting the same target. Otherwise, I'm just going to save my redirects for the ships without XI7's, for no net loss of effectiveness. This is especially applicable with a list like this, where your plan is (presumably) to try to kite your opponent while you conga around him, because no one of your ships is going to be one-shotting things--you're relying on cumulative damage to take things down. If you're trying to drill through shields, you need everything to be drilling through shields, otherwise it's pretty much a wasted upgrade.

Defiance is good, but red dice scream for bad-roll mitigation, especially if your entire plan hinges on them. I'd swap it out for Home One in this list.

On the point of dice fixing, I never leave home without Leading Shots on my MC80 if I ever expect it to be shooting.

Your squadrons need some work. First of all, rule of thumb: unless you have a very good reason not to, always take squadrons in pairs. Two squadrons is a deployment that you can use to delay revealing where you're going to put your ships down; one is not. Second, you have ample squadron activations available in your fleet, you really shouldn't need the YT-2400's rogue, making it (mostly) wasted points. Third, three squadrons isn't going to do you much good: either they brought a bomber fleet, which means they almost definitely have an escort screen strong enough to mince three squadrons in a turn; or they brought no squadrons, and 2 A-wings and a YT-2400 aren't going to be particularly effective in punishing them for that. I don't think a fleet like this has a great chance of tabling an opponent fast, which means you'll really need a strong interceptor defense: something like 3 X-wings and Jan that will stick around for an appreciable length of time and not get easily brushed aside by your adversary's fighter escorts. Alternatively, you could dial it back a little and use something like Tycho and Wedge or Dutch as a skeleton crew defense that wouldn't be too bad.

All of these suggestions cost points, so where can you make those up? I'd start by downgrading the MC80 to a Command Cruiser. You're not really using the assault cruiser's biggest strength, the two defensive retrofit slots. You'd be trading one red die for one blue, but let's be honest: a savvy adversary is beelining for Ackbar's ship 7 times out of 10 anyway, so there's a fairly good chance you'll get those blue dice.

I get where you're going with the Engineering Captains, and the Captains are good, but I think you've got higher priorities that you need those points for in this list, so I'd recommend dumping those.

So, I think your choice comes down to: XI7 on everything, or a strong squadron defense. That's a call for you as the player to make based on your meta and comfort level.

So, if I were going to play a build like this, it would probably look something like this:

Fleet 1060 (393/400)

===================

Home One: MC80 Command Cruiser (106 + 71)

+ Admiral Ackbar (38)

+ Intel Officer (7)

+ Electronic Countermeasures (7)

+ Leading Shots (4)

+ Engine Techs (8)

+ Home One (7)

Assault Frigate Mark II: Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 7)

+ Gunnery Team (7)

Assault Frigate Mark II: Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 7)

+ Gunnery Team (7)

Squadrons: Jan Ors (19)

Squadrons: X-wing Squadron (13)

Squadrons: X-wing Squadron (13)

Squadrons: X-wing Squadron (13)

Edited by Ardaedhel

Everything Ard said, but add:

Corvettes dont need defensive upgrades, if someone is determined to kill them they will die. Treat them as the cheap ship they are. Their defence is fast manouverable flying.

They like TRCs for double hits for those red blanks.

Ackbar home one trc corvettes are devestating.

Ardaedhel I do get where you are coming from as far as the XI7 goes but the issue is I have only purchased one Neb B so I only have one XI7. Also my plan with paring XI7 and the Intel Officer on the same ship is that I can intel the brace and then their redirect is virtually useless to help put a lot of damage on the ship, however with your suggestions of Home One that may change things a bit because I can consistently get accuracies. Would you replace the XI7 with anything on the MC80? or just leave the turbolaser slot blank, and put in leading shots?

Also I was looking and thinking I can get rid of engine techs to save some points as well because if they are going to be in a line just set everything at speed 2.

This is now the modified list.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 391/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Home One ( 7 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)

Also disregard all of the objective choices I just choose random ones to make the program happy I decided on those later.

That new list is a big improvement. I still agree about XI7. One of the things you can do is simply play the games and watch to see how well the XI7 performs. My sense is that the bigger the ship, the less of a difference it is going to make. I'd probably drop it and ECM one of your Frigates. You're really playing a long game here against big targets, so increasingly your own survivability could be crucial.

Just to be clear, I don't actually think XI7 isn't good by itself, especially on your MC80 which is going to be hitting hard and IOing the brace. It's just going to limit your AF2s' ability to give meaningful fire support since their shots can be redirected at will. It doesn't exactly nullify the advantage you're getting out of putting it on the MC80, it just decreases it.

And yes, I do like your newest list there. I'd give it a shot and see how you like it! :)

Only thing I will say about the second list (which looks solid to me) is that putting Ackbar on an MC80 is just asking for that MC80 to be focused down and crushed. I like to spread my points out, personally, so my opponent has some more hard choices, but that is totally a personal preference. I would put Ackbar on an AFMKII with ECMs, personally.

Only thing I will say about the second list (which looks solid to me) is that putting Ackbar on an MC80 is just asking for that MC80 to be focused down and crushed. I like to spread my points out, personally, so my opponent has some more hard choices, but that is totally a personal preference. I would put Ackbar on an AFMKII with ECMs, personally.

For the second list I was thinking about putting Ackbar on Jaina's Light and just have it scoot and shoot around the map and stay out of the way, but a corvette is really easy to take down. Though I did play a tournament with a one AF and 3 corvette list and did pretty well, the only issue is that I am playing with the same group of people in this tourney as I did last time and don't want to bring an identical list.

Also I was looking and thinking I can get rid of engine techs to save some points as well because if they are going to be in a line just set everything at speed 2.

This is now the modified list.

Faction: Rebel Alliance

Points: 391/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Contested Outpost

Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)

- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)

- Home One ( 7 points)

- Intel Officer ( 7 points)

- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)

3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)

The only thing I would change with this list.

1) ECM on both AFmk2s

2) drop the xi7

So just so everybody knows I ended up playing a slightly revised version of list 1. I ended up coming in second place with 18 points, I had played an 2-8 (loss), 8-2 (win), 8-2 (win). I took most of your comments about changing the squads as well as putting Leading Shots on the Mc80 (worked fantastic thanks!).

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 393/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Slaved Turrets ( 6 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)