(or marry).

I've been struggling to come up with a successful strategy for this so am putting the question out there to see what tips you might have.

I have a specific situation that this refers to but the question can be applied more broadly. I'm running a Rieekan's Aces squadron build with Yavaris, AF2 and a Torp Frigate. Having invested close to 120 points into bomber fighters I want to get my value out of them against ships. However the ever-present Rhymer squad presents hard choices: Send the Aces to tackle the bomber threat or concentrate on the shis and try to maneouver to avoid the worst of the bombers (if possible).

High hull bombers or firesprays take an age to whittle down (in the absence of flotillas support) and Intel means that even if I do fight them, I have to chew through escorts first whilst the bombers are still up to their tricks.

What strategies do you use to deal with this? Where do you find the cost/benefit balance in strength of bombing threat you're up against? You can ignore a small number but at what point do you need to commit your Aces to anti squadron duties, and possibly lose the chance to down that Motti ISD in the process? I'm finding it hard to get decisive victories against this kind of build.

Any thoughts will be gratefully received.

What you do will probably vary according to how deployment and objectives play out, as well as how scary your opponent's squadrons are, but in general I think if your opponent has invested 100+ points in squadrons it's worth your time to kill the squadrons. If they've put that many points into squads, they're not likely to have a ship that's much more valuable than the squadrons. And if you really commit to getting those squadron points, you shouldn't be losing too much in return between Dutch, Wedge, and Yavaris, not to mention the hull advantage you have over imperial anti-squadron aces (Soontir, Mauler).

Or the other option is to not focus down the escorts and instead force them into hard choices. That's why you bring Tycho and Wedge. Tie them up in multiple places with enough of a spread to make the intel ship make a hard choice between one or the other... tycho's movement and defense is a headache for rhymerballs. The key is placement so Intel (dengar) cannot let those bombers loose or can only free up a small number at a time.

I'm starting to lean this way. In my last game against a heavy bomber force and an autodamage combo of Soontir and Mauler running interference, I really missed Tycho for his ability, scatter and speed 5. All those speed 3 squadrons just make it harder to react to Imperial squadron movement.

What do you folks generally take as a dedicated anti-squadron force for Rebel scum you delightful Rebel people? I'm familiar with the Imperial end (Vader/Soontir/Dengar with sometimes Mauler), but haven't seen a Rebel Aces list outside of the typical Jan/Wedge/Dutch build. What do you all usually include in a Rieekan Aces list? I haven't dabbled with Rebel lists much, but I think the biggest hurdle is being able to throw enough damage at Vader with cheaper or very durable ships so that you can survive the counter from Mauler (plus his splash damage) and Soontir, with enough left to still win the squadron fight. I suppose you could use a swarm of A-Wings, because Vader can't be on top of Soontir, so there has to be somewhere you can attack Soontir from outside of Vader's Escort range.

What if they take a pair of Advanceds instead of Vader?

I've never come up against Vader in a store game. The last time he was on the table was my first 300 point game with a friend so it doesn't seem to be an issue round these parts.

My usual Aces build is Jan, Luke, Wedge, Dutch, Nym, Keyan. I've also run a variant which dropped Jan to a vanilla HWK and added in Han with reasonable success but meant sacrificing Adar and running a more stripped down Torp Frigate (which isn't necessarily a problem, just: hard choices).

To that first part, an Imperial Aces list and a Rieekan Aces lists is actually a very good matchup. They'll brutalize each other, and whichever side comes out on top, they won't have much left.

To the second, what do you bring in your Rieekan list that will stop a dedicated Imperial squadron force?

You've given some good strategic answers (letting the Imperial squadrons come to you, so you can Yavaris double-tap and hit them with AA fire), but you haven't given any specifics as to what you bring. As an example, here's what I brought this past weekend to Regionals:

VSD-I w/Boosted Comms, Flight Controllers

VSD-I w/Boosted Comms, Flight Controllers

VSD-I w/Boosted Comms, Admiral Motti

- Rhymer

- 4 x TIE Bombers

- 2 x TIE Advanceds

- Dengar

- "Mauler" Mithel

- IG-88

So you have the threat of five dedicated bombers, plus five dedicated anti-fighter squadrons that can also combine for an average 3/4 damage against ships, bringing it to a total of 8/9 points of ship damage per turn.

What Rieekan build would you bring to stop that, but also be useful against other fleet builds? That was the OP's original question. And I get what you're saying. The Rebels have a lot of squadrons that are great against fighters and ships. The Imperials do, too, which is why I field the build above.

And I wouldn't recommend sitting back and waiting for this build to come to you. Even if your squadrons are sitting perfectly to Engage any bombers supported by Rhymer, this force could jump in, Intel your squadrons, and kill Yavaris in a single activation. Now you have one turn to kill all ten squadrons before I just Intel away and start wrecking your other ships.

Thanks reegsk. That's a perfect summary of the dilemma. In addition I'm trying to get a feel for when it's worth just ignoring squadrons completely to use mine to focus fire down ships, knowing that I will suffer in reprisals but hoping that hte balance plays out in my favour. Looking at your fleet, do I go after the bombers to stop them destroying my ship at the expense of getting destroyed by the anti-squadron force (including that auto-damage)? Do I focus on Imperial Aces to preserve my Aces and suffer the unrestrained firepower of the bombers which will almost certainly down a ship?

Even with 115 points of aces, I don't feel I have the numbers or the firepower to tackle both threats simultaneously (not to mention trying to shield against Demo by saving bombers for Yavaris double-tap). Imperial squadrons can be so much more numerous for the same points total. I know that the answer is that you can't do everything and the game is about hard choices. Against your fleet I feel I need greater mobility and combined firepower.

Perhaps the answer is to drop Dutch for Tycho and squeeze Han in there for the following: Luke, Wedge, Tycho, Nym, Keyan, Han, HWK. That way I have the ability to tie up and effectively engage both your forces. At least enough to stop you monopolising the bomber game or destroying my squadrons. Han and Tycho seem key in this build.

What you do will probably vary according to how deployment and objectives play out, as well as how scary your opponent's squadrons are, but in general I think if your opponent has invested 100+ points in squadrons it's worth your time to kill the squadrons. If they've put that many points into squads, they're not likely to have a ship that's much more valuable than the squadrons. And if you really commit to getting those squadron points, you shouldn't be losing too much in return between Dutch, Wedge, and Yavaris, not to mention the hull advantage you have over imperial anti-squadron aces (Soontir, Mauler).

The Soontir, Mauler, Howlrunner, Dengar squads with scatter are so much harder to take down though, far more than their hull alone would suggest.

100pts is probably a good rule of thumb. I've certainly fought small Intel Fireballs and realised afterwards that I should have just ignored them as they tied up far more than their own value.

Deployment, manoeuvring and objective use is certainly something I'm working on.

Report from a tournament today with the modified fleet.

I ran the following:

"Rieekan of Danger"

Author: ManInTheBox

398 Points

Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72)

General Rieekan (30)

Flight Controllers (6)

Boosted Comms (4)

Electronic Countermeasures (7)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

Admonition (8)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)69

Raymus Antilles (7)

Yavaris (5)

Han Solo (26)

Nym (21)

Keyan Farlander (20)

Luke Skywalker (20)

Wedge Antilles (19)

Tycho Celchu (16)

HWK-290 (12)

Opening Salvo

Intel Sweep

Hyperspace assault

First two games were a draw and a 8-2 win. Last game was on the top table against the guy who was the eventual winner. He was running a tricked out Motti ISD Capital Killer and a tricked out Demo with a large intel Fireball and Vader. Basically the very archetype i have been struggling against.

The change to squadron build meant I had a legitimate interceptor wing to control enemy squadron movement.

I totally misdeployed my capital ships and discovered Hyperspace Assault is a bad objective for this fleet, however the squadron game went almost perfectly. Dropped the Demo then threw everyone into fireball mitigation to allow my remaining ship to escape. Tycho and Han were the stars of the show as they allowed me to herd the sheep and lock down the fireball to prevent more damage, even with Dengar flitting around. That was the flexibility I've been missing. The ability to catapult Tycho to lock down breakaway bombers was the difference between a win and a loss. Definately did not miss Dutch in this list.

Definately felt like a list I could have had a win with with a better deployment and objective choice. Lost 7-3 but very happy with the fleet build and learned valuable lessons.

Thanks for the feedback. It finally feels like I'm getting the grasp of the finesse that this build requires.