Any other Rebels feel like they are struggling lately when not abusing Rieekan (Mostly with Yavaris) or Ackbar?

Seems no matter what I play lately I am always being either out activated by Gladiator lists or chipped away to death by Rhymer balls followed up by ISD's.

I have been playing varying lists from 3 whales + swarm of fighters, to a mix of 80/Whale/Neb, to other types of lists - I admit I do not put much stock in the 30 atm due to its lack of brace and it can be easily one shot by most things with XI7's.

(My Area is Imperial dominated so I almost never get to play Rebel vs Rebel).

Any other rebels having that issue or have any tips/builds?

For the record I have 2 of each ship. 3 of the wave 2 ships.

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

So my experience playing Rebels lately is this:

1. You want 5 ships (or more), otherwise you have activation problems vs. Demolisher ship spam fleets.
2. You need enough squadrons to cover your defense against a Rhymerball.

As a result of these two things, you end up very quickly at Rieekan or Mon Mothma with large numbers of small ships. 3 Whales doesn't work as well as it used to, since the whales can't survive a demo triple tap, and the MC80 is just an underwhelming ship in my view.

I don't think Yavaris matters that much (my favorite Rebel ships are the MC30 and the CR90), but I do think having 5 activations minimum is the name of the game for Rebels right now. I see some people doing well with less (and Ackbar), but I seem to beat those fleets every time I play them... YMMV.

Maybe I'm just getting sick of always having to play vs the same list types.

Also I think at the moment going 2nd without Rieekan is almost a death sentence unless you set up an Ackbar kill zone with a couple of ships (Rhymer balls not with standing)

I also seem to see Imperials having a lot of an easier time focusing their firepower mainly due to it being either in one huge front arc (Ozzel ISD's are super scary) or in Rhymerballs/Demo activation lists.

I dunno maybe I've just flown too many Ackbar whale lists lately and have got in to a terrible bad habit of not keeping up on the skill of double arcing. (kinda hard to do vs smaller ship spam lists but works well vs ISD's)

I admit I do not put much stock in the 30 atm due to its lack of brace and it can be easily one shot by most things with XI7's.

I agree that MC30's are useless if sitting in an ISD front arc. But why are they sitting in an ISD front arc?

MC30's require great concentration and forward thinking to make sure they are always in the right place. They live, die and kill by their navigate commands.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

I still play my MC80 Defiance list and it's still doing fine, although the TRC90's have been blowing up more rapidly since I've been using them as body blockers against Demolisher.

I think one of the issue that people face is that they try to skirt around and kite engagements with rebels. The problem with that is Demolisher is just more mobile and puts out a ton of damage on a moment's notice. I've had way more luck playing aggressively with rebels and getting right into my opponent's face as soon as possible. This works for the rebels in multiple ways. It does take a bit of time getting used to playing that way though. If you're worried about Rhymerballs, take four squadrons and learn how to hold it up for two turns. I wrote an article awhile back on how to do this, should be pretty easy to search.

I still play my MC80 Defiance list and it's still doing fine, although the TRC90's have been blowing up more rapidly since I've been using them as body blockers against Demolisher.

I think one of the issue that people face is that they try to skirt around and kite engagements with rebels. The problem with that is Demolisher is just more mobile and puts out a ton of damage on a moment's notice. I've had way more luck playing aggressively with rebels and getting right into my opponent's face as soon as possible. This works for the rebels in multiple ways. It does take a bit of time getting used to playing that way though. If you're worried about Rhymerballs, take four squadrons and learn how to hold it up for two turns. I wrote an article awhile back on how to do this, should be pretty easy to search.

This kinda doesn't work anymore due to Intel? At least I know one player who is running 2 Jumpmasters + 3 Adv escorts with Rhymer and as many Bombers as you can fit and 2 ISD1's with Motti, he always uses squadron commands as well so the Jumpmasters are where they need to be. It's a nasty list.

I dunno, I just feel Empire have the easier time right now (outside of Rieekan lists) That and Black crit's are just so much stronger than blue/red crits and Imp's currently have better ways to use black dice. (Great for Rebel's if you can get in to a situation to kite them - Demo not withstanding)

While personally I don't feel at disadvantage, Shmitty's Regional data tells another story. Rieekan appears to be almost exclusively how Rebels make the top four. Even the "OP" Akbar struggles to make the cut. I think we're getting a fair amount of tools to help against some of the top tier Imperial builds (Rhymer, DeMSU) in wave 3. Slicer Tools is going to be such a crazy upgrade.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Honestly, I can't wait for the Liberty either, having a nice good front arc ship to stop all this "I'll sit in front of you" block crap that Imperials can just pull off at the moment will be so refreshing. Yes come towards my ships, I will ram this Liberty down your throat.

I also think the interdictor upgrage that appears to start with "target---" will allow defending ship to force a reroll at close range, although thats all speculative based on the visible text. If so, as gotmittuns alluded to earlier, the interdictor is going to be a huge thorn in demolishers side.

Also, the double brace of the liberty should enable it to survive a triple tap.

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA

People are having issues without Rieekan? Really? Ackbar90's took second at my regionals. Where I also chew through Iskander's Rieekan Fleet.

Dodonna is a BEAST!

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

Dodonna is a BEAST!

Won't lie, once you get through shields Dodonna crit's are amazing, especially if you have XX9's. Top four cards, twice, please.

Also goes really nice in a list with Salvation, as getting 6/7 damage + Crit effect can be rather nice.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Vanish? Unlikely. It's just too good of a ship.

Builds that live or die based on how well the Demo does? Maybe.

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA

People are having issues without Rieekan? Really? Ackbar90's took second at my regionals. Where I also chew through Iskander's Rieekan Fleet.

Dodonna is a BEAST!

Agreed - runnning Dodonna and MC30s w/APTs along with CR90 w/Dodonna's Pride is NASTY

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Vanish? Unlikely. It's just too good of a ship.

Builds that live or die based on how well the Demo does? Maybe.

Also does nothing to help Rebels

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

Dodonna is a BEAST!

Won't lie, once you get through shields Dodonna crit's are amazing, especially if you have XX9's. Top four cards, twice, please.

Also goes really nice in a list with Salvation, as getting 6/7 damage + Crit effect can be rather nice.

I don't think so, I play Rebels exclusively and participated in both a store and regional tournament since the arrival of Wave 2. Each tournament I played two Imp lists and one Rebel (shakes fist at Lyraeus...). My only losses were to the Rebel lists. The fleets I brought to each tournament couldn't have been more different--the store championship was a Mon Mothma MSU list and the regionals list was a Riekken Independence/Yavaris list (inspired by Truthiness' blog). I'm still not sure which list is more fun to play; I love both of them equally. I also love the screams of dying imperial officers, only to be swiftly silenced by the vacuum of space.

MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA

People are having issues without Rieekan? Really? Ackbar90's took second at my regionals. Where I also chew through Iskander's Rieekan Fleet.

Dodonna is a BEAST!

Agreed - runnning Dodonna and MC30s w/APTs along with CR90 w/Dodonna's Pride is NASTY

I like Pride - a nice little sniper hurtling about the board. Hard to fly what with only blues but cheap for what it is.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Vanish? Unlikely. It's just too good of a ship.

Builds that live or die based on how well the Demo does? Maybe.

Also does nothing to help Rebels

I'm going on how it will shake the meta up. Interdictors have the ability to lock down ships and force them into kill zones. You limit Demolisher's speed, you in turn kill it. It's strength is in it's speed hands down.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Vanish? Unlikely. It's just too good of a ship.

Builds that live or die based on how well the Demo does? Maybe.

Also does nothing to help Rebels

I'm going on how it will shake the meta up. Interdictors have the ability to lock down ships and force them into kill zones. You limit Demolisher's speed, you in turn kill it. It's strength is in it's speed hands down.

If this were true we'd see Rebel's running at least 2 Tractor beams in almost every list. It may work vs Screed list's but not vs Ozzel as he hard counters Tractors.

Wait until the interdictor hits...demolisher will vanish.

Vanish? Unlikely. It's just too good of a ship.

Builds that live or die based on how well the Demo does? Maybe.

Also does nothing to help Rebels

I'm going on how it will shake the meta up. Interdictors have the ability to lock down ships and force them into kill zones. You limit Demolisher's speed, you in turn kill it. It's strength is in it's speed hands down.

If this were true we'd see Rebel's running at least 2 Tractor beams in almost every list. It may work vs Screed list's but not vs Ozzel as he hard counters Tractors.

True, but when you can out right influence your enemy's deployment with gravity zones, and shut down hyperspace assault...things become quite a bit easier.

Honestly Rebels as the game stands today are behind the curve. Yes you can play well with them, but ultimately the best toys are available to the Imperials at the moment.

I suspect wave 3 and 4 should help balance it, if not give more options to the Rebels.

Honestly Rebels as the game stands today are behind the curve. Yes you can play well with them, but ultimately the best toys are available to the Imperials at the moment.

I suspect wave 3 and 4 should help balance it, if not give more options to the Rebels.

Liberty is going to really give them the ability to go toe to toe with Imperial lists. Broadsides are fun...but with Interdictor's shutting down the toilet bowl you need a heavy hitter with some TRC Salvation or whatever spinal turbos do.