As a rebel only player way I see it at the moment is that I need a list that will combat the following:

• Palp Aces
• Triple Jumpmasters
• Rebel regen
• The new Defenders when they arrive which won't be long

In each case you need to get rid of a ship extremely early to limit their effectiveness (that could be said for every list I know).

How would you design a rebel alpha strike to go up against these?

At the moment I'm thinking Blount with tracers for the TL's but after that we have options:

• X-Wings, Y-Wings and B-Wings for torps
• A-Wings and Headhunters for missiles
• K-Wings for both

E-Wings are out as they're overcosted.

We also need to think about what happens after the alpha; we still need ships that can do a good job even without ordnance so are named pilots the way to go?

That's as far as I've got, your input would be great!

I've run six Talas (4 Homing Missiles, 2 S-threads) fairly successfully, though I found I didn't get full use out of that many S-threads; six Talas does give room for 22 points of missiles in any combo.

I switched it up to Blount with Ion Pulse Missiles and four Talas with Homing Missiles (plus a shield upgrade on Blount). Did OK with that -- one-shotted a Ghost off the bard with the IPM one game -- but found it still slightly lacking, as once the missiles are away, everything left is 2 attack, and it's tough to get through the defenses on things with 3 Agility + Autothrusters.

Currently playing with a StressX and four Talas (3 x Homing, 1 x Concussion) which works well -- the StressX gives some attack plus durability the other lists were missing, plus a control element (StressX = Red Vet T-70 + R3-A2 + Wired + IA).

Edit: Another thought -- the closest Rebel equivalent to a torpedo boat may be Nera Dantels B-Wing. For 35 points (Deadeye, FCS, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips) you have two 360 torpedo shots, plus subsequent dice modification with your three-dice attack and FCS. The downside being that one Agility -- you run the risk of being focus-fired down, especially against a triple Jumpmaster list where two torps can do you in.

Of course, then, if you consider that you might just go Dagger + HLC + FCS for 33 points; no mucking about with torpedoes so every shot is four dice (with mods from FCS) with all of the same limitations, though without the 360 effect.

I think B-wings and X-wings might be the better plan - you can take auto-critical causing guidance chips , plus you get a decent three attack primary to fight on with after the first salvo.

Your going to have a hard time with a rebel alpha strike in this current meta.

If your flying against a ghost build with no Biggs, you may have a chance.

If Biggs is there, alongside kanan, it's going to be tough

The other night I managed to take out 6 Z95 that was an alpha strike build, and still had Biggs on the board and shields on kanan.

As for the palmobile aces, you'll likely get out flown.

Lt Blount dies just like a bandit, and is easy to avoid with the repositioning.

If you do manage to get one into arc, you also have to get by the emperor, his evade, focus and 3-4 green dice.

No easy feat.

Against tripple uBoats your probably going to lose a ship before it shoots.

Again if you have Lt Blount in the mix, he'll be the main target.

Imo the Z95 alpha strike list can work, but the more experienced your opponent the harder its going to be.

If buddy bumps and flies over rocks with fel, you'll probably have an easy game, but if that's the case I wouldn't get to confident as he's probably not as experienced.

A good fel player will not let that happen

Anyway just my 2 cents on it

I think B-wings and X-wings might be the better plan - you can take auto-critical causing guidance chips , plus you get a decent three attack primary to fight on with after the first salvo.

Also ps 4 blue and red squadrons would out ps U Boats. Thereby allowing the target lock to dump torps.

You could just stop being a terrorist and adopt the life of a law abiding citizen.

Experimenting on it. Options are:

5 A-Wings with crack and AT.

5 A-Wings with Proton Rockets and Guidence Chip (Up to 25 hits where 5 are guarantee).

Dash, HLC, VT and 1 crew and Hera with Autoblasterturret and accuracy corrector and Chewie crew.

3 B-Wings: Tien Numb, Nera and blue.

Been looking at this problem myself... Can put 4 Reds with flechettes on the table... any warhead bigger kills having four torpedoes though. Even if it doesn't kill a U-boat, it should never have another action...

I have flown 5 A-Wing Prototypes with Proton Rockets a fair bit and find that the build has a hard initial/alpha strike and actually does quite well after the rockets are all gone.

I keep posting about this list when folks talk about a Rebel missile swarm, so apologies if you've seen me talk about it already.

Blount (Draw Their Fire, Tracers)

Biggs (Plasma Torps, R4-D6, Guidance Chips)

2x Tala (Concussion Missile, Guidance Chips)

Tala (Homing Missile, Guidance Chips)

Biggs ensures that the Talas and Blount survive to get their missiles off and Blount helps to keep Biggs in the fight a little bit longer with DtF. It'll melt a single Torpedo Scout off the board before it even gets a chance to shoot and usually doesn't need all the missiles to be fired to do so. It struggles a bit more against Imp Aces, but so do a lot of things.

You need a combination of list types. Only alpha strikes or only ace hunter will not be good. Combine for example 2-3 Talas with an ace hunter (e.g. Falcon with Gunner)

I rather want to try this:

"Dutch" Vander (23)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2-D6 (1)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Shoots before scouts, PS 8 Vander can drop a target lock a ship a Grey might not have had the chance to paint, or you can focus on a Grey you know Vander will be able to help out for a fully modified torp shot. The TLTs might not be ideal against aces, but they can be effective. More so than a ATT 2 turret at least.

I rather want to try this:

"Dutch" Vander (23)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2-D6 (1)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Shoots before scouts, PS 8 Vander can drop a target lock a ship a Grey might not have had the chance to paint, or you can focus on a Grey you know Vander will be able to help out for a fully modified torp shot. The TLTs might not be ideal against aces, but they can be effective. More so than a ATT 2 turret at least.

Targeting Astromech on Dutch would also be good. It means that he can hand out target locks even on rounds that he K-turns. Or if you are worried about him getting blocked, you can throw in a [3 turn] or [4 straight] and not worry about it.

Best idea I've seen was this by ParaGoombaSlayer, with small input from me:

Guardian Squadron Pilot 25, Homing Missile 5, Extra Munitions 2, Autoblaster Turret 2, Guidance Chips or Long Range Sensors 0 = 34

Same thing again = 34

Green Squadron Pilot 19, Homing Missile 5, Crack Shot 1, Adaptability 0, Guidance Chips 0 = 25

You get to put out 3 heavily modified 4-dice shots ahead of Scouts, which gives you a good chance of dropping one before it fires. Against Aces, you have heavily modified Homing Missile shots, Autoblaster Turrets, and good blocking ability. There are 7 points left, which can be used to on crew and bombs for the Guardians. I like Intel Agent on one with a Proximity Mine on each K-wing as additional anti-ace tech, but there are a lot of good options (Sabine + a Seismic on each K-wing is good against Swarms, Scouts, and Aces, who can get blocked in the blast and don't like expending actions to get out of the blast radius when other ships might have shots on them).

Best idea I've seen was this by ParaGoombaSlayer, with small input from me:

Guardian Squadron Pilot 25, Homing Missile 5, Extra Munitions 2, Autoblaster Turret 2, Guidance Chips or Long Range Sensors 0 = 34

Same thing again = 34

Green Squadron Pilot 19, Homing Missile 5, Crack Shot 1, Adaptability 0, Guidance Chips 0 = 25

You get to put out 3 heavily modified 4-dice shots ahead of Scouts, which gives you a good chance of dropping one before it fires. Against Aces, you have heavily modified Homing Missile shots, Autoblaster Turrets, and good blocking ability. There are 7 points left, which can be used to on crew and bombs for the Guardians. I like Intel Agent on one with a Proximity Mine on each K-wing as additional anti-ace tech, but there are a lot of good options (Sabine + a Seismic on each K-wing is good against Swarms, Scouts, and Aces, who can get blocked in the blast and don't like expending actions to get out of the blast radius when other ships might have shots on them).

I like this one. Yet another reason to pick up a second K-Wing. I'm already watching fickle's bombing strategy closely so it might be time to do it.

Edit: Sabine, Seismic x2 and Intel Agent comes up to 7.... I think I just made up my hypothetical list after that purchase...

I rather want to try this:

"Dutch" Vander (23)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2-D6 (1)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R2 Astromech (1)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Shoots before scouts, PS 8 Vander can drop a target lock a ship a Grey might not have had the chance to paint, or you can focus on a Grey you know Vander will be able to help out for a fully modified torp shot. The TLTs might not be ideal against aces, but they can be effective. More so than a ATT 2 turret at least.

I've played it (without VI on Dutch, went R4-D6 instead), and while fun, it wasn't great. I found it got eaten by aces or Jumpmasters. The Ys just don't have the survivability behind 1 Agility die, and if you kill a Jumpmaster in the first round, the other ships tend to take a Y out in the same round.

Oh I forgot to mention 1 good combo I made that worked well. Poe + adaptbility + R2-D2/R5-P9 + IA. Wes Janson/Wedge + adaptbility + R7-T1 (get target lock and boost) + IA. And Nera Dantiles + proton torpedo + Extra Ammunition + guidence chip + Deadeye.

How about this?

“Dutch” Vander (32)

Y-Wing (23), R5-P9 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0)

Garven Dreis (31)

X-Wing (26), R2-D6 (1), Integrated Astromech (0), Draw Their Fire (1), Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Esege Tuketu (37)

K-wing (28), Recon Specialist (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0)

100 Points

All ships are PS6 meaning you can move and fire in any order you want.

Normally I would would move Dutch last, take a target lock and share it with Esege. Garvin can take his own target lock (more on this later). Esege Focuses gaining 2 tokens thanks to Rec Spec.

In the firing phase, Garvin shoots first in order to maximise the shield damage of the plasma torps. If he needs a Focus (or even if he doesn't) he takes one from Esege and after spending it, transfers it to Dutch.

Dutch fires next. If he needs a Focus token (unlikely since Protorps will automatically flip 1 Focus result for you) he can either spend his own or save it and spend Esege's.

Esege fires last and again, will only need to spend a Focus token if he rolls 2 or more Focus results.

Ideally, at the end of the first round of firing, you will have dished out 12 red dice (well modified) and hopefully have 1 or 2 Focus tokens left over for defense. If Dutch loses any shields and still has his Focus token at the end, he can spend it on R5-P9 to regain a shield.

Repeat on the second turn of firing except this time, Garvin should Focus since he will be out of Ordnance so he may as well maximise his ability to share with Dutch. He should probably stay close to maximise Focus sharing and also to protect against the odd critical hit with DTF.

Optionally, drop Garvin to a plain R2 Astromech and use the extra point to give Esege Homing Missiles for busting aces.

I love the teamwork, it might be hard if you lose one ship, but real fun stuff there.

How about this? “Dutch” Vander (32) Y-Wing (23), R5-P9 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0) Garven Dreis (31) X-Wing (26), R2-D6 (1), Integrated Astromech (0), Draw Their Fire (1), Plasma Torpedoes (3) Esege Tuketu (37) K-wing (28), Recon Specialist (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0)100 PointsAll ships are PS6 meaning you can move and fire in any order you want.Normally I would would move Dutch last, take a target lock and share it with Esege. Garvin can take his own target lock (more on this later). Esege Focuses gaining 2 tokens thanks to Rec Spec.In the firing phase, Garvin shoots first in order to maximise the shield damage of the plasma torps. If he needs a Focus (or even if he doesn't) he takes one from Esege and after spending it, transfers it to Dutch.Dutch fires next. If he needs a Focus token (unlikely since Protorps will automatically flip 1 Focus result for you) he can either spend his own or save it and spend Esege's.Esege fires last and again, will only need to spend a Focus token if he rolls 2 or more Focus results.Ideally, at the end of the first round of firing, you will have dished out 12 red dice (well modified) and hopefully have 1 or 2 Focus tokens left over for defense. If Dutch loses any shields and still has his Focus token at the end, he can spend it on R5-P9 to regain a shield.Repeat on the second turn of firing except this time, Garvin should Focus since he will be out of Ordnance so he may as well maximise his ability to share with Dutch. He should probably stay close to maximise Focus sharing and also to protect against the odd critical hit with DTF.Optionally, drop Garvin to a plain R2 Astromech and use the extra point to give Esege Homing Missiles for busting aces.

The problem I see with this is it kind of goes back to the old meta type builds, before we had the high PS reposition/evade meta we have now

Dutch can get a tl on fel, or whisper or omega leader, and pass it off to another, but will they be able to catch them?

How about this? “Dutch” Vander (32) Y-Wing (23), R5-P9 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0) Garven Dreis (31) X-Wing (26), R2-D6 (1), Integrated Astromech (0), Draw Their Fire (1), Plasma Torpedoes (3) Esege Tuketu (37) K-wing (28), Recon Specialist (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Extra Munitions (2), Guidance Chips (0)100 PointsAll ships are PS6 meaning you can move and fire in any order you want.Normally I would would move Dutch last, take a target lock and share it with Esege. Garvin can take his own target lock (more on this later). Esege Focuses gaining 2 tokens thanks to Rec Spec.In the firing phase, Garvin shoots first in order to maximise the shield damage of the plasma torps. If he needs a Focus (or even if he doesn't) he takes one from Esege and after spending it, transfers it to Dutch.Dutch fires next. If he needs a Focus token (unlikely since Protorps will automatically flip 1 Focus result for you) he can either spend his own or save it and spend Esege's.Esege fires last and again, will only need to spend a Focus token if he rolls 2 or more Focus results.Ideally, at the end of the first round of firing, you will have dished out 12 red dice (well modified) and hopefully have 1 or 2 Focus tokens left over for defense. If Dutch loses any shields and still has his Focus token at the end, he can spend it on R5-P9 to regain a shield.Repeat on the second turn of firing except this time, Garvin should Focus since he will be out of Ordnance so he may as well maximise his ability to share with Dutch. He should probably stay close to maximise Focus sharing and also to protect against the odd critical hit with DTF.Optionally, drop Garvin to a plain R2 Astromech and use the extra point to give Esege Homing Missiles for busting aces.

Dutch can get a tl on fel, or whisper or omega leader, and pass it off to another, but will they be able to catch them?

Also lose a ship and the rest of the squad comes crumbling down

Out of the rebel alpha strike lists, I'd have to say awing with pockets

When you're thinking Rebel Alpha Strike, think Roark Garnet. For that PS 12 attack choose Roark Garnet TODAY!

Seriously though, recently played a 150 point game featuring a tooled up Etahn A'baht, three Green Sqdn A-wings with Guidance chips, Concussion Missiles, Deadeye, Swarm Tactics, and a lightly equipped Roark Garnet.

Managed to burn an Agressor with Stealth Device and Sensor Jammer out of the sky in the first round of combat before it got to shoot. I think in that game the E-wing died quickly and did the least amount of work while the A-wings gummed up enemy movement and nibbled the rest of their ships to death.

Helped that after that opening salvo my opponents put a lot of effort into killing the HWK.

Alternatively consider Airen Cracken with Swarm Tactics, Roark Garnet, Dutch Vander also with Swarm and a Gold Sqdn pilot.

Roark bumps Airen to PS 12, Airen passes that to Dutch who passes it to Gold. Airen attacks and then triggers TL on Dutch who allows Gold to TL. They both attack at PS 12.

Against aces you'll have trouble keeping a bead on them, particularly when they close. Against JM5Ks I doubt you'd clear one in the first pass, but you might be able to force them to spend focus on the evade which reduces their alpha strike.

I think the way to build an effective Rebel Alpha Strike is to build a mixed ship type list. You can go with all Z-95 Alpha strike, but it will have a hard time vs. Imp Aces. You can probably go with a few different ships that can fire before U-boats and have different strengths.

As a side note, Rebels have a good number of ships with 3 red dice that can add into other ships with Alpha Strike. So, maybe an X-wing that doesn't have ordnance, but can still pile on the hits before a ship fires.

Here's a sample list that I just threw together:

Miranda can boost her main attack, as well. Give her a Homing Missile and she will be rolling 5 red dice with a re-roll and they can't use Evade. That would give any Imperial Ace a hard time. I recall at least one person winning a Store Champ with that set up. That was before U-boats, I think.

I think there are options, but you would have to really practice with it vs. Imperial Aces. It's do-able, but you really have to practice.

I have posted this before and have had some success with the following. Miranda spends shields to make those homing missiles capable of cracking through a palp ace. Daggers make full use of Chimps with proton torps. PS takes a torp boat off the board without firing. FCS and chopper make the list less sensitive to stress.

Miranda Doni:

EM

Homing Missiles

Guidance Chimps

Chopper

2x Dagger

EM

Proton Torps

FCS

Guidance Chimps

Edit: Another thought -- the closest Rebel equivalent to a torpedo boat may be Nera Dantels B-Wing. For 35 points (Deadeye, FCS, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips) you have two 360 torpedo shots, plus subsequent dice modification with your three-dice attack and FCS. The downside being that one Agility -- you run the risk of being focus-fired down, especially against a triple Jumpmaster list where two torps can do you in..

A guy I know loves to run Nera, he almost won a small tourney this past weekend.

The list, as far as I remember it; Nera w/ Deadeye, Proton Torp, EM, Chips, Dutch w/ TLT, Esege w/ Rec Spec. That comes to 93 points; I am sure he was at 100, probably with some more torps on either Dutch or Esege and maybe FCS on Nera.

There is so much Rebel synergy to be had there. It is a nasty list, he went 4-0 in swiss.

I love the teamwork, it might be hard if you lose one ship, but real fun stuff there.

I play a modified version of that list and you really only lose synergy once Dutch is down. Garvin and Esege play the same role really.