Has anyone had any success with flotillas and repair crew. We had 4 on the board with it 3 backing up an MC80 and 1 backing up 2 ISDs. Maybe 2 cards were removed before they all died all game. It is just 2 hard to keep them up with ships unless you activate them first. But in rounds 3 4 5 most of the time our big ships needed to activate before a repair crew could to get shots off. Then they would move speed 2 or 3 and be out of range. And the scatters were never used once. Flotillas r very weak vs large ships throwing out accuraccies. They seem to be good vs swarm squads where the accuracies don't come along that often. In fact I think flotillas are only good vs swarm squads and thats what they were intended to be used against. We need to try the bomber ones next and see how that goes. I did have surpressor and he was good in combo with Avenger but was targeted early cause of this. Better than targeting and isd.

I think Repair Crews' use case is as a "neat-trick" card if you have a couple of points left over. I really don't see it being worth building around at all. It's best use will be having one in your fleet to remove crippling crits on your big boys without wasting dials on eng commands.

That said, I haven't actually used it myself, so I may be completely wrong. I hope I am completely wrong, because I really like the idea of healer builds being a thing.

This was my prediction for a while now.

My prediction has been, full stop, that the breakout star is going to be Comms Net. 2 points to share tokens? Yes please.

Has anyone had any success with flotillas and repair crew. We had 4 on the board with it 3 backing up an MC80 and 1 backing up 2 ISDs. Maybe 2 cards were removed before they all died all game. It is just 2 hard to keep them up with ships unless you activate them first. But in rounds 3 4 5 most of the time our big ships needed to activate before a repair crew could to get shots off. Then they would move speed 2 or 3 and be out of range. And the scatters were never used once. Flotillas r very weak vs large ships throwing out accuraccies. They seem to be good vs swarm squads where the accuracies don't come along that often. In fact I think flotillas are only good vs swarm squads and thats what they were intended to be used against. We need to try the bomber ones next and see how that goes. I did have surpressor and he was good in combo with Avenger but was targeted early cause of this. Better than targeting and isd.

This has been what I have experienced with any thing that has scatter, I think in all the games that I have played I can count on one hand the total number of times it has been used.

I am looking at this setup:

GR75 -18

Leia - 3

Comms net - 2

Boosted comms - 4

Total = 27

It can hang back and either activate 2 squadrons or throw 2 tokens around as appropriate. A nice, cheap and versatile ship that adds all kind of contingency plans to the fleet, and has the added bonus of making your fleet look more like the one in ROTJ.

For The imperials, I will most definitely be running this one:

Gozanti cruisers - 23

Supressor - 4

Slicer tools - 7

Expanded hangar bay - 5

Total = 39

As I am going to likely only be buying 1 of each expansion for waves 3 and 4 due to impending child-induced poverty, these are the most likely setups I will use. Neither of them include the repair crews upgrade. I tend not to like building defensively-focused ships that rely on the enemy damaging my ships to be useful.

I'd rather create ships that increase the flexibility of my fleet, or reduce the flexibility of the enemy fleet.

Also, bonus for this setup, that includes a speed 4 Bossk escorted by 2 Speed 5 TIE advanced. Bossk can now outrun rebel fighters, and grind them into an appropriately fine paste.

Gozanti cruisers - 23

Vector - 2

Expanded hangar bay - 5

Total = 30

Bossk, 2x TIE Advanced - 47

My thoughts on the Flotillas are that outside of Riekaan, they can only be effective when their abilities effect ships at Distance 5. There are almost no situations where you want a Flotilla activating before a ship that has targets in range, especially if they have not activated yet..

These aren't going to have the effect on the game like the ISD or assault frigates (or the wave 4 ships), mostly will be neat tricks that in the right battle come in handy. It will be fun and vary up lists for squadron pushing and all, but these aren't going to be the dominating factor in future battles.

These aren't going to have the effect on the game like the ISD or assault frigates (or the wave 4 ships), mostly will be neat tricks that in the right battle come in handy. It will be fun and vary up lists for squadron pushing and all, but these aren't going to be the dominating factor in future battles.

Well, we need to examine what these ships actually are: Fleet Support.

When we look at the best support abilities in the game, they are already the ones that require the least amount of opportunity cost for the largest benefit. ECMs? Requires that you give up Advanced Projectors but has no other downsides. Boosted Comms and Expanded Hangers? What else was competing for the Offensive Retrofit slot? Demolisher? Home One? Yavaris? Salvation? Is there even a downside for those titles?

The Fleet Support upgrades basically come in two flavors: Fancy Flyers, where you need to be perfectly timed and extremely close to use the effects, and Big Bubbles, where everything in range gets the benefit. Repair Crews is a fancy flyer -- you must be using it when your ship is already in range, and you must end your movement close to the target in order to use it again. This makes both ships obvious in their flight path. Similarly, Sensor Jammers is a Fancy Flyer, requiring you to maneuver so that you don't negatively affect your own squadrons. And of course, Slicer Tools requires you to successfully navigate to within Distance 3 or your target. Which almost always means that the ship will be lost shortly afterwards.

Comms Net and Bomber Command are Big Bubbles, and this is where their primary strength lies. By extending their effects to Distance 5, it is almost impossible to get too far away to not have the effect available for most reasonably competent fleet commanders even after the target ship or squadron you wish to benefit has moved ahead.

And this is why I think that Comms Net is the breakout star in this wave. Comms Net doesn't require fancy flying, it simply requires a basic level of planning to ensure you will still have a ship in your range to benefit. It's dirt cheap, so even if you don't use it you haven't wasted many points. You can even use it 2-3 times, starting on the very first turn in most cases.

Bomber Command has the benefit that there are no prerequisites save that the affected squadron have the Bomber keyword and be in range, but pays for that by being 4 times the cost of Comms Net. Also, with most Bombers have a 75% or better chance to hit already, I just can't see it having that big an effect.

Goz, EH, Wulff... 35 points, as many activations as a stock ISD... YES PLEASE!!!

Goz, slice, tractor... if losing my 36 point ship leads to the destruction of a 98 point demo, the lynchpin of my opponents strategy, then I'll consider my flotilla well sacrificed

Demo didn't kill the tractor beam. Another ship, probably an ISD, killed the Gozanti before it activated.

I don't see Slicer Tools having a major effect to be honest. They can be planned around and die quickly to bigger ships. Also, don't forget that Comms Net means that Demo can move into position, get hit by your Tractor Beam/Slicer Tools combo, and regain a Nav Token to move into position anyway.

In short, the counter to Slicer Tools is the 2 point upgrade that takes the same slot.

Leia and Comms Net stack, don't they?

Stack is the wrong word. Leia copies the dial at the same time she has to spend it for a token, so she can do both. Comms net can't trigger until both steps have been taken because they both occur when the dial is revealed, and Comms Net triggers after.

But yes, just like with Tantive IV, Leia can reveal a dial, copy it, spend the dial for a token, and then move the token to another ship. The difference is the timing.

Goz, EH, Wulff... 35 points, as many activations as a stock ISD... YES PLEASE!!!

Add the vector title for another 2 points, and you have a 37 point ship that controls 4x speed 5 TIE fighters.

Thanks. This makes it a pretty useful ship to have in a carrier fleet. For much cheaper than with Tantive IV, you can guarantee squadron or repair dial+token combos when necessary - and have a scatter defence to boot.

Hmm. I really wish we heard more about how the flotillas ahve been working out in real play. i wanna know if i really need two. and if they really work the way we want them to. they actually... seem to be particularly targeted tools. not auto includes...

Gozanti cruiser

Wulf yularen

Vector

Expanded hanger bay

Bomber command center

A bit spendy, but that's 4 squads a round after round one. Maybe shed the EHB for boosted comms.

Its true when Ive tried to think through how my Tarkin + 2 x repair crew gozantis would work I struggle with the issue of activation order. As OP said, either ISD waits for the repairers to activate and potentially loses shots, or activates and misses out on the repairs. And if ISDs shields are down and its still under fire it can still die pretty fast if it waits for the bottom of the round.

Played against a proxy wave 3 list the other night. Slicer tools is a big danger. Flotillas are reliably one shot by ISD2 with gunnery teams. Even a Raider 2 went within 1 damage of the one shot

Bear in mind, all, that right in the thick of things your ISDs and MC80s might not be moving very fast at all, with collisions, and lowered speeds to keep things in arc. Those Large- and Medium-based ships may well be in Range 2 more frequently than would be first apparent, especially if you "leap-frog" your Repair Crewed flotillas ahead for a turn.

Repair crews (and flotillas I General) are built to be 2nd player. In fact it's almost Bad to have them as 1at player.

As 2nd player with 3-5 flotilla s to add support and Most importantly Activation advantage, repair crew becomes extremely efficient and flotillas themselves as well. If you have activation advantage you can manipulate movement order to keep your flotillas alive and allow your big guns to get the first shots off. Also since as 2nd player with activation advantage you will usually activated your big guys last, you can easily use comms net or repair crew before their activation.

Flotilla s also work well in many objectives, most wanted and Opening salvo immediately spring to mind. Fleet ambush is actually quite good with them since it forces all ships to be deployed first and if you have more ships then your opponent it can give you deployment advantage. They are decent for picking up tokens in Dangerous territory and may make a good Intle sweeper(probably not though) however Gozantis at least pair well with superior positions able to plink the rear of enemy ships while scattering attacks to prevent tokens beinged farmed off of them.

In short, flotilla s are designed for 2nd player and we must understand and adapt to that. If you play then differently they don't work well

In short, flotilla s are designed for 2nd player and we must understand and adapt to that. If you play then differently they don't work well

zzzzzzzzzzzzZ So wrong, though your starting point was good.

Suggested Combo's so far:

1st Player - Aggressive

Flotilla - Slicer Tools, Tractor beams

Flotilla - Jamming Fields (For those first players with ship escort squadrons only)

2nd Player - Enhancing

Flotilla - BCC, Expanded Hangers (Toryn Farr)

Flotilla - Repair Tools (Suppressor)

Flotilla - Boosted Comms, Admiral (Vector/Bright Hope)

Flotilla - Comms Net (Leia)

So yes, flotillas have far more options for the second player at the moment, but that isnt the same thing as being useless for 1st player. Add in the fact that we surely havent thought of all the combinations so far, and it seems a very different story.

I didn't say useless for First player, just inferior

And for the record I think both of your 1st player examples would also work well for 2nd player. Actually I think the Slicer/tractor would work Best in a 2nd player High activation fleet

Why are your GR75's with repair crews in range of enemy guns? At all times I would keep my bigger ships in between the enemy and my support ships ideally with my support ships in range of my bigger ships and out of range of enemy ships.

Ugh. Need to find a way to test fleets ahead of GenCon.

What I'm thinking about now is:

ISD2

Intel Officer

Gunnery Team

ECMS

Leading Shots

XI7 Turbolasers

Devastator

GSD1

Intel Officer

Ord Experts

Engine Techs

Expanded Launchers

Demolished

Gozanti Cruiser

Admiral Motti

Comms Net

Gozanti Cruiser

Comms Net

Rhymes

Bomber

Bomber

Bomber