First AAR (link because it was not very visable), https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/221637-anyone-use-flotillas/?p=2250479

Important points form last game:

• The amount of activations is higher overall
• Gunnery Teams/Rerolls/Guaranteed Accuracy, are essential

• Raiders/Demos weren't good at countering floatilas. Demo could take one over two turns maybe with good ramming or godly rolling (without sensor team) to kill a 3 hull ship, which is not an efficent time investment for a 25ish points

• Slicer Tools/Fleet Upgrades/Tractor Beams are pretty good

List: http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=29542

Things i like about it:

• 9 deployments as second player, ISD gets ideal placement
• A strong ISD, fantastic small ship bully
• Tarkin flexibility
• Liason is an efficent Slicer Tool counter

Things i don't like about it:

• Weak anti squadron setup
• Risky to only have ISD as main source of firepower

I wanted to try more floatillas, as oppossed to brawling ships, to see how much damage one Fighting Ship can deal out with support ships in tow. Suppressor does not Exhust so I was hoping to combo with Gunnery Teams. The other Ships could sling 6 Squadrons around via Tarkin tokens, with Firesprays jumping in during the Squadron Phase to hit relevant targets. The defense Liason was to counter potential Slicer Tools and on most turns the ISD will have a spare Squadron Token thanks to Tarkin. Comms Net was to back up the Liason to make sure he never had a deficit of tokens. Comms Nets turned out to be way more useful than i thought! As you can see Floatilas open up a wide range of combos! Exciting stuff.

How we proxy: Printed cards for upgrades. Raider base = Goz (or close enough) Neb B = Reb Trans (or close enough)

Please note: The Raider is not a Raider. I used it with the Model because it was on loan!

Nick also just sent this photo and i fully credit him with making these which we will be using in the future! It's the Rebellion Floatillas. He thought of this after the game. So well done sir!

Game 1 vs Ackbar: http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=29544. This list in incomplete! My memory has failed me.

Round 1: My two Squadron Floatilas went to 0. And Avenger/Suppressor hooked in at Speed 3. They threaten i) to bully the small ships b)block your MC80. This is the way i like to deploy my ISD. If you deploy facing off in a joust you will overshoot. If you come from the lateral you will be able to i) track better b) take more shots

Round 2: Due to the small ship blockage he had to activate in a certain way. The CR90 flew closer, and i bombed it with 3 Ties. His next floatila went and landed just in Medium Range. The ISD activated and used a token to send one Firepsray at the CR90 to burn it's Redirect (even with Xi7 this makes a huge difference at Long Range w/ 4 Red dice). The front battery followed up and took it down. 8 dice Gunnery Teams hit the Floatilla and a natural accuracy ensured that it was vaporised.

Round 3: Debris are strong against floatillas! I (regretablly) flew to avoid the debris with Suppressor (due to the proximity of the Xwings/Rebel Trans) but i was out of range of the Mc80. The MC80 went for the Defiance shot on the Suppressor. He rolled 6 Red and 1 Blue. No accuracy! He used Leading Shots to fish for it with 4 dice and "missed" again! The Floatila greased the engine with buckets of sweat and Scattered.

Round 4: The ISD took a parting shot as did the MC80. Now both large ships were beyond each other.

Rounds 5-6: The MC80 killed a Floatila that was sitting on 0. Despite the effort of the bombers ended up living on a couple of Hull.

Score: 6-4 or 7-3 my way.

After thoughts:

Ken got into a bit of a jam, i think this was mainly due to the debris and a bit of an off deployment. This allowed me to take some fights against isolated targets. The Xwings could not get into Rhymer quick enough and that extra tempo he gains with Boosted Comms was enough time to help take down a ship (or 2?).

Suppressor would have been better served up the guts of the fleet given than no side approach was viable vs Ackar. It was only useful for presenting two targets for that side Arc. And it worked! And luckily in this instance it lived. Saving a load of pain off the ISD.

Myself I found the Tarkin/synergy awesome. It has been so long since i played a fleet where i needed his ability to hold it together. So far the Gunship with Floatillas in tow was playing well!

Game 2 vs Tarkin, http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=29547

Round 1: He won the bid, choose to go second, I picked Contested Outpost. Not a pick im happy with but I wanted to practice something other than Intel Sweep! I had set all my ships to Speed 1. Upon the final deployment I thought it best to use Tarkin to crank Aveneger/Suppressor to speed 3 (via Command/Token, got to love that Tarkin flexibility) and the Float Carriers to 2. Against multiple VSD if you flank hard you force them to turn but the outside VSD will never be at the same level of the other VSD due to their slow speed (unless they adjust their speed). This aggressive flanking means you can try to fight one VSD at a time. I did not want to split my forces because this would increase the chance that I would leave two targets in range for him to punish me with.

Round 2: Jostling for position with Squadrons. Suppressor is leading the charge trying to get into the weak arc of his VSD I.

Round 3: My Carriers kill his Floatila with a squadron Command of 3. Suppressor slips by, the ISD takes some shots at the ISD I and slows down. He is out of Close Range of the VSD.

Round 4: I wait for his VSD I to move, Suppressor hits it and Avenger kills it. The Front Arc is just out of the VSD II which was also hit by Suppressor (darn it).

Round 5: The ISD repairs, shoots the VSD II with side dice only and flys away. I should of, in hindsight, switched command with Liason to Nav Command, turned in, tanked his battery and shot him up next turn.

Round 6: Mistake! The ISD throws more side dice and flys off but this leaves two Floatilla both in Medium Range of Warlord/H9/Leading Shots. Opps. One Floatilla is popped with manipulation. The other barely lives one 1 hull due to a lucky Evade of a red dice turn it from 1 damage to none. I should have moved the Floatila at the furthest range, out of range. I get my first token at the end of turn to soften the blow, but he has collected 4 more than me.

Score: 6-4, my way. I said i would not usally pick Outpost. This list needed to setup a lot of unfair fights and combos. It was too slow to push him off quickly, which is the best way to counter Outpost.

After thoughts: This was against Nick whom with we have had now several Wave 3 Proxy games. As suspected from last game the VSD II was a brute with all the small ships running around! Warlord/H9 is delicious. This has convinced me that the next Wave 3 list I try will be a Vader list, he only missed out on killing two Floatillas at once due a Evade/Miss. Vader might also allow for a Sensor Team/Expanded Launcher Demo to be a viable small ship hunter again given that Vader can reroll those front dice.

The only thing I would do different is use more aggressive Nav if I am not likely to die to from ship. Instead of sliding into the MC80 I flew away and same for the VSD II. The key to flying an ISD well is knowing i) how to not fly past a target ii) how much you can tank, it is not as much as you think. But in my case it is usally more than I think

Both lists did well and we had set out with the idea in mind don't build a Wave 3 list with Demolisher. Squadron Floatillas were very nice. Especially with Tarkin. Having 4 ships, each able to throw out squadrons in lots of at least 3 sets up really good squadron command timing.

What about the Wave 3 stuff specificlly?

• For me either flying in Formation or being passive with Carrier floatilas worked well with Tarkin/Boosted Comms. Avoiding arcs was better than trying to survive against them!
• Suppressor was a a beast, very scary for each opponent to face given Avenger was following behind! Suppressor flew differently, much more aggressive. I like that
• Bomber Command center is amazing. Not a single miss on those Tie Bombers! I stopped running them after blanks cost me results. Now they are finding a way back in
• Jamming Field is great for Tie's/Bombers/Howlrunner. It will take a lot of practice to use, it will not be good for everything, but it straight up saved Ties and let them delay and protect the Floatilas for longer
• Comms Net doesn't work like Tantive but with an extra bit of thought it works pretty well (look for pic 3-4 game 1, the Eng token). Passing off tokens to supplement a Liason change (such as Engeering) was really good. This is becuase you have to invest a token to change a Command, Comms Net gives you one back. It worked well on Suppressor because it never really needed a token besides an occasional Nav
• Floatillas will be insta gibbed at Medium range by any sort of manipulation effect, reroll or specifc dice setting, count yourself very lucky if they are not
• At long Range they are pretty resilient. Standing up to ISD II batteries and Warlord+H9 manipulation without much (if any) Hull Damage. Expect that one shield to drop though.
• Liasons/Support Officer (used in a piror) game, were good to counter Slicer tools. I prefer the Liason for the reaptability however from Wave 1-2 experience you need tokens to make this work so be warned if you do not have Tarkin
• VSD II! It worked darn well. With the amount of small ships running around we thought it would be worth giving it a go again. It worked.

Going Foward?

I like this list but i don't know about 3 Floatilla. It worked but in the long run with Interdictor/Liberty im not sure i want 3! I changed the list for more Anti-Squadron-Squadrons (Vader etc) because each squadron battle was long and indecisive because of their low anti squadron battery.

I'm just happy I finally have an actual Armada and that Tarkin is playable without having to scimp on anything!

Nice! I have found that the GR75 18 point version is amazing as anti-squadron. Black dice are beautiful. Add in Bright Hope and squadron players get annoyed.

OMG ! That region of space has 2 DEATH STARS

but other than that thanks for the great write up

Nice! I have found that the GR75 18 point version is amazing as anti-squadron. Black dice are beautiful. Add in Bright Hope and squadron players get annoyed.

Yes! Something i totally neglected to say, mainly because i was on the receiving end That single black PD dice is fantastic. Especially as Floatillas can be played like Instigator, into the enemy ball, with squadrons in tow.

Pretty nice!

I've played against and with flotillas once..... both times it didn't go well for the person having the flotillas. In both cases the other player was playing a "traditional" wave 2 type list. Going to keep trying to for sure but I'm getting less optimistic.

Pretty nice!

I've played against and with flotillas once..... both times it didn't go well for the person having the flotillas. In both cases the other player was playing a "traditional" wave 2 type list. Going to keep trying to for sure but I'm getting less optimistic.

Is definitely going to take adjustment.

Thus why I feel that the GR75's with splicer tools and tractor beams will be an amazing flotilla. For what, 30 points or so, you can slow down Demolisher, make sure it can't use its Engine Techs, and even survive a close rage shot.

Add on to that, that splicer tools is distance 3 which as we know, is just a TINY bit bigger than medium range so you can stay out of a MC30's black dice range and only suffer minimal onslaught. If your Title is Bright Hope, you laugh at a MC30 Torpedo Frigate at medium range.

Thus why I feel that the GR75's with splicer tools and tractor beams will be an amazing flotilla. For what, 30 points or so, you can slow down Demolisher, make sure it can't use its Engine Techs, and even survive a close rage shot.

Add on to that, that splicer tools is distance 3 which as we know, is just a TINY bit bigger than medium range so you can stay out of a MC30's black dice range and only suffer minimal onslaught. If your Title is Bright Hope, you laugh at a MC30 Torpedo Frigate at medium range.

There's a part of me that wants to introduce that idea to my blue crit, token discarding little friend .....

Thus why I feel that the GR75's with splicer tools and tractor beams will be an amazing flotilla. For what, 30 points or so, you can slow down Demolisher, make sure it can't use its Engine Techs, and even survive a close rage shot.

Add on to that, that splicer tools is distance 3 which as we know, is just a TINY bit bigger than medium range so you can stay out of a MC30's black dice range and only suffer minimal onslaught. If your Title is Bright Hope, you laugh at a MC30 Torpedo Frigate at medium range.

There's a part of me that wants to introduce that idea to my blue crit, token discarding little friend .....

Who Nym? Remember, you actually have to have a crit after the defender spends their defense tokens. . . So if let's say a scatter gets used. . . Well, that was a wasted crit ^_~

@Lyr: Wouldn't you just want to avoid being shot at twice? Demo shooting once is avoidable for the most part.

@Lyr: Wouldn't you just want to avoid being shot at twice? Demo shooting once is avoidable for the most part.

Sure but it is a 30 point ship. If it's sacrifice meant that I had a tactical advantage for a turn (slowing down demo for instance and removing the Navigate from its top dial) I call that we'll spent points. Sometimes you have to take a risk to get a reward. It is the person who takes no risks who gets nothing.

Do you think it's worth running Bright Hope with Point defence reroute and a couple of X-wings as an anti-squadron setup? Or would it simply be better to add expanded hangar bays and have 3 squadrons.

Do you think it's worth running Bright Hope with Point defence reroute and a couple of X-wings as an anti-squadron setup? Or would it simply be better to add expanded hangar bays and have 3 squadrons.

I feel it will depend on your use. Sure having squadron 3 is nice but you might now want to sink the points there if you really don't need to.

What about escorting YT 1300's?

Do you think it's worth running Bright Hope with Point defence reroute and a couple of X-wings as an anti-squadron setup? Or would it simply be better to add expanded hangar bays and have 3 squadrons.

If you are running Medium Transports Point Defence Reroute is not required because every Crit face has a single hit as well. I don't see any reason to run Combat Retro fit the extra cost for 1 Blue dice (and blue PD) does not seem worth it at all.

Great report Trizzo!

We played a Wave 3 proxy game last night. It was very symmerical - I had Tagge, A Glad2, Glad1 Demo, Raider 2, and 2 x gozantis, one with comms net and one with bomber command. My squadrons were Boba, Bossk, Dengar, Rhymer and three tiebombers.

Rebels had Dodonna, 2 MC30 torps, and three GR75s with 6 Xwings, 2 A wings and a Y wing. Rebels had the bid and picked first.

Very tense game, I got off to a good start with my raider oneshotting the bomber command GR75 and my bombers landing some good early hits. Killing the bomber command drastically reduced the threat of all the xwings. Unfortunately I deployed too compressed and my ships got in each others way, leading to my flotillas being killed easily and, along with my Raider going down hard, I was behind on activation count in the late game. More traffic jams meant demo couldn't get out of one MC30s short range which meant he died horribly, followed by Insidious being one shot at full health by the Admonition. Tagge never had a chance to hand back any tokens - everything tended to explode faster than it could burn tokens. Bright Hope is an awesome upgrade.

Bright Hope is insanely good. At long range you need at least 5 damage and an accuracy, x2 double, 1 hit, 1 accuracy or x2 double x2 double (!) to touch the hull. Evade 1 double, 3 damage left, Bright Hope -1, 1 on shield and finally one to hull. And it blanks squdrons pretty hard as well. Pretty close to being on of the best Titles in the game for the cost, the impact might not be Demo leagues of game warping but for the style and hull on the ship it's great!

Haha similar thing happened to us and Xwings. They flew out of BCC range, I said watch the two misses, there were two misses.

Thus why I feel that the GR75's with splicer tools and tractor beams will be an amazing flotilla. For what, 30 points or so, you can slow down Demolisher, make sure it can't use its Engine Techs, and even survive a close rage shot.

Add on to that, that splicer tools is distance 3 which as we know, is just a TINY bit bigger than medium range so you can stay out of a MC30's black dice range and only suffer minimal onslaught. If your Title is Bright Hope, you laugh at a MC30 Torpedo Frigate at medium range.

There's a part of me that wants to introduce that idea to my blue crit, token discarding little friend .....

Who Nym? Remember, you actually have to have a crit after the defender spends their defense tokens. . . So if let's say a scatter gets used. . . Well, that was a wasted crit ^_~

O .. good point, duh. Yeah, gotta accuracy these things to death.

So mixing in a Sensor team on a thing that chucks blue dice (Raider II) suddenly seems wise.

I do find it interesting that people are in general trying to say floatillas won't get targeted because they aren't worth many points. Um. If I'm in destroy your fleet mode, I'm going after things that enable your fleet.

There are 3 ways to remove a flotilla, from easiest to a bit harder we have getting an Accuracy and 4 damage (5-6 at long range), multiple attacks (2 defense tokens means that it can only take so many attacks before it goes up in flames), and lastly ramming (which is harder than it sounds becuase it is a small base)

If you can't quite do any of these, it will be annoying to take out flotillas.

Against Flotillas, there's also massed squadrons to take out the tokens.

Against Flotillas, there's also massed squadrons to take out the tokens.

That falls under method 2.

Against Bright Hope however, you need bombers or to be attacking the rear. Well Darth Vader and Boss could work. . . Now that I think of it. . . A Raider with Ruthless Strategies who uses it to hit Bossk, then Bossk goes Flotilla hunting. . .

Close range Ackbar mc30s with sensor teams. Au revoir.

In fairness just as lethal to raiders.