I've heard that the FFG community is pretty solid when it comes to handing out advice to new players, so I'll try my luck here.

I'm going to attend my first tournament in a week and I have been trying to make a list work. The ships and squadrons that I have at my disposal are rather limited: 1x core set, 1x Nebulon expansion and 1x Corvette expansion.

I am aware that the lack of ships and squadrons puts a considerable limit to what I can hope to achieve. However, I'm in it for the fun, to learn more about the game and see veteran players duke it out.

So far, I have been thinking about something along these lines:

Ships:

* Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

- Yavaris

- Raymus Antilles

- Mon Mothma

* Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

- Redemption

* CR90A Corvette

- Leia Organa

- Engineering Team

* CR90A Corvette

- Engineering Team

Squadrons:

* 5x X-Wings

* Luke Skywalker

* 2x B-Wings

* 2 Y-Wings

Points: 398/400

What are your takes on this list? Comments, critique and suggestions for improvement are all welcome.

I will probably not be buying any new expansions before the tournament, so I want to rule out ideas about buying new items. I want to know what the "best" or most fun solutions are within the confines of the abovemetioned items.

Regards,

Hawkwing

Well, the perma engineering strategy isnt particularly effective with small ships, mothma isnt safe on your most threatening ship and you have way more squads than squads activation.

So instead lets bump up the ace pilot level, more fun anyway, and make the corvettes support to the neb carrirrs.

Ships:

* Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

- Yavaris

- Raymus Antilles

* Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

- intel officer

- x17 turbolasers

- salvation

* CR90A Corvette

- mon mothma

- Engine tech

- jainas light

* CR90A Corvette

- enhanced armanent

- tantive iv

Squadrons:

* wedge Antilles

* Luke Skywalker

* keyan Ferlander

* dutch vander

* tycho celchu

* bwing

Points: 392/400

Advanced gunnery, hyperspace assault, intel sweep

I wont lie, the list would benefit from a bit more ship and a bit less upgrades, but it should do ok.

It never occurred to me that it was an option to have a CR90 Corvette act as a flagship. It makes sense though: it has high maneuverability, which makes it difficult to target. I will definitely do that.

In regards to the ships, how do you vision the deploymeny and strategy for the game? Am I going to keep my distance and attack with my broadsides, or should I aim to make frontal attacks with the Nebulons and support them from a distance with the Corvettes?

Thus far I have actually never used the Corvettes as support ships. Rather, they have been positioned far away from the Nebulons and fighters to split the enemy's attention and attack from behind / the sides.

In terms of ships, I will most likely get my hands on an assault frigate or two and more fighters. I really enjoy the fighter heavy builds, but it is impossible to play those lists efficiently without proper activation D: But until then I will have to make do, despite the limitations that it poses.

Well you want the nebs to joust moving forward slowly head on with the enemy. The corvettes pester them to death and take out any flankers, circling the battlefield as required.

See, my only concern is that the Nebs are going to end face-to-face with enemy VCS, ICS or a liberty D:

Thanks for the input though, its nice to have some feedback from a completely new source

See, my only concern is that the Nebs are going to end face-to-face with enemy VCS, ICS or a liberty D:

Thanks for the input though, its nice to have some feedback from a completely new source

Valid concerns, but remember Yavaris and Salvation punch well above their weight class.

If you like to split your opponents attention (and since you need heavy upgrades on your ships to fill out the points), I really like Dodonna's pride fully kitted to disrupt your opponent's movements and activation orders (it really wants to go first, though).

Cr90B- 39

Dodonna's Pride- 6

Veteran captain- 3

Engine Techs- 8

SW7- 5 (can't remember if those come with the CR90 pack).

=56 points

So if you prefer that tactic to supporting with CR90s (if that's what you're comfortable with, going into your first tournament), then I'd switch out the Tantive for Dodonna's Pride, take off the Engine techs from Jainas Light so you can put them on DP, and put Electronic Countermeasures (is that in the core set?) on Jainas Light. 391 points, which should easily allow you to take first player.

With that, the strategy would be first to activate all your ships before Dodonna's pride so that your opponent has to give away the positions of at least three of his/her ships, then send in DP with Engine techs to line up shots on one of those for the next round. The next round you activate DP first, fire (getting either 2 potentially crippling crits or still dealing 3-5 consistent damage with a double arc), and move it out of the way. This then will cause your opponent to move into range of your awaiting Nebulon and fighter/bomber screen before you have to move into their range. Then DP is no longer your opponents biggest threat and you can focus on the Nebulon fight while pestering them with DP.

As far as the objectives go, the ones suggested are fine. Advanced Gunnery can be very deceptively used to your advantage for scoring a lot more points than your opponent. Hyperspace Assault is the least damaging to you (Imperials currently have a large advantage in Yellow Objectives due to the Interdictor), and Intel Sweep is perfect for a fast fleet like this. You'll probably play hyperspace assault a lot. I once went a four round tournament with HA in my objectives, and every single opponent chose it

Cr90B- 39

Dodonna's Pride- 6

Veteran captain- 3 - Victory or Assault Frigate Expansion

Engine Techs- 8

SW7- 5 - Home One expansion or Raider Expansion

=56 points

Cr90B- 39

Dodonna's Pride- 6

Veteran captain- 3 - Victory or Assault Frigate Expansion

Engine Techs- 8

SW7- 5 - Home One expansion or Raider Expansion

=56 points

Thanks.

In that case, no officer needed, and take leading shots to go all in for getting the crit effect. Gives you 4 more points to add to other ships, or to take a defensive retrofit.

[update]

I went with Gin's list and it actually worked out pretty well in the tournament! The Yavaris did wonders with all those aces. It was able to both tear enemy fighters and ships to shreds. However, Salvation had a tendency to die really fast. It may have something to do with all three matches having the Advanced Gunnery objective and it being the objective ship.

I won 2 out of 3 matches, so it turned out all right

So thanks for the valuable input!

Did you go first in all of the matches? Or did you play your objectives? I'm just interested to know if it was you or your opponents choosing that objective. I imagine that you were significantly helped by the points boost if your opponent was choosing ISDs/MC80s as their objective ships.

I went first in 2/3 games and I exclusively played advanced gunnery.

My first opponent went with an ISD, Interdictor and a VSD. He was incredibly lucky with his dice rolls that he managed to one-shot my Salvation (and I was incredibly unlucky with my dice rolles: despite activating Yavaris thrice, I only inflicted 6 damage cards to his ISD). The amount of blanks I rolled still haunt me to this day

In the subsequent games I met more or less evenly matched opponents (in terms of ships and experience).