Hi all,

So I have a tournament coming up next weekend, and I am trailing different lists in preparation. I tend to favour Imperial, but I am struggling to find a list which I like in the joust-heavy meta (ISDs/Demo or MC80 Liberty). To be a bit counter-meta, I am thinking of going back to a wave 2 classic, enhanced with some wave 3 goodness - the Ackbar strafing fleet.

Grateful for your thoughts on what you would change. I recognise bombers may be a weakness, but I hope my fighter/bomber screen with flotilla, flak, and speed (engine techs on the big guy) should compensate. Here goes:

+++ Ackbar strikes back (398pts) +++

++ Rebel Fleet (Standard) (398pts) ++

+ Assault Frigate MkII (85pts) +

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (85pts) [Gunnery Team (7pts), XI7 Turbolasers (6pts)]

+ CR90 Corvette (53pts) +

CR90 Corvette A (53pts) [Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7pts), •Jaina's Light (2pts)]

+ MC80 Cruiser (177pts) +

MC80 Assault Cruiser (177pts) [Electronic Countermeasures (7pts), Engine Techs (8pts), Leading Shots (4pts), Skilled First Officer (1pts), •Admiral Ackbar (38pts), •Defiance (5pts)]

+ Squadrons (54pts) +

B-Wing Squadron (14pts)

B-Wing Squadron (14pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

X-Wing Squadron (13pts)

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]

Defense Objective [Hyperspace Assault]

Navigation Objective [intel Sweep]

+ Rebel Transport Flotilla (29pts) +

GR-75 Medium Transports (29pts) [Comms Net (2pts), •Bright Hope (2pts), •Toryn Farr (7pts)]

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

Are you sure your B-wings can keep up with the rest of your speed 3 fleet? Without boosted comms or flight coordination teams they're likely to get left behind if your fleet is circling at speed three.....

It may be better to stick to speed 3 (or greater) options....like A-wings?

Or you can trade Fighter coordination teams for Engine techs. The thought here is that you need to use a Nav command to activate engine techs, and usin a dial or banking a token is the only way you'll get that with this list (skilled FO is the only sort of flexibility you have here for achieving this). So to use that expensive upgrade, you can't be using other commands, whereas FCT is cheaper and you get to use it every single time

The flip side is to consider putting in a Comms net Flotilla with Leia (taking out 2 Bwings and replacing the Xs with Tycho and an A), or trading Jainas Light for Tantive with Raymus (reducing 2 Bs to As). You get Token generating and a good bit of Flexibility with either route to make efficient use of upgrades

Good points and well made. I love B-wings, but the speed might let me down here. But I want to keep a balance of bomber and fighter threat. Some YT2400s would be nice, but pushes me over on points.

On balance, replacing the B-wings with Tycho and an A-wing might be a good bet. Less bomber threat, but not bad vs ships and good speed to engage enemy squadrons.

I'd run all A-wings for those 4 squads. The bomber threat is simply not that big of a deal because you're dealing .75 damage per die with A-wings anyway. You also pick up a counter roll for Toryn to help you reroll. In the end, your ships are there to do the real heavy lifting against other ships, while your squads are there to keep enemy squads off of you long enough for you to go to work on their ships. If you're going to XI7 on the AF2, I'd XI7 on the Defiance as well.

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion on the A-wings. Tycho plus 3 A-wings is only 49 points, my kind of fast and light fighter screen. While the ships do the heavy lifting with Ackbar.

Now I just need to buy another pack of Rebel fighters!!

So, after a bit of play testing I have tweaked the list. This reflects the advice above, much appreciated! This is now 400pts on the nose, and is happy to go first or second.

+ Assault Frigate MkII (86pts) +

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (86pts) [Gunnery Team (7pts), Skilled First Officer (1pts), XI7 Turbolasers (6pts)]

+ CR90 Corvette (53pts) +

CR90 Corvette A (53pts) [Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7pts), •Jaina's Light (2pts)]

+ MC80 Cruiser (182pts) +

MC80 Assault Cruiser (182pts) [Electronic Countermeasures (7pts), Engine Techs (8pts), Leading Shots (4pts), XI7 Turbolasers (6pts), •Admiral Ackbar (38pts), •Defiance (5pts)]

+ Squadrons (54pts) +

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)

YT-2400 (16pts)

YT-2400 (16pts)

+ Rebel Transport Flotilla (25pts) +

GR-75 Medium Transports (25pts) [Comms Net (2pts), •Bright Hope (2pts), •Leia Organa (3pts)]