First Ackbar List I could ever see myself using

By MandalorianMoose, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Fleet Summary Page (394 of 400 pts) Faction: Rebel Alliance Commander: Admiral Ackbar (38 pts)

Flagship: (79 pts)MC30c Scout Frigate (69 pts) Veteran Gunners (5 pts) Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (79 pts) MC30c Scout Frigate (69 pts) Veteran Gunners (5 pts) Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 pts)

Fleet Ship 2: (79 pts) MC30c Scout Frigate (69 pts) Veteran Gunners (5 pts) Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 pts)

Fleet Ship 3: (20 pts) GR-75 Medium Transports (18 pts) Comms Net (2 pts)

Fleet Ship 4: (20 pts) GR-75 Medium Transports (18 pts) Comms Net (2 pts)

Squadrons (79 of 134 pts): 1x Tycho Celchu A-Wing Squadron (16 pts) 4x A-Wing Squadron (44 pts) 1x Moldy Crow - Jan Ors (19 pts) Objectives: Opening Salvo , Fire Lanes , Superior Positions

Hm... Opening salvo seems lime a bad choice when you only get 3 ships benefitting from it. Most wanted seems better for your fleet.

Hm... Opening salvo seems lime a bad choice when you only get 3 ships benefitting from it. Most wanted seems better for your fleet.

I had been going back and forth between the two and I think you are right..., APT at long range is just so enticing though! I should probably just wait for Sato...

I like the idea, but i do agree: I think all your objectives are pretty weak, honestly.

I have OS in my own MC30 swarm, but 1) using it at long range seems like you're begging to have it baited out by a CR90 or Raider that can just evade it, and 2) I'm not quite convinced VG is a sufficient replacement for OE, particularly at long range where spreading the damage around on your dice is more important due to those evades. That said, 4 reds and 2+CF blacks at long range is every MC30 driver's wet dream. I'd say the jury is out on this one, but MW or even AG is likely to be better.

Firing Lanes is a bad choice for you. Your MC30's need to stay mobile and flexible, and with only 2 dice apiece anywhere over close (remember Ackbar doesn't contribute here), you're pretty strongly tied to that location. The other strategy, spreading them out and camping something small on one, doesn't work either, because your only throwaway ships don't have any armaments at all. Switch this to Hyperspace Assault and learn to play it, because it's amazing with MC30's--doubly so with Ackbar MC30's, where you can double side arc and double-dip on his bonus with a giant shiteating grin on your face.

SP is the least bad one, and in some matchups it will be a good one for you. The downside is that your A-wings won't last long against the heavy anti-squadron lists we're seeing, after which any rogues will just farm you for points. There's not a really strong blue for us, unfortunately, so you might be sick with this one, but I'd give Intel Sweep and Dangerous Territory a shot. In particular, the obstacle placement and bonus on DT can be super nice in dictating the flow of the squadron game, turning your weak matchup into a strong one.

Also, definitely move Ackbar off of the MC30, or he will die every single time. A Rhymer ball can pretty much choose one 30 that will die on turn 2/3--don't make it an easy choice. Yeah he's going to get chased down on a flotilla, but that lets you force the other guy to decide whether it's worth weathering your the MC30's to get to him. Dictating the terms and location of battle is crucial with the 30. Less so with Ackbar Scouts, but still a really freaking big deal if you ever want to use all those blacks.

I like the idea, but i do agree: I think all your objectives are pretty weak, honestly.

I have OS in my own MC30 swarm, but 1) using it at long range seems like you're begging to have it baited out by a CR90 or Raider that can just evade it, and 2) I'm not quite convinced VG is a sufficient replacement for OE, particularly at long range where spreading the damage around on your dice is more important due to those evades. That said, 4 reds and 2+CF blacks at long range is every MC30 driver's wet dream. I'd say the jury is out on this one, but MW or even AG is likely to be better.

Firing Lanes is a bad choice for you. Your MC30's need to stay mobile and flexible, and with only 2 dice apiece anywhere over close (remember Ackbar doesn't contribute here), you're pretty strongly tied to that location. The other strategy, spreading them out and camping something small on one, doesn't work either, because your only throwaway ships don't have any armaments at all. Switch this to Hyperspace Assault and learn to play it, because it's amazing with MC30's--doubly so with Ackbar MC30's, where you can double side arc and double-dip on his bonus with a giant shiteating grin on your face.

SP is the least bad one, and in some matchups it will be a good one for you. The downside is that your A-wings won't last long against the heavy anti-squadron lists we're seeing, after which any rogues will just farm you for points. There's not a really strong blue for us, unfortunately, so you might be sick with this one, but I'd give Intel Sweep and Dangerous Territory a shot. In particular, the obstacle placement and bonus on DT can be super nice in dictating the flow of the squadron game, turning your weak matchup into a strong one.

Also, definitely move Ackbar off of the MC30, or he will die every single time. A Rhymer ball can pretty much choose one 30 that will die on turn 2/3--don't make it an easy choice. Yeah he's going to get chased down on a flotilla, but that lets you force the other guy to decide whether it's worth weathering your the MC30's to get to him. Dictating the terms and location of battle is crucial with the 30. Less so with Ackbar Scouts, but still a really freaking big deal if you ever want to use all those blacks.

Thanks for the tips! I'm sort of hoping that VG can pull double duty so that I can save points and not put OE and TRC on every ship. I agree my objectives aren't the strongest, but I have had fire lanes pay off before (with the cracken list), by putting two tokens on one end of the board with the third on the other side. This forces my opponent to either split their forces or give up a token, and with a speed 4 ship camping the far token they can zip in to finish off a ship that is getting away from the battle. As a lover of the gladiator I am fond of hyperspace assault (mmmmm insidious...) but I can have it backfire into getting eaten by squadrons or having my opponent camp on the other side of them resulting in a boring game. What do you do for HA? Probably switching the blue to Intel sweep as I like how it dictates where most of the battle will happen.

As far as Ackbar on a flotilla, that's what I had intended on doing (love the lifeboats to spread points), I just rarely pay attention to that in the fleet builder and it automatically makes the first ship the flagship.

Yeah, that's not a bad way to play FL, it just seems like you're locking down too much firepower over there, but I've been wrong before.

For HA, most of the time I spread the tokens wide to maximize my threat coverage, and put them parallel to the long board edge about a third of the way in from the adversary's board edge. Then you scootch then towards your edge and towards where your enemy is going until you get a good setup to drop it in. You're looking to give them bad choices: move this ship first into my waiting arcs or eat a double side arc; decide which of these little ships eats a double arc; shoot this ship that you probably won't kill or it will definitely kill you back... That kind of thing.

The biggest thing to remember is that "at distance 1" is a huge area, and the freedom to orient yourself exactly as you want is a big deal.

Edited by Ardaedhel

The biggest thing to remember is that "at distance 1" is a huge area, and the freedom to orient yourself exactly as you want is a big deal.

Not spending enough time contemplating all possible jump in points cost me a chance at the top table at one of the past seasons regional events and it torments me to this day....

What Ard was trying to say in his objectives post,

Be first player

I like the idea, but i do agree: I think all your objectives are pretty weak, honestly.

I have OS in my own MC30 swarm, but 1) using it at long range seems like you're begging to have it baited out by a CR90 or Raider that can just evade it, and 2) I'm not quite convinced VG is a sufficient replacement for OE, particularly at long range where spreading the damage around on your dice is more important due to those evades. That said, 4 reds and 2+CF blacks at long range is every MC30 driver's wet dream. I'd say the jury is out on this one, but MW or even AG is likely to be better.

Firing Lanes is a bad choice for you. Your MC30's need to stay mobile and flexible, and with only 2 dice apiece anywhere over close (remember Ackbar doesn't contribute here), you're pretty strongly tied to that location. The other strategy, spreading them out and camping something small on one, doesn't work either, because your only throwaway ships don't have any armaments at all. Switch this to Hyperspace Assault and learn to play it, because it's amazing with MC30's--doubly so with Ackbar MC30's, where you can double side arc and double-dip on his bonus with a giant shiteating grin on your face.

SP is the least bad one, and in some matchups it will be a good one for you. The downside is that your A-wings won't last long against the heavy anti-squadron lists we're seeing, after which any rogues will just farm you for points. There's not a really strong blue for us, unfortunately, so you might be sick with this one, but I'd give Intel Sweep and Dangerous Territory a shot. In particular, the obstacle placement and bonus on DT can be super nice in dictating the flow of the squadron game, turning your weak matchup into a strong one.

Also, definitely move Ackbar off of the MC30, or he will die every single time. A Rhymer ball can pretty much choose one 30 that will die on turn 2/3--don't make it an easy choice. Yeah he's going to get chased down on a flotilla, but that lets you force the other guy to decide whether it's worth weathering your the MC30's to get to him. Dictating the terms and location of battle is crucial with the 30. Less

so with Ackbar Scouts, but still a really freaking big deal if you ever want to use all those blacks.

Noob question: How can DT help with the squadron game? Obstruction helping his ships?

Noob question: How can DT help with the squadron game? Obstruction helping his ships?

Not a noob question, it's kind of a subtle point that I didn't flesh out very well, because the wife was giving me the evil eye for forumposting at bedtime. :)

Yeah, pretty much the obstruction. Gink does a pretty good job of talking about how to use obstacles for squadron defense in his MC30 article. The advantage of DT is that it lets do you this kind of thing without consequence (for context, that's Bright Hope, and those are all the other guy's squadrons surrounding it):

EdN6oFH.jpg

The aggressive use of obstacles to block squadron shots can be a powerful tool, and much more so when it doesn't hurt you to do so.