So a lot of the threads on the forum about the Corellian Campaign are either clarifying aspects of the rules, or complaining about the map being made of paper. To move beyond this, I'm interested to hear what people's approaches to fleet design will be, particularly for playing in teams of two or three. Will you go for specialised fleets, or will you be ensuring that each fleet stays relatively general? Are there ships, commanders or upgrades you'll be avoiding and why? Same question goes for the ones you'll definitely be choosing.

I ask because designing a fleet for the campaign will be very different from designing a normal fleet, and I'm interested to know what other people will be taking into consideration.

I'm looking forward to having more ships due to savings on upgrades.

If my understanding is correct, and only elite squadrons can become veterans, I think I will be trying out some of the aces I've never used before.

Regarding campaign ship upgrades I understand that in your initial fleet that you can only have one upgrade per ship. However once you have completed the first round it sounds like you are you free to move these upgrades around ships. Am I reading this correctly or are they permanently fixed to the ship that they were originally purchased for? Is there a variation between standard upgrades vs modifications and whether they can be moved? It would be a bit weird if you could move modifications.

To me it sounds like a viable strategy would be to get a variety of ships and upgrades with the intend of moving them to 1 or 2 ships post the first round and start building up the combos.

Regarding campaign ship upgrades I understand that in your initial fleet that you can only have one upgrade per ship. However once you have completed the first round it sounds like you are you free to move these upgrades around ships. Am I reading this correctly or are they permanently fixed to the ship that they were originally purchased for? Is there a variation between standard upgrades vs modifications and whether they can be moved? It would be a bit weird if you could move modifications.

You are correct. Each ship can only have up to one upgrade, Commanders notwithstanding. In the first Management Phase, you can buy more upgrades and move existing upgrades around. The exception being Titles, which must remain with their original vessels.

My friends are having a gentlemen's agreement to not utterly spam small ships and Akbar because we are afraid it would utterly crush SD's without upgrade shenanigans.

I think maxing on squads will be a safe bet outside Akbar. Squads basically perform the same, and theyre pretty mean. I just had my first game with Wave5 (didnt use the new Ship, but i used some Ewings and Ketsu) and the new fighters are dope...snagged the last Rebel Squad2 box as a result because i want more ewings!!

Well, at least Ackbar can only go in one place.

Squads will be a rough bet. Far more likely to die and they can't be hyper spaced out. Lots of resources to keep replacing them.

Squads are interesting. If you both gamble on squads, then you're likely going to bludgeon each other out with squads. If one of you brings a lot of squads, then they likely won't suffer much in the way of damage and might tilt the ship battle in your own favor. I think there's going to be some bias toward squads with more hull, since they have the possibility of surviving and remaining unscarred.

Damage mitigation is certainly going to be helpful in the squadron game. I'd expect Gallant Haven to do well, and that upgrade by itself might be enough on an AFMK to make it a decent opening play. Fly your AFMK-II so that it doesn't end up lost and scarred early.

I think what the sides bring early in the game depends upon what Admirals they go with. We're basically talking only three commanders per side maximum. I think there are some clear paths forward for each fleet and commander, but one difficulty will be figuring out exactly what you want early and where you want to go from there as you build toward 500 points.

My sense at the moment is to look for the core ships of the list to be present in the 400 point list. You have to know mostly what you want in a list. Another thing to consider is the concept of acceptable losses. For example, some early Rebel lists that are Corvette heavy could afford to give up the Corvette in an acceptable trade in one round, and just run it scared in the next. Maybe that frees up more list space for a large ship that you wouldn't want to lose early. Finally, you'd have to take over with your teammates how you're going to distribute titles in particular. Not everyone gets to have Admonition, so in which of the three lists is it most useful.

I'm personally a bit drawn toward Garm for a first run of the campaign. The tokens are going to offer a lot of flexibility early. As a strategy, you want long range shots that minimize losses. You can build a balanced fleet that matches up well with different kinds of enemy fleets pretty easily, and he's going to scale well into 500 points. Ackbar should also be solid. Rieekan might require a more specific strategy for seizing Refit yards early, but as long as you've got a skilled Rieekan player who can trade well and up, then he's still going to do well. I'd skip Dodonna and Mothma. Cracken would be fine though, as the speed/obstruction is likely worth more than the evade capacity that Mothma brings. If Liberty's are your thing, then a Madine list would probably leave you your pick of the titles.

For the Imperials, Vader is both iconic and scales well. Honestly, the new Arquitens is going to sync well with the campaign and offer a lot of flexibility to the Imperials in early skirmishes. I know it is only one upgrade per ship, but a Vader ISD+Arquitens or two could be a good opening play.

Ties actually start getting interesting. Yes, they get destroyed and therefore scarred, but you don't unscar them, you just play them with a hull point down and replace them with new squads down the road. In fact, buying additional squadrons going into your second battle and then husbanding your ties well there might just result in this oversized squadron force in the later games.

There's also very much a "win the battle, but slowly lose your fleet" problem that can develop.

The campaign is going to be very interesting to play out.

My biggest issue is you can scrape you fleet and built a new 400 pnt fresh flesh with sounds little issue

My biggest issue is you can scrape you fleet and built a new 400 pnt fresh flesh with sounds little issue

Your fleet loses all resource points including the current turn income if you do that. Also any unique upgrades or squadrons and your commander are gone for good for all players on your team

My biggest issue is you can scrape you fleet and built a new 400 pnt fresh flesh with sounds little issue

Your fleet loses all resource points including the current turn income if you do that. Also any unique upgrades or squadrons and your commander are gone for good for all players on your team

And you give a victory point to the other side, putting them even closer to the final win.

AND your Brand New 400pt Fleet is subject to the same "One Upgrade Per Ship" restriction as any starting fleet in the Campaign.