Keyword here is Almost.

I've done two campaign games with Sato with an Awing swarm with two mk2b with ord experts, a pelta and a gr75. When I got the points I threw in salvation...

Toss in Hera and about 8 awings I quickly learned how nasty Sato is....throwing black dice at long range...an afmk2 tossed 2 red and 2 blacks with a reroll and vaporized a gonzo...

I think Sato is bringing back Imperial squadron swarms to counter this...it's great...toss in a disposable awing with a token and then let the gangbang of big black dice commence...

Yea I really like Sato. 2 AF with OE and 1 with Paragon and 2 CR90s all throwing blacks and CF. It feels good.

Loving everything with Sato.

I beat Skycake's current Vassal list when he took it to Regionals... Even with my Bomber Command GR75 facing the Wrong way, at speed 0, for 5 turns, because ANY MANEUVER would have made it leave the table.......

For Sato, do people find that the AWing swarm is the best fighter wing, or is something more durable better?

Maybe a mix?

1 minute ago, Eggzavier said:

For Sato, do people find that the AWing swarm is the best fighter wing, or is something more durable better?

Maybe a mix?

Pelta Command
- Expanded Hangar
- AFFM

Norra Wexley
Y-Babes x 3

Turn 1, Bank Sqaddie, hold back.
Turn 2, AFFM, throw Norra and the Ys at enemy ISD.... Crumple their front shields completely, or at the very least, punch big holes in Front and Side.
- Follow this up with 2 Long Range Blacks from the Pelta. Pelta Peels away.

Net Result - with even average die rolls, 3-4 Damage Cards on said ISD.

Nevermind if you catch a Demolisher with its pants down, you can KILL IT that way.

Of course, I was going for ISDs...
Because my second activation of that turn was Salvation, throwing anywhere between 2 and 9 damage.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

Pelta Command
- Expanded Hangar
- AFFM

Norra Wexley
Y-Babes x 3

Turn 1, Bank Sqaddie, hold back.
Turn 2, AFFM, throw Norra and the Ys at enemy ISD.... Crumple their front shields completely, or at the very least, punch big holes in Front and Side.
- Follow this up with 2 Long Range Blacks from the Pelta. Pelta Peels away.

Net Result - with even average die rolls, 3-4 Damage Cards on said ISD.

Nevermind if you catch a Demolisher with its pants down, you can KILL IT that way.

Of course, I was going for ISDs...
Because my second activation of that turn was Salvation, throwing anywhere between 2 and 9 damage.

Are the Imperials without squadrons in this scenario?

Because if I'm going up against this comp the Y-babes are gonna meet some speedbumps on the way in.

Then you trade 1 Y-babe for a HWK and not care.
When they jump on the Babes, thats when the Z-95s jump on THEM in return


I went with

Norra
3 Ys
HWK-290
VCX-100
2x Z-95s
2x X-Wings

If they protected the front, speed 4 on the Ys let them hit a side.

If they spread around, I found another Target - Speed 4 was great that way.
If I really, really, really wanted to still hit, I traded a Y for a HWK...

Then Counter-Jumped anyone who Jumped me.

This generally ensured a nice Furball going on, in the middle of the enemy Fleet, so EVERYTHING could be targeted. by the time the enemy fleet pushed through the Furball, then I could move the VCX in, or, I'd be able to disengage some fighters to move forward myself. Either through the fact that ships have ploughed into the furball, or my Zs were throwing 5 damage at 1 hull TIE Fighters... (Curse you!)

4 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Norra
3 Ys
HWK-290
VCX-100
2x Z-95s
2x X-Wings

Seems legit

And I mean, my FIRST Game of that Regionals was against someone who took TEN TIE FIGHTERS as their Fighter Compliment to the ISD / Interdictor Combo-Wok.

It got around, and through that, most of the time... I dropped the ISD, but couldn't follow-up on the Interdictor because of the screening - but that being said, he had to keep the Interdictor close to the ISD to protect it with Scramblers, so the Furball kind of still helped in taht regard.

29 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Even with my Bomber Command GR75 facing the Wrong way, at speed 0, for 5 turns, because ANY MANEUVER would have made it leave the table.......

... But how did it get there? How is this not the focus of the thread! I can't help but imagine Austin Powers levels of tomfoolery being involved.

Because I put it there.

I deployed it, at speed 1, facing backwards.

At which point, Salvation did a Squadron Activation with its Squadron Rating of 1. Which allowed a VCX to fly out, nab the nearby VIP, and then dump said VIP next to the Flotilla.

Then the Flotilla activated, picking up said VIP. And then realising it couldn't go anywhere, because everything above a single speed 1 maneuver would take it off the battlefield.

And here I am... Parking a Flotilla at Speed 0... When my opponent has FIVE FIRESPRAYS AND RHYMER in his Fleet to hunt it down with no defense Tokens.

...

It was an interesting game from my perspective at that point.

Sato is indeed dirty.

I was chasing a Motti lifeboat with a CR90 (no upgrades) and got a medium range shot with Sato.

Oh, I had CR90 A, but decided to pick 2 blues and 1 black and rolled : 2 accuracies, 1 hit/crit that gave structural damage.

I didn't feel clean afterwards.

So do you piont it backwards on purpose to support some strange strategy or did you just have a "moment".

7 minutes ago, Jondavies72 said:

So do you piont it backwards on purpose to support some strange strategy or did you just have a "moment".

To Quote the Great Natasha Kerensky:

"Yes."

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

To Quote the Great Natasha Kerensky:

"Yes."

So it was pulling a Stackpole manoeuvre then?

Sato is kinda my default commander now lol. Originally i thought he was garbage...woo was i wrong!

I just used Sato with a fleet of CR90s plus a Pelta, and it was nasty. Dropping black dice all over the place!

The average damage out of an AFB side arc comparing Sato vs Ackbar still leans Ackbar, right? 5 red dice at .75 damage per dice, vs 1 red at .75 and 2 black at 1 damage per dice? You could take ordnance experts, though that removes gunnery team. I suppose as long as you're double arcing with your AFB you're getting 4 black dice instead of just 2, so that brings it back up.

I used the A-wing/Ghost Swarm for a few reasons:

Very Fast....you can toss in several A-wings to a priority target for black dice goodness.

Disposable - I have 8 brah...

Counter

4 hull

Tycho, Bey combo was even more delicious....my foe flat out ignored them due to fear of the scatter token....

The Ghost is flat out my favorite squadron...period...it's tanky...can hit hard...and that ability to make squadrons rogue....oh baby that kept ALOT of options open.

Now with Sato...throw in what I said above....oh boy turn two all of my heavy hittiers are in black range and I just dropped a pair of A-wings it'll probably take a round or two to kill next to your ISD. You can either AA out of your front arc, or commit your squadron screen earlier than expected to deal with the intruders...

Sato with A-wings just throws people off so much...the "red range safe space" is shattered now...and once rebel ships get into brawling range it's game on.

Result = dead ISD by turn 4 or 5. Sooner of the shooters are built to get past defense tokens.

Ordnance experts on assault frigates...lol that was awesome.....

Highlight was throwing 5 damage from the side of a nebulon B frigate onto a motti isd and killed it...OUT OF THE SIDE.

SATO IS THE BEST REBEL ADMIRAL PERIOD.

Until Raddus.

My Pelta comes in the mail tomorrow...can't wait to try out Sato. Need to get him on the table and figure out what fighter combos work well for me.

I was leaning towards A-Wings, especially Tyco to slip through any fighter screen and setup Sato for his shots. Thoughts?

I didn't vary my fighter strat all that much.

Very much a case of continuing what I'd always do - because the enemy was keeping their fighters to protect their ships form my bombers... Why go anywhere else?

5 hours ago, Gottmituns205 said:

I used the A-wing/Ghost Swarm for a few reasons:

Very Fast....you can toss in several A-wings to a priority target for black dice goodness.

Disposable - I have 8 brah...

Counter

4 hull

Tycho, Bey combo was even more delicious....my foe flat out ignored them due to fear of the scatter token....

The Ghost is flat out my favorite squadron...period...it's tanky...can hit hard...and that ability to make squadrons rogue....oh baby that kept ALOT of options open.

Now with Sato...throw in what I said above....oh boy turn two all of my heavy hittiers are in black range and I just dropped a pair of A-wings it'll probably take a round or two to kill next to your ISD. You can either AA out of your front arc, or commit your squadron screen earlier than expected to deal with the intruders...

Sato with A-wings just throws people off so much...the "red range safe space" is shattered now...and once rebel ships get into brawling range it's game on.

Result = dead ISD by turn 4 or 5. Sooner of the shooters are built to get past defense tokens.

Ordnance experts on assault frigates...lol that was awesome.....

Highlight was throwing 5 damage from the side of a nebulon B frigate onto a motti isd and killed it...OUT OF THE SIDE.

SATO IS THE BEST REBEL ADMIRAL PERIOD.

Until Raddus.

Raddus: each enemy ship you ram suffer 1 additionnal face up card.

Oh the tears this would bring.

I'm quite liking the idea of an MC30 scout with APT and ordExp with Sato. can add spinal armaments too for 2 long range re-rolling black dice out of every arc (especially to add later in CC).

I agree it feels like cheating putting OE and DLT on an AFIIB

DLT?

Not sure.

Could be DTT for Dual Turbolaser Turrets

Could also be QTT for Quad Turbolaser Turrets.

Hell, could also be QLT for Quad Laser Turrets, if you were being defensive....

One of the above, at the very least!