So I'm going back onto the Rebels mega...and I'm looking at using ships I NEVER use....but I'm a huge fan of Squadrons right now. So it begs me to ask the question...how does the Liberty shine? I get it's a giant sledge hammer.

The idea I'm rolling with is something with Sato and supporting it with GR75 carriers and Nebulons.

Its hard ship to use imo. Also, can't take ECM.
Large ships are having a hard time actually getting their sledgehammer arcs to bear on things. And 4 red at range isn't enough.

7 minutes ago, Gottmituns205 said:

The idea I'm rolling with is something with Sato and supporting it with GR75 carriers and Nebulons.

I'm trying a Sato Liberty build this weekend also. The slow roll seems to be the way you have to use it. I also think that deployment is a HUGE factor in the Liberty's usefulness. If you deploy it in the wrong area it is going doen and going down hard.

Madine + E-techs make it nasty. Tons of flexibility in where you end up and your turn radius.

Outside of that, I personally haven't gotten the hang of it: I'd usually take a loaded MC30c for a bruiser.

I like the idea of Mon Karren + Gunnery Team + Spinal + H9

Throw in Disposable A-wings and Sato and you're pushing some nasty real soon....

Gunnery team is a must, H9 with MK not so much. You only need 1 accuracy and with the number of dice you throw, you should instead get XI7 to make these attacks count.

Do you like to do Nav Commands? Then the Liberty is for you. If able, try to turn behind the enemy's big ship and the Liberty will be able to keep up and dish dmg for the entire game. It's not the best brawler as it stands to die pretty fast.

Try this thread for one approach.

I've been wrestling with this question as well. While on the surface the liberty title seems perfectly suited to Sato, since it can throw two fighters in with one token, it has several downsides.

The relative proportion of its fire power that is aided by Sato is small, with only two dice out of seven affected in the front arc. In addition, it has no ordinance slot to take advantage of black dice crits. You can take Ordinance Experts, but that means you're giving up the sweet possibilities of Gunnery Team.

I think there are better admirals suited to the Liberty (Dodonna, Madine), and better ships suited to Sato (MC30).

3 minutes ago, Maturin said:

I've been wrestling with this question as well. While on the surface the liberty title seems perfectly suited to Sato, since it can throw two fighters in with one token, it has several downsides.

The relative proportion of its fire power that is aided by Sato is small, with only two dice out of seven affected in the front arc. In addition, it has no ordinance slot to take advantage of black dice crits. You can take Ordinance Experts, but that means you're giving up the sweet possibilities of Gunnery Team.

I think there are better admirals suited to the Liberty (Dodonna, Madine), and better ships suited to Sato (MC30).

I don't want to be rude but you're completely wrong here. Why??

Leading shot and Dual Turbo laser turret

In my tournament this weekend I had gunnery team, LS and DTT on my liberty (and intel officer and XI7 to boot)

In one of my rolls, I rolled pretty bad: 2 red blanks, 1 black hit, 1 black blank, 2 blue accuracies and 1 blue hit.

Kept the 2 accuracies, rerolled everything else by spending the blue hit. Now I had 1 red double hit, 1 red hit, 1 hit/crit, 1 black hit. Used DTT, got a double hit, removed the single black hit.

Sato is perfect for the Liberty IMO.

Leading Shots is definitely the key to Sato. Despite spending a blue die, you'll still in the end come up with higher damage increases than from OE, which is a bit awkward if you can't get your Sato dice. One of the big keys is being able to add a blue instead of a black at red range, and then correct what could be a terribly flaky long range attack. At that point, you've got a huge space denial with your front arc and you really do want to slow-roll speed 1 and kill as much as possible prior to the post-approach clash.

it's a giant neb. Once you except that it all makes sense.

Well a giant Nebulon-B with heavier firepower and slightly better shields. But yeah, i'm probably arguing semantics . with the Liberty, either slowly advance and use long-range attacks or charge in full-speed, blast away at medium range and get the heck out of dodge. And stay away from fighters, as the love to whittle your shields/hull away. That's what i've learned from them.

I ran a dual Liberty Madine list back when 3/4 first dropped. It was a ton of fun to play. With Madine and spamming Nav commands (I also had a Medium Transport with Leia and Comms Net to protect against Slicer Tools), they are insanely maneuverable. I ran them with Gunnery Teams and kept them relatively close together, so I was dropping fourteen dice on two targets at Medium range every round, and almost guaranteeing that I could dodge strong enemy arcs and keep the enemy ships in that massive front arc of mine.

I did not, however, run up against a serious Bomber list, and that is one of its big weaknesses. Dual Braces are great against ISDs, other Liberties and MC30s/Gladiators, but double Brace and a single Redirect are absolute crap against a bomber swarm. Add to that the fact that your shields are 5/2/2 and those bombers are going to be hitting your weak side/read arcs, and you're in trouble. Then if you switch to Repair commands, you lose a LOT of maneuverability considering that it has a "-" for Speed Two Yaw.

Hmmm, I may be beginning to see the light - I hadn't considered leading shots!

So with the Liberty title, and Gunnery teams, you'd be able to throw two Awings at separate targets, giving both targets the Sato bonus....intriguing!

You'd want a token tosser to repeat that trick next turn...but I like it.

4 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Large ships are having a hard time actually getting their sledgehammer arcs to bear on things. And 4 red at range isn't enough.

Not with Madine, Raymus and Spinals. It's remarkably easy to hit things. And hit them hard. And with Engine Techs you can do a complete U-turn.

15 hours ago, idiewell said:

Well a giant Nebulon-B with heavier firepower and slightly better shields. But yeah, i'm probably arguing semantics . with the Liberty, either slowly advance and use long-range attacks or charge in full-speed, blast away at medium range and get the heck out of dodge. And stay away from fighters, as the love to whittle your shields/hull away. That's what i've learned from them.

hence giant.....

It's an extremely binary ship. When things are in its front arc, it's a discount Imperial Star Destroyer with great dice, better shields, two braces, and everything is awesome. When things aren't in its front arc, it's throwing out paltry attacks (for its cost) and its non-front shields are terrible. When I've seen it used well, it's been with a very keen eye for Navigating and using upgrades that help improve its positioning to keep it flipped to "awesome" for as many turns as possible.

So madine and engine techs for sure then.

careful it gets spendy real fast

19 hours ago, Sybreed said:

Gunnery team is a must, H9 with MK not so much. You only need 1 accuracy and with the number of dice you throw, you should instead get XI7 to make these attacks count.

Do you like to do Nav Commands? Then the Liberty is for you. If able, try to turn behind the enemy's big ship and the Liberty will be able to keep up and dish dmg for the entire game. It's not the best brawler as it stands to die pretty fast.

Was literally going to say the exact same thing, XI7 over H9 makes a much nastier liberty. Then you are really only worried about accuracy on their brace as you killed the redirect in advance.

It is also very binary in that one player will have a bad game: the opponent if it wrecks face or you if it gets flanked

What load-out is best for the Liberty depends upon what else you are bringing in your fleet. It isn't always about making the nastiest Liberty possible, its about how those upgrades interact with whatever else you're bringing. For example, in my wave 4 build, I often used my MC30 to open up on a big target. That usually meant that it had 1-2 damage cards from APT and had exhausted its shields from redirects. At that point, XI7 just wasn't going to be that useful. Now, putting XI7 on both of them may have brought that big target down much faster. except that bringing it down didn't seem to be a problem. Just exhaust the shields and kill it anyway, but having the accuracy at the right time against a flotilla mattered a whole lot more, and XI7 just can't do that.

I loaded my mc80L up with GT, intell officer, sw7 and x17.

Rolled on a VSD fire at medium range. Blues dice were all accuracy, and the three red was a accuracy, double and crit. So i had 3 dmg and 5 accuracy. But sw7 let me turn it into 8 dmg and intell his brace. He can only redirect 1 point with x17, so one to the side 3 on the shield and 4 dmg, 1 face up.

Next turn got ten damage and burned the VSD down. It really up the dmg and make the question burning yhat brace

Madine + Engine Techs is the way to go. You'll also need some other heavy hitter like an MC30 so your enemy can't focus on the Liberty If it gets swarmed, it goes down, so don't ever leave it alone charging on the enemy. Note also that it in most cases can't one-hit even a Raider without being pimped up, so don't rely on its forward firepower alone.

Sometimes I feel like I'm wading into some 'GSL*' group, because I only vaguely certain this is real. Like a Wave 1-2 discussion I had about Yavaris and my esteemed colleague saying 'it's a waste of points if it isn't Gallant Haven'.

The Liberty has been my Alliance heavy hitter for a while and I learned that I like it as a lean gunship in a similar role as my aggressive ISD-I's. It's not some big floating command barque, and it's no ultra-upgraded tricked out ISD-II: Leading shots and Mon Karren are my go-to if I just want the one, and that's usually all I'll take. Gunnery Teams are if I'm feeling spendy. Maneuver as much as you need, but you can get swoopy as its front arc is generous enough. As it is, the MK80 is a mass damage ship: if the enemy vessel has ECM's or I can't lock down absolutely every defence I want, then I leading shots those oh-so-precious accuracies to get even more damage on target and make them eat it. Every upgrade after that is bloat, so no spinal, no engine tech, and no frigging way I'm picking an admiral to compliment one particular ship. ( It's not that I dislike Madine, I just don't care. Like the vaunted Gladiators, I just don't seem to be able to use them him to his full potential, which is my failing. But, I do get a ton of mileage out of others like Dodonna or Sato).

Like an ISD I find it can come in hot and overshoot after getting 2-ish good rounds of punches in, which is usually about as much as it can take. So I typically break off and disengage: to date, over 40 games and 4-5 tournaments, I think I've lost a Liberty maybe 3 times. It's usually always near dead, limping out the door, leaving frustration and ruin in its wake. And for ~110 points, it draws an inordinate amount of fire and attention.

As for the tile, frigged if I know: Sato sounds like the obvious one, but I do tend to give weird orders, and a squadron token banked early on can often mean 'no bombers gettin up in he-yah. Just minding mah business, don't you come no closer you pesky vultures!' It's insurance, and I tend to have a lot of squadrons around so it frequently pays off.

*Galactic Standard as a second language.