What do you guys think of this. The three designed to hold up the enemy fighters at first are pretty survivable (particularly the A's). The idea would be to take it a bit slow at first, then get ready to pounce. The turn before the pounce Tycho runs for the main target that the MC80 will hit. Then the 80 activates and throws some black dice along with a full salvo, spends a nav token, moves speed two into the enemy, disgorges fighters to have them attack, then does ET to move a bit more out of the way (hopefully). Preferrably the other ship will have already gone, so we can get 3 blacks, 2 red, 2 blue in that volley (Defiance would activate last in this scenario).

Sato's Heavy Hitters

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: Commander Sato

Assault Objective: Station Assault
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Rapid Launch Bays ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 145 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 points)
- Salvation ( 7 points)
- Tactical Expert ( 6 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
= 73 total ship cost

[ flagship ] GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 65 total ship cost

1 Keyan Farlander ( 20 points)
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)
1 Norra Wexley ( 17 points)
1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
1 E-Wing Squadron ( 15 points)

I like it in theory. I really do.

ut I know, if I were to run it up here in Hothgary, 3 Activations wouldn't be enough to get Defiance to go on its choice target... I'd need four, at least. Unless I was getting very lucky... To do so, I'd probably trade in Keyan (as much as I love the guy) for a CommsNet GR75...

So if you don't have that sort of heavy-activation concern, then I think it'll be a lot of fun. Sato is a lot of fun... Being the first Squadron-centric Admiral, he really gets you to knuckle down on your Squadron game, which is immensely entertaining and educational.

Explain Flight Commander. What is the plan here?

9 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Explain Flight Commander. What is the plan here?

So she can move Defiance into range of her target and THEN disgorge her bombers with her Squadron Command; which can then attack (but not move).

6 minutes ago, Kendraam said:

So he can move Defiance into range of his target and THEN disgorge his bombers with his Squadron Command; which can then attack (but not move).

So obvious...thanks!

4 hours ago, Kendraam said:

So he can move Defiance into range of his target and THEN disgorge his bombers with his Squadron Command; which can then attack (but not move).

but doesn't that defeat the purpose of Sato? Wouldn't you rather have your squadrons on the target before you attack?

I would have picked Boosted comms instead of RDB personally.

Kendraam, I'm a lady :-) So "she/her".

Tycho would be there to go where needed for Defiance to get the Sato shot. The RDB is so you can be certain to put the bombers right on target without them being intercepted (yes, I have the hwk, but then I'd have to escort it too, and that's a pain points wise). In fact, the HWK would be one of the fighters rapidly deployed, along with Luke, Nora, and Keyan. The HWK would just be in case the opponent gets clever by trying to interpose fighters where I'm looking to go. That combined with the ET's and FC's give a TON of options on where I disgorge my bombers. Enemy surprised me with a rush? Deploy bombers before I move. Enemy's weak side is where I can get at speed 2? Make one move then disgorge. Fighters blocking that spot? ET (with token) then spit out the bombers. I believe in flexibility if you're going to have a plan that is as focused as this one.

1 hour ago, Admiral Theia said:

Kendraam, I'm a lady :-) So "she/her".

Apologies Admiral; edited - I went for the generic term. It is a fairly male dominated pastime though - your avatar is a bit of a giveaway!

3 minutes ago, Kendraam said:

Apologies Admiral; edited - I went for the generic term. It is a fairly male dominated pastime though - your avatar is a bit of a giveaway!

:-) Just a bit.

Looking at the Neb-B, I feel like Tactical Expert is wasted points. I prefer Raymus Antilles on that ship, can you find an extra point somewhere to make it happen?

I'm eyeing Spinal and wondering if XI7 or H9 are a suitable alternatives? The Gr75 is 68 points, but will have to be in the thick of it if your going to make use of BCC & Toryn, so the spare points could throw Bright hope on it.

Finally, is Sato really doing work here? You only have 2 ships that can make use of it! I feel like the much cheaper Dodonna or Reikaan would fit the list better.

Just a few thoughts from a noob.

I feel like Sato does do work, primarily in making the Salvation punch extraordinarily hard. I wrestled with the Spinals and the XI-7's, and in hindsight would be more likely to go with the 7's.

The GR is only so expensive because the admiral is on it. I'm not a big fan of Rieekan, because I don't like to plan to lose ships. Just feels very wrong to me. Dodonna, to me, has mostly seemed the "no theme fleet" commander to use, and I have a theme :-). The fighters will do some of the heavy lifting, but I need the big ships to be able to "punch up" a bit, and thus chose Sato (and I really like him).

The tac expert is so I can spam my nav commands (and thus be less likely to put Salvation in a bad position), but when the right opportunity opens up I can throw that extra black die. I like some tactical flexibility in that regard. Engineering captains were my jam when they first came out, as I saw them as emergency saviors of ships and freed me from the burden of having to be right about when I'd need my ENGR commands. I like Antilles too, but if I were taking him it'd be on my big ship (for the fighter tokens) and then I wouldn't be able to alpha strike with my bombers after a move.

You've definitely given me a bit to think about though, mostly in points balance and placement.

Not enough activation, sato needs 4 to really work or else you're at risk of getting vaporized quick.