Hi everyone,

I am one game into Armada and absolutely love it and am diving head first into list making and below are my first two attempts: Ackbar and Sato all-comers lists.

I would love a general criticism and advice for both lists if possible, but I definitely need some help fleshing out the fighters for both lists. For the Ackbar list, I am a little concerned about coming up against a squadron heavy list - is this a valid concern with what I've listed? I was thinking of running 4 a-wings or 2 2400's and Jan for anti-squadron. How important is having access to squadron commands for a fighter screen? Perhaps I need to drop an MC30 to a CR90 and some more squadrons.

For the Sato list I was thinking of running Yavaris and a bomber squadron and then Tycho to proc Sato's ability. But once again I would love your advice on fleshing out the fighters for this list and general advice for the overall list.

As a bonus - I would also love to know which list you prefer. Thank you very much in advance, I appreciate the help greatly!

Ackbar List

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 349/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 179 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 85 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 85 total ship cost

Sato List

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 355/400

Commander: Commander Sato

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 85 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 85 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
- Raymus Antilles ( 7 points)
= 69 total ship cost

[ flagship ] GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
= 50 total ship cost

1 Keyan Farlander ( 20 points)
2 Dagger Squadrons ( 30 points)
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)

For Ackbar:

First of all, remove TRC from the MC80. As you don't have evade defense tokens it wouldn't do anything for you. The Ackbar list needs an A-Wing screen, Shara/Tycho+3 general As. Or a GR-75 to get a 4th activation. Without that you'll be in a huge activation disadvantage, especially against lists like Sato's.

Or alternatively you could drop one of the MC30s and add a CR90 with TRC, plus a GR-75 and another A-Wing + an X-Wing.

For Sato:

You need lots and lots o fighters otherwise you're wasting your points on him. Y-Wings are really belowed nowadays especially with Norra Wexley, but you'll also need some Intel squadron or X-Wings to let them to the enemy ships. Your current list is solid, but add Bomber Command Center to the GR-75 (you'll need it to activate more squadrons) and squadrons according to your taste. If you want to go on an absolutely fighter-heavy list, drop one of the MC30s and add a Pelta Command with All Fighters Follow Me!

For your sato list you have 2 dagger squadrons. You can only have one of them as they are unique. You are also only at 355/400. I'd add some extra fighters. Like an Xwing or 2 for Escort and either another couple a wings or some things to boost your b wing effectiveness such as relay squadrons or fighter coordination teams to get then where they need to be faster

When building a Sato fleet I always flush out my 134 of fighters first. Fact is, if your commander is dependent on squadrons, run squadrons. Don't feel bad if you have to use small ships either, bombers can really make up that difference in damage potential. Nothing bums out an ISD more than having to soak up 8-12 damage from fighters cause they know they can't waste that brace early.

Here's one of my Sato lists for example

Thank you very much for the replies. I really appreciate it and it certainly helps! So many lists I want to try already.

I know you asked for fighter feedback, and I'm going to give you some, but I am also going to make general suggestions for all parts of the fleets. Fleet synergies require examining more than one piece at a time for complete building understanding.

For the Ackbar list, remove the TRCs from the MC80 as previously mentioned, and then decide what the Scout Frigates are doing. If you want them to sit at standoff range with the MC80, ditch the Ordnance Experts and APTs and just add Gunnery Teams. If you want them as up-close brawlers, the blue die on Torpedo Frigates are better, with more consistent damage and accuracy results, as well as being cheaper to boot. In the latter case you'll want to ditch TRCs, for either XI7s or maybe H9s if you expect to see a lot of flotillas or you don't see ECMs often and want brace lockdown. Now you're down to 332pts, and have a decision to make. If you like those three ships, I would recommend running a relatively ace-heavy fighter wing, to maximize the fighter value you get from the limited squadron activations. If you're open to it though, I would drop the MC80 to a Command Cruiser, and/or pick up a GR-75 with EHBs, and use those ships to herd around a small ball of fighters. Just adding the GR-75 without EHB lets you herd Lt. Blount and four friends without tokens and still have an 8pt bid. If you drop to a Command Cruiser, you save more than enough points for another fighter, or you can switch it up and use A-wings instead, for better screen range and better anti-ship capabilities. If you do that, five A-wings, plus Toryn Farr, Comms Net, and the savings from only one Defensive Retrofit (I recommend keeping ECM for shielding the brace), you can fit it all in for 400 pts, and now have four activations and seven deployments to boot.

For Sato, the entire point of Sato on MC30s is extra black dice, and TRCs only work on reds. Again, I would suggest you drop to Torpedo Frigates or ditch the TRCs. For the flagship flotilla, throw Bright Hope on it; it's only two points and may just save your bacon. Yavaris with B-wings is a good combo, but in my humble Imperial opinion, you're better off with faster squadrons to proc more Sato uses, and a more powerful ship, to get more out of those procs. Yavaris is great at killing things, but I can kill it; there are better options for Sato. To that end, replacing Yavaris with a Pelta with All Fighters, Follow Me! and adding a small pile of X-wings with Biggs and Jan Ors should get you lots of places really quickly once you find your stride with that list. If you like Yavaris and want to keep it, all the more power to you, but it's a focused tactic that may not get very far with Sato.

A quick fleet might include two Torpedo Frigates with Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedoes and H9s, a GR-75 with Bright Hope, Toryn Farr, Bomber Command Center, and Sato, and a Pelta with Phoenix Home, Raymus, Flight Commander, All Fighters, Follow Me!, Expanded Hangar Bays, Jan Ors, Biggs Darklighter, and four more regular X-wings. The X-wings are now as fast as E-wings most turns, there's Intel and Biggs to help them through fights, and Bomber Command Center and Toryn Farr on Bright Hope should help the X-wings find more consistent damage output to help the MC30s. I hope all that makes sense and helps.