I'm trying to fine tune my list and I love using an Ackbar MC80 Assault Cruiser loaded to the nines. the objectives I usually carry are Advanced Gunnery, Intel Sweep, and Contested Outpost. Lately I'm starting to think about changing out Advanced Gunnery for Most Wanted because I never get to use AG.

The question I pose is:

1. Is that a decent change? Do you actually get to play Most Wanted?

2. Are there other red objectives that may work better with an aggressively used MC80?

Honestly, I think keeping an objective that is never chosen because it's too strong is a great problem to be having. I would turn the question around on you: what can you do to change up your blue and yellow objectives to make them even worse for your opponent and so Advanced Gunnery actually gets some more consideration?

For example, Fire Lanes, in my experience, is a fantastic objective for a HMC80 fleet because your side arcs produce a lot of dice and it's easy to keep side arcs on the Fire Lanes tokens (which can be initially deployed in a tower and thus the resulting triangle is fairly close together). Fire Lanes can produce a truly ludicrous number of points when used well (if you get it every turn, that's 270 points!) and with side arc ships it has always been much more decisive than Contested Outpost.

No first player in their right mind pick AG when up against Ackbar MC80.

So Most wanted is a better choice.

AG is better to have when using a less powerfull ship in your fleet that can potentially take it. Like Jainas Light with TRC or Salvation.

1 minute ago, Snipafist said:

Honestly, I think keeping an objective that is never chosen because it's too strong is a great problem to be having. I would turn the question around on you: what can you do to change up your blue and yellow objectives to make them even worse for your opponent and so Advanced Gunnery actually gets some more consideration?

For example, Fire Lanes, in my experience, is a fantastic objective for a HMC80 fleet because your side arcs produce a lot of dice and it's easy to keep side arcs on the Fire Lanes tokens (which can be initially deployed in a tower and thus the resulting triangle is fairly close together). Fire Lanes can produce a truly ludicrous number of points when used well (if you get it every turn, that's 270 points!) and with side arc ships it has always been much more decisive than Contested Outpost.

I've been thinking about doing that as well. However, I've been on the receiving end and seen how badly fire lanes can go when things go wrong. Then again with all the fighter builds running around it may be a decent way to get defensive players actually moving....hmmmm.....

1 minute ago, Kiwi Rat said:

No first player in their right mind pick AG when up against Ackbar MC80.

Universal Laws

1. Water is wet

2. Fire is hot

3. Avoid AG Ackbar Mc80s

Picking objectives for your fleet is an art in itself.

Do you want your opponent to have a hard choice between three objectives, where it dosn't matter which one he pick.

Or do you want him herded towards one objective that your are most comfortable playing, by having two that he would never choose.

10 minutes ago, ImpStarDeuces said:

I've been thinking about doing that as well. However, I've been on the receiving end and seen how badly fire lanes can go when things go wrong. Then again with all the fighter builds running around it may be a decent way to get defensive players actually moving....hmmmm.....

In my experience it's rather tough dealing with a broadside ship slowly circling a triangle of Fire Lanes tokens while keeping itself between the tokens and enemies, which puts them in a bad place of "when it comes time to shoot those tokens, I'm obstructed and usually at long range too, but if I rush in there to contest them, I will eat a horrific broadside coming out the other side of the ship(s) hitting those tokens."

The best I've ever managed against Fire Lanes is breaking even later in the game once I'd destroyed most/all of the enemy ships, and I've gotten pretty good at handling broadsides fleets. It's a tough objective to play against. It's also fantastic against squadron fleets (as their ships are poor at hitting those tokens and the squadrons just can't hit them at all) and it can get opponents to overextend themselves to stop the horrific points factory as quickly as possible.

18 minutes ago, ImpStarDeuces said:

Universal Laws

1. Water is wet

2. Fire is hot

3. Avoid AG Ackbar Mc80s*

*unless you brought a boatload of black dice to punish them with.

2 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

*unless you brought a boatload of black dice to punish them with.

I was going to say "Or if you're playing against Drasnighta."

Would you be interested in purchasing the corrillean campaign or proxying objective cards?

When playing an Ackbar MC80 I often grab Advanced Gunnery and Fire Lanes knowing full well that they will rarely be chosen. So, I know I will likely play my blue objective and can build/plan to make that as much of trap for my opponent as I can.

I haven't found a Blue objective scary enough to get opponent's to regularly pick Adv Gunnery or Fire Lanes.

Put Fighter Coordination Teams on the MC80. Add a VCX

Sensor net becomes obscene

10 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Would you be interested in purchasing the corrillean campaign or proxying objective cards?

If that is directed at me, I have all of them.

10 minutes ago, shmitty said:

When playing an Ackbar MC80 I often grab Advanced Gunnery and Fire Lanes knowing full well that they will rarely be chosen. So, I know I will likely play my blue objective and can build/plan to make that as much of trap for my opponent as I can.

I haven't found a Blue objective scary enough to get opponent's to regularly pick Adv Gunnery or Fire Lanes.

One of the reasons I have Intel Sweep in there. If they choose it it's an automatic 75 points by turn 3 or a hell of a battle over the last objective which is what I want.

1 minute ago, Ginkapo said:

Put Fighter Coordination Teams on the MC80. Add a VCX

Sensor net becomes obscene

Eeehhhh... it really takes a bit more than that to make it as scary as AG, IMO. You'd want a few VCX's, or multiple ships with FCT. And then you need a way to protect that VCX. And then you need to be able to keep their Strategics from grabbing the tokens.

But this kind of illustrates the assymetry that I like about the objectives: you can't often just plop down a fleet built on one thing and have three objectives ready-made for you. You kind of mix and match elements of the fleet, some strong for one or two colors, some strong for one or two others.

So, no, there's not really a blue that's awesome for just an MC80 Christmas tree. But that's okay, because you still have 200-250 points left in your list to build for a blue.

well ok. My view on sensor nets surround flying a fleet with: 2x FCT, 1x VCX, Adar Tallon.

Twas GLorious

I find taking AG and the Ion Platform for my Yellow forces my opponent to choose my blue objective. I then normally have Minefields to help me control the play area.

1. This is a decent change. There are rare circumstances where I will pick Most Wanted as first player because it will affect how I play that game a lot less than the other objectives presented. That said, it is safer than AG in that losing your objective ship doesn't instantly lose the game. There are also situations in which I'll take AG against a loaded Ackbar mc80, namely if I have a strong enough activation advantage and enough reliable firepower to bring it down. They're both strong options with different drawbacks.

But for casual play I would always always bring AG, because it's so much more fun.

2. Those two are probably your best options

I've had a lot of fun recently with Ackbar MC80's and Close-Range Intel Scan.

Close Range intel scan? is that blue?

Yeah, thats my problem too, everyone picks intel sweep. =(

5 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Close Range intel scan? is that blue?

Yeah, thats my problem too, everyone picks intel sweep. =(

Close Range Intel Scan is, unfortunately, a Red...