In our group we usually run 550 point fleets (because we like a bunch of big iron) and I came up with this list which has been accused of breaking the game:

Coral Sea

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 550/550

Commander: General Rieekan

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Minefields

Assault Frigate Mark II A (81 points)
- Adar Tallon ( 10 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
= 97 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
= 62 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Modified Pelta-class Command Ship (60 points)
- General Rieekan ( 30 points)
- Raymus Antilles ( 7 points)
- All Fighters, Follow Me! ( 5 points)
= 102 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
= 18 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bright Hope ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
= 18 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Tantive IV ( 3 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
= 49 total ship cost

2 VCX-100 Freighters ( 30 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 Ten Numb ( 19 points)
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points)
1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points)
1 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points)
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)

Card view link

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Essentially it's a Rieekan zombie ball of escorts and bombers, with 7 activations and a mandate to spend the whole game running away. The transports are largely disposable (particularly if the squadrons begin to die off) Tallon helps Ten Numb keep up with the ball and between him and Jan enemy squadrons just melt away on contact and we can leave any time we want to. The activation advantage means I know where the enemy fleet is before I need to drop my Pelta and Assault Frigate, So far it seems pretty nasty, but I don't think it's broken. The complaint from imperial players in my group is that just the threat of this thing means a heavy investment in a hard counter is mandatory, which hamstrings the fleet badly if the Rebels bring something different.

What are your thoughts?

I may be the odd ball reply.... but I definitely think this is a beatable fleet

Your fleet is centered around squad to squad damage and fleeing.

A.) no bid so I force you to be 1st player and choose my objectives
a1.) both contested and station force you to engage me and basically disregard delay deploy tactics
a2.) Corona lets me deploy after you, anything in the deploy at zero area is dead or if clustered outside of it, they're dead, basically forces you to endanger ships
B.) No real heavy hitters means ISDs are going to eat up small/medium ships quickly without fearing bombers

2 Large ships with at speed 3, a medium that can slow a ship 3 times, and forces ships deployed withing target area to deploy at speed 0, with 3 gozantis to snag smaller ships in tractor beams plus add activations...and lastly no squads to feed point total...

Despite lacking squads, this fleet can be fairly well rounded by forcing ships to engage so it wouldn't necessarily be something that has to worry about wasting points for a "hard counter" (I'd run the hell outta this fleet lol).

Imp Counter

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 547/550

Commander: Admiral Screed

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

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Captain Needa ( 2 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 185 total ship cost

Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Overload Pulse ( 8 points)
= 154 total ship cost

Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- Interdictor ( 3 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Overload Pulse ( 8 points)
- G-8 Experiemental Projector ( 8 points)
- G7-X Grav Well Projector ( 2 points)
= 125 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 31 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
= 29 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

Nobody has run an Interdictor against me yet, (nobody seems to like it except me) so that's a nice idea. I crushed a dual Imperial II fleet with a gladiator (demolisher) and gozanti, taking out the gozanti early, forcing the gladiator out of the fight with one hull point left and one of the Imperial Star Destroyers was finished by a 2 arc shot when he finally caught up to my Assault Frigate. The whole game my opponent only got shots off at one of my transports, and that because I accidentally gave him the wrong order. Part of that was setup - My transports and squadrons forced him to place all his capital ships before seeing where my pelta, assault frigate and Nebulon were, so he was stuck with a stern chase through the debris field. It might have been a psych out too though - he was afraid to come out at high speed right into my squadron swarm and started at speed 1, which let me extend the range so much that he spent the rest of the game trying to catch back up.

That put subsequent plays very much on the defensive, though, with large squadron investments and raiders with flechette torpedoes etc to deal with my squadron ball. Your response shows that is probably largely psychological though - A more aggressive deployment would bring the tractors in range and that would basically seal the deal.

Any tweaks to make my list more effective?

Any other ideas for soft counters?

A Mon Mothma MC30 swarm, probably supported by Slicer Tools to take advantage of your lack of command protection.

You're invested very heavily into the anti-squadron game, with relatively little ship threat. Any decent ship-heavy build should have a fairly easy time getting in your grill, provided it's played reasonably aggressively.

8 minutes ago, Admiral Dave said:

Nobody has run an Interdictor against me yet, (nobody seems to like it except me)

To be fair it's a dumpster fire... and I'd likely never run it in a standard 400 point game. 90 points is just too expensive for something that can't shoot well. But when you have the points, and you wanna support a heavy ship build, it can be a MONSTER. It allows the Dual ISD fleet to really flourish especially if MSU is your target... deploying at zero is simply a no no for small ships against a fleet with g8 and tractor beams.... so that lets you stack you ISDs where you need em. With a good bid, and enough activations, the Interdictor really shines.

I'd love to get more 500+ point games in but sadly too many people at my store abuse it by running the full 180 something worth of fighters and it just gets too tedious to be worth it.

We have people in our group complaining that 550 is too small, so we are looking to do some claustrophobic 1k point battles, or possibly 3 players on a side with 500 each.

I think Relay bombing is pretty powerful but its best with a decent bid and multiple threats - of which you really only have one, the squadron bomber ball. Even with all those activation you only really have the bomber ball to threaten and kill stuff with. makes it hard to win games by a big margin, specially vs other strong squadron builds.

Squadron bomber ball looks good. Rework ships to add in an Admonition and a decent bid for first.

Even Rieekan is questionable since you want to bomb things and deny points (not get your carriers killed, who are running around not engaging and not dying.)

mc30 and cr90 swarms are the worst. cr90 swarms being maybe the worser matchup. Admonition is a good tool to have available for really any matchup including these. and then its a matter of timing your carrier circus to make sure the enemy fleet has to fly through multiple turns of bomber ball bombing, and then the carriers scatter at the right moment when any of their ships make it though the swarm (of which one or two mc30s or a couple cr90s will make it.)

Multiple ISDs are generally the dream matchup, depending on their squadron loadout.

Your bombers are not the meanest possible, definitely weighted on the anti-squadron side of things. I would re-figure that some too, even with the addition of a 2nd real threat like Admonition.