So in the process of looking for an interesting fleet idea, I decided I wanted to use Nebulon-B's...and that's pretty much it. So what do Nebulon-B's do? Well, they have good range (red dice in every arc with a respectable 3 in the front). They're pretty good at mitigating damage especially in the front at long range as one of the few ships with double brace tokens. For their cost, they're not bad at either role. So that was the basic starting point.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 393/400

The idea is remarkably straightforward like the Neb-B itself. It flies forward, the black dice from Sato that can usually be provided by the various irritating and hard to tie down squadrons turn the normally dodgy red dice into more capable black dice and the general lack of accuracy is made up for by XI7's which neuter one of the most common defense token types. The ships also spam engineering with STM! to recover 3 or more shields every turn and...well that pretty much it.

The fleets is almost comically effective at long range as the evade and brace tokens mitigate a lot of damage that gets subsequently regenerated and its return fire gets really painful fast especially with Salvation and some of it's con fire salvoes. At medium range, it's still effective, but the addition of blue dice and the weakening of the evade tokens brings it to a more sobering level. At close range, it's far harder to keep the front protecting the side arcs, but this also means the Neb-B's are returning double arc shots at well, so as long as they're not getting one shotted, they can still trade reasonably well.

Really, the only reason it even sort of works is because of how weirdly optimized the Neb-B is as a simple battering ram for it's somewhat modest cost (51 if you aren't splurging for the support version). 3 shields and 5 hull with 2 brace tokens is actually pretty rough to bore through at long range and at medium range should even survive a blast from an ISD2. In practice, I was able on 3 seperate instances to use a combination of STM!, Engineering tokens and commands with Redemption to take a Neb-B whose forward shields had been depleted and who was sitting on a damage card to basically full health (1 free shield from STM, 3 engineering to pull off a card, 2 to restore a shield and 1 to move a shield from AFT to front).

It's certainly not great, but I would bet money you'd win a few games just by surprising your opponent with the combination of long range damage and durability...and of course the 7pts of fury that are the Z-95's because every game needs a hero Bandit!

I like it!!

Staying at long range is obviously going to be your first choice but closing with the Pelta should give you survivability as you mentioned

I have had absolutely no luck with Z95, Would perhaps Moldy crow to slow enemies be more effective?

Good luck with it!

Cheers

Papasmurf

I'd add Ahsoka onto one of those Nebs. That would allow you to use Con fire on the Pelta while still getting that engineering token for STM via Raymus/Ahsoka. But otherwise I like it. Good for taking down big targets, but it's definite weakness is flankers, specifically the Glad and MC30.

one thing that did somewhat surprise me was when a Madine Liberty popped in behind the fleet and got killed. I didn't give it much thought in list creation, but the Neb-b's do still have decent long ranged back arcs (and the Pelta along with another Neb-b had close range double arcs). Ended up being 12 black dice plus some harassment from Han.

Last time in our locel store camp someone bought a similar list and ended up dead last. Poor Nebulons are ridiculed since then and I'm so determined to rehabilitate them.

The issue is always the flanks, and you need to protect them. CR90 Bs ram bots are good at protecting the stronger flank ( say the one which is towards the closest side ( you did deploy at the side). A very strong bomber wing can protect the more exposed flank.

to be honest I think Rieekan would be better than Sato, as you can push forward a ship to act as a blocker to keep key ships at range.

You really want Yavaris as it ups the threat of your guarding bomber wing.

If you don't have ways to keep people at arms length they will take one of your flanks at close range and roll you up.

I played against a Sato list the other day and it pummeled me pretty hard! I was consistently getting that 3 damage volley from long range that is just so annoying to deal with because Brace is ineffective but it's a strong hit to just take to the shields. (also why TRC vettes are so strong)

If I had had some Evades of my own though, it would have been a different story. I personally think the Sato Nebulons might be a better fit for a CC Campaign that a tournament setting. If you crank the fleet up to 500 points by adding another Neb, a Flotilla, and a beefier squadron wing, it gets super dangerous, plus, Imps don't have as many evades to chew through so it's doubly effective.