Has anyone had success with the Assault Pelta? I love the look of the ship, but can't think of a way to utilize it well.

We all know the Command Pelta fills the roll of carrier quite well, but I can't seem to find a decent build for the Assault version. I have thought about the flechette build, but I real want ordenence experts on it. I think it may work with external racks, but it is looking awful expensive for a ship that most likely will get one maybe two shots before either being out of the engagement or destroyed.

Thoughts or things that have worked for you?

Entrapment Formation, APT, Sato.

6 Hammerheads with APT.

Tycho+Shara+A-Wings

17 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

Entrapment Formation, APT, Sato.

6 Hammerheads with APT.

Tycho+Shara+A-Wings

That sounds devilishly fun.

Use it with a comms net flotilla next to it and one of the fleet support upgrades. I prefer Entrapment for this. Build a small/mid quality squad screen (scatter aces if possible. Pile on a bunch of TR90/MC30.

Slow roll both the flotilla and and the pelta towards wherever the squad fight is happening. Aim to arrive turn 3-4 and start up the flak. A black and a black/blue certainly change the numbers fast. Use EF to allow MC30s to ConFire and change speeds.

Otherwise, I like Sato and ACM/APT

I think its a filling ship, both versions of it. Tried once and still can't understand what motivated the FFG playtesters to suggest the 2 speed on this ship.

It has not a clearly defined role. Everything it can do, any other ship in the rebel fleet can do it better. Carrier? Yavaris, Home one. Brawler? Liberty, Admonition. Flankers? TRC90, Salvation. Multipurpose? MKII.

The unique fleet slots aint that good to spend 1/5 of your fleet. Just try it yourself, maybe you'll find in it something Im missing.

Its not bad with Madine and Engine Techs along with Ordnance upgrades. Nice wing-mate for the Liberty... but as Xerpo says there are maybe better options for the points.

It is currently the only rebel ship that can take advantage of Flechette torpedoes, for about 2 weeks.

Sato with APT does seem to be its best spot though, with how the arcs are designed and that it has a pair of red to swap out of the front.

As the TO, I'm taking a Fleet that has an Assault Pelta with Fletchette Torpedoes and AFFM - because the heavy Carrier duties are being dealt with elsewhere. it can be a Flak-Boat.

I took Double-Pelta with Fletchettes to the last Fleet Patrol, and it was Hilarious. I had 6 Zs and a VCX alongside with them.. The first game I chewed through 4 VCX, 2 YT-1300s and Jan... The Second game I chewed through Corran, Tycho, Luke, 3 YT-2400s and had a last turn duel between Shara on 1 Hull and no Scatter, and Lt Blount with 1 Hull *and* his scatter...

It was hilariously fun. Most of the time, if it didn't have counter, I was barely taking fire from Squadrons... (Although Zs were still melting to ship fire)

So, as someone who wants to love this stupid little junky ship (just like the non-titled Nebulon Bs), I think it has several structural shortcomings:

First, it is Interdictor level slow. Yes, you can get to effective speed 3 with engine techs, but now you are 64 points and thus more expensive than the MC30c torpedo frigate, thus you are both slower and don't hit as hard up close.

Second, you have no weapons team slot. Ordnance Experts is a must have for ships with black dice, especially so if they take ordnance upgrades. The lack of any vehicle for rerolls means APT, flechettes, etc. are far less effective on the Pelta. Yes, you can take raymus and have CF tokens, but again, cost.

Third, this pelta is not an ideal vehicle for the upgrades that are pelta-only. It won't have squad tokens, it often needs to go first or last. The shield and nav ones can work, though it can't leverage the nav effectively if you also want to ET...

In short, it just has a lot of internal conflict. I think for me to use it as-is, it would have to be much cheaper, as even a CR90A with TRC (even post nerf) is less points than a naked Pelta and likely more effective at anything I was using the Pelta for other than anti-squad (which is not a great use for it!).

Sad, because I want to like it, but man this guy needs a weapons team slot badly.

Been having a ton of success with an Assault Pelta in my Garm fleets. I'm running STM! and have had little trouble feeding it tokens with help from Ashoka.

I use it as a trailer or a flak ship. It follows my Liberty and shoots at anything the Liberty has wounded. But it seems to shine best in the anti-squad role. External Racks will really help its damage potential for the one shot that matters most.

14 minutes ago, shmitty said:

Been having a ton of success with an Assault Pelta in my Garm fleets. I'm running STM! and have had little trouble feeding it tokens with help from Ashoka.

I use it as a trailer or a flak ship. It follows my Liberty and shoots at anything the Liberty has wounded. But it seems to shine best in the anti-squad role. External Racks will really help its damage potential for the one shot that matters most.

Yeah I've been having fun running it this way, too. STM! + Proj. Exp. with Ashoka in a Garm list trailing either MC80 variant seems effective. It can be a great finisher or flak ship while pumping out three shields per turn to your big boy, plus one shield for everyone else. Definitely pays for itself.

Given its hull/shield config along with its diversity of defense tokens, it's actually surprisingly tough (especially with STM! + eng command every turn). I've been putting my commander on it when I run it, and I've yet to have it die (when run with a big ship, as above). That forces your opponent into some not great choices: do I go after the big ship killa man and leave the flag ship up, or do I weather the beating of the MC80 trying to get into position to kill the flag ship?

If they go after the MC80, great, my flag ship is safe and it can help clean up after the MC80. Oh you just took a couple shots from the side/front of my MC80 (depending on variant) and you're trying to limp away? Here's two reds two/three blacks to your hull zone with no shields (likely most/all hull zones at that point) to finish you off. Or if your opponent is playing the fighter game, the Pelta can just go flak crazy.

If they go after the Pelta, great, the MC80 is safe. The mantra I live by with MC80s ( always true for Home One var., usually true for Lib var.) is that they don't die by accident. You need concentrated, sustained fire power to bring them down especially with the backing of STM! + Proj Exp. Usually even one turn of focusing fire on the Pelta over the MC80 is enough to ensure that the MC80 won't go down that game. If the Pelta is positioned correctly, your opponent will be taking shots from your big ship while trying to move on your Pelta. Plus, it helps mitigate the low speed + black dice because they are moving into your range. When was the last time you had someone try to get into close range on a Glad? Not as powerful as a Glad, of course, but still feels good.

I've been having so much fun running it this way that I'm struggling to build lists without it.

Agreed that External Racks will be awesome on it -- I'm looking forward to making the ship that much more deadly.

39 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

Second, you have no weapons team slot. Ordnance Experts is a must have for ships with black dice, especially so if they take ordnance upgrades. The lack of any vehicle for rerolls means APT, flechettes, etc. are far less effective on the Pelta. Yes, you can take raymus and have CF tokens, but again, cost.

I half-jokingly played a game with 6 Assault Peltas, a half dozen slippery fighters, and Sato thinking that maybe if I could just overwhelm them with swarming APT damage starting at long range it would work.

Only problem was I would go whole turns, 8-12 rolls of the dice, without landing a crit. When I rolled hit/crit + hit it was incredible! But without rerolls it just. didn't. work.

Need a fleet command that allows all your ships to reroll a dice! Boom! Assault Peltas are usable. Or maybe Admiral Leia with her + dice + reroll commands will suddenly make them shine. It's certainly a possibility.

I've been thinking STM! Assault Pelta with the Task Force Antilles Torpedo Hammerheads led by Sato should be fun.

The HHs get OE for the re-rolls while the Task Force and STM try to keep everyone alive.

1 minute ago, shmitty said:

I've been thinking STM! Assault Pelta with the Task Force Antilles Torpedo Hammerheads led by Sato should be fun.

The HHs get OE for the re-rolls while the Task Force and STM try to keep everyone alive.

I looked at this too, but the issue I kept hitting is that since the hammerheads don't really have the maneuver chart to dance at any particular range, and would need to be at medium anyway to use the full 2 dice Sato potential unlike the Pelta, would it just be better to go Dodonna? Essentially the same design concept, just a little help making sure the crits that do go through are the ones desired.

Plus the points difference gives you bid potential and means you don't have to rely on a fighter combos. I don't know. I always waffle with Sato. I just have trouble finding a place where his ability makes sense. Even in a recent 1,000 point game I am playing for fun with @Visovics he can contest that Sato has been less than spectacular. Most times I am doing blank/hit or hit/hit because no ordnance experts, even applied across a huge 1,000 pt fleet, is just not that effective.

Great ideas guys. Deginatly will have to get some of these ideas on the table.

I think in this case, the Sato Ability is the threat of Long Range APTs (rather than just long-range black dice)...

I mean, you do it already, but its harder with MC30s because they're more expensive, but TF:A (or TF:O) Hammerheads might be a weight-of-fire solution for that.

And Hammerheads will take Ordnance Experts.

11 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

I think in this case, the Sato Ability is the threat of Long Range APTs (rather than just long-range black dice)...

I mean, you do it already, but its harder with MC30s because they're more expensive, but TF:A (or TF:O) Hammerheads might be a weight-of-fire solution for that.

And Hammerheads will take Ordnance Experts.

Yeah for the assault pelta and hammerhead certain long range APT is the lure of Sato. I just can't help but feel like it's one those things that is great on paper, but when you consistently fail to roll crits it just gets sad really quick.

If you are a man that likes to gamble, then Sato Assault Peltas is fleet is for you, because 43.8% of the time when you throw those long range blacks and hit the crit it's gonna be great. But the other 56.2% when you don't get APT your damage is going to feel neutered.

Yep. That's why I think I'd take the one Pelta for the Fleet Command application primarily , with its own ordnance as backup - but rely on the Hammerheads to be the actual punch-above-weight-at-range Jankfest.

I mean, I already feel that way with Satovation...

Every time I've thrown 9+ damage, there's 1-2 times I've thrown 1-2 damage...

2 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Yeah for the assault pelta and hammerhead certain long range APT is the lure of Sato. I just can't help but feel like it's one those things that is great on paper, but when you consistently fail to roll crits it just gets sad really quick.

If you are a man that likes to gamble, then Sato Assault Peltas is fleet is for you, because 43.8% of the time when you throw those long range blacks and hit the crit it's gonna be great. But the other 56.2% when you don't get APT your damage is going to feel neutered.

43.2% of the time, it works EVERY time.

The Garm STM thoughts are fascinating. I'll add that to my list of things to try.

18 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

The Garm STM thoughts are fascinating. I'll add that to my list of things to try.

Any reason to use good ol' Garm is a good reason!

I'm all about getting things to work that have not yet proved their worth in major tournaments.

19 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

The Garm STM thoughts are fascinating. I'll add that to my list of things to try.

Garm is super legit with those fleet command upgrades as your token-feeding methods are much cheaper/easier. With just Ahsoka somewhere and/or a Veteran Captain and discarding the upgrade on turn 6, feeding it is very affordable.

Just now, Vergilius said:

I'm all about getting things to work that have not yet proved their worth in major tournaments.

Just now, Snipafist said:

Garm is super legit with those fleet command upgrades as your token-feeding methods are much cheaper/easier. With just Ahsoka somewhere and/or a Veteran Captain and discarding the upgrade on turn 6, feeding it is very affordable.

In my wave 6 fleets I have been running Phoenix Home with Hondo and Veteran Captain. Means 3 turn of shields to max use without ever dialing up a engineering command. Or 4 with one, which is typically more than enough.

59 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

The Garm STM thoughts are fascinating. I'll add that to my list of things to try.

It's surprisingly effective. I've really gotten to love STM.

Garm is also amusing with Phoenix Home if only for the novelty of having 4 command tokens on a ship on turn 2

1 hour ago, BrobaFett said:

I looked at this too, but the issue I kept hitting is that since the hammerheads don't really have the maneuver chart to dance at any particular range, and would need to be at medium anyway to use the full 2 dice Sato potential unlike the Pelta, would it just be better to go Dodonna? Essentially the same design concept, just a little help making sure the crits that do go through are the ones desired.

Plus the points difference gives you bid potential and means you don't have to rely on a fighter combos. I don't know. I always waffle with Sato. I just have trouble finding a place where his ability makes sense. Even in a recent 1,000 point game I am playing for fun with @Visovics he can contest that Sato has been less than spectacular. Most times I am doing blank/hit or hit/hit because no ordnance experts, even applied across a huge 1,000 pt fleet, is just not that effective.

My theory is to use ACMs at range. The mass fire of ACMs seems scarier than APTs. You really just have to comment to Con Fire on the Hammerheads and hope the Task Force/STM combo keeps them alive. It'll be fun, not necessarily good, but fun.