Morning All,

A friend of mine & I have recently started playing Armada and we are, for the most part, enjoying it a lot. However I am consistantly having problems dealing with his Interdictor (I play Rebels, he plays Empire). He usually fields a build a bit like this.

Commander: Darth Vader

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Interdictor ( 3 points)
- Wulff Yularen ( 7 points)
- Engineering Team ( 5 points)
- Overload Pulse ( 8 points)
- Targeting Scrambler ( 5 points)
- Grav Shift Reroute ( 2 points)
= 156 total ship cost

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 83 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Suppressor ( 4 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 34 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 30 total ship cost

3 TIE Defender Squadrons ( 48 points)
1 VT-49 Decimators ( 22 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 Saber Squadron ( 12 points)

The last fleet I fielded to try and take this on was.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 399/400

Commander: Commander Sato

Assault Frigate Mark II A (81 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
= 101 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
- Gallant Haven ( 8 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Rapid Launch Bays ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
= 132 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
- Chart Officer ( 2 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
= 67 total ship cost

1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
1 Rogue Squadron ( 14 points)
1 X-Wing Squadron ( 13 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 Ten Numb ( 19 points)
1 Dagger Squadron ( 15 points)

What happened was I managed to take out the Demolisher, got the Carrier Frigate into range to launch the B-Wings and then his TIE Defenders just destroyed my fighters in about 2 turns which made my admiral pretty much useless, he moved the rest of his ships behind the Interdictor, the Decimators killed the Neb B and I couldn't do enough damage to even slow down the Interdictor, it just generated 9 engineering a turn and healed everything I did to it while using overload pulse to take out my defense tokens and whittle down the Frigates before I could move them out of the Interdictors primary arcs.

Any ideas, suggestions on how to handle this?

I think a large part of the reason why you are struggling is not so much the interdictor, but the fact that you are so out activated.

I would look at the interdictor as a one turn kill. Don't even THINK to engage it until you can burn it in one turn. It's not that hard to do, despite the large amount of health, because its tokens are relatively easy to overwhelm.

As far as tweaks go, these are my thoughts. Now, before I get into it, feel free to toss out everything I say, because it mostly revolves around the fact that in my opinion Sato is not currently a competitive admiral. He requires too many things in a fleet and really is only beneficial enough to be used for Peltas and MC30's because they have access to black dice criticals. If you ordnance experts and Turbolaser Reroutes on assault frigates he works, but you run out of points insanely quick for very little relative benefit. Also, Sato makes you want to throw your fighters in there so you can have him not be pointless, which means your squad play is predictable and your opponent can easily tear them to shreds when it should go the other way. That said, if you want to build a fleet to beat your friend, Sato is the first thing to swap out. From there I will make a few other suggestions. If you don't like them, just take out rapid launch bays and put in Ackbar. It's a simple swap that increases the threat of the fleet considerably.

Second is the assault frigates. If you nix the non-gallant haven and replace those points with 2 flotillas and a jainas light cr90 with trubolaser reroutes you will see things start to shift. Put Mon Mothma (sub out Sato) on Jainas Light. On the flotilla put coms net, on the other bright hope and bomber command. Shuffle a squadron token to yavaris with coms net.

Drop rapid launch bay from GH, it is at odds with fighter coordination teams and doesn't particularly jive with the rest of the fleet. You need those squadron drops at the start so aren't woefully outdeployed. To much sacrifice, not enough gain.

Drop Rogue squadron as you now have more than enough squad activation and he doesn't have escort for Biggs. Add in Gold Squad.

Drop Dagger and use the balance of points from dropping rogue to get Wedge.

A couple of other tiny little tweaks and you get this-

Killing the 'Dictor

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 394/400

Commander: Mon Mothma

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Capture the VIP
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gallant Haven ( 8 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
= 94 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
= 68 total ship cost

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Mon Mothma ( 30 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 83 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bright Hope ( 2 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 28 total ship cost

1 Ten Numb ( 19 points)
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points)
1 X-Wing Squadron ( 13 points)
1 Gold Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)

If you want to play around with this and make it feel comfortable for you, you can find it here and fork to edit

Go 1st always with demolisher. Go slow and force them to come to you. Pounce on his fighters with the x wings, and stage the bwings so when you hit them with a dail they can jump in range and hammer away.

Mc30 comes racing in from the side and you should be able to line him up to get both broadsides on the dictor. That should be a easy 2 face up cards, which donn lets you pick from yhe 1st four for the nasty crit.

Hammer head comes in on the mc30 tail and hits again, and ramms for another face up card.

I have had alot of success just slow rolling my ships and letting the other person come in to fast

REBEL FLEET 393

1 • MC80 Command Cruiser - MC80 Mon Calamari Star Cruiser (106) - General Dodonna (20) - Electronic Countermeasures (7) - XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Total : 139 • Code : r19c2d1t4
2 • MC30c Torpedo Frigate - MC30c (63) - Ordnance Experts (4) - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5) - XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Total : 78 • Code : r17w5n4t4
3 • Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette - Hammerhead corvette (36) - Ordnance Experts (4) - External Racks (3) - Garel's Honor (4)
• Total : 47 • Code : e0w5n6f35
4 • GR-75 Medium Transports - GR-75 (18) - Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Total : 23 • Code : r29g1
5 • HWK-290 - HWK-290 (12)
• Total : 12 • Code : r25
6 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
7 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
8 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
9 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
10 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14 • Code : r11
11 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14 • Code : r11
12 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14 • Code : r11

You need more Escort to get more value from Biggs. With Jan, your defending X-Wing should only be taking 1 damage per attack (Jan braces 4/3 to 2, Biggs moves 1). That will increase the survivability of your squads against his. You should get a Bomber Command Center as well, which will help your bombers increase their damage.

If you want to have a creative solution instead of a heavy handed one, Ion Cannon Battery can rip the tokens off the Interdictor which prevents Wulff from working. A CR90B is a good choice to carry that. I think you should drop the AF A, since it's a waste of points. Gunnery Team on an AF is good with Ackbar since you get 5 red per attack. But Gunnery Team without Ackbar is just 3 dice. Even with Sato, I don't think a 100 point investment is worth it.

Remove Rapid Launch Bays because that hurts your deployment. You don't need to protect your squads since they have Gallent Haven, Biggs, and Jan doing that already. Expanded Hanger Bay and Flight Controllers gives you an extra squad to command and an extra blue dice for those squads, which means you can hit harder and gives Ten Numb a higher chance of triggering.

A CR90A with Jaina's Light is a good addition to a Sato list because with a double arc, you are always throwing 3-4 black dice at long range when you Concentrate Fire.

For objectives, Most Wanted it a good choice if you have a flotilla. It let's you focus on Demo or the Interdictor while offering little in return. Hyperspace Assault with Yavaris and some squads is quite effective too. Any blue objective works with your list. I prefer Solar Corona because it provides me with defense since they remove an Accuracy and gives me deployment advantage.

Also, since you are new, you should know Engineering Team does not work twice if you spend a repair token and dial. It's 5 (dial) + 3 (token) + 1 (team). Spending a token and dial counts as one resolution of the command, which means Eng Team triggers once. Hopefully you have already been playing it like that and not fighting an uphill battle of an Interdictor with 9 Eng points.

Thanks guys, that's a lot of help. I will give a couple of those tweaks a try next time we play. I have also been thinking about something like this list that works more on the idea of trying to level out the activation differences, the transports can act as squad pushers, the comms net can be used to get some tokens to ships that need them.

The MC80 uses that idea of an Ion Battery to strip tokens and then Ackbar to load up on extra dice and if I can get a shot in after the target has activated I can throw that extra black die as well. The MC30c is the wild card, it's expensive but with Ackbar it can really lay down the hurt.

My only concern here is that with only two armed ships I feel like I am taking a risk and if I lose the MC30c too early then I might not be able to keep the MC80 alive much longer after that.

Squad wise I went simple, lots of X-Wings and Biggs and Shara Bey & a Single A-Wing to try and bait the decimators into shooting at her.

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)

- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Ion Cannon Batteries ( 5 points)
= 171 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Foresight ( 8 points)
- Chart Officer ( 2 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 94 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Quantum Storm ( 1 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 21 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bright Hope ( 2 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 28 total ship cost

1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
1 A-Wing Squadron ( 11 points)

Played a similarly outfitted defiance combined with 5 naked CR90b's yesterday and got my butt kicked. I can say, when you can force Defiance into a good position to go last each round he can really really hurt. With only 4 activations, you still aren't really there. You can get 2 Cr90A's for the cost of the MC30, which fit better with Ackbar and give you a fifth activation.