I have been wrestling with making a fleet that is not MSU and doesn't have strategic. Then I look at the blue objectives and realize that only rarely will anyone take yellow or red objectives. Is it just me or did strategic make almost all blue objectives useless unless accompanied by strategic squadrons?

Only Solar Corona, Superior Positions, and Navigational Hazards don't have objective tokens for strategic squadrons to use. In my mind, this means that you almost HAVE to take strategic if you don't build around one of those three. None of which is good for non-MSU.

Its arms-race-ish.

If your opponent isn't packing strategic either , then its moot - you're both essentially fighting on basic merits.

Another good one if you don't have Strategic is Capture the VIP. You can set it up so that you can alpha-strike the Strategic source itself before they can get into range to grab the token, then cature it and fly off with 50 free points.

Too bad the CC campaign didn't make more use of the colors. Sure they gave us a 4th green color but I would like it if say Red Objectives allowed you to capture territory, Yellow allows you to prevent that, and blue allows your fleet to move through defended territory. Throw out the requirement for 1 red, 1 blue and 1 yellow and allow the player to chose 3 of any color. The color selected will be the action taken on the campaign map.

The blues are probably the most taken. Theyre... typcially not as good unless you're a squadron list (eye roll). Or running strategic or some crazy maneuverable swarm list. If youre not one of those, blues kinda suck, and get picked a lot.

6 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

Another good one if you don't have Strategic is Capture the VIP. You can set it up so that you can alpha-strike the Strategic source itself before they can get into range to grab the token, then cature it and fly off with 50 free points.

If you're opponent has 2 Strategic squads, they can steal the token with first activation. They get 50 points and you get 15/30 so they still come out ahead. Not sure what it does to their fleet though, but if they are wasting 2 squads to get your token, you can bet that's what they are there for.

I take Nav Hazards as my blue when I run JJ MSU. It's good against squads because you can obstruct shots and most carriers are bigger than small base. This means you can run less squads. It's good against medium/large ships because you can harass it with your ships and obstacles, so you probably will play red or yellow. With JJ, you should be able to navigate around obstacles so always have a Nav token.

Red objective will be Most Wanted. Yellow will be Hyperspace Assault with Demo.

I find Rebel MSU to be stronger with Strategic since you want to take 2. 30 points for 16 hull and 6 blue dice, with Strategic and Relay. It's a good investment and allows your low squad command ships to activate your squads from anywhere. Taking a token first round means you can focus on other things and not waste a squad command. Or flotillas can push squads.

Interesting...I like to run strategic squadrons, and my problem is that there isn't a great red objective.

but to the original point - I thought Solar Corona was the default blue these days due to the Deployment advantage? Should that work even for non MSU lists?

Dangerous Territory is a blue you can take too.