I'm not a huge fan of posting my own lists here until I've played them a bit and am usually reporting on victory's after the fact, but I wanted to get some feedback on something I've been working on.
Here's the current stage in the process:
Garm's Battleship
Author: Vergilius
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 394/400
Commander: Garm Bel Iblis
Assault Objective: Station Assault
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Garm Bel Iblis ( 25 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Walex Blissex ( 5 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 169 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bright Hope ( 2 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 29 total ship cost
Modified Pelta-class Assault Ship (56 points)
- Phoenix Home ( 3 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
- Shields to Maximum! ( 6 points)
= 76 total ship cost
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Salvation ( 7 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
= 70 total ship cost
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
3 A-Wing Squadrons ( 33 points)
The inspiration for this list started from my Rieekan list of last year, which ran 2 SW-7B Corvettes, 1 Jaina's Light TRC, and 1 Death Pickle, plus A-wings and YT2400. When the Pelta Assault came out, I immediately thought it was the kind of ship that fit into that Rieekan list, but could never make it work. A second key to my thinking came about when @shmitty mentioned Shields to Maximum being extremely good, despite the criticism the card has taken in the forum. So at an SC this weekend, I played with 2 flotillas, 1 Death Pickle, 1 SW-7B, and a Pelta Assault loaded out as above sans-title. My thoughts shifted to Garm and especially to the Phoenix Home title when I saw that I really loaded up on tokens. His problem is that he wants higher command ships and comms netting flotillas become less valuable. However, the Nebulon-B syngergizes very well with him.
Choice of Upgrades
Pickle: Although I'd rather have 5 activations with a Defiance list, I figure there's bound to be something that will swing into range and that you can knock out to even the count, then it becomes easier to trigger Defiance from there. Walex is solid defense, and given the emphasis on shields, he might see potential use from burning through the redirects as he would from the grace. Advanced Projectors synergizes well with the regenerating shields and with the double redirect. You do lose out on ECM, which means a hard-hitting XI7 build may prove a challenge, but its rare that you get multiple XI7 shots into the same hull zone on the same turn, so the redirects and shields are around to absorb the other shots. The best way to handle that kind of build is to fly well to minimze the shots on target and maximize the range benefits of your own ships. RBD is good for taking off damage cards from possible rams, whether you hit them or they hit you. So going back to that XI7 shot, they might eat 4 shields, redirect one, and do three hull, which then turns into all the shields back and all of the damage cards flipped from RBD. That means you can tank a couple of heavy shots, and its rare that someone would get more than two. QBT is something I've thrown back in. There's a lot of slow objectives here that force faster play from the opponent, which means an extra die is delightful. And naturally LS is a staple in these kinds of builds to correct for poor rolls.
Pelta: The title+Garm creates a stock of tokens, because I find the Pelta can usually bank the first two turns of tokens anyway. Ahsoka is essential to get exactly what you need when you need it. Projection Experts+Shields to Maximum is the linchpin of the build. You can reveal an engineering command, project off two shields while recovering one more, and STM gets you back shields every turn. External racks is just a beautiful upgrade. There's the flexibility to spend it against squadrons. Rerolls from CF tokens tend to work well enough to correct damage. The Assault variant is just really good for anti-squadron attacks as well, and the defense suite makes it pretty stocky. At speed-2, it flies well with a Death pickle.
Nebulon-B Escort: I suppose a Support Refit is possible, but the Escort is there to add two blue AS dice, and provide the random flexibility of activating two squads. Again, CF rerolls are your main source of red dice manipulation. Projection Experts is here an added bonus, providing another critical ship that can use it if needed. Most regenerating lists run into problems of forcing the ships to activate in a particular sequence, and this helps provide additional flexibility on making selections.
GR75: BH/Toryn is a staple in my lists. It can be flown defensively as an activation filler, with a plan of using the squads primarily defensively. Against a heavy squadron list, it might fly closer to the think of things, and then you've got Toryn Boosted AS shots from your ships, plus main squadron attacks, plus counter rolls. Comms net is still a left-over from my other build. I'd probably drop it entirely which frees up a little in the way of points for different upgrades on other ships, though the Comms net might see some use in later rounds. EBH is one option that allows squads to activate entirely from the transport (3+token), though it is might be better simply to plan for either three here and one token elsewhere, or 2 here and 2 from a command on the Nebulon-B.
Formation flying
What you really want is for most enemies to go after the pickle. This is also a double arc list. If you can double arc a key target, that's potentially 2 blue from the QBT, and 2 black from Defiance. Even then, it still might be all of that at two targets. Or the side arc at big ships and the front arc on squads. So the key to the list is really something I've started calling "the pocket." The ships are deployed moving forward. The side arc of the MC80 with Salvation next to it and the Pelta on the outside creates a pocket. The fact that Salvation and the Pelta are further back does an enormous amount to keep them alive and safe longer. Squadrons that fly into the pocket have to eat A-wing attacks, and double-blue AS from two ships, and blue-black AS from a third. The objectives are critical to this process. Station Assault and Contested Outpost both force the opponent to one particular area of the map, and combined with the placement of other obstacles, can limit approaches to your list, thereby shepherding people into the pocket. Solar Corona means maximal positioning advantage which again limits the approaches that players can make to get at your ships. I'm generally looking at a bid so that key lists that want to go second are forced to go first, and I have the opportunity to pick against the rest.
By putting the Salvation in the middle, opponents have a harder time getting at its side arcs. Furthermore, the front arcs of the Pelta/Salvation do a decent job of covering the front arc of the MC80, which helps keep units off of it.
Formation flying and objectives also making harder for ships like MC30s and Gladiators to get around the formation, since the entry path to hitting Phoenix Home and Salvation takes you directly into Defiance's side arc.
Generally speaking, if you do run across a build that can put damage directly through to hull on the MC80, you look in your flying to attempt to mitigate that.
Flak you to Death
One of the questions I've long looked at is how to use ship flak effectively. With Sloan in the meta heavily, and with Rieekan/Dodonna aces still on the prowl, this is a particularly nasty AS list to deal with. Short of a disaster in flying the list, it will be tough for squads to get at the Pelta/Nebulon without exposing themselves severally. Toryn is particularly nasty no matter what they bring. You fish for an accuracy against scatter aces even if you roll 2 damage, and you fish for damage against generics, and there's so much flak that it can just wear down aces with a bunch of one damage attacks.
Final Thoughts:
Of course, I really want Engine Techs. Comms Net is in the process of revision. While I think some kind of bid is wise, it doesn't need to be 6 points. What could change about the list?