So I've started noticing a trend among Store Champs and the Gen Con championship: less activations. @shmitty and @BiggsIRL both won Store Champs with 3 ship fleets, but I had dismissed it because Garm is OP as we all know.

But Gen Con just was wondering with a 3 ship fleets (IIRC, Sloane on an ISD-I, a quasar, a gozanti, and a metric ton of squadrons). The top fleets also (from what we've been hearing) had 3 total ship activations. Is this a trend now? Are 3 activation fleets coming back? If people are winning with 3 ships, wins seem to be more related to skill than just out activating your opponent. Thoughts, comments, etc?

My personal opinion is that because there are such an obscene amount of variables in this game (most due to fleet setup, deployment, and movement), skill would generally surpass activations. This isn't because activations are bad, they are clearly beneficial, but that those other variables can have such a dramatic impact on the battle that non-"meta" fleets can do just fine.

I love that Gencon **EDIT FOR ACCURACY** had a 3 ship fleet place near the top.

I think its safe to say in wave 6 a well designed 3 ship fleet certainly can find even footing with a 7 activation list because the points spent on quality are finally starting to balance against the points spent on quantity. Before wave 6 a naked flotilla was typically a better use of points than loading up on upgrades like flight controllers (or whatever) because it let you delay those fighters later in the turn.

Now those fighters have something to do all 6 rounds, and the earlier you can gain air superiority the better.

Balance is hard, but I am pretty happy overall with where we are.

4 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

I love that Gencon was won by a 3 ship fleet.

I think its safe to say in wave 6 a well designed 3 ship fleet certainly can find even footing with a 7 activation list because the points spent on quality are finally starting to balance against the points spent on quantity. Before wave 6 a naked flotilla was typically a better use of points than loading up on upgrades like flight controllers (or whatever) because it let you delay those fighters later in the turn.

Now those fighters have something to do all 6 rounds, and the earlier you can gain air superiority the better.

Balance is hard, but I am pretty happy overall with where we are.

Gencon was won by a five activation fleet.

Oh sorry! I thought I had read it was a Sloane quasar, isd, and gozanti, which was a fleet knew was being used successfully there and in a great many store champs.

If I was mistaken I apologize. I wasn't there and I certainly didn't mean. To sound off like I knew the exact make up of the field. Still, sentiment remains, quantity and quality are getting closer to parity balance wise. Maybe not perfect, but certainly better.

Thanks for correcting me!

Is there somewhere we can see all the lists that went to Gencon and their final standings?

29 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Oh sorry! I thought I had read it was a Sloane quasar, isd, and gozanti, which was a fleet knew was being used successfully there and in a great many store champs.

If I was mistaken I apologize. I wasn't there and I certainly didn't mean. To sound off like I knew the exact make up of the field. Still, sentiment remains, quantity and quality are getting closer to parity balance wise. Maybe not perfect, but certainly better.

Thanks for correcting me!

Mmmm, I think you're right. The thread shows it as a 3 act list.

Edit: Mmm, thread shows that as 2nd place?

3 minutes ago, GalacticFister said:

Is there somewhere we can see all the lists that went to Gencon and their final standings?

Sadly, no. I don't think we even have top 4 for Gencon, let alone full lists. Or at least I don't have it.

Here you go with some basic info and finishing order.

Top 4 were:
- Jeff Berling with his list from Worlds: Loaded MC80 with 4 flotillas, dominating by being second player and crushing it on objectives.
- Double ISD with squadrons. ISD's had Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms to make sure their squadrons did WORK.
- Sloane with a Glad+Vic+3Gozantis and Squadron Aces. Winning on positioning and alpha strike.
- Sloane Aces with Boarding Avenger. Knocking out those tokens and punching people in the face.

Jeff and his MC80 won the day!

10 minutes ago, Palanthas said:

Here you go with some basic info and finishing order.

Top 4 were:
- Jeff Berling with his list from Worlds: Loaded MC80 with 4 flotillas, dominating by being second player and crushing it on objectives.
- Double ISD with squadrons. ISD's had Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms to make sure their squadrons did WORK.
- Screed with a Glad+Vic+2 Gozantis and Squadron Aces. Winning on positioning and alpha strike.
- Sloane Aces with Boarding Avenger. Knocking out those tokens and punching people in the face.

Jeff and his MC80 won the day!

I'd be interested in knowing what Jeff ran into. I feel like the ackbar fleet can run into some very real hard counters.

Love seeing dual ISD represented in the top 4 of a major tournament.

Love the fact that 3 of the top 4 fleets ran a large base.

Not that you guys care about a scrub like me but I got 19th with this list:

GenCon Final (396/400)
=====================
MC80 Star Cruiser (96 + 59)
+ General Madine (30)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ Fighter Coordination Team (3)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 25)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
+ H9 Turbolasers (8)
+ Admonition (8)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 9)
+ Toryn Farr (7)
+ Bright Hope (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
Shara Bey (17)
3 x VCX-100 Freighter (15)
2 x HWK-290 (12)
Most Wanted
Fire Lanes
Sensor Net

1 hour ago, Viktor Tanek said:

Not that you guys care about a scrub like me but I got 19th with this list:

GenCon Final (396/400)
=====================
MC80 Star Cruiser (96 + 59)
+ General Madine (30)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ Fighter Coordination Team (3)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 25)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
+ H9 Turbolasers (8)
+ Admonition (8)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 9)
+ Toryn Farr (7)
+ Bright Hope (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
Shara Bey (17)
3 x VCX-100 Freighter (15)
2 x HWK-290 (12)
Most Wanted
Fire Lanes
Sensor Net

1, I like to see all lists.

2, I think 19th puts you either top half or worst, middle of the pack, so take pride in that. It was a very strong field.

3 hours ago, Palanthas said:

Here you go with some basic info and finishing order.

Top 4 were:
- Jeff Berling with his list from Worlds: Loaded MC80 with 4 flotillas, dominating by being second player and crushing it on objectives.
- Double ISD with squadrons. ISD's had Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms to make sure their squadrons did WORK.
- Screed with a Glad+Vic+2 Gozantis and Squadron Aces. Winning on positioning and alpha strike.
- Sloane Aces with Boarding Avenger. Knocking out those tokens and punching people in the face.

Jeff and his MC80 won the day!

No screed, it was Sloane w/ glad, vic, 3 goz, and mixed squads. I'm assuming you mean Norm's list.

23 hours ago, Palanthas said:

Here you go with some basic info and finishing order.

Top 4 were:
- Jeff Berling with his list from Worlds: Loaded MC80 with 4 flotillas, dominating by being second player and crushing it on objectives.
- Double ISD with squadrons. ISD's had Flight Controllers and Boosted Comms to make sure their squadrons did WORK.
- Screed with a Glad+Vic+2 Gozantis and Squadron Aces. Winning on positioning and alpha strike.
- Sloane Aces with Boarding Avenger. Knocking out those tokens and punching people in the face.

Jeff and his MC80 won the day!

Can you go into any more details on the MC-80 list?

I placed 6th (tied for 4th at 30 but slid down due to MOV). Here's what I ran.

++ Standard (Rebel Fleet) [397pts] ++

+ GR-75 Transport Flotilla +

GR-75 Medium Transports [20pts]: Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transports [20pts]: •Bright Hope

GR-75 Medium Transports [18pts]

+ Hammerhead Corvette +

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette [43pts]: External Racks, •Garel's Honor

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette [39pts]: External Racks

+ MC80 Cruiser (Home One type) +

MC80 Assault Cruiser [188pts]: Electronic Countermeasures, Fighter Coordination Team, Intel Officer, Leading Shots, Quad Battery Turrets, Reinforced Blast Doors, •Admiral Ackbar, •Defiance

+ Squadrons +

HWK-290 [24pts]: 2x HWK-290

VCX-100 [45pts]: 3x VCX-100 Freighter

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes

Navigation Objective: Sensor Net

++ Total: [397pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

Jeff and I run fairly similar fleets. His is a Combat Transpo instead of the two Hammerheads. He also has Leia and Torryn Farr in there. His Battlestar has XI7 & Engine techs.

I took 7th with the following:

*****

ISD II
-Admiral Sloane
-Avenger
-Boosted Comms
-ECM
-Leading Shots
-Gunnery Team

Gozanti-Class Cruiser
-Comms Net

Gozanti-Class Cruiser
-Comms Net

Gozanti-Class Cruiser

Gozanti-Class Cruiser

--Colonel Jendon
--Darth Vader
--Maarek Steele
--Tie Defender x 4

Blockade Run, Fighter Ambush, Superior Positions

On 8/19/2017 at 4:19 PM, geek19 said:

So I've started noticing a trend among Store Champs and the Gen Con championship: less activations. @shmitty and @BiggsIRL both won Store Champs with 3 ship fleets, but I had dismissed it because Garm is OP as we all know.

But Gen Con just was wondering with a 3 ship fleets (IIRC, Sloane on an ISD-I, a quasar, a gozanti, and a metric ton of squadrons). The top fleets also (from what we've been hearing) had 3 total ship activations. Is this a trend now? Are 3 activation fleets coming back? If people are winning with 3 ships, wins seem to be more related to skill than just out activating your opponent. Thoughts, comments, etc?

I also won a SC with a 3 activation Konstantine.

9 hours ago, SpartanFury80 said:

I placed 6th (tied for 4th at 30 but slid down due to MOV). Here's what I ran.

++ Standard (Rebel Fleet) [397pts] ++

+ GR-75 Transport Flotilla +

GR-75 Medium Transports [20pts]: Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transports [20pts]: •Bright Hope

GR-75 Medium Transports [18pts]

+ Hammerhead Corvette +

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette [43pts]: External Racks, •Garel's Honor

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette [39pts]: External Racks

+ MC80 Cruiser (Home One type) +

MC80 Assault Cruiser [188pts]: Electronic Countermeasures, Fighter Coordination Team, Intel Officer, Leading Shots, Quad Battery Turrets, Reinforced Blast Doors, •Admiral Ackbar, •Defiance

+ Squadrons +

HWK-290 [24pts]: 2x HWK-290

VCX-100 [45pts]: 3x VCX-100 Freighter

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes

Navigation Objective: Sensor Net

++ Total: [397pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

Jeff and I run fairly similar fleets. His is a Combat Transpo instead of the two Hammerheads. He also has Leia and Torryn Farr in there. His Battlestar has XI7 & Engine techs.

Impressive list and GG for the ranking. If you can give me some hints on your strategy in MP I would love that

@SpartanFury80 Did you go 2nd in all of your matches, despite your low bid? I wonder how effective that fleet is as first player in objectives that do not directly benefit your fleet. I ran a similar point grapping fleet in a small SC and I knew beforehand that people ran with almost no bids, so I knew that I was going second.

3 hours ago, BiggsIRL said:

I also won a SC with a 3 activation Konstantine.

The words you typed mean things, but I'm still very confused about the order you've put them in. Specifically, the "won", "with", and "Konstantine" order.

49 minutes ago, geek19 said:

The words you typed mean things, but I'm still very confused about the order you've put them in. Specifically, the "won", "with", and "Konstantine" order.

This is an alternative time line Biggs. He's confused where he is. Back in his world, Konstantine is OP.....

3 hours ago, Hawkwing said:

@SpartanFury80 Did you go 2nd in all of your matches, despite your low bid? I wonder how effective that fleet is as first player in objectives that do not directly benefit your fleet. I ran a similar point grapping fleet in a small SC and I knew beforehand that people ran with almost no bids, so I knew that I was going second.

I went 2nd in the 3 of the 4 matches. Lost out on 2nd player to a coin flip on the one.

I don't have an issue going first. Especially against a fleet looking to play the token game. The 6 activations and the two Hammerheads help with going first.

Finished 4th with this list:

GSD-I
Sloane
External Racks
Ordinance Experts
Demolisher

VSD-I
Expanded Hangar Bay
Quad Battery Turrets
Flight Controllers

Gozanti
Hondo
Vector

Gozanti
Jamming Field

Gozanti
Comms Net

Squadrons
Howlrunner
Mauler Mithel
Colonel Jendon
Maarek Stele
Black Squadron
Saber Squadron
Major Rhymer
3 TIE Fighter

List places 2nd in swiss. Lost to Jeff Berling's MC80 Snackbar List in semi-finals.

On 8/19/2017 at 3:19 PM, geek19 said:

So I've started noticing a trend among Store Champs and the Gen Con championship: less activations. @shmitty and @BiggsIRL both won Store Champs with 3 ship fleets, but I had dismissed it because Garm is OP as we all know.

But Gen Con just was wondering with a 3 ship fleets (IIRC, Sloane on an ISD-I, a quasar, a gozanti, and a metric ton of squadrons). The top fleets also (from what we've been hearing) had 3 total ship activations. Is this a trend now? Are 3 activation fleets coming back? If people are winning with 3 ships, wins seem to be more related to skill than just out activating your opponent. Thoughts, comments, etc?

A metric ton of squadrons is, itself, a metric ton of activations.

21 minutes ago, FourDogsInaHorseSuit said:

A metric ton of squadrons is, itself, a metric ton of activations.

Huh?

Squadrons are NOT (ship)activations.