I have a tournament coming up on Sunday, and I decided to go with a somewhat fringe list. In its first play, Dagger Squadron and another B-Wing were engaging my opponent's squadrons on the first activation of turn two while the others destroyed Mon Karen painfully fast. The X-Wing's only role is to give Jan a little cover. The GR-75 is only there for an activation, BCC, and swap out Garm tokens although it can switch into pushing squadrons if things go pear shaped. With multiple Fighter Coordination Teams, it becomes less important that every squadron get an Squadron command once the furball is engaged.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: Garm Bel Iblis

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Modified Pelta-class Command Ship (60 points)
- Phoenix Home ( 3 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Adar Tallon ( 10 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 87 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Modified Pelta-class Command Ship (60 points)
- Garm Bel Iblis ( 25 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 95 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

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

1 Dagger Squadron ( 15 points)
1 Ten Numb ( 19 points)
4 B-Wing Squadrons ( 56 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 X-Wing Squadron ( 13 points)

I've always maintained that a Pelta is, effectively, a Nebulon that got its dream of trading an evade for a redirect and getting side shields.... So this really does just feel like a Triple Nebulon List.

... That being said, its a Triple Neb Transport list...

As much as I want to love it, I think I'd even be trading a B-Wing or two for Z-95s, since you ahve the Commands to fling them haphazardly to clear the Squadron Road... THEN Bomb with Impunity...

I like the concept--I'm ALL ABOUT that B-wing spam--but I think you want just a little stronger bulwark against the alpha strike, particularly given the prevalence of Sloane right now. You're already bringing speed mitigation, maybe switch that X-wing to a YT-1300? I'd suggest JF too, but you don't really have a platform available for it because I do think BCC is more important on your single flotilla.

I disagree with Ard, drop the Xwing for two hwks. Just take redundant intel rather than attempt to protect it!

As a confirmed B-wing spammer, I can confirm that double intel is well worth it.

My build is usually:

4x B-wing

2x HWK

2x YT1300

Of course, my delivery mechanism is a bit different, and I have Flight Controllers, so YMMV

I ran something similar as a proof of concept a couple weeks ago. It works fine against non/light/medium squadron cover, but if you run into a heavy squadron ball you won't be able to get your squadrons free in time. B-wings, while respectable, just don't do enough to be able to punch through massed or quality squadrons efficiently.

First match was against Imperial aces (not sloane), and I was doing everything I could to try and keep my squads alive to not lose points. Even with my b-wings tucked under overlapping AA cover from my ships it was still a losing fight.

Second match was against a massive tie fighter sloane ball. I had a minor win due to objectives, but it cost me all my squads and my opponent to misplay. If he played even a bit better (swam rerolls, howlrunner + die, not letting two b-wings shake free to kill his most wanted ship, or quasar AA) I would have been tabled. The b-wings + ship AA fire was able to burn though the non aces, but the aces had free reign on what they chose to do.

Overall I would recommend aiming to win the squadron game first then do bombing.

21 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

I disagree with Ard, drop the Xwing for two hwks. Just take redundant intel rather than attempt to protect it!

Solid option as well, the counter being that Jan is going to get nuked. So, if you're taking it that direction, drop both Jan and the X-wing for two HWKs + something else. Decentralizing your fleet's dependencies is great, but you have to take it all the way. Off the top of my head I'd say maybe upgrade a vanilla B to Keyan for the braces to replace some survivability due to losing Jan.

I like the double HWK and Z-95 option as well as the double HWK and Keyan idea. That gives me a 1- or 2-point bid, but also gives up a flexible brace to sustain the B-Wings. In this variation, Ten Numb becomes the big target. With triple FCT, it might be possible to keep him close to the ships and denying physical space to engage him before that until I hurl him into a furball for an Adar Tallon-Yavaris triple tap against large squadron clusters. I think I'm partial to Keyan over the Z-95 option since the Z-95 really only syngergizes via Swarm and another set of Braces is good.

Honestly though, I think the bigger counter to a massive cluster of TIEs with Sloane is to spread out my squadrons. I see too many people put all their squadrons into a small area, and I think that takes away some of the advantages of squadrons. Double HWKs helps with that spread, too, if I want to maintain the threat against ships. The Boosted Comms and Flight Commanders both help with the challenges that can come from spreading out.

2 minutes ago, comatose said:

I like the double HWK and Z-95 option as well as the double HWK and Keyan idea. That gives me a 1- or 2-point bid, but also gives up a flexible brace to sustain the B-Wings. In this variation, Ten Numb becomes the big target. With triple FCT, it might be possible to keep him close to the ships and denying physical space to engage him before that until I hurl him into a furball for an Adar Tallon-Yavaris triple tap against large squadron clusters. I think I'm partial to Keyan over the Z-95 option since the Z-95 really only syngergizes via Swarm and another set of Braces is good.

Honestly though, I think the bigger counter to a massive cluster of TIEs with Sloane is to spread out my squadrons. I see too many people put all their squadrons into a small area, and I think that takes away some of the advantages of squadrons. Double HWKs helps with that spread, too, if I want to maintain the threat against ships. The Boosted Comms and Flight Commanders both help with the challenges that can come from spreading out.

generics are a great counter to sloane. Her ONLY impact against squadrons is flipping tokens, if you don't have any tokens (or have them protected via 20 x-wings) she doesn't have much of an impact. Having said that right now she's my favorite imperial commander but I like winning the squad fight and then moving them into the ship fight.

20 minutes ago, dominosfleet said:

generics are a great counter to sloane. Her ONLY impact against squadrons is flipping tokens, if you don't have any tokens (or have them protected via 20 x-wings) she doesn't have much of an impact

Sort of. Sloane gives you the freedom to take a much stronger anti-squadron wing because your dedicated fighters are still hitting at near-bomber levels.

Assuming you're not flying a terrible Sloane squadron wing with Defenders and Maarek, like everyone but me seems to be doing for some bizarre reason...

I was initially like, "Wow, I had no idea all these people read the fleet sub forum." And then I was like, "Oh, you posted in the main forum, you noob."

1 hour ago, Ardaedhel said:

Sort of. Sloane gives you the freedom to take a much stronger anti-squadron wing because your dedicated fighters are still hitting at near-bomber levels.

Assuming you're not flying a terrible Sloane squadron wing with Defenders and Maarek, like everyone but me seems to be doing for some bizarre reason...

Think of it this way, Ard. You are the elegant, refined aristocrat wielding a rapier. (Samurai also fits here better than you might think.) The rest of us appreciate your skill, but point out taking someone's head off with a claymore/naginata is just as lethal, and less likely to go sideways (usually).

3 hours ago, mythics said:

I ran something similar as a proof of concept a couple weeks ago. It works fine against non/light/medium squadron cover, but if you run into a heavy squadron ball you won't be able to get your squadrons free in time. B-wings, while respectable, just don't do enough to be able to punch through massed or quality squadrons efficiently.

First match was against Imperial aces (not sloane), and I was doing everything I could to try and keep my squads alive to not lose points. Even with my b-wings tucked under overlapping AA cover from my ships it was still a losing fight.

Second match was against a massive tie fighter sloane ball. I had a minor win due to objectives, but it cost me all my squads and my opponent to misplay. If he played even a bit better (swam rerolls, howlrunner + die, not letting two b-wings shake free to kill his most wanted ship, or quasar AA) I would have been tabled. The b-wings + ship AA fire was able to burn though the non aces, but the aces had free reign on what they chose to do.

Overall I would recommend aiming to win the squadron game first then do bombing.

This is very true.

I tested a Sloane Defender concept and ran into a B-wing swarm.

They are just too slow and lack escorts. Intel dies, Bees are tied up and cut to pieces.

Lost Mithel, but bagged a full bomber complement.

4 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

This is very true.

I tested a Sloane Defender concept and ran into a B-wing swarm.

They are just too slow and lack escorts. Intel dies, Bees are tied up and cut to pieces.

Lost Mithel, but bagged a full bomber complement.

What was your Sloan squadron complement?

2 hours ago, dominosfleet said:

generics are a great counter to sloane. Her ONLY impact against squadrons is flipping tokens, if you don't have any tokens (or have them protected via 20 x-wings) she doesn't have much of an impact. Having said that right now she's my favorite imperial commander but I like winning the squad fight and then moving them into the ship fight.

Sort of true, but a dedicated ball of 134 pts of Imperial anti-squad eats generics too (maybe except a full Y-wing swarm).

Because you know, no defense tokens to begin with...

@Ardaedhel is spot on: the real benefit of Sloane is you can take that pure anti-squad wing and still perform good vs ships. Without her it's an exercise in waste.

Her effect on the squad game is actually rather small. It helps a bit, but locking down tokens is almost as good as spending them.

2 minutes ago, Eggzavier said:

What was your Sloan squadron complement?

In this case:

Jendon-Maarek

4 Defenders

Mithel

Valen

133 pts

2 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Sort of. Sloane gives you the freedom to take a much stronger anti-squadron wing because your dedicated fighters are still hitting at near-bomber levels.

Assuming you're not flying a terrible Sloane squadron wing with Defenders and Maarek, like everyone but me seems to be doing for some bizarre reason...

I've done a handful of games with Sloane Defenders.

I would not say awful.

I like my aces and common TIEs better, but speed 5 is tempting. T heir anti-ship is not much better than a plain TIE, so that's unimpressive. Too few blue vs squads though.

What was actually appealing was that they made stuff like Precision Strike and Fighter Ambush better than in a non-bomber fleet.

32 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

I've done a handful of games with Sloane Defenders.

I would not say awful.

I like my aces and common TIEs better, but speed 5 is tempting. T heir anti-ship is not much better than a plain TIE, so that's unimpressive. Too few blue vs squads though.

What was actually appealing was that they made stuff like Precision Strike and Fighter Ambush better than in a non-bomber fleet.

I'll grant you Precision Strike.

Fighter Ambush, 134 points of aces and interceptors is still fantastic. Reroll on crit does a lot for their reliability. It's not quite bomber, but it's really close.

Am I the only one surprised by the fact that none of the Pelta's has Fleet Command? For me, the only reason to take a Pelta vs NebB is Shield to Max and/or All Fighters.

6 hours ago, Ritalbringer said:

Am I the only one surprised by the fact that none of the Pelta's has Fleet Command? For me, the only reason to take a Pelta vs NebB is Shield to Max and/or All Fighters.

And one higher Squadron value.

And a Redirect.

And Offensive Refit.

And Phoenix Home for double officers.

Once you have Yavaris, Peltas are better for pushing squadrons, even without All Fighters, Follow Me.

For a higher cost as well.

I do anyway agree with your points above. At least for one Pelta. Still not convinced for 2 Peltas still with no Fleet Commands.

So this fleet performed well enough in a 6-player tournament to get me first place.

My first match was against a very skilled but new player running a no-squads, 7-activation Rieekan list. What the B-Wings got close to, they killed. I won with an 8-3 on that one, but Admonition is going to get a kill with any level of competency.

In my second match, I played a Sloane list with a Flight Controllers ISD, Boarding Troopers VSD, and Comms Net Gozanti. I elected to take second so I could get the double activations at the end of the turn, and he selected my Fighter Ambush. As soon as we finished placing obstacles, I realized I had made a mistake: I didn't give myself an obstacle that was a little farther back from his speed 4 squadrons. I split my squadrons into two groups, but the main squadron furball was a grind for both of us. By the end of the game, I only had a flotilla and B-Wing left. Sloane's ability never really made a difference because his squadrons were stuck fighting my squadrons. I killed the VSD, a number of squadrons, and collected some tokens to put us at 7-4. At the time, I felt like I lost the game because of my poor obstacle placement as well as some unfortunate rolls from Dagger squadron on a chance to kill Soontir Fel with Swarm and Toryn Farr rerolls.

My final match was against a 6-activation Ozzel fleet with minimal squadron support. He had double Raiders, Insidious, and Demolisher with External Racks plus two Gozantis. He chose my Fighter Ambush, and I was much smarter about my obstacle placement even though his squadron composition was much different. Yavaris died on his second activation of turn three from a last-first Demolisher attack and then a ram from a Raider. Phoenix Home died during the same turn. At that point, I thought I was going to lose. However, Demolisher went down to sustained B-Wing fire and the ramming Raider suffered the same fate. By the end, I had killed everything he had except Insidious and one Gozanti while only having Garm's Pelta and most of my B-Wings still alive. But with Boosted Comms, Flight Commander, and Fighter Coordination Team, I was able to position the B-Wings that I didn't activate with Squadron commands so they could still shoot at a target in the Squadron phase. All of that plus 135 points of Fighter Ambush tokens was enough for 8 points and first place after the Sloane player lost his final match (he chose his opponent's Advanced Gunnery objective from a fleet that has Defiance).

7 hours ago, comatose said:

But with... Fighter Coordination Team, I was able to position the B-Wings that I didn't activate with Squadron commands so they could still shoot at a target in the Squadron phase.

That's good squadron play, kudos.

I decided to dust off the current incarnation of this list for my latest SC. It continues its hot streak after making Top 8 in two different regionals, winning 2 out of 3 at the SC this weekend. In the current meta that includes a number of squadronless lists, it really shines, winning 10-1 and 9-2 against two such lists. Of course, it still struggles against Sloane, but it was only a 6-5 loss to her after Keyan finished my opponent's ISD on the last squadron activation of the turn he tabled me in Superior Positions.

People don't know how good the Pelta is because they are only using one.

/humble brag

1 minute ago, comatose said:

I decided to dust off the current incarnation of this list for my latest SC. It continues its hot streak after making Top 8 in two different regionals, winning 2 out of 3 at the SC this weekend. In the current meta that includes a number of squadronless lists, it really shines, winning 10-1 and 9-2 against two such lists. Of course, it still struggles against Sloane, but it was only a 6-5 loss to her after Keyan finished my opponent's ISD on the last squadron activation of the turn he tabled me in Superior Positions.

People don't know how good the Pelta is because they are only using one.

/humble brag

Have you considered a Bail MC80 though....