Played a Q4 kit today with 3 friends and we all brought some new, janky ****. This is what I ran:
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400
Commander: Commander Sato
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Sensor Net
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 188 total ship cost
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 41 total ship cost
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 41 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Leia Organa ( 3 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 23 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 22 total ship cost
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)
2 VCX-100 Freighters ( 30 points)
Idk anymore. I can produce a lot of black dice, but I feel the attacks are underwhelming. I played against a Leia fleet which had 2 GR-75s (BCC and Toryn), an AF (FC, BC, RBD, DTT) and an MC80 (Leia, RBD, XI7, LS), Biggs, 3 X-Wings, and 3 Y-Wings. There were some other upgrades. We circled around each other until round 4 when our squads engaged, followed by ships on round 5. I had to pull both HH out of the fight because I moved them barely into range of an Ion Cannon token, and both took 4 damage. Sato took a shot at Toryn and dealt 5 damage but was scattered and lost due to IO, and dealt 3 damage the next round leaving Toryn on the board.
My second game was against 4 HH (TFA, OE, ER) Toryn, TRC90 Jaina's Light, 5 YT-2400 and Dash, led by Cracken. Holy **** Cracken counters Sato so hard, and more so against my fleet. My HH had a whole 2 dice to use, and Sato had 3 at long, 5 at medium. My squads were decimated because I was second player, playing FL. YT-2400s moved in fast and pushed by ships at the start of round 2. My VXCs were engaged so I was forced to activate my squads with the MC80. I lost a HH after it took 8 damage from another HH. My other HH soon followed after it took 5 or 6 damage from another burst attack. I was left with Sato and 2 flotillas, Tycho and an A-Wing against 4 HH and 6 YT-2400s. Sato managed to kill 2 HH that were at 1 hull and ran over an asteroid as I attempted to flee. The following round dropped the MC80 to 2 shields and 5 hull, even though the HH whiffed on it's ER attack dealing 4 damage. We called it after Tycho engaged 4 YT-2400s, preventing them from attacking the MC80 and I killed another HH. I won 7-4, but I was very disappointed in my performance.
We didn't play the 3rd game because we wanted to play L5R, but I would have faced a Dual Lib Dodonna fleet and likely lost. End score was 13 points.
Playing against Cracken and having 6 HH on the table made all of us realize how much we dislike that ship. Yes it has great burst damage and it's cheap, but it's so unreliable when you need it. You don't win tournaments by hoping you roll damage, you win by having consistent damage. And if you play against someone who rolls consistent damage, HHs melt so quickly. They don't have the speed or yaw to evade enemy ships and actually are better at ramming, which is probably the secret to playing them. Threaten with a huge spike of damage followed by a sacrificial move and ram. If you're someone who can get them to work, you're clearly a better player than I and have more patience. The only use I have for them now is a Scout with RS to ping out damage supported by Toryn.
In regards to the MC80, it's an excellent second player ship. It's very hard to kill, and has a lot of options with the flotillas supporting it. But having double rainbow dice (the HH has rainbow dice 1 red, 1 blue, 1 black). Throwing 2 red, 2 blue, 2 black at medium feels really good. Defiance for another die, typically black, gives 7 dice with rerolls. Yet I still wasn't happy with it because I couldn't get the front arc all the time, meaning Ackbar would have been better with 6 reds, 2 blue, and a black. I think it's time to switch back to Paragon and Admo and some different support ships.
At the end of the day, we had a blast playing. I also won my first L5R game with Crab against Scorpion so that was exciting.