First, Backstory. So, I just had a rather... frustating game in my local Coreallian Conflict. And, to be fair, it was a base assault, so it was supposed to be intense. Doesn't help that I screwed up my deployment, or that I'm running 3 raiders without Motti (You would not believe how many times my Raiders have died because somebody else got him). But what really screwed me over was throwing my fighters into Gallant Haven+ Jan Ors. Now, obviously I shouldn't have done that. What was really frustrating, though, was that the alternative was a staring contest. He wouldn't want to run his assault frigate into all of my waiting front arcs, and leaving the Gallant Haven bubble would be death for his sluggish fighters. I, meanwhile, couldn't brave those guns without fighter cover, which would utterly fold if I had to use 4 Heavy hitters to kill one stupid fighter.

So while I'm basically stuck avoiding this fleet for the rest of the campaign, I have to wonder about what comes after. There has to be a better way for a strong fighter presence to deal with Gallant Haven as first player than just not playing the game, right? But I have to confess I can't see it. Anyone able to lend a hand?

EDIT: While I'm looking for general advice over list specific stuff, here's what my fleet ended up being. Given the mauling I took, I will not be able to add the last 20 points next round, although due to a disastrous hyperlane raid on the part of the rebels, it looks like I'll be able to repair everything except the jumpmaster.

Use your raider's high speed to flank and hit Gallant Haven in the rear. Add a small fighter screen to protect you from his fighters, and/or add flechette torpedos to help with the fighter furball.

2 minutes ago, idiewell said:

Use your raider's high speed to flank and hit Gallant Haven in the rear. Add a small fighter screen to protect you from his fighters, and/or add flechette torpedos to help with the fighter furball.

Botching my flechette raider's placement did not help either, I'll admit. But if he slow rolls the Gallant Haven (Which seems like the correct play), I have to send the raider into the fighter ball, and a handful of b-wings can reduce a Raider to space dust in one round, before it gets to flak.

So I’m guessing the exam question is - how to beat Gallant Haven plus Jan Ors?

Firstly - what ships do you have? Can you give us a break down?

Secondly - what squadrons are you running? GH lives and dies by its squads, but the Imps have the best specialised squads in the game. Would be good to know before we can help!!

Gallant Haven title does nothing to protect against the ship itself, so if you kill the Frigate, there's no protection for his fighter ball.

So I had sort of the same situation as you.
3 Raiders, ISD-II, and less fighters than your setup vs a Gallant Haven fleet.
Gallant Haven started to piss me off so I did something about it.

DISCLAIMER: Your opponent may rage punch you or flip the table and then *tch about broken mechanics. Fair warning.

I tied up his fighters with my TIE Advanceds and killed his only HWK-290 so he couldn't go after the ships.
Gallant Haven was boxed in by all 3 Raiders and ram killed itself to death while taking salvos of black dice at point blank range.

7 minutes ago, Shadoq said:

So I had sort of the same situation as you.
3 Raiders, ISD-II, and less fighters than your setup vs a Gallant Haven fleet.
Gallant Haven started to piss me off so I did something about it.

DISCLAIMER: Your opponent may rage punch you or flip the table and then *tch about broken mechanics. Fair warning.

I tied up his fighters with my TIE Advanceds and killed his only HWK-290 so he couldn't go after the ships.
Gallant Haven was boxed in by all 3 Raiders and ram killed itself to death while taking salvos of black dice at point blank range.

This is a completely valid and intelligent counterplay- and your opponent has no right to complain about broken mechanics if he/she is flying the Gallant Haven/Jan/Aces combo, it’s known to be one of the most frustrating archetypes to fly against

1 hour ago, Shadoq said:

So I had sort of the same situation as you.
3 Raiders, ISD-II, and less fighters than your setup vs a Gallant Haven fleet.
Gallant Haven started to piss me off so I did something about it.

DISCLAIMER: Your opponent may rage punch you or flip the table and then *tch about broken mechanics. Fair warning.

I tied up his fighters with my TIE Advanceds and killed his only HWK-290 so he couldn't go after the ships.
Gallant Haven was boxed in by all 3 Raiders and ram killed itself to death while taking salvos of black dice at point blank range.

This is the way to beat it, especially if it's slow rolling. Park in front of GH and blow it the **** up.

But don't tell anybody around here that. We only want nerfs here, not solutions.

Further, if they are running with so few Escorts that you can easily kill Jan/the HWK, well. . .they deserve the frustration.

Why do you need to kill gallant haven? Can you not pick something else of turn 6?

5 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Why do you need to kill gallant haven? Can you not pick something else of turn 6?

How are you gonna table him without killing GH?

Just now, Ardaedhel said:

How are you gonna table him without killing GH?

Its CC.... why bother its just effort.

4 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Its CC.... why bother its just effort.

Good point. I revise my question:

How are you going to scar and eventually kill GH with that approach?

First off, I appreciate all the replies; It looks like the rough consensus is that I should wait until much of the fighter ball is placed (telegraphing the Gallant Haven's location), and then array my ships such that the gallant haven has little choice but to fly into them. Good advice I shall try to take with me into my next battle. If anyone has any more specific advice, I do appreciate it

16 hours ago, Mundo said:

So I’m guessing the exam question is - how to beat Gallant Haven plus Jan Ors?

Firstly - what ships do you have? Can you give us a break down?

Secondly - what squadrons are you running? GH lives and dies by its squads, but the Imps have the best specialised squads in the game. Would be good to know before we can help!!

I already linked the CC fleet, but here it is again, in a more prominent location. As far as what I have available in totality, I do own at least one copy of everything, although as far as adding to the fleet goes, Mauler Mithel, Soontir Fel, and Dengar are all taken as well as some other unique stuff.

As far as what I was facing... I believe it was something like this , although I know I'm missing something because he was at 450 last round and added the engine techs this time.

7 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Why do you need to kill gallant haven? Can you not pick something else of turn 6?

In this case, Gallant haven was the only thing exposed to me (Well, I splattered his Flotilla early, but 26 points does not win you the game if getting said ponits means running into danger). And to be fair, I very nearly did kill it... If only my dice could have been counted upon*. I definately screwed up deployment and obstacle placement (I'm kicking myself a bit for forgetting that I had a spynet token I could have used to move the out of position raider into a better spot) as well, which hurt.

*Granted, that rather bizarre ISD build means my dice's failure to perform is entirely my fault.

17 minutes ago, Squark said:

In this case, Gallant haven was the only thing exposed to me (Well, I splattered his Flotilla early, but 26 points does not win you the game)

Yes it does..... and by being in the winning position your opponent is forced to give up the base or come out and play....

4 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Yes it does..... and by being in the winning position your opponent is forced to give up the base or come out and play....

Not if the killing the flotilla means my ships had to move into attack range of the fighters. I probably should have specified that (Although where else was the bomber command flotilla going to be but near the fighters? Of course, unless you've memorized the cost of a bomber command flotilla, it wasn't obvious that was what it was.)

4 hours ago, Squark said:

First off, I appreciate all the replies; It looks like the rough consensus is that I should wait until much of the fighter ball is placed (telegraphing the Gallant Haven's location), and then array my ships such that the gallant haven has little choice but to fly into them. Good advice I shall try to take with me into my next battle. If anyone has any more specific advice, I do appreciate it

I already linked the CC fleet, but here it is again, in a more prominent location. As far as what I have available in totality, I do own at least one copy of everything, although as far as adding to the fleet goes, Mauler Mithel, Soontir Fel, and Dengar are all taken as well as some other unique stuff.

As far as what I was facing... I believe it was something like this , although I know I'm missing something because he was at 450 last round and added the engine techs this time.

Couple of thoughts which may help:

- If you have 20pts spare and he isn’t taken, buy Colonel Jendon at the next opportunity. He and Maarek go together very effectively.

- I notice you out activate your opponent - perhaps you can use the classic ‘activate last, then first’ with a Raider jammed into the Gallant Haven’s nose. A couple of Raiders doing that will leave the ship in a bad way - allowing the ISD to finish it off and/or forcing Gallant Haven to run and abandon the squadron fight to survive.

- Firesprays have had a tough time since people started bringing and activating squadrons more. However, they make great bombers - if you can pile on the damage to Gallant Haven, that will combo well with the above.

So basically, I think there are two viable strategies:

1) Kill the carrier (or force it to run), leaving the squads to be picked off.

OR

2) Play the mission! In CC there is no MOV as such - if you win the game by 1pt it’s all good. And if he is coming to you, make sure you trap him your combat ships.

Also, as a general point - check out the excellent Cannot Get Your Ship Out blog. Some great Raider and Gallant Haven advice on there.

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.co m

Hope that helps!!

2 hours ago, Mundo said:

Couple of thoughts which may help:

- If you have 20pts spare and he isn’t taken, buy Colonel Jendon at the next opportunity. He and Maarek go together very effectively.

- I notice you out activate your opponent - perhaps you can use the classic ‘activate last, then first’ with a Raider jammed into the Gallant Haven’s nose. A couple of Raiders doing that will leave the ship in a bad way - allowing the ISD to finish it off and/or forcing Gallant Haven to run and abandon the squadron fight to survive.

- Firesprays have had a tough time since people started bringing and activating squadrons more. However, they make great bombers - if you can pile on the damage to Gallant Haven, that will combo well with the above.

So basically, I think there are two viable strategies:

1) Kill the carrier (or force it to run), leaving the squads to be picked off.

OR

2) Play the mission! In CC there is no MOV as such - if you win the game by 1pt it’s all good. And if he is coming to you, make sure you trap him your combat ships.

Also, as a general point - check out the excellent Cannot Get Your Ship Out blog. Some great Raider and Gallant Haven advice on there.

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.co m

Hope that helps!!

The mission was station assault, so I didn't actually out activate him. And Colonel Mendon improbably my final pick.