3 or 4 MC30's

By Herr Style, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Just wondering which would be the best list? I've only 2 MC30's at the moment with a CR90, GR75 flotilla, and for fighters just the core X wings plus R&V.

List 1

FLEET
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
General Dodonna 20
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
Admonition 8
TOTAL POINTS: 100
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
Foresight 8
TOTAL POINTS: 80
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
TOTAL POINTS: 72
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
TOTAL POINTS: 72
SHIP: GR-75 Medium Transports 18
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UPGRADES PTS
Comms Net 2
TOTAL POINTS: 20
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SQUADRONS PTS
Jan Ors 19
X-wing Squadron × 1 13
X-wing Squadron × 1 13
TOTAL POINTS: 45
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OBJECTIVES
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ASSAULT:
Close-Range Intel Scan
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DEFENSE:
Planetary Ion Cannon
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NAVIGATION:
Solar Corona

List 2

FLEET
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
H9 Turbolasers 8
Admonition 8
TOTAL POINTS: 88
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
H9 Turbolasers 8
Foresight 8
TOTAL POINTS: 88
SHIP: MC30c Torpedo Frigate 63
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UPGRADES PTS
Lando Carissian 4
Ordnance Experts 4
Assault Proton Torpedoes 5
TOTAL POINTS: 76
SHIP: CR90 Corvette A 44
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UPGRADES PTS
General Dodonna 20
Jaina's Light 2
TOTAL POINTS: 66
SHIP: GR-75 Medium Transports 18
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UPGRADES PTS
Expanded Hangar Bay 5
TOTAL POINTS: 23
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SQUADRONS PTS
Jan Ors 19
X-wing Squadron × 1 13
X-wing Squadron × 1 13
X-wing Squadron × 1 13
TOTAL POINTS: 58
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OBJECTIVES
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ASSAULT:
Targeting Beacons
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DEFENSE:
Hyperspace Assault
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NAVIGATION:
Solar Corona

I like the second list. But pick most wanted as your red objective.

The first one, but take Shara+ Tycho for squadrons instead, drop Foresight, then use the savings from all that to put Lando on the flagship and get a second GR-75.

Then, change your red and yellow objectives respectively to either Most Wanted, Precision Strike, or Advanced Gunnery; and Hyperspace Assault, Contested Outpost, or Jamming Barrier.

4 MC30's is better than 3 because it decentralizes your threat. You're not depending on any one ship surviving the ingress to the fight because you have overwhelming numbers that are very very hard to kill more than one of that fast. @CaribbeanNinja and I were just discussing this: MC30's are best either 1 or 4 to a fleet.

Foresight is great, but it's a luxury you can't afford here.

Jan/X/X won't live long enough to be a strong tar pit without Jamming Fields, nor are they fast enough to effectively protect the shrimp. You want each MC30 to have full freedom to sprint from point to point on the field as necessary without being tethered to anything. Jan/X/X/X might have the survivability to make their speed vs survivability possibly worthwhile, but Jan/X/X does not.

Lando + Admonition gives you the ability to survive virtually any single shot. That is an immeasurable advantage for your flagship.

So, either buy one MC30 and have done with it, or buy two, another GR75 and Rebel fighters pack! Urgh, this is as big a money pit as X Wing LOL.

I think my next rebel purchase will be another MC30, but I don't think I'm going to stop there!

Thanks for the advice guys.

13 hours ago, Herr Style said:

So, either buy one MC30 and have done with it, or buy two, another GR75 and Rebel fighters pack! Urgh, this is as big a money pit as X Wing LOL.

I think my next rebel purchase will be another MC30, but I don't think I'm going to stop there!

Thanks for the advice guys.

Ah, missed that opening line where you listed what you have, so my advice was strictly informed by what I consider to be optimal listbuilding without consideration for what you have. I'd definitely take much less of a hard-line stance on it in that light: either one of those lists will work fine as is, I just think with a few changes you can get the first one to be a really great build.

13 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

4 MC30's is better than 3 because it decentralizes your threat. You're not depending on any one ship surviving the ingress to the fight because you have overwhelming numbers that are very very hard to kill more than one of that fast. @CaribbeanNinja and I were just discussing this: MC30's are best either 1 or 4 to a fleet.

How did you two get to that conclusion? 2 is a fairly good number as well..... were you assuming second player or something wierd?

59 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

How did you two get to that conclusion? 2 is a fairly good number as well..... were you assuming second player or something wierd?

Nah, nothing weird like that, just experience. It's about weathering the outer defenses of your opponent--whether that be squadrons, ramming, long-range fire, whatever--with enough punch to still kill things.

With one, you can stack it up with uniques like Admo and Lando to make it harder to kill than it's worth, while still having the points to bring other stuff to follow up the strong opener (or to make a strong anvil for Admo 's hammer).

With four, you overwhelm them with numbers. Even if one goes down on the way in, three getting through are still enough to get the kill on pretty much anything in the game. And it's challenging enough for the opponent to take one of the four down before it gets its shots in, much less two or three, so you're likely to get those shots.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule, just a rule of thumb we both noticed.

What speed would you set it as? 3 or maybe even 4? Am thinking of painting them red too, as with the Kult of Speed, "Red ones go faster!"

4 minutes ago, Herr Style said:

What speed would you set it as? 3 or maybe even 4? Am thinking of painting them red too, as with the Kult of Speed, "Red ones go faster!"

3 gives manueverability. 4 is suicidal

19 minutes ago, Herr Style said:

What speed would you set it as? 3 or maybe even 4? Am thinking of painting them red too, as with the Kult of Speed, "Red ones go faster!"

I say two every time and take a nav token on turn every time while you're learning the fleet, until you've learned when to break the rule.

More often, Gink is right that speed 3 is what you actually want. The problem is that if you haven't correctly evaluated to opponent's fleet and adjusted your deployment well in response, that can get you into real trouble early on in certain matchups like fast bombers, massed TRC90's, ET Liberties, aggressive ISD2's, or fast rogues.

But it's hard to formulate a hard-and-fast rule for identifying that, and you'll rarely be actually punished for starting at speed 2 and taking a token, so that's my recommendation for people just learning MC30-centric lists.

We can both agree that you rarely want speed 4 at deployment though.

Given what you already own, I would go with the second list. Here are some thoughts, but take them all with a grain of salt.

  • I might drop the Expanded Hangar Bay from the GR-75. If you can find the points, Toryn Farr would be much better there. You lose the ability to activate all of your squadrons in the Ship Phase, but the reroll you get is worth it.
  • Dodonna is good for the fleet, but Mon Mothma would be amazing.
  • Lando wants to be with Admonition , like @Ardaedhel suggested.
  • If you play Rebels a lot, you definitely want to pick up the Rebel Fighter Squadrons expansion pack at some point. It gives you 2 each of X-, Y-, A-, and B-Wings, and 4 of the best named pilots in the game: Wedge, Dutch, Tycho, and Keyan. You will get a lot of mileage out of it. That said, I don't think you necessarily need to get it to make either of these builds work. Jan/X/X/X is a really good fighter screen.
  • Adding another GR-75 wouldn't be too bad either. You can drop an MC-30 for another GR-75 and you suddenly have a lot of points to play with.
  • Alternatively, you could go to a second CR-90A. (You have a CR-90 expansion pack in addition to the one in the Core set, right?) Dropping the third MC-30 to CR-90a should give you plenty of points to upgrade Dodonna to Mon Mothma.
  • If you do manage to squeeze Mon Mothma in there, don't drop Foresight . It is really good with her. A single evade token can completely negate up to 4 damage at medium range! Unless the opponent can lock down both evades or both redirects, you can take a single hit of 16 damage and still limp away. If they get two accuracies, they still need somewhere between 9 and 11 damage to kill you with a single shot (by locking down your two redirects).
6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

4 is suicidal

I think you meant awesome

If I am starting as second player, usually I start as speed 2. First player, speed two or three for taste. Speed 4 is for edge situations and escaping from traps.

50 minutes ago, Caldias said:

Speed 4 is for edge situations and escaping from traps.

Or springing them. I love starting them at 4, but usually at very oblique angles.

Too bad you don't have Madine or Mothma. MC30s love those two.

I do have the Mothma card, but wanted to try Dodonna and APT's first

You'll find Mothma's survivability really helps them out. Madine also is a real asset. Dodonna is great too, but those ships are so fragile the boost in surviving and maneuverability really helps them.

4 minutes ago, Caldias said:

You'll find Mothma's survivability really helps them out. Madine also is a real asset. Dodonna is great too, but those ships are so fragile the boost in surviving and maneuverability really helps them.

ACKBAR! BE BOLD!

I did consider torpedo mc30's with enhanced armaments for 3 red, 2 blue and 3 black. On a side note, do they do well if you split your 4 mc30's into pairs to allow pincer movements? Or what's the best tactic? Can't get your ship out shortcut is on my phone screen by the way lol.

MC30's are the one ship that really can be used well with any Rebel admiral. I personally use them with Mothma because I feel like I have to (I seem to find all of the bomber lists in every tournament when I don't), but I really enjoy them with Dodonna. Madine is also fun.

Ackbar does work. I actually like him with TRC on the MC30T, but that's mostly for the reactions I get when people see it. Objectively speaking, EA is probably the better choice there, particularly after the TRC nerf.