Hello guys,

I am about to give a first try to the Ackbar pickle, aka Da Xzibit Defiance.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 393/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Defiance ( 5 points)
- Lando Calrissian ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
- Quad Battery Turrets ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 190 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 53 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
= 18 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
= 18 total ship cost

1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
2 VCX-100 Freighters ( 30 points)

I see a lot of lists with plenty of more gr75, but I don't want to field so many flotillas, and I want more ships to take advantage of Ackbar's skills.

On the Defiance QBT could be XI7 maybe.

Jan Ors is also an idea, don't you think?

Thank you for your feedbacks, opinions and shares of experience!

I like it! I probably wouldn't change much, if anything, about it at all. But if you want to try small adjustments over successive games...

• QBT is great on Defiance. Keep that as is. Especially with Leading Shots.
• I think you will find that this fleet is happy going first or second. (I worried about going first with my own Defiance, but I found that it wasn't a problem. The advantage of first player more than made up for losing the ability of the Defiance title.) That means you can build to 400 points. And 7 points is exactly the cost of Toryn Farr, who will help your A-Wing aces quite a bit.
• Alternatively, a Comms Net or two and/or Leia might be good additions to this fleet.
• The A-Wing aces and 2 VCX-100s are a good squadron build for this fleet. I don't think you need Jan Ors. Tycho treats everyone as heavy anyway, both aces have their own tokens, and the VCXs have a ton of hull. I have Jan Ors in my Defiance Ackbar build, but that's to keep generic X-Wings alive (who in turn keep the VCXs alive), not really for the intel.
• I prefer Wallex to Lando on my Defiance, but both are solid choices. Another possibility is the soon-to-be Strategic Advisor. It could help in games where you have first player.
• Advanced Gunnery is an even better red objective for you, but Most Wanted works ok also.
• Fire Lanes is a great objective when your opponent doesn't have strategic squadrons, but it can backfire if they do. Planetary Ion Cannon wouldn't be bad. (The yellow objective is the one that I struggle with the most.)

I think you will find this fleet to be a lot of fun. Enjoy.

Thank you @stonestokes for this feedback! I will think about the changes you recommend

This is my favorite variant of the fleet, and the one that I will run if forced to play Rebels.

You want to learn to play Sensor net for Blue Objective, however, and Defiance really likes Advanced Gunnery. Id swap in those objectives and you have a mean first or second player fleet.

XI7. You want shots to matter. QBT is good, but not quite as good.

Take a comms net.

I like this, but if you go up against a super dedicated strategic build it could backfire. Someone with like Adar, and FTC and other methods to move tokens. I personally like 3 when i'm playing strategic.

Good advice gentlemen! @BrobaFett @stonestokes @Green Knight @Doc58 Shall I max the points to add Comms net x2 (4pts) and 3 spare points for something else.

1 hour ago, Doc58 said:

I personally like 3 when i'm playing strategic.

I would love to add a 3rd VCX, but difficult to find the points here

I don't think you need more than one Comms Net. If you are playing a game where you want to move tokens with your VCXs, you are going to be doing that first activation of the first round with one of your GR-75s. The other is free to Comms Net. But then it is unlikely that either will be free to Comms Net for most of the rest of the game. (I have 3 GR-75s in my fleet; only one has a Comms Net, and there are many games where that is too many.)

I like Leia on Jaina's Light. She is a crutch (I'm still new), but very useful, IMO. I spam Navigate commands with Defiance, and then change commands with Leia when I want Repair or Concentrate Fire. I often run Jaina's Light to the outside of Defiance where she is protected from serious threat.

On 24/01/2018 at 8:46 PM, stonestokes said:

I like Leia on Jaina's Light. She is a crutch (I'm still new), but very useful, IMO. I spam Navigate commands with Defiance, and then change commands with Leia when I want Repair or Concentrate Fire. I often run Jaina's Light to the outside of Defiance where she is protected from serious threat.

I never thought about it, it's a smart move. It's clear that my Defiance will move at 1 + 1. Even putting Ackbar on Jaina's Light protected by the Defiance could be an idea.

30 minutes ago, Ritalbringer said:

I never thought about it, it's a smart move. It's clear that my Defiance will move at 1 + 1. Even putting Ackbar on Jaina's Light protected by the Defiance could be an idea.

1. Don't lock yourself into automatically going speed 1 with Defiance. Sometimes it really is better to give up the extra die from Quad Battery Turrets to go speed 2+1 and get out of the front arc of an ISD-I or to kite a Demolisher.

2. Ackbar on Jaina's Light could be a thing. I have played a half dozen games with my Ackbar Defiance and Jaina's Light. I've lost Jaina's Light in 2 or 3 of those games, but I have yet to even pop RBDs for Defiance. But that's also because I'm not afraid of using the CR-90 aggressively when the time calls for it. On the other hand, I am much too afraid to try an Ackbar Slash with Defiance at least in part because Ackbar is on board.