I've been trying to play my Rebels more and my favorite Admiral by far is Ackbar. Maneuvering around firing broadsides has a massive appeal to me from my love of traditional naval war gaming. Generally I run him with some mix of an MC80, CR90s and AFMKIIs. However, with the recent addition of an MC75 to my fleet I have an idea that it may make a better home for Ackbar than the traditional MC80. The MC75 is throwing less dice, but it can throw them twice thanks to being able to take Gunnery Teams.

I think it pairs well with MC30s, as they can all throw good broadsides of red dice twice!, move fast and are vicious if anything does get in close. It's a different way to play these ships, rather than the torpedo-boat-down-the-throat tactics I usually see them employed with. It's a faster list, allowing for a different tactical approach; quickly flitting around like a school of fish rather than the pod of whales gun-line. Additionally, I've been toying with squadron combos and so far have found this one to be an effective tar-pit. So, thoughts?

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 399/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC75 Armored Cruiser (104 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
= 156 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 83 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 83 total ship cost

1 Corran Horn ( 22 points)
1 Ketsu Onyo ( 22 points)
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)

I personally prefer the good ol Doom pickle myself.

To me, the Armored Cruiser flies and shoots like an upsized Assault Frigate. I think rather than double MC30s, you might do GT MC75 + GT AFM2 + some flotilla padding. Would give you a higher bid so you can force the enemy to fly into your overlapping fire or else give up objectives to you. This way, I think you risk getting those untitled MC30s sniped away.

MC75+Ackbar, I see no problems. But MC30 without Admonition and those fighters, I think that are the weaknesses of your fleet.

This is a fleet I have been working on for some time while various parts of the MC75 were spoilt. Mainly because the MC30 and AFMK2 are ships I am fond of due to the Empire at War videogame. I am currently undecided on which officer I want on the MC75 and would like to trim points from somewhere to take XI7s on the assault frigate and MC75 and possibly add strategic but that is all in other unfinished iterations of this list to possibly one day see completion.

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• Admiral Ackbar (38)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Aspiration (3)
= 163 Points

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Gunnery Team (7)
= 79 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Admonition (8)
= 91 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Comms Net (2)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 29 Points

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 33 Points

Total Points: 395

My suggestion would be to leverage some of the advantages of the new wave beyond just the M75 because this list is extremely soft on quite a few fronts. The entire play of this list is gambling on red dice and maintaing range by being super threathning at short range. I like the concept but you have a couple of gaps here I think make this list very vulnerable regardless of what your facing.

3 activations means you will be out activated pretty much always, your low point buy means you are basically always going to play from the 2nd player position and you will always get 1st, lasted, every game. You didn’t list your objectives, which is probobly the most critical thing to your success here, but with this list your own objectives are likely to backfire on you no matter which ones you choose. The list has a sort of design that doesn’t really allow you to pick 3 strong objectives to make it a tougher call for your opponent, the obvious play here is always be first player against this list because you can 1st, last those MC30’s before they ever throw black dice at you and lets be frank, 1 black die is worth 3 red dice.

For one I would at least fit Strategic Adviser in there for the extra activation, its a easy adjustment that will help you quite a bit. Secondly I would personally consider what objectives you are going to offer, that is the biggest thing here.

What about something like this?

MC75O with IO, Caitken & Shollan, ECM, ExRacks, Exp Launchers, Aspiration

AF2B with Ackbar, ECM, SFO, GT, Dual Turbolaser Turrets

AF2B with SFO, GT, Dual Turbolaser Turrets

GR75 Med with Comms and Ahsoka

GR75 with Repair Crews

398 (drop Ashoka and downgrade Repair Crews to Comms to save a few points), Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Dangerous Territory (no great blue choice but at least you can run over rocks to set up shots).

Meta dependent- gotta nuke carriers before they kill you, but IO and 5 rerollable reds with C&S should hurt flotillas and single brace ships at range. 8 rerollable Black dice (C&S) for the opening shot at whoever wants to get in front of the conga line (with CF).

Thoughts?