You can't activate the MC-75 first, so if you're in the front arc of an ISD even if you survive the hit (which you probably will as it's pretty tanky, unless it's BTAvenger) you are unlikely to survive any follow-ups from other ships/squads. Multiple repair crews will probably be useless - I get your use of IO but Lando may be of more help if you want to survive.

Not sure you want TRCs on your lifeboat - drop it to a CR-90B, drop the TRCS, lose the repair crews and upgrade a GR-75 to an engine tech CR-90 to give you another very useful launch point for the MC-75 to keep your opponent guessing.

You'll probably not meet many MSUs with ET rams (though I don't know your meta) so HB is probably a waste.

Agree with you on Most Wanted - Solar Corona is excellent but equally Salvage Run can give you the extra points you may need. Ditto on HA and VIP.

Raddus is fun but tricky to pull off - I'm going to try working on one over the next few months so be intrigued to hear how you get on.

27 minutes ago, Kendraam said:

You can't activate the MC-75 first, so if you're in the front arc of an ISD even if you survive the hit (which you probably will as it's pretty tanky, unless it's BTAvenger) you are unlikely to survive any follow-ups from other ships/squads.

Multiple repair crews will probably be useless - I get your use of IO but Lando may be of more help if you want to survive.

Not sure you want TRCs on your lifeboat - drop it to a CR-90B, drop the TRCS, lose the repair crews and upgrade a GR-75 to an engine tech CR-90 to give you another very useful launch point for the MC-75 to keep your opponent guessing.

You'll probably not meet many MSUs with ET rams (though I don't know your meta) so HB is probably a waste.

Agree with you on Most Wanted - Solar Corona is excellent but equally Salvage Run can give you the extra points you may need. Ditto on HA and VIP.

Raddus is fun but tricky to pull off - I'm going to try working on one over the next few months so be intrigued to hear how you get on.

Aspiration is there because I can't activate it first. I need it to be able to tank one big shot, at least. If I get first then I'll at least be able to have the first shot on the subsequent round. I don't have any experience of putting aspiration on the table, but if I move the shields appropriately then I should be able to survive another heavy shot as I'll be able to brace the first big shot that comes in at least, if not the second. I can see that I will probably end up wishing for Lando in some situations if I take IO, though.

The repair crews will hopefully mostly be in range of aspiration when it drops, because I plan to fly them in a cloud, so it's likely that they will each be able to use repair crews on their activation that turn. There will be at least two damage cards from rams so that seems like a good investment. Plus I can shift shields around with Engineering commands from the MC75 itself.

The lifeboat TRC question is real. Dropping to a CR90B could be a good suggestion. I want to keep it as a CR90 at least, for the speed 4. The second CR90B isn't a bad suggestion, although if I do that, I do have to abandon the repair team plan.

Hardened Bulkheads isn't really there for MSUs, it's more for stopping opportunistic ram damage from support ships. Too many time's I've lost a ship to a single point of ram damage.

How hard have you found it to drop your Raddus ship in the right place?

If you run into a fleet running multiple H9 ships, you are not going to get much choice for where you drop the MC75 since it will be popping flotillas left and right. When you do the Raddus drop, you want to kill your primary target, preferably with a secondary target in case the first one moves away. WAB doesn't help you do that, it helps you kill other stuff. ACM or APT are much better for that.

The most flexibility comes from Engine Tech CR90s, Quantum Storm, and Admonition. The ETCR90s give you maneuverability, including the ability to jump large front arcs. Admonition gives you survivability if you want to get in close with your drop. With Admonition, you can move it to medium range of your primary target and then drop the MC75 between it and Admonition.

If you take ECM you will want Walex cause that brace doesn't last long. If you take EWS you will probably want Lando for the big shot, as EWS is adequate for the plinks.

Agree that ACM or APT is essential on the big drop. Furthermore, with Aspiration you will need to stick around longer because it is your only damage source. The repair crews flotillas would much rather be Cr90's, as people pointed out, so they can start softening targets up or finish them off after the MC75 drops.

If you want an easy to run list, don't take repair crews. It is hilariously frustrating to get any sort of value out of them because of the short range and timing restriction.

Why so many flotillas rather than a second proper combat ship? A ship that CAN go first on the Raddus turn...

29 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Why so many flotillas rather than a second proper combat ship? A ship that CAN go first on the Raddus turn...

Agreed. The list I'm working on has the Aspiration, three TRC90s, a GR75 with Expanded Hanger Bays. In the event that the ISD or whatever can actually get past the big threat, the wolfpack is ready to go. Last game, if the Avenger hadn't gotten torn to pieces on the second round of firing by the 75, I had three CR90s in range, ready to go.

On 20/02/2018 at 9:12 PM, comatose said:

If you run into a fleet running multiple H9 ships, you are not going to get much choice for where you drop the MC75 since it will be popping flotillas left and right. When you do the Raddus drop, you want to kill your primary target, preferably with a secondary target in case the first one moves away. WAB doesn't help you do that, it helps you kill other stuff. ACM or APT are much better for that.

The most flexibility comes from Engine Tech CR90s, Quantum Storm, and Admonition. The ETCR90s give you maneuverability, including the ability to jump large front arcs. Admonition gives you survivability if you want to get in close with your drop. With Admonition, you can move it to medium range of your primary target and then drop the MC75 between it and Admonition.red

The H9 danger is real but I reasoned that If I had H9 ships incoming then I would have targets to drop against, albeit not my targets of choice. Large batteries of red H9s would be devastating, though they would also burn down CR90s quickly too.

I put Quantum Storm in there for mobility, as you said. I love Admo more than any other ship in the game but it's pricey, and eats a lot of the points remaining after the tooled up Ordnance cruiser. Same with ET CR90s, they start to get pricey. I was already planning to drop between my ships and the target

On 20/02/2018 at 10:01 PM, BrobaFett said:

If you take ECM you will want Walex cause that brace doesn't last long. If you take EWS you will probably want Lando for the big shot, as EWS is adequate for the plinks.

Agree that ACM or APT is essential on the big drop. Furthermore, with Aspiration you will need to stick around longer because it is your only damage source. The repair crews flotillas would much rather be Cr90's, as people pointed out, so they can start softening targets up or finish them off after the MC75 drops.

If you want an easy to run list, don't take repair crews. It is hilariously frustrating to get any sort of value out of them because of the short range and timing restriction.

The ECM/Walex, EWS/Lando pairing is a good point. I supposed a lot comes down to what I expect to be facing, which I don't have a clue about! I'll need to make a judgement call.

I can see definite situational advantages to WAB, but ACM or APT are (almost) guaranteed extra damage on the target, rather than picking out squads or flotillas. i thought WAB could be useful if I was putting all my eggs in one basket with basically one deadly combat ship. It's probably got more risk of going wrong though.

On 21/02/2018 at 1:50 PM, Ginkapo said:

Why so many flotillas rather than a second proper combat ship? A ship that CAN go first on the Raddus turn...

The rationale for the repair crews flotilla cloud is that I need aspiration to stick around for as long as possible and, crucially, the flotillas should already be in range of Aspiration as I expect to drop it between the flotillas and its target. Ordinarily I wouldn't go near Repair Crews because of its frustrating limitations, but with them already in range, and damage cards expected on the '75 immediately, I should be getting value out of them straight away. The ship going first on the Raddus turn would be Bright Hope, pushing the squads into the weakest arc to shield it (depending on the EWS/ECM decision). I'm not going to burn down a ship with a first activation with any other ship I could fit in the fleet (besides a double arcing Admo) so a defensive first move is not a waste.

(side note, i need to just confirm whether the Raddus limitation only applies if you are first player, rather that it being your first ship to activate. I'll check the rules forum after this).
Next goes Aspiration, blocking and blasting, then by the time the next flotilla goes, Aspiration will have damage cards, so they get to use the repair tokens they will have stored round one). No one loses out (in theory). Next round (if the target is still there) Aspiration is potentially 3 hull healtier than it would have been (plus all its own engineering has been used, with a token, to replenish its own shields). Plus the transports provide overlapping AA cover around the weak zones of Aspiration.

Also the 5 ship, pre-Raddus drop, fleet means that I can stall activations to help protect the flotillas on the crucial manoeuvring turn, then blast Quantum Storm in to drop on turn 2 or 3.

I'm not saying it's a good plan, but that's the reason for the flotilla cloud. I was kind of going for all the eggs in one basket, so I could finish games quickly. There are definite counter-plays and I can see the reasons for the very strong recommendations for running something more like @JauntyChapeau posted.

On 21/02/2018 at 2:23 PM, JauntyChapeau said:

Agreed. The list I'm working on has the Aspiration, three TRC90s, a GR75 with Expanded Hanger Bays. In the event that the ISD or whatever can actually get past the big threat, the wolfpack is ready to go. Last game, if the Avenger hadn't gotten torn to pieces on the second round of firing by the 75, I had three CR90s in range, ready to go.

This is definitely the more sensible setup, although I feel that it's likely to be the standard kind of setup for any Raddus fleet, not that that's a bad thing by itself.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's clearly blowing in one direction, and not the one I was heading in. If I can maybe get just one practice game in then I might try to run a variant of my original concept to see if it's as horrible as the general predictions, with the backup of running something more in line with the advice above.

2 hours ago, ManInTheBox said:

(side note, i need to just confirm whether the Raddus limitation only applies if you are first player, rather that it being your@JauntyChapeau first ship to activate. I'll check the rules forum after this).

Cannot be THE first ship activated, so second player can still activated the Raddus ship first if they want.

22 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Cannot be THE first ship activated, so second player can still activated the Raddus ship first if they want.

Thanks. I was working in that basis but wasn't sure.

4 hours ago, ManInTheBox said:

Thanks. I was working in that basis but wasn't sure.

But if strategic advisor is activated first you cannot use Radus surprise ship

12 hours ago, Sharego said:

But if strategic advisor is activated first you cannot use Radus surprise ship

Isn't the net result the same?

If I have 1st player then activations go: Me (non Raddus), Opponent, Me (Raddus), Opponent.

If I have first and opponent has Strategic Advisor, they're not going to delay an activation once combat starts.

If I have second then activations go: Opponent, Me (Raddus), Opponent, Me.

If I have second and opponent has SAd then activations could go: Opponent SAd, Me (non Raddus), Opponent, Me (Raddus). Which is the equivalent of giving me first activation anyway.

I might be missing something but I can't see any advantage to my opponent using SAd once I've Raddused a ship in. SAd is primarily for delaying the approach to combat so you can get a shot off with one of your big killers once the opponent's t has moved into range. Once they're there, you activate biggest killers first (or the targets you need to save, if you've been forked).

I had a chance to run the list in the OP in one practice game. I didn't make any changes because I wanted to see how good or terrible the original combos in the build were.

I didn't hate it. I think that with tweaks it will have some legs. Repair crew flotillas turn out to be hilarious because they can repair each other if they're out of range of the MC75.

I was playing against an Avenger list so decided to test the effectiveness of Aspiration by dropping straight into the front arc of Avenger at close range. It could have gone either way, but 6 shields on the front really makes a difference.

WAB never got used, due to nothing being in range, and Intel officer needs a bigger first shot than the dice arc to make the choice of discarding the brace a meaningful one.

I agree that the ship really needs a ACM/APT to push damage.

The only thing I can't settle on is the combination of Lando/EWS, Walex ECM (or even Lando/ECM. It's a meta call. Lando seems like a good shout as I'm expecting BTAvengers galore, and EWS would be squadron insurance, but in my last game the ship would have lasted longer if I had had ECM (it did burn down Avenger as Most Wanted though).

I'll obviously have to play careful if I come across any accuracy generating lists, but I think I'll run with the general concept and see what happens.

On 2/20/2018 at 3:19 AM, ManInTheBox said:

PrCTTTT Aspiration Bomb (392/400)

I see you're using a similar/part of list labelling like I do. =) Its so easy to see what your list is from a glance.

Yep, love it! Was it you who made a post suggesting the convention sometime last year? Whoever it was, it's a great idea.