In a holdover habit from my Warhammer days, I feel completely obligated to put some backstory together for anything and everything used in tabletop gaming, with Armada being no exception - and so, the genesis of my own Rebel fleet is forming.

The basic idea is that a relatively well-off planet in the Outer Rim (sort of the trade centre for a small cluster of systems, with a regional focus on mining) has a long naval tradition, with a heavy focus on partaking in anti-pirate operations throughout the cluster.

At the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the planetary rulers are feeling kinda uneasy regardless of who wins - The Republic is this staggering mess of corrupt beaurocracy, whilst the Separatists are proving themselves to be dangerously ruthless.

And so, a third option is explored - pushing resources around in as discrete a manner possible, several secret asteroid bases are established and their fleet is expanded and upgraded, to ensure a proper negotiating position can be upheld once the dust settles and the interests of the cluster will be protected.

The formation of the Empire is alarming to say the least, and almost immediately the planetary leadership decides to create it's own resistance movement, based around it's secret and difficult-to-trace fleet.

I am ballparking such a force to be comprised of perhaps 3-5 corvettes, backed up by 1-2 frigates. A bulk cruiser (which will remain conveniently away from actual combat for the purposes of Armada) and a handful of modified transports would provide carrier space for several squadrons of older fighters (a mix of widely-available Z-95s and Y-Wings) and multiple larger patrol gunships - comprising partially of and otherwise represented on-table by Lancers and modified YT-series freighters.

The general composition of the fleet seems in line with canon fleet cells such as the Phoenix group, though it manages to be both a little larger and somewhat less ad-hoc due to its genesis as a proper military/policing outfit. Of particular note should be the relative profusion of the multi-crew "gunships", which I feel would be naturally in heavy use by a system navy whose main traditional purpose was patrolling against pirates and smugglers due to their size and response speed.

What do people think? Am I overestimating the likely resources of such a planet?

It sounds about right for a decently populated and prosperous world.

Yeah I vibe with this. TBH, 3-5 Corvettes might even seem a little light in this instance. I mean, if they have the time and resources to go through the trouble of hollowing out Asteroids to build and store these ships they should be a little better off than ragtag. Maybe 2 battle groups each of the size you listed, 3/4 CR90's, 2 Nebulons, and Assault Frigate, Pelta, and some 2/3 GR75's plus Z's and Y's.

The only drawback of your backstory is that for Armada purposes- unless you are expanding your collection to include custom ships from sources like Mel- the Armada ship catalog is pretty Mon Calamari heavy and you would be limiting yourself away from those without some narrative backflips.

I guess you could throw in some hammer heads have the cr 90 s as battle group leaders

51 minutes ago, Noosh said:

I guess you could throw in some hammer heads have the cr 90 s as battle group leaders

Totes forgot hammerheads. Those would be great in this instance.

9 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Totes

Forgot you were a 16 year old girl from the ‘90s there for a second

1 hour ago, BrobaFett said:

Yeah I vibe with this. TBH, 3-5 Corvettes might even seem a little light in this instance. I mean, if they have the time and resources to go through the trouble of hollowing out Asteroids to build and store these ships they should be a little better off than ragtag. Maybe 2 battle groups each of the size you listed, 3/4 CR90's, 2 Nebulons, and Assault Frigate, Pelta, and some 2/3 GR75's plus Z's and Y's.

The only drawback of your backstory is that for Armada purposes- unless you are expanding your collection to include custom ships from sources like Mel- the Armada ship catalog is pretty Mon Calamari heavy and you would be limiting yourself away from those without some narrative backflips.

Thanks for the feedback!

The size of the fleet here is supposed to represent the cell at the start of the GCW, and thus made up of those ships that were able to be secretly obtained. Later in the timeline, once planets start actually rising up properly, the majority of the region's patrol fleets would be brought into the fight, meaning more frigates and cruisers.

And yes, the Mon Cal ships are a bit of a pain, and being outside the states makes Mel's ships a very expensive proposition for the time being. I'm just going to hope for an AFmk.I release! Until then, the ships available to my fleet cell will be largely limited to CR-90s, Hammerheads, Peltas, Nebs and transports.

I do plan on having X-Wings as a major part of the squadron presence, which does involve a little handwavium on my part, but with the resources available to the cell I imagine they would be able to afford the best - fighters are somewhat easier to source than capital ships, after all!

(Not to say I won't *use* anything else, but they will be headcanoned as part of a different Rebel group joining to help with a particular mission!)

5 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

Forgot you were a 16 year old girl from the ‘90s there for a second

OMG have you heard this new song!?

18 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

OMG have you heard this new song!?

Hrm.... repetitive rythmic mouth noise over guitar and a lone Tom drum, not my cup of tea. Cab Callaway would have word with these 'musicians'

Thats a very plausible back story. I always enjoy reading about fleets and games that have been given story-depth, be it an Imperial squadron or a Rebel cell. Look forward to hearing more. Hopefully some generic ships like dreadnaughts or bulk cruisers will become available to bolster your system defence force.

On 19-3-2018 at 6:40 PM, MandalorianMoose said:

Forgot you were a 16 year old girl from the ‘90s there for a second

it's german. he means he dead forgot. ( and maybe used the wrong form ( not sure) because he did not want to confuse me and my dutch by writing the dutch word tot ( till, as in untill) . He is so considerate.

'cause plum forgot jus' don't make a lick a' sense.

P.s. the Firespray is portrayed in the EU as a standard system patrol craft for anti-piracy/smuggling and so could be operated by a system fleet. I am ignoring factions here as only an issue for competition pkay.

5 hours ago, skirmisher said:

P.s. the Firespray is portrayed in the EU as a standard system patrol craft for anti-piracy/smuggling and so could be operated by a system fleet. I am ignoring factions here as only an issue for competition pkay.

Yeap, that one did occur to me, but I am handwaving the factional issue away with the idea that the majority of this systems' business was through contracts with CEC, so they got a better deal on their purchase orders buying both corvettes and gunships from the same manufacturer

The empire seemed to enjoy using single light cruisers for system patrols where they don't expect trouble. I imagine where they would expect trouble they either add more light cruisers or use a heavy cruiser or Star destroyer.