MC80 Battle Cruiser

By owenstarkiller, in Star Wars: Armada

Just bought a this. My collection is relatively small and I've only been playing for about four months with my son. I have no idea what to do with it as it seems to not fit. I have so far:
* 2 x Nebulon

* 4 x CR

* 1 x Rebel Flotilla

I had been experimenting with Yarvis builds with light support but wanted to get something meatier. This seems in this newbs opinion inferior to the Imperial destroyers. What am I missing?

The first thing that came to mind is that if you're just playing at home, I'd print off some of the cards you don't have (i.e. proxy them) to learn what's good and what isn't, and what you like and what you don't like. This is a good web builder that includes the cards: http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions

Here's something that isn't tournament good, but it would be fun as it has a lot of movement shenanigans:

Try an MC80BC with Caitken and Shollan, Engine Techs, Spinal Armament (and XI7 if your son's ships have a lot of redirects). Then set up a CR90A with Madine as your commander, Jaina's Light title, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits, and Engine Techs. Add a cheap Nebulon B with Salvation title and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits. Use a bunch of nav commands to keep the MC80 and Nebulon side arcs from getting hit.

Add whatever you want to that to round out your fleet - a small fighter presence if you want to tie up your son's fighters, or more CR90s.

14 hours ago, owenstarkiller said:

I had been experimenting with Yarvis builds with light support but wanted to get something meatier. This seems in this newbs opinion inferior to the Imperial destroyers. What am I missing?

IMO, the Liberty is a bully. It quickly evaporates small and medium ships, but melts under pressure from enemy large ships. Basically, it is a heavy hitter with a glass jaw; it really needs its double brace. It is not an ISD.

MC80Bs are good in Raddus lists. A decent ship to place off table then bring one into position out of enemy nasty arcs ready to pursue them relentlessly. Armed with Gunnery teams and set to a reasonable speed you can pop behind the death arcs of ISDs or in the front arcs of MC80Cs or threaten multiple smaller ships with GTs.

For Dodonna list the combination of XI7s to prevent redirects and XX9s to land plenty of face up cards is very deadly. Leading shots is good insurance against bad rolls and if not using Dodonna QBTs can help you use LS at long range.

For carrier operations the Liberty title and Raymus Antilles mean you get most use out of Flight controllers.

For real fun try this

400/400, Blockade Run , Contested Outpost , Solar Corona
MC80S, GT, Mon Cal Exodus, Projection Experts, Garmb , Strategic Adviser, QBTs 148
MC80B, GT, LS, Mon Cal Exodus, XI7s 125
MC80B, GT, LS, Mon Cal Exodus, Ahsoka, XI7s 127

Get loads of tokens from the commander and Ahsoka transforms some more of them into repairs during the mid game turns as you use them. MC Exodus gets you lots of use out of repairs and Projection Experts on your flagship (placed between the others and maybe a little further back) can give more shields to whoever is getting hurt the most. Use GTs to shoot the pants off 2-3 targets and hopefully the super repairs will stop you loosing a more than one liberty.

15 hours ago, owenstarkiller said:

I had been experimenting with Yarvis builds with light support but wanted to get something meatier. This seems in this newbs opinion inferior to the Imperial destroyers. What am I missing?



This is very true. The MC80-Liberty is nowhere on the same level of an ISD. The ISD can maneuver better (especially with Jerjerrod), hit much harder, and tank a lot more shots thanks to defensive refits and heftier hull.


In my opinion, and I tend to play exclusively Rebels when possible, the MC80-BC is just too costly for what it does. One problem with the MC80BC is that, ultimately, it's a jousting ship. It needs to get its front arc engaged (which also means it won't synergize at all with Ackbar). Furthermore, there are enough scary ships in the meta that can easily out-joust it: ISDs of any type and the MC75. MC30s and Demolisher can also really put the mortal hurt onto an MC80BC, especially because they can often exploit its weaker side hull zones. Finally, squadron balls can pretty rapidly vaporize an MC80BC (compared to other large ships) given it's asymmetrical shields, mediocre hull value, and limited Redirects. So it's surprisingly frail for a >100pt ship with double-brace.

Another issue is that I feel it doesn't hit at its weight class. This could just be me, but I find piles of red dice just don't chew through targets quickly enough (and as such, my own playstyle gravitates towards MC30s and MC75s for their black dice). But red dice are just so fickle, and I find that, even with heavy investment into dice mods (like the add-a-blue-if-slower ion battery and Leading Shots) I am rarely putting out more than 5-8 damage against a target, which can easily be reduced with defense tokens down to a non-threatening amount for most targets. That's just too low of a damage output for a ship that is over a quarter of my list and that has to point towards danger to get it's dice going, especially when it's so relatively frail and can't expect to participate in a lot of rounds of combat.




All that said, I am currently flying an MC80BC in my current Raddus Corellian Conflict fleet. I have Raddus on an MC75, and I am dropping the MC80BC into the battle via Raddus in a flanking position, so that it can not be easily brought down by the opponent. It is working relatively well, but honestly with as anemic as the BC's damage output feels at times, I'm really wishing I was just going the dual MC75 route and dropping the second MC75 into the play area, as I feel like it would be as insulated from immediate danger as the MC80BC but would be churning out a lot more damage for a very similar price tag.


So, maybe it's just my playstyle, but I haven't seemed to "crack the code" for the Liberty yet. Maybe some other players who have had far more success with it can help me find a better way to harness the ship.

*sigh* another rebel cell to clear out...

1 hour ago, RobertK said:

IMO, the Liberty is a bully. It quickly evaporates small and medium ships, but melts under pressure from enemy large ships. Basically, it is a heavy hitter with a glass jaw; it really needs its double brace. It is not an ISD.

This is pretty much true. People see a discount ISD and then find out it very much is not an ISD. Your standard LMC80 with Gunnery Team can excel at gobbling up small ships. You can build it to go after big ships as well but it's even more important than usual in that case to keep it on a flank so it doesn't get ganged up on too quickly. To that end, Caitken & Shollan are great in the weapon team slot for a "whale hunting" LMC80. You have a couple options:

MC80 Battle Cruiser (red dice): Spinals, XI7s, Intel Officver, Caitken & Shollan. 5 rerollable red dice and 3 blue dice. Intel Officer nails the brace and the enemy heavy ship has a sad. You can also go for H9 Turbolasers with a more utility officer like Strategic Adviser or Bail but it depends on how common ECMs are in your area.

MC80 Star Cruiser (blue dice): Heavy Ion Emplacements and Caitken & Shollan are the meat on this build and you can add whatever turbolasers and officers you like, although something that can lock down or destroy the brace is important to bring the shield damage into play quickly. Basically, C&S reroll your blue dice if necessary to help trigger the Heavy Ion Emplacements to blast a bunch of shields.

In either case, Engine Techs are desirable for getting safely into the flank but aren't strictly required. You'll generally see LMC80s nowadays with Raddus (either as flagship or as drop ship), Madine, the occasional Garm fleet, and the Mon Karren Dodonna builds (to get crits to go through because if I can only spend one defense token, contain isn't high on the list).

As a MC80BC lover, this is my favorite loadout for it:

[ flagship ] MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
- General Madine ( 30 points)
- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Quad Turbolaser Cannons ( 10 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 171 total ship cost

It is the only large base ship in the game that can go speed 4. With Madine, not many ships can keep it in their front arcs (I'm looking right at you ISD).

2 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:



This is very true. The MC80-Liberty is nowhere on the same level of an ISD. The ISD can maneuver better (especially with Jerjerrod), hit much harder, and tank a lot more shots thanks to defensive refits and heftier hull.


In my opinion, and I tend to play exclusively Rebels when possible, the MC80-BC is just too costly for what it does. One problem with the MC80BC is that, ultimately, it's a jousting ship. It needs to get its front arc engaged (which also means it won't synergize at all with Ackbar). Furthermore, there are enough scary ships in the meta that can easily out-joust it: ISDs of any type and the MC75. MC30s and Demolisher can also really put the mortal hurt onto an MC80BC, especially because they can often exploit its weaker side hull zones. Finally, squadron balls can pretty rapidly vaporize an MC80BC (compared to other large ships) given it's asymmetrical shields, mediocre hull value, and limited Redirects. So it's surprisingly frail for a >100pt ship with double-brace.

Another issue is that I feel it doesn't hit at its weight class. This could just be me, but I find piles of red dice just don't chew through targets quickly enough (and as such, my own playstyle gravitates towards MC30s and MC75s for their black dice). But red dice are just so fickle, and I find that, even with heavy investment into dice mods (like the add-a-blue-if-slower ion battery and Leading Shots) I am rarely putting out more than 5-8 damage against a target, which can easily be reduced with defense tokens down to a non-threatening amount for most targets. That's just too low of a damage output for a ship that is over a quarter of my list and that has to point towards danger to get it's dice going, especially when it's so relatively frail and can't expect to participate in a lot of rounds of combat.




All that said, I am currently flying an MC80BC in my current Raddus Corellian Conflict fleet. I have Raddus on an MC75, and I am dropping the MC80BC into the battle via Raddus in a flanking position, so that it can not be easily brought down by the opponent. It is working relatively well, but honestly with as anemic as the BC's damage output feels at times, I'm really wishing I was just going the dual MC75 route and dropping the second MC75 into the play area, as I feel like it would be as insulated from immediate danger as the MC80BC but would be churning out a lot more damage for a very similar price tag.


So, maybe it's just my playstyle, but I haven't seemed to "crack the code" for the Liberty yet. Maybe some other players who have had far more success with it can help me find a better way to harness the ship.

Hah - I ran the same exact Raddus setup in my own CC campaign that just recently finished (with a CR90 and GR75 w/ BCC). I believed I finished with a .500 record over the course of the campaign, but I was CONSTANTLY having to repair the MC80...it desperately needed that missing Defensive Retrofit slot. It would take down the first target weakened by my MC75 but would then proceed to get pummeled.

Eh, to me if your not using that mon karren title your doing yourself a disservice

That titles the only thing that makes libs worthwhile to me personally.

Heres a lib i just put together like i usually do.

Depending on what you want to face add either gunnery (Multiple targets expected) or Caitke  n   & Sholla  n  and get rid of LS for HIEs

Fleet 5070 (128/400)
===================
MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 25)
+ Intel Officer (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Mon Karren (8)

Big ship hunter liberty

Fleet 5080 (148/400)
===================
MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 45)
+ Intel Officer (7)
+ Caitken and Shollan (6)
+ Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ Mon Karren (8)

Small game liberty

Fleet 5080 (141/400)
===================
MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 38)
+ Strategic Adviser (4)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ Mon Karren (8)

A Liberty in a Madine fleet is my favorite ship in the game. My typical build is:

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
= 124 Points

I'm today's meta, H9s and XI7s, are flip a coin for me, and I'll run both of I have the points.

With a token and a nav command, you can either go from speed 1 to (effectively) speed 4, or you can go from speed 2 to 4 with 4(!) extra clicks. The Liberty doesn't like to joust against ISDs, but it likes to pounce and flank. The one thing that you really need to be careful about when you flank is finding yourself in a tail chase, especially as second player. It can sometimes be hard to finish off big ships running away.

I’m not going to repeat what I have posted in hundreds of other threads. Do a search on threads I’ve authored or posted in, because you’ll find an exhaustive treatment of the liberty, including how my builds evolved and different ideas I’ve tried. One of the big keys is knowing what exactly is out there in the meta and how to tweak your build to deal with it.

as a general truism, deployment and activation count matter a great deal and will greatly effect how your liberty will perform. The right build is one that works with everything else in your list to answer all of the possible builds that an opponent can throw at you. So on the whole, weekend m either doing something with max squads (makes a big difference on start of game drops) or doing a tycho/shara 6 activation list.

On 7/6/2018 at 7:46 AM, Ken-Obi said:

The first thing that came to mind is that if you're just playing at home, I'd print off some of the cards you don't have (i.e. proxy them) to learn what's good and what isn't, and what you like and what you don't like. This is a good web builder that includes the cards: http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions

Any recommendations on paper-weight and type for printing?

44 minutes ago, Vondy said:

Any recommendations on paper-weight and type for printing?

Your home printer isn’t going to approach ffg quality. I use either 110 lb stock or regular paper, a sleeve, and a backer cut from a cereal box.