So I ran this list over the weekend in a store championship. If I hadn't made a mistake in the first game and shot the wrong ship, the list would have won all three games. It was still good enough to finish second though even with the mistake. If you like to chuck black dice, you will have lots of fun with this list. It just MELTS ISD's...

Sato loves black dice!
Author: itzSteve

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: Commander Sato

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100 points)
- Aspiration ( 3 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 125 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Modified Pelta-class Assault Ship (56 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
- Shields to Maximum! ( 6 points)
= 102 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 83 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)
2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
= 50 total squadron cost

I am going to make a slight change to the list the next time I run it. I didn't really use Strategic Adviser all day and since no one wanted to shoot at Aspiration, I am going to put Skilled First Officer on Aspiration, and put Lando on Admonition instead since it was the main target of attacks all day.

So the most terrifying MC75 i have seen has Apts and Acms with fire control team which puts out a lot of damage

1 minute ago, chr335 said:

So the most terrifying MC75 i have seen has Apts and Acms with fire control team which puts out a lot of damage

I've considered that build before, but you need a way to reroll the black dice if the hit/crit doesn't show up on the first roll. It can be very hit or miss without OE.

11 hours ago, itzSteve said:

I've considered that build before, but you need a way to reroll the black dice if the hit/crit doesn't show up on the first roll. It can be very hit or miss without OE.

Also, the synergy is kind of poor. ACMs strip the shields, APTs deal damage straight to the hull: it’s effectively trying to chew through as much as possible to get the kill, which for a 14 point, semi-reliable, weapons-and-dual-ordnance-slot-consuming combo isn’t ideal. I’d rather combo XI7s and APTs to drill through a hull zone, or HIEs and ACMs to utterly wreck shields asap and start getting ACM damage on the hull.

6 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Also, the synergy is kind of poor. ACMs strip the shields, APTs deal damage straight to the hull: it’s effectively trying to chew through as much as possible to get the kill, which for a 14 point, semi-reliable, weapons-and-dual-ordnance-slot-consuming combo isn’t ideal. I’d rather combo XI7s and APTs to drill through a hull zone, or HIEs and ACMs to utterly wreck shields asap and start getting ACM damage on the hull.

It does synergize you only need one crit for two effects

12 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Also, the synergy is kind of poor. ACMs strip the shields, APTs deal damage straight to the hull: it’s effectively trying to chew through as much as possible to get the kill, which for a 14 point, semi-reliable, weapons-and-dual-ordnance-slot-consuming combo isn’t ideal. I’d rather combo XI7s and APTs to drill through a hull zone, or HIEs and ACMs to utterly wreck shields asap and start getting ACM damage on the hull.

The thing with Sato ACM with OE is that it really makes the ships with two redirects almost useless. If you get Admo and the MC75 with double arcs in range, you are not only drilling into the targeted hull zone, you are taking away the two adjacent hull zones as well which takes away the usefulness of a redirect. Also, you will probably force them to use the brace on both shots, so that is out of the way as well. I used Admo to strip all the shields and take away the brace and then when the MC75 shoots, everything including the ACM all goes straight to the hull and it just melts a ship, even if it is a Motti ISD. 14 hull sounds like a lot, but when you have no brace and useless redirects at this point, a Sato close range double arc is a beauty to behold.

38 minutes ago, itzSteve said:

The thing with Sato ACM with OE is that it really makes the ships with two redirects almost useless. If you get Admo and the MC75 with double arcs in range, you are not only drilling into the targeted hull zone, you are taking away the two adjacent hull zones as well which takes away the usefulness of a redirect. Also, you will probably force them to use the brace on both shots, so that is out of the way as well. I used Admo to strip all the shields and take away the brace and then when the MC75 shoots, everything including the ACM all goes straight to the hull and it just melts a ship, even if it is a Motti ISD. 14 hull sounds like a lot, but when you have no brace and useless redirects at this point, a Sato close range double arc is a beauty to behold.

Sorry about the misunderstanding; I was referring to the combo of ACM, APTs and FCT. Multiple sources of ACM damage are amazing, agreed. APT does not really contribute to this (nor did you say it did, I’m just clarifying my point.) For Sato especially, dice control (and thus the weapons team slot) is crucial, making FCT a hard sell too.

7 hours ago, chr335 said:

It does synergize you only need one crit for two effects

In that FCT works that way, yes. In that the two crit effects go well together? I’d have to say they don’t. One critical effect doesn’t directly benefit the other here. APTs don’t make them less inclined to redirect; ACMs do. APTs hit hull, ACMs hit shields. Neither affects bracing; that’s related to your roll. If they have DCO, nothing’s getting through either way (true for all crits, but particularly devastating here.) Is it technically better than just one crit upgrade? Generally, unless you fail to get the crit (or get an otherwise terrible roll you can’t fix.) Then you’ll feel pretty silly for spending 3-5 points extra to be worse off without OEs.

Wouldn't mass squadrons just eat your 4 squads alive and then your ships? And render Sato nearly useless. Its not like even the 2 black dice and some Transport AA will kill more than 1 out of 8 squads.

edit: I saw the "fun" part.

is STM working on Aspiration?

6 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Wouldn't mass squadrons just eat your 4 squads alive and then your ships? And render Sato nearly useless. Its not like even the 2 black dice and some Transport AA will kill more than 1 out of 8 squads.

edit: I saw the "fun" part.

I faced two squad lists in the first two games, one a Imp aces list and the other a heavy bomber list. In each game, I held my squads back and separated them out far from each other so they couldn't get ganged up on as easily. I gave both Admo and Aspiration a squad token so the A-wing could move in when needed most. Actually, in the second game I had left Tycho too close to my opponents squads and he was rushed and killed really early. It made it much more difficult to keep my other A-wings in position, especially if they got tied up. A couple of times it took an extra turn just to get the HWK in position to free it up to move into Sato range. You have to treat the list almost like a squadron less fleet. Your squads aren't there to kill anything, just to move into position for Sato. My third game was much easier, as I faced a double Cymoon list with no squads.

1 hour ago, Rocco79 said:

is STM working on Aspiration?

STM! is not the focus here. The STM! card is for later in the match once the ships start taking damage. The Aspiration title says that you cannot recover shields while any zone is greater than its printed value. The STM! Pelta is moving shields to Aspiration, so Aspiration is not breaking any rules. My plan in each game was to use a comms net flotilla to give the Pelta a Eng token and then activate the Pelta with a Eng command. Use both the command and token for 6 eng points, which allows you to move 2 shields to Aspiration with Projection Experts and then recover those 2 shields back on the Pelta. Do this for the first two rounds and the Aspiration's two weak zones are back to full health. I then use the STM! in rounds 3-6 to give any ship an extra shield if it needs it, which turned out to be Admo most of the time. Also, since Aspiration really didn't get attacked for much of the day, I tried to keep the Pelta in range of Admo all day and it helped keep it alive for an extra round which made all the difference in my games. Admo was the first strike ship and Aspiration came in for the follow up kill shots.

12 minutes ago, itzSteve said:

Yes it does! The title says that you cannot recover shields while any zone is greater than its printed value. The STM! Pelta is moving shields to Aspiration, so Aspiration is not breaking any rules. The only thing on the Pelta that is useless for Aspiration is the STM! title due to the recover rule. My plan in each game was to use a comms net flotilla to give the Pelta a Eng token and then activate the Pelta with a Eng command. Use both the command and token for 6 eng points, which allows you to move 2 shields to Aspiration and then recover those 2 shields back on the Pelta. Do this for the first two rounds and the Aspiration's two weak zones are back to full health. I then use the STM! in rounds 3-6 to give any ship an extra shield if it needs it, which turned out to be Admo most of the time. Also, since Aspiration really didn't get attacked for much of the day, I tried to keep the Pelta in range of Admo all day and it helped keep it alive for an extra round which made all the difference in my games. Admo was the first strike ship and Aspiration came in for the follow up kill shots.

So the actual answer is no ?

1 minute ago, R4Pi3R said:

So the actual answer is no ?

LOL...**** I was hoping I could get my edit in before a response....FAIL on my part...LOL ?

I'm just doing the math if STM! is worth it?!

if STM is only used for Admo, a Engineering token provided by a Transport is doing exacly the same.

Changing STM! to EF, would make Admo even more flexible in its movements. and the Comms net Flot would give its eng token - which was before provided to Pelta.

21 minutes ago, Rocco79 said:

I'm just doing the math if STM! is worth it?!

if STM is only used for Admo, a Engineering token provided by a Transport is doing exacly the same.

Changing STM! to EF, would make Admo even more flexible in its movements. and the Comms net Flot would give its eng token - which was before provided to Pelta.

I find it really interesting that you brought this up. I was just thinking about whether I really needed STM! at all last night. I was replaying my 3 games back in my head to see how many times I actually used it. Aspiration NEVER used it as everyone avoided shooting at it all day. One of my comms net flotillas actually used it once, when my opponent was sending bombers at it. The Pelta used it from turn 3 to the end of the game to be able to PE two shields to Admo and regen one+the STM! to keeps its shields up. Admo used it on average 2-3 times per game. Between PE+STM! Admo stayed alive much longer than normal and I actually had a eng command in a round to top it off as I needed to get rid of a face up damage card. For a 6pt. card, it is getting used between 6-8 times total in a game which works out to around a point per shield. I think its inclusion is justified, but I could see reasons for not taking it. You would really need to keep one of your flotillas always in range of the Pelta however as it would need a Eng command + the eng token to keep its shields up. Admo would lose a couple of shields in the process of the game. It's a close call whether those couple of shields are the difference in life or death...

On a side note... Ahsoka Tano is really underrated in this list. For a 2pt. officer, I was manipulating tokens on my ships all day long. As long as the Pelta was in range of a ship, Ahsoka was able to make sure it always had the token it needed at the moment. I was using Aspiration and Admo to activate squads all day, so it was nice to make sure they had a squad token whenever they needed one. If Admo was low on health, I could change it to a eng token for yet another shield if needed. If Admo needed a escape route, the token became a nav token. I was also sending the Pelta two tokens in round one...a eng token for early shield moves back to Aspiration and it didn't matter what the second one was, as Ahsoka would then change it to a eng token for the next round. She is so flexible!

hmm interesting inside view.

10 hours ago, Rocco79 said:

I'm just doing the math if STM! is worth it?!

if STM is only used for Admo, a Engineering token provided by a Transport is doing exacly the same.

Changing STM! to EF, would make Admo even more flexible in its movements. and the Comms net Flot would give its eng token - which was before provided to Pelta.

So I reworked my list last night and am pretty pleased with the results. No more STM! to worry about. The fleet actually becomes more efficient I think....

Sato's Black Death
Author: itzSteve

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: Comm  ander Sato

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100 points)
- Aspiration ( 3 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 123 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Modified Pelta-class Assault Ship (56 points)
- Commander Sato ( 32 points)
- Raymus Antilles ( 7 points)
- Projection Experts ( 6 points)
= 101 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Lando Calrissian ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 86 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)
2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
= 50 total squadron cost

Putting Raymus on the Pelta makes it it's own token generator which frees up the two comms net flotillas to hand out tokens to Admo and Aspiration all day long. Also moving Ahsoka Tano to Aspiration keeps her in range of everything for any token changes I may need. In a competitive tournament, the less thinking the better IMO.

I was thinking about trying this Sato list.

Set up with the Assault Frigate to one side supported by some squadrons and hiding the corvette. Other side with the MC30 supported by the GR-75 and some squads.
The Frigate will command the fighters and gun boat while the corvette fired from cover.

The MC30 will gun boat on the other side while the GR75 commands fighters and packs a nasty surprise; with a concentrate fire command and disposable capacitors, two black die at long range.

Storm (397/400)
Rebels

Commander: Commander Sato

Objectives: Targeting Beacons, Hyperspace Assault, Intel Sweep

[flagship] CR90 Corvette A (44)
- Commander Sato (32)
- Jaina's Light (2)
= 78 total points

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72)
- Gallant Haven (8)
- Electronic Counter Measures (7)
- Enhanced Armament (10)
- Gunnery Team (7)
= 104 total points

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
= 27 total points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
- Foresight (8)
- Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
- Ordnance Experts (4)
= 88 total points

Squadrons (100/134):
1x Shara Bey A-wing Squadron (17)
1x Tycho Celchu A-Wing Squadron (16)
2x A-Wing Squadron (22)
1x Moldy Crow - Jan Ors (19)
2x X-Wing Squadron (26)

Name: Sato LR-APT
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Commander Sato

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Commander Sato (32)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Foresight (8)
= 122 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Admonition (8)
= 86 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
= 78 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Boosted Comms (4)
= 22 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Boosted Comms (4)
= 22 Points

Squadrons:
• Jan Ors (19)
• Biggs Darklighter (19)
• 2 x X-wing Squadron (26)
= 64 Points

Total Points: 394

I love this, Double Arcs of Doom!!! Squads are not easy to remove.