Hey guys,

I have managed to sign up for y first comp after 2 years from having a break from the game. I am a bit rusty on what to run these days. I have this list but not sure if it is worth taking to the comp or maybe I should look at something else or a different style.

So far I got this:

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 386/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Quad Laser Turrets ( 5 points)
- Dual Turbolaser Turrets ( 5 points)
= 78 total ship cost

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Quad Laser Turrets ( 5 points)
- Dual Turbolaser Turrets ( 5 points)
= 58 total ship cost

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Quad Laser Turrets ( 5 points)
- Dual Turbolaser Turrets ( 5 points)
= 58 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Foresight ( 8 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 100 total ship cost

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 92 total ship cost

I know I will be facing a Sloane list, a list with the cheesy Avenger/Boarding Engineers and Interdictor combo and an MC80 Carrier list. Not sure what else but I am positive there will be loads of ISD's on the table. Any advice or list suggestions would be appreciated!

I would drop all your Intel Officers and look at replacing hammerheads for TRC CR90s. The one with Dodonna on board should be Jiana's light. TRC90s can keep the range more open than hammerheads. They don't get run over and can soften up targets for the big hitting MC30s or polish off crippled victims of them.

Switch to MC30Ts as you don't really need the long range fire. Since you have no fighters you need to get close and clobber ships before carriers kill a ship of yours each turn with boosted comms bomber strikes. Take Admonition rather than Foresight and maybe use Lando on the other for a bit of protection

So this saves you 47 points, 45 with Jiana's light or 41 if you include Lando too. You could buy a flotilla with slicer tools or a cheap Hammerhead with Garrel's honour or some A-wings or YT2400s to take the edge off fighter strikes. Put an Intel officer back on an MC30 if you like or just a SFO for command dial flexibility.

• Contested Outpost is risky as your fleet needs speed and manoeuvre to fight well and the outpost becomes a ball & chain. Hyperspace Assault or Planetary Ion Cannon would be better.
• Intel Sweep is ok but fast big ships with fighter support can muscle your objective ship off the 5th objective, Solar Corona or Dangerous Territory are good alternatives.
• Most Wanted is good, even better if you have a flotilla.

Ok so took your advice and got this:

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Jaina's Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 73 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Garel's Honor ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 47 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)

- Lando Calrissian ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- XI7 Turbolaser ( 6 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 82 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- XI7 Turbolaser ( 6 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 86 total ship cost

I could replace Most Wanted for Precision Strike, which may work a bit better with the list. Hyperspace Assault to get Garel's Honor into a better position for the ramming attack. Dangerous territory to give myself an advantage with terrain and grabbing the objectives.

Thoughts guys?

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Switch your blue objective to Solar Corona. Also, H9s over XI7s. The enemy will be redirecting all those TRC shots anyways.

So I guess I just pepper at those redirect tokens.

2 hours ago, Muntman said:

So I guess I just pepper at those redirect tokens.

I think your fleet is fine without XI7 as far as handling redirects. Unless they're running Advanced Projectors, a double arc from a MC30 at close range is likely enough to deplete most of the shields on all but one side (even of an ISD) and it will be an uphill battle trying to regenerate them.

If Redirects worry you, you can switch to ACM. Dodonna wouldn't be much use then, so you should maybe also switch commander (Mothma or Rieekan would be my suggestions).

I haven't done the math and it's very possible what I'm going to say doesn't hold up, so take it with a grain of salt. Smarter people on here can prove me wrong. Outfitting your MC30 with APT and XI7 turns it into a bit of a selfish jerk. Yes, it's drilling through one side of your target but it's not helping the rest of your fleet. Your other ships that have APT or XI7 are fine, they'll also punch through shields. Anything else would have really liked if the redirects and shields on that ISD had been used, though.

Of course, XI7 is very nice and if you're using the MC30 as a finisher, it'll help it do its job. Otherwise, with 3 corvettes in your fleet, maaaaaybe ACM or investing the 12 points elsewhere would serve you better?

Disclaimer: I am currently a huge fan of ACM. My bias is showing.

4 hours ago, CptAwesomer said:

I think your fleet is fine without XI7 as far as handling redirects. Unless they're running Advanced Projectors, a double arc from a MC30 at close range is likely enough to deplete most of the shields on all but one side (even of an ISD) and it will be an uphill battle trying to regenerate them.

If Redirects worry you, you can switch to ACM. Dodonna wouldn't be much use then, so you should maybe also switch commander (Mothma or Rieekan would be my suggestions).

I haven't done the math and it's very possible what I'm going to say doesn't hold up, so take it with a grain of salt. Smarter people on here can prove me wrong. Outfitting your MC30 with APT and XI7 turns it into a bit of a selfish jerk. Yes, it's drilling through one side of your target but it's not helping the rest of your fleet. Your other ships that have APT or XI7 are fine, they'll also punch through shields. Anything else would have really liked if the redirects and shields on that ISD had been used, though.

Of course, XI7 is very nice and if you're using the MC30 as a finisher, it'll help it do its job. Otherwise, with 3 corvettes in your fleet, maaaaaybe ACM or investing the 12 points elsewhere would serve you better?

Disclaimer: I am currently a huge fan of ACM. My bias is showing.

Well was thinking Dodonna needs Crits, so I was looking at APT's with Ordnance Experts, XX-9's for more flexibility. Not sure how else to get those Crits with Dodonna... I am not sure about the H9 turbolasers though... Not sure if it is worth sacrificing a hit to generate an accuracy.

So idea is the Corvettes can fight at range and just and get behind the more vulnerable ships, while the MC-30's deal the heavy damage and take down those big ships.

However if I face squadrons, I just have to deal with it. If I face something like the Avenger/Interdiction combo then I am struggling as I am not sure how to counter it.

Either way I am sure there is some sort of Dodonna ship synergy that I am missing?

On 1/2/2019 at 11:47 PM, Muntman said:

Well was thinking Dodonna needs Crits, so I was looking at APT's with Ordnance Experts, XX-9's for more flexibility. Not sure how else to get those Crits with Dodonna... I am not sure about the H9 turbolasers though... Not sure if it is worth sacrificing a hit to generate an accuracy.

So idea is the Corvettes can fight at range and just and get behind the more vulnerable ships, while the MC-30's deal the heavy damage and take down those big ships.

(Apologies for the massive post, I got carried away. You can skip the bulletpoints if you want :P)

I meant if you switch to ACM, you would lose APT and Dodonna doesn't make much sense then . If you'd rather live the excitement of faceup damage cards, go with Dodonna APTs. Nothing wrong with that. If you're fine with a less exciting yet deadly playstyle, maybe you'd be interested in ACM over here. Both options work just fine.

The "problem" I find with H9 isn't so much if it's worth it (most of the time, it is), but rather if the 8 points can better be used elsewhere. Since you're running a pair of MC30s, it's really 16 points and there's some fun things to do with 16 points (i.e.: squads).

But as far as its usefulness, let's break it down with a couple of examples (TL;DR after the bulletpoints):

• Side arc at medium range against a shieldless Pelta (Pelta has Brace/Redirect/Evade) : You roll a hit and a crit. If you do nothing, your opponent can Evade to make you reroll the crit and Brace to take 1 damage. If you switch your hit to an accuracy, Brace is useless and you guarantee a crit. If the Pelta still had shields somewhere, you could accuracy the Redirect to make sure whatever you reroll from the Evade is taken on the shieldless side.
• Double arc at close range against the side of an ISD (ISD has Brace/Redirect/Redirect/Contain, 4/3/3/2 (F/L/R/B) shields and ECM. It's a nightmare for you)
  • Side: You roll Hit/Hit+Crit/Blank on black and Hit/Crit on blue for a total of 5 damage
    • Without H9, your opponent uses Brace to get down to 3 and Redirects to the front, ISD is left with 1/3/3/2 shields and 10 hull.
    • With H9, you could have targeted the Brace, forcing him to possibly use ECM. Targeting the Brace, you would have done 1 less damage, but ECM would have been exhausted for your follow up attack. With APT, the ISD is left with, at best, 2/3/3/2 and 10 hull. With ACM, 1/3/3/1 and 11 hull.
  • Follow-up Front: You roll Hit/Hit+Crit on your blacks and Hit on your blue for a total of 4 damage.
    • Without H9, He Redirects 2 in the back and takes 2 in the side, leaving the ISD with full hull and 1/3/1/0 shields and 9 hull + whatever crit effects. Not too bad!
    • With H9, you have multiple options:
      • You can target the Brace again (I wouldn't do this, he already braced the first attack, if he burns the Brace now, you shut up and take that to the bank): He takes 3 and the APT crit and doesn't use a token, or uses the green redirect. The ISD is left with 2/3/0/2 or something along those lines and 9 hull. With ACM, 0/3/0/0 and 11 hull. He can't even use the redirect.
      • You can target the green Redirect. Either he has to use ECM if he didn't the first time around (but then he'd have taken a few more damage and you'd target the brace anyway) or burn his other redirect. Same results as above but with possibly a burnt redirect.
      • But you can elect to not use the accuracy and deal 4 damage. In that case, you get an extra damage, making him think harder about burning that Brace. With APT, it's probably going to go to shields. With ACM, you start eating into hull.

In a nutshell, H9 gives you options and forces your opponent into making difficult decisions, which means more opportunities for him to make mistakes. In the above examples, XX-9 wouldn't have served you since you wouldn't have done more than 1 hull damage in the case of the Pelta and any damage in the case of the ISD. With XI7, sparing you the math, but the ISD would have been left with something like 2/3/0/2 and 7 hull. "But that's better than H9!". Yes, but the next turn, XI7 is mostly useless while H9 can target the Brace.

H9 is useful to make sure your side arcs stick. XI7 makes sure you eat through hull. The above example can also be used to illustrate the usefulness of ACM. Say that was your first activation of the turn. You now have 3 corvettes that can go to town on the ISD, from long range.

On 1/2/2019 at 11:47 PM, Muntman said:

However if I face squadrons, I just have to deal with it. If I face something like the Avenger/Interdiction combo then I am struggling as I am not sure how to counter it. 

Squadrons are indeed a problem, though don't underestimate flak. With good rolls you can put a lot of hurt into squadrons with the blue flak. Maybe try to put Toryn Farr somewhere in there to help you with that if that's your plan? I'm not sure it's the best plan ,mind you. If you think you'll face a healthy amount of squadrons, drop the Hammerhead for a flotilla and go for Tycho and Shara. Or go for some YT-2400s. Something along those lines. They'll likely die (not as certain in the case of Tycho + Shara), but they can be a small bump in the road for your opponent, maybe enough for you to kill the carriers or at least make something happen before your opponent starts hitting your ships.

As for Avenger/Interdictor, play to your strengths. You likely out-activate your opponent (maybe even massively), so use that. If you're first player, even better as you can maybe dodge the worst of BT/Avenger (or dodge it completely) with good nav. If you have to lose a MC30, make sure you can get in a good punch before it dies. If you trade your 82 point MC30 for a 140+ points ISD, you come out ahead. It's a tough matchup, but I think that matchup is decided on the table and not when fleet building.

So should I just whack H9's on everything or should I just put them on the MC30's and leave TRC's for the CR90's?

Can be done either way; with everyone toting H9's then I can still have a 7pts bid to make sure I go second.

Another question is should I even bother trying for a bid?

Missions I got Precision Strike, Solar Corona and Hyperspace Assault.

I would H9 only the MC30s. Putting it on everything, I feel you'll hit diminishing returns pretty fast. Your corvettes will also do most of their work at long range, where H9 isn't the most useful. You also don't really deal enough damage per attack with the corvettes to make H9 worthwhile. And without TRC, your damage would be far too unreliable, so stick with TRCs on the CR90s.

I feel that with your list, you want to go first, not 2nd. Your fleet doesn't take advantage of the objectives enough to justify 2nd player. Usually, bomber fleets that can take advantage of the objective trifecta (Precision Strike, Superior Positions, Fighter Ambush) or fleets that can exploit token-gathering objectives such as fleets with VCXs/Lambdas will want to go 2nd. It's not exclusively those, but usually, black-dice ships want to go first before their target either eats their face or scoots away.

Ok well I am at this point. I figured a 10pts bid is enough to make sure I can be first player.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 73 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 88 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Lando Calrissian ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 84 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Garel's Honor ( 4 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 43 total ship cost

Another thing you could consider is moving Lando and Dodonna to Admonition. I find CR90s to be highly vulnerable to being assassinated by squads, Demolishers, and ISDs. Stacking Lando and Admo really gives that MC30 great survivability. If you do keep Dodonna on the CR90, make sure to be very conservative with it. You’re going to struggle immensely against squadron heavy builds, but you’ll also have a number of very favorable matchups.

2 hours ago, CommanderDave said:

Another thing you could consider is moving Lando and Dodonna to Admonition. I find CR90s to be highly vulnerable to being assassinated by squads, Demolishers, and ISDs. Stacking Lando and Admo really gives that MC30 great survivability. If you do keep Dodonna on the CR90, make sure to be very conservative with it. You’re going to struggle immensely against squadron heavy builds, but you’ll also have a number of very favorable matchups.

While Landonition is very tough, it's not invulnerable and it wants to be in the middle of things. I'm not sure I would put the Dodonna on there. But I would put Lando and Admonition on the same boat.

Yes, the Jaina's Light lifeboat is vulnerable to getting sniped, but if flown conservatively, it can be pretty difficult or foolhardy for your opponent to get to it.

10 hours ago, CptAwesomer said:

While Landonition is very tough, it's not invulnerable and it wants to be in the middle of things. I'm not sure I would put the Dodonna on there. But I would put Lando and Admonition on the same boat.

Yes, the Jaina's Light lifeboat is vulnerable to getting sniped, but if flown conservatively, it can be pretty difficult or foolhardy for your opponent to get to it.

Yeah the idea of putting Dodonna on a ship that is going to be getting into the thick of things is not exactly ideal and offers no benefit other than a very juicy target.

The only other option I can think of doing is a Dodonna Bomber list (Y-Wings, HWK and maybe an escort for the HWK's to give them some staying power).

13 hours ago, Muntman said:

Yeah the idea of putting Dodonna on a ship that is going to be getting into the thick of things is not exactly ideal and offers no benefit other than a very juicy target.

The only other option I can think of doing is a Dodonna Bomber list (Y-Wings, HWK and maybe an escort for the HWK's to give them some staying power).

I don't think you need to go back to the drawing board entirely, unless you don't feel comfortable with your fleet right now. What you have will work and you already know what the difficult matchups will be (squads). Difficult doesn't mean impossible, but you need to have a plan. In my mind, you have 2 options: Either you play super aggressively and try to take out the carriers before the squads can do enough damage (easier said than done) or you make flak a higher priority. Flak is often the "I have nothing better to do this round" thing to do. But you have 5 ships with blue flak. This can add up rather quickly and can blunt the firepower of squad-heavy lists. With lucky rolls, you can even wreck generic ties in a Sloane list. You also have the black flak of your Hammerhead and External Racks as a finisher.

With that said, depending on how comfortable you are with the Flak Plan of 2019, there's a few options that don't require reworking your list from scratch that can help:

• What I think is the best option: Drop both H9 (yes, despite what I said above in their defence), drop the Hammerhead (16 + 43 = 59), add a GR75 (18), Toryn (7), Tycho +Shara (33). It's only 2 squads but they usually punch far above their weight. People do NOT want to attack Shara and Tycho is very elusive (even more if you use the station to regenerate health)
• Drop the Hammerhead (43 pts) and add a GR75(18), Toryn (7), Slicer Tools (7), Bright Hope (2) or Quantum Storm (1). You have 9-10 points (+10 bid) left for something else. You could upgrade the flotilla to a Combat version to get the blue flak, but Toryn wouldn't help you on it. The issue with this plan is that the GR75 might become a target because of Slicer Tools and Toryn on the same ship. Maybe that suits you just fine.
• Drop a Corvette and do the same thing as above. You'll be left with 17 points instead of 9. 17 is enough for Tycho (16) or Shara (17). A single squadron can easily be pinned down, though those 2 can be a bit annoying. It might be tempting to go for 2xZ-95, but the Z-95 are too unreliable and have as much hull as a paper plane. The enemy squadron ball will just roll over your 3-hull squads on the way to your ships. Tycho or Shara will also likely die, but they might take someone with them or they'll be a bigger roadblock or, best case scenario, a thorn in your opponent's side all game.
• Drop a CR90, both H9s (67 pts) and add GR75, Toryn Farr, Slicer Tools, Bright Hope, Tycho, Shara.
• Drop a CR90, both H9s and add Tycho, Shara, 2xA-Wings. You don't really have a way to activate them unless you also add a GR75, but then you start eating into your bid. Without an activator, you can still benefit from the A-Wing's Counter ability.

In any case, it's a relatively minor adjustment. The core of your fleet stays mostly intact. You have a bit less anti-ship, but you have better tools against squadrons. The core of your fleet, in my mind, is the 2 MC30s and your Corvettes.

To be 100% clear and not just leave you with "those are options, good luck", if I was running this list, I would drop Garel's Honor and H9 (option 1 above). I think it gives you a more well-rounded fleet and makes squad-heavy lists more manageable. With minimal squadron presence, it's likely your plan will still involve flak, but you at least have something that's dedicated to anti-squad and it's not entirely dependent on non-Toryn flak.

As for dropping the H9s, it doesn't break your MC30s in any way, H9 just gives them a little extra oomph that can be quite handy sometimes. I've played MC30s enough without H9 and with enough success to know that it isn't mandatory on them.

Well tried the list and well... didn't go so well. I am a bit too rusty to run that list. So decided to go back to something I know works better and came up with the list below, which I have used at a comp before. Any ideas on how to refine this a bit better? I was looking at trying to squeeze in Norra to help strip shields even faster, but also want to maintain a high squadron count to deal with the Sloane swarms if I face them ( the B-Wings, A-Wings and X-Wings can deal with them pretty well).

Dodonna Carrier

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 392/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Independence ( 8 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XX-9 Turbolasers ( 5 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 154 total ship cost

Modified Pelta-class Command Ship (60 points)
- Raymus Antilles ( 7 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- All Fighters, Follow Me! ( 5 points)
= 76 total ship cost

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 36 total ship cost

1 Green Squadron ( 12 points)
3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
4 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 40 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
= 126 total squadron cost