Hi all -

New to the forum and to Armada. Just trying out some fleet builds - while I prefer Imperials (more straightforward builds IMO), I have been working up a Rebel fleet when my group needs a Rebel player. It's intended to be a Hammerhead ram you/jam you fleet, with a coup de grace by a MC80. Anyway, I present, for your feedback, Dodonna's Hammer:

Dodonna’s Hammer (381/400)

Rebels - Author: Aahz

Objectives: Dangerous Territory, Advanced Gunnery, Hyperspace Assault

[flagship] MC80 Command Cruiser (106)

- General Dodonna (20)

- Defiance (5)

- NK-7 Ion Cannons (10)

- Intel Officer (7)

- Enhanced Armament (10)

= 158 total points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

- Garel's Honor (4)

- Boarding Engineers (2)

- External Racks (3)

= 45 total points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

- Task Force Organa (1)

- Boarding Engineers (2)

- External Racks (3)

= 42 total points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

- Task Force Organa (1)

- Boarding Engineers (2)

- External Racks (3)

= 42 total points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

- Task Force Organa (1)

- Boarding Engineers (2)

- External Racks (3)

= 42 total points

Squadrons (52/134):

4x X-Wing Squadron (52)

I am also considering whether to swap out Hyperspace Assault with Fleet Ambush . Any suggestions appreciated!

Instead of the X wings 2 A wing, Tycho, Shara, way more likely to get that Alpha strike and you'll be taking stuff with them as they go.

Thanks, Nomemories. However, I don't have any A-wings sadly as I can't get Rebel Fighters 1 without paying an arm and a leg (plus another hand and a foot) on eBay at the moment. I like them as anti-fighters better as you're right, that's all they're supposed to be doing here - tying up enemies squadrons, but can't do anything about that at this moment.

4 minutes ago, Aahz 1 said:

Thanks, Nomemories. However, I don't have any A-wings sadly as I can't get Rebel Fighters 1 without paying an arm and a leg (plus another hand and a foot) on eBay at the moment. I like them as anti-fighters better as you're right, that's all they're supposed to be doing here - tying up enemies squadrons, but can't do anything about that at this moment.

Oh, yeah sorry I forgot not everyone has ready access to them. In friendly games though I'm sure most people will let you warp them in possibly even at tourneys I think that ought to be allowable considering how difficult they are to procure.

Change NK-7s into Leading Shots and Enhanced Armament into QBTs. With Defiance adding a blue and a black dice twice a turn against an activated opponent it is very deadly. Then look at adding Engine Techs allowing you to go speed 1+1 if you need to stay slow for QBTs. Hondo on a hammerhead can be a good emergency nav/repair token for the flagship and to get you a boarding engineer squadron token on whichever hammerhead finds itself close by a large target.

I would probably eat into your bid a little to get 3 X-Wings + Jan to lend them defence tokens.

1 hour ago, Mad Cat said:

Change NK-7s into Leading Shots and Enhanced Armament into QBTs. With Defiance adding a blue and a black dice twice a turn against an activated opponent it is very deadly. Then look at adding Engine Techs allowing you to go speed 1+1 if you need to stay slow for QBTs. Hondo on a hammerhead can be a good emergency nav/repair token for the flagship and to get you a boarding engineer squadron token on whichever hammerhead finds itself close by a large target.

I would probably eat into your bid a little to get 3 X-Wings + Jan to lend them defence tokens.

Thanks Mad Cat. The problem I had with QBTs was the speed concern as I often have my Hammerheads flying really fast so they can get in and start ramming a target as soon as possible since I'm likely going to lose at least one of them in any engagement with a star destroyer (my last battle, one of my own even self-destructed with thruster fissures to get out of the way for a close-up double shot by one of his brother hammerheads) - so didn't want my MC80 to get left behind. Maybe coupling with engine techs will help allay that concern.

I really like the idea of Hondo - super helpful to power the boarding engineers.

Hmmm. Trying to keep the bid reasonable, as I want one of these objectives - and to be second player. Will work on it some more.

Any thoughts on Fleet Ambush with this fleet? I've never used it, but the more I'm thinking about this fleet, my goal is to try to bring lots of firepower to bear on one of the enemy's ships as quick as possible (divide and conquer) - thinking that might make it more likely?

Where is the Electronic Counter Measures on the MC80? They have lots of shield and second best hull the Rebels get but they are still quite vulnerable compared to the ISD. Try to find some points for that. I find the Intel Officer to be usefull when they are brought in multitude. One can work but when you got no reroll ability on the MC80 for your red dice, I would take an ECM instead.

The Hammerhead swarm looks sweet. Garel's Honor is very good with Dodonna.

The NK-7 Ion Cannon is not very good. It can in the best of cases force the opponent to choose his own tokens from the attacked ship and discard a token. He is probably going to choose a redirect or a contain. And this is on medium range you can hope to get that off. With Defiance on long range you have 25% chance to get a blue Crit. Id say drop this for leading shots, rerolls are very good to have since you will probably get 3 or 4 shots in a game of so better make them count. Also the reroll with Leading Shots help when you fire Anti Squadron and say the Black dice land on a blank and the blue on an Accuracy.

If you have the opportunity, share the Rogues and Villains pack with a friend. You get Jan Ors in there that really help you X-wings stay alive. Also Han Solo and Dash Rendar is fun. Nym is a very good bomber if you can field the support for him.

With Fleet Ambush as the objective, you can never be quite sure who is ambushing who. Its a weird objective to best stay away from IMO. Hyperspace Assault is much better for your Hammerheads.

Advance Gunnery for the MC80 is a good choice. Maybe even try Opening salvo once. Throwing black dice from long range from 4 Hammerheads is great fun, but this will seldom get chosen.

Fleet Ambush works if you have an answer to:

What if a cloud of bombers shoot me before I can do anything?

What if Demo shoots me before I can do anything?

What if a Cymoon ISD shoots me before I can do anything?

What if Ackbar or a pack of Arquitens make a conga line and shoot me before I can do anything?

What if Sato shoots me before I can do anything?

What if they don’t have the means to do any of these things, but instead deploy at speed one right in front of their normal deployment zone while the rest of their fleet catches up?

How am I benefiting from this objective more than they are again?

All together, it’s a hard set of questions to answer, which is why it should usually be avoided.

I personally like Hammerhead swarms, and I think they are very strong. However, I would like to suggest a few changes.

Any Hammerhead Task Force works best when all four have the title. That maximizes effect. For only a few extra fleet points, it's definetley worth it.

Secondly, the build is a bit strange. Boarding Engineers, at least in my opinion, are just not good in general. External Racks you should definetley keep. From there, I suggest multiple potential courses of action. If you are taking Task Force Organa, take just that (with the External Racks) on each of them. That might give you some extra wiggle room. If you want to take Task Force Antilles, take Ordnance Experts on all of them. With this, you'll have to make cuts somewhere else.

As @Mad Cat suggested, you should drop NK-7s for the other upgrades. Otherwise, I don't see any particular problem with the MC80.

As for squadrons, you have a good idea with the X - wings. You could either lead them with Biggs or with Jan Ors, depending on your flight strategy.

The objectives I think are good.

Please note that all these are hypothetical changes, and I might have mentioned something you don't have. In that case, you should take @Nomemories ' idea.

I hope this helps!

Swap the H1MC80 for an LMC80, that way you can deliver more concentrated firepower. And drop NK-7s for SW-7s if you swap.