Well, with the release of RitR, I thought about pulling out some favorite ships, throw in some new upgrades (along with older ones that synergize well) and seeing how this will run. Basically I expect to fly the ships at speed 3, aiming to engage fast and leverage nav dials to get excellent maneuverability, while also messing around with the new Gravity Rift objectives.

What are your thoughts?

Name: Madine Rift Assaulters
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Rift Assault
Defense: Rift Ambush
Navigation: Doomed Station

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 141 Points

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• General Madine (30)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Paragon (5)
= 128 Points

Pelta Assault Ship (56)
• Ray Antilles (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Take Evasive Action! (6)
= 77 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
= 18 Points

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 33 Points

Total Points: 397

Putting ezra on the transport allows you to shift an obstacle, good with your objectives.

So after a fun few runs with the original Madine list I drafted above I have a few observations:

1) Mon Karren (MK) punches way above its weight, the combo of HIE and WBTs (it basically procc'ed HIE every round) with the LTTs for Red rerolls leaves the defender hard choices - the front arc averaged 7 damage plus HIE, and typically had an accuracy left to spend on a defense token.

The combo of Madine dials and TEA! I was able to get double arc shots on the majority of the engagements, which was good for another 3 damage each round - all told, even after defense tokens, it was typically exhausting the ECM and Brace, and pushing 10 damage (including HIE) into the shields and hull of the opponent.

Flying at Speed 3 all the time meant that I had to be very careful on setup and approach for the attack run though, and if left out in the open it could get mauled, because at the end of the day, it is still a Liberty class MC80. Aux Shield Team helped there, and the extra 2 shields from them at the beginning of the game were key to survival during a poor decision process against a Sloane list.

2) The AFmk2 NEEDS LTTs stapled to it now in my book. They give it much better teeth against ships and key squadrons - pushing out 5-6 points of damage each turn, (perhaps even a Gallant Haven, FLT CDR, Boarding Trooper, LTT, ECM ship could make an interesting 100pt build to provide close escort and support for a bomber ball).

Paragon was ok but not great, since I ran exclusively Nav commands I wasnt ever able to fully capitalize on it by adding another black die by con-fire, but with an extra 3 black dice added on ave per game, it worked.

3) The Pelta did it's thing, Ray Antilles and Engine Techs were too expensive for the benefit of using ETs and TEA!

After 1 game they were replaced by Hondo, Aux Shields, and ExRacks, and the Pelta became a support/trailing ship to help the MK and Paragon engage and then drift through a high speed turn to chase enemy ships, while the Pelta blocked their escape route and shoved red/black dice into their face.

In total TEA! was useful 2-3 rounds per game, with 1 of the rounds (during initial engagement) being a key usage.

4) With the extra points I added a Comm Net and Ahsoka to the Gr75, to set up TEA! on round 2, while also giving myself some flexibility to provide and move tokens on MK.

The changes to the Gr75 did have an unintended consequence though, instead of it being a simple activation and squadron pusher as initially intended, the additional upgrades on it meant I had to make real decisions every round on what I wanted it to support...ie it took more thought in planning on what was most important.

5) Objectives: I thoroughly enjoyed the gravity rift objective series....Madine is a good fit for them, since he naturally wants the ships to a) use nav commands, and b) go fast enough to have yaw values to change, so the objectives never really hurt my ships, while also providing interesting ways to control speed and make some areas not conducive to the SSD (in particular).

Next up, a Madine Armored 75 list going after a few other new objectives...

So based on the use of the last fleet, and some lessons learned there about Madine and TEA! I have realized that while good together, Madine is actually better off just having an extra nav token on large ships, instead of using TEA! - since it actually gives the limited number of ships gaining a nav benefit a more flexible approach to resolve a nav command with both the dial and token instead of the dial plus TEA!

With that in mind I am brushing off a double MC/GR75 list (with some updates) to run against the Surprise Attack, Asteroid Tactics, and Volatile Deposits objectives. Without further ado:

Name: Untitled Fleet
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Suprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Volatile Deposits

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• General Madine (30)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 163 Points

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 129 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
= 23 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points

Squadrons:
• Hera Syndulla (28)
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 61 Points

Total Points: 396

The GR75s are paired to an MC75 each, and feed extra nav tokens, the MC75s follow the rule - Always Be Navigating, and then close and destroy a key enemy ship.

Any thoughts or recommendations prior to putting this on the table? Thanks

I’d drop Hera for Lando or a pair of generic A-Wings. Shara and Tycho really only need one squad command and then they’re engaged. Hera doesn’t add much value to them in my opinion. You’d have the points to fit Bail on the 75 that lacks an officer.

That's true, Lando does have good staying power, and with his squadron in place of Hera, and adding Bail I'm still at 398, to kinda aim for second player. Hera was there from the pre-RitR buildout of the list.

Good reading about Madine. Also MC75/MC80 is something I want to try in the future.

@DblVsdGuy

Something like this?

Name: Untitled Fleet
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Suprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Infested Fields

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 141 Points

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• General Madine (30)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
= 164 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points

Squadrons:
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 55 Points

Total Points: 400

I had to downgrade from LTTs to XX9 on the 75, and Ketsu instead of Lando....

This is close to a list I run, except that I put the Exodus Fleet on my MC's, for the benefit of the Abandoned Mining Facility objective. The title kindof acts as a soft counter to XI-7. A comm net can feed a token which regenerates a shield and moves two, or discards a hull damage and moves a shield. The Exodus Fleet never dies with its shields still up on any quadrant. I totally get the benefits of Mon Karron + Ion Crit + WBT, though, so you do you.

That said, I'd drop Spinals and aux shield team in favor of Engine Techs. Against skilled players, ET can mean one more full turn of shooting.

I'm not sure that the XX-9's are worth it on the Bail ship. In my experience, engagement doesn't really begin until after Bail goes off - folks are too busy running away from him. If the enemy's shields are still up, then the XX-9's don't get a chance to go off. Madine fleets are pretty sensitive to things that muck with command dials, so being able to redistribute the XX-9 points on Leia is a good insurance policy. Alternatively, she gives you much more command dial freedom.