So I've just got into Armada and purchased a few of the basic ships plus the newest campaign. What are some good loadouts for using the title for the Nebulon-b that comes with the campaign Rebellion in the Rim? The icon that the Nebulon-b now gets when that title is equipped has some pretty good options, but the Nebulon-b does not get black dice.

Most people who run Nebuleon-b's run them for the yavaris title, so Vanguard isn't common.

Probably go gunnery teams, linked turbolaser towers and axulirary shield teams if you want to make Vanguard usable

Caitken and Shollan is also an option

18 minutes ago, player4851928 said:

So I've just got into Armada and purchased a few of the basic ships plus the newest campaign. What are some good loadouts for using the title for the Nebulon-b that comes with the campaign Rebellion in the Rim? The icon that the Nebulon-b now gets when that title is equipped has some pretty good options, but the Nebulon-b does not get black dice.

Hi, welcome! The Neb-B can be a tricky ship to use, because those side zones are huge and very weak. Vanguard offers a bit of a fix in that it allows you to gain a Redirect defense token, so if you get shot in the side, you can bounce some damage to the deeper front and rear shield pools. Ideally, though, you want to keep it pointed straight at the enemy, and don’t close any faster than you need to, as your front arc long range dice won’t get any more potent as you get closer, but they’re likely to add blues and blacks as you close, which is bad for you.

The best (and cheapest) way to leverage that Redirect to its fullest is to also equip the “Auxiliary Shield Teams” Support crew, and then call up an Engineering order on turn 1, using two Engineering points to buy a bonus shield for one side, and using the last point to move a point of shield from the rear to the opposite side, giving you a 3 front, 2 left, 2 right, 1 back spread. If you want, you can also call up another engineering command on turn 2, and fully repair the rear shield as well.

This will leave you with a slightly tougher Neb-B. It’s still not incredibly sturdy, so it’s advisable to not over-upgrade the thing. That said, there are several options you can use in both the Turbolaser slot (native to the ship), and the Weapons Team slot (provided by Vanguard) to give you a bit more offensive punch. Keep in mind though, you may not always want to fill every upgrade slot, especially on an inherently fragile ship like this one.

For Turbolasers, one popular option is Linked Turbolaser Towers, which can give you a single-die reroll on one of your reds on each attack, and can also allow you to really flak one squadron per turn very hard, at the expense of attacking any other squadrons. This is great, especially in concert with the 2 blue flak on the Neb-B Escort variant.

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits mare another option, but I’m wary of using these on Neb-Bs, or really any fragile ship with only one Evade, as you will often want to save the Evade to defend yourself.

Spinal Armament is another (very expensive) option, but red dice have a decent chance of coming up blank, or hitting too many accuracies and not enough damage, so I’m wary of these as well.

Quad Battery Turrets can do nice things for you, and they’re cheap, and add a blue die at any range, the only trick being that you need to have a lower speed on your dial than your target does. I’d start with these, or maybe the Linked Turbolaser Towers.

For a Weapons Team, look for guys who can reroll or alter one or more dice in your pool. Caitken and Shollan are great here, because all (or most, if you’re using Quad Battery Turrets) of your dice will be one color. But they’re unique, which means you can’t put them on another ship.

Veteran Gunners are decent, but their reroll is all or nothing; that is, if you roll 3 reds and a blue, and get double-hit, hit, blank, blank, you have a tough choice, as you may just roll something worse. They are pretty cool in that you can spend accuracy results before your reroll, which means if you hit an accuracy and three blanks, you can stop an opponent’s Brace token or something, then reroll the three blanks left in the pool.

One other option I will mention, because people seem to be into trying it right now, is Local Fire Control. This gives your Nebulon-B access to the new Salvo token, which basically allows a counterattack with your printed rear arc (cannot add dice to this, so for the Neb, it’s two red dice). This is intriguing, but it has some downside. First, because your Weapons Team is taken up by the Local Fire Control, you can still roll badly, making it less likely you’ll actually have effective attacks, unless you have other sources of dice fixing (like Linked Turbolaser Towers, for example, or the Fleet Command Upgrade “Intensify Firepower!” which requires a certain type of ship to reliably use (the Pelta Cruiser). This invites you to spend even more points on the Vanguard however, and I feel like the ship becomes too points-heavy for its fragile frame. The other downside to Local Fire Control is that it also makes you trade in one of your existing defense tokens to get the Salvo token, which decreases your survivability, which is bad on a fragile, points-heavy ship. I think this option is okay with Intensify Firepower in a Pelta, if you keep the Neb pretty slim otherwise, but I don’t like stacking Vanguard with the title, plus LFC, plus LTT, plus Auxiliary Shield Teams... it just does too quickly to justify all of this, in my opinion.

6 minutes ago, Basile1902 said:

Most people who run Nebuleon-b's run them for the yavaris title, so Vanguard isn't common.

Probably go gunnery teams, linked turbolaser towers and axulirary shield teams if you want to make Vanguard usable

Caitken and Shollan is also an option

Hate to be contrarian, but I would avoid Gunnery Teams like the plague. The Neb’s only decent arc is very narrow, making it hard to catch more than one ship at a time. And if it has more than one enemy facing it, it’s likely already in bad trouble.

3 hours ago, Basile1902 said:

Most people who run Nebuleon-b's run them for the yavaris title, so Vanguard isn't common.

Probably go gunnery teams, linked turbolaser towers and axulirary shield teams if you want to make Vanguard usable

Caitken and Shollan is also an option

Yavaris is indeed an interesting (probably better than I realize) title. Squadrons seem a little overwhelming to try to figure out, but once I get there I'll check it out.

3 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Hi, welcome! The Neb-B can be a tricky ship to use, because those side zones are huge and very weak. Vanguard offers a bit of a fix in that it allows you to gain a Redirect defense token, so if you get shot in the side, you can bounce some damage to the deeper front and rear shield pools. Ideally, though, you want to keep it pointed straight at the enemy, and don’t close any faster than you need to, as your front arc long range dice won’t get any more potent as you get closer, but they’re likely to add blues and blacks as you close, which is bad for you.

The best (and cheapest) way to leverage that Redirect to its fullest is to also equip the “Auxiliary Shield Teams” Support crew, and then call up an Engineering order on turn 1, using two Engineering points to buy a bonus shield for one side, and using the last point to move a point of shield from the rear to the opposite side, giving you a 3 front, 2 left, 2 right, 1 back spread. If you want, you can also call up another engineering command on turn 2, and fully repair the rear shield as well.

This will leave you with a slightly tougher Neb-B. It’s still not incredibly sturdy, so it’s advisable to not over-upgrade the thing. That said, there are several options you can use in both the Turbolaser slot (native to the ship), and the Weapons Team slot (provided by Vanguard) to give you a bit more offensive punch. Keep in mind though, you may not always want to fill every upgrade slot, especially on an inherently fragile ship like this one.

For Turbolasers, one popular option is Linked Turbolaser Towers, which can give you a single-die reroll on one of your reds on each attack, and can also allow you to really flak one squadron per turn very hard, at the expense of attacking any other squadrons. This is great, especially in concert with the 2 blue flak on the Neb-B Escort variant.

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits mare another option, but I’m wary of using these on Neb-Bs, or really any fragile ship with only one Evade, as you will often want to save the Evade to defend yourself.

Spinal Armament is another (very expensive) option, but red dice have a decent chance of coming up blank, or hitting too many accuracies and not enough damage, so I’m wary of these as well.

Quad Battery Turrets can do nice things for you, and they’re cheap, and add a blue die at any range, the only trick being that you need to have a lower speed on your dial than your target does. I’d start with these, or maybe the Linked Turbolaser Towers.

For a Weapons Team, look for guys who can reroll or alter one or more dice in your pool. Caitken and Shollan are great here, because all (or most, if you’re using Quad Battery Turrets) of your dice will be one color. But they’re unique, which means you can’t put them on another ship.

Veteran Gunners are decent, but their reroll is all or nothing; that is, if you roll 3 reds and a blue, and get double-hit, hit, blank, blank, you have a tough choice, as you may just roll something worse. They are pretty cool in that you can spend accuracy results before your reroll, which means if you hit an accuracy and three blanks, you can stop an opponent’s Brace token or something, then reroll the three blanks left in the pool.

One other option I will mention, because people seem to be into trying it right now, is Local Fire Control. This gives your Nebulon-B access to the new Salvo token, which basically allows a counterattack with your printed rear arc (cannot add dice to this, so for the Neb, it’s two red dice). This is intriguing, but it has some downside. First, because your Weapons Team is taken up by the Local Fire Control, you can still roll badly, making it less likely you’ll actually have effective attacks, unless you have other sources of dice fixing (like Linked Turbolaser Towers, for example, or the Fleet Command Upgrade “Intensify Firepower!” which requires a certain type of ship to reliably use (the Pelta Cruiser). This invites you to spend even more points on the Vanguard however, and I feel like the ship becomes too points-heavy for its fragile frame. The other downside to Local Fire Control is that it also makes you trade in one of your existing defense tokens to get the Salvo token, which decreases your survivability, which is bad on a fragile, points-heavy ship. I think this option is okay with Intensify Firepower in a Pelta, if you keep the Neb pretty slim otherwise, but I don’t like stacking Vanguard with the title, plus LFC, plus LTT, plus Auxiliary Shield Teams... it just does too quickly to justify all of this, in my opinion.

Thanks for the detailed response! I'll look over this a few times to figure out everything you've mentioned. I don't know that I have all of the upgrades you mention (I don't have the Pelta ship yet, for example).

I like the Neb-b (I have the core set plus the Neb-B expansion plus a couple other Imperial ships. I want to list build around that while I figure out the game, so I am glad to know not to sink too many points into it.

I wasn't aware you could use some of the dice and then reroll those remining in the pool. I have lots of reading to do!

4 hours ago, player4851928 said:

Thanks for the detailed response! I'll look over this a few times to figure out everything you've mentioned. I don't know that I have all of the upgrades you mention (I don't have the Pelta ship yet, for example).

I like the Neb-b (I have the core set plus the Neb-B expansion plus a couple other Imperial ships. I want to list build around that while I figure out the game, so I am glad to know not to sink too many points into it.

I wasn't aware you could use some of the dice and then reroll those remining in the pool. I have lots of reading to do!

“You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world.”

There is a lot of depth to this game, and while the core set plus a couple of random additions will take you a certain distance, once you get a bit further in, you’ll realize that the core is a bit misleading for beginners. The Victory Star Destroyer is very weak without some upgrades to fix its maneuverability (have a look at the Harrow title from Rebellion in the Rim), and the Nebulon-B can do some cool stuff (particularly with the Yavaris title, and Salvation and Vanguard are pretty good as well), but again, it’s very, very fragile. The CR90 Corvette is a very strong ship for its cost, however; even today, the basic CR90A with nothing but Turbolaser Reroute Circuits is a common sight in competitive fleets.

Just curious: what are the Imperial ships you’ve got, besides the core set VSD?

I'm not a real expert, having starting playing only a year ago. Just chiming in, because Nebulons are seriously under-rated by many people, in my opinion.

I tried a Nebulon, back when I only had one, and decided it was rubbish: died too easily, and was ineffective except when using Yavaris to double-activate some squadrons.

Then I aquired a pile of second-hand Nebulons and asked people whether anyone had any suggestions for using multiple Nebs in a fleet.

The basic build is: Support Refit at 51pts, plus Auxiliary Shield Team (3) plus Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 58pts.

If your dice rolling it generally ok, you can use Linked Turbolaser Turrets. These work on both attacks, if you get them, and don't use your Evade. However, TRC guarantees your dice will get a reasonable result. Which I really like.

I run 5 of these, plus a Cr90a with TRC and Jaina's Light as my flagship for Leia. 398pts total, using Surprise Attack, Asteroid Tactics, and (until the recent nerf) Hyperspace Migration. These nullify most squadron-based fleets, which also want to move first most of the time. The advantage of Leia is that you get even more dice-fixing when you use Concentrate Fire; can set up at speed 3, use Engineering turn 1 to get both side shields up; and drop to speed 1 turn 2. Then you Concentrate Fire for 1 or 2 turns, followed by jumping to speed 3 and escaping. Just charge at the biggest enemy ship!

Multiple Nebulons can absolutely wreck enemy ships very quickly: you get to deal between 3 (if you roll terribly) and 7 damage per ship - more if you can double-arc. This can drop a SuperStar Destroyer in 2 turns, or an ISD in one. Generally, it's hard to get all 5 pointing at the same target though, so an ISD usually dies near the start of the 2nd turn of shooting. If you're unlucky, you might lose 2 Nebulons in return. But often that extra side shield keeps each of them alive for one more shot and you can escape with it.

3 is the minimum to be effective though, otherwise they can't kill enemy ships quickly enough and they die themselves if they are in combat for a 3rd turn.

I made the list as a bit of a joke - surely it would be really bad? And enjoyed playing it so much in my 2 practice games that I took it to a Prime (my only tournament I've attended so far) where I was told I probably lose every game. But it was so much fun to play I took it anyway. Finished in 8th place out of 28 players, won every game (albeit not by very many points) and had a wonderful time!

1 hour ago, Gilarius said:

I'm not a real expert, having starting playing only a year ago. Just chiming in, because Nebulons are seriously under-rated by many people, in my opinion.

I tried a Nebulon, back when I only had one, and decided it was rubbish: died too easily, and was ineffective except when using Yavaris to double-activate some squadrons.

Then I aquired a pile of second-hand Nebulons and asked people whether anyone had any suggestions for using multiple Nebs in a fleet.

The basic build is: Support Refit at 51pts, plus Auxiliary Shield Team (3) plus Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 58pts.

If your dice rolling it generally ok, you can use Linked Turbolaser Turrets. These work on both attacks, if you get them, and don't use your Evade. However, TRC guarantees your dice will get a reasonable result. Which I really like.

I run 5 of these, plus a Cr90a with TRC and Jaina's Light as my flagship for Leia. 398pts total, using Surprise Attack, Asteroid Tactics, and (until the recent nerf) Hyperspace Migration. These nullify most squadron-based fleets, which also want to move first most of the time. The advantage of Leia is that you get even more dice-fixing when you use Concentrate Fire; can set up at speed 3, use Engineering turn 1 to get both side shields up; and drop to speed 1 turn 2. Then you Concentrate Fire for 1 or 2 turns, followed by jumping to speed 3 and escaping. Just charge at the biggest enemy ship!

Multiple Nebulons can absolutely wreck enemy ships very quickly: you get to deal between 3 (if you roll terribly) and 7 damage per ship - more if you can double-arc. This can drop a SuperStar Destroyer in 2 turns, or an ISD in one. Generally, it's hard to get all 5 pointing at the same target though, so an ISD usually dies near the start of the 2nd turn of shooting. If you're unlucky, you might lose 2 Nebulons in return. But often that extra side shield keeps each of them alive for one more shot and you can escape with it.

3 is the minimum to be effective though, otherwise they can't kill enemy ships quickly enough and they die themselves if they are in combat for a 3rd turn.

I made the list as a bit of a joke - surely it would be really bad? And enjoyed playing it so much in my 2 practice games that I took it to a Prime (my only tournament I've attended so far) where I was told I probably lose every game. But it was so much fun to play I took it anyway. Finished in 8th place out of 28 players, won every game (albeit not by very many points) and had a wonderful time!

Leia and Nebs doing well? That's just awesome!

19 minutes ago, Flengin said:

Leia and Nebs doing well? That's just awesome!

According to the current Prime data, last time I checked anyway, that makes me the leading player of Leia anywhere in the world! I need more practice though - I barely won 2 of my 3 games.

If you want some fun with the Vanguard, try this:

Nebulon-B Escort
+ Vanguard
+ Ruthless Strategists
+ Heavy Fire Zone

69 points for a nice squadron killer. Two red dice against squadrons (obstruction does not help anymore) and extra damage from Ruthless. And you still have the Officer and Support Team slot free. I know that the Mark II can do the same, but this one cost 20 points less.

A second fun variation could be a Support Nebulon Vanguard with Local Fire Control, Linked Turbolaser Towers and Agate (commander).
Two Salvo Tokens with two red dice and a red reroll.
With Aux Shield Team it could last way longer. Walex as Officer could also be fun, for the regain of a token.
74 points (94 with Agate) is really expensive for this. But interesting.

I had considered that Nebs might be good in numbers, and certainly Leia seems like just the sort of commander to give them the boost they need. I only own three myself, and the swarm lists I’ve made always looked fun but shaky. So I tend to use a maximum of one Neb-B, and 90% of the time it’s just like, Escort Frigate, Raymus Antilles, Aux Shield Teams, Yavaris.

8 hours ago, Tokra said:

69

8 hours ago, Tokra said:

nice

Indeed.

On 3/26/2020 at 3:39 AM, Cpt ObVus said:

“You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world.”

There is a lot of depth to this game, and while the core set plus a couple of random additions will take you a certain distance, once you get a bit further in, you’ll realize that the core is a bit misleading for beginners. The Victory Star Destroyer is very weak without some upgrades to fix its maneuverability (have a look at the Harrow title from Rebellion in the Rim), and the Nebulon-B can do some cool stuff (particularly with the Yavaris title, and Salvation and Vanguard are pretty good as well), but again, it’s very, very fragile. The CR90 Corvette is a very strong ship for its cost, however; even today, the basic CR90A with nothing but Turbolaser Reroute Circuits is a common sight in competitive fleets.

Just curious: what are the Imperial ships you’ve got, besides the core set VSD?

Sorry for the late response!

I have the ISD, a second VSD, and a Raider. I am waiting for an Arquetens and a Quasar-Fire Carrier.

6 hours ago, player4851928 said:

Sorry for the late response!

I have the ISD, a second VSD, and a Raider. I am waiting for an Arquetens and a Quasar-Fire Carrier.

Great! You have some good pieces. You’re going to want to get ahold of a Gozanti Cruiser flotilla or two for the Empire, and a GR75 Transports flotilla or two for the Alliance. They allow you a lot of flexibility in list building, and they do a lot for you once you hit a certain level of experience. Don’t bother getting more than two GR75s, or two Gozantis, as each list is limited to two flotilla units per list. You can probably just start with one of each.

Other than that, I’m gonna refrain from giving you buying advice, because I have zero self-control when it comes to plastic spaceships. I recently started playing X-Wing, and the number of Amazon & eBay boxes arriving daily is starting to scare my (incredibly understanding and patient) wife.