Normally I tend to max out the upgrades on ships, so this is a different approach for me. Five activations, and I'm only running Han Solo for squadrons. Rebel Swarm Author: mj10982 Faction: Rebels Commander: Mon Mothma Assault Objective: Most Wanted Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush Navigation Objective: Superior Positions Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Vanguard (4) - Intel Officer (7) - Slaved Turrets (6) - Caitken and Shollan (6) = 74 points CR90B Corvette (39) - Jaina's Light (2) - Heavy Ion Emplacements (9) = 50 points Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Salvation (7) - Intel Officer (7) - Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) = 72 points [flagship] CR90A Corvette (44) - Mon Mothma (30) - Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 81 points MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63) - Foresight (8) - Lando Calrissian (4) - External Racks (3) - XI7 Turbolasers (6) - Ordnance Experts (4) = 88 points 1 Han Solo (26) = 26 points
Rebel Swarm
You could change Vanguard into a reasonably well loaded Admonition and drop Han for Tycho to pay for it.
Or ditch Vanguard for a TRC-90 and a cheap flotilla then you could go for a pair of non rogues for fighters and get a sixth activation.
you could change XI7 for H9 to lock down the brace and I might consider Jiana's light on a CR90A for long range shooting.
Most wanted is great with a flotilla and ok with a CR90B as your smallest ship. Surprise attack is another good option.
Fleet ambush can be a horrible mission for you against some opponents when a Sloane ISD2 kills 2 of your ships on turn one. Planet ion cannon or hyperspace assault are good.
Again a Sloane or other fighter heavy list will whallop you in superior positions racking up 15 point tokens with ease. Solar corona gives a similar benefit for much less risk. Salvage run is a good source of 80 points as you are nimble and fast to grab tokens and then slip into favourable positions using the dust clouds.
I don't ever put a Commander on a CR90 without equipping a Defensive Retrofit of some kind, or Lando -- ideally, both .
Admittedly though, I rarely run MSU builds. And when I do, I bring along squadrons that can inflict heavy damage to ships.
Ever since Wave 8 was released, ships can gain a Salvo token by equipping the Local Fire Control upgrade card, which can be a strong deterrent against small ships attacking that Salvo-equipped ship. Squadrons can also be Salvo-ed, but only with the ships printed Anti-Squadron armament, and players rarely ever spend Salvo against a squadron because it only counter-attacks the one enemy squadron, whereas an Anti-Squadron attack flaks all enemy squadrons in that firing arc. So unless there isn't an enemy ship that can attack that round, it's not worth exhausting the Salvo token, because you would have to discard the Salvo to counter-attack a ship.
Before COVID-19 crisis, I noticed fewer players running MSU builds than before Wave 8. Something to consider.
10 hours ago, Mj10982 said:Normally I tend to max out the upgrades on ships, so this is a different approach for me. Five activations, and I'm only running Han Solo for squadrons. Rebel Swarm Author: mj10982 Faction: Rebels Commander: Mon Mothma Assault Objective: Most Wanted Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush Navigation Objective: Superior Positions Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Vanguard (4) - Intel Officer (7) - Slaved Turrets (6) - Caitken and Shollan (6) = 74 points CR90B Corvette (39) - Jaina's Light (2) - Heavy Ion Emplacements (9) = 50 points Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Salvation (7) - Intel Officer (7) - Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) = 72 points [flagship] CR90A Corvette (44) - Mon Mothma (30) - Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 81 points MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63) - Foresight (8) - Lando Calrissian (4) - External Racks (3) - XI7 Turbolasers (6) - Ordnance Experts (4) = 88 points 1 Han Solo (26) = 26 points
This is a sort of quantity-over-quality list, but most of the ships kind of have a lot of “luxury” add-ons. Kinda reminds me of the kid who owns a $500 car with a $3000 stereo system in it. 🙂
Also, the objective choices here are... not great. A couple of them are actually the opposite of what I would choose for a fleet like this. We’ll get to those in a bit.
Let’s go ship-by-ship.
Vanguard, like most Nebulon-Bs, should be kept cheap. Cut Intel Officer. Most of the time your 4-5 front arc reds will be coming up with 2-4 hits, and your opponent will be able to mitigate the damage you’re spitting out without blowing his tokens. I would consider Auxiliary Shield Teams. Inflated the cost a bit, but it’s well worth it on Vanguard, because you can get a Redirect token.
Salvation: again, cut Intel Officer. And while I usually don’t like putting Turbolaser Reroute Circuits on ships with one Evade token, if there is a ship with one Evade that wants them, it’s Salvation. Obviously there’s a tension here, given that Mon Mothma wants that Evade to be used defensively. You’re going to have to weigh the costs and benefits of TRCs, and decide for yourself if it’s worth it. Talking of other Turbolaser options, I get what you’re doing with the LTTs, in that you’re obviously trying to get Salvation to proc more often with a reroll, but rather then buy one reroll, you could just use Quad Battery Turrets, Slaved Turrets, or Spinal Armament to just roll an extra die instead, for slightly more or slightly less points.
In both of these cases, the Intel Officer is your $3000 stereo.
The CR90B has its own $3000 stereo, in the form of Heavy Ion Emplacements. Yes, it will work with fair frequency, but it will also fail pretty regularly, and there’s not much you can do about it when it does, outside of hoping you have a ConFire token. And while Mothma helps keep evasive small ships alive, being able to cancel one die at medium range rather than just reroll one die at medium range is good, but getting INTO medium range at all will often mean you’re facing 2-4 more dice to begin with, and that doesn’t bode well for a ship with a 9 point upgrade that may just fail. If it’s me, I’m just going CR90B + SW-7 Ion Cannons and calling it a day. Move Jaina’s Light to the CR90A, if you must use it at all; the longer the range of your guns, the more likely something will obstruct your shots. A’s suffer obstruction more often than B’s.
I love the CR90A. One upgrade! Perfect, MSU fleets with fragile ships love not being over-upgraded. I think I’d rather see Mon Mothma on the Foresight, but if you’re committed to flying the CR90A VERY CAREFULLY, and maybe putting Jaina’s Light on it, I could see her here.
Foresight looks good. I think you could trim a little fat from it, in the service of shoring up a big weakness in your squadron mix, but there’s nothing wrong with the build you have. Personally, I think Officer Lando is expendable. He’s screwed me too many times, and Foresight may not even need him; canceling two dice at medium range is stunningly good as-is.
If you made all of these cuts, you’ll have saved yourself about 26 points. Speaking of 26 points, that’s how much you’re handing your opponent at the start of most games by running only Han Solo. Yes, he’s fantastic. But he’s only one unit, and against most opponents who are running any squadrons at all, he’s just dead, and he won’t even kill his points back. You need a better plan, and that means either cutting Solo, and pumping 52 points back into the fleet, or taking the 26 points you saved, and adding them into your squadron mix.
I personally hate going squadronless, so I’d beef up the squadrons. I love Han, but Lando saves you 3 points (you do have to remove Officer Lando if you try Squadron Lando, remember). That leaves you with a kind-of-awkward 29 points... too much of an unused remainder for another bad-*** like Corran, Dash, or Ketsu, but not enough for a 1-2 combo punch like Tycho/Shara (33 points) or Dutch/Wedge (35). I think I’d find the points for Tycho/Shara somewhere. It would probably involve cutting XI7s from the Foresight. Or dropping the Salvation title.
If you can’t bring yourself to slice all of those upgrades off your ships, I’d recommend this simpler, easier, less traumatic fix: cut Han, cut just 7 more points, add Tycho/Shara. The whole idea behind a fighter group this small is to delay your opponents as long as possible, and hope you can at least earn something close to their points back when they inevitably die. Two A-Wing aces with Scatter just tend to last longer than a lone Falcon, and their Counter can be amazingly effective at helping them earn some points back, or wounding their attackers badly enough that at least they won’t attack your ships later, for fear of flak fire finishing them off. ****, often enough, opponents won’t even shoot at Shara when she’s the only available target, because her Counter is more dangerous than her regular attack!
I still think you’re better off making big upgrade reductions and going with Lando/Shara/Tycho or Han/Shara/Tycho, because I think loading up fragile ships with a ton of upgrades is generally a bad idea anyway, but you do you! Good luck!
Oh, never addressed upgrades! Quickly:
Most Wanted. Which ship would you like to give the opponent extra dice and double points on? If your answer is “none of them,” congratulations! You’ve figured out why nobody ever puts Most Wanted in a list unless they also have a nearly-naked flotilla in that list as well, to be named sacrificial lamb.
Fleet Ambush: this is emphatically NOT the sort of list that wants to be surprised by the opponent putting an ISD (or worse) down waaaay too close for comfort. Mon Mothma wants to create DISTANCE from the opponent. Fleet Ambush allows your opponent to selectively close that distance with his strongest bruisers.
Superior Positions: This is an objective that is much-loved by lists carrying 120+ points of squadrons, because once they clear away the enemy fighter screen, those fighters can just jump behind the enemy ships and pew-pew their way into a dozen or more victory tokens over a couple of turns. Your ships are definitely going to end up on the wrong side of this one more often than not.
The discussion of what to pick instead of these is a big one, and I could go on for a very long time about it. My advice, instead? Go check out a great Armada strategy site called “cannotgetyourshipout.com.” The guys there have made a pretty excellent breakdown of every objective in the game. And when you’re done, there’s hours of reading on all the OTHER cards as well. I was considering starting my own Armada blog at one time, until I found that the CGYSO guys had already said everything I’d wanted to say, and many things I hadn’t yet thought of. It’s a fantastic resource.
Edited by Cpt ObVusShould I not be too worried about using squadron commands since my fighters have counter anyways? I added H9 to the MC30. Not a card I normally use but with the blue dice I get a guaranteed accuracy if I want one, which I more than likely do. I'm hesitant to put Mon Mothma on the MC30 since I will be using to get up close and personal with something like an ISD. Rebel Swarm Author: mj10982 Faction: Rebels Commander: Mon Mothma Assault Objective: Surprise Attack Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon Navigation Objective: Salvage Run Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Spinal Armament (9) = 60 points CR90B Corvette (39) - Heavy Ion Emplacements (9) = 48 points Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Spinal Armament (9) = 60 points [flagship] CR90A Corvette (44) - Mon Mothma (30) - Jaina's Light (2) - Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 83 points MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63) - Foresight (8) - Lando Calrissian (4) - External Racks (3) - H9 Turbolasers (8) - Ordnance Experts (4) = 90 points 1 Shara Bey (17) 1 Tycho Celchu (16) 1 A-Wing Squadron (11) = 44 pointsEdited by Mj10982
Ok, looking better.
Even with Counter, it’s nice to get a good jump on the opponent sometimes with a small squadron complement. The idea is (especially with fast, range-y ships like speed 5 A-Wings), that you can hopefully find the most vulnerable element of your opponent’s squadron ball, activate your guys, and go jump on it, killing it if possible. This could be a lone TIE Fighter on the edge of his squadron ball, or something like that. You don’t usually want to just jump your small fighter group right into a hellswarm. Pick a vulnerable guy, go kill him, and if the opponent fails to react, go jump another guy. Eventually he’ll get sick of getting harassed, and turn his full force on your A-Wings, and hopefully they’ll hit hard on their way out. Remember too, that when the battle is finally lost, Tycho can never really be pinned, so if he’s the last man standing, it can often make sense to disengage and head for the station to repair him, rather than just give your opponent another 16 points.
I would still prefer to see something more potent than a lone A-Wing as your third squadron, but it’s not the worst choice. If you’re really lucky, you’ll get in one good attack, and it may give you two counter attacks on the way out, for a total of 7 dice thrown for 11 points. I think you’re better off just finding a few more points, dropping the generic A-Wing, and buying a Rogue like Corran Horn or Lando. Some easy cuts (in my mind) include Lando Officer, and the Heavy Ion Emplacements on that CR90B. If you make the HIEs into SW-7s, you’re basically guaranteeing that the CR90B will put out 5 damage every turn with a double-arc, 6 with a ConFire. With HIEs, you’re losing guaranteed damage in return for a chance at spiking to 10 or more... IF you can get the crit on both attacks, which is by no means guaranteed. And you’re paying 9 points, compared to just 5 for SW-7s. SW-7s are GREAT on the CR90B. If you ConFire into an extra die from your side arc, and put the front arc on him too, it’s an absolute guaranteed 6, unless he wants to spend Braces knocking 3 damage down to 2, and that’s terrible. If you can keep to medium range, and stay out of close, Mon Mothma can turn SW-7 CR90Bs into survivable little bastards, and while they lack spike damage, their consistency is gold. Who cares how badly you roll? “Two accuracy and a hit? Three damage. Brace to two? Awesome. Here’s another three from the front. Three accuracy? Three damage. Care to burn your Brace knocking that down to two? No? Thought not. Take three. Firing back with two reds from your side arc? Ok, Mothma Evades that double, I take nothing.” You see my point. Anyway, you could save 4 points going to SW-7s. 11 dropping the generic A-Wing. 4 dropping Officer Lando. That’s 19. Drop Jaina’s Light, and you have 21 points. Chomp one point off that bid, and you can buy Corran to sit back and snipe 4 whoever Tycho and Shara have locked up. Two points if you want to try Lando on the Falcon instead; he IS awesome, and can easily punch above his weight, if you aren’t too shy about dumping defense tokens at the right times to buy accuracies or double-hits.
I like the H9s on the MC30. Good call.
I’m skeptical about the Spinals on the Neb-Bs. Lack of any way to fix bad rolls outside of a ConFire token just makes me think they’re going to let you down REALLY badly sometimes. And then other times they’ll spike and hit for 7 with an accuracy. I dunno. I’m iffy on Neb-Bs in general, to be honest; too many times I’ve just watched them evaporate on a decent roll from an ISD. If you are going to go the “spray and pray” route of giving them just one Turbolaser upgrade and hoping for the best, I would suggest going bargain-bin for Slaved Turrets, and saving 6 points on the two of them.
Oh, as for commanding those squads, maybe have any ship that isn’t doing anything mission-critical on turn one just bank a squadron token. It’s clunky and imperfect, but it can allow even ships which would otherwise have no business commanding squads to boss one of your 2-3 non-Rogues around each turn, and that could maybe be good enough to get some decent work done.
I could go with four CR90s instead of Nebs but frankly I think Ive given FFG enough of my money in the last few months.
Rebel Swarm Author: mj10982 Faction: Rebels Commander: Mon Mothma Assault Objective: Surprise Attack Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon Navigation Objective: Salvage Run Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Slaved Turrets (6) = 57 points Nebulon-B Support Frigate (51) - Slaved Turrets (6) = 57 points CR90A Corvette (44) - Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 51 points [flagship] MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63) - Mon Mothma (30) - Foresight (8) - Lando Calrissian (4) - External Racks (3) - H9 Turbolasers (8) - Ordnance Experts (4) = 120 points CR90A Corvette (44) - Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7) = 51 points 1 Shara Bey (17) 1 Tycho Celchu (16) 1 Corran Horn (22) = 55 points
Looks pretty solid! Let us know how it goes.
I gotta figure out to use Vassal first.
2 hours ago, Mj10982 said:I gotta figure out to use Vassal first.
Let us know how that goes too. 😉
4 hours ago, Mj10982 said:I gotta figure out to use Vassal first.
If it’s anything like my recent experiences learning X-Wing and Vassal simultaneously, it shouldn’t be too bad. My greatest hurdles were trying to install the program and the modules in the first place, and figuring out how to import fleets. After about the second or third time doing it, it became fairly intuitive. Haven’t yet tried Armada, but that has more to do with me being on an X-Wing kick for the past couple weeks.
I set up a fleet of mine and saved it. It feels kind of awkward but I think I can get used to it. At least I don't have to worry about bumping stuff on the table.