I haven't even bought the Starhawk yet, but I made a fleet for one. H9 guarantees I can lock a brace. Leia on the Bright Hope helps me cope with the Starhawk's command of four while also pulling double duty of controlling Luke, Wedge, and Dutch. Is three salvos too many? Can you have too many salvos? I could add four with Agate as the commander but I figured a second brace would be more important. I've got four activations. I feel this fleet is kind of awkward, but I prefer larger ship fleets, which is why I gravitate towards the Imperials more, so I'm trying to build a Rebel fleet with a stronger ship.

Starhawk



Author: mj10982

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Kyrsta Agate



Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: None

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona



[flagship] Starhawk-Class Battleship Mark I (140)

- Kyrsta Agate (20)

- Concord (12)

- High-Capacity Ion Turbines (8)

- Bail Organa (7)

- Strategic Adviser (4)

- Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array (10)

- H9 Turbolasers (8)

- Local Fire Control (4)

= 213 points



CR90A Corvette (44)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 51 points



GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Bright Hope (2)

- Bomber Command Center (8)

- Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

- Leia Organa (3)

= 36 points



1 "Dutch" Vander (16)

1 Wedge Antilles (19)

1 Luke Skywalker (20)

1 Rogue Squadron (14)

1 Han Solo (26)

= 95 points

So I'm sure some other folks like out there will help make some recommended changes as well, so I'll ask some questions about the fleet for your consideration...

First: the premise of the Starhawk in the list seems to be a big tough combatant - but I don't see any upgrades to provide dice mitigation (aka re-rolls) so what is your plan to generate damage and then get it through against an ECM equipped ship that can brace the big attack (even after H9s give the accuracy - since the side arcs and CR90's attack wont really push much damage either).

Second: the GR75 seems to have 2 main tasks that need command dials (Leia for SH command fixing, and squadron commands for itself), which one takes priority if both are needed in the same round? Alternatively, could Leia ride on the CR90 and it's command dial be used to modify the SH?

The squadrons seem to be in a tough spot, against squadronless fleets they will get good bombing damage out, but even a small fighter screen could prohibit them from bombing the enemy fleet for a round or 2 (or even 3 against a highly skilled player), and they will probably get wiped out in 2-3 rounds against a 134pt heavy squad ball, and dont see much potential for them to trade up in squadron points...

This post isnt to be a debby-downer on your SH build, but is intended to help ask some questions to assist your fleet development.

I should put Leia on the Corvette. I did at one point but switched stuff around. I'll throw on leading shots and maybe keep the H9 just to ensure I can lock down the brace. If I go up against a heavy squad ball, they'll lose eventually but every fleet has its weaknesses.

Update: I did buy the Starhawk set. I switched the Bright Hope for the Yavaris in order to beef up my small squadron defense while providing an activation that actually has teeth. Using Raymus Antilles to at least initially allow the Yavaris to command three squadrons.

Starhawk



Author: mj10982

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Kyrsta Agate



Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona



[flagship] Starhawk-Class Battleship Mark I (140)

- Kyrsta Agate (20)

- Concord (12)

- Leading Shots (4)

- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6)

- Bail Organa (7)

- Strategic Adviser (4)

- Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array (10)

- XI7 Turbolasers (6)

- Local Fire Control (4)

= 213 points



CR90A Corvette (44)

- Jaina's Light (2)

- Leia Organa (3)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 56 points



Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)

- Yavaris (5)

- Raymus Antilles (7)

- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

= 76 points



1 Shara Bey (17)

1 Tycho Celchu (16)

1 A-Wing Squadron (11)

= 44 points

17 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

Update: I did buy the Starhawk set. I switched the Bright Hope for the Yavaris in order to beef up my small squadron defense while providing an activation that actually has teeth. Using Raymus Antilles to at least initially allow the Yavaris to command three squadrons.

Starhawk



Author: mj10982

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Kyrsta Agate



Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona



[flagship] Starhawk-Class Battleship Mark I (140)

- Kyrsta Agate (20)

- Concord (12)

- Leading Shots (4)

- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6)

- Bail Organa (7)

- Strategic Adviser (4)

- Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array (10)

- XI7 Turbolasers (6)

- Local Fire Control (4)

= 213 points



CR90A Corvette (44)

- Jaina's Light (2)

- Leia Organa (3)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 56 points



Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)

- Yavaris (5)

- Raymus Antilles (7)

- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

= 76 points



1 Shara Bey (17)

1 Tycho Celchu (16)

1 A-Wing Squadron (11)

= 44 points

I kinda felt like your first list had potential, especially after making good changes like Leia to the CR90. The second one isn’t bad, but Yavaris is not helpful with only three squadrons, one of which is terribly weak. If you plan to keep Yavaris, you need a real squadron group to realize value from it, not a group of “speed-bump” A-Wings.

I thought I could use the Yavaris as a flak boat/squad pusher and then use it to take on ships. The Bright Hope is pretty useless outside of activating squadrons.

7 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

I thought I could use the Yavaris as a flak boat/squad pusher and then use it to take on ships. The Bright Hope is pretty useless outside of activating squadrons.

Yes, that’s what you use Yavaris for. It’s just that with only three squadrons, none of which are particularly great at attacking, Yavaris is going to struggle to justify the points you spent on it, and the trouble it takes to get it to work.

It’s like this: A-Wings have pretty mediocre attack dice. They roll 3 blues against squadrons, which makes them totally average. Better than Y-Wings, better than HWK’s, and Scurrgs, on-par with B-Wings and YT-1300’s, but worse than pretty much everything else. X-Wings, E-Wings, YT-2400’s, and most aces completely outdo the A-Wing in anti-squadron dice.

Similarly, their anti-ship attacks are... fine. Good, even, but not amazing. The lack of the Bomber keyword means that Y-Wings, for example, are far superior.

A-Wings make up for their shortcomings by being cheap, fast interceptors that can harry enemy bombers at great distance and keep them off your bigger ships for a bit, and while they aren’t extremely survivable, they’ll hopefully do a bit of damage with counterattacks on their way out.

Yavaris likes specialist squadrons, with a game plan, and preferably LOTS of them, or lots of other squadrons around to keep them alive if the enemy brought squadrons of his own.

Norra Wexley and two B-Wings, against an enemy ISD? THAT’S something Yavaris wants to be a part of.

Three X-Wings, tearing into an enemy squadron ball? YES.

Three A-Wings, who will each make two kind of pretty okay attacks? I mean, sure. I guess.

Yavaris a good card, but it has a place, and that place is typically in fleets that want to devote at least 100 points to squadrons, and probably another 20+ points to squadron support cards, with a dedicated carrier ship or two.

It’s like, Admiral Ozzel gives a buff to the acceleration and deceleration of all the ships in your fleet, so they can jump from speed 1-speed 3, or speed 2-speed 4, with just a Nav token. So would I put him in a fleet with 2 VSD’s and 1 Raider Corvette? I mean, I could, and he’d help the Raider, but he’d do almost nothing for the VSD’s. So, why? Yavaris, similarly, is out of place in your fleet.

Updated.  Did the old Dutch/Wedge combo and added Biggs to keep Wedge alive longer.  Thought about putting turbolasers on the Yavaris but wanted to have some sort of bid.

Starhawk

Author: mj10982
Faction: Rebels
Commander: Kyrsta Agate

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[flagship] Starhawk-Class Battleship Mark I (140)
- Kyrsta Agate (20)
- Concord (12)
- Leading Shots (4)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6)
- Bail Organa (7)
- Strategic Adviser (4)
- Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array (10)
- XI7 Turbolasers (6)
- Local Fire Control (4)
= 213 points

CR90A Corvette (44)
- Tantive IV (3)
- Leia Organa (3)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 57 points

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
- Yavaris (5)
- Raymus Antilles (7)
= 69 points

1 "Dutch" Vander (16)
1 Wedge Antilles (19)
1 Biggs Darklighter (19)
= 54 points

This list still doesn't justify the squadron pusher to be Yavaris. No real bombing potential and that's where Yava shines.

I was more going for the Dutch/Wedge combo twice. If my squadrons get to bomb, then I'm probably in pretty good shape.

12 hours ago, Mj10982 said:

I was more going for the Dutch/Wedge combo twice. If my squadrons get to bomb, then I'm probably in pretty good shape.

I mean, I guess you’re gonna need to fly this thing a couple times to get what I’m saying, but Yavaris is just not the title you want to use on your Nebulon-B without a squadron ball of at *very* least 90 points or so.

It’s not just that you’re failing to optimize Yavaris itself when you give it only three squadrons to work with; it’s that you’re also not using a more combat-focused title for the Neb, like Salvation or Vanguard. And honestly, it’s more that I’m just not sure I’d run a Neb-B *at all* in this fleet, unless it were Yavaris with a ton of squadrons.

One of the strengths of the Starhawk is that allows you to fortress up, collect objective points, and FORCE the opponent to come fight you. Giving him the opportunity of killing the flimsiest (and one of the least maneuverable and not particularly fast) ship in the Alliance fleet (the Neb-B), and also basically handing him 54 points of unsupported squadrons is undermining that game plan.

I LOVE Dutch & Wedge. They do fantastic work. Biggs is also very strong. Yavaris is amazing. But rather than optimizing each element of your list, you’re just going, “that’s a good ability, let’s try that.”

Check this out:

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
Auxiliary Shield Teams (3)
Yavaris (5)
Raymus Antilles (7)

72 points, plus...

Wedge Antilles (19)
Biggs Darklighter (19)
X-Wing (13)
X-Wing (13)
Dutch Vander (16)
Jan Ors (19)

99 points.

That’s like, about the minimum squadron ball I’d run with Yavaris, and if I weren’t willing to commit to that, I’d just not run it.

I think your desire to cheap out on squadrons is largely driven by the fact that you’re trying to shoehorn Yavaris and a CR90 in alongside a 213-point juggernaut of a Starhawk, and it’s incredibly difficult. But the answer is that you probably need to either scale the CR90 back to a GR75, or saw some upgrades off the flagship, or both.

If you want to read another helpful set of ideas, there’s another guy trying to build a Starhawk & Squadrons list on this forum as well, I think it’s called First Fleet Attempt, and it’s right at the top of the forum.

To put it another way: Double-tapping Wedge/Dutch with a backup Biggs is going to absolutely annihilate the guy who brought a very small “speed-bump” squadron list (like Valen & Ciena, or Shara & Tycho).

But *that isn’t the guy your Starhawk is worried about.*

The guy your Starhawk is worried about is the Admiral Sloane-commanded Quasar Fire with 134 points of badass Imperial Aces, or the guy who brought his own Yavaris with 120+ points of B-Wings and X-Wings... and both of those guys are going to smear your three squadrons and blow up your carrier without giving away more than a squadron or two, and thank you for the free points.

THAT’S the guy you need to fight. Forget the guy with four generic TIE Fighters.

Now I feel like that is a workable list. Biggs is a little out of place here... there’s really only one other Escort for him to work with. So I’d say either switch out Rogue Squadron (the only X-Wing that isn’t an Escort) for a generic (or Luke, if you can find 6 points), or switch Biggs out. Or just understand that he’s basically a double-Brace X-Wing with pretty useless game text (I love him, but he really wants at least three or four guys to share damage with). Being just a double-Brace X-Wing isn’t terrible, though.

Don’t worry about having small ships to deal with other small ships. Make your opponent figure out how his small ships are going to deal with your monster. Bruce Lee doesn’t get into a fight with Chuck Norris and a room full of second-graders and wonder how he’s gonna handle the second-graders. He focuses on beating Chuck Norris.

(In the above scenario, your Starhawk is Bruce Lee).

I honestly just wanted Biggs to keep Wedge alive for longer. Rogue Squadron I put in because its cheap enough to fit in and doesn't require a ship to make it move and shoot. I wanted to keep my non-rogues to three. Luke I didn't add because I'm figuring most of my antiship stuff is the Starhawk anyways. I'm more concerned about getting B-wing'd or Sloane'd to death.