Not really a fleet build, but I wanted to put this out as a way to help new players with list building down to individual ships and how to use them in different ways. I know there's blogs and YouTubers that do something similar. Some questions for the community, what are some ship builds (for each faction) you use to counter metas in your area? Do you make balanced fleets or fleets to fight specific lists? Do you build your ships in uncommon ways? Throw down some ship builds and let's talk about how you use them for casual or competitive.

Here's one to start with... The Raider-II.

Not as common as the Raider-I due to the higher cost and the lack of black dice punch. All raiders can be fragile due to the lack of any redirects. This can mean if the brace is hit by an accuracy then a good volley of 6 points can be fatal to a fresh ship. Bomber attacks can also seek out down shields to get a wounded raider to disappear. This is the main reason I don't like Raider-Is who have to get close to the action. So the ship loadout up for discussion today is...

Raider-II, Disposable Capacitors, Heavy Ion Emplacements, Veteran Gunners. 65 points

I have used this design in several fleets. It is great at speed 3-4 keeping at long range and shooting at large & medium ships that have no evade. Generating the HIE crit is all that matters so Veteran Gunners can reroll all the blue dice to fish for the critical result. Weapon battery techs are also an option and WBTs don't exhaust but overall the probabilities are exactly the same. Captain Jonus TIE-Bomber in your lost could tip in favor of WBTs but I prefer Vet Gunners as they can be done before or after spending accuracies which is useful if shooting at a target that does have a single evade where you need either 2 crits or one and an accuracy.

Heavy ions is a nasty critical to inflict, doing up to 3 shield damage that are immune to brace. A fleet with ACM Demolisher or ACM Kuat will appreciate the great softening-up job this ship can do on turn 2. D-Caps are a must to get the first shot at long range then use your decent speed to position yourself somewhere safe and in a position to fire again at medium range.

Optional extras.

• Montferrat - As you usually go fast and have a small base and reasonable turning to avoid overlaps the permeant obscured benefit is great to survive for that second and third turn of shooting. Brunson & Versio are also alternatives.
• Corvus - Deploy this ship first then redeploy after all other deployments. Great if this is your flagship especially in the Surprise Attack scenario.
• SFO or Titus - Need a second reroll to get the HIE crit? Put officer Vader on a flotilla an discard this cheap officer. Titus also gets you a benefit to upset your opponent before he is choked.
• Screed. You can ditch Vet Gunners or swap to Fire Control Team if you have Screed as your admiral. With Screed think about D-Caps, Overload Pulse, GTs and a chokable officer to try and paint 2 ships worth of defence tokens a lovely red colour.

My meta (like many, I hear) has a lot of tanky large bases to deal with. And what better to kill them than another tank?

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• Walex Blissex (5)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Aspiration (3)
= 129 Points

The Ordnance Cruiser got hit hard when DCO started appearing on SSDs. This build is better rounded: big ships hate losing defense tokens, little ships still struggle against a single arc thanks to Racks (or the occasional confire,) and it's cheaper than most ISDs or H1MC80s. It really likes Raddus, Agate or Ackbar but anyone can field it. While Shriv looks good on paper, BTs allow you to reroll accuracies, which is important because you aren't generating them reliably or dealing burst damage to begin with. Combined with a double arc, it's generally an uncomfortable amount of pressure for even an SSD or Starhawk, where discarding ECM wouldn't be an option.

XI7s or LTT can work pretty well if points aren't an issue. Even more so than many large bases, squadrons are a weakness that need to be planned for.

How you fly it depends on what you're dealing with; against ranged chip damage or a "points fortress" you can load up 2 sides with shields and absorb damage for a time, drawing fire from more fragile elements of the fleet. Against carriers you're likely going for the table, and it's often better not to use Aspiration at all to deny bombers any shots at exposed hull. Walex helps with the single redirect. And with Raddus you can run it in speed 3, drop another MC75 with Boarding Troopers in, and burn every defense token they've ever known and loved in a single glorious round.

It's fun.

On 9/19/2020 at 8:37 PM, Mad Cat said:

Here's one to start with... The Raider-II.

Not as common as the Raider-I due to the higher cost and the lack of black dice punch. All raiders can be fragile due to the lack of any redirects. This can mean if the brace is hit by an accuracy then a good volley of 6 points can be fatal to a fresh ship. Bomber attacks can also seek out down shields to get a wounded raider to disappear. This is the main reason I don't like Raider-Is who have to get close to the action. So the ship loadout up for discussion today is...

Raider-II, Disposable Capacitors, Heavy Ion Emplacements, Veteran Gunners. 65 points

I have used this design in several fleets. It is great at speed 3-4 keeping at long range and shooting at large & medium ships that have no evade. Generating the HIE crit is all that matters so Veteran Gunners can reroll all the blue dice to fish for the critical result. Weapon battery techs are also an option and WBTs don't exhaust but overall the probabilities are exactly the same. Captain Jonus TIE-Bomber in your lost could tip in favor of WBTs but I prefer Vet Gunners as they can be done before or after spending accuracies which is useful if shooting at a target that does have a single evade where you need either 2 crits or one and an accuracy.

Heavy ions is a nasty critical to inflict, doing up to 3 shield damage that are immune to brace. A fleet with ACM Demolisher or ACM Kuat will appreciate the great softening-up job this ship can do on turn 2. D-Caps are a must to get the first shot at long range then use your decent speed to position yourself somewhere safe and in a position to fire again at medium range.

Optional extras.

• Montferrat - As you usually go fast and have a small base and reasonable turning to avoid overlaps the permeant obscured benefit is great to survive for that second and third turn of shooting. Brunson & Versio are also alternatives.
• Corvus - Deploy this ship first then redeploy after all other deployments. Great if this is your flagship especially in the Surprise Attack scenario.
• SFO or Titus - Need a second reroll to get the HIE crit? Put officer Vader on a flotilla an discard this cheap officer. Titus also gets you a benefit to upset your opponent before he is choked.
• Screed. You can ditch Vet Gunners or swap to Fire Control Team if you have Screed as your admiral. With Screed think about D-Caps, Overload Pulse, GTs and a chokable officer to try and paint 2 ships worth of defence tokens a lovely red colour.

I agree with this. I have been using a raider II w with heavy ion and d caps, a gsd and a raider I with Iden, racks and o expect. I use Screed as the commander, in order to have these 3 ships act as a flanking force. I have been running this list for months now, most people focus on my cap ship either a obt or kuat. Then the 3 small ships pick them apart. Then once they finish there bombing run they take off running.