Thursday, November 19, 2015

Armada: Independence and squadrons

Google images never disappoints.

Just throwing this out there as I've been thinking about trying this out in the near future, but do you guys think a two ship build with Rebels can work at 400 points?  Let's say you go really hard into squadrons and decide that you want a run list this..

ACKBAR TYPE4 
Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 396/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Independence  ( 8  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)
4 B-Wing Squadrons ( 56 points)
3 A-Wing Squadrons ( 33 points)

As you guys probably know by now that I'm more of a fan of capital ships lists flying with very light fighter cover.  This is something that's radically outside my comfort zone which is perfectly fine.  I think we should all explore and try out new things that we might not be accustomed to because that makes us more well-rounded as players.

So here's the general gist of things:  Use the M80 Command to throw the max amount of B-Wings up at speed-4 from Independence to act like the long-arm of the law.  Sure, you don't get to attack on this activation, but the idea here is to harry your opponents and make them sweat because if they don't have a pretty strong fighter core, they're going to get their capital ships blown out of the water.  With Dash Rendar, you have 5 black dice and 4 blues using the Bomber keyword, not to mention the A-Wings can also throw out blacks on ships if they need to.  The A-Wings will act as fighter cover and Dash Rendar will be the swiss army knife that can adapt to any situation.  Raymus Antilles with the natural command of 4 will allow me to utilize 5 squadrons a turn (4 B-Wings and Dash) from long-range because of the Boosted Comms.  Raymus also works really nicely with Engine Techs as he allows me to maintain my speed-3 movement for a turn while I focus on max squadron activation.

Yes, I miss out on Home One's wonderful accuracy, but the ability to threaten a large area with a bomber that normally moves speed-2 might pay off.  The AFMKIIB and the MC80 can afford to play a little more cautiously in the back while you lay it into them with your overwhelming fighter horde.  Total points of fighters here comes out to 113, which is a pretty significant number.  This means that you're hugely invested in your battleplan which is pretty much:  Use your fighter-bombers to threaten and dismantle capital ships while preserving your 2 capital ships as long as possible.  Hopefully your numbers and powerful attack craft and quickly dispatch smaller squadrons trying to tie you up and start bombing the crap out of those ISDs before they start ripping into your ships.

One of the biggest problems with this list is the fact that you only have 2 ships, and 2 Rebel lists at that.  In total, you have 14 hull points, so you're pretty much at the same as a single Imperial Star Destroyer that's rolling with Motti as his admiral.  If you think about that from a raw hit point perspective, you are putting a ton of faith into the performance of your squadrons.  This is pretty much make or break at this point.  Your B-Wings absolutely have to make their points back or its pretty much gg.

Let me know what you guys think about this list and let me know how you would improve it.  I'm pretty happy drafting this up on paper, but putting it on the table is making me sweat thinking about it.

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