Sunday, December 13, 2015

Armada: Rebel squadron choices

All flights report in.

OK, let's talk about some Rebel squadron combos that I've been messing around with in the last couple of days.  Some of these I've tried, some of these I haven't so bear with me.  I'm definitely going to try as many of these as I can in the next of days, but it's super important to understand that I'm looking at running heavy squadrons for the sole purpose of disrupting the Fireball while being able to threaten enemy ships as well.  The most important criteria going forward will be exactly that:  Can it mitigate the Fireball?  Does it kill enemy ships?

Alright, here's what I've been thinking for heavy squadrons.  I'm trying hard to avoid taking B-Wings and Independence because I'd rather have something with a little greater flexibility and less babysitting.  I would certainly rather gear my capital ships out for combat and have the greatest impact on the battlefield with minimal guidance.  Keep in mind that just because you have raw stats, it does not tell the full story.  You have to account for all the keywords like Counter, Bomber, Intel, as well as unique interactions like Escort, Jan Ors' Brace ability, and Wedge's damage trigger.

Fast and Furious
Dash, Tycho, 6 A-Wings, 106 points

Hull points: 34
Attack dice: 25 blue, 8 black
Defense tokens: 3 Brace, 1 Scatter

The idea behind this squad is really bare bones:  Get in their face fast and throw out blue or black dice depending on what your target is.  The speed of this list allow you to react quickly to a lot of situations and the versatility of the A-Wings and Dash can do a fair amount of damage to ships as well.  Having 8 black dice to throw at ships for 106 points is not bad, especially when they can fight squadrons with solid damage and have Counter 2 for when they hit back.  A-Wings are probably the best all-around fighter in the entire game and having a lot of them is bound to give good results.  The best thing about this list is definitely the threat range; being able to reach out at speed-5 really allows you to peel through enemy shields and deliver crippling damage really early in the game.

Rebel Aces
Luke, Wedge, Jan, Dutch, Tycho, 2 A-Wings, 112 points

Hull points: 32
Attack dice: 23 blue, 7 black
Defense tokens: 9 Brace, 1 Scatter

So this is where things get a little more complicated.  The first thing to note here is that it's running a lot of aces and the price for these guys come out to be a little higher.  They're slower than running Dash and the As, but their damage output overall is much higher with multiple black dice bombers and Luke.  The sustainability of this list is also much greater than the previous list because there's so many aces in the mix.  Luke and Wedge both have Escort so you have to target them first, freeing up the rest of your fighters to attack with impunity.  Jan is there to keep the Braces up at all times and the Dutch/Wedge combo throws out insane damage on a specific target.  All that Dutch really needs to do is land an accuracy and hit on Dengar and the dude is stuck there in place while taking 6 dice to the dome from Wedge.  Pinning or eliminating Dengar in a hurry is the most reliable way to neutralize the Fireball.  Sadly, most of the list here moves at speed-3, but it can definitely stay around a lot longer with all those Braces.

Dash and Rogues
Dash, 6x YT-2400s, 120 points

Hull points: 49
Attack dice: 28 blue, 7 black
Defense tokens: 2 Brace

Fully autonomous squad that throws blues at squadrons and blacks at ships.  Everyone moves 4, has 6 HP each and has the Rogue keyword.  It pretty much plays itself and function exactly like multiple A-Wings with more initial damage, more HP, but no Counter and slightly slower at speed-4.  I think the biggest trade off here is that you absolutely do not need any squadron commands to make these guys work, so you can pretty much fly exactly the same while still getting the most of your ships.

Which one would you guys go with?  Let me know what you think while I spam out a few games.

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