My idiotic attempt to play squadrons at an upcoming tourny

[Tirion 2,223]

a local store is running their summer tourny this weekend. I am a firm believer in squadrons and think the masses just aren't practiced enough with them. Although I do see the inherent disadvantages they can bring when it comes to scoring. That being said I will play them and would love to hear everyone's brutal and honest opinion of this list. Quick inventory list for ya.

 

AFII

Neb x2

CR90 x2

Reb Squadron pack x2

 

List

AFII B

Garm Bel Iblis

Gallant Haven

Defensive Liason

Enhanced Armaments

Advanced Projectors

Gunnery Team

 

Neb Escort

Yavaris

Antilles

 

x2 b wings

x2 x wings

x3 y wings

Tycho

Edited September 14, 2015 by Tirion

[Tvayumat 3,637]

It's not idiotic at all.

I just won a tournament on Saturday with 98/100 pts of Imperial Squadrons.

It won't be *easy*, no, but it's very do-able, particularly since most people you face will be thinking "All ships is king" and bring no appreciable anti-squadron defense.

[RC8015FiSkirata 33]

I haven't played much, but I've always assumed Adar Tallon is a great officer upgrade for the Assault Frigate.

[Tirion 2,223]

I haven't played much, but I've always assumed Adar Tallon is a great officer upgrade for the Assault Frigate.

I just didn't have the points and I'm actually a newly conveyed fan of the liasons

It's not idiotic at all.

I just won a tournament on Saturday with 98/100 pts of Imperial Squadrons.

It won't be *easy*, no, but it's very do-able, particularly since most people you face will be thinking "All ships is king" and bring no appreciable anti-squadron defense.

Good know thanks for the input!

[Overdawg 349]

The biggest problem you will have is not enough squadron points to activate all your squadrons.  If you are going to stick with 2 Ships I would go with the following:

 

If you have Dodonna and dont have Luke you are doing something wrong.  Dutch and Wedge combined on a single squadron is almost a guaranteed kill on any squadron.  I suggest slow playing it and crawling up towards your enemy and let them come to you.  4+ Ship builds will give you a really tough time unless you are comfortable playing squadrons and even then it will be tough.  If you fight an opponent with squadrons I would keep your B Wings and Luke close to the Yavaris and send out Tycho, Dutch and Wedge to skirmish the squadrons and launch them from the AFII and reactivate Wedge with Adar so he pop another squadron in the squadron activation phase.

 

Name: (298 of 300 pts)

 

Faction: Rebel Alliance

 

Flagship: (130 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)

General Dodonna (20 pts)

Paragon (5 pts)

Adar Tallon (10 pts)

Gunnery Team (7 pts)

Advanced Projectors (6 pts)

Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 1: (69 pts)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate(57 pts)

Yavaris (5 pts)

Ray Antilles (7 pts)

 

Squadrons (99 of 100 pts):

2x B-Wing Squadron (28 pts)

1x Wedge Antilles X-Wing Squadron (19 pts)

1x Dutch Vander Y-Wing Squadron (16 pts)

1x Luke Skywalker X-Wing Squadron (20 pts)

1x Tycho Celchu A-Wing Squadron (16 pts)

 

If you want to add in another ship you could change the squadrons to 3 x A Wing and 3 x Y Wings and drop Adar and Paragon and add in another Neb B.  A Wings may not be bombers but they do have a black die for anti ship which is a 75% change to hit and they are awesome against other squadrons.  The best squadron in the game IMHO.

 

Name: (298 of 300 pts)

 

Faction: Rebel Alliance

 

Flagship: (115 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)

General Dodonna (20 pts)

Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

Gunnery Team (7 pts)

Advanced Projectors (6 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 1: (69 pts)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate(57 pts)

Yavaris (5 pts)

Ray Antilles (7 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 2: (51 pts)

Nebulon-B Support Refit(51 pts)

 

Squadrons (63 of 100 pts):

3x A-Wing Squadron (33 pts)

3x Y-Wing Squadron (30 pts)

Edited September 14, 2015 by Overdawg

[Tirion 2,223]

I lied it's not dodonna it's garm sorry!

[Tirion 2,223]

 

The biggest problem you will have is not enough squadron points to activate all your squadrons.  If you are going to stick with 2 Ships I would go with the following:

 

If you have Dodonna and dont have Luke you are doing something wrong.  Dutch and Wedge combined on a single squadron is almost a guaranteed kill on any squadron.  I suggest slow playing it and crawling up towards your enemy and let them come to you.  4+ Ship builds will give you a really tough time unless you are comfortable playing squadrons and even then it will be tough.  If you fight an opponent with squadrons I would keep your B Wings and Luke close to the Yavaris and send out Tycho, Dutch and Wedge to skirmish the squadrons and launch them from the AFII and reactivate Wedge with Adar so he pop another squadron in the squadron activation phase.

 

Name: (298 of 300 pts)

 

Faction: Rebel Alliance

 

Flagship: (130 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)

General Dodonna (20 pts)

Paragon (5 pts)

Adar Tallon (10 pts)

Gunnery Team (7 pts)

Advanced Projectors (6 pts)

Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 1: (69 pts)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate(57 pts)

Yavaris (5 pts)

Ray Antilles (7 pts)

 

Squadrons (99 of 100 pts):

2x B-Wing Squadron (28 pts)

1x Wedge Antilles X-Wing Squadron (19 pts)

1x Dutch Vander Y-Wing Squadron (16 pts)

1x Luke Skywalker X-Wing Squadron (20 pts)

1x Tycho Celchu A-Wing Squadron (16 pts)

 

If you want to add in another ship you could change the squadrons to 3 x A Wing and 3 x Y Wings and drop Adar and Paragon and add in another Neb B.  A Wings may not be bombers but they do have a black die for anti ship which is a 75% change to hit and they are awesome against other squadrons.  The best squadron in the game IMHO.

 

Name: (298 of 300 pts)

 

Faction: Rebel Alliance

 

Flagship: (115 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)

General Dodonna (20 pts)

Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

Gunnery Team (7 pts)

Advanced Projectors (6 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 1: (69 pts)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate(57 pts)

Yavaris (5 pts)

Ray Antilles (7 pts)

 

Fleet Ship 2: (51 pts)

Nebulon-B Support Refit(51 pts)

 

Squadrons (63 of 100 pts):

3x A-Wing Squadron (33 pts)

3x Y-Wing Squadron (30 pts)

 

I will have to try these I haven't played Luke since wave one dropped which has been stupid of me

[Tvayumat 3,637]

Luke is a much bigger pain in the aft than people often give him credit for.

Luke with Dodonna? That's potentially a serious problem.

[Stasy 2,502]

I'm a big fan of running only as many fighters as you can activate. But these arn't bad builds. Just be careful with only 2 ships, 1 being a Neb.

[corlinjewell 34]

I'm a big fan of running only as many fighters as you can activate. But these arn't bad builds. Just be careful with only 2 ships, 1 being a Neb.

Being careful is an understatement, you CANNOT lose the Neb early on.  Playing on one ship is too rough (especially when you need that ship up and close to activate the squadrons).  Playtest it out so that you get comfortable keeping your stuff alive.

[Talism 26]

I alway prefer to take squads.

Witht that out out of the way. For rebels iv4 found dodonna with luke. Dutch and adar(because he really is a force multiplier) + season with yiur choice of other basic squads. You get good punch for your points spent.

If your not doing 2 Af's i would make sure you have 3 ships minimum (at 300 points) gives more flex with activation order.

Af carrier (298/300)

====================

Assault Frigate Mark II: Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 42)

+ General Dodonna (20)

+ Adar Tallon (10)

+ Gunnery Team (7)

+ Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

Nebulon-B Frigate: Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 + 20)

+ Raymus Antilles (7)

+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)

+ Salvation (7)

CR90 Corvette: CR90 Corvette B (39 + 10)

+ Leading Shots (4)

+ Dodonna's Pride (6)

Squadrons: Luke Skywalker (20)

Squadrons: "Dutch" Vander (16)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Objectives Assault: Advanced Gunnery (0)

Objectives Defense: Hyperspace assault (0)

Objectives Navigation: Dangerous Territory (0)

Here is a quick list i threw together. I would normally have bwings but unless your practiced with them they hurt you more then they help

I believe that when using squads. You need to have planned to spam squad commands for them the engagement starts. Also you should only have enought for what ever you have designated as a carrier. So if you want more squads you change the salv into yavaris. And add 2 more (or 3 if your keeping raymus on it)

[Tirion 2,223]

I alway prefer to take squads.

Witht that out out of the way. For rebels iv4 found dodonna with luke. Dutch and adar(because he really is a force multiplier) + season with yiur choice of other basic squads. You get good punch for your points spent.

If your not doing 2 Af's i would make sure you have 3 ships minimum (at 300 points) gives more flex with activation order.

Af carrier (298/300)

====================

Assault Frigate Mark II: Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 42)

+ General Dodonna (20)

+ Adar Tallon (10)

+ Gunnery Team (7)

+ Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

Nebulon-B Frigate: Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 + 20)

+ Raymus Antilles (7)

+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)

+ Salvation (7)

CR90 Corvette: CR90 Corvette B (39 + 10)

+ Leading Shots (4)

+ Dodonna's Pride (6)

Squadrons: Luke Skywalker (20)

Squadrons: "Dutch" Vander (16)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Objectives Assault: Advanced Gunnery (0)

Objectives Defense: Hyperspace assault (0)

Objectives Navigation: Dangerous Territory (0)

Here is a quick list i threw together. I would normally have bwings but unless your practiced with them they hurt you more then they help

I believe that when using squads. You need to have planned to spam squad commands for them the engagement starts. Also you should only have enought for what ever you have designated as a carrier. So if you want more squads you change the salv into yavaris. And add 2 more (or 3 if your keeping raymus on it)

Why no yavaris? Your just throwing attacks away without it? Also I sadly don't have 2 AFIIs

 

 

I'm a big fan of running only as many fighters as you can activate. But these arn't bad builds. Just be careful with only 2 ships, 1 being a Neb.

Being careful is an understatement, you CANNOT lose the Neb early on.  Playing on one ship is too rough (especially when you need that ship up and close to activate the squadrons).  Playtest it out so that you get comfortable keeping your stuff alive.

 

I have done one game with it against a glad VSD + Screed and a rhymer ball. The goal is to get your opponent to pick Superior Positions cause that is were Yavaris shines, I kept the Neb coming in at speed 1 diagonally at my opponent. and the AFII swept in front of it hammering away

[BigBearCDN 53]

Hey Tirion I noticed on your first post you had Advanced Projectors on your AF2. While I love the concept of moving damage to any point on the ship I find Electronic Counter Measures has saved my bacon many a time. Being able to ignore an accuracy roll and still use a defense token is probably one of the best cards in the game IMHO.

[Tirion 2,223]

Hey Tirion I noticed on your first post you had Advanced Projectors on your AF2. While I love the concept of moving damage to any point on the ship I find Electronic Counter Measures has saved my bacon many a time. Being able to ignore an accuracy roll and still use a defense token is probably one of the best cards in the game IMHO.

While I think there is no wrong answer here I am more of an advanced projectors guy. But ECM is awesome

[Overdawg 349]

Hey Tirion I noticed on your first post you had Advanced Projectors on your AF2. While I love the concept of moving damage to any point on the ship I find Electronic Counter Measures has saved my bacon many a time. Being able to ignore an accuracy roll and still use a defense token is probably one of the best cards in the game IMHO.

In the past I have leaned towards to APs but I have to agree with you here because although APs are better overall if you cant get a redirect they are useless points.  If the AFII had 2 redirects they would be a no-brainer.  That is why I love the MC-80 so much...you can have both APs and ECM.

[Tirion 2,223]

 

Hey Tirion I noticed on your first post you had Advanced Projectors on your AF2. While I love the concept of moving damage to any point on the ship I find Electronic Counter Measures has saved my bacon many a time. Being able to ignore an accuracy roll and still use a defense token is probably one of the best cards in the game IMHO.

In the past I have leaned towards to APs but I have to agree with you here because although APs are better overall if you cant get a redirect they are useless points.  If the AFII had 2 redirects they would be a no-brainer.  That is why I love the MC-80 so much...you can have both APs and ECM.

 

yeah the tankyness of that ship will be crazy

[LukesandLadders06 34]

Lukes and ladders (297/300)

===========================

Nebulon-B Frigate: Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 + 8)

+ Veteran Captain (3)

+ Yavaris (5)

Nebulon-B Frigate: Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 + 30)

+ General Dodonna (20)

+ Adar Tallon (10)

Squadrons: Luke Skywalker (20)

Squadrons: B-wing Squadron (14)

Squadrons: B-wing Squadron (14)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Squadrons: A-wing Squadron (11)

Nebulon-B Frigate: Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 + 24)

+ Raymus Antilles (7)

+ Nav Team (4)

+ Salvation (7)

+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)

Objectives Assault: Advanced Gunnery (0)

Objectives Defense: Hyperspace assault (0)

Objectives Navigation: Dangerous Territory (0)

This is a list I have been using to understand squadron play. Have not lost yet with it. I slow roll it toward the enemy and then just shoot them and Luke them one by one till they are dead. Luke has so many ship kills. I made up a verb out of his name, like " he just luked your gladiator in one round! "

OK. Ill go now.

[Tirion 2,223]

that would be fun unfortunately I don't have 3 nebs

[DiabloAzul 2,636]

FWIW, I don't think you have "too many" squadrons at all. The X-wings don't need to hurl themselves at the enemy. Tycho (or a regular A-wing for that matter) jumps in and locks the enemy bombers in place, softening them up a bit. He will take some fire from the enemy fighters or ships, but as long as you make sure he will survive the first round you're fine - because *then* an X-wing or two catch up in the squadron phase (or via an early activation the following round if you're first player) so Tycho can't be attacked anymore due to Escort. In the meantime, you keep your precious activations for the mission-critical B-wings and Y-wings.

 

As for Adar Tallon vs Raymus Antilles, Raymus is definitely the better choice unless you are fielding Wedge, Keyan or Luke - especially since you have more squadrons than you can activate without the extra tokens. I suppose you could have Raymus on the Neb and Tallon on the guppy, though you'd have to drop Def Liaison, which is awesome on a Garm'd carrier as it lets you spam squadron commands fearlessly. You'd also need to drop points somewhere, but I think Gallant Haven needs to go anyway. You have so much squadron action going on (as well as the Escort Frigate's 2 dice) that you don't want to spend more points on further superiority. That lets you swap out the Liaison for Tallon, or (and this is probably my preferred choice), add Expanded Hangars to the AF2 - or an Engineering Team on the Neb to make it a little tankier, since it's the weakest point of your fleet and you'll have an ample supply of Repair tokens from Raymus and Garm.

 

You didn't list objectives, but I suppose it's pretty much going to have to be Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost (or Fleet Ambush?) and Superior Positions.

 

All in all, my (slight) tweak to your list would look like this:

 

[ REBEL FLEET (297 points)
1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Garm Bel Iblis - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team - Expanded Hangar Bay - Advanced Projectors - Enhanced Armament (128)
2 • Nebulon-B Escort Frigate - Raymus Antilles - Yavaris (69)
3 • X-wing Squadron (13)
4 • X-wing Squadron (13)
5 • B-wing Squadron (14)
6 • B-wing Squadron (14)
7 • Y-wing Squadron (10)
8 • Y-wing Squadron (10)
9 • Y-wing Squadron (10)
10 • Tycho Celchu A-wing Squadron (16)

Edited September 16, 2015 by DiabloAzul

[Tvayumat 3,637]

FWIW, I don't think you have "too many" squadrons at all. The X-wings don't need to hurl themselves at the enemy. Tycho (or a regular A-wing for that matter) jumps in and locks the enemy bombers in place, softening them up a bit. He will take some fire from the enemy fighters or ships, but as long as you make sure he will survive the first round you're fine - because *then* an X-wing or two catch up in the squadron phase (or via an early activation the following round if you're first player) so Tycho can't be attacked anymore due to Escort. In the meantime, you keep your precious activations for the mission-critical B-wings and Y-wings.

 

As for Adar Tallon vs Raymus Antilles, Raymus is definitely the better choice unless you are fielding Wedge, Keyan or Luke - especially since you have more squadrons than you can activate without the extra tokens. I suppose you could have Raymus on the Neb and Tallon on the guppy, though you'd have to drop Def Liaison, which is awesome on a Garm'd carrier as it lets you spam squadron commands fearlessly. You'd also need to drop points somewhere, but I think Gallant Haven needs to go anyway. You have so much squadron action going on (as well as the Escort Frigate's 2 dice) that you don't want to spend more points on further superiority. That lets you swap out the Liaison for Tallon, or (and this is probably my preferred choice), add Expanded Hangars to the AF2 - or an Engineering Team on the Neb to make it a little tankier, since it's the weakest point of your fleet and you'll have an ample supply of Repair tokens from Raymus and Garm.

 

You didn't list objectives, but I suppose it's pretty much going to have to be Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost (or Fleet Ambush?) and Superior Positions.

 

All in all, my (slight) tweak to your list would look like this:

 

[ REBEL FLEET (297 points)

1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Garm Bel Iblis - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team - Expanded Hangar Bay - Advanced Projectors - Enhanced Armament (128)

2 • Nebulon-B Escort Frigate - Raymus Antilles - Yavaris (69)

3 • X-wing Squadron (13)

4 • X-wing Squadron (13)

5 • B-wing Squadron (14)

6 • B-wing Squadron (14)

7 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

8 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

9 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

10 • Tycho Celchu A-wing Squadron (16)

I'd personally drop one of those X-wings for another A-wing (Two if you could get them)

I can usually eat Tycho alive by himself, and X-wings are so slow I basically get to pick when and where I engage them. B-wings are far more threatening to me as an Imperial player simply due to their flexibility as a non-heavy bomber sporting a scary number of dice.

[DiabloAzul 2,636]

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I often say that I will never run a Rebel fleet without a pair of A-wings.

 

Though I disagree that X-wings are useless - they are a great follow-up after an A-wing or two have locked down the key part of the enemy force. And though they're easy prey to Interceptors, they will chew through basically anything else (especially B-wings and Y-wings in mirror matches) with ease AND are still quite effective vs ships.

[Tirion 2,223]

FWIW, I don't think you have "too many" squadrons at all. The X-wings don't need to hurl themselves at the enemy. Tycho (or a regular A-wing for that matter) jumps in and locks the enemy bombers in place, softening them up a bit. He will take some fire from the enemy fighters or ships, but as long as you make sure he will survive the first round you're fine - because *then* an X-wing or two catch up in the squadron phase (or via an early activation the following round if you're first player) so Tycho can't be attacked anymore due to Escort. In the meantime, you keep your precious activations for the mission-critical B-wings and Y-wings.

 

As for Adar Tallon vs Raymus Antilles, Raymus is definitely the better choice unless you are fielding Wedge, Keyan or Luke - especially since you have more squadrons than you can activate without the extra tokens. I suppose you could have Raymus on the Neb and Tallon on the guppy, though you'd have to drop Def Liaison, which is awesome on a Garm'd carrier as it lets you spam squadron commands fearlessly. You'd also need to drop points somewhere, but I think Gallant Haven needs to go anyway. You have so much squadron action going on (as well as the Escort Frigate's 2 dice) that you don't want to spend more points on further superiority. That lets you swap out the Liaison for Tallon, or (and this is probably my preferred choice), add Expanded Hangars to the AF2 - or an Engineering Team on the Neb to make it a little tankier, since it's the weakest point of your fleet and you'll have an ample supply of Repair tokens from Raymus and Garm.

 

You didn't list objectives, but I suppose it's pretty much going to have to be Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost (or Fleet Ambush?) and Superior Positions.

 

All in all, my (slight) tweak to your list would look like this:

 

[ REBEL FLEET (297 points)

1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Garm Bel Iblis - Defense Liaison - Gunnery Team - Expanded Hangar Bay - Advanced Projectors - Enhanced Armament (128)

2 • Nebulon-B Escort Frigate - Raymus Antilles - Yavaris (69)

3 • X-wing Squadron (13)

4 • X-wing Squadron (13)

5 • B-wing Squadron (14)

6 • B-wing Squadron (14)

7 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

8 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

9 • Y-wing Squadron (10)

10 • Tycho Celchu A-wing Squadron (16)

Sorry here are my objectives:

Precision strike

Hyperspace assault

Superior positions

[Tvayumat 3,637]

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I often say that I will never run a Rebel fleet without a pair of A-wings.

 

Though I disagree that X-wings are useless - they are a great follow-up after an A-wing or two have locked down the key part of the enemy force. And though they're easy prey to Interceptors, they will chew through basically anything else (especially B-wings and Y-wings in mirror matches) with ease AND are still quite effective vs ships.

Perhaps not useless, but the upgrade to a B for only one point seems almost too good to pass up for the limited utility that I get out of escort.

[Tirion 2,223]

s far as this list goes, haven't rulers out a lukedonna list yet, your really making me think about dropping haven. Only thing holding me back is there are a few guys in my group that I know are running squadrons and I have become very efficient with haven and it makes a massive difference.... But you have me thinking

[DiabloAzul 2,636]

Gallant Haven is great when you're 2nd player in Contested Outpost, Intel Sweep or Hyperspace Assault - you can keep your squadrons close to you and they'll still be effective. But if you're planning to reach out and put the hurt on someone at longer range, or drop a bomber cloud along the enemy's path, then it's 8 wasted points.