New to the Game, Question: Are Squad Heavy Rebel Builds Viable?

[Deschaindd 0]

I will be playing in my first event on Sunday and I am dead set on playing Rebels. I put together what I believe seems like a pretty good build, but everyone in my meta are so new to the game it’s hard to get feedback. I have not seen many rebel builds (or Imperial for that matter) that are very squadron heavy am I missing something?

 

Here is the build:

 

Precision Strike

Fleet Ambush

Superior Positions

 

Mark II B:

Dodonna

Expanded Hangar Bay

Advanced projectors

XX-9 Turbolasers

Paragon

pts:113

 

Mark II B:

Leia Organa

Expanded Hangar Bay

Gallant Haven

Pts: 88

 

Squads:

 

Luke : 20pts

Wedge: 19pts

Tycho: 16pts

Xwing: 13pts

2x Ywing: 10pts

Awing: 11pts

 

Please tell me what you all think!

 

 

 

[Shecian 6]

Not really at this point. People say that if u spend 100 points on squadrons, that is 1/3 of you build that is dependant on others ships and commands to activate. I personally hope the meta brings greater value to squadrons. I think they are cool, but thier reliance on your other 200 pts makes them a risk.

[Green Knight 8,822]

Generally: Viable, but quite challenging. Personally I'm not a fan of squadron-heavy builds, but there are plenty of people that can play them better than me.

 

With only 2 ships you'll be at something of an activation disadvantage, especially as 2nd player. On the other hand you need to be 2nd player to get your fighter-friendly objectives into play.

 

Specifically: I'm missing Flight Controllers. It's an essential upgrade. A/Y-wings with 4 dice and Xs with 5... huge difference if you have to fight other fighters.

 

One XX-9 does very little. Might kick in once in a blue moon, but it's not enough to matter.

 

Leia is a nice touch, letting you activate more squadrons if you need.

 

Gallant Haven requires practice to use. It also dictates that your carrier stick with the fighters as they attack, which means you'll get close to enemy ships - not really a good thing for AFs. You'll have to practice with this one.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Green Knight

[Overdawg 349]

They are not easy to master but they are absolutely viable.  I never play with less than 6 squadrons and I do really well in a very competitive scene.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

They are VERY viable if you follow some basic rules. 

 

Rules

 

1) Have Fun

2) PRACTICE!!! (it is just as important as location)

3) Calculate your MAXIMUM squadron command value per turn that you can use and dont go above that number of squadrons UNLESS they have the Rogue Keyword.

4) Boosted Coms are going to be your best friend on the Assault Frigate B and Command Crusier.

5) Sometimes sacrificing 1 B-Wing to stop a Rhymerball or Y-Wing Squadron can win you the game. 

[Drasnighta 26,573]

They are VERY viable if you follow some basic rules. 

 

Rules

 

1) Have Fun

2) PRACTICE!!! (it is just as important as location)

3) Calculate your MAXIMUM squadron command value per turn that you can use and dont go above that number of squadrons UNLESS they have the Rogue Keyword.

4) Boosted Coms are going to be your best friend on the Assault Frigate B and Command Crusier.

5) Sometimes sacrificing 1 B-Wing to stop a Rhymerball or Y-Wing Squadron can win you the game. 

 

 

Disregard Point 3 if you want to.  I do almost all the time.  But it requries more of #2 to get away with.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

 

They are VERY viable if you follow some basic rules. 

 

Rules

 

1) Have Fun

2) PRACTICE!!! (it is just as important as location)

3) Calculate your MAXIMUM squadron command value per turn that you can use and dont go above that number of squadrons UNLESS they have the Rogue Keyword.

4) Boosted Coms are going to be your best friend on the Assault Frigate B and Command Crusier.

5) Sometimes sacrificing 1 B-Wing to stop a Rhymerball or Y-Wing Squadron can win you the game. 

 

 

Disregard Point 3 if you want to.  I do almost all the time.  But it requries more of #2 to get away with.

 

A LOT more of #2. I dont do it because I like to chain activations every turn.

[Drasnighta 26,573]

 

 

They are VERY viable if you follow some basic rules. 

 

Rules

 

1) Have Fun

2) PRACTICE!!! (it is just as important as location)

3) Calculate your MAXIMUM squadron command value per turn that you can use and dont go above that number of squadrons UNLESS they have the Rogue Keyword.

4) Boosted Coms are going to be your best friend on the Assault Frigate B and Command Crusier.

5) Sometimes sacrificing 1 B-Wing to stop a Rhymerball or Y-Wing Squadron can win you the game. 

 

 

Disregard Point 3 if you want to.  I do almost all the time.  But it requries more of #2 to get away with.

 

A LOT more of #2. I dont do it because I like to chain activations every turn.

 

 

 

Just selling options.  You Presented it as an irrefutable proof.

[Corellian Corvette 1,733]

take 2 Assault frigates, a CR90, and mon mothma.

Very forgiving list to play.

 

Then fill the rest of it up with upgrades and squadrons.  Don't start to take upgrades to boost your squadrons until you have at least 5 of them.

[Stasy 2,487]

You need practice. Other than that, I'm a fan of the stripped down 2 AF carrier setup.

The biggest thing you need to keep in mind is just keep the ships alive. Even if that means sacrificing the fighters. But you can typically overcome that by using the fighters proactively as deterrents (place them where the opponent needs to go). That way you can still activate and be effective.

[droz69 232]

I love the double whale many squadron list.  I've been working on several variations of it, and all of them have run very well in games.  My list runs typically between 6 and 9 squadrons, depending on if I want named pilots in there, or just a brute force attack.  I have moved to putting Advanced Projectors on the Frigates to give them more longevity, and only have to drop a squadron to do it.

[rapatpamp 46]

I was running 4x X-wings and 4x Y-wings and was basically putting them in groups of 2 each.

 

One group shoots at ships the other moves to where they will displace them so that every turn I had shots.

 

Took a bit of figuring it but it works. 

[Lyraeus 4,759]

 

 

 

They are VERY viable if you follow some basic rules. 

 

Rules

 

1) Have Fun

2) PRACTICE!!! (it is just as important as location)

3) Calculate your MAXIMUM squadron command value per turn that you can use and dont go above that number of squadrons UNLESS they have the Rogue Keyword.

4) Boosted Coms are going to be your best friend on the Assault Frigate B and Command Crusier.

5) Sometimes sacrificing 1 B-Wing to stop a Rhymerball or Y-Wing Squadron can win you the game. 

 

 

Disregard Point 3 if you want to.  I do almost all the time.  But it requries more of #2 to get away with.

 

A LOT more of #2. I dont do it because I like to chain activations every turn.

 

 

 

Just selling options.  You Presented it as an irrefutable proof.

 

Valid, I should start with an "in my experience" part. . . hmmmm food for future thoughts.

[GAThraawn 300]

I'm a big fan of Yavaris B-Wing lists myself. B-Wings take a lot of practice to get used to, as they require positioning based on where the enemy is going to be, not where they are now, but they pack one heck of a punch. I've just recently taken down a couple of tournaments with this list, which I'll most likely be bringing to Sullust this weekend:

 

Assault Frigate B

    - Dodonna

    - Adar Talon

    - Flight Controllers

 

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

    - Yavaris

    - Veteran Captain

 

CR90 A

    - Tantive IV

 

Keyan Farlander

2x B-Wing

3x Y-Wing

298 points

 

Precision Strike

Superior Positions

Hyperspace Assault

 

So fighter lists are viable, they just require a better sense of balance and timing than all ship lists, so they can be a little harder to pick up effectively right away.

[Drasnighta 26,573]

Valid, I should start with an "in my experience" part. . . hmmmm food for future thoughts.

 

 

 

 

As long as we are both growing as better people through this measure  

 

I am quite an ******* most of the time after all, and must break that habit.

[Virtigo 85]

Ran this crazy list last night and it worked like a charm. My key was to keep the AF alive by skirting around the battle. The VSD's couldn't keep up and were obliterated by my jousting Yarvis and fighters.

 

Name: (299 of 300 pts)

Faction: Rebel Alliance

Flagship: (135 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)

Mon Mothma (30 pts)

Adar Tallon (10 pts)

Flight Controllers (6 pts)

Expanded Hangar Bay (5 pts)

Advanced Projectors (6 pts)

XI7 Turbolasers (6 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (69 pts)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate(57 pts)

Yavaris (5 pts)

Ray Antilles (7 pts)

Squadrons (95 of 100 pts):

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

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

1x A-Wing Squadron (11 pts)

2x Y-Wing Squadron (20 pts)

2x B-Wing Squadron (28 pts)

Objectives:

Precision Strike

Fleet Ambush

Superior Positions

[ficklegreendice 34,359]

havn't had much to complain about via rebel squadrons, the only things that people need to work on is crutching too hard on them (incorporating only upgrades such as Adar and Haven and Hangars instead of things like Paragon...or more squadrons)

 

 

I've recently become a huge fan of having 3 ships, though, so I don't think I'm ever going back to double fatties (as much as I love the ship...still running one ....or two and a corvette with 3 aces...).  The activation advantage is significant and you can really bait out opponents with something expendable, like a naked neb escort

 

If I could fly corvettes at all (bleh) I'd run 4 ship rebels with 5 B-wings (neb yavaris + neb + cr-90a + cr-90a = 207, which is Garm/MM and Keyan + 3 B-wings or Big-D and 5 generics)

 

then again, some crazies on these forums like rolling 100 points of Y-wings with double fatties and if I had the money I'd slap that **** down in a heartbeat. **** sounds terrifying

 

 

good bit of advice: it's all about balance (with a slight slant towards anti-ship because killing those will win you the game). You just have to know what falls in what category and balance accordingly

 

 

Anti-squadron:

 

Haven: only works on your squadrons. Imo, the ultimate in squadron v squadron warfare and the pinnacle of rebel anti-squadron tech. I've reliably held off entire Tie swarms with just this thing and 3 aces, it is obscene. It is also completely worthless against anything attacking the ship itself and anti-squadron fire from ships aren't really a big deal in and of themselves.

 

Flight Controllers: obviously

 

X-wing: Relative to the A-wing, you're paying more points for a similar anti-ship capability @ lower speed. You're getting more health and, more importantly, and extra squadron die (counter is great, but one-shotting Ties is hilarious)

 

Wedge: just read his ability

 

Dutch: as above

 

Tycho: less obvious, but his ability only works against squadrons. He pisses the **** out of anyone without access to Cherineau by gumming up enemy bombers

 

Balanced

 

Yavaris: if you're surrounding ships or engaged by enemy squadrons, Yavaris promises fun times indeed

 

A-wings: at only one point over the Y, you get a very similar offensive punch at the maximum speed of 5. Very solid little buggers, good for a scrap against pretty much anything and will chase even GSDs down as long as they're in range of squadron commands.

 

Luke: a bit too coin-tossy for my taste, but Luke has the potential to be utterly devastating by hitting through shields. Really fun with Big-D at the helm, as that one lucky crit could easily net you a kill. On the other hand, still an X-wing for those yummy 4 dice.

 

B-wings: the skewed side of balanced, note that they don't have Heavy despite being dedicated bombers. Slow and inefficient against enemy squadrons, they nevertheless will engage the piss out of an offending rhymer ball if needed (and you will thank the force whenever you get that chance )

 

also, they're kind of the hardest hitting thing in the game ATM (seriously, Yavaris brings two of them to ISD levels of wtf)

 

Anti-Ship

 

Y-wings: heavy and 2-anti squadron has this thing Doa against enemy squadrons...unsupported of course.

 

 

 

so, what do you do with this information? Simple. Don't spam Xs with Haven and flight controllers. Do spam Y-wings with flight controllers

 

 

balance is key

Edited October 2, 2015 by ficklegreendice

[Virtigo 85]

I love your motto "Balance is key" when it comes to squadrons because you never know what or who you are going to face.

 

Fortunately you don't need five squadron packs to be balanced as well. I might not have access to 10 Y-wings, however confusion through a variety of fighters helps as well.

 

I find Luke to be a gamble but his escort ability has been crucial to allow my A-wings to finish their job so my Y-wings can do bombing runs.

 

 

The only threat I can see is a rush of mass damage from ships that couldn't care less about fighters and tabling me before anything can get anything done. The challenge is trying to survive till round 5-6 to be able to finish off the enemy.

[ficklegreendice 34,359]

faced a tabling threat quite a few times now (well over half my games, I'd say)

 

 

4 B-wings with Yavaris have you covered (esp if one of them is Keyan; tried him out last Sunday and will never look back )

 

 

Not kidding when I say they drop GSDs faster than the GSDs drop you

 

 

and that's just B-wing + Keyan double-tapping with Yavaris adding her fire; either one-rounds the poor GSD or leaves it falling apart. The other two B-wings are for insurance, and because you can't really do much else with 28 points

Edited October 2, 2015 by ficklegreendice

[Virtigo 85]

faced a tabling threat quite a few times now (well over half my games, I'd say)

 

 

4 B-wings with Yavaris have you covered (esp if one of them is Keyan; tried him out last Sunday and will never look back )

 

 

Not kidding when I say they drop GSDs faster than the GSDs drop you

 

 

and that's just B-wing + Keyan double-tapping with Yavaris adding her fire; either one-rounds the poor GSD or leaves it falling apart. The other two B-wings are for insurance, and because you can't really do much else with 28 points

You are really tempting me to go out and get another Squadron pack ....

[Gorthaur25 130]

I like to run a Yavaris/Galant Haven 4A/4B list. It can be crippling. The Key is to keep them close together and try and get your enemy to get aggressive and move one ship too far forward to engage so you can pounce on it. IMHO the biggest unsung advantage of squadrons is how they nullify defense tokens. Say a 3 damage B-Wing shot. How good is it to brace against that if you know 2 more are coming, or an AF side arc shot. They whittle ships down in a way the heavy hitters can't.