How to counter this Rebel Ackbar List?

[Nickvr628 91]

So this guy at a tournament last night ran this list and destroyed EVERYTHING, earning first place by a huge margin. He faced everything from Interdictor lists to rebel fast flankers to Imperial ISDs and gladiators. I played Fire Lanes and got tabled, but still earned 75 points from objectives (compared to his huge score of 535).

 

The combination of ECM, Gunnery Teams, and XI7 on the two AFIIs were brutally effective, and the Home One title meant I could never get a brace off. His MC-80 just spammed repair commands and used projection experts to feed shields to everyone who lost any. Then the GR-75 passed various tokens to other ships to improve them.

 

How the heck does someone beat this list?

Rebel Meta List 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 389/400 

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

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

 

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Home One  ( 7  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Projection Experts  ( 6  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  X17 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
= 185 total ship cost

 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  X17 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
= 92 total ship cost

 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  X17 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
= 92 total ship cost

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points) 
= 20 total ship cost

 

[Cutter9999 40]

Did he play against squadrons? What were the lists he played against?

[chr335 658]

Rhymer ball or any bomber swarm

[Nickvr628 91]

He did not play against any large Rhymerballs, I had a miniball with Rhymer+1 bomber+1 Advanced that did some damage, but the combination of projection experts and the GR-75 passing tokens to everyone meant my bombers were ineffective. I suppose a large bomber list would do damage, but he would kill the carriers fast enough that I do not know how many rounds I would last.  

 

Also he always decided to be second player, so I would always have to pick from his objectives.

[chr335 658]

Try this fighter list. Dengar, Rhymer, Vader or standard tie advance, Boba Fett, two firesprays and mauler. Has enough Rogue to not need carriers and has a nice mix of anti ship and anti-squadron dice.

[Kahadras 97]

Rhymer ball or any bomber swarm

 

I would agree, a Fireball would be very unpleasant to play against. A mobile fleet wouldn't be much fun either; as long as you can keep out of those side arcs you aren't going to be facing very many dice at all. The fleet just feels rather one dimensional to me, it's all about those long range broadsides and has nothing else to offer

[Nickvr628 91]

Rhymer ball or any bomber swarm

 

I would agree, a Fireball would be very unpleasant to play against. A mobile fleet wouldn't be much fun either; as long as you can keep out of those side arcs you aren't going to be facing very many dice at all. The fleet just feels rather one dimensional to me, it's all about those long range broadsides and has nothing else to offer

I chose fire lanes thinking I could get him to spread out his fleet, but he placed all the objective tokens against the far edge of the board. He flew his ships in between the board edge and the tokens so I would have to face his broadsides. Fire lanes can give you 45 points per turn so I had to try and contest the tokens.

He did a great job of ensuring that i would come to him.

[chr335 658]

Alternatively you can also add an interdictor disrupting his movements

[Ginkapo 9,321]

ISD TO THE FACE

I am sure this counters most lists. Whether you use the ISD to hit the front of his congaline or just punch him in the face with it doesnt matter, both work.

[mxlm 902]

Bombers will annihilate that list. Particularly since H1 has no engine upgrades and cannot keep pace with, for instance, Assault Frigates with boosted comms that are kiting away. Projection experts will not keep pace with bomber damage, and only having one redirect token means bombers will rapidly strip one hull zone of shields and then put the necessary six damage into the hull to pop a frigate (or, if it's Luke, trololol all the way to victory). H1 itself will melt over the course of a couple turns, and its large size and low speed means plenty of the bombers won't even need squadron commands to keep shooting it. 

 

Basically one and a half turns of bombing to kill a frigate, if that. 

[TheEasternKing 607]

The answer of course is Major Rhymer and 13 Tie Bombers! take some Bomber Commands.

 

Pick fire lanes, move Rhymer and Co into range in one massive ball, throw 14 black dice a round and kill a ship each round.

 

Which will cure the guy from taking Ackbar all ships.

[DR4CO 6,234]

This seems like a job for the all-out Fireball:

 

Major Rhymer [16]

Boba Fett [26]

Firespray x5 [90]

132 points

 

This wouldn't be that great in the face of enemy fighter cover, but seeing as there isn't any you're free to be very, very greedy. And there is honestly just about no way he beats something like this. You don't even need to have your ships anywhere near the fighting (except maybe a Bomber Command Gozanti); just hang back and make him walk through 12 medium-range bomber dice per round.

[mobow213 133]

I face this a few times and flew it a few times. Park a glad or mc30 in it front grill nose to nose. With APT and it will not last long.

I stop flying a ackbar list cause it crashes against bomber groups and fast ships that get in it grill

[SirDave 96]

Park a glad or mc30 in it front grill nose to nose. With APT and it will not last long.

 

 

This ^^^, if using ships.  Key is to go from out of range into short in 1 move, positioned to ensure it block his lead ship move.   It's also xtra bonus funny watching him run into his lead ships and cause hull damage if his spacing is bad.

 

 

As mentioned, the absolute lack of squadrons makes it dead vs bombers.

Edited September 6, 2016 by SirDave

[SirDave 96]

Or this that I just happened to read:

 

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/229236-konstantine-vs-the-konga-line/

[HERO 842]

Man... most bomber lists these days would tear this list inside out.  I'm surprised he would bring this to a tournament setting.  Metagaming for sure!

[Kikaze 303]

the biggest advantage ackbar has is "local meta". it is so common for people playing armada to naturaly wanna try "all the big ships with kewl toys", ending up with vanilla big ship lists, and ackbar is a natural counter to them, having excellent firepower to take down supposedly hard targets.

 

its the same here; for example, I hear someone has "a rhymerball" and I get scared, then I see he has some very few standard multiple role fighters and just rhymer to make them easier to maneuver(=like what you did)... that's not a rhymerball. a rhymerball is when you spam endless bombers and use them with dengar(the TRUE HEART of the rhymerball) and rhymer to be the main source of damage for your fleet. but people don't play that because they feel starfighter dogfights isn't what they play armada for.

 

there are other lists that wreck ackbar; fastmoving small ships that get in his front, like a swarm of cr 90s or raiders + gladiators; but "big ships with cool toys" will forever be disadvantaged against ackbar, especialy when YOUR LOCAL META LETS HIM USE  ZERO SQUADRONS, using all his points to obliterate ships.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Kikaze