MC Triple

[Shanturin 267]

Hi guys!

While waiting form my for the arrival of my reinforcements (i.e. Wave VII) I've been toying with fleet that uses all three large MC ships. I need the list to be, well, not competitive, but not utterly trash, with good chances of destroying some enemy ships or gaining points through objectives (and then not dying). Obviously, such list would struggle against any 134p. squadron list, but as I said - not competitive

So far I've come up with the following:

Name: MC Triple
Commander: Admiral Raddus

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona

MC80 Command Cruiser (106)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Hardend Bulkheads (5)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Defiance (5)
= 157 Points

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• General Draven (3)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Ordnance Pods (3)
= 121 Points

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Nav Team (4)
• Leading Shots (4)
= 122 Points

Total Points: 400

The idea here is to give each ship a primary role to fulfill and play to each musketeer's strength  Raddus is here to either help with crucial ship deployment (depending on the enemy) or allow for nice flanking. He's also soooo thematic  Defiance is an obvious tank, being the toughest one on the board - hence he gets the admiral (he also gets the least from hyperspacing in). With 4 activation (SAd!) there's, at least in my meta, a decent chance of triggering Defiance for added punch. MC75 is primarily another tank/bruiser, with added anti-squad efficiency to smash smaller fighter wings. Plus, he's cheap and he's the one to probably be hyperspacing (to position himself against squadrons, preferably). And last but not least, pretty standard Battle Cruiser, the one to flank the enemy, deal early damage and provide a homing platform for hyperspacing MC75.

I'm pretty adamant about the objectives. Advanced Gunnery is a no-brainer, Solar Corona helps a lot with deployment and increases survivability. Contested Outpost is the one I might swap, since Fleet Ambush is really tempting, as well as Planetary Ion Cannons (although I fear taking them without any strategic is poor idea).

So, what bugs me, is specific upgrade choices. There's so many options on these ships! For example, I wonder if QLT over HB would not be better on MC80H? Is Draven worth it? Is battling squadrons worth anything, or in this case I should go full anti-ship? Is Defiance + sth better than Engine Techs on either MC80? I would love to hear your opinions! 

PS. Also, no Exodus Fleet, I just can't find the points for it... you may try to convince me otherwise!

[Mad Cat 2,250]

If your fleet had say 4 A-Wings then extra upgrades for improving flak would make sense. A-Wings alpha strike and then tie things up and slowly (or quickly) die while inflicting more damage with counter(2). The enemy have several wounded squadrons who after a delay hit your ships but your upgrades start to get you kills.

Without squadrons those flak upgrades have to chew through healthy 5 hull B-Wings for example so don't spend too much on them, unless the ship has gunnery teams and can fire at a ship and mow down fighters from the same arc.

QBTs on Defiance is definitely worth it. If the enemy try and pin you in the front arc of Defiance just Radus in some angry reinforcements.

[chr335 658]

Yeah what @Mad Cat said Sloane fleet or worse a good bomber list will tear this up drop some upgrades and get at least 4 x-wings or a-wings 

[Belphegor07 56]

Raddius might not be the best for this build as you've done a great job giving your ships specific roles but you may notice the lack of them heavily pre hyperspace. For example if you come against a heavy bomber list, you're not going to want to lose the Mc75 but equally would also miss the Liberty's Gunnery Teamed black aa especially without squadrons 

Perhaps madine or dodonna could help more 

[Norell 1,198]

Madine would give the MC80s some much needed flexibility indeed.

[apapasmurf73 10]

With no squadrons EWS may be more beneficial than ECM 

 

cheers

Papasmurf

[OlaphOfTheNorth 229]

I flew something like this last week under Dodonna with Exodus Fleet on all three. Knowing my vulnerability to a full bomber list I tooled out the ordnance cruiser for antisquad, with flechettes, ord pods, OE and EWS. 

I lost the lib and then the H1 to squadrons that focused on them, but I took out Admo with the lib and his AFII and Jaina's with the H1. EWS kept squads from hurting the ord cruiser badly at all and it polished up two flots for a 6th round tabling, 7-4 me. I had ECM on the H1 and would definitely advise what papasmurf here just suggested and swap that for EWS in this fleet.

[Ritalbringer 183]

Agreed with some of the above. Such fleet can be awesome, but not with Raddus. Madine is the MVP I think, or maybe Ackbar/Leia, even Garm why not, which such high Command values. Startegic advisor and Bail are also nice here imo. Exodus seems a must have as well imo.

[grunnax93 87]

Cant hyperspace MC75, its a large ship hyperspace assault only works for small or medium ships have a read of it.

 

[Shanturin 267]

19 hours ago, grunnax93 said:

Cant hyperspace MC75, its a large ship hyperspace assault only works for small or medium ships have a read of it.

 

Erm.. Raddus?

First, thanks to all of you for your advise, it as useful as SAd was in my game (i.e. a lot!). So, I've flown my OG McTriple today (i've swaped Hardened Bulkheads for QLT). My opponent, not knowing what I'll be playing, brought... Imperial list with Thrawn on ISD II, a Raider, Gozanti and 134 points of squads (though the pricey ones, like 2x Deci, Maarek, Jendon etc.). Oh, and Rhymer. Good for my QLT, eh?

It wasn't half bad, even though I lost. I consider this a fault of my poor flying with multiple large ships (I lost 1 Hull on both MC80C and MC75 due to ram, and MC80C additionally lost 4 shields to an asteroid). I've killed almost all squadrons (except for lonely Deci who finished off MC75), the flotilla and the Raider. ISD took a heap of engineering commands, so he finished the game unscratched.

Thoughts: 1/ it's worth considering EWS, seriously 2/ Raddus is awesome if used properly, which I failed to (I might try Garm next time) 3/ If you jump in, you don't need Nav Team on MC80B 4/ Ordnance Pods are awesome!

Anyway, my flak is great and I belive if not for Rhymer and my bad flying I would've kept Defiance alive for two activations more, which would make a world of difference. Some tweaking here and there and I might even consider taking it to the tournament!  

[Iskander4000 142]

Thanks for sharing your list and your AAR! I've been wanting to fly something like this too, mostly because I'm a fan of naval history and the use of ships of the line. One question, would it make sense to drop it to the Star Cruiser to save points, since you can jump it in at blue range? Or perhaps, to drop the 75 to an ordinance cruiser and have that jump in at black range instead? ( I guess that's two questions)

[Iskander4000 142]

Now that I think about it, I think I get your choices. You want the better flak that those provide to make up for the lack of squads, correct?

[Shanturin 267]

Thanks @Iskander4000, I myself enjoy flying large ships with broadsides due to real life naval references  you're correct in thinking I went with Battle Cruiser for extra AA die, though I ended up jumping in from Raddus and I've found myself flaking maybe once? So Star Cruiser is definitely one option I'm considering (you're right that I was always at medium range ;)) This way I could add some anti-ship firepower, which I may be otherwise lacking. I thought of replacing Battle Cruiser with one of the following:

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Caitiken and Shollan (6)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 120 Points

For two extra points I would consider leaving some minimal bid or equipping Med Team to both MC80s.

or

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 120 Points

Anyway, I have a few games lined up for the weekend, so expect some more AAR in the weekend

[buckero0 1,956]

How do you fly your Battle/Star Cruisers? I've never flown it without engine techs or Nav team due to it's awkward movement. I do move at speed 3 a lot, because every game I've played that I get the Battle Cruiser on the flank, I win. If I try to make like and slow move forward, I die.

[Shanturin 267]

Until Wave VII I wouldn't run B/C MC80 without Madine, to be honest, and than I would usually stick ETs on top of that. I agree, that getting to the flank is crucial for a successful run, and with Raddus you can simply deploy on the flank, or one-maneuver-short-of-being-in-flank, which greatly increases chance of good performance. If I fell I deployed extremely well, I would consider setting my first dial to Concentrate Fire, but then it's the usual "Nav all the way"

[Iskander4000 142]

On 2/11/2018 at 10:39 PM, Shanturin said:

Thanks @Iskander4000, I myself enjoy flying large ships with broadsides due to real life naval references  you're correct in thinking I went with Battle Cruiser for extra AA die, though I ended up jumping in from Raddus and I've found myself flaking maybe once? So Star Cruiser is definitely one option I'm considering (you're right that I was always at medium range ;)) This way I could add some anti-ship firepower, which I may be otherwise lacking. I thought of replacing Battle Cruiser with one of the following:

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Caitiken and Shollan (6)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 120 Points

For two extra points I would consider leaving some minimal bid or equipping Med Team to both MC80s.

or

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 120 Points

Anyway, I have a few games lined up for the weekend, so expect some more AAR in the weekend

I like the first option. I like having Lando on these and I'm excited to try C&S and HIE. HIE might also be a good substitute for the lack of XI7. When it comes down to it, this game is ultimately about blowing up ships and I think this loudout increases the chance of doing that and winning the overall game, when jumped in at the right time. 

With little time to prepare for my match tomorrow, and having never used Raddus or the 75, I'm going to give your fleet a try with the MC80S, as well as with a Med Team on my command cruiser (I only own one so I'll have a 1 point bid). I'll let you know how it goes--hopefully I'll fare better than Force Z! Thanks for sharing your ideas and thought process.

[Shanturin 267]

1 hour ago, Iskander4000 said:

 HIE might also be a good substitute for the lack of XI7. When it comes down to it, this game is ultimately about blowing up ships and I think this loudout increases the chance of doing that and winning the overall game, when jumped in at the right time.

I'll have to give them a try, yet from my impressions based on the card itself, and from the few times I've already seen someone else use it I believe them to be superior to XI7s in most cases. First of all, they actually hugely increase your damage output early on. If an enemy had only 2 shields on an adjacent hull zones to begin with, they're XI7s with additional dmg on top. If target had 3 shields adjacent, it equals XI7s (they loose one "redirected" side, and redirect 2 instead of one but they lost one extra on a defending hull zone already!). And those 3 lost shield's cannot be be used to move o a different zone, since they're, well, lost.

This actually makes me sad that no rebel ship can equip both DCaps and HIE  It has to be super fun burning shields like that with Riders and 'Dictors, at long range  heck, even Vic's can pull it off

[Iskander4000 142]

So I just got back from league night. Didn't go so well. My opponent flew a Riekken aces list with 2 VCXs that he's flown several times so he was pretty good about knowing how to fly it. I got off to a decent start, taking down Jan and Green Squad in one round thanks to the upgrades on the 75. Problem was, when it came time to move the 75 during round 2 I got a little too eager and jumped up to speed 3, hoping that this would put me close enough to his ships (an AF, Yavaris, and 3 flotillas) that I could drop the MC80S in on their flank. Unfortunately this put me right in the path of his bombers, and since I was so close he was able to move them around to my un-flakked side, completely negating the effects of the EWS. The 75 went down at the end of round 2. At that point, I had no choice but to bring in the Lib to a spot where I didn't want it because if I didn't, my command cruiser would have been chewed up. Liberty went down next and though I did manage to take down his AF, a transport, and another squad, they were just consolation prizes. 

Had I not been so eager, the 75 would have survived into round 3 and the Lib would have been in a great spot to take down 2 flotillas and Yavaris while the command cruiser pounded away at the AF, but it was not to be. I think the biggest weakness of this list is that if one thing goes wrong, the whole strategy unravels. Of course a lot of it was my own flying, but there's very little room for error.

I included a shot of the start of turn 2, before I flew into the bombers. 

Anyways, thanks for sharing your list and your thoughts behind it!

 

unnamed1b.bmp

[Shanturin 267]

Good to know that Draven and Ordnance Pods do their job when it comes to A-Wings and HWKs  Against such list, I wouldn't actually mind deploying Liberty in front of AFMKII - shoot down Yavaris and then keep GH in front of you while you pound it into submission. So that MC75 should have definitely slow down to speed 1 or 2, if only to keep out of fire from enemy ships for one more round - also I believe the slower approach would make it actually easier to deploy the Star Cruiser (top of round 4 perhaps?).

Here in Poland we have a saying, that one is the wisest after the injury - good luck next time!