Armada: HTTs vs. XI7s

Turboing those lasers.

Alright, let's get down to business right away with this topic.  Personally, I think XI7s are the best offense upgrade in the game.  Not including things like Gunnery Team or Intel Officer because those are more utility pieces, I view XI7 as a damage pusher and nothing else.  If you want raw damage, XI7s are the best go-to turbolaser upgrade on a ship that can throw a good amount of dice.  For tiny ships like CR90s or MC30cs that can push damage with TRCs due to their double Evade, I would strongly recommend those on those kind of ships.  However, when it comes to any of the bigger ships; including but not limited to the ISD and MC80, the Rebel Assault Frigates can also benefit from doing more damage as long as they have Ackbar on the field.

Now, what about Heavy Turbolaser Turrets and do they have a use?  Yes, I do they have a use but they have a more specific use.  They're not as flexible as the XI7s because of a number of things.  They are useless on ships that do not have a Brace option, they are weaker in the current metagame because more ships that matter have Redirect, and they generally push less damage when Brace is not available. Both the XI7s and HTTs benefit from ships that can throw a lot of dice, because you want to be able to push out as much damage as possible on certain hull zone.  Remember the wording I'm using here:  Specific hull zone.  More on this later.  It's also really important to note that the more dice you throw, especially when you throw both red and blues that your chances to score an accuracy result goes up dramatically.  There's simply more chances you will be able to lock down the Brace token as a result.

Let's pretend that the target that you're shooting at is an Imperial Star Destroyer at full health into the front hull zone.  That means the sucker is packing 11 hull points, 4 shields in the front and 3 on each side.  Now, let's say that you roll some big dice and score 8 hits on the sucker.

Decisions..

Heavy Turbolaser Turrets:

• With Brace available, the opponent elects to only brace and take 4 damage to frontal shields.
• Without Brace available, the opponent elects to redirect to the left hull zone, takes 4 to the front, all 3 shields on the left, and takes 1 damage directly to the hull.
• On the second shot assuming the same number of hits, and with Brace available, the opponent elects to only brace and take 4 damage directly to the hull.
• On the second assuming the same number of hits, but without Brace available, the opponent elects to redirect to the right, saving 3 damage, and takes 5 damage directly to the hull.

..decisions.

XI7 Turbolasers:

• With Brace and Redirect available, the opponent elects to brace, redirect 1 to the left/right hull zone, and take 3 damage to frontal shields.
• Without Brace available, the opponent elects to redirect to the left, can only redirect one, so he takes 7 to the front, losing all shields and taking 3 damage directly to the hull.
• On the second shot assuming the same number of hits, and with Brace available, the opponent elects to only brace and redirect right, and takes 3 damage directly to the hull.
• On the second assuming the same number of hits, but without Brace available, the opponent elects to redirect to the right, saving 1 damage, and takes 7 damage directly to the hull.

As you can see here, the XI7s outperform the HTTs when you want to damage directly to a certain hull zone.  Most of the time, depending on your strategy and fleet construction, you want to put out higher, more consistent damage onto a naked hull zone (no shields) so you can push unmitigated damage onto the ship as fast as you can.  HTTs do something that's somewhat opposite of that in some cases, because it's a defensive combo-stopper.  It's strongest point is that it forces your opponent to Brace and only Brace if he wants a chance at reducing the savage amount of damage that's being inflicted these days by ISDs and MC80s.  If he does anything else like Evade or Redirect, he's simply going to eat a greater amount of damage.

Something that I haven't mentioned here but I mentioned earlier is that XI7s are much better when shooting at ships like MC30cs and CR90s, two ships that I see a good amount of in the current Wave 2 meta.  Why?  Because they only have Redirects as their primary source of damage reflect outside of Evade.  If you throw say, 4 damage into the CR90 from long range, HTTs have absolutely no effect on that outcome.  Your opponent will still be able to Evade and Redirect whereas for the XI7s, their Redirect will be severely weakened.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Raiders have Brace with double Evades, so 4 damage on them will result in a brace for 2 for 2 shields.  With XI7s, you will also do 2 damage after Brace because there's no ability to Redirect.  It only gets complicated when you're shooting at ships with all 3 evasive options such as Assault Frigates and Gladiators.  HTTs makes it so they can't evade or redirect if they want to brace to full effect, so they will beat XI7s in that regard as long as a lot of damage is being inflicted where Evade, Brace and Redirect can ALL contribute to the damage result.  Like if an MC80 Assault is shooting with Concentrated Fire at long range with the Defiance title with Ackbar and HTTs and manages to score big numbers, then yeah, it's probably going to do more damage to that Assault Frigate at long range than XI7s.  More than likely though, when it's just Brace and Redirect, XI7s will outperform HTTs when it comes to doing damage.

Lastly, I want to mention the key factor when determining realistic battlefield conditions in Wave 2.  Ships are throwing more dice and with more dice comes more accuracies.  That means the chances you will completely negate Brace is pretty high, especially on ships without ECM.  Furthermore, Home One hands out free accuracies without reducing damage in most cases and Intel Officers can permanently erase Brace.  If your goal is to spread damage, and your battleplan will be doing damage from long range, against ships that can Evade, Redirect and Brace on the same attack, and don't care about accuracies, then HTT is a cheaper, more effective option than XI7s.  For everything else, XI7s simply do more damage to a specific hull zone, works better vs. the current meta, and works better in conjunction with accuracy dice.

Good luck, and good hunting admirals.

Armada: Avenger over Relentless

What is love?  Baby don't hurt me..

Recently, I've found myself liking the Avenger upgrade over Relentless a lot more.  If I have the points and I feel the need to take a title on my ISD, you can bet that I'll have Avenger on my flagship as long as I have enough bid.

Why is this the case?  I think it's something that's purely based on my playstyle.  When it comes to big ships throwing big dice, I absolutely love to bully whatever I'm shooting with serious damage and control elements.  This is why I'm typically looking for upgrades like XI7s, Intel Officers, or anything that gives me mileage out of doing more damage.  Avenger is probably the most powerful control title there is in the game currently outside of Home One.  While Home One is an awesome title to pass accuracies to other ships in the fleet, it doesn't really do anything to help itself push damage through.  That's where Avenger comes in on top.  Avenger simply does not let the target player spend exhausted defense tokens.  It gets around ECM, acts like multiple accuracy dice on exhausted defense tokens, but it does so without spending the dice itself.  The only thing that Avenger does is push damage, and that's king in this game.  Best of all, Avenger pushes damage in each and every shot, so it works against multiple targets through Gunnery Team.

The pain starts here.

If you have an ISD with Avenger, you want to make sure you have a list that has multiple activations.  Personally, I've been flying an Avenger ISD-II with Ozzel and multiple ships with ways of doing forced damage like Assault Proton Torpedoes.  I wouldn't say that Avenger is an auto-take as much as Relentless because it costs 5 points vs. 3.  Sometimes you just want the bid bad enough that you will feel that you don't need to spend any more points because well, you simply don't need it.  However, in my particular list where I have a Glad and 2x Raiders, I don't have too many solid ways to do direct damage to hull unlike my Ackbar list that's loaded with XI7s.  Instead, I have a lot of ways to put damage on through lighter, faster ships, but the damage can be spread out more easily if my opponent uses his defense tokens.  That's when Avenger is at its most deadly potential; acting as a huge control element and screaming lockdown in its purest form.  With cards like SW-7 Ion Batteries or Leading Shots, you will be able to change those accuracies into raw damage, and just let your XI7s do the heavy lifting.  If your opponent has a green card left like Contain or Redirect, just cover it with Intel Officer and let the bad feels soak.

Some obvious combos stand out here like Overload Pulse followed by Avenger, but don't that dissuade you thinking that Avenger is only good there.  Cards like OP almost scream to have Screed as an admiral to make it proc effectively, and that will call upon a delivery system in order to do it.  Raider-IIs immediately stand out, but I've found that Avenger is strong enough to stand on its own.  Just play the game as you would normally and maybe activate the ISD last to get the most out of it, but don't hole yourself in in terms of execution and putting too many points/faith into a decent combo at best.

Don't get me wrong here, Relentless is still a incredibly strong title, arguably one of the best in the game for the price.  It provides amazing flexibility to such a large ship, and allows you to respond to situations faster on the battlefield.  Avenger is more for those who are comfortable with 3-command ships and just want to oppress his opponents' ships.  I think it's much better for my particular playstyle, and I'll be taking it more and more in my Imperial lists.

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.

Armada: Rebel squadrons in the Wave 2 meta

How to get the most out of Rebel squadrons?

Having played most of my games as the Rebels in the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure if I'm liking the way Rebels build their squadrons.  Maybe I haven't got a lot of exposure to all the nuances of playing with Rebel squadrons, but I don't think there's a lot of good choices in the competitive Wave 2 meta.  What do I mean by this?  Let's take a closer look.

When you look at Imperial squadrons, one could say that they are quite spoiled for choices.  Not only are a lot of their squadrons extremely points efficient, but they're also very fast.  When I look at my Imperials, I see the TIE Fighters, Ints, Howlrunner, Rhymer, Dengar, Soontir, advanced, Firesprays, Boba, Bossk, IG-88, basically the works.  Almost anything and everything works with maybe a few exceptions here at there.  For the points that you spend, you are getting either really dedicated anti-squadron which is highly efficient, or you're getting outrageous bomber potential via Rhymer.  Once you start combining a few things here and there and start forming your combos, things can get a little out of control.  For those of you guys that don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you take a look at my Imperial squadron post here.

Taking a closer look at the Rebel squadrons, I can't help but feel a little cheated.  Yes, I understand wholly and completely that the A-Wing is very good for the points.  It moves fast, throws out decent dice against squadrons, have Counter 2 and throws 75% hits onto ships.  I am well aware of this and consider them arguably the best choice for squadrons overall for Rebels.  One thing is clear to me though, and has been confirmed with other competitive Rebel commanders that Rebel squadrons are very bland.  Not only are they bland, but they're upcosted compared to Imperial counterparts and generally pay a premium to be the jack-of-all-trades thing.  If there's anything I learned from playing miniature games competitively is that being a premium swiss army knife is not a good thing.  The only oddball out that I can think of here is the A-Wing and the Firespray, but the Firespray is making such a hardier impact on the meta because of Rogue, Bomber and the ability to be absolutely godlike with Rhymer.  Dengar just sends it into absurd levels that might jeopardize the competitive landscape, but that has yet to be determined in major events.

Dutch and Wedge, brothers for life.

Back to Rebel squadrons:  They are also very limited in combos that you can achieve.  The immediate thing that pops up in my head is Dutch + Wedge, being able to figuratively exhaust someone to get face-punched by Wedge's 6-dice throw.  Really though, is there anything else?  Sure!  You add Adar Tallon as an officer or Yavaris into the mix to really get the most out of these two.  While I agree that the combo is strong, you're also spending a serious amount of points to invest in this.  Dutch and Wedge is the first purchase, but Adar is a 10-point upgrade and Yavaris is a title upgrade from the Neb-B.  Independence is another upgrade example found on the MC80 that makes your speed-2 B-Wings actually worth a damn.  Compare this to the self-sufficient, commandless autonomy that is the Fireball and you can't help but feel really bad.  I think it's safe to say that Rebels absolutely need dedicated fleet support to get the most out of their squadrons whereas Imperials don't have to care now.  Firesprays and Rhymer pretty much play themselves.

Does anyone else here see what I'm seeing in terms of cost-effectiveness?  Currently, the top winners for squadrons is anything that offers command compression (very little guidance), good damage on ships, durability and firepower.  I know I basically named a Firespray, but we have to be realistic here about the gold-standard for competitive play.  Once more people discover the power of the Fireball, the more people will have to look for ways to counter it.  Will generic Rebel fighters be enough to handle the threat?  No from what I'm seeing from my games.  I can certainty tie things up and offer them some resistance with my Tycho and 3 A-Wings, or even Dash and 2 YT-2400s, but I think I need something more in order to take on Rhymer and the boys.  Of course I understand that a paltry number of points cannot slow the deathcloud that is the Fireball, but that would mean that I'm either forced to play heavy squadrons or just outright die.  My immediate answer to this would be Dutch and Wedge, maybe Jan for extra defenses and load the rest up with A-Wings.

What do you guys think?  Is there anything that the Rebels have that you don't need to tailor to beat the Fireball threat?  I honestly don't think there is one unless you spend the points.  The objective is to either kill Dengar, or Rhymer, and both of those are hard as nails to take down without a dedicated list.

Armada: Activation advantage

Getting the most out of cheaper ships.

Before we start, what is activation advantage?

In short, it's having more ships to activate than your opponent so you can better react to the battlefield.  I don't think there's a better way to illustrate this, so let's count it down very simplistically.  Don't worry, I'm not deliberately trying to soudn dumb here, but it definitely help paint a better picture of what you could be looking at in game.

Let's say that I have a 5 ship list and you have a 3 ship list and you have first player.

I go, first ship
You go, first ship
I go, second ship
You go, second ship
I go, third ship,
You go, third ship
I go, forth ship
I go, fifth ship

Now let's say that you're going second.

You go, first ship
I go, first ship
You go, second ship
I go, second ship
You go, third ship
I go, third ship
I go, forth ship
I go, fifth ship

In most of the games I've played so far, most lists tend to hover between 3 ships and 4.  I've seen some lists sit on 4 ships, the highest I've seen in person is 5, but there's talk of a 6-ship list with 3 Glads and 3 Raiders.  I can't really talk about the effectiveness of said list, but it seems like it can be crazy if played correctly.  In this particular case, I'm ranking crazy with ineffectual to holy cow I got owned.  I simply cannot rate something like this based on hearsay.  OK, so what about 2-ship lists?  Well, if you're only packing a fatty and a medium ship (e.g. MC80 and MKII), you're probably looking to run something really heavy in the squadron department.  While this can be ridiculously strong; such as going for a full-blown 130+ point Fireball, it does have its weaknesses.

To elaborate on this, no matter who goes first and second, as long as you have one ship more than your opponent, you will always have last activation.  Why does this matter?  Because the extra activation allows you to react to everything that has already activated on the battlefield.  Bigger ships might have already thrown their huge dice loads, shots that might have been fired might not be needed, dials that you could have spent can be converted to tokens, and places you thought you needed to be, you don't really need to move there any more.

What about first activation?  Well, we should all know now the benefits of activating first.  You will get to attack and move first, possibly destroying the largest threat on the battlefield or escaping danger.  You can activate squadrons for that awesome alpha strike, or heal back some seriously needed shields in case of return fire.  What matters most here comes mainly from the perspective of doing damage, moving into a better location, but preferably both whenever you can.  That is the key advantage of going first.

Now, this brings us to our last point:  What if your opponent is going first and have the activation advantage on you and is going last as well.  Well, now you're in a pickle aren't you.  He has both the benefits of going first and last and your fleet is somewhere sandwiched in between.  This is why in games where you're holding equal or uneven activation advantages, it's typical for players to look for opportunities to even that up in a hurry.  This can mean destroying a cheaper frigate to tie up the activation count might very well be a valid strategy.  In turn, if you already have activation advantage, destroying one of your opponent's lighter armed ships might give you an even greater boon in that department.

I know the examples I gave above a pretty radical, but I've fought against a 2 ship disadvantage with my 3-ship list many times before.  I still came up on top, but that's because I know that the more ships you take, the less upgraded they will be, and the lighter your fighter screen will be.  In a points based game, when you see lists that outnumber you great in terms of ships, you will normally assume that you have the firepower advantage.  With Wave 2 hitting us in full steam, CR90s with TRCs and Raiders with APTs are out to change that in a hurry.  Those ships put out a lot more damage than their point costs suggest and with the right numbers, can put out a tremendous amount of hurt.  To combat this strategy, I highly suggest looking into evenly up the numbers quickly.  Typically, Raiders and CR90s fall over to dedicated anti-ship fire, and most of the big boys like the ISD and MC80 will be able to take them down with one volley.  Look for opportunities where you can exploit this vulnerability and you'll be on your way to making the game a lot easier for you.

Armada: Double MC80 attack!

The MC80's big brother, the MC90.

OK, so I have a list here that I've only tried twice, and one time it ended in spectacular failure mainly because I couldn't stop myself from ram humping my own ships to death.  Seriously though, have you guys tried flying two fatfish in a congo-line with so many faster and more agile ships out there these days?  It's a damn nightmare!  The other game I was able to just double-arc multiple ships and just blow everything away through attrition.

The idea of this list is really bare bones and simple.  You're running two fat ships and a dinky little ship just to act as an extra set of guns.  Nothing else really matters because the two heavy hitters in list is the Home One (mainly to hand out a free accuracy with every shot), and the Defiance (who loves to throw more dice).  Because the Home One doesn't get the accuracy buff himself, he will roll with Intel Officer and be a nav junky, but the Defiance will the second ship to activate of the lot and carry Raymus Antilles for max utility and command compression.  Ideally what you want to do is use Concentrate Fire with Defiance so he gets to shoot with maximum effect.  You're looking at tossing out free black dice here with every attack, even at long range.  Since the dice you add is already in the pool and CF kicks in after dice have been rolled, you can add another black if you want.  Talk about power overwhelming.

Behold, the might of the Mon Calamari:

BIGFISH
Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

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

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Defiance  ( 5  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
-  Tantive IV  ( 3  points)

2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points)

The trickiest part about a list like this would be getting it to fly exactly how you want it.  There are two ridiculous fat ships there and unlike the ISD, you are not very point and click.  Not only are you more particular about your activations since you want the Defiance to go after another target ship has been activated to get the most out of it, but you are also looking to maximize your side arcs without obstructing the other ship's shot.  I mean yeah, with CF you can shoot through another ship and not lose anything, but having that extra dice is what you paid for with your dial.  Plus, you really want that CF to trigger off of Defiance's free dice that it gets to throw.  Throwing something like 5 red dice and 2 blues at long range is murderous (5 from Ackbar, 1 blue from Defiance, 1 blue from CF copying Defiance, fueling Leading Shots if you roll blanks, with a re-roll from Raymus because he gives you a token).

Like I already said many times now, getting these fish to swim without fondling each other is going to be difficult, but I think it's do-able.  I'm not sure if a list like this needs first or second player, but going first does give you the option of not getting blocked in by smaller ships that might be swimming around.  Yeah, you will blast them away if you get close, but if they get stuck up your nose it might ruin your day completely.  To ease the need for better maneuverability, I think Engine Techs will be needed more than ever as you will be playing with a lot of speed changes.  Going from 1 to 2, to Engine Techs, and back to down to 1 will be very common so you can maximize your shots without blocking each other to death.  The sharper and fuller turns offered by Engine Techs will also greatly assist in setting up shots.  Since Defiance has Raymus on board, he can take advantage of this to the fullest as he can navigate first turn and receive a token to bank.  On your second turn, you might decide to go with Concentrate Fire for the damage spike but still want to move with Engine Techs.  Luckily, Raymus is so good that he's going to let you do that with the token you generated last turn.  Unfortunately, you will not be able to go hard with the navigate's yaw, so you gotta plan for that.

The CR90B is really there to provide an extra set of guns, hopefully shooting what he can and just overall plinking away shields.  I'm bummed that I can't fit TRCs in on the little guy, but 3 ships for this style of list is very important in making sure you're not completely stuck on activations and missing out on key opportunities to strike multiple targets.  Getting multiple ships in you arcs is difficult enough with the MC80, now trying two on the field.  The plus side to taking the Tantive IV over Jaina's Light is that I get to just pile on tokens while taking no dials on the CR90 since he doesn't really need it in a support role.  This helps keep Engine Techs running on Defiance so he can keep spamming CF, or Engineering Tokens for that amazing 3 shield heal on Home One.  The tricky part about this is how well you can plan for future dials while keeping your activations silky smooth.  That's where having a command-1 ship with this ability really helps.

Hell, if anything, the list is thematic and looks awesome on the battlefield.

Armada: List construction and deconstruction

Welcome to List Building 101.

There's a question thread that popped up in the FFG forums lately that interested me enough to write about it.  The thread asks people what order they use when they build their fleets.  I know that everyone does things a little differently, but I thought it would be a cool idea if I shared my thoughts on list building outloud so everyone can get a clearer picture on how I go about assembling a fleet based on a certain playstyle.

For me, my order of operations is this:

• Find a strategy that I would like to execute (e.g. squadrons, damage, control, defensive..etc)
• Find the admiral that best suits my strategy (Screed for effects, Ackbar for damage, Mon Monthma for defense)
• Find the ships that best suit the admiral (ISD for damage, MKIIs for balance, Raiders for speed)
• Equip upgrades essential to the overall strategy (Intel Officer for control, XI7s for damage, ECM for defense)
• Fill the rest with squadrons (fighters for AA, bombers for ships, rogues for flexibility)

Let me just show you guys how I go about it from the ground up, starting with a list that has been performing really well for me the last couple of days.

The strategy that I would like to execute on is doing heavy ship damage with strong control elements.  I can get good results if I look at Imperials, but Rebels gives me the Home One which can handle off accuracies for free.  Since I want to focus on doing damage to enemy ships, I don't want any braces to get in my way.  Rebels seem like a good start for the faction that I want to choose soley because of the MC80 Home One, and Ackbar will be my admiral because he will elevate my entire fleet in terms of damage potential.  So here, I have determined my strategy and started picking the core components for my fleet:  Home One will hand off accuracies for the control, and Ackbar will increase the overall damage of the fleet itself.  Since my overall strategy is damage-centric, it's doubtful that I'll care too much about missions.  I'll simply choose the ones that pose the greatest threat to my opponent if I'm to go second, and pick the ones least risky for me if I'm to be first.

Now, for the damage to be worth it, I will need to look at something other than the MC80.  The second highest damaging ship that the Imperials have is the MC30c, but as a second ship I need something a little more bulky.  The MC30c can throw out 4 red dice at long range, but the rest of the dice are black.  To increase safety precausions, I think the MKII will better suit my needs due to the fact I want sustainbility, increased damage at long range, and the fact that it does what I want it to do without having to close into the enemy.

Since I'm running a little light on ships right now, how do I increase the damage of my fleet without having to sacrifice too many points?  For this list, I want to go with the CR90 because it's a cheap little ship that gives me extra dice at long range to go with the MC80, and with Ackbar, it can actually out 3 reds at long range isn't all that bad.  It's about the same as if I took an MKII but didn't have Ackbar, so I would say this is a pretty good deal.  Plus, I can always slap on a few upgrades later to make it worth my while.

Speaking of upgrades, now that I picked out the ships I want to use in the list, what upgrades can I take to best assist in my strategy?  Well, I want upgrades that will give me both damage and control, so I'm looking at XI7s and Intel Officers first and foremost.  Since brace is so important to my ships' overall survivability, ECMs are a must have as I absolutely need to be able to brace should I fall under heavy firepower.  Gunnery Teams on the MKII will give my fleet that long-range broadside capability that can hit multiple ships, so I'm able to double the firepower from my MKII with this upgrade.  Engine Techs have to go on the MC80 because I'm not happy with the limited manuverbility from a speed-2 ship, plus Engine Techs will give me all sorts of excellent angles and firing opportunities.  For the CR90, I need something cheap so I don't break the bank, as I still need some fighter support later in my list.  Instead, I think I'll just smack on TRCs for that little extra damage boost from my 2-evade ship, and add on Jaina's Light so I can shoot through my MC80 without being obstructed, but being obstructed from return fire.  Lastly, Leading Shots is an luxury upgrade but a nessacary one I feel on the MC80.  I'm already throwing out 3 blues, but the fact that I'm rolling 5 reds with Ackbar can generate a lot of questionable results.  To further increase the damage consistency on the MC80 since it's now a jack of all trades kind of ship, I'll slap on Leading Shots to re-roll any blunders I might have.

Lastly, I'm looking at squadron choices.  I just need something to tie up my opponents and I'm looking to do that while keeping my ships running on navigates, engineering and concentrated fire commands.  Ideally, I want to have Rogue squadrons in here, so I think I'll add Dash Rendar to my list because he gives me amazing value for such an autonomous fighter-bomber.  He's fast, durable, has a lot of HP, and does good damage with consistent results.  The black dice on ships with Bomber is definitely an added boon, especially since he has the Rogue keyword.  I still have a good amount of points left, but I don't want to overbuy because I want this list to have a good iniatitive bid.  I could take 3x A-Wings and just call it a day, but I'm also eyeing at possibly taking Tycho over one of the A-Wings.  Unfortunately, that will put at slightly more points that I would like, so I think I'll stay with the 3 A-Wings predominately for the threat range, 9 anti-squadron dice, Counter 2, and a solid 12 combined hull points.  Dash and the A-Wings will act as my first line of defense against enemy bombers, as I'm not overly concerned if my opponent brings fighters.  I could also go with Dash and 2 YT-2400s for completely autonomy, but I think I can manage one squadron command on either the MC80 or the MKII to get these boys into action.

Well, there you have it.  After I'm done, I take a step back and look to see if I fulfilled my original purpose; which was to build that will execute on my strategy.  So far, this looks good.

ACKBAR 
Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 392/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

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

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jaina's Light  ( 2  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)
3 A-Wing Squadrons ( 33 points)

I know that everyone does it a little differently, but this is how I do it and I figure I'd share.  The best advice I can give you is this:  Never lose sight of your overall strategy, and only take ships, upgrades and squadrons that offer something substantial to that strategy.  If you lose focus, just take a small step back and re-evaluate.  It's all good.