Star Wars Armada: Mastering Liberty
The new MC80 Liberty delivers a mess of hot new cards for your Star Wars Armada Games.
Welcome back BoLS Fans! In my last article (You can check it out here) We went over the brand new MC80 Liberty and it’s amazing title cards. Today we are going to look at the rest of the cards that come with the pack. While the Liberty represents the biggest shake up of the Rebel fleet we’ve yet seen, it’s important to remember that the upgrade cards it comes with will effect both Rebel and Imperial fleet design. So without any more ado, lets dig in.
The Commander
General Bready McBeardface
As the newest Rebel commander General Madine brings a flexible approach to the fleet. While not as directly offencive as Ackbar, and lacking the special defensive bonuses that a lot of other Rebel commander have, Madine still manages to find a good niche. His ability to give extra yaw’s or speed changes to Rebel ships doubles down on their propensity to use speed and maneuverability to win fights. If the Liberty represents an alternate way of running Rebels, Madine is a master of the old way and proves that both have their place. Game wise Madine is sure to be powerful, just imagine, with him and few other upgrades, CR90s can now move at speed 4 and make two clicks turns at each step, giving them unprecedented move capabilities.
The Guns
Power up the turbines!
A pretty basic but needed upgrade this is the enhanced armaments of ion cannons. Sadly being a modification it can’t be combined with enhance armaments, but it does allow some good choice. It also seems like it could have a place on the CR90B to buff up that cheap ship.
Better than ventral cannons
Another basic dice adding card, this one allow a buffing of the frontal armament. While expensive it will have its place and adds more versatility to your fleet.
Dakka Dakka
Now this is an interesting card, while it’s pricy, it does allow for some great combos. While it can just be used to make your attacks super accurate, it is also a lot more. In particular I think of combing it with another MC80 with the Home One title giving you a guaranteed bonus dice. What’s really cool is that if you have some way of getting a reroll you can use this dice in the reroll, possibly getting a two hit result. If you where to give an Liberty both Quad Turbolasers and Spinal mount and used a concentrated firepower order you can actually get your front attack up to ten dice. Pretty spicy!
The Gunners
Everyone knows dramatic pointing helps aim your turbolasers
Speaking of ways to get re-rolls, Wave IV introduces Veteran Gunners. This is a bit of a trade off card for me, while it doesn’t force you to lose anything, like leading shots does, it does require you to reroll all of your dice. Despite that limitation its a good way for Rebels in particular to get some rerolls on their dice.
That man is playing Galaga!
One of the stand out cards of Wave IV Fire-Control Team is going to see a lot of play in both Rebel and Imperial Fleets. The ability to activate two critical effects is amazing, though it is of course insignificant next to the power of the Force. Whether you are simply using this to get that standard crit in there along with activating a card, dealing as many as three face up cards in one attack, or are using two special crit effects it’s going to be useful.
The Rest
A full support team
The Liberty also comes with a trio of cheap one use support cards. While not game shaking these cards provide a few nice situational bonuses that a play may find work great with their play style. These are overall some great options for filling in a point or two.
Actually an accurate Rebel Fleet after Wave IV
Running the Liberty
As I’ve said before, the Liberty is a major change for the Rebel Fleet, allowing it to throw powerful frontal attacks at the Imperials. Now there are two main ways I see the new MC80 fitting into the Rebel fleet. You can always use one or more as the centerpiece of forward moving battering ram fleet. In this case it’s a great compliment to two the Nebulon-B and I’d be surprised if that ship didn’t see a bit of a renaissance. Alternatively you can go with a hammer and anvil approach, using your Liberty to tie the enemy down in front, while other parts of your fleet flank around them. Within those roles there are a number of great loadouts this ship can carry. Now it’s important to point out that this ship, unlike the Home One class in my opinion, is actually great with minimal upgrades. There are however a few cool ideas I’ve come up with. For instance I like the idea of putting either Lando or Walex Blissex on it to make her a little tougher. You could also try combining Quad Turbolasers Cannons and H9 Turbolasers for a ton of guaranteed accuracies. However you chose to run it’s important to remember that the ship does have at least one fatal weakness:
Of course most things are weak against Death Stars.
Building a list
Personally I really like the idea of using the hammer and anvil approche with the Liberty. One idea I had for a fleet was this:
Liberty Dawn
Points: 400/400
Commander: General Madine
MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
– Mon Karren ( 8 points)
– Lando Callriassian ( 4 points)
– Veteran Gunners ( 5 points)
– Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
– Quad Turbolaser Cannons ( 10 points)
– Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
– Ion Cannon Batteries ( 5 points)
= 147 total ship cost
MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points) – flagship
– General Madine ( 30 points)
– Home One ( 7 points)
– Raymus Antilles ( 7 points)
– Engine Techs ( 8 points)
– Advanced Projectors ( 6 points)
– X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
= 178 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
– Bright Hope ( 2 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
– Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 33 total ship cost
3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Minefields
The idea behind this list is that the Mon Kerren will push down the middle, throwing out ten dice forward attacks, and drawing the enemy’s fire, while the Home One flanks around to the side and catches the enemy in a crossfire. Bright Hope and the B-Wings will follow behind Mon Kerren, which can help speed up the B-wings., and provide some extra punch. Madine gives both MC80s a good bit of maneuverability and hopefully will allow me to catch the enemy off guard. While I think this fleet has a good chance of being effective there are really a ton of great ways to use the new MC80.
That’s all for this time folk! Let me know what you think about the list, and the Liberty in general, down in the comments!
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