Star Wars Armada: Red Leader Standing By
With Armada wave III right around the corner we are busy thinking up the best lists of the future. Check it!
Hey BoLS fans! Armada Wave III is right around the corner and with it a whole slew of new cards and tactics are going to be coming to this amazing game. Both the Gonzonti and the GR-75 “Rebel Transport” add a lot to their respective fleets and open up a lot of options. In particular these support ships are really going to up the fighter game for both sides, allowing for some new and interesting strategies. Now like most other avid Armada players I have been feverishly working to come up with some great new fleet ideas to test out these ships. In particular I’ve interested in how the GR-75’s are going to change up the Rebels game plan and I’ve come up with a couple cool ideas.
“The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they’re loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship.”
Now while I love Rebel fighters, the X-Wing is just about my favorite spaceship of all time, I’ve never really used them much in Armada. Due to how the game works I’ve focused more on using fleets of Rebel capital ships to dodge around the enemy and hammer them with heavy weapons. To me the GR-75 and some of it’s upgrades represents a chance to really make fighters shine and to be able to fit some great fighter action into my playstyle. In particular the new Bomber Command Center has me really excited.
“So this table is just a simulation of a real battle, and if you use your imagination this red symbol is really a squadron of X-wings.”
This card is guaranteed to give your bombers a little extra punch and more importantly reliability. Coupled with the GR-75’s ability to get cheap fighter activations commands pretty much any fighter wing has gotten more deadly. In that vein I’ll built what I like to think of as a sort of Rebel Patrol Fleet. A mixed bag of light ships and fighter that able to operate on its own, maybe hunting down Imperial survivors after Endor or something. Here is what I came up with.
The Rebel Patrol Fleet
Commander: General Cracken
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions
Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
– Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
84 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
– Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
31 total ship cost
FLAGSHIP: GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
– General Cracken ( 26 points)
– Bright Hope ( 2 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
51 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
– Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
51 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
– Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
51 total ship cost
10 X-Wing Squadrons ( 130 points)
Points: 398/400
I did say I liked x-wings
Using the Fleet
So first off, yes, I maxed out as many x-wings as I could take, getting a solid ten squadrons in the list. This is really the offensive core of the list. These ten squadrons, can really take the fight to the enemy. Pretty much anything but the most dedicated anti-fighter list is going to be overwhelmed, that’s 40 blue anti-squadron dice a turn and 50 hit points to chew through. This formation should be able to chew through fireballs with easy and even take down mixed formations of Rebel Aces. Coupled with Bomber Command Center they can also really lay the hurt down on enemy big ships, putting out 10 re-rollable red dice a turn can really chew through enemy defences. And of course between the Assault Frigate and the GR-75s I’ve got enough squadron commands to activate all ten ships each turn to really put the hurt on the enemy. But that’s not all this fleet has to offer:
“Stand by, Ion Control…Fire.”
Toryn Farr helps add a little extra punch to the fleet, giving some extra rerolls to the blue dice of the CR90s and the Assault Frigate, great for getting those important accuracy results. In addition she also adds extra anti-squadron potential to the X-wings allowing each one to re-roll one of their dice when attacking other fighters. This is important as the X-Wings want to kill any enemy fighters as fast as possible so they can get on with pounding enemy capital ships.
More than just a gunner on the Falcon!
Of course it wouldn’t be a fleet trying out new Wave III ideas without taking the new Rebel commander. In fact Cracken fits perfectly into this particular fleet, all of the capital ships in the fleet can move at least speed 3 and most likely will be doing so for most of the game. Every ship also has an evade token, which means that against a fair number of attacks each of my ships will be making the enemy drop two dice from their attack. Even at close range dropping a dice from each enemy attack is nothing to sneer about. Combined with the scatter token this will hopefully help keep the GR-75’s alive despite their weak shields.
Fleet Tactics
Old Stubby!
Other than that the fleet isn’t all that complicated. The Assault Frigate command the X-wings to attack while trying to survive. The two CR90’s provide some extra fire power as well as upping my activation count. Between bomber command center and turbolaser reroute circuits I’ve done what I can to make my unpredictable red dice a little more reliable. Overall the general strategy of the fleet is to fly fast and stay maneuverable, while still concentrating my fire power. Though the fleet may appear weak, it can put out 23 red dice a turn which is more than enough to wear down even the toughest enemy ship. Between its high average speed, Cracken and evades it’s more survivable than many will think. In addition, it’s got five activations and ten deployment drops, meaning it will often have some control over the flow of the battle. It’s a fleet that is going to be high risk and high reward and I’ve picked objectives to match that idea. Depending on how the fleet actually performs I might drop Farr for another upgrade, or maybe even drop one of the CR90s to upgrade all the ships some more. But for now I feel its a solid fleet and i’m excited to try it out as soon as the new ships hit.
That’s all for today folks! Let us know what you think of my fleet idea, and wave 3 in general down in the comments!
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