SW Armada: Celebrating Commander Sato
Let’s celebrate Wave 5 with a mean list using the most notable commander from Star Wars Rebels
Wave 5 brought a lot of really strong game elements to the Rebels so what’s better to celebrate than to make a list with the most notable commander from Star Wars Rebels?! Let’s bring in Commander Jun Sato himself and set him up with one of the meanest lists this side of the galaxy. I’m going to fit in Sato ranged MC30c shenanigans, Gallant Haven, the new Biggsball. If that wasn’t enough, I’m going to throw in some Ketsu Onyo so everyone stays put while the Biggsball dismantles and frustrates enemy squadrons to no end.
Check it out:
Commander Sato Fleet
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400
Activations/Drops: 4/8
Commander: Commander Sato
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions
[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
– Commander Sato ( 32 points)
– Gallant Haven ( 8 points)
– Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
– Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
= 126 total ship cost
MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
– Admonition ( 8 points)
– Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
– XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
– Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
= 92 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
– Bright Hope ( 2 points)
– Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 28 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
– Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost
1 Ketsu Onyo ( 22 points)
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points)
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 “Dutch” Vander ( 16 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
Tactics
Let me break this down first with my choice of flagship, which is the Gallant Haven. The reason why I chose to put Sato in this with Toryn Farr is because I’m packing an asston of 4-dice blues on my squadrons so the re-rolls to blue are definitely appreciated. The Biggsball moving with the Gallant Haven with Jan Ors in the mix is borderline obscene. Let’s just say your opponent rolls huge and scores 4 hits on one of your fighters that Biggs is on. Jan braces this down to 2, Gallant reduces it to 1, and Biggs moves the last damage to a random X-Wing of your choice. If this isn’t top lols, I don’t know what is. A 2 hit attack is completely negated after a Brace because of Gallant Haven if within range. The total damage potential from enemy squadrons reads as: 1-2 hits = 0 damage, and 3-4 hits = 1 damage which gets distributed among the X-Wings.
The only thing you really need to pull this off is a decent amount of Escorts to pass damage to, Biggs, Jan Ors and Gallant Haven. The rest of the squads you see here is completely up to you! I currently have the classic Dutch and Wedge in there, but you can easily sub out someone like Wedge for Norra Wexely for example if you want to increase the damage of your squadrons. If you want, you can also throw Tycho in there if you want to activate Sato’s ability with the MC30c quicker and make sure you can always stay on target (or switch as needed). Either way, I’d like to keep Ketsu Onyo in there because I think she offers so much utility to the Rebel forces. The best thing that stands out for her is her ability to softlock Dengar’s movement and have Dutch/Wedge erase him from the board.
When it comes to how you use this list, you basically have the Biggsball follow Gallant Haven around so you can get into combat and still be within range of Gallant Haven. This is where your Biggsball is the most obscene. In essence, you send your fighter wing into the enemy and have the MKII follow up. At around the same time, you start blasting away with your MC30c on a flank or in a good position so you can start using your reds and replace them with blacks that you can re-roll with Ordnance Experts to trigger APTs. The objective is to place a few long-distance crit effects on the intended target because once you get in close and replace all your reds with blacks with OE re-rolls, XI7s and APTs, the target should be really dead or dying. Ideally by the time your shrimp can do its work in close combat, your fighter/bombers will have already man-handled the enemy squadrons and go full nerd with Bomber and BCC re-rolls on whatever you’re trying to kill. Even the MKII can put in some work because of all the black dice you’re subbing in. If you’re fearing for Sato’s life inside the MKII, you can also put Sato on the Comms Net GR-75 sitting in the back as needed.
The big weakness I see with a list like this is that like most squadron lists, a lot of the damage is reliant on the points that you spent on your squadrons. In this example, I spent all 134 points on taking what I consider to be a really strong fighter/bomber mix. However, if your opponent is playing a longer-ranged fleet that can drop some serious pew-pew from range e.g. Rebel MSU or Ackbar for example, then you might run into some serious trouble if your ships start blowing up before they can get into range. This is one of the biggest issues about having a fleet that has range-restrictions, both in squadron movement and in synergy range ala Gallant Haven’s meager range of 1. Regardless, it’s still a strong list with a lot of flavor and classic Rebel synergy.
~How are you guys planning to run Sato? Maybe taking some A-Wings will be nice.
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