Friday, January 20, 2017

Corellian Conflict Strategy - Initial Builds (Rebel - pt 1)

Let's talk about building ourselves a Rebel fleet, specifically remembering that the first 400 points we start with has a hard limit of 1 upgrade (not counting commander) per ship.  What is the best thing to put on each of your ships?  What general principles should you use?



Let's take a look.



General Principles:


Thinking of bringing a Medium or Large base ship?  Or hell, anything worth more than a CR90?  Better bring it in the initial build stage, because as we discussed before, you're looking at about 150 points to split between all 3 players to build things, and that means 50 per player.  If you win big at your special assault, you can boost that to about 90, but you shouldn't be counting on that.  Remember, your cheapest AFII costs 72 points to straight up buy.

So you're not going to be buying any Assault Frigates, much less MC80s, which the cheapest one would take your entire remaining budget to 500 (96 points), and the more expensive ones would bring you past the campaign maximum, even if you somehow found the points to buy them.  So let's get them in at the start if you feel your list needs them.

Even MC30c-Torpedo frigates and Pelta Command Ships are expensive (63 and 60 respectively).  Let's just consider CR90s (39 - 44 points) and GR-75s (18 - 24 points) as being reasonable for purchase, with Nebulon B's (51 - 57 points) or Pelta Attack Ships (56 points) being on the outside realm of possibility to add.

Squadrons are cheap enough that they can be added, but obviously generics will be more easy to slot in then elite pilots.  Have them in the game early, and angling for Veteran.

So, have a plan for how you want your combat ships and squadrons to look.


Basic Fleet Design Principles


There are three types of fleet design I want to talk about here.

Assault:  This design is built to go after enemy bases, or just attack neutral territories and win.  Should be built to take advantage of First Player, with a good number of activations to try and first / last your opponents.  Might have one big anchor ship, or two heavy hitters, and a lot of activation ships that either support or add moderate firepower.  Think Clontroper's Clonisher list, or Q's Mothmonition list - that should be the archetype.

Defender:  This design is here to sit back, hold very good defensive objectives, and be difficult nut to crack.  There are very few ways to "take advantage" of Second Player, but the best ways tend to involve Red dice, and pouncing on overexposed enemies.

Assassin:  Built to take out enemy ships and squadrons that have been scarred, or that you want to scar.  This is a campaign - sometimes you just ignore the objective and make your new objective dealing as much damage to the enemy fleet as possible.  E-Wings (for literally sniping squadrons) and fast long range ships are the ways to go for this.  Sato, Ackbar (Damage) or Madine (Navigation) are your best bets for an Assassin.


Best First Upgrades


This is a game about resources.  Destroying your opponents ships to deny them upgrades they need, because they have to use the resources on repairing their ships.  Keeping your own ships alive so that you can upgrade them into the monsters they deserve to be.

With these two principles in mind, your first upgrades should be focused on either offense or defense, and should follow your fleet build's general concept of if you are going to be defending against enemy attacks, or launching your own.


GR-75 - Quite a few ways to build this guy, since they really only want one upgrade.  Bright Hope is an okay start if you're going to put your Commander on one, I guess.

General Upgrades:
Expanded Hangers - 3 squadron activations for CHEAP (23 points)
Comms Net - Feed tokens with your 20 point activation.
Bomber Command Center - 26 points to improve your bombers.

Defensive Upgrades:
Jamming Field - Cheap and keeps your squadrons alive.

Assassin Upgrade:
Slicer Tools - Shut down that Engineering Command!


CR-90 Corvette - Only a few ways to build this guy out, and almost always aggressive in some way, shape, or form.

Assault Upgrade:
CR90A & Turbolaser Reroute Circuit - The old standby for dealing Red damage.
CR90A & Quad Turbolasers - The new way to do Red damage on the cheap.

Defensive Upgrade:
CR90B & SW7 - Almost best with Rieekan, as you can block with them and then dump 6 Concentrate Fire boosted damage into the target next turn.  They are still quite a good punch for cheap.  Worth looking into for later fleet purchases at just 44 points.  SW7 can be moved to MC80s if needed.

Assassin Upgrade:
CR90B w/ Dodonna's Pride - Puttin' damage right on the hull.
CR90B w/ Engine Techs - Puttin' damage right on the hull.  20 points to unscar.


Nebulon B - You don't need Raymus if you've got a GR-75 with Comms Net!

Assault Upgrade:
NebB-E & Yavaris - Obvious.
NebB-S & Quad Turbolasers - Like the CR90A if you're looking for a good way to dump a bunch of points.

Defensive Upgrade:
NebB-S or NebB-E & Redemption? - Really?  Yes, really.  Keeping other ships alive, specifically the ones worth 50 points or more to unscar is well worth putting a 21 - 24 point unscar target out there.  Either go Support for cheapness, or take an Escort for squadrons and flak.  Which brings us to...
NebB-S & Projection Expert - Yes, really.  Make your opponent really, really work to bring that MC80 down.

Assassin Upgrade:
NebB-S & Salvation - Best with Sato, for obvious reasons.


Modified Pelta-Class - This one is kinda hard, honestly.

Assault Upgrade:
Pelta Command & Expanded Hangers - 4 Activations or 5 with tokens!
Pelta & Entrapment Formation! - Lots of extra Concentrate Fire Commands / Squadron Commands available for you if you can navigate at will.
Pelta Assault & Expanded Launchers - 2 Red / 4 Black dice out the front?  Hard to modify, but it's a thought.

Defensive Upgrade:
Pelta & Shields to Maximum! - Pretty self-explanatory.

Assassin Upgrades:
Pelta & Squadrons on Me! - I think that it what it is called.  Put your E-Wings to Speed 5.  Put your YT-2400s to Speed 5.  Put your X-Wings to Speed 4.  Murder exactly what you need to - eliminate scarred enemies.

3 comments:

  1. This is SUPER handy! Can't wait for the IMP one as I am building my fleet today and tomorrow ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... Sorry that one won't be out until a little bit later. But let me know what you come up with!

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  2. OMT I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS NOW!!!!!

    ReplyDelete