Rogue Fleet - Broadsides

Welcome to Rogue Fleet, Admiral! In this series we will be looking at different fleets you can command in Fantasy Flight Games’ Armada miniatures game. We give you the fleet, what expansion pack all of the upgrades come from, and then give you the low down on how best to command it. Stand by to drop out of hyperspace…

Our Cruisers Will Create a Perimeter…

MC80 Assault Cruiser (Home One Expansion) (131 pts)

Commander- Admiral Ackbar (Home One Expansion)- Before a friendly ship’s Attack Step, it may choose to attack from only its left and right hull zones this round. If it does, it may add 2 red dice to its attack pool while attacking a ship.
Title– Home One (Home One Expansion): While another friendly ship at distance 1-5 is attacking, it may change 1 die to a face with an icon.
Ion Cannon- Leading Shot (CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion): While attacking, you may spend 1 blue die to reroll any number of dice in your attack pool.
Turbolaser- X17 Turbolasers (Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion)- While attacking, if the defender spends a token, it cannot suffer more than 1 damage on hull zones other than the defending hull zone.

MC30c Scout Frigate (MC30c Frigate Expansion) (90 pts)

Title- Foresight (MC30c Frigate Expansion): When you resolve the defense effect, you can affect 1 additional die. When you resolve the defense effect, you can choose 1 additional adjacent hull zone to suffer damage.
Weapons Team- Gunnery Team (Core/Victory SD/Assault Frigate Expansion)- You can attack from the same hull zone more than once per activation. The hull zone cannot target the same ship or squadron more than once during that activation.
Turbolaser- X17 Turbolasers (Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion)- While attacking, if the defender spends a token, it cannot suffer more than 1 damage on hull zones other than the defending hull zone.

2x CR90 Corvette A (Core/CR90 Corvette Expansion) (51 pts)

Turbolaser- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (MC30c Frigate Expansion)- While attacking, you may spend 1 defense token to change 1 red die to a face with a or 2 icons.

Squadrons (41pts)

Wedge Antilles
2x A-Wings

Concentrate all fire…

Before we get started I want to explain a few details about this series. First, for the time being I am not going to include a list of Objectives to take. This is not intended as a tournament competitive list and when you play casually, objectives are often played differently, often agreed upon before hand, or drawn randomly. Second, often times the choice of ships included will be very limited. I don’t have a big fleet to build from and mostly make lists that I could fly (upgrade cards are all proxied but that’s not as easy with ships).

All right, on to the strategy. This is your classic line of battle formation. You line your ships and attempt to “cross the T” of your opponent’s formation. Now, unlike classic age of sail formation, “crossing the T” of a Star Destroyer most definitely does not mean crossing it’s front arc. Rear arc would be ideal but either of its sides would also work. The main idea is to keep your broadsides focused on the same zone while limiting the number of returning attack dice.

This fleet likes to stay at long range. With Admiral Ackbar it can throw seven red dice from the MC80, four twice from the MC30c (thanks to Gunnery Team) and three from both CR90’s. All will be fairly accurate thanks to Home One and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits. Most Imperial ships can’t match that long range firepower. Once you move in closer your accuracy goes up on Home One itself with Leading Shot.

Your fighter squadrons are minimal and are only around to delay enemy squadrons from reaching your capital ships. The A-wings have counter so even if they die quickly they’ll do some damage going down. They won’t last long against a dedicated swarm but they don’t have too.

Variations

The squadrons are completely flexible. Wedge just happened to be the right number of points to pair with two A-wings. The A-wings themselves are a good option due to their speed and that they have Counter. If you have more than two A-wings you could drop Wedge for a third and then gain an upgrade on one of your ships.

Electronic Countermeasures on you MC80 would be a good choice, leaving you with one point for a disposable Medical Team. I wouldn’t recommend one of the Ordnance upgrades since you’ll probably be keeping the MC30c near Home One in order to get the benefit and won’t get to use black dice that much.

You could also simply switch out the X17 for a Turbolaser Reroute Circuit on the MC30c. This would increase it’s accuracy. With Gunnery Team it can’t fire on the same hull zone anyways.