Mon Mothma Fleet - Crusaders

 Mon Mothma Fleet - Crusaders

Let's start with the list itself, shall we? Quick note: If you're familiar with the most excellent Armada Fleets Designer app, then you'll be familiar with the format of the fleet list. If not, then you should know that the numbers in the parentheses next to the fleet name are as follows - number of points invested in squadrons/total number of fleet points/maximum number of fleet points.

Crusaders (91/394/400)

=======================

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 + 48: 99)

· Mon Mothma (27)

· Lando Calrissian (4)

· Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

· Slaved Turrets (6)

· Redemption (8)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 26: 89)

· Expert Shield Tech (5)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· External Racks (4)

· H9 Turbolasers (8)

· Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 26: 89)

· Expert Shield Tech (5)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· External Racks (4)

· H9 Turbolasers (8)

· Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 8: 26)

· Parts Resupply (3)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

Dash Rendar (24)

Corran Horn (22)

Kanan Jarrus (19)

2 x X-wing Squadron (2 x 13)

I admit that I've got a soft spot for Redemption. Can't for the life of me explain why, but I do. Additionally, I love the design space in which the task force titles were created. I ran a Tarkin fleet for the longest time featuring terrific damage mitigation via 7th Fleet Star Destroyer across my ISD and two GSDs. The thing is that the task force titles for the Hammerheads are way more affordable than either the 7th Fleet or Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet titles. Plus, the ships that feature the latter two tend to be more expensive than the Hammerheads. So it can be tougher to build around them. I completely appreciate that. Honestly, I don't even see Task Force Antilles as frequently as I'd like, and that's 3 points as opposed to the 1 for Task Force Organa. Of course, as MCEF and 7th Fleet are more expensive, they're also more flexible. After all, being able to eliminate a damage entirely (7th Fleet) rather than move it around (TFA) is a preferable effect, right? Anyway, I mention this because I also keep building ideas around MCEF. I don't know that I've flown any of the fleets, but to be fair, Rebels are the faction I fly least frequently amongst all four Armada factions.

Anyway, the above list is where I landed. I imagine that Redemption is just too juicy a target to ignore and will likely die more often than not, netting my opponent 100 points. So for starters, this is not a particularly good way to build a Neb. I acknowledge that, but want to fly in the face of conventional wisdom anyway and see what happens. Ultimately, my plan is for the MC30s to be a little further ahead of the Neb anyway, with the Neb sniping from behind, batting clean-up, and then getting out of there. It's also why Mon Mothma is on the Neb - it means that to get to my commander, my opponent will have to go through my MC30s, and that's not a very enticing option for them. I've got Lando on there along with Auxiliary Shields Team to help the Neb stand up to enemy fire a bit longer. Since I am relying on the Neb to do some damage, I added Slaved Turrets. Of course, I've got no rerolls, so I'm just at the mercy of my red dice. I'm not counting on big damage from the Frigate - just enough to complement the ordnance pouring out of my MC30s.

Next are my MC30s, which are outfitted identically. I know the conventional wisdom on this is that it's not worth using a task force title without at least three ships sporting said title. I personally think MCEF is an exception to that rule. I say that because it's different in that multiple uses of the card doesn't yield any additional benefit. Each time I exhaust 7th Fleet, I prevent a damage. Same (effectively) with Task Force Antilles. Having multiple options for Task Force Organa is important because once the card is exhausted, the ship on which it is exhausted cannot attack ships. So having more than one choice is imperative. But MCEF? Different. I exhaust it for an Engineering command with zero drawbacks to the ship that has exhausted it. And once the Engineering command is resolved, the title offers no more benefit that turn. Obviously, the downside is if one of the ships dies, then the other ship can't use the title. I can appreciate that. But the power of the title is not increased with each additional copy of the card, unlike the three examples I named above. To that end, I decided to ride with just two MC30s. They have the protection granted by Mon Mothma and can hopefully keep shuffling and regenerating shields with even a couple of uses of MCEF. Not enough to stick around in combat, but hopefully enough to either get away scotfree or loop back for a second attack run on a meaningful target. Expert Shield Tech might help mitigate any damage that squeaks past my Evade tokens. It's probably a bit redundant due to the amount of Engineering points I'll get from MCEF and Redemption, but I thought it might be worth a try. Especially because I had the points for them. If they're not particularly useful, I'll probably swap them out for Skilled First Officer. The rest of the upgrade suite is offensively-oriented. I obviously need my attacks to count, so I've got External Racks, Ordnance Experts, and H9s (as H9s can trigger off of every attack from the Torpedo Frigate (as opposed to the Scout Frigate, which can't guarantee a result).

Still a bull's eye, y'all.

I expect I'll be shuffling shields more often than regenerating them, so I added a transport with Parts Resupply. So whenever an MC30 burns an Engineering token, they'll get a total of 5 points (2 after halving their Engineering value, 2 from MCEF, and 1 from Redemption). At that rate, it's not even worth dialing up Engineering on the MC30s because they'd only get 6 Engineering points instead of 5. So there's no downside to their continually Navigating or Concentrating Fire. So I'm all about that. I know I need some squadron presence, even just as a stalling screen. So I add Expanded Hangar Bay, since the flotilla is the only ship in a position to dial up Squadron commands.

Then squadrons. This situation is a mess that makes me lol, but I really just chose squadrons that I thought would be a pain for my opponents and would give me some opportunities to stall out enemy squadrons. I know I could just go with a Biggs Ball, but I already know that works. So I wanna try something different. X-Wings to protect my aces and because they're just all around good squadrons. Then I pick up Corran Horn because he's Rogue but also because he can Snipe. Gives him some versatility and makes him a little tougher to pin down as long as I'm not too aggressive or careless with him. I haven't seen Dash on the table in quite a while and his reroll ability can be nasty as long as he doesn't bite off more than he can chew. Incidentally, he's another Rogue and doesn't need to be pushed via Squadron command. At this point, I've still got quite a few points left. I decide to fly someone I've wanted to fly since he dropped years ago, but just never had a build I liked for him: Kanan. Strictly speaking, I don't *need* him in this fleet and I don't know that he's a good fit. But I learned to love the Cloak ability after flying TIE Phantoms for so long while I was experimenting with Palpatine ideas. Additionally, the odd Raid token here or there can be more effective than plink damage from Kanan. And finally, he's Rogue. So 3 of my 5 squadrons don't *need* to be pushed by ships in a fleet that doesn't want to spend time issuing Squadron commands. Feels like a good place to quit while I'm behind!