Revision as of 11:37, 12 October 2017

Star Wars: Armada is a fleet-scale tabletop miniatures wargame developed by Fantasy Flight Games and set in the Star Wars universe; not to be confused with the other one.

In Armada, the fleets of the Rebellion and the Empire wage massive battles, with Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari capital ships trading fire while X-Wings and TIE Fighters engage in fierce dogfights. The game emphasizes forward planning, rewarding skilled positioning and ship commands chosen turns in advance, with an upgrade system that allows for an almost unlimited variety of list-building options.

Why Play Armada

Armada is a game of planning and foresight. Where other games focus on turn-to-turn tactics and responding to a shifting battlefield, Armada is a game where you set your strategy in motion, and then lean back and evaluate as it unfolds - for better or worse. Armada is a game of momentum, that challenges your grand designs rather than your snap decision-making. You're not a sergeant commanding a squad of infantry as they assault a bunker; you're Grand Admiral Thrawn, tapping your fingers on your armrest as Star Destroyers explode in anticipated sacrifices, while bombers draw the enemy deeper into a trap that may well be about to backfire.

Welcome to the Armada, Commander. The fleet is at your command.

Armada's ships come pre-painted and pre-assembled (although squadrons come in unpainted colored plastic), saving players less interested in the hobby side the need to model and paint, while still allowing those who want it the option to customize their models. Ships and squadrons come with all rules and tokens needed to use them, aside from the basic game rules available in the Core Set and as free PDFs on FFG's website, so there's no need to buy a giant rulebook or continually re-buy overpriced army books; and ships include dials, tokens, and counters, to make tracking game information such as ship health, speed, activation, upgrades, and the like quick and easy. The game is also well balanced - while some upgrades may be overcosted or have niche applications, and certainly some ships see the table more than others, every ship in Armada is viable and can be made to work with the right list.

The rules are straightforward and intuitive, but still allow for a great deal of complexity and depth. Inherited from its forefather X-Wing, Armada's player base brings a "fly casual" attitude to the table, focusing on fun and civility over nitpicking and tilting, even in tournament competitions.

As a disclaimer: note that the Core Set can be a rather poor and misleading representation of the full game - giving the inaccurate impression that Rebels are strictly fragile flankers with strong squadrons, while the Empire flies slow front-firing bricks supported by glass TIEs; and often ends in very lopsided games dependent solely on whether or not the VSD managed to line up a shot with its front arc. If possible, get someone with a complete collection to demo the game for you.

Star Wars X-Wing

Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Armada are completely different scales and rulesets, and while those familiar with X-Wing may notice many individual similarities, Armada is a very different game and in some instances the rules are the exact opposites of their X-Wing equivalents. While X-Wing is a tactical game of starfighter combat between small squadrons of fighters, Armada is a strategical game of fleet combat between capital ships escorted by half a dozen or more squadrons of fighters. If X-Wing draws inspiration from World War 2 dogfighting and allows you to re-enact scenes such as the Death Star trench run, Armada is inspired by WW2 carrier fleets and can simulate the entire Battle of Scarif. If you want to command the full might of an Imperial Star Destroyer and throw a baker's dozen squadrons of TIE Fighters at all of your problems, you're in the right place.

Cost

Compared to some other tabletop strategy games, Armada has a relatively low entry cost and upkeep requirement. That said, Armada's price is largely front-loaded, especially compared to X-Wing, with the Core Set required to play the game running $100 MSRP, yet providing less than half a full fleet for each faction and the necessary components being impossible to split between two new players to share the cost.

However, once that sticker shock fades off, the good news is that beyond the initial purchase staying up to date with new releases is very inexpensive. With one to two waves per year, and typically one ship per faction per wave, upkeep costs can be as low as $20-$30 once every six months. Unlike X-Wing, it is typically uncommon to need more than two of any ship, and as often as not there's limited need to buy more than one. Furthermore, only a small handful of upgrades are found only in one faction's boxes, so a player who only purchases mono-faction won't be significantly hindered. Eventually, many of those upgrades end up as alt-arts, making them plentiful and cheap to buy or easy to borrow.

As for going from the Core Set to a full 400 points, it'll depend on which faction you want to play and what sort of fleet grabs your interest, but will likely run you around an additional $120. Obviously, if you can grab anything below MSRP - either from a local retailer selling at a discount or buying ships second hand - then that price will begin to fall dramatically. Sample Imperial and Rebel cheap starter fleets for $250 or less (including the $100 Core Set) can be found here, if your own Google-fu fails you.

Gameplay

Two Victories and an Interdictor flanked by an MC80 Liberty, Nebulon-B, and MC30 Frigate.

The game is played on a standard 6'x4' table, with 6'x3' dedicated to gameplay and the remaining six inches per side for cards and tokens.

The first player activates a ship, and then reveals a command dial set in secret often several turns in advance. If it's a squadron command, the ship activates a number of nearby squadrons which can then engage enemy fighters or make a bombing run on an enemy ship. Then the ship fires if any targets are in range, and then after shooting, moves - making positioning a game of cat-and-mouse as you try to predict where your opponent will be, rather than being able to shoot at where he is now.

Ships attack with one or more of three colors of dice, each with a different combination of results and a different range, making up to two attacks a turn; with each of the ship's four firing arcs potentially having different numbers and colors of dice. While defending, ships have a variety of defense tokens that can be spent to reduce or redirect the incoming damage, with the remaining damage reducing their shields or damaging their hull. Ships move using a maneuver tool that restricts turning based on the given ship's maneuverability and current speed, creating a feeling of momentum and further rewarding skilled positioning and spatial planning.

At speed 3, a Nebulon B can make at most 0, 1, and then 2 clicks of the maneuver tool.

Squadrons - representing groups of X-Wings, TIE Bombers, or aces like Tycho Celchu or Boba Fett - zoom forward, engaging in dogfights or bombing enemy ships. Squadrons can only make attacks at range 1, regardless of dice color. In addition, squadrons can only move or shoot (not both) unless activated by a squadron command. On the other hand, squadrons can move in any direction and any distance up to their maximum speed, and can do their movement and their attack in either order, giving them great flexibility. If two opposing squadrons move into range 1 of each other they become engaged, meaning they are locked in a dogfight, unable to attack ships or move. Capital ships and squadrons both have separate attack profiles for attacking squadrons or attacking ships. Like ships, squadron aces gain defense tokens of their own to reflect their superior piloting or uniquely modified starfighter.

Activations alternate, with the first player activating one ship, then the second player, until both have no unactivated ships; then players begin activating any squadrons that weren't already activated by a squadron command, with first player activating two squadrons, then second player activating two, and so on.

Rules Summary

Each round is divided into a number of phases.

Command Phase

Both players set a stack of command dials for their ships in secret, with each ship having a number of command dials equal to its command value. A ship's top command is revealed at the beginning of its activation, and new commands are placed on the bottom of the stack; meaning that ships with Command 2 or 3 require planning well in advance. However, even Command 1 ships have to account for the actions of any other ships that may activate before they do in the turn. Instead of providing the command's normal effect, you can gain a command token of the same type, which offers a lesser version of the ability but can be saved for a later turn. Each ship is limited to no more than one command token per type, and no more total command tokens than its command value. A ship can spend a command token while taking the effect of the same command from a dial, to augment the effect - for example, spending a token while using a navigate command to change speed by 2, or a squadron 3 ship spending a squadron dial and token to command 4 squadrons.
- Navigate - When your ship moves it can make one additional click to the maneuver tool over what its card allows, and it can also raise or lower its speed by one. Navigate tokens can be spent to change speed by one. Note that these are normally the only ways to change your ship's speed.
- Squadron - You can activate a number of squadrons at close-medium range equal to your squadron value, which can move and shoot in any order. In addition to bypassing the normal restriction that squadrons can only move or shoot, this allows you to activate them earlier in the turn for an alpha strike. A Squadron token can be spent to activate exactly one squadron, regardless of ship.
- Repair - Your ship gains a number of engineering points equal to its engineering value; spend one to move a shield from one hull zone to another, two to regain a shield, or three to discard a damage card (regaining one hull). Engineering tokens provide half your engineering value, rounding up.
- Concentrate Fire - Add one die of a color already in the attack pool to one of your attacks. Concentrate Fire tokens instead allow you to re-roll one die. If using both in the same turn, they must both be used on the same attack.

Ship Phase

You choose a ship to active, revealing its top command dial. You immediately must choose to either convert it into a token for later, or to use it that turn - if applicable (squadron or engineering), resolving it then.

It's less complicated in practice than it sounds.

Attacking - The ship can then make one attack each from up to two of its hull zones, declaring an attacking hull zone, the target, and the target hull zone (if targeting a ship).
- First, determine arc of fire, following the lines printed on the ship's cardboard as if they extended out (a laser line tool is useful for this).
- Then measure range, from the closest cardboard on the attacker to the closest cardboard of the defender, using the range ruler. The attack can only consist of dice that match the distance of the target.
- Finally, check line of sight, from the yellow diamond on the attacking hull zone to the yellow diamond on the defending hull zone (or the closest cardboard, of a squadron). If line of sight passes over a ship or obstacle, the attack is obstructed, and you must remove one die from your initial pool. If line of sight passes through one of the targets hull zone lines, then you cannot attack that hull zone at all - another hull zone is in the way!
- Then, to attack, you first roll the initial dice pool - the dice printed on your card, plus any added by effects that modify your "battery armament", such as Expanded Armaments. If this would be no dice - either because the target was out of range of your dice, or because obstruction removed all your dice, then you cannot attack - the target is too far! When firing against squadrons, your ship does not use its hull zone's normal dice, but instead uses its AA value (which is the same for all hull zones). This still counts as firing from a particular arc for that turn, but unlike shooting at a ship, you roll your AA dice as a separate attack against every enemy squadron within arc and range.
- After the initial dice are rolled, the attacker resolves any effects that take effect "while attacking", such as adding a die via a Concentrate Fire dial or Admiral Ackbar, or re-rolling dice using Leading Shots. The attacker can spend any Accuracy icons to lock down the opponents defense tokens. (Note - attacker can do these in any order, such as spending Accuracy icons before re-rolling the pool using Veteran Gunners, potentially then spending new Accuracy icons).
- After the attacker is done modifying the dice pool, the target gets to spend any defense tokens not targeted by accuracies to mitigate the damage - flipping green tokens to red (exhausted), or discarding exhausted tokens altogether. Tokens unexhaust at the end of every round - but discarded tokens are gone for the rest of the game!
- After defense tokens are spent, but before any damage is taken, the attacker has the opportunity to resolve a critical effect. To do so, there must be at least one critical hit in the pool. The crit die is not removed from the pool, and having multiple crits doesn't enable multiple critical effects - only one critical effect can be resolved per attack, regardless of the number of critical hits rolled. All ships (and squadrons with Bomber) have the same critical effect by default - "if the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack, deal the first damage card faceup" - with others available via upgrade cards or squadron ace abilities.
- Finally, the defender suffers any damage, one point at a time, either onto the shields or as damage cards onto the hull.

Both ships and squadrons can possess defense tokens. The defender can only spend one of a given type of defense token per attack, and a specific defense token may only be spent once per attack.
- Brace - Halve the damage in the damage pool, rounding up.
- Redirect - You may take some (or all) of the damage on an adjacent hull zone, up to that hull zone's remaining shield value.
- Evade - If the attack is at long range, cancel one die. If at medium range, force a re-roll on one die instead. No effect at close range. Note the timing - if an evade removes the only crit from the pool, then the attacker cannot resolve a critical effect.
- Scatter - Cancel all attack dice. As with evade, this prevents the attacker from resolving a critical effect.
- Contain - The attacker cannot resolve the default critical effect.

Like most of the other FFG Star Wars games, the system comes with its own unique dice. In Armada, the dice faces feature:
- Blank - a miss.
- Hit - add a point of damage to the damage pool.
- Accuracy - the attacker gets to prevent the defender from using one of their defense tokens. Multiple accuracies can lock down multiple defense tokens.
- Critical Hit - add a point of damage to the damage pool, and allow the attacker to resolve a critical effect. Note that unless otherwise stated, only ships and bombers can score critical hits, and only onto ships - otherwise it offers no effect and doesn't add any damage.

There are three colors of dice - all three are D8s, but each features a different combination of faces and have a different range:
- Black dice (ordnance) have the shortest range and are the most deadly, with four hits, two faces with a hit and a crit, and two blanks.
- Blue dice (ion cannons) are medium ranged and are the most accurate, with four hits, two crits, two accuracies, and no blanks.
- Red dice (turbolasers) have the longest range but are the most variable, with two hits, one double hit, two crits, one accuracy, and two blanks.
Damage is taken first onto any shields, and then onto the hull. Normal damage is taken as face-down cards drawn from a damage deck, but some effects - including the default critical effect - cause face-up cards. Face-up damage cards carry a negative effect that persists until indicated by the card, or until the card is repaired by the player. Once a ship has a number of face-up and face-down damage cards equal to its hull value, it's destroyed.

Moving

After attacks have been resolved, the ship executes a maneuver- if the ship has a navigate command or spends a navigate token, it resolves its effect, then moves along the maneuver tool at its current speed and turning the joints up to the maximum allowed by its ship card. If a maneuver would cause one ship to overlap another, it moves back to the previous notch and both ships take a face-down damage card (if it would still overlap, it continues to back up, potentially such that it doesn't move at all - and the closest of the overlapped ships receives damage). If a ship overlaps squadrons, the opposing player places them anywhere in base contact with the ship.

Squadron Phase

Any squadrons that were not already activated by squadron commands activate, but by default they can only move or attack. The first player activates two squadrons, then second player, until all squadrons have activated. Squadrons can only attack at range 1 regardless of the dice in their pool, and can move up to their maximum speed in any direction.

Status Phase

Basically a clean-up stage - you reset your ships' and squadrons' exhausted (but not discarded!) defense tokens, unexhaust any upgrade cards, and resolve any upgrade effects with this timing (eg, dead ships kept alive by Rieekan).

Fleet Building

Every fleet must have exactly one "flagship" - a ship equipped with your Commander, a unique character leading your fleet and granting a fleet-wide effect. Any ship other than a Flotilla can serve as your flagship.

Each ship can equip one Title upgrade (for example, turning a generic MC80 into Admiral Ackbar's Home One) and/or your Commander, plus a variety of other upgrades depending on the upgrade icons on its ship card. You can equip no upgrades, or as many as you have slots, and you can take as few or as many ships as you want (to a minimum of one, your flagship). There are at least two variants of each ship model, with different point costs, dice, Squadron values, or upgrade slots. Unique cards, usually characters like Darth Vader but sometimes upgrades like the Interdictor's Grav-Shift Reroute, are indicated by a dot next to their name and can only be taken once per fleet - so you can't have Darth Vader as your Commander and field Darth Vader's TIE Advanced at the same time, or field both Officer and Commander Leia. The same upgrade can't be taken more than once on the same ship, and a ship can have at most one upgrade with the "Modification" keyword.

You cannot spend more than a third of the match's point limit on squadrons, rounding up - for most games, played at 400 points, this means you can take at most 134 points worth of squadrons. You can take none, or up to your squadrons point cap; taking multiple generic squadrons and/or unique aces - such as a "Red Squadron" wing of Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker/Biggs Darklighter, or simply 8 groups of TIE Fighters.

Finally, every fleet has to select one each from three types, of objectives - Assault, Defense, and Navigation. Every game is played using one of the players' chosen objectives. During setup, the player with the lower points value chooses who goes first, giving incentive to "bidding" by intentionally taking fewer than max points to try and guarantee being first (or second) player. First player always activates first in the ship and squadron phases, granting a significant advantage. To counteract this, the first player has to choose one of the second player's three objectives to play that game, with most objectives granting the second player a large advantage - but moreover, giving second player the ability to bring objectives uniquely suited to his list.

Campaign Expansions

The Corellian Conflict

The Corellian Conflict introduces a 2-6 player campaign set in the Corellian Sector. Splitting into Rebel and Imperial teams, the players battle for control over planets and resources on a sector map, building up to 500 point fleets while their ships and characters become skilled veterans, or battle-damaged junkers. New mechanics allow for players to retreat to hyperspace rather than wage a losing battle that may have their ships permanently destroyed, or emerge from hyperspace to reinforce their allies during the campaign's ultimate, 1000 point all-out battle. As each team is limited to one of each unique across all of their fleets, and makes their offensive and defensive decisions as a group, each player can opt to specialize their fleet in a certain type of task, or take on the harder battles while weakened fleets repair and rearm.

In addition to the campaign components, the Corellian Conflict also introduces new material for standard Armada games. Four new Objectives per type (as well as a new Dust Field Obstacle that blocks all attacks) increase your list building options, as well as the variety of lists you must be prepared to counter; and each of the squadron types in the Rebel and Imperial Squadrons 1 boxes get two new unique squadron cards/bases - one new ace, and one new unique that lacks defense tokens but brings new options to the table - for a total of 16 new squadrons.

Ships and Squadrons

Rebellion

Small Ships

CR90 Corellian Corvette

One of the Rebellion's cheapest ships, half of its Core Set composition, and one of its most iconic vessels. Four HP, 7 total shields distributed mostly evenly and just one redirect make it a very fragile ship. But with high top speed, incredible maneuverability and two evades, the CR90 excels at weaving in-between the enemy's most dangerous arcs at long range, where its evades can remove one of hopefully very few dice being rolled towards it. Support and defensive upgrade slots, along with its cheap cost, make some niche builds - like Engine Techs and Reinforced Blast Doors for maximized ramming damage - possible. As a Wave I ship, it's been throw a lot of twists and turns in the meta over the years.

CR90 Corvette B - The cheaper variant sports nothing but ion cannons, and the Ion Cannons upgrade slot to match. Unfortunately, getting into medium range to use its guns means your evades are less able to keep you alive. On the other hand, Dodonna's Pride or SW-7 Ion Batteries can allow the ship to hit hard for its low cost.
CR90 Corvette A - At five points more than the CR90B, the CR90A swaps most of its blue dice for red, giving it the range to trade blows with other capital ships while maintaining its evasive edge, and accordingly its Ion Cannons upgrade is traded for Turbolasers. This is the more common variant on the table, infamously often fielded with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (to guarantee 2+ damage from long range, while its spare Evade protects it) such that it is known as the "TRC-90".
Titles:
- Dodonna's Pride - As a blue crit effect, cancel all attack dice to deal one faceup damage card. Like a watered-down APTs, this can allow you to sneak a devastating effect onto an enemy ship that thought it was safe behind its shields - especially when paired with its namesake Commander to handpick the crit. Note the timing - crit effects resolve after defense tokens are spent, so this doesn't allow you to freely bypass scatter or evade tokens. Deceptively difficult to pull off - even on a CR90B with Engine Techs, getting into medium range without blowing up can be hard, and then you have to roll a crit to even use it. Take leading shots to try and fish for that crit, and you're spending a hefty chunk of change on a gimmick that could've been better spent just dealing raw damage. It has its uses, but a CR90B with Dodonna's Pride can't just be dropped into any list and expected to earn its keep, as first reading might suggest. Only available only in the core set.
- Tantive IV - When you would gain a token, another nearby friendly ship may gain it instead. Very situational, especially with the addition of Comms Net alongside the GR-75 in Wave III. Made a bit more sense back in the Wave I/II days. Only available in the CR90 Expansion Pack.
- Jaina's Light - For two points, you ignore obstacles and can't be obstructed. Combined with TRCs, this can allow a CR90A a lot of survivability - hiding behind rocks for obstruction plus cancelling a second die with evade - while it can freely dish out its own damage in return. So cheap it can often be taken on a whim, and combos well with the CR90A's evasive, skirmishing playstyle. Only available in the CR90 Expansion Pack.

Nebulon-B Frigate

Slower and much less agile than a CR90, but with stronger forward firepower and shields, five hull, and a pair of incredibly useful brace tokens. At long range, it has the same front arc offense and defense as the much more expensive Victory Star Destroyer - but lacking any redirects and with extremely large and weakly shielded side arcs, it can die very easily to bad positioning or enemy bombers. More than almost any other ship, a badly flown Neb-B is a dead Neb-B. But fly slow, keep your nose pointed at the enemy, and don't get into both range and arc of anything bigger than you, and the Nebulon is a solid long range red dice platform.

Nebulon B Support Refit - The cheaper variant maintains the same anti-ship weapons as its pricier sibling, making it well suited to use for the Salvation or Redemption titles, and/or as a turbolaser platform with the right upgrade.
Nebulon B Escort Frigate - For six additional points, the ship's anti-squadron increases by one blue die, and its squadron value improves by one. A solid pick with the Yavaris title, which allows its low squadron value to punch well above its weight class.
Titles:
- Salvation - Crits out your front arc count for two damage rather than one. Slap it on a Support Refit for a cheap sniper ship. For sillier builds, TRCs, Spinal Armaments, Commander Sato, and/or the Opening Salvo objective (alongside concentrated fire commands) can boost your long range front arc damage output to terrifying levels. Given the frame's low survivability, Salvation is often best suited as a sweeper coming in late, a flanker coming in from the side, or a companion flying in formation with another threat. Found only in the Nebulon-B Expansion Pack.
- Yavaris - Squadrons you activate can shoot twice if they stay still. Watch your opponent's face turn to horror as Wedge Antilles rolls 12 blue dice in a single turn, Keyan Farlander pulls up to 8 damage against an enemy ship, or Luke Skywalker puts two face-up damage cards onto a full health ISD. Combine with Adar Tallon to make one of them do it a third time. The only downsides are deciding which of the many viable candidates to activate, having a huge target on a ship with such general squishiness, and the Nebulon's poor squadron value and lack of an offensive upgrade slot. The latter can be mitigated by Raymus Antilles, a Comms Net GR-75, or commander Leia Organa. Putting Adar on another ship, or throwing a Flight Commander and Fighter Coordination Team onto Yavaris, can allow you to get your squadrons into position, to be activated by Yavaris on the same turn. Found only in the Nebulon-B Expansion Pack.
- Redemption - Whenever a friendly ship within range 5 resolves a repair command, they gain an extra engineering point. Turns the ship into a floating medical barge, this can be a lifeline for small engineering 2 ships who cannot repair hull points with just an engineering dial, and enables engineering 4 ships to remove damage cards with just an engineering token. Note that because it does not say "another friendly ship", Redemption benefits from its own effect; which you can leverage by taking Projection Experts. Found only in the core set.

MC30c Frigate

The MC30 is primarily a means of transporting black dice to the enemy fleet, which it excels at. With 3 black / 2 other dice in its side arcs, the maneuverability at speed 3 of a CR90, and access to both weapons team and ordnance slots, it has the ability to reduce even an Imperial Star Destroyer to space dust with the right upgrades and some skilled flying. With a close range double arc, the MC30 can spit out up to 10 damage onto a single target from its black dice alone, even before considering the blue/reds or any upgrades such as APTs or TRCs. On the flipside, it's very flimsy, with just four hull; its speed 4 maneuverability leaves something to be desired, and it lacks the ability of Demolisher to project damage in a huge area. Skilled piloting, a bid for first player, and activation advantage can all be used to mitigate its fragility. Usually kitted with Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedoes, Admonition, and possibly an Intel Officer or Lando Calrissian; but many other officer or ordnance upgrades are viable - even builds with Enhanced Armaments to leverage Admiral Ackbar's ability at long range have merit, bumping the MC30c's side arcs to match an ISD-I's front arc.

MC30c Torpedo Frigate - The cheaper MC30c is generally the more common one. The black dice delivery service will put you in close range anyways, and the blue dice are more likely to roll a natural accuracy (or a guaranteed one, with Sensor Teams or H9 Turbolasers) to shut down a crucial brace or redirect.
MC30c Scout Frigate - For six points, swaps its blue dice for red - otherwise mostly the same as above. While two dice out the side at long range isn't much to sniff at, once again, pairing with Enhanced Armament and/or Admiral Ackbar can boost your side arcs' red dice to Star Destroyer levels, and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits can turn the ship into an up-sized CR90. For a few points less than an Assault Frigate, you can get very similar long range damage but dramatically enhanced short range damage (at the cost of survivability, among other things).
Titles:
- Admonition - Discard (not spend!) a defense token to cancel one attack die. This is much more powerful than it first appears, as the MC30 often lives or dies by a point or two of damage by nature of its weakness and close-range damage potential.
- Foresight - Your evades affect an additional die, and your redirects can draw from an additional adjacent hull zone. Generally the less common of the two. The MC30 wants to get close range on the enemy, making its evades worthless, and manages to use every ounce of its shields as often as not. Still, can be worth taking if Admonition is already in use on another MC30, with Mon Mothma upgrading its evades, or on a long-range Scout Frigate build.

Modified Pelta-Class

The Pelta is a support ship, as the original home of the powerful Fleet Command upgrade slot, and the Rebellion's only access to it. that can house one of three unique upgrades that offer fleet wide benefits. It has a decent array of dice and defensive tokens for its price, but is hampered by its maximum speed of two and a comparative lack of access to damage-increasing upgrade slots. With its Support Team upgrade slot and 2 yaw at speed 1, its speed can be alleviated by Engine Techs; and the relatively high engineering value of 4 keeps it alive longer than some of the Rebellion's other small ships. The Pelta tends to be priced out by leaner or meaner alternatives, unless you're taking full advantage of one the Fleet Commands. Accordingly, be sure to consider how you're going to supply the Pelta with Command tokens - Raymus Antilles, Veteran Captain, Comms Net, Garm Bel Iblis, etc - and watch the timing, as the token is spent before you get the chance to activate any of your ships to pass one over.

Modified Pelta-Class Assault Ship - An assault Pelta with engine techs costs similarly to the MC30 - but that ship offers more dice, stronger shielding, higher speed, duplicate tokens, Weapons Team/Defensive/Turbolaser slots, and pairs better with many of the Rebel commanders. In exchange, the Pelta offers tighter turning (being II-II or I-I-II with engine techs), an extra point of engineering, and a brace token; plus the differing titles. It has its own niche use cases, and provides cheaper access to the Fleet Command upgrades if you're not in need of a carrier, but if you're only looking for a black dice combat ship the MC30 is the better choice. The cheap External Racks can be a good pickup to up the ship's firepower without breaking the bank.
Modified Pelta-Class Command Ship - For four points, gains two extra squadron, switches its black anti-ship dice to blue, drops its black AA die, and swaps the Ordnance upgrade slot for an Offensive Retrofit. Accordingly, it is well suited to a carrier role - Expanded Hanger Bay or Boosted Comms suit its Squadron 4 well, it has a Support Team slot for a Fighter Coordination Team, and with All Fighters Follow Me!, it can rev B-Wings up to speed 3+1, or hurl X-Wings further than your opponent's speed 5 TIEs. It also hits respectably at medium range - two Command Peltas have the same cost and combined front arc dice of an ISD, with similar total HP; although lacking the latter's shooting-oriented upgrade slots.
Titles:
- Phoenix Home - The Pelta's only title grants it a second Officer slot and raises its maximum Command token count to 4. Note the wording doesn't affect the Pelta's Command Value itself, so Garm doesn't grant the Phoenix Home 4 tokens. Potential combinations include Raymus/Ashoka, Veteran Captain/Toryn Farr, Flight Commander/Adar Tallon, etc.

Hammerhead Corvette

Taking the CR-90s former title as the Rebellions cheapest non-flotilla ship, the Hammerhead is a difficult ship to master and one that has a tendency to die before doing anything of value if mispositioned. Five hull is quite healthy, but with two less shields than a CR-90, 1x redirect/1x contain/1x evade defensive tokens, and a painfully mediocre maneuver chart at its top speed of 3, the Hammerhead has quite the glass jaw. But for its price, it has a great suite of upgrade slots that allow it to bring quite a bit of damage to bear, and its Task Force titles allow multiple Hammerheads to force-multiply surprisingly well.

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette - The cheaper and more common variant has a black die in each arc, plus a blue and red in the front. Fortunately, it also has an ordnance upgrade slot, which External Racks should be all but stapled to. With a concentrate fire command (easy to dial in with Command 1) and ERs, the double-arc is 5 black, 1 blue 1 red, which is an astonishing amount of burst damage from such a cheap ship. Sure, it's probably gonna die shortly after (if not before) rolling this attack, and after spending ERs it's much less deadly, but losing a Hammerhead or two is no big deal if they were able to trade up for one of the Empire's pricey triangles. Also functions well as a cheap platform for boarding troops, and using Cham Syndulla to slice an ISDs entire 3 command stack can change the whole game - if you can pull it off. And, shockingly, there's an argument for taking them with Flight Controllers and Expanded Hangers, making them into super-flotillas; but results on the table may vary. They come two to a box, with two copies of all the non-unique upgrades therein.
Hammerhead Scout Corvette - At eight points more, the red/blue dice Scout variant is hard to use well (even with the Torpedo frame being difficult to fly as-is). At just three points less than a CR90A, you need a better game plan than slapping TRCs on it. Use Task Force Organa to give a swarm extremely cheap long-range dice fixing for their two (three with CF) red dice, or leverage its upgrade slots to do something the CR90/Nebulon can't.
Titles:
- Task Force Organa - For just a single point, your nearby Hammerheads can exhaust each others' TFOs to gain rerolls for up to 2 dice. But, if a Hammerhead's TFO has been exhausted, it can't attack ships - which makes activation order vital, and potentially telegraphs your plan to your opponent. Increases in value the more Hammerheads you bring, and potentially suits a mixed composition of Scouts/Torpodoes using the others' TFOs at different ranges.
- Task Force Antilles - Like TFO, TFA allows Hammerheads to tap each others' titles, this time to shunt damage around like a ship-sized Biggs. Like TFO, this is best taken with 3+ Hammerheads, but unlike TFO it has less of a downside - not repairing is way better than not shooting. Pending an FAQ, the community consensus is that this can only move one damage per attack; but run it by your Tournament Organizer or opponent before the match.
- Garel's Honor - The only title suited to taking a single Hammerhead, Garel's Honor turns your rams into a much scarier threat. Note the wording - when you overlap, not when a ship overlaps you - so no, you can't park in front of a Star Destroyer, forcing it to ram you for more crits. With Dodonna, this can be absolutely hilarious - deploy on a flank, rocket up to speed three, and bump a ship repeatedly from an arc where it has weak dice and then slap it with super annoying crits; with Rieekan, you can guarantee the effect if you get within range at the end of the previous round.

Medium Ships

Assault Frigate Mark II

The Assault Frigate's strengths and weaknesses all amount to a single factor - it's a multirole ship; a generalist that excels at relatively little but can do a lot well. Offering a dramatic step-up in health and defense token suite over the Rebellion's small ships, and with a strong variety of upgrade slots, the AF can be tooled to many different purposes depending on your need - whether its using the Weapons/Offensive slots to boost its squadron potential, or Weapons/Defensive/Turbolaser slots to function as a gunboat. Its dice are broadside-heavy and long range oriented, and with the only natural evade of a medium or large base ship, the AF excels at orbiting around the edges of the conflict throwing dice or squadrons into the mix from afar. A decent nav chart for its size, and a respectable top speed of three, allow it to position itself at long range and hopefully stay there. The release of more specialized ships over time have stolen some of its limelight, but it can still serve as the bedrock of a variety of fleets.

Assault Frigate Mark II B - The cheaper AF offers a higher squadron value, but the same side arcs as the pricier variant, so is often taken in carrier or broadside oriented builds. As the Rebellion's best Flight Controllers platform, and the option of an offensive upgrade of its choosing and/or the Gallant Haven title, it can supercharge a squadron wing. Conversely, you can save some points off the MkII A in a broadside/Ackbar list, where you don't care about the front arc or squadron value anyways.
Assault Frigate Mark II A - The upgunned version of the Assault Frigate gains a blue attack dice on the front, rear, and flak batteries; at the cost of a point of squadron and a whopping nine extra points. Given the price, you need a strong battle plan to justify not just taking the MkII B. This is the more natural home of the Paragon title, given the enhanced front arc; and the extra flak die can prove useful to Gallant Haven builds looking to wade into the squadron brawl. Otherwise, with the same side arcs and upgrade slots, offensive builds between the two will be similar.
Titles:
- Gallant Haven - Friendly squadrons at distance 1 take one less damage from attacks. Keeps your squadrons safe from the TIE deathball that the Empire loves to throw at you. Consider using it to cart B-wings into battle, or to turn a Biggs/Jan X-Wing ball nigh immortal (note - Biggs' damage transfer is not "an attack", so only the damage the original target takes is reduced). Be careful not to either over-extend your squadrons, leaving them outside your protective bubble; or to over-extend Gallant Haven itself, leaving it ahead of your fleet and in the enemy's sights.
- Paragon - While attacking a ship you've already attacked this round, add a black die (regardless of range). Given the ship's inclination to stay at long range, getting a double arc can be tricky, and even when you pull it off one black die isn't the best reward in the world. Still, 1-2 extra damage is 1-2 extra damage, especially against an enemy that's going to try and close on you anyways.

Large Ships

Unfortunately, Fantasy Flight had the great wisdom to release two different ships named "MC80 ___ Cruiser". Colloquially, the wingless version tends to be referred to by the name of its box - the Home One Expansion Pack - and is often abbreviated as the "HMC80". The winged version, correspondingly, takes its nickname from the Liberty Expansion Pack, or the "LMC80". Conveniently, "Home One" and "Liberty" are also titles for their respective ships, because FFG doesn't like you.

MC80 Home One

The beefier of the two MC80s, with 15 total shields around its 8 hull; standard large ship Engineering of 4; and 2 Redirects, a Brace, and a Contain; this ship does at least one of two jobs - throwing dice out its sides, and pushing squadrons. An MC80 double arc is a painful thing to to experience, but its max speed two means it's reliant on Engine Techs and/or nav commands to avoid being flanked. As a broadside ship with long ranged dice, much like the Assault Frigate it's happiest orbiting the battlefield (or the objective) while throwing dice at long range. Its most common upgrades are Electronic Countermeasures to keep its Brace online, Leading Shots to reroll its red dice, and the aforementioned Engine Techs; and because of its low speed but powerful offense and defense, it is well suited to taking a high bid for second alongside some VCXs to ensure you get to play your own objectives and force the enemy to come to you. But the ship is strong enough that many different loadouts are viable, so don't be afraid to experiment.

MC80 Command Cruiser - The Rebel's highest natural Squadron value of 4, and an Offensive Retrofit, makes this variant well suited to pushing squadrons. That said, it sports the same number of dice (although slightly less long range) as the pricier alternative, so its offense isn't to be underestimated even unupgraded.
MC80 Assault Cruiser - Changes one blue per arc to red, swaps the blue/black AA for blue/blue, and replaces the Offensive Retrofit with second Defensive Retrofit. If you're going this route, it would be prudent to bring some way to reroll the inevitable blanks on your red dice shots, but too many upgrades and you'll quickly run out of points for the rest of your list, so pick your cards with care. Common uses for the double Defensive slots are (the aforementioned) ECMs, with Reinforced Blast Doors or Advanced Projectors.
Titles:
- Home One - Ackbar's flagship gives other ships within range the ability to change 1 die to an Accuracy. Situationally useful, but the fact that it doesn't work on the ship it's equipped to, combined with the high price of the MC80 frame, make this a niche pick.
- Defiance - Allows you to add an additional attack die of any color when attacking a ship that has already activated this turn. Combine with some flotillas for activation padding, and this can enable you to add a blue die for Leading Shots at long range.
- Independence - Squadrons you activate can move at Speed 4, if they forgo attacking that turn. Your B-Wings can race into the action, but the cost of the title's frame, and loss of a turn's shots make other squadron-speed-increasing options competitive.

MC80 Liberty

An entirely different ship to its cousin, the Liberty has more in common with a stripped-down Imperial Star Destroyer. Its very wide front arc sports a full 7 blue/red dice and five shields, but its side arcs have just 3 dice and 2 shields, and its Brace/Brace/Redirect token suite makes it hard to absorb hits coming at those side hull zones. If that's started to sound familiar, it's because this ship is in many ways a large base Nebulon B. It's not only faster than the Home One but it too can equip Engine Techs, allowing it to outrun every other Medium or Large base ship in the game - which it often needs to, because while it has the front-arc offensive of an ISD at a lower cost, it comes at the cost of being much more fragile. You don't want to brawl with ships the same size as you, you want to bully ships smaller than you; and flank, run from, or combine fire with your fleet against ships the same size as you. With a Weapons Team slot (this is usually for Gunnery Team), and the unique combination of one Ion and two Turbolaser upgrade slots, the Liberty can double down on offense and turn its front arc into something to be feared - but its low Squadron value means it usually can't do much else. The Liberty's fragile side arcs makes it a difficult ship to use well - the lack of a Defensive Retrofit means there's nothing you can to stop an Accuracy from shutting down your lone Redirect as an enemy pours damage into you, and if enemy bombers get close enough they're gonna immediately jump your tough front arc and commence killing you. You take crits relatively quickly, and an early Projector Misaligned draining all 5 of your front arc's shields makes your heart drop into your stomach. Its bundled commander, Madine, does wonders for keeping the ship out of trouble; but beware playing too cautiously and causing all of your games to end with low scores and little dead on both sides.

MC80 Star Cruiser - More blue dice heavy, with this variant you either build it around an Ion upgrade - such as SW-7s in order to maximize guaranteed damage - or you build it like its pricier sibling but save a few points.
MC80 Battle Cruiser: - Changing one blue die in the front and rear to red and adding a second flak die, this variant is best able to utilize the ship's double Turbolaser upgrades. Obvious combinations like the "super-drill" XI7s and XX-9s under General Dodonna, or Spinals and H-9s for raw damage increase, come to mind - but your imagination is the limit.
Titles:
- Mon Karren - Limiting the opponent to just one defense token - combined with the Liberty's large dice pool's propensity to roll an Accuracy or two, this allows you to boost your damage output pretty significantly. But at 8 points, consider whether XI7s wouldn't do as good (or better) in your particular list instead.
- Endeavor - Grants a Contain token. Very useful, as it's relatively cheap, and the Liberty's weak sides mean it tends to take crits fairly easily. If non-default critical effects (eg APTs) are a major problem in your meta, consider pairing with a Damage Control Officer - but most of the time, that's an extra expense that's only occasionally useful.
- Liberty - Despite lending the ship its name, this is the most niche of its titles. Your Squadron tokens activate two squadrons instead of one; which would be more useful if you had a source of Squadron tokens that wasn't better off just resolving the dials (like a Comms Net GR-75, which already has Squadron 2 itself). Can be paired with Raymus Antilles or Commander Leia to command 4 Squadrons a turn (most importantly without any outside assistance), and you could even double down and take Flight Controllers - but at that point you're turning a front arc dice platform into a more expensive Assault Frigate. As a ship that wants to be using Navigate, Engineering, and Concentrate Fire commands at the right times, you need a very good reason to justify this title.

Flotillas

Flotillas follow all the same rules as other ships of their size class, with two exceptions: they cannot function as your Flagship, and when a Flotilla and a non-Flotilla overlap, only the Flotilla receives a damage card.

GR-75

The Rebellion's only current flotilla, as a small base ship with negligible or nonexistent armements, this ship exists to do some combination of three things - push squadrons (cheap Squadron 2 plus an Offensive slot), cheaply (18 points) stall activations for bigger ships, or leverage their Fleet Support upgrade slot. Most of the time, you're either resolving Squadron commands from backfield supported by a Bomber Command Center, or using Comms Net to pass tokens around; but Slicer Tools can throw a wrench into an enemy's plans - especially against their carriers. Don't underestimate how much damage a handful of GR-75s can throw into a squadron fight with two arcs of flak.

GR-75 Medium Transports: You have no guns. One black flak to fend off squadrons, but this is as stripped down as they come. Nevertheless, 99% of the time, this is the variant you want - the reasons you take a GR-75 don't include killing ships.
GR-75 Combat Retrofits: Upgrades the black AA to blue, and gains a single blue dice in the front and rear arcs. At a 6 point premium, you'd better have a very good reason for taking this. Sato and Opening Salvo with a Concentrate Fire command can have this ship throwing out 4 black die, which is hopefully hilarious enough to compensate for never happening and not being that great even when it does.
Titles:
- Quantum Storm If you used a Nav token/dial this turn, you can perform a straight speed 1 maneuver after your movement. Allows a burst of speed or a psuedo-speed 4 for just a single point.
- Bright Hope When you take damage outside of your rear arc, you reduce the total by 1. This makes you frustratingly hard to kill - Scatter/Evade keep you safe from attacks lacking an accuracy, and Bright Hope fends off those pesky 1 or 2 dice that might get through, or those single-die bomber attacks. You still die to 5 damage with an accuracy, so don't get too cocky; but this can be worthwhile if you've taken upgrades making you a more significant target.

Squadrons

Rebel Squadrons 1

X-Wing Squadron - The Rebellion's basic source of Escort, the X-Wing is a well-rounded squadron workhouse. At the Rebel standard speed 3, it brings in a hard-hitting 4 blue AA dice, Bomber allows its 1 red battery die to still be quite effective at hitting ships; and 5 hull is pretty sturdy, befitting an Escort ship. Whether you need to hit squadrons or ships, the X-Wing is a solid all around choice, and Escort means it also has a place keeping your specialized squadrons alive.
- Luke Skywalker - Over the base model, Luke gains two brace tokens, his bomber die upgrades to black, and his attacks treat ships as if they had no shields. This means Luke generally wants to bomb rather than dogfight, as putting hull damage onto a ship is much more valuable than shield damage - and if Luke rolls a crit, he can cripple an enemy ship extremely early. Pairs very well with Dodonna, as well as Yavaris/Adar. Available only in the core set.
- Wedge Antilles - Wedge gains the standard X-Wing two brace tokens, and Luke's black battery die. However, whereas Luke specializes in hitting ships, Wedge excels at dogfighting. He adds two blue dice - for six total - against enemy squadrons that have already been activated. While this turns Wedge into a wrecking ball, in order to use his ability, you need to either activate him later - giving up the alpha strike - or pair him with his best friend, Dutch. Wedge can be tricky, because sometimes forgoing the alpha strike can be the wrong choice, making him just an overpriced X-Wing.
- Biggs Darklighter - If Luke is the Bomber-oriented ace and Wedge is the dogfighting-oriented ace, then Biggs is the Escort-oriented ace. He has the standard two braces, but doesn't get the bomber die upgrade of the other two. What he does get is the ability to reduce the damage a nearby Escort is about to take by 1, and put that damage on a different nearby Escort instead. In other words, so long as Biggs is around, none of your X-Wings die until they all do. YT-1300s, with their 7 hull, make an excellent source of extra health to tap. Combine with Jan Ors, Gallant Haven, and/or Rieekan to create a squadron ball that can all but never die. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.
- Rogue Squadron - This Rebel unique drops Escort for Rogue, at a 1 point premium. Useful in low squadron command fleets, or a way to cheaply upgrade an X-Wing to a unique for Rieekan. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.

B-Wing Squadron - B-Wings bring a combination of amazing bombing - rolling 1 blue and 1 black against ships - with high hull, no Heavy, and a strong 3 blue AA attack. However, at speed two, they are nothing short of "slow as hell", and can easily find themselves out of position and either missing turns of bombing, or ineffectively chasing enemy ships all game. Using B-Wings well means using great care in placing them during deployment and making sure you have the squadron commands to keep them moving and shooting, but their low speed can be mitigated by certain upgrades (All Fighters Follow Me!, Independence, Fighter Coordination Team, Rapid Launch Bays, etc), or by placing them such that your opponent's ships land on them, keeping them in the ship's front arc. Otherwise, their fantastic dice make them great defensive bombers, and they're perfectly competent at shooting their way through an enemy fighter screen. Three B-Wings activated by Yavaris throw out up to 18 damage, which will make even the biggest ships think twice about approaching. But if you want faster bombers or more total hull for your points, look to Y-Wings or Scurrgs instead.
- Keyan Farlander - King of bombers, he comes with not only best-in-class two black bomber dice, but he can also reroll his attack dice against hull zones with no shields. Because he wants to hit hull as soon as possible, he pairs with Norra Wexley and Y-Wings; aside from that, he's just a B-Wing with two braces, so the same usage applies - be wary of his low speed, and enjoy rolling 4 damage into a ship from a single squadron.
- Ten Numb - Following the same pattern as the X-Wings, the other B-Wing ace focuses on the ship's dogfighting abilities rather than its bombing power. Upgrading one of his blue AA dice to black, Numb gains the incredibly powerful ability to spend a blue die with a crit (note: spend, so you remove the die from the pool - it's not a critical effect) to deal 1 damage to every enemy squadron at range 1 of the target (note: the target does count as "at range 1 of itself"). Almost like a Rebel Mauler Mithel, combined with Toryn Farr for rerolls or Yavaris for a second shot, Numb can deal absurd amounts of damage with hot dice. Once again, beware his low speed leaving him out of position. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.
- Dagger Squadron - A B-Wing with one blue AA die upgraded to black, and Swarm, for just an additional point. Not terribly useful, but cheap. Commonly overlooked, but does benefit from Lieutenant Blount's ability. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.

Y-Wing Squadron - Faster and more resilient than B-Wings, but with poorer attack rolls. Their poor attack dice and Heavy makes them pretty pathetic dogfighters, so keep them on-target bombing enemy ships and bring somebody else to do the killing - although they have the most hull per point of any rebel squadron, so as long as they have a source of intel giving them shots, they don't mind getting hit by flak or fighter attacks too much.
- Dutch Vander - Dutch ups the frame's meager AA to a decent three blue, gains two braces, and a special ability - any squadron he deals at least one damage to becomes activated, or takes an additional damage if it was already activated. The ability to prevent enemy squadrons (particularly aces) from activating at all can be huge, especially if you've got Yavaris/Adar to do it more than once, and/or Wedge to leverage it for huge damage.
- Norra Wexley - Once again, Norra is the bombing focused ace. Identical statline to Dutch, but trades his ability for giving every nearby bomber (including herself) a crit effect - the defending hull zone loses one shield. This is equivalent to one flat damage added to every bomber roll that has a crit until you start hitting hull, so she gets better the more bombers you have around her. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.
- Gold Squadron - For two points, trades one black bomber die for two blue. Same maximum damage, but better average damage and benefits more from Toryn Farr or Norra. Plus the usual bonus of qualifying for Rieekan. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.

A-Wing Squadron - Torpedo tubes strapped to a giant rocket. Speed 5, but only 4 hull; strong three blue AA, plus a black battery die making up for no bomber, so they still do decent damage to ships. Their Counter 2 means as often as not they die in a blaze of glory, taking the attacker with them. While they one have fewer offensive dice than the X-Wing, they end up with one more on net if the target shoots back.
- Tycho Celchu - Tycho gains the coveted A-Wing defense token suite of a brace and a scatter, keeping him alive a bit longer and (hopefully) causing opponents to take more damage from Counter than they dealt with their attack. His ability enables him to move or shoot ships even while engaged, so he can never be locked down - once he gets down to low health, don't be afraid to just pull him out of the fight to avoid giving away his points. Usually the first squadron added to a Sato list.
- Shara Bey - Same statline and tokens as Tycho, but while Tycho's ability lets him bug out of a fight, Shara wants nothing more than to dig in. Her Counter is boosted to 3 dice, and on the Counter, her crits add damage - so, yes, her counter is actually deadlier than her normal attack. With her Scatter, Shara can earn her points back and more while shrugging off the incoming damage - but she's still a fragile A-Wing, so restrain your urge to over-extend her and throw her at the entire enemy fighter screen. She and Tycho are often the core of a minimal fighter screen, leveraging their scatter to merely pin down an enemy force while their ships kill the carriers. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.
- Green Squadron - Downgrades to Counter 1, gains Bomber, costs an extra point. Compared to a Y-Wing, this is a much faster but less durable one-of alternative. Available in the Corellian Conflict campaign box.

Rogues and Villains

YT-1300 - Tough as nails, but slow as snails. Runs the same price and same Escort as an X-Wing, but down one AA die, no bomber, 7 hull, and Counter 1 means it's more defensively oriented - but it's constrained by a top speed 2. If you have a way to speed them up, don't mind holding your forces back until they move in, or mix in some X-Wings so someone is holding down the fort until they show up, they're stubbornly hard to kill and throw out tons of Counter dice as they gradually go down.
- Han Solo - The Falcon is a completely different beast under the hood. Faster, much stronger offensively, but ditches the YT-1300's stock abilities for two braces, Grit, and Rogue; so he's hard to pin down and can operate independently. And thanks to Han's special ability, he can choose to activate move at the beginning of the Ship Phase instead, which means he always shoots first. All of this is great, and Han's offensive dice are some of the best you could ask for, but he comes in at a whopping 26 points - the third most costly in the game, and making him almost a small ship in his own right. Ultimately, Han is a very powerful single activation, but does less damage than the two X-Wings you could've taken instead; and for two points more you could take Hera, gain a hull, and trade shooting first for giving two friends Rogue, so his uses are limited.

YT-2400 - Fast, lots of hull, four blue AA dice. No bomber, but a black battery die. And, to top it all off, Rogue. This package means the YT-2400 can do everything, and it can do it without squadron commands. If you've got a fleet that doesn't have or can't spare many squadron activations, a wing of these can fly around and kill things all on their own - at the cost of being fairly pricey, and always giving up the alpha strike to activate during the Squadron Phase.
- Dash Rendar - Adds Bomber, Brace tokens, and rerolls based on how many ships or squads he's tangled up with. Otherwise, use like the non-Ace version.

HWK-290 - Intel. You want this to keep your bombers bombing, or your squadrons flying around. Aside from that, it's a pricier A-Wing with worse speed and dice; you're here for Intel.
- Jan Ors - Jan improves the HWK-290's dice to A-Wing level, but more importantly she gains two brace tokens and allows nearby friendly squadrons to use them when they're defending. Not only does this keep your generic squadrons alive, but even your aces can occasionally use the help, as Jan's tokens can't be targeted by accuracies when she's not the target of the attack.

Scurrg H-6 Bomber - For two points over a B-Wing, Scurrgs improve on their biggest weakness - by jumping up to speed 3. They also gain an additional point of hull, as well as Grit. But in return, they gain Heavy and lose a blue AA die. If you want B-Wing dice at speed 3 and don't want to take a Pelta or another way of speeding them up, these are your solution - they still bring more punch per point than Y-wings, but they can't fight their way out of a paper bag, so bring them some support.
- Nym - Trades Grit (and Heavy) for Rogue, gains a pair of Braces, and most importantly, when attacking a ship, he gains a blue crit effect that discards an enemy defensive token of your choice (note: the timing on critical effects means this goes off after the enemy gets to spend their tokens, so they can still brace/scatter/etc Nym's attack). At a full 21 points, two Y-Wings would do more damage for less, so if you're going to bring him invest in Yavaris, Toryn Farr, or some other way to make getting off his crit more likely; and have a combat ship that can take advantage of that ISD losing its brace turn two.

Rebel Squadrons 2

Rebel Fighter Squadrons 2 Expansion Pack

Z-95 Headhunter Squadron - If you've ever looked at a TIE Fighter and thought "man, these are cheap and disposable, but let's go even further", then this is the squadron for you. At just 7 points, these are point-for-point the highest damage output squadron that Rebels can bring to the table. At just speed 3 and 3 hull, they're going to die to an alpha strike before ever getting to roll that attack. Their 3 red AA dice mean they will very, very rarely roll a hilarious 6 damage, but most often they're gonna hit like a wet blanket, so make sure to gang up on enemies to activate their Swarm ability. Unfortunately very hard to properly swarm with, as - unlike Imperial TIE Fighters - they're only available two at a time in the Rebel Squadrons 2 box, so get ready to either pay out the nose or borrow from a friend. If you're gonna bring them, strongly consider bringing some Escorts as well, and try to keep them away from enemy flak.
- Lieutenant Blount - A Z-95 that gains the coveted Brace/Scatter token suite, his only other improvement is that he grants other squadrons with Swarm an additional reroll. If you can buy/borrow/steal a dozen Z-95s, throw Blount in to help alleviate their swingy dice. Two YT-1300s, Blount, and 4 Z-95s is just 68 points, but if you take that fighter screen and lose, you can only blame yourself.

E-wing Squadron - For two points over their less cutting-edge siblings, E-Wings take the X-Wing statline and bump it up to speed 4, trading Escort for Snipe 3. As using their Snipe costs you a die over their normal attack, and they have a higher speed than X-Wings anyways, their Snipe is useless as often as not. While it gives them more flexibility, and allows them to hang back from the fight when necessary, two points is a high price to pay for that benefit. Rather, Snipe is best suited - as the name implies - for picking off high value targets, such as Rhymer or Dengar, from within a ball of Escorts or otherwise offensive squadrons. Ignoring Counter can also be situationally useful, but the moral is, E-Wings are usually best splashed one or two into a list, rather than fielded in large numbers. Can be good with Sato, shooting from afar while sitting near enemy ships.
- Corran Horn - E-wing with two Braces and Rogue, that can Snipe with all four dice. Not bad, but compare his 22 point cost with the equal Snipe 4 available to the Empire on the 12 point Saber Squadron, and you'll see why he's a niche inclusion.

Lancer-class Pursuit Craft - Well rounded squadrons, whose low hull and high price make them challenging to use well. As good at bombing as Y-Wings, as good at shooting as most anything but X/E-Wing and YT-2400s, a very nice speed 4, and with Grit and Rogue they can operate independently and shake off an opponent who spreads his fighters too thin. Compared to YT-2400s, they've got 1/3 less hull and worse AA, but gain Bomber and Grit for a point less - so they could be considered a more bombing-oriented alternative. Unfortunately, their low hull makes it tough for them to weather enemy flak, and their high price leaves them comparing unfavorably as dedicated bombers to Y/B-Wings or even Scurrgs. If you bring them, make sure to protect them.
- Ketsu Onyo - Ketsu improves the Lancer's battery to 2 blue dice, and gains the Brace/Scatter combo. For 22 points, she also brings the ability to reduce all engaged enemy squadrons' speeds by 2, to a minimum of 1. If killing the enemy's intel isn't an option, Ketsu allows you to keep them in one place - most Rebel squadrons find themselves at an absolutely miserable speed 1, although for the Empire, TIE Bombers and TIE Defenders are less inconvenienced.

VCX-100 Freighter - Relay and Strategic. Activate squadrons while the carrier - a flotilla, maybe Yavaris - sits either comfortably out of harm's way, or allowing your squadrons to extend further; and/or move around objective tokens, potentially maximizing your value - or minimizing the enemy's - from the objective being played. Compared to the Imperial equivalent, its speed and offensive are effectively the same, and both have Heavy, but the VCX gains an additional 2 hull at the cost of only offering Relay 1. Adding a source of rerolls, such as Toryn Farr, gives it a leg up on its counterpart; but most of the time, if you're bringing one, you're bringing two.
- Hera Syndulla - As the most expensive squadron in the game, Hera supercharges the VCX's offensive, while gaining both Grit and Rogue. More importantly, she gains the ability to grant Rogue to two nearby squadrons, allowing Hera and two friends to fly around the table causing problems. In a lot of ways, she can almost be thought of as a GR-75 that's harder for ships to kill and with better flak.