Armada/Tactics/Rebel Alliance
As the nominal heroes of the Star Wars franchise, the Rebel Alliance in Armada predictably features the largest selection of ships. In any given role rebel ships tend to be faster and more maneuverable than Imperial ships, but weaker and better suited to fighting at range. The Mon Calamari cruisers can hold out a bit against star destroyers (as long as they're positioned well), but otherwise rebel ships are not good at brawling. However, the reverse is true for squadrons; the rebels field excellent (if expensive) fighters with good damage abilities and the only squadron that can give other squadrons the rogue ability. The archetypal Rebel fighter, the X-Wing, is tough and hits everything hard, but is a little slow.
The rebellion has to win by guile. Clever use of objectives, using their generally better maneuvering charts to flank, and hammering the empire's angry flying triangles with squadron attacks. Aside from the starhawk, nothing in the rebel fleet is built to thunderdome with an ISD.
Small Ships
| Class | Variant | Fore | Sides | Aft | AA | Hull | Defenses | C/S/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CR90 Corvette | A | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ⬤ | 4 | Evade, Evade, Redirect | 1/1/2 |
| CR90 Corvette | B | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ⬤ | 4 | Evade, Evade, Redirect | 1/1/2 |
| Nebulon-B | Escort | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 5 | Brace, Brace, Evade | 2/2/3 |
| Nebulon-B | Support | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 5 | Brace, Brace, Evade | 2/1/3 |
| MC30c | Scout | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 4 | Evade, Evade, Redirect, Redirect | 2/1/3 |
| MC30c | Torpedo | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 4 | Evade, Evade, Redirect, Redirect | 2/1/3 |
| Pelta | Assault | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 5 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 2/1/4 |
| Pelta | Command | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 5 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 2/3/4 |
| Hammerhead | Scout | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ❶ | ⬤ | 5 | Contain, Evade, Redirect | 1/1/2 |
| Hammerhead | Torpedo | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ❶ | ⬤ | 5 | Contain, Evade, Redirect | 1/1/2 |
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.
- Liberator - Rebellion in the Rim's newest CR90 title, and a potential challenger for the new "default" CR90. For just two points, you can equip Liberator with a Fleet Command card, but cannot spend command tokens to activate it. In other words, you pop this onto a CR90 for a one-time shield boost, emergency maneuvering yaw click, guaranteed hit die result, etc. It functions similarly to the new Flag Bridge Offensive Retrofit, but Liberator does not have to be your flagship and is (obviously) not bound by the Medium or Large ship restriction. If you were tired of trying to fit a Pelta into your fleet, this might be the alternative you were looking for.
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 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 - Got nerfed hard. Used to let squadrons it activated attack twice if they didn't move. This led to some ridiculous gimmicks when teamed up with the heaviest hitters in the rebel fighter lineup. Now it lets them add a dice to their attack pool of a color they already have if they don't move, which is still jank with Luke Skywalker but much less so for Wedge. 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.
- Vanguard - Rebellion in the Rim introduced this title to the game, and much like Harrow for the VSD it fixes a long standing gripe with the Nebulon-B. At the cost of 4 points, you gain a Weapons Team slot and can replace 1 of your defense tokens with a Redirect. Gunnery Teams is the obvious choice, but there are a lot of new opportunities that Nebulon-Bs can take advantage of now.
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.
- Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet - A generic title for all MC pattern ships. Spend a Repair dial or token and exhaust another Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet-equipped ship's card within distance 4 to gain 2 engineering points. Very situational, and you give up arguably more useful titles on ships like the MC30 and Liberty to equip it. But it lets your engineering token remove a damage card, or can boost a dial+token command on Home One (with help from a Redemption Nebulon-B) enough to recover 2 damage and a shield.
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
The medium ship lineup for the Rebels only includes the Assault Frigate because the Pelta and MC30 didn't require medium sized bases, despite their points values being in the ballpark of the empire's Quasar Fire.
| Class | Variant | Fore | Sides | Aft | AA | Hull | Defenses | C/S/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault Frigate | Mark II A | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 6 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 3/2/4 |
| Assault Frigate | Mark II B | ❹ ⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 6 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 3/3/4 |
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.
| Class | Variant | Fore | Sides | Aft | AA | Hull | Defenses | C/S/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MC75 | Armored Cruiser | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 9 | Brace, Contain, Contain, Redirect | 3/3/4 |
| MC75 | Ordnance Cruiser | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 9 | Brace, Contain, Contain, Redirect | 3/2/4 |
| MC80 (HMC) | Assault Cruiser | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 8 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Redirect | 3/3/4 |
| MC80 (LMC) | Battle Cruiser | ❺ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 8 | Brace, Brace, Redirect | 3/2/4 |
| MC80 (HMC) | Command Cruiser | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 8 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Redirect | 3/4/4 |
| MC80 (LMC) | Star Cruiser | ❺ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 8 | Brace, Brace, Redirect | 3/2/4 |
| Starhawk | Mark I | ❻ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 14 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Salvo | 4/3/4 |
| Starhawk | Mark II | ❻ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 14 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Salvo | 4/3/4 |
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, Advanced Projectors, or Early Warning Systems.
- 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.
- Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet - A generic title for all MC pattern ships. Spend a Repair dial or token and exhaust another Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet-equipped ship's card within distance 4 to gain 2 engineering points. Very situational, and you give up arguably more useful titles on ships like the MC30 and Liberty to equip it. But it lets your engineering token remove a damage card, or can boost a dial+token command on Home One (with help from a Redemption Nebulon-B) enough to recover 2 damage and a shield.
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.
- Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet - A generic title for all MC pattern ships. Spend a Repair dial or token and exhaust another Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet-equipped ship's card within distance 4 to gain 2 engineering points. Very situational, and you give up arguably more useful titles on ships like the MC30 and Liberty to equip it. But it lets your engineering token remove a damage card, or can boost a dial+token command on Home One (with help from a Redemption Nebulon-B) enough to recover 2 damage and a shield.
MC75 Profundity
Armed with a short-range front arc but longer-ranged broadsides, so a very odd weapon loadout that makes the MC 75 a bit schizophrenic. But you can use Raddus to warp it in to deliver a blitz with its forwards arc. 3 shields all around except the front arc which has 4. It moves mostly the same as an ISD. Defensively has a brace, redirect, and 2 contains.
- MC75 Ordnance Cruiser - 2 blue and 3 black on the front arc, 2 black and three red on the sides. Comes with 3 command, and 2 squadron with 4 engineering. Comes with 2 ordnance upgrade slots to make use of all those black dice. The flak is pretty pathetic though, just a single black die. It's definitely armed to knife fight with other ships.
- MC75 Armored Cruiser -Changes the side arc black dice to blue, one black on the front to blue, adds a squadron value and a blue flak die. It also has access to both turbolaser and ion upgrades. This one's a tad better at medium combat with far more ion. Perhaps a good candidate for Ackbar to increase the more versatile side arcs.
- Titles:
- Profundity - Do you ever suffer from 'if only i could get my small ship up the field without being shot' problem? Well this may be the ship for you! Rush an MC75 up the field and drop out a small ship mid game next to it, say, a hammerhead torpedo corvette to unload a buttload of black dice. Pairs nicely with Admiral Raddus on another ship so you can warp, i mean hyperspace, the profundity into the enemy flanks, AND deliver a little red (or black dice) corvette.
- Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet - A generic title for all MC pattern ships. Spend a Repair dial or token and exhaust another Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet-equipped ship's card within distance 4 to gain 2 engineering points. Very situational, and you give up arguably more useful titles on ships like the MC30 and Liberty to equip it. But it lets your engineering token remove a damage card, or can boost a dial+token command on Home One (with help from a Redemption Nebulon-B) enough to recover 2 damage and a shield.
- Aspiration - If you ever thought it would be a good idea to just load all of your shields on one side and charge apeshit crazy at the enemy, this is the best title for just that. This title lest you move your shields around, great for spearheading your fleets attack. Even better if you combine with Raddus.
Nadiri Starhawk
The Rebellion's/New Republic's answer to Super Star Destroyers. The Starhawk-class Battleship is a Huge ship in all but cardboard size. Crazy amounts of dice from all angles, two dedicated officer slots, one of every non-evade token (including the new and fancy Salvo token). The Starhawk is the strongest ship the Rebellion can bring to the fight, and WILL be the centerpiece of any fleet you make with it by point cost and upgrade potential alone. It isn't perfect, by any means. Both versions have no Defensive Retrofits or Support Team slots, two of the titles are exclusive to the cheaper Mk 1 variant, fully upgraded will likely put you just north of 200 points of your fleet total. However, the firepower and survivability of the Starhawk more than make up for those shortcomings.
- Starhawk-class Battleship Mark 1: - Well-rounded in it's dice pools and combat effectiveness. The Mk 1 should be considered the "default" Starhawk, for reasons not the least of which include 2 of the 3 titles being Mk 1 exclusive. It's attack profile somewhat resembles a beefed up ISD-1, appropriate considering Starhawks were made from cannibalized and salvaged ISD parts. Playstyles can vary with this version, as is the norm with the other "classic" Rebel all-rounder, the Assault Frigate.
- Starhawk-class Battleship Mark 2: - A straight 10 point upgrade to the Starhawk's medium range capabilities. Dropping one black die from all sides (and 2 potential titles), and gaining one blue die to all sides (and swapping black flak for red). The Mk 2 Starhawk slightly more of a general purpose ship than a close range brawler. "Slightly" is relative, since the Starhawk is still a beast to be reckoned with.
- Titles:
- Amity (Mark 1 only): - Beefing up the close-range potential and long range survivability in one card. Gain an evade token, and deal 1 extra damage card to both ships when enemy collides with your Starhawk. The second effect only triggers when an enemy rams you and not the other way around. As tempting as throwing on Hardened Bulkheads and charging into a mess of Raiders and Arquitens sounds, please keep that in mind.
- Concord (Mark 1 only): - Grants a second Salvo token which can be DEVASTATING making 3 attacks per turn, even if you need to take fire to do one. The second effect is situational, but nice. You should never need to go speed 0 in most encounters, but using bringing an MC80 or ISD down to 0 with you with your Magnite tractor beams and having that extra bit of insurance of at least a Brace token can be a difference maker in the ensuing slugfest.
- Unity - The only title a Mk 2 can take, but it's a good one. Unity provides a second Redirect token (eat your heart out, Home One) and lets you re-roll a flak die when attacking an engaged enemy squadron. The latter seems tailor made for Mk 2 Starhawks with that super finicky red die. Still, extra defense tokens of any kind help turn the Starhawk into a real damage tank.
Flotillas
Flotillas follow all the same rules as other ships of their size class, with three exceptions: they cannot function as your Flagship, when a Flotilla and a non-Flotilla overlap only the Flotilla receives a damage card, and Flotillas do not count towards having remaining ships on the board when determining a winner and ending the game.
Additionally, a fleet can not contain more than two Flotillas.
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. Doesn't get defense tokens, but 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 defense tokenless 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, no defense tokens, 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, no defense tokens, 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.
- Lando Calrissian - Just like Han, Lando brings the Falcon and all it's tricks into the fray. Unlike Han, Lando's Falcon shaves off 3 points of cost and replaces one black die from each attack with a red that (with a hint of roguish luck) can be a bit more damaging. The gambling spirit that Lando's officer card comes back as well, as his version of the Falcon brings a modified form of his dice re-rolling effect. Spending a brace to re-roll your opponent's hit results (as long as they weren't accuracy'd away) is great. Discarding that token when attacking to set your red die as a double hit, or the blue to a needed accuracy result to make damage stick? That bet is up to you to make.
- 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.
- Mart Mattin - Named after Lucasfilm employee and Porg enthusiast Matt Martin (I wish I was joking...) and introduced in the Rebellion in the Rim expansion. Bort swaps Bomber for Grit and pretty unique trait. Instead of activating like normal during the Squadron phase, you can use that activation and drop one of the new Proximity Mine tokens out at distance 1 of the YT-2400 base. In a way, he can deal more anti-ship damage than Dash can, but at the cost of being a big, immovable target for the turn.
- 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. Intel got nerfed HARD in Armada's recent 1.5 update, providing Grit to a friendly squadron ball instead of making nearby enemy squads Heavy. Be aware of this when making an Intel squad list.
- 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.
- Kanan Jarrus - First off, Kanan loses Intel. That single fact might turn some people off from even considering him. However, he turns the HWK-290 into a COMPLETELY different beast, more along the lines of a souped up cross between a Mandalorian Gauntlet and a TIE Phantom. Discard an anti-ship hit die, give a ship a Raid token. Discard an anti-ship crit, give a ship a Raid token. Need to focus on other ships with your Squadron commands? Kanan gets Rogue. Swarmed by TIEs that are royally pissed off at you? Cloak away and free up your engagement to harass more ships.
- 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 Rogue for 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.
- Malee Hurra - FFG's wholly original character for Armada. As is the trend with newer squadrons, Malee's Scurrg swaps a blue die for a red. Her unique ability is a lot more interesting. Once per activation, if a friendly ship at range 1 is attacking another ship, and Malee is only engaged with one or less fighters, your ship may discard one die to change another die to a face with a critical icon. A bit complicated, but she essentially works like a Rebel version of Admiral Screed.
Rebel Squadrons 2
- 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.
Rebel Commanders
- Leia Organa (Commander) - All your Command dials count as if you'd also spent a matching token; at the cost of giving up the use of actual Command tokens. Sort of like a fleet-wide Raymus Antilles, except sans the ability to store tokens for later, Leia is best for fleets with small Command ships that didn't have much use for tokens anyways. Hammerheads or CR90s enjoy Concentrate Fire granting both a die and a reroll, MC30s love changing speed by 2, Flotillas and Yavaris pushing 3 squadrons is amazing. A pricey and challenging Commander.
- Admiral Ackbar - Each turn, your ships can give up the ability to fire from their forward and rear arcs, in exchange for adding 2 red dice on each side arc. Large broadsiders, like the Assault Frigate or HMC80, raise their damage output through the roof; but even smaller ships can leverage their price to add large cumulative numbers of dice. Ackbar's effect is almost always going to be worse than firing off a double-arc, so his value is maximized when you can circle the battlefield or maximize large single attacks (using effects like Gunnery Team or Intel Officer).
- Commander Sato - When your ships attack an enemy ship with one of your squadrons near the target, they can switch 2 dice to a different color. Note the timing - the swap occurs before rolling, so you can't change dice added while attacking by effects like Paragon. Has two general use cases - increasing damage, by upgrading red/blue dice to blue/black dice (for accuracy, or raw damage output); or activating upgrades at beyond their regular range, like long range Leading Shots or Assault Proton Torpedoes. As Sato is expensive, and requires multiple moving parts - squadrons getting near enemy ships, with your own combat ships to make the most of the advantage - he can be tricky to use effectively, but Salvation throwing 3 black, 2 red (with a Concentrate Fire) out the front maxing 13 damage is incredible, and he doesn't restrict you to a broadside-heavy fleet like Ackbar does.
- Mon Mothma - The leader of the Rebellion improves the range bands of your Evade tokens, cancelling dice at medium or re-rolling them at close. As every Rebel ship up to the Assault Frigate (and the Amity title-wielding Starhawk Mark-1) has at least one Evade, she can dramatically increase the durability of your fleet. Pairs well with the MC30 Foresight title, and small ship swarms in general.
- General Rieekan - Once per turn, when a unique squadron or a ship would be destroyed, it remains on the table (and can activate as normal) until the end of the round (note: nerfed via errata from the original card text). Allows vital ships to get off one last salvo or squadron activation, or for unique squadrons - such as a source of Escort or Intel - to keep providing their effect, tying down enemies, and/or protecting your other squads. A Rieekan-ed Wedge can leave an entire swarm of TIEs unable to shoot past his undead Escort, or move away as they remain engaged; leaving your bombers free to hit ships.
- General Madine - Your Navigate dials can add an extra point of yaw, and your Navigate tokens can change speed or add a point of yaw. Madine is fantastic for glass-cannon ships that need precise positioning, such as the MC30, or the Liberty he comes bundled with; and in general any fleet that intends to use a lot of Navigate commands will get a lot out of Madine.
- Admiral Raddus - Before deploying fleets, set aside a ship (other than the flagship) - at the start of any round (including the first), you may deploy that ship at distance 1 of any of your ships; it then cannot be the first ship to activate that round. Allows your CR90 to race behind the enemy fleet and warp in an MC80 from hyperspace, or to keep your plans flexible and avoid committing an important ship's positioning until after deployment or the first few turns, and for fairly cheap.
- General Cracken - The other Rebel small-ship-swarm Commander, Cracken grants all small or medium ships at speed 3+ automatic obstruction. Can be difficult to use, as his high speed requirement can have you racing clean past your targets, or slowing down and losing his effect; but he can outright cancel a surprising number of attacks with strong dice-adding effects relying on just one native red die. Combined with Rebel Evades, Cracken can fend off a lot of damage if you've got a need for speed; and you can make bad jokes and movie references all game long.
- Garm bel Iblis - On the first and fifth rounds, every ships gains its Command value in tokens of your choosing. Obviously, he lends himself to higher Command value ships; but Command 1 ships that usually use the first round to store a Navigate token, can benefit from the ability to speed into the fray earlier than your opponent is used to. To get the most out of Garm, you want to be doing a lot all at once; and he's bundled with the well-rounded Assault Frigate for a reason.
- General Dodonna - Whenever an enemy ship is dealt a faceup damage card - either from your attacks, or from landing on Asteroids - you look at the top four and choose which one the ship takes, discarding the others. A potentially deadly ability in and of itself, that combos extremely well with Luke, APTs, or Garel's Honor; Dodonna is also tied for the cheapest Rebel Commander, and offers an all-around useful benefit to fleets of any type looking to squeeze in a few more points. If your battle plan involves killing the enemy's ships using dice, Dodonna will get you there faster - either drawing cards like Structural Damage/Projector Misaligned to hasten their demise, or crits like Depowered Armament/Thrust Control Malfunction to cripple their effectiveness.
- Kyrsta Agate (Commander) - Gain an extra non-Scatter token on your flagship. Then, when not going speed 0, you can discard 1 defense token to resolve that effect, even when the opponent targets it with accuracy results. As cheap as Dodonna, but not nearly as versatile. You're better off treating her like everything else from the Aftermath books and forget about it until they're retconned.
Rebel Officers
- Adar Tallon - One squadron you activate gets to toggle back to being unactivated. Combine with Yavaris and an ace squadron, and you can watch Wedge paste entire enemy fighter wings (18 dice per turn!), Farlander melt Star Destoryers (6 black dice with rerolls!), or Luke melt a low-hull ship on full shields (hit/crit into Dodonna searching for Structurals = 3 damage per attack!).
- Major Derlin - Exhaust to reduce an attack's incoming damage by one. Given his price, and that most games he will only see use on 3 or 4 turns, and that offense tends to scale better than defense, he's usually overlooked for other options.
- Toryn Farr - Friendly ships/squadrons at distance 3 other than yourself can reroll 1 blue die while attacking. Grants a huge damage boost to fighter squadron or ship flak.
- Raymus Antilles - When you reveal a dial, you also get the token for free. Very useful on your heavy hitters - Yavaris loves commanding a third squadron, big ships gain 6 engineering points without any setup, and it's very easy to jump around 2 speed increments at a time. In addition, big ships can store more of his tokens to use later, so he's a prime contender for the Officer slot on either MC80.
- Wedge Antilles (Officer) - When the Squadron phase ends, spend a squad token and give three squadrons Cloak for the round. Cloak is a very strong tool when leveraged properly, and this is the only way for Rebels to get it outside of Kanan's HWK-290. That alone might be worth taking Wedge out of his X-Wing.
- Bail Organa - Pick a turn at the start of the game. If you're second player when the turn comes around, Bail's ship MUST go first. Otherwise, gain two command tokens. He can only go on medium or large ships, so no trickery with a Nebulon-B or MC30.
- Walex Blissex - When you activate, discard to get back a discarded defense token. Useful if you have a specific defense token you really want back - MC80's single brace against token-spending Sloane fleets with hard-hitting ISDs, or an Admonition shedding off its own tokens as extra hull, for example.
- Lando Calrissian - Discard during the "spend defense tokens" step to force your opponent to reroll as many dice as you want (note the timing - any accuracy results rolled here can't be spent, they're wasted). Meta dependent - can get you through an Avenger/Boarding Team/Leading Shots attack that disables all your defense tokens and uses rerolls to generate big damage, but basically worthless against an MSU or bomber fleet dealing lots of plink damage.
- Leia Organa (Officer) - Whenever you reveal a command, you can change the top command dial of a friendly ship within distance 5 to the same command. Allows you yo basically turn a Command 3 ship into a Command 1 ship, at the cost of tailing it with a Command 1 ship potentially wasting its own dials.
- General Draven - When flakking any squadron with Counter or Intel, add one die of any color to the attack. Essentially a Rebel version of Agent Kallus, he comes with the benefit of HATING Dengar with a passion. Any squadrons that Dengar gives Counter to are all subject to the extra damage die.
- Kyrsta Agate (Officer) - On a red or blue critical with any attack (including a Salvo response), exhaust her to ready an exhausted defense token. Far, FAR more useful than her Commander variant, Agate can go on anything not already wanting to spend critical results on damage or black die upgrades.
- Ahsoka Tano - During the activation of any friendly ship within distance 5, exhaust to change one of their Command tokens into another type. Very useful if you've got a source of token generation - Comms Net, Raymus, etc - and find yourself needing something else.
Rebel Boarding Teams
- Cham Syndulla - Slicer Tools, except for a ship's entire command stack. Activate first, and now that Flight Controllers ISD that was expecting to push 5 squadrons per turn has to Engineer for the rest of the game. Slap it on a cheap External Racks Hammerhead for some spike damage, and continue laughing even while the enemy blows it up afterwards, knowing its work is done.
- Jyn Erso - Give a ship two raid tokens - preventing it from resolving two commands of your choice - and additionally, gaining a victory token if that ship has an objective token on it. While the latter effect only matters in Blockade Run (nice) and Capture the VIP (incredibly strong); Jyn allows you to shut down a carrier or prevent an ISD from navigating or repairing.
Rebel Weapons Team
- Caitken and Shollan - Six point, unique, exhausting Ordnance Expert, that works for any color of dice. Ackbar Assault Frigates can take the twins to remedy their lack of access to Leading Shots, or MC75s/MC30s can use them to alternate between long and close ranged attacks.