Ackbar Double Dragon v3

"Prepare the Fleet, we will join the cause of the rebellion"
- Admiral Ackbar

Did some changes to the Ackbar list again. Now the 2-ship configuration is shelved, replaced with a Strategic Adviser and 2 more flotillas to fill out activation. Also the duo Tycho/Shara feels like I can do without. They have their place in other lists...

We playtested the list again against a competitive Sloane-ball and the results were better than last time so to say...

Forewords

This with Mon Calamari Experts on projectors makes for great call center.

The Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet title paired with Projection Experts makes a very potent defensive combo. The downside is that it takes up a title slot. And all the MC-ships have nice titles. Also the Engine Tech slot is now unavailable. Guess the MC80 can't go fast now.

This combination puts the opponent in the position to choose either the MC75 "brawler" or the MC80 "shield" for its main target, as both ships will unlikely go down easily, unless ISD BT Avenger is able to deliver the deathstroke, but that can be prevented with good initial placement and with the MC75 taking the blow. 

The MC75 "brawler" becomes more durable recieving 2 shields and actively utilising repair dials boosted by MCEF. This makes it a hard target to bring down and can even trade off against a single ISD's front arc. Also if a dual arc is not available the sidearcs gets a boost from Ackbar. The front is still not a great place to be...

If the MC80 "shield" is instead the main target the looming threat of the "brawler" is still a thing to take into consideration. This ship is a pretty though nut to crack with its double defensive retrofit slots, both using Electronic Countermeasure and Early Warning System. 

In this game we had the same lists as per the previous engagement. 

Name: Ackbar Double Dragon v3.0
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Fire Lanes
Navigation: Sensor Net
MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• General Draven (3)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)
= 137 Points
MC80 Assault Cruiser (114)
• Admiral Ackbar (38)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)
= 190 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
= 23 Points
Squadrons:
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 30 Points
Total Points: 400

Setup and start turn 1

I had 1 pts bid over my opponent so I choose second. I need to re-evaluate this as a standard choice in the future as this is sometimes not the best option. My opponent choose Sensor Net as an objective.

Again facing off against Sloane I did some changes to the ships, adding Strategic adviser and Projection Experts to the MC80, adding General Draven, Quad Laser turrets and Flechette Torpedos to the MC75 to somewhat deter squadrons from trying to pick it apart. Unsure of this upgrade in general but im willing to try it. Also 2 GR-75 are now present to lend support, one with Ashoka for token manipulation.

My opponent did no changes to his list.

Turn 1 was without any contact or engagements. The ISD blasted off at speed 3 wanting to close in fast with the big ships farming Sensor Net tokens. Sloanes Squadrons close the distance as fast as possible to try to prevent the VCX's from doing their job. 

Start Turn 2

I made the mistake of turning hard with the MC75 towards the ISD, when in reality I should just have flown straight past. As I hoped to evade the squadrons, which did not happen. They will get to you no matter what.

I have this bad habit of placing everything too tight. This made some maneuvering tricky with the big ships, constricting movement and risking collisions.

The Quasar goes first and sends his squadrons forward, killing one VCX and damaging the other. 

I pad the activations with sending more tokens and flaking with the transports. 

I wait out the ISD activation from long range to short for the MC75. My opponent rolls pretty well, doing 4 damage to the shields. The brace being used by Sloanes ability I neglect to use it, and take all the damage to the front. 

Start Turn 3

This turn things (usually) get really messy. One VCX is destroyed and the other is down to 1 hull point. The MC75 and the ISD is engaged in a slow slugfest. The ISD have the upper hand with more hull and dice, the MC75 relies on heavy use of Engineering Dials and help from projection experts.

The ISD goes first, trying to end the MC75 quick, but doing moderate damage. 2 hull points go through, and 1 for ramming. By virtue of Gunnery Teams, Ashokas GR-75 goes down with the help of H-9 Turbolasers. 

The MC75 then activates and deals deals 3 shield damage to the ISD after bracing, and then flaks Maarek and Jendon, turning them both to the activated sides and saving itself alot of hurt this round thanks to Flechette Torpedos. Incredibly lucky. Later the MC75 gets swarmed with squadrons in the front and the shields go down quickly when the Quasar activates. 

And in the red corner we have...

This is what a real slugfest looks like, and Maarek and Jendon are sitting in the front row...

Start Turn 4

The hullpoints are going very low on both ISD and MC75. The only thing that is keeping the latter together is the engineering dials, projection experts and Exodus fleet. The 2 points from exodus fleet make all the difference togehter with Projection Experts. MC75 have 3 hull left and some shields, and ISD 5 but no shields. The MC80 have besides trying to fix the MC75 also landed some hits on the ISD, but nothing to get excited about.

The Quasar tries to take down the lone GR-75 on the flank but it fails despite having only blue dice.

Start Turn 5

This turn we called it due to time constraints.

ISD kills MC75 before the latter activates.

MC80 kills ISD with a Ackbar broadside.

The GR-75 is assumed killed also for gentlemanly reasons and probably ramming and double arcs and squadrons.

We didn't sum up how it ended pointwise, but I have an idea about how much Ackbar lost this time. Since the MC80 is 190 pts and the rest of the fleet is 209 and the the only thing Ackbar took down was the ISD, worth about 173-175 pts, I guess a loss of 5-6 is pretty reasonable, Sensor net tokens taken into the results.

Alot better than expected when going squadron less...

Closing Thoughts

I like this list, it  has alot of moving parts and the timing needs to be right for it to utilise the sheer durability of both ships. This make this list somewhat of a Double ISD Rebel counter-part, which is a sort of "Golden Standard" in terms of damage output and durability. You can probably take down one ship but very rarely both during the course of one game. 

• First/Second player: I can see this list being both. The MC75 likes being the first ship in a round with black dice and Flechette Torpedos can with some lucky rolls prevent some damage from squadrons. Finding points for Ordnance Experts on the MC75 is on the to-do list.

• General Draven/Quad Laser Turrets: General Draven, the Rebel counterpart to Agent Kallus, is debatable in usefullnes. He adds a dice against all squadrons with Counter and Intel. Against Dengar supported squadrons this is usefull when he is around giving everyone Counter 1, making it harder to bomb one ship with support of friendly squadrons. This list don't have that, narowing the good generals usefullness.

• Flechette Torpedo: Either it works, either it wont. When it does its a life saver. Shutting down squadrons all around your ship is great.

• Quad Laser Turrets: Maybe usefull, when I remember I put it on a ship, and in combination with General Draven, again against Counter/Intel squadrons.

• GR-75: Having 2 of these with Comms Net helps very much with providing engineering tokens, which by themselves turn into a Dial in effect with the help of Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet. A great way to provide with activation padding.

• VCX-100: Against no squadron lists, they will probably live and force the opponent into choosing Advanced Gunnery as an objective. Against squadron list they will die turn 2-3. Against squadron heavy lists with strategic squadrons things can go south faster. They are a moving part in the list that is necesary for the objectives to work, forcing the hard choices onto the opponent. And helping, should the opportunity present itself, with turning the opponents objectives against him/her.

• What this list might want: Ordnance Exeperts or Gunnery Team for the MC75. Gunnery Team would have been good to have when one sidearc suddenly gets clogged with targets, both Squadrons and Ships. 

There. I did it. I made a Fish Farm Ackbar list. Woohoo for me.