Fleshing out the "The Core"

So I have the core of the fleet, but now what the do with the 202 points leftover.  How I do make a well rounded fleet that can handle a variety of threats?  The first threat the core is not very good at handling is a squadron fleet. 134 Points of Sloane ball would rip apart a Pelta and Paragon team. 

I wanted to start off with a card I think is great in the competitive scene and that is Advanced Transponder Network (ATN). 

I feel ATN works wonders in competitive fleets for one reason.  It allows me to bring a mix of Y-wings and/or VCXs and only take up a small portion of my fleet total.  I put Tycho, 4 Y-wings, and 1 VCX in a fleet with ATN.  That's 71 points in fighters and 5 points in cards.  Now before any bombing of my ships happen you have to mulch 32 points of hull and Tycho will be bouncing around to whoever needs to be tied down.  And if you didn't bring fighters, that's fine too! My Pelta and a transport can push the squadron ball alright and I will bomb you with impunity. 

So I'll add a transport, ideally a combat retrofit because with IF! it's always hitting something.  Now to take advantage of the rest of the points.  I have about 100 left so I originally planned on another Assault Frigate, kitted out similarly to the first.  This left me with enough points to grab Toryn and maybe a Skilled First Officer, Vet Captain, or Token Officer on the AF.

Iteration 1

I just didn't like 4 activations though it has traditionally set me up to get first/lasted or just forcing me to activate a ship I really would prefer to wait to send forth into a kill zone.  So back to the drawing board but leaving the Core and keeping ATN.

Ultimately, I went back to stripped down capital ships that could do 1 dedicated job, flak boat, squadron pusher,  and all could contribute fire onto a target.  I tried two Nebulon-B escort frigates but didn't quite have the points for the fighter ball and a transport to push them.  So I shaved one Neb down to a Slaved Turret Hammerhead.  It throws 4 die (with a Con Fire Dial) and is survivable enough to get 1 or 2 shots off.  Also, if you ignore it it's a pretty consistent 3-5 damage that will chew on you and not let you go as it flanks you. 

                                                                     

A match made in heaven

This gave me enough points to put Vanguard on the Nebulon-B and put ruthless strategists on there to go with my high hull squadrons.  So now I can bomb you or if you come close I will flak you to death while you have to chew through 30 some hull.  This also gives me flexibility in defense, I can either keep the evade if you have long range snipers OR throw a redirect on if you have fighters OR....it lets me tailor my defense token suite to your fleet.  

I still needed activation 5 and as much as I wanted to get a armed transport on there for the extra IF! shot, I started with a basic transport to save points for the squad ball.  And boy did I not have a lot of points left.  I could squeeze Tycho and 4 Y-wings in and leave room for Bomber Command Center (BCC) or Toryn.  Not bad but not an even number for deployments either.  After some consideration and quick playtesting, I swapped in 2 VCX's and left 1 Y-wing.  It didn't cost me deployments, let me put some strategic shenanigans in there, I have 2 relay ships, and they are better at shooting squadrons and with Toryn nearby potentially even ships.  BCC while potentially helping me with bombing, thats not the goal of this squad ball.  It's goal is to die slowly and stop you from chewing on my ships while they all unload on your precious ships and overheat tokens to pile on the damage.  If you happen to have no fighters cool, I will get a couple of plink damage in with the squads but I'm not highly counting on them to do any heavy lifting.

The Final List I'm Committing To

So the final end goal is to have the Slaved Turret Hammerhead on one flank with the Assault Frigate anchoring the other end.  The middle is focused around Toryn's transport and flanked closely by the Pelta and Vanguard with the fighter ball in the middle about to bounce to either side that is threatened by fighters.  Ultimately, it should stretch across about half the board and then will come together in a massive pincer that has the central target getting hit by everyone in one round.  Meanwhile, my fighter ball will gloriously die a, hopefully, slow death to keep my ships safe.  If they take a majority of two turns of dedicated fighter hate to eliminate I will consider that a successful use of those 56 points.  

That's the plan but I don't expect anyone to actually let that happen.  Something about my opponents trying to win as well.