I'm not too familiar with the old republic era. What are the options? Also what books are the best intro to the old era?

I like it. The ARCs are very slow and with 4 of them you probably want some speed upgrade like AFFM, FCTs or Hyperspace rings. I would put the latter on the Venator probably dropping Tranquility. It would be nice to get a second set of Flight controllers for the Venator. Plo needs to be attacking ships to justify inclusion and against strong fighter opposition (and with no braces for your fighters) you will need to win the fighter battle quickly. BCC is the only thing to trim I suppose.... Do you sacrifice rerolls on bombing to ensure you can actually do some bombing? My preferred fighter build is 3 ARCs, 4 Deltas and Anakin. It is better against fighters and with only 8 rather than 10 you don't need so much squad control ability. Against ships I let Nevoota activate the ARCs getting a swarm reroll rather than buying a BCC. Surprise Attack, Fighter Ambush & Superior Positions?

Attended our first Tournament since lockdown at Element Games, Stockport at the weekend. I brought this fleet... 398/400, Opening Salvo, Contested Outpost, Salvage Run. CR90-A 44 81 Leia 28 Jiana's Light 2 Turbolaser Reroute Circuits 7 CR90-A 44 51 Turbolaser Reroute Circuits 7 CR90-A 44 51 Turbolaser Reroute Circuits 7 CR90-A 44 51 Turbolaser Reroute Circuits 7 Hammerhead Torp 36 41 External Racks 4 Task Force Organa 1 Hammerhead Torp 36 41 External Racks 4 Task Force Organa 1 Hammerhead Torp 36 41 External Racks 4 Task Force Organa 1 Hammerhead Torp 36 41 External Racks 4 Task Force Organa 1 I played against Romodi ISD2 & 3 Arquitens. Tagge ISD-Kuat, Onager SD, Gozanti, Mauler, Cienna & 2 TIE Int. Aggate MC80A, Pelta, GR75, Jan, Wedge, Biggs, Nora, Gold, H6, 2 X-Wing. The list did very well, even against the massive bomber list in the final. I lost 3 Hammers and a CR90 in that game but killed the MC80 turn 3, rammed the flotilla to death with three ships on turn 4 then hunted down the Pelta for a turn 6 tabling. Leia was excellent when concentrating fire. The occasional navigate used both the dial & token effects and on one occasion I repaired a crit on the flagship using those 3 repair points. I have thought about switching to Cracken to save on incoming fire.

Been a while since I posted a fleet so this is what I've been using recently. I went for a balanced 5 ship medium fighter force and was pleasantly surprised with how it works. I've fought against GAR big ship. GAR 2 ship super carrier and Agate Starhawk-II 120+ 2 flotillas. Against @Jammers and his Starhawk list it was his Surprise Attack mission when I took 3 turns to get over to him and clear all the raid tokens then this list killed probably the most defensive Starhawk build possible. Double brace, double Salvo (LFC), double redirect, Waylex & Expert Shield Tech. We arranged a deadly horseshoe around the hawk and kept on throwing in the small volleys and a few ARC170 shots when I could get past the fighter screen after being overlapped. Anyway on to the list... 399/400, Surprise Attack, Contested Outpost, Solar Corona. Consular C70 45 80 Obi-Wan Kenobi 28 Linked Turbolaser Towers 7 Consular Armed Cruiser 37 41 External Racks 4 Acclamator-I 66 86 Flight Controllers 6 Expanded hangar Bay 5 Boosted Comms 4 Nevoota Bee 5 Pelta Medical 49 55 Reserve Hangar Deck 3 Fighter Coordination team 3 Pelta Transport 45 54 Projection Experts 6 Parts Resupply 3 2 V-19 Torrents 24 83/134 2 ARC-170s 30 1 Y-Wing 10 Anakin Skywalker 19

Never used to use it on larger ships but the new requirements to CF to activate Gunnery Teams or Mon Karren mean it gets plotted more. Vanto/Wulff/Munitions resupply can help out here as can Tarkin or Garm as commanders. Ravager and Krennic of course need to do it most of the time to justify spending the points on them.

With 2 VSDs, made even slower by the wish to keep the QBTs working, do you think you will get lots of opportunities to get obscured shots for Romodi? Your opponent will be placing his 3 obstacles way out of the way and you don't have a large bid for second player.

For the CIS I am really liking Tikkes. Gives you any token as long as you set your command the same as you revealed this turn. As long as you are planning on using the same command for most of the game he is fantastic. Great on Carriers or repairing Projection experts ships or to fuel Intensify fire or AFFM most of the game. If you are using Trench as your commander the token can be boosted further. Compare his (its) cost to Reymus, Grint, Wulff, Vanto and relish those savings. I have used Tikkes on a Providence carrier to fuel IF. It banks a Nav token turn one and takes a CF token for IF every turn form turn 2. Also good on a Recusant SD with Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms, Expanded Hangar and LTT. This ship is a dedicated carrier so plotting 5-6 Squad commands is fine and Tikkes can get you either a Squad repair or Nav token as needed.

Our Gaming club and FLGS have 6x4' tables (MDF sheet on top of trestles). To play at home I have two 3x3 MDF boards to go on the kitchen table. Deepcut studios mat goes on top of these. Ship & upgrade cards have to go in the deployment area.

For the Imperials, Admiral Titus is so often my man of the match. 2 points to change the speed of an enemy ship at the start of the game. It is so useful especially on carrier fleets or ships that CF or repair all the time to fuel GTs, IF, ECM, Proj Experts etc. These guys so often only have only a turn one nav dial to last them all game and Titus screws with them. Secondly you can choke him out with no cost - using officer Axphyxa-Vader. For Rebels it has to be Gold Squadron. 12 points for a non heavy 2 blue dice bomber with 6 hull is a bargain. The poor Imps have to pay 6 more points for a Firespray getting 1 Anti squad dice and rogue for that increase.

They could release the ships from CW starter sets as individual packs if they are short of designer's time. Throw in a couple of new unique upgrades and a few of the more popular upgrades from wave 1-8. A Clonewars Rascals & Republicans (CW R&V equivalent) pack would be nice too.

I don't really see a problem with it. The range three deployment donut gives a huge area where your placed squadrons can engage enemies. Put one at the furthest point and you can engage up to about 10mm further out than distance 4. Place one as close as possible then measure inwards towards the ship by engagement distance 1 and then place an enemy squadron touching your ship. There is only about a 12mm gap. Not that much space for enemies to "jump the donut". But then with speed 4 or 5 fighters onboard Invisible Hand, why do you need to spend points to place them like this when they are fast enough to be anywhere defending your ship with only a little planning.

I like it. I don't think you need Triumphant as Nevoota has Boosted Comms and with only 2 ships it shouldn't be going off too far from the flagship. Flight commander makes sense on the Venator but again Boosted comms means you dont really need it on Nevoota. You have a lot of fighters and double flight controllers so not that many fleets will get squads through to black flak range for The Ordnance pods to be vital. External racks are a nice punch against ships and can still victimize a close in squadron if you feel the need, especially fun with LTT adding 2 more flak dice.

My GAR fleet went for 4 Deltas, Anakin and 3 ARC-170s. I'm not that keen on the other GAR aces apart from Luminaria obscuring torrents but she was my fleet commander so I went for generic Deltas. For a CIS fighter build I'm liking 6 Tri Fighters and 6 Hyenas for 132 points but commanding them becomes problematic and mixing in a few aces to keep to 10 squads was better. For a smaller squadron force 4 Tris and 2 Hyenas works fine. Rebels and Imperials; I like many of the aces so usually include 2-4. Shara/Tycho and Valen/Cienna as a minimum fighter force. At the other end of the spectrum a Sloane 134 list of Maarek, Jendon, Black Sqn and 6xTIE-Ps is a little more ace light than often seen but the Phantoms do crack ships very quickly.

Missions look good so you don't really need a large bid. If the enemy have a lot of fighters you will need to win the squadron battle quickly so a set of flight controllers will help.

UK lockdown rules eased today and our local gaming club is opening tonight. This will be my first face to face game in six months so I am taking the CIS out for the first time. No recusants available yet so I won't go for Mar Tuuk just yet. But in compensation, with a cheaper commander like Grievous, I get a Reserve Hangar and 2 of the Vultures upgraded to Tri-fighters. 400/400, Surprise Attack, Planetary Ion Cannon, Hyperspace Migration. Providence Carrier 71 112 General Grievous 20 Thermal Shields 5 Linked Turbolaser Towers 7 External Racks 4 Tikkes 2 MS1 Ion Cannons 2 Intensify Fire 6 Munificent Star Frigate 73 88 Thermal Shields 5 Linked Turbolaser Towers 7 Auxiliary Shield Team 3 Hardcell Battle Refit 52 67 Thermal Shields 5 Turbolaser Reroute Circuit 7 Reserve Hangar Deck 3 Hardcell Transport 47 56 Beast Of Burden 6 Munitions Resupply 3 2 Trifighters 22 38 2 Vultures 16 Edit. Post-game action report. The game was playing my Hyperspace Migration against... Starhawk 2, Agate, Unity, LFC, Waylex, Expert Shield Tech, LTT, IC Batteries, Magnite Crystals MC30-T, Admonition, ACM, OE GR75-T, BCC. Jan, Wedge, Dutch, Gold Squadron, Green Squadron. I deployed in my right corner, speed 2, travelling in the same direction as the space slugs. Enemy flotilla in the center, Starhawk closer to me and admonition further away coming in fast to meet my convoy head on. All his ships at max speed. Turn 1. I send the Combat hardcell to its right to come around the flank of the starhawk. Rest of my convoy keeps formation as the rebels approach. Turn 2. Munificent double arcs admonition at long range. Prov shoots it with 2 red and my fighters try and attack it while the enemy squadrons are too far away but for only 1 damage. TRC and the other hardcell and the flank arc from the providence strip 6 shields from the starhawk who salvos the Hardcell Combat twice and turns away from it towards my bigger ships doing 2 damage to a vulture with an LTT. Turn 3 Admonition is double arced and I expected him to activate it first but no his Gozanti sends three squads in to kill 2 fighters. Munificent double shoots admonition and slows to avoid getting double arced. Starhawk shoots my flagship and the combat Hardcell now behind him and Mag slows it to speed 2. I shoot Admonition with Salvo killing it with a lucky structural damage crit. Other ships shoot the starhawk and I ram a Hardcell transport into my flagship to keep it double arcing the hawk, then I mess up and ram my Providence into the Munificent. My salvos and External racks and double arcing get 4 hull damage on the hawk and only a strong opposite flank shield remaining. Turn 4 my flagship dies from bombers and the starhawk double arc. My salvo and the long range CF TRC shot to its rear and the double arc from the transport hardcell and a flank shot from the Munificent just kills it. The game ends after Wedge kills my last Vulture. I only had 60 points from the Purgils as the enemy fast approach and the Mag Crystals would stop the convoy so I had to abandon the space slugs and deal with the ships. Grievous did nothing for me all game and the squadrons were a speed bump for one turn only killing nothing. Reserve hangar deck was too far away and I'll move that onto the flagship. Beast of burden was fantastic enabling my bigger ships a second use of defense tokens to use against the double salvo of the hawk.

We have Peltas and Invisible Hand in the UK. Venators next week and Recusants.... next month maybe.

Princess Leia waded through a garbage compactor then paused their escape for a quick service wash and tumble dry, before diving (under fire) onto the Millennium Falcon.

PDICs and SW7s take up the same slot. Have any ships got double ion cannon upgrade slots? SW7s got a slight improvement as the ever popular leading shots has a point increase. Thermal Shields and Barris spend their defense tokens before accuracies can be spent so SW7s can get you some use out of accuracies in this situation.

I'm a little concerned with Thermal shields. ECM is usually used to protect a brace from a large volley. Yes you can use it for other things like salvo or an evade, but if the enemy have a big volley available to them in this turn players will often save their ECM until it happens. ECM was powerful but now is fine as it has an un-exhaust cost of a repair token. Thermal shields has a similar effect to Brace + ECM. It goes off before accuracies can lock down a brace. It halves the damage by halving the initial dice, but then extra dice added later (Ackbar, E-Rax, CF, QBT, Slaved Turrets) will not be included in this reduction. It is cheaper than ECM, it isn't an exhaust an you don't have to spend a repair token to use it again. Thermals can also be used to eliminate colors that can crit you such as being shot by an ISD-II of 4 Red + 4 Blue. Eliminate the 4 blue and hey presto no Heavy Ion Crit or eliminate the 4 red and no LTT or Krennic reroll. Lastly your brace with thermal shields is immune to commander Palpataine declaring the brace as a use-it and loose-it this turn. If thermal Shields were an exhaust, even with an auto recover, they would be fine and balanced. I would be happy to take them and go against them. However with Clone wars commander Grievous and particularly Luminara the Thermal shields can be used several times a turn.

My biggest game was 1000 points a side with only a single commander. I was up against Ackbar, 3xMC80, AFFM Pelta, AF-II, MC30, TRC90, GR75 & 220 points of squads. I went for something like SSD-AP, Jerjerrod, GT, LTT, QBT, OL Pulse, LS, Palpatane, Brunson, Intel Officer. Cymoon, GT, LTT, Vanto, Intensify Fire. Cymoon, GT, LTT, SFO. Arquitens Light Cruiser, TRC, Needa. Arquitens Light Cruiser, TRC. Arquitens Light Cruiser, TRC. Arquitens Light Cruiser, DTT, Hand of Justice. Gozanti, Comms Net. Gozanti, Vector. Howlrunner, Mauler, Valen, Dengar, 4 TIE Interceptors, Black Squadron. Turn 2 the Rebels did an AFFM alpha strike with 14 squadrons killing an Arquitens and 3 squads. In reply the SSD flakked the lot with LTT & LS rerolls and it was devastating then my surviving squads piled in and added to the hurt. Later on GT SSD shots with OL Pulse makes ECM MC80s panic and stops them firing at the flagship because of Palpatane. At 1000 points Armada is definitely a red dice game. Intensify fire was so useful and with so much long range fire you can eliminate whichever target you feel threatens you most unless it turns and runs from the battle. Any way the SSD did go down in the end but we killed all the MC cruisers and the 2 mega flak shots meant the fighter forces fought each other to a standstill.