Armada - A Good Starhawk Build?

imperial player here, if I played rebels I'd be going double Starhawk every time.

Well, that is a very different build. Another use for the superweapon is to increase an enemy ship speed to bump on your Starhawk to trigger your cards as well. But for your list to work, I think you can't wait much to deploy your MC-80, you will need to drop it fast so you can have as many turns as possible shoting with both ships. Your Starhawk unfortunately is not tanky (cuz of no double Brace and Redirect and other damage reduce cards) and it won't survive for long time alone. One of the GR-75 should have Reapair Crews. Althought I liked the offensive power you brought on both ships, but I am worryed about how long the Starhawk can survive if you don't drop MC-80 fast, so it feels risky.

I like the speed zero shenanigans when I’m actually able to pull it off.

nice build!

Waiting for a game with this list.

Interesting Build I hope we get to see a Batrep of it soon!

I do love the Hawk, so I'm glad you found a good build for it.

When did this happen

starhawk nuff said

I'm not sure I like MK, OP and Intel Officer all being used across 2 ships looking to shoot the same target. This is looking for the MK to shoot first, trigger OP and set up a devastating punch from the Starhawk, which then renders Intel redundant when it works. Intel makes for good insurance if OP doesn't trigger but that's a lot of points for just insurance. If the MC80 isn't shooting before the starhawk then that's OP wasted as nothing else deals damage. MK allows the defender to only spend 1 defence token before all are exhausted, which is okay but still doesn't seem worthy of 8 points when OP is looking to exhaust them all tokens for the next shot anyway. It just feels like they work against each others full potential and all three are expensive upgrades totalling 23 points.

Not a big fan of the 3 activation list, played a tournament yesterday, lost an MC75 but a bunch Y-wings, few shots from the 75 and a pelta were enough to kill the Starhawk radus bomb.

Looks fun keep it up.

It looked like a tank but it's still tricky play and takes a subtle approach like most rebel ships, still a cool great ship

I love the ideas around the tractor beam...

Wow

So my starhawk list hasnt lost yet knocking on wood lol. Faced rebel starhawk as well as an imperial isd list if you want crabbock dont mind sharing it got a tournament coming up n if it keeps up hope to take it wish me luck guys.

Glad to see I might actually be able to use the Starhawk now lol !!

Thanks for the build idea

Barring something wrong, going to try it this week!

After logging some time with the Starhawk, I discovered its lack of a Defensive Retrofit isn't a problem if you put Agate (Commander) on the ship. 2 Braces are almost as good as ECM with one Brace because you could potentially use Brace twice in a round without having to discard one.

I have to disagree about putting HIE on the Starhawk Mk1 because IME that version needs its two blue dice for ACCURACY's, not blue crits. I battled two opponents who both equipped HIE on their Starhawks (one was a Mk2) and I recall they only used HIE once (and it was the Mk2) because once the SH gets into close-medium range, it's more important to block Brace and Redirects to get all that damage through than to use HIE to reduce extra shields.

Rather than equip Leading Shots, which would force you to discard a blue die for rerolls, I'd equip High-Capacity Ion Turbines, because it's relatively easy to double arc with the Starhawk, so you can use the extra blue die on the sides to shoot targets in front. You can use HCIT in your build because you don't have another Modification.

Although, I have to say that I think it's unfair that the Starhawk's MCTBA isn't a Mod, whereas the Onager's Superweapons are Mods, which means the OSD can't equip the more powerful Turbolaser upgrade cards, like Spinal Armament. Considering that the Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam IS a Mod, I can't imagine why the MCTBA isn't a Mod. That's a big advantage for the Starhawk.

If you insist on using HIE, I'd recommend H9 Turbolasers over LTT, to turn a red hit or crit into an accuracy, so blue accuracy's aren't as important.

Also, the combination of Intel Officer on the SH and Overload Pulse on the Liberty seems unnecessary IMO because an enemy ship will have to discard its OP'd defense tokens to use them, so what's the point of IO? It's only useful if your second attack is against a different ship -- like a flotilla (I agree IO is perfect for countering Scatter) -- but the Liberty has Gunnery Team and, as you said, Overload Pulse doesn't exhaust, so the Liberty can shoot 2 enemy ships with OP per round, decreasing the need for Intel Officer.

I'd take Agate (Officer) over IO, or Walex Blissex, or even Strategic Advisor. Or forget the SH's second officer slot and put Toryn Far on Bright Hope to give your shooting ships a blue reroll.

I like the synergy, I think repair crews will be more beneficial than comms imo though, slicer tools is a good idea for squadrons, would it maybe be worth dropping the comms net transport and bringing a few Z95s? They may not do much but they'll hopefully keep swarms away from the capital ships?

Haha, the starhawk is alive!

Really good Vids mate

Any insight into the health of FFG? Armada and XWing product has dried up in Plano TX. Been looking for the Huge Ship conversion for 2.0 since before Christmas. Missing thoer FFG products like Outer Rim also. My local store isn't small, they have thousands of board games, comics, etc. and an active league player base.

The hardest part about a Starhawk is going to be that maximum speed 2 for me. Going to be really tough against Onagers deployed across the board that just sit and shoot.

The first (and only) time I've played my Starhawk was a Raddus list with an MC-75 Ordnance cruiser.

See! Its not nearly as bad as you thought. I think this is a good build too.

Mehhhhhhh it’s basically a two ship raddus build.

Still looks good

That Liberty build is good for melting one small support ship and then taking a chunk out of an ISD.:)

Always fascinating to watch these videos.

but in this build, all the opponent's fire is going to your Starhawk meaning you will probably lose it.

Crabbok, if FFG came out with more rebel/empire waves for armada, what ships would you like to see?

I hope this works. If not, the Starhawk is just a slow, expensive, desk ordainment

Hmmm, haven’t considered that use for the tractor beam before...

I would love to get the starhawk

I don't think you sensationalized it. I just do think that it's good in limited views. Having to take Agate really limits it. Can it be good? Of course. Does it beat the MC80? Honestly, no.

I like how you have thought outside the box on this one to pull a workable build for, to my thinking, a limited use ship. I think the question is going to be does it play well or do opponents consistently go after the Starhawk hard in the beginning?

I’ve always found Lando to be a bit risky, but I guess so are defense tokens with all the ways to get past those. Nice build!

The Liberty setup is really nice.

I really think it needs a defensive slot. I don't think it's quite that bad but it's just not always worth the points

Glad you came around on the Starhawk.

I don't think you were unjustified in saying that you don't like the Starhawk, not having a defensive retrofit is a bit of a hamstring. But, the beauty of this game is that there is always a workaround, which I think is shown pretty well here. Cool to see the brute of the fleet carrying Raddus vs being the ship dropped in

Not sure if I agree with fully kitting the Starhawk like that. Will take some lucky stuff to counter losing the 220 pts when the Starhawk is exploded.

Cool!

Cmon baby, daddy needs a Pelta!

Nice

I'd like to try a Starhawk, the model looks awesome.

Overload Pulse does have more appeal now that we have 6 token monstrosities out there. If you double arc that gunnery team isn't doing much though.

I would also say that if you're planning for the starhawk to get shot up maybe trim stuff down and get the mark 2 and unity with an expert shield tech instead of Lando.

I'm curious what might change on the MC80 upgrades with the change to Gunnery Team.