The MC80 Liberty is being escorted by a squadron screen that will be the best of both worlds in Armada: capital ship power and fighter superiority!
Defenders of Liberty: Star Wars Armada Tactics
The MC80 is the jack of all trades when it comes to large ships for the Rebels. This ship looks like it wants to be a Star Destroyer, but its defenses would tell you otherwise. This large ship is more suited for taking down medium to small ships with its impressive forward arc. Past that, its side arcs suffer from lack of damage output and defenses.
But if you build it right, the MC80 Battle Cruiser will serve any Rebel Admiral quite well.
Garm Bel Iblis is a brilliant tactician that lends command tokens to your ships. At the start of the first and fifth rounds, each friendly ship may gain a number of tokens equal to its command value. This favors ships with large command stacks, and the MC80 has a command value of 3. This can start your games off with a full stack of command tokens at your disposal.
The Liberty title takes advantage of command tokens by doubling down on squadrons commands. If you spent a squadron token, you may activate an additional squadron. Since you normally get only 1, adding 2 squadron activations with 1 token can boost the MC80 up to squadron 4. That’s ISD territory!
Since the MC80 is already fully capable of defending itself, a bomber screen isn’t necessary as an escort to the MC80-. Being led by Biggs, your squadrons can tough out their battle, keeping Imperial aces and fighters off of your Liberty.
Before a friendly squadron with Escort at distance 1 suffers damage from an attack, reduce the total damage by 1, then choose a friendly squadron with Escort at distance 1 to suffer damage. This spreads the damage love around, keeping your squadrons in the fight longer. A squadron with even 1 hull remaining can tie down and destroy enemy fighters.
The YT-1300 is the perfect companion to accompany Biggs. Having Escort itself, these beefy 7 hull squadrons can weather the storm and dish it back out with their Counter 1. Their speed of 2 can be a problem unless they are escorting their best friend: the B-WIng.
Ten Numb is the perfect follow up to finish off enemy fighters that have tangled with your YT-1300s and Biggs. Ten is more suited for squadron on squadron action with his attack of 2 blue and 1 black die, but his special ability can eliminate whole squads.
While attacking a squadron, Ten may spend 1 blue die with a crit icon; then each other enemy squadron at distance 1 of the defender suffers 1 damage. This is great for finishing of Imperial Aces as this denies them their usage of Scatter.
Your Escorts fight it out, and Ten Numb cleans up. What a brilliant team for the Rebels!