Battle for Endor: Listbuilding pt. 3 - Rebel Mothma Squids

 

Mon Mothma... that's a name I haven't heard since Ard put the fear of the MC30 into me. IMO, the 2.0 version of MM is pretty irrelevant. Craken offers a more consistent damage reduction across the fleet, while Agate is better when you run a decked-out MC30.

The Mommy Mothma 3.0 (the ARC01 one) does have a redeeming feature, however: she can ECM your evade tokens, which makes her interesting on both double and single evade ships. You're still limited by your evade tokens; they are not limitless, but as long as they last, she'll get to actually use her ability to enhance your evades.

While she isn't overpowered in any sense of the word, she looks like she can be a bit annoying. A properly built MSU/rogue ball featuring Mommy M can be hard to get at, let alone score many points off. She's somewhat of a soft counter to nuScreed - though not at Close - and would make the overpriced Onagers even sadder than they already are.

Note: MC30s are squids, not shrimps. Anyone can see that. And the QUARREN GUNSHIP settles this once and for all - they are literally SQUIDS THEMSELVES!!!

How I Approach Listbuilding

Before diving into more fleets for the Battle for Endor event, here’s a quick look at how I personally approach listbuilding. I’m not claiming to be the most creative or the guy who breaks the meta every month—but after ten years of flying little plastic spaceships, I have a pretty solid feel for what works and what usually doesn’t.

1. Concept is key.
   Decide what you want your fleet to do—and how it’s going to do it. Everything else flows from that core idea.

2. Lean into synergies.
   Commanders, objectives, upgrades—if they make your list’s strong points stronger, you’re probably on the right track.

3. Don’t try to do everything.
   This is a 400-point game, not a “cover every base” simulator. Pick your strengths and focus there.

4. Know your weaknesses.
   Decide how you’re going to handle them: tweak the list, develop specific tactics, or just accept some bad matchups as part of the plan. But don’t overcomplicate this step—you can’t future-proof against everything.

5. Don’t sweat the last few points.
   Whether Bright Hope takes Jamming Field, Slicers, or Comms Net, all of them are the “correct” choice depending on how a game actually plays out. Make a call and move on (I will, of course, still fret).

6. Bidding is optional.
   I rarely bid unless I have a very specific reason. If I can get to 400 without sacrificing the concept, I do. It's just a personal preference.

7. Playtest.
   Armada has good and bad lists, but many “off-meta” builds can work with enough practice. Test against a wide variety of fleets—especially the ones you think will give you trouble.

8. Embrace the last-minute panic.
   Right before the event, second-guess everything, throw the list out, and take something that “feels right” despite minimal playtesting. This is the way.

Applying the concepts

For this list, I'm doing MM + double evades (and a scatter/evade Bright Hope, almost as annoying), and some rogues to screen me and provide some bombing support against squadless or squad light. The list does have some weaknesses, and I can already see both some 134-squad and all-ship lists that could give me trouble, or fleets with bigger rogue balls, but I'm confident that even the hard matchup will be hard-pressed to milk me for very many points.

I'd like a fifth ship, but then I must either sacrifice squads (nope) or drop a MC30 to another TRC90 (fine, but that's not a double squid list anymore, so no). EST + AP on Admo is semi-redundant, but they serve complementary functions, so I like this. Admo could easily be a torpedo frigate but this makes it a lot more obvious which ship will do what.

Things I could fret over: Whether to bring Slicers or not on BH. If the flagship should have Blast Doors. Is Toryn Farr worth it here, or is Hondo more useful? Why is there no Comms Net in this list? And so forth. But those are the minor changes that won't really make or break my list, so I should start playtesting instead.

Same with the objective selection. Infested or Volatile, for example. Volatile ties me down a bit, but fits well with Ion Storm. But again, better get playtesting and tweak the little stuff later.

Final words: While I think this is a promising MM list... It's not really the kind of list I enjoy playing the most. I prefer lists with a centerpiece ship + supporting ships & squadrons. So maybe if I could jam Amity into this 😅

### 400 points ###

Name: Yo Mothma

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Mon Mothma

Version: ARC01

Assault: Ion Storm

Defense: Asteroid Tactics

Navigation: Infested Fields

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)

• Mon Mothma (27)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reinforced Blast Doors (5) (optional)

• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Foresight (10)

= 131 Points

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Advanced Projectors (6)

• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Admonition (10)

= 105 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 56 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7) (or Hondo)

• Jamming Field (2) (or Comms Net or Slicer Tools)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 29 Points

Squadrons:

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Ketsu Onyo (22) (or Corran Horn for more AS)

= 79 Points

Total Points: 400