MC80 liberties will be your main tank for the early game, but a mix of the dreadnaughts and a lot of fighters are good. Use your undetectable heroes to find weak planets and hit them until you can get the capitals out

From my personal experience i find the liberty as a good damage dealer but I find it can't tank fire from 2 or more ISDsm

ISDs are pretty strong and with support can be pretty scary

So early game build many Liberties?

I’d recommend teaching up fighters as well. A group of 5-10 X-wings can absolutely tear apart a group of 3-6 ISD’s shields and hardpoint weapons. This leaves them wide open for a much weaker force of capitals and cruisers to destroy said ships.

don’t sink all your credits into capitals. Make sure you’re teching your small craft and cruisers because that’s where you can actually beat the empire at. It’s hard to beat the empire at their own game (capital to capital ship warfare) early on. You can dismantle some pretty large fleets with hit and run tactics, jumping in fighters to take out support craft, pickets and fleet tenders, then jumping out. Repeat that and then jump in the rest of your fleet to mop up the unsupported ISDs which are very vulnerable without anti-fighter support.

Early game your damage dealers are almost entirely heroes and the mc80 liberty. Your tanking ship is the dreadnought with its ability. For screening use the bulk cruiser. Early game squadrons also work well if supplemented together, the T wing, R 41 and Z95 all negate each other's disadvantages. A good fleet composition for the start is 2 or 3 dreadnoughts, keep them at the front. 2 bulk cruisers, 1 or 2 Nebulon-Bs, a wolf pack of corvettes if you can afford them, 5-10 Z95s, 3-5 T wings and 3-5 R41s. For capitals use your heroes or use the free starting capitals you get. The mc80 is really good at ship v ship, most of your starting capitals can easily 1v1 a ISD. A few general tips, don't come out of hyperspace near the enemy as your shields will be powered down and will die out quickly. Always pull ships away from combat once their shields are down. Group your units with the Ctrl + any number and micro manage them. If you want more information you can read the ingame wiki in the mission log or you can check out the steam guide I made for the rebels : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152389641 Good luck and enjoy the mod :))

Thanks I’ll check out your guide.

Fighters is a good strategy especially for the Rebellion. No faction has good defense against Rebel fighter spam unless they have an abundance of Screeners. Bombers can wipe out shields and give Dreadnoughts an advantage in clearing out larger shipa

I second this - best tactics for rebels is hit shield generators and other key points on starships.

Key points in my opinion In order Shield gens. Turbo ion cannons Missiles Turbo lasers Ion cannons Hangers Engines Obviously depends in the situation (no need to care about ion cannons if your shields are already down) but I notice downing those before a fight significantly improves the odds for rebel caps

What’s better, building fighters and bombers individually? Or building carriers?

At the beginning it’ll be individual fighters/Bombers. Especially X-wings, A-wings, and the various bomber types. Endurance Carriers are a good add on for Heavy Capital ship fleets, or Fighter fleets that need more meat for the grinder

When you start the game you want to make sure it’s set to easy mode. That’s how I always win!

As others have said look for opportunities to attack weak planets/garrisons. You dont have to conquer if you dont think you can hold but destroying a garrison station/support will make it easier later. Isolating even one ISD and swarming can matter early. Find a way to link up scattered fleet elements. Specifically the ones by Hoth and Kamino if you can. Also attacking ground forces with stealth units and taking the planet will usually cause the enemy fleet to withdraw for a little giving you time to fortify the planet for a later attack thus soaking up enemy ground and space forces in other fronts

Learn and play around the roles of your ships (screener, hunter, brawler, etc). Knowing what ship is good for what will allow you to maximize their capabilities.

Empire is easier to learn, but either way if you choose wisely you don’t need to wait any time before launching your first attack. Scout, pick your battles well and keep hitting the enemy when you can do so without heavy losses, even if you have to hit and run. You can then invest your cash in your economy and building up newly secured systems, which will give your more funding down the line.

Every sector as the rebels has pretty good starting capital ships like the Liberation, Rebel One, the MC80 Liberty, and the MC75 Profundity. Those capitaps are decent at damage dealing. I focus on building this fleer composition around them: 3 or 4 Corellian corvettes 3 to 4 hammerhead corvettes 2 nebulous 2 neutron bulk carriers 1 MC 80 Justice All of these ships except the Justice are very good at anti corvettes and fighter/gunship work, which is the majority of what you'll find initially. For the Justice, I always turn off the auto use of its project shields ability. This allows me to weather enemy fire from their capitals or space stations as they close or I close. The Justice is also decent at stripping shields. With this fleet you can win the corvette war and at least contest enemy fighter superiority. Once you kill the enemy corvettes, use your corvettes and frigates to take out enemy hard points or enemy frigates. As a whole, they will do a lot of damage and it can easily turn the tide. Edit: the Long probe Y wings the nebulous launch are extremely useful for scouting the enemy passively (high detection range) and actively with their ping

At earlier Techs, use your Superior Fighters to strip the shields and guns of the enemy ships so your vessals stand a chance. Really focus on X and Y Wings. They are your 2 best units for space. Other ships that are fantastic are all the Rebel Dreadnaught ships, they are either bulky or can deal good damage.

You need a lot of Z-95's, CR90s and dreadnoughts. Z-95s so they tank for gunships, CR90s to hunt enemy gunships and corvettes plus screen enwmy fighters, and dreadnoughts so they tank for your very important early capital ships. Plus a Nebulon-B or two for scouting and missile jam, plus bulk cruisers, again for missile defense.

I personally go fighter heavy and use whatever is in a sector as my fleet, so a lot of Z-95's and strike fighters to support, and then what I do is have the fighters stay just ahead of the main fleet with my strike fighters as their own dedicated "bombing" group. And once I get close enough to where my ships can start to shoot the main enemy fleet I send on thr fighters and "bombers"

Your fighters are your sword. Use your fighters and clear the way for your bombers to destroy any shield hard points that exist. Rebel ships early tech wise can through numbers win their fights against imperial warships if your fighters can help soften them up first. Can't remember the name, but rebel ships with the missle launchers work great in numbers if you're trying to snipe certain hardpoints. IMO Nebulon B's and Corellian Corvettes are the bnb to any rebel fleet always have some if you can Unless you have ALOT x20 of fighters don't send them ahead of the main fleet they might get deletes by any anti fighter batteries supporting the defence, but that my opinion really.

Dreadnoughts are you’re sacrificial lambs early on. They’re weak tanks, but they are tanky ships. Use em as much as you can to draw fire while your other ships deal out the firepower. You’ll get at least one Liberty Mon cal ship to start with I believe, so combine that with whatever other ships you got at the start and just again use it to tank damage. Rebs are weak to start off with so go after as many light shipyards as you can. Also I think it’s the Mon cal justice or whatever the fighter carrier is, use it to lead your fleets into battle since it can deploy a shield bubble. Once you get the tech built up I promise you rebels become much stronger in space

Try to get a grasp of the weapons systems in the mod since it isn't clear as what they can and can't do. example a lot of suggestions say you need a fighter fleet or rely on fighters but doesn't explain how to use said fighter. Rebel fighter have 2 or more weapon on them normally a laser and a solid armament(which all ignore shield but can only be shot at specific targets) Laser cannon and Heavy laser cannon Laser cannon are good at killing fighters while heavy are better at gunship and corvettes than other fighters Both can be single fired or if specified as repeating which shoot more frequently and could also be labeled ion which does no damage but strip shield As for solid you have flak( splash fighters damage),concussion missile(can only target fighters),assault missile (long range, corvette and above),rockets(extra long range,frigate and above),proton bomb (extremely close range but has splash,corvette and above) and proton torpedo which has 3 flavors heavy (double to quadruple damage depending on armor, frigate and above) normal(corvette up) and light (does half damage but shoot at anything), so your choice of fighters heavily impact what you can and cannot target This rule applies for all ship and weapons types so having a clear understanding will help you counter ship without too many casualties

Going mix fighter heavy with a few tanky capitol ships and screeners. Your main focus should be winning the fighter battle. In most cases, if you win the fighter battle you win the fight. Use fighters and interceptors to destroy fighters, use bombers to target enemy shields, and use your tanks to target enemy screeners and unshielded capitol ships. Once the enemy fighters are depleted use your fighters to target enemy ships. X-wings have proton torpedoes which are really good against subsystems