1 minute ago, phelgon said:

The update for Major Rhymer... Does this make sense? Can't squadrons already only use their battery armament at close range to attack ships? When would this not include all dice at close range?

I'm just a little confused, I've never used this card (and had to look up what 'battery armament' was).

Squadrons can normally only shoot ships or engaged squadrons at Range one. Rhymer will now allow you use it at close range which is longer.

1 minute ago, phelgon said:

The update for Major Rhymer... Does this make sense? Can't squadrons already only use their battery armament at close range to attack ships? When would this not include all dice at close range?

I'm just a little confused, I've never used this card (and had to look up what 'battery armament' was).

Squadrons attack at "Distance 1" normally.

Whereas Rhymer allows them to attack at "Close Range".

Opposite sides of the Cardboard Ruler.

"Close Range" is very close to be equivelant of being Distance 1-2.

"Close-Medium" Range as it was before, is close to being equivelant to Distance 1-3.

Ahhh! Thanks, we had been playing it incorrectly this whole time. (Though, more often than not, the squadrons ended up base to base with ships due to the ships running into them/overlapping).

I googled, I searched the forum, but I've only seen this commented on in various posts, blogs, etc and can't figure out exactly the right answer.

Anyway, What does "out activated" mean and why is a negative thing?

thanks!

3 minutes ago, K-2SO said:

I googled, I searched the forum, but I've only seen this commented on in various posts, blogs, etc and can't figure out exactly the right answer.

Anyway, What does "out activated" mean and why is a negative thing?

thanks!

Out activated means the enemy has more ship activations than you, and it's a bad thing because they can activate unimportant ships, usually flotillas, and so wait to move their heavy hitters until after you have moved yours, gaining a positional advantage, as they know what you are doing and can react accordingly. This has become a little less bad lately, due to wave six shenanigans.

Ah, that makes sense. I had a feeling it meant having less ships, but then i couldn't figure out why FF would discourage those wanting to use multiple large ships in their fleet. This sort negates a whole strategy, no?

So does this mean you should always max out on squads or do they not count as "ships" for this purpose?

Just now, K-2SO said:

Ah, that makes sense. I had a feeling it meant having less ships, but then i couldn't figure out why FF would discourage those wanting to use multiple large ships in their fleet. This sort negates a whole strategy, no? So does this mean you always have to have to max out on squads or do they not count as "ships"?

squads don't count as ships, out activated refers to the ship phase only, when you finish your activations and your enemy still has them, basically imagine that you are second, and want to get to close range, but your ship is relatively fragile, the enemy can activate other unimportant ships until you NEED to activate the ship, you can't shoot at close, and your movement ends close to the other ship, who can then activate, shoot you at close and move away from your close range again, and if he is the 1st player, he'll want to get further away, or simply shoot you again before you can activate your ship and get a good damage through

1 minute ago, K-2SO said:

So does this mean you should always max out on squads or do they not count as "ships" for this purpose?

Not quite.

For initial deployment, yes, every 2 squads are equivalent to 1 ship.

But after that, all ships activate first, then all* squadrons - so only the number of actual ships matters for determining who gets to shoot at whom.

* ships can use Squadron commands to activate some squadrons early, but this happens during their own activation, and does not add an extra one or change the activation order.

7 minutes ago, K-2SO said:

...I couldn't figure out why FF would discourage those wanting to use multiple large ships in their fleet.

They don't, but the value of activation advantage (as described by Visovics above) is an inevitable consequence of the shoot-then-move mechanic of Armada.

The early stages of the game were dominated by "MSU" (multiple-small-unit) lists, which could press this advantage to stay out of reach of bigger but less numerous opponents. Then Flotillas (very cheap ships with supposedly limited utility) were introduced to allow lists with 1 or 2 heavy hitters to still have a reasonable number of activations. Except flotillas turned out to be too good... so further changes were introduced.

Right now we seem to be at the sweetest spot, where many build archetypes are viable and tournaments are won by 3- and 7-activation lists alike.

I think I got it. That's a lot to think about! This is why I'm hesitant to try the game in Vassal first, though. So many nuisances compared to CCGs (which my background is in) combined with learning the Vassal interface seems really overwhelming. For comparison, I only picked up Destiny 2 weeks ago and I'm good. I could play a game against a seasoned opponent, would probably lose, but I could make it through without annoying the other player. I feel like I would be a burden in this case.

Thank you all for the clarification. I appreciate it.

You may feel you are a burden.

Don't

Here's the thing about Armada: It is a deep, contemplative game. You have to be able to make long term decisions, turns in advance, and then have the patience to sit through and see how they unfold, with minimum ability to directly modify them on the fly.

This makes Armada a game that's really hard to theory-craft.

The only way you will get better, is to Practice.

The only way you will Practice, is to go for it .

People on Vassal - and, well, Armada players in general... know this .

The vast majority won't begrudge a long, slow, stutterful game, when it is serving the purpose of getting you playing . Of getting you practicing ... because that is the only way you will grow, improve, mature, and become a regular opponent.

And we're all about having regular opponents.

So just make it known that, that is what you are doing - and go from there. The only person who is going to begrudge you is you, and you're going to have to get over that fast

Well alright then, if you insist!

Seriously, though, that's encouraging. Thank you.

I actually started watching GreenKnights Vassal Tutorials. Its a lot to take in, but I'll manage, I suppose.

I'm just gonna take some time to get more familiar with the rules and cards first, then I'll give it a go.

48 minutes ago, K-2SO said:

Well alright then, if you insist!

Seriously, though, that's encouraging. Thank you.

I actually started watching GreenKnights Vassal Tutorials. Its a lot to take in, but I'll manage, I suppose.

I'm just gonna take some time to get more familiar with the rules and cards first, then I'll give it a go.

Best ways to start are to go light on upgrades for the first few games - it can be hard to keep track on what you have! (I forget to use cards all the time)

Or go with a smaller game, I saw a 200 point game that was introductory, and it was 1 ship per side with a few squads (rebels had an MC80 with a few upgrades and Han Solo, imps had a Vic with Dominator a few upgrades and a few TIEs)

3 hours ago, K-2SO said:

Well alright then, if you insist!

Seriously, though, that's encouraging. Thank you.

I actually started watching GreenKnights Vassal Tutorials. Its a lot to take in, but I'll manage, I suppose.

I'm just gonna take some time to get more familiar with the rules and cards first, then I'll give it a go.

The plan is to also create some gameplay tutorials, using vassal.

Do friendly hull zones obstruct?

1 minute ago, toyoda said:

Do friendly hull zones obstruct?

The attacking ship's own hull zone neither blocks (no shot) nor obstructs (-1 die) line of sight.

Any other ships, friendly or not, do obstruct (-1 die) line of sight, but do not block (no shot) line of sight.

Other hull zones on the target ship block line of sight.

RRG pg 7 LINE OF SIGHT

• If line of sight is traced through a hull zone on the defender that is not the defending zone, the attacker does not have line of sight and must choose another target.

• If line of sight is traced through an obstacle token or through a ship that is not the attacker or defender, the attack is obstructed.

• The attacker’s hull zones do not block his line of sight.

Can someone explain flotilla ramming?

1 minute ago, toyoda said:

Can someone explain flotilla ramming?

Flotilla overlaps a flotilla - both take a damage card.

Ship overlaps a flotilla, or flotilla overlaps a ship - only the flotilla takes a damage card.

How is the damage from Wide-Area barrage assigned, in regards to the splash damage? If the splash damage recipient is a ship, does it get to use tokens to reduce this damage, and does this ship take it as shield damage or just straight facedown damage cards dealt?

On 3/17/2018 at 7:59 AM, skateboardjesus said:

If the splash damage recipient is a ship, does it get to use tokens to reduce this damage

No. You may only use defense tokens when you are the defender against an attack. The recipient is not the defender. This applies to squadrons with defense tokens as well.

On 3/17/2018 at 7:59 AM, skateboardjesus said:

does this ship take it as shield damage or just straight facedown damage cards dealt?

WAB says the target "suffers damage".

Quote

When a ship suffers damage, it suffers that damage one point at a time. For each point, reduce the shields in the defending hull zone by one. If the defending hull zone has no shields to lose, deal a facedown damage card to the ship instead.

Quote

When a ship suffers damage and a hull zone isn’t specified, the ship’s owner chooses which hull zone suffers all of that damage.

So the owner of the ship suffering damage designates the hull zone that suffers damage, and then that hull zone suffers the damage one point at a time. If there are shields on that hull zone, those are depleted first, followed by hull.

So as I read it the secondary target takes damage equal to half the hit icons on the die in the attack pool and not the roll result?

10 minutes ago, Vetnor said:

So as I read it the secondary target takes damage equal to half the hit icons on the die in the attack pool and not the roll result?

How would this be different?

9 hours ago, Kendraam said:

How would this be different?

You could roll all blanks and a hit crit so the WAB damage would be 1.

But you could have 4 hit icons in the attack pool so the WAB damage would be 2.

Essentially, you look at what the dice are showing at the moment the Critical Effect goes off .

What you had on dice before that point is irrelevant.

The attack pool is what you have gathered, rolled and modified.

All you are doing, is counting HIT symbols across Black dice, which are showing at the moment you resolve the critical effect (which means that WAB damage is a Minimum of one, since you require a HIT/CRIT to trigger the **** thing in the first place), and then halving it, rounding up...

Guys, Sorry if it has already been asked. Where do I find the rulling on the effect of the contain defende token?