Here is my list with associated tactics that I like to use.

Ships:

Victory Star Destroyer: 73

Weapon's Liaison: 3

Gunnery Team: 7

Expanded Hanger Bay: 5

Assault Concussion Missiles: 7

Enhanced Armament: 10

105 total

Victory Star Destroyer: 73

Gunnery Team: 7

Expanded Hanger Bay: 5

Assault Concussion Missiles: 7

Wulff Yularen: 7

99 total

Squadrons:

Howlrunner: 16

10 TIE Fighters: 80

Objectives:

Minefields

Hyperspace Assault

Advanced Gunnery

300 total

Tactics:

Each objective is best with second player and due to having a maxed out 300 list I should usually be second player.

I personally like to start in a corner at speed 0 with the TIE's in the front. This forces the opponent to come to me. First turn is usually a Navigation for the token so that I can get to speed 1 when I need to, turn 2 is usually engineering and turn 3 is either a Squadron command or Concentrate fire depending on how close the enemy is.

Usually by turn 2 or 3 I will have activated the Navigation Tokens for each VSD to get them going so that they can use defense tokens.

Thoughts?

Illegal list, you need a fleet commander. IE, if playing core set only you must use Grand Moff Tarkin.

may be blind but I'm not seeing a commander in there (so the list is illegal )

personally, I wouldn't put much stock into buffing the Victory's firepower from the front. It's already got all it needs to bulldoze through rebel ships, the problem is that they're not going to sit still long enough to let you.

Assuming Tarkin, I'd never take a non-liason officer on a victory (they just cheat too hard!) and upgrades like the gunnery team/assault missiles seem very optimistic about getting your opponents in the proper arc and close range. Personally, I wouldn't count on it with the Victories (even with Tarkin) being that slow.

basically,

I need to test out my own ideas, but so far I'd advocate not spending much on a Victory 1 unless you need it to fling squadrons. The dang thing is pretty scary out the box and it doesn't need much help except on the sides. The Victory 2 might be a better bet to load upgrades onto, and I'd take a good long look at the dominator before any other damage upgrades.

Basically, shore up their weaknesses instead of emphasizing their strength with the Victory 2, liaisons, squadrons, and maybe EA being key cards. They're completely unrivaled from the front and will continue to be up till the ISD and Mon Cal, which they're pretty on par with, so they won't need any help there

Also you cannot start a game with speed 0. You must choose speed value available on the card.

So, I cant find the rule that states I need a commander. I have checked the Reference rules and the base book and I dont see it. [it must be due to the flagship rule. . . ]

As for speed 0 that is easy. First dial can always be navigate and drop me to 0 before the move.

I like the VSD 1 simply because of the missiles. Since I cant spend more then 100pts on fighters I needed the upgrades here and there.

Also you cannot start a game with speed 0. You must choose speed value available on the card.

I disagree, all ships have a minimum speed of 0 as per Speed in the Rules Reference page 11.

Under Flagship, pg 6 of the RR, you just have one. A flagship, according to the commander rules, is a ship with your commander on it.

Under setup, page 10, "When a player places a ship, he must set its speed dial to a speed available on its speed chart." Its possible to go 0, but it is not on your chart.

Also, I don't agree that liaisons are a must have. They are not a must have if you get your dial right every time, because if you plan right you save yourself 3 points per ship and don't waste command tokens.

you're not going to plan 3 turns in advance correctly every turn for every game

human error exists, and paying a mere 3 points for the ability to eliminate that is hilarious

it doesn't mean you just slot commands without thought, it just means that if you took a heftier attack than expected, if you need to change your facing, if you need to send ties screaming etc. and you couldn't forecast it three turns in advance, then Tarkin's got your back

I don't know about that. You are not just paying three points, you are also giving up an officer slot and a command token.

In virtually every competitive game, the key to recurring victory is seeing the future well. Also, your tactics should be making him react to you, not allowing yourself to be forced to react to him.

Under Flagship, pg 6 of the RR, you just have one. A flagship, according to the commander rules, is a ship with your commander on it.

Under setup, page 10, "When a player places a ship, he must set its speed dial to a speed available on its speed chart." Its possible to go 0, but it is not on your chart.

Also, I don't agree that liaisons are a must have. They are not a must have if you get your dial right every time, because if you plan right you save yourself 3 points per ship and don't waste command tokens.

0 is apart of the chart though, it is just global. Where as not every ship has 2-4. Even so, starting with Navigate allows me to set it to 0 anyways.

@ficklegreendice you are right, one is not always going to plan so far into the future. It is a judgement thing though.

Yea I found the flagship rule. I really need to take my time and go through the books a few more times! I just got the 2 core sets so I am still learning.

I don't know about that. You are not just paying three points, you are also giving up an officer slot and a command token.

In virtually every competitive game, the key to recurring victory is seeing the future well. Also, your tactics should be making him react to you, not allowing yourself to be forced to react to him.

and your opponent shouldn't be doing the same? what if you can only force him into two distinct decisions and have to react differently to each?

if your tactics are guaranteed to work/if you're clairvoyant, then there's not much point to playing, is there ?

the cost of the command token is negated handily by tarkin (especially since you'll be maxed out on tokens on turn 3, since you'll be keeping two on the first turn) and there's yet to be a officer that does anything close to turning your victory into a command 0 ship for the purposes of the command stack.

I first played Armada with Mike Gernes at GenCon last year. As we were playing I asked him, "so, if I am playing a Star Destroyer and somehow I managed to always have the dial I wanted, then my ship would be better for the points than a ship with less command dials, yes?" And he said yes, that followed. So, I have been ignoring liaisons because they seemed far less efficient than taking points towards inflicting more damage and mitigating the effects of blanks. By not relying on liaisons to get me out of a poor choice I have the tokens I banked with Tarkin to actually use - one is only 'maxed out on tokens' if one is not using them. The best situation would be to be using either a squadron or confire command and token every turn, so anything less than that is inefficient. Seems to be working.

But the forum, in its way, is aflame with the supposed no-brainer aspect of liaisons. So, tonight I took a liaison on each of my Victories. Yet, never needed either.

Objectives also play a role. If i am second player, he is generally going to be choosing from Advanced Gunnery, Minefields and Hyperspace. Since my opponents have learned that Hyper and Advanced are basically a dead rebel ship each, the better ones are choosing minefields, which help me in dictating the location of the battle. Where do the points come from to choose second player? Not taking damned liaisons...lol However, as always, YMMV.

I find it very hard to believe that anyone can claim to consistently outplay opponents especially when the victory's single greatest weakness, according to its design, is the complete lack of ability to effectively react to changing environments.

Thus far, the Victory is the only ship whose maneuverability options do not increase by changing its speed. The Neb and the corvette both get increased ability to tamper with the navigation tool at increased speeds (corvette being weird with speed 2 and 3 being the same) and have the ability to take Nav Teams to further enhance it. What this means is that a simple Nav token lets them react to far more situations than a victory's, which only changes its speed by one thanks to its chart.

Combined with other sources of flexibility such as the Neb b's anti-squadron armament and the X-wing's ability to more reliably harm capital ships, the rebels are simply much more capable of changing their plans on the fly than the imperials.

The victory's command 3 will give the rebel player a significant edge in positioning if he/she manages to guess upcoming commands (moving X-wings into position which can't be effectively threatened without a squadron command, concentrating firepower on a Victory which will be devastating if it doesn't pull up repairs, slipping into its crappy arcs if it doesn't navigate...)

With Tarkin and the liason, suddenly they have to deal with far more situations simultaneously at a given time because of the liason's ability and the resulting freedom to pick the commands that said liaison does not cover. X-wings can't approach for fear of the Weapon's Liason just shoving Ties down their throats, rebels lose a great deal of movement options with the threat of a navigation command actually giving the Victory some ability to swivel its arc, and the effects of concentrating fire can be far more easily dealt with given a repair command on demand. All of these options stacked with tokens store from previous turns (except the navigate token, since it does nothing with the command on a VSD) give you a ridiculous field presence and account for the Victory's #1 weakness (rigidity). For 3 points, imo its a steal.

Liasons do lose basically all of their luster without Tarkin (or the rebel mini-tarkin), though.

Well, I can tell you I have played about 20 games now, including two demos with the games producer and the rest a mix of 180 and 300 - exclusively as imperial and mostly against rebel.

I am primarily giving squadron commands in order to win the fighter battle. Its nearly impossible to win that battle if your opponent is using the command + token and you are not because he will pick the location of every fighter fight and shoot before those squadrons he picks to destroy. Its difficult but not impossible for the rebel to compete due to their low squadron values, but that is improved if they choose the escort frigate and keep their fighters nearby in the right firgate arcs. But to do that they still need to be giving squadron commands, which means they are not doing something else.

But that is not the point. The point is, I only have to see two turns into the future with a victory. What in the Outer Rim is a rebel going to shock me with so hard two turns from now that I cannot predict it? Nothing, and not because he is dumb - I play people just as smart as anyone including me. But because I am building a plan that uses the dials I gave my ships and then forcing him to react to what I am doing. Part of that, as I said, is objectives - which are a very cool aspect of this game.

There is no game - or real tactical situation - in which I want to be reacting to the enemy by choice. I am always seeking - whether in Armada or something else - to maneuver and fight in such a way that he can't make me do anything I do not want to do. The liaisons are hedgers - hedgers that take points, slots and tokens away. I'd rather spend those points, slots and tokens on stuff that kills rebels deader quicker. You, of course, are free to take liaisons all you like.

don't think of it as a reaction, although it can be when **** inevitably goes **** up

the liason gives you value even if you never use it by forcing your opponent's hand

rather than accounting for the possibility of one command, the possibility of one of three (at the player's discretion) will give you far more license to control their actions since you can force into various bad situations instead of just the one you qued up in advance

I find that there are times when I need to get rid of a token to make space for others. At least with Rebel ships I understand this well.

Just out of interest Perakkir, what other officers are you using in place of the liaisons? None of the ones around at the moment seemed particularly inspiring, or are you using wave 1 upgrades?

I think I sit somewhere between the two of you. I quite like having one weapons liaison in the fleet so that I can spam out fighter commands as soon as I need them – I find predicting exactly when the squadron engagements will occur is one of the harder timings to predict (especially when people start bluffing!), and getting a good alpha strike can be telling in that fight.

On the flip side its not too hard to predict roughly what is going to happen. Unless the rebels are pulling a lot of navigation commands they aren’t that hard to predict, and if they are pulling those commands they aren’t replenishing their shields/activating squadrons etc.. As a result while minor command errors may occur they haven’t been catastrophic yet (I have had a few repair commands on ships that don’t need it, and my squadron commands have been pulled out by a bluff before).

I don't use any officers yet. The cost in an officer slot isn't affecting me much as you are right, the choices are not good right now. But I can certainly put those six points to better use, and even more so, the command token.

I would much rather train myself to get the command dials always or nearly always right so that those 6 pts are never wasted and I always get the use out of the token I get every turn. So far, so good.

again, you never waste points on an upgrade just because you never technically use them

just having your opponent know you have ready access to basically any command of your choosing at any given activation will actively prevent them from employing aggressive tactics

this is especially the case with Weapon's Liason and a nearby group of ties. The opponent's X-wings are going to have a hell of a time setting up when the Ties can spring into action at a moment's notice, letting the Victory slot in other commands.

3 points and a free token are imo more than worth it to free up a command that has to come 3 rounds in advance and allow you to be more aggressive

First, we will have to agree to disagree about taking liaisons. We have each made our cases and it is up to gameplay to decide.

The reason I am replying is about the idea of playing aggressively being tied to liaisons. With that I disagree. I play very aggressively, as I believe my opponents would attest, especially with squadrons. In fact, they probably know that most of my command dials are squadron commands. They also know that I am flying in such a way that I am coming to put them in range to cause the maximum damage in the shortest amount of time.

The 10 point victory in a 180 tournament is at 151+ margin. That means it will be likely be around 251 in a 300 pt game. That means I will have to kill 251 more points of the enemy than he will kill of mine in six turns. The ONLY way to do that is aggressively, especially on a 6x3 where someone can turtle for six turns and be a ******.

The command dials are not some sort of surprise attack on the enemy. The right dial at a given moment is obvious. They are supposed to be a balancer – big slow ship with less reaction time. But, if you can make that not a reaction and instead a proaction, then that balancing factor goes away and you are left with a ship that is better for the points. That is what attracted me to this game in the first place.

Not trying to tangle with you dude. Just taking exception to the idea that it’s the liaisons that allow one to play aggressively. Hell, I’d play this game with the dials flipped over. I think if someone is trying to fool someone with their command dial choices, they might be missing something. But YMMV.

J

PS – food for thought. I don’t need a navigate command if I am already flying right. I don’t need a repair command if I am not taking damage at a rate that will lose me the game. I don’t need a concentrate fire token if I get enough dice to kill already. But you cannot *move* and shoot fighters in the same turn without a squadron command. It’s not like the others…

To address something else written in the OP, you say that you're maxed out at 300 points, and thus should be going second frequently. That's also a rule you might want to check up on.

The player with the lowest fleet total gets to choose who goes first. So, you may find yourself going first and having to choose from your opponent's objectives a lot.

Oh great I missed that. . . Hmmmmm makes 290 point builds important. . .

I love the liason with Tarkin. Particularly the weapons liason. I build it's use into my strategy. I can focus on navigate or repair options when I think I might need them knowing full well that I can strike at a moments notice if required. Can you live without it?.... sure, but the synergy between those cards is too exceptional to pass up. I want my fighters to pounce at the moment I need them to. Flexibility is always an asset. My 2 cents.