I don't see how "bombers" can be effective against ships. My last game was against Tarkin and 3 VSDs. I had 6 squadrons and the biggest problem was positioning my squadrons for an attack. WIthout a Squadron command they had to spend a round just MOVING, and not attacking.

Because of Tarkin, and the 4 engineering. I had to do more then 3 shields, or 2 damage, to gain anything. Luke is likely the most effective solo bomber in the game because of his black dice, brace defense token, and the ability to ignore shields.

By the end of round 6, one VSD had lost all it's shields, but had no damage. I just don't see how fighters can even take down a VSD by themselves.

I don't see how "bombers" can be effective against ships. My last game was against Tarkin and 3 VSDs. I had 6 squadrons and the biggest problem was positioning my squadrons for an attack. WIthout a Squadron command they had to spend a round just MOVING, and not attacking.

Because of Tarkin, and the 4 engineering. I had to do more then 3 shields, or 2 damage, to gain anything. Luke is likely the most effective solo bomber in the game because of his black dice, brace defense token, and the ability to ignore shields.

By the end of round 6, one VSD had lost all it's shields, but had no damage. I just don't see how fighters can even take down a VSD by themselves.

6 Sqaudrons versus 3 VSDs is not much, even further you lacked any command for the squadrons. So I think thats not how to attack a heavy fleet with bombers.

I don't see how "bombers" can be effective against ships. My last game was against Tarkin and 3 VSDs. I had 6 squadrons and the biggest problem was positioning my squadrons for an attack. WIthout a Squadron command they had to spend a round just MOVING, and not attacking.

That's the point. Squadrons need cap ship support to be effective, especially against ships - remember, Armada is a capital ship game with fighters, not the other way around. This primarily means using the Squadron command.

However, against big, slow ships, there is another way. Position your fighters in front of the ship, then you will get a 'free' move when the ship overlaps them during its move - you then place the fighters in front again and repeat this process.

That said, I 'sank' a Gladiator in a single pass with 2 B-wings, but I used Yavaris with a squadron command to do so. The ship had already been stripped of some critical defense tokens by my AF MkII, and the B-wings were already in range after his move. He couldn't hold his wad with his Demolisher and expanded launchers, and blew his attack roll on my frigate (2 Damage) . Typical Imperial move . In turn I got to attack twice with each B-wing and he was unhappy when I scored 7 damage.

So I can say that bombers have been working well. My next target is the suddenly popular Motti floating about on his VSD.

apart from extenuating circumstances (mainly imperial ships getting their ideal, closer range shots), you're going to want to combine your fire onto the same target so that it drops in a reasonable amount of rounds. Bombers can make up a significant portion of that damage, but there is very little in this game that will kill a repairing medium ship by itself

...apart from a medium ship blasting former medium ship into pieces.

two victories maybe,

two whales circling each other are going to take forever to die

Consider the following vs a VSD with no escorts.

Escort Neb, w/Adar Tallon, Yavaris and Luke and Keyan activated with the squadron command.

That's 7-8 black dice in a single turn, 2-3 of them ignoring shields or worse 6 of them each with a free reroll, if attacking a section with no shields. All of them counting crits.

I rolled 7 attacks with Luke on my opponents Ships last turn and only managed 2 damage total. Black dice hate me.

A big factor for all of us, I think, is that with Wave 1 having just come out last week, we're all still wrapping our heads around it.

Darth Ruin is doing us a service by opening up the debate in this thread: Competitive Armada: Wave 1 Meta Archetypes. I think it's a worthwhile read, even if we still have to get some common nomenclature down.

I played a game the other day in which I did a bomber/fighter-heavy list (for 180pnts), but the squadrons got entirely taken apart. (Read about it here: Imperial Patrol in Bahalian System Encounters Larger Rebel Vessel [/shameless plug]) One factor was that he was also flying a squadron-heavy list with Gallant Haven, which I had not really considered. Another was that he had made an honest mistake with the points build, and had more squadrons than he was supposed to have. (This was not that big of a factor, because his B-wing squadron was to slow to really get into the fight.) The biggest factor was that in my first fighter strike I spaced both on having Flight Controllers as well as that I targeted Luke rather than his generic X-wing.

The lesson (for me) was that there's a lot to be cognizant of when playing squadrons, and until we/I get more used to it, it'll all be pretty tricky.

EDIT: I'm also slightly concerned that there are very limited number of unique squadrons (pilots?) for each fighter type. The choice of TIE Fighter, Howlrunner and Mauler seems a bit limiting to me, not to mention the weirdness of the naming. Shouldn't the units be named 'Black Squadron' etc.?

I understand why FFG did it, though I agree with you that I would have preferred the named squadrons over the named pilots. Maybe in Wave 3+ we'll get new fighter packs that will do that. Here's to hoping!

I don't see how "bombers" can be effective against ships. My last game was against Tarkin and 3 VSDs. I had 6 squadrons and the biggest problem was positioning my squadrons for an attack. WIthout a Squadron command they had to spend a round just MOVING, and not attacking.

Because of Tarkin, and the 4 engineering. I had to do more then 3 shields, or 2 damage, to gain anything. Luke is likely the most effective solo bomber in the game because of his black dice, brace defense token, and the ability to ignore shields.

By the end of round 6, one VSD had lost all it's shields, but had no damage. I just don't see how fighters can even take down a VSD by themselves.

First I'd say planning attack runs with fighters without planning for the use of a squadron command is probably folly at least until you can get the fighters stuck into overlap positions. In fact you should be planning a squadron command to let them move and shoot while getting into overlap position, so as to soften up the target and put you into position to take advantage of weakened hull zones. Also, killing Tarkin's VSD with anything is a challenge. It's part of why his points cost is so high. Even cap ships largely have to plan to support each other with firepower to have a hope of killing him. Which comes to my last point: fighters aren't supposed to be one stop killing machines in this game. This game is all about using all elements of your force in support of each other to obtain victory. X-Wing is about fighter death machines. Armada is about fleet engagements.

The pawn (the fighter) may win you a game, but it's nothing without the support of the other pieces on the board (the cap ships).

Fighters are that extra punch you need when your cap ships don't finish off their target, or that supporting salvo you need to leave the target crippled or softened and ready for the cap ship axe to drop.

It's also why the fighter phase comes after the ship phase. A rebel Assault Frog comes in and pours its broadside into a VSD, then the VSD makes a run for it, but you (the wise rebel) placed your Y-Wing squadrons in his path last turn who then stick to his damaged hull zone like flies as he moves away. The rest of the turn happens and your Y-wings get their chance to pour black dice into the wound. Suddenly the VSD is possibly dead, or more likely badly wounded (especially with the crit chances on black dice). Your opponent is now worried about his VSD (if it didn't vanish) and is going to plan accordingly, and you can take advantage of that. You, the wise rebel, have changed the face of the engagement with the lowly Y-wing. Congratulations rebel scum!

Regarding named squadrons... It makes sense that they'd release just generic ones at first. That lets them release packs latter on, named squadrons with either more/better dice, or perhaps even with defensive tokens.

I think of the generic squadrons like the PS1/2 generics from X-Wing, these are the rookies, the golds, the academy squadrons.

Could have an Imperial Aces pack, that includes Black Squadron Ties with a brace, and other named Imperial fighters.

just to clarify character squadrons (howlrunner) as opposed to named squadrons (black squadron) is strictly for brandname recognition

sure, we have our beloved squadron, but most people are going to jump at the chance to use certain high profile individuals more than a weird abstraction of an entire squadron of known pilots

just to clarify character squadrons (howlrunner) as opposed to named squadrons (black squadron) is strictly for brand-name recognition

sure, we have our beloved squadron, but most people are going to jump at the chance to use certain high profile individuals more than a weird abstraction of an entire squadron of known pilots

I guarantee more people know the name Luke Skywalker than recall he was in Red Squadron...at least outside of certain demographics.

It's a marketing choice, and a wise one.

I.e. I agree FGD.