I attended my third Armada tournament this past week and took first. As usual I figured I would write some battle reports. Partly for Self-reflection and party to help newer players out.

My List: 299pts
Victory Class II - Expanded Hangar Bays, Flight Controllers, Admiral Screed

Gladiator Class I - Demolisher, Engine Techs, Wullf Yularen, Assault Concussion Missles

3x TIE Fighters

3x TIE Interceptors

"Howlrunner"

Major Rhymer

Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost, Mine Fields.

Standard Imperial Fanfare.

Round 1 - Ed, 10-0

Ed was playing rebels with Gallant Haven, Tycho, and 5-6 other standard fighters. He had a corvette and a nebulon but honestly I can not remember what upgrades they had. We played Advanced Gunnery. I used the Demolisher and Vic to pincer the assault frigate, took advantage of the engine techs double ram it for 2 auto damage. After a few turns I took her down. I shortly their after lost my Gladiator. I had taken Tycho out fair early and used Rhymer and few TIEs to weaken Ed's ships. Eventually the Vic cleaned up the Nebulon and Corvette with TIE support and I won 372 to 151. Just enough to score the 10-0.

Round 2 - Matt, 9-1

Matt is the bothans to my Death Star II. We play every week, we dojo and create fleets together, we know each others lists inside and out, backwards and forwards, left left, right right, up up, down down, A B B A, select, start. That's how well we know each others stuff. SO both being 10-0, we were not happy to be paired up. Most figured the winner of this game takes all, and after getting lucky Wednesday in practice against Matt I was nervous. Matt was running Gallant Haven, Tycho, Wedge, Keyan, Dutch, Yavaris, Tanitive IV + Leia. I'm partly to blame I pushed him to play it so here we go. Matt is at 298pts, he opts to go first and selects Advanced Gunnery. Same strategy from Round 1. I use Rhymer to shoot the assault frigate and bait his fighters from the Gallant Haven bubble. Blinking his shields turns out well for me. With the gladiator and victory pounding it, and the TIEs taking pop shots, I am able to bring it down but with a crippled Gladiator. Matt had positioned his Neb and Vette to take my glad once the frigate was gone. seeing that I had no chances of escaping I double rammed the neb to kill my own glad but get damage into the neb. The Vic and TIEs bring down the Neb and with Gallant Haven down I start taking out his Aces. Matt starts running the Vette away to try and deny VPs to help is tournament points. Unfortunately, the Vette is going to fast and winds up off the table by a little bit. I score 382 points, Matt scored 160ish, and I advance with a 9-1.

Round 3 - Mike 10-0

Mike is running An Assault Frigate, and Nebulon. I forget the upgrades expect I know the Frigate has Enhanced Armaments and Electronic Countermeasures. He also had 4 Y-Wings, 3 X-Wings and Wedge. Mike is at 300pts, I opt for second and he picks minefields. I string out the obstructions along his deployment zone with mines between them so it looked like, O M M O M M O M M O. Unfortunately I put it in his deployment zone so he deployed on the obstructions and the mines were never an issue. Once again I figure If i drop the Frigate I win. At this point I have 19 tournament points and Mike has 14. He asks me not to just 0 Speed 5-5 draw and auto win the event. He said he'd rather play the game and lose than not play the game. So I set my speeds to 2 and we go at it. I bring demolisher and the Vic into the Frigate. I use Rhymer to blink away at shields and try to open up a hole. The turn I deliver Demolisher It is in a hornets nest of Y-Wings and X-wings. Like all of them it was scurry. Between my 2 ships and TIEs I am able to kill the Frigate. As his Nebulon is now stuck between my guns and the Minefield I misplayed. My fleet concentrates all firepower on that Nebulon escort frigate and its a game. We talk about it and Mike feels he kept his Squadrons back due to the Alpha I can present and that was a big mistake. Also mike had a CFP dial one turn and he should have had a Squadron dial. I score 300 - 0 for a 10-0 victory.

I want to thank Gamer's Gambit for Hosting the event, Gerry for running it, and all my opponents. This was my third tournament and I have yet to have a really negative play experience. I have so much fun when I play Armada over other games.

Changes and Strategies:

The only change to my list I would make would be to drop 1 TIE Interceptor and add in a TIE Advanced to protect "Howlrunner" and Major Rhymer. Rhymer is the linchpin in the Gallant Haven match (Rebel players, kill him first). He lets me threaten the Frigate and draw out the fighters. The aces are very strong but become much more manageable if they aren't getting Gallant Haven protection.

Using Rhymer. Use his and the 3 other TIEs that go with him to try and drop a side shield. If you are wullfy/engine tech combo'ing every turn you will get behind them. Open up on the rear and use your accuracy to kill the brace. Now, you have let them redirect the damage. They only have 1 side to redirect too due to the fighters dropping shields on one of the sides already. If they kill their side shields, use the Assault Concussion missiles to due 2 damage to the ship. At this point with no side shields, its a dead ship flying, one more salvo from the Gladiator with Screed's ability finishes off most ships. With 4 damage due to what I have stated, add in the double ram with engine techs and that's a total of 6 damage to kill the frigate.

If you see Demolisher coming, you need to kill it. Put your fighters between your ship and it so if it comes in you can use the ace's ship bombardments to lower its shields and bring it down. Also, if you are first, don't give it advanced gunnery. Risk another scenario.

I will be playing some rebels for a while as I have a few weeks before my next event.

Hope you guys enjoyed. What are your strategies to mitigating Gallant Haven? what about taking out demolisher?

What token did you bank and have Wulf keep on the Glad - navigate I assume?

In our game play, uncommanded fighters do next to nothing. The gladiator flight moves past uncommanded fighters too quickly. Could you tell us about how the squadrons got into combat? Or is it just that you played v rebels in each game and their flight paths were slower and more predictable?

I used a similar fleet a few weeks ago and really like it.

I was curious what sorts of matchups you expect to have trouble with? It absolutely rocked both games I played with it.

I included Mithel in mine, which bypasses gallant haven's damage reduction, since the damage from that isn't an attack.

Howlrunner + Flight controllers is 2 extra dice. Howlrunner engages gallant haven's screen first, mithel moves in causing damage, and then rolling 5 dice, followed by interceptors with 6 dice. At that point GH damage reduction is less effective since you'll be rolling so many dice.

I've not faced Demolisher, but having flown it... Its very much a glass cannon. The only reason mine survived for so long is that I was able to keep it out of too many arcs, and the ships it did engage, it did so on alternating sides so that the downed shields on the port side didn't matter since the assault frigate was on the starboard side.

Countering it - engage at long range, it has to close to do much. Try to overlap your strongest arcs where the demolisher is *going* to be, not where it is now. Its usually pretty clear where its headed if it wants to get in that awesome attach. The gladiator has to jump through hoops to approach certain ships safely, such as any "dominator" and the assault frigate. In general dominator is a great counter, those blue dice add damage anywhere, and with those accuracies its easier to lock down the 2 useful defense tokens at close range. Barring a "hyperspace assault" dominator will usually eat demolisher. Dominator will be hurt certainly, but who wouldn't be.

What token did you bank and have Wulf keep on the Glad - navigate I assume?

In our game play, uncommanded fighters do next to nothing. The gladiator flight moves past uncommanded fighters too quickly. Could you tell us about how the squadrons got into combat? Or is it just that you played v rebels in each game and their flight paths were slower and more predictable?

I nav, then squadron'd for the glad. taking the nav token. being able to adjust speed from 3 to 2 to 1 then 1 to 3 will catch opponents. your gladiator won't have a clutch but my god its good. I position the fighters between the 2 ships. using their speed to hop over to shoot the enemy ships. Rhymer's range increase is bigger than you would think its sold it. Plus if you don't squadron and they are speed 1 or 2 its very easy to set up some round 5/6 pot shots that could enable the win.

I never stuck my fighters in. Verses imperials in a mirror he he alphas wins with the squadron fight so I would hit fast hit hard and let rhymer....rhym? i guess. Or if they don't have rhymer i may go for a bombing run on their demolisher and take the alpha and hope i can take his demolisher and keep mine, which at that point I have a commanding (pun intended) lead in the game.

Rebels have to gun for Demolisher, its a huge risk to be like here his is. Its like if you meet a girl and just whip it out, its a go big or go home strat, either she loves it and you win or you get a bruised ego (and prolly other things) and go home. They wont run from demolisher as its basically it auto loss, so typically you go straight for him. I found the double ram will let me take the assault frigate when combined with salvos and Rhymers ability. I deploy the vic front and center, deploy all my TIEs, and then put the glad on the side with no obstacles. so its a very clear path to him. I then let them joust the glad, which in turn, lets rhymer, his ties, and the Vic pound that same targeting hull, then add assault concussion missiles and double ram and they start taking on too much damage.

The one thing my meta is really bad at is playing mirror matches. they change everything.

I used a similar fleet a few weeks ago and really like it.

I was curious what sorts of matchups you expect to have trouble with? It absolutely rocked both games I played with it.

I included Mithel in mine, which bypasses gallant haven's damage reduction, since the damage from that isn't an attack.

Howlrunner + Flight controllers is 2 extra dice. Howlrunner engages gallant haven's screen first, mithel moves in causing damage, and then rolling 5 dice, followed by interceptors with 6 dice. At that point GH damage reduction is less effective since you'll be rolling so many dice.

I've not faced Demolisher, but having flown it... Its very much a glass cannon. The only reason mine survived for so long is that I was able to keep it out of too many arcs, and the ships it did engage, it did so on alternating sides so that the downed shields on the port side didn't matter since the assault frigate was on the starboard side.

Countering it - engage at long range, it has to close to do much. Try to overlap your strongest arcs where the demolisher is *going* to be, not where it is now. Its usually pretty clear where its headed if it wants to get in that awesome attach. The gladiator has to jump through hoops to approach certain ships safely, such as any "dominator" and the assault frigate. In general dominator is a great counter, those blue dice add damage anywhere, and with those accuracies its easier to lock down the 2 useful defense tokens at close range. Barring a "hyperspace assault" dominator will usually eat demolisher. Dominator will be hurt certainly, but who wouldn't be.

I am going to be honest. I feel like its the perfect imperial list at this time. It does a lot of things well and works great against the standard fare. I guess a double frigate build would give me some headaches. I'm sure a double or triple glad build may be an issue for me but I feel like if they are squadron light, im gonna get a ton of work from Rhymer. i have 8 squadrons, 6 blue dice 2 black dice, I just turtle up and try to lower shields and enable my ships. Rhymer is easily the hero of the list and the glue that makes it all work. Also Motti. I feel like Mott and Mon Motha enable a super SUPER tanky play style. the downside is if you win, you will most likely only get 6-7 tournament points as you can kill 1 ship, and survive the abuse for the rest of the game. I would have to re-look at objectives to see if their is a way to enable it better.

Your squadron load out looks good. I really like having 8 for deployment purposes. Also without the advanced, I never let Howlrunner engage the enemy. I made sure I could get her bonuses but keep the enemy from trying to kill her. With the advanced it is a bit different.

Your countering strats are good. As I've said, Rhymer really enables your ships to kill ships, so demolisher vs demolisher comes down to the suqadron support from what i have seen.

Also I am need to give a big shout out to Felforlife. We have been discussing lists and play styles for a while and he deserves some credit for my successes.

I just saw this on Facebook as I was dating breakfast! Comgrats man! Off to work but we'll dojo later!

Have Rebels won ANY tourney yet? I really am thinking I chose the path of pain now....

Have Rebels won ANY tourney yet? I really am thinking I chose the path of pain now....

By the looks of it, Imps seem pretty easy to pilot. Engine tech demolisher is simple to apply and hard to counter. I am switching to rebs for a bit so plan to see some thoughts and reports on them in the future. Rebels are just tough to play for sure. They lack some of the base tankyness of Imperial ships.

Good feedback.

tell me about your choice of contested outpost...

Have Rebels won ANY tourney yet? I really am thinking I chose the path of pain now....

I won one before wave 1. I did 2 nebs and a cr90. No squadrons.

Have Rebels won ANY tourney yet? I really am thinking I chose the path of pain now....

I won one before wave 1. I did 2 nebs and a cr90. No squadrons.

sounds about right, we settled on 3 vettes with electronic counter measures and ramming tactics. it worked well

Good feedback.

tell me about your choice of contested outpost...

second player sets the outpost as close to the 5" range as he can. Then he can beat feet there with the glad or vic and score an auto 20pts first round. he will probably score another 20 next round if you drop to speed 1 on the glad you can actually keep orbititng it for points. As the imps, you force the rebels to come to you or lose, so they can't play the long range harassment game they want to play. It rewards the second player a lot and i feel favors the imps a bit.

People are doing tourneys?

Maybe I should look into my local area, try to get some rebel wins in and improve my skill.

People are doing tourneys?

Maybe I should look into my local area, try to get some rebel wins in and improve my skill.

There is about 2-3 per month in New England. some of use have been really promoting the game and getting stores to support it.

Well I am sticking to my rebs. Just reading these report after report of Imperial victories....man Dark Times indeed.

IMO, rebels are actually the better faction currently, they are just far harder to play.

Sorry, my bad. I know what contested outpost is *for*... but why that over hyperspace assault? It just seems to me that so many things you do and are in your list are rebel only focused.

Have Rebels won ANY tourney yet? I really am thinking I chose the path of pain now....

I have won two tournaments with Rebels and both times I was running heavy squadron builds and two Assault Frigates. In fact of the 6 games I played I only lost one (4-6) and all the others have been either 10-0 or 9-1.

Sorry, my bad. I know what contested outpost is *for*... but why that over hyperspace assault? It just seems to me that so many things you do and are in your list are rebel only focused.

Rhymer hasn't picked up much steam locally although that will start to change I am sure. he really does sway the matches in my favor. At 300pts I am usually going second so they wont give me Contested Outpost, or Minefields so my demolisher gets advanced gunnery which also bad for them. I have to play more mirror matches but ive dont pretty well over the 3 events.

From the reports it sounds like most people are running 2-3 ships with a good number of upgrades and some elite squadrons. Is this so, or is a fluke of the match-ups/are they the ones rising to the top? Are you seeing any capital swarms (things like 5+ CR90's, 3-4 gladiators, 3 victories, 3 AF2's etc)? How about spam builds that just run lots of everything with very few upgrades/cheap commanders.

How many people were there?

I have a game later today against an opponent who is going to try running your list. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Congrats on the win, thank you for the write up and the insight.

I loved the Konami code reference, btw. Hilarious!

From the reports it sounds like most people are running 2-3 ships with a good number of upgrades and some elite squadrons. Is this so, or is a fluke of the match-ups/are they the ones rising to the top? Are you seeing any capital swarms (things like 5+ CR90's, 3-4 gladiators, 3 victories, 3 AF2's etc)? How about spam builds that just run lots of everything with very few upgrades/cheap commanders.

How many people were there?

I have a game later today against an opponent who is going to try running your list. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

The only swarm that really works is CR-90s, they are the only thing to be fast enough to not worry about fighters and they still have a range threat unlike gladiators.

Bit of a sweeping statement isn't it? There seem to be a few people about interested in running a quad gladiator list (either four with upgrades or four and squadrons without upgrades).

What about the other build types (besides capital swarms), things like the low upgrade spam builds, not necessarily of capitals, just lots of stuff in general, any of them about?

Its not like gladiator swarms would be all that horrible at range.....they only have one red dice less than a victory, and the blue vs black of CR90 vs gladiator is only the difference of a couple of centimetres......I suspect that with lots of activations that would be a surmountable problem.

Well we had the game over here, hopefully I'll get the pictures up tonight or tomorrow. We actually managed to get two games in since the first one was over a bit quickly (I only lost one rebel ship in the two games, although a couple were one hit away from death). Just goes to show its the player not the list I guess (I'd be really keen to hear your thoughts on how my opponent did once the report is up).

From the reports it sounds like most people are running 2-3 ships with a good number of upgrades and some elite squadrons. Is this so, or is a fluke of the match-ups/are they the ones rising to the top? Are you seeing any capital swarms (things like 5+ CR90's, 3-4 gladiators, 3 victories, 3 AF2's etc)? How about spam builds that just run lots of everything with very few upgrades/cheap commanders.

How many people were there?

I have a game later today against an opponent who is going to try running your list. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

I have not faced skew lists. In theory if they are squadron light rhymer will have no problem harassing enemy ships and grinding them down.

I play 3 and 4 gladiator lists without squadrons. Do I get shot at by enemy squadrons? yes. Do they do enough fast enough? No. The idea behind a gladiator sweep is that it is over and done with with one or more enemy ships down before any squadrons can do enough that actually hurts, instead of hurts a little bit. Sure, they will do damage. Sure, you can put some, especially with Rhymer, in the way. But the coolness of having that many ships is, you don't need them all to win - the one he is focusing on switches to repair and turns out of contact before he can kill it.

So yeah, as always, sweeping statements not so much...lol Unless it is something in caps like MY GLADIATORS WILL SWEEP ALL BEFORE THEM!