So I have found a limited amount of tips/ tactics for Armada from youtube or articles and thought i would wright my own. This will be a series of threads over the next week or 2 starting with this one. My threads will cover (in no particular order)

Gladiator-class

nebulon-b

cr90

Assault Frigate mk2

Rebel fighters

imperial fighters

objectives

obstacles

and probably 1 or 2 for special upgrades

(these will be hyperlinked to the new threads as they are written)

note to rebel players, even if you do not plan on using the Victory-class I recommend reading this, or learning about it other ways because the key to victory is to know your enemy.

fill free to add any comments, suggestions or corrections as I am only 1 person and have a limited perspective, I will add new things to these post as i discover new approaches or they are suggested.

On to the meat of the thread.

The Victory class Star destroyer of course comes in 2 variants, the Victory-1 , and the Victory-2 . The only difference between the vic-1 and the vic-2 is that the vic-2 utilizes blue dice instead of black dice giving it a slightly increased range at a cost of 12 additional points.

there are 2 main roles that the victory will fill in your imperial fleet that is as a carrier and as a destroyer/tank.

Carrier role: this is fairly strait forward and entails using the Victory to enhance your fighters.

this usually means putting upgrades such as, Admiral Chiraneau , the title Corrupter , Expanded Hanger Ba y, and Flight Controllers in order to use squadron more effectively or boost their ability beyond normal.

this will be covered more in depth when i release the imperial Fighter Tactic article

Destroyer/tank Role: This will be the primary topic of this post. When I say destroyer I mean a ship that is heavily armed and armored, capable of dishing out damage but can take a hit in return (do not confuse my classification with a wwII destroyer which is more akin to a light weapons platform, these are personal classification that help me visualize what the role entails) I also refer to the victory as a tank because while in this role it makes an effective damage soak-er.

First of all I want to express that I feel the best way to use a victory is as AN Area Control piece not a destroy the enemy piece. If you take nothing else from this article I want you to understand that one sentence. use the victory to dictate where your opponent can and cant go, imagine it as a cattle herder directing a heard. For that reason I always try and point the victory were i don't want my opponent to be (i.e. contested outpost, or the flank of second Star Destroyer) Just because a Victory didn't inflict much damage or sometimes hasn't even fired does not mean that it did not influence the battle. This can be difficult to understand and get a hang of and can also be difficult to teach, so for now i will just leave that thought there for you to ponder.

Moving on lets discuss load outs:

I personally prefer the Victory-1 because I like black dice and 12 points is ALOT to spend for blue dice in my opinion and i find that getting into the medium range band to be rare, that it is either long or short most of the time, any way that's my personal experience and opinion.

some example load-outs:

[*]Victory I-Class Star Destroyer(73 pts)

- Dominator (12 pts)

- Wulff Yularen (7 pts)

This load out is simple yet effective with Dominator adding extra damage when the enemy gets to close and then Wulff is there to generate Engineering tokens allowing you to regen 1 shield a turn without using the command dial.

[*]Victory II-Class Star Destroyer(85 pts)

- Warlord (8 pts)

- Intel Officer (7 pts)

- H9 Turbolasers (8 pts)

This load out is a bit more expensive and complicated then the last one and focuses on long range firepower, in recent discussion we have concluded that Warlord and h9 can both modify the same die giving a steady increase of 1-2 damage per shot, intel officer can be used to force your opponent to get ride of those pesky defense tokens, especially evades at long range. (side note this also counters Electronic countermeasures which is becoming more common on rebel ships)

other upgrades to consider:

Enhanced Armament is of course always a good upgrade

Grand Moff Tarkin Is by far the best commander to use with victory class destroyers, but is very expensive of course(still worth it most of the time)

Weapons or Defense Liaison are also very helpful when paired with Grand Moff

Tarkin to add a lot of flexibility to that 3 command stack.

Leading shots may be another one to consider for your victory 2, especially when combined with enhanced armament or Dominator so that there is always allot of dice in your attack pool to re-roll

I want to Stress Intel Officer again, It is really good. I consider it useful in all situations and one of the best upgrades for any ship right now especially the Victory Class Star Destroyer.

I also Suggest having an initiative bid to try to get First player. (discussed further under initiative)

Upgrades to avoid:

Expanded launcher This is 13 points that you will be lucky to use once I would not take this on my victory but would focus on long range fire power instead with enhanced armament or intel officer

Using the Victory Class:

-Objectives: Good objectives to put in your list when you bring a victory class are, advanced gunnery which will greatly increase its long range fire power, contested outpost which will likely gain you as much as 100 extra vp and lure the enemy close, minefields which when placed correctly will funnel your opponent into your powerful front arc

-setup: like any ship, the performance of the victory begins with the setup phase.

I find the victory is generally harder to flank when placed near the corner of the setup area and angled toward the center of the play area. it also important to use obstacles to discourage flanking i.e. try and form a lane for your victory to travel down or place asteroids in the corner of the setup area near the opponents deployment zone to encourage their movement toward the center of the play area

-opening game (turns 1-2) Generally I suggest moving forward at speed 2 steering where you anticipate your opponent wants to be by turn 3 and taking this time to bank tokens, i usually take a navigate token to slow down if needed and an engineering token to regain a shield when needed

-middle game (turns 3-4) This is when the primary fighting will take place and where you will most likely get your 6+dice front arc shot if you get one, during this time i suggest concentrate fire commands or navigate commands to increase your yaw and keep the enemy in front of you, it will probably be a good idea to slow to speed 1 during this time as well. ​remember to move toward were they are going to be not were they are!!

-Late Game(turns 5-6) By the last few turns your enemy has likely moved past your victory and during this time your going to want to focus on staying alive untill the game is over. This is when I recommend engineering commands, if you are still healthy navigate and concentrate fire as needed to try and finish of any additional ships from your opponent.

Initiative:

Initiative is always good to keep in mind, with the Victory I would generally suggest trying to be first player because it will likely be a deciding factor on if you get a front arc close range shot or not (activate last and move into range, then next turn activate first and blast them to space dust!!) First player becomes more valuable the more ships you have so i recommend bringing 3 ships (vvg, vgg) to make the most use of first player. Even if you have a 2 ship build i still recommend first player because unless your opponent brings 4+ ships you will be able to use the activation in your favor.

again the way to use first player is to activate the ship that order will not make a difference for (i.e. it is out of range) then wait for your opponent to activate a ship close to yours, and after it has activated move your ship closer so that next turn you may activate first and fire a powerful volley into them.

If your opponent brings at least 2 more ships then you they will be able to dominate the activation order and you will lose control, I would consider being 2nd player instead in these situations but taking 1st player will denies them the benefits of moving 1st which include things like a cr90 charging you head long and blowing past close range without retaliatory fire.

That is every thing i have to say for now, I may add new content as i see fit.

edit: added a note on tarkin under upgrade card section

Added link to ep II, Gladiator and cr90

So you guys are my editors, if you catch an error or some weird wording or something please point it out and i will fix it, Please like if you find the article helpful Thank you:)

also i will try to add some picture examples to these over the next few days

have you run the warlord yet? It seems very interesting and I have high hopes, but I havn't used him yet.

I'm excited to get my dual VSDs on the table, as I've only had the pleasure of seeing them when loaning them out to other players. We have heavy imperial representation and I despise mirror matches so it's going to be a bit before I actually get to use them, but at least I have played against them several times .

I will say, however, that dominator is ridiculous

the title almost single-handedly gets rid of the VSD's arc-dependency on its own. You do pay for it (in points and damage) but spitting out 4/5 dice out the sides and 4 out the butt is well worth it, imo. 8 dice out the front is just ISD status (more reliable with the VSD-2 ofc).

I also think we should place more emphasis on the G-moff. Tarkin costs a corvette, but holy hell does he take the VSDs to a new level of flexibility and sheer power. While I like Motti, I feel he is more restricted to a carrier VSD + Dominator because he can't bring out the same levels of flexibility or "maneuverability" (changing speeds is important!) or fire power (re-rolls) as the grand moff.

The carrier and dominator variants of VSD are the two least dependent on positioning and imo easiest to use (which is why I'd recommend them with the stiffer Motti)

have you run the warlord yet? It seems very interesting and I have high hopes, but I havn't used him yet.

I'm excited to get my dual VSDs on the table, as I've only had the pleasure of seeing them when loaning them out to other players. We have heavy imperial representation and I despise mirror matches so it's going to be a bit before I actually get to use them, but at least I have played against them several times .

I will say, however, that dominator is ridiculous

the title almost single-handedly gets rid of the VSD's arc-dependency on its own. You do pay for it (in points and damage) but spitting out 4/5 dice out the sides and 4 out the butt is well worth it, imo. 8 dice out the front is just ISD status (more reliable with the VSD-2 ofc).

I also think we should place more emphasis on the G-moff. Tarkin costs a corvette, but holy hell does he take the VSDs to a new level of flexibility and sheer power. While I like Motti, I feel he is more restricted to a carrier VSD + Dominator because he can't bring out the same levels of flexibility or "maneuverability" (changing speeds is important!) or fire power (re-rolls) as the grand moff.

The carrier and dominator variants of VSD are the two least dependent on positioning and imo easiest to use (which is why I'd recommend them with the stiffer Motti)

good points all thanks for the comment I have used warlord and h9 but only for 1/2 a game (we had to call it after turn 3 because the lgs was closing) and really enjoyed it, it is better then dominator at long range giving consistent damage buffs to your shots and will survive a little longer

you are right about dominator, i personally like it on a vsd-1 because it is equal cost to a vsd-2 and black dice are ridicules if you get accuracies to negate the brace

regarding the admirals i probably should have emphasized Tarkin a little more, but i think i will just Wright a separate article detailing the commanders

Depending on the objective it might not be a viable option to start out in a corner. But that's a minor point.

I would tend to disagree about the blue dice issue: as a rebel I find it easy to stay out of VSD black-dice range if I want to. Blue dice a much harder. One wrong move and...besides, those blue dice are rather accurate. But I suppose that's just personal preference.

Grand Moff Tarkin is very good. Especially if running two VSDs he gives a LOT of flexibility.

I will be running the VSD -1 dominator with a VSD -1 Warlord and Tarkin at first opportunity

I do agree with Green Knight in that the VSD - 2's arc is far more difficult to dodge because of the extra range, but sadly tarkin's an expensive bastard and the economy of a VSD - 1 is required to fit both titles in the fleet

I am hoping that a 10 point initiative bid and the flexibility of Tarkin will let me land an 8 dice onslaught at least once. It is true, after all, that 3 reds and 3 blacks get even more ridiculous with the accuracy-heavy blues

Warlord I think will work fine on either variant and the VSD - 1 is just cheaper. The red die only has a crummy 1/8 chance of landing an accuracy, but h9 makes that a non-issue obv. I am not certain how useful warlord would be with blue dice anyway, outside of fixing redundant accuracy results. I am hoping the warlord + h9 combo will let a VSD - 1 at least compete with fatties in a red dice-off, since I feel that's where VSDs are at the weakest (by design, ofc, given every other ship can dodge )

Warlord I think will work fine on either variant and the VSD - 1 is just cheaper. The red die only has a crummy 1/8 chance of landing an accuracy, but h9 makes that a non-issue obv. I am not certain how useful warlord would be with blue dice anyway, outside of fixing redundant accuracy results. I am hoping the warlord + h9 combo will let a VSD - 1 at least compete with fatties in a red dice-off, since I feel that's where VSDs are at the weakest (by design, ofc, given every other ship can dodge )

intel officer!!!(i wasnt joking) Intel officer is amazing and really helps with damage over time at range (o you think you can evade my double hit? well discard that stupid token and next turn... "I will Demonstrate the power of this fully armed and operational Battle Station!!")

I'll try Intel

problem is I'm running 9 tie fighter stands and I'll feel horribly insecure with a mere 8

"The Egg Basket" VSD - 1

*Tarkin

*H9 turbolasers

*Warlord

*flight controllers

"The Flagellant" VSD - 1

*Dominator

9 tie fighter squadrons

[Total: 290]

would go down to 289 and 8 tie fighters

A very solid overview of there VSD. Looking forward to future articles!

A very solid overview of there VSD. Looking forward to future articles!

Thanks for complement!

I find that when using 2 VSD's it works well to bring a carrier build to fling fighters and a tank to bull rush the enemy's weaker ships. being aggressive with the victory and your fighters gives the opponent a tough choice of winning the fighter battle or to save their ships.

I find that when using 2 VSD's it works well to bring a carrier build to fling fighters and a tank to bull rush the enemy's weaker ships. being aggressive with the victory and your fighters gives the opponent a tough choice of winning the fighter battle or to save their ships.

I agree with this completely. While a lone VSD is easy to dodge, with two monsters running side by side your enemies high speed ships find themselves hopping from one pain arc into another. Or out of the fight completely. And if my opponent wants to go and hide 38+ points halfway across the map, that's fine by me. It's one less ship for me to worry about and more targets for my VSDs to shred

As far as the carrier/destroyer combo, since vanilla ties are so cheap you can really threaten large swathes of the board and tie up any potential squadron threats for 2-3 rounds no problem. This let's your VSDs do the heavy lifting without fear of squadron reprisal (their real weakness).

The key is to keep your ships running in tandem - a lone VSD is a very juicy target and rebel scum are masters at kiting. If you can make them pay for each shot, you'll win the war of attrition.

On a slightly separate note, I've yet to run a VSD-1. The black dice just seems so limiting compared to those pretty close-mid blues. Plus the consistency is just peaches, especially when you know your target it just going to evade all the good dice anyways. You definitely pay for it in points but I haven't run into too many situations where I really regret having that many blue dice because let's face it, no ship wants to be close range of a VSD.

Whilst I haven't tried this list on the table yet, I'm currently playing around with a Demolisher list led by Screed, with the 2nd ship being a Victory. In the end I've settled on a Victory I on the basis that Screed's ability will at least allow me to flip on of the black dice to a hit/crit rather than just a crit as would be the case with any of the blue or red dice on the VicII (basically giving my a free extra hit when I'm in close range).

The main difficulty I can foresee will be in getting the Vic into close range in the first place, but to try and combat this I intend to mainly be taking the Navigate command, with a Weapons Liaison on board for the occassions I do want to switch it to a Squadron or Concentrate Fire command.

every skreed w/ GSD + VSD list I've run into has completely ignored the any synergy between Skreed + VSD and just focused on using Skreed for the demolisher

the VSD - 1 is used as an almost pure squadron support ship and a lot of points are then spent on the one-two punch of howlie interceptors and rhymer bombers

it's a pretty deadly fleet, actually

I tend to run overload pulse on my VSD2 with Demolisher and screed build. I try to exhaust their tokens then swing in with the gladiator for a one-two punch. Side note I found that running a pair of bombers with the demolisher away from the main fleet to be really good. if you use wulff to keep the nav token and spend your commands on squadrons to activate the bombers to soften up your target. Using this list I had My Demolisher put the nail in the coffin of 3/4 ships of my opponents list which was AFMK2, 2 nebs, and a corvette (killed all of the small ships).

Very nice write up. As a still fairly new player, this definitely gives a good insight on how to make the ship more effective.

I look forward to other write ups.

Good write up!

Nice write up. I find I prefer running the VSD 1 to the VSD 2. The VSD is an aggressive piece and it agrees to my general **** the torpedoes full speed ahead mentality. Which has arguably become more effective since all Wave 1 reinforcements are now at my disposal. The VSD in tandem with a Gladiators, you can force enemy movement to your VSD 1. (That whole area control thing you are talking about) I am a big fan of running the Weapons Liaison card with the VSD when running an admiral like Tarkin. the Being able to basically just give NAV orders for the extra yaw and use the token thing for an on demand concentrate fire for when exactly I need it is just a good way to surprise the Rebels.

I also agree that generic tie fighters get the job done with regards to holding enemy squadrons at bay while you exchange fire with them.

This was a good read.

You should do your next article on the victory star destroyer!

I can't wait!

This was a good read.

You should do your next article on the victory star destroyer!

I can't wait!

I will be honest, I am confused...

Mr Corvette, you also have me confused...

Not that that is such an achievement...

he probably runs two VSDs and wants an article for the other one too

Good write up.

**Nit-pick aleart**

- Maybe standardize your formatting and fonts in the future

- it's 'entails' not 'en tales'

Good write up.

**Nit-pick aleart**

- Maybe standardize your formatting and fonts in the future

- it's 'entails' not 'en tales'

Thanks for the suggestions

I copy and pasted from a word doc. And it kinda made like 4 diffrent fonts, but I will fix it.

Nice write up. I find I prefer running the VSD 1 to the VSD 2. The VSD is an aggressive piece and it agrees to my general **** the torpedoes full speed ahead mentality. Which has arguably become more effective since all Wave 1 reinforcements are now at my disposal. The VSD in tandem with a Gladiators, you can force enemy movement to your VSD 1. (That whole area control thing you are talking about) I am a big fan of running the Weapons Liaison card with the VSD when running an admiral like Tarkin. the Being able to basically just give NAV orders for the extra yaw and use the token thing for an on demand concentrate fire for when exactly I need it is just a good way to surprise the Rebels.

I also agree that generic tie fighters get the job done with regards to holding enemy squadrons at bay while you exchange fire with them.

Agreed on the weapons liason - it strikes me as better than the reverse (defence liason) for a Victory, because you're less able to predict when you'll have a good snap-shot for Contentrate Fire or Squadron - I tend to leave the command dial nailed to 'Engineering' for the latter half of the game because seriously all-hail-the-Imperial-Welding-Corps those things are tough.

I'm not sure about the Vic-1 versus Vic-2 argument. I tend to find the ships fighting at red dice range, but I see blue dice exchanged more often than black dice. Plus, I see it as also paying the opportunity costs for the Ion Cannon Upgrade Cards - which can really mess with the defence token-dependent lighter rebel ships or leading shots, which is just awesome.