I think you are right on this. As was stated by both 1st and 2nd place, many players don't have the experience yet or have many games in, so many are listening to IFF, blogs, Battle reports, and even my videos.

Once people get that experience, once people get that practice in I think we will see games that are more than in it to win it and such.

I also think it is possible with the right rebel lists to table people; as stated previously, going for the throat is ALWAYS a viable tactic, so it helps to have it.

Take the Garm list with 3 MKIIB whales, EA+Gun Team on each. 292 points (so add Paragon, or an intel officer, etc). 4 red dice, 1 blue die per shot from the side, which you can shoot out of twice. With proper positioning, as an ideal you could be dumping 12 red dice per round into a single ship in three different volleys, against two different ships. That's an average of 9 damage-ish per turn, to two different ships. Reality will obviously eat away some of that edge, but even so, that's bad to have to chase around.

I don't think the rebels are hurting for firepower. I just think it manifests differently in how you want to use it.

I also think it is possible with the right rebel lists to table people; as stated previously, going for the throat is ALWAYS a viable tactic, so it helps to have it.

Take the Garm list with 3 MKIIB whales, EA+Gun Team on each. 292 points (so add Paragon, or an intel officer, etc). 4 red dice, 1 blue die per shot from the side, which you can shoot out of twice. With proper positioning, as an ideal you could be dumping 12 red dice per round into a single ship in three different volleys, against two different ships. That's an average of 9 damage-ish per turn, to two different ships. Reality will obviously eat away some of that edge, but even so, that's bad to have to chase around.

I don't think the rebels are hurting for firepower. I just think it manifests differently in how you want to use it.

I concur. Assault Frigates definitely bring enough firepower to table an opponent.

. . . Great I now have to try that list out. . .

I've tabled both 3x Vic lists commanded by Motti and 4x Glad lists with a 2x Assault Frigate build. The rebels have plenty of firepower.

. . . Great I now have to try that list out. . .

hell, i'll join ya

was planning on running 3 fatties at 400, anyway

Damnit... I need to buy some AFII's. I've been underwhelmed with my fleets so far. Probably doesn't help I've built several nasty fleets for my pal who plays against me (2 VSD 1GSD Demolisher/ACM/Nav Team combo).

Thanks for the generous assessment IceQube. This is Brad from round 2. This was my first competitive tournament ever. Most of my games I played were against myself war gaming possibilties. I didn't expect to do well but had a good time anyways.

Was a pleasure to have played you.

All these great run downs are confirming what I was already thinking. We shall see what happens come the 22. Gonna go in full uniform, even.

The tourney point system in Armada really makes the game all about tabling your opponent in the most efficient way possible. If you want to win the events, you have to be out for blood.

_{This is a fabulous write-up. Really appreciate you and others from GenCon taking the time to explain not just what you did and ran, but also the thought process that went into it. It's been fascinating to read.}

Thanks for the write up Iceqube.

fascinating look at the tournament scene. Only one game in but have 2 of all imp stuff. I would like to see tourney rules that mandate some fighters be taken. Like 2 squadrons minimum or something. It's just not Star Wars without fighters.

This is great. Been away from armada due to the work roster going a little nuts over the last month and a half, and I come back and find all this interesting stuff to read. Result!

Congrats on the win, and thanks a lot for the thoughts.

Now for questions:

What type of role do you see for squadrons as the game stands (i.e. without changes to objectives or rules or anything)? Or are they a niche unit that should only be used in certain builds. My reason for asking is that in the one and only tournament I have made it to so far I was trying to build a corvette swarm but couldn’t borrow enough of them so filled the remaining points with squadrons. This turned out to be very handy since the squadrons could zip in and deal damage to the weakest enemy arcs, or go and catch crippled ships that were trying to disengage to preserve points. They certainly didn’t deal as much damage as a capital, but they dealt it where I needed it.

Do you have any plans to flip to the rebel side and try to work out a counter to your own list? Or will you stick with it and learn to counter the counters that people will now try and develop.

Were there any lists featuring modest to heavy squadrons that you considered a genuine threat......in the last games I was playing before the work madness I was using a pure B-wing fighter compliment (usually 5-6). I haven’t got to test it against rebels yet, but it did seem to do a lot of damage to the imperial ships that want to close in allowing the rebel capitals to focus on commands other than squadron.

This is great. Been away from armada due to the work roster going a little nuts over the last month and a half, and I come back and find all this interesting stuff to read. Result!

Congrats on the win, and thanks a lot for the thoughts.

Now for questions:

What type of role do you see for squadrons as the game stands (i.e. without changes to objectives or rules or anything)? Or are they a niche unit that should only be used in certain builds. My reason for asking is that in the one and only tournament I have made it to so far I was trying to build a corvette swarm but couldn’t borrow enough of them so filled the remaining points with squadrons. This turned out to be very handy since the squadrons could zip in and deal damage to the weakest enemy arcs, or go and catch crippled ships that were trying to disengage to preserve points. They certainly didn’t deal as much damage as a capital, but they dealt it where I needed it.

Do you have any plans to flip to the rebel side and try to work out a counter to your own list? Or will you stick with it and learn to counter the counters that people will now try and develop.

Were there any lists featuring modest to heavy squadrons that you considered a genuine threat......in the last games I was playing before the work madness I was using a pure B-wing fighter compliment (usually 5-6). I haven’t got to test it against rebels yet, but it did seem to do a lot of damage to the imperial ships that want to close in allowing the rebel capitals to focus on commands other than squadron.

The issue I have with that is what are the B-Wings doing if their Carrier suddenly dies? It is a hypothetical, lets say they activated and have made their attack run and then their carrier dies. Now they are out of targets next turn when the ship that they almost killed last turn moves off. What then?

A friend and I ran the nationals list (VSD & 3 GSD) as a test against a random rebel build that featured a AF2 carrier, a Neb-B and a CR90 with a plethora of squadrons (including Keyland and Luke). I lost one GSD and my VSD was 1 hull away from death, but had outrun the squadrons that could have finished it. The Neb-B died, the Whale escaped by accidentally maneuvering off the board in his efforts to evade. That left the single CR90 against two GSD that were closing in so we called the game at that point end of turn 4.