The Star Wars Armada tournament is well under way, with round 2 having just finished. Thanks again to Matt Biggs for stepping up to run it. swm11-15_preview1 This is the very first vassal tournament for Armada, and has attracted players from around the world including some of most successful Xwing players. I have compiled a list of most of the Fleets being used, which I think Armada players will find really interesting, and then Corellian Corvette has made some observations about their success that could be useful reposted in a thread dedicated to analysis.

The big questions at the moment as people try to 'meta-game' their squadrons against potential opponents revolve around the minimum points spent on initiative bids (the player with the least points in their fleet gets to pick to be player 1 or 2), objective selection (each player picks 1 of 4 objectives from 3 categories and offers them to their opponent to choose from if the opponent is 2nd player - it's a whole mini game of interesting decisions before the real fight starts!) and especially the balance between Capital Ships and Fighter/Bomber Squadrons.

I come down on the side of believing tilting a list towards Capital Ships is a good approach when playing 300 points for a host of reasons, and have put my money where my mouth is with the list I have entered, but as you can see there other opinions and plenty of variety.

Squadron Heavy Fleets

Maturin

• Nebulon-B Escort Frigate
• General Dodonna

Fleet Ship 1: (65 pts)

• Nebulon-B Escort Frigate
• Yavaris
• Veteran Captain

Fleet Ship 2: (76 pts)

• Nebulon-B Escort Frigate
• Salvation
• XX-9 Turbolasers
• Ray Antilles

Squadrons (79 of 99 pts):

• 1x B-Wing Squadron
• 1x Keyan Farlander B-Wing Squadron
• 1x Tycho Celchu A-Wing Squadron
• 1x X-Wing Squadron
• 1x Dutch Vander Y-Wing Squadron

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Biggs IRL

Assault Frigate Mk II B - 72 125

Mon Mothma - 30

Enhanced Armaments - 10

Gunnery Team - 7

Adv. Projectors - 6

CR90A - 44 49

Jaina's Light - 2

Leia Organa - 3

CR90B - 39 49

Tantive IV - 3

Raymus Antilles - 7

Luke Skywalker - 20

X-Wing
X-Wing
Y-Wing
Y-Wing
A-Wing - 11

Total Squadrons = 77

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Truthiness

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (108 points)

-General Dodonna

-Enhanced Armaments

-Advanced Projectors

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (93 points)
-Advanced Projectors
-Enhanced Armaments
-Paragon

1x A-Wing (11 points)
3x B-Wings (42 points)
2x X-Wings (26 points)
Luke Skywalker (20 points)
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Green Squadron 3

1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - Flight Controllers (6) - Advanced Projectors (6) - Enhanced Armament (10)
• Total : 94
2 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - Mon Mothma (30) - Intel Officer (7) - Advanced Projectors (6) - XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Total : 121
3 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14
4 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14
5 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13
6 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13
7 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13
8 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13
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Kami689

Flagship: (124 pts)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer(73 pts)
Admiral Screed (26 pts)
Assault Concussion Missiles (7 pts)
Admiral Chiraneau (10 pts)
Warlord (8 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (88 pts)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer(56 pts)
Assault Concussion Missiles (7 pts)
Wulff Yularen (7 pts)
Demolisher (10 pts)
Engine Techs (8 pts)

Squadrons (85 of 99 pts):

1x Darth Vader Tie Advanced Squadron (21 pts)
1x Major Rhymer Tie Bomber Squadron (16 pts)
2x Tie Bomber Squadron (18 pts)
1x Tie Advanced Squadron (12 pts)
1x Sontir Fel Tie Interceptor Squadron (18 pts)
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OgRib

Flagship: (77 pts)

CR90 Corvette A(44 pts)
General Dodonna (20 pts)
Intel Officer (7 pts)
Dodonna's Pride (6 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (96 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)
Expanded Hangar Bay (5 pts)
Flight Controllers (6 pts)
Advanced Projectors (6 pts)
Ray Antilles (7 pts)

Fleet Ship 2: (53 pts)

CR90 Corvette A(44 pts)
Intel Officer (7 pts)
Jaina's Light (2 pts)

Squadrons (72 of 100 pts):

5x Y-Wing Squadron (50 pts)
2x A-Wing Squadron (22 pts)

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Brian Black

Assault Frigate Mark IIA (101pts)
[•General Dodonna (20pts)]

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (62pts)
[•Yavaris (5pts)]

Nebulon-B Support Frigate (65pts) [•Raymus Antilles (7pts), •Salvation (7pts)]

+ Squadrons (66pts) +

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)
A-Wing Squadron (11pts)
Tycho Celchu (16pts)
B-Wing Squadron (14pts)
B-Wing Squadron (14pts)
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DabDarklighter

1 - Assault Frigate Mark 2 A
- General Dodana
- Advanced Projectors
- XX-9 Turbolasers

= 112 Points

2- CR90 Corvette A

= 44 Points

3 - CR90 Corvette B
- Dodanna's Pride

= 45 Points

X-Wing Squadron
X-Wing Squadron
Y-Wing Squadron
Y-Wing Squadron
Y-Wing Squadron
Y-Wing Squadron
B-Wing Sguadron
B-Wing Sguadron

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TrikkStar

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (132): Admiral Motti - Expanded Hangar Bay - Overload Pulse - Enhanced Armament
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (88): Wulff Yularen - Engine Techs - Assault Concussion Missiles - Demolisher

Darth Vader (21)
TIE Advanced (12)
TIE Advanced (12)
Major Rhymer (16)
TIE Bomber (9)
TIE Bomber (9)

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Onca

1 •Assault Frigate Mark II (113)

- General Dodonna (20)

- Adar Tallon (10)

- Flight Controllers (6)

- Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

2 • Nebulon-B Frigate (64)

- XI7 Turbolasers (6)

- Salvation (7)

3 • CR90 Corellian Corvette (52)

- Leia Organa (3)

- Leading Shots (4)

- Dodonna's Pride (6)

4 • Luke Skywalker X-wing Squadron - X-wing (20)
• Total : 20
5 • Keyan Farlander B-wing Squadron - B-wing (20)
• Total : 20
6 • B-wing Squadron - B-wing (14)
• Total : 14
7 • Dutch'' Vander Y-wing Squadron - Y-wing (16)
• Total : 16
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Brozojoe

AF2B-118pts

-General Dodonna

-Intel officer

-Gunnery team

-Advanced projectors

-XI7 turbolasers

Neb B Support refit-71pts

-Raymus antilles

-XI7 turbolasers

-Salvation

CR90a-59pts

-Leia Organa

-Enhanced armaments

-Jaina's Light

Squadrons-50pts

-A-wing

-A-wing

-B-wing

-B-wing

Squadron-Light Fleets

Paul Heaver USA

Assault Frigate 2B w/ Mon Mothma, Gunnery Team, Enhanced Armaments (119)

Assault Frigate 2B w/ Gunnery Team, Enhanced Armaments (89)

CR90A w/ Leia, Enhanced Armament, Jaina's Light (59)

3x A-Wing (33)

Lyraeus USA

+++ Battle Whales (295pts) +++

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (122pts) Advanced Projectors (6pts),
Enhanced Armament (10pts),
Gunnery Team (7pts),
Intel Officer (7pts),
•General Dodonna (20pts)

Assault Frigate Mark IIB (100pts) Advanced Projectors (6pts),
Enhanced Armament (10pts),
•Paragon (5pts),
•Raymus Antilles (7pts)

CR90 Corvette A (46pts)
•Jaina's Light (2pts)

+ Squadrons (27pts) +

A-Wing Squadron (11pts)

•Tycho Celchu (16pts)

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Chilligan

AF Mk II A

Mon Mothma

ECM

Raymus

Paragon

Enhanced Armament

AF Mk II B

Enhanced Armament

Gunnery

Nebulon Support Refit Salvation

A-wing squadron

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KovuTalli

Assault Frigate MK2 B, X99 Turbolasers, Paragon

Neb B Support Refit (cheaper one) with Dodonna

Neb B Support Refit with X17 Turbolasers and Salvation.

Neb B Support Refit with X17 Turbolasers

2 x A-wing.

Clontroper5

Vsd-1: dominator, Wulf Yalleren

Gsd-1: Admiral Screed, Acm, Engine techs

Gsd-1: Demolisher, Acm, Engine techs

Tie intercepter
Tie intercepter

JJs Juggernaut USA

Flagship:
Assault Frigate Mark IIB (72)
-Garm Bel Iblis (25)
-Enhanced Armament (10)
-Advanced Projectors (6)
-Gunnery Team (7)

Assault Frigate Mark IIA (81)
-Enhanced Armamant (10)
-Advanced Projectors (6)
-Sensor Team (5)
-Paragon (5)

CR90 Corvette A (44)
-Jaina's Light (2)

Tycho A-wing squadron (16)
A-wing squadron (11)

Total: 300

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F0RGED

Flagship: 106
73 - VSD1
07 - ACM
26 - A. Screed

Ship 1: 80
73 - VSD1
07 - ACM

Ship 2: 73
56 - GSD1
07 - ACM
10 - Demolisher

Squads:36

12 - Tie Advanced (×3)

Pure Capital Ships

Matt-Shadowlord Australia

1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - Garm Bel Iblis (25) - Gunnery Team (7) - Enhanced Armament (10)

2 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - Gunnery Team (7) - Enhanced Armament (10) - Paragon (5)

3 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - Gunnery Team (7) - Enhanced Armament (10)

Doobleg Australia

1 • Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85) - Gunnery Team (7)
• Total : 92 • Code : -

2 • Victory I-class Star Destroyer (73) - Admiral Screed (26) - Gunnery Team (7) - Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Total : 113 • Code : -

3 • Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56) - Wulff Yularen (7) - Engine Techs (8) - Assault Concussion Missiles (7) - Demolisher (10)

• Total : 88

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Correllian Corvette

• Assault Frigate Mrk II =A= (145pts) Paragon, with Mon Mothma, Raymus, Sensor Team, EMC's (of course), and Enhanced Armaments
• Assault Frigate Mrk II =A= (101pts) Veteran Captain, EMC's, and Enhanced Armaments
• CR90 Corvette =A= (53pts) Leia and Advanced Projectors

Felforlife Texas

Gladiator I
Screed
ACM

Gladiator I
Demolisher
ACM

Gladiator I
ACM

Gladiator I
ACM

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Irokenics Australia

Assault Frigate Mk II B

- Paragon
- XI7

- Intel Officer
- Advanced Projectors
- Gunnery Teams

- Mon Mothma
Total: 133

CR90a
- Tantive IV
- Raymus Antilles

- Enhanced Armament

Total: 59

CR90a

- Jainas Light
- Leia Organa
- Enhanced Armament

Total: 64

CR90B
- Ion Cannon Batteries
Total: 44
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Rekkon USA

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85) - Gunnery Team (7) - Admiral Motti (24)

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85) - Gunnery Team (7)

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85) - Gunnery Team (7)

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SwissJak

(296 of 300 pts)
Flagship: (116 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)
Mon Mothma (30 pts)
Gunnery Team (7 pts)
Electronic Counter Measures (7 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (86 pts)

Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)
Gunnery Team (7 pts)
Electronic Counter Measures (7 pts)

Fleet Ship 2: (47 pts)

CR90 Corvette B(39 pts)
Overload Pulse (8 pts)

Fleet Ship 3: (47 pts)

CR90 Corvette B(39 pts)
Overload Pulse (8 pts)

God of Cheese

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85)

Admiral Screed (26)
Gunnery Team (7)

Total : 118

Ship 2

Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85)

Intel Officer (7)
Gunnery Team (7)

Total : 99

Ship 3

Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56)

Engine Techs (8)
Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
Demolisher (10)

Total : 81

Masseter

Victory Class Star Destroyer 1 with Screed 99
Glad Star Destroyer 1 wACM + Demolisher 73
Glad Star Destroyer 1 wACM 63
Glad Star Destroyer 1 wACM 63

As you can see, there is quite a lot of variety in the lists, with players choosing to take pure capital ships in the minority.

Popularity of Admirals

Imperial Admirals:

Grand Moff Tarkin - 0. Brilliant but expensive.

Motti - 2. Increases Hitpoints, but IMHO over-rated.

Screed - 7. A huge boost to damage output that becomes a sickeningly good boost when combined with Assault Concussion Missiles. Oh look, there are also lots of Assault Concussion Missiles.

Rebel Admirals

Mon Mothma 6 - She keeps ships alive far better than Motti.

Garm Iblis 2 - Less popular, but good in fleets with large capital ships

General Dodonna 10 - The cheapest admiral also lets you pick the enemy's critical hits from a selection of four cards - a useful ability meets a cheap price to create a very popular leader.

Get the new vassal - free

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Star_Wars:_Armada

Learn to use it:

http://xwingtactics.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/vassal.html

This should be a great event, and a real chance to compare the results of the various list building philosophies as these fleets clash with one another.

Good luck to all participants!

Full stats of Capital Ships taken:

Nebulon B Escort ==== 4
Nebulon B Support ====3

Corvette A ====10
Corvette B ====6

Assault FrigateA ==== 5
Assault FrigateB ====19

Gladiator I ====15
Gladiator II ==== 0

Victory Star Destroyer 2 ====7
Victory Star Destroyer 1 ====6

Most Popular ships

1. Assault Frigate B = 19
2. Gladiator I = 15

The largest Rebel ship currently available proves to be the most popular over all. This has to be partly because it is the only resilient ship available to Rebels at the moment. The Gladiator I slips into second place, but really this is only because there are more Rebels than Imperials in this event. There are in fact more Gladiator Is per Imperial (1.6) than there are AFBs (1.05) per Rebel.

Least Popular ships

1. Gladiator II = 0
2. Nebulon B Support = 3

Where the Gladiator I proves most popular, the Gladiator II is an unsurprising least popular. That's not because it's a bad ship, it is a very good ship, but the Gladiator-II is simply cheaper and better at its role. It combines so well with Assault missiles and Screed that imperials are shying away from its longer ranged brother, and the improved Anti-Squadron of the G II is a lot less appealing to a fleet that has 'kill the enemy capital ships' as its default plan.

Each capital ship has two versions; a basic one and a more expensive one generally with longer range and better anti-squadron firepower.

Number of times the More Expensive Variant taken:
26

Number of times the Less Expensive Variant taken:
49

Less expensive variants are clearly far more popular, especially when you factor in that 10 of the times that the more expensive one was chosen it was a Corvette, the cheapest capital ship in the game.

Point for point, players are investing far more in the cheaper versions of capital ships. Additional firepower, especially Anti-Squadron firepower, doesn't seem sufficient to tempt many of the players away from the 'B's and 'I's over the 'A's and 'II's.

Loving looking at the stats!

The biggest surprise so far might be something noticed by Correllian Corvette:

Despite the facts that over a third of all players who entered this tournament took General Dodonna (and that's a third of the total, not just rebels), and that half the top 8 at the end of round 2 are Rebels, there isn't a single Dodonna among them.

Wait, where is my list? I'M IMPORTANT TOO!

Better add 2 Assault Frigates and a CR90 to that total, with Mon Mothma as commander

Edit: http://www.3plusplus.net/2015/08/star-wars-armada-international-tournament-lists-and-a-vassal-module-launched/

Oh, so your the one who wrote this? Good write up, used some of your numbers in my own datasets. Thanks

I'm kind of sad to see how unpopular the poor Neb-B is but very interesting data. Thanks for typing it up MattShadowlord

Thanks for the analysis.

I'm only counting 25 lists.

Three questions:

• Corellian Corvette, what, exactly is your list?
• What is DabDarklighter's list?
• Why is Chilligan's list with a single A-wing considered a squadrons-heavy list?

I made a few edits; the source of these lists was a bit of a jumble.
Dab's list is assigned to his name, Chilli's moved to the squadron light section and Correllian's added.

Okay, my next critique is what you call squadrons heavy/light/no.

I understand the way you did it, and it's entirely reasonable. I'm merely proposing a different analysis.

If I'm going to analyze this list, I'm not going to look at points spent on squadrons or even the number of squadrons built. I'm going to look at the number of squadrons that are bombers. Especially with the ships-gone=game-over rule, it puts more emphasis on the ships over the squadrons.

In that context, the squadrons game is about destroying ships. Bombers exist to kill capital ships and non-bombers exist to stop them. Sure, non-bomber squadrons can still attack ships, but that's not what they're really for or what they're good at, for the points spent on them. Non-bombers are there to kill bombers.

So, a heavy squadrons list that spends a lot of points on squadrons, with only a handful of bombers are making a strategic mistake - in my view - and I would not count them as a good test of what squadron-heavy lists are capable of. Because of this. I also think that it's misleading to say that no-capital ships lists are in the minority. 16 out of the 27 lists have 0 squadrons with bomber.

Also, I impose a much higher threshold on what constitutes a bomber-heavy list than what you do a squadrons-heavy list. You consider Brozojoe to have a squadrons-heavy list, even though he only spends half the optional amount of points on squadrons, of which only two squadrons are bomber squadrons. From my point of view, if you're not spending at least 80 points on squadrons with a considerable allotment of those points for bombers, you're not really focusing your list on the squadrons game; you're dabbling.

In my view, the lists that are real tests of the Many Squadrons archetype are those of Truthiness, DabDarklighter, Kami689 and GreenSquadron3.

P.S. I know this reads like I'm attacking you. I think it's awesome that you put together this list, so that we can think more about what it means. It's a great conversation and analysis starter.

Thanks for the write up, its pretty interesting to see all of the list broken down and seeing what are some of the most popular choices for lists (would also be really interesting to see what the most popular upgrades are).

I'm kind of sad to see how unpopular the poor Neb-B is but very interesting data. Thanks for typing it up MattShadowlord

Regrettably, taking even one can expose you to dangerous flanking from your opponent (Gladiators in particular) if you aren't extremely careful in your deployment and early maneuvering. I've learned a lot playing in this tournament (which was my only goal aside from actually getting to play Armada), and one of my main takeaways is that 2 Nebs is not sustainable without having a huge deterrent on your sides.

Maybe with a larger contingent of squadrons....

Okay, my next critique is what you call squadrons heavy/light/no.

I understand the way you did it, and it's entirely reasonable. I'm merely proposing a different analysis. If I'm going to analyze this list, I'm not going to look at points spent on squadrons or even the number of squadrons built.

Hi Mikael - That's fair enough. I doubt there's a definition that everyone would be happy with, so I just used one I've heard which is 4+ Squadrons at 300pts called squadron heavy. That quantity generally means people want the squadrons to do more than screen against enemy fighters, even if they aren't primarily bombers.

If the divisions would mean more to you if they were written as Fleets with 4+ Squadrons, Fleets with 1-3 Squadrons and Fleets with 0 Squadrons, feel free to read it that way

Okay, so I made a grid matching the participants, with the ordering points spent on squadrons. I divided out the no-squadrons to represent the no-squadrons (that one was simple). Then I divided the few/many between Onca and Brian Black, with the former on the 'many' side and the latter on the 'few' side.

While Brian Black does have more squadrons, he has <70 points in squadrons and only two of his squadrons have Bomber. Onca, on the other hand has 70 points worth of squadrons, and all of them have Bomber.

At the moment, it's hard to see evidence for the notion that Many Squadrons beats No Squadrons, because No Squadrons is beating the pants off of both Few Squadrons and Many Squadrons, and they're beating Many Squadrons rather thoroughly. Many Squadrons is also being beaten by Few Squadrons.

Of course, this is based off of just one round of Vassal tournament, so it should not be expected to be all that representative. It'll be interesting once more data gets rolling in.

At the moment, it's hard to see evidence for the notion that Many Squadrons beats No Squadrons, because No Squadrons is beating the pants off of both Few Squadrons and Many Squadrons, and they're beating Many Squadrons rather thoroughly. Many Squadrons is also being beaten by Few Squadrons.

I'm not at all surprised by that conclusion, but expect it to remain controversial

I believe the players on Vassal to be more experienced (and definitely more dedicated) than the average local store player, and there certainly hasn't been any sort of dominance of squadron-heavy fleets so far.

Anyone want to put these all to the Motti Scale?

Anecdotally, I've done pretty well with a Many list against No lists. As I mentioned above, I think that the conditions for a list being a Many list needs to be tighter. My Many lists are a full 100 points and consist of Rhymer, 5xTIE Bombers, Soontir and Vader. I treat Vader effectively as a Bomber.

It may be that there is a certain threshold over which squadrons become highly effective against No lists, and if you don't go 'all in' like I do, your list doesn't have the critical mass to get the job done.

Anyone want to put these all to the Motti Scale?

¿que?

Matt, love your work on this. Interesting to see the breakdown in what people decide to run.

I'm kind of sad to see how unpopular the poor Neb-B is but very interesting data. Thanks for typing it up MattShadowlord

Regrettably, taking even one can expose you to dangerous flanking from your opponent (Gladiators in particular) if you aren't extremely careful in your deployment and early maneuvering. I've learned a lot playing in this tournament (which was my only goal aside from actually getting to play Armada), and one of my main takeaways is that 2 Nebs is not sustainable without having a huge deterrent on your sides.

Maybe with a larger contingent of squadrons....

True though they are my favorite ship class from the OT so I still use them in all my fleets extra difficulty in use be damned.

Great original post. I have been hanging around this forum since it started and this is by far the most useful post I have seen in a long time. No whining, no wild speculation, no misuse of the non-word meta, just the facts. Thanks, well done.