Hello All,

I am testing a list that is two Vic-1's and two Glad-1's. Both of the Glad's have ACMs. Motti is the Commander. Bringing me to 296 for my total.

I ran the list against a Rebel bomber wing, Two AFmk2, 6 y-wings and Luke. I lost a Vic, but took out both of the frigates. If this had been a real game it would have been a 300 to 73 win or a 10-0.

We tried it again and it had the same result.

My opponent then switched to imperials. He ran two Vic-2's with a Rhymer ball.

Same result, I got both of his ships while only losing one of mine.

The last game of the night and I switched out the a Vic for another Glad-1 with ACM and Demolisher (same points).

This time it was a lot closer.

So I ask the group; is it better to have a bunch of bare ships for the volume of dice. Or a few upgraded ship that make the dice count?

See the GENCON special. Most tournament points and highest margin of victory at the tournament. Basically having more ships gives you activation advantage, shot advantage and means your opponent has to kill 300 points worth of ships. If your opponent has squadrons, you only have to kill 200-292 points of ships. There is a great piece in these very forums about it, buy the guy who did it.

The great thing about Armada is a great player can win with a s**+ list! and a s**+ player will get creamed with a great list. Execution, skill and decision making are a very important factor in your games.

Also I love ACMs with screed over motti. screed will make them go off almost every time.

So I ask the group; is it better to have a bunch of bare ships for the volume of dice. Or a few upgraded ship that make the dice count?

there is no such thing a "better"

everything in this gloriously complex game is context dependent

for example:

load up a neb with salvation, raymus, and h9s or something. Watch it die horribly because it's a squishy neb. Resolve to use less upgrades (support refit, raymus + salvation = a lot of punch for only 65 points, ACM GSD-1 territory)

load up an assault frigate with EA and paragon, though, and it becomes an unholy terror of death and destruction

the viability of upgrades depends entirely on which upgrades we're discussing and the foundation you're putting them on

generally, the cheaper or more fragile the ship --> the more overburdened it will be with upgrades.

you also have to consider the ship and the nature of the upgrade. Slow ass VSDs with arc-and-range-dependent expanded launchers always seemed like utter overkill to me, for example.

etc.

personally, I prefer moderation. Being the token rebel of the group, this means Nebs only ever go out naked for only with their title (+raymus for salvation because of how amazing the conc. fire token is with salvation) and assault frigates generally go out a little bit fatter (paragon + turbolaser)

as an imperial player, though, I only own two VSDs. To overcome the worst nav chart in the game, I use upgrades to the tune of hangars + flight controllers (squadrons don't care about your facing), h9 + warlord (also don't care about facing), and/or dominator (sensing a pattern here?)

if you're running skreed-spam, obviously you want as many ships and as many ACM to synergize like mad with Skreed's ability (and nothing else apart from Demolisher, because that **** is nuts)

and so on and so forth

there is no direct answer for the viability of upgrades. It depends entirely on your fleet and your strategy. Just don't go overboard on them

In regards to your question I think it depends on your skill at flying. If you are good enough to fly without making a lot of mistakes then less ships with more upgrades should win the day. This game depends highly on player skill and knowing how to fly against a fleet like this. My buddy and I played a very similar match-up twice and I beat him both times with 2 AFIIs and 4 A Wings and 4 Y Wings. I basically out-flew him and killed his gladiators each time and won 8-2.