How often do you Navigate?

By Cuthawolf, in Star Wars: Armada

I fly off the edge of the board. A lot. Especially with AF2s.

I'm not sure how often it's happened, but more than "a couple" which is pretty embarrassing. It mostly only happens with AF2s, which is particularly troubling since a lot of people seem to run them at speed three all the time. I have a suspicion I'm not making enough use of the navigate command with its extra tick on the manuever tool.

So how often do you guys plot navigate commands for your ships? I know my friend makes a LOT of use of them for his VSDs, hauling the nose around to keep it on target.

A LOT.

Twice a game for most ships:

1st turn usually

2nd repair

3 4 conc fire/sqn

5 nav or repair again

6 conc fire

Banking the nav token also helps avoid that running off the board with speed 3.

Find a table, and sit down, plot out how many turns of movement you can do before flying off the table... Stick some obstacles down representing enemy Star Destroyers if it helps...

Find out how many turns it takes you, based on different moves, to get near that edge... Subtract 1 from that number, and that's the turn you want at least one Navigate command by.

Never flown off the board, but aside from an opening game engineering, I nav every single turn with my Vics. I just can't keep up otherwise.

With Glads I tend to bank a token early. I tend to switch between nav and squadrons with them.

Have only flown the ISD one and never flown the Raider. so can't comment on those.

Very often. My conga line is usually stacked with navs, interspersed with engineering commands on the turn right before or right after I actually need them. >.<

My VSD stack tends to go Nav, Nav, Nav, Eng, Eng, Eng, so... a lot.

When running a AF2 gunline, almost every turn, maybe with a concentrate fore mixed in if I have banked a nav token

When running my named dual glads with engine techs. Every.single.turn. it allows me to place them exactly where I Want them and my opponent doesn't. If I bank a token, even better

Quite often, but definitely not all the time. That would be wasteful.

In my tourney list (VSD-I carrier w/Motti, VSD-II Warlord, huge Rhymerball), the VSD-I carrier stayed behind at speed 1 and only ever used Squadron commands (or, if threatened in the late game, Repair), while the hunter-killer VSD-II used 3-4 Navigates and 2-3 Repairs.

My VSD stack tends to go Nav, Nav, Nav, Eng, Eng, Eng, so... a lot.

This, X2 VSDs.

Usually just turn 1 to get things angled just right. After that it's normally Nav tokens from Garm for me.

Usually just turn 1 to get things angled just right. After that it's normally Nav tokens from Garm for me.

Well he can only give you 2 Navigate tokens, and 1 of them only if you survive to round 5. Which is fine, your post just implies Garm is giving you multiple Navigate tokens at a time, which he can't.

Edited by rowdyoctopus

I have found with Assault Frigate Mk IIs, if you want to go speed 3, you need to plan a Navigate by round 4 or 5, depending on how much you have turned to start cutting long ways across the board. I've flown mine off the far side of the table a few times.

My last game I made a grave error with my MC30. I had it at speed 4 from the start, planned my first turn navigate, but needed the yaw so I didn't take the token. I kept forgetting to plan navigate after that and would have flown her off the board, however she blew up first.

My ISD has been using Navigate twice a game. Turn 2 and Turn 4 or 5. Usually to make sure it stays on the table as without at least 2 it can't turn around in a 3'x3' space at speed 3 without flying off the board.

Not all the time... but usually less than I wished I had by the time the game ends. :P Finding the correct balance between repair and nav commands is my primary issue (and that's just for non-carriers).

Not all the time... but usually less than I wished I had by the time the game ends. :P Finding the correct balance between repair and nav commands is my primary issue (and that's just for non-carriers).

:)

flying rebels, first turn is basically always navigate (only exception is fleet ambush or if I gotta move squadrons outta the way to adjust for enemy deployment)

flying Garm, you don't have to give a crap about the tokens :D

without Garm, you still navigate to get the tokens

often then, it's another navigate; except against what I think are very aggressive lists with initiative that may be in range for a pounding

round 3 is generally when **** goes down, or so I've noticed

Many don't use it enough. I mentioned before that nav commands are often better than CF, esp with things like VSDs.

Not all the time... but usually less than I wished I had by the time the game ends. :P Finding the correct balance between repair and nav commands is my primary issue (and that's just for non-carriers).

put engineering captain on the ship then spam nav commands, whenever you need engineering simple change it to that!! :)

But then I cannot have Wulff! Or Intel Officer! Or Needa!

But yes, your point is well taken. If the problem persists, I'll look into this. :)

As an Imperial player, I'm really enjoying using Ozzel and heavily abusing Navigates.

While it doesn't give you the direct firepower bonus of Screed or Vader, Ozzel and the Navigates, I think, work even better for an aggressive playing style. The ability to maneuver exactly where you need to be is perfect. Luring your opponent in by having an Imperial moving at speed 1, then suddenly jumping it up to speed 3 and putting their fleet in your front arcs is beautiful. It also combos greatly with the Raiders, who can drop from their high-speed 4 into their highly maneuverable 2. And, of course, the Demolisher loves Ozzel; go from speed 3 on approach to speed 1 for the double-click, and engine-tech for another speed 1 double-click to guarantee those nice arcs or to circle around behind an opponent.

Plus Ozzel is cheaper than anyone else, so more room for upgrades.

Yes, my default T1 command is Navigate, and depending on the ship I usually issue one another 1-2 times per game. There's a lot of advantage to be gained by juking around obstacles and ending up in unexpected places, and keeping your fleet in the optimal formation.

My turn 1 is also always navigate to bank tokens for speeding up or slowing down later in the game, but reading your replies I think I can see where I can definitely be using that command a lot more often.

As an Imperial player, I'm really enjoying using Ozzel and heavily abusing Navigates.

While it doesn't give you the direct firepower bonus of Screed or Vader, Ozzel and the Navigates, I think, work even better for an aggressive playing style. The ability to maneuver exactly where you need to be is perfect. Luring your opponent in by having an Imperial moving at speed 1, then suddenly jumping it up to speed 3 and putting their fleet in your front arcs is beautiful. It also combos greatly with the Raiders, who can drop from their high-speed 4 into their highly maneuverable 2. And, of course, the Demolisher loves Ozzel; go from speed 3 on approach to speed 1 for the double-click, and engine-tech for another speed 1 double-click to guarantee those nice arcs or to circle around behind an opponent.

Plus Ozzel is cheaper than anyone else, so more room for upgrades.

If I played a game with an ISD I would probably ellect to take Ozzel and pull off all kinds of ass-hattery with the fun that can stem from Nav commands. ISD, GSD, 2 raiders, and token TIE screen perhaps? Fun stuff.

Yes, my default T1 command is Navigate, and depending on the ship I usually issue one another 1-2 times per game. There's a lot of advantage to be gained by juking around obstacles and ending up in unexpected places, and keeping your fleet in the optimal formation.

Any ship that has 3+ speed I deploy at speed 2 and Nav on the first turn. This gives you every tactical option under the sun. The only time this won't really take effect is with Ambush or Hyperspace.

@Bitharne

That's exactly the list I was practicing out last night. Ozzel was on the ISD, which just had Relentless, Redundant Shields, and Gunnery Teams. I had the Demo with its usual Engine Tech/ACM build, and then two Raider-I's with Ordnance Experts and Expanded Missile Launchers. I've never liked Expanded Missiles before, but I wanted to try it out on these dudes.

We played Superior Positions. I was first player, so I started my ISD in the middle, Demo on the far left, and the two Raiders on the far right. The ISD started at speed 1, the others were all at max speed. He set three Nebulons to go jousting straight at the ISD (they were well upgraded, wasn't a bad strategy), and then 3 CR90's went after the Demo. Not the best choice there, but he couldn't let the Demo flank the Nebs, so it was a "for the greater good", scenario.

The ISD popped up to speed 3 on the first turn, the Demo boosted up and fired some potshots. Both Raiders moved up into a flanking position. Nebs moved straight for the ISD, and the CR90's moved straight towards the Demo. Next turn, Demo sped up between two of the CR90's, blew one away completely and damaged the other. The ISD kept moving forward and landed on the Space Station, which was on his side of the field, with it obscuring their line of sight. The Nebs all got to fire at the ISD, but did minimal damage with -1 die each for the Space Station. The Raiders dropped to speed 2 with a Nav command (still having the token from earlier to use later), and lined themselves up on the flanks of the Neb line.

Next turn was massacre. Demo started it off, finished off the second CR90 and wounded the third, then boosted over to help with the Neb's other flank. ISD slowed to one, now fully covering the space station with its bulk, but not before it opened up on the fronts of two Nebs, mostly just taking out shields and a couple hull points. But then the friggin' Raiders, with Concentrate Fire, opened up with 4 Blacks and 3 Blues each, the first one blowing away one Neb, and the second one firing into the second Neb and crippling it.

The turns after were just mop-up and chasing down a fleeing CR90.

Moral of the story: Fast moving Imperial lists with Ozzel are going to be the bane of red-dice Rebel builds, whether they're jousting Nebs or Ackbar Broadside ships. In either case, I think this sort of list is going to get up in their face before those reds can do enough damage.

I tend to play a single Guppy and a bunch of Smaller ships. And I use Navigate tokens very very often! That extra Yaw is normally the difference between getting two firing arks on the same ship, and slamming into another ship.