What we've already covered on Steel Squadron HQ so far this month:

After Action Report for BiggsIRL vs MattShadowlord

Commander's Guide - Raider Class Corvette

The Sky Isn't Falling: Reaction to Worlds

Wave 2 Officers

After Action Reports -- Battle of the Blogs: Biggs vs Shmitty

Interview with World Champion Jonathan Reining

Commander's Guide - ISD - Guest Article by David

Last Week

Obstacle Placement - Part 1 - Standard Obstacle Placement Objectives

Obstacle Placement - Part 2 - Obstacle Specific Objectives

Obstacle Placement - Part 3 - Case Studies

This week's articles!

Monday 11/23 - Wave 2 Weapons Teams

Tuesday 11/24 - Wave 2 Support Team - Projection Experts Appreciation Station

Wednesday 11/25 - Commander's Guide: YT-1300

Friday 11/27 - Commander's Guide - Firespray-31

Next Week's Articles:

Monday: Commander's Guide - MC30c Frigate!

Wednesday: Wave 2 Offensive Retrofits

Friday: Wave 2 Defensive Retrofits

Somewhere in there: Maybe I'll write something else, I dunno.

Original Pre-Monday topic - what obstacle do you place first? Do you go with the Station, the Fat Rock, or one of the Debris? Where do you place that obstacle?

Monday Topic: Do you use your obstacles offensively or defensively?

**Wednesday Topic: With which objectives do you change your obstacle usage?** (Feel free to discuss the previous topic(s) as well)

Your site is now my favourite armada blog, beating some close competition.

Great work.

A: I place either the station first, roughly where I expect my fleet to be in 3 turns f which may well mean appearing to give to the enemy, but can mean on the edge ofa flank half way up the field

Or

I place a rock (not debris) 3 from the opponent's edge, close to the centre of the map, to begin splitting the field in half. I usually use the long skinny rock for this.

I heartily approve of your choice of topics.

Station first. I might place it where I expect my ships to be later, or I might use it to make my opponent think that's where I'm going...and then I'll ignore it completely.

Great topics!

All good answers. I was going to post this up at the end of day on Monday, but what the hell, it's all ready to go.

So we're just getting an early start here at the Steel Squadron HQ!

I heartily approve of your choice of topics.

Just wanted to thank you Madaghmire for the choice of topics. I don't think obstacle placement has gotten a lot of love yet.

But without further ado... Obstacle Placement - Part 1

Edit:

**New Monday Topic: Do you use your obstacles offensively or defensively?**

Really enjoyed the article Biggs, can't wait for the next one!

All good answers. I was going to post this up at the end of day on Monday, but what the hell, it's all ready to go.

So we're just getting an early start here at the Steel Squadron HQ!

I heartily approve of your choice of topics.

Just wanted to thank you Madaghmire for the choice of topics. I don't think obstacle placement has gotten a lot of love yet.

But without further ado... Obstacle Placement - Part 1

Edit:

**New Monday Topic: Do you use your obstacles offensively or defensively?**

One of the most - if not the most - interesting article to date.

I suppose in honor of talking about obstacles and setup, we'll be getting an early start all week!

Part 2 is up!

Another early start today.

Part 3 is up!

In which we look at obstacle placement in Round 5 of Worlds, as well as an old Vassal game I played in the first tournament.

Next week we have a pretty low effort schedule comparatively:

Monday: Wave 2 Weapons Teams

Wednesday: Wave 2 Support Teams / Update to Vassal

Friday: Off for Thanksgiving? We will see.

Having done all this writing on the subject, it has definitely improved my obstacle play - I'm finding myself doing more with them and going in with a plan more extensive than "toss them into the 3 corners and that'll be good enough."

It is definitely a topic that doesn't get a lot of discussion though.

Having done all this writing on the subject, it has definitely improved my obstacle play - I'm finding myself doing more with them and going in with a plan more extensive than "toss them into the 3 corners and that'll be good enough."

It is definitely a topic that doesn't get a lot of discussion though.

Yeah, I've got to give you credit for the setup in a recent Contested Outpost game. I had never thought through the mechanics of denying the location of the outpost--at least not in the depth that your article prompted--and it worked like a charm. Opponent was placing obstacles on one side of my deployment zone to try and deny me clear access to that side of the board, so I countered by denying him outpost placement on that side.

You the man, Biggs.

Yeah, these articles were awesome.

Yeah, I've got to give you credit for the setup in a recent Contested Outpost game. I had never thought through the mechanics of denying the location of the outpost--at least not in the depth that your article prompted--and it worked like a charm. Opponent was placing obstacles on one side of my deployment zone to try and deny me clear access to that side of the board, so I countered by denying him outpost placement on that side.

You the man, Biggs.

Glad you took something away from it all. I just had a chance to use what I've learned again - denying one side of the board - to set up against an opponent's Superior Positions. It's really added a lot to my pre-game strategy.

Monday's article is up!

I'm not waiting until Wednesday to post this stupidly small article. Here you go.

I'll chime in here rather than on your blog page...

Lately I've been going first and selecting a lot of fleet ambush. I use 2 of my 3 placements to make a wall from a far corner of the ambush zone to the corner of my opponents deployment zone. My first ship placement then goes parallel to deployment zones, somewhere near that diagonal line. This helps give my first ambushed ship a relatively safe place to start, as my opponent will either have to deal with obstacles, or have to start so far over that he'll spend some time chasing me before he can catch my first ship. This was pretty important to me for wave 1 as I flew a lot of VGG. I deployed my vic in that safe pocket with the front arc pointing just to the side of that last obstacle. The innermost obstacle protected its flank for the first few turns.

Decided to make sure we had some good articles to end the week:

Friday: Commander's Guide - Firespray-31

I'll chime in here rather than on your blog page...

Lately I've been going first and selecting a lot of fleet ambush. I use 2 of my 3 placements to make a wall from a far corner of the ambush zone to the corner of my opponents deployment zone. My first ship placement then goes parallel to deployment zones, somewhere near that diagonal line. This helps give my first ambushed ship a relatively safe place to start, as my opponent will either have to deal with obstacles, or have to start so far over that he'll spend some time chasing me before he can catch my first ship. This was pretty important to me for wave 1 as I flew a lot of VGG. I deployed my vic in that safe pocket with the front arc pointing just to the side of that last obstacle. The innermost obstacle protected its flank for the first few turns.

I really like this idea - Fleet Ambush is not an objective I usually chose, either 1st player or 2nd player, so I haven't really had the opportunity to play around with it. Not a bad idea to keep your first ship safe. Where do you put your final rock in this scenario?

The one time I played with it recently, I was 2nd player and had chosen it for a B-Wing supported list, setting up my obstacles (all the rocks) in a line across the ambush zone to try and force my Imperial opponent to set up driving straight at me and engage half of his fleet before the others could catch up, or have him take pot shots with bad arcs instead. He chose to drive full steam ahead, and it almost worked for him.

I'll chime in here rather than on your blog page...

Lately I've been going first and selecting a lot of fleet ambush. I use 2 of my 3 placements to make a wall from a far corner of the ambush zone to the corner of my opponents deployment zone. My first ship placement then goes parallel to deployment zones, somewhere near that diagonal line. This helps give my first ambushed ship a relatively safe place to start, as my opponent will either have to deal with obstacles, or have to start so far over that he'll spend some time chasing me before he can catch my first ship. This was pretty important to me for wave 1 as I flew a lot of VGG. I deployed my vic in that safe pocket with the front arc pointing just to the side of that last obstacle. The innermost obstacle protected its flank for the first few turns.

I really like this idea - Fleet Ambush is not an objective I usually chose, either 1st player or 2nd player, so I haven't really had the opportunity to play around with it. Not a bad idea to keep your first ship safe. Where do you put your final rock in this scenario?

The one time I played with it recently, I was 2nd player and had chosen it for a B-Wing supported list, setting up my obstacles (all the rocks) in a line across the ambush zone to try and force my Imperial opponent to set up driving straight at me and engage half of his fleet before the others could catch up, or have him take pot shots with bad arcs instead. He chose to drive full steam ahead, and it almost worked for him.

My final rock is usually either to shore up that diagonal line (lengthen it or turn it into an obstacle blob) or if my opponent looks like they placed the station very particularly, I'll place the last one near the station to block whatever approach I guess that he wanted, usually either right in front of it, or between where I anticipate my first deployment is and the station. If he lands on both, no net effect, but there's a decent chance that won't happen and my opponent will have to work to navigate around/over the obstacle.

That's interesting. Like I said, I don't usually see a lot of Fleet Ambushes. I do see a few Hyperspace Assaults, but in my area, the biggest Yellow that I see is either Fire Lanes or Contested Outpost.

Actually, what I mostly see is myself going 2nd after losing the bid, and my opponents choosing Superior Positions or Precision Strike for the 6th game in a row. Which is rarely a good decision for them, but who am I to complain?

Good morning and happy "Armada is showing up at my FLGS Today" day!

I wrote about the YT-1300 because I had to work yesterday, but didn't get a lot of calls.

Remember when I wrote about the YT-1300? Well, I wrote about the Firespray-31 as well, and saved it for today so you'd have something to read while you stand in line shopping on Friday.

Aren't I nice?

I've only got four firesprays at the moment..need a few more!

Great blog have enjoyed the content. Fyi the mc80 does not have a liberty title it is independence

Great blog have enjoyed the content. Fyi the mc80 does not have a liberty title it is independence

okay, so which article is that mistake in?