I always play naked. Doesn't everyone?

Depends on the weather

Well, it wouldn't be respectfull not to wear the skull of your last opponent as a hat.

I've just noticed today, that Ackbar with two MC80 Assault cruisers naked hits exactly 266pts, which leaves 134pts for fighters in a 400pts list.

Coincidence?... I don't think so!

I've just noticed today, that Ackbar with two MC80 Assault cruisers naked hits exactly 266pts, which leaves 134pts for fighters in a 400pts list.

Coincidence?... I don't think so!

Is the Force that tells you what do you have to build... or maybe ffg who tells you what do you have to buy, who knows? (John Snow don't, of course)

While I am a fan of going light on upgrades, and tailoring the fleet to fit my strategy, I think the whole "no plan survives first contact with the enemy" parable is also true. While my ships do have roles to play in my plan, I think another error that can be committed is in overspecializing. If your ship is made to only be a carrier, and it finds itself in a situation where the fighters cant help or have been eliminated or otherwise engaged, it's also nice to be able to shoot.

So, over upgrading can be a serious error, but so can overspecializing.

It's nice to have some versatile ships in your list that can do a lot of things well.

I've just noticed today, that Ackbar with two MC80 Assault cruisers naked hits exactly 266pts, which leaves 134pts for fighters in a 400pts list.

Coincidence?... I don't think so!

I would never run with naked MC80s. Seems too many points to be worth it over the MKII.

Upgraded can work well, too, though, it all depends on one's playstyle and preferences.

I won the M@S event with two heavily upgraded AFIIs and four A-Wings. I decked out one AFII as a carrier and one as a gunship. It worked well, even though I didn't need the Flight Officers in two of my match-ups (no enemy ships). But in the match-up where I went up against a Rhymer-ball of TIE Bombers and TIE Advanced, I was glad to have them as it let me cut down an extra squadron or two before my A-Wings were history (and I only won that game by 6 points, so had I taken out one fewer squadron I would have lost).

When list-building I kept asking myself "am I willing to give up the two ECMs and the two Enchanced Armaments for a CR90?" Even though I could recognize the value of a third ship in activation control and objectives, I couldn't justify such a debuff to my two heavy expensive ships for one naked runner. And I'm glad I didn't, as the ECMs probably saved me about 25 damage across the day by allowing me to Brace, Brace, Brace.

I like a few upgrades specific to my strategy and fleet build, but my upgrades should have a beneficial effect.

In economic there is a term called opportunity cost, the idea here is that I have $2 and when I walk into a shop I could buy food as I am hungry or a drink as I am thirsty. Sadly my $2 can't buy both. Now should I buy the food the opportunity cost is that I have to forego the drink. This also gives some idea to the concept that at another time I may buy the drink, but at this time my hunger exceeded my thirst. Now in Armada the concept could be that I have 13 points left, I could chose an A-Wing or Enhanced Armaments, at this point I look at what each does or can do and make a choice based on my expectations.

This concept applied to every choice you will make, you have 400 points and that is a limited resource. Taking that ship at 75 points means that you can't take 75 points of other stuff, now you may want that ship to try something new, so the choice could be simple enough. But as you spend your points you may revisit that choice and look at it with the idea of asking yourself: "What did I give up for that choice?"

Now, as long as you feel you gave up less that the choice you made you would feel you are making good choices.

Taking a ship that can take lots of damage, shoot lots of dice and activate squadrons may seem nice, but if you have two such ships was the cost too high if you could have made a fleet with 3 ships and each has its own role?