[Tactics] Yavaris and Fleet Ambush

By Ardaedhel, in Star Wars: Armada

Just wanted to throw this out there for the community, since I've used it a few times now and I'm loving it so much. It's no revolutionary tactic or anything, but might be helpful to those who, like me, haven't historically run Yavaris B-wings much.

If you're running Yavaris + B-wings as player 1 and your opponent offers you Fleet Ambush as an option, take it. Deploy your first ship--not Yavaris--a short distance back within the ambush zone, trying to draw your adversary into deploying at the leading edge of their deployment zone. Which, most will be more than happy to oblige, because you don't take Fleet Ambush without thinking "woo hoo hoo, they've fallen into my trap, and now they'll pay!!" Then you deploy your second ship as far forward as you can, at top speed charging into the combat area (nothing revolutionary here).

Finally, you throw down Yavaris. By this point your opponent has had two opportunities to place ships at or near the forward edge of his deployment area, which means there's probably at least one ship in range. So you drop Yavaris as far forward as you can, pointing directly at him (keep dem front shields relevant!), , and then deploy your B-wings in Yavaris' activation range between her and the target, and cut loose.

I got the alpha strike on my adversary's AF2 flagship the other day with this tactic. Opening the game with 6 goddamn B-wing shots is a pretty soul-crushing situation to be on the receiving end of.

Edited by Ardaedhel

Aye, I saw someone do this exact thing and end up with an opponent conceding in about 10 minutes because of it.

But they did something with it that I really didn't expect (I was only a spectator, but it caught me off guard) they deployed Yavaris backwards, prow pointing towards the friendly board edge. It struck me that the Nebulon B's aft shields and armaments aren't exactly dreadful, and with the B-wing activation, then its shots, the thing peeled out of there at speed 3 and snuck in behind a Defiant Mc80 which was covering its retreat corridor with a well guessed double arc.

Imperial Christmas Trees are fire hazards with all those flashy lights and dangle extra bits. Anyway the point looked like it was that the Yavaris could slingshot in late game when the fire had slackened off rather than bulling in to an opponent's heavy guns and getting atomized turn 2.

Good tactics overall :D

@Vykes : Yeah, the Neb B's rear arc is just 33% less effective than its front arc in terms of guns and shields, and still twice as strong at red range as the side arcs. I've used that to my advantage when you "fly over" ISDs and VSDs from a flank at speed 3.

They think they've got you with your shields on the front, but then you pass them over and they have to redo it all over again :D

But deploying with the rear facing the enemy is quite a cool tactic that I've never seen yet :D

I'll be honest, I figured out this sorry of stunt really early (mine involved sitting an ISD and Rhymerball down on top of you) and because of that I'd never consider running Ambush. Seems like a huge liability.

Fleet Counter Ambush!

I'll be honest, I figured out this sorry of stunt really early (mine involved sitting an ISD and Rhymerball down on top of you) and because of that I'd never consider running Ambush. Seems like a huge liability.

Fleet Ambush really favours close range armies like the Imperials. When I played Rebels and if I had that as my objective selection, the Imperial player would jump on it :P

As an Imperial with nasty guns though, when you give the choice between Fleet Ambush, Advanced Gunnery and Intel Sweep, that's a really annoying proposition for Rebels :P

Precisely MoffZen. Hmm, there's no way to make this not sound weird, so I'll go for it: -ahem- the Nebulon B's sides might be a little thin but it doesn't have a bad aft, all things considered (told you it was awkward to phrase).

So, chasing a Nebulon isn't exactly the most ideal thing in the world but I guess it never occured to me that Ambush gives you enough room to still go full tilt without skipping town and bailing on the rest of your fleet. I hadn't seen it done before, and it effectively mitigates some of the player 1 disadvantage with vulnerable ships like that.

Shhhhh! Put that cat back in the bag!