A friend and I have been playing Armada once or twice a week since release. I play Imperial and he plays Rebels as we don't like the idea of "blue on blue" combat but I have only been able to win a single game since Wave 2 was released. Unless he does something incredibly stupid and sends his ships right at me, giving me a victory with a small margin, he will win with a landslide. We're talking about all of my ships gone with zero ship kills for me. We live in a small town so the two of us are the meta as we do not have much opportunity to play other people so I am here asking for advice, or confirmation of my ineptitude.

Since Wave 2 all his lists revolved around Ackbar and Gunnery Team but his most recent list consists of three Assault Frigate Mark IIs each with Gunnery Team, Electronic Counter Measures and Enhanced Armament, with Ackbar as his Admiral and six A-Wings for anti-squadron support.

I've had pretty good luck with this list.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Insidious ( 3 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

4 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 44 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)

The GSD has great flexibility, especially with Demolisher, and ACM is amazing in stripping sheilds away.

If you two are the meta then switch. Play rebels, let him play imperial.

Watch my videos?

Change one of your ISDs for two additional Gladiators.

Maybe try a squadron heavy list. Let a few fighters keep the a-wings occupied while your bombers take the frigates apart from afar. Depending on how many squadron packs you have, or are willing to buy, you can definitely overwhelm his 6 a-wings and let your bombers reign free.

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

Watch my videos?

this has been another shameless plug brought to you by lyaeus.jk man love everything you contribute to the community I'm just feeling snarky today

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

This.

Try contested outpost and make him fly into your crosshairs or let you get all the points.

Use advanced gunnery (He already has close to its benefits on his ships.)

Use Intel Sweep and place the fifth token in a location that would require the ships to come directly at you (no side toward you to get it.)

I've had pretty good luck with this list.

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo

Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault

Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Demolisher ( 10 points)

- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)

- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Insidious ( 3 points)

- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

4 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 44 points)

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

The GSD has great flexibility, especially with Demolisher, and ACM is amazing in stripping sheilds away.

I'll give your list a shot, but I found that the Gladiators pop before they can get in range for any decent amount of time.

If you two are the meta then switch. Play rebels, let him play imperial.

We did this. He no longer wants to switch.

Watch my videos?

I have no idea who you are or what your videos are about. I'll take a look at your post history.

Change one of your ISDs for two additional Gladiators.

Maybe try a squadron heavy list. Let a few fighters keep the a-wings occupied while your bombers take the frigates apart from afar. Depending on how many squadron packs you have, or are willing to buy, you can definitely overwhelm his 6 a-wings and let your bombers reign free.

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

As I mentioned above Gladiators don't seem to have enough staying power when my opponent is throwing six red dice three times a turn at a transverse angle. I usually get one or two volleys per Gladiator before they are gone.

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

This.

Try contested outpost and make him fly into your crosshairs or let you get all the points.

Use advanced gunnery (He already has close to its benefits on his ships.)

Use Intel Sweep and place the fifth token in a location that would require the ships to come directly at you (no side toward you to get it.)

Advanced gunnery does nothing for either of us since we have Gunnery Team on all of our ships.

When we play Intel Sweep he just ignores the objective and kills all my ships. I lose less hard, but still lose.

Watch my videos?

this has been another shameless plug brought to you by lyaeus.jk man love everything you contribute to the community I'm just feeling snarky today

I will have videos from a tournament I ran last Friday up Sunday. Need to format it all.

Watch my videos?

I have no idea who you are or what your videos are about. I'll take a look at your post history.

Check my signature, just click on the Armada Tactics News

I've had pretty good luck with this list.

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 400/400

Commander: Admiral Screed

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo

Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault

Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Demolisher ( 10 points)

- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)

- Admiral Screed ( 26 points)

- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)

- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)

- Leading Shots ( 4 points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Insidious ( 3 points)

- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)

4 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 44 points)

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

The GSD has great flexibility, especially with Demolisher, and ACM is amazing in stripping sheilds away.

I'll give your list a shot, but I found that the Gladiators pop before they can get in range for any decent amount of time.

If you two are the meta then switch. Play rebels, let him play imperial.

We did this. He no longer wants to switch.

Watch my videos?

I have no idea who you are or what your videos are about. I'll take a look at your post history.

Change one of your ISDs for two additional Gladiators.

Maybe try a squadron heavy list. Let a few fighters keep the a-wings occupied while your bombers take the frigates apart from afar. Depending on how many squadron packs you have, or are willing to buy, you can definitely overwhelm his 6 a-wings and let your bombers reign free.

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

As I mentioned above Gladiators don't seem to have enough staying power when my opponent is throwing six red dice three times a turn at a transverse angle. I usually get one or two volleys per Gladiator before they are gone.

Change your objectives, just doing something different may give you second wind while messing with your opponents comfort zone.

This.

Try contested outpost and make him fly into your crosshairs or let you get all the points.

Use advanced gunnery (He already has close to its benefits on his ships.)

Use Intel Sweep and place the fifth token in a location that would require the ships to come directly at you (no side toward you to get it.)

Advanced gunnery does nothing for either of us since we have Gunnery Team on all of our ships.

When we play Intel Sweep he just ignores the objective and kills all my ships. I lose less hard, but still lose.

Advanced Gunnery may be your ticket. Getting to attack the same ship r twice with am ISD2 will make most Rebels disappear. And he doesn't seem to be running an MC80 so he isn't benefiting.

Replace Fleet Ambush with Hyperspace Assault. He won't be picking it so often anymore.

NOOOOOO DON'T TAKE ADVANCED GUNNERY!

All caps 100% intended.

If you are playing against Ackbar and you have Advanced Gunnery the Ackbar player can throw that on the MC80 and still hit your ship twice in the right circumstances or shoot 2 ships with 5 red dice on a hard to kill ship. . . Bad idea!

I recommend working squadrons and Wing Commander. Rhymer will allow you to hit a ship make it burn tokens then you hit with Avenger on an ISD 2 and have a good day.

Drop Demolisher and the TIEs for a Fireball, and start eating. His ships before they come into red range.

Firesprays move speed 3, and Rhymer gives them medium attack range. Throw in Dengar & a TIE Advanced, and they will pull their weight.

Try including overload pulse, XI7, ECMs and gunnery teams on one ISD II, & Avenger, XI7, ECMs, boosted coms and gunnery teams on the other. I can usually pull of the Overload Pulse/Avenger combo 1 in three times I try. Spam navigation on the first ISD II, & spam squadron on the Avenger. Only exception turn one both get navigation, turn two, both get Squadron. Start at speed 2 at the most. You want him to come to you. Target Ackbar's flagship!!!! You get that and down he goes. Get good at this, and he will fear the Fireball more than you fear Ackbar.

First of all. He already said his friend doesn't use the home one. So advanced gunnery.

You could try barebones ISD s and a big rhymer ball with boosted comms.

Since you know what he's gonna take.

The other option is you tell him you're not having much fun being pummeled by ackbar. And ask if he is willing to play some other admiral for you two to get some fun games.

I mean as you say; the other option is you put it away and wait 6 months for the next game. Which means he didn't play for 6 months either.

But yeah. Go with tons of squadrons and boosted comms. It's ackbars are obvious weakness.

Ly. Can you link us to exactly the best videos for beating a well flown ackbar AF conga line?

Not a home one conga nor a battle where the ackbar player plays really badly.

You could of course ask him to use an admiral other than Ackbar for a couple of matches, just to see if that makes a differences. There is nothing we can post here that will make you magically win your matches, just too many variables involved. Generally squadron-heavy lists do better versus Ackbar though.

Definitely drop Fleet Ambush - you're letting him start the game in range. Contested Outpost will give you points and force him to engage you on your terms.

I also second/third/fourth the Fireball idea - Ackbar doesn't hit squads, so they can run rampant over his fleet. I use Rhymer/Dengar/Firesprayx4.

Give this a try, take Admiral Screed,

Gladiator : Demolisher : Engine Techs : Intel Officer : Ordnance Experts : Assault Concussion Missiles (92pts)

A couple of Raiders(OE & APT's/ 53pts each) and an Imp II decked out (Relentless : X17 TL : Intel Officer : Gunnery Team : ECM : SW7 Ion : Admiral Screed / 181pts)

Total is 379 points atm, here you can add Tractor beams on the Imp II taking you to 385pts, or Quad Laser Turrets on the 2 Raiders, taking you to 389 points, what is important is ensuring you get to be player one, being player one with 4 ship activations stands you a high chance of getting that Demolisher to go last one round and first the next round, meaning you should be able to fire it 4 times, 2 red (front) then 4 black (side), then 2 red 2 black front, then 4 black side, meaning you can trigger ACMS 2 times with Screed, Ordnance experts should get you the 3rd, you can pretty much kill anything with this ship build and the initiative.

Keep the two raiders on the Imp IIs flanks ( one either side), and you are set for Ackbar's destruction.

@OP : 10-0 victories are pretty brutal...

I have a theory : you should try playing more squadrons. You pay for squadron 4 when you take the ISD's, and even though TIE Fighters are good, 4 of them isn't enough to make a dent. After playing Rebel mainly Wave 1 and recently switching to the Empire for Wave 2, it really seems that the Imperial ships are jacks of all trades and that they have a large selection of tools that they can use through Command Dials (the least interesting Command for them is Concentrate Fire, although at long range on side arcs it's very useful for them). This toolbox includes squadrons, and without having enough squadrons to command you're missing one tool that the ISDs (and VSD to a lower extent) can use.

If you run a 4 activation list with demolisher gladiator then you can really do some damage. The other thing is 2 ISDs are way to expensive drop one down and pic up squadrons of you still want to run 3 ships. Rhymer and Fire sprays are a potent combination

First off with only the two of you playing I find it a bit unsportsmanlike that your opponent plays the same list (or variant) again and again.

I'd say if your opponent doesn't want to change then you'll have to. Go crazy and have fun. At least if you get blown away you've tried something new. I'm certain you'll learn more about your opponents tendencies and eventually will have a list that can compete.

I also have a small group (3) and we hate getting tabled but the only time we play similar lists is when we're practicing for a tournament. (Like now). Usually my FAVORITE part of armada is coming up with new lists and using them.

Ok I need to jump in. =)

Full disclosure.

I am Jacks main opponent (boooo hissss!!) And of the last four games we have played...I have 2 wins and Jack has 2. I actually think he has turned the corner on tactics and gameplay. I play several different lists using MC-30's, MC-80's, and AF2s while using Garm or Ackbar. And every time I play a sub-optimal list....Jack accuses me of "Sandbagging" LOL.

Anyhooo.

He and I have been working on different Imp builds to counter Ackbars apparent firepower advantage (and yes we have switched sides). I think the Imps current problems stem from the Reb red dice advantage and the nature of the their main attack arcs (Broadsides). I find the Rebs very easy to fly around at speed and keep enemy ships in Arc. When I fly ISD or VSDs, I need to be planning well ahead and a mistake in maneuvering can easily let the Rebs slip through your powerful front arcs.

My Reb lists *always* have at least 5-6 A-Wings and Tycho to counter (or at least tie up) the various Imp squadron balls of doom.

Anyway....I think we are going to switch sides for a while (I actually prefer the looks of the Imp fleet) and see if I can figure this out.

We do appreciate the forum feedback though.

Yeah go try mass squadrons. Like 133 points.

I am Jacks main opponent

I thought you were going for a Fight Club thing here, at first.

I'm starting to notice a trend here, and I can't quite put my finger on what the root of it might be. It seems that the fewer different people there are playing in a meta, the stronger the cries of Ackbar OPness (not that you guys actually said that, but Jack's clearly having trouble against it). I've recently encountered two unrelated two-player "metas", both of which were dominated by him--and now you two. On the other hand, in the Vassal tournaments with 20-30 participants, and in San Antonio where we have something like 25-30 people playing with some regularity, he really hasn't seemed to be particularly outrageously strong.

My position for a while now has been that Ackbar is relatively quite easy to play competently with, but probably has a lower skill cap than some other admirals. I do still think that... but could it be that his presence actually prevents players from improving? Is he perhaps so easy to win with between two evenly matched but inexperienced players that he drives new players away? Or maybe he punishes slight variance from apparent counters so severely that he actually pushes the opponent toward a losing strategy?

I honestly couldn't say that I recall having seen an Ackbar vs. [anything else] game between two new players, ever, so, I'm legitimately asking the community because I don't know.

Jack/Leifer: how much experience do you guys have? Did you play before Wave 2? Has either of you played anyone other than the other? I'd be interested to see the direction your "meta" (as much as two opponents can develop one) has grown if it did indeed develop under the Shadow of the Squid.

It seems at least possible that it could go a long way toward explaining the disconnect between those of us who dismiss Ackbar as peanuts and those who cry foul on him.

As an aside, please don't take this as an attack against you two, or an implication that you're just not as good as me (I already know I am, I don't have to brag about it ) or anything like that. I'm legitimately interested in what, if any, impact breadth of experience or lack thereof has on Ackbar's apparent strength.

We have both been playing since the game was released. We really only get in one...maybe two games a week.

I do have one other opponent to play against and I also play several other war games at a competitive level (Jack just plays Armada).

Our fairly limited "meta" absolutely impacts our skill levels.....i know this from attending tourneys in other systems on both sides of the U.S/Canada border a few times a year.

You just can't get *great* at a game without having a broad player base and the regular pressure cooker experience tourneys put you through. =)

We really just play for fun....and I think me running Imps for a couple of months will help shake things up a little.