Fleet Ambush

By Pheznik, in Star Wars: Armada Rules Questions

Can someone explain to me, like I'm five, the point of this? It seems like it just gives the first player a better distance to your ships.

Closer Distance. Not Better.

It breaks the Fleet up. If they were relying on having all of their ships hit you at the same time, it won't happen now.

If you are Long Ranged, it can put the enemy right where you want them, straight up.

The Ambush Area itself is also very small. You can cram it full of obstacles and make their life immediately miserable.



Is it a straight up objective easy to game? No, no it is not. But it has the potential to be breaking.

For example. Set up right, and you can have a Wave of Bombers hit them almost immediately.

OR the ambushed fleet hits YOU with a wave of bwings.... As they go first ;)

OR the ambushed fleet hits YOU with a wave of bwings.... As they go first ;)

Yes, that is going tobe the risk.

Fleet Ambush is what I refer to as a "Rewardless" Objective. It itself won't guarantee to give you any points over something else. However, it is an objective that will shape the choice of objectives...

If I'm player 2, and I have a BUNCH of Star Destroyer -I Variants, all close Range, All ready to get into Close Brawl and Beat the Snot out of someone.... ... You as First Player better have a plan before selecting that Objective... Which means you'll start looking at other objectives, ones which could be bigger risk/reward, or perhaps provide me a benefit that I have planned on, but you have not...

Tagging on to this - is the distance "from any edge of the Setup area" the board edge or the front edge of your deployment zone?

Page 10, RRG, "Setup Area"


Setup Area

The setup area is the region of the play area in which ships, squadrons, obstacle tokens, and objective tokens are placed during setup.

The setup area ... is the 3' x 4' area in the center of the play area.

Which means the AMBUSH Zone is Distance 5 from any of those edges. Which effectively makes the Setup Area a 1' x 2' Area in the very Center of the Table (as Distance 5 is essentially 12")

Assuming this is a 3'x6' Table, the BLUE area is the Setup Zone, the ORANGE area is the Ambush Zone.

SetupZone_II.jpg

Edited by Drasnighta

Thanks! That's what I was thinking, but this makes it blatantly clear.

Do not underestimate the power of Fleet Ambush - when it comes to gaining an advantage during setup, this is objective is a blast (unfortunately it can sometimes backfire spectacularly!)

Do not underestimate the power of Fleet Ambush - when it comes to gaining an advantage during setup, this is objective is a blast (unfortunately it can sometimes backfire spectacularly!)

My raiders like to be close...

Edit: of course this only applies in the unlikely event we meet...

Edited by clontroper5

Do not underestimate the power of Fleet Ambush - when it comes to gaining an advantage during setup, this is objective is a blast (unfortunately it can sometimes backfire spectacularly!)

yes it can, hopefully you have it in your world cup list...

My raiders like to be close...

Edit: of course this only applies in the unlikely event we meet...

I so like Raiders when they go "pop"! :D

Always brings a smile to my face when my opponent brings Fleet Ambush against my B-wings. :D Popped an AF2 flagship on the first activation of the game the other day with Yavaris and her wing...

Always brings a smile to my face when my opponent brings Fleet Ambush against my B-wings. :D Popped an AF2 flagship on the first activation of the game the other day with Yavaris and her wing...

Of ALL the objectives, Fleet Ambush is the one I'll never put in a competitive list. After watching Clontroopers fleet it'll stay neatly stored.

It has seemed, more often than not, that it is 2nd player that is getting ambushed.

Yup. The only time it'll get picked is if it's going to ruin your day.

This is a very fun and interesting objective. I had the honour of being ambush, so I put my Gunnery teamed Dominator as far towards my opponents as I could. Since I was first player, I activated the Dominator first. He had the honour of one-shotting not one, but two different badly placed Nebulons during the games first activation. My opponent (who was very new to the game and didn't realize that the side of Nebulans are extremely fragile) instantly gave up. I do not blame him.

Edited by Viper Jr.

A friend and I talked about ambush last game...

1. Does squadrons must be placed following the odd-pair sequence?

2. If a player has less ships than the other, does he wait until all the other player's ships are deployed to start deploying the squadrons?

3. Could the squadrons be deployed at distance 1-2 of an ambushed ship but out of the ambush zone?

I think I remember something like No-Yes-Yes but I don't play this objective frequently so I forget it easily.

1. Players deploy normally - except they must do ships before squads.

So if you have 4 ships and 5 squads you must do SHIP - SHIP - SHIP SHIP - 2 SQUAD - 2 SQUAD - 1 SQUAD

2. No. He deploys normally - except he must do ships before squads. Once he's out of ships, he starts with squads, deploying them by pairs.

3. Yes. Only the ships are bound by the ambush zone.

1. Players deploy normally - except they must do ships before squads.

So if you have 4 ships and 5 squads you must do SHIP - SHIP - SHIP SHIP - 2 SQUAD - 2 SQUAD - 1 SQUAD

2. No. He deploys normally - except he must do ships before squads. Once he's out of ships, he starts with squads, deploying them by pairs.

3. Yes. Only the ships are bound by the ambush zone.

Thanks but one thing still no clear for me. The squadrons could be place at distance 1-2 from an ambushed ship even if we are not in an odd deployment round? I think yes.

1. Players deploy normally - except they must do ships before squads.

So if you have 4 ships and 5 squads you must do SHIP - SHIP - SHIP SHIP - 2 SQUAD - 2 SQUAD - 1 SQUAD

2. No. He deploys normally - except he must do ships before squads. Once he's out of ships, he starts with squads, deploying them by pairs.

3. Yes. Only the ships are bound by the ambush zone.

Thanks but one thing still no clear for me. The squadrons could be place at distance 1-2 from an ambushed ship even if we are not in an odd deployment round? I think yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

2. No. He deploys normally - except he must do ships before squads. Once he's out of ships, he starts with squads, deploying them by pairs.

Interesting. I have only ever seen it played that both players have to finish deploying all ships before either player starts deploying squadrons. That is, all ships are deployed before any squadrons are deployed.

Players take turns deploying fleets as normal, but must deploy all ships before deploying any squadrons.

Almost exactly the same kind of verbal ambiguity as XI7 , in fact. Really wish FFG would work on the specificity of their cards... >.>

Any other opinions on this?

As normal would mean that you deploy as normal BY PLAYER. Meaning once yer out of ships you start deploying squads.

I don't think one player would sit and "empty" deploy until the other player got to squads.

Slightly vague though for sure

2. No. He deploys normally - except he must do ships before squads. Once he's out of ships, he starts with squads, deploying them by pairs.

Interesting. I have only ever seen it played that both players have to finish deploying all ships before either player starts deploying squadrons. That is, all ships are deployed before any squadrons are deployed.

Players take turns deploying fleets as normal, but must deploy all ships before deploying any squadrons.

Almost exactly the same kind of verbal ambiguity as XI7 , in fact. Really wish FFG would work on the specificity of their cards... >.>

Any other opinions on this?

Players. Plural. Not Ambushing.

Deploy your Ships first. Then your Squadrons.

If you had to "wait for you enemy to finish deploying Ships" before deploying your squadrons, because they had 6 activations to your 2... It would say so.

Players. Plural. Not Ambushing.

Deploy your Ships first. Then your Squadrons.

Exactly. Players .

Players (plural) must deploy all ships before deploying any squadrons. They both deploy all ships before any ships are deployed.

If you had to "wait for you enemy to finish deploying Ships" before deploying your squadrons, because they had 6 activations to your 2... It would say so.

It does.

I mean, I'm open to the possibility that it's meant to be interpreted to mean " Each player must deploy all of his ships before deploying any of his squadrons." As someone who often plays swarms, I would much prefer that that be the case. But that's not what it says.

Email sent. I'll let you guys know when I get an answer sometime next year. :)

Was there ever a response to this? I played Fleet ambush at Nationals last week and there the TO ruled that all of both player's ships had to be on the board before any squadrons. It would be nice to see this make the next FAQ.