As the title suggests, what is your Style of Play?

I know Style of Play gets a lot of flack but to me, it is an integral part of Armada. The way you play will effect your choice of builds and such.

I personally have a controlling style of play. I like to know all the variables the averages, will use that knowledge to force decisions onto my opponent as the game progresses.

What style of play do you have?

move to a place where the other player is out of range and can only or has to move one or two ships into range a turn. Thous having local superior fire power. Its like playing chess. I try to go the same thing with all combat games. Its also works in sword combat in 10 on 10 or more person melays

Like ouzel, I try to gain a local superiority somewhere on the board. After I establish superiority, I use my ships to herd the other player's fleet into a small section of the board and pour fire into their ships.

I'm VERY aggressive, always playing to table my opponents and building around massive firepower

I like the manoeuvre phase, coupled with anything which reduces variance (esp.dice - rerolls 4tw) and like others have mentioned use those tools to bring pressure at a point.

I like maneuvering to bring force to the point it's needed at just the right time - so the speed of the fleet is important.

I also like a "combined arms" approach and will always have squadrons and a mix of ship sizes/capabilities

Mainly Imperial, so giant space daggers in your ribs. I play aggressively, but not stupid aggressive (usually). I try to have two clear and present threats with a trailer. So an ISD & Demolisher trailed by a VSD or Raider for example. I will occasionally flank with something, but the main attack is still minimally two ships. The goal is to focus fire the lead ship / trail ship or one of the flank ships if in a line, followed by a turn into the remaining fleet. I have used Rhymer balls occasionally, but I prefer the big guns with a CAP generrally.

I almost always deploy near the middle and it usually forces my opponent to either flank therefore restricting space. If directly in front I will try to echelon.

Either:

I choose to stand back and force my opponent to move into my firing arcs.

Or:

Full speed ahead, RAM everything.

(The latter is more fun, the former more effective)

Cautious.

Generally, I'm not opening fire with Capital Ships until I've stripped either Shields, Defense Tokens, or Both from you with my extensive Squadron Cover.

Then I'm trying to bring overwhelming firepower down in one place.

I... Will... Break You...

My approach is always the same, find and exploit weaknesses. I analyze turn by turn and adapt to use weakness in positioning, speed, lack of coverage, etc to my best advantage. Because of this my fleets and strategies tend to be adaptable as opposed to niche.

My new Dodonna list has created a monster. . . I loved my Vader Duet, I could be highly aggressive with it and yet cautious in planning where the combat would take place, but this Dodonna the Oppressor list. . . .wow. . .

Cautious.

Generally, I'm not opening fire with Capital Ships until I've stripped either Shields, Defense Tokens, or Both from you with my extensive Squadron Cover.

Then I'm trying to bring overwhelming firepower down in one place.

I... Will... Break You...

This was the goal of the Vader Duet except it was at 2 places because of Gunnery Teams. Being able to select 2 ships and burn through them is just amazing!

I can't go out without any squadron, ever. Actually, I've started to have all my ship manage as many squadrons as they can activate any turn should I need them. But without building the squadrons as the main damage capability of the fleet. I feel that squadron less fleets are depriving themselves of a valuable tool in their command dial and that makes little sense to me. Even throwing a couple of A or X-Wings to go with Corvettes can go a long way, especially with Aces (and this is where Riekaan shines).

Which is why, I have to say, I'm loving the Imperials at 400 points. Throwing 8 to 10 squadron bases without crippling the fleet's efficiency is much, much appreciated

I'm also a gambler at heat. I love high risk/high reward gambits and do everything to mitigate the risk of these maneuvers... while reaping the same rewards Example : last game I played, I voluntarily activated an ISD first to finish off a MC30 while "offering" an almost intact GSD (with a single hull point down but pristine shields) to a Dodonna's Pride with Luke Skywalker that popped out of hyperespace Turn 4 behing my lines : I was betting on the fact that even with Dodonna he would not draw any Structural damage and it paid off, the GSD survived with full shields and 1 remaining hull, which he promptly repaired it its activation.

Speaking of how that GSD got the original face down card ? I purposefully rammed it in my ISD to slow him down and avoid entering into black range of a Torpedo Frigate.

Call me Ruthless Strategist.

I'm not really a competitive player. I build fleets because I like the ships or to fit some theme I've come up with.

I'm not really a competitive player. I build fleets because I like the ships or to fit some theme I've come up with.

Usually I over-think my lists, and ignore the things I know are obviously good in favor of things I think might be good but are kind of out of the box. As a result, I show up to games with lists I have never played before that work in bizarre ways, and usually end up either obliterating my opponents or getting obliterated.

Sometimes, though, I just flip the table over, pull out my lightsaber, and throw a tantrum by carving up a bunch of models and anything nearby before crying about my father never loving me.

As a fellow of some Japanese descent, I gravitate using General Rieekan and his aggressive zombie ships going in for the kamikaze.

I am aggressive in the style of Nelson, I like to attack at a single point and devastate that ship/ set of squadrons. This often has the effect of allowing me to piecemeal the rest of my opponents list.

I was leaning towards using rogue squadrons to aid with this, but right now I am looking at a list that fights well at medium range whilst commanding a mix squadron compliment of 4 X-wings and 4 Y-wings that are commanded each round using Boosted Comms.

This should give me air superiority and ships that can smash a line. It's measured aggression.

Dodonna is currently looking like an Admiral who can help get it done.

I personally have a controlling style of play. I like to know all the variables the averages, will use that knowledge to force decisions onto my opponent as the game progresses.

I have noticed this (the "know all the variables the averages" bit), and there is a certain Rain Man quality about that, unless you have some mental short cuts that you use.

If I were to adopt something like this, I would math out the expected damage output, and have it written on a card somewhere, adjusted for my available re-rolls and such. I did do it for the unmodified ISD1&2 front arcs, and have that written down.

You sent me to R1H4's article on WWPD, which I've read with critical interest. (I'm not sure that the 80-20 rule he's referring to is what Pareto was talking about, but it does seem like a slightly conservative rule-of-thumb, which seems reasonable enough.) R1H4 and you seem to use this Monte Carlo method, where you've actually rolled a bunch of dice (or done so in a dice-simulator. Was this just easier than calculating the probabilities?

As far as my own style, it's been a little stuck in the come-in-to-my-Rhymerball tactic, which I think is fair enough, but it's not as good now with Wave 2 as it was before. I think I'm going to have to dust off my excel spreadsheet for calculating probabilities and do more of what you do.

Blow stuff up. Completely and utterly. guns blazing

I've played squadron heavy and I've played sqaudronless. I've played Rebel more than Imperial, but haven't played any rebels in wave 2. I definitely find I enjoy the aggressive trading blows with your opponent over running after someone that keeps kiting. So I enjoy rebel builds that want to lunge at the enemy and Imperial builds that bring tons of firepower to bear in a single shot.

I started playing aggressively, but as I came to understand more of what I was doing I shifted into an entirely reactive design.

Now I build my fleet to be capable of at least breaking even in most if not all situations, and ideally to come out on top. Everything has to go together - Obstacles, Objectives, Deployment, as well as the first turn of movement. I am constantly learning that to have a set 'Plan' makes me at best consistent and at worst predictable, which is why my plan is now to simply make best use of the tools at hand.

As an example -

Were I to plan to send the Fireball in first, then bring the raiders around, that would be consistent with some variability, but in the end something that would be telegraphed through deployment, giving my opponent an opportunity to react to my plan.

Were I to plan around their actions as they happen, then suddenly I'm making the best of the situation at all times, regardless of what may or may not happen.

The nuance here is that you don't abandon your plans, you just don't aim for them before the game even starts. You have to know the things you can do, the types of plans you can make, and the responses you have, because in the end, you can't plan for everyone, only to be prepared for them.

My goal is to play tactically. If I need to play defensively, then I play defensively, if I need to go heavy on offense, then I go heavy on offense, etc. That being said, as someone who usually plays Rebels I try to go into battles with a defensive mindset. But I absolutely love fighters so my favorite (and most successful so far) lists are heavy on fighters.

I'm pretty calculated. I'll typically try to play a lot smarter as a Rebel and more aggressive as an Imperial. My Imperial lists go bezerker and my Rebel lists tend to think long game.

I typically come up with Two plans: Pre and post setup. My pre setup is what I intend the fleet to accomplish per the build. Post setup is the reality of placement and objective. Sometimes plans change (duh).

I play aggressively - so I mainly do fast black dice Imperial ships that race to get up close