Taskforce Armada Format! 200 pt 3x3 area

By Blail Blerg, in Star Wars: Armada

Let us know how it goes!

I'm actually itching to try it for wave3/4 testing. As I'm having a hard time coming to grips with everything thrown at us.

Just to let you know, there will soon be a second tournament using the format.
After the success last time, i expect it just as good or better :)

Edited by florianhess

Hey Florian, did that other tournament ever happen?

Bring this back because there's a bunch of new players, and so far it seems fun for everyone who's played it.

Looking forward to doing some Wave 5!

Hey Blail, I actually was thinking the other day that it might be fun to start campaigns at this level, rather than tournament games. It seemed like the building curve in campaign was relatively steep since you only get to expand from 400-500.

But I was thinking it would be awesome to portray the campaign running from 3 humble Correllian patrol captains running a 200pt exploratory force through the arms race all the way up to 500 pts.

Have you thought of trying something similar?

24 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Hey Blail, I actually was thinking the other day that it might be fun to start campaigns at this level, rather than tournament games. It seemed like the building curve in campaign was relatively steep since you only get to expand from 400-500.

But I was thinking it would be awesome to portray the campaign running from 3 humble Correllian patrol captains running a 200pt exploratory force through the arms race all the way up to 500 pts.

Have you thought of trying something similar?

I love this idea. Of course I wanted to try it! I dunno how well it scales though. Would you be willing to try?

My peeps aren't ready for campaign yet. haha.

I've had a few games with it though. Huge success. It started out totally confusing as an old player to strategize with... but as the game kept going I kept finding I made huge mistakes -> meaning that there was a right and better move and I didn't make it.

Always willing to try.

Would be a lot of fun for a more casual group I think, maybe more narrative driven than competition driven since I think the format lends itself to it. Faster games, at first, then really building to that huge final battle.

The only thing I would worry about with starting at 200 and running up the whole way in the campaign is addressing imbalance. I think you just need to make sure all players curve up, to keep the power disparity from becoming too great.

You don't want to wind up with one side fielding 500 point fleets while the other is still scraping by around 250 or so. Just let replacement fleets come in closer to the highest total, maybe?

Cool idea though.

Or have half the points you gain normally from your turn given as refit instead. So if one team wins heavily, they can't slam 100 pts of upgrades on their ships and curbstomp, but it doesn't decrease the overall points given for repairs if you lose. This way everyone should be able to curve up steadily the first few turns, even with a big loss/win.

On 1/26/2017 at 8:40 PM, Blail Blerg said:

Hey Florian, did that other tournament ever happen?

Bring this back because there's a bunch of new players, and so far it seems fun for everyone who's played it.

Looking forward to doing some Wave 5!

The store ran an event in September which I attended, there were only 4 of us there in the end but it was good fun.

Has anyone tried this format with any of the conflict objectives? My local store is going to run a skirmish format today to see if it increases attendance and I was just looking at the conflict objectives and noticed that a couple might need tweaking to work, thinking blockade run for instance.

I've tried casual games with the new objectives as choices, nothing seemed totally crazy.

On 2/18/2016 at 7:29 AM, Drasnighta said:

I don't like the 3X3, mostly because a legitimate strategy of dealing with a large ship is AVOIDING IT, or at least splitting and making them prioritise your fleet - and you can't do that when it can place itself in such a way.

Different situation. In a full 3x6 game the goal is to win the objective and attempt to escape unscathed. In this, you need to be either more crafty or more willing to directly engage.

In some ways, I really like how the addition of flotillas gives the small ships a chance to have an advantage by outmaneuvering the large ones. Demolisher, for example, gets a chance to run around first-last and can squeeze in a small fighter screen and even a Raider. A big MC80 or ISD is going to really bruise anything that comes into combat range. If you focus on all bombers, you can't just throw a bunch together because you'll still need to have anti-squadron defenses.

Also you can still avoid a large ship in 3x3 by being out of its strong arcs or using your activation and your bid to nullify its effectiveness. Having literally one ship is a pretty tough situation.

This is best felt vs said. try it. Afaik, the multiple people trying this haven't excalimed that large ships felt anywhere near overpowered. Everyone thinks something gets unbalanced at this point cost, so far none of bias has survived testing.

Edited by Blail Blerg
8 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

Stuff in reply to me...

A lot has changed in the past 12+ months since I made my comment, eh? :D

32 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

A lot has changed in the past 12+ months since I made my comment, eh? :D

Well somebody gave Rieekan a forum account and suddenly everything that should be dead is still alive :P

I bump this cuz its a less stressful and fast way to enjoy the game. Also, has two-ish tournaments of data and a smattering of casual games that so far seem to state nothing that people thought was OP is actually OP.

(Does anyone want to write a poem for Rieekan?)

Yeah, smaller point games are fun too. They go by really quick.

Good idea. I am now teaching one of my co-teachers how to play 200 point Armada. Fits nicely in a lunch break.

7 hours ago, D503 said:

Good idea. I am now teaching one of my co-teachers how to play 200 point Armada. Fits nicely in a lunch break.

That's super awesome! Yay teachers! What and where are you teaching? =)

How do you feel about the format from an educational standpoint??

6 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

That's super awesome! Yay teachers! What and where are you teaching? =)

How do you feel about the format from an educational standpoint??

That would be so cool! Using Armada (or maybe X-Wing) as a teaching tool.

Anyone found good uses for Salvation in this format? Seems like it really needs something big to distract.

I was summoned. Play this! There have been tournaments with results played on this mode!

Currently preparing for a Corellian Campaign minimal rules rewrite for this format.

9 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Anyone found good uses for Salvation in this format? Seems like it really needs something big to distract.

I was summoned. Play this! There have been tournaments with results played on this mode!

Currently preparing for a Corellian Campaign minimal rules rewrite for this format.

AOA on a 3x3? :lol:

This is how I usually play by myself since I only habe a 3x3 table at home, but I put out 300 points. May need to try it at 200 and see if it works better.

The only thing that terrifies me is what happened when I did a tutorial with a friend who wanted to try it. Being a previous wargamer, he looked at the size of the board, saw the Interdictor's upgrades, and I started to cry. And we didn't even have the undeployable 3 on the sides.

Edited by Blinkus Maximus
correcting autocorrect
1 hour ago, Blinkus Maximus said:

This is how I usually play by myself since I only habe a 3x3 table at home, but I put out 300 points. May need to try it at 200 and see if it works better.

The only thing that terrifies me is what happened when I did a tutorial with a friend who wanted to try it. Being a previous wargamer, he looked at the size of the board, saw the Interdictor's upgrades, and I started to cry. And we didn't even have the undeployable 3 on the sides.

Trust me, the Interdictor isn't good at 200pts either. Mine died in 1.5 turns, EACH TIME. You just throw **** at it.
(Actually, its a tad better, but its still not good)

200 works FAR better. 300 is far too crowded.

Our FLGS will be running a tournament day with your Taskforce setup, @Blail Blerg , on Sept. 9th. I'll report back and let you all know how it went! We are limiting objectives to the original 9*. Otherwise, anything goes!

EDIT: sorry I meant 12?

Edited by Maturin
4 hours ago, Maturin said:

Our FLGS will be running a tournament day with your Taskforce setup, @Blail Blerg , on Sept. 9th. I'll report back and let you all know how it went! We are limiting objectives to the original 9. Otherwise, anything goes!

Wonderful! Hope it goes well!