So, if we are going to talk about tactics for keeping people honest, I am going to throw out the following:

1. After you move or they move, measure arcs and range to anything relevant, and then either record what you are saying and ask if your opponent agrees, take a picture with your phone, or record it on a piece of paper and ask if your opponent agrees.
2. Then, if something gets bumped, you know what the story was and agreed to it beforehand.

I hate to have to get that detailed, but in a competitive event and/or if someone is being difficult, that's what I would do.

I also always go through a checklist at the beginning of the round and will ask my opponent about the same items I am doing. "Did you flip all your defense tokens? Did you set all your command dials?" so that there are no "gotcha" moments.

It comes across as pedantic sometimes, but when I explain to people the whole purpose is actually to avoid any mistakes or disputes for either of us so that the best player always wins, most people are actually happy with it because they know nobody is cheating. If someone objects, it's usually a sign they are trying to cheat themselves, and at that point, I usually go get the judge pre-emptively.

Edit: As someone who has been the TO for previous games, I would also say more than one player conceding against anyone for attitude-related reasons would cause me to immediately red card that person and remove them from the tournament as well. Everyone can have blowups once in a while (it happens, no biggie), but if there is a recurring issue, where there is smoke there is almost always fire.

So, if we are going to talk about tactics for keeping people honest, I am going to throw out the following:

1. After you move or they move, measure arcs and range to anything relevant, and then either record what you are saying and ask if your opponent agrees, take a picture with your phone, or record it on a piece of paper and ask if your opponent agrees.
2. Then, if something gets bumped, you know what the story was and agreed to it beforehand.

I hate to have to get that detailed, but in a competitive event and/or if someone is being difficult, that's what I would do.

That's exactly what I do...when I maneuver something that matters...I measure then and there.. that way you save hassle later. I also say everything out loud so that there is no confusion. Even ask for his agreement if it is a maybe situation. Bumps happen...I feel like I have epilepsy some games.

Great write ups Mike and DrunkTarkin.

This regional was a great event at an awesome venue.

I won't go through all of my games but I will post a view observations I had and things I learned from the event.

First I want to thank Steve (Finished in 2nd place) for two of the best games of Armada I have played. He is a great guy and a formidable opponent. We helped each other to the finish line in the championship game as weariness was really setting in. Meeting cool guys like Steve is better than winning any tournament.

1. Taking/not taking your bye has pros and cons but I wouldn't underestimate the effects fatigue has in the later rounds. If I had played a first round game over a bye I might not have been as sharp at the end of the day.

2. I also saw a couple of games where one player dropped all of his ships to zero for basically the whole game and castled in a corner with his fighter ball hovering in front of him. This isn't really my style but I can see how with a bad match up it might seem like the only thing to do. If you are at a higher table you might have the freedom to risk doing something like that but lower down you need to play more aggressively because you can't afford a 5-5. I had two games where I chose superior positions, deployed on one side of the board and then my opponent deployed on the other side on my flank. With my nimble VSD's I decided to drop the ship closest to my opponent to zero for one round and speed the furthest ship up to two. This let me redress my line to face my opponent and then equalize everything back to one the next round to avoid being flanked or pushing one VSD out ahead of the others. This was a big risk because it meant waiting until round three on some of my ships to execute a squadron command. I think if I had done anything else in these games I probably would have lost due to one of my ships getting pushed out ahead of the others and focused down. If it seemed like turtleing up to my opponents I apologize. I saw there deployment far out on my flank as a chance to negate the advantage of their Superior Positions by wheeling my force so I could bring it fully to bear at the same time. Deploying into Superior Positions is a scary thing, even one speed dial set incorrectly can cost you the game.

3. Building off of the point above to a general one. I know rounds are timed but if you have initiative don't be afraid to take a few minutes to think through if you want to go first or second. Once that decision is made if you are second player think through the decision of what objective to pick pretty thoroughly. Be prepared for surprises. My list was 399 points. I expected to be second player a lot. I had initiative in all but one of my games and in that game my opponent chose second. In my games with initiative I picked superior positions all three times. It seems really simple with 10 squadrons but like I said above deploying all of your stuff first with only VSD's is really scary. It was a tough decision to make in every game but the last one (where I felt more confident after having already done it twice).

4. Motti. I saw a lot of Motti. Heck i brought Motti. And while I think Motti is really good I think sometimes he is picked maybe he shouldn't be. At least twice I took the full brunt of an ISD front arc that rolled no accuracies. Vader would have let my opponent re-roll all blue dice fishing for and probably getting one. In round 3 I had some truly horrendous rolls with my VSD1s on short range shots. Vader really could have turned the tide of that game with re-rolls and given me the edge I needed to kill a ship and avoid a 5-5. Motti is nice because you plug him in and don't have to think about him again. But there are a lot of games where killing your opponent faster, or the flexibility of Tarkin would have made a much bigger difference than a few extra hull.

5. Clean play. This was a long day and a long tournament. By the later rounds fatigue starts to set in and I know my play got a little sloppy at times. I had some opponents ask me to tighten it up and they were right to do so. Something like regional's is a competitive event. Everyone is there to have fun but most people are also there to win. It behooves you to play as cleanly as possible for two reasons. The first is to protect yourself from possible disputes. Being crisp and clean in your play leaves less room for arguments. However the second and more important reason is respect for your opponent. When they see you being precise with measurements and stating things clearly (I am moving this squad to engage these two squads, be out of the side arc of ship A and beyond range of ship B) it makes them breathe easier and know that you are one of the good guys, With squads especially I try to state clearly my intentions when moving and measure that I have them correctly placed during movement. That way when they are picked up to assign damage if they aren't laid back down exactly I can say "no remember he was engaged with him and out of that arc". This regionals taught me that I need to make more of an effort to tighten up my casual games and make sure I am reinforcing good habits even if it is over some beers in the basement. Most of us are used to playing with people we know and are friends with. Playing as clean a game as possible ensures that when you are at a more competitive event with people you don't know you aren't inadvertently causing your opponent distress or making them feel like they are being taken advantage of. The vast majority of us are great guys trying to have fun playing a great game, let's show each other the respect we deserve with some good clean play. I will finish this point up by saying to anyone who had to correct me on Saturday I am sorry. In the future I am going to make clean play a much bigger priority for me and my local group.

Again thanks to all of my opponents for a great time and to Epic Loot for a great event.

So question to you guys who went. Did any rebel players beat you or at least give you any trouble? I am having a hard time trying to come up with a rebel list that can handle rhymer balls.

Go to here for the San Antonio regionals:

https://www.twitch.tv/geekoutsa

We had rebel players place 1st and 7th. It would have been more l, but we had two rebel players drop out of the 4th round because it was to long for them, when they were both clearly within the top 8 at the time. I am fairly confident they would have been in the top 8.

First round top table was imp on imp, the second game top table was imp vs. rebel, then imp vs. imp again, then finally rebel vs. imp. The final game was a rhymer ball vs. a Rieekan list of squadrons. The rebel list absolutely crushes the imp list. I want to say imp player played at world's last year to and was in the top 8-11th. I cannot be sure. But you might learn something from the stream. Just an aside the rebel player had to face off against a MSU demo rhymerball, and an MSU demo build in rounds 2 and three and beat them soundly. Unfortunately, those games are not streamed.

Great write ups Mike and DrunkTarkin.

...

4. Motti. I saw a lot of Motti. Heck i brought Motti. And while I think Motti is really good I think sometimes he is picked maybe he shouldn't be. At least twice I took the full brunt of an ISD front arc that rolled no accuracies. Vader would have let my opponent re-roll all blue dice fishing for and probably getting one. In round 3 I had some truly horrendous rolls with my VSD1s on short range shots. Vader really could have turned the tide of that game with re-rolls and given me the edge I needed to kill a ship and avoid a 5-5. Motti is nice because you plug him in and don't have to think about him again. But there are a lot of games where killing your opponent faster, or the flexibility of Tarkin would have made a much bigger difference than a few extra hull.

...

Again thanks to all of my opponents for a great time and to Epic Loot for a great event.

Motti really strikes me as a Wave 1 commander. When I see him come out, it usually indicates to me that I'm playing against someone who does not know how to take the initiative and push a battle strategy. I love seeing Motti on the other side.

So question to you guys who went. Did any rebel players beat you or at least give you any trouble? I am having a hard time trying to come up with a rebel list that can handle rhymer balls.

I played against four imperials.

I was two imps, two rebs

Tied with me for third was a rebel. So, 1,2 were imps 3,3 were imp/reb

Great write ups Mike and DrunkTarkin.

...

4. Motti. I saw a lot of Motti. Heck i brought Motti. And while I think Motti is really good I think sometimes he is picked maybe he shouldn't be. At least twice I took the full brunt of an ISD front arc that rolled no accuracies. Vader would have let my opponent re-roll all blue dice fishing for and probably getting one. In round 3 I had some truly horrendous rolls with my VSD1s on short range shots. Vader really could have turned the tide of that game with re-rolls and given me the edge I needed to kill a ship and avoid a 5-5. Motti is nice because you plug him in and don't have to think about him again. But there are a lot of games where killing your opponent faster, or the flexibility of Tarkin would have made a much bigger difference than a few extra hull.

...

Again thanks to all of my opponents for a great time and to Epic Loot for a great event.

Motti really strikes me as a Wave 1 commander. When I see him come out, it usually indicates to me that I'm playing against someone who does not know how to take the initiative and push a battle strategy. I love seeing Motti on the other side.

I think you are vastly underestimating your opponents if you usually do this against a Motti player. To judge a player based solely on their admiral alone is pretty short sided.

Great write ups Mike and DrunkTarkin.

...

4. Motti. I saw a lot of Motti. Heck i brought Motti. And while I think Motti is really good I think sometimes he is picked maybe he shouldn't be. At least twice I took the full brunt of an ISD front arc that rolled no accuracies. Vader would have let my opponent re-roll all blue dice fishing for and probably getting one. In round 3 I had some truly horrendous rolls with my VSD1s on short range shots. Vader really could have turned the tide of that game with re-rolls and given me the edge I needed to kill a ship and avoid a 5-5. Motti is nice because you plug him in and don't have to think about him again. But there are a lot of games where killing your opponent faster, or the flexibility of Tarkin would have made a much bigger difference than a few extra hull.

...

Again thanks to all of my opponents for a great time and to Epic Loot for a great event.

Motti really strikes me as a Wave 1 commander. When I see him come out, it usually indicates to me that I'm playing against someone who does not know how to take the initiative and push a battle strategy. I love seeing Motti on the other side.

I think you are vastly underestimating your opponents if you usually do this against a Motti player. To judge a player based solely on their admiral alone is pretty short sided.

Motti is a passive bonus, and encourages reactionary play, because he simply doesn't do anything to help you initiate your battle strategy. His basic inclusion means "I'm going to try to outlast you and hope you make a mistake so you end up in my ISD's front arc." I have yet to lose against a Motti list at a tourney. We are all colored by our experiences, and that's my experience with Motti. I also find myself taking Motti when I'm unsure what else I want my list to do, or how I want to synergize with my objectives, which means, usually, when I'm playing a quick pick up game with my buddy and I don't have time to think about my list.

Sometimes I pick Motti because I want a Cheap commander who will give me a benefit regardless of the rest of the list I am playing. Which means, be ready for anything\.

Sometimes I pick Motti because I want a Cheap commander who will give me a benefit regardless of the rest of the list I am playing. Which means, be ready for anything\.

I would have agreed with you until Ozzel came out. (ie, during Wave 1). Doesn't Ozzel fulfill that criteria for 4 pts. fewer?

Sometimes I pick Motti because I want a Cheap commander who will give me a benefit regardless of the rest of the list I am playing. Which means, be ready for anything\.

I would have agreed with you until Ozzel came out. (ie, during Wave 1). Doesn't Ozzel fulfill that criteria for 4 pts. fewer?

Yes and No.

I don't feel Ozzel helps a Predominately Vic fleet, unless you're going for the Turtle.

I think you are vastly underestimating your opponents if you usually do this against a Motti player. To judge a player based solely on their admiral alone is pretty short sided.

Motti is a passive bonus, and encourages reactionary play, because he simply doesn't do anything to help you initiate your battle strategy. His basic inclusion means "I'm going to try to outlast you and hope you make a mistake so you end up in my ISD's front arc." I have yet to lose against a Motti list at a tourney. We are all colored by our experiences, and that's my experience with Motti. I also find myself taking Motti when I'm unsure what else I want my list to do, or how I want to synergize with my objectives, which means, usually, when I'm playing a quick pick up game with my buddy and I don't have time to think about my list.

So basically you are saying that most people who play Motti dont have a battle strategy because he gives a passive bonus? On the flip side if you build your tactics solely around a commander and that commander dies your strategy falls apart also. I dont know how many Ackbar builds I have played against peter out and die once he is dead. With Motti, you do take a chance with that extra health if he dies but I find that he makes it easier for me to get my opponents to make mistakes when they try and go after him and I put him in a position to make them dearly for that mistake. Again, your misconception that because Motti is passive that you cannot use him actively is not accurate. Come play some of the players in my region and I am pretty sure you would recant your statement.

Brikhause, any idea of the exact list the top rebel player used? Curious about the setup.

Brikhause, any idea of the exact list the top rebel player used? Curious about the setup.

Here was his build. I pulled it off the stream,

Thanks. On my phone so the stream was not working well.

I think you are vastly underestimating your opponents if you usually do this against a Motti player. To judge a player based solely on their admiral alone is pretty short sided.

Motti is a passive bonus, and encourages reactionary play, because he simply doesn't do anything to help you initiate your battle strategy. His basic inclusion means "I'm going to try to outlast you and hope you make a mistake so you end up in my ISD's front arc." I have yet to lose against a Motti list at a tourney. We are all colored by our experiences, and that's my experience with Motti. I also find myself taking Motti when I'm unsure what else I want my list to do, or how I want to synergize with my objectives, which means, usually, when I'm playing a quick pick up game with my buddy and I don't have time to think about my list.

So basically you are saying that most people who play Motti dont have a battle strategy because he gives a passive bonus? On the flip side if you build your tactics solely around a commander and that commander dies your strategy falls apart also. I dont know how many Ackbar builds I have played against peter out and die once he is dead. With Motti, you do take a chance with that extra health if he dies but I find that he makes it easier for me to get my opponents to make mistakes when they try and go after him and I put him in a position to make them dearly for that mistake. Again, your misconception that because Motti is passive that you cannot use him actively is not accurate. Come play some of the players in my region and I am pretty sure you would recant your statement.

Look, if you wanna discuss Motti, we can discuss Motti. But, please don't do a secondary summary/paraphrase of my statement which are inaccurate or lack the nuance of what I was saying.

There's a difference between these 2 statements:

"Most people who play Motti don't have a battle strategy"

And what I actually said, which was:

"<Motti> usually indicates to me that I'm playing against someone who does not know how to take the initiative and push a battle strategy."

In neither case does it automatically follow that I underestimate my opponent, or that all Motti players suck, or anything else. I'll know by the end of deployment whether or not my opponent knows how to push a strategy.

This, too, is a poor paraphrase that lacks the precision of what I was trying to say (though it is a bit closer than your first one):

You: "because Motti is passive that you cannot use him actively is not accurate"

Me: "Motti is a passive bonus, and encourages reactionary play, because he simply doesn't do anything to help you initiate your battle strategy."

I did not say "cannot" . I said "encourages". I stand by that statement.

And then finally, please stop with the bravado about players in your area. Maybe your meta is awesome and mine is terrible. Maybe vice versa. Regardless, there's no way for you to actually know that, so it just comes off as big-nuts-by-virtue-of-internet-anonymity-chest-thumping.

Sounds like I hit it right on the head as you are getting very defensive. Your arguments above are just you backpedaling the obvious original intent of your post. I feel that your statement was intended to look down upon people who play Motti as easy targets. You can ramble on all you want and try to change the focus but the fact still remains I feel your statement was derogatory.

My "bravado" about my area is based on the fact that lots of people play Motti and they play him well. It is no different then you implying that all the people in your meta cant beat you with Motti.

Sounds like I hit it right on the head as you are getting very defensive. Your arguments above are just you backpedaling the obvious original intent of your post. I feel that your statement was intended to look down upon people who play Motti as easy targets. You can ramble on all you want and try to change the focus but the fact still remains I feel your statement was derogatory.

My "bravado" about my area is based on the fact that lots of people play Motti and they play him well. It is no different then you implying that all the people in your meta cant beat you with Motti.

I'm defensive? You're the one that got all butt-hurt over Motti.

Looks like we got a pair of real motti mouths in this thread.

Ahem.

So I want to just throw this observation out there: that's a very Imperial heavy meta, and the rebel fleets are not the ones I would have expected at all... unlike anything I have been playing with or against. Fascinating how fragmented the meta appears to be regionally.

Looks like we got a pair of real motti mouths in this thread.

Ahem.

So I want to just throw this observation out there: that's a very Imperial heavy meta, and the rebel fleets are not the ones I would have expected at all... unlike anything I have been playing with or against. Fascinating how fragmented the meta appears to be regionally.

I agree and all this really tells me is that the game is in a good state when we see this much variance in each region.

Sounds like I hit it right on the head as you are getting very defensive. Your arguments above are just you backpedaling the obvious original intent of your post. I feel that your statement was intended to look down upon people who play Motti as easy targets. You can ramble on all you want and try to change the focus but the fact still remains I feel your statement was derogatory.

My "bravado" about my area is based on the fact that lots of people play Motti and they play him well. It is no different then you implying that all the people in your meta cant beat you with Motti.

I'm defensive? You're the one that got all butt-hurt over Motti.

Of course I am, I never claimed that I wasnt. Hence my responses.

I was really surprised, and yeah, disappointed I guess, when I saw all the two-to-three ship rhymerballs but when something's good, you're going to see it! Now it will be funny if someone decides to go to their regional and finds nothing but Rebel Rieekan MSU or something else very far from anything we saw.

Just bring a list you feel like you're good at playing and have a good time!

I was really surprised, and yeah, disappointed I guess, when I saw all the two-to-three ship rhymerballs but when something's good, you're going to see it! Now it will be funny if someone decides to go to their regional and finds nothing but Rebel Rieekan MSU or something else very far from anything we saw.

Just bring a list you feel like you're good at playing and have a good time!

I thought your core strategy was to throw together a brand new list you haven't practiced with the night before the tournament, and then show up extremely hung over and grumpy?