Game 1 vs Ben:

Ben was flying a Dual ISD II list with some fighter cover led by Dengar. I was intimidated at first, but he bit hard on my leftward 30 by committing an entire ISD to it. So I stacked my forces right.

I managed to score a Capacitor failure along with a monster delivery from my leading 30. Combined with some hot TRC shots from my Corvettes, I melted that lead ISD. I traded the 30 for it, but it was a very good trade.

Ultimately, my fighters handled his, and his 2nd ISD landed into a bad place where I made quick work of him. I managed to get the elephant off my back and land a 9-1 win. Afterwards we discussed his list, and he asked how I would have played it. He took the advice (speed 0 turtling, using more squadron commands) and beat his 2nd opponent. I had a very proud papa moment there. Honestly, that made my day as much as the win did.

Game 2 vs Paul:

Paul was flying a odd (to me) 2 ISD I, 3 Raider, no fighter build. I didn't feel concerned but I probably should have been. I probably could have deployed better in hindsight, but somehow I doubt it would have mattered.

By turn 3 I had lost 3 ships. I had hurt his leftward ISD, but sill not enough to kill it (at first).

We went to Turn 5, but ultimately he tabled me. I did manage to take out his ISD and two raiders. a 1-9 loss, and it turns out he did that to everybody. I made decisions that sometimes put him into tough decisions and would hopefully let me survive. It didn't matter. He could do no wrong the entire match. He was the Pinball Wizard incarnate! I know Paul is on the forums, so I hope he's not insulted by me calling him Pinball Wizard when discussing the game here. He was nice during and after the game as we talked strategy and Vassal. It just felt like I played against a robot calculating every possible outcome of every game being played in the store.

Game 3 vs Joshua:

Joshua was flying a super technical 2 Neb, TRC90, AF list with a bunch of aces. A lot of meshing of abilities. I took first, hoping to scrape a win together to place well. Perhaps I shouldn't of placed the 30's so wide right. I truly thought he was going to swing towards them a bit. WRONG!!!

I tried to keep dancing with my Neb and the Corvette. For the most part, it worked. I kept them alive for quite some time. Eventually ramming Salvation to kill his ship...while killing my own (the only places to go would have put me into kill zones anyway...may as well take the points trade). At this point, I opted to sit on the station for the tokens and bail from the fight. I didn't see much of a future in fighting his ships, despite eventually having rear arc MC30 and TRC Corvettes against his fleet. This was going to be a loss, and I was hoping to not give the farm away.

The next 2 or 3 turns ended up being sad and actionless. To this point, I managed to find most of the blank sides of dice this game. Even TRC'd units were coming up short. I got 4 tokens on the station, he only managed one. It was a 4-6 loss. I do think he messed up Paragon the one turn (he rolled a black die on both attacks because the defending ship was activated already) but ultimately wouldn't have changed the outcome of the shot. He was a nice guy, and we both laughed that turns 1-3 went super fast. 4-6 turned into a slow roll of a game, leading us to be the last game going with about 10 min on the clock when we were done.

Overall for the day: 1-3, 14 tournament points for 10th of 16. Paul ended up smoking the field with 27 points for the overall win with 2nd coming in with 22 points for point of reference. I was happy I won a game, I'm happy I was useful in giving advice, and I had a good time with some of my fellow players (especially to those I traveled with). I didn't get to see a lot of the other action. I got caught up with two high activation count matchups. Regardless, I think there was quite a good spread of Rebel and Imperial players (I want to say there was more Rebs but not by much). NY likes the no fighters scene A LOT! I was a little shocked at that. But they seem to be waiting for Wave 3 to fix that.

Ultimately, I think I'm going to put the game down for a month. I had my taste of regional action, and be it my player skill or just the fact I've been doing non-stop OT at work for a few months straight and not being able to practice much (and never against another live person) I think I'm having the game stress me out isn't helping me relax when it's supposed to be a fun thing. I love Armada, but I think I need to let it go to give me a chance to breathe. I got fighters still to paint, and whatnot, so I'll probably focus on them vs the game itself.

If you have any specific questions or comments lay them out! I'll see what I remember.

Nice write up Stasy. I do feel that if you dont practice weekly against live opponents its easy to get rusty at this game especially when going into a competitive scene. One of the things I love about this game is how subtle it can be and you can easily lose that edge if you dont play much or dont have a chance to practice your build. But you are obviously a good sport and to me thats a win.

Excellent write up. Im happy to see a large rebel turnout. Dont sweat tge losses, happens to all of us. Wish I could have gone.

NY metas are almost always highly aggro, at least for any game I've played. Probably a cool psych experiment to be done there.

I seriously just went into this wanting one win. I'm glad I got what I sought out. The scene is NEPA is nearly non-existent (I'm working on that). So my dilemma is that to play the game, it's against myself, or I can pick up Vassal. Unfortunately, once I'm on a computer I'm losing the magic that's drawn me to a tabletop game in the first place, so it's just games against myself.

Doing 60hr work weeks (6 days a week) plus the 45-min one way commute ends up meaning that I more or less play one game against myself on a Sunday. It's time to take a break and work on other things to unwind after the week.

I was seriously shocked at how much the people there seemed to dump on fighters. The Philly/NJ meta is pretty strong with fighters, and they've been successful with them when I played there. I think it just shows how there isn't any wrong way to approach the game.

nice write up. Don't beat yourself up, you could have played like I did which is worse than hot garbage.

The amount of Ackbar mc-80 was unreal. I could have played better but the amount of firepower i faced was ridiculous. I really don't know what imperials can do against that stuff.

I was seriously shocked at how much the people there seemed to dump on fighters. The Philly/NJ meta is pretty strong with fighters, and they've been successful with them when I played there. I think it just shows how there isn't any wrong way to approach the game.

You make an excellent point and something I agree with. It always makes me laugh when one build seems to be in the spotlight and everyone claims the sky is falling and its unbeatable but how many Regionals have won with Clons build? I dont disagree that its a sick build but its also takes practice and a skilled player to pull it off. Paul obviously also proved that Demolisher isnt the be all end all ship and you can win without it. Obviously Paul is a skilled player and I still feel that skill in this game is 75% of it.

Any idea what the top 4 fleets were? I know Paul's Imperials were the top, but who were the runners up going with?

I posted the top 4 in schmittys revised regionals thread. 2-5 were all either DeMSU or MM swarms

Great write up, Stasy. This was the regional in Long Island on May 7th right? I wanted to go but it was my wife's birthday :-(

Great write up, Stasy. This was the regional in Long Island on May 7th right? I wanted to go but it was my wife's birthday :-(

This was the regional yesterday on LI.

Great write up, Stasy. This was the regional in Long Island on May 7th right? I wanted to go but it was my wife's birthday :-(

This was the regional yesterday on LI.

Oh right, sorry. The 7th was Boston. How many people total were at LI?

Great write up, Stasy. This was the regional in Long Island on May 7th right? I wanted to go but it was my wife's birthday :-(

This was the regional yesterday on LI.

Oh right, sorry. The 7th was Boston. How many people total were at LI?

16 if memory serves me correct. I think my first opponent and his friend dropped (or conceded) to illness.

yes 16

Great write-up. You did good. That last game shows that you can calculate and limit losses which is important.

nice write up. Don't beat yourself up, you could have played like I did which is worse than hot garbage.

The amount of Ackbar mc-80 was unreal. I could have played better but the amount of firepower i faced was ridiculous. I really don't know what imperials can do against that stuff.

The same thing imperials can do against every fleet.

ISD TO THE FACE

nice write up. Don't beat yourself up, you could have played like I did which is worse than hot garbage.

The amount of Ackbar mc-80 was unreal. I could have played better but the amount of firepower i faced was ridiculous. I really don't know what imperials can do against that stuff.

The same thing imperials can do against every fleet.

ISD TO THE FACE

I'll double that

On a more serious note, in my final game against Ackbar I was able to deny most of the Ackbarred shots by keeping a Raider or a damaged ISD in the front arc. This way Ackbar player is forced to chose: don't use Ackbar or forfeit the shot to a juicy target.

First of all: I want to say thanks to both the venue (Brothers Grim) and all the players at this event. Had a blast, glad to see everyone, glad to blow our ships out of space relentlessly for three¹ rounds.

Second of all: The NYC meta does seem a bit more aggro than most. I think the reason that squadrons are less of a thing here are twofold.

One, when someone comes right at you at full speed, you only have a two turns to set yourself up to take that punch. For a lot of squadron fleets, it's the sustained pounding² that makes it work, so when the game is an obliteration of everything within 3-4 turns, that's more difficult (not impossible, mind you).

Two, the turtle tends not to work. You are likely to either get blasted by an aggro fleet, or have someone look at it, say "no way", and end up with a 5-5 if you play to stall out in the corner. I know I've had at least one game in a previous tournament that ended with zero points scored on either side on turn 6, because I know not to walk into a trap. 5-5, 5-5, 5-5 won't win you many tournaments.

I'll double that

On a more serious note, in my final game against Ackbar I was able to deny most of the Ackbarred shots by keeping a Raider or a damaged ISD in the front arc. This way Ackbar player is forced to chose: don't use Ackbar or forfeit the shot to a juicy target.

Exactly. You beat Ackbar with maneuvering, not your guns. This comment could not be more correct, and it's why I have found that the more people play, the less threatening Ackbar becomes.

1 - Two in the case of us with byes. FFG, please stop giving out byes. I go to tournaments to play games, not to watch other people play games while I sit around growing mold!

2 - Phrasing.

nice write up. Don't beat yourself up, you could have played like I did which is worse than hot garbage.

The amount of Ackbar mc-80 was unreal. I could have played better but the amount of firepower i faced was ridiculous. I really don't know what imperials can do against that stuff.

The same thing imperials can do against every fleet.

ISD TO THE FACE

I had 2.....i guess they've never failed me before so I was due. I will write a blog post about my humbling regional experience tomorrow. i am rethinking some list design but really, overall, i dont see anything I can do with my list to really change the outcome of the games.

I played poorly, and my opponents took every advantage i gave them.

2 - Phrasing.

What was the rephrasing that needs to be rephrased?