Didn't get to see the match, but was curious how much the squadrons mattered? Armada Jim obviously had a fair investment there. I keep waffling on how many squadrons to include in my own fleets.

Didn't get to see the match, but was curious how much the squadrons mattered? Armada Jim obviously had a fair investment there. I keep waffling on how many squadrons to include in my own fleets.

They assisted but ultimately they only poked at me a few times. He did not use many squadron commands so I was able to dodge them a bit

Didn't get to see the match, but was curious how much the squadrons mattered? Armada Jim obviously had a fair investment there. I keep waffling on how many squadrons to include in my own fleets.

They assisted but ultimately they only poked at me a few times. He did not use many squadron commands so I was able to dodge them a bit

As a squadron heavy player, I can confirm that running after swarms can be quite challenging, especially when you're using rebel squadrons. If your opponent is tossing navigates every turn, it's even worse. Swarms are my worst nightmare as a squadron heavy player.

Didn't get to see the match, but was curious how much the squadrons mattered? Armada Jim obviously had a fair investment there. I keep waffling on how many squadrons to include in my own fleets.

They assisted but ultimately they only poked at me a few times. He did not use many squadron commands so I was able to dodge them a bit

As a squadron heavy player, I can confirm that running after swarms can be quite challenging, especially when you're using rebel squadrons. If your opponent is tossing navigates every turn, it's even worse. Swarms are my worst nightmare as a squadron heavy player.

You are one of the smart ones. Most expect Rhymerball and other squadrons to do most of the work and usually they only do a little of it.

Trust me, it's more wisdom than intelligence. After being tabled by Caldias' swarm many a time, even a stubborn guy like me can see the truth. I think a high rogue activation might deal better with them, but I haven't quite come up with a build that I like yet. My current goal is just to hope I don't face one at regionals this weekend. I'll be happy with top 8.

My squadrons are mostly there as harassment or close-in support. Example: Han, Dash, and Tycho can go out and tie up other squadrons to keep them from hitting my ships (another place my dice failed me was in assassinating Dengar in the final match, if anyone has any spare accuracies lying around, I'd like to buy them!), while Nym and Keyan stick close to my MC80 to help out killing anything that comes in close.

Like, oh, say, a Demolisher making a triple-tap run.

Han and Dash also serve double duty against ships if there's no squadrons, and I'm confident in my skills at putting my squads in places that are going to be high-traffic areas to keep getting shots without commands.

Against Lyraeus, I think my squads did okay (I'm pretty sure Nym was the finisher against a corvette) but they didn't swing the match. I'd like to think they did a bit more than he was expecting, though.

Good thoughts, Jim. I'm not a Rieekan player so I don't normally roll a lot of named squadrons. My biggest troubles are generally running all around with swarms, especially the red dice kind, which will always be shooting you at range. Your squadron end up splitting a lot of damage and risking not destroying anything or they end up running around the map like maniacs trying to get to everything.

I find Mothma to really be the worse, coupled with titled MC30s. You really gotta pile on damage to Admonition to bring it down.

I then faced another Store Champ who'd use their bye that I talked with a fair amount during our 1st round layover. He's a very nice guy from Spokane named... I want to say Cole? (It's Clontrooper's neck of the woods, and I didn't write it down and am terrible about remembering such things). His list was an ISD2, Demolisher, and a Fireball.

yeah i think his name is cole. I have only acully played him once or twice lol

I then faced another Store Champ who'd use their bye that I talked with a fair amount during our 1st round layover. He's a very nice guy from Spokane named... I want to say Cole? (It's Clontrooper's neck of the woods, and I didn't write it down and am terrible about remembering such things). His list was an ISD2, Demolisher, and a Fireball.

yeah i think his name is cole. I have only acully played him once or twice lol

I was just surprised that he had a 2 ship list. . .

From what I saw, I think he expected everyone to pick Hyperspace Assault and I think both of his games he played that. He picked second player in round 2 I believe. . . Which means he was playing on a psychological level, exploiting people's preconceptions. . . Hmmmm dangerous. . . I want to play him. . .

I had a great time at the regionals, and I got my dice, which was my "go home happy" level. I'm going to be making a mini-episode of Fire When Ready to talk about it, but here's some brief takeaways.

The staff and TO were great, and did the best they could with the hand they were dealt by the venue staff. Hopefully next time they'll listen to me and Mikael about starting earlier!

My list was a fairly kitted out MC80, an MC30 Scout, and a CR90B, along with Tycho, Han, Dash, Keyan, and Nym, commanded by Rieekan.

I took my bye in the first round, then played Lyraeus in the 2nd. I'd practiced pretty extensively against his DtO list as well as the Clonisher using Vassal so I could get my blocking placements down. I fully intended to use the 30 and the corvette as sacrifice plays to keep his ships at bay while I whittled down his activation advantage. Even with all that practice, it didn't work! But I was able to use Advanced Gunnery on my 80 to full effect and got the win.

I then faced another Store Champ who'd use their bye that I talked with a fair amount during our 1st round layover. He's a very nice guy from Spokane named... I want to say Cole? (It's Clontrooper's neck of the woods, and I didn't write it down and am terrible about remembering such things). His list was an ISD2, Demolisher, and a Fireball.

He played his list excellently, exactly the way I would've. I made a couple of mistakes, but even so if my dice were just a little hotter I would've come out on top. His Demolisher ended up surviving 3 rounds of fire from my MC80, two of which were side arcs. That survival threw off my strategy just enough that the only thing I ended up pulling down of his was a single TIE Advanced giving him a 9-1. Extra frustrating was that both of his ships had just one hull left on them! ARGH!

Closest 9-1 defeat I've ever had, probably ever seen. I wish him luck if he gets out to Worlds, and in six months time I'll be back in the hunt.

And it was wonderful to meet and put names to faces for the Portland crowd!

ArmadaJim. Best overall game of my life because of it being regionals even had i lost. I dont think there could have been a closer 9-1. Cant wait to hear your podcast and really see it from your side. Im writing up an AAR. Just have to write our game. Im sure we will meet again. If Vancouver has another regional ill try to make that event. Also I will most likely be going to worlds. I will probably message you when it gets closer and pick your brain over what im flying.

I then faced another Store Champ who'd use their bye that I talked with a fair amount during our 1st round layover. He's a very nice guy from Spokane named... I want to say Cole? (It's Clontrooper's neck of the woods, and I didn't write it down and am terrible about remembering such things). His list was an ISD2, Demolisher, and a Fireball.

yeah i think his name is cole. I have only acully played him once or twice lol

I was just surprised that he had a 2 ship list. . .

From what I saw, I think he expected everyone to pick Hyperspace Assault and I think both of his games he played that. He picked second player in round 2 I believe. . . Which means he was playing on a psychological level, exploiting people's preconceptions. . . Hmmmm dangerous. . . I want to play him. . .

I had hyperspace assault, precision strike, superior positions. 396 pts. Took second. Both opponents chose hyperspace.

I then faced another Store Champ who'd use their bye that I talked with a fair amount during our 1st round layover. He's a very nice guy from Spokane named... I want to say Cole? (It's Clontrooper's neck of the woods, and I didn't write it down and am terrible about remembering such things). His list was an ISD2, Demolisher, and a Fireball.

yeah i think his name is cole. I have only acully played him once or twice lol

I was just surprised that he had a 2 ship list. . .

From what I saw, I think he expected everyone to pick Hyperspace Assault and I think both of his games he played that. He picked second player in round 2 I believe. . . Which means he was playing on a psychological level, exploiting people's preconceptions. . . Hmmmm dangerous. . . I want to play him. . .

I had hyperspace assault, precision strike, superior positions. 396 pts. Took second. Both opponents chose hyperspace.

I was right! Well, mostly.

Ingenious really. Most won't go for precision strike (especially with Rieekan running rampant) or superior positions while Hyperspace Assault seems like a great way to limit your activations and lower your deployment. Good use!

Though, I would personally take precision strike. Only because I need to make up any losses and Hyperspace Assault just does not see useful to me when you can catch me out of position.

Yea honestly against msu i probably wanted that. Lol i would of setup with demo in middle @ spd 2. Used my squads to see where u placed then placed my isd going straight to the outside of the map using it to protect my side and the rear as i turn into the middle as needed. Use rhymer and non rogues as a buffer bubble. And roguez be rogues and hope for the best. Avenger and xi7 gives me a fare chance of one shotting a vette. Plus gunnery team is up to 2. Demolisher could get 2 a turn as well. So in a dream world senerio i could 1 shot 4 vettes a turn.

Yea honestly against msu i probably wanted that. Lol i would of setup with demo in middle @ spd 2. Used my squads to see where u placed then placed my isd going straight to the outside of the map using it to protect my side and the rear as i turn into the middle as needed. Use rhymer and non rogues as a buffer bubble. And roguez be rogues and hope for the best. Avenger and xi7 gives me a fare chance of one shotting a vette. Plus gunnery team is up to 2. Demolisher could get 2 a turn as well. So in a dream world senerio i could 1 shot 4 vettes a turn.

Range is the issue. Being able to keep 2 vette's out to make you activate and staying in your side arc which is not extremely difficult since the ISD'a front is a V and not wider like the VSD. It would be be interesting to say the least.

Squadrons I could ignore for the most part. I would go in expecting to lose 2-3 ships but taking your 2 with me to get the 400+ tokens. You also have to be careful since while squadrons are nice, until you actually deal a card you won't be getting points from them.

Mikael and Iskandar can tell you how effective squadrons are againsty style. I tend to wait the extra turn and then jump in. Sure I take a bit of damage but there is only so much that will likely be done. This allows me to limit the amount of squadrons I get hit with in the turn before jumping in. So at best I take red dice and 5 squadrons which will deal about 7-8 damage in all.

By no means am i claiming that im guaranteed to win and my only hope with squads is to soften up ships to kill with ships. Any objective pts are a bonus and i really would even care about them untill i was confident i had a win. Then just try to get easy pts.

Also sticking to the outside of the map im losing a side arc for you to shoot. I have no idea what i would of done with demo. Either protect isd rear or try to go out on his own. Idk. Prob would of depended on placement. I feel thats where our game would of been won. Which i find to be the case in a lot of games.