Hey everyone. Last February I moved to a new city and since then have not played a single game of Armada on a competitive level. So I decided to try out a new store near my new house, and am going to an all day Armada tourney they are hosting this Sunday. In the past I played almost exclusively Imps, lots of Rhymer/Fireball and DeMSU. Nothing super creative, just efficient. Well I was thinking it is a new store, and along with not knowing anyone comes 0 expectation I will do well, so I'm using it as an opportunity to reinvent myself. So I was thinking I would try going Rebels!

I have been playing lots of casual games and solo matches trying to get myself comfortable with the Rebs, and have come to the decision points between 2 very different fleets I want to run. I would like help determining which one overall looks more solid and should be my pick for this weekend and any final tweaks or things I left out. Thank you, since I appreciate all the Rebel Scum help I can get.

All Dot No Dash

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 398/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

7 YT-2400s ( 112 points)

How I Fly It: Pretty simple fleet with a big threat radius that wants to go second to force the pick of an objective where I can use my YT swarm to punish the other player badly. YT swarm eats fireballs, and black dice on ships is like a throwback to the surprising ship damage A-wings could put out. Actually YT's kinda feel like running a huge cloud of A-Wings, but you pay an extra 35 pts to never have use a squad dial or run a carrier. This frees up my ships to deal damage, which I like. I have considered just abandoning the 2pt bid and adding Jainas, but I'm sitting on the fence. I feel like there are just as many games that I never once use it as it comes in handy.

OR:

Did I Dodonna That?

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 383/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
- Foresight ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
- Dodonnas Pride ( 6 points)
- Lando Callriassian ( 4 points)

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)

How I Fly It: I split Dash and Luke up as far as I can. Luke and Dodonnas Pride operate together with DPride throwing squadron to activate Luke and both hoping for shield bypassing damage. Dash and the Scout Frigate pair off to get a flanking shot while Torp runs the gauntlet and the 90's Snipe. With a 17 point bid I can usually steal first player, but if I can't, (usually to a light DeMSU bid) in hyperspace assault I typically move Luke and DPride off to the side, or Torp if that looks like the better choice. Others are self explanatory.

I would be cautious about choosing fleet ambush for an AF list. You're giving your opponent the chance to jump in your face and mess up your movement (or even outright kill a ship) before you even get a chance to go. I would go with something else.

Also, consider dropping a YT2400 to upgrade Ackbars ship to CR90/TRC configuration.

Thanks for the tip about the positioning, as I haven't had anyone do that to me yet.

Ackbar usually just stays as far as he can from the fight so I figured fewest points the better, but I'll test the damage trade off tonight.

Since both comments went to that fleet I'm assuming you think that's the winner here?

No, not necessarily. They're both solid lists...its just the Ackbar one had some errors I could point out.

Very different styles of play. I feel the Ackbar one is probably a more forgiving build, so start with that one? Personally I enjoy both types of list very much.

Also, realize that Luke is very, very inconsistent. Even with Bomber Command Center and Adar Tallon, my opponent last night (MattShadowlord) was having long spells of Luke doing absolutely nothing. Much mutual amusement at his efficacy, and numerous calls for him to TURN ON HIS TARGETING COMPUTER!!!

Fleet Ambush is a Bad Thing. Would not recommend.

Not sure what I think of Ackbar on a CR90B. Seems very fragile for not much benefit. And the TRC90 really wants to double arc most of its targets to maximize damage and mitigate defense tokens.

I'd suggest dropping a YT-2400 and upgrade to another TRC90. This will also give you a small points bid which can be used to ensure you are going second each round.

I know everybody says fleet ambush is bad, and I never ever played it as imp but with the list I have there I have had a huge amount of success with it. Could be flukes/opponents I've been playing with so I will trust judgement here and pull it out for this weekend. But I may ask one of the people I meet if they want to do an exhibition at a later date so I can try it against a skilled human and test it.

The problem with Fleet Ambush is that your Ambush zone stuff gets all the benefits of First Player without the pesky downside of having to maneuver into position. Demolisher, for example, can straight out hit you on turn 1 and then a cloud of fighters deployed alongside it swamps your squadrons, preventing them from doing any damage. Another common trick is for Yavaris to set up facing the opposite direction directly in front of your fleet, place bombers in range of a ship, and activate/flee while dumping an entire fleet's worth of squadrons right in front of you to prevent them from doing anything (or even killing a few off) and ruining your plan.

And then the remainder of the fleet hits you.

Problem is if they put demo out there with squads the yts will win the squad fight and even if demo kills one of my ships the trade is worth while because I have no single ship that is a beneficial trade for a demo 1-1. I am actually picking the objective hoping they will do exactly what you are saying.

Problem is if they put demo out there with squads the yts will win the squad fight and even if demo kills one of my ships the trade is worth while because I have no single ship that is a beneficial trade for a demo 1-1. I am actually picking the objective hoping they will do exactly what you are saying.

And that there is the advantage of fleet ambush. Especially with Rieekan. Sure they can start with you in their strongest arc, but then they must move--right into every single one of your strongest arcs. With their best ship. That, or they off facing the opposite direction and must flee with that ship for the entire game. The only ship good for this is Yavaaris or strong carriers because, as mentioned, their power is in the squads which can be used as they flee. But even that only lasts 2 rounds max and it takes their squadrons out of the game (without rogues).

So since I don't have a printer at home and want to bring multiple copies of my fleet for this weekend, the decision has to made by end of the day. Right now I am leaning toward the AFII fleet simply because I think it is optimized better for competitive play and more forgiving to the mistakes I will no doubt be making as I shake the dust off in competitive play.

Only change made so far is that I am going to swap out Fleet Ambush for Contested Outpost until I can test it some more.

So since I don't have a printer at home and want to bring multiple copies of my fleet for this weekend, the decision has to made by end of the day. Right now I am leaning toward the AFII fleet simply because I think it is optimized better for competitive play and more forgiving to the mistakes I will no doubt be making as I shake the dust off in competitive play.

Only change made so far is that I am going to swap out Fleet Ambush for Contested Outpost until I can test it some more.

I do like that fleet better, mostly for the YTs. The only change I might suggest is to drop the 7th YT to take more upgrades and/or increase your bid. With that many, 1 probably will not make a huge difference (though it would be noticeable if/when your opponent brings a dedicated AS force). And it will not affect your ship deployments because squadrons deploy in pairs

With that, you could very easily get the TRC90 on Ackbar, and maybe an or ECM on something else. Or just a bigger bid to force your opponent to go first.

That's two votes for dropping the last YT for TRC on ackbar and a bid. I will seriously consider it, and it appears one step closer to being my fleet, which is a choice I feel comfortable with. The main problem I have with it on a theoretical level is the low ship activation count. Any suggestions for how I can better run it against swarm fleets in case I run into them. I won't have any issue with whales, bombers, or fireballs. But a good DeMSU might be hard for this fleet toe to toe if they have a 2- 3 activation advantage on me.

I think you have the counter already in there with gunnery teams and Ackbar. That's a strategic thing you'd have to work through. I think some people refer to it as the "toilet bowl of death?" Fly in a broad arc, but avoid the conga line. By the third round, you should definitely have taken out 3 of their small ships, if not crippled them to the point that your YTs can finish the job.

Do you only have 4 activations? Yes. But you have the hitting power of a light DeMSU at long range. Your objectives also work to the detriment of those builds by not giving them great options for scoring against your build.

Four is a decent number of activations, but yes everything parkdaddy says apples. Knowing how to drive AFs is really the key to this build. And conversely the people who will do well against you will know how AF's can maneuver, so keep that in mind. It's worth keeping a fair number of nav commands in your command stack.

Four is a decent number of activations, but yes everything parkdaddy says apples. Knowing how to drive AFs is really the key to this build. And conversely the people who will do well against you will know how AF's can maneuver, so keep that in mind. It's worth keeping a fair number of nav commands in your command stack.

He speaks the truth. I just played a list that was quite similar, as far as ships activations and tactics goes (no YTs), and I did not know they could maneuver so majestically. Even if I was able to cram all of my ships into his front arc, either his other AF would be positioned such that he could get them, or a Nav command gave him that extra umpf to force me into hard decisions.

He didn't beat me too bad, but it was a blood bath nonetheless. Out of 10 ships and 6 squadrons total, only 3 ships and 1 squadron survived. I did not like facing 2 AFs with gunnery teams and Ackbar. I think that was my lists' literal weakness

I do like AFs they are a generally good general purpose game peice. One the the key issues I found with them is the lack of dice modification. This is true of the ship and the fighters it activates, I'm not a lover of a wide amount of variation in damage and this ship has it in spades. if your dice wiff at the wrong moment your done and there's no coming back ( not in armada land)

The only dice modification you can get comes with side affects ( tlrc on a one evade token ship, sensor team are limited in use and taking up your gunnery Team slot). Some Other rebel ships have a far better time MC30s ( OE and TLRC with two evades) both the CR90s have great dice modification and a very low level of variation, the MC80 has access to leading shots.

It's just worth remember this could be an issue, as a move needs to be backed up with plan "b". The other side of the coin is Demo/scree...You know there is a minume level of damage a three shot ( last first, black range) scree Demo with ACM and inte officer ( ignoring OE for the moment as that effects probability) will produce, it cannot do less than 11 damage shooting ( without Landon or MM) and whatever you chose to ram with.... It's one of the great appeals of this build. The only variation that effects this is special cause ( you mess up the attack run or they have lando or MM), not common cause ( dice rolls).

Jon, without OE, the minimum damage a screed demo can do in a single shot with ACMs is 4... in a three salvo it is 8....

Gink your right, Ive just remembered you can only use scree once per round so it's only 4+4, not forgetting the brace, it would then be 8 against a CR90, 6 against a NEB and 7 against most ships.

Thanks for the correction.

Broba, let us know how you did!

Good morning all! So first games at the new store, and all in all I had a blast. I have missed playing Armada so much, and this really scratched that itch. That said, competition wise things could have gone better.

First round was a really unlucky pairing against the tourney champ, a very skilled player who didn't fail to mention his high level worlds finish and multiple regional high level finishes, who came in hot to trot with the ISD-Demo-Raider spam list and played it well, while I was shaking a considerably amount of rust off my own piloting skills. Actually, a lot more rust than I ever even thought had built up as I was constantly spacing on rules, and he was a rules nitpick. I didn't resent him for it, because in the end it actually helped snap me out of my casual play habits and back into a competitive mindset, but in the moment it was humbling to feel like a complete noob again. A terrible match for my first go both in fleet compositon (I really wanted to face a fireball, not the harder to counter Demo/raider list) and player skill mismatch, as I'm not to proud to admit that even at my very best he is still probably a better player than me.

I made some flying mistakes early on, and he picked contested outpost and I simply had not practiced with it. I had a game plan, but it was telegraphed from my deployment and he was right there waiting for me. Dice were ice cold, and even he admitted that if the dice were hot I might have salvaged something from the game, though still probably not a win thanks to my deployment. In the end killed a few of the raiders and Demo, but got tabled turn 5 with his ISD peppered by squads but spamming engineering. Ended with a 9-1 because of the extra points he got from the objective with ISD.

Game 2 I got a bye because of the odd number of participants in the tourney, which was a little frustrating as I was there to play, but oh well luck of the draw.

Game 3 I could not have played better. My deployment positions were perfect, the objective was Most Wanted. Obstacles ended up being placed to create a sort of diagonal funnel running about half the table length through which my opponent (dodonna, 3 MC30, 2 CR90, 6 YT-2400) was going to be forced to fly his entire fleet, broadsides facing the obstacles while my 2 AFB's waited at the end of the funnel with both their gunnery team broadsides plowing right down the funnel into the MC30's noses. On the other end of the funnel our CR90s and YTs duked it out and end of turn 1 we had both lost a squadron and that scrum was in full swing. By end of turn 2 both AFB's were out of range of the frigats and flipped con fire and got to double broadside his 2 lead MC-30s. Out of the grand total of 10 red dice and 2 blue dice thrown at each ship, plus the 2 conc fire dice, I didn't even scratch him. Turn 3 was the same deal, I could activate first to hopefully finish off a ship, but 5 red and blue + conc fire against each MC-30 still turned up so many blanks I was helpless. He was in range now and unleashed hell on my objective ship, the lead AFB in my line. He took the beating, but my opponent rolled great and the APTS with dodonna landed some nasty crits. I knew that if my objective ship lasted through the round he would be safe as I could skirt the edge of the map and would be running in the complete opposite direction of the MC-30s. At this point, honestly, I was thinking that if my dice luck turned around, or his at least cooled off a little bit, I was going to pull out a win. So I activated my second AFB to double broadside them, and again, so many blanks. One MC-30 lived with one hull, the other had 0 shields and 3 hull remaining. That means after throwing a grand total of 20 red dice and 4 blue dice at each ship plus 4 total Con. Fire dice, I failed to kill 2 mc-30's with 4 hull. He activated his second mc-30, and had to get 3 hits with 3 blue dice. He got it, I forced a re-roll with evade, and he got it again. Objective ship was down. I took out all but 1 of his fighters, a CR90, and was peppering his objective ship. I was pretty sad his dice stayed hot, and mine were insisting on doing nothing. Next turn my AFB took down one mc-30 and then had to score a single damage with the 2 red out the front to take out the second- but rolled double blanks. Lost Ackbar in there as I went a little ham with him after objective ship was down and time was running out. His ship rolls were incredible and his squad rolls were middling, my squadron rolls were incredible but my ship rolls were beyond abyssal. He didn't make any mistakes, per se, he was a skilled player who knew the risk of playing into my hand hoping my rolls were bad, and it paid off for him. He was a super cool guy about it, and there was no saltiness, so I just took it as (another) hard lesson on fickleness of dice.

And then the game ended because of time. Both of us having 6+ squadrons with rogue really dragged the game out, but that was probably the most frustrating part of all. End result was a narrow win for him, since my objective ship and dead yts was worth more points than the ships and squads of his I taken out.

Ended the day beyond incredibly stoked to have been able to play 2 extremely fun games of Armada, but irked that it was not *3* extremely fun games of Armada and that the last one ended cause of time. Regardless, all the guys at the shop were cool, and I appreciated being welcomed into a new group. Next time I will play better, and show them I am not, in fact, quite as nooby as I appeared. But that will be next time. One thing I know for certain though, next time I am going to drop to 6 YT's in order to take TRC's on both AF's. The Ackbar cr90 without trc's didn't hurt me, but I got so focused on the vettes that I didn't think hard enough about the Frigates. If they had been running TRC's, I think both games would have been drastically different.