So, over the last couple of days I have finally managed to get in some full-size games in for the first time. I even ended up winning one against a much more experienced player, which was pretty awesome.

The game I ended up winning was one where I took a pair of Victory-I's, each with tractor beam & ordinance experts, backed up by a fairly standard ISD-II wedge'o'doom and a handful of TIEs. Across the table was a MC80, a Neb, a pair of CR-90s and a rather irritating tag-team of Dash Rendar & Han Solo. Dangerous Territory was the objective.... which really, REALLY hurt him in his deployment and first few turns, since I was going second.

Five of the six objectives were all clustered fairly well together, which meant that I was able to get my front arcs on targets several times - which was really helped by the inclusion of the tractor beams to slow those corvettes right down. One of the VSDs barely ended up getting anything done after the first couple of turns, however, since it is STILL a horribly slow and cumbersome brick, but the other managed to do a great deal of work before eventually succumbing to the piles of red dice coming its way.

The ISD lived up to its name, managing to knock out both softened-up Corvettes in one round of shooting and remaining a massive threat the rest of the game.

So, my thoughts:

- the VSD gets a bad rap as a gunship, but they pulled their own weight and then some. Likely to be a great deal better in the role once the Interdictor comes out, they really benefited from the tractor beams. If I had to do anything different? More nav commands. One got stuck bumbling along at speed one because I didn't think far enough ahead.

- TIE swarms reeeeaaaaally needed some squadron commands thrown their way to be effective, but they were little more than an afterthought and a roadblock, so I can't complain too much.

- The ISD-II Avenger was about as disgustingly dangerous as I expected it to be.

- Dangerous Territory is fairly fantastic when you have big, slow, cumbersome bricks for ships... and you are going second.

- I clearly need to up my game when it comes to browbeating the local gaming community into playing Armada, so I can do this more often.

Youve got it nailed. Good job

Controlling deployment with obstacle and objectives make victories very happy indeed.

I am keen to give the VSDs a try out again.

I'm thinking the new Admiral Konstantine with 3 VSD-Is and maybe one tractor beam to stop those you just accelerated or decelerated from using a Nav token to change speed back again.

I could substitute a VSD for the interdictor and G8 on top of that but it would eat into the large Rhymerball and It probably isn't necessary.

I am keen to giv the VSDs a try out again.

I'm thinking the new Admiral Konstantine with 3 VSD-Is and maybe one tractor beam to stop those you just accelerated or decelerated from using a Nav token to change speed back again.

I could substitute a VSD for the interdictor and G8 on top of that but it would eat into the large Rhymerball and It probably isn't necessary.

I'd like to run an Interdictor with a pair of Victories, then using a Raider plus a couple of Interceptors for the anti-fighter. Konstantine and tractor beams for all!

It doesn't use Rhymer *or* the Demolisher! Madness, I tell you! That said, I got the opportunity to play with a proper Rhymerball for one of the games I played, and I now fully and completely understand why it is so **** terrifying.