First, allow me to express my gratitude to each and every single competitor I met at the tournament. You all conducted yourselves with grace and sportsmanship. This made the entire experience a true pleasure. I sincerely am happy to have met each of you and look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Now, allow me to turn my attention to Fantasy Flight Games. I would like to send my sincerest thanks out to each of the judges who presided over the competition and for their hard work. Furthermore, I am a player of many FF games and, in terms of competition, I think this game is one of the best and most promising. Allow me to briefly explain with an example. When X-wing first came out the dominant lists were clear. Most people, particularly the most competitive folks, brought some variation of similar lists to competition (and this is to be expected as those lists were the "meta" at the time). This was not true in any sense from what I could see in the Armada tournament. For the most part, each and every single person was running different lists. Some similar concepts but in no way the same. Each list I played against was vastly different from the next. This was NOT expected given the limited pool of options given the youth of the game (2nd wave). This was striking to me and spoke volumes to the overall strength of the game.

Now, to get to the crux of this post. As I was mostly focused on my own games I was unable to enjoy the other lists people brought to the table. I was hoping that those folks who were in the top 16 would share with the community what they came up with, how they did, and their own thoughts on the competition in general. Would also like to see how you think the next 2 waves will affect the game and your respective list.

For those of you who were unable to attend I will post the final results here:

1) Norm Weir --- Imperial player

2) Dong Lee --- Imperial player

3) Chris Shaffer

4) Jeff Hincy

5) Jeff Berling

6) Philip Vinson

7) Joseph Corbett --- Imperial player ---- I was running 1x ISD w/ Screed, ECM, and Gunnery Team, 1x Dominator with APTs and Engine Techs, and 1x Glad with APTs --- my squads were as follows: 2x TIE Advanced, Vader, Soontir, Mauler Mithel, and Dengar --- The new meta may see me dropping the other Gladiator and adding in Flotilla support and maybe Raiders? I am unsure at this time --- will need to play around with it --- may even go Rebel as they are getting some super fun upgrades --- I think the addition of flotillas and the power they can provide to particularly squadron heavy lists will be game changing and completely negate ship only lists from top competition ( IMHO )

8) Paul Tomashevskyi <---- epic last name BTW

9) Jesse Austin Campbell --- I played him --- he was running an epic Imperial list with a nasty Rhymer Fireball

10) Greg Whitaker

11) Gerry Russell --- I played him --- he was running an epic Rebel list with a super friends squadron

12) Bryan Schmidt

13) Ben Hicks

14) Issac Lee

15) Adam Pye

16) Bobby Crowley

If any of you guys read this I would really be interested in knowing what you flew and a little bit about your overall experience in the tournament... Memorable moments? etc.

Thanks,

GoldCrow18

Chris Schaffer is a poster on her and he is exclusively Imperial.

Chris Schaffer is a poster on here and he is exclusively Imperial.

I seem to recall him telling me that he was going to take a Rebel list.

Chris Schaffer is a poster on here and he is exclusively Imperial.

I seem to recall him telling me that he was going to take a Rebel list.

For Gencon?! I dont think so. He was practicing with that 4 GSD list as far as I know

Chris Schaffer is a poster on here and he is exclusively Imperial.

I seem to recall him telling me that he was going to take a Rebel list.

For Gencon?! I dont think so. He was practicing with that 4 GSD list as far as I know

Hehe, you know when I say something like "I seem to recall" that there is not a strong correlation with what actually happened.

But I do seem to recall it.

I ended up #8 with a variation of my usual Wave2 list: 2xISD1: OE,XI7, 2xRDR1, 1xRDR1: Motti, no squadrons. 396/400

On a second day I played Overdawg (#4) 3xGSD Ozzel fireball and Vergilius (#13) Rieekan MC80, TRC90, 2xCr90b, Awings+YT2400 list.

I ran double MC80 against Norm Weir on my first game and lost 10 to 1. My other two games were both against MC80, MkII, Admonition builds with light squadrons and I lost each 5 - 6 or 4 - 7. The general idea of my list was to use projection experts to heal whichever MC80 was being attacked, but it wasn't that great. I hadn't practiced with it before hitting gencon.

Bobby Crowley did not play on day 2 to the best of my knowledge, but squeaked in with a kitted up Motti ISD, VSD, and large Fireball with Boba Fett. He beat me to take the spot.

I ended up #8 with a variation of my usual Wave2 list: 2xISD1: OE,XI7, 2xRDR1, 1xRDR1: Motti, no squadrons. 396/400

On a second day I played Overdawg (#4) 3xGSD Ozzel fireball and Vergilius (#13) Rieekan MC80, TRC90, 2xCr90b, Awings+YT2400 list.

Gratz on top 8 tho!

Chris Schaffer is a poster on here and he is exclusively Imperial.

I seem to recall him telling me that he was going to take a Rebel list.

For Gencon?! I dont think so. He was practicing with that 4 GSD list as far as I know

Hehe, you know when I say something like "I seem to recall" that there is not a strong correlation with what actually happened.

But I do seem to recall it.

So. . . when is your birthday? I need to get you a cane. . .

Bobby Crowley did not play on day 2 to the best of my knowledge, but squeaked in with a kitted up Motti ISD, VSD, and large Fireball with Boba Fett. He beat me to take the spot.

He got in, decided to drop, came back, dropped again and forced Shmitty and Naboobo200 (who play at the same game store) to play when they likely would not have. . .

So Dong took second, huh? At least I can say I got whooped by one of the best.

He was a hell of a first-round matchup for my first tourney game ever.

So Dong took second, huh? At least I can say I got whooped by one of the best.

He was a hell of a first-round matchup for my first tourney game ever.

Stick with it! Armada is a challenging game. You will learn tricks to help your play out as you go.

#13: Pt106 mentioned the basic structure of my list above. I'll get to that below.

The event

I continue to be amazed at the maturity level of everyone who plays Armada. The base really takes "Fly casual" to a high level. Let's face it, the game has a lot of rules and it is hard to keep track of them and everything that happens in the course of a game, even if you've sat down and read the rulebook three times cover to cover. Everyone was kind and courteous to each other and the judges were extremely helpful in answering questions, including many that crop up in the rules forum and prompt debate.

I met Reinholt, Schmitty, Chris Shaeffer (Naboo plus some numbers on here), and PT106 on the first day and really enjoyed hearing their perspective. One positive thing about an event like this is that you don't merely meet people whom you game against, you get to know them a bit. Camaraderie is high. We spent a lot of time talking about builds, the upcoming waves and how they'll change things. I learned a ton from those conversations.

The list

MC80 Assault: Defiance, Rieekan, Raymus, Engine Techs, Leading shots, ECM, Advanced Projectors.

2x Corvette-B: SW-7

1x Corvette-A: Jaina's Light

4x A-wings

2x YT 2400

I had revised this regional list. My goal was simply to make the last day and have a shot at some of the prizes. I knew the list was solid and that I'd have a hard time getting tabled. Some of the key changes I had made was to add Raymus and Engine Techs. Although Defiance wants to go second, I realized that I couldn't win every bid and some players would make me first player. I wanted a reliable way to improve positioning and generate more pressure from first player. Raymus means that I really only need two Nav commands. I can take one on the first turn, engine tech if desired, and then still pocket a token for turn 2 or 3. I was also thinking about activating all 4 A-wings from the MC80, which had worked pretty well at Regionals. I did have problems throughout recognizing when the A-wings were going to go splat. Lots of lists had some serious anti-squadron, so in one critical loss, I ended up wasting an entire squadron command, when switching to engineering on that turn would likely have resulted in a 260 point swing (I lost my MC80 who wasn't around to hold a vacant 2 Fire Lanes for 3 rounds). That takes us to Raymus' other purpose: engineering spam. I did pay a cost in squadrons (I had to drop Tycho and Dash), but my regional experience suggested I had enough to shut down a Rhymerball, which is what I wanted.

Reflections on the list and games:

Competition was fierce. I think I played 4 regional winners across the course of the tournament. Game 1 was a clear 10-1 in my favor, which set me up to play one of the other 5 10-1s in round-2. I had a clear advantage on Fire Lanes at the end of turn-2, but the aforementioned command problem, some greedy maneuvering for double arcs, and my opponent's punishing superb play led me to a 5-6. I then had another bout of greediness in game 3, rather than making a safe choice to take the Intel Sweep objective for 75 points and a 7-4, I tried to engage in hopes of picking up more resulting in a 6-5. 21 points was enough to take me to Saturday. I managed another 5-6 in the first game before facing PT's list, which I had practiced against at home and really couldn't find much of a path forward. He's a great player and a really friendly guy, and I'm honored to have played him.

Reflections on the Meta in general:

The GenCon lists reflect the evolution of the meta as we've seen coming out of regionals. If you know ahead of time that Rhymerballs had been done well, you can expect other people to adapt by bringing more squadrons in their lists to combat the squadron potential out there. The top lists were a very good example of how to approach the meta. They were running some serious antisquadron. I played several lists with serious anti-squadron and lost my entire 76 points of squads on three occasions. In terms of thinking through "the game within a game," and being able to win that, the lists that adapted did extremely well. Waves 3 and 4 are going to open up tons of new possibilities. My sense is that everyone will start from the basic archetypes that we've already seen and the first few tournaments will help develop the new meta. I certainly want to experiment with B-wings more, Madine Liberties, Garm+Liberty+some other units. And Flotillas are going to help almost every list in too many ways to recount. In my opinion, we're at the beginning of this game and it is starting to get really really good.

Summary

I had tons of fun. My superb thanks to the FFG staff, who were splendid, kind, approachable, and helpful. They care greatly about the game and the players. I'd also like to thank Reinholt for being superbly friendly and helpful throughout the tournament. The community was great and a testament to what a great gaming community should be. I look forward to the coming months of gaming and continuing to learn from everyone through these forums.

Plus, it's good to get crushed by someone way way better than you in your first game. It keeps you grounded. Always a bigger fish, that sorta thing. I crushed my first tournament game and it immediately humbled me, and when you are humble it makes you a better winner AND loser.

Hehe, you know when I say something like "I seem to recall" that there is not a strong correlation with what actually happened.

But I do seem to recall it.

So. . . when is your birthday? I need to get you a cane. . .

Next week.

I'll probably have to leave it at The Portland Game Store, so that I can give all you whippersnappers a whacking when you annoy me with all your 'pokey-man' and things I seem to recall you saying at some point.

The base really takes "Command casual" to a high level.

Fixed it for you.

The base really takes "Command casual" to a high level.

Fixed it for you.

Thanks!

So Dong took second, huh? At least I can say I got whooped by one of the best.

He was a hell of a first-round matchup for my first tourney game ever.

That's a rough draw brother. But there's no teacher like experience.

First of all I would also say thank you to FFG and crew for a wonderful tournament. We at Armada have a wonderful community of players around the area that showed up, played well and had a great time including myself.

This was my undefeated list. I tied with second place with tournaments points but lost out with Margin Of Victory.

Glad 1

Admiral Monferrat

Engine Techs

Assault Proton Torpedoes

Demolisher

Glad 1

Admiral Screed

Assault Proton Torpedoes

2 x Glad 1

Assault Proton Torpedoes

Mauler Mithel

Bossk

IG-88

3 x Aggressors

I know "you don't have Ordnance Experts". Basically my strategy was simple. Imperial box with my Glads. Force them to in my kill zone and burn their fighter activations with mine. My movement is the most critical thing. My only game that I could not get my opponent into my area was Brian Schmidt. He did a masterful job of staying just outside my black die range.

My last game was Intel sweep and this was my only aggressive game I played. I charged straight out at speed three with Demo and two other glads. My Commander ship started at 2 and then went 3 after collecting the first token. Demo killed the cr-90 that was collecting tokens and another cr-90 then drove up the MC80s butt. The other three ships boxed the conga line. My fighters lost the fighter war but did their job by locking up fighters and bombers.

Had a wonderfull time. Met some Super Great Friends that I hope to meet up again next year.

Naboobo2000

Chris Shaffer

Thanks, fellas. Dong was a great guy, and while it was a brutal match for me, his personality was anything but. He was patient with my fumble-fingers, explained a few rules to me that it turned out my buddy and I had been getting wrong, and gave me a few pointers. I managed to take out a few more of his squadrons than most people, he said, so I'd actually earned a few more points from him than most folks he'd tested the list against.

Since I had all of three games under my belt prior to GenCon, I had a couple priorities in mind when designing my list:

1) Simplicity. Minimizing the moving parts, that sort of thing. All-Rogue, for instance, to cut out one whole command dial necessity, and range concerns.

2) Redundancy. Give myself chances to correct my likely screw ups, like by having multiples of the same ship, or similar card effects (mauling an opponent's defensive or command options). If I remember them all, great, I can double-or-triple-or-quadruple mess with someone. If I slip up and forget something during the appropriate phase, that's okay, too, I can try to go back and get 'em later.

3) Avoiding the meta. I have a very limited selection of ships to choose from, and the siren song of the Demolisher almost seduced me, as did a Rhymer Ball. I just wanted to play what I knew other people wouldn't, though, because I know that it's a lose/lose for me. Either they're playing it (and with more practice than me), or they've played against it (with opponents with more practice than me). So if I had a shot at doing anything impressive, I figured it had to come by running something besides the conventional stuff.

4) My own very limited collection. With so few games under my belt, it's been a tough sell to talk the missus into letting me sink very much more cash into this game. I didn't have a ton of options, so here's what I ran.

Russell Zimmerman's "Bounty Hunter Scum"
Author: Critias

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 396/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Overload Pulse ( 8 points)
= 186 total ship cost

Raider-II Class Corvette (48 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 53 total ship cost

Raider-II Class Corvette (48 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 53 total ship cost

1 Boba Fett ( 26 points)
1 Firespray-31 ( 18 points)
1 IG-88 ( 21 points)
1 Aggressor Assault Fighter ( 16 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)

I have no complaints about the "game within a game," my Squadrons did good work for me. They were the one bright spot in Dong's steamrolling of me, and in my only other game (I was sadly stuck with a 'bye' in Round Two), they were my superstars. Against a list of four Corellian Corvettes, an MC30c Torpedo Frigate, Dash, and a YT-2400, my Squadrons did all my killing. The closest I came to my ships killing anything was an enemy ram, every other death blow I struck -- and I got his list down to just a single Corvette! -- came from Boba Fett and his bounty-hunting crew punching people in the face for space-bucks.

The final rounds of that third match were me cutting and running with a 1-hull Raider, while my swarm of Scum picked away at the mass of enemy ships and started to whittle them down, one by one. Speed 3 on those guys is often "fast enough," and once I blasted Mon Mothma off the table and their point-blank Evasion shenanigans stopped, they were dying plenty quick. The game came down to one die roll, really; I was able to miss landing on the station to heal, and he was able to put one last point on my crippled Raider. Without that last one-red-die attack, I'd've had a win. As it was, we had a real nail-biter of a game!

Lessons Learned: I probably shouldn't have put in Tarkin. My buddy and I back home didn't know (or didn't notice) the "only one token per Command score" limitation, so Tarkin in a multi-Raider list, especially a multi-Raider list with Precision Strike, wasn't a great choice. I got some decent mileage out of him a few times (going from Speed 2 to Speed 4 in one round, for instance), but overall I likely should've struck with the Creed/Overload Pulse Raiders, or Creed/ACMs I'd played in a few earlier games, and put the SW7's back on my big boy.

Anyways. Yeah, here's my list. I came in 23rd out of however many. I did much better in X-Wing last year, but I wanted to try something new. My biggest disappointment was how many people quit after round one, leading to my round two bye. My number one goal was to play against new people and see new lists, and I didn't get to do that as much as I'd've liked.

First of all I would also say thank you to FFG and crew for a wonderful tournament. We at Armada have a wonderful community of players around the area that showed up, played well and had a great time including myself.

This was my undefeated list. I tied with second place with tournaments points but lost out with Margin Of Victory.

Glad 1

Admiral Monferrat

Engine Techs

Assault Proton Torpedoes

Demolisher

Glad 1

Admiral Screed

Assault Proton Torpedoes

2 x Glad 1

Assault Proton Torpedoes

Mauler Mithel

Bossk

IG-88

3 x Aggressors

I know "you don't have Ordnance Experts". Basically my strategy was simple. Imperial box with my Glads. Force them to in my kill zone and burn their fighter activations with mine. My movement is the most critical thing. My only game that I could not get my opponent into my area was Brian Schmidt. He did a masterful job of staying just outside my black die range.

My last game was Intel sweep and this was my only aggressive game I played. I charged straight out at speed three with Demo and two other glads. My Commander ship started at 2 and then went 3 after collecting the first token. Demo killed the cr-90 that was collecting tokens and another cr-90 then drove up the MC80s butt. The other three ships boxed the conga line. My fighters lost the fighter war but did their job by locking up fighters and bombers.

Had a wonderfull time. Met some Super Great Friends that I hope to meet up again next year.

Naboobo2000

Chris Shaffer

I had one of my best games against Naboobo (Chris). He was pulling his beard out and I was sweating like a pig at the end. Great game, great competitor. He edged me out of 3rd and I got 4th. Not complaining....I was happy to place where I did with the competitors there.

@Nabooboo and Overdawg... Love those lists, Gladiator is my favorite ship!

Haha... I actually own 6 of them!

I had one of my best games against Naboobo (Chris). He was pulling his beard out and I was sweating like a pig at the end. Great game, great competitor. He edged me out of 3rd and I got 4th. Not complaining....I was happy to place where I did with the competitors there.

Haha, yes he does that. I do too (minus the sweating part). At Sullust, the both of us stared at our squadrons 'till they felt naked, as we tried to think through the series of moves needed to make it happen.