So did you had game where you could see a win desolve into a defeat by a single decision?

I dont know about you, but I analyse any game a lot in my head. So I noticed that a single decision costed my opponent the win:

In a game VSD + Raider + 4 T/F + 2 T/I + 2 T/B vs. Assaualt Mk.II + Neb-B + some Alphabet Wings (3X,1Y,1A) it had come down to this:

VSD unscrachted, Raider gone, most TIEs down. Assualt MK. II badly mauled, Neb-B mostly damaged, but had repaired themselve to good condition. Only Y-Wings left.

We thought about concluding the game which would mean a Rebel win pointwise, however my opponent saw the Imperium in a much better tactical placement:

The VSD had just crossed the path of the MK.II turning its flank to the back of the Mk. II, the MK.II had two T/Bs at its back. The Neb-B was out of danger but also out of reach, the Y-Wing Gold squadron was facing the T/I Gamma at distance 1,5, both had lost some craft.

So my opponent transfered the last two shields to the back of the Mk.II (1hull left) and withdrew the Y-W into the range of the Neb-B. The Y-Wings could have reached but not attack the VSD, and could only hope to escape the T/I by withdrawing back to the NebB. Seeing that the Y/W went back and I would have to sent my T/I into the NebB Flak I raced them back to the MkII.

The last turn saw the VSD shoot down one of the two last shields of the Mk.II and both T/B the other. The final act were the T/I that surprisingly destroyed the MkII with their blue die turning the narrow win of the rebels in a sounding defeat.

So if he wouldnt have withdrew his Y-Wings into the flak cover I would surley have sent my T/I into them and not the Mk.II leading to the successful and guaranteed escape of the Rebel flagship.

There are dozens of games where one decision led to a bad result.

There are dozens of games where one decision led to a bad result.

Bad result, sure, but tideturning?

Happens to me all the time, and there seems to be a very fine line between a mistake that cost me the game and a mistake that I get away with. Two recent games are pretty illustrative. One I lost simply because I put two clicks rather than one on an Engine techs manouever, meaning that Demolisher ended up a matter of millimetres away from a close range shot that could have tipped the balance of the game. One I won, despite my second Gladiator getting blown apart in turn two to after a poor set-up, I nevertheless tabled the opponent. So the major mistake went unpunished, but the tiny one was a turning point.

But that's the fun of the game really. And it's how you learn - I'm having to practice manoeuvring, as it's often the thing that costs me the most.

It's happened a few times.

It sucks when it's obvious as soon as it happens.

This happened to me during regionals. I was playing the guy who ultimately won with a Demsu fleet. I hyper spaced my demo into thre wrong side of his, allowing a lowly raider to kill my demo with his first activation... Had I just deployed to the other side I would have either killed his demo, or forced it to move early into my two waiting glads and my fireball.... I'm pretty sure I lost regionals with that one move... I still think about it in the shower all the time...

If I lose because of one decision I made, it usually involves my deployment.

This happened to me during regionals. I was playing the guy who ultimately won with a Demsu fleet. I hyper spaced my demo into thre wrong side of his, allowing a lowly raider to kill my demo with his first activation... Had I just deployed to the other side I would have either killed his demo, or forced it to move early into my two waiting glads and my fireball.... I'm pretty sure I lost regionals with that one move... I still think about it in the shower all the time...

Been there, although different mistake and it only cost me second place.

If I lose because of one decision I made, it usually involves my deployment.

Oh my goodness this.

Deployment is a list killer in so many ways. I have seen more games won and lost in deployment than anywhere else.

It helps that a lot of new Armada players are coming from X-Wing where deployment is not quite as tricky (set up in the corner in formation -> done!)

I would say most of my losses are not because of major mistakes on my part, after all there is a another mind in the mix and at the end of the day it's a dice game, which means we are all slaves to variation.

The two losses I had at nationals literally would have turned on one or two hull points.

The first loss would have converted to a narrow win if I had scored one more damage on a raider ( mission ship) ( first shot below average damage and no crit on reroll blacks) last shot crit would have given me the game if it flipped a hull damage.....

The second loss would have been a good win if my demo had put through 2 more damage on an ISD.. Bad rolls on the first shot put me short

Maybe If I had focused a tiny bit more attacks/damage into each they would have given me wins....but I made assumptions and gambled the odds on needing and getting a little less than average damage output, got stung with a low damage reroll each time using OE......if I had diverted fire away from other elements something else may have happened elsewhere to loss me the game.

If the other guy plays well and you play well, it comes to dice....... Sometimes it's not a mistake it's just variation.....slight miss judgements tend to happen on both sides but do they build to win a game......only if all the mistakes are on one side.

Welcome to Murphy's Law of Armed Space Combat:

Rule #1 Your battle plan will not survive first contact with the enemy

Rule #2 Your equipment is made by the lowest bidder

Rule #3 Incoming fire has right of way

Rule #4 Accurate weapons aren't

Rule #5 Navigation depends on the skill of the navigator

Rule #6 A battle plan only works as well as the courage of your captains

Rule #7 The bigger an object is the better chance of finding a way to destroy it

Rule #8 In space it is very hard to hide

Rule #9 To repair a ship the smallest part is always the one you don't have

Rule #10 Never... ever.......call your ship indestructable

Welcome to Murphy's Law of Armed Space Combat:

Rule #1 Your battle plan will not survive first contact with the enemy

Rule #2 Your equipment is made by the lowest bidder

Rule #3 Incoming fire has right of way

Rule #4 Accurate weapons aren't

Rule #5 Navigation depends on the skill of the navigator

Rule #6 A battle plan only works as well as the courage of your captains

Rule #7 The bigger an object is the better chance of finding a way to destroy it

Rule #8 In space it is very hard to hide

Rule #9 To repair a ship the smallest part is always the one you don't have

Rule #10 Never... ever.......call your ship indestructable

This should be the Ten Commandments of Armada.

There are dozens of games where one decision led to a bad result.

Bad result, sure, but tideturning?

In this game a single mistake can easily result in a total loss

Same mistake I always do....

Try To Roll Dice

I agree with Audio Weasel - I can usually trace a lot of my results to choices in deployment or maneuvers in turn one or two before any combat takes place. The one that sticks out in my mind was naturally a good result, lol.

It was an Rebel conga line mirror match, mine with Ackbar and his with Dodonna. I loosened up my formation in deployment and stored a Nav token on each ship with the first orders. He set a trap for me that was going to spring on turn 4, but because I left a large enough interval to drop to speed one without colliding I was able to reverse the logical activation order of my line and not coast into the kill zone (and his X and Y-wings!) with the lead ship. He was forced to overshoot my formation with sub-optimal shots and it allowed my frigates and Defiance to go to town in an advantageous position on turns 5 and 6 for a win.

Maybe that's common Rebel broadside practice, but it felt great as it was happening! Is it the reason I won? I don't know, maybe. I still could have activated back to front and just taken the collisions, but it would have meant two automatic damage to the middle ship. I did still take a lot of return fire even though I had the upper hand in the final rounds with Ackbar's added dice. I don't remember the exact end state of my ships, but there were damage cards. I think two free hull damage would have been enough to take down a frigate (86 points apx?) which would have definitely changed the game from a decisive win to a nail biter.

I feel a lot better knowing I'm not the only one lol

Same mistake I always do....

Try To Roll Dice

You know there's an app for that.

Same mistake I always do....

Try To Roll Dice

You know there's an app for that.

No Smartphone, or I would have.

Most issues are avoidable, and most of the time, the player is in control of them. But yes, this happens a lot in this game which is why it's great :3

How about those games where you out play your opponent hands down all game and a single bad die roll ruins it all. I had a game fall apart on me when my Vic-II took 10 damage in a single roll and got obliterated by a Liberty I failed to destroy by a single hit...

Failure to remember to move a fighter squadron during the Squadron Phase. I couldn't take a shot at the bombers, so I let myself waste the activation. Had I moved and engaged the right squadron, I could have stopped the final plinks of damage that ruined my score. A standout lesson in that it was a big mistake that clearly made the difference in one of my earlier OP events.

A single bad decision leading to defeat is pretty common in strategy games. This becomes more apparent as the level of play increases because mistakes get taken advantage of and punished severely.

Same mistake I always do....

Try To Roll Dice

You know there's an app for that.

No Smartphone, or I would have.

I bought a cheap dice tower and it has turned my die rolls around big time. So good now the person I play with does not want me to use it lol

I probably could have won my final game at GenCon by being slightly more aggressive with my APT Raider and Motti. Or I may have lost even more terribly, I'll never know.

I suppose if I made a mistake, it was in trying to go for the win and not just get everything to survive to the end of the match, but seeing as neither of us knew what 8th palce would be I doubt it would have worked.

Yeah I call it "every game at regionals including not using my bye"

Sometimes I go to a tournament and dominate and sometimes I literally help my opponents drub me to the point where I wonder if I should really be playing this game.

My first game at regionals:

could have left an ISD at speed 2, decided to go down to speed 1 due to...reasons...last shot from enemies second last ship before it was vaporized: Comms Noise crit. Speed zero ISD with no nav dial for 2 turns stuck in trc90 double arc and uncommanded fighters range where even speed 1 would have allowed escape and solid win. potential 7-3 or 8-2 win becomes a 6-4

Second match:

Deployed beautifully to split opponents rhymerball or he faced his 3 VDS being dogged from behind by a raider the whole game while my main force shredded his VSDs 1 by 1, main force deployed perfectly to lock into an inescapable 2 x ISD overlapping front-arc slaughter of plodding VSDs (even opponent was like "OMG you are going to table me by turn 4"). I then, for reasons that still escape me, activated Motti raider out of intended order and plopped it stupidly in front my ISD that was supposed to outside-arc to take position next to other ISD. Bumped. ISD #2 now a full turn behind the plan, instead of feeding his 3 VSD 1 by 1 to my ISDs I fed my ISDs 1 by one to his fleet. Lost 7-3 snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Third match:

For reasons I can't even fathom, I deployed my motti raider in a dumb position, opponent deployed his demo in range to ET and Alpha Motti pretty much on the first turn (he had Exp Launchers on demo)

I'm used to occasionally playing like an idiot in tournaments, but it hurts extra much when you make glaring mistakes at a regionals where the competition is expected to be good enough to NOT NEED YOUR **** HELP to trounce you.