Setting up on the board. No. Really. It happened. I quit that game afterwards.

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.

So much this!!!

Sometimes I feel like I could compete with the best of them, others I'm amazed that I even make it to anything past dead last.

It happens very very often in Armada, because this game is so senstitive to positioning and every loss has a snowball effect in terms of activation and damage capabilities !

The most common bad decisions I see are usually linked to maneuvers. First and foremost, Armada is a game of positioning rather than power, and a wrong angle/speed can make a ship useless for the entire game, giving a very very good advantage to the opponent. Deployment is extremely crucial in that regard.

The second most common bad decisions I see are linked to target priority. Prioritizing the wrong target at the right moment can have huge consequences, because that ship might move away safely, and not yield points.

I remember a game where I baited my opponent's large fighter force with Han Solo, which pinned the Bombers. 4 TIE Squadrons weren't enough to take him down, and that saved a Corvette which ended up doing work for the rest of the game !

The third type of bad decision, which has a lower impact overall due to the fact that it can be mitigated with deployment and maneuvers, is in fleet building. Picking the wrong ships for the right reasons and making a fleet that has severe weaknesses allows open gaps to be exploited. I remember trying an IVV list which looked quite badass on the table, but which was very very susceptible to being flanked and it was indeed. The opponent executed a suberb Hammer and Anvil Strategy with a bait MC80 while he prepared a wide flank with Nebs and MC30s and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Thankfully Contested Outpost worked to my advantage.

The fourth type of bad decision I see : picking objectives that don't really synergize well with the fleets. Happens quite often !

EDIT : The fifth type of bad decision I see is trying to optimize the cards through ships, rather than trying to improve a ship's performance with cards. I know some cards can have some pretty nasty effects like XI7 or Overload Pulse, but trying the damnedest to optimize a card through ships and playstyle has a big tendency to show a suboptimal use of the ships

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

Dras could make his own Dice tower. . . I would buy a Star Wars centric one. . .

Yip. Han with one hull left. Engaged with Rhymer on turn 6. Shot him and did damage but no kill.....stupidly didn't fly away with grit....Rhymer killed Han for 26 points. Lost the game by 16 points. One stupid mistake turned what would have been a 6-5 win into a 6-5 loss.

The good thing about this is the lesson.....you can guarantee I won't do that again.

Yip. Han with one hull left. Engaged with Rhymer on turn 6. Shot him and did damage but no kill.....stupidly didn't fly away with grit....Rhymer killed Han for 26 points. Lost the game by 16 points. One stupid mistake turned what would have been a 6-5 win into a 6-5 loss.

The good thing about this is the lesson.....you can guarantee I won't do that again.

This! This right here is the most important part of this whole thread I think. There will ALWAYS be that one mistake but once you learn to watch for something, once that lesson is imprinted you will be fine.

The good thing about this is the lesson.....you can guarantee I won't do that again.

This! This right here is the most important part of this whole thread I think. There will ALWAYS be that one mistake but once you learn to watch for something, once that lesson is imprinted you will be fine.

Indeed ! That's why trying to pre-emptively understand and define what Armada is and how to play it is quite the wrong move. You always learn something new about the game because everything is always so context-dependent.

For instance, today I learned that fleet building isn't that important. It is, of course, useful to cover your basics. But it's so easy to deny a ship's capabilities in game that you don't really need to focus too much on the list. Which is cool, because it means you can field what you like and have a chance to win withit as long as you play with its strengths !

Sometimes, one of the worst way to do something really bad not mentionned wet is to forget one of your upgrade card that could change everything. Habitually an upgrade that is trigger only at certain moment like Paragon (with the Mark II) for exemple.

You threw all your dices, the result is... he still alive by one hull point and he blew your ship rigth after, during is activation.

When you dropped saddly your dead ship on is card, next to him you noticed that you had this upgrade (Paragon) who could have done the difference between life or death for your ship. Just because you where to impatient to toss those destroying dices on your enemy

Advice from me : Take your time!!!

In my first game with a Liberty I forgot in a vital turn to use a Navigation token to increse my speed to 2, so when at speed one I got a crit from APT that reduced my speed to Zero= No Defence token use. So I had still plenty of shields had two un-used Defence tokens, A brace and Contain, A spend Brace and redirect, with Blissex as back up.

But that last VSD failed to roll blanks, so my otherwise somewhat healthy Liberty was blown out of the Sky

It was a sad day for the Rebellion