I keep hearing its easier to play Imperial but is that really true? I only really play rebels but there are some things that do seem hard looking across the table, such as:

• keeping Vics in arc of my shifty rebel fleet
• timing of demo

What do you players who have experience playing both sides have to say?

I keep hearing its easier to play Imperial but is that really true? I only really play rebels but there are some things that do seem hard looking across the table, such as:

• keeping Vics in arc of my shifty rebel fleet
• timing of demo

What do you players who have experience playing both sides have to say?

Everything takes experience but the VSD issue is simplified once people learn when to jump to 2 and when to navigating (really it is an ABN ship, Always Be Navigating)

Demo is easy mode and easy to learn and use properly.

The hardest thing to learn with Imperials after the VSD is how to utilize their squadrons.

Not easy. Straightforward. BIG Difference.

Rebels need to worry about Speed Management, Avoidance of HUGE enemy Death Zones, and quite often, being synergied-to-death in the Squadron Play.

Ergo, the Imperials have HUGE enemy Death Zones on most of their ships, and are able to synergy the Rebels to death in the Squadron Play...

The imperials have fewer "dirty tricks" than the Rebels... But that's because they've not needed it, with their large, easy-to-point Star Destroyers able to ladel death out...

But that has recently changed

There's a lot more overlap and opportunity to both sides now.

Saying one side is "easier" is fruitless at best, and patently erronious at worst.

I have a training program for players that want to get really good at the game.

Step 1) Hand them 2 VSD's and forbid Demolisher and Rhymer

Step 2) Force them to play a dozen games with the 2 VSD's and what ever other ships that are smaller (no Demo title allowed)

Step 3) Watch the frustration and wait.

Step 4) Watch them learn to overcome the issues and profit

I remember one of my best games my ISD died he had an ISD and Two victories left all I had was two raider 1s and a ryhmer ball due to a combination of good manuvering, APTs and fighter harassment i wont by killing the ISD and a victory.

Yes. Also no.

I have a training program for players that want to get really good at the game.

Step 1) Hand them 2 VSD's and forbid Demolisher and Rhymer

Step 2) Force them to play a dozen games with the 2 VSD's and what ever other ships that are smaller (no Demo title allowed)

Step 3) Watch the frustration and wait.

Step 4) Watch them learn to overcome the issues and profit

hehe, by these standards I'm an Armada Grand Admiral :-)

Being serious though, if you want to master the Imperials fly VSD's (preferably VSD-1's) they are a hard ship to use well, but when you can, you can run amok without Rhymer or Demolisher.

Fly this for a while. When you win more than you lose, you are worthy of the title Imperial Moff.

Vader's Goes Fishing (for crits)

Author: Englishpete

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 399/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Contested Outpost

Navigation Objective: Minefields

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)

- Darth Vader ( 36 points)

- Interdictor ( 3 points)

- Projection Experts ( 6 points)

- G-8 Experiemental Projector ( 8 points)

- Targeting Scrambler ( 5 points)

= 148 total ship cost

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Fire-Control Team ( 2 points)

- XX-9 Turbolasers ( 5 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

= 85 total ship cost

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Wulff Yularen ( 7 points)

- Fire-Control Team ( 2 points)

- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)

- XX-9 Turbolasers ( 5 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

= 97 total ship cost

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

3 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 33 points)

its just this simple.

Imp's fight like a hammer (move right in all the way and hit hit hit,

Reb's fight like a sword( move to the right hit, move out hit, move left hit, duck and weave hit).

Seen lots of new players try to fight Reb ships like the hammer and be all dead by the 3rd or 4th turn.

As players are noting here, Imperials are a very easy to understand faction because their ships have one clearly defined goal: keep the enemy in the front at all times.

Rebels are trickier. Obviously, they don't want to linger in the zone of death in front of Star Destroyers (or inside the range of a powerful Demolisher GSD). However, they really excel at getting around into the weak spots of Imperial ships and hammering into thinner shields where the return fire is typically weaker. this means that they have to deploy to exploit this ability by splitting their forces and maneuvering carefully.

Squadrons are an entirely different beast, and the strategies for both factions vary greatly.

The Dark Side is easier, faster. More powerful it is not.

The Dark Side is easier, faster. More powerful it is not.

Mikael? Is that you? No, you can't be Mikael, he would never admit that the Imperials were weaker or not the best.

So I prefer to play imperials because it is in fact a more difficult faction to play, imo. I say this because....

Maneuvering is more difficult, the rebel scum are cowards and use hit and run tactics. As an imperial you have to anticipate your opponents moves, it lends well to second player.

The ships look cooler....I mean who want to play with a lumpy (fill in the blank)

The durability of the ships lends well To my play style, something a kin to a bull in a china shop.

And finally....

Getting someone's prized admonition in a double arc of death and absolutely obliterating it in one turn is just so **** satisfying

Also on a side note. I really like the imperials. The moral fortitude of the dark side, the elegance of the uniform, the unmitigated perfection of the imperial navy, and oh yeah they always get the girls.

Both factions are very easy to learn and to play! There's a few quick tips for quick wins to keep in mind :

1) Play the ships for what they are rather than for what you want them to be.

2) Understand the key weaknesses of your fleet, and don't put it in a situation where it's going to lose.

3) Don't plan pre-game when list building. Build your list to give you options, then pay extra care during the deployment and the turns.

4) Take your time, don't rush.

5) Remember to take advantage of all of a ship's capabilities. Ships and squadrons are usually more than their attack pools.

6) Aside from titles, don't build your ship around upgrades. Use upgrades to make your ship more efficient at what it's good at.

7) Don't link your squadrons to a single carrier. That's the biggest mistake I see people do. Think of your squadrons as a pool of stuff that your ships can take advantage of when needed through their commands, or though positioning during the squadron phase. When you build a ship to be a carrier, you're basically broadcasting what it's gonna do and that is spamming squadron commands. When it does that, it doesn't use Engineering Commands, and it's pretty easy to kill off a carrier played like this.

8) Fly your ship to aim for the double arc, but make sure that your main battery will shoot at the best efficiency for the range in case you can't get it.

9) Don't try to maximize your upgrade cards' efficiency on the table. Victory is more important than points efficiency, and points efficiency is not as important to victory as timing. Timing is crucial in Armada, regardless of which faction you use.

10) The most important, play with the worst case scenario in mind. Dice have a tendency to troll hard when it counts! That said, don't let it prevent you from taking calculated risks.

I play both Rebels and Imperials, mainly Rebels in Wave 1 and Imperials in Wave 2. Both factions are enjoyable, in a different manner, and there are key differences in the design philosophy :

1) Rebels are overall faster and with a larger shield pool than Imperials, while Imperials are better armed and more sturdy. Currently, 2 of the Rebel ships in Wave 1 and 2 do not have Brace (40% !) while all the Imperials have access to the Brace.

2) Rebel squadrons are better on the offensive due to a larger health pool and efficient anti-ship capabilities accross the board. Imperial squadrons excel at a support role and use their speed to select engagements that reduce the effectiveness of Rebel squadrons and delay their attacks.

In both factions, I prefer a combined arms approach to a spamming approach because I found that it had a higher efficiency both in offense and in defense. You're able to present different threats and the enemy might not be able to efficiently deal with all of them, while also having different ways to react to different threats. For example, my last Imperial list at 400 points gave me a 10-1 victory was 2 Victory 2, one Glad 2 (without even Demolisher ! ) and 10 squadrons (2 Bombers, Soontir Fel, 1 TIE I, 5 TIE F and Howlrunner) facing off against a TRC90, Yavaris and a MC80 Command, 3 B-Wings, Jan Ors, Dutch, Wedge, a YT1300 and a Scurrg. Fleets were led by Motti and Riekaan respectively and incidentally, I only had Wave 1 upgrade cards on the ships.

In this case, both fleets were combined arms in their design, but his was relying a lot more on the squadron damage output which I had plenty of defense against with my cheapish squadrons, while presenting 3 types of threat of my own : medium range fire arcs, short range torpedoes with the Gladiator, the odd Bomber.

Make sure to take time for the deployment and setting up your first command dials. Deployment and the first 3 turns really determine how the game is gonna go.

I think it looks easier to play Imperials, the reality is both sides need experience and understanding of how ships perform to do well.

Everyone sees the huge HP pool and monster front arcs, sadly any semi decent opponent is going to make you want to cry, trying to get that front arc into use.

I'd say that the Imperials are probably a bit easier to grasp stright out of the gates. Certainly when I started playing I felt that I lost more of my first few games than my friend who was using an Imperial Fleet. Once I'd got some games under my belt things seemed to start evening out.

Imperial starship combat is simpler on a mechanical level. Star Destroyers are, ship for ship, tougher, deadlier at close quarters, and on a fundamental level, are rather point-and-shoot for navigation. What this means is that an Imperial player can release more of their mental energies for long-term tactical planning separate of his fleet movement, and for developing and managing the Imperial fighter wings, which require quite close supervision. Because the ships are simpler, an Imperial player can be more flexible in tactical planning and be more reactive to Rebel tricks or develop other stratagems of their own. By contrast, a Rebel commander is much more focused on the mechanics of moving his ships, and often has prebuilt movement plans to handle the complexity of synergizing the much more disparate Rebel fleet. He is able to do this because his fighters, like Imperial starships, are superior to their Imperial counterparts, and can to a very large degree be left to their own devices. The Rebel ships all have tactics and movement styles they prefer and do poorly outside of, whereas the simpler Imperial ships can adapt to a greater range of movement plans and tactics more easily, although they do have a very strong fore-arc requirement.

I would say generally the Imperial skill floor is lower, but the Rebel skill ceiling (excluding tactical movement and strategy available to both sides) is higher. Easier? That is going to vary player to player. I started playing Imperials, and play Rebels against my girlfriend as a handicap, but they are by no means either an auto-win nor a weakness.

By contrast, a Rebel commander is much more focused on the mechanics of moving his ships, and often has prebuilt movement plans to handle the complexity of synergizing the much more disparate Rebel fleet.

The Rebel ships all have tactics and movement styles they prefer and do poorly outside of, whereas the simpler Imperial ships can adapt to a greater range of movement plans and tactics more easily, although they do have a very strong fore-arc requirement.

As for rebel movement, that is both sides. If the Imperial player is not using their navigates properly they will be stuck out of position and flanked rather quickly.

If you think the Rebels are set in their movement plans then you should revisit that line of thought. I know plenty of rebel players who win consistently and don't have a set movement plan. They react and force reactions.

Imperials have cheaper ships......?

Imperials have cheaper ships......?

Imperials have cheaper ships......?

By contrast, a Rebel commander is much more focused on the mechanics of moving his ships, and often has prebuilt movement plans to handle the complexity of synergizing the much more disparate Rebel fleet.

The Rebel ships all have tactics and movement styles they prefer and do poorly outside of, whereas the simpler Imperial ships can adapt to a greater range of movement plans and tactics more easily, although they do have a very strong fore-arc requirement.

I don't agree with this at all. A rebel Commander does not have to focus just on moving. Rebels have to specialize in what they are doing a lot more I think. An Imperial player can get away with a mid sized squadron set up because they have some of the best synergy between aces as well as cheaper squadrons .

As for rebel movement, that is both sides. If the Imperial player is not using their navigates properly they will be stuck out of position and flanked rather quickly.

If you think the Rebels are set in their movement plans then you should revisit that line of thought. I know plenty of rebel players who win consistently and don't have a set movement plan. They react and force reactions.

I'm speaking from my local meta and my own experience playing Rebels. I can phrase this better though. A Rebel player, as a rule of thumb, is more likely to work harder for his preferred arrangements, on average, than an Imperial player. Put another way, a Star Destroyer wants to be in close. Its primary weapons arc is forward. Maintaining its target in the ideal attack zone is also how an Imperial player can close the range, plus or minus maneuvering to prevent evasive action. A Rebel player prefers broadsides or double arcs (though Imperials don't mind the latter, especially Gladiators), both of which are hard to achieve, especially the former at range, against an aggressive Imperial player. Obviously some Rebel ships like close quarters (see the MC30s) and forward attacks (see Liberty), but they are the exception, and a Rebel player must be more conscious to use his speed advantage against an Imperial opponent, just as an Imperial commander needs to anticipate Rebel maneuvering and keep his guns on target.

Their squadrons are also harder to synergize, but are much more powerful on their own than Imperial units. The Rebels don't have as many obvious combos for their units, but a Jan Ors X-wing CAP is plenty painful for an Imperial commander, and the Imperial equivalent superiority wing is more reliant on synergies (any combination of Howlrunner/Fel/Mithel/Dengar/IG-88/Boba/literally anything else you brought for this purpose) to achieve the same damage and deadliness. Again speaking from my meta, this is most typified where I as the Imperial player am reliant on my speed to give me first strike and location dictation in the squadron game, whereas my usual opponents prefer to pull me out of position with tricks and waste my strike early, while relying far less on squadron commands to gain the upper hand. This frees up dials for him to use on other things (Engineering, Navigate, ConcFire), whereas I have never won the squadron game as Imperials without the carrier(s) herding the TIEs and associated about the battlefield.

The Dark Side is easier, faster. More powerful it is not.

Mikael? Is that you? No, you can't be Mikael, he would never admit that the Imperials were weaker or not the best.

Correction: Easier and faster is more powerful, as the Empire should be.

Also, GrandMoffMatt forgot to mention 'more seductive'.

I find his lack of faith disturbing.

I personally think it is. Maybe not "easy", but definitely more straight forward with more powerful combos.

I personally think it is. Maybe not "easy", but definitely more straight forward with more powerful combos.

Right now there are many devastating combinations that Rebels have that Imperials have some issues with combating. It will be hard for an Imperial list to be an All Comers list because they have many "Silver Bullet" type of ships/titles. The rebels have a vase terms array of defensive capabilities and extremely strong offensive capabilities that is synergistic with the rest of the fleet.

The Dark Side is easier, faster. More powerful it is not.

Mikael? Is that you? No, you can't be Mikael, he would never admit that the Imperials were weaker or not the best.

Correction: Easier and faster is more powerful, as the Empire should be.

Also, GrandMoffMatt forgot to mention 'more seductive'.

I find his lack of faith disturbing.

Ever wonder if it smells like boiled cabbage under Vader's helmet?

Don't look at me that way, I'm loyal. I'm asking for SCIENCE!

The Dark Side is easier, faster. More powerful it is not.

Mikael? Is that you? No, you can't be Mikael, he would never admit that the Imperials were weaker or not the best.

Correction: Easier and faster is more powerful, as the Empire should be.

Also, GrandMoffMatt forgot to mention 'more seductive'.

I find his lack of faith disturbing.

Ever wonder if it smells like boiled cabbage under Vader's helmet?

Don't look at me that way, I'm loyal. I'm asking for SCIENCE!