No Upgrade List Thoughts.

By player1130419, in Star Wars: Armada Fleet Builds

Posted at

Thought I'd see how viable a list without any upgrade cards would fare. In my meta we tend to play 600 point games on a 3 foot by 6 foot table. We all have sizable collections and it is fun to see a large collection of ships and squadrons duke it out.

This is an idea I have been toying with for sometime now, as I find all the unique abilities hard to keep track of during a game, this goes for ones that I have and those of my opponent. Also my design philosophy for any wargaming list build is KISS (Keep It Simple Silly). Armada is a game of many moving parts, adding more moving parts is I feel a recipe for a precarious position.

A good way to test this idea would be to duel against a force that is entrenched in the rival philosophy of list building, which is to heap on upgrades and be very much about the gimmicks and synergy.

I was in luck, managed to get a game in against a Rebel fleet that while I can't recall what was what, it did have a lot of tricks and synergy. Here is the list I used.

Imperial II Class Star Destroyer.

Admiral Motti.

Imperial II Class Star Destroyer.

Victory II Class Star Destroyer.

Gladiator II Class Star Destroyer.

Raider II Class Corvette.
Gozanti Class Assault Carrier.
8 TIE Fighter Squadrons.
4 TIE Advanced Squadrons.
Missions.
Contested Outpost (Which is the one we ended up playing)
Superior Positions.
Most Wanted.
The game was a very tough battle, one which I felt I was ill equipped to deal with due to having no tricks to fall back on. However this resulted in a more focused game for me, as I wasn't too concerned with making sure the needed prerequisites for the upgrade cards to work were meet, but rather allowed me to focus on the mission and use my sheer masses of Health and Firepower to prevail. A loss of a ship didn't result in a break in any combo chain.
That being said, when the combo of the Rebel fleet came into action it did see a slightly damaged Imperial II Class Star Destroyer turn into a cloud of floating dust. B Wings that can be moved after a ship has moved and then activated to fire twice and re rolling all the dice is something to fear. Along with a lot of Assault Proton Torpedoes, which are just plain nasty on a MC30c. A Critical damage card even through shields... when used with the Admiral that allows you to look at the top four cards from the deck and select one, ouch!
The game was very enjoyable, and did result in a victory for the Imperials by 85 points.
A few thoughts I have taken from this is to try to keep to the KISS philosophy when building a fleet will mean that you have to weather a lot of shenanigans to begin with, have a plan that is flexible while sticking to the mission is vital. I may be tempted to throw in some Title cards to add a little variety.
Edited by Stonehorse
Posted at

Raider Swarm!

Posted at

Raider Swarm!

Working on that, so far I have 3, along with an Admiral and the needed TIE craft I dread to think how many could be deployed in a 600 point game. Might be enough to use them as homing missiles, especially with Motti at command of the fleet, we all know that his ships come with in built Crumple Zones.

Shoot at Blue range for a lot of damage, then finish them off with a quick ram, sounds like a great tactic to me :D

Edited by Stonehorse