Last night I had a fun game on Vassal, but an unusual situation occurred in the last 3 turns of the game. I had a single Liberty remaining and no navigation orders coming for it. It was going speed 1 but was set to be in the flank and rear of the two vics my opponent had left (he also had an interdictor left). Yes, he was whooping me due to my mistakes and his taking good advantage of them.

So, here is the weird situation. I shot at his Vic(1) that had been getting hit all game. It barely had any hull left (3) after I whiffed at it. However, when his other Vic(2) killed off my Space pickle, he had no where to go but into the Vic(1). Hence they both lost hull. For the rest of the game, and in spite of having gunnery teams, I only shot at the second Vic(2). He ended up ramming his Vics together every turn. On turn 6, both with 1 hull left, they both blew up in a massive (but space silent) bang.

Have you every purposefully not shot an enemy as a strategy?

BTW, the game was great and my opponent was a blast!

Not in Armada, but in X-wing I once cornered a large ship and rammed it into a position where it couldn't escape and it died to anti-pursuit lasers after a couple of turns. X-wing has a lot more non-attack damage-dealing mechanics than Armada.

Hello. I found it saddening that this post seemed so lonely, so I decided to respond, despite the fact that I have never pursued such a strategy (As far as I can remember).

First off, may I ask what the fleet compositions were, because upon reading It I got the impression that you had 1 Liberty vs 2 VSDs and an Interdictor, with the Liberty dying before any of the three enemy ships were destroyed. . .

Secondly, in an attempt to answer the question on the specific type of strategy, I can't remember having used it before, though I would imagine that, since the point of the game is to destroy your enemy's fleet to gain points, it would only be a viable strategy if the enemy was such a horrific navigator that he was constantly colliding with his ships or obstacles, or unless an objective gave one points for non-destroyed enemy ships or discourages one from endangering his ships per se (there are a few were that could be an option).

P.S. I am glad you enjoyed the game, as, I am sure, are you and everybody else.

Hello. I found it saddening that this post seemed so lonely, so I decided to respond, despite the fact that I have never pursued such a strategy (As far as I can remember).

First off, may I ask what the fleet compositions were, because upon reading It I got the impression that you had 1 Liberty vs 2 VSDs and an Interdictor, with the Liberty dying before any of the three enemy ships were destroyed. . .

Secondly, in an attempt to answer the question on the specific type of strategy, I can't remember having used it before, though I would imagine that, since the point of the game is to destroy your enemy's fleet to gain points, it would only be a viable strategy if the enemy was such a horrific navigator that he was constantly colliding with his ships or obstacles, or unless an objective gave one points for non-destroyed enemy ships or discourages one from endangering his ships per se (there are a few were that could be an option).

P.S. I am glad you enjoyed the game, as, I am sure, are you and everybody else.

Sorry...

2 Libs & a Space Pickle vs. 2 Gonzanti, 2 Vic1s, and a combat interdictor

I had a space pickle as well in turn 4, but it died (of its own volition by ramming).

I forgot to mention that if I killed the first vic, his other would be able to get away because it was at speed 2. By allowing the first vic to survive, it effectively corralled the other vic and kept it in my arc as well as ramming.

I had this come up in a tourney last weekend. We were playing CO, and I'd gotten matched up against one of our newer players in round 1, so had him tabled with no losses by the end of round 3, with the exception of one GR-75 that was dead to rights in my MC30's side arc. I could quite easily have maneuvered to keep him in arc for the rest of the game, farmed the last three turns for CO points, and then popped the flotilla on turn six to milk the MoV. In this case, though, the guy was understandably disheartened, so I just ended it. Wasn't worth the MoV to do that to a new guy.

The other night I kept an opponent's gladiator alive by not CF on it so it would be an obstruction for his ISD to shoot my objective flotilla, since he only had all-blacks to shoot at the flotilla with the gladiator.

The ISD had gunnery teams and blew up my glad that spared his glad and also still killed my flotilla, then rammed his own glad and killed it.

Ard, I did that in the vassal tourney for firelanes tokens. Not sure I actually killed the cr90 in the end or not.

Also, in the final I purposfully didnt shoot the leading flotillas so they rammed everything and prevented Yav going to black range.

Yeah, mine could really have backfired. I was lucky it didn't. It seems like it is a big risk not to kill something. I got lucky.

I have rammed my own ships before now to assist in maneuvering in the following round or to stop fast moving ship flying into a very dangerous situation, and moved a ship into a position that allowed my other ship to ram it and not fly off of the edge of the board.

Only when playing Precision Strike have I kept things alive to get more tokens, even to the point of spending a Hit/Crit dice to flip one card, several times gaining me the VP token, but not putting more damage on the hull.

I guess a situation where they have 2 ships stuck in close proximity, where the one in front is leashing the one behind would also be a valid time.

It is a perfectly valid strategy, no doubt. A more interesting case that is brought by wave 4 is the decision to not resolve the critical effect at all, so there is no chance for a Medical Team to trigger.

Hello. I found it saddening that this post seemed so lonely, so I decided to respond, despite the fact that I have never pursued such a strategy (As far as I can remember).

First off, may I ask what the fleet compositions were, because upon reading It I got the impression that you had 1 Liberty vs 2 VSDs and an Interdictor, with the Liberty dying before any of the three enemy ships were destroyed. . .

Secondly, in an attempt to answer the question on the specific type of strategy, I can't remember having used it before, though I would imagine that, since the point of the game is to destroy your enemy's fleet to gain points, it would only be a viable strategy if the enemy was such a horrific navigator that he was constantly colliding with his ships or obstacles, or unless an objective gave one points for non-destroyed enemy ships or discourages one from endangering his ships per se (there are a few were that could be an option).

P.S. I am glad you enjoyed the game, as, I am sure, are you and everybody else.

Sorry...

2 Libs & a Space Pickle vs. 2 Gonzanti, 2 Vic1s, and a combat interdictor

I had a space pickle as well in turn 4, but it died (of its own volition by ramming).

I forgot to mention that if I killed the first vic, his other would be able to get away because it was at speed 2. By allowing the first vic to survive, it effectively corralled the other vic and kept it in my arc as well as ramming.

Ah okay, thanks. Also, I kind of figured that that was your reason, as it was the only one that made sense (that I could think of), and probably something that I would have done myself, had I been in a similar situation.

In fact, come to think of it, I was in a distorted mirror of the situation: During my first game I acquired a reputation as the kind of driver nobody would hire even if they were in desperate need of a pilot and I was the only one on the planet. During this game I was maneuvering an AFMII in front of Redemption, but I miscalculated and repeatedly rammed both ships into each other for (I believe) 3 turns, eventually culminating in the death of both ships, the AF to two volleys, Redemption to one volley, of enemy fire.

Edit: pt106: Good point, and also a well-timed one, as I am currently thinking of incorporating it into several fleet builds I have in mind, and was beginning to quite like the card. . .oh well. At least it's only one point. . .

I have seen people not fire in Opening Salvo, to intentionally save the token for a bigger blast the next turn.

Precision strike is an example where you delay dealing the killing blow. I have lurposefully shot at a hull with 2 shields over a hull with no shields to ensure I wouldn't kill a ship and could flip cards for extra points. Even if it meant I had to tank some more damage.

Maybe with Intel Sweep. Firing lanes and Contested Outpost brings ships too close to each other. Depends on what new objectives Corlerian Conflict will have.

Never as a strategic plan but often depending on the tactical situation.

Snip

2 Libs & a Space Pickle

How was that as a fleet, by the by? I was thinking of running something like that, but with two Command Cruisers and one Star Cruiser.

Snip

2 Libs & a Space Pickle

How was that as a fleet, by the by? I was thinking of running something like that, but with two Command Cruisers and one Star Cruiser.

It is...eh. I have used it twice. One game we didn't finish, but 1 lib was dead, the pickle was gonna get ISD blasted, but my other lib was in flank of Interdictor and rear of ISD. The other game I lost by 15 points as described above.

Interesting scenario. I had imagined it was turn 4, and you had an objective that you could earn victory points on, and you hoped for a victory greater than 6-5, so you decided to allow your opponent to live an extra turn or two in order to get more points.

Interesting scenario. I had imagined it was turn 4, and you had an objective that you could earn victory points on, and you hoped for a victory greater than 6-5, so you decided to allow your opponent to live an extra turn or two in order to get more points.

Yes, it was really an odd development. That we both lacked navigation tokens or dials. That his Vics were ordered as they were, with the most damaged ahead of the other. That I could hit both, but by killing the first would allow the second to escape. That I did the perfect amount of damage to the rear vic to have them both explode together (although I believe I would have had one more shot if I remember correctly.)

When I made the decision not to shoot it, we both recognized what I was doing. I just didn't know if it would work out. I didn't know if he had navigation, which might have sunk me.