First off... shout out to two great guys BiggsIRL (200th post) and Shmitty (100th post) - thanks for contributing to the best community in gaming!

So recapping worlds, 3 of the Final Four:

1. JJ - Guppy, Admo + 3 Floats

2. Justin - Guppy, Yavaris + 3 Floats

3. Nathan - Yavaris, Guppy + 3 Floats

Kudos to them for setting the current meta.

So yesterday, I (2x Guppy + 3 Floats) went to the Cary, North Carolina Regionals at Gamer's Armoury (shout out to Scott for TOing... it's a clean and friendly store --- I would say well-stocked but they had A booster box of SW Destiny that sold out before dice were rolled at 10am...like, c'mon... LOL). I'll let my buddy write the AAR since he won...

Rambling thoughts/observations (perhaps, our illustrious bloggers can write bigger articles):

A. As I've said, on any given day (matchups, etc), Armada is like Zootopia (great movie) where you can play anything and win. I love Armada because each time I go to a tournament is always fun meeting new peeps (shout out to Keith and Britt... great guys and very exciting matches) AND because the lists are so varied!

B. The Game Within the Game (again, I think the squadron game is like a puzzle within the greater Armada game so that's enjoyable too).

C. Flotillas are the ultimate tarpit unit. It takes a lot more points to kill them (maybe someone can talk about shooter-target kill efficiency). As a result, it's very difficult to win big nowadays (I would argue that most matches are 6-5.) Killing three floats doesn't really push you to domination.

D. Bright Hope might be the most popular title in the game (yes, even over Demo). Toryn Farr is the best officer in the game.

BIG THOUGHT:

Don't know about you guys, but I'm getting bored (maybe that's not the right word... maybe it's not interesting) with the 2 Combat Ships + Floats Meta. Maybe it feels unnatural to me to see so little combat ships. I am hopeful that Wave 5 will shake things up. I will readily admit even with extra activations, squadron activations, I didn't think that 20-25% of non-combat ships would be this good! My gut feeling says that Wave 5 will be the era of Armada history of the optimizing squadron mix? Perhaps, I'm hopeful that something comes out that makes large carrier ships a thing again? IDK.

What do you guys think?

My first thought:

I agree with you about everything and I think the dominance of the flotilla and the complete absence of most large ships is also because Armada does not have the IA action rule (where you can pass if the other player has more activations left).

Right now it's too easy to just stall vs large ships, and flotillas are hard to kill as blockers / stallers.

I don't see wave 5 changing much on that front, unfortunately.

This isnt new.

My combat choices, Admo mc30 and Lando mc30

My floats, bright hope, jainas light and Foresight mc30

There were hints of this in the Clonisher list too.

Fleet ships were never equal, there should always been a focus on which were combat and which were support. The nationals lists were just a tad extreme.

Maybe if a large hits a flotilla inst-death for it... :-)

I think that as people continue to bring flotilla hunters with H9s they may start to decline in popularity.

A combat ship that you put H9s on can often one shot a flotilla, and H9 is still a great upgrade to target other combat ships.

I've started to use Quantum Storm a bit more than Bright Hope.

As in the two first turns of a game, you jocky your fleet into attack position, its nice to use the extra speed of QS to get it into a position where your main combat ships are in between QS and the enemy fleet. (Staying out of range for atleast one more turn than Bright Hope is also very usefull)

Coms Net and Boosted Coms is my prefered other two upgrades, So for 25 pts you have a nice little cheep flexible support ship, that:

1: Helps you with activations.

2: Can pass on Command Tokens to other ships

3: Can assist controlling your squadrons.

4: Can assist bigger ships with close range "Flak"

5: Can/may stay out of harms way for at least one cruicial turn.

6: Loosing it, does obviously not hurt as much, as loosing any other ship.

Oh most definitely. Of my 4 opponents yesterday at Georgia regionals, 2 of my opponents ran 3 floats, and they were easily my toughest matches of the day. One had them in there purely for activation purposes, the other had them outfitted to do some up close and dangerous work. My other 2 matches ran 1 and 2 floats with 3 and 4 total activations, respectively, and hurt for activations to my 6 (only 1 float).

I found that the best way to deal with them was just ramming. It doesn't take up an attack, engine techs can get a double tap, and it doesn't deal damage to your non-float. Also, by timing it right and positioning yourself in front of the float, you can force the float to collide with you on its next activation, and you can maybe still keep your ship out of medium/close range of an opponent's combat ship. Very efficient. I don't know if that was Cninja's thought with his list, but it looked like he ran 4 glads wth engine techs (and 2? support gozantis).

I was also surprised at how there were still squadronless lists performing exceptionally well, speaking of a meta full of cheap carriers with amazing fighter/bomber support capability. Cninja's was one of them, and he was playing for the championship cut when I left last night. And my final opponent was another who would have easily trounced me had the dice been even just slightly average for him.

I usually just like to bring a single flotilla (for either side) and then three combat ships. Like a Rebel fleet might be a Assault frigate, a Neb-B, a CR90, and a flotilla. I don't like the gimmicky spam of flotillas, but I like them for certain roles-like the above list would be built for the transports to be commanding a bombing run of squadrons.

But then for most games I like large fleets versus 'skirmish' fleets of 2 Star Destroyers + some squadrons, because while sometimes those are fun, I come from a history of fleet-scale games like Battlefleet Gothic, which see 6-12 capitol ships on each side, and I try to replicate that feel in Armada without going up to 5-600pts.

Reinholt and Q once again say everything I would say, but better. I think Reinholt summed it up nicely. The activation game is probably too strong in Armada. In my experience, it seems to be the thing that depresses/challenges newer players the most. I don't play IA, so I had not heard about the being able to delay if your opponent has more activations left. That's a neat concept. I might see if our local group here in Raleigh would be willing to house rule that for a month or two and see how it plays in Armada.

Maybe if a large hits a flotilla inst-death for it... :-)

I think this fleet composition is more about running max squadrons, while keeping activations high. After spending 127+ points on squads and and then an Admiral, I found it hard to fit in a large ship and still have 5 activations. The high activation count helps mitigate being second player, you never want your opponent moving first and last. Having 3 floatillas plus a few line ships and max squads really spreads your points around and makes it very hard for you opponent to table you. I see floatillas as just the result of a squadron heavy meta ATM. I think the bigger issue is its hard to go half way with squadrons, either max out or take nothing, the middle ground is usually a free points gift.

Maybe if a large hits a flotilla inst-death for it... :-)

This is what I was banking on in the list I played in NC. I think I was able to one shot about 6-7 small ships from either of my combat ships sheer weight of dice and didn't have any accuracy modifiers in my list.

Haha... I meant from collisions! ;-D

I've had some similar thoughts, but have been coming at it from a bit different angle. So, consider this post a bit of a preview of a future blog post.

• I have also noticed the tendency towards two hard hitters and some flotillas in the Regionals data. At first I thought it was an aberration, but the trend has continued. Personally, it goes against how I play where I try to concentrate multiple threats on a single target. So, it seemed weird to me.
• But, the thing that can't be missed is that those fleets also have a large (100+ points) investment in squadrons. Those are essentially the 3rd hard hitter in the fleet.
• I am seeing more large squadron builds lately, which is fun as it is a new puzzle to solve. I have been taking the attitude that squadrons are points that need to be harvested. If a player has 134 points in squadrons that is more points than a stock ISD. Would you ever play someone with an ISD and expect a big win without killing that ISD? Flotillas make tabling a good player hard, if you don't have a squadron-harvesting plan you will not get a big win very often.
• Squadron harvesting is not the same as throwing Howlrunner or Mithel into a list for anti-squadron work. I've figured out a few tactics that really make a difference for me. Have a plan for killing those things.
• Flotillas are both paper thin and annoying to kill. They seem to either never die or die to the first shot. I am currently playing Home One and I kinda think they are a joke to kill. As player tactics adapt they will be much less of a tarpit.
• That said, the Scatter token is much harder to nullify tactically than other problems.

I do think the current situation is temporary.

In the Regional that I TO'd there was a lot of seeing 2 players setup in a basic line abreast and fly towards each other. It think that is a symptom of the current squadron-centric meta. The line abreast is the easiest way to herd squadrons towards your opponent.

The line abreast is easy to outmaneuver tactically. Players will learn this and develop new tactics.

So, my current thinking when I build a fleet:

• Have a plan for squadron harvesting
• Have tools for killing flotillas effciently
• Have tactical flexibility beyond taking the shortest route towards my opponent

I think wave 5 will mitigate the activation advantage a bit, at least for rebels, because you can start reaching out and really hurting people at red range with sato...so it doesn't matter quite as much if your opponent tries to scoot away as first player.

With sensor net,we finally have a scary blue for lots of ships and a few squadrons. I think that will also be a useful tool in changing up the meta.

I think it would be an interesting idea to try out a game where flotillas do not count towards whether or not someone can be considered "tabled" against one of those 134 pts of squadrons + 3 flotillas + X. I feel they just provide too much tactical value for their cost. A ship activation, squadron activations, and insurance against getting tabled should cost more than 18 points.

This all links to an important point about Ackbar, Screed, Vader, Sato and Rieekan.

Part of the reason they do well at tourneys is thus:

With this set up, 2 combat with three support, it is the combat ships which are most at risk of dying. These admirals add attacking boosts whilst attributing the cost to the support ships.

Improved combat ships at the cost of expendable ships!

This works very well with the mov system.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Not really. Motti and Mothma make them more survivable, not cheaper.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Not really. Motti and Mothma make them more survivable, not cheaper.

Vader and Ackbar offload the cost of offensive upgrades.

Motti and Mothma offload the cost of defensive upgrades.

Same same.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Not really. Motti and Mothma make them more survivable, not cheaper.

Which is an attacking boost as you can attack more aggressively. So it's kinda the same.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Not really. Motti and Mothma make them more survivable, not cheaper.

Vader and Ackbar offload the cost of offensive upgrades.

Motti and Mothma offload the cost of defensive upgrades.

Same same.

What defencive upgrades? Especially Motti...

Since I realized how much Flotillas are used recently I started toying with H9s, Sensor Teams and Home one and let me tell you, they come very handy. Basically you can make one of your ships a Float killer for a couple of points, and it doesn't even have to be your big hitter. Raiders excel in this but MC30s are great as well.

What many players forget is that losing a Float means you're one activation down, you're one command token/dial down and you're several squadron activations down. Separately they don't cost much but if you lose two of your precious GR75s, it's usually means you lost the game.

Ackbar, Vader, Sato

do well at tourneys

Lol?

Also, every admiral does this.

Not really. Motti and Mothma make them more survivable, not cheaper.

Vader and Ackbar offload the cost of offensive upgrades.

Motti and Mothma offload the cost of defensive upgrades.

Same same.

What defencive upgrades? Especially Motti...

Ordnance experts, leading shots and spinal arnaments