Hey chaps, it's been a while since I've written a report for a game. I tend to go into a lot of depth so let me know if you guys like my writing style and I'll do some more! I hope you like it!

Hey all,

So I've been playing Armada for about 4 months now and played something like 15 games in that time. Figured it was time to try an event. I'm not claiming to be great, I still have a tonne to learn about this game but I know how to play to my strengths. I am actually a professional tabletop game designer by trade, I am privileged to be able to work on Guild Ball with the SFG design team. This role makes me very good at soaking up large amounts of detailed information on model/upgrade specifics and core rules. What I am still very much a newby at is actual ship movements and planning movements for future turns. This, combined with a strong desire to want to play with an MC80 because I think they look awesome, led me to play the following list:

Most Wanted

Contested Outpost

Superior Positions

MC80 Command Cruiser

General Dodonna

Raymus Antillies

Boosted Comms

Electronic Countermeasures

Fighter Coordination Team

Neb B Escort Frigate

Yavaris

Flight Commander

Fighter Coordination Team

GR-75 Transports

Bright Hope

Toryn Farr

Comms Net

GR-75 Transports

Leia Organa

Bomber Command Centre

Wedge Antillies

Dutch Vander

Jan Ors

3x X-Wing

2x Scurrg H6 Bomber

Total 398

Not original at all, but I'm fine with that. It's tough to create something truly original with the current amount of available models. 4 ship activations and 4 squadrons seems to be something of a benchmark in the current 'meta'. This fleet is very simple to manoeuvre and just revolves around the idea of the hammer and anvil. The MC80 is my anvil that I will actively put in harms way to create an engagement and Yavaris & my squadrons form the hammer that will do most of the work along with the MC80s own firepower.

The Squadron load out is something I tweaked a lot and I considered running all unnamed squadrons but I also like the threat that Dutch & Wedge pose as well as their on table impact. People are scared of them and they draw attention away from other elements of the list. I was running 4x B wings until recently but even with 2 sets of Fighter Coordination Teams I just found them too slow to react to the changing situation on the table. Additionally, I needed better anti squadron capabilities which led me to my current load out of X Wings and Scurrgs. Intel (Jan Ors) just seems like something you don't leave home without if you're running with a list this focussed on squadrons.

THE EVENT

I think I quite literally joined this game at the worst time because just as I felt ready to play an event we hit the 'Regional' season, so most other standard Armada events seemed to cease. Not a complaint at all, but I was really only looking to dip my toes in to see how deep the pool was. My best option for an event was the Midlands Regional at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre in Mansfield. Literally inside a converted church, a very picturesque gaming space but a lack of heating left you seeing your breath while playing. Next time I'll take fingerless gloves! 22 players turned up to the event meaning we would play 3 games, sweet!

GAME ONE - Neil Killett - Superior Positions

Neil was a very gracious opponent who helped me out when I occasionally forgot things. I mentioned that this was my first ever event and he kept that in mind throughout our game which I am very grateful for.

Neil was running double ISD IIs tooled up to the nines a gun platforms with Xi7s and gunnery teams etc. With Vader as the Admiral these ships damage potential scared me. He had 6 normal Ties, Howlrunner and Mauler Mithel as his squadron load out. His list came to bang on 400 so I got to choose. Seeing that I had more ship activations it made sense for me to go first, we played Superior Positions.

Neil set up in the opposite corner to me (both of us to the far left from our points of view) with the terrain quite scattered around so it should be simply to move around to engage. I had my MC80 furthest to the right with Yavaris to its left and the Flotillas behind that.

EARLY TURNS

Turns one and two were mostly spent on us moving toward each other and collecting tokens. I know that I need to be patient with my squadrons and not let them get too far ahead of their support so they sit just ahead of my fleet.

TURN THREE

Turn three I see that Mauler is just within range of Dutch so I activated my MC80 to send him in, unfortunately he didn't roll an accuracy so Mauler scattered it. I spread some X Wings out to generally engage Neil's Ties and I actually kill two of them with my X Wings, good shooting lads!

Neil responds with his own squadron command which causes some damage to my X Wings and Dutch. Our ships are not yet within shooting range of each other so Neil does anti squadron instead. At this point I regretted engaging this turn because being engaged closer to Neil's ships than mine means that he will benefit from anti squadron fire and I won't. Plus my squadrons are out of range of both bomber command and Toryn Farr. Mistake.

Dutch is dead by the end of the turn and I take out another Tie with Wedge. Scurrgs are preparing to jump on the left hand ISD which is advancing directly toward the front of my MC80.

TURN FOUR

As much as I want to push on with the squadron fight now that I am engaged, if I activate either Yavaris or the MC80 before those ISDs then I'm going to take some big shots this turn. This game is going to hinge on how much damage those ISDs inflict. I elect to activate my transports first to eat up the ISD activations while they are out of range. This results in the death of Wedge but I think this is worth it for the overall plan and recovering from my first mistake.

My second mistake was more subtle. I had knowingly pointed my MC80 directly at the left hand ISD when I should have pointed it just to its left so that I could turn to get around it should I need to. Because I hadn't done this I needed to kill that ISD in order to not get my MC80 stuck in the front arcs of both ISDs where it was sure to be destroyed. This meant I couldn't even look at the right hand ISD as a target even though it was the more expensive flagship.

I sent my Scurrgs in and started double tapping the side of the left hand ISD using Yavaris. Thankfully this brought them just into range of my bomber command centre. Yavaris also fired on this ISD and I stripped off most of its shields in this turn. The MC80 also used a squadron command and cleaned up some enemy Tie fighters. I even put my single red die out of the front into the ISD because I knew how important every damage point was. This resulted in the ISDs first damage card.

TURN FIVE

Now my MC80 was in range of both ISDs and Yavaris was in range of one of them. I needed to bring one down this turn. Yavaris went first and another shot out the front and the Scurrgs double tapping brought it down to something like 4 boxes. That ISD then activated, put 5 damage into the front of my MC80 (only at red range) which wiped out my front shields and I redirected one to the left (**** you Xi7s!). I used my flotillas next to bring Toryn Farr and the Bomber Command Centre closer to the action. The second ISD then put 9 damage into my right side which I Braced with Electronic Countermeasures and redirected one to the back. Right side was also shieldless at this point. My MC80 used a repair command to put 3 shields back on the right side and activated one squadron with a token to bomb the ISD. My X Wing rolled blanks... but I was saved by the MC80 rolling 3 damage out of its front and I then rammed it to death.

TURN SIX

This is where having the initiative saved my bacon as I used the MC80 first, repaired more shields and then was able to turn right at speed 2 to get out of the remaining ISD's front arc. The squadrons shot each other a few more times and this was effectively the end of the game.

7-4 to me and given my mistakes I was lucky to claw out a win. Had I failed to kill the ISD when I did, my MC80 would almost certainly have bit the dust himself.

GAME TWO - Michael Brian - Superior Positions

Mike was in a similar position to me where he was fairly new to Armada events (his second ever I think he said) so I was glad to not be alone in my newbishness! Mike was another great opponent that was a pleasure to face.

Mike was running something that I had sort of heard about but never fully understood or seen. Mothma was the admiral this time, 2 Neb Bs, one as standard Yavaris and one as a Spinal Armament Salvation gunboat, 2 Corvette A's with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits and one Flotilla. Fighter complement of 4x Y Wings, 3x X Wings and Jan Ors. Again, 400 bang on so I got to choose. This game was going to be won or lost on the squadron battle so I opted to go first again. 2 point bids ftw! Again, I chose to play Superior Positions.

I deployed in a similar formation to in round one, off to the left ish side of my deployment zone with the MC80 being the right most ship. Knowing that I would need to be going faster to catch my opponents light ships in this game I had all my speeds set to 2 (they were all set to 1 at the start of game one). Mike set up diagonally opposite to me with a corvette on each flank and the Nebs and Flotilla in the centre.

TURN ONE

Similarly to last game, speeding toward each other and collecting tokens. Mike's corvettes were both set at high speed (3 & 4 respectively) and each was hugging the board edge to skirt right around me as I drifted toward the centre of the table. Mothma was on the corvette circling around to my right at speed 4.

TURN TWO

Luckily there had been a lunch break after round one which allowed me to reflect on my mistakes. I kept my fighters in close formation this time. Having the initiative was going to be big when the squadron battle finally got going. Plus one of the primary strengths of Yavaris is that most Rebel squadrons can take a couple of hits, so you can wait for the opponent to initiate the combat and then you abuse the Yavaris double tapping to launch a devastating counter punch. However, I think Mike made a mistake in this turn just drifting slightly too close to my fleet with his non-Mothma corvette. I was able to jump a Scurrg onto it drop some bombs along with Dutch, between them I stripped off two shields. My second Scurrg jumped over ready to strike next turn.

TURN THREE

I went with Yavaris and between its own shooting and my two Scurrgs double tapping, the stricken Corvette turned to dust. I think during the course of this turn Mike fired off a couple of speculative red dice at my MC80 which I redirected onto the protected left hand side. The Mothma corvette was poised to start plinking rear shields and racking up some victory tokens.

Something that is worth noting is that because I knew I was going to get the first big swing in the squadron fight, I was content to let our fleets drift together to hopefully allow me to use Yavaris when launching that first swing. Mike seemed content to allow this to happen and during the squadron phase of the third turn we finally reached engagement with no shooting happening yet. I actually took a photo of this because it amused me somewhat. Reminded me a lot of when rugby players slowly set up a scrum and then both sides simultaneously unleash their strength at point blank range.

TURN FOUR

So, after some range checking, I activated Yavaris, reduced to speed 1, fired off a decent anti squadron shot out of its right arc (a single die due to obstruction but reliable damage due to Toryn Farr). Dutch removed an X Wing (he was already engaged so couldn't be moved by my coordination team and he was only engaging one squadron), one of my X-Wings brought down another and a third one reduced Jan Ors to 1 health, she had take one from the Neb's shooting.

Mike spent a little while pondering his next move. I have to admit I would have been too. The drift had turned this fight into a close range & brutal brawl which heavily favoured my fleet so long as it was shielded by my MC80. I think Mike went with his Yavaris but due to some very poor rolling and the low natural dice of Y-Wings this was mostly ineffective. My MC80 went next and activated the rest of my squadrons, I moved my Scurrgs over to the right of the Salvation and put some damage into it. Wedge took the last enemy X Wing down to 1 health. Almost all of Mike's Squadrons were at close range of my MC80 so he let rip with an anti squadron shot out of the right side and the front which took a couple of the Y Wings down to half health and finished off Jan and the X Wing that Wedge had wounded.

Mike devoted his remaining ship fire toward the MC80 which reduced its shields but didn't completely strip any arc. The remaining corvette added its weight to that and generated a victory token. Mike's Y Wings didn't roll well and inflicted minimal damage to my X Wings.

TURN FIVE

With the enemy escorts and Jan gone and the enemy Y Wings engaged by a number of my X Wings, I had control of the squadron battle. Yavaris again went first and my Scurrgs double tapped the Salvation to death, earning me two victory tokens along the way. Yavaris also dropped another anti squadron salvo through the MC80. Mike activated his Yavaris next to try to break free of my X Wings, he managed to take one out but several others were still keeping them pinned. My MC80 went next and now that the enemy Yavaris had drifted quite close I had a flank shot available into its right hand side. After repairing (engineering command) I fired a broadside into the side of the Yavaris and brought it down to very low health. Mike's Corvette had a go at the Bright Hope but failed to roll an accuracy so I just scattered from the shot. My Flotillas took some squadron commands themselves and used my remaining squadrons to finish off the Yavaris and pour more damage into Y Wings. Mike's Flotilla started to take a wider arc around the rear of my fleet and so avoiding destruction.

TURN SIX

Mothma again fired into my Flotilla but failed to roll lethal damage. Mikes Flotilla managed to escape destruction also and I finished off the Y Wings.

9-2 to me this time, to me this game underlined why it is important to hold formation until the optimal moment. I had assumed Mike would play a much more evasive game but fortunately for me he opted to play into my game plan.

GAME THREE - Gideon Lowes - Contested Outpost

I've never met someone called Gideon, I assumed it was a name reserved for genius intellect super-villains. I was not disappointed, Gideon's list was an anathema to what I thought I knew about this game and he revelled in my confusion (all in good sport of course). I thoroughly enjoyed this game against an excellent opponent. I learned a heck of a lot.

Gideon had no squadrons.... NONE!! 3x MC30s, one with Admonition, one with Foresight and all 3 with Xi7s. Admonition also had H-9s and Ordinance Experts so was perfectly set up for Flotilla hunting. He also had one Flotilla containing nothing but his Admiral, Mon Mothma. He also brought a Neb B packing the Salvation title and an Intel Officer... I didn't know what was about to happen but I had a strong suspicion I was about to get out played by someone with vastly more experience of Armada. Gideon had a bigger bid at 394 and chose to go first, selecting Contested Outpost.

There was a gap in the terrain cluster to my right so that's where I set up the outpost. I reversed my normal deployment with the MC80 on the left, positioned to ensure that I would enter scoring range of the station at speed 1 which my whole fleet was set to. Gideon deployed directly opposite me with all of his ships set to odd angles and everything but the Salvation set to speed 3 or 4. Mon Mothma's Flotilla was set parallel to Gideon's back board edge, she had no desire to come anywhere near the combat zone.

TURN ONE

I advanced onto the station and Gideon sent his three MC30s hurtling toward me while his corvette and Salvation hung back slightly. He made sure to activate the MC30s last to prevent me from taking pot shots at them.

TURN TWO

This was a clusterF of target priority problems. I knew that he wanted me to go after his untitled MC30 because it was the cheapest... so I wasn't going to go for that one yet. Admonition takes WAY more effort to kill than it is worth and it being in the centre meant that he almost certainly wanted me to target that one... so I instead decided to prioritise the Foresight. None of my squadrons were within range to leap and double tap with Yavaris' Fighter Coordination Team so I instead went with my MC80. Sending my X Wings into the unnamed MC30 and Foresight. Importantly I used its own Fighter Coordination teams to get the Scurrgs into position where Yavaris COULD then move them up again and double tap. Gideon activated the unnamed MC30 and set him up next to my Bomber Command Flotilla in an attempt to get more of my attention. I activated Yavaris and continued with my intention to bomb the Foresight which stripped most of its shields. I wasn't entirely sure why Gideon didn't use the Foresight instead because my strategy was far from subtle. It made sense however when Gideon kept the Foresight at speed 4 and flew directly into the front of my MC80 which put the Foresight down to only 2 hull points. Gideon misjudged the position slightly which resulted in the Foresight being positioned one slot down the measuring widget more than he had hoped. He was trying to engineer using both its side arcs next turn, one into the front of my MC80 and the second into the front of Yavaris. He had managed only the latter of these two.

I was concerned that Gideon might try to position the admonition between Yavaris and my other ships because it looked like it could fit but the movement options must have prevent this being an option. Instead the Admonition rammed my bomber command Flotilla which again provided a very good firing position for next turn. Thankfully that Flotilla had both a manoeuvre command and a manoeuvre token so it was able to fly directly over the Admonition and escape its lethal side arc. Gideon's Salvation continued to ponder forward to provide supporting fire from the next turn onward.

TURN THREE

Foresight went first and dumped 6 damage into the front of Yavaris which I braced to 3, clearing its front shields. I mentioned that due to the positioning miscalculation Gideon did not have the second side arc on my MC80 so instead used its front batteries which I redirected onto its right hand side. The Foresight then flew straight through my MC80 but even at speed 4 it was forced to open up its unshielded right hand side to my MC80s left hand broadside which I hoped would be able to finish it off later on. I knew Yavaris was doomed this turn so I activated that next to get some use of it before it went down. I used Dutch, Wedge and an X Wing to shoot into the unnamed MC30 and I used its fighter coordination team to move my Scurrgs back toward my MC80 with the aim of putting them into range of the wounded Foresight. From here I can't quite remember the activation order but Gideon destroyed both Yavaris and the Bright Hope this turn before the unnamed MC30 shot off into my backfield and the Admonition slowed down to bombard my Command Cruiser. Said Command Cruiser used the Scurrgs and 1 X Wing to shoot into the Foresight before finishing it off with a broadside. I unleashed the right hand broadside into the unnamed MC30 which had been left with no shields remaining and only 1 health after the Yavaris stopped shooting. I needed to roll a hit on both of my red dice (obstructed shot) to kill it or an evade would just cancel my damage and I got lucky and rolled both hits. I felt less bad about that when Gideon told me that one was going to fly off the table anyway because he had forgotten to set a manoeuvre command for next turn! Salvation unleashed a salvo into the front of my Command Cruiser which I redirected to the left (Intel Officer preventing me from Bracing this shot for fear of losing it). Two MC30s down, and three victory tokens to my name for the loss of Bright Hope and Yavaris... things aren't looking TOO bad for me yet...

TURN FOUR

My last Flotilla is limping along (it's got no shields on its front or left and it's taken a damage card from that ram earlier on) and I need it to live. Fortunately the Salvation fails to roll enough to take it down with a flank shot. I looked carefully at the MC80 and the relative position of Gideon's remaining ships. It still has some shields and has only taken 1 damage card so far. The reason I needed the last Flotilla is obviously for the bomber command but less obviously so that I could have Leia change the command dial on the MC80 from Engineering back to Squadrons. Had the Flotilla died I would have had next to no work out of my squadrons this turn or next with no squadron commands on the table. I put everything I have into the Salvation but leave it on 1 health and 1 Shield on the front... even after ramming it with my Command Cruiser.

TURN FIVE

Gideon blasts the front of my Command Cruiser but rolls poorly before ramming itself to death against it. At this point Gideon shakes my hand as we have no further points to be gained. He is out of range with his remaining ships and he isn't coming back in because the MC80 is still pretty healthy and my Flotilla is in a safe position. The Corvette had been slowly circling my MC80 to the left during all this and plinking off the occasional shield but otherwise I just couldn't devote attention to it thanks to the MC30s.

An 8-3 win to me leaving me on a very respectable 24 from a possible 30 points and I am over the moon about that considering I had literally no idea how well I would do. Gideon clearly knows a tonne more than me about ship movements but I just tried to focus on what I knew. And I knew that if I prioritised my targets carefully then I could bring SOME of his ships down as they blew through my fleet. Fortunately I knew what Admonition did even though I had never faced it before and that knowledge gave me a fighting chance at this match. Gideon's list was one that was built for huge risk but offering him potentially huge reward and it was very interesting to see and play against. We spoke afterward and had a few things gone slightly differently he could have taken all my ships down which would have resulted in wiping me out.

CONCLUSIONS

So, I still like my list. I love the Scurrgs and the squadron set up in general. The double Fighter Coordination teams proved to be a huge asset on multiple occasions, particularly against Gideon's super fast moving fleet. One of my big questions is over Raymus Antillies on the MC80. Some turns it was a clutch upgrade such as in my game against Mike where it allowed me to remove 4 damage cards from my Command Cruiser over turns 5 and 6. At the same time there were a couple of times over the day that it felt redundant due to my comms net, that said I know that a single comms net alone would have been insufficient for the crunch turns of my games. Im interested to see what taking a flight Commander on my Command Cruiser does do that it, like Yavaris, can shoot, move, nudge my squadrons, and then activate them to finish off a wounded target rather than trying to gauge when a target is wounded enough that my broadsides can finish it. Also a set of boosted comms on one of my

Flotillas wouldn't be amiss as I tend to code in 2-3 engineering commands for my Command Cruiser to see the game out which means the Flotillas often need to pick up the slack in the late game.

Anyhow. I really loved the whole experience of the day and am excited to try more Armada events in the future. I learned a tonne and met some really cool people from what seems to be a nice gaming community. I hope you have enjoyed the read! Please let me know what you think!

Oh, I finished 2nd overall which Im also super happy with not bad for a first attempt!

Really nice battle report, and glad you enjoyed the event! I really enjoy Armada tournaments as it is competitive but everyone is really nice. A great community.

Also congratulations on a great performance for your first tournament (or any tournament, for that matter!) The field at the Regionals had a lot of strong players with some nasty fleets.

Your fleet is really interesting too, almost like a Rebel mirror match of my preferred Imperial build (ISD, Demolisher, 2 Gozantis, lots of TIEs). But I rely on the ships to do the heavy lifting in terms of shooting enemy ships, while the TIEs engage in dog fights. Both very thematic for their side!

Hope to see you at the South East Regionals in London early next year!

Hey thanks dude I'm guessing you were the chap who won? One of my regular practice opponents uses a similar set up to yours but with different squadron & upgrade choices. It's a brutal list to face and I've only managed to take it down once. I won't be at the London Regionals but I was thinking about the one in Cardiff.

Haha, yes indeed - just managed to get enough points in my last game. Some really great opponents and a fun event.

The ISD and GSD Demo are horrible. And everything else in the list is disposable to keep them in the fight. I refined the list after some experience at the Stockport regional, and a close loss against a squadron heavy Rebel fleet (flown really well). You need plenty of fighters in the current meta, and the TIEs did the business for me.

Sadly I can't make Cardiff due to other commitments. If you are ever down in London for a game, let me know!

Great battle report dude, I enjoyed reading it all.

Keep 'em going!

Haha, yes indeed - just managed to get enough points in my last game. Some really great opponents and a fun event.

The ISD and GSD Demo are horrible. And everything else in the list is disposable to keep them in the fight. I refined the list after some experience at the Stockport regional, and a close loss against a squadron heavy Rebel fleet (flown really well). You need plenty of fighters in the current meta, and the TIEs did the business for me.

Sadly I can't make Cardiff due to other commitments. If you are ever down in London for a game, let me know!

Congrats! What fleet did you play?

How many played in the event?

Mike from game 2 here.

It was a great match in which I was comprehensively outplayed, and just happy I managed to claim 2 points from what I thought was heading for a 10-1! This tends to happen a lot to me: I consider myself fairly bad at war games (I play exclusively stunties in Blood Bowl just so that I can lose in style).

I think i should probably have set up differently, and concentrated the fire on Yavaris instead of the MC80, which with my squadrons engaged could soak up all the rest of my firepower fairly easily.

I played the same list at Stockport a fortnight earlier; interestingly that one I went 2W 1L and all my opponents chose to go second, this tournament ended 1W 2L and all my opponents chose to go first.

Losing interest in the squadron-heavy lists, think I might buy some more CR90s and try a corvette swarm next!

Hey Mike! Yeah, shooting at my MC80 is basically what I want people to do. Losing Yavaris would have made our game much tougher.

Have you considered increasing your list's bid? Having the choice of first or second seems to be a more important factor for fleets of smaller ships. I hear you on the squadron game. Me and my friends have considered running a few games of 600 points with no squadrons allowed just to play with ALL the spaceships in tournaments though I think a small fighter screen is necessary even if just as a distraction for your ships. TRC Corvettes are crazy good!

Haha, yes indeed - just managed to get enough points in my last game. Some really great opponents and a fun event.

The ISD and GSD Demo are horrible. And everything else in the list is disposable to keep them in the fight. I refined the list after some experience at the Stockport regional, and a close loss against a squadron heavy Rebel fleet (flown really well). You need plenty of fighters in the current meta, and the TIEs did the business for me.

Sadly I can't make Cardiff due to other commitments. If you are ever down in London for a game, let me know!

Congrats! What fleet did you play?

How many played in the event?

Hey Shmitty, thanks!

There were a total of 22 players for the event, which was a great turn out. A few faces I recognised from the Stockport regional two weeks earlier! So I think there are a few of us who are trying to make it a couple of regionals. (My next one is London in Feb, on home turf)

Here is my fleet - I honed it after Stockport by dropping a Raider for a Gozanti, and using the points to add the Intel Officers and more TIE fighters. Interestingly to Mike and Jamie's point, I only had a 1pt bid. That was enough to get me first player in two games, and my opponent who had 398pts chose to let me go first! So first player all day, which really helped in all games.

UK Midlands Regional Fleet (399/400):

ISD-2, Motti, ECMs, XI7s, Intel officer, Relentless, Leading shots, Gunnery team (the Anvil)

GSD-1, Demolisher, Assault proton torpedoes, Ordnance experts, Intel officer, Engine techs (the Hammer)

Gozanti, Comms net

Gozanti

Howlrunner

Mauler Mithel

5 x TIE fighters

Jumpmaster

Fleets like yours and mine that can take a punch don't need to always have the initiative, but as you say, it helps. The thought of an ISD II with an Intel officer makes me sick.

Gideon here.

Nice write up there. You got it right, I am an evil villian.

Gideon here.

Nice write up there. You got it right, I am an evil villian.

If you're an evil villain it might be time to give up those mc30's and start flying with the bad guys!