Hi. I used to play Armada with a friend of mine, but he lost interest in it*. Now I'm looking to get back into it. Wave II was the last time we played, so I've never seen a flotilla on the table and I'm not sure what I would do with them.

The obvious use seems to be squadron commands, but most of the good setups for that feel kind of expensive for something that can be killed by a sideways glance once their scatter token is unavailable. The Leia/Repair Crews build holds a lot of appeal to me because being able to switch to an Engineering command at a moment's notice is always good, and I like the hull regen from the Repair Crews. But my experience was that I often had at least one side arc that had nothing I could damage** and squadron flotillas seem like exactly what I would have been shooting at if they'd existed back when I played. Basically, I'm having trouble seeing a scenario where the GR-75 or Gozanti can be worth the points I spent but not worth quickly swatting aside. At the same time, more activations and the idea of using squadron commands while my ISD Concentrates Fire makes me really want to be able to use flotillas effectively. Can anyone help enlighten me?

*Hoping the Liberty addresses his main complaint, which was Rebels having no real choice but to try and circle around. Also hopeful that the Corellian Conflict gets him interested. Games between us could get a little repetitive, but this might be enough to get him interested again.

*More common was having a VSD with Gunnery Team, but only one ship in the front arc. I know that I can choose to ignore the Gunnery Team, but honestly I'd rather obliterate a minor annoyance than tickle an Assault Frigate with my two/three dice.

Flotillas opened up the activation scene for a good start. Now fleets will contain 4-6 activations usually making them great for forcing low numbered enemies to move critical assetts when they don't want to. Also, each upgrade offers its own potential, but I find great use in Slicer Tools and changing my enemies chosen command to something less then desirable. Really there ar plenty of uses. Wouldn't you love his MC80 or Star Destroyer having to choose between this annoying bug changing his commands or an actual warship bringing its guns to bare?

My current list features 2 Gozanti Flotillas. One has Slicer Tools, while the other has Suppressor exhausting defense tokens. They spend most of their time amongst the enemy fleet, trying to stay in enemy fire arcs that are also facing more critical targets, forcing them to choose.

Okay, I really like the Suppressor title. It pairs quite nicely with Avenger. At the very least I'll have to grab a flotilla to try that out.

i like supressor and its solid for activations. having repair crews can be really good as well. for the low point cost its just another activation to stall out for the big hitters

Do you guys use a lot of Fighters? He may be best off grabbing a Pelta Frigate from Wave 5 to add to his pile. The command possibilities are great. Also makes B-wing vomit a real bad problem lol.

The changes from the Wave 2 days to now are massive. It's like an entirely different game, at least to me. Sure, someone can still bring three ISD with Motti and it's a right pain to go after. Yes, the Alliance still does best when it circles, but with this as your flagship you can also choose to drive right through the heart of the enemy fleet, launching fighters and blasting away. I've tried the Liberty and it's not nearly as exciting as it sounds, at least with my preferred play style.

MC80 Command Cruiser - MC80 Mon Calamari Star Cruiser (106)
Admiral Ackbar (38)
Flight Commander (3)
Rapid Launch Bays (6)
Leading Shots (4)
Enhanced Armament (10)
Defiance (5)
Total : 172

I'd probably bring along one or two GR75 Tranports with what folks have suggested above with either Slicer or Bomber Command, especially if the MC80 barfs out the B-Wings in the heart of the enemy formation. Add Toryn for extra shenanigans too.

I'm a fan of squadron lists, the other guy wasn't. At one point he said he'd rather they weren't in the game. That may have been because I recall thrashing him with X-Wings. So the Pelta does sound fairly appealing if it's a small carrier type.

I'm also liking the look of that MC80 build. I wasn't too sold on Rebels back when we used to play but I find it hard to resist the lure of building a Rebel list around squadrons. I used to struggle with getting past fighter screens and just smashing through with a bruiser and puking bombers everywhere sounds like fun. It definitely forces a change in our old approach of sending out our fighters in such a way that they formed a thin line stretching across a lot of the playmat (we used a 3x3) and occasionally shifting it as ships moved into the line or fighters were destroyed. Rapid Launch Bays renders that a very bad idea, since we rarely if ever had any fighters in reserve.

You should move to a 3'x6' play area as soon as possible. When the ships and fighters have room to move. odd things happen.

You should move to a 3'x6' play area as soon as possible. When the ships and fighters have room to move. odd things happen.

A 3' x 6' mat is essential to use the Rebel ships at full speed, where they excel. Yesterday, I managed to lure my opponent into sending his Gozanti, 2 TIE Defenders (Stele & a generic) and Col. Jendon's Lambda to chase down my CR90B with Leia on it. It just kept going at speed 4, and managed to drag them away from the rest of the fight for almost the whole match. Leia was out of the match for most of it, but it tied up those units for the whole duration regardless.

Well, I mostly use flotillas for:

1. Activation Advantage (mainly to stall)

2. BCC and squadron commands

3. Comms Net (feeding repair tokens to ISDs and MC80s)

They also make good escorts for Victory Star Destroyers. That extra anti-fighter attack out multiple arcs can really make going after a generally easy bomber target less rewarding.

Bomber Command Centers are a stacked bonus. So if you're running fighter-bombers and have three Bomber Command Centers, that means for each fighter you can re-roll a bomber dice three different times. I face two BCCs with a hoarde of B-Wings and it's been so terrible I'm forced to field fighters now just to attain parity.

As mentioned Flotillas allow you to win the activation advantage. This means if there's a deadly ship you want to move into range first for you to shoot at, simply keep activating flotillas until that one ship activates and moves into range. If you have more Flotillas you can control the tempo of when your opponent moves into range. This is what everyone's talking about by controlling the advantage, if you didn't find it obvious.

In the very least, Flotillas with something nasty force your opponent to fire at that with one of their two attacks on the turn, instead of firing at something more valuable. A flotilla with Slicer tools is enough to get someone's attention, but you could also do it with tractor beams to stop any light ship (like Nebulons, Gladiators, MC30s).

Flotillas also work as cheap obstacles. You can ram even an ISD and prevent it from moving for a few turns if the ISD can't resolve a movement to clear. They also obstruct fire.

They're a neat, but also a little annoying, addition to the game.

Thanks for the information everyone, I'm starting to see why flotillas are a thing. I'll have to pick up a Gozanti expansion next time I'm adding to my Armada collection. If nothing else, I can remember times when 18 points to move my flagship second would have been valuable just by itself. I'll only be able to really see their worth once I play some games with them but now I see why I would spend money on them instead of putting it toward a third Gladiator.

The friend I mentioned ultimately decided to abandon Armada because he was unimpressed with the reveal of flotillas. I kind of want to show him a few of the tricks you've told me about. He will learn respect, and suffering will be his teacher. To borrow a line from Ozai.

(Okay if I do try to get him back in I'd probably offer to go very light on squadrons since he's not a fan of them but I can still do evil, right? Slicer Tools are pretty nasty)

1) Squadron Commands (Now with added relay)

2) Activation advantage

3) Anti-squadron fire (and even a few extra shots if the flotilla is armed)

4) Fleet Support (Mainly Bomber Command centre and Comms Net (e.g. can keep Yavaris supplied with a squad token each turn))

5) Blocking enemy ships (or even your own)

6) Admiral lifeboat along the back of the battlefield to keep your admiral safe (can combo squadron commands with Relay so not totally useless)

7) Other - e.g. use as a mine sweeper since if scatter is accuracied you're normally going to die anyway unless it's just one other attack dice)

I think it's fair to say that the number one thing Flotillas have done is made players rethink the value of large bids. You now have a value for every single point, be it a bid for going first or adding a ship activation or messing with enemy dials or improving your bomber dice.

I think it's fair to say that the number one thing Flotillas have done is made players rethink the value of large bids. You now have a value for every single point, be it a bid for going first or adding a ship activation or messing with enemy dials or improving your bomber dice.

Coming from X-Wing, it is really ****ing with me having nine points unspent and realizing that maybe I should just leave it as an initiative bid. A three point bid is entering the realm of madness in X-Wing and four is just ridiculous, for those who don't play X-Wing.

Also, update: For some reason I bought Phoenox Home instead of a flotilla. I'm not exactly sure why, but the squadron possibilities are probably my reasoning? I've been very sleep deprived lately, I basically just stared at all the stuff on the wall until I grabbed Phoenix Home and decided to buy that one. I'll grab the Gozantis tomorrow and hopefully use them on maybe the second or third Saturday in January.

Combat Refit

-Toryn Farr

-Bomber command center

-Bright Hope

The ultimate fighter support ship to pair with Yavaris. The two together have served me with distinction and honor. I've been a huge fan of the tactic where you use multiple of them as a flak boat screen.

Coming from X-Wing, it is really ****ing with me having nine points unspent and realizing that maybe I should just leave it as an initiative bid. A three point bid is entering the realm of madness in X-Wing and four is just ridiculous, for those who don't play X-Wing.

Also, update: For some reason I bought Phoenox Home instead of a flotilla. I'm not exactly sure why, but the squadron possibilities are probably my reasoning? I've been very sleep deprived lately, I basically just stared at all the stuff on the wall until I grabbed Phoenix Home and decided to buy that one. I'll grab the Gozantis tomorrow and hopefully use them on maybe the second or third Saturday in January.

I've run as much as a 12 point bid in X-wing before. Trust me, the idea of only having a 1 or 2 point bid max is only in the last 18 months or so. Back in the bad old days of pre-nerf Phantoms and Han Shot First builds, the game often hinged on you having initiative. Of course, then Palpatine arrived and that all stopped...

Phoenix Home is solid, but it's not the same style of squadron support as the flotillas. That said, if you're going squadron heavy, it will work rather nicely alongside a flotilla or two with BCC. It's not a bad pick up either way.