Preparation
My local FLGS, the awesome Athena Games in Norwich, runs monthly events for Armada. As a new player with a grand total of four games of Armada under my belt, I knew the next event in January was a great chance to build up my experience and increase my skill levels!
I started Armada by playing the Imperials - there's just something iconic about those beautiful triangles of death. I could pick my fleet from the spaceships I'd accumulated so far: the core game's VSD, an Interdictor, a Gladiator, a Raider, an Arquitens and a flotilla of Gozantis. The last two were brand new and hadn't yet seen action!
I'd only ever flown with Tarkin (he's my CC admiral), so I wanted to try something different. I also decided to keep my squadrons to a minimum, and focus more on my starships. To this end, I decided that Screed would be commanding my fleet, and decided my centrepiece ship would be the Interdictor. Its tricks can really throw an opponent off balance, and it's also very tough! This decided the rest of my ships - the Gladiator, Arquitens and Raider were my other gunships, so they were in. I also picked one of each of the scum squadrons the Empire has access to - without a carrier, their Rogue ability would hopefully eliminate the need for squadron commands.
My ace in the hole would be the Interdictor's Grav-shift reroute. I went in with a reasonable initiative bid of 11 points, and two of my three objectives were based around taking advantage of this ability.
This gave me my fleet:
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 389/400
Commander: Admiral Screed
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defence Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory
[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
- Admiral Screed (26 points)
- Interdictor (3 points)
- Overload Pulse (8 points)
- Targeting Scrambler (5 points)
- Grav-shift Reroute (2 points)
= 134 total ship cost
Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher (10 points)
- Engine Techs (8 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles (7 points)
= 81 total ship cost
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
= 54 total ship cost
Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Instigator (4 points)
- Flechette Torpedoes (3 points)
= 51 total ship cost
1 Bossk (23 points)
1 Firespray-31 (18 points)
1 JumpMaster 5000 (12 points)
1 Aggressor Assault Fighter (16 points)
On the day there were six players including myself - four Imperial fleets and two rebels, playing three rounds. While I had no real hope of winning (one player had won more events than I'd played games in total...), I was certainly intending to do my best and have fun!
Game 1 - Cactus's Imperials
My first opponent was Cactus. I'd actually got lucky here - Cactus is also a brand new player, and was the only person there who'd played fewer games of Armada than me. However, he was also fielding something I'd not faced before - my very first ISD! Backing it up he also had a VSD carrier, an anti-squadron Raider (that looked very similar to mine), and some token-passing Gozantis for support. One threat I didn't have to worry too much about though were his fighters - two Defenders and two Interceptors could potentially beat mine, but presented minimal threat against my capital ships.
As I'd hoped I won the bid, and Cactus chose to play the Contested Outpost mission. All the obstacles were set up in a loose circle in the centre-left, and I placed the station right in the centre of this group. Both of our fleets were then deployed at the left-hand sides of our deployment zones, ready to head for the station - ~I was only speed 1, which Cactus was moving faster at speed 2.
However, at this point I played my ace - the Grav Shift! I shifted the station much closer to me, and also placed a handy dust field right in the path of the enemy VSD.
Cactus was already on the back foot. My slow-moving fleet was able to claim the objective from turn 1, while it would be at least three turns before he could get close enough to content any VPs from the station. Knowing this, he pushed his ships and squadrons forward, taking the hit on his carrier.
His squadrons engaged first, taking out my Aggressor, but putting them in range of my ships' anti-squadron fire. My Raider's flechette torpedoes stopped one squadron from activating, and the rest of the fire from my squadrons started to give me the upper hand over the next couple of turns. Seeing his elite squadrons in trouble, Cactus's raider dove into the fight at high speed. Unfortunately it ran right into the combined fire of my Raider, Interdictor and Arquitens, and vanished in a fireball of turbolaser fire.
In the meantime the Interdictor anchoring my left flank was facing a serious problem - a rapidly approaching Imperial Star Destroyer. Combined with Cactus's VSD's fire from the front, its shields were going down faster than it's engineering commands could bring them back up. The thing about Interdictors though is that they're TOUGH - the targeting scrambler was degrading Cactus's fire very effectively, and the high engineering was still helping. After surviving a turn of long range fire from the ISD and VSD, both enemy ships were then at close range - could the ISD take it down?
The answer was NO - the Interdictor survived the ISD's fire and got to shoot - more importantly it also got it's engineering command again, and so survived the VSD as well! In return my fleet was also handing out damage. My Gladiator was my reserve and so doing minimal damage, but the Interdictor and Arquitens were pounding the VSD for all they were worth. A couple of unlucky crits also saw Cactus unable to store action tokens or refresh defence tokens!
The next round again saw the ISD targeting the Interdictor - if it killed it Cactus's path into the heart of my fleet was clear. Once again though the Targeting Scrambler proved it's worth, keeping the Interdictor alive. The subsequent ram finally killed my ship - but kept the ISD stationery for another turn, delaying his advance on the station. In return though my Arquitens got a great double-arc shot on the VSD, taking it out. My squadrons also managed to finish off the last enemy fighters, allowing my firespray to head towards the Gozantis behind Cactus's ISD. This was to prove handy later...
We were now into the endgame. My Arquitens has been hit as well as the Interdictor thanks to the gunnery team on Cactus's ISD (although further away and obstructed by the Interdictor), and it now went down - my fleet was now also out of range of the station. My Gladiator had one last throw of the dice - ignoring the ISD (which it couldn't hope to kill) it boosted along the ISD's flank and fired point-blank at the Gozantis. A scatter saw the cruisers survive - but then my lone firespray jumped them as well. Activating first and following an ISD meant they'd bumped a couple of times - and my firespray just managed to cause enough damage to kill them.
I'd lost my Interdictor (including my admiral), the Arquitens, and one squadron, but in return I'd killed a VSD, a Raider, the Gozantis, and all four squadrons. I'd also accumulated four turns worth of VPs while Cactus had none.
Final score: Hedge 316 - 206 Cactus
Game 2 - Chris's Imperials
I'd already exceeded my expectations by actually winning a game - now I was facing my Corellian Campaign ally. Chris is a LOT more experienced than me, and has a reputation for unconventional builds. Like me he had an Interdictor with a Targeting Scrambler, although his had a G8 rather than my Grav-shift. In addition there were two fully-tooled Gladiators, each with one of the titles. He had fewer ships, but there were a lot more squadrons flying around, including several defenders and a shuttle.
Chris also chose to got for the Contested Outpost mission, - once again the obstacles were all clumped around the station. My fleet was once again in a forward-facing group, which Chris faced off with the Interdictors, and the Gladiators nearby ready for a run on my left flank. Then my Grav-shift moved the station to my side, while placing a couple of dust fields right in the path of the Interdictor.
Once again, I slow-rolled onto the station to rack up the VPs. Chris was more aggressive, sending his Interdictor in at speed 2, and both Gladiators racing down my left flank.
It's worth noting that at this point my inexperience came into play. I assumed Chris's G8 could slow me down to speed zero - so I sped my ships up to speed 2 to avoid this. In fact it simply reduces the movement but the speed stays the same - and I'd have been perfectly happy staying closer to the station.
As it turned out, this actually worked in my favour. By pushing my Raider and Arquitens forwards towards Chris's interdictor, I blocked off his limited movement routes - stranding him on the second of the dust fields I'd moved into his path. Suddenly Chris was taking an additional two damage each turn! Meanwhile my Interdictor further back was still in range of the station.
This turned into a close range slugging match between Chris's Interdictor and my Arquitens, Raider and Interdictor, with loads of bumping (and some helpful shorts form Bossk). Our squadrons also engaged in and around the fight, but some careful maneuvering and the Interdictor's title allowed me to tie up the fighters with my tougher ships.- This was helped by the lack of a carrier on Chris's side to provide commands - several times fighters had to move to get a shot.
In the meantime, Chris's flanking run was picking up pace. Our Gladiators faced off against each other as his came alongside my slow-moving Interdictor. We both did some damage, but then the Insidious moved in for it's rear shot bonuses.
In the central battle, Chris's Interdictor killed my Raider, but went down in return as my Interdictor moved up, the dust-cloud damage proving helpful by killing it a turn early. My Arquitens flew through the wreckage and started a turn to get back in the fight, carefully staying out of range of the fighters.
At the read Chris's two gladiators killed mine, and his Demolisher swung round to jump on the station. Unfortunately for Chris this put it in range my Interdictor and a lone firespray - as in the last match it survived the ship's fire, but then the firespray put in the killing blow!
At this point it was basically over - Chris's Insidious got a turn on the station before flying past, but he couldn't kill what was left. His squadrons killed Bossk, but not before I killed another in return.
At that point it was all over - I'd killed more points of ships including Chris's admiral, we were about even on squadrons, and I'd scored a lot more points on the station.
Final score: Hedge 347 - 203 Chris
Game 3 - Dave's Imperials
I was now two for two - completely unexpected, and worryingly putting me on the top table!
My opponent was Dave with a complete different fleet - triple Arquitens with turbolaser upgrades and blast doors, two Gozanti carriers, and seven squadrons, five of them named. Looking at the match-up I definitely had the gunnery and hull advantage, but Dave had speed and range, plus more fighters. On the plus side, his fighters were just that - fighters and not bombers.
Again I had the bid advantage. Dave wisely chose to avoid the obstacle-based missions, and instead chose Most Wanted. Obstacles were deployed centrally, and his fleet deployed in formation on the left, facing them - I then chose to deploy in the right-hand corner, putting the obstacles right between us.
It was clear that Dave was going to threaten on either side, depending on what I did, so I used the Grav-shift to clear the central route through the obstacles, apart from the station, and form two obstacle lanes for his fleet if he chose to broadside.
Dave clearly didn't like the odds, and spent the first turns swinging his fleet around away from me. He obviously wanted to send in a fighter strike for a kill or two, so in return I kept my fighters back so he couldn't jump them without isolating his squadrons.
Because of this, we never actually engaged and the game was no-kill draw! I'm still claiming the moral victory though, because Dave ran away from me 
At first we thought it was actually a draw, but on checking the tournament rules it turns out that second player wins in the case of a draw!
Final score: Hedge 0 - 0 Dave
Conclusion
Three wins, however unusual the circumstances of the third, wasn't something I'd considered in my wildest dreams! I won a very nice ISD dice bag, an alt-art X-wing squadron card, and a Gladiator alt-art which I immediately swapped with another player for an ISD-1 alt-art and an XI7 alt-art. As I didn't have any of the alternate cards before, this trade gave me two things I didn't have, while allowing the person I swapped with to complete his collection.
Looking at my fleet I think the outstanding ship was the Interdictor. It's VERY tough to kill with the Targeting Scrambler and spamming engineering commands - but more importantly the Grav-shift was decisive in the first two games. By moving the station into VP range from turn 1, I was able to build up leads of 80 and 60 points respectively. Just as importantly, my opponents had to respond to this advantage, sending their fleets in piecemeal and at high speed, which put them on the back foot from turn 1. It may have been decisive in the last game too, changing Dave's mind about trying to circle and broadside me once the obstacles were in the way for him to try this.
Overall I'm very happy with the result, but even more surprised. My opponents were all great, and very forgiving when I made mistakes due to still learning how Armada works. It was an excellent learning experience, and I'm sure they'll get their revenge in the not too distant future!
Edited by Hedgehogmech