Generally there is this consensus that Rebel ships are broadsiders and Empire ships are frontsiders.

Or are they?

Going through the general stats of the various ships, in my head earlier today, I came to a startling discovery that Rebels has more ships with front arc armament than the Imperials

Look at the Empire fleet:

ISD, VSD and Raider are obvious Frontsiders, as they have most attack dice at the front arc (Throw in the Light Carrier comming this 2nd quarter)

GSD, Interdictor and Gozanti are more Allsiders arc ships, as they have the same number of dice in their front and side arcs and may prefer to get into a double arc position.

Arquitens is the only real Broadsider the empire has.

Now look at the Rebel fleet:

Liberty, Pelta, Nebulon B and CR90 are Frontsiders, as they have most attack dice at the front arc (Throw in the Hammerhead comming this 2nd quarter)

Rebels have no Allsiders unless you count the GR75 combat version as such, but it can't double arc, so I really don't consider it to be a Allsider.

MC30, MC80 and AF2 are Broadsiders.

The only reason why the empire fleet is mostly adapting to frontsider tactics, is because that the "fewer" frontsider ships they have, are generally better at frontsider tactics. And their Allsider ships easily addapts frontsider tactics.

Ironically the CR90 easily picks up broadsider tactics, with Admirals like Ackbar. The Neb B is a bit "tricky" to use in frontsider tactics, due to its wide side arcs. And the MC30 like to addapt the use of Allsider tactics, when the oppotunity arrises.

Anyhow I thought this could provide some food for thought for Rebel and Imperial players to think a bit more out of the box, than the General meta of all Imperial ships Are frontsider and all Rebel ships are broadsiders.

They were generally regarded as such until Wave 4. When the Liberty was added as a solid front-die aggressive combat ship.

Further cemented with the Obviously-Broadside Heavy Arquitens in Wave 5...

Then it slipped more to "Or not".

Now, its entirely as to what you put in your fleet.

Most of those Generalisations went out much earlier. If you're basically bringing them down to "Rebels are Broadside" versus "Imperials are Front Arc", then you've been doing yourself a disservice for waves now.

I would argue the CR90 is an allsider, given that the ship is usually flown for intent of double arcs. It's certainly as much of an allsider as the Assault Gozanti, since the latter's arcs while even numerically are not even in damage output possibilities. The big difference that I remember was less broadside versus forward firing arcs than that the Rebels preferred (generally speaking) angled approaches exposing side arcs to the target, whereas the Imperials are content to hold dead ahead until point-blank range. Obviously this is a wild generalization with several exceptions on both sides, but it also notes that the Rebels (again, wild generalization) prefer somewhat longer ranges whereas the Imperials are intent with getting to grips at close quarters as soon as possible. These flying patterns work well then with the tactical intents. As Waves go on, we shall see how FFG continues to change things up.

The key is the allsiders for imps. Those lend themselves to formation flying.

35 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

The key is the allsiders for imps. Those lend themselves to formation flying.

This right here. If you count allsiders as both forward and broadside, then the figures become 6-4 and 4-4 respectively. The vast majority of the Imperial options are perfectly content to charge their opponents, while the Rebels have a maneuvering split.

This is part of my "why ackbar is over priced garbage" theory

21 minutes ago, Tirion said:

This is part of my "why ackbar is over priced garbage" theory

Did you mean to say "second winningest rebel admiral?" I feel like you did. I'm just going to assume thats what you meant and associate you with overwhelmingly positive feelings about ackbar.

Just now, Madaghmire said:

Did you mean to say "second winningest rebel admiral?" I feel like you did. I'm just going to assume thats what you meant and associate you with overwhelmingly positive feelings about ackbar.

I mean, there's many words I could use to Describe my Feelings for the Fishface... But beyond my personal opinion, when you look at things - its kind of hard to argue with the results...

52 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

I mean, there's many words I could use to Describe my Feelings for the Fishface... But beyond my personal opinion, when you look at things - its kind of hard to argue with the results...

Hold my beer

I'm pretty sure Vics are broadsiders... I can attest to that because I flew dual Vics and a Fireball almost exclusively before wave 5. Like 2-3 months of fireball action. So many missed front arc shots....

JJ makes up for that, but that just goes to show that different upgrades changes how ships function. Ackbar=broadside. JJ=front. CR90s and MC30s are definitely double arcs.

On 3/21/2017 at 10:22 PM, Tirion said:

Hold my beer

While you kiss the fishface?

It's not that rebel SHIPs are broadsides and imp SHIPs are front arc, it's more that the two factions generally adopt those tactics because, as gas been pointed out, the synergy among common fleets fly that way. Sure, fewer imp ships may focus on forward attacks, but the ones that do are great at it, and they don't really have a decent broadsider, so an imperial FLEET is going to focus on front arcs. Likewise with rebel fleets (though less do now), the go to heavy hitters were broadside ships, so that flavors the tactics of the common fleets that faction tends to utilize.

In Armada, much more than most games, you have to look at the big picture. It's not about each individual ship, but how each ship fits into the whole fleet.

I think part of whats overlooked here is that the 'all rounders' of the Imperial fleet are some of the least combat effective ships, aside from the Gladiator which is actually more front focused because thats where it can hit *at range*. Both the Interdictor and the Gozanti are rather lightly armed, the former for its price and the latter just.... period. Wave 6 will compound this with a front arc ship that is both slow *and* lightly armed for its size category and likely for its price as well.

I go for the double arc mostly