There are some good reads on various topics related to Armada, but one of the least discussed has to be formations. This is a bit odd to me as a lot of games are won or lost very early simply by how ships are positioned in relation to the enemy and each other and how fast they're moving. The goal of a formation is very simple, setting up the ideal engagement for you ships, and possibly even denying it to the enemy. So let's examine the formation requirements for the absolute mess of crap that is my current Rieekan list.

The Magnificent Seven

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: General Rieekan

Assault Objective: Station Assault
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
- Gallant Haven ( 8 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
= 87 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
= 65 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Adar Tallon ( 10 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 40 total ship cost

[ flagship ] GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- General Rieekan ( 30 points)
- Ahsoka Tano ( 2 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 52 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Leia Organa ( 3 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 23 total ship cost

1 Keyan Farlander ( 20 points)
1 Ten Numb ( 19 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 Norra Wexley ( 17 points)
1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points)
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)

Right off the bat, there are some issues that make putting together a formation interesting. Gallant Haven wants squadrons to be at range 1, Toryn Farr wants them to be at Close-Medium of Haven, Yavaris wants squadrons to be at close-medium of it, both for coordination and FCTs, The BCC Transport wants the bombers to be at 1-5 (and very much has Boosted Comms because effectively coordinating without it proved problematic), Yavaris also needs to generally be at 1-5 of one of the transports so that it can get tokens and coordinate extra squadrons and of course the squadrons themselves have requirements with Luke and Wedge both ideally being at range 1 of Biggs, anyone who's seriously fighting needs to be at 1-2 of Jan to use Defense tokens, but Jan also has to drop intel to keep Keyan able to attack ships and throw on Norra's range 1 bomber critical buff just because I like a challenge. Oh, let's not forget that we don't want to be running over our own squadrons as well.

The first question you have to answer is how fast should the formation be going. Faster formations usually have to be much looser and, by extension, any formation that has to be tight can't afford to go fast. Since we have so many interlocking auras to utilize, this fleets formation is going to have a combat speed of 1. Adjusting speeds on the fly to fix problems (most notably with Ahsoka) is definitely viable as is going speed 2 until you start fighting, but as soon as dice are getting rolled, it's going to be very hard to meet the formaitonal requirements above speed 1.

So who's on first? Well, Yavaris is the obvious pick due to overall imporatance, but Ideally the fleet wants to be fighting in the general vicinity of Gallant Haven because it's the point of origin for the most potent defensive buff. This means, generally speaking, Gallant Haven is leading the convoy. As the most durable ship and offering some decent firepower, it just makes sense on a number of levels. the only major concern for Gallant Haven is not having friendly squadrons directly in front of it. Because it's also a likely area of engagement and there's more than enough squadron coordination, if the enemy looks to be heading for Gallant Haven, it typically spams engineering commands from turns 3-4 onwards.

Naturally, the ship right behind Gallant Haven to ensure the best coordination coverage is Yavaris. One big concession of Yavaris is that it's the power piece of the entire fleet bar none, so it needs the freedom to activate as soon as an appropriate opportunity presents itself (and also hold it's activation if needed to force hard choices). Yavaris basically has to have it's own course that parallels without colliding with Gallant Haven and the BCC.

Third in the convoy is the humble Adar Tallon BCC. This ship usually wants to go before Yavaris (another reason for the parallel course) to use Adar Tallon to set up a triple tap and position the BCC where needed. Fortunately, because of the range 1-5 on the BCC and the Boosted Comms, this ship is far less picky about its exact position.

The last two transports are functionally outriders for the fleet. Their sole job is staying at range 1-5 of the other ships for passing tokens, changing dials with Leia and changing tokens with Ahsoka. This means that they generally go on the most combat light side of the formation and put as much distance as they can with the rest of the fleet.

Last, but not least, the Magnificient Seven themselves. Luke and Wedge need to be at Range 1 of Biggs and ideally Gallant Haven as well if you're expecting heavy fighting. With all of those interlocking buffs, they can take on 134pts of squadrons and come out the other side (and no, I am not joking about that). However, being able to accurately weigh the enemy squadron threat and determine when they can afford to leave Gallant Haven and lean on their own defense tokens and damage sharing is key to being able to take the initiative from your opponent. Jan Ors is there for Keyan Farlander. With Adar Tallon, Yavaris and the Norra crit, Keyan easily hits as hard as a double arcing gladiator, so keeping him able to effectively operate is key. For this reason, him and Jan usually hang around Gallant Haven (frequently right behind it) until it's time to commit. Norra and Ten are pinch hitters. They can help with squadrons or capitol ships as needed. Norra's 6 hull and double braces make her typically durable enough that simply throwing her near a primary engagement point is perfectly acceptable even if it means she's unescorted just to get her buff in the area. Ten is both slower and less durable necessitating him chilling with red squadron and typically in Gallant Haven range until needed.

So what the hell does this look like on the table?

This is a mostly ideal scenario. With only one ISD an no other real combat ships, my opponent only has a limited ability to meaningfully split his forces, so the entire fighter screen can be oriented as needed to meet the approaching threat.

this is far less ideal. My opponent has multiple combat ships, and can split, but an assault frigate and MC30 are not super durable, so it simply requires a quick judgement call as to how much firepower is needed for each target. It's also important that there are only two main threats and he's dropping in behind the fleet, but that means the fleet has a convenient and obvious escape route ala straight ahead, the way out is through.

Previous scenarios where 3+ combat ships are involved, I've use the table edge to narrow approach vectors as much as possible

Fleets with fewer interlocking buffs have fewer considerations with one of the big ones being getting all of your combat ships in a position to attack on the same turn. Failing to do so can cause firepower attenuation. If you're in a scenario where you're confronted with a force that has dice superiority, your formation should attempt to force firepower attenuation as much as possible (limiting approach vectors is very good for this and the table edge is your friend if vastly outnumbered and outgunned). Scenarios can also help with Station Assault being one of the strongest for forcing the battle to take place where you want it as the other player basically has to fight you at the stations or eat a 4-7 loss if neither fleet takes damage. It's always worth considering having ships closer to the fighting slow down while ships further away speed up to get all the dice to hit at the same time as opposed to waves where your opponent will get the chance to repair and reset tokens between volleys.

Anywho, hopes this was educational and if not, why the hell did you read this far?

I am more interested in how to break that. Formations bore me.

Edit. Good explanation of the thought process though.

Don't listen to Gink, formations are excellent.

Good write up. You don't see more discussion on formations as they are just challenging to relate to text. It's something I've blogged about quite a bit though.

This is really excellent to read as a newer player. I'm always unsure how to deploy my fleet exactly, and it has really turned out poorly for me a number of times.

I recently ran a Yavaris/Biggsball/mc30 x 2 fleet and have come to the same conclusions. Formations are extra important, especially with all the synergy. When do you move Biggs? Should Jan be out in front to intel those guys? Well then she needs an escort! I can only activate 2 squads this turn.. who do I use first??? And even moreso in the Gallant Haven fleet you have. I was talking to my buddy and telling him that the minefields (forgot the official name) objective was pretty hard for me with that fleet because it really messed up my formation and made it much more difficult for me to keep everything in range. I don't know how many games I've flown Toryn Farr out there into space where she's done nothing useful at all because I didn't deploy right or didn't fly my formation correctly. Or I've wasted Yavaris because nothing is in range to activate. So very very frustrating.

Excellent write up. Thank you for sharing.

OK, finally got around to reading this and the thing that leaps out at me is that you didn't really say what formation your trying to fly in. You did a decent job of explaining the need for a formation, but I don't know where to put ships or how to move them to maintain the formation.

50 minutes ago, Forgottenlore said:

OK, finally got around to reading this and the thing that leaps out at me is that you didn't really say what formation your trying to fly in. You did a decent job of explaining the need for a formation, but I don't know where to put ships or how to move them to maintain the formation.

So as someone who has experience playing against similar lists, he's not setting up a traditional line-abreast or Cappting the T formation like you might expect. Instead, he's blocked his units into a position where his network of abilities is always in range, and his opponent cannot approach in such a way to restrict his ability to concentrate firepower or disperse out of the combat zone.

A similar example in a list with no squadrons might feature something like a Denied-flank deployment (where the enemy fleet can only realistically approach from certain directions) with ships moving to keep a constant web of weapon coverage on the lead or most vulnerable target. For example, I often position my Demolisher behind a leading combat ship so it is outside of combat range on approach but capable of immediately pushing forward to engage an aggressive enemy target such as an enemy MC30 or Demolisher.

OK, now I'm running through your fighter aces & mapping them to the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven

1 Keyan Farlander - Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune... The Bruiser)
1 Ten Numb - Gorobei Katayama (The Archer)
1 Jan Ors - Kambei Shimada (The Old Master)
1 Norra Wexley - Shichiroji (The Sergeant/Spearman)
1 Luke Skywalker - Katsushiro (The Student)
1 Wedge Antilles - Kyuzo (The Swordmaster)
1 Biggs Darklighter - Heihachi (Cheerful Jokester)

I could be convinced to swap Biggs & Jan, or Ten & Norra.

I have tried to break one of my Imperial formations playing against myself, nobody else can do it and I can't either.

The basics are two or three Imperial and/or Victory Stardestroyers and some minor ships... perhaps a light cruiser and a flotilla (400-600p). More or less 1/3 squadrons about 12-17 using a mix of Ties and utility crafts.

The basic gist is to drive the Stardestroyers slowly forward and disperse the squadrons around them and using smart cover from Jamming fields, Asteroids and Debris fields. The Stardestroyers are brutal at supporting each other and more or less demolish anything in front of them. Bombers, Rouge elements and smaller cruisers can easily handle flanks if need be or just support with even more firepower forward.

Problem for the Rebels is that they are forced to go on the offensive and leave the safety of their own ships anti-fighter cover and that always spell doom when basically the whole Imperial line is Obstructed and the Swarm effect just get better the less dice everyone is throwing not to mention the faster general movement of Imperial squadron easily can react to any rebel assault at any point of the line. If the Rebel use more ships and less squadrons the problem are just even greater because now I can bomb them with impunity instead.

I usually go with Tarkin in this fleet since the flexibility he adds are just too great in a fleet with lots of Command 3 and 2 ships. Combined with the cheap Weapons Liaison on the Stardestroyers makes the fleet extremely flexible. Moving and positioning of fighters are key in this fleet.

It might sound like all i do is move slowly and shoot but that is far from the truth. It is just the general idea with the fleet and it is highly adaptable to all scenarios since it have a huge tactical diversity and very few real weaknesses. Low number of activation's are not the problem in this fleet, at least not so far, in my last game I was out out activated by three ships but I still had more deployment than my opponent so I got a huge tactical advantage there. Cheap Tie-fighters/bombers fix that for me. Being able to activate 12-18 squadrons in three to four activations is also key to melt any Rebel assault who struggle to get even half that in the same amount of activations.

Now we mainly play fun scenarios and campaign related battles so the goals of them are very different from a regular game, I still find the fleet extremely hard to beat with a Rebel fleet, another Imperial fleet I don't know since we never play Imperial vs. Imperial or Rebel vs. Rebel.

On 5/25/2017 at 7:41 PM, Ginkapo said:

I am more interested in how to break that. Formations bore me.

Edit. Good explanation of the thought process though.

So, it's risky, but... Flechette Torpedoes are doing wonders for me. A pair of them on Raiders with OE just annihilates formation dependent lists, not just by cutting off the ability to attack, but by forcing the main fleet to either abandon their activation ranges for safety or a simple inability to get in range.

It works wonders, but it entirely relies on incredibly good timing in getting the Raiders into firing position, and the fact that there needs to be two in case (inevitably) one goes down before the lockdown begins. It's either that, or bait with a juicer target. The safer, but somehow also much less safe alternative is to build a cheap Demo with the Flechettes, and hurtle it into the maw of fighters. I haven't been quite mad enough to try this yet, though.

2 hours ago, NakedDex said:

So, it's risky, but... Flechette Torpedoes are doing wonders for me. A pair of them on Raiders with OE just annihilates formation dependent lists, not just by cutting off the ability to attack, but by forcing the main fleet to either abandon their activation ranges for safety or a simple inability to get in range.

It works wonders, but it entirely relies on incredibly good timing in getting the Raiders into firing position, and the fact that there needs to be two in case (inevitably) one goes down before the lockdown begins. It's either that, or bait with a juicer target. The safer, but somehow also much less safe alternative is to build a cheap Demo with the Flechettes, and hurtle it into the maw of fighters. I haven't been quite mad enough to try this yet, though.

Demo doesn't have black AS dice, so flachettes wouldn't do anything for it anyhow

41 minutes ago, Alzer said:

Demo doesn't have black AS dice, so flachettes wouldn't do anything for it anyhow

Agent Kallus.

^ This. Granted it's only against uniques, but if you're up against Rieekan aces, breaking the back on the uniques is possibly worth the sacrifice.

When the Quasar hit space you get Agent Kallus with a Red and Black die at long range against all Aces... add the Ruthless Strategist and Flight Controller and you get a brutal Ace killing combination for almost no cost.

Spend a token... run up one Tie-fighter and fire four blue dice, shoot with the Quasar at all the Aces and then Ruthlessly kill the Tie-fighter squadron for another 3 guaranteed damage aside from the combined Red-Black die at long range. It should spell doom for any Ace heavy lists for very little points...

It will force more diverse squadron heavy lists, I don't find Ace heavy lists very strong now either though but that is because I can easily deal with them in other ways.

Slightly different take on formations:

Would it be an interesting addition if certain ships had a benefit from being in proximity of each other?

For example - if ship A and B are within distance X of each other then they add a dice or get a re-roll from "shared fire control" or maybe get a benefit against squadrons with overlapping flak screens.

You mean like Home One, Redemption, Tantive IV or Hand of Justice?

1 hour ago, Norell said:

You mean like Home One, Redemption, Tantive IV or Hand of Justice?

Don't forget literally every fleet support upgrade (although debuff style with Slicer Tools and Jamming Fields), Targeting Scrambler, and Hand of Justice.

1 hour ago, Norell said:

You mean like Home One, Redemption, Tantive IV or Hand of Justice?

No, more generic than that. Maybe something like a title (or another card) that alters the role of a ship a bit

Making up an example on the spot:

"Flak Refit" CR90C: (based on CR90A) - reduce anti ship dice by 1x Blue dice, increase anti-squadron dice by 1x Blue dice. If within 1-X of another friendly CR90C gain one re-roll per anti squadron attack.

I'm not suggesting this is a workable example, it's more to illustrate the idea of ships gaining a benefit from being in "formation" with others.

14 minutes ago, Artifixprime said:

No, more generic than that. Maybe something like a title (or another card) that alters the role of a ship a bit

Making up an example on the spot:

"Flak Refit" CR90C: (based on CR90A) - reduce anti ship dice by 1x Blue dice, increase anti-squadron dice by 1x Blue dice. If within 1-X of another friendly CR90C gain one re-roll per anti squadron attack.

I'm not suggesting this is a workable example, it's more to illustrate the idea of ships gaining a benefit from being in "formation" with others.

So *perhaps* like the Task Force titles on the Hammerheads.

11 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

So *perhaps* like the Task Force titles on the Hammerheads.

Hmmm...now there's a thought

Would be cool if they did. Was thinking beyond this to maybe open up older ships to new roles too

I predicted that the task force cards would make you able to activate both Hammerheads with the same activation.

11 minutes ago, Norell said:

I predicted that the task force cards would make you able to activate both Hammerheads with the same activation.

Dang that would be cool. And nasty.