Been playing Armada at friend's house by borrowing his stuff, been thinking of getting my own fleet and buying in. Have been messing about with the Warlords Armada fleet builder this past week. Curious with what you think about the following list.

Newbie Assault

Commander: Moff Jerrjerod

Faction: Empire

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo

Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault

Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

400/400 points

[Flagship] Victory I - Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Moff Jerrjerod (23 points)

- Wulf Yularen (7 points)

= 103 points

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Demolisher (10 points)

- Skilled First Officer (1 point)

- Ordnance Experts (4 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 points)

= 76 points

Arquitens Command Cruiser (59 points)

- Skilled First Officer (1point)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

= 66 points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (55 points)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

= 61 points

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)

- Ordnance Experts

= 48 points

TIE Fighter x 4 (32 points)

Mauler Mithel × 1 (15 points)

= 47 points

Another version I've been considering with Vader

Newbie Assault v 1.1

Commander: Darth Vader

Faction: Empire

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo

Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault

Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

400/400 points

[Flagship] Victory-I Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Darth Vader (36 points)

- Skilled Support Officer (4 points)

= 113 points

Gladiator-I Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Demolisher (10 points)

- Ordnance Experts (4 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 points)

= 75 points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (55points)

- Hand of Justice (4points)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

= 65 points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (55 points)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

= 61 points

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)

- Ordnance Experts

= 48 points

TIE Fighter x 5 (40 points)

First list looks good. I would get yourself a bid of 6-10 points by swapping the raider for a Gozanti with coms net. Then look at boosted comms on the VSD or flight controllers or upgrade some Ties to interceptors. Mauler is great if you have Intel or Chiranau to get 2-4 ramming attacks per game. Otherwise go for Howlrunner or some escort to keep the fragile ties around longer.

Slaved turrets are good on Vader commanded Arquitens but with Moff JJ take Needa and a TRC on one and DTTs on the other.

First i agree with madcat that scrubbing the raider and replacing it with a coms net gozanti is going to be very helpful.

I watched an opening salvo victory 1 with ordnance experts and apts a few days ago take a liberty off the board like it was sneezing. I think that is a super nuanced choice and I would suggest building for it. By adding those upgrades to the victory and just bullying your way down the middle.

A victory 1 with apts (i would suggest tua and ecm as well), a glad 1 with demo and apts, 2 arquitens with slaved and one with hand of justice commanded by vader means you can skip the ordnance experts and other dice manipulation and rely on vader, giving you points to increase your anti squadron component. Its a sharp looking fleet and I really like it!

Last weak spot though is that third objective. Its going to be a bad time for you if it gets choosen, because your opponent is going to have a ton of squads and score 150 token points off you. Try subbing it for solar corona if you think you need the deployment advantage, or if you can fit a lamba shuttle in (think of using the points from the raider here) you can put in minefields. Use the lamba's strategic to haul mines in front of your opponents ships for dage straight to hull. Compliments apts very well! Last choice for a blue that also requires a lamba but is scary enough that you can typically use its threat to force them to pick yellow or red instead is sensor net. Just make sure you practice it with someone who knows how to play it, because it can get confusing. But you can easily score 200 objective points off of it with a lamba or two making sure you can double score most moves.

20 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Last weak spot though is that third objective. Its going to be a bad time for you if it gets choosen, because your opponent is going to have a ton of squads and score 150 token points off you. Try subbing it for solar corona if you think you need the deployment advantage, or if you can fit a lamba shuttle in (think of using the points from the raider here) you can put in minefields. Use the lamba's strategic to haul mines in front of your opponents ships for dage straight to hull. Compliments apts very well! Last choice for a blue that also requires a lamba but is scary enough that you can typically use its threat to force them to pick yellow or red instead is sensor net.

Haha, whoops. Didn't read the 2nd half of Superior Positions. Yeah, that is a poor choice. Solar Corona would be better particularly since I'm throwing so few blues, and it'll make it harder for him to punish me for exhausted defense tokens (with Vader).

Main reason for the Raider is Flak support, a bit worried about enemy squadrons without it. Gozanti would make it easier to push my own though (which is why first version has the Command Arquitens). And the comms net seems super handy.

Are there any damage tables that show what your average damage is with one and two rerolls? What if you roll agressively on the first (reroll all blacks that aren't crit+hit)? I'm thinking the 4 points for Ordnance Experts might still be worth it to squeeze out a few more points of damage when it counts.

People used to take multiple copies of Bomber Command before it got FAQ'ed, seems like a similar situation.

I consider it redundant, and the points better spent elsewhere, but you arent wrong that rerolls are great!

The thing about Vader (and keep in mind I've played like 3 games with borrowed ships so I'm largely theory crafting here), is that he's competing against two very cost effective upgrades in Leading Shots and Ordnance Experts. So you either need to do something else worthwhile with the slot, take ships that can't benefit from either (like the Arquitens) or double down on the ability. Trying to save points across the list as a replacement doesn't really work since it's unlikely you're going to spend more than 16 points on such upgrades in which point you could take the upgrades and take someone like Ozzel.

As far as the slot, unfortunately Ion Cannon upgrades aren't that hot and Ordnance Experts seem to be the best ...

Wait! Boarding Troopers! Vader Gladiators can use Boarding Troopers in the Weapon Team slot and still get a reroll! Being able to exhaust defense tokens, right before a rerollable Gladiator broadside. That's mean - I like that.

Also, as far as the Raider OEs were concerned, the idea was to reroll the flak mainly, Vader's ability isn't great for flak. But not really a concern anymore since I'm going to swap that out for the Gozanti.

Also, just realized that flotillas can carry boarding Troopers and Engineers. Yuck. Is everyone going to be spamming that?

Or maybe I misunderstand how they work - it's not either/or but that you need both upgrade slots. I remember reading somewhere that said either/or, but yeah that'd be a bit broken with Flotillas it seems. Maybe something to consider on the Vic though.

Boarding troopers is indeed both slots, so the flotilla would not be permitted.

Leading shots also costs a die and ordnance only works for blacks so the arquitens are still reliant on fickle reds. You seem to understand what you want though, which is great! So keep trying things and after a bit of on the table experience with the fleet you should be able feel put which one is right for you.

Thanks. Yeah, the two Arquitens + the Gozantis are all I need with what he's been letting me borrow (He has a VSD, a ISD, and a Gladiator). Which are about 50 bucks total on Miniature Market. He also mainly wants to collect Rebels too, so maybe I can make an offer for his Imperial stuff in the future.

Also, yeah, VSD-1 seems like one of the best ships to slot Boarding Troopers on since they don't want Gunnery Team as bad as an ISD, have the firepower to follow through, and the squadron value to make it count . The ISD Avenger has synergy with it of course, but still Gunnery Team. The trick is flying that space-brick close enough.

ISD 1's ability to go speed 3 and have enough hull to ram just about anything with impunity make it typically easier to line up the range 1 shot. But yeah, gunner teams on and ISD or VSD 1 is going to be a bit of a waste because you won't typically have multiple targets in that close.

New list after advice and reading up on objectives on Cannot Get Your Ship Out. Considered the Lambada - maybe with Jerry in the future with some Defenders (ie fighters that actually want to attack ships). Curious if anyone has ever tried moving around friendly tokens with Hyperspace Assault - sounds like it might be fun. Ultimately went with Vader since he's the only way to get rerolls on a VSD-1 with Boarding Troopers.

Newbie Assault v1.2

396/400 points

Commander: Darth Vader

Objectives:

Opening Salvo

Hyperspace Assault

Solar Corona

[Flagship] Victory-I Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Darth Vader (36 points)

- Minister Tau (2 points)

- Electronic Counter Measures (7points)

- Boarding Troopers (3 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 points)

= 126 points

Gladiator-I Class Star Destroyer (56 points)

- Demolisher (10 points)

- Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 points)

= 71 points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54 points)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

= 60 points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54 points)

- Slaved Turrets (6 points)

=60 points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)

- Comms Net (2 points)

= 25 points

Squadrons

- Howlrunner (16 points)

- TIE Interceptor × 2 (22 points)

- TIE Fighter x 2 (16 points)

= 54 points

Also, don't really have my head wrapped around squadrons yet. Figured I'd throw everything in Turn 2 with the VSD + Gozanti and then just keep activating the TIE/Is with the Gozanti.

[Edit]

Oh I see! You take the Lambda because the list has a good Red Objective and can take objective-token shenanigans with Blue and Yellow. And you can be like "Well, you can let me go first with this here Demo and VSD or you can take Opening Salvo (which Vader loves) or you can let me push these tokens around all day".