Yeah, still Sloanne, I just cant stop thinking about possible counters. Interceptors hurt much, Ties too if they roll 5 dice. You can only avoid that counter attack if you snipe It (look away from Valen or Ig for a moment), using scatter Ace against sloanne isnt the Best option. So... Snipe. Saber. Not Enough if you Ask me. E-Wings. You can fit in 8. Getting there. They Just need extra firepower lets say from a frigate with fc, and toyn farr nearby. Adding all fighters follow me to the equation leads to One of the biggest threat range in game(plus squall if im correct). Speed 5+snipe can be the way to Pick out few regular ties and interceptors before the fight breaks out, if positioned well, Even in 'melee' youll be able to snipe counter squads. Just a side note, works against all a-wings(looking at you especially, Sarah). So, 8 e-Wings, Assault frigate, pelta, bcc, yavaris (Double sniping is still 1 extra Blue dice trown against opponent compared to a 5 squad af activation, 2 more bombing runs, +cheaper). Dodonna fits in as commander due to Point issues. Precision strike, Fighter ambush, superior positions.

What are your Thoughts?

You're forgetting that everyone has to attack from close range now thanks to the Rhymer nerf. The biggest threat to squadrons now are 2-3 die anti-squad attacks.

Demo GSD II with Kallus is now a good choice. One attack, move, second attack. All on the same squadrons. This really hurt the Tie Interceptors and even the Aces (Howlrunner, Valen, Mauler, ....).
And if you want, you can even use the ruthless instead of ordnance experts. With 1-2 Tie Advanced, you are able to kill a lot of Tie Interceptors with the double double blue AA with up to two extra damage.

Too many attention from Sloane. When someone brings a regular fleet your's will be so focused in anti-sloane that you would not be able to make it work.

1 minute ago, xerpo said:

Too many attention from Sloane. When someone brings a regular fleet your's will be so focused in anti-sloane that you would not be able to make it work.

A Demo is a Demo . It will be the same as always. I just suggest to use a GSD II instead of a GSD I. And the extra 3 points for Kallus are optional (but usefull).

The Ruthless on the other hand would be specific. As soon as you use him, you have an anti squadron GSD.

I already played that demo, with screed, sensor team, et, kallus. Sensor team helped a lot against aces, and acc+cit/hit is 100% against flotillas, the bump kills It.

im Just affraid loosing that demo to an avenger...

And yes, im a bit focused, but that works against all squads. Agaisnts msu, They can Kill a ship per turn after dealing with the Fighter Cover.

A Demolisher/Gladiator II can be pretty good in any circumstance not just against Sloan, in my opinion. Anyone who relies heavily on squadrons will have to respect that ship.

I have mostly liked the more versatile GSD II anyway.

sloane is great in her type of game. If its a sloane sloane mirror sloane is pretty useless until someone dominates the air space. the rhymer nerf means gallant haven can really bully the table with aces again.

the key to countering interceptors is A.) Snipe B.) alpha them.

this game has premeasuring, its worth having your opponent send their ties against your ship because they cant get to your squadrons if you then get to alpha their fighters.

the squadron game is a totally different stlye of gameplay in armada it requires a more classical miniture gaming approach of threat projection, distance estimating, and playing cat and mouse until you can strike. the ships in armada don't play like this. squadron game is similar to playing Mk2 Warmachine and Hordes with positioning in ways where your opponent has to over extend for minimal trade you can hit them back harder and win the attrition. it will take a lot of practice but if you see interceptors DO NOT deploy fighter ambush up front, and do not just move your fights to positioned to get alpha'd

I think a minor emphasis on good flak reins Sloane in. A major emphasis on flak can stop her ability outright. A Raider 1 with OE melts TIEs.

I uad had a particularly fun game Monday where I ran a crazy Commander Leia, MC80 Command, 4 Hammerhead Scout, and 4 Z95 build. My opponent's 6 2400s steamrolled my Zs and then every last one died to flak over the next two turns.

The salient point is that a sufficient amount of blue die flak can even kill squads with 6 hull. A pile of Interceptors (Sloane's really ideal squad) will melt to that flak.

8 minutes ago, Church14 said:

I think a minor emphasis on good flak reins Sloane in. A major emphasis on flak can stop her ability outright. A Raider 1 with OE melts TIEs.

I uad had a particularly fun game Monday where I ran a crazy Commander Leia, MC80 Command, 4 Hammerhead Scout, and 4 Z95 build. My opponent's 6 2400s steamrolled my Zs and then every last one died to flak over the next two turns.

The salient point is that a sufficient amount of blue die flak can even kill squads with 6 hull. A pile of Interceptors (Sloane's really ideal squad) will melt to that flak.

"Sounds Good, doesnt work." Carefull positioning with scatter aces=immortality. If only 1 shot can be made against them, It Will be scattered. Also, Avenger Alpha strike can Take out any ship quite reliably, meaning no flakking Will be made. I use my avenger with a mix of aces and ceptors, They were brutally efficient so far:)

My only problem is, i dont want to ride the hype Train

9 minutes ago, Coldhands said:

"Sounds Good, doesnt work." Carefull positioning with scatter aces=immortality. If only 1 shot can be made against them, It Will be scattered. Also, Avenger Alpha strike can Take out any ship quite reliably, meaning no flakking Will be made. I use my avenger with a mix of aces and ceptors, They were brutally efficient so far:)

My only problem is, i don't want to ride the hype Train

Yes... scatter aces are reliably good against flak, Flechette torpedoes is also a thing.

That is why you should generally rely on both flak and fighters.

Z95 and E-Wings can work good together. The Z95 protects the ships being cheap and potential for damage is decent. E-Wings act as strategic reserve and Bombers depending on what you need them to do.

Another plus for Avenger - fighters can't use exhausted scatter tokens against it's flack.

38 minutes ago, Coldhands said:

"Sounds Good, doesnt work." Carefull positioning with scatter aces=immortality. If only 1 shot can be made against them, It Will be scattered. Also, Avenger Alpha strike can Take out any ship quite reliably, meaning no flakking Will be made. I use my avenger with a mix of aces and ceptors, They were brutally efficient so far:)

My only problem is, i dont want to ride the hype Train

There are a finite number of scatter aces. Imps have Dengar, Howlrunner, Valen, Mauler, Cienna, Soontir, Whisper. Dengar is on the fence because he doesn't roll blue or red anti-ship. So her text doesn't apply. That leaves 6 aces, rolling a combined BBBBBRR. That is less frightening than the token stripping ability of the 14 TIEs I was going to face (before I had to go home an un-flood my basement) Monday night in game two.

I don't buy the logic that you can guarantee that your squads will only be in range of one flak round. If I realize I have to rely on flak, I strive to guarantee the option to use 2-3 salvos from ships on squads. I can also typically just activate and move a ship to free up the obstruction and hit squads. If I face an opponent who can guarantee that they either:

A) Split my fleet up so wide that the elements cannot support on another

AND/OR

B) Reliably destroy any ship they target in a single activation

WHILE

C) Decisively defeating my squads in a time frame and with so little losses that they make B unstoppable.

Then they deserve to win anyway. I don't see anyone reliably guaranteeing that happening.

In no way, shape, or form do I recommend pure flak and no squads. The intent of my post is that a small flak buff can do wonders when Sloane encourages large numbers of generic TIEs.

I am curious to see how Avenger does with Sloane when I finally use it or face it. I have been facing a lot of combinations of Quasar/Arquitens/Raider since the wave dropped.

Well, if 2 or more can flak them, the isd is highly likely to head there and... You know, you dont want It.

I agree on using flak + squads is the solution, Just finding a Good balance...

See this is the thing. It's all about positioning those squads. You put as many of them in the same arc facing your ship. If they have gunnery team there isn't much you can do about it, however, if they don't then you force the choice. Shoot at my ship or shoot at my squadrons. Either choice is fine because the other is getting plinked at. I just find it odd that everyone talks about flak as if it is a given that people are going to badly place their squadrons.

14 minutes ago, Milienius said:

See this is the thing. It's all about positioning those squads. You put as many of them in the same arc facing your ship. If they have gunnery team there isn't much you can do about it, however, if they don't then you force the choice. Shoot at my ship or shoot at my squadrons. Either choice is fine because the other is getting plinked at. I just find it odd that everyone talks about flak as if it is a given that people are going to badly place their squadrons.

I don't think this can be emphasized enough... positioning is key in Armada as much as being able to estimate where ships are going to be in one or two turns.

The fact that you can premeasure distances makes the squadron game very tactical and I have seen many people just completely fail to realize this. Placing squadron where they are guaranteed to be shot at for no good reasons and so on, very frustrating and things I point out to inexperienced opponents for learning purposes.

43 minutes ago, Coldhands said:

Well, if 2 or more can flak them, the isd is highly likely to head there and... You know, you dont want It.

I agree on using flak + squads is the solution, Just finding a Good balance...

Agreed. Balance will be key.

Though the last match I played, I maneuvered so my hammerheads arrived in a fairly tight line. His squads hit the one at the end of the line. I would activate the injured one, fire out the front at his Christmas tree Liberty, and then move past the squads. Then when my next would activate, it would flak out the side and hit the Liberty. So on and so forth. His Liberty was also one-shotting those hammerheads. So both our predictions were sort of panning out

Usually, If I'm facing Avenger, I'm outactivating my opponent. That lets everything - bar maybe the MC80s and Pelta- try to dodge that front arc or at least keep long range. Certainly not a perfect defense, but it helps.

I don't see the big fuss about 'Sloane counters' bring and establish air superiority. You have now beat Sloane, or crippled her air superiority list so badly it is now next to non-effective. It isn't that difficult.

Plaued against sloane twice both times i was able to shut her fighters down. General they keep them grouped up, mauler goes in dmgs, halrunner goes, then tie interceptor with 4 plus howl pkus FC meams 6 dices,

5 minutes ago, Church14 said:

Usually, If I'm facing Avenger, I'm outactivating my opponent. That lets everything - bar maybe the MC80s and Pelta- try to dodge that front arc or at least keep long range. Certainly not a perfect defense, but it helps

One of the finalist in the europians was isd1+4gozanti+Lots of fighters, i Think this one won It. This list Just got Better with sloane. Bringing 6 ship to out-activate It... Not that easy if you want quality activation as well. My Leia list has 8 a-Wings, 4 torpedo hammers(antiles, oe,er), a pelta with shields to Max, and a Transport with comms net. 6 activations, alright-ish ammount of squads, but no quality...

2 minutes ago, Coldhands said:

One of the finalist in the europians was isd1+4gozanti+Lots of fighters, i Think this one won It. This list Just got Better with sloane. Bringing 6 ship to out-activate It... Not that easy if you want quality activation as well. My Leia list has 8 a-Wings, 4 torpedo hammers(antiles, oe,er), a pelta with shields to Max, and a Transport with comms net. 6 activations, alright-ish ammount of squads, but no quality...

I did qualify with "usually".

I started laughing reading your Pelta list. Only because That was almost an exact copy of my first fleet when I got my HH pack. STM Pelta with TFA is interesting.

IMO...the best counter to Sloane squads are A-wings + Toryn Farr. Just keep your A-wings in the Toryn Farr/Bright Hope bubble and those 3 Hull Sloane squads will melt like butter.

Cba reading this thread just want to say this.

Yup be the bully. Dont take squads, take 400pts of brawling ships and bully the s*** out of their ships.

In my 4 games against Sloan I have found her to be way over hyped.

People are a bit to afraid of Sloan, she is good and I like her but she won't be striping your ships defense tokens left and right she might get one or two the whole game she definitely shines against ace squadrons though they will be losing their defense tokens rather quickly and she just makes the air superiority fighters of the Empire a little bit more reliable against ships but they're still not as reliable as just a regular bomber against a ship. After seeing her played a few times and playing her a couple times myself I can say that I really like her and she fits my play style. But I don't think The Fleets that are running 16 ties and no combat ships really to speak of are going to be that great. She shines and taking a large to medium Squadron screen and making it better at killing a squadrons and a little bit more reliable hitting ships with damaged making them worth the point investment with her we're I take like a 60-point squadron screen I'm more likely now to take an 80 to 90 point Squadron screen. It is still fairly early but I do think people are afraid of her a little bit too much.