Hi everyone! I used to write and play a lot of Armada but haven't had a chance to play with the newest pre-Thrawn wave yet (so no Sloan).

Can someone catch me up on how the meta is fairing? I haven't even played since the Rhymer/Demolisher/Rieekan nerf. And from looking at recent data sets, it looks like Rebels are running dominant with not that many Imperial lists.

Is this the byproduct of Rhymer and Demolisher getting nerfed, and that Imperials were actually really weak without these combo-enablers? Ackbar was already really good (I've flown exclusively him since Wave 2!), so the Rieekan nerf didn't really hamper Rebels? The Interdictor being a flop didn't help the Imperial cause either. I'm still trying to make that ship work.. in theory.

Tagging a few old buddies to help me figure this out @BiggsIRL @Truthiness @JJs Juggernaut , thanks!

PS - @Crabbok , I recently got inspired to play after stumbling on your YouTube vids online. Well done!

Rieekan is now not the only rebel admiral you see (slight hyperbole). I've seen Imperials do just fine (7/9 imperial players at my local store championship). Avenger is a huge threat.

Demo nerf isn't much tbh. Rhymer was hit hard. Sloan is bring TIEs back, but still seeing how that shakes out the meta.

Ackbar is still good

2 minutes ago, JJs Juggernaut said:

Rieekan is now not the only rebel admiral you see (slight hyperbole). I've seen Imperials do just fine (7/9 imperial players at my local store championship). Avenger is a huge threat.

Demo nerf isn't much tbh. Rhymer was hit hard. Sloan is bring TIEs back, but still seeing how that shakes out the meta.

Ackbar is still good

What kind of lists are typical Imperials fielding these days? We know Avenger and Ackbar have been good since their release.. but I'm eager to see how Sloan is shaking up the meta (or too soon?). Good to hear about Demo still being good though, but I'm assuming we're no longer seeing Demo MSU (with the kingpin being Demo)?

You still see DeMSU, like I said, the nerf wasn't that bad. Avenger MSU is a thing though. With Boarding Troopers and a few upgrades it can kill any ship in the game, with the exception of a Motti ISD.

Double ISDs are the new Imperial Hotness, and that looks to continue into Wave 7 and beyond. I'm not sure I saw a single Arq at US Nationals. Quasars are fun, but still no consensus on "good" or not.

Sloane has joined the Imperial Pantheon of Good Commanders, alongside Motti and Moff Jerry. Vader keeps poking his head around as a viable option. Screed too, kinda. I like Ozzel, but no one else does. Tarkin, Tagge, and Special K continue to be crap.

Leia is (pick one) overpriced garbage / really good but kinda expensive. Hammerheads are (pick one) a cheap gimmick that dies immediately to ISDs / a cheap way to get Black dice on a target.

Rebel commanders are basically Ackbar > Rieekan > Everyone Else, with a fairly high floor.

4 minutes ago, BiggsIRL said:

Double ISDs are the new Imperial Hotness, and that looks to continue into Wave 7 and beyond. I'm not sure I saw a single Arq at US Nationals. Quasars are fun, but still no consensus on "good" or not.

Sloane has joined the Imperial Pantheon of Good Commanders, alongside Motti and Moff Jerry. Vader keeps poking his head around as a viable option. Screed too, kinda. I like Ozzel, but no one else does. Tarkin, Tagge, and Special K continue to be crap.

Leia is (pick one) overpriced garbage / really good but kinda expensive. Hammerheads are (pick one) a cheap gimmick that dies immediately to ISDs / a cheap way to get Black dice on a target.

Rebel commanders are basically Ackbar > Rieekan > Everyone Else, with a fairly high floor.

What does the double ISD list look like? My friend and I have been regularly running double ISDs as Imperials for a long time now.. what has changed recently that made this archetype good?

6 minutes ago, BiggsIRL said:

I like Ozzel, but no one else does.

Dude, I'm right here .

Seriously, though, I can't otherwise disagree with your overall assessment on Imperial commanders. Sloane seems more high risk than Motti or Jerry (depends a lot on opponent fleet composition, both for good ship targets as well as how much fighter resistance they'll put up) but can pay off. Vader and Screed live in the tier 2 zone where they can be legit in the right circumstances. Ozzel should be somewhere between tiers 1 and 2 but he's widely disliked for reasons that aren't altogether clear (I'd guess a distaste for him back in earlier waves keeps perpetuating itself? You got me, I'm a big fan and he can be really good). Tagge and Konstantine are awful. Tarkin would be swell if he wasn't overcosted, but being overcosted still lands you in tier 3 with Tagge and Konstantine. Womp.

6 minutes ago, HERO said:

What does the double ISD list look like? My friend and I have been regularly running double ISDs as Imperials for a long time now.. what has changed recently that made this archetype good?

The North American Champs runner up was basically two Christmas Tree ISDs with a whole whack of Imperial Aces. The idea being able to aggressively push for 1st player and make every activation count, either by throwing a load of synergistic squadrons to target, or backing up with Imperial Might... ISDs were generally used very hard for the lead ISD to put Avenger-Boarding-Teams on target and push right through it as if it weren't there.

3 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

The North American Champs runner up was basically two Christmas Tree ISDs with a whole whack of Imperial Aces. The idea being able to aggressively push for 1st player and make every activation count, either by throwing a load of synergistic squadrons to target, or backing up with Imperial Might... ISDs were generally used very hard for the lead ISD to put Avenger-Boarding-Teams on target and push right through it as if it weren't there.

Do you have a link Dras? I'd like to see how this list compares to what we've been toying around with

Just now, HERO said:

Do you have a link Dras? I'd like to see how this list compares to what we've been toying around with

Digging one up. Cpt. Griff was the guy who ran it, he had a posting not to long ago, its at worst 2-3 pages back.

THERE it is

Holy crap, it ended up 6 pages back already.\

Also, I stand corrected.

A lot of I've seen have used Avenger/BT and christmas tree buods to push it ahead like I said...

... But that wasn't used in this case, which further solidifies my respect for the Player's Ability Those ISDs are positively spartan.

5 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

THERE it is

Holy crap, it ended up 6 pages back already.\

Also, I stand corrected.

A lot of I've seen have used Avenger/BT and christmas tree buods to push it ahead like I said...

... But that wasn't used in this case, which further solidifies my respect for the Player's Ability Those ISDs are positively spartan.

Hmm.. not what I expected at all.

I'm currently experimenting with an ISD-II Avenger with an ISD-I using mostly just Boarding Troopers. Still toying around with whether or not I want to include Suppressor and my Tie-heavy squadrons

In the Austin-San Antonio corridor in Texas, we've seen:

1. Rebel bombers are still a thing. Justin has switched to Dodonna and took it to 5th at GenCon, and largely doesn't feel like he's missed a beat from Rieekan. I've been casually running some pretty heavy bomber lists lately and doing fairly well.

2. Lists built around Strategic in some way are a significant thing. That goes both ways, Rebel and Imperial. And I think it is important to distinguish Strategic as the linch-pin for the list, rather than talking generally about commander (and I think most of the Ackbar lists we've seen do well have been of the MC80+Activations+Strategic+Objective variety). There are a lot of points sitting there on objectives, and you absolutely 100% must have a plan for how you're going to play objectives with or without strategic.

3. Although I'm guessing that we always had 60% (or more) Imperials, wave 6 in some fashion has helped all of them place better. That's good for the game. We're seen plenty of Sloan and Jerry, with the occasional Motta.

Beyond that, there have been a number of things that I've seen incentivized as a result of wave 6. Sloan and the Quasar (whether together or Quasar+different commander) incentivize people to take squads. If anything, we're seeing more Imperial lists with tons of squads, which then help against any non-GH lists they face. Sloan also provides a nice anti-ship punch, which hurts squadronless lists. MSUs still work, but you shouldn't probably have a little bit of a squadron wing to tie up the opponent.

Welcome back!

In Orlando I still see a ton of diversity in the meta.

Alot of players run Leia. Hammerheads are popular at the moment, but largely due to players feeling them out still. They have great potential as swarm ships with the titles.

Sloane had a great initial showing, but she was SO strong that nearly everyone builds heavily to counter Sloane, so MAJOR anti squadron builds - so much so that nobody ends up running Sloane. Strange really.

The star of the last wave has got to be:

Disposable Capacitors.

It finds itself in so many lists.

Double Vic IIs or ISD II + Vic II is actually pretty good as well with dispo cap. There isn't really a strong "meta" here, but we're seeing a lot of variety in builds. Only the Interdictor seems to not be getting that much love.