I was on a small championship last weekend, nothing special, only 8 players, 3 rounds, great fun. No pics, you'll have to be content with what I wrote. Sorry ![]()
I was playing with this fleet:
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 390/400
Commander: Admiral Sloane
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Capture the VIP
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost
[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 168 total ship cost
Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54 points)
- Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
= 63 total ship cost
1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 Maarek Steele ( 21 points)
1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Saber Squadron ( 12 points)
Not so special, a standard Sloane fleet with @Green Knight's trademarked Green Squad. I wanted to try out Sloane plus I wanted to play a squadron-heavy list because I really suck at playing squads ![]()
Game 1:
My first game was against a very experienced player. He plays both Armada and X-Wing for years and I'm always kind of intimidated by his fleets. Now he came with Tarkin on a Christmas tree Avenger, Demo with ACM and ET, Hand of Justice with Needa and TRC, a Gozanti and a single Saber Squadron. I got the initiative and choose first player because I was intimidated by him out-activating me and possible Avenger OR Demo doubletap. Lost of firepower there. Anyway I picked his Solar Corona, deployed in the left corner of my deployment zone with the Gozanti closest to the center of the table, then Avenger then the Quasar. He deployed in the middle with the Arq closest to ma facing like it would want to ram the ISD and the Gozanti stuck behind Demo on his Avenger's other side. This helped me somewhat because he had limited choices to make for his moves but it was fine by me. Then by my surprise, he choose MY side to be the corona! Later it turned out that he misunderstood the role of the corona, but it din't matter because during the whole game there was no accuracies rolled from an arc facing towards the corona.... Too bad for me.
In the first rounds nothing interesting happened other than HoJ rammed the ISD as expected. It had nowhere to go. Squadrons started to hammer Demo while my Quasar went too wide and was basically out of the fight until the last two rounds. A sloppy maneuvering on my part. Then my Gozanti made a heroic sacrifice, stepping into the front arc of his ISD but forcing Demo to go wide (so it can't attack my ISD) and waste a perfectly good broadside shot to be scattered. Meanwhile I had to waste three squadron activations on taking down his Saber - bad rolls. I also sunk his Gozanti with Sloane bombing. The gal is awesome. So predictably his Avenger took out my Gozanti and instead of firing at my ISD with Gunnery Teams he decided to shoot at my squads with not much of a result.
Round 4 was decisive. By this time the my Avenger had a clear mid range shot on both his Avenger and his HoJ that lost all shields, save for a single unit on his right flank. Demo was also in attack range. My plan was that I had to deal only 5 damage with accuracies or 6 damage without them to sink the Kitty, and then fly away, waving good bye to the other ships and score a close win. Long story short, I rolled 3 blanks 1 accuracy on the reds. So instead of blowing away his Arquitens, I got stuck, had to ram it (still survived with 1 hull!), then got a horrible hammering from Demo, Avenger and the Kitty which also healed itself with its Tarkin token. From here I knew the match was over. I couldn't even shoot down the Kitty next turn due some more bad rolls, and I know I couldn't get past the debris field that I could have just jumped over if I didn't have to ram, so my ISD went down in flames... 3-8 loss, all because of a bad roll. The beauty and ugliness of Armada in one sentence ![]()
Game 2:
I got matched up with a fellow Sloane list, but his was an ET Demo, FC+FCT Quasar, VSD I with External Racks and OE, and a Gozanti. His sqadrons consisted Howl, Mauler, Dengar, Soontir with two Advanced escorts and 4 generic TIE/Fs, a total of 10 fighters overall compared to my 8, but only 125 points vs my 134. I knew that the match will be decided by who can tear apart the others' sqads first so I used my initiative and picked his Mienfields. He deployed them rather conservatively, deploying the mines so I was forced into one of the corners, but I was fine with that. I proudly placed my Gozanti facing a mine then when I picked Jendon to triumphantly place so he can move it away, I realized that he has NO STRATEGIC!!! Big mistake on my part. Otherwise the deployment was mirroring my previous match. He deployed Demo and the VSD in close formation with the Quasar and the Gozanti running for the flanks to support the squadrons.
Round 2 was where the fun begun. We placed our squads in range of engagement and I activated my Quasar. A glorious way to jump with 6 fighters into the fray. First in went Mauler. My opponent made a mistake and created a perfect place for him right int he middle of his ball. 10 instant damage! I won't lie, this was one of the highest points of the weekend. My other squads got rid of the escorts, a generic TIE, made Soontir hurt and pretty much tied up his whole complement. I got rid of his whole wing within the next two turns, losing only Saber and Valen in the process.
Meanwhile my Gozanti hit the mine, got 2 face down damage but lived on fortunately. My opponent lined up Demo and the VSD in a conga line to come at Avenger but I was fine with it. In round 3 Demo jumped on me, couldn't accuracy my Gozanti's scatter from its front arc but tore into the side of my ISD. It succumbed to a mixture of bombing and retaliatory fire from Avenger, Madame Sloane then decided to flak the enemy squads some more instead of trying her luck on the Gozanti, which made her a chance to intentionally ram it and stay in red range in the VSD's front arc and even having a shot at the Quasar. My quasar exchanged potshots with his Gozanti. In the next rounds I tabled my opponent. First the VSD went down due bombing and the ISD hammering it. My Gozanti had no way to go being stuck at speed 1 and being busy activating my squadrons so took a heroic double arc shot on the VSD then rammed it. The Quasars collided head-on and as mine was supported by the ISD the outcome wasn't a question. In the end I sent some of my squads after the remaining Gozanti and with the last roll Marek destroyed it. 10-1 victory for me.
Game 3:
For the last game I was facing a guy I really like playing because we can remain always cordial and cheerful regardless of the outcome. he played an Ackbar list with a kitted out H1, with RBD, Lando, Leading Shots and ET, and two MC30s with TRC, External Racks and Ordnance Experts, one as Foresight, Shara and 4 more A-Wings.
I had the initiative again, choose Minefields again, had to deploy like in the previous game again - but this time the Gozanti remained well outside of the range of the mines. He deployed the pickle close to the middle with the MC30's scissoring right in front of the ISD. I knew that unless he makes a mistake and places an MC30 right in front of me, I'll have only one chance: to go up against Home One!
Anyway, by this time I knew what I wanted to do with my fleet exactly, and everything went according to the plan. The squadrons jumped at the A-Wings and made a quick job on them and they even had time to harass Foresight, scaring it away just enough so it could't unload its ER on my ISD. My Quasar was forced to play the bait this time, forcing out Foresight even more and it even had to unload its ERs just to get rid of my precious pizza slice. Fortunately by then he made its job. By Round 4 Avenger had both H1 and the MC30 in its front arc, in close range. I had full shields on my front and on my left flank, none on the right, I had to gave it up against Foresight earlier. But H1 was in worse shape. It lost its brace token, lost almost all its shields from the front and back as well due some long-range shots and bombing and had a damage card.
Luckily for me my opponent wasn't sure he could get away with H1 from my front arc - he was probably right - and activated his MC30. I had to sustain an Ackbar + H1 + ER + OE combo, but with 7 shields and 11 hull I was pretty confident. It turned out to be a mediocre shot at best, and I suffered only 1 facedown damage. This time the dice didn't let me down. The side arc stripped its remaining shields and dropped it to 6 hull, then my front arc deal a glorious 11 damage with Concentrate Fire, and it was re-Landoed to 9, still more than enough to destroy the flagship.
With everything out of range of everything we called it a day. I don't know the MoV but it was enough to put me eventually second in standings overall, so I was very happy about it.
So that was Sloane. I really liked her, she works great with the fighters for bombing even a bunch of TIEs are terrifying with her. Losing a brace before the big guns even arrive is scary as ****.
The Green Squad worked pretty well, but they need to be constantly activated, you can't wait for the squadron phase. Speaking of activation, I think Sloane would be obligatory to play with an expanded hangars, boosted comms Quasar. This ship is a monster when it comes to squadrons. Moving 6 squads around with one activation can completely re-arrange the table. I know that Avenger with 4 Gozantis gives you more activations but the fact that you can blow away whole screens before they could return fire and that you can strip a ship of tokens before you even start to fire on it with your ships is a huge advantage I wouldn't want to lose. The enemy can counterplay several small activations. He can't really coutnerplay this. And let's add that although it's not a Star Destroyer, the Quasar can survive a major salvo. Not any more, but you can take one round of heavy or two rounds of light pounding with it so you don't have to hide it so much. Sure it could die, but by that time it likely dealt far more damage with its squadrons than its weight. This ship really doesn't want to do anything than activate squadrons. Anything else is a waste of its ability. If you need more flexibility use the Wing Commander or the Pursuant title, but it really NEEDS those squadron commands.
Thoughts on squads: I really like the psychological warfare part of the squadron play. I already noticed that for some reason everyone is terrified by sniping and they go after the sniper, making them predictable and easy to trick. But surprisingly Valen has the same effect. In all my games the opponent tried to isolate Valen or sent in a squadron to deal with Saber only to be picked up by another squad of mine. The opponents seem to spread thin their squadron wing to get those particular sqads so it's worth keeping in mind for the future.
And finally about Sloane lists. I praised mine so much, but what can be its weakness. Sure if you can tie up the squads or out-activate the ships it can be difficult, but that's something I would be prepared. What could turn the whole game upside down is a surprise pounce on the Quasar. I can hide it if I see you coming at it. But if you can pounce on it with something that kills it, this list is done for. The Avenger won't be able to activate all the squads because ti's busy maneuvering and CFing, and the Gozanti can activate a maximum of 3 fighters at once. So if you see a Sloane list with Quasar, always try to setup a sneak attack on that ship because Sloane necessarily depends so much on squadron activation that losing the main activator automatically means losing the game too. If you face an Avenger + Gozantis list, go for the flotillas. They will die to bombers quickly and that will hurt the list in all. Funnily you won't see an effective Sloane list where the heavy hitter is the squadron activator as well because no ship can do both the same time. That's worth keeping in mind ![]()