How I spent my November vacation: updating and adding links to the following articles!

MC30 Frigate
Home One MC80 Cruiser
Liberty MC80 Cruiser
Pelta Frigate

Hammerhead already had links in it, so no updates were made/needed at this time. I may have changed some slight phrasings and/or clarified a few points (Admonition I know I did specifically) but not enough of anything to warrant me posting it here. I also added in a bit to the CR90 Corvette article about potentially using Ion Cannon Batteries with Leia Organa . It's a work in progress.

For now, though, I believe I'm done updating and adding in links to things. Which means! Back to writing regular articles again!

It's time to pour a fresh brew of haterade on conga lines !

It's time for another installment of "Fighting Fleets," this one a bit shorter than the others (I'll get to the why of that shortly!).

Anyways, let's discuss the nefarious conga line!

I said nefarious, come on guys! That's just adorable.

What in the world is a conga line?
A conga line is a number of side-arc ships traveling in a rough line with their broadsides pointed at the enemy as they intend to move past the enemy fleet rather than into them. Because the conga line tends to move with the leader first and then the other ships following behind, it creates the feeling of a group where the leader sets the line and everyone behind follows along, hence the term "conga line." It is not, however, a jovial experience for the opponent and the conga line is especially harsh on newer players; their instinct to direct their ships at the enemy formation leads them flying into overlapping fields of fire and near-certain death.

Back in the early days of wave 2, Admiral Ackbar commanding a number of Assault Frigates (and perhaps an HMC80 ) in a conga line was the fleet type to beat, and it buried a number of heavier Imperial fleets under an endless tide of red dice. You'll still see conga lines today (and Imperials can do a conga line of their own with enough Arquitens Light Cruisers ), but it should be noted that the conga line itself is more of a variant than a specific archetype. Most conga line fleets exist somewhere on the big heavy to swarm fleet spectrum, usually eschewing a heavier squadron investment in favor of bringing more long-ranged combat ships. Because of that, the strategic (fleet building) element of this article will be rather short. If you can handle swarms or big heavy fleets, you've got most of the tools to handle conga line fleets. The most important part is understanding how the conga line behaves and what you can do to counter it, which is tactical.

How does a conga line fleet work?
First off, let's talk about side-arc ships, such as Assault Frigates, HMC80s, (Scout) MC30s , and Arquitens, which are the foundation of a conga line fleet. Side-arc ships share some common features:

• Wide side arcs.
• Decent to good overall speed and maneuverability for their class (sometimes augmented with Engine Techs ).
• Subpar overall offensive capability for their class (the exception is the MC30, and that only applies at close range).
  • For example, the Arquitens is in the same league points-wise as the Gladiator , which is capable of explosive amounts of burst damage and is in most ways completely different from the Arquitens in how it should be used. Similar comparisons can be made between the Assault Frigate and the VSD and the HMC80 and the ISD .
    • This is not to say that you can't get up to decent offensive output (a conga line fleet specializes in upping the offensive output to at least "decent," which we're getting to), but the base attack dice are generally unimpressive.
  • The front arc is often very poor for its class. If you're not able to bring your broadside to bear on your enemy, you're going to have a bad time.
• Longer-ranged attacks. Lots of red dice in general (again with the exception of the MC30, which is undergunned red-dice-wise).

So to summarize: side-arc ships have an easier time of keeping targets in their best arcs than front-arc ships do (due to their movement trajectory and wide side arcs) but their attacks are often a little weak and their front arc attacks are particularly so. What a conga line seeks to do is use the merits of side-arc ships en masse by running them in a rough line to create overlapping fields of long-ranged fire that can be concentrated against enemies to overcome their individual weakness.

Strategic tools against conga line fleets
Ships and squadrons
Having access to a faster more maneuverable combat ship(or ships) can be very helpful for dealing with conga lines. Alternatively/additionally, a heavy squadron fleet , especially if you can command the squadrons at a safe distance (with Boosted Comms or Relay or because they are Rogues), should be able to break through a conga line fleet's meager fighter screen and get to bombing the broadsides ships with only limited flak opposition.

Objectives
Because conga line fleets don't like approaching the enemy fleet directly, defensive objectives like Contested Outpost and Intel Sweep can put them in an awkward position where they need to choose between coming at your recklessly to contest the objective or holding off to maintain their usual cohesion but sacrificing objective points.

Tactical considerations against conga lines
Obstacle deployment
I spoke at this somewhat in the obstacle deployment article , but try to intersperse damaging obstacles about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the table from your opponent's side of the table oriented vertically to put hurdles in the way of where the conga line wishes to go. This can help set the conga line's trajectory in non-ideal places or force them to separate and weaken their formation.

Avoiding the killing ground
Wherever the conga line has multiple overlapping fields of fire is dangerous. Usually much more dangerous than it at first appears, because your instinct is "well I'll take a few shots but they're not too bad and those conga line ships aren't so tough," only to find your defense tokens rapidly overheated and damage getting through to the hull with no easy way to disengage to avoid complete destruction next turn all while the conga line kind of swirls around your poor doomed ship.

Bright red means dead!

You can sometimes avoid this fate by simply overloading the killing field with ships...

You see, killbots have a preset kill limit...

but be careful, because the conga line can still concentrate fire against whichever of your ships is the best target and be especially careful if the conga line is equipped with Gunnery Teams, as they'll be laying down heavy fire on a field full of targets. In fact I strongly discourage any such "horde of dudes" approach against Gunnery Team conga lines, as you're playing right into their strengths.

It may be tempting to make an attack run through the killing field with a faster ship, such as a Gladiator. This can work out sometimes, but it usually encounters problems once you need to move after completing your attack. For example:

Haha, take that stupid Assault Frigate!

Well crap.

You're usually stuck ramming whichever ship you attacked or forced to hop over your target, which means either way you're stuck in a bunch of attack arcs. It's made less awful if you can destroy your target but you're still stuck in overlapping arcs of the remaining conga line ships and your only escape route is to flee out through their broadside arcs, which is understandably unappealing.

Okay, so what do you do to avoid the killing field, then? Well it really depends on the type of ship and its capabilities, but I can break it down into some rough advice.

For smaller faster ships , you should have the speed and maneuverability to work your way to the front or rear of the conga line while taking minimal fire and avoiding overlapping attack arcs. You'll need to issue a lot of navigate commands and you may only get your attacks in later in the game depending on how roundabout of a route you require, but doing something of value later in the game is preferable to being casually swatted down in the early game as you suicidally charge towards death. It's important to not deploy your starting speed too high with your small ships unless they're already set up to jam up the front of a conga line (which we're getting to eventually).

For heavier slower ships , avoiding the killing field altogether is rather difficult, but you can set yourself up to improve your chances of extricating yourself from the trap. What you're looking to do is two specific things:

1. Navigate to preferably engage the rear portion of the conga line (2ish ships) rather than sailing right up the middle and eating the entirety of their guns.
2. Once you've exchanged fire, seriously consider the situation. What are the chances your heavier ship can bring serious fire to bear on the conga line in future turns, assuming the conga line turns inward towards you or speeds directly away? Usually it's difficult if not impossible to keep your front arc on the conga line but they won't have nearly as much trouble keeping their side arcs on you. Endlessly turning in towards them while only firing mediocre attacks while they continue to pound on your with their broadsides is a recipe for disaster. If it looks like there's no profit in continuing after them, don't. Speed up and jet away in the opposite direction of the conga line. Hopefully some follow-up attacks from other sources can finish off whatever conga line ships you crippled.

For support ships , you should be able to fly nearly parallel to the conga line but out of range and hopefully going in the opposite direction. Keep commanding squadrons using Relay or Boosted Comms or passing tokens with Comms Net or whatnot. Just try to avoid being fired on by more than one of them a turn and you'll be fine. You don't generally need to approach them under poor circumstances, so don't.

If you yourself are using a broadside ship , you will need to decide if you plan to make an attack run through the killing field by effectively moving parallel to the conga line going in the opposite direction (you can loop around to keep plinking the rear ship provided you survive) or if you're going to try to cross the T by attempting to get your broadside ship to the front of the conga line. Crossing the T can be difficult to do with a heavier broadside ship but if pulled off successfully it can be very rewarding, as you get to cause problems for the conga line, avoid their best attacks, and light them up with your best arc for a solid round or two. Whether or not it's possible will depend on numerous factors, so be careful before attempting it.

Oh hi, Mark.

In short, the big and most important piece of advice, if you remember nothing else from this article, is "don't fly right into death because you feel like you're supposed to or expected to." Do whatever you can to minimize how much you're hurt by the kill zone and make the conga line player work for it if it's going to do its thing.

Predictable activation order
Because the conga line ideally wants to benefit from the overlapping fields of fire I just wrote far too much about, it wants to travel in a rough line to maintain the kill zone. The easiest way to do this is to activate the ships in order from front to back. This can make the conga line's activation order extremely predictable, which you can exploit in numerous ways.

It should be noted that when used competently, a conga line can work around this by having ships further back in the conga line activate earlier and maneuver so they end up in a side arc of the ship that was ahead of them. This can still create problems for the conga line as ships end up in non-ideal positions and, when not judged correctly, this can cause collisions . At the very least it can cause formation problems. Either way, try to exploit the predictable ideal activation order to throw a wrench into the works.

Front and back
The front and rear of the conga line are its clear weak points and that's where you should be looking to deliver your attacks. The front in particular is a great place to set up a bruiser ship that can handle a bit of ramming, as it can cause a chain reaction of sadness in the conga line fleet. In the example above with the HMC80 in front of the 3 Assault Frigates, those Assault Frigates aren't going to be capable of throwing many dice at all into the HMC80 (with the obstructed middle and rear Frigates getting one die out the front) and once they need to maneuver, they're going to have a hard time fitting anywhere and may collide. The front Assault Frigate can't escape and will be forced to ram the HMC80. It's just a disaster for the conga line overall.

The easiest ships to get into the front are maneuverable combat ships. Preferably something that can take and dish out a bit of punishment like a Gladiator or MC30, but combat corvettes can do the job just fine as well. Getting larger ships there can be more challenging but pays off handsomely when it can be accomplished. Regardless, it's usually best to orient your blocker ship forwards so it can ram the front of the conga line and remain in place, safe from the broadsides kill zone. Blocker ships, especially the small ships, can't survive ramming forever, though, so be prepared to make a sacrifice or have an escape plan handy for when the hull damage starts piling up.

The rear of the conga line doesn't offer the same advantage in terms of causing a logjam for movement, but it otherwise still benefits from being very safe from enemy attacks and it exploits the activation order issue with conga lines to encourage the rearmost ship to go ASAP to hopefully escape being nipped from behind.

Squadrons
As I mentioned earlier, most conga line fleets don't invest many points into fighters and so a dedicated bomber fleet can capitalize on that provided you can keep your carriers out of the kill zone. Otherwise, follow standard bomber protocol and gang up on individual ships and try to put your squadrons in the most annoying arcs so flakking them isn't easy. If possible, loading them into the front or rear of the conga line can assist ships that want to be there anyways and makes flakking them extremely ineffective overall.

Anticipating "The Turn"
The final item I want to talk about here is what I've heard referred to as "The Turn." What this references is both a game round (often called a turn, I do it when I'm not paying attention too) as well as the act of turning, in which a broadside ship individually or a conga line overall determines the course it will more or less follow throughout the rest of the game, usually in response to a threat coming from its side arc or, more often, its front arc. For example:

Going from "I'm gonna ruin his day" to "oh crap" in one second flat.

"The Turn" can catch an unsupported spoilsport by surprise and so anticipating what the lead conga line ship can do in response to your front-jammer attempts is paramount against a good conga line player. Usually, this requires a friend to keep the front ship hemmed in:

Never go in against a space hoagie when death is on the line!

The simple addition of a second ship (in this case, the Raider) makes "The Turn" much more easily-controlled. The MC30 can do the same maneuver as before but it'll be jammed in by the Raider in that situation. It can go straight ahead and get smashed by both the Raider and the Gladiator, or it can hook to its left and now the Gladiator is jamming it and the Raider will (hopefully) be firing off a round and then making a getaway.

Both ships don't need to be speedy ships, you could use just about anything in the above example provided there are two ships. Having at least one of them be speedy enough to reliably sneak around the front, however, helps substantially.

Final thoughts
Conga line fleets are manageable once you understand how they work and in general even though you'll find side-arc ships (particularly the HMC80 and the occasional Assault Frigate) placing well in top fleets at competitive events, full-fledged conga lines have not been taking top spots overall in the greater meta since the end of wave 2. They're still something that sees a lot of use in local communities, however, especially those that favor heavier slower ships that are naturally weaker to the conga line approach.

My main issue with conga lines is when it comes to newer players: conga lines are easy to use and design, so they're a good learning tool for new players. The problem is they're particularly potent against other new players, whose instinct is to launch their combat ships at the enemy combat ships for a good ol' fashioned dust-up. Conga lines are very strong against a head-on rush of this kind and it can leave opposing new players very frustrated, as they don't yet have the skills to outplay the conga line and it feels hopeless. I hope in some small way this article has helped anyone stuck in that kind of situation find a way out. Thanks for reading!

1 hour ago, Snipafist said:

The MC80 can do the same maneuver as before but it'll be jammed in by the Raider in that situation.

FTFY.

Thanks for the article!

1 hour ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

FTFY.

Thanks, something always sneaks past me every time, but it's usually only a little bit so I suppose it's all right. I fixed it blog-side.

38 minutes ago, Karneck said:

Thanks for the article!

You're welcome!

Needs to be mentioned: in order to block in that MC80 or a similar ship the backup/blocker needs to be in a position where it cannot also be targeted from the side of the broadside ship. Otherwise you might lose the ship before it can block, or even worse the opponent might have the option of firing a full broadside against both ships in a subsequent turn.

18 hours ago, Snipafist said:

You see, killbots have a preset kill limit...

Oh man, what a chuckle. lol

14 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Oh man, what a chuckle. lol

Seriously, Zapp Brannigan has some of the best comedic lines in all of science fiction.

"Kiff! I have made it with a woman! Inform the men."

"The fastest way to a girl's bed is through her parents. Have sex with them and you're in!"

"The key to victory is surprise. Surprise!"

"Stop exploding, you cowards!"

@Snipafist

Can you revisit the Arquitens in the current meta?

7 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

@Snipafist

Can you revisit the Arquitens in the current meta?

Could I ask you to elaborate a bit on what you mean? I updated the article a bit in the great wave 6 catch-up and my feelings about it haven't changed much.

2 hours ago, Snipafist said:

Could I ask you to elaborate a bit on what you mean? I updated the article a bit in the great wave 6 catch-up and my feelings about it haven't changed much.

I just wanted to see how they were getting along in the current meta as I have been out of the loop and don't recall seeing too many of them. I think Thrawn will love them though.

34 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

I just wanted to see how they were getting along in the current meta as I have been out of the loop and don't recall seeing too many of them. I think Thrawn will love them though.

I see them here and there, but it seems to depend a lot on your local scene as to whether or not their consistent plink damage, maneuver chart, and defense tokens are a good fit. The problem is they're not great against opposing skirmishers (because it's their one evade versus the enemy two, and their maneuver chart isn't as generous as, say, a CR90's) and while they can hold up against bombers better than a Raider, their flak is poor and they're usually on the flanks where they're not going to get a lot of squadron support from your own fleet if you're spread thin. The more ships without evades you have in your meta, the better they'll do, basically.

Presently my meta is shifting so we may see an Arquitens resurgence locally. Previously, MSU fleets were more in vogue, so Arquitens could struggle a little bit there.

Regarding Thrawn and them, I'm unsure. Jerry still seems like a better fit overall for maneuvering and Vader for offensive oomph. The Command Arquitens can be used (especially with Relay and/or Centicore ) for a battle-carriers Thrawn fleet (which for my money is still probably the best/easiest way to run Thrawn I'm yet aware of), but I wonder if you're not better off with Gladiators or VSDs in the nearby points bracket.

It's time to make a bunch of Community jokes in an article about building up your own Armada community! (And why didn't we write this like 6 months ago?)

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/11/i-remember-when-this-show-was-about.html

"I remember when this show was about community college" - Building Your Community

So ages ago, I promised a way to build a Rebel fleet that was just like Community, Dan Harmon's original show with intense fans who got way into a well-written, hilarious series that rewarded frequent watching and was unfairly canceled before its time.

And now I get Pickle Rick t-shirts from edgelord teenagers, but I'm NOT BITTER!

Well, we're not doing that today. Today we're talking about how to build your very own Armada Community.

The very preliminary thing I will say is that this article is designed for people without a current community. If you have the option, joining an already existing community is much easier to handle and much less work on you, as likely you won't be the guy running the community you end up joining.

No one is gonna put Buddy in charge. And yeah, it's going to be a LOT of Community-based jokes today.

But if you DO need to run a community, well, here's a few suggestions on how to do it.

Most importantly, don't be Pierce. Or Chevy Chase, for that matter.

First, find a meeting space. The usual plan here is "your local game store" because they tend to have table space and it's a nice neutral ground for you and your fellow bros. Armada needs 3x6 tables for playspace, and that's not something most people have lying around their homes. Combine that with the fact that you're trying to build a community, so you want to be meeting new people. That means public spaces, no matter how swanky your man-cave is.

Everyone can come in and have fun together! Hooray!

Relatedly, let's be that guy and talk hygiene. Yeah, we're going there.

We need clean intelligence, Abed. No references, no callbacks.

If you want to build a community and get new players, you need to be inviting. And there's nothing less inviting than poor hygiene. I'm not trying to bodyshame (heck, I know I could stand to lose some more weight myself) nor am I telling you that suits and ties are mandatory.

They look dang good, though. And yes, that is me on Christmas Eve.

But I AM telling you that you need to at least have a presentable appearance. I'm sure you have at least one "nicer" tee-shirt or a polo or something. Something without holes in it, something that you could wear to your parent's house or brunch or whatever. And you need to bathe. Again, I don't want to be THAT GUY, but nothing makes people NOT want to hang out like nerd funk. From personal experience, I used to work in a magnesium foundry. After the second question of "What's that burning smell?" I started showering twice a day, once before and once after work. If you're trying to make friends, stinking ain't the way to do it. And stinking in public is extra not good.

Second, you need consistency.

Check it against your list and see.

If you want to grow a Community, you need to talk to your local game store and schedule a time that you will be there, week in and week out. Eric and I try to have at least one of us there every Thursday at 6, to ensure a steady presence and steady attendance. We won't shove people out of the way, but we will get there a bit early to make sure our tables are cleared and ready for our regulars.

Related to THAT, ensuring a clean area that's ready for players gets people in there and keeps them there. You have a good idea of how much space you're going to need, you can make sure the table is ready for your players to come in and play a game at. If you ask nicely, you can probably move anyone playing a game on that table to somewhere else (make sure to ask nicely! Flies, vinegar, honey, etc). By trying to build a community, you basically have to become bartender (keep the place clean), kids soccer team manager (organizing games/tournaments/passing out orange slices), and judge (for any rules disputes).

My Dad is NOT Judge Judy and Executioner!

So, know the rules well. We're not all perfect, but having a good foundation (read the Rules Reference Guide! It comes in the starter box and you probably ignored it!) will help both you AND your players grow and continue showing up when confusion happens. But consistency is the most important part of this. Eric and I had started trying to get a community growing of Dropzone Commander and Infinity at the same time as another game or two on a Thursday night, and we just couldn't get enough people to come weekly and commit. Don't demand from your locals that you get the only game that night, but do try to make sure that whatever night you get you're going to get a decent turnout from it.

Third, be friendly! It's not just about looking nice and having a good play area; you need to BE NICE too.

Crazy for Swayze. And let's all ignore the rest of that quote...

If people walk up to your table and see Star Destroyers on the table, they're going to comment on it (and some might say that's why Wave 7 is built around big ships from the movies). TALK TO THEM! Engage, talk a little about the game (without getting super crazy into it and overdoing it; you may want to talk to a neutral friend about HOW you say this first so you come off as "friendly" but not "so enthusiastic you're frightening people"), mention when you play every week (see point 2 above). If you're looking for good things you can talk about, here's some quick bonuses of playing Armada:

• Cheap start up cost as compared to other miniatures games!
• No need to paint, unless you WANT to!
• Easy to understand, fire then move! The rules aren't super complicated, I swear!
• Play whatever Star Wars ships and characters you want!
• No auto-win, it's a matter of what you bring and how you play it!

Fourth, advertising! You've got a space, you've got a time, now you need to get the word out.

I suggest Newsies costumes when passing these out

Social media is a great way to advertise. If you're in a city of decent size, there may already be an Armada group (Chicago Armada! San Francisco Armada! Northwest Ohio Armada!) or you may have to create one (Derry Armada - All spaceships float down here! Gravity Falls Armada! Bring your own spaceship to play with!). You're going to want to post OFTEN but don't go spamming the list. No one wants to re-read your thoughts over and over, so post when you're playing and post when it's important. There's a post I could write about knowing your audience and knowing your humor, but that's for another day (and I'm going to listen to my own advice from a sentence ago about not overdoing it, haha).

Fifth, tolerance. Yeah, we're hitting a lot of things today.

So, Armada is a Star Wars game where (in essence) you push around plastic space ships to feel big about your space pants. I'm a nerd, Eric's a nerd, and we hang out with nerds. So, you're going to get nerds playing your game. What you need to do (nicely) is ensure that you're getting GOOD nerds. I don't mean good PLAYERS, I specifically mean good PEOPLE. Eric wrote his article about tilting , and we haven't had many issues with that. My above point about hygiene, again, we haven't had an issue at our local with that either.

You can't and shouldn't kick people out for being weird/slightly off. Nerds, as a general rule, are a little eccentric to begin with. You SHOULD talk to your players and inform them if legitimate issues start to arise. If someone in your community starts becoming toxic, you need to NICELY talk to that player and let him know his behavior is affecting the game play of everyone else in the community. Remember my Dolton quote above? "Be nice!" But be Dolton, the bouncer . You're in charge of this Community, you need to keep the peace for EVERYONE.

If the behavior of the player in question is just starting to be toxic, work with him and let him know ways he can improve that aspect of his personality (so that it stops affecting the community as a whole). If he persists on acting that way, let him know that it won't be tolerated for much longer before something more drastic gets done about it. This may be as simple as you and the rest of the community giving him the silent treatment and not playing him unless he becomes less of a problem, or you may even need to escalate things to have the game store's owner inform the individual that he's not welcome there any more.

Don't jump for banning immediately, don't start banning people after one incident or whatever. Banning someone is a FINAL STEP that should be taken only after that person has exhausted all other attempts and options you've given them to clean up their behavior. Banning should mainly be reserved for INCREDIBLY terrible people, racists/bigots/cheaters/ACTUAL bullies, people who have been given every chance you've given them and they've rejected them all.

Seriously, don't be Pierce or Chevy Chase

I realize that it's REALLY not easy to confront some about their behavior, but Eric and I have seen gaming communities we've played in disintegrate because of ONE toxic individual. You need to nip that in the bud or else it'll destroy whatever fledgling community you're starting to make. You want friendly players that you want to play against, you don't want jerks. You're building a tolerant community where all good people will be accepted for who they are and can all play together as friends.

I'm calling dibs on the Han Solo role before Jeff slouches into it by default

And with that, you've got a community going.

RIP Starburns

Great article, and from 1st hand experience I can say these are all excellent pointers!

From my own experience I've also snagged quite a few people by setting up a custom "Learn to play". I started to notice that compared to the ISD and the MC80s the starter kit doesn't tend to snag as much attention, so I'll typically run a custom fleet for onlookers wanting to learn.

I've had GREAT results with this fleet.

L2P IMP
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 219/400

Commander: Admiral Motti

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 148 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

6 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 48 points)

L2P REB
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 229/400

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
= 159 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
= 18 total ship cost

4 X-Wing Squadrons ( 52 points)

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I've had GREAT results with this fleet.

Just for getting people hooked, or also for teaching them to play?

Everybody loves the imagery of big ships, but it's a pretty different list from what I would have assumed ideal for the latter, so I'm curious.

22 minutes ago, svelok said:

Just for getting people hooked, or also for teaching them to play?

Everybody loves the imagery of big ships, but it's a pretty different list from what I would have assumed ideal for the latter, so I'm curious.

It's great for teaching all the basics.

-Game basics (phases/turns/rounds)
-Basic commands
-Navigation at fast or slow speeds
-Arcs
-LoS
-Ranges
-Attack steps
-Defense steps
-All Defense tokens are represented
-Basic Squadrons and keywords
-Activating squads
-Squads against ships
-Squads against squads


Are they going to come out of the match knowing what fleet type they want to play or have a complete grasp of the meta? No, obviously, but it does cover all the basics fairly well. Which is the point. When players are engaged they learn quickly. I've run the standard demo many times, and typically, players just ride along with the booklet. When you give them a fleet they want to command, they are inquisitive to what each function will do. In all my time running demos, I've really only had 1 or 2 sit down to play a match with our group after learning with the standard demo. I've had 3 or 4 people buy into Armada that day playing this version, it's honestly what I credit the reconstruction of our local group to. All those players are regulars now.


I'm curious to what you presumed would be ideal? Have you had success with a custom version of your own?

22 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

It's great for teaching all the basics.

-Game basics (phases/turns/rounds)
-Basic commands
-Navigation at fast or slow speeds
-Arcs
-LoS
-Ranges
-Attack steps
-Defense steps
-All Defense tokens are represented
-Basic Squadrons and keywords
-Activating squads
-Squads against ships
-Squads against squads


Are they going to come out of the match knowing what fleet type they want to play or have a complete grasp of the meta? No, obviously, but it does cover all the basics fairly well. Which is the point. When players are engaged they learn quickly. I've run the standard demo many times, and typically, players just ride along with the booklet. When you give them a fleet they want to command, they are inquisitive to what each function will do. In all my time running demos, I've really only had 1 or 2 sit down to play a match with our group after learning with the standard demo. I've had 3 or 4 people buy into Armada that day playing this version, it's honestly what I credit the reconstruction of our local group to. All those players are regulars now.


I'm curious to what you presumed would be ideal? Have you had success with a custom version of your own?

I played a LTP game against a new guy a few days ago and I wish I had thought of running lists more like you suggested. I think it would have given him a much better feel for the game overall.

Just now, Megatronrex said:

I played a LTP game against a new guy a few days ago and I wish I had thought of running lists more like you suggested. I think it would have given him a much better feel for the game overall.

I'm out of likes for today so... maybe tomorrow.

What I'm concerned with is learning the mechanics.

Big ships have the advantage of doing almost EVERYTHING better (in terms of mechanics). When you resolve a squadron command you activate more, when you resolve engineering it gives you more, the effects of a good Nav command are more obvious... and with larger ships a confire can give the extra dice needed to add that final punch.

47 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I'm curious to what you presumed would be ideal?

My expectation would have been that two combat ships each would be more instructive than one, and that sticking with the core set squadrons wouldn't get people thinking about squadron commands enough to ever use any.

47 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Have you had success with a custom version of your own?

I've only ever played the original LTP, which is why I ask - your reported results didn't match my priors, hence the curiosity.

Just now, svelok said:

My expectation would have been that two combat ships each would be more instructive than one, and that sticking with the core set squadrons wouldn't get people thinking about squadron commands enough to ever use any.

I've only ever played the original LTP, which is why I ask - your reported results didn't match my priors, hence the curiosity.

I see. In all actuality players that have used this custom L2P have run squadron commands pretty commonly.

Keep in mind that while playing, I'm also instructing the learner vocally. So while on paper it may seem plain, in person they hear the benefits of pushing 4 of those ties to take out the bombers or throwing those bombers at the front hull before you hit it with akbar. Also keep in mind during a L2P my goal is not to win, my goal is to teach, so there are times where I can see an opportunity for an early victory, and I do the opposite. Clubbing a baby seal with an Akbar Mc80 or Motti ISD in a L2P isn't my definition of fun so I'm not ashamed to say, I'll sandbag if I have to. The results have been excellent.

What really caught me off guard is the direction each player has gone after this L2P. I had presumed that they'd have a predisposition for the large ships, but realistically, they spread out. My most recent recruit played this L2P, then immediately went on to build a twin vic/quasar sloane fleet that he's been man-handling most of our local group with. I was really impressed.

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/11/eric-will-be-away-for-little-while-due.html

Just a quick note that due to the impending birth of my son, I'm going to be incommunicado for a week or more. This last week or so as we've settled into the home stretch has been kind of crazy already, but I'll be back once life settles down a little bit!

"I missed you, Son." "I missed you too, Dad." Stormtrooper humor

This went up Sunday night and here I have returned (to some extent, anyways) from the hospital today with my son.

Sorry for the blurry picture, one handed baby selfie happened.

Everything went great with the delivery - the missus and I got into the hospital at 10PM and the baby was born at 2:53AM. 40 hours after we set foot inside the hospital we left with a healthy mom and healthy baby boy. I'm very lucky that everything went both quickly and smoothly with no problems. I should have some downtime here and there to poke about on the forums and maybe work a bit on the blog but for the immediate future, don't rely on me for anything urgent. Thanks!

15 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/11/eric-will-be-away-for-little-while-due.html

Just a quick note that due to the impending birth of my son, I'm going to be incommunicado for a week or more. This last week or so as we've settled into the home stretch has been kind of crazy already, but I'll be back once life settles down a little bit!

"I missed you, Son." "I missed you too, Dad." Stormtrooper humor

This went up Sunday night and here I have returned (to some extent, anyways) from the hospital today with my son.

Sorry for the blurry picture, one handed baby selfie happened.

Everything went great with the delivery - the missus and I got into the hospital at 10PM and the baby was born at 2:53AM. 40 hours after we set foot inside the hospital we left with a healthy mom and healthy baby boy. I'm very lucky that everything went both quickly and smoothly with no problems. I should have some downtime here and there to poke about on the forums and maybe work a bit on the blog but for the immediate future, don't rely on me for anything urgent. Thanks!

Congratulations, and have fun. We'll all be here when you want an escape.

Congrats man!! Baby boys are awesome!

Congrats!

https://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/11/thanksgiving.html

Thanks for reading! Now where's my turkey?