Hi! I'm still really new to the game and I want to get in as much practice as possible. However, it is kinda hard to get a game in sometimes because of how long the game is. Is there anything you guys to do practice/train that helps?

Like, in x-wing I would fly "obstacle courses" to help fly and/or use squadron benchmark to help squads against AI. (There are also a few AI apps for xwing that are pretty good)

Is there anything similar I can use to get better at armada? I know about vassal/tts but I don't have a pc at the moment (long story) and really would prefer something that I do without a second player.

Obviously nothing is going to replace actually playing against people, but I need all the help I can get, lol.

Thank you!

I was about to chime in with "Vassal!" and then I saw your dilemma.

If you had the space, there is a lot to be learned from moving ships and playing solo. Build two separate lists and duke it out. Learn deployment. Learn how to achieve double arcs. Learn how to pounce and also hold back with squads.

Play a normal game, but you controlling both factions. I've done that some times and it helped me to try some fleet, strategies and learn things that I should not to do for example.
Playing alone in Armada is not as bad as it is in X-Wing, as "knowing" your opponent's plans are not as decisive here, at least in my opinion

12 minutes ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

I was about to chime in with "Vassal!" and then I saw your dilemma.

If you had the space, there is a lot to be learned from moving ships and playing solo. Build two separate lists and duke it out. Learn deployment. Learn how to achieve double arcs. Learn how to pounce and also hold back with squads.

Thanks. I really do need to learn deployment. I feel like I screw something up every game during turn 0. (I've only played a handful of games, but I feel like I should have a better grasp on that part by now)

11 minutes ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:

Play a normal game, but you controlling both factions. I've done that some times and it helped me to try some fleet, strategies and learn things that I should not to do for example.
Playing alone in Armada is not as bad as it is in X-Wing, as "knowing" your opponent's plans are not as decisive here, at least in my opinion

That's good to know. Playing against yourself in x-wing does not work super well, but I think you are right in that it would probably be more beneficial in armada. My collection is still pretty small and I don't have any imperial stuff other than what came from the box, so it will have to be a rebel vs rebel training exercise (which I suppose it really would be, lol) or a 180pt game of rebels vs imps (that might work out well since my table is not big enough to hold a 3x6 game but can do 3x3 pretty well). Thank you!

Absolutely. Play both sides. I actually try to do this with every new list, as some of the movement interplay between ships doesn't become noticable until they hit the table.

Try reducing your games to 225 maximum points and play on an X-Wing 3x3. The more I play the smaller "task force" or "Patrol"(as I call it) format, the more I think you get the same experience in Armada in far less time (an hour per game).

Moreover because you have fewer ships and more time to get more games in, you can practice with equipment/ships and the basics of Armada. Playing both sides with fewer ships, you can practice what works and what doesn't.

Our local community has seen a resurgence lately so I've been able to get more "real" games in but for awhile I was doing a lot of solo games to practice. I was even doing a solo Corellian Conflict that was a lot of fun, playing all six fleets. You can learn a lot doing this: how different ships maneuver, how to read the board state and react to what's going on, how to plan ahead with your dials, etc.

Recently, I have been trying to learn how to fly the Liberty and getting wrecked every time I put it on the table, so I've been doing the Armada equivalent of putting your obstacles out and flying through them. Instead of playing full solo games I've just been putting the Liberty and an ISD on my kitchen counter in various starting positions and playing around with the maneuver tool. "If I'm here and he's there and I have this many clicks can I get out of the front arc and still shoot?" "If I'm coming in at speed 3 and he's going speed 2 how would I keep my front guns on him next round?" Stuff like that.

My advice for full solo games is keep your fleets small. Don't bring a dozen activations and squadrons on each side or you'll be there all day and it's not that exciting. I like to shoot for 4 activations and maybe 4-8 squadrons on each side. One of the fleets in my solo CC was a Sloane with ~12+ mostly generic squadrons and it was such a chore to play that I gave up on them after a couple games.

I had a very maneuver dependent Madine list for last regionals. It had a Liberty some vettes and a pair of flotillas. I've also campaigned a bomber wing with double Gladiators and a flechette raider that benefitted greatly from flying in tight formation. Both did reasonably well.

...That being said, I practiced deployment AND two-round opening moves with different maneuver-dependent objectives (Intel Sweep, Solar Corona, Contested Outpost, Sensor Net, Salvage Run, etc.). If it is an objective that benefits from Intel, give the 'dummy player' Intel to mess with your plans, play them as 1st and 2nd player to see the possibilities. That has simulated a lot more experience that I would otherwise bring to any table.

I rarely play the 3-6 turns against myself (lack the mental discipline), but learn A LOT from practicing the opening moves. My first tournament, I had a very veteran player compliment me on the precision of my opening formation and smoothness of my first moves to be a good formation without using nav commands - a very encouraging moment in my early days of playing.

Lastly, I usually have two formations for each competitive list I fly. One is usually straight on, and the other is built to run diagonal (great generic options). Often this requires some interesting positioning at the deployment to have everyone be where I want them AND moving at the speed I want them using minimum nav dials (so tokens can be banked). I will also have a specific deployment plan for each of my fleets objectives. No plan survives first contact, but someone with no plan rarely survives.

That would keep a person busy, but I only know 1 other regular player within 300 miles so I'm doing what I can. Vassal is AWESOME, but my kid/work schedules make it hard to commit to tournaments.

My dummy fleet is usually an ISD, Demolisher, and a small set of generic fighters (just to see positioning). I wish I would have practiced against a fat MC80 Home One with an Admo MC30 before last tournament. Heavy front arcs and heavy side arcs are different approaches. MSU lists are too much of a pain to simulate so I wing it when I meet them.

43 minutes ago, Norsehound said:

Try reducing your games to 225 maximum points and play on an X-Wing 3x3. The more I play the smaller "task force" or "Patrol"(as I call it) format, the more I think you get the same experience in Armada in far less time (an hour per game).

Moreover because you have fewer ships and more time to get more games in, you can practice with equipment/ships and the basics of Armada. Playing both sides with fewer ships, you can practice what works and what doesn't.

That is so cool. I've not heard of that format, but I like it a lot.

Thank you, everyone! This is some great advice.

The 3x3 is a good option!

Clearly, the best way is to set up the rebel fleet on one end of your kitchen counter, and the imperial fleet on the other end, each on seperate ends of the sink, so as you are cooking you can advanced each of them slowly towards each other for conquest of dinner. After all, there is no restrictions on battlefield size if you dont want there to be. ****, if I wasnt afraid of stepping on them, id buy enough to battle for the entire apartment in constant battles.

THIS CLOSET SHALL BE THE IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS.... meanwhile the Rebel Fleet hides out in the freezer ice base.

I can confirm playing vs yourself is reasonably doable. I have free space where I could keep a game up for long times. I'd play for an hour and then walk away. Those were the best because if you picked up the following day, I'd frequently not remember everything that was going on with both sides.

Even if you can't keep it around for days on end, its still helpful. I usually took my best fleet and then ran new ones against it to see what worked. It doesn't replace live practice, but it will get you moderately competent.

Proxy some Imperial ships. Everything that you need is out there. You may need to borrow a printer, go to a copy shop, or go to the library to print out the ship bases. They may not be exact, but they will be more than good enough for practice.

If you don't feel you already have everything down, concentrate on learning distances both ship and Squadron. Also, run through each of the ships and see what its various turning abilities are like. Try it with various other ships positioned around it, and doing various Maneuvers and trying it with yaw dials at various points in the chart and so forth.

You didn't mention your exact living situation, but if you have floor space you can always set up on that for a larger play area. That may limit how long you can keep the game going, but at least it lets you get a full-scale trial in.

If you have enough space for a brief 6 by 3 game, and you're willing to put a little money into this, you can buy whiteboard sheets at either three by three or 1 and 1/2 by 3. Secure them together to make a 6 by 3 area. (There are various means to accomplish this.) You can also use plexiglass for this purpose, but it does not work as well, particularly for what I'm about to tell you.

Now, after you have played a few turns and you need to break the game down, save the game state. Take a fine point Sharpie (yes, a permanent marker) and mark the corners of all the ships and circle the bases of all the squadrons. Right ship IDs and put an arrow for Direction. Presumably, you can keep the models with the appropriate Shield settings. You'll need to bind up the various card using soft rubber bands. The ones for girls hair can be an excellent choice. Another option is to use card sleeves, baggies, or what have you.

Okay, you have now ruined the whiteboards with permanent marker, right? Well, when you are ready to set up again, you pull out the ships and squadrons and place them in the appropriate locations. Then, right over the permanent ink with a dry erase pen. It will be a little awkward to do this while maintaining perfect positions for all of the ships and squadrons, but oh well. Give the dry erase a few seconds to dry out, and then wipe it off with either a dry erase marker, one of the small ones for finer detail, or a soft lint free cloth. Everything will wipe off perfectly cleanly! Old t-shirts and underwear that have been well washed you may want to cut them into small squares usually about 4 inches by 4 inches. Don't, don't, don't use paper towels or anything even slightly aggressive to White on the whiteboards! You will put micro scratches into the surface, where the ink will pool and won't wipe out, at least not easily. At some point, you may find that you have Shadows of the ink left on the surface of the Whiteboard. Use rubbing alcohol on a soft cloth to clean the Whiteboard very effectively. Incidentally, this works well for whiteboards at work or in schools. It's slightly better and a lot cheaper than the Whiteboard cleaning spray that you can buy at office supply places. Anyhow, I play some games that require marking on laminated surfaces, and we've been using this method for years. Oh, God, it's been decades--I'm so old.

If you can only play a turn at a time, you can take a few photos of where everything is and post them on the Forum. Get people to suggest what the other side should do. If there are enough people active on the Forum, and you have the patience for it, you could even do that for each activation. That wouldn't necessarily produce a coherent strategy for the other side, but at least you would get some interesting decisions.

Someone did this for a completely different system on a completely different topic. It worked pretty well overall.

1 hour ago, deDios said:

...That being said, I practiced deployment AND two-round opening moves with different maneuver-dependent objectives (Intel Sweep, Solar Corona, Contested Outpost, Sensor Net, Salvage Run, etc.). If it is an objective that benefits from Intel, give the 'dummy player' Intel to mess with your plans, play them as 1st and 2nd player to see the possibilities. That has simulated a lot more experience that I would otherwise bring to any table.

This is fantastic advice. I don't do it so much anymore, but it helps a lot with becoming familiar with openings.

I've done quite a bit of solo "wargaming" practice myself, and there's a major pitfall there: you don't necessarily get better, you just get better against yourself. Your own little quirks get amplified; you know what your own trap is going to look like and learn how to defend against that; you have the one fleet you think of as "yours" and tend to make better decisions for that one; that sort of thing. One of the fastest ways to get better at a game is to get your *** beat over and over by somebody better than you.

The way I mitigate this: lean into your own bias, and account for it. Designate one fleet as "yours" and one as the opponent. Play your fleet as normal, but run the opponent's with various take-backsies. I never set dials for the opposing fleet, but instead give it whatever command is most ideal at the time it would be revealed. I always slot the man tool before measuring for the opposing fleet, and allow it multiple measurement tools (measuring range from final position, that sort of thing). If I don't like where the ship ends up, I'll take back the move and redo it. This helps to simulate "optimal play" by the opponent, and helps you learn to play against somebody who's functionally better than yourself, even though it's still you flying it.

There are of course limits to doing this. It really only helps with tactical execution. Because you're still running both fleets, you still know both sides' strategies, so you're never going to juke yourself as @Green Knight did in his recent World Cup against @rasproteus, for example. You're also likely to develop your own little internal "meta" if you're relying on solo games for your primary practice, rather than as a supplement to table time. Still, it's pretty helpful if you're looking to keep sharp but can't get regular games in.

4 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

I've done quite a bit of solo "wargaming" practice myself, and there's a major pitfall there: you don't necessarily get better, you just get better against yourself. Your own little quirks get amplified; you know what your own trap is going to look like and learn how to defend against that; you have the one fleet you think of as "yours" and tend to make better decisions for that one; that sort of thing.

This is something I've definitely noticed when trying to practice against myself.

4 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

The way I mitigate this: lean into your own bias, and account for it. Designate one fleet as "yours" and one as the opponent. Play your fleet as normal, but run the opponent's with various take-backsies. I never set dials for the opposing fleet, but instead give it whatever command is most ideal at the time it would be revealed. I always slot the man tool before measuring for the opposing fleet, and allow it multiple measurement tools (measuring range from final position, that sort of thing). If I don't like where the ship ends up, I'll take back the move and redo it. This helps to simulate "optimal play" by the opponent, and helps you learn to play against somebody who's functionally better than yourself, even though it's still you flying it.

And this is a great idea that I wish I'd thought of before. Absolutely going to do this from now on!

1 hour ago, Ardaedhel said:

This is fantastic advice. I don't do it so much anymore, but it helps a lot with becoming familiar with openings.

I've done quite a bit of solo "wargaming" practice myself, and there's a major pitfall there: you don't necessarily get better, you just get better against yourself. Your own little quirks get amplified; you know what your own trap is going to look like and learn how to defend against that; you have the one fleet you think of as "yours" and tend to make better decisions for that one; that sort of thing. One of the fastest ways to get better at a game is to get your *** beat over and over by somebody better than you.

The way I mitigate this: lean into your own bias, and account for it. Designate one fleet as "yours" and one as the opponent. Play your fleet as normal, but run the opponent's with various take-backsies. I never set dials for the opposing fleet, but instead give it whatever command is most ideal at the time it would be revealed. I always slot the man tool before measuring for the opposing fleet, and allow it multiple measurement tools (measuring range from final position, that sort of thing). If I don't like where the ship ends up, I'll take back the move and redo it. This helps to simulate "optimal play" by the opponent, and helps you learn to play against somebody who's functionally better than yourself, even though it's still you flying it.

There are of course limits to doing this. It really only helps with tactical execution. Because you're still running both fleets, you still know both sides' strategies, so you're never going to juke yourself as @Green Knight did in his recent World Cup against @rasproteus, for example. You're also likely to develop your own little internal "meta" if you're relying on solo games for your primary practice, rather than as a supplement to table time. Still, it's pretty helpful if you're looking to keep sharp but can't get regular games in.

What?

43 minutes ago, rasproteus said:

What?

Specifically talking about him turning the ISD toward, and then hard away from, Admonition, to catch the rest of the fleet with it.

That was your game, right? Sorry, I've been half-watching a lot of Vassal games recently, might've gotten confused.

1 hour ago, Ardaedhel said:

Specifically talking about him turning the ISD toward, and then hard away from, Admonition, to catch the rest of the fleet with it.

That was your game, right? Sorry, I've been half-watching a lot of Vassal games recently, might've gotten confused.

Yeah, that was me. I just wasn't sure if you were saying I juked him, or that he juked me (he definitely threw me a curve). And apparently, you can't receive PMs any more, so I had to come here to find out!

Like so many others on this thread, I too enjoy playing with myself.