This is sort of a mini battle report and list advice solicitation combined, so I'm posting it here. Also going from memory on a lot of things, so if you played me, feel free to correct something if I get it wrong.

I consider myself to be a fairly new Armada player. I've been playing for a few months, but I don't get to play often and, up until this past Saturday, I'd only ever played against one person - a friend of mine to whom I taught the game. He enjoys playing, but doesn't buy anything; we just use my ships and I always make the lists, attempting to balance them against each other (and thus I've never played Rebel vs Rebel nor Empire vs Empire).

Well, for some reason, I decided to make the Indianapolis Regional my first tournament. There was a slight hiccough round one when I discovered that I've been doing the orange/blue activation marker backwards, but apart from that I was really happy with the day. The venue and TO were awesome. All of my opponents exhibited commendable sportsmanship, whether winning or losing. I hope that I was as pleasant an opponent for them as they were for me. I did much better than I had expected to do, winning the first three rounds and coming in 16th.

Anyhow, I flew this list:

Naptown Regional 01-2018

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 394/400

Commander: Mon Mothma

Assault Objective: Blockade Run
Defense Objective: Capture the VIP
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Mon Mothma ( 30 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 90 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 51 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Foresight ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 90 total ship cost

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)
- Assault Concussion Missiles ( 7 points)
= 90 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points)

Round 1: I faced an Ackbar CR90 swarm, going first and choosing his Most Wanted. I had expected to be the fast fleet coming into the tournament, but my opponent came in hot. I gummed up the centre, holding a couple of his corvettes in place at close range of my MC30s, which reduced his firepower early. Neither of us scored anything from the objective, but I won 270-141.

Round 2: This was the first time I had ever played against Sloane. My opponent was running a non-BT Avenger flagship, a Quasar, a couple of Gozantis, and a mess of named squadrons. This time we played Solar Corona - I believe it was my opponent's and not mine.

I set up in the middle with the plan of going after the Quasar, but I now think that that was a bad plan. However, my opponent deployed the Quasar on the opposite side of the ISD from my fleet, so I couldn't pursue that strategy anyway. My opponent ate my small squadron force alive while we both crept slowly toward one another, not wanting to be the first to come into range. Again, I had expected to be the fast, zippy fleet, but I had to keep the brakes on, which took all of my patience and discipline; I wanted to shoot up to speed four and run away from Avenger so badly! It paid off though, I was able to coordinate my fire enough to take down that flagship in the middle rounds. I think that taking out Sloane herself was huge here, because I still lost my non-flagship CR90 and a transport, but I think that it would have been much worse if my opponent's squadrons still had Sloane around (my Round 4 match against Sloane taught me that). Final score was 186-104.

Round 3: This was an interesting game for me and for my opponent - he chose my Blockade Run, which neither of us had ever played before. He had Demo, Insidious, a couple of exrax Raiders, a couple of Gozantis, and a few regular TIEs, commanded by Darth Vader.

I put all of the obstacles in the middle, the plan being to try to swing everything to whichever side Demo wasn't on, put my torpedo frigates between Demo and my other ships and/or possibly feed her a flotilla or (hopefully not) two, try to blow past him and just get the objective points. If I happened to kill anything that would just be bonus.

I'm not sure whether I deployed too far back or not. I ended up with a couple of surviving ships that didn't make it to his deployment zone by the end of the game, but I also think that those ships might simply have died if I'd come in sooner. Final score was 97-57.

Round 4: Here's where things went bad for me. My opponent was running Sloane on Insidious, Demolisher, three Gozantis, and, of course, a mess of nasty squadrons. Both Gladiators had Engine Techs. He went first, choosing my Solar Corona.

My strategy this game was to set up on the side nearest Insidious and try to take out Sloane, but I discovered that she's a lot squirrelier on an ET Gladiator than she is on an ISD. I managed to strip all her shields, but I just couldn't pin her down. Meanwhile the Gozantis floated away to the safe end of the board, using relay to safely command all of the villains. Vader was my only kill for the entire game. I got stomped 21-233.

So, what advice do you have regarding the list?

What about objectives? I'm really not sure that Solar Corona was the best blue that I could've taken. Also not sure about VIP - I've never gotten to play it, but does the fact that no one chose it indicate that maybe it is good?

What strategic blunders did I commit?

What could I have tried in Round 4?

First of all, congratulations! It seems like you had a really good day for your first tournament, and a regional at that!

Your fleet is very similar to my Mon Mothma fleet; the biggest difference is that I have more points into squadrons instead of that second CR-90a.

Fleet Building: (I haven't been playing much longer than you have, so take all of this with a grain of salt.) I think if you can play coy with Jaina's Light, the points you have into ECM can be put to better use elsewhere. There are three possibilities that pop out: (1) Lando on Admonition; (2) Wallex on Admonition and Lando on Foresight; or (3) Toryn Farr on one of the GR-75s (with Bright Hope instead of Comms Net).

Two TRC90s is pretty sweet — I plan to try this out soon. In my build I replace the second TRC90 and Tycho with Han, Hera, and Wedge (Shara is still there). Give that a spin some time, it is a lot of fun.

Objectives: Blockade Run is a decent objective for a fast fleet like yours, but it can backfire if you face something like 3 Gunnery Team VSDs that can just slow roll and wait for you to come into their jaws. Most Wanted would work well for you.

I run Solar Corona and Capture the VIP in my fleet also. I, too, am stuck trying to find something better for both of those — I've had Capture the VIP backfire on me horribly when I went after the VIP with Jaina's Light, and my opponent set up Demolisher with Engine Techs straight across from me (I decided to abandon the VIP to save Mon Mothma — in the end it was the right call, and I won the game even after losing the objective). I've been leaning toward Planetary Ion Cannon, but I haven't had much success with that one either. Dangerous Territory isn't too bad with a fleet like yours, but it can be harder if you face a fleet with with strategic.

If you find that any of these work or don't work for you, let me know. My Mon Mothma fleet could stand to have some tweaking too.

I was going back and forth on the ECMs. In the end I chickened out and used them. I really didn't want to lose Mothma! I think that you're right though - if I can get comfortable and practiced at keeping Jaina's Light out of the fray, I can probably put those points to better use.

I can also go ahead and drop at least one of the Comms Nets for a couple more points. I threw the Comms Nets on to give the transports something useful to do once my interceptors were dead, but I didn't get a whole lot of use out of them. Those points combined with the points saved on ECM could be enough to put in some of your suggestions.

I'd like to get rid of one of the flotillas since I only have two squadrons that need commanded, but I was glad to have the six activations.

What do you think about Advanced Gunnery? With Blockade Run I was trying to give myself a way of scoring points that didn't involve fighting, but giving Admonition or Foresight the ability to unload two side shots into the same target doesn't seem too bad.

5 hours ago, Helias de Nappo said:

What do you think about Advanced Gunnery? With Blockade Run I was trying to give myself a way of scoring points that didn't involve fighting, but giving Admonition or Foresight the ability to unload two side shots into the same target doesn't seem too bad.

Not Advanced Gunnery. It would backfire horribly if you face an ISD or Defiance. Most Wanted is better. You can make one of your flotillas the objective ship and fly it off into the corner without losing much.