7 hours ago, drail14me said:

@Karneck I'd like to request a Devastator video. I just watched your 800 Point Fleet Battle v Ardaedhel. At the end, at the 36:16 mark in the video, you roll a bunch of dice. From the chat, I'm thinking that's the roll you would have gotten off the Devastator had it not been killed. Can you explain how you rolled the extra four blue dice? Does Devastator title let you discard the defense tokens or were your's already gone?

Sure thing, I'll do that video today.

To sum up the card, if any of your defense tokens are discarded, you can add a single blue die to one of your attacks made from the front, so you can add up to 4 blue dice if the ISD no longer has any defense tokens.

How-to use Title "Devastator" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE) Interviews 2019 Worlds 4th Place

Nic

Fellow Armada bloggers at Cannot Get Your Ship out did an interview with Nathan Coda!
http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2019/04/nathan-coda-worlds-2019-worlds-aar.html

Editor's note: we're happy to have Nate back to talk to us about his experiences at Worlds this year!

This year was the fourth Worlds tournament I have attended, and was yet again a memorable experience. I got to play eight games of Armada with a group of excellent players from around the world, discuss my favorite game with people who are just as passionate about it as I am, and managed to earn my fourth top-four Worlds placement. What’s not to enjoy?

Here’s my list:

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Salvage Run

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• General Rieekan (30)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Admonition (8)
= 112 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 53 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
= 56 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 27 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points

Squadrons:
• Hera Syndulla (28)
• Dash Rendar (24)
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• Dutch Vander (16)
• Gold Squadron (12)
= 121 Points

Total Points: 395

Space baby not included.

This list has a strong ship and squadron threats, is flexible, and a lot of fun to fly. I’m banking that if an opponent can overwhelm my squadrons, I should be able to win the ship battle. And if an opponent overwhelms my ships, I can win the squadron battle… then have my rogue bombers even the odds of the ship battle.

For ships, I really enjoy flying MC30s and CR90s. They are maneuverable enough to let me control engagements, while still packing a punch. I haven’t flown a CR90B in a long time, and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. That little guy consistently punched above his weight class while managing to slip away afterwards.

For squadrons, I’ve found this group of pilots to be pretty fantastic generalists. I went with rogues because I wanted to limit my investment in squadron support. No carrier needed for this fleet. I enjoy all these squadrons, but I really like Dash for his consistency and Ketsu for her fantastic ability to harass. Two blue dice bomber with speed four, grit, and rogue is just a really good combination.

Why did I select Rieekan for Worlds again this year? Besides being an admiral I enjoy playing, there are a few things about Rieekan that make him my top choice for competitive play:

• I don’t like to make giant bids to go first, and Rieekan lessens the downsides of being second.
• In a meta of large ships swinging giant haymakers, Rieekan ensures that your ships actually get a chance to play the game.
• When you get unlucky (which will happen at some point over the course of eight games), Rieekan gives you a chance to salvage your game.
• When running ace squadrons, Rieekan is the best squadron commander that Rebels have.

The face of a man who has nothing to prove.

So while I know people are generally unhappy to see Rieekan in the finals again, I have a hard time flying the type of competitive lists I enjoy without Rieekan on the bridge. And honestly, that’s what’s most important - flying something you enjoy.

That’s enough of that - let’s talk about some games:

These are going to be pretty short and sweet - just a high level overview and a highlight or two from each game. My summaries are focused on games and not players, so let me just say here that all seven of my opponents played a tight game and were a pleasure to play against. I’m always impressed by the caliber of people in our community, and it makes a tournament like this a truly enjoyable event.

Game 1: 6-5

This game was against a Thrawn list flying a Kuat, Quasar, Gozanti, and the usual mess of squadrons. This ended up being a close grind, where our squadrons battled it out and we traded some support ships. My favorite part of this game was dropping Admonition to speed 0 for a few turns so the Kuat could not sneak around behind it and run away. I ended up only getting one close range shot off on the last turn, though, and the Kuat succeeded in sneaking away at half health.

Game 2: 10-1

This game was against a Madine list flying a Liberty, MC30, GR-75, and some squadrons. This is the only game of the tournament where I took first player, as it gave me the ability to last/first effectively. I did a last/first with my CR90B to ram his MC30 to death, then did a last/first with my MC30 to finish off his Liberty (with help from CR90A and squadron friends). My favorite part of this game was watching a Liberty kill my slicer flotilla with his side arc, using a double shot from advanced gunnery at medium range. Poor guy thought he was safe in that weak side arc, then got pummeled.

Game 3: 10-1

This game was against a Raddus list flying a Liberty, CR90B, 2 GR-75s, and 8 YT-2400s. I won the squadron battle then ganged up on the Liberty, which wasn’t able to line up an effective shot on my nimble ships. His CR90B was behind his Liberty, and ended up getting picked off by my two CR90s on the last turn. My favorite part of this game was my CR90A doing a front arc shot into Raddus at close range, adding a Most Wanted die to roll a massive 6 damage, which was just enough to finish him off.

Game 4: 8-3

This game was against a Thrawn list flying an ISD-II, Quasar, and the usual mess of squadrons. Our squadrons ground each other down, and I managed to kill the ISD with focused bomber and ship fire. My favorite part of this game was in the last turn, where I had Ketsu engage Maarek so he could not go fast enough to catch my crippled CR90B and finish it off. This is the first time I have ever used Ketsu ability to any meaningful effect, so it was a bit of a historic moment.

Game 5: 6-5

This game was against Dennis, who went on to win the whole tournament. This ended up being a squadron grind, with only a few ships being destroyed. I only won due to holding onto the VIP token. My favorite thing in this game was a move Dennis made where he squalled some squadrons up to my slicer flotilla, then activated them all to kill the flotilla and move away. End result was a dead flotilla and all his squadrons moved safely away. A very clever move.

Game 6: 8-3

This game was against Yik, who went on to get ninth in the tournament. He was flying Rieekan with an MC80C, Hammerhead, two GR75s, and a mess of squadrons. He threw his MC80C right in, where my CR90A, MC30, and bombers tried to take it out. They ended up barely succeeding, and Admonition got away with only 1 health left. He won the squadron fight due to my focus on the MC80C, but my CR90B caught up with his Hammerhead and finished it off to table him. My favorite part of this game was where my CR90B shot at his 1 health hammerhead and rolled 3 accuracies. Then, instead of fleeing to avoid reprisal, it had to hang around and ram him to kill him, guaranteeing the gruesome death of the CR90B in retalitary fire.

Game 7: 6-5

This game was against Norm, who went on to get third in the tournament. He was running Thrawn with an ISD-II, Gladiator, and a fun squadron list. This game was weird, where he didn’t want to engage my squadrons and I didn’t want to engage his ISD. We compromised and traded some ship kills, then finished with a quick squadron battle. I came out a little ahead due to killing off his Most Wanted Gladiator. My favorite part of this game was where Norm parked his ISD on a rock and kept it there by ramming his gladiator. This was an excellent tactical move, as it kept his ISD at a relevant range for several turns. However, it did result in his ISD acquiring around six damage cards. So he ended the game with an ISD missing half its hull, even though it was never shot once.

Game 8 : Loss

This was the final game which was against Dennis. After playing Dennis once already, I knew he had me in the squadron game and I knew I had him in the ship game. So it would come down to whether I could catch and kill his ships. Spoiler alert - I couldn’t. My favorite part of this game was when Dennis managed to use engine techs on Centicore to avoid a close range MC30 shot, slipping away to victory.

Congratulations to Dennis, the 2019 Armada World Champion! Hope you were able to get that giant trophy through airport security!

Thank you to the Armada community for making 2019 another fun year, and I look forward to pushing around more plastic spaceships with you all in the future!

Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE) Interviews 2019 Worlds 7th Place
Sam

On 4/20/2019 at 12:50 PM, Karneck said:

How-to use Title "Devastator" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

Thanks for the video!

question. Vader is commander. You use Vader to spend an exhausted defense token to reroll dice. Spending the token discards it. Do you get to add the die on that attack?

13 minutes ago, drail14me said:

Thanks for the video!

question. Vader is commander. You use Vader to spend an exhausted defense token to reroll dice. Spending the token discards it. Do you get to add the die on that attack?

yes

but you have to add all of your Devastator dice at one time, so you don't get to add 2 then discard a token for a reroll and then add another one.

Yes, if you spend an exhausted token, once you have rerolled as many dice as you have chosen (as you must reroll at least 1) once the token is gone, if you have no yet added the Dice from Devastator, you can use the Devastator title to add as many dice for any defense tokens that are no longer on your ISD.
It is still during the while attacking part of the attack step.

How-to use Officer "Adar Tallon" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

12 hours ago, Karneck said:

How-to use Officer "Adar Tallon" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

The volume on your voice has been really low the last few videos, especially in your interviews.

4 hours ago, Hetzen said:

The volume on your voice has been really low the last few videos, especially in your interviews.

Yeah, I've gotten new audio equipment and I've been adjusting settings on my OBS. It's a fine tuning process that I work on with each video, you will find that as I progress with my knowledge on this stuff, it'll get better.
Thank you for your patience as I experiment.

Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE) Interviews 2019 Worlds 6th Place
Ryan aka @Rikash

As I'm learning more about these "internets", I guess I should have a dissingcord?
Join SWAE on Discord - https://discord.gg/RATKqSX

@Karneck I've been watching your Vassal How To videos and practicing online. Getting the hang of it even though it's really slow with my satellite internet. Got a few questions.

1. Is there a list of correct shortcut keys for a Mac? For example, some shortcuts call for the "up arrow". These don't work with the Mac.

2. I've noticed that on the Range Bands, some ships arcs are VERY hard to see. Is there a way to adjust this?

3 minutes ago, drail14me said:

@Karneck I've been watching your Vassal How To videos and practicing online. Getting the hang of it even though it's really slow with my satellite internet. Got a few questions.

1. Is there a list of correct shortcut keys for a Mac? For example, some shortcuts call for the "up arrow". These don't work with the Mac.

2. I've noticed that on the Range Bands, some ships arcs are VERY hard to see. Is there a way to adjust this?

1. Mac users are universally ignored. Sad, but a fact. This includes the idiot who assigned all these hotkeys in the first place. But I hear he'd never owned a Mac back then, so he didn't care.

You can always "right-click" to bring up menu tho.

2. It's not really a problem in play. Never been for me anyway. But the easiest solution, if in doubt, is to simply copy the ship. This "doubles up" the graphics and makes things easier to see. Then delete after.

1 hour ago, Green Knight said:

1. Mac users are universally ignored. Sad, but a fact. This includes the idiot who assigned all these hotkeys in the first place. But I hear he'd never owned a Mac back then, so he didn't care.

You can always "right-click" to bring up menu tho.

2. It's not really a problem in play. Never been for me anyway. But the easiest solution, if in doubt, is to simply copy the ship. This "doubles up" the graphics and makes things easier to see. Then delete after.

Thanks! I’m trying to figure out which shortcuts work. My computer/internet is so slow. Some actions take 5-8 seconds to complete. Each movement along the tool takes about 5-8 seconds. So, a three speed can take 30 seconds with clicking and waiting. Same with Set button. I can click and it won’t show up in the chat for 5-8 seconds. Doesn’t sound like much but it’s a long time when an opponent is waiting to see you do something. I’m learning and getting faster with my part though. Just got to figure out how to speed up the computer/internet. Gonna gonna go to a coffee shop or somewhere with a faster connection and see if that helps.

6 minutes ago, drail14me said:

Thanks! I’m trying to figure out which shortcuts work. My computer/internet is so slow. Some actions take 5-8 seconds to complete. Each movement along the tool takes about 5-8 seconds. So, a three speed can take 30 seconds with clicking and waiting. Same with Set button. I can click and it won’t show up in the chat for 5-8 seconds. Doesn’t sound like much but it’s a long time when an opponent is waiting to see you do something. I’m learning and getting faster with my part though. Just got to figure out how to speed up the computer/internet. Gonna gonna go to a coffee shop or somewhere with a faster connection and see if that helps.

I also use Vassal on a Mac, so I feel your pain. My internet isn't that slow though; that sounds like an extra pain.

How-to use Title "Mon Karren" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

How-to use Title "Independence" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)

@Karneck and M ack. Really great interview from today.

Mack really made a good point with the squadrons.
I hope a few, who say that squadrons are overpowered, watch this listen to this.

Thank you for posting this! I totally forgot and would of remembered at some point haha.

15 hours ago, Karneck said:

Thank you for posting this! I totally forgot and would of remembered at some point haha.

Just a quit note about the Interview. When i heard it, i thought about it, that Kristjan also had an insane Anti Squadron part on his ships. He had nearly full squadrons and, on top of this, GSD II with Kallus and Ruthless. Along with a VSD and Warlord Titel.
A really great combination against squadrons.

18 hours ago, Tokra said:

@Karneck and M ack. Really great interview from today.

Mack really made a good point with the squadrons.
I hope a few, who say that squadrons are overpowered, watch this listen to this.

I don't think anyone is arguing that they're overpowered, just more so that a lot of people don't like the fact that 134 is basically mandatory in order to have a chance at winning it all. There's lots of skilled Squadronless players, of course, but the minute you go near 134 you start adding buffs TO the 134, in the form of flight controllers, gallant Haven, Squall, etc. I think a lot of people would rather there be more viable ways of bringing LESS squadrons, but still present. How you achieve THAT without some weird "if you brought between 60-90 points of squads" card effect, I have no idea.

4 hours ago, geek19 said:

I don't think anyone is arguing that they're overpowered, just more so that a lot of people don't like the fact that 134 is basically mandatory in order to have a chance at winning it all. There's lots of skilled Squadronless players, of course, but the minute you go near 134 you start adding buffs TO the 134, in the form of flight controllers, gallant Haven, Squall, etc. I think a lot of people would rather there be more viable ways of bringing LESS squadrons, but still present. How you achieve THAT without some weird "if you brought between 60-90 points of squads" card effect, I have no idea.

There is a playstyle missing from guidance. A lot of people play low tempo controlled armada, nothing wrong with that, but it lends itself to anti squadron wings. High tempo lends itself to anti ship wings and squadronless but is a lot riskier a playstyle. I keep meaning to write a long post on this but its hard to eloquent.

How-to play Objective "Minefields" - Star Wars Armada Explained (SWAE)