24 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Well...Most Wanted is fine with a filler flotilla. (IE., something just doing busy work - Comms Net, for instance. A BCC flotilla is already a top target for the enemy if you have any significant bomber wing, so it doesn't really help a ton making it the objective ship - the enemy wants to shoot it anyway. But if you've got a BCC flotilla *and* a comms net flotilla? Oh, yeah, definitely go Most Wanted. Give the enemy at least 3 'primary targets' and take your pick of what you want to kill of theirs while they sort out trying to do everything at once...)

But I've done good work with Precision Strike, even with Sloane (you don't have to re-roll the crit, after all, and TIE/D are bombers, so can crit with the best of them). Still, yeah, you usually want to mix a healthy dose of TIE/B in there with BCC to support them - those crit points pile up fast, and once you start digging into the hull, your score can get CRAZY. And Sloane is okay when she's on...but sometimes she takes a nap and feels like wasted points. I go elsewhere, these days.

Anyway, what 'Surprise Attack' seems to want badly to my mind is an Interdictor with GX-7s. And Titus somewhere. But that's so crazy expensive...I can't get it to work. FEELS like it should be insane OP, but...still working on it.

The take-away to @JJ48, though, from all this rambling is...MATCH YOUR FLEET TO YOUR OBJECTIVES. Armada is soooooooo, OMG incredibly, totally, absolutely about objectives. That's what makes it great! Find those pairings, and have fun!

True to an extent, but if you have BCC you have bombers, which potentially means Precision Strike anyway. You can still make an argument for MW there (it gives you a powerful win condition they just don't have) but there's definitely choice there. My low view of it in Sloane lists stems from the fact that point for point, generic Defenders have one of the worst battery armaments in the game, a dramatically lower chance of leveraging Sloane during the squadron battle, and are generally less durable than scatter aces (large pools of blues being the exception, which tend to come from exactly the kind of targets aces kill more quickly anyway.) After accounting for Howl + reroll buffs (even disregarding counter), they're tied with or outclassed by aces in raw damage against generics, and fall well behind generic ties (questionable for other reasons.) Fishing for crits is the only reason I would consider bringing them, and that's what Maarek and Jendon are for in my experience.

The important part of Surprise Attack is fleet wide squadron raid tokens for three rounds while you slaughter the enemy wing. Comms Net helps as usual, but if they have it they were likely hoping to feed Yavaris or AFFM, which is its own reward, in addition the objective severely limiting activation order and only leaving one working carrier to worry about.

And to the last part, definitely 100% agreement.

I am enjoying reading your after-action reports and thoughtful self-analysis. As you seem to like Soontir Fel, and he’s done good work for you, I’ll just point out this:

Pair him with Vader’s squadron and fly them on their own to tie down enemy squadron groups. Because Vader has Escort, they can’t target Soontir at all, which means they take auto damage. Vader hits like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building on his own, and once he’s dead they now have Soontir’s counter to deal with. If you really want to be a jerk, add Dengar and Mauler Mithel for more auto damage (and giving Vader counter). These guys won’t do much against ships, but can be used to smash larger squad groups if you don’t want to bring many squads yourself.

Sorry for the long break! I have played numerous games since I last posted, but unfortunately took too long to post them, so I'll just post some highlights later when I have access to some pictures. For now, I have a game from last week! My local group is preparing to start a Corellian Conflict campaign, so my opponent and I experimented with a one-upgrade-per-ship limit.

My list was:

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104 + 27: 131)
+ General Dodonna (20)
+ Profundity (7)
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 + 7: 64)
+ Salvation (7)
CR90 Corvette B (39 + 6: 45)
+ Dodonna's Pride (6)
Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 + 4: 45)
+ Garel's Honor (4)
Hera Syndulla (28)
YT-2400 (16)
Rogue Squadron (14)
YT-1300 (13)
6 x Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (6 x 7)
Hyperspace assault
Surprise Attack
Sensor Net

OPPONENT

My opponent was flying, as best I can recall:

Kuat Refit (112 + 30: 142)
+ Moff Jerjerrod (23)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Victory I-class Star Destroyer (73 + 7: 80)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56 + 10: 66)
+ Demolisher (10)
Boba Fett (26)
VT-49 Decimator (22)
Maarek Stele (21)
IG-88 (21)
2 x Tie Interceptor Squadron (2 x 11)

I elected to go second, and my opponent selected Sensor Net.

PLAN

My plan was to keep Garel's Honor in reserve with Profundity. This way I could use it as a a surprise torpedo or as an obstruction/distraction. My smaller ships would then focus on the objective markers while the Profundity distracted the opponent's fleet. For fighters, the YT-1300 would lock down the enemy with Escort while the Z-95s focused on taking down the 3-hull Interceptors quickly before moving on to the larger prey.

OUTCOME

The plan was not a great success. I managed to do some heavy damage to the Demolisher, but one turn I had an option of possibly destroying it or double-arcing the VSD, and I chose the latter. I knew the Profundity would soon be dead, and was hoping to use Dodonna to get a debilitating crit on it to help my surviving ships, but I would have been better served eliminating the Demolisher. My Z-95s also didn't roll as well as I'd have liked, and the TIE Interceptors took quite a few out through Counter before going down. I also neglected the ISD, thinking it would be too much effort to fight, only to realize that my occasional pot-shots when I didn't have other targets had actually done quite a number on it (along with Garel's Honor), and I may have been able to take it out had I focused more on it.

In the end, I only managed to down a few squadrons, while I lost all my ships except the CR90. I earned a lot more victory tokens, but they couldn't offset my losses.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Pick more fitting objectives. I had been thinking I had an advantage of four ships to three, with three of mine being small and nimble, but of course with the way I was using Garel's Honor, it was really only three to three. Even as it was, I could have focused on tokens rather than getting into a slugging match, which really favored the Imperials.

2. Work on target priority. Throwing all my Z-95s at the Interceptors got them killed off before I could really use their numbers to overwhelm. I should have swarmed the heavier ships and let the YTs go after the Interceptors. Also, I should have taken the killing shot on the Demolisher or focused on the ISD rather than going for the VSD "opportunity".

3. Become more comfortable with first player. Most of the objectives favor the second player, so that's what I tend to pick. However, I need to get used to being first player sometimes, especially since my Profundity/Garel's Honor pair prefers that. When I deployed it, it served the purpose of distracting my opponent's shot which may otherwise have gone to the Profundity, but it very nearly got destroyed before getting a chance to activate. Going first would have saved me the worry.

4. Single-upgrade fleets take some getting used to! Many times I felt that my ships were woefully underpowered, only to realize that my opponent's were, too! It really shakes up the game a bit, and makes you realize how much you take for granted with auto-include upgrades.

5. Z-95s are fun. They may not be the biggest and best, (and I certainly don't need 19 of them), but as cheap swarms, they do rather nicely. I just need to not send them against Counter.