Rieekan and Sloane seem to have been dominating, leading to a decrease in large ships. When will more large ships be more competitive?

I think I've played against a large ship (MC75, ISD, Onager, Starhawk) in almost every game I've played this year. One exception was against my friend's MSU, the other was against an SSD. I haven't seen a large ship decrease.

Squad heavy may or may not come to an end, but 60-90 points of squadrons may become more common soon.

Edit: forgot about a Quasar-Vic-Vic list. And a squad heavy all-smalls list. So maybe Larges aren't quite as prevalent as I remembered, but they're still really common.

Sounds like the CW stuff is coming with some Squadron nerfs? Ace-cap and allegedly something is happening to intel, so maybe in December.

Also there isn't really an overall "meta" right now.

Large ships are also part of the meta, you can have both. Sloane + ISD/Onager + squads is very much a thing.

I know, it's just that the Empire's lists seem to have been leaning toward squads most of the time...looks like Thrawn's idea has caught on. 😆

Sure. Since Armada has more spaced out releases the Meta does not change as regularly as in most other tabletop games. The Devs are aware of the overabundance of squadrons, don't worry.

It seems quite the opposite for us. With Strategic Advisor, medium ships essentially disappeared from our meta (ofc it's not statistics just the way it is here) and MSUs are rare because of the SSD and squad heavy fleets.

I might (most likely) be looking in the wrong places. It's just the people will swarm smalls with Rieekan . At least from what I've seen, I'm probably wrong.

That could also very much depend on where you're looking. What are you basing your info on here?

2019 World's Data

Oh, yeah that's a bit dated at this point. Not to say it's entirely wrong or bad to look at, but the Super Star Destroyer, Rebellion in the Rim, and Wave 8 (Onager/Starhawk) have all released since then.

(I disagree with the idea that you need to fly squad heavy at the moment, that said)

Good news, Armada 1.5 is coming. (December in theory)

We have heard so far of:

Four defence token ace limit per 400point fleet.

Intel will be nerfed to grant grit to friendly units rather than heavy to enemy units.

These two should make a massive difference to squad power with tarpitting a viable strategy.

1 hour ago, Bravo Null said:

I know, it's just that the Empire's lists seem to have been leaning toward squads most of the time...looks like Thrawn's idea has caught on. 😆

Hang on, what? What is your argument here?

I don't know that we'll ever see the squadron-heavy meta shrink to a point where it could be considered "ended". Just in terms of mechanics squads are a very efficient way to deliver effects to ships. It's been my experience though that while squads are doing okay right now the Onager, and StarHook, as well as many large ship builds are seeing significant showings. Clone wars changes are going to shake everything up, I'm sure.

(And in all fairness, let's also keep in mind the last FAQ before the one issued in March this year was the Wave 7 errata that changed how Flotillas worked, as well as Relay and changed both Yavaris and Gallant haven. They have been touching problem stuff, it's just the changes in Armada come pretty slow, so if Rieekan and Sloane are still showing strong after the clone wars updates I'm sure we'll see adjustments.)

14 minutes ago, GiledPallaeon said:

Hang on, what? What is your argument here?

Two-Ship with Maark, Morna, Jendon, and loads of friends. Even with a limit of 4 tokened aces, that's still going to be viable.

45 minutes ago, Bravo Null said:

Two-Ship with Maark, Morna, Jendon, and loads of friends. Even with a limit of 4 tokened aces, that's still going to be viable.

Not impossible to beat though. @GiledPallaeon won NOVA last year with Thrawn, 5 ships and 0 squadrons. And this was in a Sloane-heavy meta I think (don't quote me on that though, it's been a while since I read his write-up).

It's hard to say what the state of Pryce and 2-ship will be when the new changes come. We know that something is happening with pass tokens, but the details are vague. However, it does sound like it's intended to counter gimmicks like Pryce first-last.

1 hour ago, Bravo Null said:

Two-Ship with Maark, Morna, Jendon, and loads of friends. Even with a limit of 4 tokened aces, that's still going to be viable.

It might be. I don't think the goal is to take it from being viable to being non-viable. Its to open up more viable options outside of two ship and other squad heavy variants. We still haven't seen all of what 1.5 is, I'd wait until its completely revealed before pre-judging what will or wont work post december. And that's not directed just at you, there are a lot of folks on this board who've already said "this four ace thing isn't it" but we haven't seen the full context in which its being introduced. It's entirely possible that its the only change, and it won't be enough. It's at least equally likely its one of several changes targeting squadron builds.

1 hour ago, Bravo Null said:

Two-Ship with Maark, Morna, Jendon, and loads of friends. Even with a limit of 4 tokened aces, that's still going to be viable.

That was prevalent. However that was a misquote on my part. The one that confused me was:

2 hours ago, Bravo Null said:

I might (most likely) be looking in the wrong places. It's just the people will swarm smalls with Rieekan . At least from what I've seen, I'm probably wrong.

12 minutes ago, Bertie Wooster said:

Not impossible to beat though. @GiledPallaeon won NOVA last year with Thrawn, 5 ships and 0 squadrons. And this was in a Sloane-heavy meta I think (don't quote me on that though, it's been a while since I read his write-up).

It's hard to say what the state of Pryce and 2-ship will be when the new changes come. We know that something is happening with pass tokens, but the details are vague. However, it does sound like it's intended to counter gimmicks like Pryce first-last.

Of my eight games, I played four Sloanes in an overall mirror of my overall results (3-1 against Sloane, 6-2 overall, 33 tournament points from Sloane, 64 overall.) There are tricks you can employ, you just need the right tools.

Large ships dominate the meta right now? Hop into vassal or look at the regionals data project

I don't think we'll ever really see the end of a squad-heavy meta. Flying squadrons is often more forgiving than flying squadronless, they often allow for more options in-game, and there are a lot of proven combos. Also, in Star Wars, squadrons are too central to the story and theme to really be disposed of.

That said, I think there are plenty of opportunities for squadronless to do well, and I also think the 1.5 changes we've seen so far will help limit some of the more brutal combos we've seen in the meta. I think there's room for a lot, and one need not fly squadrons to do well. By the same token, by virtue of the game design fundamentals, I cannot imagine Armada ever reaching a point where we don't see a decent number of squadrons in the meta.

36 minutes ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

Large ships dominate the meta right now? Hop into vassal or look at the regionals data project

Is there even a meta right now as so few are able to play? Plus any games that are happening are in isolated groups.

I’m really hoping there are enough people able to get together and play that we have several highly divergent local metas evolve in isolation. Then when real life opens back up we can see how they all clash. That would be neat, I think.

Well judging by the (very small) tournament I went to last weekend the meta is definitely big ships and minimal squads in my area. Every player had an SSD or a Starhawk and nobody had more than 4 squadrons in their list. Riekann and Sloane were nowhere to be seen.

With all that's been happening, those were my first games of Armada in over a year. Many clubs can't hold proper meetings right now because venues are closed and gatherings indoors with more than 6 people from different households are banned where I live.

A sqaudless meta would not be very star wars

I know that, I just want to see more variety. Of course, with the CWs coming, who knows?

Move to New England. People up here early run 134 squads. Usually they run a Small squad screen in case they vs a list with squads. Squads are definitely big i. The meta but in my area people just don't like running a lot of squads typically.