I played my first Clone Wars Armada battle against my roommate using my Kraken Double Munificents build (399 points).

My roommate tried @Bravo Null 's Obi-Wan 2x Acclamators 2x Armed Corvettes build (395 points) because he wanted activation advantage and doesn't like squadrons. He chose to be 1st player and chose Targeting Beacons as the Objective.

It was a fun and thrilling match! The best game of Armada we've played ever since the pandemic began. Despite my greater experience playing Armada, it was a close game and I made numerous mistakes that nearly cost me the game.

At the start, my opponent deployed his 2 Acclamators in the centre and I was worried that my Hardcell Transport would get one-shotted by an Acclamator's powerful front arc, so I deployed it to the right edge of the DZ. My plan was to sweep around the obstacles at Speed 3 and attack the Acclamators from behind. However, that hindered its ability to support the Munificents with Parts Resupply and Beast of Burden, which proved to be a costly mistake.

I neglected to queue a Repair command on my Comms Frigate (carrier) until the 4th round because I prioritized Squadron commands and was waiting for my Hardcell to get into range to pass a Repair token. My opponent activated his Acc-2 at the beginning of Round 4 and destroyed my Comms Frigate at close range, avoiding a head-on collision when the ship moved. Without my carrier for Squadron commands and Hyperwave Signal Boost, my Droid squadrons were handicapped by their AI keywords. Consequently, all of my generic Vulture Droids were destroyed trying to kill Kit Fisto and Oddball. Fortunately, my squadrons countered Intel and trapped the 2 Republic squadrons within range 1 of Phlacc-Arphocc Prototypes, which inflicted 1 damage every round, and finally destroyed Kit Fisto in Round 5.

I had expected to use the Munificents' Heavy Ion Emplacements to deplete the Acclamators' shields and double-arc, but their narrow front arc made this difficult. The Comms Frigate was only able to use HIE once before it was destroyed, and the Star Frigate used HIE twice. Kraken proved to be effective at triggering HIE by providing a blue crit; however, the rerolls I received from the Targeting Beacons objective diminished Kraken's value. Count Dooku would've been a better choice based on the Objective.

In an ironic twist, the Acclamator's rear and side arcs proved much more effective at double-arcing than my Munificents' front and side arcs.

My opponent and I had overlooked a Damaged Munitions face-up damage card on his flagship for at least 1 round of attacks. In Round 4, my Star Frigate had been destroyed by the Acc-2, but while resolving its Salvo attack, which had inflicted a damage card, we noticed the Damaged Munitions card and realized that the Acc-2 shouldn't have rolled as many dice, so my Munificent had survived. My Star Frigate was then able to activate and use a Repair dial, Battle Droid Reserves, and Wat Tambor's ability to produce 8 Engineering points, discarding 3 damage cards.

My Hardcell Transport was a poor flanker compared to the Consular Corvettes because it was only Speed 3. The Hardcell wasn't able to make an unobstructed front attack on the Acclamators until the 4th round. Then it had to turn away from pursuing the Acclamator-I to avoid overlapping an obstacle; instead, it landed on the Space Station to discard a face-up damage card, which had been inflicted by Radiant VII earlier that turn.

In the 5th round, my opponent Repaired and discarded Damaged Munitions from his flagship. My Star Frigate took more damage from the Acc-2's rear and side arcs. My Hardcell passed a Repair token to my Star Frigate, activated 2 Hyena Aces, killed the Acc-2, then fired on Radiant VII and collided with it. Hardcell couldn't move, landed on the Space Station again, and discarded the collision damage.

When my Star Frigate activated, it Repaired again using 10 Engineering points to remove all of its damage cards and restore some shields. It attacked the Acc-1's rear using its port-side arc, but couldn't use its front arc or HIE. I maneuvered the Star Frigate to pursue the Acc-1 and lined up a front arc shot for the final round. The enemy flagship had no shields, only a Redirect token, 3 face-up damage cards, and 1 face-down damage; it had only 3 hull remaining. A lucky long range attack, aided by Targeting Beacons (but not Kraken because the Hardcell was out of range) would've killed the Acclamator-I.

However, before the 6th round began, my opponent and I called the game because his Acc-1 was going to fly off the table and we didn't feel like playing out the round. It would've been a toss-up whether my Hardcell killed Radiant VII or would've been killed by Radiant VII or Swift Return, so we didn't count them in the final scoring.

My Score: 269 points

Opponent's Score: 152 points

Points difference: +117 points

Margin of Victory: 8-2

This was an incredibly fun game of Armada, and my friend and I are eager to play more of the Clone Wars content!