Star Wars Armada: First game in in the 1.5 era

 It has been  a long time since I've played Armada.  The last battle report that I wrote up was in 2018.  And there was maybe a game or two in there since then.  Following our Corellian Conflict campaign and the birth of my daughter, Armada just sort of fell off for other board games and Legion really.  But, with the launch of the Clone Wars expansions and the 1.5 rules update, it felt like it was time to get in some action.  

For the occasion I broke out an old stand by kind of list, and Ackbar side arc shooter. 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69)
• Caitken and Shollan (6)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Foresight (8)
= 90 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 53 Points

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

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Admiral Ackbar (38)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 136 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
= 23 Points

Squadrons:
• 4 x A-wing Squadron (44)
= 44 Points

Total Points: 399

Basically keep things in the side arc and shoot.  The MC30 is a little odd in this fleet, but I always like having a ship with a sizeable black die pool to help keep folks out of the area with it, and with the change to Evades Foresight feels pretty darn good now.  My opponent brought a two raider, Demolisher, and ISD Cymoon list.  His fighter component was a unique heavy group, with Maarek, Jendon, Cienna and Saber squadron.  His Cymoon was very light, carrying just Ozzel and some other upgrade card that I dont remember.  I ended up as second player, and he picked Rift Assault from Planetary Ion Cannons and Superior positions.  

 Overall the game was a bit of a mess, as we both were super rusty and had to keep checking the rules to make sure what we were doing was correct. We ended up essentially with the Assault Frigate, MC30 and Jainas Light taking on Demo and the ISD with the other CR90 tying up the Raiders and Squads for most of the game.  Ackbar remains the king of  being able to pile up punishment, as Demo and the ISD went down with Foresight and Jaina's Light holding on to 1 hull apiece for the exchange.  It ended up 290-180 for my fleet, with both Jaina and the other CR90 succumbing to wounds in rounds 4 and 6 respectively.  

I'm excited to have gotten a game in again after such a long time, and hopefully it will lead to some more going down as the New Year starts.

The SSD Arrives

Armada finally got an announcement.  Basically a year after teasing something big coming, we finally got the first look on Wednesday night's In Flight Report.  On Friday we got the article giving us the first few details we have about the ship.  Not much is spoiled, besides the lowest costed standard play version.

With what we have so far, I am just not on the hype train yet.  The ship is powerful, boasting an elite suite of upgrades, hull and basic values.  The power to gin a token for each command and a pair of fleet commands gives it wide versatility.  And with a conservative build out you could pair it with an ISD to protect its weak flanks.  The issue this ship presents is the difficulty in flying it and the gameplay that forces.  The side arcs are wide, but you're going to have to keep ships in front to score any kills.  Double arcing is going to be almost impossible with the need to nav to just get a click.  Much like the Victory, if it gets pointed the wrong way its over. This is going to force approaching fleets to go much slower, to try and force that wrong movement. 

Also tamping down expectations is the thought this is the only release coming for possibly a year.  A $200 model as the only release for a year is just not exciting.  As more info comes out I'll probably get more excited.  But  right now its just a miss.

Star Wars Armada: New Campaign Ideas

In the lull of information from FFG, the Armada community has started an attempt to create a homebrew new campaign.  So the first mission is to brew up some new titles and objectives.  These are fairly rough draft, but I think a lot of them could be fun or at least provide some different gameplay scenarios.  hey can probably use some balancing and

Red Objective: Relentless Assault
Set up: After deployment, place one objective token on each ship. 
In Game: After performing an attack, a player may spend their objective token.  If they do, they may perform another attack from a hull zone with half the dice rounded down. 
Scoring: Unspent Objective Tokens are worth 20 points at the end of the game

Yellow Objective: Hazardous Nebula
Set Up: After Deployment is complete, the second player may place 1 Dust Field Obstacle in the set up area.
In Game: Ships may not move shields from one hull zone to another

Blue Objective: Asteroid Drift
Set Up: Replace debris fields with asteroid obstacles. 
In Game: After even odd numbered rounds, the second player may move 1 obstacle to within distance 2, or 2 obstacles to within distance 1 of their current location.  After even numbered rounds, 1st player may move 1 obstacle to within distance 2 of its current position.  After a player overlaps an obstacle, their opponent gains one victory token
Scoring: Victory tokens are worth 15 points each.

Base Defense: Hardened Veterans
Set Up: After setup, the defending player places an objective token on each if their ships.
In Game: After being dealt a face up damage card, you may remove one objective token from that ship.  If that face up card is a crew effect, discard it.  Otherwise turn it face down.

Special Attack:  Search for survivors
Set Up: Replace the Asteroid Obstacles with Debris Fields.  After set up, place an objective token on each obstacle, starting with the first player. 
In Game: While at Distance one of an obstacle when you spend a command dial, if you count a higher command value, claim one victory token and remove the objective token.  If possible, place that objective token on another obstacle without a token.  At the end of the 2nd and 4th rounds, place objective tokens on each obstacle without one.
Scoring: Each player gains 10 resources for each victory token they have.  The winning side also gains 50 resources




Victory Star Destroyer: Firewind: 6 Points
After you perform a maneuver, you may suffer one damage to perform a speed 1 maneuver.

Gladiator Star Destroyer: Serpent : 5 Points
Increase your Squadron value by 1

Nebulon B: Shadow Raptor: 10 Points
After Deploying Fleets, you may re-deploy Shadow Raptor and up to Four Squadrons to within a distance of 3 of their current locations.

AF Mk 2: Redeemer: 4 Points
While performing an attack against squadrons, you may count critical results as hit results.

Armada possible 2.0 fixes?

So, following the huge let down of the HYperspace report, I've basically just stayed away from Armada.  The fact the FFG has continued to keep under wraps "something big", has further hlped spur my lack of interest lately.  However, a recent thread on the Forums speculating about changes people would like to see in a Armada 2.0 got me thinking as to what my wish list would be. 

I honestly don't think there are any ships that need drastic overhauls, barring the Vic 1.  Which, I think could be fixed by releasing a similar App like they have with XWing 2.0 to give a quick point redo for it.  It seems like if it was more aggressively priced like a Quasar there is at least an argument to bring it as a battle carrier.  The AFMk2 A could also use a point reduction, so there is at least some choice between it and the B variant for general usage.  The Assault Pelta could likely use a Weapons team, maybe at the expense of the support team slot.  These though are some minor tweaks, because I dont think the Ships in Armada are in a bad spot really.  Most are well balanced and can see at least some play.  I also think the flotilla changes cleaned up the big issue with activation spam that was starting to drive the game towards a very bland spot.

There are several  ideas in the thread that I found intriguing, the ones about changing some of the squadron commands were the best.  Allowing ships to activate up to their native squad -1 every turn without command would be a way to boost some of the battle carriers that need some help.  It however I think really diminishes the value of Thrawn, and then of the Quasar and Pelta, ships that really want to be just pushing squads all day.  Changing the squadron play during the squad phase I think would be interesting.  The suggestion had been allow move and shoot during squad phase, but just at half speed.  It would still allow full speed move and shoot during a command activation.  This idea has traction really, because if FFG then allowed Rogues to still move at full speed in squadron phase their value moves up again. 

The biggest change I would like to see besides getting the app to do quick card re-costing, would be a re-balance with fighters.  The biggest issues I have with the current fighter framework are just how much more cost efficient they are against Capital ships, how pervasive full Ace lists are, and how there is a pretty stark dichotomy between min and max squad builds.  As to the first point, fighters occupy a special niche when engaging capital ships.  They perform the same ping style damage MSU lists enjoy, but can typically cause more damage over an activation than MSU lists can thanks to the multitude of re-roll options they have and the ability to hit more vulnerable arcs consistently.  This, along with small based ships high vulnerability to ping damage has helped push MSU out of most competitive areas.  One quick fix I see is making ships able to fight off fighters a bit more effectively. By making crits count as damage, I think we now would see some real hesitation to simply take max fighter builds and throw them at large based ships with no real second thought.  Its also a bit more thematic, when you see squads being removed and largely aces escaping the fight in the end. 

This solution though might exacerbate my second issue, Max Ace lists though.  World's and many other tournaments have been largely dominated by max Ace lists on both sides, with Rieekan and Sloane fueling both.  I hate hard limits placed on list building, but it might be time to experiment with restricting lists to 4 unique squadrons to help the imbalance as they did with flotillas.  The final piece to the puzzle is to somehow re-strengthen the middle fighter group capability.  I think the Ace restriction actually strengthens the case for taking the four aces and a couple of generics to sit at around 80-100 points, because the overall composition is now much more level to max builds that fill out with generics.   Likely, either of these changes I do think helps out the game by large margins to reduce the overall time with squads and helping to re-balance from pure ace lists since they face more danger from flak and become less efficient, or from just not being so prominent.

Overall Armada doesnt need a huge re-boot to contineu its success, just some small tweaks to help move the game along and increase the efficiency of several lists.

Fantasy Flight Games Hyper Space Report: Wild Speculation

SO Fantasy Flight Games has been tempting us with a big news report for all of their Star Wars properties before they kick off the World's events for those games.  The announcement two weeks beforehand has left a lot of time for what they're going actually be delivering for the games, and whether or not its going to be the "Something Big" they've been promising Armada players since GenCon last year. 

I've got a few guesses as to what FFG has up their sleeve for Armada, Legion and Imperial Assault.  I haven't played X-Wing in anything more than a dust off game with friends or anything more from Destiny than the original starter boxes, so I don't really have any pulse on the direction of those games.

Legion

I think after the deluge of info FFG has had for Legion this will be a small announcement for available products.  Likely the next Imperial Commander and their SPecial Forces, as well as with the announcement today of the organized play layout a rules reference update.  I'm going to guess the next commander will either be is going to be either Wulf Yularen, Cassius Tagge, or one of FFG's created properties like Kayn Somos.  Most of the best canon battles had nameless leaders and it focused on space battles.  Ground commanders are thin.  I also think they will wait a bit for Thrawn, since he is likely going to be a buffing commander like Veers.  The Scout Troopers are going to be the unit that gets revealed, since the FFG staff have all but actually spoiled it.

Armada

Armada is due for another wave announcement.  A lot of folks think it wil be an SSD, kicking off epic play for the game.  I am not so certain.  X-Wing epic play really has not generated much interest an the scale doesn't fit for Armada.  We already have 3x6 field.  Epic play requiring something like 6x6 or 6x12 would be impossible to find.  I think instead, its going to be something a little different.  I think we're getting a second campaign, one centered on the Death Star.  The time frame will begin around Rogue One and end with The battle of Yavin. I think it will incorporate more small scale and 500 point battles as both sides try to raid resources and the like. It will come with U-Wings and a few different ship variants for core and wave 1 ships.  With the changes to Gallant Haven and the continued low turnout for VSDs, some new variants could really energize these ships.

I have an outside guess that FFG will also raise the standard game point limit to 450 points. Some people think that will slow games down. I actually think it speeds it up, if you keep fighters capped. Squadrons take time in this game. Extra ships means more guns on targets and things go down faster.

Imperial Assault

I think the biggest announcement is coming for IA.  Theyll start with working through the latest Lothal announcement since we didnt get anything for skirmish spoiled yet.  Then a few new campaigns for the Heroes of the Alliance will be announced. The app has had several updates in the past couple months, including adding support for all hero packs. Then I believe the big news will drop: a new updated version 2.0. It will not include new map tiles, but instead will have several updated deployment cards for older units like regular storm troopers and Boba Fett. With Jabbas Realm shifting the power curve super high, these old units have been relegated to strictly campaign play.

All Properties
For all of their table top properties I think something big is brewing. They've started experimenting with Legion some of the different organized play campaigns. I think FFG could bring all their games together for something similar.  A massive galactic conquest. Maybe it runs for 2 months and stores act as planets. Different games score points for control of the store, or they fit a larger narrative.

This is all wild speculation of course. But it's fun to think of the future for these games I really love to play and obsess a bit about. 

FFG changes the game: The new Armada FAQ is released

At Adepticon, several folks had to talked to some of the Armada's current design team, and it had gotten out that an FAQ was forthcoming.  With less than a month until Worlds, it was starting to look like we either would get a very minor clarification document or nothing at all.  Instead, in a move that was fairly surprising, they hit several troublesome game elements with a severe Nerf Bat with this latest release.

Flotillas: Two per fleet for Tournament play, and they don't count as ships for being considered"tabled"

Flotillas have basically been an issue since it was announced they were being released.  The game designer's originally saw them as a way to add some utility to fleets and help bring large ships back into the conversation.  But the nature of activation order and deployments they began to become the centerpiece of fleets.  The fact that they added the most point efficient squadron activations didnt hurt either.  A variety of archetypes evolved to become mostly flotillas, like Fish Farm, 1+X, GHY+3. It didnt look good in battle reports or to people who would stop by a game to see half the ships just trailing away from the battle to activate a couple of squadrons. The hard cap I think might have been a little heavy handed, but the game needed to change something about the creeping activation problem and flotillas spam.

It should be noted this change is only for tournaments, so any future campaigns and around the table sort of games can still employ them to the max.  That is a very smart move by FFG.

Relay: The Shuttle must be within activation range to pass along its orders

Relay had always rubbed me the wrong way thematically.  A ship across the board somehow getting to activate squads didn't fit.  It also has lead to a lot of strategies attempting to stay out of engagement.  Changing it so the carrier has to be in range will likely help bring back Boosted Comms as an option, and might help bring a boost to the Centicore title. 

Three widely used Titles get changes

Avenger, Gallant Haven and Yavaris all got changed to limit how effective they are.  Avenger becoming exhaust is a great change, so that no one ship can simply evaporate another on a single activation.  The changes to Gallant Haven and Yavaris effectively end the Rieekan Aces/ GHY+3 archetype that has really been the only one ti survive multiple seasons in this game.  Gallant Haven becomes a minimum of one damage, helping to make sure squads cannot just weather any storm thrown at them before bombing an enemy ship.  It is an interesting affect that we might see more single die flak ships firing, since they'll still be able to ping for damage.  Yavaris with FCT had basically been far too overpowered, and this drops it back into line I think with its intended power level.

Biggs Darklighter cannot pass damage to a Rieekan Zombie Escort

A minor but welcome change.  This tactic basically forced you to just not shoot at any Jan/Biggs ball because the payoff was zero.

Non Nerf Clarifications:

This FAQ was rich with some necessary updates to the game as well.  The Chimera title allows you to recycle a command you had previously discarded, which makes it much more valuable to be able to start the game with maybe Shields to the Max and then come back to it late in the game.  Lots of interactions with how Raddus and ships off the board during the game not being able to receive tokens or other conditions until they enter the game.  It also was clarified that if a Raddus ship that normally cannot activate first is the only ship someone can activate (by some other card effect like Governor Pryce) it can be the first to activate.  Luke Skywalker doesn't proc with Nora, so he cant bypass sheilds then sunder them, and Aspiration can get shields back via outside means (like Projection Experts) even if the zones it beefed up are still full.  Thrawn gets a slight bump in that his dial can now create tokens, instead of just being used to generate a command.

Overall thoughts:

This is quite possibly the biggest game change FAQ we've seen.  Capping flotillas means a whole section of fleets arent possible to run any longer.  A lot of people have felt that the hard cap could mean we are going to get more Flotilla options very soon, because they will be more combat oriented ones.  I dont think I agree.  I think the hard cap would typically mean that any combat capable flotilla now (especially in conjuction wth the Relay nerf) completely replaces the ships we currently have.  FFG is unlikely to do that I think, since there is already a bit of salt over folks having 5 or more of them that they cannot use competitively now.  The loss of the Flotillas though is the gain of the Hammerheads, which were just a tinch to expensive to justify inclusion.  Look for packs of them to potentially go with a Raddus fleet, or possibly to pair with MC30s in a Mon Mothma storm.  

With the titles changes there should be an opening in the meta for the Pelta to at least have a shot at returning now for the rebels.  Cheaper than the AF, and allowing B Wings now to get a speedier activation (via All Fighters Follow Me!) might mean the difference between them getting an attack or not. 

I do think these changes will see a bit more return of Rogue fighters, since both sides lose several carriers and the range to activate fighters becomes a bit limited.  Limiting flotillas to the tournament restriction does hint at least that we may be getting a new campaign this year. 

Star Wars Armada: A sideboard?

This week FFG introduced an interesting new variant to their GoT LCG: The Rookery.  It basically allows players to swap out some cards in their deck after seeing their opponents deck to optimize the match up a bit.  Sideboards are pretty common in a lot of games, letting people build for some edge case matchups that their decks/ lists aren't as suited to handle.  This development got me thinking about how Armada can have a lot of similar interactions in that some lists just suffer badly in matchups.  Running minimal fighters will typically get you pulverized against heavy bomber/Ace lists and running Electronic Counter Measures against a that list brings less utility than Early Warning System would.  At the last Store Championship I attended, I had put Reinforced Blast Doors on expecting a bomber heavy showing with the recent release of the Quasar.  Not a single fighter wing was there, leaving my list in a lurch.   A sideboard would have let me get ECMs on to battle the brawler lists I faced. 

Typically a very tough call

If Armada allowed a sideboard there are a few options for how it could look.  In GoT the player's deck is at least 60 cards, which means the sideboard makes up 20% potentially.  In Magic the Gathering, the Sideboard is at 25%.  That level of change is a bit drastic, changing the complete look of a list by removing whole ships or squadron complements.  A lighter touch would be better here, allowing just a few key changes.  20 points is 5% of the list, and could allow for some key upgrades to come in to make matchups a bit more competitive.  There would still need to be the 400 point cap, so it wouldn't allow a player to circumvent that to get extra points.  There would also likely need to be a one for one swap on cards to keep players from showing a super high bid and then just adding 20 points to their list.  I would also restrict it to Non-Title upgrades, mostly for thematic reasons, that some refits go on but the ships themselves dont change.  

Both players would see the current fleet lists, then secretly pick upgrades to swap.  Then there would be a check for initiative and the game would be played regularly.  A sideboard would add an extra layer of tactical decision making, and would help keep down some matchups that result in just negative play experiences. It would likely dramatically change the game though. Part of list building is deciding how to handle certain threats and what trade offs to make for that. But as the pool of ships and upgrades becomes larger a sideboard makes more sense to potentially allow ships that might have little value in certain matchups to at least be playable. 

Star Wars Armada: Fixing the Station Assault Objective

A couple weeks back Party Potato of the FFG forums posted a topic detailing the popularity of different objectives.  He had garnered the data from the Armada Warlords builder, so it is of course a bit unofficial.  However, there is some good firm data as well as plenty of anecdotal evidence that some of the new objectives FFG introduced with the Correlian Conflict have been duds.

One that needs some real tweaking is Station Assault.  I've written before about this objective, and its still ne of my favorites to try and get to work.  The issue is that far too often the first player will wipe out a station quickly and end up completely negating the second player's advantage.  And many times end up being able to pop both quickly and actually garner and 80 point lead over the second player.  This is likely going to be true moving forward with Cymoon ISDs being able to pretty reliably put out 7+ damage at long range.Squadron wings could always do damage, but now a Sloane list could potentially remove a station in one activation.

So how can we update the objective to bring it more into line with the better Assault objectives, like Most Wanted and Advanced Gunnery?  The most obvious choice is to remove the points scored for the first player. The first player basically starts in an 80 point hole, but can pull a bit more even by removing at least one station.  A second straightforward option is to use at least one armed station card instead.  3 extra hull is nothing to sneer at, and the station being able to trade back a few blows would allow the second player to take advantage of the choice a bit more.  To balance, the stations might need to fire at the start of the round, like how Planetary Ion Cannon works.

The objective could also be changed to allow the stations to be deployed closer together and other obstacles.  Being able to keep them closer to some other obstacles could obstruct more shots and help to force enemy ships to maneuver more to get into a good firing position or open themselves to more fire from the second player.

Perhaps a balance of the first two suggestions would be the best to bring this objective forward.  Maybe drop the points to 30 points a station, and make one armed.  That would at least make it playable going forward with the other Assault objectives.

Armada Battle Report: Cymoon Arqs vs Dual ISD

We finally found some time this morning to get in a game with some of the new goodness from Wave 7.  I have a couple of new lists, but I wanted to try out the Cymoon ISD with a couple of Arquitens.  I love the look of the Arq, and when it was introduced I was very excited to add another cheaper ship to the stable that could also flank effectively.  The issue has always been you really need to take Darth Vader, with those 3 red dice because they are super fickle.  And a lot of the better Imperial offerings had better options than the 36 point Lord of the Sith.  But the latest wave added an ISD platform that has a huge amount of reds and no good way to re-roll them.

Cymoon Stand Off /B (397/400)
============================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 71)
+ Darth Vader (36)
+ Strategic Adviser (4)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Intensify Firepower! (6)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Relentless (3)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 10)
+ Enhanced Armament (10)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 10)
+ Enhanced Armament (10)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 7)
+ Taskmaster Grint (5)
+ Comms Net (2)
Howlrunner (16)
5 x Tie Fighter Squadron (5 x 8)
Most Wanted
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

The Gozanti with Taskmaster Grint is there to feed the ISD tokens for Intensify Firepower!.  The Squadron screen is there just to tie up opposing fighters and attrition them down.  

My opponent today Ran both of the new ISD variants and a handful of ace fighters.  His Cymoon had Motti aboard, with Gunnery Team, DTT, Quad Turbolaser Cannons, Governor Pryce and Intensify Firepower.  His Kuat had Reinforced Blast doors,Hardened Bulkheads, Strategic Advicor and Wide Area Barrage.  His squads consisted of Whisper, Cienna Ree, Morna Kee and Boba Fett.  

I had originally miscalculated my point total because I changed around a few things before we played, and thought I ended up at 400.  If I had calculated it correctly I think I would have taken the first player to keep him from having the option of First last with Pryce and keep that Kuat from being able to dictate the engagement,  But, we ended up with myself going 2nd, and playing my Contested Outpost.  We set up the obstacles in a bit of a diagonal line through the middle, and I placed the Station on my left at just further than distance 5, and about distance 2 in from the edge of the deployment zone.  My two Arquitens ended up on the far left going speed 1, and the Cymoon ended up centered on the station also going speed 1.  The Gozanti was to the right and was going speed 2 heading towards the ISD parallel to the board edge.  His Kuat deployed to my left going speed three, along with all his fighters.  The Cymoon was in the middle of the board going speed 2, angled at the station.  He picked turn 3 for Pryce after we deployed.

The first round saw everyone slide forward, by the Kuat got very close.  We both Strategic Advisored to start turn 2 and the Kuat did a little damage to the lead Arquitens.  Both Arqs went and did around 7 damage total to shields.  My Cymoon then double arced, and with the XI7s I was able to put 11 damage onto the ISDs hull.  The Squads began engaging and the TIEs traded damage with his two non-rogue aces.  At the start of turn 3, he procced his Reinforced Blast Doors to bring his Kuat back to 6 hull, and regenerated some shields.  Then he murdered the Arquitens that was in front of it, and triggered Wide Area Barrage to put Howlrunner down to one health.  The next Arquitens did five more damage to bring the front shields down and put a couple more damage onto the hull.  Because of Pryce activating this round, I had to do my remaining ships.  My ISD then had a side shot to the front, and I needed 4 damage to put the Kuat down.  I rolled one accuracy, and 3 damage.  I decided to chase the big play and concentrated in a red.  It got lucky and rolled a double to pop the Kuat.  I moved forward then onto the station and pointed it at his Cymoon. Things got stupid here, because he rolled 8 damage with 2 accuracies ( one added via QTC).  I burned my redirect and my contain.  He started round four then by rolling another 8 damage with 2 accuracies and rammed my Cymoon to kill it.  From there, it went quickly as my Ties died taking down Cienna and Whisper but barely failing to kill Boba, and his Cymoon killed my Gozanti and controlled the station. It ended as an 8-3 for him.

Overall I had a good time.  The Arqs and Cymoon pumped out a ton of damage, almost taking down a full Motti ISD in one round.  I dont know if Intensify Firepower is needed as much here with Vader.  If I had been running Motti I think its better to ensure damage, but with Vader its 6 points thats maybe adding 3 damage a turn if I'm unlucky.  So possibly Shields to the Max is better here, to just help keep everything a little healthier.  The Squadron Compliment was solid, but it didn't kill a lot.  In a world with a lot scatter aces I feel like maybe I need a bit more firepower.  I could change out to four Interceptors with Howl, and stay at 399.  I also might try the 3 Shuttles and Valen, because I think Contested Outpost is not the objective for me.  It draws enemy ships in too fast, and none of my ships is built to want a close in confrontation.  Fire Lanes might be the better choice.  With a high number of Red Dice, I should be able to control them fairly easily, especially with a couple shuttles for support.  I could also keep my current fighter compliment and do Planetay Ion Cannon to just have a little chance of doing some extra damage. 

TRC-90 vs HIE-90

Since I have been super busy the past few weekends with birthdays and Weddings, I haven't actually gotten to play with any of the new goodies.  Thats lead to just a lot of thinking about some of the different upgrades, and inspired by a forum post I wanted to dig a bit into the TRC-90 vs HIE-90 numbers and some of their uses.

The TRC-90 has been a staple of Rebel lists since the upgrades introduction, and it was heavily favored with Ackbar lists to just dump out a ridiculously good amount of damage for just 51 points.  The errata that brought it to a single use didn't affect Ackbar fleets as much, but fleets that were used to putting in a minimum of 2 damage on two attacks with a double arc lost some oomph.  We need to do a little extra math to get how much damage we can pump out in a best case scenario.  Currently, out of the front at long range, you can expect to do 2.8 damage with TRC being activated, with 2 damage being the max from the side arc at long.  At medium range the front arc bumps up to 3.5 damage, and the side sits at 2.5.  Adding it all up, you end up at at about 4.8 damage from double arcs if you proc on the front arc shot and get a little something from the side arcs then at medium.  You also ping out for about 3.2 damage at long range. 

The Heavy ion Emplacements on the CR90 comes in at 3 points cheaper, but you lose all long range shots since you cant get Disposable Capacitors on board.  There is a 58% chance to trigger HIE from the front arc of a CR90B, and a little better than 43% from the side.  The damage output though at medium range makes up for it, pushing a total of 5.5 damage out of a double arc shot when using HIE from either the front or side arc.  The damage output though is a little misleading, since thats including the shields you've stripped from the side arcs.  The number moves down a little bit to 4.3 on just the targeted arc from a dual arc shot.

Configuration	Long Range Damage	Medium Range Damage	Best Damage to single Arc	Damage per Cost LR	Cost Per Damage Medium
TRC	3.2	4.8	4.8	15.9	10.6
HIE	0.0	5.5	4.3	NA	8.7

We should also consider though the drop off due to defensive tokens.  Wheres a TRC shot will get halved by a brace, you'll still be doing a minimum of 2 damage to the targeted hull zone and 4 damage overall with the HIE.  The HIE tends to also do pretty well against re-directs thanks to already pushing that 1 damage over, and again doing a minimum 1 to the targeted hull zone.  Both weapons do suffer greatly at the hands of evades though, since TRCs get cancelled at long range and re-rolled at medium, as will HIE crits.  The front arc of a CR90B has only about a 15.6% chance to roll more than 1 crit, so you're likely going to lose that crit on the re-roll. 

Overall I think the HIE90 will see a lot of time as a support ship in fleets that feature a bigger threat to go with it.  It softens up targets and is sufficiently hard to kill for just 48 points that plinking it and ignoring that decked out Admonition is going to leave you feeling very bad.  Its going to take planning though, and I think a little more dedication than a TRC90 does, since it just fits into every list so easily.  Both will have their place, but I'm going to be really pushing to try some HIE90s.

Star Wars Armada: Cymoon Building

Wave 7 has given the Imperials a familiar model, but with a lot of new tech to build around.  The Cymoon Refit I think is going to be one of the more intriguing ships to buld with.  

The 5 native red dice is the best in the game at long range, with only an Ackbar enabled MC80 Home One type punching out with 6 dice being able to best it with upgrades.  The Cymoon though allows for a pair of Turbolasers, so you're likely going to get to those 6 dice with Spinal Armament. This with a Gunnery Team aboard provides the best standoff ship in the game, since you can maneuver forward with that big arc and put down some serious heat, with a pretty good chance to do at least 4 damage (53.9%).  If you tack on Intensify Fire Power (which I think most Cymoon based fleets will want), you take those odds up to 76%.  At long range that means with XI7s you're going to really hammer any hull section. You've also got a decent chance of rolling at least a couple accuracies in there, 43.4% chance to get 1 or 2. 

There are a few issues though with the Cymoon and its usage.  The first, is that its missing a defensive retrofit.  Wile a Cymoon wants to keep the fight at long range, there are more tools today to force close engagement than at any point.  Torpedo Boats still remain powerful, but now Raddus and Profundity also exist to be able t drop extra firepower at any point.  Minister Tua is an option, but then the opportunity cost of not having Strategic Advisor seems relatively high.  The other side of the equation becomes the missing ability to generate re-rolls for this build.  No ion slot means no Leading Shots, meaning for re-rolls most fleets will need to take Darth Vader.  Vader has shown himself to be capable, but is point heavy and is not super efficient with most other ships in the Imperial retinue, especially some of the spikey damage dealers that already have access to Ordnance Experts.  Vader does significantly improve the damage done by the Kuat, taking you up by about 1.75 damage in most cases. 

Overall the Cymoon I think will find a place into a lot of Imperial builds going forward.  The native damage is good as is, and when amped up a bit by some different upgrades, it can become just down right oppressive at long range.  A fleet with an Arquitens or two also hammering away can overwhelm defense tokens early, or allow the Cymoon to soften a target before a brawler like the Kuat or Demolisher move in.  I think its going to find a place with Intensify Fireower most often, to help out all those red dice shots and help clear up unnecessary accuracies from blue dice ships as well.

Star Wars Armada: The Fish Farm dilemma

For competitive Armada the last year has been dominated by just a handful of archetypes.  It began with Rieekan Aces basically taking every top spot at World's n 2016.  That began the 2+3 meta, a list building structure that emphasized a pair of combat ships and three flotillas with  lot of squadrons.  The typical build featured Yavaris and Gallant Haven to back a bunch of rebel heroes to just shred enemy ships and squadrons that approached.  This list was countered on the Imperial side by going to an extra activation by eschewing a second combat ship in the more popular 1+4 Boarding Trooper Avenger lists.  BTAvenger could survive the initial encounter with Gallant Haven, and typically one shot it and scoot before the Yavris B wings could activate and open up the ISD.  We've seen some further explorations as players continue to drop combat cable hips and squadrons to ramp up activations via flotillas.

This leads us to the current menace, the Fish Farm.  Several variations have popped up, the first at Worlds last year and later in an obscene showing at the Indianapolis Regionals, and finally with Intel Officer Luke of the Intel Sweep Blog racking up an impressive day.  The list specifics can vary, but it typically takes 5+Flotilla,s and MC80 HO variant with the Defiance title, and at least 3 VCXs.  THe list aims to out activate, outdeploy, and then out objective all opponents.  The list aims to go second, and then drag every Fire Lanes and Sensor Net token in, or just absurdly punish a target with Advanced Gunnery.  The obvious counter play is make them go first, and play an objective that would be hard for the list to compete in (like Contested Outpost, Most Wanted, or Solar Corona).  This has proven to be tough though as many lists have a good high bid (The Indianapolis list I believe was double digits) to ensure going second.  Its a well thought out list that its easy to see how it can easily pick up a ton of points.

The reason why I have a dilemma about the Fish Farm is that it breaks the game in a way that I really hate, but on the other hand it emphasizes Objective play.  On the brokenness first.  Flotilla Spam and Activation hi-jinks I think reduce a game that is excellent to a much more boring and un-thematic set of stand off shots.  Activation advatage has always been a key in Armada.  The first last Demolisher and Admonition torpedo boat lists (the first being the Clonisher build in the games first releases) relied heavily on having the First-Last combo.  Roll your havy hitter in, hit the enemy and get out before it could get destroyed.  I believe the reason that there is such umbrage now with this list, is the simple fact before the ships adding activations were combat capable.  The Raider and CR-90 are both ships able to fight and in spam lists are expected to.  The Flotillas now just are not combat ships.  At best they are getting used for blocking, but for the most part they hover around the edges of the game and simply exist.  The payoff as well for killing a flotilla is low.  18-25 points typically, on one of your roughly 12-14 attacks during a game is not going to allow you to close the gap fast enough.  Especially with the necessity of generating potentially multiple accuracies at range to harm them.  A majority of ships in this game feature three red dice at long, meaning a lot of the time you are leaving that flotilla with 0 hull damage.  Its a poor game design that made them far too point efficient in both activation padding and squadron activation that makes the a scourge I think for most lists. 

On the other hand, this list emphasizes one of the things that I truly love about Armada.  Objective play.  I think far too many lists are built only to try and kill off other fleets, rather than to use the unique objective system in the game.  Part of that I think is that the objectives do not typically generate enough points to justify trying to play them vs building a more lethal fleet.  Fire Lanes and Sensor Net though, now with Strategic available, make these objectives potentially worth well over half you fleet cost.  This list nails down exactly how to use them to generate alternative win conditions.  So I want to applaud this list for doing that.  And hence the dilemma for the Fish Farm.  Its a list that is just not much fun to play against, but it wins in ways that might just not be fun for the game.  I think honestly if instead of 90 points of flotillas it featured hammerheads noone would have an issue with it.  But as it stands now, the calls intensify for FFG to do something about the continuing Flotilla spam.

Armada: Concocting with Wide Area Barrage

One of the best incoming upgrades for Armada is the Ordnance piece, Wide Area Barrage.  For a mere two points, you can deal several points of unblockable damage to a ship or squadron nearby your target.  This is another peice in Wave 7s anti squad buffing, that I think is important for how the game is going to behave going forward.  This is a direct assault on Carrier builds like Gallant Haven and Yavaris that love to keep squadrons nearby them.  It can also work to help kill those pesky support flotillas, since all the damage must be taken to one hull zone.

So what's our maximum damage that can be done?  Natively, its anything with 4 black dice in an arc.  The top maxes out at two, with 3 being possible if you are able to Concentrate Fire in another black die.  The only ship that can do this on its own is the Gladiator 1.  This is certainly not a bad choice, since Demolisher typically rides aboard a Glad 1 and this could be a way to earn more points back from a ship that faces a lot of hate any time it approaches a ship.  In the Max out at two damage natively, the Victory 1,Glad 2, Kuat ISD, MC75 Ordnance Cruiser and both versions of the MC30 can hit 2 damage with their 3 black dice with an arc, and nicely all have access to Ordnance Experts to help make sure to trigger it ( and ensure max damage).  The step down from the 4 black dice to 3 means a roughly 17% damage reduction on average for doing at least 2 damage, but we're talking 99% to 82%.  Its still likely to happen.  I think any one of these ships can take WAB as an option now, and it likely has the added effect of forcing your opponent to spread his fleet a bit more thinly.  THis makes the torpedo boats much more dangerous since they will not be facing multiple rows of fire when they make an attack run.

The Victory 1 and Kuat I do not think will pair super well here.  Both at close range are extreme brawlers, wanting to do huge spike damage.  The Splash damage just is not enough to really make it worthwhile, especially for the Vic 1 that is likely only getting 1 shot at that range with its big front arc.

We can also toss these on board Raider 1s, Torpedo Hammerheads, Assault Peltas, and MC75 Armored Cruiser.  The only ship that I could see reguarly taking this is the MC75, and even then the better option might be Ordnance Pods or External racks.  The Raider and Hammerhead are both just not taky enough to deliver potential multiple rounds of fire, and even with a double arc they are at best adding 2 damage on.  The Assault Pelta is another poor choice for these, since it has no way of re-rolling misses with its lack of weapons team, and its at best adding 1 damage.

Below here is a table for the average damage that each ship will do.  Remember, a decimal that's below .5 means it will trend towards the floor, while greater than will tend to hit the next integer up.

Ship	Average Splash from Best Arc
Raider 1	0.9
Kuat ISD	1.6
Glad 1	1.9
Glad 2	1.6
Vic 1	1.6
MC-30	1.6
MC-75	1.6
Torp. HH	0.7
Assault Pelta	0.4

THis shows that on a one shot attack, you will typically be asking for 1 or 2 damage with a lot of rolls, but the Gladiator 1 dominates the field in consistency with OE re-rolls. 

Having hit the basics, there are some edge cases that could see some play.  Sato Fleets could really like this upgrade for a combination of long range critical effects, and a chance to do a max of 5 splash damage.  Using either MC-30 could allow a Sato player to throw 5 black dice on one attack, dealing 3 splash, and then follow up with the front arc with a CF command to basically guarantee another 2.  That kills Jan Ors, Luke, Biggs, and most other mainstay aces in one fell swoop, as well as piling up the damage on the target ship.  Gladiator 2s I think could also see a slight resurgence, since you can do max damage regularly, and the added Blue die for flacking makes them extremely well suited for killing squads and carriers in a pair of activations.  The MC-75 is also likely one of the best bets for this, since it can pair WAB with one of the either dice adding ordnance upgrades.  External Racks is probably the best pairing, for cost and the fact that if you put expanded launchers on it noone is going to allow you to get the front arc on it.  The mC75 also gives the chance for 5 splash damage in an activation.

Battle Report: Dodonna Liberty vs Dual Glad Squadrons

In likely the last game I'll be able to get in before the launch of Wave 7, I decided it was time to try out some of the new Rebels faction ships I received as gifts n the last portion of the year.  I wanted to try out the Liberty, but I wanted to try something a little different from the typical Madine lists I've seen posted online.  It does however need the extra mobility that Madine can allow, so I decided to toss Nav Techs and Raymus on board.  Its a little bit more expensive than just running ET, but it lets me either jump from 1-3and back again, or gives me some supreme mobility.  I paired that with a Salvation Neb, and a TRC -90.  I also had a pair of Transports, one as the combat retrofit.  I had never run the combat version, but several folks on the FFG forums swear by using them with Torryn Farr on the regular version to provide re0rolls on AA fire.  The plan would typically be to use the MC up front and follow up with the Neb, allowing the transports to shield the flanks from squads and the 90 to flank.

Here's the full list

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 64)
+ General Dodonna (20)
+ Raymus Antilles (7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ Nav Team (4)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
+ Mon Karren (8)
Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 + 12)
+ Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
+ Salvation (7)
CR90 Corvette A (44 + 9)
+ Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
+ Jaina's Light (2)
GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24 + 5)
+ Leia Organa (3)
+ Comms Net (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 9)
+ Toryn Farr (7)
+ Bright Hope (2)
Shara Bey (17)
2 x YT-2400 (2 x 16)
A-wing Squadron (11)

My opponent was a good friend of mine who was running a Dual Gladiator, Dual Raider squadron fleet.  I've played against it several times, so I knew off the top that while the Gladiators can be trouble, the Squadrons are how this list wins.  He ran Maarek Steele, Jendon, Rudor, Gamma Squad, Tempest Squadron and a generic Phantom.  This list is great against fighters with a lot of high hull killers, and then they're very good at plinking ships down so they're damaged by the time the Glads close in.   

We played Contested Outpost.  From the outset I positioned things poorly.  He ended up placing his Gozanti and a Raider with the squad compliment on my far right, and Insidious and the other Raider on the far left.  I had the Neb and transports pointed at the station in the middle, and the (0 on the far left running a little off parallel to my edge.  The MC80 ended up on the far right, with Demolisher set a little closer to the middle.  My thought with the 80 had been at speed 3 I could potentially one shot both the Raider and Gozanti and either force Demo to turn hard to deal with it or risk getting caught from behind.  The plan started out poorly, as his gozanti quickly turned hard to stay far away from the MC80, while the Raider withstood a full blast at medium Range on turn 2 with a single Motti hull remaining.  He slow rolled Demolisher and moved the squads in towards the station.  On the far left Jain'as light was in a run for her life from Insidious and the Raider, but luckily with our activations being equal I was able to never allow Insidious to take the medium range black die shot and the Raider couldnt activate at the right tempo to catch it.  My squadrons were able to get in and kill the phantom right away, but I ended up losing Shara Bey in the exchange.  At that point though, the transports were able to start whittling down the remaining squads, with some hyper efficient rolls.  Torryn boosted blues are no joke. 

 The Transports also helped to block Demolisher off from Salvation, but it didn't end up lasting long after it was able to scooch past them a turn later.  In a couple of turns I ended up losing Salvation and the 90, trading in for the Raider and a bit of damage on on Insidious and Demo.  The transports were able to finish off all but Valen Rudor and Jendon for his squadrons, while Mon Karren made the hard turn to start putting shots onto Demo.  Luckily for me, because of Demo's angle to chase down Salvation and the 90, he ended up having to be in range of Mon Karren, who promptly destroyed him, killing Motti as well.  That ended up popping the one hull raider, and the one hull Gozanti as well!.  From there Demolisher ran off and I spent a round sitting on the station picking up some extra points.  

In the end I got a little lucky in a few choices by my opponent, but I did enjoy very much the ability of the Liberty to dance some circles Nav Techs and Raymus.  The transports did their job exactly as well.  The Neb continues to support that it likely is best used as a carrier rather than a combat ship, as long as torpedo boats continue to remain popular. 

Armada early unboxing!

Thanks to the great job Crabbok does of covering Armada, FFG have him some early copies of the Profundity and Chimera expansions which he unboxed for us!  Let me start by saying the models in the videos look just fantastic. The Chimera paint job is awesome. We also learned the Raid effect can be cleared in two ways. The first is to have a token of the matching type and discard it, or to discard your top command dial to remove all Raid tokens. This makes it a far more palpable mechanic I think vs the worst case thinkers where you were locked out of a command forever. This possibly also means token generation becomes more important. So Garm Bel Iblis and Moff Tarkin might see more table time.

Let's work our way through all of the new upgrades that we got revealed.  Sorry for no pictures on this, at least until the wiki gets updated. 

Neutral:

Strategic Advisor: 4 Points, Large Ship Only, When it is your turn to activate, exhaust this car to pass your turn. This is probably one of the biggest upgrades to come in this wave.  The pass mechanic rules have been hotly debated, but FFG as found an elegant way of letting ships that feature a large ship keep up in the arms race for activations.  In the officer's slot there is a bit of competition in both factions, but I think we'll see the advisor fairly often over running a third Gozanti or transport.

Early Warning System: 7 Points, Defensive Retrofit, At the start of each Ship phase, you may pick a hull zone and place a chaff token.  Attacks against that hull zone are obstructed.  Remove the token at the end of the Status Phase.  A huge boon for ships of all sizes against squadrons especially.  A bunch of Bombers parked in front of your ISD?  Chaff makes them all move and allows you to likely get away instead of overlapping.  This also puts a crimp on ships trying to plink away at damage from afar with one or two red dice.  

Hardened Bulk Heads: 5 points, Offensive Retrofit, Large Ship Only.  When you overlap or are overlapped by a ship of a smaller size class, deal one fewer facedown damage card.  ISD brawlers are going to love this if they aren't taking a boarding team (Kuat's likely?).  ET MC80 Home Ones will also love to ram your Vic 1 twice and take no damage from it.  This is going to be a fun one I think.

Heavy Ion Emplacements: 9 points, Ion Cannon.  On a Blue crit, exhaust this card to deal one additional damage to the hull zones shields, as well as 1 damage to each adjacent hull zones shields.  I'm excited and twining at this card.  Interdictors I think will love it to add more bit to their barrage, and with D-Caps they get it at long range!  Sadly though, it has no effect the target ship has no shields in those hull zones.  And its 2 points more expensive than ACMs that are always effective.  Maybe it could find a home in a Sato MC80 Liberty Star Cruiser variant, where the Mon Cal weapons team can re-roll all those Blue dice?

Ordnance Pods: 3 Points, Ordnance, Medium or Large Ship only.  At the end of your attack, you may exhaust this card and perform an attack from a  hull zone with one black die against squadrons, even if you have already attacked.  Oh boy, this is a fun one.  Similar to Impetuous, but you get the whole arc to sweep with a black die.  MC-75 likes this, Kuat probably likes it, and Vic 1s I think love it.  With the last several waves having such a boost for squadrons, this is an excellent boost to flak that has been sorely needed.  If you have Ordnance Experts, this is basically an extra damage to everyone each turn they stay in range.

Imperial Only:

Soverign: 4 Points, ISD title.  At the start of the ship phase, you may exhaust this card to discard 1 command token from up to 3 friendly ships at range 1-5.  If you d, those ships gain a command token of any type.  Of course Tarkin's flag ship helps with tokens.  Does it make Tarkin good enough to take as a commander?  Maybe.  But it certainly helps with matching up the correct Raid token.  It competes with several other very good titles though, so we'll see if it gets any use.

Captain Brunson: 5 points, Officer.  While defending at range 1-2 of an obstacle, you may exhaust this card to cancel one die.  This is a niche use officer, who might see some play in a fleet that is running Interdictors or Salvage Run as an objective.  Overall though she might be tough to use.

Instructor Goran: 7 points, Officer.  While a non heavy squadron is at range 1-2, it gains Counter 1 or increases its counter value by 1.  An interesting boost for fleets that might use a smaller fighter cover to help kill more stuff as a road block near a ship, he could be paired with Stronghold to make those TIE Fighters far more prickly to punch through.

Gar Saxon: 23 points, Gauntlet Fighter, Brace, AS of Blue Blue Red, Anti Ship Blue Black, Assault, Rogue.  When an enemy ship with Intel or Relay at range 1 activates, they take 1 damage.  Holy crap.  This guy will likely find himself a place in a lot of smaller squadron fleets for his ability to help shut down Relay ships very quickly.  Assault is better with Blue Black, since you still have a chance at damage as well. 

Rebel Only:

Aspiration: MC-75 Title, 3 points.  When you deploy, you may move shields to up to 2 hull zones from other hull zones.  The maximum shield setting is 6, and you cannot regenerate shields while any hull zone has more than its typical maximum.  This is an interesting title, especially with Admiral Raddus on board.  You deploy the MC-75 late, and beef the facing hull zone shields up to max to keep from getting edged out.  Its not a must take title, but I like it.

Bail Organa: 7 points, Officer, Medium or Large Only.  After deploying, pick a round token.  At the start of that round, if you are second player you must activate first.  If you're first player, gain 2 command tokens.  The counter to Governor Pryce, Bail has you jumping the order of everyone else.  This could be the key to getting out of an arc early, or whacking a couple of ships before they escape.  Like Pryce, he telegraphs what you want to do, and going first can be more dangerous than going last a lot of the time I think because you don't know the board state as well.  But, with Raid, the chance at those tokens is nice.  

General Draven: 3 points, Officer.  While attacking a squadron with Counter or Intel, add 1 die of any color to the attack pool.  The Kallus of the Rebellion!  This is going to be a bit of a heavy hitter I think, largely because Jan Ors is so powerful for rebels, and the aforementioned Imperial officer that adds counter to everyone.  Its a big blow against Sloane lists as well, and the typical favorite A wing Aces of Shara Bey and Tycho.  

This wave is going to likely mean a huge meta shake up, with new Raid mechanics and passing abilities with activation shenanigans.  The Gauntlet fighters will likely ensure squads being a must have, but there's a lot of squadron hate going on there so it might mean a medium fighter CAP is now the best way to counter those Aces lists.