Star Wars: Armada

Had a fun game last night with 200 points no objectives, no upgrade cards, so a small battle. Armada actually moves pretty quickly once you get going. You can see that they made the fighters subsystem as streamlined as possible. A couple of thoughts on the game that more experienced players might help me with (I always play Rebel).

1) Man, the titled Imperial fighter squadrons are wildly powerful. I took 2 generic Y-wing and a generic A-wing so I could get another corvette (which promptly got mismaneuvered at close range right in the edge of a star destroyer's front arc...). He took several tie fighters, an interceptor and, critically, Soontir Fel (intercepter character) and Major Rhymer. Soontier Fel single handedly tied up my Y-wings and murdered them while taking fire from my frigate too (two blue anti-fighter). He didn't take a damage all game because of swarm AND brace. My opponent played him really well but he's also insanely powerful. He wasn't as successful with Rhymer but Rhymer's short-medium range anti-ship fighters (!!!) power is insane. Any thoughts on these? How would you counter the good imperial titles with the rebels?

2) I have no clue how to use ships with red (maybe blue too) and no black dice. Like, how do you keep your opponent at that kind of range consistently for more than one initial turn? I have no idea how to do it. It's particularly a problem for strong red dice in the front (corellian corvette?). You're only going to get one shot with those red dice before whatever you're firing at comes in and crushes you with its blue and black dice. How do you guys make this maneuvering happen to keep the opponent away? Any advice? With the broadside red/blue ships I can see that you would angle away from the opponent and try to circle a little as it moves toward you.

Definitely going to get the new ships, I like the game a lot now that it goes fast.

I haven't played Armada enough to really say, but with all the other space skirmishes I tend to choose balanced fleets where I have some
gunships (long range effective, but worthless close up) that sit in the back in their most effective range band and are screened by the knife fighters.

Essentially, accept that they're going to only be able to fire into a small window and use screening ships to funnel enemies into that little window by forcing the enemies to maneuver into that kill box or get beat to shit by the knife fighters.

Typically I try to get the ships all broadside at two ranges and the close range ships spread out a bit to act as blockers, but spread 6-8" apart like a moving screen. The gunship at the back just moves along with them but further back and shoots through the gap between them.

That forces opponents to come in close enough to kill the screen ships, taking big shots during the initial volleys from the close rangers and catching some massive punishment from the gunship. I usually have a carrier (or knife fighter ships that can also launch limited sorties) travel in the range between the knife fighters and the gunship, blocked by one of the knife fighters - I'll launch fighter swarms to screen for the front line and force the enemy frigates/corvettes to slide up into range of the gunships in an effort to kill the fighters.

Works OK unless the enemy is fighter heavy.

I'm so psyched to play again I'm going to set it up solo tonight.

Gary Sax wrote: I'm so psyched to play again I'm going to set it up solo tonight.

I'm feeling that way about Panzer . I wish it would arrive already so I can get into FtF play with my neighbour and regular Combat Commander opponent.

It's a fun feeling.

I just bought some new segmented range rulers and segmented fighter movement distance rulers. Really want to buy the two new waves (Liberty, Interdictor, transports, carriers) soon. Saw them in a store in Spokane while I was visiting my parents and wanted them RIGHT THEN but had no luggage space.

I just bought two base sets in the MM sale >.>

Nice!

Hmmm, also...
www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Star_Wars:_Armada

I kind of wish I'd never given my copies up to Josh. All this Armada talk is making me regret getting into Firestorm Armada (which I'm now selling off).

I ordered some other small pack of ships but I'm not going down the rabbit hole with this one until I see how the base game plays. I'll check out the vassal mod when I have the system figured out.

The base game will play fine.

If you're moving further I'd buy a fighter pack of both sides and then a big rebel ship (assault frigate, home one, or the new liberty) and two small corvette/frigate imperial ships. You can actually totally stop right there, you have a FULL game at that point (but have spent a lot of money, of course...)

SuperflyTNT wrote: I kind of wish I'd never given my copies up to Josh. All this Armada talk is making me regret getting into Firestorm Armada (which I'm now selling off).

Just curious, why the regret on Firestorm Armada?

Painting.

Played 300 pts solo with everything (upgrades, etc). Home One, corvette, frigate, and X-wings w/Wedge vs. Victory II, Gladiator, Raider and a big variety of ties.

Incredibly close game. All that was left was the frigate, wedge, and one x-wing vs. the raider, and two tie bombers (one of which finished Home One!). Great game. Nail biter pulled out 238 to 210 kills by the Rebels. Had fun running it, though once you add upgrades it becomes difficult to remember which powers everyone has in the way you would if it was your own ships.

Big difference w/rebs this time was pushing Home One farther forward along with a big x-wing contingent BUT leaving the weaker red guns at speed 1 behind the fray (corvette, escort frigate). It ended up being pretty useful---Victory II had to turn to try to forward fire Home One which was creeping along the flank w/its engineering upgrade (free 1 maneuver after maneuver), which seriously exposed its flank to the slow advancing small reb ships. Kind of an interesting game, you first instinct in this game is not to move small ships slowly but if you lag them behind like Superfly suggested... esp. the frigate which has strong front shields but weak everywhere else.

Yeah, I was going to mention earlier (been busy) keeping the speed down and/or using side-slips. For example, put the maneuver tool on the right of your ship then 1st click 1 left then 2nd click 1 right (or 2 if you have a good turn mode or navigate order). Or variations of that. Going speed 0 for a round could help as well. You lose defense tokens but it doesn't matter if you're not in range.

X-wings are a great solution, really. All-around fighters plus escort ability and they can bomb well too. I'm thinking Jan Ors might be a good support option to help against pesky Counter X dogfighters but haven't tried her yet. (Uh, you can use defense tokens against Counter, right?)

I was thinking after last game how important the initial setup is in this game. It sounds obvious but I wanted to underline it. You only get so many maneuvers... It's absolutely crucial not to fuck this up because I do think the fleet with more precise starting positioning is going to have a big advantage. And the obstacles are fucked - 2 shields down or a critical hit is not helping you win. And if you navigate around one and end up being out of range or in a worse position? Blech. Anyway, this game is dope.

I ordered Home One, extra rebel and imperial fighters, rogues and villains for flavour. I'll keep one base set in shrink in case I feel I don't need it (yeah right) because I can probably sell it on (yeah right).