Friday, October 30, 2015

Wave 1 Memorial Tournament - Round 4 vs MattShadowlord Initial Thoughts

Is there a sign on my back that says "Match me up against Australians?"

My round 4 opponent would be MattShadowlord, a guy I typically see on vassal, and have played once or twice casually due to both of us being available about the same time - during the week days (for me) early in the morning.  Hurray for a schedule that has me working for 16 hours every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  In this tournament he was playing Imperials, and matched evenly with me - both at 20 points.  After pod play both of us were tied, with Maturin, for 5th place, giving the winner a pretty secure top 4 slot, but only if one of us actually won outright this time.  First place was pretty much out though, baring JJs Juggernaut / Green Knight and Doobleg / Gowtah both going to 5-5 draws.


Wednesday, October 28, 2015

How Does Wave 2 Change Wave 1 Ships? Part 2 - Imperials

On Monday, we got to talk about how Wave 2 coming out changed the roles and upgrades we are likely to see on the various Wave 1 Rebel ships - today we will be going over the Imperials.

So how will the change to 400 points, and the addition of all the new ships, commanders, and upgrades affect the Victory and Gladiator Class Star Destroyers?

Monday, October 26, 2015

How Does Wave 2 Change Wave 1 Ships? Part 1 - Rebels

There is little doubt that with Wave 2 on the horizon, nearly doubling the amount of ships, upgrades and squadrons - to give no mention of the increase in total points to 400 - will substantially shake up the game and what we will be seeing on the 6x3 surface in front of us.  But what about the wave 1 ships we've come to know and love?  How does Wave 2 affect them?

And that's what we will be discussing.  Today we will be focusing on the Rebel ships of wave 1; the Assault Frigate Mk II, Nebulon B Frigate, and the CR90 Corvette, with the Imperial ships to come soon.


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Wave 1 Memorial Tournament - Round 3 vs doobleg

Here's the final round of Pod 4 for the FFG Forums Wave 1 Memorial Tournament, verses my "first" opponent doobleg.  An excellent player and the winner of the previous tournament, I knew he was going to give me a run for my money.  I also knew that at 15 points I'd have to pretty much win outright to stay in control of the pod.  At this point, doobleg had 8 points having played only a single game against Brian Black, and still had to face off against DabDarklighter.

To refresh our memory, here is what I was up against:

DOOBLEG'S EMPIRE FLEET (385 points)
Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Weapons Liaison - Assault Concussion Missiles (83)
Victory I-class Star Destroyer - Admiral Chiraneau - Expanded Hangar Bay - Corrupter (93)

Monday, October 19, 2015

Commander's Guide - MC80 Mon Cal Cruiser - 50th Article Bonanza!

We've reached a milestone here at the Steel Squadron - this is our 50th article that we've put up!  Admittedly, a couple of those articles were about X-Wing Miniatures (and left us with the ironic web address) and one of them was just proof that I did, in fact, have a mustache and thus was Biggs in Real Life.

But, 50 total!  And to do something special for the big Five-Oh, we're going to go back to what put us on the map - the Commander's Guides!  Still one of our most popular articles months after we put them out.  And today we're going to talk about our first Wave 2 ship, the MC80 Mon Cal Cruiser, being released in the Home One expansion sometime soon (or already in your hands if you won one at Sullust)

The MC80 Mon Cal Cruiser Variants

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Armada Commanders - Wave 2 - Imperials

It's time for more Wave 2 discussion, this time though we will be talking about the Imperial Commanders that are coming out in the 2nd wave.  That's right, we are talking about the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, now firmly in command instead of just in the squadron voted "most likely to be destroyed first".

Oh, and also Admiral Ozzel.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Armada Commanders - Wave 2 - Rebel

It's been awhile, hasn't it?  The last time we talked about Commanders was back in June, and here we are in October.  Actually, Commanders were one of the first things I discussed on this blog, the very first for Armada being objectives, and Commanders not long after that.

So without further ado - let's go through the new Commanders that the Rebellion gets for Wave 2.


Monday, October 12, 2015

Ordinance Upgrades - Wave 1

Wave 1 only had two ships that could take Ordinance and both were Imperial.  The Gladiator Class and the Victory I-Class variant both got the chance to equip either one of the two Ordinance Upgrade cards, though of the two the Gladiator Class was more built for pure ordinance.

Thank goodness that is it for upgrades on Wave 1!

Friday, October 9, 2015

Wave 1 Memorial Vassal Tournament - Round 2 vs Dab Darklighter

In ongoing coverage of my tournament for the Wave 1 Memorial, here is my second round opponent. This time I was up against Dab Darklighter - a guy that is relatively local for me - we actually have played before in the past in real life.  For a reminder, here was his list:

DabDarklighter's Fleet:                       400 pts
Flagship                          126pts  
        VSD2                         85
        Admiral Motti            24
        Intel Officer                7
        Leading Shots            4
        XI7 Turbolasers         6
Ship                                102pts  
        VSD2                        85
        Intel Officer                7
        Leading Shots            4
        XI7 Turbolasers         6
Ship                                86pts    
        VSD1                      73
        Gunnery Team          7
        XI7 Turbolasers         6
Ship                                86pts    
        VSD1                      73
        Gunnery Team          7
        XI7 Turbolasers         6


Thursday, October 8, 2015

Ion Cannon Upgrades - Wave 1

Wave 1 did not give us very many ships that could equip Ion Cannons - actually it only gave us two, and they are both variants.  In fact, they are the most expensive and least expensive ship in all of wave 1 by their variant.  That's right, we're talking about the Victory II-Class Star Destroyer and the CR90 Corvette B.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at what the upgrades do, and what the best use for them is.

This article is part of the Upgrades series.


Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Wave 1 Memorial Vassal Tournament - Round 1 vs Brian Black

In ongoing coverage of my tournament for the Wave 1 Memorial, here is my first round opponent. Due to how the pod worked, I wound up playing my first game against Brian Black, simply because both of us were free on Sunday night.  For a reminder, here was his list:

+++ Brian Black's Wave 1 Tournament List (396pts) +++

+ Ships (304pts) +

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (84pts) [Expanded Hangar Bay (5pts), Flight Controllers (6pts)]
Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (123pts) [•Grand Moff Tarkin (38pts)]
Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (97pts) [•Dominator (12pts)]

+ Squadrons (92pts) +

TIE Fighter Squadron (8pts) x3
"Howlrunner" (16pts)


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Turbolaser Upgrades - Wave 1

Wave 1 gave us a relatively large number of Turbolaser upgrades, and a lot of ships to use them with.  In fact, the only two ships that couldn't run a Turbolaser upgrade were either variant of the Gladiator and the CR90B.  Meanwhile, the Victory Class Star Destroyer, Assault Frigate MkII, Nebulon B Frigate, and CR90A Corvette all could take the upgrades.

So lets take a look at what each one does, and see which ships, and which other upgrades, works best with each one.

This article is part of the Upgrades series.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Wave 1 Memorial Vassal Tournament - After Action Report (Initial Thoughts)

With the FFG forums again having a vassal tournament, I knew I needed to be a part of it.  Fortunately not running this one - clontroper5 was going to handle that bit - I could relax and just enjoy the games.  Please note, while I am publishing this after the fact, I actually wrote this article before playing a single game of the tournament.


Sunday, October 4, 2015

After Action Report - Massing at Sullust

Hello everyone!  I had the chance to officiate for, and run in the Massing at Sullust event today at my local game store, Drawbridge Games.  First off, a big shout out to the store owner, Enrico, for letting a group of Armada enthusiasts basically take over his store for essentially the entire day.  We had 6 total attendees, which is actually a fairly large turnout for the area - we are still growing by word of mouth.  Drawbridge did manage to grab the only Massing at Sullust event for the area - Morgantown had one the previous day that I don't believe anyone that came to this one made it to, and Dublin, OH had the next closest one.  We had room for 10 players, and 5 had pre-registered, so an all-around good number.

Also a big shout-out to my Co-Officiant Chris - he had been a huge help getting the whole thing off the group, brainstorming with me and Enrico on logistics for the event (how to turn 3 tables, only two of which were big enough for Armada) into room enough for 10 players.

Because we had less than 8 participants, we decided to follow FFG's suggested round change that they had in the rule insert for the kit - 2 rounds and a cut to the top 2.


Thursday, October 1, 2015

Defensive Retrofits - Wave 1

Another upgrade set for wave 1 where there weren't that many upgrades, Defensive Retrofits had only two types produced and only two ships built capable of taking the upgrades.  The ships involved were both rebel ships, the Assault Frigate Mk II and the CR90 Corellian Corvette.

This article is part of the Upgrades series.