Friday, December 30, 2016

Commander's Guide - Z-95 Headhunter

It takes a while to clear out actual ships, but squadrons are fast!  I can do a squadron Monday - Friday and probably fit the Pelta in there somewhere next week.  Sounds good?  We are going to talk about the new Wave 5 Rebel squadrons today, specifically the Z-95 Headhunter, the predecessor to the X-Wing and all-around cheap, crappy squadron.

The cheap Z-95 Headhunter


Thursday, December 29, 2016

Commander's Guide - Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser

The Arquitens Class Light Cruiser brings to the table something the Imperials really haven't had before - a long range / Turbolaser based light cost ship.  Not a brawler by any means, the Arquitens-Class looks to fill a vital role in Imperial fleets whose big Red dice contributions have come from Victory or Imperial-Class Destroyers.



Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict B-Wings

Final Squadrons from Corellian Conflict, and we can dig into the meat of Wave 5!


Dagger Squadron - 15 points

An interesting anti-squadron bump to the traditional B-Wing, where Dagger gets an extra Black in exchange for one of the generic's 3 Blues, and access to the Swarm Keyword.  1 point is a fairly harmless cost over the generic, especially if you're doing Rieekan things.  Might combo well in a hybrid role along with a Z-95 swarm.


Ten Numb - 19 points

"While attacking a squadron, you may spend 1 blue dice with a Critical Result Icon.  If you do, each other enemy squadron at distance 1 of the defender suffers 1 damage."

Everyone is very excited about this guy, and for good reason.  With reroll shenanigans like Toryn Farr, or double tap shenanigans like Adar Tallon or Yavaris, you can chew through enemy fighters like Mauler Mithel normally does for the Imperials.  He is slow, and that is his only trick though - no boosted bombing damage for him.  Expect to see a lot of him in Combat Air Patrol style fighter configurations.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict A-Wings

Continuing onward with Corellian Conflict so we can get to the Wave 5 goodness ahead.  Just got to talk about the A-Wings and B-Wings!  Today it will be the A-Wings.


Monday, December 26, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict Y-Wings

Let's get through the rest of the Corellian Conflict so we can get to Wave 5!  Y-Wing Time!

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict TIE Advanced

I'm back from the dead to give you more Commander's Guide Series as quickly as I can put them out.  Let's get to it then:


Friday, December 16, 2016

Post#201

I am surprisingly pretty sick, as it turns out, and won't be updating for a bit.  Follow the facebook page and I will send other people's good articles your way so isn't that good enough.

Hope Wedge liberated Tyferria because off to the bacta tanks I go!

Friday, December 2, 2016

200 Articles Posted!

Another impressive milestone for those of us who understand math from a base 10 system, we've published 200 articles on Steel Squadron HQ!  Well, we did just now, with this article, because it is #200!  That's 200 articles of the best strategy and tactical advance you could ever ask for!  And that doesn't include the pages that we've put up to make finding old articles and understand the game better.

Let's take a look at what got us here.




Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - The Weapon Teams

Weapons Teams make things dead, and are thus the backbone of any fleet.  I should probably get around to ranking them, right?

Plus, I need a filler article, because wow am I slacking off at putting quality strategy articles together.  You guys love this pap right?  I'm expecting no less than 6 comments on how I ranked something too high / too low.




Monday, November 28, 2016

Giving Back As the Best Community In Gaming

Instead of a Monday article on strategy or tactics, we're going to talk about giving back to communities less fortunate than ours.



Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Using New Objectives to Your Advantage - Navigation

Last time we look at the Assault Objectives, and with the Defensive Objectives not fully spoiled, we are forced to move on to the Light Blue objectives everyone enjoys - so without further ado... Navigation!


Monday, November 21, 2016

Using New Objectives To Your Advantage - Assault

Corellian Conflict is looking to give us a host of new objectives to play around with - doubling the number of possibilities from the starter set.  How will you be able to make those objectives work for you in your lists, and how do you combat them as First Player?  Let's take a look today at the Assault Objectives:




Saturday, November 19, 2016

WWPD Steven - Konstantine vs Rieekan Livestream!




Hyperspace Assault - watch a Konstantine match where the 2nd medium base ship jumps in midway through to begin speed shenanigans.  Is it enough of a trick to work?  Can it destroy the TRC-90s and GR75s?  Is a Mauler + Bounty Hunters team enough to slow down a Rieekan Aces build?

Tune in to find out!

Also there was some Imperial Assault today as well.  Looks like a skirmish game.


Thursday, November 17, 2016

Interview with Josiah Burkhardsmeier - World Champion 2016

Here at Steel Squadron HQ we have a tradition following the World Championship of interviewing the winner.  At least, it is a tradition now, as previously it was just something we did once to see if it would work and couldn't believe we lucked into.

Anyways, here is our interview with Josiah (JJs Juggernaut) Burkhardsmeier, the World Champion of Armada!

Heya Josiah.  First off, congratulations on the big win!

World Champion Josiah (center) poses with two good looking gentlemen.

Hey! Thanks so much! I'd be glad to answer any questions can. I also plan on doing a write-up of my games in the near future, though it depends on how hectic my schedule gets!


Monday, November 14, 2016

WWPDSteven's Youtube Streams & Steel Squadron HQ

Hello everyone!  Big announcement time!

WWPDSteven of the FFG forums, known for his Historicals focused website http://www.wwpd.net/ and also for being a top 4 finisher for Armada at Worlds, has begun a partnership with Steel Squadron HQ to post his new Youtube streams as they are completed.

Don't forget, you can also watch him stream live at https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven.




Thursday, November 10, 2016

Match-up of the Week - You Come at the King, You'd Better Not Miss.

Truthiness must have been very disappointed to have missed the World Champions, because he's decided to take it up with our World Champion himself.



The battle will take place Sunday at 1pm EST on Vassal.  I am working until 3pm.

Stop scheduling things like this!  I can't stream unless I am off!


Monday, November 7, 2016

Worlds Wrap-Up

Gonna take a break about talking strategy, since that is what literally everyone is going to be talking about for the next few days, and since Saturday.  No, today I want to talk about what even the FFG folks were impressed with:  Community.



Friday, November 4, 2016

Biggs Pre-Action Report - Worlds

By now I have finished Day 1 at Worlds, and I've already played at least a few games with my list.  But as I write this it is a week before I am set to actually play.  So here is what I am taking to Worlds, what I am going to try to be doing, and my rational for my strategy.  We will see how it actually works in practice, but play testing it hasn't done too bad.



Wednesday, November 2, 2016

A New Resource

I'm flying to Worlds today.  I hope I get to see a lot of you up there, and if you can't make it I will be doing my best to report back so that it is like you are there!

But today we are going to talk about a new resource that someone shared with me.  Adrian Romero, a reader of the blog, sent in a spreadsheet that he designed to calculate damage odds with Armada.


Friday, October 28, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict TIE Fighters

Onward to the Empire and their most iconic starfighter, the TIE Fighter.  Corellian Conflict brings two new unique squadrons for us to look at:


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Commander's Guide - Corellian Conflict X-Wings

We have finally got more spoiled cards, so it is time to get back to my favorite part of the blog:  Commander's Guides!

Just look at that handsome gentleman.

It's time to talk about the X-Wings.  The namesake for the site URL, and by far the most famous starfighter in all of Star Wars.


Monday, October 17, 2016

Friday, October 7, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Officers

Effort is for chumps.  Ranking things is great.  Opinions are likely wrong.




Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Ship Titles (Imperial)

Here's another ranking article, because filler is what makes the world go 'round!




Monday, October 3, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Ship Titles (Rebel)

Okay, this is going to be a little bit difficult, as we simply have to consider the ship itself that the upgrade is going onto.  Still, here we go - hopefully this is good for some discussion:



Friday, September 30, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Commanders (Imperial)

Let's keep the ranking going.  This time we are going to discuss the Empire and their Commanders.



Thursday, September 29, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Commanders (Rebel)

As a fun exercise, I have decided to go through the upgrade cards and arrange them into overall tiers.

Hopefully, doing so will let me look at the with a more critical eye going forward, and may help each of you examine your own choice of upgrades too:



Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Dancing with Dash and Rhymer - The Combat Air Patrol (CAP)

One thing that we have been seeing lately pop up in major tournaments is a sudden strong showing from Rhymerballs (Imperial) and YT-2400 spam (Rebel).  Today we are going to take a look at both of these archetypes for fighter cover, and discuss how to deal with them.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Matchup of the Week - Maturin vs emfrank72 (World Cup Qualifier)

Today we are going to look at our first World Cup Qualifier matchup of the week.  Per the rule, this game is worth +1 points to each player for being chosen as the matchup of the week.  Congratulations to both of them.  That means the game could theoretically end in a 7 / 6 split, which isn't particularly bad for either party, but that if one wins big, it could be big indeed.

Maturin's goal

Friday, September 23, 2016

Incorporating a Healer in your List

We just recently touched on Tanking, so it is time to talk about the other side of the coin.  Healing, or the art of helping keep a different ship alive.  Unlike tanking, a lot of the key concepts in healing did not quite make the transition into Armada.  Instead, we have only a few things that make the cut, so we aren't even going to go through the advanced healing concepts, we are just going to look at things that might work.


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Armada Dice - Black

Time for us to take a look at the final color of dice in the Star Wars Armada dice pool.  That's right, we are on to what seems like everyone's favorite - Black dice.



Monday, September 19, 2016

New Logo for Steel Squadron



Steel Squadron now has a logo!  Pretty simplistic, but let me know what you think.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

The Art of Tanking - Lessons From An Old MMO Tank

Remember when talking about Repair Crews, I said that I wanted to talk about Tanking and Healing in a different article?  Well good news!  It is time for that article!

I needed a break from writing about upgrades anyways.


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Armada Dice - Blue


Last time we talked about Red Dice, the crazy, least standard, but long range dice.  This time we will be talking about the medium range, stable, Blue dice.


Thursday, September 8, 2016

"NEXT ARMADA EVENT ON VASSAL" - Finals Match! Ginkapo vs Gowtah

That's right, it's time to see who can earn one of the coveted automatic entry slots into the Armada World Cup!  Up today it is Ginkapo verses Gowtah in a battle of Rebel Dodonna supremacy.  Only One Dodonna will emerge victorious.  Which will reign supreme?


VERSES


Armada Dice - Red

I was recently asked to do an article on dice for a relatively new player.  It is true that the different dice faces are something that needs to be covered for new players entering the game.  So we are going to take a look at the different dice faces, and see what they are each capable of.

Today we start off with the Red dice.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Wave 4 Upgrades - Turbolasers

This is it, the final upgrade for Wave 4.  Gonna have to start thinking of other things to write about after this!

That is actually a lot of ships that can take a Turbolaser


Friday, September 2, 2016

Wave 4 Ion Cannons - Upgrade Discussion

We have two new Ion Cannons for Wave 4!  Time to take a look at them and see where they best fit into our lists.

Ion Cannon Capable Ships

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Experimental After Action Report - Vader's Gozanti Wolfpack

Decided to try something that had been kicking around the back of my head for a bit - Gozanti Assault Carriers can get 2 Red Dice with a Concentrate Fire dial down field for cheaper than anything else.  Could I make a list that takes advantage of their benefits?

Well... kind of?


Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Wave 4 Upgrades - Experimental Retrofits

We are going to talk about the Interdictor specific upgrades today - these things do a lot to change the game, messing with deployment, adding defensive support to your fleet, and just mucking about with the speed at which your opponent can move.




Monday, August 29, 2016

Wave 3 Upgrades - Fleet Support

The mighty flotilla.

We have already discussed at length the Bomber Command Center and what it means to the Flotilla in general and Squadrons in specifics.  Let us look at the other 4 Fleet Support Upgrades.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Wave 4 Support Teams

Continuing with our quest to finish up the upgrades from Wave 4, it is time to talk about Support Teams that make an appearance.


The ships that can take a support team.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Wave 4 Weapons Team Upgrades

On to the next upgrades, Weapons Teams!  We are going to discuss the two new Wave 4 upgrades, Fire-Control Team and Veteran Gunners.

Just some Weapons Team capable ships I had a spare picture of.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Wave 4 Officer Upgrades

Today we are going to look at the new officer cards from wave 4.  You may recall we already looked at the ones from Wave 3.  Let's take a look at what the newest wave has brought us this time!

 

Monday, August 22, 2016

Fun With Wave 3&4 - After Action Report

We had our first local tournament this weekend since Wave 3 & 4 were released.  Summer 2016 kit - XI7s cards for everyone!  In honor of the new tournament I decided to see exactly what the Wave 3 & 4 rebels were truly capable of.

I also had been working nights all week, so the 11 am start time made things a bit confusing.  I woke up the previous day at 3pm, worked 7pm - 7am, then went to the tournament.  By the final round I was awake for 24 hours.  I've since had a nap.



Monday, August 15, 2016

New Player Resource - Armada Lingo

Hello to some of our newer players out there!  With Wave 3/4 bringing in ships a lot of people really wanted to see and play with (looking at you, Interdictor) we are going to be seeing a bunch of people hopefully just starting out with the game.

This post is for you.  I'm going to go over a lot of the common abbreviations and slang that is used within the Armada community.  Without further ado..


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Grudge Match of the Week - HERO vs Lyraeus

That's right, it is the matchup you have all been waiting for, but didn't even know you wanted to see.  In one corner, the pride of the Northwest - you know him from Armada Tactics News and his early days of pro-rebel reporting against the Imperial News Network.  Love him or hate him, it's Lyraeus!

In the other corner, a strategy blogger for Armada, X-Wing and other games.  He let Armada for a few months to focus on X-Wing, but now he is back with a vengeance.  Give it up for HERO!

You'll pay for the whole Empire, but you'll only need the Edge.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Commander's Guide - MC80 Liberty-Class

Time to get caught up to Wave 4, which we should see next week(?).  Unless you are at GenCon, in which case you already have it in your hands.  Or you are Alexandra or Craig.

I am going to stop being jealous now and start talking about the ship.



Monday, August 1, 2016

Commander's Guide - Interdictor

The Empire gets the best toys, don't they?  Today we're going to be talking about the Wave 4 ship known as the Interdictor, and what role you can find for it within your fleet.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Interview - Fleet Commander Contest Winner Craig Lincoln

Last time we talked to Alexandra and reviewed her "Special K" lead fleet, which she inappropriately named after some of the worst the expanded universe had to offer.  Today we talk to the other finalist, and eventual winner of the contest, Craig Lincoln.

Make your own Rebel List with just what is shown here!


Monday, July 25, 2016

Post Event Interview - Fleet Commander Contest w/ Alexndra Smith

Who better to talk about Wave 3/4 coming out soon than the two finalists from the Fleet Commander Contest?  Steel Squadron HQ has interviewed both of the finalists about their lists and how they feel the new wave(s) are going to change the game.

Without further ado, the first of the two interviews with Imperial finalists (and contest runner-up) Alexandra Smith and her self-named fleet:  "Daala's Darksabers"


Thursday, July 21, 2016

Matchup of the Week - PT106 vs Ginkapo

Squadron-less vs Squadron Very Light, the top two players on the "NEXT ARMADA EVENT" tournament going into their round 3 matchup should be familiar faces.

Let's take a look at their list and matchup for Round 3 - after all, only one will still be undefeated after this.  Admittedly there is a top 7 (+1) cut, so both are very much in the running to make the cut no matter what happens this match - though not quite in a good enough situation to be happy with a 5-5 "draw".


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Matchup of the Week - Fleet Commander Contest Final

 This week's "Matchup of the Week" is between two developers playing the lists of two hand picked fans.  Each list has already won its preliminary round, and we've got Craig Lincoln and his General Madine fleet vs Alexandra Smith's Special K fleet!



Thursday, July 7, 2016

After Action Report: Martinsburg, WV Regional Championship

Here is a writeup that is way overdue.  Back in the end of May, I went to the second and final Store Championship I would be reasonably able to go to.  Martinsburg, WV is about 4 hours from home (Pittsburgh), and me, "Howlrunner", Chris, and his Fiancé decided to make a 2 day vacation of it.  Chris and I (and Dan, who was traveling separately) would be playing in the tournament the first day, an then we would all head down to Washington DC the next day.

Here is how I got runner up - I cannot remember the specifics of the games that I played now, so tactical discussions might be a bit light.



Monday, July 4, 2016

Wave 3 & Wave 4 Commanders

With the imminent release of the next two waves, the number of possible commanders has increased for each side from 5 to 7.  Today we will take a look at the new commanders for each side, and see what kind of strategies would synergize well with them.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Commander's Guide: GR-75 Transport

It's good to be back!  Let's get things back on the right track with the GR-75 and the final ship of Wave III.  Spoiled almost 2 months ago at the start of May, the GR-75 looks to seriously shake up the Rebel meta, adding some incredibly inexpensive ships to the faction that already had the cheapest cost activation previously.

So, what does it look like?

We're coming back!

A new computer has been purchased so expect more Steel Squadron HQ articles to be coming out in the next few days!  And just in time too, with Wave 4 fully spoiled there are Commander's Guides and Upgrade articles galore that need to be filled in!

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Technical Delays

Please bear with me while I work to get a new functional computer.  Writing articles on a tablet is not a thing I am going to do, and access to a computer I can write on is at a bit of a premium at the moment.

I should be up and running again later this month.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Taking the Station - Let's Build to Win the Multiplayer Scenario

Finally there's more than 12 ways to play Armada!  FFG has released a new alternative game scenario replacing the standard 12 objectives and 400 point fleet building of the head-to-head game with a 150 point free-for-all.  The new objective - bring an objective ship to the station, placed in the center of the map.

Well, that's all well and good, but how to we maximize our opportunities to win the objective, and take the station for ourselves?


Sunday, May 15, 2016

Commander's Guide: Gozanti-Class

Wave 3 is about support ships - nothing too splashy here, but we've already talked about how just these two expansions will shake up the meta, introduce new Commanders and Officers, and improve our Bomber's efficiency.  Now we are going to talk about the ships themselves.

First will be the Imperial Gozanti-Class Cruiser, made famous by the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon show.


And we need to be ready to integrate them into our fleets quickly, as they are due to arrive in the 3rd quarter of this year!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Wave 3 - Officer Upgrades

Now that we've taken a look at the new Commanders for Wave 3, let's take a quick peak at the officers that will be accompanying specific ships into battle.



Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Wave 3 - Commanders

Now we finally know all the upgrade cards that we will be seeing in the newest expansion, including our two new Commanders.  Both are defensive commanders, as opposed to the very offensive focus we've seen in Wave 2.



Thursday, May 5, 2016

Bomber Command Center - Running the Numbers

Bomber Command Center is set to come out as a new fleet upgrade card with Wave 3 - though we do not yet know if it will come in both the Gonzati and GR-75 Transport, we do know a few things.  Namely, we know it's cost (8 points) and it's effect:


Let's examine it's effect, and which bombers it works the best with.

Editor's Note:  Some of my numbers (namely anything with 2 dice) is wrong, because I calculated it as both dice being re-rollable.  That is incorrect.  The actual numbers are close, but not quite right.


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Matchup of the Week: Ianediger vs Dorrin314 (Wednesday May 4th, 1700 GMT)

Been a bit since I've done a Matchup of the Week - I completely missed the first round, after all.  Time to get back into the action:

Ianediger of Imperial Entanglements vs Dorrin314 of Hoth Command.  Watch the match itself saved on Youtube!


Sunday, May 1, 2016

Regionals AAR - Biggs in the Pittsburgh Regional



By now, you might have heard that a Rieekan list won the Pittsburgh Regionals, commanded by one "Biggs".  I promised an in depth writeup, so here we go.


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Response Article: Is the MC80 Still Terribad?

Is this a bad ship?

Yeah, it's kinda cheating to write a response article.  I guess I'm finally turning into a real blogger, first a clickbait article, then a response to something someone else wrote.  I hate myself.

Reinholt stated a thread (with a really in depth OP) in the FFG Forums that talked about the issues he had with making the MC80 into a viable ship, and needless to say, I disagreed with it.