Sunday, February 28, 2016

Lessons from The World Cup

I'm sure by now we are all well aware of the World Cup and its dramatic ending.  Having had the chance to watch as many games as I did, and commentate on them, there are a few lessons that I was able to take away from it all.  Hopefully they'll be able to help you out going forward:


Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Activation Advantage - How to Mitigate the Threat

Sorry, I haven't been putting up as much content as I would otherwise like.  Unfortunately for people that want to read new things, real life is getting in the way - I've had to study for a civil service test for what is essentially my dream job.

But you came to talk about Armada, and if there's one kind of topic I like it's timeliness.  With the recent issues that have been cropping up in a tournament full of 2-3 activation fleets when they come up against a properly applied 5 activation fleet... well, let's talk about how to deal with Activation Advantage.


Saturday, February 20, 2016

Commentated Armada Games

Just a quick update today:

I've started streaming and commenting on Armada games in the last tournament that we've done for the Semi-Final round and Finals.

It is all archived on Youtube here.  When I stream a game live, it'll appear on my twitch stream, which is here.

I'm hoping to do this for a lot more games going forward, especially with the next set of tournaments and whatnot.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Strategy Discussion Mailbag: Escort Ship Tactics - Rebel (Part 2)

We have just talked about using Imperial small ships in an Escort to cover and protect your larger ships.  Today we are going to go and look at how the Rebels approach the role of Escort ships.

The answer is... not intuitively.  Where the Empire has ships designed to cover their biggest glaring weak points, the Rebels emphatically do not.  That isn't to say there aren't ships that can fulfill these roles, but they aren't as easily identifiable as a properly kitted out Raider or Gladiator.  Let's look at what the Rebels have available.

Nebulon B's are an option.


Sunday, February 14, 2016

Clontroper5 vs Madaghmire - World Cup Finals Preview

Clontroper5

That's right folks, all the hype, all the games, has lead up to this moment.  Each player in this final has survived the POD rounds, and beaten their way through some very difficult opponents in 3 elimination matches to make it this far.  But this is as far as it goes.

This is it, the Final Round of the Inaugural Armada World Cup - for the winner, a moment of glory and the title of Armada World Cup Champion.  For the loser, the respect for a well fought tournament, and the disappointment of not quite being the best.

It all comes down to this...



Saturday, February 13, 2016

Strategy Discussion: (Mailbag) Escort Ship Tactics (Imperial)

Today's Mailbag topic comes from Rhinehard of the FFG Forums.  He writes:

Hi mate,

I'm a big fan of your blog. On that note I've been really interested in the Raider posts recently and I was thinking I'd love to see your views on Escort Ships and strategies.

A good topic that needs to be covered.  There has been a lot of posts on the Raider recently, with people experiencing varying degrees of success with the ship.  On the Rebel side, the CR90 serves the same price point, though certainly not the same roles.  Other small base ships can serve in an "Escort" role as well - the Nebulon B and the Gladiator can both be used in such a role, though they can be capable of scaling up into a heavy hitter all on its own.

So, let's look at these "Escort" ships, and how they can fill a role within your ship list.  Today we'll be looking at the Imperials.


Monday, February 8, 2016

Clontroper5 vs JJs Juggernaut: Armada World Cup Semi-Finals Preview

**Update, watch it stream live, with commentary on Friday 6:00 PM PST / 8:00 PM CST (Friday 2:00 AM GMT)**
 

We have our final matchup for the Semi-Finals previewed here.  It's Clontroper5 vs JJs Juggernaut - the two remaining heavyweights are looking to make a name for themselves in the buildup to the finals.  Let's take a look at their path to get here, and their matchup.

JJs painting skills.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Madaghmire vs Truthiness: Armada World Cup Semi-Finals Preview

**Update, watch it stream live, with commentary at Thursday 10:00 PM EST/ 8:00 PM MST (Friday 3:00 AM GMT)**

We are now onto the Semi-Finals, only two games stand between our remaining contestants and the World Cup.  Things are heating up on this side of the brackets, with Madaghmire having won a dramatic victory vs Caribbean Ninja, and Truthiness defeating Reith28 with some help from a lucky critical effect.  Let's look at our Semi-Final contestants for this battle:

Typical Thursday Night for Madaghmire?



Saturday, February 6, 2016

Strategy Discussion: (Mailbag) When to Choose Second Player


Iskander4000 recently posed a question to me in the comments:

"Could you write an article on situations when you have initiative and it would be better to go second instead of first? I have a 5 ship list with objectives that are aweosme for it and I'm having trouble deciding if it's worth risking it to pick second player."

Good question, Iskander.  At what point do we want to give up First Player and the first activation advantage that it gives to take Second Player and our choice of objectives?


Thursday, February 4, 2016

Armada World Cup: Elimination Quarter-Finals - Truthiness vs Reith28

Time for our final preview of the Elimination Quarter-Final Round:  Truthiness vs Reath28


Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Armada World Cup: Elimination Quarter-Finals - JJs Juggernaut vs Quadro28

Continuing our articles previewing the Quarter-Final round of the Armada World Cup, we are onto the other matchup in the first bracket:  JJs Juggernaut, and Quadro28.



Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Armada World Cup: Elmination Quarter-Finals - Madaghmire vs Caribbean Ninja

Yesterday we talked about Ardaedhel vs Clontroper5 - in our continuing coverage of the Armada World Cup, we are going to be jumping down to the other half of the bracket, and covering Madaghmire vs Caribbean Ninja.



Monday, February 1, 2016

Armada World Cup: Elimination Quarter-Finals - Ardaedhel vs Clontroper5

And then there were eight.  The Elimination round is heating up with the 8 winners advancing to the quarter finals.  Let's take a look at the matchups, and see what each of the contestants are bringing to the table.  Your current "Biggs Pre-Match Bet" record is a resounding 5-1, with a single game left to play (Reith/JRock plays Tuesday)

Quarter-Final Matchups are as follows:

Ardaedhel vs Clontroper5 - Today's Topic
JJs Juggernaut vs Quadro28

Magadmire vs Carribean Ninja - Tomorrow's Topic
Truthiness vs (Reith/JRock)

First Elimination Round - Zanos vs Quadro28