Monday, April 24, 2017

Ship Profile: The Flechette Raider


Of the many complaints that seem to be cropping up, the rise and dominance of squadrons has been a persistent one. Yet somehow, this far into wave 5, I haven't seen a lot of what I consider one of the best counters: The Flechette Raider.

Before going any further, let me define the loadout:
The baseline Flechette Raider
The Raider I, with double black anti-squadron dice, an Ordnance slot, and a Weapons Team slot, is pretty much the only ship in the game that can made effective use of Flechette Torpedoes. The ability to re-roll with Ordnance Experts is critical to getting everything to work. In theory, one good battery shot can effective shut down a squadron ball. For 51 points, the ability to reliably shut down squadrons is pretty great.

There are a couple of extra flavors you can add to make it even better. Agent Kallus gives you another black die against named squadrons to give you that much more of a chance to trigger Flechettes. Instigator helps lock squadrons in place so they don't squirt away during the squadron phase prior to your shot. If you're not as worried about squadrons moving away, you can grab Impetuous to give yourself a second chance at shutting down that one critical squadron. Taking a title and Kallus starts to get a little pricey (58 points), but if you're neck deep in Rieekan Aces, it is well worth the extra investment.

The "Fully Loaded" Flechette Raider
Then, of course, there's Screed, who can guarantee Flechettes will trigger. This, however, comes at the cost of doing actual damage. This variant could even go without the Ordnance Experts if you needed to save the 4 points.

We all saw the potential for this when wave 5 dropped, but enthusiasm for the loadout seemed to fade pretty quickly. Instead, Rieekan Aces builds, now with Biggs included to make them that much more horrific, remain a dominant part of the meta. That's because, as always, the Raider is a rather unforgiving ship. The lack of redirect hurts, especially against squadrons. Still, when flown right, it can completely negate a squadron wing. There are a three things I've found you need to keep in mind to get the Flechette Raider right.

First of all, having first player helps a lot. Yes, this is obvious. After all, there aren't that many situations where having first player isn't a big benefit. In this case, though, the Flechette Raider wants first player almost as bad as Demolisher. As second player, you risk enemy squadrons activating to either get away from the Raider, or just killing it. Alternatively, a ship might just blow the Raider out of the water, freeing up the squadrons to go after a juicer target. Considering how fast the Raider can pop, both of these eventualities are a big risk.

Second, you need at least a token squadron wing, around 50-60 points worth. Like I said, the Raider is at risk of getting popped by the very squadrons it's hunting. I tried running one with the Instigator title, but no squadron support. It just didn't work. You need a little bit of support to help lock down squadrons and force shots at something other than the Raider. A minimal force pairs well with Instigator, preventing Intel squadrons from re-positioning. My personal favorite has become Zetrik, an Advanced, a Jumpmaster, and Mauler. The Raider's anti-squadron battery and Mauler's splash damage work well together to decimate squadron balls. At 54 points, it's not a big investment if my opponent also goes squadron light.

Splash damage for everyone!
Third and finally, don't forget that even though you invested into Flechettes, you can still attack ships. After all, that's only 3 points dedicated to going after squadrons. Two blacks with Ordnance Experts and two blues are nothing to sneeze at. Those blues make it a decent flotilla hunter. If you've neutralized the enemy squadron ball, or if there was never one to begin with, don't look at the Raider as dead points. Despite all the hate for this little ship, it is still a good flanker that can hit well above its weight.

I think the Flechette Raider is due for a breakout in the meta. JJ already quietly used it to good effect during the World Cup. Keep your eyes peeled at Worlds. I think a Flechette Raider could sneak into the top 4 cut and make a very large impact.

Friday, April 21, 2017

FAQ Update 4/21/17 - "Mostly Corellian Conflict"

Well, yes, about 4/5ths of the red text in the new FAQ are Corellian Conflict related.  But Worlds is coming up, so let's talk about what actually changed for that.  Please note, there was NO CHANGES to the core rules, so the Anti-Flotilla crew are going to have to wait a bit longer for their sweet, sweet revenge.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/7a/0d/7a0da571-9299-4fd1-8ca9-c1b006a9d080/armada_faq_v311.pdf


Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Flotillas, Activations, and other Heretical thoughts...

If you at all follow the Armada forums on FFG's website you will have noticed the bevy of recent threads debating the role of flotillas in Armada.  I am on record as saying flotillas have been one of the best things to happen to Armada.  However, amid all of the various threads on the subject I think I have also come to understand the other side of the debate.  I thought I would break down the arguments here, if only as an exercise in getting them straight in my own head.
I have an unbridled love of all things XKCD

Monday, April 17, 2017

Going to Worlds? Eat Breakfast! (And Other Armada Advice)

Why don't we talk about how to play your best game of Armada, when you are playing the best of the best.  You've planned your list, figured out the meta, and you're ready to go.  Now you are going to fly off to Minnesota, stay in an unfamiliar hotel, and wake up early to register and get ready for your game.  What can you do to make things better for yourself?

Go to breakfast.



Friday, April 14, 2017

Stele Open AAR

Congrats again to Dan!
Stele Open is probably the most fun I've had at an Armada tournament to date. Our community continues to amaze me with just how enjoyable an experience they make these large tournaments. The level of play is continuing to rise. Considering I went 2-2 on the day, fifth place was far better than I expected. It helps that my losses were fairly close at 4-7 and 5-6, and my wins were pretty solid at 8-3 and 10-1. However, I think it mainly shows just how close many of the games were. Pete Hodgkins should have the final standing up soon, but the points were pretty tight. Now that I've had some time to reflect, let's go over what went wrong and what went right.

**Edit** For those that didn't catch my list in the Stele Open live updates, here's my list from the day:

Team Ramrod 

Author: Truthiness
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400   

Commander: General Madine

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
51 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
18 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
18 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Reinforced Blast Doors  ( 5  points)
52 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Reinforced Blast Doors  ( 5  points)
52 total ship cost
[ flagship ] MC80 Star Cruiser (96 points)
-  General Madine  ( 30  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  X17 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
144 total ship cost
Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
Shara Bey ( 17 points)
A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points) 
What Went Wrong
Damn you Demolisher!!!
Liberty was my biggest failure of the day. I could not seem to get it in the right position to save my life. The first game I got it mostly right. I just mistimed my squadrons, so it got hung out to dry in the middle of Yavaris squadrons. I was lucky as hell that it hung on as long as it did, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the tabling. Game two was much the same story, except I didn't even get it into the fight when I needed it. I was trying to use the CR90s to block the Arquitens' path and follow in with the Liberty, but I would have been better off doing the opposite. Finally, in the third game, I intentionally set it out there to keep Demolisher occupied, knowing it could deal with a couple salvos, but then I turned it back into the fight. This ended up giving Demolisher another shot at it, all the while it didn't really contribute to the fight in any meaningful way. It would have been better off disengaging and using Madine's maneuverability to stay behind Demolisher the rest of the way.

My squadron use was also questionable for the first two games. In the first game, I jumped out too early, allowing Treb's squadrons to clean mine out just in time for the main ship engagement. Somehow, despite recognizing the mistake going into the second game, I did it again against Mike. I jumped out even earlier, engaging some of his squadrons during the first turn. That gave his eclectic mix of Aces plenty of time to bomb the crap out of Liberty. Side note: Morna Kee fucking hurts.


What Went Right
I still can't get over this roll
I finally learned the right lesson with my squadrons in the third game. I made sure to keep the A-Wings tight to the GR-75s. The combination of anti-squadron batteries and A-Wing counter mauled the hell out of his squadrons, punching well above their level. I managed it again in the fourth game. If I get the timing right, it is a very effective grouping of squadrons. I'm considering swapping out one A-Wing for a VCX to get strategic in play, but I'm not sure I'm willing to disrupt the ball I have now.

The All-Stars were hands down the CRambo90s. They worked exactly as envisioned all day. I understandably got some odd looks and some questions on the forums. After all, I don't have Rieekan, so how effective can they be without being able to abuse the Zombie Lord? The answer is extremely effective if you know what to target. I'm not charging headlong into large ships. I mainly use them has flotilla and small ship hunters. Of the eight flotillas I faced on the day, only one survived. They are effectively speed 5, making them perfect for hunting down the ubiquitous lifeboat flotilla.

What is often overlooked is their armament is actually pretty darn good. A double arc is very easy to line up using Madine, and 5 blues is nothing to sneeze at. Once I was done ramming flotillas into paste, I could use my high activation count and high maneuverability to get them into side or rear arcs of larger targets. From there, I could use the blue dice to add punishment and rely on the Reinforced Blast Doors to ram if needed. The RBDs also make them more durable for working in at that medium range. Since I've started playing this list, I've been using RBDs to discard regular damage just about as often as I'm using them to discard ram damage.

Speaking of Madine, he's the part of the puzzle that makes these CRambo90s so good working as just a pair. They are capable of utterly ludicrous turns, which you really have to see to understand. He's pricey, but I think I've finally found a list where he works well.


Going Forward
Fear the CRambo
After playing this list and many variations of the list I took to Regionals, I think I'm just burned out on the Liberty. It feels much more fragile than the double braces would indicate and the firepower was often not all that impressive. Madine did a lot to make it better, but it still felt like there wasn't much it could do that other ships could do better. The large base keeps it difficult to squeeze into certain spots and an easy target for bombers.

Still, this list was an awful lot of fun to fly. The CRambos and Madine are an excellent match. I'm even finding him useful for bobbing and weaving with the TRC90 and helping the GR-75s adjust their approach with tokens. The squadrons, once I got the right timing, were also an excellent little ball. The key was getting them working in tandem with the GR-75 anti-squadron batteries. Once I did that, the cumulative damage from the black anti-squadron and counter really started to stack up.

As annoyingly ubiquitous as Admonition is both locally and on Vassal, I think it's the obvious replacement for the Liberty. With the right tools, it can hit just as hard if not harder than the Liberty. Its nav chart usually limits it to a single pass or lower speeds. With Madine, I'm hoping to change that tune a bit. The MC30's speed 4 chart suddenly isn't that limited once you add Madine clicks.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Zahn talking Thrawn

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a book signing by Timothy Zahn for his new book Thrawn, about the titular Grand Admiral.

I have been a fan of both Zahn and Thrawn since Heir to the Empire was released in 1991, so attending was a no-brainer.  So, why am I posting about this on an Armada themed blog?
Cause Biggs said I could...

Also, Zahn gave some cool insights into the Thrawn character, how the Lucasfilm story group works, and the state of Star Wars in general that I think the readers here might care about.


Monday, April 10, 2017

Quantity vs Quality in Activations

One thing that we can all agree about in Armada is that Activations are important, to the point where activation advantage is now as hotly contested as First Activation.  Being able to delay an important activation can give you a sizable advantage in the game.  But what good players understand, but don't specifically talk about, is that the quality of that activation you are saving or using is really what is important.  After all, it doesn't matter when you take your turn if that turn doesn't do anything to affect the board state.


Friday, April 7, 2017

Stele Open

I'll rocking the Stele Open today! Like MD Regionals, I'll be posting updates as I go. Here's my list:

Team Ramrod 

Author: Truthiness
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400   

Commander: General Madine


CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
51 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
18 total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
18 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Reinforced Blast Doors  ( 5  points)
52 total ship cost
CR90 Corvette B (39 points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Reinforced Blast Doors  ( 5  points)
52 total ship cost
[ flagship ] MC80 Star Cruiser (96 points)
-  General Madine  ( 30  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  X17 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
144 total ship cost
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
1 Shara Bey ( 17 points)
2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points) 
I decided to have a go at Madine after seeing him in action with the Liberty at the MD Regionals. I've said it before, but I cannot reiterate how well Madine and the Liberty go together. The most glaring weakness of the speedy Liberty is that poor Nav chart. Madine does a lot to help minimize that weakness and maximize the Liberty's speed and firepower. Using Madine happened to coincide with my experiments with the CRambo90, which resulted in a happy accident of list building. The two of them together make a rather absurdly good combination.

I originally had a tooled up Liberty and only Tycho and Shara for squadrons. Putting the list through the ringer of my usual Vassal opponents, however, showed that it needed a little more help in the squadron department. At JJ's suggestion I went minimalist with the Liberty itself. That allowed me to add another GR-75, taking the activation count up to 6, and adding a pair of A-Wings. I jumped back and forth between Mon Karren and XI7s. The former is useful against more things, but XI7s won out because they let me lock down braces with accuracy while still limiting redirect usage. At the end of the day, I expect the Liberty to go hunting for the things XI7s are great against. Plus, it saved me 2 points.

Check-in!


Round 1
First match was against Treb Courie. I was first player and took his Precision Strike. I over committed Liberty, which only survived Yavaris B-Wings by sheer dumb luck. It limped on until the last turn, allowing me to table Treb for a 415-229 win for me.

Treb's list:

Top of Turn 1:

Top of turn 2:

Top of turn 3:

Top of turn 4:

Top of turn 5:

Top of turn 6:

Final board state (we only resolved Lib and his flotilla and called it):

Round 2
Next game was against Mike Taglioni! He's running 3x Slaved Turret Kittens, 2x Gonzos and a mix of Acres. I took first player with VIP as the objective. Luck went against me this time, with a couple of my ships going down with lucky accuracies. I once again mistimed the A-Wings, costing me the Liberty. I also probably swung the Liberty out wide too far, with it only really getting off one good shot. Final score was 267-370, with his lone surviving Kitten running off the with VIP.

Top of turn 1:

Top(ish) of turn 2:

Top of turn 3:

Top of turn 4:

Top of turn 5:

Top of turn 6:

Final board state:

Round 3
This round was against Brendon MacLeod. He was running full Clonisher, a Raider, and 3x Gonzo supported by a nasty anti-squadron ball. He took first player and took my Navigational Hazards. I had him up until the last turn. The A-Wings and the GR-75s bled his squadrons and I managed to kill 2x Gonzos and the Raider. However, Demo swung into get two kills on the final turn, swinging it to 214-250.

Top of turn 1

Top of turn 2:

Top fo turn 3:

Top of turn 4:

Top(ish) of turn 5:

Top of turn 6:

Final table state:

Round 4
Final game was against Sean Masson. He was running a fulled kitted ISD II Avenger, 2 Kittens, and a small anti-squadron ball. I took first player and decided to go balls to the wall by taking his Advanced Gunnery. It work out very well. I bullseyed a kitten on turn 2 and just ran the table from there. The Advanced Gunnery ISD didn't get a frontal shot all game as Madine ran circles. Final score was 520-39 with a table at the first activation of turn 5.

Top of turn 1:

Top of turn 2:

(Forgot a turn 3 picture)

Top of turn 4:

This was the Liberty's RAW ROLL at the ISD:

Final board state (the CR90 fired and that was all that went for turn 5):

Conclusion:
I managed to claw back to #5, which all things considered  was pretty damned good. All the top 4 declined to play the final cut games. The prizes for #3 and #4  were the same and #1 and #2 played in round 4, so Jeff was nice enough to concede the top prize to Dan Nowak. Congrats to him! Pete Hodgkins will be posting the final standings on the NOVA Facebook group, which I'll be sure to add later on. It was a great day of games with some impeccable play. Thanks to everyone who played!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Looking at the Regionals Data

It's been a little over a month since the Wave 5 Regionals Season ended.  Let's take a look back through the data and see if we can find any interesting patterns.


Saturday, April 1, 2017

Playing the Squadron Game: Squadron Task Forces

There's a bit of something I want to talk about that I think gets passed over in the squadron game, and that is the use of squadrons in groups larger than a single piece.  Specifically, I want to talk about the mentality of building a good fighter force as more than just "I need X number of points in anti-squadron" and think about "what can I effectively use" and "how will these squadrons work together to accomplish this mission?"  I know, easier said than done.