Vassal Tournament

Hey everyone.  Biggs here, letting you know that I'll probably not be posting anything to spectacular here while the Fantasy Flight Games Vassal Tournament is ongoing.

On the other hand, I'm running the thing, and it has been a blast so far.  Much thanks to godofcheese my 1st round opponent from all the way out in Western Australia for an awesome game against a very scary list (VSDII x2, Gunnery Team & Screed + Demolisher / ACM / Engine Tech GSD).  I'm still not sure how I managed to keep my Assault Frigate alive.  So keep an eye on the tournament!  I'll have a writeup with my take on the whole thing once everything is said and done.

Playing Armada Online - How to Vassal

Edit (10/1/15):  Updated for more of the 2.00 information.  If I am missing anything, let me know in the comments, and I'll explain it as best I can.


Hello again everyone.  Today we are going to go over how to play online with strangers on the internet.  That's right, it's time to discuss how to play on Vassal.

First off you will need to download the Vassal Client and Armada module.  You can find the Vassal Client Here, and the Armada Module Here.  You will need to download both, and possibly download or update your Java client.  For me, it was fairly easy to install, but depending on your operating system, you may need to take some additional steps.

But enough about the install, let's play the game!

Armada and Geometry: The Measuring Tools

Today, lets take a look at the dimensions of the playing space, the maneuver tool, and the measuring tool.

Board Space and the Measuring Tool

Armada Measurement Tool is just a bit longer than X-Wing.

Proof of mustache.

FAQ & Tournament Rules Update - 7.24.15

Today we are going to talk briefly bit about the FAQ update as well as the Tournament Rule changes just released by Fantasy Flight on the 24th.

FAQ

Overall, there isn't much in the FAQ that changes in a dramatic way an understanding of any of the cards.  For the most part, it is a clarification of the existing rules.  Interestingly enough, the ruling of XI-7 Turbolasers and how they interact with the Advanced Projectors was not covered (it should be noted that Advanced Projectors lets you transfer 1 damage to each hull zone against an XI-7 attack, per FFG email).

The biggest change was how attacks were made, specifically how line of sight was established on hull zones.  Previously, the rule as worded allowed you to take shots on an enemy hull zone if it was in arc and had line of sight that did not go through another hull zone.  Now you have to measure both line of sight AND attack range to ensure neither one goes through another hull zone.

Let's take a look at what is a legal shot and what isn't:

AFII has a line of sight on the VSD's rear arc.

But the VSD's rear arc isn't in the AFII's side arc per the new rules.

Above, the pictures show a shot that with the previous rules as written would be perfectly legal.  The rear arc of the VSD is within the side arc of the AFII (though you'd have to go through the VSD's side arc to measure it), and there is Line of Sight between both arcs.  Under the new rules, because the shortest point between the two that is still in arc is now covered by the VSD's side arc, the shot is no good - the AFII cannot shoot the VSD's rear with its side arc.

The AFII has line of sight on the VSD's rear arc from its front...

And though some points are blocked...

The nearest point in arc is not.

This is the example of something that is still legal - in the above scenario, the AFII has the rear hull zone of the VSD in its front arc, and still does according to the new rules after measuring for range.  It also has the line of sight, making it a perfectly legal shot.

General Rule Clarifications:

Each attack against a squadron is treated as a separate attack for purposes of cards.  No, you are not allowed to attack ALL squadrons with two extra blue dice with Dominator, unless you spend shields for each attack.

Card Clarifications:

Admiral Motti - Sympathetic Death for your ships is now a thing that can happen: if Motti's ship is destroyed, and another of your ships has enough damage to destroy it without Motti's effect, it blows up too.

Admiral Screed - Yes, he works like you think he does.  Screed lets you change a dice to any face that has a crit, even if other things are on that face.

Demolisher - You can use the post-maneuver attack after you use Engine Techs.  You cannot maneuver > attack > engine tech maneuver > attack.  If you don't attack before you maneuver, the first attack is lost.  Demolisher only affects one of the attacks.

Warlord - Like Screed, you can use Warlord to change your red dice to a double hit result.

Garm Bel Iblis - Just a friendly reminder, no duplicate command tokens.

Tournament Rules:

First there is a quick clarification on what happens if both players have all their ships blown up at the same time - even if there is a point differential (from objectives), the Second Player gets a win, and the game ends with a 0 point margin of victory.

TOME:

TOME exists, and does stuff.  Specifically, it changes the calculations for strength of schedule tiebreakers from "How Many Tournament Points Do Your Opponents Have?" to a calculation that does not factor in Byes to the strength of schedule.  Consider the following Scenario:

Ackbar played Vader, Piett, and Ozzle.  Vader has 26 Tournment Points, Piett has 10, and Ozzle has 15.  Ackbar - according to the basic tournament rules, would have a total Strength of Schedule of 51.

But Piett had a bye in the 3rd round, inflating his score, and Ozzle also had a 1st round bye!  So the new calculation would be as follows:

Vader = 26 / 3 = 8.67

Piett = 2 / 2 = 1.00

Ozzle = 7 / 2 = 3.50

Total = (8.67 + 1.00 + 3.50) / 3 = 4.39 Strength of Schedule for Ackbar

Conversely, Ozzle had a first round bye.  His opponents were Solo and Ackbar.  Solo had 21 ponits, and Ackbar had 24.  For the old way of measuring, he wound up with 44 points for Strength of Schedule.

But since he had a first round bye, the new calculation would be as follows:

Solo = 21 / 3 = 7

Ackbar = 24 / 3 = 8

Total = (7+8) / 2 = 7.5 Strength of Schedule for Ozzle

So you can see that the new TOME calculations remove byes from the equation, as earlier Ackbar would have a much better Strength of Schedule even though most of his opponents had byes, and Ozzle had a much worse Strength of Schedule because of his early bye.  But with the TOME calculations, the effects of the byes are removed, and you get results based on only the games that were played.  Something to keep in mind if you are playing in a tournament.

Pairings:

The next is how pairings take place.  Pairings are random for the first round, but Players can ask not to be paired up with people they traveled with or family members for the first round only.  After the first round, players are paired up against one another randomly, based on their Tournament Score.  If an odd number of players are in any particular Tournament Score, a random player from that group is they are paired with a player from the next lowest group.

The other big edit is that players should not be paired against each other more than once before the end of the tournament / elimination rounds.

Mirror Matches:

Painting your ships is now a legal way to differentiate who owns which ships.

One Tool Rule:

You can only use one measuring tool at a time to measure range / distance / movement.  No triangulation!  And no marking things off with tokens.

Displacement in Maneuvers:

Both players need to agree on how to mark displaced ships when moving through areas.

Well, that's it for this update.  I hope this lets you look at the big highlights of the changes for the tournaments and FAQs.  Next time I'll discuss movement and formations!

Want to know right when my next article comes out?  Don't forget to follow this blog!

Building a Fleet - Squadron Composition

Last time we covered general concepts in fleet building, but now it is time to dig into the details.  In this article we are going to be covering Squadron Composition for constructing a fleet - figuring out in what way the squadrons will compliment your ships and play style, what kind of squadrons you want to bring based on their role, and making it all come together for your finished list.

My apologies, I'm still in the middle of my move (everything is moved in, but Armada isn't unpacked and internet is installed later this week), so no pictures on the blog posts yet.

Edit:  With Wave 2 out, this article is slightly out of date.  Stay tuned for an update in a future article.

What Ships Will You Bring?

The most important decision for how many squadrons to bring are what kind of ships you are bringing for them to support.  Fighters work best when being supported by Capital ships through squadron commands, and the various ships have Squadron Values that determine how many of those squadrons they can reasonably support.  Let’s take a quick look at the different ships and see how many squadrons each one could reasonably command during an engagement:

Rebels:

CR90 Corvette – 1

Nebulon B Support - 1

Nebulon B Escort – 2

Assault Frigate MkIIA – 2

Assault Frigate MkIIB – 3

Assault Frigate MkIIB w/ Hangar Bay - 4

Imperials:

Gladiator Class Star Destroyer – 2

Victory Class Star Destroyer – 3

Victory Class Star Destroyer w/ Hanger Bay – 4

Everything else equal, the ships with higher squadron commands are the ones that could reasonably be though to be able to effectively make squadron commands on a regular basis.  There are, however, a few squadrons that work well independent of squadron commands, namely A-Wings, TIE Interceptors, and TIE Fighters, though all three of them do this in different ways and for different reasons.

“Unsupported” Squadrons

A-Wings and TIE Interceptors work because both have access to the COUNTER keyword, which allows them the ability to intercept other squadrons, particularly unescorted bombers, and deal damage on the bomber’s activation.  A-Wings are slightly better at this, having 4 hull to the TIE Interceptor’s 3, however Interceptors can be improved immensely by one key addition.

Because Interceptors have the SWARM ability, they can improve their COUNTER attack with rerolls if their attacker is also engaged with another ship.  This ship could be a second Interceptor, or a TIE Fighter that has also just engaged. 

The TIE Fighter, due to its inexpensive cost and the aforementioned SWARM boost to the Interceptor, make it a viable un-supported squadron as well.  Due to its cheap cost, the TIE Fighter can be used either to ensure a larger number of squadrons, giving you the option to go last during the squadron phase after your opponent has moved and activated all of their own squadrons; thus letting you engage enemy squadrons without fear of reprisal that turn, or attack any enemy that has already engaged you.  Finally, TIE Fighters can be used as sacrificial lambs, engaging high priority targets like Luke, Wedge, or B-Wing cover for a Nebulon B, making certain that while those ships will eliminate the TIE Fighter in short order, they won’t be using them against your higher value targets that turn.

What Will Your Squadrons Do?

Here, you have a decision to make regarding how your fleet is going to work.  What role are the Squadrons going to take, considering what ships you are bringing and what your own plan of attack is going to be?  Are you going to go with the intent on shooting down a bunch of your opponents fighters, to win the overall fighter duel and wind up with free points?  Are you going to launch a BOMBER attack on the enemy ships, adding your squadrons anti-ship battery to your own ship’s attacks?  Will you fly defensively, using your squadrons as a delaying force, keeping the enemy BOMBERs from your own ships?  Or will you protect your ships with a screen of BOMBERs, deterring an enemy ship that comes into close range?

There are a variety of options for how you will build an effective force of snubfighters, but for point values the roles are something like this for using the squadrons effectively:

BOMBER Attack – Max Points (~40% BOMBERs and ~60% Anti-Squadron) – This approach requires maximum numbers of carrier spec’d ships to establish squadron superiority and then send its bombers at the enemy ships it will be attacking for a one / two punch - for example a pair of AFIIs or a pair of VSDs.  The best combinations of squadrons for this role for the Rebels are X-Wings and A-Wings (both as an Anti-Squadron role and then to transition to bombers once the enemy is wiped out), with Y-Wings being the fast (relative to B-Wing) moving bombers.  For the Imperials, Major Rhymer lets you make the “Rhymer Ball” turning your squadrons into effectively a Medium Range shooting ship.  Aside from him, TIE Fighters and TIE Advanced make up the anti-squadron fighters (and can transition to fairly cost effective anti-ship squadrons once cover is eliminated) while TIE Bombers cover the heavy hitting.  Due to how many points are sunk into squadrons for this list, consider “Unsupported” ships to fill in the gaps and screen your flanks, like TIE Interceptors, lots of TIE Fighters, or A-Wings.  They can always be the recipients of Squadron commands if the needs arises or other squadrons drop to enemy fire.

For ship based support, you will want carrier spec’d ships all the way.  More activations means larger ships with hanger bays and flight controllers are needed, if you are going to take space superiority. 

Space Superiority – 50% to 70% Anti-Squadron and Interceptors – The Space Superiority role is all about taking out enemy squadrons.  The best fighters for this role are squadrons with large amounts of anti-squadron dice, and the ability to switch to an anti-ship role if the squadron fight is over faster than expected being a big plus.  X-Wings are the probably the best at this role, while TIE Fighters / Advanced and A-Wings are all good options as well, each having something that they aren’t particularly good at.  Interceptors work okay, though they are hurt by their low hull and poor anti-ship die if they have to serve in a pinch anti-ship roll.  Named Squadrons shine at this, with Darth Vader, Dutch, Soontir Fel, Wedge, Howlrunner and Mauler Mithel bringing considerable additional power to the mix.

For ship based support, you will also want carrier spec’d ships, though possibly not as many, for example one VSD1 spec'd as a carrier and a VSD2 built to murder enemy ships would be a reasonable build.  You may wind up having squadrons that are “unsupported” to tie down stragglers until your ball of death can catch up with them.  Going with named squadrons limits the number of ships you need support for.

Ship Escort – 30% to 50% Bombers, Interceptors to taste – The Ship Escort is usually seen with B-Wings keeping close quarters Imperial ships from closing into short range of Nebulon Bs or Assault Frigates.  There really isn’t a viable Imperial alternative to this, though.  This is especially effective with Yavaris and a double attack activation, allowing a pair of B-Wings to savage an enemy dumb enough to get that close with a total of 4 Blue and 4 Black dice.  Using A-Wings to screen the B-Wings from enemy fighters is almost certainly a part of the equation as well.

For ship based support, Yavaris is the biggest name on the list, though Gallant Haven is an option as well.  Flight Controllers can be useful if your bombers are engaged, though not necessary.  Adar Tallon can mean an extra attack for that B-Wing escort, and that can be an absolute deathblow.

Anti-Fighter Escort – 30%-50% Anti-Squadron – This build assumes you already have enough anti-ship capabilities, and just want a screen against enemy squadrons - for example, a VSD and two GSDs / or an AFII and a pair of NebBs.  In this case, you want to limit the amount of points you are giving up if the enemy brings a large fighter base, but still have enough to keep their bombers off of your ships.  TIE Fighters, A-Wings, TIE Interceptors (or Soontir Fel) with Advanced support works best in this scenario.  Tycho Celchu is also a good pick for his ability to lock down enemy squadrons and then run away once they are out of range of your ships.

Really, if you’re going this route you aren’t putting much down for ship support, though a timely squadron command can make all the difference.  Warlord / H9, Point Defense Reroute, or any of the 2 Dice Anti-Squadron ships can also help with this build.

No Squadrons – So, you went with a CR90 Corvette Swarm?  Consider this, an A-Wing flying with each Corvette would let you engage a Rhymer Ball, or the Corvette could use a banked squadron token to send the A-Wing to attack (and probably stick to) an enemy VSD or Nebulon B.  One command, banked until later, and the A-Wing is fine to go off and work its magic on its own after that, no further input required.

Bringing It All Together

So a quick summary of what squadrons you want to bring, and for what role:

X-Wings – Space Superiority / Secondary Bomber

Y-Wings – Bomber Attack

A-Wings – Interceptor & Escort / Secondary Space Superiority & Bomber

B-Wings – Ship Escort

TIE Fighter – Space Superiority & Anti-Squadron Escort / Secondary Interceptor / Emergency Bomber

TIE Interceptor – Interceptor (Bombers Only), Anti-Squadron Escort & Space Superiority

TIE Advanced – Support for TIE Interceptors / Secondary Bomber & Interceptor

TIE Bomber – Bomber Attack

Well, that is it for this round.  Let me know what you'd like to see for next time at the Steel Squadron HQ.  More advice for fleet building?  Covering more upgrade cards?  It's up to you to let your voice be heard!

Building a Fleet - General Concepts

Now we finally have covered all the ships and squadrons in our Commander's Guide series, it is time to dive into integrating what we have learned into building a list of our own.  For sake of argument, we're going to be using the Wave 1 standard of 300 point fleets.  In this article we will be covering the beginnings of building a fleet of your own - how to take those first few steps and how your ships will work together toward a goal.

Build Your Fleet to Objectives vs Pick Objectives For Your Fleet

One of the first choices you need to make when designing your fleet is if you are going to take a top down approach - picking out a set of objectives and designing your fleet around them, or a bottom up approach - build a good all-around fleet and pick the objectives which best play to its strengths.

If you are designing your fleet to a set of objectives, you will also need to bid to make sure you get the Second Player, and build your fleet to be able to manage handing first activation to the opponent.

On the other hand, if you are building your fleet first, you need to plan for it to be able to handle a range of objectives fairly well, and don't necessarily have to bid.  For this, there are two ways to go: The first is plan around a single objective type - you are guaranteed to face one of 4 Assault objectives, for example - and you can then plan your list around a single objective type.  The second is truly a bottom up approach - figure out which objectives work best for you, until you have filled out 4 of a single color.  Perhaps you'd rather pick Hyperspace Assault as first player, even though you are good with any of the Navigation objectives.

How Many Ships Do You Bring?

Having more ships than an opponent is a considerable advantage.  Being able to make the last activation of the round lets you create situations where your opponent must come to you, moving into your ship's line of fire before you have to activate.  Being Player 1 is an even bigger advantage with high numbers of ships, as you can activate a ship as the final activation of the round, put it into a dangerous position, and activate it again first the next turn, flying it to safety.

The drawback though is that smaller ships tend to be easier to destroy, and cost more to upgrade each one vs a smaller number of heavily upgraded ships.  Bringing more ships also means that you likely have less to spend in the first place for upgrades, as well as Squadrons.  It is more punishing of mistakes - if you mess up and wind up with a ship left in the front arc of a VSD, it is probably going to take it off the board, where a larger ship could have held out for a turn or two.

What Are Some Typical Compositions?

While this is far from an exhaustive list of possibilities, these are a few fleet options you can look into when constructing your first list.  Each have their advantages and disadvantages, but all will get you started on your way to building your first list.

Edit:  With Wave 2 out, this is quite a bit out of date.  Stay tuned for a new update Wednesday!

Twin VSDs - The twin VSD build is a favorite of the Imperials, giving you two really hard to kill ships and a scary number of anti-ship dice out of their two front arcs.  Relatively inexpensive but light on ships, the Twin VSD lends itself well to Carrier style builds and a strong Squadron buy, or to heavy anti-ship upgrades with minimal fighter support.  Motti is an excellent Commander for this build, adding more hull and thus more wiggle room for your ships.  Tarkin is also excellent, taking advantage of the large Command values of the two ships.  The biggest drawback is that it doesn't have very many ships, and all its ships are slow. meaning several objectives will be difficult to clear.  Most Wanted, Opening Salvo, Fleet Ambush, Intel Sweep - all of these are awful for the list if it winds up in First Player.  But letting the opponent have First Player is even worse.

VSD / Demolisher - Combining the best upgraded monstrosity the Imperials have in the Demolisher, with a Carrier VSD for anti-squadron / bomber support.  This list can put a lot of hurt on an opponent very rapidly.  Also inexpensive, but light on ships, it definitely relies on squadron support and commands from the carrier VSD to back up the Demolisher as a heavy hitter.  Its big drawback is the Demolisher itself - if not careful, a well defended enemy can force a trade against the 90+ point GSD,   Also, while the Demolisher is fast, the list is still light on ship numbers and needs to go first, and has more than a few objectives that do not favor it, such as Most Wanted, Opening Salvo, Contested Outpost, and Dangerous Territory.

Three GSDs - The closest thing the Imperials get to a swarm, Three fully kitted out Gladiators and very few to no squadrons have a lot of punishing firepower up close.  The drawback is the lack of squadrons and the need to be that close - while the list will destroy anything that gets into close range, it has basically no long range support, nor anti-squadron capabilities for stopping BOMBERs that are flying in formation with the enemy fleet.  Screed is a favorite Commander for this list, though Tarkin constantly providing Maneuver tokens is a viable option as well.

Two VSDs / Demolisher - Another three ship Imperial build that is light on squadrons - though capable of bringing a few to engage enemy bomber squadrons.  The Twin VSDs bring a decent area denial from their front arc, and the Demolisher can chase down enemies on the flank.  It is expensive to bring this many ships though, and this will limit the upgrades and total number of fighters that can be brought.  A good all-around build, it doesn't mind going first or second, so forget any point bids and cram everything you can onto it.  Motti adds a total of 5 hull to the list, keeping the important ships alive, while Tarkin can add 3 tokens (one to each ship) a turn.  Screed works well too, as both the VSDs will probably be VSD1s.

Two AFIIs - Two Assault Frigates play similar in style to the Twin VSDs in terms of points.  You have the option of going squadron heavy with a carrier style build, or going for heavy damage with Paragon and anti-ship weaponry.  As a two ship build, there are certain objectives you do not want to play, though you aren't as hampered by the VSDs lack of speed.  Garm Bel Iblis was made for this list, though depending on your build Gen Dodonna could be argued.

AFII / Neb-B / CR90 - The baseline rebel build, it could swing either way to Squadron heavy or to Anti-Ship upgrades.  Going upgrade light, you could even cram another CR90 in, though that wouldn't leave much for squadrons either.  The CR90(s) and the Neb-B are weakpoints in this list, meaning they have to be protected to keep them from just handing your opponent free points.  Mon Mothma is the general best Commander for this list.

AFII / Three CR90s - Combining the anchor of the AFII, and a min-swarm of CR90s, this list tries to get the best of all worlds.  It has the space for upgrades to the AFII and limited squadron support.  Mon Mothma really works with this list, though Dodonna could make an appearance for a more offense oriented look.  With the extra ships, this list makes a strong push toward First Player, though Most Wanted / Opening Salvo / Fire Lanes / Fleet Ambush and Dangerous Territory definitely favor it if it goes first.

CR90 Swarm - This build is all about death of a thousand cuts, and making good trades on points.  Squadrons will be minimal if they exist at all (A-Wings only, most likely) and upgrades the same.  The list is all about going first and having the last activation, so a bid for First Player is necessary to utilize the full potential.  Mon Mothma really fits as the Commander, due to the sheer number of evades, though Dodonna could argue for his inclusion as well.


That's it for the General Concepts - a brief overview of ship building.  Next time we will talk about adding Squadrons to your fleet, what roles they have to play, and which compositions will work best for you.

Commander's Guide - B-Wing

This is it.  We've been working our way through the Squadrons, and we've finally reached the end.  After covering the rest of the Rebel Squadrons, we are finally on the last of them, the B-Wing.

The B-Wing makes an excellent backup for the Nebulon B Frigate.

 B-Wing

The B-Wing is the heaviest BOMBER of all squadrons, Rebel or Imperial.  Boasting an impressive 1 Blue / 1 Black for its anti-ship armament, it averages 1.75 damage per attack.  It also has a respectable 3 Blue anti-squadron attack and 5 hull.  Unfortunately it is also the most expensive squadron on either side, worth 14 points for the generic version.

The squadron also has one major Achilles heel, and that is its speed.  The squadron holds a speed of only 2, making it slower than the maximum speed of any of the Rebel ships or squadrons.  This makes the B-Wing best as a deterrent to enemy ships, flying along with the main Rebel line to match the Empire in close quarters damage output.

A pair of B-Wings flying with a Nebulon B Escort Frigate can not only keep it safe from enemy BOMBERs, but throw 1 Black and 1 Blue dice each at an enemy ship that pulls into close range.  What the B-Wings cannot do is go hunting themselves - their slow speed means that they won't outdistance your own ships.  At best you can direct them to where the opponent will go, and hope that they actually go there.

Keyan Farlander

Keyan manages to be an even better BOMBER than the generic B-Wing, sporting 2 Black dice for his anti-ship attack.  In addition to this, he has 2 Brace defense tokens to supplement his 5 hull.

What makes him even more of a terror is that if he is attacking a hull zone without shields, he can re-roll any number of his anti-ship dice.  That makes him by able o put up a consistent amount of damage on already damaged targets, setting up for a knockout punch.

Overall the B-Wing is a BOMBER and heavy hitter against ships.  But it isn't going to hunt them down, rather it punishes enemy ships that move into the wrong location without fighter support of their own.

And that is all for the Commander's Guide for now.  Next time we will finally start to get into the meat of list building, and since we just finished up with Squadrons, we will talk about how to fit squadrons into your list.  Stay tuned for next time!

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