POD Mothma (NA)

 

POD Mothma

jp82729

CaribbeanNinja

Scipio83

DreadLordLoki

POD Garm (The Best Pod) (NA)

 

POD Garm

MandalorianMoose

BertieWooster

BackSeatAdmiral

BigPoppaPalpatine

POD Dodonna (Euro)

 

POD Dodonna

NebB

Jamesmorgan

Sasska

Rimsen

POD Tarkin (Euro)

POD Tarkin

Goerrit

Green Knight

Beginner2Winner

Callum

Armada 1.5 Era Commander's Rankings

Any time a new wave comes out, we hop on to do a Commander Ranking!  This is a little bit like a sports Power Ranking where we look at how a commander has been performing, and look ahead to see how we think they might do, but mostly assessing what we feel is their relative power at this current point in time.

BONUS 1.5 Commander Relook: Cracken

You thought I was done? Surprise! To close out our series, I wanted to look at one last commander. There was a time General Cracken (not to be confused with the new Kraken, because...yeah) used to be considered overpowered by some folks. These days, though, he has fallen almost entirely out of use. There's a couple of factors that contributed to his rapid fall. One factor was upgrades. Yes, tractor beams and Konstantine theoretically mess with Cracken, but it was Quad Battery Turrets that have left a lasting dent on his use. There are enough ships out there that use the upgrade that Cracken's advantage was minimized against just enough fleets to turn people off of him. The second, and probably bigger, factor was the overall decline of MSU archetypes. First flotillas under cut small ships, then SA, Pryce, and Bail further damaged the activation advantage MSU often relied upon. Since Cracken didn't work with large ships, he was left out to dry along with a whole slew of Rebel commanders.

So what's changed? Cracken himself has not changed in the slightest he still has the exact same effect. The meta itself, however, has significantly changed, especially with the 1.5 updates. Cracken's preferred ships (smalls) overwhelming benefit from the evade change. While it's open to debate if the activation changes help or turn small ships (I think it is an overall positive), you can at least feel comfortable bringing more combat ships instead of flotillas, giving you more firepower instead of just activation padding. Cracken has has a rather unique advantage against the ships of wave 8. He likes evading ships, so he automatically does fairly well at extreme range against the Onager. Forcing that same Onager to drop a die with Cracken's ability further diminishes the threat the ship poses. That's absolutely something I want with the Onager so dominant in the competitive meta at the moment. Cracken is also very useful against the plink damage of Salvo. The Starhawk and the Onager are both have a habit of punishing smalls with this defense token. The Clone Wars factions also bring this on their mediums. The damage can really add up over time. Cracken taking a die off of each Salvo shot is absolutely huge.

Now that's not to say Cracken is suddenly the end all be all. Nobody can be certain exactly how these 1.5 changes will help or hurt small ships. I'm optimistic, but even within the tester community, there is considerable disagreement. The upgrades countering Cracken aren't going away either. If anything there are even more of them now. One of the dominant Imperial commanders out there now, General Romodi, effectively ignore Cracken so long as the shot is obstructed by an obstacle. If you go have a peak at Roquax's latest TTS tournament list, he has gotten extremely adept at using obstacle placement with is Interdictor to enable Onager shots, taking away Cracken's ability.

This all that in mind, let's have look at a possible return to the mighty Crackenator:

Name: Crackenator Strikes Back
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Cracken

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• General Cracken (26)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
• Admonition (6)
= 104 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 61 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 59 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
= 56 Points

GR-75 Medium Transport (18)
• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Toryn Farr (7)
= 30 Points

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• Lando Calrissian (23)
• 3x A-Wing Squadrons (33)
= 89 Points

Total Points: 399

The concepts between my Sato list and this are pretty similar. The emphasis is on using as many combat ships as possible. The Engine Techs? Yeah....I'm feeling my old need for speed again. I have largely avoided using CR90ETs lately because of the cost. However, Cracken narrows your maneuver choices to a degree. When your options are only speed 3 and 4, your moves become more predictable. Opening up an effective speed 5, besides being just stupid amounts of fun, gives you a lot more choice. Unlike Sato, though, this list wants to do death by paper cut rather than a huge opening volley of long range ordnance. Admonition is the finisher, coming in for the final blow on harder targets. The squad wing is a little more robust. Lando, Shara, and Tycho are three of the nastiest squads out there in this meta, but the extra 3 generic A-Wings add some high speed anti-ship damage against smaller squadron wings. With speed, maneuverability, and dependable firepower, I thinks this could do quite well in today's competitive meta.

Armada 1.5 Commander Relook: Tagge

A picture of a trash can for...no reason...

It’s time for my last entry in our commander relook series (Biggs is supposedly doing one, so keep an eye out for that). You know him, you love to hate him. It’s time for the flaming pile of poo left on your doorstep that is General Tagge! This is a commander we here at Steel Strategy have consistently given a solid “F” in our commander rankings without much thought. The lack of flexibility and the sub-optimal timing of Tagge’s window is the reason. You had to aggressively spend your defense tokens and then wait for them to come back if you missed your window. On the surface, it might be easy to dismiss Tagge’s 1.5 changes as well. After all, he essentially got the same buff as Garm, and I’ve already said that change doesn’t do anything fundamentally different to Garm. With Tagge, though, that flexibility is a pretty significant change.

Gone are the days of having to aggressively spend your defense tokens on turn two (unless you’re into that thing). You can now delay Tagge until turns four and six, when you might be more hurting for those tokens back. You can also flex all the way into turns two and four if you’re, say, fighting a Cataclysm Onager with an Intel Officer hitting you on turn one. The non-consecutive turns still hurts quite a bit, though. And he’s also still priced around the same as much more dynamic commanders, like Admiral Sloane and and Moff Jerjerrod. Don’t be discouraged, though. Frankly, this meta is wide open. You have a completely jumbled meta, Clones throwing squads at you on turn one with Hyperspace Rings, and Separatists doing annoying Shmitty death by paper cuts. Maybe it’s Tagge’s time to shine! Stop snickering. Here’s an attempt at a Tagge list:

Name: Tagge! You're It!

Faction: Imperial

Commander: General Tagge

Imperial II (120)

• General Tagge (25)

• Captain Brunson (9)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

= 171 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

= 52 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

= 52 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

= 29 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Munitions Resupply (3)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

= 29 Points

Squadrons:

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• 2 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (22)

= 52 Points

Total Points: 394

I guess getting back braces and scatters is what I want? No, I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t care. You come here for the jank, and that’s what I’m going to give you: pure, unadulterated, horrible jank. The plan is for the ISD to do ISD things by going pew pew. It Tagges away its brace like it just doesn’t care and adds Brunson to be an even bigger tanky mess. The Gozantis keep the nuECMs and nuGunnery Teams fueled with Munitions Resupply and Parts Resupply. Since they don’t have to give up their commands to keep the ISD fresh, they can command the squadron wing as well. While I’ve gone with 4 Interceptors in other lists, this here is pretty much right where I like to land with Imperial squadron balls. Cienna and Valen are the Imperial version of Shara and Tycho, just more murdery. Ideally you’ll never got a shot on Valen without going through the respawning Interceptors or the perma-obstructed Cienna. Oh, and there are some kamikaze Raiders there doing Raider things. Is it good? OK, I’m not even gonna kid, this is definitely not good. But you know what? Give Tagge a shot. Come up with your own jank. This meta is wide open. You just might find some gold in them there jank hills.

Armada 1.5 Commander Relook: Ozzel

Now that I’ve got the Rebels out of my system, it’s time to get serious about Imperial commanders. Most of the Rebel commanders saw mainly incremental changes. Beside Tarkin, Imperials saw some more fundamental reworks. This time, we’re talking about a man who just can’t help but mess with the speed of his approach: Admiral Ozzel. Ozzel was first introduced with the Raider, which also just so happens to be the ship with which he generally finds his best success. After all, when you’re knife fighting in Armada, drastic speed changes are often the difference between life and death. That is Ozzel in a nutshell: massive changes in speed. Old Ozzel wanted to always be navigating to try to get use out of his ability. New Ozzel is...well something else entirely.

Gone is the need to stay navigating. Ozzel just works now. Every ship you have can always adjust their speed by one during their maneuver. No command necessary. It’s essentially Entrapment Formation without any need to fuel a fleet command. His cost also remains the absolute cheapest of any admiral. On paper, the ability sounds awesome. Sometimes you just don’t need a massive 2+ speed change, wasting Ozzel’s ability. Now you can rotate in additional commands for those moments when you know you’re not going to need a big boost. Dialing in those alternating commands can still be difficult, though, so I think command one ships are still his preferred method of fighting. 

This is really just speculation, though. Of the commanders I’ve reviewed thus far, I’ve struggled with making an Ozzel list the most. In the end, I’ve deferred to Snipafist and duck_bird’s wisdom. Nu Ozzel still wants to mainly be a knife fighter. The difference is how you command the fleet and how you can support it. So here’s a stab at a terrible Ozzel list based around how I’ve seen Snipa and duck run him in the past.

Name: Is This an Ozzel Fleet?

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Gladiator I (56)

• Admiral Ozzel (20)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)

• Demolisher (10)

= 103 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

= 52 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

= 52 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

• External Racks (4)

= 55 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

• External Racks (4)

= 55 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

= 31 Points

Squadrons:

• 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44)

= 44 Points

Total Points: 393

The name of the game is flexibility. Every combat ship in the fleet can flex to concentrate fire in a pitch, even Demolisher with that Skilled First Officer, while still adjusting speed. Another huge difference in this list is the utility of the Raiders themselves. With the changes to evade, they get significantly harder to kill. The minimal squad wing is backed up with a couple Raiders packing some RHDs to keep the screen going. The Gozanti can command that wing while also adjusting speed with Ozzel. It’s simple, sweet, and probably a lot of fun. Is it good? I have no idea. And in this case, I don’t really care. I probably won’t get around to flying this particular fleet. I also doubt it comes close to scratching the surface of nuOzzel’s potential. I definitely look forward to seeing what others can do with his refreshed ability.