NOVA Open

Hey folks! I'm here at the NOVA Open, part of Day 1A. I'll be doing g my best to keep things up to date throughout the day. I'm running the lastest incarnation of Raddus. I won't bore you with my strategy, as I've talked about versions of this list for a while now.

Name: I'm a Leaf on the Wind
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Admiral Raddus

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Caitken and Shollan (6)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
= 128 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 87 Points

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

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

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Slicer Tools (7)
= 27 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 386

First round pairings up!

Pictures from round one. 8-3 win against Matt's triple Cymoon.

Round two pairings. I'm fighting against my own Sato list!

10-1 win and I forgot to take pictures in the later rounds. I got the tabling with a final engine techs ram against his MC75!

Reception is shit, so sorry for not getting the pairings up sooner.

Pictures from round three. Played against Adam Newton's Ackbar list. Unbelievably tense game. I got the table on turn six with a kamikaze ram against his assault frigates and a long range bullseye from Liberty and ram against his Jaina's Light. Super tight and extremely well played game which went 8-3 to me by a hair.

Round four pairings.

Totally forgot photos in round four. Another really tight game that came down to one damage. Lost 3-8 to duck_bird aka Alex. I had multiple shots on the ISD that were nothing but blanks and accuracies. It's been happening all day, but it cost me the game this time. 29 tourney points over 4 rounds so far!

Final round pairings

Pictures of round three against Darlye's Y-Wings. I ran him down pretty well, pulling off a 10-1 final round.

And the final standings. Alex and Adam have guaranteed slots for Saturday, and with 39, I'm highly likely to make it as well!

Ranking the Commanders By Command Cards

Today we're going to look at the Command Cards of the released Commanders, plus take a look at the revealed but not fully spoiled ones.  The challenge we are going to look at is how they compare in strength to one another, disregarding the relative strength and cost of their commanders.  Overall ranking of commanders is outside the purview of this article.

Revised Commander's Guide - Raider-Class Corvette

In the beginning, there was only one small base ship for the Empire, and it was the Demolisher Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer.  With Wave 2 came the first true picket combat ship the Empire would have - a ship cheap enough to fill holes in your list, or to take multiple units to maximize your activations.  Clontroper5 showed what the power of the Raider was, with a list that maximized the amount of Raiders on the board back at the start of Wave 2.  And then... with Wave 3/4 and the Gozanti, Raiders faded off into relative obscurity.

Now, in the dead middle of Wave 7, where does the Raider-Class Corvette sit?  How is it different from when it first came out, and what role does it have with other options for cheap escort ship available?

Escort Ships of the Empire

First Impressions of Han and the Commandos - Battle Report

I was one of the lucky few to pick up copies of Han Solo and the Rebel Commandos for Star Wars: Legion while at GenCon.  I was only home briefly between the con and another trip, but I was able to get the models built and sneak in a game with them.  I REALLY like the way that they played on the table.  Read on for my early impressions of them.

Armada and Legion Notes from GenCon

GenCon Notes

Another GenCon has come and past.  While I had planned to do daily updates while there, I was just having too much fun for that.  So, here's a rundown of what I learned about Armada and Legion while there.

Super Star Destroyer!!!! (And other things for Armada and Legion)

FFG added an ISD and a VSD to the SSD display case.

Look at this beauty.

Ground Commander's Guide - Rebel Commandos

Now that we have the full reveal for the Rebel Commandos, we can finally decide how best to utilize this unit!  Specifically, we've been waiting on the heavy weapons, but there's a few other things in this reveal that are really interesting:

Massing the Fleet

Store Championship season is in full swing and some major tournaments are on the horizon in the United States. North American Championships at GENCON are just around the corner as of this writing and US Nationals at the NOVA Open are just a month after that. The last errata updates for Star Wars Armada was a pretty substantial change for the competitive scene. There are new considerations to keep in mind along with some old ones coming back into play. If you've been following Shmitty and I's Sato escapades, you'll know that it's worth taking a look at some disfavored commanders once more. They may have quietly become a good deal better with the changes. Some smaller changes, such as those to Gallant Haven and Yavaris, have caused some minor changes in tactics. While significant in rebalancing some of the most dominant fleet builds, they didn't cause any major changes in the overall makeup of the game’s meta. For the largest impact on the meta, you have to look to the changes to flotillas in the tournament regulations. Despite their diminutive stature, Gr-75 Transport and Gozanti Cruisers had an outsized impact on the game, leading to a pair of significant changes. With that all that in mind, it's time for a nice hard look at what that has meant for the meta.