Fleet Ambush. Arguably THE worst objective. Why would you EVER do this!?
Objectives are an important part of Armada - both for the 1st and 2nd players. It's something you have to build your fleets around, or suffer the consequences. Some objectives are perfect fits for some very specific fleets, but generally speaking there are a few really good objectives, some OK ones (that may be very good some some fleets), and a good number of REALLY CRAPPY ONES!
Party Potato over at the FFG forums gave me permission to repost his post detailing the spread of objectives used in the Armada Warlords builder, from 2015 to the present.
"Its probably about time I jumped back into writing articles about list building habits. I've just got the latest infusion of data from Armada Warlords fleet builder and I'm ready to see what all of you have been building on your free time. Boy have you guys been busy. I have over 130,000 lists since the end of 2015 to look at."
Party Potato has divided lists into Imperial and Rebel (Rebel is the bottom one, without the title).
Imperial fleets
Rebel fleets
Armada Warlords is probably THE most popular builder, so there is a large dataset used here. Keep in mind that the builder doesn't say which fleets do well or not, but if we assume that at least a good number of players actually KNOW what objectives work and not, some very general conclusions can be drawn. For example, Jamming Barrier isn't exactly popular with either faction...
I would, however, warn against leaning too heavily on these data. Most Wanted, for example, is horribly UNDERREPRESENTED if we compare it to the data gathered from wave 2-5 regionals by Shmitty and later waves by Baltanok. Look at the w5 data, under Objectives, and you'll see that around 40% of all fleets (and around 50% of those that did well) had Most Wanted as their red objective, which is significantly more than shown by the Warlords data. Likewise Advanced Gunnery is much LESS prevalent at regionals than the Warlords data.
After looking at the data, anyone hoping to build a good fleet should take Most Wanted, Contested Outpost and Solar Corona, as these 3 objectives give moderate tactical gain, low risk of fallout for 2nd player, and 2 of 3 give bonus points :-)
On a more serious note, these are the objectives that are objectively any good, as shown by the Warlords data AND the regionals data:
ASSAULT: Most Wanted is hands down THE best red objective. Tactical advantage vs an exposed ship AND bonus points, combined with almost no 2nd player risk.
You should only ever consider another red objective if you have a real plan for it.
Caveat: in wave 7 Raddus screws up Most Wanted so badly you might give some extra consideration to your choice of Assault objective.
DEFENSE: The least clear cut category. Contested Outpost is safe, will probably give you a head start in points, and force the enemy to come to you and fight on your terms.
Ion Cannon is much of the same. It gives more tactical advantage, but no points.
Capture the VIP is the inverse: no advantage, but extra points.
Hyperspace Assault continues to enjoy some popularity.
Finally Fire Lanes can (usually with Strategic) be used in much the same way as Contested Outpost, but with more points on the table.
NAVIGATION: Solar Corona is the go-to objective. It scores you no points, but the setup advantage can be significant, and the acc-eating aspect is appealing too.
Sup Positions replaces SC in a more squad heavy build.
Dangerous Territory and Salvage Run both have some merit.
Sensor Net is somewhat popular with "farming fleets", used with Fire Lanes and Strategic
After looking at the data, anyone hoping to build a good fleet should take Most Wanted, Contested Outpost and Solar Corona, as these 3 objectives give moderate tactical gain, low risk of fallout for 2nd player, and 2 of 3 give bonus points :-)
On a more serious note, these are the objectives that are objectively any good, as shown by the Warlords data AND the regionals data:
ASSAULT: Most Wanted is hands down THE best red objective. Tactical advantage vs an exposed ship AND bonus points, combined with almost no 2nd player risk.
You should only ever consider another red objective if you have a real plan for it.
Caveat: in wave 7 Raddus screws up Most Wanted so badly you might give some extra consideration to your choice of Assault objective.
DEFENSE: The least clear cut category. Contested Outpost is safe, will probably give you a head start in points, and force the enemy to come to you and fight on your terms.
Ion Cannon is much of the same. It gives more tactical advantage, but no points.
Capture the VIP is the inverse: no advantage, but extra points.
Hyperspace Assault continues to enjoy some popularity.
Finally Fire Lanes can (usually with Strategic) be used in much the same way as Contested Outpost, but with more points on the table.
NAVIGATION: Solar Corona is the go-to objective. It scores you no points, but the setup advantage can be significant, and the acc-eating aspect is appealing too.
Sup Positions replaces SC in a more squad heavy build.
Dangerous Territory and Salvage Run both have some merit.
Sensor Net is somewhat popular with "farming fleets", used with Fire Lanes and Strategic
You can read more about objectives, and associated fleet building and strategies at Steel Command (scroll down to section 2) and Cannot Get Your Ship Out.
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