Go join SW: Armada Explained (SWAE) channel on YouTube!

Shoutout for my buddy Karneck, who has a nice SW: Armada channel on YouTube.

Among other things he's been streaming from Worlds, interviewning top players, as well as providing tutorials and Armada tips. He knows what he's talking about AND he's not too long-winded!

Now he needs to add another 150 followers, or YouTube's new mobile streaming rules will shut him down. So go follow this dude:

https://www.youtube.com/user/STIM007

X-wing baby, X-wing

As you know I'm playing a little X-wing 2.0 on the side. You can read about my first X-wing experiences on the blog, including my Nordics 2018 participation.

What's pretty cool is that this was my list back then, and it's still decently good even now, several waves into the game. 

Nordics 2018 R3 (206)
Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing 52
Proton Torpedoes 12
R3 Astromech 3
Servomotor S-Foils 0
Ship Total: 67
Half Points: 34 Threshold: 3
 
Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62
Instinctive Aim 2
Proton Torpedoes 12
Servomotor S-Foils 0
Ship Total: 76
Half Points: 38 Threshold: 3
 
Norra Wexley — ARC-170 Starfighter 55
Intimidation 3
“Zeb” Orrelios 1
Veteran Tail Gunner 4
Ship Total: 63
Half Points: 32 Threshold: 5

Sure, it's actually 6 points over after the 1st points tweak, but it can easily be reworked by pulling out the least important upgrades: Vet Tail Gunner and R3 on Wedge. Those are nice-to-have, but taking them out doesn't alter the Alpha focus, nor take away Lukes ability to fire torps without lock (in a pinch) or Norra's bumpylicious attitude.

Nordics 2018 Updated (199)

Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing 52

Proton Torpedoes 12

Servomotor S-Foils 0

Ship Total: 64

Half Points: 32 Threshold: 3

 

Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62

Instinctive Aim 2

Proton Torpedoes 12

Servomotor S-Foils 0

Ship Total: 76

Half Points: 38 Threshold: 3

 

Norra Wexley — ARC-170 Starfighter 55

Intimidation 3

“Zeb” Orrelios 1

Ship Total: 59

Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5

There are, however, probably a better build that ditches Norra and take a U-wing instead. Added bonuses: It's Hyperspace legal, it can easily double mod Wedge, and it has too-cheap-Leia. This specific version has no bid, but R2 units on both X-wings. Sooner or later you aren't getting shots, and being able to regen is potentially huge.

Nordics 2018 H-legal Spring 2019 (199)

Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing 52

Proton Torpedoes 12

R2 Astromech 4

Servomotor S-Foils 0

Ship Total: 68

Half Points: 34 Threshold: 3

 

Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62

Proton Torpedoes 12

R2 Astromech 4

Servomotor S-Foils 0

Ship Total: 78

Half Points: 39 Threshold: 3

 

Cassian Andor — UT-60D U-Wing 47

Intimidation 3

Tactical Officer 2

Leia Organa 2

Pivot Wing 0

Ship Total: 54

Half Points: 27 Threshold: 4

A couple of things I really like about X-wing 2.0:

1. The variety of ships and build that are viable. Sure, at any given time there are some builds that are objectively or subjective better than some of the others, but the variation over archetypes and SEVEN factions is still enormous compared to Armada. Add to this FFG's ability and willingness to change points (and upgrade  slots) twice a yearish (not to mention much more frequent waves!) and you have a game that won't go stale for a long time yet.

2. You don't HAVE to fill you ships to the rafters with upgrades! You see even aces flow WITHOUT A SINGLE UPGRADE, or maybe just one or two key upgrades. This tells me the basic design is very good - and that stuff is more or less correctly costed. I really appreciate having to make tough calls: beef up Luke and Wedge or maybe do Thane instead of Luke? Upgrade U-wing to Cassian and keep the Protons - or make room for an entire A-wing? This si what makes fleet squadbuilding exiting!

Final note: No, this isn't the onyl squad I play! I try to play as much different stuff as I can, but I lean towards Rebels, Resistance - and more recently, Republic. But I also do some Imp and Scum. FO is the only faction I haven't really played so far.

Generating Vassal setup files from fleet builder export

Something really nice happened while Armada was dead: @Ardaedhel made a clever script that parses builder text output into a Vassal setup file!

After playing a lot of Vassal X-wing I've grown used to being able to spawn list directly from a squad builder. Coming back to Armada it felt sooo slow building lists manually. Even the "quick-spawn" system felt slow (I remember back before that even, man was that tedious).

Ard's solution is just as good - and also doesn't require a lot of fiddling with the Armada module. Best of both worlds really!

So you open up you fav Armada builder, which ofr me is either Kingston's or Warlords, and then do a text export like this (make sure to get the headers, as the script needs it to ID the builder used) and copy the text:

Piett Command Prototype Ravager + Arq + 2xGoz + 2 TIE v2 
Author: Green Knight

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400  

Commander: Admiral Piett

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[ flagship ] Star Dreadnought Command Prototype (220 points)
-  Admiral Piett  ( 22  points)
-  Ravager  ( 4  points)
-  Agent Kallus  ( 3  points)
-  Damage Control Officer  ( 5  points)
-  Emperor Palpatine  ( 3  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Quad Laser Turrets  ( 5  points)
-  Quad Battery Turrets  ( 5  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
= 278 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 points)
-  Skilled First Officer  ( 1  points)
= 55 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Darth Vader  ( 1  points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points)
= 26 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points)
= 25 total ship cost

2 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 16 points)
= 16 total squadron cost

After copying the text, open the Armada Discord and send a PM to @shrimpbot using !vassal (and paste the list here and press enter).

This will generate a setup .vlog 

Go into Vassal and load continuation, then step forward until your fleet appears.

Fucking brilliant!

Armada 1.0? Or 1.5? Or 2.0?

This is what Armada 2.0 will look like

There has been quite a bit of talk about "Armada 2.0" on both the FFG forums and discord for a while now. It's not so strange given the (un)dead status of Armada and the recent success(?) of X-wing 2.0.

I don't really believe we are getting Armada 2.0, although I would certainly welcome it, as I'm one of those people who thing that there are parts of Armada that really could use a bit of a rework. 

But IF there was an Armada 2.0, then I think a lot of this would be part of the equation: 

• No 2.0 coming I think. Not now I mean, but maybe in the future?
• If you look at X-wing it's the same game really. The core rules have been streamlined and improved, but the game remains the same.
• That would have to be true for Armada 2.0 - unless they want to make an entirely new game.
• There would be an app. Variable points and upgrade slots. Variable upgrade pricing.
• Every ship, squadron and upgrade would be reworked. Some a little, some more. They would try to remain true to the old version, but not at every cost.
• Stuff like Demo and Yavaris would get long hard looks. And if allowed in their old form heavily costed.
• Aura buffs would either be weaker or removed, as they have the most potential for abuse.
• A lot of thought would go into making all fleet types viable. Small, medium and large ships. Low squad, middle or heavy. Few upgrades or many.
• Emphasis on careful maneuvering and squad play.
• More factions could be added.

This is just copy-paste from a forum post I made April 1st. Since then additional Clone Wars factions HAVE BEEN announced! But no new edition, so I'm more confident than ever that isn't happening.

So how about an Armada 1.5? Keep what we have, because it's pretty good, but accept that not everything is 100% Opinions differ of course. There will be at least one opinion for each Armada player, maybe more.

But these are the "soft" changes I'd most like to see in Armada 1.5:

• I'd have points costs become flexible. Same with upgrade slots.
• That would add a ton of flexibility, and really keep the meta fresh no matter then number of new waves per year. Drop the VSD X points, drop the Dominator title Y points, prosper. Give the Assault Pelta a Weapons Team. Make generics cheaper - or aces cost more. ENDLESS possibilities.
• FFG could make a builder app, sure, but it's not needed. PDF lists like X-wing has would work fine.
• Errata some of the Objectives. Of the 24 objectives we have, not all of them are good enough to be competitive, but it's possible to do something about that, without just bringing in new ones.
• Imagine Fleet Ambush, where squads cannot deploy into the zone, and where the 1st player must pass his first turn in round 1? Just one example.
• Half points for everything, ships AND squads. X-wing 2.0 did this, the SSD is doing it, and it's a REALLY good idea. In Armada 1/2 points is triggered by hull alone, ignoring shields, just like the SSD.
• So you got Maarek down to 1 hp and he ran away? Not you at least get 1/2 points, not 0 points. That Motti ISD got away? Well, it could not repair enough, so its 1/2 points. Great! 
• Add this rule: "The last ship to activate in a round cannot be the first ship to activate the following round."
• This limits stuff like Pryce (and Bail), without completely reworking the activation game.

There are other things as well, some cards so dumb they deserve to be errataed (Mauler) but I guess points fixes will do the trick.

So these 4 points, couple with some real now content (SSD, new campaign, new factions... could make Armada great again. Without the above changes... it will still be good, Armada is a good game, but it won't be as great.

So FFG, just call me when you're ready to talk.

Armada news for 2019+2020

So Armada isn't quite dead after all. It's got a pulse, if extremely faint and slow... I don't think we can blame the doctor for thinking it was a dead horse, good for nothing but beating. 

With that out of the way, this is what we know is coming:

2019 Q3, The Executor FINALLY arrives: Barring further delays, it should arrive just over the summer. 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/26/an-unfortunate-delay/

Someone claimed that FFG hinted about early Q3, but I'm not convinced. Also, we Europeans have a history of getting stuff slightly later. This could be important, because if it arrives later in Q3, it won't be on time for Euros. Whether or not that's a good or bad thing is up to you.

I have to admit I've been running this bad boy on Vassal a few (5) times. Both the Command and the Assault Prototype. I'm not sure it's up there competitively, there are some seriously limitations to sinking most of your points into ONE ship the opponent can score half points off, but it's sure fun to fly!

2019 Q3, Rebellion in the Rim: Another campaign set, same as the Corellian one, but with different format. This too is slated for Q3, and again I wonder if it will make it in time to Euros (I suspect not). If it does, I expect this to shake up the meta more than the Executor does.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/28/rebellion-in-the-rim/

As for competitive stuff, we know we get 12 new objectives, 4 of each color. Hope they are good and not just jank. From what we've seen thus far, there are references to a lot of weirdness like grav rifts, purgills (space whales) and exogoths (space snakes). But I'm guessing it will help the game, like the CC objectives.

New uniques for the R&V squadrons, including these two guys:

And, unlike, CC, we get upgrades too! We don't have a lot of detail yet, but we see that Iden Versio is straight up a Raider enhancer.

We've also seen Sabine Wren, but until we know what that mine does, color me skeptical.

But we can also see what appears to be a Vic title in the photo spread. And I've heard some rumors about Neb-B enhancing cards as well, so it looks like FFG is trying to boost the weaker ships a bit. Only time will tell if its successful, or of its just more points and opportunity costs sunk into bad chassis.

2019 Q4?, New ships: FFG has confirmed two substantial ships, one each for Rebs and Imps this year. That's a very good thing. It's been a while. No details yet I'm afraid.

2020 Q?, CLONE WARS ARMADA: That's right, we finally get 2 more factions, Republic and Separatist. This is great for the game. Not only the prequel movies, but the whole Clone Wars series (which is just now getting season 7). Tons of ships, squads and exiting characters.

All of this makes me cautiously optimistic for Armada. Maybe we can get a number of releases that keeps the game relatively exiting over time?