Battle for Endor: Chocolate League, Round 4 — The Final Scoop

Finally had time to wrap up my fourth and final game of the Chocolate League!

My opponent, Matt Stoebner (Danger_Panda), literally got up at six in the morning to squeeze in a game before heading to the airport. That’s dedication. Or madness. Possibly both.

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The Fleets

Matthew Stoebner – “By the Light of Lothal’s Moons – a Rebel’s Reunion” (400)

• CR90A (Jaina’s Light): Commander Sato [ARC], Ahsoka Tano

• Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette: Sabine Wren, Disposable Capacitors, APT

• Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette: Ezra Bridger, Disposable Capacitors, APT

• Nebulon-B Support Refit (Salvation): Toryn Farr, Auxiliary Shields Team

• GR-75 (Bright Hope): Adar Tallon, Munitions Resupply, Boosted Comms

• Squadrons (126): Hera, Kanan, Dutch, Gold, Mart Mattin, 2× A-Wings, Z-95

Bjørn Blom Sørgjerd (Green Knight) – Krushya “Liberty” Agate (400)

• MC80 Star Cruiser (Liberty): Agate, Intel Officer, Caitken & Shollan, Engine Techs, Ion Cannon Batteries, XI7s, XX-9s

• Assault Frigate Mk II B (Gallant Haven): Ahsoka Tano, Flight Controllers, ECM

• GR-75 (Bright Hope): Toryn Farr

• GR-75: Hondo Ohnaka, Comms Net

• Squadrons (98): Fenn Rau, Jan Ors, Shara Bey, Tycho Celchu, 2× A-Wings

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Pre-Battle Thoughts

If this had been old Sato, I’d have shrugged it off. But nuSato brings steady, reliable damage across multiple small ships — and Matt’s list had plenty of them. Four combat hulls and a mixed Rogue cast meant constant chip damage wherever I turned. The saving grace? No massed bombers, just a couple, so my ships could at least survive long enough to complain about it.

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The Battle

(I forgot to take screenshots, so the images are a recreation, very approximate, using VASSAL)

We were both at 400 points, so we rolled — I won, took first player, and picked Fighter Ambush to mitigate his deployment advantage.

Going first with Liberty or Gallant Haven can be huge, but I was out-activated 5-to-4, which stung a bit.

Setup

From the moment of deployment, things already felt awkward. I didn’t leverage my deployment advantage at all, and Matt’s Sabine mine forced me to slow Gallant Haven for a turn. 

Start of turn 3

That delay later left my fleet spread thin — Liberty charging ahead, AF lagging, squadrons stretched like taffy.

Start of turn 4

Turn 4 brought fireworks.

Liberty had jumped forward in turn 3, dodging everyone, and now deleted a Hammerhead before it could activate, then stripped the redirect off Matt’s flagship CR90 with Intel Officer and left it on two hull after a "ass-swing" ram.

I was taking damage and losing fighters, but things looked promising.

Gallant Haven also opened up nicely, landing hull damage on another Hammerhead. Spirits were high.
Then… reality.

Three things went wrong:

1. Liberty over-committed. I’d had my big hero moment, but now I was out of position and staring at empty space. Classic me. One day I’ll learn to fly Liberties properly.

2. The squadron ball fell apart. Out of Gallant Haven and Toryn range, the A-wings fought piecemeal. Miraculously, some even survived and killed some of Matt's squads, but it wasn’t pretty.

3. Dice went cold. I ended the game with his flagship on 1 hull, one Hammerhead on 1 hull, and the Nebulon at 2 hull. Couldn’t finish any of them. Four dice at medium from the AF vs the surviving HH — zero damage. Fenn Rau into the exposed butt of the CR90. Nothing. AF into the side of the CR90. Nothing. Sometimes the Force just says “no.”

End state

Gallant Haven eventually died. It was always going to, but the annoying part was that it took nothing down with it. Rut realistically, the crippled Hammerhead, and maybe the near-dead CR90, should have joined it.

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Result

7–4 to Matt.

He got 2 tokens, all my squads, and the potato. I killed 1 HH and 4 of his squads, no tokens.

Well-earned on his part — maybe not quite the margin the game state suggested, but absolutely deserved.

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Post-Battle Reflections

I did a few things right, a few things… spectacularly not.

Matt flew a tight, cohesive plan, while I split my fleet and paid for it. My dice were mid-range, but the real problem was me.

A few takeaways:

• NuSato is legit. Not overpowered, but interesting, consistent, and flexible. Sometimes the damage bump is subtle, but it adds up fast.

• Fleet cohesion matters. Don’t split the squad cover from the ships they’re meant to protect. I do this like half the time, so clearly I'm a very slow learner!

• Liberty discipline. Once that ship commits, you’d better have a plan for the next few turns or you'll be staring at empty space. I do this every single time, or close to it. Maybe the Liberty isn't really the ship for me.

• The Potato remains absurdly tanky — until you forget to run away. It would have, if I hadn't forgotten to use my Eng token turn 5, lived until turn 6 — and finally killed SOMETHING lol. But that was more of a fluke, really, as it was Matt's turn to have some wonky dice that not even Sato could fix.

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ARC Impact

NuSato feels like one of ARC’s best reworks. He slots neatly into different fleet types — from small screens, Rogue mixes like this, to full bomber setups — without being oppressive. If this match was any indication, the card has real legs.

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Summary & Conclusion

The Chocolate League was great fun overall — a perfect reminder that Armada shines brightest when it’s not all about squeezing every last efficiency out of 400 points.

Take my own fleet: the Liberty title isn’t bad, it’s just overshadowed by Mon Karren. But pairing it with Gallant Haven and Fenn Rau led to some truly entertaining games. Even my budget Ion Cannon + XX-9 + XI7 combo wasn’t terrible — cheap, thematic, occasionally brilliant.

Maybe that’s what we need more of locally: games with intentional handicaps. Ban a few top-tier upgrades and see what chaos people invent. Either that, or keep playing campaigns and sector battles, which is a different kind of fun from 400 Standard games.

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Final Thoughts on Online Play

It was great being back online — seven games between TTS and VASSAL — but it also reminded me why I don’t do it constantly.

Games just take too long. Two hours, two-and-a-half, sometimes three plus. Everything’s digital, so it should be faster, yet somehow it isn’t. Players (myself included) spend forever on trivial moves they’d snap-decide on in person.

And then there are the time zones. Finding a match that fits both schedules can be like solving a HoloNet encryption key. Not impossible, just… tedious.

Still — totally worth it for this tournament. Thanks to all my opponents, the organizers, and everyone following along through this Chocolate adventure.

Next stop: the Euros in Poland in two weeks.

Stay tuned — and may your my red dice always double.

The Ship Files, Part 3: Rebels — “Shrimps and Potatoes”

Welcome back to The Ship Files!

In Parts 1 and 2, we wrestled with the Empire’s angry triangles — the Arquitens through to the SSD — and established what ARC’s design limits actually are. If you haven’t read those yet, start there; the intro to Part 1 sets the scene for the whole series.

This time, we turn our scanners toward the Rebellion: ships that look like they were welded together in a back-alley shipyard, painted by committee, and somehow still manage to win wars. Potatoes, shrimps, and one regrettable loaf of bread (that being the GR-75 Transport).

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Assault Frigate Mk II

 

Let’s get this out of the way first: it’s ugly. The ugliest model in the entire game. It doesn’t look like a Star Wars ship — the proportions are off, the engines are wrong, and it’s got zero connection to either Mon Cal aesthetics or the old Legends Assault Frigate Mk I. It doesn't help that the art was made based on an old computer game from an era before graphics were invented.

Controversial take: On the table, it’s… fine. Not great, not terrible — just solidly mid, but with a stronger-than-average defense. Firepower is acceptable but never impressive, both for batteries and flak (the AF2A is acceptable, but 1 blue from a Medium is not). It’s tanky thanks to decent hull and shields plus the brace/redirect/evade token spread and an all-important defensive retrofit (which, let’s be honest, means ECM).

Speed 3 and a friendly nav chart let it kite reasonably well. The Mk A is the better gunship — more dice and better flak — while the Mk B is the better carrier in a faction that lacks dedicated carriers that are also good. The B is also a bit cheaper, so 90+% of the time, it's the model you'll see. 

The A-model’s ARC price drop to 77 helps, but both variants still share the exact same upgrade bar, which feels like early-wave laziness. And if you don't specifically need the extra flak (and I suppose a blue out the front/back), the A is just most points for less squadron command. Meaning you'll typically see it with rogue squadrons. I'd probably only take the A with Agate if I wanted to do Salvos.

The AFII persists in lists mainly because it’s the only reliable Rebel medium that can tank and shoot at range without falling apart. As a carrier, it’s decent enough, sporting a Flight Controllers slot, squadron 3, and an offensive retrofit. That's not BAD, but it's not GREAT either. But what better carriers do the Rebels have? None indeed. So the AF2B is the default carrier option.

What if: Trade the evade for a salvo. The hull looks like it would return fire rather than jink away. But this is far, far outside scope for ARC, and would dramatically alter the ship's profile, so not happening.

Verdict: AFII-B is fine at 72; the AFII-A could maybe drop to 75 (if you're concerned about Agate, increase Agate correspondingly). 

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CR90 Corvette

Fast, iconic, and still the queen of Rebel small ships. With Turbolaser Reroute Circuits, it remains one of the best value damage platforms in the game — even after the exhaust-token nerf. It’s fragile, yes, but usually fast enough to live long enough to earn its points.

The A-variant is everywhere; the B-variant… not so much. The B can shine under Mon Mothma or in the hands of a very precise pilot, but its double-evade defense collapses at medium range, and it can’t equip TRC or D-Caps. It’s cheap, sure, but cheap isn’t always good.

What if: Give the B-model an Offensive Retrofit instead of Defensive. DCaps become an option and everything changes. Probably never happening, but it would be neat.

Verdict: CR90A is fine at 44, though I’d love to see it at 43 and push TRC to 8 points to (maybe) diversify builds. The B-model should drop to 37–38 — that’s Consular territory and where it belongs.

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GR-75 Medium Transport

Costs almost nothing, delivers enormous utility, and — critically — dies like a champion. The Rebel flotilla remains one of the most efficient support tools in the game: token generation, squad commands, activation padding, and inexplicably excellent maneuverability.

The Combat Retrofit exists, technically, but even after cost cuts, it rarely leaves the shelf. Guns are irrelevant when your job is to feed tokens and not explode.

What if: Ban Ackbar from affecting flotillas (please), and then give the Combat Retrofit a blue side arc just for flavor.

Verdict: Combat Retrofit at 24 is acceptable (23 would also be fine). The base Transport, though, is too cheap. Bump it to 20 and it’d still see universal play.

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Hammerhead Corvette

A sad little ship with big dreams. The Hammerhead has its niche moments — a Raddus drop via Profundity, a Ruthless flak platform, or just a cheap third a combat ship — but it’s never a list centerpiece. 

It also doesn't swarm effectively (though this is more how the game scores than any fault of the ship itself): every loss bleeds points, and you rarely win big, even if you do win.

What if: Full rework. Give it a Brace instead of that pointless Contain, or maybe an extra engineering point so it can actually repair. But that’s deep surgery, not ARC tweaks.

Verdict: Overcosted. Torpedo down to 35; Scout no higher than 39.

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MC30 Frigate

 

Classic small-ship design at its most baffling. The Scout and Torpedo versions are identical except for swapping all red die for blues — early FFG minimalism at work. And honestly, with that firepower, it probably deserved a medium base.

Still, it remains one of the most effective Rebel brawlers. Both variants see play, carried almost entirely by their titles. Admonition used to reign; post-1.5, Foresight has the edge, but either is mandatory. I dislike ships that need titles to function, but here we are.

What if: Total redesign — mixed dice pools, different upgrade bars, maybe even a medium base. But that’s a Special Modifications problem, not an ARC one.

Verdict: Leave it. The rabbit hole is deep, and the ship is kind of fine where it is.

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MC75 Cruiser

 

The MC75 is what happens when you cross an Assault Frigate with a Home One and teach it to brawl. It’s a fine ship — tough, mean, and capable of terrifying close-range volleys.

Its biggest crime is the token spread: two Contains. Stop trying to make Contain a thing! The front-arc focus and odd red-side/blue-front battery layout make it feel confused, but both variants are otherwise solid, especially after the price drops.

The combination of higher cost, no range out the front, and a poor defensive suite prevents the Armored variant from being a viable carrier option or gunship alternative to the AF2. Thus, you will often find it in a Raddus list (where gunnery range and defense at range are less important), but not too often elsewhere.

What if: Replace one Contain with a Salvo and call it a day.

Verdict: 99 and 95 would be fair with Salvo; without it, shave a few more points (but you can't take off too many or it'll crowd out other Rebel ships).

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Next Time

Next up: the rest of the Rebel roster — MC80s, Nebulons, Peltas, Providences, and the mighty (and slightly absurd) Starhawk.

SCOTTISH 'NOT A' REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

When: October 25^th, 2025

Where: Common Ground Games, Stirling, Scotland

Host: Steve (and his dog, whom I totally did not feed scraps at the table)

Intro

I was visiting my brother, Even (not Ewan), in Edinburgh, so driving over to Stirling wasn’t too much of a stretch. And maybe the tournament was actually the reason I visited that particular weekend. Only William Wallace knows for sure.

We got up early for some breakfast and loads of coffee. My brother complained about not having slept much, but that’s normal when you have two little rascals, so I figured he’d survive.

The trip was a breeze, sitting on the wrong side of a car going quite fast down narrow Edinburgh streets and then a stretch of highway. We narrowly survived a kelpie attack, then arrived in Stirling, where we were warmly greeted by our host, Steve, at Common Ground Games. It’s an excellent location for events such as these—no wonder they would rather do it here than try to find a spot in Edinburgh. Oh, and Steve, on top of all his other merits, has an actual coffee machine in his snack bar. I had like five or six big Americanos throughout the tournament (on top of what I drank before leaving Even’s place).

Twelve players showed up, with no last-minute drops or anyone showing up at the last minute. And all 12 players played all their games—well done, chaps—so we avoided any byes or other weirdness. I think Ian had hoped for 16, but in my book, 12 is just as good. A bit less variety to be sure, but enough players that we can all have a good time without marrying a cousin or some such.

Getting ready for the inevitable victory

The guy to the right looks a lot like my baby brother

Deep pre-game thoughts

My list

Name: Karren “Krushyall” Agate Alt 2

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Kyrsta Agate

 

Assault: Advanced Gunnery

Defense: Asteroid Tactics

Navigation: Infested Fields

 

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)

• Kyrsta Agate (25)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Point Defense Ion Cannons (6)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• Mon Karren (6)

= 177 Points

 

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Cluster Bombs (5)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 59 Points

 

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Cluster Bombs (5)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Tantive IV (3)

= 61 Points

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Comms Net (2)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 24 Points

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Leia Organa (3)

• Comms Net (2)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 24 Points

 

Squadrons:

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

• 2 x A-wing Squadron (22)

= 55 Points

 

Total Points: 400

List analysis

I didn’t have time to prep a completely new list properly, so I decided to go with the Liberty as a basis. I had already done a few rounds with it in the Endor 2025 TTS tournament, and it was both pretty fun and pretty effective. It had the Lib, and AF2B, and about a 100 points in squads, but the damage output was mid at best, and the squadrons, while an effective screen, didn’t do much damage either.

So I ditched the AF2 and scaled back my squadrons, allowing me to upgrade the SC to a proper BC with all the bells and whistles AND get 2 TRC90s. The first versions had XI7, not Spinals, as is customary, and no Cluster Bombs. Instead, there was some combination of Lando, Ketsu, and Gold. In the end, I settled on just A-wings for the speed/counter, combined with Cluster Bombs and slug objectives for my anti-squad component.

Regarding Spinals specifically: yes, XI7 lets you push as much, or sometimes even more, damage to the hull, especially when the defender is incentivized to use only Redirtect. But the increased damage almost makes up for it, or more than makes up for it, in other scenarios. Plus, it's useful vs Thermals at long range, which I appreciate. That’s 4 red dice with a CF and lots of dice fixing after your brace, and you cannot use any other defense tokens. You also get an enhanced backshot, which is nice if you jump over to disengage, but it's not a significant factor. It’s 3 points more, though, which IMO is the real drawback. Since I had TRC on my other ships and a few A-wings, I finally decided to give the Spinals a shot.

I also had Toryn in there, which can help a lot with counter and CR90 flak, but can also feel very constraining. I was also short on points, so I swapped her for Leia, putting her on QS and moving Honod to BH. Now, some players will say that Leia is a waste, that a good player will always get their commands right. In an ideal world, sure. But in a matter of fact, you're playing AGAINST someone that may be AT LEAST as smart as you, and then having some Leia flexibility is absolutely valuable. And Slicers too, I guess.

This also freed up enough points to take Tantive IV on a CR90, which worked out great (I even used it once to double-token the Hondo tokens onto the Liberty), and I could afford QS on the second GR-75. Makes it harder to catch and a lot easier to stay in tough the MK.

And it all came together at 400 points, which is like my biggest pet peeve in the game. I don’t want to bid. I absolutely cannot be bothered to do so, and having even a single point left over will make me very sad.

I talked a bit with Aresius, the Grand Old MK Man, and he suggested that I go with AG + the slug objectives, so despite my own preference for scoring objectives, I did so. In hindsight, this was really smart, as it allowed me freedom of movement and ensured that whatever objective was chosen would be a slug objective.

So that’s all there was to it, really. I had a semi-functional list, iterated on it, asked Aresius for advice, made a few personal changes, and that was it.

My brother ran SSD Command proto, Gozanti, and Rogue ball. He hadn’t played for 5+ years and really, really wanted to put his unused SSD on the table, so I helped him make a list.

Anyway. On to the tournament itself.

Round 1

My first round opponent was Dan. He turned out to be yet another altogether pleasant Armada player. He even bought me a coffee. I was totally going to reciprocate, but I totally forgot. So, Dan, I owe you a beverage of your choice!

List

Name: Dan

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Ozzel

 

Assault: Surprise Attack (?)

Defense: Asteroid Tactics

Navigation: Infested Fields (?)

 

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Commander Vanto (7)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

= 144 Points

 

Raider I (44)

• Iden Versio (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

= 58 Points

 

Raider I (44)

• Admiral Ozzel (20)

= 64 Points

 

Squadrons:

• Gar Saxon (20)

• Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighter (18)

• Morna Kee (27)

• 3 x VT-49 Decimator (66)

= 131 Points

 

Total Points: 397

Pre-battle assessment

Morna plus three generic Decimators bombing my ships to pieces while Gar and the Gauntlet raided my flagship? Clearly not something I could allow to happen.

Cymoon and two raiders, one lifeboat, and another flak support for the rogues. That’s only one long-ranged ship, and only three activations total, further reinforcing the impression that the squads are the primary damage dealers.

I would have taken Yularen over Vanto, but both are fine. LTT is not ideal now that it is bombard-restricted; I would have gone with DTT. DTT + IF! should be enough dice fixing. Alternatively, QBT could work here with Ozzel providing speed control. That said, not 100% convinced the Cymoon is the correct ship for the job: IF! doesn’t do a whole lot for 1 ISD and 2 Raiders.

Those are relatively minor points, however. The core of this fleet is the rogue squadrons. I think I’ve mentioned that like three times already? lol

Game

Dan had the bid and opted to go second. I’m guessing he didn’t fancy playing my objectives, which were likely to contain exogorths, and he didn’t really have the squad command values to move his rogues out of harm’s way.

I chose his Asteroid Tactics bc then at least I know the obstacles won’t be moving around, and I was hoping to use Ezra shennanigans against said rogues.

We set up facing into the board, with me centrally placed and Dan to one side. His lifeboat is to the far right in the corner, and all my stuff is going for the core of his fleet. This will become important later, as I’ve got nothing with which to kill the lifeboat.

My squadrons do a decent amount of damage to his squadrons, especially Shara, but even the generics deliver. I also manage to use Ezra to push an exogrth into the middle of his still-pinned squadron ball, doing quite a bit of damage. More importantly, I’m able to keep his squads away from my ships for the first 4 turns.

His Iden raider is forced to cut and run or face the full might of the Liberty. It doesn’t quite make it out. Then the ISD goes down to the concentrated fire of Liberty and 2 TRC90s. It’s quite brutal.

I can’t catch his flagship as it rushes for safety, but that’s fine. He ALMOST bags one of the  CR90s using Morna and two surviving generics, but my Cluster Bombs blow up one of them, and the ship limps to the edge of the board with 1 hull left…

Result

He killed all my squads for 55, I killed his Cymoon, Iden-Raider, all squads (except Morna and a Decimator) for 284. A 9-2 to me; an excellent start to the tournament!

The scoreboard says 282, probably a miscalculation on our part, maybe we counted the Decimators as 21 each or something.

Post-battle assessment

Happy with this one, both at the time and in hindsight. For a 10-1, I would need to table Dan, which was unlikely to happen since he had a dedicated speed-4 lifeboat. Maybe if I had been much more aggressive with the Liberty, me being 1^st player and all. BUT I think that would have ended up ruining my counter-squadron game and caused me no end of harm instead.

Lunch

We had some lunch. It was a burger, and it was filling. I had a can of Coke and some salt-and-vinegar chips (you Brits have strange taste in chips, that one is tolerable). We talked a bit while we ate (mostly about games —can you believe it?) and I got some custom cards from Chris, which was very nice of him.

Chris on the right, dealing custom cards at the table

Talking about ultimate victory, no doubt

Eager to get back at it

Round 2

With 9 TP after r1, I was on table 2, paired with Ian “Gailarius” and his swarm of Angry Nebulons. If you’re active online, you probably already know Ian. He’s a prolific organizer of TTS tournaments. He’s a skilled player – and another pleasant fellow. Why is the Armada community so overburdened with friendly people?

BUT Ian had just tabled my brother’s SSD list, so pleasant fellow or not, vengeance was called for!

List

Name: Gilarius

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Leia Organa

 

Assault: ???

Defense: ???

Navigation: ???

 

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Leia Organa (28)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Jaina’s Light (5)

= 79 Points

 

Pelta Assault Ship [ARC] (52)

• Ray Antilles (7)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

= 68 Points

 

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

= 55 Points

 

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

= 55 Points

 

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

= 55 Points

 

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

= 55 Points

 

Squadrons:

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

= 33 Points

 

Total Points: 400

Pre-battle assessment

I love me some Leia Nebs, especially ARC Leia Nebulons. The option to use a token while still spamming CF or Nav makes the archetype (can you call it an archetype when there are like 2 people in the world playing it?) a LOT more flexible.

Ian had put a new spin on his list, putting Leia on a CR90 (not quite a lifeboat, but close) and splitting the IF! Pelta into a separate platform. Exciting change indeed. Might have to try it myself.

Anyway. The Nebs had done really well against an SSD. But could they also catch an ET Liberty and an assortment of fast smalls?

Game

We were both at 400, so rolled off. Ian won and chose to go 1^st, citing an unwillingness to let the Liberty go first. I’m not convinced that was necessarily a good idea. Sure, it meant that, well, the Liberty didn’t get to go first, but it also meant I got a pass token and he couldn’t really leverage his six activations. There probably isn’t a correct answer to this: 1^st or 2^nd, both come with their own complications in this matchup.

He chose my Infested Fields. Most go for Asteroid Tactics, but IMO each has its pros and cons. AT certainly shouldn’t be an auto-pick. AT gives complete placement control of obstacles, slugs, freebie defense tokens (always lovely with Agate), and the ability to ignore asteroid overlaps. IF gives some obstacle movement and +15 points for the 2^nd player.

Anyway, we had 7 drops each, so I got the final placement with the Liberty. You can see from the setup that I’m not going to take on his entire fleet with it, but instead try to stretch him out while threatening his flank with CR90s.

Things work out as planned. Or even better than planned, actually. Firstly, he uses his CR90 to pick up a token, keeping it out of the majority of the game. The Pelta is speed 2, so it gets a delayed entry. But he also splits his Nebulons, running them into the mass of obstacles and spending way too many shots to kill a 24-point Bright Hope.

Two of his Nebs are out of position. Then the two that matter get deleted by the Liberty. The Pelta tries to get away, slipping out of the Liberty’s front, but eating the side, plus two TRC90s and some squads. It does not make it.

We only make it to round 5, during which Ezra gets deleted by a combination of fire from a Neb and Leia. BH is also gone after having tanked an obscene amount of shots.

Result

I got 55x2+68+45=223 for bagging two Nebs, the Pelta, and picking up 3 tokens. Ian got 24 for BH, 59 for Ezra, and 2 tokens for 113, translated to a 7-4 to me.

Post-battle assessment

Pretty happy with the result, actually. Ian was a cunning opponent, but I think he made a mistake by sending his Leia to pick a token and by sending one Neb in particular on a wild goose chase. I also made a mistake by not disengaging Ezra sooner. I should not have tried to soften up Leia when I already knew we could not possibly make it to round 6. Not losing Ezra would have given me an 8-3. If we had the time to play r6, Leia would have died, but Ian was also aware of the time, and I think he’d have moved her away if he knew there would be a 6^th round.

In other news, my brother secured a win against Dan, my round 1 opponent. Two Sørgjerds in two rounds. Rough.

Round 3

With 16 TP, I was now in second place, but still a ways after Rhys, who had gone 10 and 10, which is impressive, even for a Hyena bomber swarm. According to rumors, Rhys was an outstanding player, and his scores reflected that to be sure. So, an excellent player, rocking a squad-heavy list against my 4 A-wings… It was going to be an interesting challenge.

List

Name: Rhys

Faction: Separatist

Commander: Admiral Trench

 

Assault: Precision Strike

Defense: Fighter Ambush

Navigation: Superior Positions

 

Recusant Support Destroyer (90)

• Rune Haako (4)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Patriot Fist (6)

= 115 Points

 

Hardcell Transport (47)

• Admiral Trench (32)

• Tikkes (2)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

• Foreman’s Labor (5)

= 102 Points

 

Gozanti Cruisers (24)

• San Hill (3)

= 27 Points

 

Gozanti Cruisers (24)

= 24 Points

 

Squadrons:

• Jango Fett (22)

• 5 x Hyena Droid Bomber Squadron (55)

• 6 x Vulture Droid Fighter Squadron (48)

= 125 Points

 

Total Points: 393

Pre-battle assessment

I love me some generic squadrons, and I love me some double-dice bombers with a bit of speed, which is basically what this list is all about. And it uses Trench. And that HC transport is both impressive and a scary amount of points for a small. What an absolutely awe-inspiring list.

Some nit-picking: Would having “only” five Hyenas be enough, seeing as they were all generics? If used well, sure. And they do have Jango there as well, so that’s six bombers. Fine. I would probably have put TF-99 on the other Gozanti, put TRC on OF, or something along those lines, but the large bid is probably there for a reason. It’s just that I don’t bother bidding anymore.

Game

Rhys had the bid. We talked about his options and prospects. He was afraid of giving me 1^st not only bc of the Liberty itself, but because he had Fighter Ambush. He felt that he would give away his deployment advantage, and that was a no-go.

His points were all valid (and I would have picked Fighter Ambush over PS and SP), but to be honest, I think he was overthinking it. He could still have deployed with the ability to turn both ways and placed his squadrons in advantageous positions. For my Liberty to get to his ships and table him, I would need to eat 5 Hyenas (and Jango) as my A-wings struggled with his Vultures. Not only might he destroy my Lib, he’d score objective points along the way.

Instead, he picked 1^st player for himself and my Asteroid Tactics. He did briefly consider AG, hoping to bag the Liberty and get +103 for it, for a total of 280. But he decided against it, and that was, I believe, the right call. IF was completely out of the question.

We set up as shown in the pic, with my transports going left, and PF setting down last. So you can see the plan here already: to circle my rocks, then engage late—round 4, more likely than not. My setup would allow me to stall with the flotillas and completely disengage to take the 6-5 if I wanted to.

Instead, we wheeled around for the better part of 4 rounds, looking for an opening or advantage. Very much a thinking man’s game. More fun than you’d think. Eventually, Rhys decided to engage, but he had been a little too cautious, and he could only put 3 Hyenas on my Liberty, not nearly enough to be meaningful, and not much else in round 4.

(There was oc a slug sticking out of the rightmost debris field, making placement tricky, both before and after this image.)

Tycho then held up some of his bombers, while Shara took care of the rest. The generic A-wings are hiding behind the Lib, in range of a flotilla for later activation. Sending them in too early just gets them dead.

Over the course of the final 2 rounds, he took out Shara (did OK counter damage, but nothing like the first game). Tycho, however, just refused to die, even when Jango came knocking. Eventually, he was at 1 hp with no tokens, but was STILL holding the line. Between A-wing attacks, counter, flak, and a bit of exo, ALL CIS squads were wiped, except Daddy J, who limped away with a few hull left. To add insult to injury: one of my GENERIC A-wings survived lol.

I lost both CR90 to bombing, PF, and eventually, his backline smalls. But they did enough damage to PF that my Liberty could wipe it off the table with an, admittedly quite good (but not that amazing given my dice tech) roll (and ram) in round 6. I also got to use both Cluster Bombs, doing 4 and 3 damage to Hyenas respectively. Amazing!

Result

I bagged his PF and all his squads except Jango. He killed both my CR90s, Shar, Tychco, and an A-wing. 218 to 164, 6-5 to me. Not great, but could be a lot worse. For example, a slightly worse final dice roll in round 6 would have flipped that to 6-5 for Rhys.

Post-battle assessment

I did some things right, some things wrong, and got a little bit lucky at the end there, both with Tycho and with my final MK shot. Overall, it went OK, considering the opposition. Rhys was clearly a skilled player who knew what he was doing and had a plan.

But IMO he was a bit too careful. I can kind of understand why he took it slow, given his 4-point lead over me, but it rarely pays to be too cautious as 1^st player. He was looking for an opening, to be sure, but the opening he got was so tiny as to make the rest of the squad fight something of a tar-pit for him.

Conversely, I had some catching up to do, point-wise, but I could not be aggressive as 2^nd player against that ball of Hyenas. I had to keep my squads back to make them last; I couldn’t expose either CR90s or transports, or they would have popped.

In hindsight, I wonder if I should have cut upward with Ezra (red CR90) to push an exogroth and allow the Liberty to move forward more aggressively. Maybe, on a perfect day, I could have gotten both PF and the flagship? Probably not, as he could leverage 1^st player to evade.

In other news, my brother got tabled again, but this time it was close: he lacked ONE damage to table his opponent before he got tabled himself. Funny how a single damage can sometimes swing the score so hugely!

Round 4

I was now at 22 points, with Rhys sitting at 25. 

My final opponent was Daniel “Smizzy”. Another opportunity for revenge! Smizzy had beaten my Vader list pretty convincingly in the Endor 2025 POD phase, with a very similar list. Now I would crush him IRL, or more likely, die trying!

List

Name: Smizzy

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Dodonna

 

Assault: ???

Defense: ???

Navigation: ???

 

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• General Dodonna (20)

• Ray Antilles (7)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• XX-9 Turbolasers (2)

= 119 Points

 

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

• Dodonna’s Pride (4)

= 48 Points

 

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

• External Racks (4)

• Garel’s Honor (4)

= 44 Points

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Comms Net (2)

= 22 Points

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 28 Points

 

Squadrons:

• Luke Skywalker (20)

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

• Gold Squadron (12)

• Green Squadron (12)

• 2 x Scurrg H-6 Bomber (32)

= 133 Points

 

Total Points: 394

Pre-battle assessment

I knew from the online game we had that Smizzy knows his Armada and his Dodonna bombers in particular. But I felt kind of confident: I knew what he was capable of, I knew something of how his list would play, and my own list was a LOT more suited to dealing with him than my Vader list.

Game

Daniel had the bid and chose to go 1st. He, too, said he didn’t like the thought of the Liberty going first.

He chose Asteroid Tactics, citing it as the lesser of two evils compared to Infested Fields. I’m not entirely sure that’s always the case. People are way too quick to pick AT over IF. But I already covered that stuff in my game 2 analysis, so let’s move forward.

Daniel was rather cautious, I would say. Surprisingly so, really. Having picked 1st player, and having a real shot at a top spot if he got a good score, I kind of expected him to attempt to force a decisive engagement.

The setup was as shown in the picture. You can see another swirl developing, with Daniel going down and me through the center, both rotating clockwise.

I clumped up in the middle, partially to create distance and delay, partially because I have a kind of a plan (maximum slug coverage, plus an inside turn on the Liberty, if needed).

I don’t know what Daniel’s plan was here. Luke, Lando, and the Scurrgs are hanging back with the flotillas and the CR90B, ready to do what? Tangle with my entire fleet while the potato and HH do nothing? They can’t go into the middle, or exogorths will happen. So if I don’t come to them, they are basically out of the battle.

Meanwhile, the A-wings and the primary carrier are being super cautious, with Gold in a weird middle position. For a bomber-centric fleet that wants to win big, this isn’t a great approach. My guess is that it wasn’t planned this way; it just happened. Many games, especially late in the day, end up like this.

Eventually, there are two fights going on: the top and the bottom. The top one looks like some good bomber fun, but actually ends with Scurrgs forced to dogfight (and eventually grit-running away) and Luke and Lando going down.

The bottom fight is the potato trying to stay out of Liberty medium range by ramming the HH, the Lib killing the HH, and then very nearly killing the potato with a laughably good roll at the end of round 6. The AF is left at 1 hull (after MK ram), but that’s far, far less than is reasonable, even for a medium-range shot with MK.

Ahsoka takes out the CR90B, and all sorts of hilarity happen on the squadron front near the end of the game: Shara gets 1-shot by Cluster Bombs, an exogorth eats Green Squadron, and Lando is cut to pieces by flak.

Result

He got my squads for 55, I got his HH, CR90B, Luke, Lando, Shara, and Green Squadron for 153. Another 7-4 for me. Yes, I technically came very close to tabling Daniel, but that was a fluke and would not be representative of the game.

Post-battle assessment

Like I stated, I was a little bit disappointed when he didn’t want to come and fight. As the 2nd player, with a light squad screen, I can’t be too aggressive vs max squads, so a lot depends on how the 1st player wants to approach the game (same happened in game 3, really). And indeed, I think it was his caution that effectively split his fleet and kept him from ever really coming close to destroying any of my ships.

In hindsight, I might have maneuvered my Liberty more aggressively, gotten shots at the AF sooner, and maybe gotten the table for real (no flukes), but I was always expecting the squadrons to come down and play, so maybe I was a bit too cautious myself!

In other news, my brother tabled his last opponent, so he went 2-2 (and only barely lost another game), so he was super happy, not having played Aramda since before the Clone Wars.

ARC impact

I went no ARC, but I saw the odd ARC card here and there. One combat Dictor. With a Quarren Prototype being the only new ship I noticed. Ian got a 4-point rebate on his Assault Pelta. Daniel had ARC Luke, but he did nothing but take damage and die, so I can’t comment on the usefulness of that card. I suppose Rhys could have taken the Command Muni instead of the Transport HC, but that would have been a very different list, much less able to maneuver. Overall, the ARC changes had a negligible impact on this tournament.

Summary & Conclusion

I went 4-0 and placed second with 29 TPO. That’s better than expected, to be sure. I haven’t played an IRL tournament since the one in Denmark 3 years ago, so I'm kind of rusty. I’ve gotten 6 games in online with Vassal and TTS, but only 3 with a Liberty (and not this Liberty list), so I wouldn’t call myself well-prepared. On the flip side, I’ve been playing this game since 2015, so I suppose I have a good “feel” for it that doesn’t go away. I would also say that my dice were pretty agreeable. Yes, I have the dice fixing, but my ship shots were pretty good overall, even when that is factored in. Squadrons were pretty mid on the offensive, but between then and the space slugs, I got a LOT of mileage out of my squadron's screen.

The Champ, proving that absent Ani, Trench is the GOAT

Some theorycrafting: Rhys got 31 and a lot better MoV than me, so to win, I would have needed 32 points or more. I could have gotten 1 more from Ian, I think, but beyond that, it would have required me to play better and smarter. Basically, I would have had to table either Rhys himself or Daniel.

Final scores

All in all, the 4-0 and second place felt representative of what I accomplished throughout the day. I had a lot of fun with the Liberty, and the whole list really worked very well, even the Cluster Bombs! I missed having Toryn occasionally, but at other times it was probably better I didn’t have her, bc you tend to cluster your squads when you do, and that’s not always optimal. The pure A-wing screen was terrific—the speed, the counter, just so much flexibility for 55 points. At no time did I miss a Lando, a Ketsu, or Gold Squadron. Spinals worked pretty great; can’t say I ever missed XI7 in these games, and against Ian, they were a godsend. But are they worth +3 points over XI7? That’s the million-dollar question. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure.

Thanks to Ian for making this thing happen, to Steve for being an excellent host, and to all my opponents and other players.

Until we meet again in Poland!

Special Modifications, Part 7: The Ace Cap

Welcome back to Special Modifications!

Han Solo once said he’d made a few “special modifications” to the Falcon. Some good, some bad, all of them interesting. That’s the spirit behind this series: exploring non-standard Armada. Not just fleet lists or tournament meta, but the underlying strings that hold the game together. What if the designers had pulled them differently? What might have worked better? What happens when you tinker with the system in ways it was never quite built for?

⚠️ Important note: don’t confuse this series with the Squadron Files. We recently covered squadrons there as well — but the scope is different. Special Modifications is design-theory territory: tweaking fundamentals, exploring alternatives, and asking “what if.”

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“Back in My Day…”

The Ace Cap isn’t an official term, but everyone knows what it means: the rule that limits you to four squadrons with defense tokens in a 400-point fleet. It arrived with Armada 1.5; before that, you could field as many aces as you could afford.

And oh, what glorious chaos that was.

Maarek (21)
Jendon (20)
Dengar (20)
Ciena (17)
Howl (16)
Mauler (15)
Valen (13)
Saber (12)
— 134 points of perfection.

That was my old Sloane ball. Eight aces, seven scatters, two double braces, and a grin on my face. Intel worked, squadrons danced, and it all came together perfectly.

Okay, half a joke — but only half. Those wild lists felt fun, flexible, and full of personality. Now every faction runs the same safe handful of four to six top-tier aces. The cap fixed some problems but flattened the variety.

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The Problem with Aces

You can also see why the cap happened. Aces were, and still are, priced too moderately for what they bring. Why fly generics when the aces hit harder, live longer, and bring tricks? Scatter aces especially — laughably potent for their cost.

So here’s the real question: could we remove the Ace Cap and still make generics viable?

I think we could.

The Clone Wars factions already show it’s possible. CIS in particular has fantastic generics — Vultures, Tri-fighters, Hyenas — that people actually take. When generics are cheap and effective, players will bring them. That said, CIS also doesn’t have anything close to Maarek + Jendon + Dad Vader + Mauler nonsense. If GAR had three Deltakin-tier aces, we’d be right back where we started.

So to get rid of the cap, we need to hit several design marks:

• Generics must be cost-effective, not merely cheap.

• Command load must matter — lots of generics means lots of squadron activations, physical space, and coordination.

• Upgrades should reward non-uniques — imagine if Howlrunner only buffed generic TIEs. Suddenly my old Sloane list would need a rethink.

• Aces must be fairly priced — no more 16-point Tychos if a generic A-wing costs 11.

• Aces must not be so overloaded with value that they’re automatic picks (looking at you, Deltakin).

The goal isn’t to ban aces or punish them. Ideally, players could field all aces, all generics, or a mix, and have each option be roughly equal in strength. A tall order, yes — but worth chasing.

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Testing the Idea — A-Wings as a Case Study

Let’s use the humble Rebel A-wing as a test case.

Our Special Modifications generic A-wing costs 10 points (–1 from standard) and swaps one blue die for a black in its anti-squad pool. Same fast, independent interceptor, just a touch meaner.

Now bring in Shara Bey. She gets the same dice tweak — but no price cut.

Is she still worth it?

Let’s compare:

• Durability. Shara’s 4 hull with brace + scatter can outlast eight hull of generics in some fights and evaporate faster in others. Against flak or light chip damage, scatter wins; against dedicated anti-ace fire, the generics survive longer.

• Control. Two generics mean two deployments, more area coverage, and twice the command cost. Shara is one unit, easier to manage but less flexible.

• Firepower. Two generics roll twice as many dice, though Shara’s Counter 3 + special can out-trade them in anti-squad duels. Against ships, the generics win hands down.

So overall? Shara is roughly as potent as two generics. Maybe a hair less. That would put her around 19 points, up from 17. A two-point swing isn’t huge but changes incentives. Suddenly, the choice between one Shara or two A-wings isn’t a no-brainer.

Tycho Celchu follows the same logic. He keeps his mobility trick, gains the black die, and lands around 18 points. 

Together, Shara + Tycho + two generics = 57 points instead of 55 — a small nudge toward parity.

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Expanding the Roster

Now that we’ve rebalanced the core duo, let’s add some new names to the hangar.

Green Squadron and Arvel Crynyd

Arvel has always been that madman who rammed the Executor at Endor — clearly inspired by Green Squadron and their suicidal bravery.

In this system, Green Squadron gets the same treatment as the generics: one blue replaced by a black die and a price drop to 11. It’s quick, aggressive, and suddenly a legitimate speed-5 bomber in a world without PDICs everywhere. Whether that’s “worth it” depends on context — but in this tuned-down environment, maybe it finally is.

Arvel Crynyd, then, becomes the elite reflection of Green. He’s 17 points — a scatter/brace ace with a slightly less flashy ability than Shara or Tycho, but a very clear identity: a speed-5 bomber with a death-wish. His ability synergizes beautifully with Dodonna, naturally, but even outside that niche, he’s thematic and useful.

In this balance pass, he’s not meant to outshine the other A-wing aces — just to give Rebel players a different flavor of fast bomber that feels right on the table.

Shepherd Squadron and Gemmer Sojan

Next up, Gemmer Sojan — the ace version of a concept I call Shepherd Squadron.

Shepherd Squadron is simple: a generic A-wing with Grit added. That’s it. A minor change that has huge implications. At speed 5, being able to break engagement with only a single enemy means you can reposition, chase, or protect your ships much more flexibly. At 11 points, it’s an elegant solution to static squadron fights — fast, fragile, but annoyingly mobile.

Gemmer inherits that idea and runs with it. His ability is a nerfed version of Ciena Ree’s — when near friendly ships he’s effectively obstructed, making him a nightmare to kill. Combine that with scatter, brace, and Grit, and you’ve got a four-hull ace who’s every bit as slippery as Tycho but in a different way.
He’s priced at 18 points, and while he’s not the hammer that Shara is, he’s a beautiful defensive piece.

Together, Shara (19) + Tycho (18) + Gemmer (18) + Arvel (17) form a cohesive quartet: 72 points of high-speed, high-resilience interceptors. Or, for roughly the same cost, you could bring seven generics — or five generics, plus Green and Shepherd for 72.

And suddenly, that’s a real choice again.

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Would You Go Generic?

That’s the ultimate question.

With these changes, you could still lean into the ace wing — four beautifully efficient A-wings that hold space, win dogfights, and make your opponent swear at Counter 2. Or you could field eight generics, spreading out, trading cheaper, and forcing your opponent to fight a war of attrition.

Neither is automatically correct, and that’s the goal.

The aces remain easier to command and individually more reliable; the generics offer deployments, board presence, and raw numbers. If we could then sprinkle in a few upgrades that specifically reward non-uniques — say, a variant of Toryn Farr or Adar Tallon that only buffs generics — the scales might even tilt further in their favor.

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Would It Break the Game?

Some worry that removing the cap would flood the table with squadrons. In practice, not much changes. Right now you can field twelve A-wings for 132 points; this system gives you thirteen for 130. Hardly catastrophic.

Generics in bulk actually play faster: no tokens, no conditional triggers, no constant cross-checking of who’s in range of whom. Just move, shoot, and die gloriously.

The broader takeaway remains: trim generics by a point or so, nudge aces upward a bit, and the math starts to work again. You could still build an elite wing if you wanted, but it wouldn’t automatically be the best option.

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So… Can It Be Done?

Maybe.

Balancing a cap-less system isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. It demands disciplined pricing, meaningful trade-offs, and a willingness to separate “fun broken” from “actually broken.”

Even if we never get there officially, exploring how it could work is exactly what Special Modifications is all about.

And honestly? After years of flying the same four aces, wouldn’t it be nice to see a full squadron bay again?

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Up Next

Not entirely sure yet. Perhaps we'll stay in the fighter hangar and look at how to (and how NOT to) design new squadrons. Or maybe we'll finish looking at CIS/GAR generics. Or maybe we'll segway into something else. We'll see. But stay tuned, whatever it is!