The Onager, a double-edged sword

 

No, not THAT kind of Onager

It is the Age of the Onager. Forget the promise of a fair fight and range limitations, for FFG's game designers had a collective breakdown making wave 8, and all that remains is the laughter of thirsting dice gods.

Everybody and their granny is flying one - sometimes more than one. There are good reasons why everyone running Imps has to have one (or more). And reasons why ppl might switch over to Imps just bc this ship exists. I've certainly done my fair share of soul-crushing flying with the Onager, with Romodi and with Sloane both. 

The Onager is a moderately priced, even when fully tricked out bc most upgrades it wants are low-cost, one-trick large-base ship. But WHAT A TRICK!!! Shooting, not only beyond long range, but SO WAY BEYOND long range IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY, with a TON OF DICE, all of them rerollable if you've built and set up right, from TURN 1 if you can be bothered. Did you try to hide behind an obstacle? Sorry, but get MOAH dice if u do. Each element taken separately might be ok, but the ease of which it can all be leveraged together? FFG, what were you thinking???

You don't know the power of RAID pt. 2 (List building)

 

The true glory of raid

We discussed the rules and meta considerations surrounding Raid in part 1. With that in mind, let's look at how Raid can be leveraged (and by extension, countered):

Raid is best employed by keeping up the pressure. 

A single raid token to a single ship is an inconvenience at best. 

A single raid to multiple ships gets annoying and eats a lot of tokens.

Multiple raid over several rounds to the same ship gets annoying and eats a lot of tokens.

Multiple raid over several rounds to multiple ship might overwhelm your opponent's ability to clear raid without sacrificing dials.

It's important, however, not to just load any single ship with a ton of raid tokens, and especially not too early. A single dial clears EVERYTHING. You want raid to be on a ship when it matters, either to strip away a key token, or preferably, shut down an entire dial.

There is no hard rules, only the above guidelines, for how to accomplish this. It's something you can only develop a feel for during play. So to get good with raid, you have to actually play with raid. Sorry about that 👀

Dooku is by far the best single source of raid in the game. But even Dooku alone isn't enough if your REALLY want to disable your opponent. Nor do you always want to be playing Seppie/Dooku lists...

Which is why I propose that raid should ideally be run in conjunction with other game effects, such as slicer tools and ion cannon batteries, that further cut down your opponent's ability to use the commands they want to use.

You don't know the power of RAID pt. 1 (Game mechanic)

 

Like father, like son: masters of raid

So Raid got slagged over at the FFG forums. Again. Even the mighty Count Dooku struggles to get enough out of raid to make it worthwhile (premature to conclude IMO, I've played vs Dooku, and he's a pain in the ass). And so - not for the first time - it was suggested that raid be made better. Which is an entirely justified reaction when you perceive something as weak, worthless, or overpriced.

While I do agree that raid is weakish, I urge EXTREME caution. Even a slight boost in the power of raid could quickly lead to NPE (Negative Play Experience). It may therefore be that raid is best left as a niche mechanic, nice at times, but unable to dominate games.

Armada 1.5: The Rules Have Changed

 

Star Wars: Armada 1.5 is here, and with it, a new combined Rules Reference Guide and FAQ.

This comprehensive document:

• Combines all disparate rules into one document, so no longer do you need to search for what Contain does or look up how Space Whales move in the RitR document.
• Shows the errataed versions of all existing cards (more on that some other time).
• Adds some NEW rules/changes old ones.

It's that last bullet point we're taking about here.

There are four key changes, all of whom have both obvious and subtle impacts on the game, some of which we haven't fully appreciated yet:

1. The Activation Game

SAdv, Bail and Pryce are gone, victims of Order 66. They will not be missed. The Huge ship pass rule went the same way.

In their place: pass tokens. In form they are the same as the SSD pass tokens, but in function they are different. 

• Whomever has less ships get the difference in tokens - minus 1 if you're the 1st player.
• You can discard one (yeah, they are 1-use only) to pass your turn under the following conditions:
• The first player may pass their turn if they have activated at least one ship and they have fewer unactivated ships than the second player.
• The second player may pass their turn if they do not have more unactivated ships than the first player.
• A player cannot spend a pass token on consecutive turns during the same Ship Phase.

My own original suggestion to this was to ban the last ship to activate in a round from being the first to activate the following round. This allowed SAdv, Pryce and Bail to be in the game, same with the SSD, and achieve much the same. However, I actually think it's better they are gone completely, and the pass mechanic seems simple, elegant, and robust. Well done FFG.

2. The Evade Defense Token

Evade suddenly became a LOT more useful. Now you get to force a reroll both on close and medium, not just medium. Basically everyone became Mothma at close range (she's changed, drop to 27 pts and affect 1 extra dice at close).

Moreover, if the attacker is BIGGER than u, you can discard the evade (from green or red) to affect 1 additional die. So cancel 3 at extreme, 2 at long, and reroll 2 at close-medium.

This is incredibly useful vs attacks that have worked to produce a black crit or something like it, or a squadron that's rerolled 1 or more dice, only to see the attack fizzle. Obi-Wan is very strong combined with this, and Evade + Expert Shield Tech should not be underestimated.

Love this change to death. Smalls just became a lot more interesting. But I'm left wondering: with Evade buffed, why not do something with Contain, who is no the only utterly useless defense token? Not impressed, FFG.

3. Intel is the New Grit

Intel no longer hands out heavy to enemy squads. It gives friendly squads grit.

One word: THIS IS THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's how Intel should have worked since R&V. What utter bullshit we've been forced to deal with FOR SO MANY YEARS.

Suddenly small-medium squad screens can matter a little bit again (but don't expect to survive that Sloane/Rieekan ball - you'll just die slower and have the opportunity to fight back).

Truly excellent change. Truly astounding it took so fucking long. Longer than realizing flotilla spawn and unlimited relay was bad for the game. Jeeeeez.

4. Aces: Only Four there Are, No More (but may be less)

You can only take 1 unique squad WITH defense tokens per 100 fleet points (sometimes referred to as "aces"). So 4 at 400.

Uniques, such as Gold Squad, do NOT count vs this limit, as they have no defense tokens (but they have Jan fucking Ors).

Got to say I've mixed feelings about this one. Yes, it means we'll see more Biggs-Jan-balls and more TIE Int/RHD Sloane builds, but the number of different aces we'll see will be diminished. 

For Imps, for example, Mithel is still auto-include. Dengar is out and in with Admiral Chiraneau. Howl is attractive again, bc generic ints. Fel becomes attractive, since he can punish those wanting to kill generics. And Maarek, always Maarek. Some might do Jendon instead of Howl, or Tel or Ciena instead of Fel, but really, that's all you have to work with. Valen you'll only see in Valen+Ciena screens.

Rebels. Unlike Dengar, Jan is here to stay. Biggs to go with generic escorts. Lando bc he's just too sweet to ignore. Leaving little room for creativity. And Gold Squadron ALWAYS Gold.

So while I can appreciate wanting to bring in more generic squads, this is one fucked up way of doing it. It doesn't solve the underlying problem, which is costing/ease of command of aces vs generics. Aces are too cheap and too powerful and you can get so much more out of them with the limited number of squads you can lift in one activation.

But FFG didn't want to deal with this underlying structural issue, and instead give us this mess. Sure, we'll play with it, we've no choice, but it's not the way it should have been handled. They should have made the effort to make a Squadron Pack, with revised abilities and costs. They could even have kept the ace cap, knowing that a VERIETY of aces were competitive. THAT would have solved the issue here.

Mithel, Lord of Cheese

5. Non-recurring Exhausts

This is a relatively minor change. Basically some of the good cards - like ECM and Slicers - now cost you a command token to ready. It's not a big deal really, but it's nevertheless a nice touch.

Overall I give Armada 1.5 a B. Or an A, if you're willing to forgive the MASSIVE TURD that is the current state of Objectives in Armada. I'm not.

That all for today commanders. Dismissed.

I hate them! (or how to kill squads with ships)

Ani wasn't too keen on Tusken Raiders - some players feel the same way against massed squads (and I don't blame them)

I like squads, especially fast, Squall-boosted Imp squads (not a Mona guy), but I've dabbled in Rieekan aces as well.

For example, I've abused this (Green squad) combo many times with Sloane (first with ISD+4, then other configurations):

Squadrons:

• Maarek Stele (21)

• Colonel Jendon (20)

• Dengar (20)

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Howlrunner (16)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• Saber Squadron (12)

= 134 Points

And my version of Thrawn 2-ship has generally been this (with ISD-II and Squall oc):

Squadrons:

• Colonel Jendon (20)

• Maarek Stele (21)

• TIE Defender Squadron (16)

• Dengar (20)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• Captain Jonus (16)

• Tempest Squadron (13)

= 134 Points

But for some reason, not everyone enjoys playing these builds. And at the same time they are very tired of running worthless little screens and/or squadless, and getting clubbed by the superior power and flexibility of max imp MJJ-cheese or max rebel zombie aceholes cheese.

But do not despair! Salvation is nigh!

I present to you, the ultimate anti-squad platform: The SSD Assault with the Annihilator title!

SSD Assault Prototype (250)

• Moff Jerjerrod (23)

• Agent Kallus (3)

• Damage Control Officer (5)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Quad Laser Turrets (5)

• Point-Defense Reroute (5)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

• Leading Shots (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Quad Battery Turrets (5)

• Annihilator (8)

= 339 Points

The ASSAULT SSD is costly, but it has Red-Blue anti-squad, which lets it reach out across the board and punish squadrons before they get close (don't get over exited at this point - there are ways to counter it, as anyone who has tried to use a Quasar-II knows). With ANNIHILATOR title you get to reroll 1 die on every fucking anti-squad attack. A die of any color, even the red one at long range. The red is fickle, yes, but the reroll increases average damage from just 0.5 to 0.815.

Just make sure you take obstacles into account. Obstruction will kill that 1 red die, so you want to avoid cluttering up your fields of fire. I was alluding to this above, but I can't stress it enough. 1 red die minus 1 is 0 die and a cancelled attack. The opponent can also shield his squads with his own ships, works just as well, but this isn't without risk when facing an Assault SSD...

Relatedly, try to avoid objectives where the opponent can heal their squads on the station. At the very least make sure it's down in an irrelevant corner. DO NOT LET THE OPPONENT REPEATEDLY HEAL HIS SQUADS ON THE STATION - OR I WILL COME HAUNT YOU!!!

Fast Squall squadrons can oc jump in from beyond red range, but slower rebel squads in particular are susceptible. However, even fast imperial squads will find it hard to evade the flak bubble once they've decided to engage the SSD: It's so tough they have to keep hammering it over several turns to have any hope of breaking it.

The SSD has THREE attacks, and with GUNNERY TEAMS you can always shoot at squads from at least 1 arc, maybe more if you really need to, and still attack enemy ship(s). That's way better than even an ISD-II with Gunnery Teams, which has to give up 50% of anti-ship firepower to shoot at squads. For SSD it's just 33% and it rarely has 3 good ship-shots anyway.

At medium and shorter range, the Red-Blue really shines with the Annihilator title. Even obstruction lets you roll 1 die. If you want to go high-risk red or keep the blue I leave up to you, but with 1 reroll and 1 die, the red has a very slight advantage in average damage (0.75 for the blue, 0.8125 for the red, due to how the hit icons are distributed).

For attacks with both dice, you have LEADING SHOTS as a backup. Roll Red-Blue. Reroll with Annihilator. If dmg still zero, spend the blue to reroll the red again. It is a VERY rare occasion when Annihilator Assault SSD doesn't get at least 1 damage, and it will often get 2, at medium range, and close to 1 on average at long range (if obstruction is avoided).

Which brings us over to QUAD LASER TURRETS. Counter 1 isn't amazing, and is usually run with AGENT KALLUS for extra dice vs squadrons. Let's leave That Guy out of the equation for a moment. Annihilator works on this attack too, making every QLT shot the equivalent of a Toryn-boosted QLT shot. Average damage is up to 0.75 for each counter.

Enter the card I maybe hate the most: POINT-DEFENSE REROUTE. This is hot garbage. Except, possibly, in this build. It works ONLY on CLOSE range, but all squad attacks are now at close range (Rhymer nerf), so not a huge problem. It pushes average counter damage up even more, by letting you reroll the blue crit. If it's an acc, use Annihilator on it first. If it's a crit, use PD Reroute first. It's not quite 0.875 on average, but pretty close if you do it in this order. That's incredibly good for 1 blue die.

PD Reroute also works on your own attacks, so shooting Red-Blue at close, with this and Annihilator... average damage getting dangerously close to 2, without having to spend a die to use Leading shots (only use as insurance in the event you still have 0 damage). 

Add expected counter damage to this, and you can expect to have destroyed most generic squadrons after 2-3 attacks mixed with 2-3 counters, depending on their hull (2 attacks + 2 counters is max 8, more commonly 5-6, sometimes just 4, VERY rarely less). Stuff like Y-wings and Decimators can hang in there a bit, but B-wings and X-wings just melt, for example. 

This has always been possible, kind of, with other ships. They do not, however, have the toughness required to tank squadrons long enough to wipe them out, nor had access to the quite frankly insanely scary SSD title. And apart from the ISD-I (sucky sucky) do not have 2 Offensive Retrofits. Without Annihilator + PD Reroute, not possible to get consistent damage, and without Red+Blue not good enough "reach". It's too easy to hide from Blue+Black.

Oh, and Yavaris. We hates her forever. She's still a real danger for a SSD, but at least now those B-wings are gone in like a round and half. Gone, without any chance of retreat. Ah, sweet, sweet revenge!

Enter aces: Aces can just go fuck themselves!!!

(there is a REAL chance this SSD could be meta-changing)

With Kallus, if you didn't screw up obstacle placement, you can start ripping them a new one at long range. What color you want to add will vary with your initial roll, but often a blue. It enables Leading Shots - and guarantees that H9 TURBOLASERS can trigger (no scatter for those scatter aces, lol). All the while Annihilator is generating rerolls, so even with just 1 red and a blue, you have good chances of fucking with scatters AND pushing damage through. Every. Single. Round.

Expect squadrons to be hiding behind obstacles/friendly ships until they are ready to attack you... but if that delays their attack even 1 round, you're still ahead. And if a ship is screening squads, chances are its in gunnery range of SSD. Also acceptable.

Once aces get to medium range, it just breaks. With Kallus you do 1 red, 1 blue - and lets say a black. Or maybe another blue. Depends on target and initial roll. With the mix of Annihilator and Leading shots, H9s and INTEL OFFICER, you are equipped to punish any ace, even Ciena Ree.

As they get to attack range, PD Reroute kicks in oc, as does Quad Lasers. Aces that try to attack you, and especially scatter aces, will die in maybe just 1 round of counter/your attacks, or at most 2 attacks and 1 counter, or vice versa. It's just disgusting.

I've put some other upgrades on the SSD as well. They are not anti-squad, but they turn the SSD into an effective anti-ship platform as well. And that's the trick: You're not giving up any ship-killing power. Only Annihilator, Kallus, QLT and PD (21 points). Reroute are anti-squad. The rest works just as well vs ships. Builds that take away combat power for anti-squad have always been a dodgy prospect. The Assault SSD can do both things.

DCO could also stop Norra, I suppose, and Nym, so there is that. IO works just as well on squads as ships. But HIE and Quad Battery is there as anti-ship tech. Jerry can oc be replaced with another commander if you please, but for 23 he's a bargain on the SSD. 

For all this power, I think anti-squad is too weak to work 100% on its own. Therefor I would add two squads, for example these two:

Squadrons:

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

= 32 Points

Keep them in reserve until needed, then lock down a few squads with Ciena, and have Mauler clean up a blob of damaged squads. If there are no squads, fine, you've used 53 points to ensure your SSD is "safe" from squadrons, and that's acceptable, as you haven't weakened it's anti-ship power.

This even leaves room for this and a 2 point bid (or you can put Vader officer on the Gozanti, works too).

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Comms Net (2)

= 27 Points

Of course, now that you are "immune" to squadrons, there is another problem: How does this list WIN GAMES, CONSISTENTLY AND WITH GOOD MOV!?

That's for you to find out. I only know that Ani hates them, and wants to kill em all. And now you can too!

Worlds Fleet Analysis

Cannot Get Your Ship Out has a nice article, including a link to a massive datasheet.

Go check it out:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2019/04/worlds-2019-data-and-analysis.html

The FAQ is Nigh!

The rumored pre-Worlds FAQ hit today. The day AFTER I wrote about it. That's Dark Side visions for you ladz!

Link to article.

The big

Flotillas: We finally got a fix for flotilla spam. There is now a hard cap of max 2 flotillas AND you get TABLED if the only "ships" you have left are flotillas. Those fixes are just great!

This is in the TOURNAMENT REGS, NOT THE FAQ. So it doesn't necessarily affect casual games, or CC games.

And about time I'd say - for too long have 3+ flotillas been . Personally I'd done my share of flotilla abuse, with a Sloane Gozanti spam and my Vader Vassal World Cup list. But I'm sick and tired of it, and have already moved on. 

Relay: Relay now only works within command range of the ship. So distance 1-3 normally, or 1-5 with Boosted Comms. This is a game changer for many lists that relayed on flotilla spam and relay to squad the enemy to death with little risk. So indirectly also a flotilla nerf.

Roquax' 2+4 GHY takes a beating from this (also bc both Yavaris & GH get's nerfed too), and so does my old Sloane Nationals list. For Sloane I'd probably have to adjust by either taking a Quasar or doing Pryce on a tricked ISD. Which are good changes, as it makes it more a battle, rather than a technicality.

The medium

Avenger: Exhaust to use, so doesn't work on a double arc (or with GT). This one I didn't see coming, but OK, it's a decent change I guess.

Gallant Haven: Still works as before, but can't reduce damage to less than 1. This is a welcome fix.

Yavaris: No longer works with FC+FCT. If you add the relay nerf, Yavaris is probably where it should be now.

The small

Aspiration: You can MOVE (not recover) shields, either with Repair or Proj Experts, as long as you do't go over the normal max.

Biggs: Can't move more damage onto Rieekan zombies. Good change IMO.

Blockade Run: Now has a definite timing, which is nice.

Chimaera: Works like I told you guys. Discard a Fleet Command to swap in a new Fleet Command. It is the REMOVED FROM PLAY. The same command can even be brought back again later. For scoring only the command that was ON THE SHIP when it was destroyed counts.

Luke: Luke's special ability doesn't work with Norra's special ability. I think we've been playing like that for ages, but I guess clearing it up was needed.

Ordnance Pods: Shoots at ALL targets in arc-range. But we knew that already.

Raddus: If you deploy the Raddus ship (start of round), then Raddus' flagship gets blown up by an Ion Cannon (end of Command Pahse), the Raddus ship still cannot activate first. It's in line with other effects that last the round, even if the card leaves the table.

Set aside clarifications: Some stuff is cleared up, like Bail/Pryce can't set a round if they are set aside.

Strategic Adviser: To use ship has to A) be on the table (not set aside) and B) not have activated that round. 

Thrawn: Suddenly you CAN tokenize a Thrawn dial. Completely unexpected, but a nice boost. At the same time we get a clarification that stuff like Grint CANNOT trigger from a Thrawn dial, not even on the flagship

Wave 8 Is Coming & Hear the FAQ Roar

Wave 8 news

This is it boys: the Executor IS HERE.

Oh, sorry. Wrong tense. The Executor WILL BE HERE. I hope.

Now, after that little joke, back to topic :-D

You've all heard the rumors: There will be a wave 8 for Armada (and hopefully more after that). It's just taking a while. But we're not salty! The Armada community is ever patient, and we NEVER cry "Armada is dead!". Not without good reason anyway.

You've also heard the FFG statement "something big is coming", which came up in conjunction with wave 7 and was hotly debated. Guys, whatever you think, that "big" wasn't Thrawn, even if his ego is a bit large. It also wasn't just a reference to wave 7's big ships and big ship upgrades. The "something big" is even larger than that: it's positively EPIC, and it's the Executor. This interpretation was recently underlined in this forum post.

Also known as Armada SKU SWM20, a product that was playtested way back (confirmed by several now-dead Bothans), but never released. It's talked about in this thread and many others, but FFG has been really secretive, so we don't have any details. Just forum speculation (also try searching the forum for SWM20).

It'll be a new base size, that's a given. You can't fit in on a Large base. Let's call it a Huge (or maybe Epic?) base. Will probably have some special rules, but I've no idea what. For example: I wonder if Large only upgrades will go on a Huge/Epic ship? In a blog post Crabbok talks a little about how such large ships might fit on the table - I agree with this; it's possible if the designers want it to be.

I don't see the problem. Do you?

From Mel's Miniatures

It will also contain a host of exiting new upgrades (all expansions do), probably slanted towards Empire officers (duh!). And of course Admiral Piett, the commander. That's a given.

Anyway, feel free to disagree with me, but as usual I'm right and the rest of you are wrong ;-)

Except sometimes I'm not... I'm just very opinionated. So take my musings with a big pinch of salt please. I've always been in the camp that thinks the SSD could be viable in Armada, given the sliding scale. And games are built on hope, right? 

FAQ news

A new FAQ is also right around the corner according to some sources. I think it was some Armada players who talked to the brother of the daughter of the cousin of the aunt of someone who knows a janitor working at FFG. TOTALLY RELIABLE!

This new FAQ will drop BEFORE Worlds. Probably a couple of weeks before, enough so that half the players won't have time to adjust/playtest properly. Good one FFG, good one ;-)

But I can't afford to go anyway, so the timing doesn't matter. I'm a bit salty (about not being able to go), but I just can prioritize Worlds this time. Maybe next year?

On a more serious note: yes, a FAQ is coming. And it will have some impact on flotillas. But I don't know what. Playtesting has been done on various options (again a lot of Bothans died to bring you this), but I've no idea what the final version FFG puts out will be.

For me personally it doesn't matter too much. And I'm not thinking about Worlds here. I'm just talking the meta in general. I've had my fun using and abusing flotillas. By now I've had my fill, and moved on, before any FAQ. And while I would welcome some nerfs and tweaks, I'm a good enough player I can handle any flotilla-abuse I face.

What a nerf could do, however, is make more builds competitively viable. That's a good thing.

Regionals Dataset v2.0

Big data

Baltanok and Truthiness over at the FFG forums are collaborating on a new and improved Regionals dataset for wave 7. They have restructured the input fields, but the output is similar to the old one, so it should be possible to compare results between datasets.

You can find the data here: Regionals Dataset v2.0

If you're at a regionals event you can help with the data collection. Gather any and all lists and forward them to Baltanok and/or Truthiness!

Objectively the Best

 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

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.

A Sky Full of Flotillas

Pretty sexy... too bad I ain't worth the upgraded points :-(

Flotillas have been with us since wave 3, which means just after the Summer of 2016. I've no idea if the read was with us back then. I was. Flotilla (not alone tho, but some key upgrades in w3 too) transformed the game rather quickly, making SQUADRON, non-rogue squadrons, eminently viable again. Fleets could no take a couple fo combat ships, 3 flotillas, and a bunch of squads, and do REALLY well. And it was HUGE improvement for the game.

No, however, thins are not so great anymore. Flotillas, and w5 Relay, mostly when used in combination, are out of control. Rather than go on about it at length, I instead direct you to the Cannot Get Your Ship Out blog, which recently posted a very interesting article about the subject. I cannot praise this article enough.

Our first catch of the day!

Btw I'm quoted in that article as hating relay and flotillas. That's not entirely accurate. I LOVE what flotillas have done for the game, but now they are out of control. I also immensely enjoy squadron play, and before flotillas squadrons were rubbish. 

But the combination of high gain/low risk nature of flotillas AND the unlimited nature of relay (unlimited range, unlimited uses) is broken as fuck. Sure there are some counters, but you gotta work REALLY hard to compensate. 

That in itself is ok, I guess, but what isn't ok is it means there are only a few OTHER archetype that can compete in the top with flotilla + relay spam. There is a disconnect between risk/gain, and it's hurting the game ATM.

FFG --> get the NERF BAT!