Listbuilding: A casual Sato + Rogues list

Before I settled on my Raddus BC+OC build for Regionals, I did try to come up with an appealing Sato list. As usual getting the right mix of combat ships + squadrons was... difficult. So instead of trying for something "serious", I went for something completely left-field: only combat ships, plus masses of generic rogues. The idea is just to shoot as many black dice as possible!

In the end I rejected it as being too experimental. Plus I has some very glaring flaws, like only 3(+1) activations, having two Nebs (a ship I hate), and a lot of points in squadrons that aren't very tough. But most importantly: I've never flown anything like it, which isn't a great way to win competitive games.

So I don't think it would have done as well as the Raddus list, but I'm pretty sure I would have been a lot of fun!

Name: Sato's Wonky Nebs
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Commander Sato

Assault: Station Assault
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Commander Sato (32)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• Wide-Area Barrage (2)
= 152 Points

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• Yavaris (5)
= 62 Points

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)
• Salvation (7)
= 58 Points

Squadrons:
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• Jan Ors (19)
• 3 x YT-2400 (48)
• 3 x Lancer Pursuit Craft (45)
= 128 Points

Total Points: 400

Østersund Regionals AAR: A Raddus Story, part 2 (the battles)

Anyone play this back in the day?

The Østersund Regionals was a 3 round affair. I had a Store Championship bye, but using it was never an option. Why would I NOT play a game of Armada when I had the chance? Perhaps it's because I get to play IRL so rarely, but I can't imagine ever using a bye in any tournament.

The calm before the storm

My 1st round opponent was Emil from Gothenburg in southern Sweden. He was at Nordics too, but we didn't play. He placed 7th there, so this was no rookie player. He told me he had run variations of his Madine Liberty list for over a year... so unlike me he had actually played his list before! :-D

Viking with glasses!

Name: Emil
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Dangerous Territory

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)
• General Madine (30)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 176 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Advanced Projectors (6)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Admonition (8)
= 98 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
= 23 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points

Squadrons:
• Jan Ors (19)
• Biggs Darklighter (19)
• 3 x X-wing Squadron (39)
= 77 Points

Total Points: 396

Emil chose to make me 1st player and I picked his Dangerous Territory. He had no Strategic to counter my VCXs, and his X-wings are fairly slow, so I figured I'd grab a couple of tokens and drag them off the rocks. I might lose the VCXs, but if I played it right I might come out ahead in points. I think that was the extent of my plan.

Setup, as seen from Emil's side

Apart from some squadrons shooting at each other and some long-range shots, nothing much happened until my MC75 dropped in r3. If you look at the image below you can see Admo has wormed it's way around the far side and just out of my Liberty's front arc. You can also see a very lucky Bright Hope (right in front of my Liberty) that survived a MC30 front arc shot, limping away with 1 hull.

I totally misplaced my MC75. Or rather, I couldn't place it as far "down" as I'd like. So instead of double-arcing his Liberty AND forcing it to either stay put or land in a bad place, I was able to shoot it, then see it do the Madine two-step into my rear (I really wished I had Profundity with a HH inside - such a great blocker). Then his Bail kicked in top of round 4 and his crippled Lib sped off into the sunset.

In the end the Liberty got away with 1 hull after some rather cold dice on my part (or at least it felt that way). His Admo got my Quantum Storm, I got both his flotillas after a mix of ramming and gunnery. I lost both VCXs, but killed all his squadrons, except Jan. Two tokens each. 6-5 to me, 33 MoV. Not exactly an amazing start, but given how uncertain my play was and my opponent's skill level, I was actually kind of happy.

My 2nd round opponent was Krister, who IIRC was the first person I played against when I went to Sweden for a tourney back in 2016 or something. We were playing wave 2, I can remember that much! Anyway, we've met several times again later, but this was the first battle between us for a while. Krister is a local. For once he got to play WITHOUT having worked the night shift before - so he was in a very good mood :-D

He was running his Leia Hammerhead swarm, which I think he'd been working on since wave 6 was released. Since last time he's ditched the STM! Pelta and now has a mix of torpedoes and scouts, plus some dice fixing tech and anti-squad.

It looks pretty good on paper - although I'm a little skeptical of Leia. Krister really knew how to fly it  maneuvering confidently to focus down targets without bumping his own ships. Apparently there were some cascading bumps in his 1st round game, which gave him a lower MoV. I didn't see any of that in my game!

Name: Krister
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Leia Organa

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Intel Sweep

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Leia Organa (38)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 91 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 46 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 46 Points

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24)
• General Draven (3)
• Repair Crews (4)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 33 Points

Squadrons:
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 30 Points

Total Points: 399

We rolled for it since we were both at 399. He got the choice and after some thinking opted for 1st player. He ended up picking my Ion Cannon. We discussed ti after, and it probably would have been better with either 2nd player - or just Most Wanted.

Bright Hope down in the corner, Quantum Storm on the far flank, Liberty slow rolling in the center with all the Ion Tokens. His HHs swarming to meet my flagship.

MC75 dropped round 3, double arcing Leia and another HH, plus black range on his transport and 1 more HH. A target rich environment. He somehow did not manage to kill Bright Hope between 1 scout and 1 torpedo HH. It limped away with 1 hull (again).

Then my MC75 went bonkers, 1 shotting Leia, despite Lando and TFA, then blowing up another slightly injured HH with the 2nd shot. I think it was 17 damage on 2 shots. That tipped the balance in my favor - up until then it was a close game, afterwards it was not.

Round 4 my Bail kicked in, and between Ion Tokens and Gunnery Teams I blew away most of his stuff. The MC75 finished the rest, and all but 1 Hammerhead died. At game end my Liberty was a 2 hull... if just 1 of those HHs had lived in round 3, the end score would have been close indeed! 

Instead it was a 10-1, 332 MoV to me. Hugely unfair actually, but such is the game sometimes. I spoke to him later, and he got a second win, so barring his loss vs me he would have had a good score overall. He was pleased with the Leia HH swarm's performance, and I have to agree it's a pretty good list if flown right. The downside seems to be that even when it wins, it tends to bleed a good deal of points, so wins aren't that solid.

With 16 points I was suddenly close to the top of the list, 4th place or something. After Cryodex had spoken I was at table 2 for the final round, opposite another old acquaintance, Micke V from Uppsala (which is just north of Stockholm). He has the dubious honor of the being the first person to ever beat me in a tourney. And we haven't met since, so I was keen on some revenge ;-)

Behind us, on table 1 two more Raddus lists were duking it out in an almost perfect mirror match. both with Profundity and nested Hammerhead, TRC90 Jaina as the flagship, CR90B with Reinforced Bast Doors and Engine Techs, two flotillas, and a smattering of squads. One run by Micke A, who also beat me once before (and recently took home a Regionals in Copenhagen) and the other by Andreas, both from Uppsala.

So yeah, going into the 3rd and final round, there were 3 people from Uppsala on the top two tables, and 3 out of 4 lists had Raddus :-D

Name: Micke V
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Solar Corona

Gladiator I (56)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 88 Points

Raider I (44)
• Admiral Ozzel (20)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 71 Points

Raider I (44)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 51 Points

Raider I (44)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
= 51 Points

Raider I (44)
• Darth Vader (3)
• External Racks (3)
= 50 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Maarek Stele (21)
= 41 Points

Total Points: 377

Micke had a massive 23 pt bid and opted for 1st, picking my Intel Sweep (and thereby pretty much giving me a 75 pt head start). I set up with my flotillas to the right, ready to harvest tokens with VCX aid, with A-wings ready to intercept Maarekdon. My Liberty I brazenly deployed to the far left at speed 1. Sure I'd get flanked by Demo - but then Demo would get an MC75 to the face...

Like many players Micke seemed a little bit uncertain about how to deal with Raddus, bunching up too many raiders in the center, seemingly unwilling to spread out or commit to attack runs.Or maybe he just had a very cunning plan? Both his travelling companions were running Raddus, so maybe he had a counter-play ready?

Round 2 my Liberty jumped from speed 1 to speed 3+ET, forking a mass of raiders (3 in the front arc at close-medium). And also getting away from Demolisher. Round 3 the MC75 dropped to double-arc block Demo.

The Vader Raider (right between my two big ships) activated first, opting to strip my MC75 of External Racks (my BC had the crit that limits it to 1 shot vs ships per round), did some decent damage to my BC and jumped to safety behind it.

BC then activated, repaired the crit, blew away 1 raider, shot up a second raider and ram-killed it, before finally threatening Ozzel's raider. Demo shot at MC75, did a sad 3 damage after brace and Damage Control Officer, failed to jump over, and was blown out of the sky right after. I must add, however, that stripping ER was actually pretty smart, bc between that and Brunson Demo ALMOST lived, and might still have if my dice hadn't been pretty good.

Round 4 my Bail kicked in, nearly got Ozzel, but he slipped away. After that little happened, except I took down his flotilla and 2 squadrons. His final 2 raiders got away. In the end another 10-1, 331 to nil. 

Very surprising, as I know Micke is a good player. And I know how deadly raiders and Demo can be. Plus I was concerned about my ability to pin down and destroy a significant portion of his fleet - I really didn't want the raiders running around all over the place where I could not catch them!

That result was WAY better than I'd hoped for, and sufficient to put me in the top spot with 26. As predicted the Raddus mirror match was a close one, a 6-5 for Micke A. That allowed Mats from Umeå (really far north in Sweden) at table 3 to claim the 2nd place after a solid 9-2.

Fun fact: I've been in 3 tourneys with Mats - Store, Regionals, and Nordics - and we've never battled, and he's come in 2nd behind me every time. Maybe next time Mats!

That's me, receiving my loot!

Østersund Regionals AAR: A Raddus Story, part 1 (listbuilding)

I went to regionals in Østersund yesterday and had a really great time! Thanks to Rolf Hilleberg and Escapade Gaming and Gear for yet another great Armada (and other SW games) event! The hotel deal was sweet and the venue top notch. I would definitely go there again.

A total of 15 people showed up for Armada, with people driving in from Norway and remote locations in Sweden (I think some might have flown in actually). That's a VERY GOOD number for the frozen wastes of Hoth, in the mountain wastes of the 6th Marker. Going home we just missed a landslide of ice, frozen earth and rocks, so yeah, it's pretty much Hoth :-D

Like I discussed in a previous post a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea what I would bring to regionals. I just could not come up with a fleet idea that was appealing. And to me appealing means A) it's fun to play and B) it's effective enough to be competitive.

I've run Sloane quite enough thank you, and while Vader is my fav admiral, I'm sick and tired of flotillas at this point. So I rejected Sloane, even some very different w7 Sloane builds. I also dismissed a w7 version of my Vader World Cup fleet.

That pretty much ruled out Imperials. But could I still play rebels? I hand't touched them competitively since Ackbar in wave 2! Well, why not. I had wanted toplay more Rebel for a while, and this seemed like an opportunity to shed my Empire addiction.

I considered 3 commanders: Ackbar, Sato and Raddus.

An Ackbar MC75+2xTRC30s fleet, with Mon Cal Exodus seemed a viable option. But it felt wrong to kind of pick up Rebels where I left off: at Ackbar. So I dismissed this fleet.

Next was Sato. Sato MC75 and Wide-Area Barrage on an Ordnance Cruiser. As usual fitting in enough ships AND squadrons proved very difficult indeed. Using Sato at 400 is still not an easy thing to do. I ended up with a corner case build with an MC75, Salvation, Yavaris, and a host of VCXs and Rogues. It was a fun list that I'll discuss in a later post. But ultimately it wasn't tournament viable. Too bad, since it can throw an INSANE amount of black dice from a variety of sources.

Which left me with Raddus. But what kind of Raddus? JJ proved that the Profundity Hammerhead trick is quite powerful, especially in a 1st player build. But also that Raddus and a couple of VCXs could play a very effective 2nd player game on objectives.

I didn't want to just copy what JJ did, so I looked around for other options. And my piercing blue eyes saw... Bail. Bail Organa, which has the potential to let to play head games with your opponent as 2nd player. I had tried him a little bit on Vassal before, 2 or 3 games (which I think I lost), and he had grown on me for each playtest.

But what to put him on? The AF2 is a joke, so not that one. And I wanted a fast, agile ship with Gunnery Teams that could really set up some murderous forks in conjunction with Bail and the MC75. Yeah, of course there would be an MC75 coming out of Raddus-space... why else would you take Admiral Blue-Face!? ;-)

So I ended up with the much-maligned MC80 Battle Cruiser. Not sure why this isn't a more widely used ship. Yes, it has some serious drawbacks, but it has such massive offensive options and can go pseudo-speed 4 with Engine Techs. That makes it very unpredictable, which pairs so well with Raddus and Bail. For me it also helps that it is a LOT like an ISD (I know my ISDs) in employment, only a bit more fragile.

So all this theory-crafting led to this, my regionals-winning Raddus list:

Name: Raddus Bail BC+OC

Faction: Rebel
Commander: Admiral Raddus

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Intel Sweep

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
= 166 Points

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Damage Control Officer (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Aspiration (3)
= 127 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 22 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 21 Points

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 63 Points

Total Points: 399

I wasn't 100% sure about some of the upgrades:

Quad Battery Turrets are very nice with Engine Techs, if you can keep you speed down. You can get long range Leading Shot rerolls, overall more accuracy, a boost to the side arcs too. Spinals was the alternative, but I always do those so I picked Quads just to try them out.

Damage Control Officer or Lando? I think maybe Lando is the better option, even on a 2-contain ship, but I figured I might run into some Heavy Ions or something, and wanted to give DCO a shot (it's a card I keep coming back to, wanting it to be good, but it usually lets me down).

Aspiration? Or not? Being able to boost shields with Aspiration can be a good defensive boost - but it can also backfire if you do it wrong. But in the end I did pick it, partly because I had the points, and partly because you don't HAVE to use Aspiration. Or you can use it, and only weaken one hull zone, so it's pretty flexible.

I did consider 2 Exodus Fleet cards, but even if I dropped Aspiration and the DCO, I only had 9 points, but needed 10. And I didn't want to take out any of my other stuff.

So that was my list. Based on a little bit of playtesting of Bail and Raddus in other configurations, of games played AGAINST Raddus, and a desire to try something new.

As it turned out, I wasn't the only one to want to try Raddus...he was THE most popular admiral. But the other two Raddus fleets did Profundity + Hammerhead, so it was cool to have a different list.

Rebels: 9
Raddus 3
Ackbar 2
Dodonna 1
Riekan 1
Madine 1
Leia 1

Empire: 6
Motti 2
Ozzel 1
Sloane 1
Thrawn 1
Jerjerrod 1

Stay turned for the battle reports!

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!

The Road to Regionals: Östersund (Sweden)

 Star Destroyer over Jedha Östersund

The only Regional this year within a reasonable driving distance for me is in Östersund, Sweden. It's 3 1/2 - 4 hours away by car. A bit far, but if we car pool it's OK. Maybe we'll sleep over one night, engage in some social activities (read: dink beer the night before, be hungover at the tourney).

I still have a month to get ready - the tourney was supposed to be in February, but stuff... so it got moved to 24 March. That's quite OK with me - gives me more time to plot and playtest wave 7! 

Oh, and I'm NOT using my Store Champ bye. I'm not driving that far to sit around watching other people play! Got to say I find the whole concept of byes... totally stupid. Sure, I can get paired with a really strong player round 1, but I'd rather that happen than sit om my ass. Do as you please with your byes, but I've never used one, and I never will.

Anyway. 

What to play, what to play...

I have narrowed the field down a bit, but not that much... I haven't even settled on a faction!

EMPIRE

I could take my Nordics Sloane list of course. It's a strong list, even in wave 7, and I know it very well. I have some wave 7 ideas that could make it even stronger. On the other hand I'm bored with this list, and wave 7 has some stuff that can help counter it. Having Raddus suddenly dump a big ship in the face of my carefully placed ISD? Not fun. Or just some nasty dual ISD stomping me too fast to compensate? Also no fun. But mostly... I think I need to move on. I already won what I could with ISD+4, so no I feel the need to evolve.

Or maybe my Vassal World Cup Vader list can be used? It's certainly effective, but it's not fully wave 7, just quasi wave 6/7. I could probably tweak it some and make it even more effective. On the other hand it might water down the concept. Plus it's a very unforgiving list to play, so unless I want to balance on the edge all the time it's not ideal for this sort of IRL tourney. Vassal, sure, IRL not so much. I see some data from Regionals coming in where dual ISDs are apparently plenty and doing quite well for themselves. 

I have a couple of other Imperial ideas as well. If I have time I will playtest the more promising ones... unless I defect and go over to the other side...

REBEL

But the more I think about it, the more I lean towards Rebels. Haven't really done much Rebel since wave 2 or so. A little bit here, a little bit there, but all my main builds have been Imperial. I've been wanting to get back to the Light Side, and wave 7 seems as good a time as any.

With Rebels there are 3 commanders that are appealing to me: Sato, Raddus, and Ackbar.

Dodonna also isn't entirely off the table, but he's... just a bit bland is all. So probably just leave him out of the equation, rather than try to build aroudn something I don't really wanna play.

All of those admirals can be made to work with the MC75. That seems perfect - another shiny wave 7 toy!

I'm thinking Ackbar gets the Armored Cruiser, but Raddus and Sato would need to ride the Ordnance Cruiser.

A classic Acbkar conga line, but led by a Aspiration titled MC75 Armored Cruiser could be very potent. Maybe Caitken & Shollan on an Assault Frigate? Or on the MC75 itself. Need to test this out. I has potential, I think.

Raddus would be using a MC75, possibly bidding for 1st and packing Profundity, or going for 2nd player with Aspiration. Both choices have their set of strengths and weaknesses. Going 2nd has more room for other combat ships, but how fun isn't Profundity?

And Sato... can I finally get him to work? MC75 Armored Cruiser, rocking Wide-Area Barrage maybe. But what other ships and squadrons? Hammerheads? Very vague ATM.

You want a piece of me? Come and get it...

Ok, that's how far I've come. Anyone have any tips or suggestions: just hit the comment section!

Star Wars: Armada - Toronto Regional - Round 3 | Feb 10, 2018

Dalla Lana vs Norm Weir

This video battle report was shared on the FFG forums, and I want to share it as an example of how great it's when ppl EDIT their AAR. This one is edited, has commentary, and information overlay.

Not sure I'm awed by the actual play, but whatever. It's a cool batrep!