Commanders are the beating heart of Armada. They’re what make the game endlessly replayable—and often what defines the "soul" of your fleet. A good commander doesn’t just give you a bonus; they ask you to play the game differently. They push you to think in new patterns, build ships you might otherwise ignore, and execute tactics with precision.
Some commanders offer flat, easy-to-use buffs. Others demand deep planning and careful timing. That spectrum of complexity is part of what makes the game so rewarding.
That’s why having a diverse, competitively viable pool of commanders is absolutely essential to Armada’s long-term health. More usable commanders = more viable strategies = more variety at every level of play.
ARC01 recognizes this. In total, it updates eight commanders across the two original factions—most of them older and underused, though one (recently introduced by AMG) also gets a helpful revision. Some of these changes are small: cost adjustments or slight wording tweaks. Others are significant reworks that reimagine how the commander functions—while still preserving the flavor and general intent of the original.
🦅 Imperial Commander Reworks (ARC01)
ARC01 brings updates to four Imperial commanders—ranging from simple cost tweaks to clever mechanical reworks. Some of these were once titans of the meta. Others never quite found a place. Let’s see what’s changed—and whether it matters.
🟥 Admiral Motti
Change: -4 points (now 20 points)
The change is fine. Boring, but fine.
Motti wasn’t bad at 24 points, but when you compared him to what other 24-point commanders were offering, he was starting to feel overpriced. Dropping him to 20 feels about right.
That said, I’d still take Jerjerrod 99 times out of 100—he'll save me more damage over a game and get me into better firing positions. Motti’s just... simpler. He’s solid. Still B-tier, but more viable than before.
As an aside, I actually think giving Motti +4 hull on SSDs would’ve been perfectly reasonable. JJ would still be better, but at least you’d have a decision to make. But hey—I don’t play SSD much, so it’s not a big deal.
Verdict: Sensible change, even if it doesn’t set the world on fire.
🟥 Admiral Screed
Change: +2 points (now 26 points), and his "set a die to crit" result cannot be rerolled
Now this is how you do a meaningful rework.
The updated Screed bypasses a lot of the "stuff" that’s crept into the game since 1.5—PD Ions, evade buffs, and other tools that were starting to blunt his edge. The new wording is also cleverly designed: the crit die can’t be rerolled, and it bypasses evades at medium and short range, but not at long—so no cheap HIE spam tricks, for example.
This rework perfectly blends game mechanics, meta state, and Screed’s original design intent. I love it.
That said, classic black-dice Imperial MSU still isn’t in a great spot (my feelings on the pass token rules remain... complicated), so I don’t expect to see Screed spammed any time soon.
Verdict: A superb rework—even if it won’t bring Screed fully back to the top tables, it’s exactly what he needed.
🟥 Darth Vader
Change: -6 points (now 28 points, down from AMG's 34, 36 originally)
Now we’re talking.
Vader already had a small cost reduction under AMG, but it wasn’t enough to make a real difference. This drop brings him into much more playable territory. And I say that with some confidence—I’ve played Vader since before most of you were born 😉
There’s some counterplay in the reworded Palpatine, but nothing Vader can’t handle. And frankly, I don’t expect to see much Palpy anyway.
So yeah: I like this change. A lot.
Verdict: Go play Vader, you peasants.
🟥 Emperor Palpatine
Change: -3 points (now 32 points), and tweaked ability wording for better coverage
Another quiet win for ARC.
The point drop alone is welcome, but the key here is the subtle rewording of his effect—it now interacts properly with Vader, TRCs, Thermals, and a handful of other upgrade effects. The actual play experience is 99% the same, but now Palpy actually works in more situations and can’t be quite as easily ignored.
No longer binder fodder. Not oppressive either. Just... finally interesting.
Verdict: A very clean, smart tweak. It shows ARC knows what they’re doing.
🌟 Rebel Commander Reworks (ARC01)
ARC01 updates four Rebel commanders—ranging from long-time binder residents to ambitious reworks of recent AMG flubs. The results? Surprisingly fresh. None of these leap straight to S-tier dominance, but all four are now actually interesting—and at least one of them might be ARC’s best design win so far.
🔷 Commander Sato
Change: -2 points (now 25), and tweaked ability (better, but no longer affects salvo attacks)
Well, hello there, aren’t you a handsome fellow Mr. Sato.
I really like this one. ARC took a commander that was always very hard to get working at 400 points, and gave him the gentle—but substantial—nudge he needed. His ability is still recognizable, and may even reflect what FFG originally intended (if you’re old enough to remember the speculation when he was first previewed). But now? It’s better. Much better. And still not broken.
Yes, some players will complain about him no longer working with salvo or some corner-case interactions (like Solar Corona accuracy flips), but let’s be real: this is a big win.
There’s still a catch: Sato remains hard to fit. You need enough ships to leverage the ability, and enough squadrons to unlock it—which usually lands you in that awkward medium squad ball zone that isn’t elite at anything.
Verdict: Big W. Not S-tier. But definitely playable—and damn fun.
🔷 General Draven
Change: Kind of a full rework (now a raid-based squadron commander) and cost reduction (but he's not directly comparable to 2.0 anyway)
Ah, AMG. How little you understood Armada. I don’t miss you. At all.
Your two versions of Draven proved that point beautifully. The first was a mess. The second was at least playable—but still not good, and certainly not fun (for anyone involved).
ARC’s new Draven 3.0 might be ARC's biggest win yet.
Gone is the dial-peeking (which was annoying and mostly useless anyway). He still leans into Raid—but in a way that’s actually engaging. He’s now a real squadron commander, capable of boosting several Rebel squad ball archetypes without being oppressive. It’s not Sloane 2.0, and it’s not Raid spam either. There’s real counterplay.
Verdict: Fresh, flexible, and fun. Looking forward to seeing him on tables.
🔷 Leia Organa
Change: Removed her restriction on spending tokens while using her ability
YES. This is Leia in a gold bikini and she deserves appropriate alternate art:
Seriously though—this change completely fixes what was holding her back. Token use is essential in current Armada, and Leia’s old restriction made her feel like she was constantly fighting against the game’s most basic mechanics.
Now? She’s free to shine. Still requires thoughtful play, still rewards smart command stacking—but she’s no longer punished for daring to use a token.
Verdict: Competitive in the right fleet, but not oppressive. Exactly what she should be.
🔷 Mon Mothma
Change: Her ability now gives built-in ECM to evade tokens (can’t be locked down)
Binder queen Mon Mothma finally gets her due.
Her updated ability gives ECM-like protection to evade tokens—preventing opponents from locking them down, which is huge for ships with only one evade. But even double-evade ships like the MC30 benefit massively, and that’s where this starts getting spicy.
The only potential issue? Mothma Rogue fleets with dodgy small ships flying around the board, ducking everything you throw at them. During testing, ARC tried limiting her effect to close-medium range, but that turned out to be functionally irrelevant, so the final version is unrestricted.
That said, I still think Agate and Cracken will be just as good—or better—in similar roles. So this probably ends up being fine. Besides, if we’re cool with fortressing large ships in the meta, why not small ships that are hard to kill? TBH neither appeals to me but here we are.
Verdict: Minor misgivings, but more options = good. A small W.
🚀 Looking Ahead
ARC01 is just the beginning—and it’s a strong one. From cross-faction ships to revitalized commanders and squadron tweaks, this release shows that the ARC team understands both Armada’s design DNA and the evolving needs of the community.
Looking ahead, there’s a lot to be excited about:
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The upcoming tournament season is already taking shape, building toward Worlds 2026.
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Just before that, we’ll see ARC’s mid-season update, along with the VASSAL World Cup, which continues to grow as a major international online event.
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And I’ll be heading to Gdańsk in November for the European Masters, which should be a fantastic in-person benchmark for how the new content is shaking up competitive play.
I’m also very much looking forward to seeing what the Armada Legacy Project rolls out next—presumably a Wave 1 to follow their excellent Wave 0 debut. If it integrates as smoothly into the ARC ecosystem as their first release did, we’ll be in for another round of fresh, community-driven content that expands the game in the best possible way.
Whatever comes next, I’ll be covering it—both here and in the tools I help maintain. Armada’s alive again, and that’s what matters.
Until then: fly casual. Or aggressive. Or dodgy rogue swarm. Just make it interesting.
Disclaimer: This post was created with help from ChatGPT, primarily outlining, formatting, and presentation.
