Battle for Endor 2025 – Round 1 Report

The Battle for Endor 2025 campaign is underway! We’re still in the POD phase, sorting twelve players into Swiss groups before the top three advance to Gold, the next three to Silver, and the rest of us tumble into Chocolate (where, wonderfully, you get to rebuild your fleet and even dip into Legacy Wave 0).

I’ve been sorted into the Western Europe POD – or, as I like to call it, the Carolingian Empire. My first match was against my good friend Spike. Since we are both civilized gentlemen, we naturally chose the platform of a more civilized age: VASSAL. Nothing wrong with TTS, of course, but there’s something deeply satisfying about the crisp clarity of top-down Armada.

We logged on Wednesday at 19:00 local time. It’s been over two years since I last played on VASSAL, so I was a bit rusty, but even at 2.5 hours, the game was still faster than TTS would have been!

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The Fleets

My List – “Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager” (Empire)

• Onager Testbed with Vader, Intel Officer, Varnillian, Veteran Gunners, XI7s, OBPCs

• ISD Cymoon with Intel Officer, Gunnery Team, IF!, Spinals, XI7s, Devastator

• 2x Gozantis (one with Hondo, one with Comms Net)

• 2x TIE Fighters

Spike’s List – “Draven Endor” (Rebels)

• Assault Frigate Mk2B with ECMs, Hondo, Flight Controllers, Expanded Hangar, DTT

• MC30 Torpedo (flagship) with Draven, Foresight, EST, Ordnance Experts, ECMs, H9s, External Racks

• GR-75 with Adar Tallon & Boosted Comms (Bright Hope)

• GR-75 with Slicer Tools (Quantum Storm)

• Squadrons: Luke, Kanan, Jan, Blount, six Z-95s

Spike had the bid and quite sensibly chose to go first. He picked my Contested Outpost, which meant my game plan was straightforward: sit on the station, farm points, and let him come into range.

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The Game

Setup was decent for me, though I made an early misstep by not nesting the Onager behind Hondo’s flotilla. That left it too exposed and too far from the Cymoon, giving Spike’s MC30 an easier flank route than I would have liked. Not a fatal error, but one he definitely exploited.

Start of round 2, Onager should be down and to the left

My first ignition shot was also over-complicated. I fiddled too much with dice mods when I should have just focused on raw damage output to get rid of the brace. Later, I passed on the chance to kill his Slicer GR-75 when I had a double Cymoon arc and Intel Officer lined up. Instead, it limped away alive, costing me the 6th Outpost token in round 6 by slicing away a key Nav on the Comms flotilla.

Those mistakes compounded: I kept the Cymoon sitting on the station longer than I really needed to, which stretched my fleet out and denied me the concentrated fire I needed to actually bag the MC30. The Assault Frigate (the “potato”) also got away, heavily damaged and braceless, but still alive. When the Onager went down, I had nothing left positioned to finish either big ship.

Start r5: Onager is gone, Potto heading for the sunset

Spike, meanwhile, played an excellent game. His squadrons worked overtime with Draven handing out raids, Adar repeatedly refreshing Luke, and Kanan providing just enough disruption. Luke even rolled an early crit that prevented me from having command tokens on the Onager, and later my poor flagship got another crit that limited its ship shots at a key moment – huge swing.

The MC30 mostly loomed as a threat rather than diving in, but that was still effective: it forced me to respect its presence, and later picked up a flotilla kill thanks to an H9 salvo (enabled by that pesky Slicer I had failed to finish earlier). Adar’s flotilla eventually went down once it lost scatter, but only after it had already done plenty of Luke double-taps.

End state

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The Result

• Score: 243–141 in Spike’s favor

• MoV: 102

• Result: 7–4 win to Spike

I farmed five Outpost tokens, which kept the score respectable despite losing the Onager and being too spread out to score the kills I needed.

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Reflections

My overall plan was sound, but execution faltered. The Onager placement mistake was recoverable, but the Cymoon mismanagement and over-focus on station control doomed my chances to capitalize on Spike’s vulnerabilities.

In hindsight, the Assault Frigate should have died, and the MC30 could have been in serious jeopardy as well. But I spread my firepower, let the Slicer slip away, and lost cohesion. Spike capitalized with clean squadron play, timely raids, and careful positioning.

Could he have pressed harder and gone for a tabling? Maybe. If the potato had pushed into my Cymoon and the MC30 had lined up a last/first double arc, he might have pulled it off. But he would have risked being tabled himself if the dice went my way, so his more measured approach was probably the correct call.

Either way, it was a fun, tactical game and a pleasure to be back in the VASSAL cockpit after two years away. Hats off to Spike for the win – and best of luck to him in the next rounds.

2025 LSO by Andy Armbruster (admiralandroid)

Day 1, Round 2: Doty (left), Me (right)

Well here it is. The not so long-awaited recap of my win at LSO… I had two goals for this tournament. The big focus was to win. In my first year of competitive armada, I’ve been generally happy with my results. But still something wasn’t sitting right with me. While I won a fair many tournaments -not including an extremely tight 2nd place finish in the Vassal World Cup- none of these tournaments had officially been qualified as a “major” tournament. When I think of a “major”, I think minimum four round day 1, and minimum three round day 2. So going into LSO it was my priority to check this off my list.

The other goal was just to have fun. I had the opportunity of spending some great quality time with a bunch of awesome dudes who share my love for this game and that memory is anchored deeper than any game I played.

First order of business was to decide what guns I needed to bring with me. I had several lists in mind going into this tourney, and finally settled at 6am the morning of on my Agate MK2A build:

When designing my fleet, I had a very specific objective in mind: Counter Jerjerrod double ISD (I played against 3 of these at worlds) and big ship Raddus (thanks Patrick). Basically trying to counter anything ship-heavy which also has solid squadron defenses. I thought a list that could out-kill/farm either of these archetypes while still putting up a good fight if not winning the 134 matchup would do quite well. And here was the result:

My list

Assault Frigate Mk2 A (77)

• Kyrsta Agate (25)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Ruthless Strategists (4)

• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 122 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Sabine Wren (4)

= 43 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Tantive IV (3)

= 49 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

• Boosted Comms (4)

= 40 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Mart Mattin (22)

• Hera Syndulla (Ghost) (28)

• Dutch Vander (16)

• Scurrg H-6 Bomber (16)

• Gold Squadron (12)

• VCX-100 Freighter (15)

= 133 Points

Total Points: 387

I knew the meta was transitioning to big tanky, killy ships. So I went heavy on the bombing. Between Gallant Haven and double blue flak + Toryn rerolls I knew I would be okay in winning most squadron matchups as well.

The most interesting part about this list I think was the choice of double CR90Bs. Super cheap, but boy do that smack ya. The main reason I took 2 instead of going one CR90A + double flotilla was my fire lanes objective which sadly no one picked :( But the other interesting thing is when my opponent drives up to sock Agate in the face, the 90Bs plink 2 or 3 damage on the enemy’s approach which fits right into how the list actually kills things (defense token overload). As it turns out, ISDs hate being plinked by pockets of 2-3 damage multiple times a turn. The added value of these 2 or 3 blue dice shots is that every additional source of damage becomes more potent than the previous because of token overload. The B’s really helped me push that concept. The other huge bonus of these little ships is they excel at my red objective (precision strike) which some folks made the happy mistake of choosing.

The only real downsides of these guys is the medium range limit unlike their CR90A superiors and that it takes a lot of practice to not let them get vaporized instantly.

Day 1, Round 1:

My first matchup of the tournament was against Ben (aka Downsizeit. Check him out on Youtube) who was flying a tanky Thrawn build with a gunnery team + spinals + SW-7s ISD2 (the CR90s were shivering on their bases at the sight of it) backed up by an interdictor and an annoying screen of Ciana, Vult, Valen, 1x-tie. His list was built around proximity mines and so was mine! This explains the scatter of yellow tokens on the board. I had bid and chose second. Ben picked my intel sweep. He corner deployed and deployed his prox mines right where I planned to claim the objective tokens. His grav well also funneled my deployment towards the edge so Ben did a nice job of controlling the table early on.

Before the ships had engaged, Ben smelled an early opportunity to try and take out Lando. Fortunately my squads were in GH range and my ruthless flak + returning a rogue counter-alpha cleaned up his squads pretty early on which meant it was time to lay into his ISD.

A part of me was worried about Ben steamrolling through my smalls with his ISD, while the other part of me wanted to encourage him to do so as it meant flying right into my bomber ball + layered firing arcs. He jumped to speed 3 in an attempt to gunnery team fork my smalls and pin Agate which isolated his flagship from the interdictor and prevented any meaningful damage on my frigate (big weakness of having only two sources of damage output). I knew without taking multiple shots per turn that Agate would be okay which is why she could nav dial traffic block herself in the grill of the ISD. From there it was a story of dodging the ISD front arc with my Adar flotilla and Toryn CR90, and bombing until I got the table. Mart dropped a prox mine and dealt 2 facedowns to the ISD which -in addition to ram blocking with the frigate- packed the damage cards and ensured the ISD would go down before it could get its power activation.

Ben’s interdictor finished off my Sabine CR after I rerolled a double into a double TWICE which fortunately had no significant impact. But the dictor folded to a solid round of bombing which got me the table and an early 10-1 (475-43).

Day 1, Round 2:

Aaaand here continues the trend of playing Andrew Doty (head of Legacy and programmer of Starforge) in every single tournament we’ve played in together (VWC, 2nd Chance, LSO, and Endor). Having just moved to Texas, Andrew would now be considered a “local” to me and we had an in-person game one week prior with him practicing his Anakin fleet in preparation for this LSO.

Andrews fleet was a 7-activation squadless Anakin with a SPHA-T victory, BT acclamator, and a ton of ex racks consular. My main focuses were not getting the frigate trapped and not allowing his consulars a sneaky last/first one-shotting my CR90s as I was heavily out-activated.

I went second as usual, and he picked my Pstrike almost immediately as if by instinct. I thought this was a questionable choice for a squadless fleet, but hey I’m not asking questions… My understanding is that Doty has flipped this objective before with ship-heavy and between so many activations and dice pools, he was trying to flip it on me as well.

Doty deployed flexibly in the center of the board, as did I. The inward tilt on the CR90s allows me flexibility as they can turn either way via a nav dial while avoiding blocking in the frigate, and to not stick out too far to get hammered by a consular.

I knew if I had gone into this fight head on I’d get demolished, so I began a hard kite to the right side (sometimes opposite side from where he deploys his acclamator to avoid BT and because its a brick that can’t get around the vic too well). My squads were going to be what won me this game so keeping out of double blue layers of flak was a priority early and throughout the game. I waited a couple rounds until his formation became more scattered while pursuing my ships in order to safely start bombing the consulars. This slight delay made it much easier to avoid flak ranges and to keep my squads alive. Mart was a hero as he created some difficult to avoid mine setups, combined with Ezra + Sabine and the cards were stacking fast on Anakin’s ships.

Andrew lined up a pretty spicy close-range double arc with SPHA-T and ex-racks into the rear of the frigate which poked him pretty hard, but with no sources of follow-up damage the frigate shrugged it off and healed it back with engineer spam.

I knew I wouldn’t table this fleet, so my objective was to score as many victory points as possible, and the kill points would be supplemental. This resulted in me getting 23 tokens for a silly 345 victory points on the objective. I think this game dissuaded most people from taking my pstrike in subsequent games. *most*... Final score was 621-15 (10-1).

Day 1, Round 3:

Round 3 I faced Curtis and his Romodi GT Cymoon (again, not so fun for my little ships but still a rough matchup overall for him) + 2 TRC arqs + 2 goz and a light screen of Tel and Ciana. Hislist was strictly limited to heavy long-range firepower, so I knew my maneuverability and bombing would be what got me the win. I went second and he chose my intel sweep. Boring, but free 75 points ain’t too shabby.

Deployment as seen above outlines my intent of isolating his cymoon and ignoring the arquitens until the ISD was destroyed. The ISD had very little squadron defense so it looked like a real juicy target. This was followed by a hard turn left to focus my firing arcs and bombers on the ISD before assuming a kiting formation on the rest of his fleet mid-late game once the ISD was destroyed. He sent Ciana and Tel a little too early which allowed me to eat them up without much of an issue. I ended up traffic blocking the ISD with the frigate (not pictured) and thankfully I had a nav dial to slip out. I think my first two games made me a bit ballsy on this approach. With no nav dial I would’ve been stuck in the front arc and caught in arquitens CF range and definitely been dead.

My 90Bs didn’t throw a single dice at the cymoon this game as it was my priority to keep them alive and out of that nasty medium range. Once the cymoon jumped forward at speed 3 its only goal at that point was to survive the mass of bombers I threw at its rear. By late turn 4 the cymoon folded to the bombers and it was time for open season on the arquitens. Without Romodi obstruction dice, the arquitens didn’t have enough dice to throw meaningful damage at my 90s. My 90s looped around and plinked the arquitens accompanying the bombers to claim the table with zero casualties on my end. Final score was (475-0) 10-1.

Curtis seemed very frustrated about this game after he himself had come off of two 10-1s in the first two rounds. He was a relatively newer player who was doing very well for himself despite his inexperience, so I tried to turn this into a good learning experience for him. When I gave him feedback, my biggest emphasis for this game (and just about all games of armada) was the idea of granting himself options. Curtis was outdeployed which meant I had 2 small ships to put down after he was on the table. That being said, the most important route to take in this circumstance is that of flexibility.

What you see above in Curtis’ deployment shows the cymoon on one side of the frigate, and the arquitens both wayyy out on the other side. What this deployment fails to take into account is that I don’t actually *have* to fly right in the middle of that mess. That with a nav dial I can choose to ignore half of his entire fleet and firepower. With a more central deployment, perhaps with an arquitens on either side of the cymoon (and more nav dials!), Curtis wouldn’t have granted me the opportunity to isolate his most important ship and make it my 400pts vs his single 180pt ship) Moral of the story, always be thinking of your own plan and try to find the pitfalls in it. If you are your opponent, how are you going to try and exploit the plan you’ve laid out? (I fall victim to the mistake of limiting my options sometimes. More on that later in the article!)

Day 1, Round 4:

Last round of day 1 and definitely my least interesting game was against ATXMike (AcornAdmiral). Mike cleaned up in the first three rounds meaning he was pretty much guaranteed to make day 2 as long as he didn’t get 10-1d. This meant him choosing my intel sweep and flying into a very non-enticing corner bunker that I’d have to fly through if I chose to engage. For reference, this is NOT what my fleet is designed to do. So I briefly toyed with the idea of engaging him in the tiny hope of maybe achieving a perfect 40TP for the day. But Mike’s position and his persistent bunkering caused me to return the favor and disengaged entirely. (75-0) 7-4 to me.

Day 1 Recap:

Finishing the day with 37 tournament points, I was pretty thrilled and hopeful that I could continue the momentum going into the next day. After a fun evening over some drinks with the guys, I was spent from 4 rounds and ready for bed.

Day 2, Round 1:

And here marks the game where I’m still hitting myself on the head. I needed to play well as day 2 was for all the marbles (brand new set of swiss). It was played between the top 4 players from day 1 in a round robin format. Round 1 I played against Mike (ATXMike) for the second time this tournament.

Mike picked my intel sweep and I had already decided that this game was going to be much different than the previous one, as I wanted to fight. I was unsure if this was reciprocated as Mike did the same corner bunker deployment which gave me two choices. The first choice was to take my tokens and fly away with a 7-4 (75MOV) (This would’ve been hella lame and I also wanted more than a 7). The second choice was to fly into Mike’s corner bunker and risk losing some points to potentially trade for an 8 by killing his recusant.

What I did NOT plan for here was for Mike to quickly jump to speed 3 and hard double yaw towards my ships (I thought he would toilet bowl like the previous game). I was silly and had two of my small ships in the perfect position to block my own assault frigate (see photo above) which meant he got to activate his two big boys before my smalls could move and let my frigate get out of dodge. This was okay though I thought. Even in the off chance I lose the frigate I can afford to trade my frigate for his recusant and keep it at a 7-4 win if I lost nothing else. By round 4 his recusant had no defense tokens and lots of damage cards (my squads had yet to bomb that round as well). My frigate was at full health. Just need it to survive 2 shots, which normally isn’t a problem. What followed from Patfist was 11dmg + APT after evade discard, which I brace to 6 and redirect, taking 2 cards due to the faceup from APT. Okay, ouch. Didn’t expect that. I’m still chilling though as he needs a monster roll from the prov to kill the frigate. What follows from the prov is 11dmg which I brace to 6, redirect to shields, take another 3 cards putting me at 5, and he rams and kills the frigate before it got to activate. Not what either of us expected. This meant I didn’t get to activate my frigate to shoot and kill the rec which ended the round on 1 hull and worst of all, had engineering commands dialed up.

My face was hot at this point. His recusant is speed 3, engineering, and it can outrun my squads. I could lose a 4, possibly even 3 if I don’t kill it. The game that followed was putting my squadrons in nasty flak bubbles to chase it down and sacrificing one of my CR90s just for Hera to finally get the kill on round 6. I had to bleed an additional ~40 points of squads and the CR90 to kill the rec just to keep the score to a 5-6 loss. We shook hands good game and I had to take a walk and some deep breaths lol. I was pissed at myself for not keeping my options open by  preparing for him to turn in and engage me which was totally my fault. Even if the dice were a major factor in this game. (227-261) 5-6 loss.

Day 2, Round 2:

After a painful and unexpected round one, I recognized I was still in the running but needed to lock in. My next matchup was against Bryson and his Thrawn ISD + ruthless demo + goz and a bunch of bombers (with Hondo/Mauler/FCT shenanigans). My goal here was to win big so that I didn’t need to fly aggressively into Bodhi’s Invincible prov 134 during round 3.

I went second (can you see a trend here?) and Bryson picked my precision strike (LFG!). This meant that I didn’t even need to kill ships. I just needed to win the squad war and then farm for dayz. Unfortunately I still was in a clouded head space thinking about my first round and I wasn’t thinking clearly early on in this game. This also explains why I forgot to take photos of this match…

Deployment was looking good for me as Bryson had his ISD deployed too far from the action which made it easy for me to focus sequentially on each layer of his list one by one. I knew my first priority would be to kill his squads so I could free up my bombers to get farming.

Early on I used Sabine to throw a mine on a rock which was directly in front of my frigate. With Ezra on my assault frigate, I can throw the rock distance 2 with the mine on it. This meant that if his demolisher wanted to be relevant the next turn, he would have to land on the mine and potentially a rock to get into any combative positioning. I activate my frigate, declare that I’m spending a command token which from our understanding means that I surpass the “when you reveal a command dial” step that Ezra’s timing falls under. Despite the timing being inconsequential, my opponent was adamant that I couldn’t use Ezra as we were in the “after you reveal a command dial” step. So my frigate landed on a rock AND a mine and I had to RBD all my cards off well before I wanted to. I was already in a heated headspace from round 1 and this definitely didn’t help. My opponent had every right to tell me I couldn’t use the card and I didn’t insist, but now I wanted vengeance.

(rough idea what the frigate did. Probably still my best maneuver of the morning at that point 🙂)

That same round, he sent Mauler to do some splash damage and Hondo pulled him out before I could tie him down. Start of the next round I baited him into bombing my frigate as I knew based on its positioning that it wasn’t going to die. I lost a couple squads as expected from Hondo/Mauler/FCT/Ruthless but now the fight was where I wanted it. His choice to bomb me wasted several of his squad activations so I returned a nasty rogue alpha and face full of double blue flak with my own ruthless. His squads cleared out that same turn which meant I had rounds 4-6 for Hera, Dutch, Mr. Scurgh and Gold (plus Adar) to go prey on his ships. Long story short, demo died and many instances of flipping structurals on his ISD with 90Bs and squads meant it didn’t last very long. Final score with a tabling and a bunch of tokens (595-61) 10-1 win. (This one felt extra good)

Day 2, Round 3:

At 15 TP going into round 3, I was now ahead of the pack. Mike, who I had played against round one endured the pain of his providence eating a 6 hyena alpha + prov double arc from Bodhi’s Grevious list in round 2, which essentially killed it with one activation. This led to Mike’s defeat and set me up for a simple round 3. Looking at the numbers, all I needed to do was win a 6 against Bodhi to guarantee the win for the event.

After seeing my pstrike objective in action, Bodhi wasn’t eager to give me the opportunity to flip structurals and other nasty crits on his prov. So he picked intel sweep.

This photo just about sums up how the game went. I made Bodhi chase me for it and he decided it wasn’t worth it so everything on his side dropped to speed zero and the game ended (75-0) 7-4 win for me which clinched the win for the event. Not too much to say about this game other than sometimes you’re gonna be playing the tournament more so than the game.

Biggest Lesson Learned:

As a relatively newer player in competitive Armada, this tourney was an affirmation for me in the importance of understanding a meta, and then seeking counters. This was something I didn’t consider going into my first world championships at Adepticon, and I definitely paid the price. Fortunately I applied that lesson to this tournament and it paid off.

The second lesson was a reminder for me to maximize my options when I don’t have perfect information. Applying this would’ve prevented my round 1 loss against Mike.

Final Thoughts:

Not too much else to say here other than to keep supporting these amazing events. Despite all the noise and some disarray in the community right now, at the end of the day the best thing to gain from this game is the buddies we share it with. I love this game and I love to win, but the community I share this all with is irreplaceable.

Battle for Endor: Listbuilding pt. 8 - POD lists Carolingian Empire (Western Europe)

Lists have been locked in and revealed. 

I hereby present my POD:

I must admit I don't know all of these players. I've been out of online Armada circulation for some time, and I was never that active on TTS to begin with. 

Faction breakdown:

• Empire: 4 (Vader, Sloane, Jerry, Screed)
• Rebel: 7 (Ackbar x2, Draven, Sato, Leia, Dodonna, Madine)
• CIS: 1 (Kraken)
• GAR: 0

That's right, no Republic fleets. So I guess the GARquitens and the Imperator don't really help the GAR make up for their perceived weaknesses. Can't say I blame people. While I love playing GAR in a campaign framework, I dislike how their ships lack maneuverability and have limited variety in the ship department, so it's not for me.

Good spread of commanders tho - only a single duplicate!

Anyway. Let's review the lists, discussing them briefly and considering how I think a potential matchup would work out for me.

James McCartney 

Ackbar AF with XI7 instead of Slaved with a single CR90 in support. Semi-rogue ball looks solid, with Slicers QS and  Adar BH, Toryn for extra AS. Extra annoyance points for a single VCX/Strategic. Ten-point bid, so betting heavily on playing own objectives, with the occasional first player, maybe?

While I don't feel you get enough from Ackbar here, that AF can deal significant damage to single targets. Still only 5 dice without a CF, which isn't that good. The list looks like it can give my list a run for its money, but how does it tackle Thermal Shields (this is a joke, btw, he's an add and there are NO Thermal in this POD) and Empire/CIS 134?

Name: Frustrated Gungan v2

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

= 136 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 58 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Slicer Tools (7)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 33 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 37 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• Luke Skywalker (20)

• YT-2400 (16)

• Gold Squadron (12)

• Shara Bey (17)

• VCX-100 Freighter (15)

= 126 Points

Total Points: 390

Tora Samurai

Another Ackbar potato, but this one is built differently: the usual Slaved but with Gallant Haven. That's pretty interesting! With DCaps this one can output seven dice with CF on that key shot, which is much more impressive. With two TRC90 it has more sources of ship damage as well.

Semi-rogue ball with a slightly different composition. Pretty solid, but no supporting tech like Adar, Toryn, etc. The CR90s really don't like my Cymoon, and the potato likes neither the Onager nor the Cymoon (its nav chart makes it kind of predictable). Still, 3 Ackbar ships AND rogues --> potential trouble for me!

Name: Potat 100

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Slaved Turrets (6)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 147 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 58 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 54 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Wedge Antilles (19)

• Jan Ors (19)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• 2 x YT-2400 (32)

= 116 Points

Total Points: 400

Daniel (Smizzy) 

Dodonna on a potato, with a single CR90B and a HH in support. That looks deceptively harmless! But when you look at that ball of bombers, you realize it's the squadrons, not the ships, that are the danger. Ouchy!

My only defense here is to kill all the ships... but to get there, I would have to brave the squadrons, and the 3rd ship makes tabling much harder. So, not that easy after all 😆

Name: Endor Fleet

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Dodonna (20)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72)

• General Dodonna (20)

• Raymus 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:

• Gold Squadron - Y-Wing Squadron (12)

• Green Squadron - A-wing Squadron (12)

• Lando Calrissian - Millennium Falcon (24)

• Luke Skywalker - X-wing Squadron (20)

• Shara Bey - A-wing Squadron (17)

• Tycho Celchu - A-wing Squadron (16)

• 2 x Scurrg H-6 Bomber (32)

= 133 Points

Total Points: 394

Nicolas Durand (Elred) 

This is a novel list, spamming Hardcells with Kraken and a Quarren Gunship to soften up the enemy. It has 7 activations, which is a plus. It can do a lot of damage to a single large target if the flying is good, but how does it deal with MSU or rogue balls? Not sure what to make of it.

Against my list, I would have to try to delete some of the small ones quickly to avoid getting swamped. Easier said than done.

RELEASE THE QUARREN

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 37: 87)

· Kraken (30)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Quarren Prototype Gunship (63 + 19: 82)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Disposable Capacitors (3)

· Advanced Projectors (6)

· Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Gozanti Cruisers (24 + 6: 30)

· High-Capacity Ion Turbines (6)

Gozanti Cruisers (24 + 6: 30)

· High-Capacity Ion Turbines (6) 

DaSWA 

Leia double potato (and flotillas) with the ubiquitous Boarding Troopers. Those guys are EVERYWHERE. The potatoes are solid enough, but not amazingly powerful. The squadron ball is decent, too; it has some good rogues and supporting tech. I think the key to this list is the interplay between ships and quads, because neither component is strong enough on its own.

This list could give me a run for my money unless I'm able to delete some ships early to cripple said ship-squad interplay.

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Leia Organa

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Leia Organa (28)

• Defense Liason (3)

• Boarding Troopers (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

= 117 Points

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Defense Liason (3)

• Boarding Troopers (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 97 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Munitions Resupply (3)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 29 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 37 Points

Squadrons:

• Corran Horn (22)

• Han Solo (24)

• Mart Mattin (22)

• YT-2400 (16)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• Gold Squadron (12)

= 118 Points

Total Points: 398

Mr Frisky 

Slippery Pigs... what an apt name. Catching twin CR90s and MC30s under Madine is HARD! Ships are decently hard-hitting, but they will need to maneuver very well, not only to stay alive but to deal concentrated fire upon enemy ships to bring them down. Squads are mostly for screening, but the A-wings do have speed 5 and black dice, so they cannot be discounted in the AS role.

This is a challenging list to catch for anyone, including my own fleet. If, and that's a big if, I can catch a ship, I can kill it, but yeah, that's the trick, isn't it?

Name: The Slippery Pigs

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Madine (30)

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• General Madine (30)

• General Draven (3)

• Heavy Fire Zone (2)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 84 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 54 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Walex Blissex (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Admonition (10)

= 90 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Foresight (10)

= 90 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 24 Points

Squadrons:

• Rogue Squadron - X-wing Squadron (14)

• Shara Bey - A-wing Squadron (17)

• Tycho Celchu - A-wing Squadron (16)

• A-wing Squadron (11)

= 58 Points

Total Points: 400

SkyRraahh Guitariste Figuriniste 

Pew pew. Possibly the best fleet name in the POD. Truly creative and evocative 😅

The list starts out pretty conventional, with an Onager under JJ (fairly rare in my experience, but JJ is never wrong) and ECM Demo. Then it gets more creative, with a Flechette Raider and a DCaps Raider-I (never saw that before). A Gozanti rounds out the list. 

The list has some potential if flown well. The Onager and Demo both hit hard, but that Flechette boat would have liked some squads to help pin down the opposition. In my experience, Instogator truly shines with squads; alone, it is only OK.

The list can surely put the hurt on me if I give it the opportunity. But at least I don't have to worry abotu squadrons or his anti-squad tech 💪

Name: Pew pew

Faction: Empire

Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Version: ARC01

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Governor Pryce (6)

• Veteran Gunners (5)

• Weapons Battery Techs (4)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 146 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Minister Tua (2)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Expanded Launchers (8)

• Demolisher (10)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

= 87 Points

Raider I (44)

• Iden Versio (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Flechette Torpedoes (3)

• Instigator (4)

= 61 Points

Raider I (44)

• Moff Jerjerrod (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• External Racks (4)

• Corvus (2)

= 78 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

= 0 Points

Total Points: 397

Chris Spencer (Dr Chaitin)  

NuSato arrives with 2 MC30, flotillas, and squadrons. I'm not sure if I approve of only two combat ships that need to close to be truly effective (but they can certainly perform Sato tricks on the way in). ECM on MC30s is rarely seen, but can be effective. 
 
While I can see this struggling against some builds, it is strong vs. my fleet, I think. I can't do anything about the squadrons, so max Sato. And a pair of well-flown MC30s can certainly hurt my ships very badly indeed!

Akuma Ma'Sato (102/399/400)

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 + 60: 129)

· Commander Sato [ARC] (25)

· Sabine Wren (4)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

· XI7 Turbolasers (6)

· Foresight (10)

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 + 34: 103)

· Ezra Bridger (3)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

· XI7 Turbolasers (6)

· Admonition (10)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 16: 34)

· Adar Tallon (10)

· Comms Net (2)

· Boosted Comms (4)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 13: 31)

· Toryn Farr (7)

· Comms Net (2)

· Boosted Comms (4)

Lando Calrissian (24)

Luke Skywalker [ARC] (20)

Shara Bey (17)

Tycho Celchu (16)

X-wing Squadron (13)

Gold Squadron (12)

Lewis (Lark)  

ANOTHER list called Pew Pew. This is AMAZING 😆

Jokes aside, I like this list. Pryce + Varnillian is pretty good (but I love Vet Gunners with Varnillian), it's got Cata and Annoying Engine Techs (TM). Twin Dcaps raiders to soften things up (including Corvus for annoying setup). And a Gozanti to push a squadron screen. The only downside here is the Onager being such a centerpiece. It'll draw a lot of attention. Which makes the Annoying Engine Techs (TM) make even more sense.

If I meet this, I'll point my ships at his ships, roll really well (this is my core concept for all games), and go home victorious!

Name: Its Screed Indeed pew pew

Faction: Empire

Commander: Admiral Screed [ARC] (26)

Onager-class Testbed (116)

• Admiral Screed [ARC] (26)

• Governor Pryce (6)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

• Cataclysm (5)

= 176 Points

Raider II-class Corvette (48)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

• Corvus (2)

= 62 Points

Raider II-class Corvette (48)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

= 60 Points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Comms Net (2)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

= 32 Points

Squadrons:

• Darth Vader - TIE Advanced Squadron [ARC] (20)

• Mauler Mithel - TIE Fighter Squadron (15)

• Valen Rudor - TIE Fighter Squadron (13)

• Vult Skerris - TIE Interceptor Squadron (18)

= 66 Points

Total Points: 396

Spike

Spike, who is my R1 opponent, is running ARC Draven, aka. Draven 3.0 with TONS of Headhunters with Flight Controllers. He also has Luke and Kanan, combined with Adar, so either can go twice. He also has Toryn, for altogether too many rerolls. 

I wonder if my 2 TIEs are up to the task of screening... 

The Z-95s only get the Blount reroll vs squadrons, so only the Draven reroll applies vs ships, which is something. I hope Sike's red dice SUCK, including rerolls. Only ACC, CRIT, and BLANKS as far as the eye can see...

Kanan + Luke are going to be super annoying, too. So let's hope for more blanks!

My only real advantage here is that Spike needs to be close with his Potato to run those squads, and a Potato running squadron commands is predictable and even with ECM it is not tough enough to deal with either of my two capital ships. The MC30 is also his flagship, so he has to balance threat vs survivability. I suggest we pray for him to make a maneuvering mistake!

Anyway. This could end up being a "who tables whom first" type of game. Unless SPike lifeboats with the MC30, but then I'll eat the potato and try to run away. Would be very boring.

Edit: Spike does not, in fact, have Toryn. But he still gets up to 3 rerolls on those Z-95s, so fine.

Name: Draven Endor

Faction: Rebels

Commander: General Draven

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

= 96 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• General Draven (22)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• External Racks (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Foresight (10)

= 123 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 34 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Slicer Tools (7)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 26 Points

Squadrons:

• Luke Skywalker (20)

• Kanan Jarrus (19)

• Jan Ors (19)

• Lieutenant Blount (14)

• 6 x Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (42)

= 114 Points

Total Points: 393

Bjørn Blom Sørgjerd (Green Knight, UTC+2) 

This is me. I've already gone through my list in a previous post so I won't repeat it here.

Name: Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Veteran Gunners (5)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 177 Points

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 157 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)

= 16 Points

Total Points: 400

Goerrit (UTC+2)  

Goerrit brings a good-looking ISD+Quasar Sloane build. I played entirely too much Sloane back in the day, with all the aces and the unlimited relay... why did you ruin my playstyle FFG!???

Anyway. This will certainly strip away my tokens and go to town on my ships. I guess I would have to go straight for the threat and kill him first. Can't see any other way to win this one. Gods, I'm going to get tabled in every matchup...

Endor - Slow Anne (134/399/400)

Imperial II Star Destroyer (120 + 20: 140)

· Captain Needa (2)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

· Heavy Fire Zone (2)

Quasar I Cruiser-Carrier (54 + 42: 96)

· Admiral Sloane (24)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

· Pursuant (2)

Gozanti Cruisers (23 + 6: 29)

· Comms Net (2)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

Colonel Jendon (23)

Maarek Stele (21)

Howlrunner (16)

Valen Rudor (13)

Saber Squadron (12)

3 x Tie Interceptor Squadron (3 x 11)

2 x Tie Fighter Squadron (2 x 8)

2025 UTAH CUP (by Semperlooney)

Welcome our new guest writer, Semperlooney!

2025 UTAH CUP

ARC 2025 Tournament Series

NuMothma

Full Disclosure, I was an ARC playtester. That said, I was relatively limited in my participation (especially early on) and had/have no control over the design process. I provided feedback and played some test games that didn’t include her. Getting my business off the ground and having a child in travel sports makes my time limited. 

With that in mind, I was somewhat worried about NuMothma’s ECM effect on Evades. Especially fleet-wide. “Agate for evades” was my concern. I have had some success running Rebel MSU before (MR. BLUE DICE!), and she is tailor made to work with that exact style fleet, so I thought I’d give her a go in the wild. A few things came to mind when choosing her. “Why not Cracken?” being the biggest. Theoretically, it is better to not be attacked at all and not even spend defense tokens. He’s very helpful against Mar Tuk, Ackbar, TF-1726, and any other dice-add admiral. The difference maker to me –aside from acc tech), was the fear of NuScreed. I wanted to cancel any HIE crits that might come my way at medium range. The second issue was the temptation to slow down to speed 2. I have a personal rule guideline (Particularly with Rebel MSU) that going below speed 3 will kill you. I didn’t want my ships getting trapped!

With this in mind, I set off for the Utah Cup, which is the rebranded tournament I won in 2022 with one of my favorite lists: Mr Blue Dice (RIP). I’ll include both lists for comparison. I feel like this is important for putting NuMothma’s performance into context. The Cracken version fell victim to nerfs, but it was at 400 points prior to the H8ers nerfing it. Without further ado, for the very first time as a couple, I give you… Mr. and Mrs. Blue Dice!

Name: Mr. Blue Dice

Faction: Rebels

Commander: General Cracken Version: AMG

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Asteroid Tactics

Navigation: Infested Fields

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• General Cracken (26)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Foresight (10)= 120 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Captain Rex (5)

• Ion Cannon Batteries (5)

• Jaina's Light (5)= 54 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39) • Dodonna's Pride (4) = 43 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)= 25 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Boosted Comms (4)= 32 Points

Squadrons:

• "Dutch" Vander (16)

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Rogue Squadron (14)

• Shara Bey (17)

• A-Wing Squadron (11)

• 3 x YT-2400 (48)= 130 Points

Total Points: 404

Name: Mrs. Blue Dice

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Mon Mothma Version: ARC01

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Asteroid Tactics

Navigation: Infested Fields

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Mon Mothma (27)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• External Racks (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Foresight (10)= 121 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Captain Rex (5)

• Ion Cannon Batteries (5)

• Jaina's Light (5)= 54 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39) • Dodonna's Pride (4) = 43 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)= 25 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Boosted Comms (4)= 32 Points

Squadrons:

• "Dutch" Vander (16)

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Rogue Squadron (14)

• Shara Bey (17)

• 2 x A-Wing Squadron (22)

• 2 x YT-2400 (32)= 125 Points

Total Points: 400

Game 1. Grudge Match

Some of you will remember the online worlds 2025 stream where Joeseph M. rolled 6 accuracies from Pats Fist and sent me Sloane-ing into day 3 (Thanks Joeseph!). Well, we had our grudge match to open day 1. Joeseph tried a new style list for him and brought Ozzel Demo with APT, 2 Arqs, and lots of Rogues. 

He chose my Asteroid Tactics. Probably mistake number one. We jockeyed for positions, and he moved forward into the death zone. I forgot he didn’t have ET on his demo, so I played it extra safe with my MC30. My plan was to ram the Demolisher flag with my cheap CR90Bs and then “catch” it with Lando, the YTs, and Rogue after ship engagement. My plan worked and I traded a Jaina’s Light and some squads for a nice 7-4 start to the day. 

Mothma in this game didn’t play a big role. The anti ship shots were limited, and demo only had one solid attack run that didn’t result in any hit/crits. For this game, I felt the result for me would have been the same if not better if I had used Cracken. 

Game 2. PDICs BE DAMNED

Game 2 I played Chris E. He drove in from Idaho and is always a great opponent. He flew a nasty TF list that had a lot of firepower with great access to raids. I chose his Most Wanted. He placed the token on my flag and on his Gozanti. 

My plan for this game was simple. Ignore the murder Prov (With Jedi Hostage) and set up a last/first to nuke his flag ship. I was able to Lando kill his MW Gozanti which set up optimal positioning and engagement for me. I left my Dodonna’s Pride back to catch the Providence and hopefully cripple it with a lucky crit. Well, lucky me I got 2x DD Pride Crits which drew a comms noise and set the Prov to speed 0. It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss! So I sent my MC30 on the hunt. I tried my best to soften it up with rogues but immediately felt the pain of PDICs. He was then able to use Reinforced Blast Doors to get rid of some face down damage. My MC30 opened the round with a double arc shot. I needed 12 damage to kill the beast. Unfortunately, I didn’t roll super hot with the double arc (including Ex-Rax). He PDICd away the only hit/crits in each attack pool and only took 4 hull damage. He used Wat Tambor to super repair but got stuck again at speed 0. I got to work chewing on him with squads with limited success. The PDICs kept on working. It saved 9 damage during our match and exposed my squads to loads of flak. I had to finish off the Prov with a ram from a CR90B, but lost Rogue and another squad, which took me from an 8 to another 7. Chris got to hear my PDIC rant (which wasn’t aimed at him. It’s too busted not to take). He also took down Dodonna’s Pride with a nasty TF double arc. 

NuMothma again was useful but not game changing beyond what Cracken would have done for me.  The biggest factor in my ship’s survival was arc dodging and staying far away from close range. 

Game 3. GARquetins Buffet

This game I played against Justin R. He’s a great member of the Southern Utah Armada community and has offered up some sweet prize support for our tournaments in the past. You may have played him at LVO or worlds!

He wanted to give the new GARquetins a try and actually put the most damage on my ships of anyone. He took my Asteroid Tactics (yay!). My plan was pretty straight forward. Eat the flag Ven1 (With Tarkin and SPHA-Ts). I figured I could tank the medium range SPHA-T shot with my flag easily enough (regardless of NuMothma), so I parked my MC30 in front and forced him to shoot her with ignition. I let my squads get to work on the Ven and chipped away at it with CR90s and Lando with the Adar/Lando Asteroid Tactics combo. 

NuMothma was very helpful in this game. Canceling dice at medium saved me SPHA-T damage on the 3 and kept it healthy for Arquetins hunting post flagship death. The biggest NuMothma winner was my Adar Flotilla. Justin had Clone Gunners, and took two rounds of multiple shots to take me down. I was able to keep the flotilla on the table for an extra round because my defense tokens were able to be utilized with max efficiency. That flotilla happened to be the only really good target for those Arqs, which is somewhat of a symptom of Arquetins having trash nav charts. This was a bad match for Justin. He and I both agreed that NuMothma makes Rebel flotillas very tanky. He did manage to burn every defense token and shield on my MC30, but I was able to slip away round 6 with 3 hull left. We ended with an 8-3 in my favor. 

NuMothma was excellent in this game. I’m not sure if the outcome would be different with Cracken, but I definitely got great use from her effects. 

Game 4. Mar-K Tuk 

My last game of the day was against Mark S (Ston3Twig). He likes to run Mar Tuk gun lines and (Barf) PDICs. You may have faced his “You Hurt Me, I Hurt You” list online or at LVO or worlds. He knows how I feel about Marty and PDICs. 

For clarity, the big red ship on the right is the new Quarren Prototype. He built his with EST/ECM/ and you guessed it, PDIC.

This was a game where I would have LOVED Cracken. I had several occasions where Mark’s shots would have been canceled by obstruction and saved me a lot of worry. In the bottom right corner, you can see him derp the Quarren ship into all my squads and escape with one damage and no discarded defense tokens because of…. PDIC. After that round I just decided to leave it alone. It was an 88 point pillow fist that couldn’t put out any damage. Suck it PDIC users! His double arc on my CR90B didn’t hit very hard and I flew that ship into the sunset (And off the table later). For the record I told all of this to Mark’s face along with my very informative PDIC rant. 

The short version of this is I had to spend way too many turns to kill a hardcell. He got a YT-2400 and my self inflicted CR90B. It was a narrow 6-5 to me. Mark won swiss but couldn’t attend day 2.

NuMothma was useful of course, but again, I’d take Cracken in this matchup any day. Marty suffered a lot from his no shields drawback as well. Suck it Mar Tuk. 

Day 2 Game 1: Asteroids Tactics Can Strike Twice

Sunday started with a fun game against James E. I had the pleasure of playing James last year during the Utah Cup and he’s always been a great opponent. 

This was another great matchup for me, and I chose his Asteroid Tactics. He was squadless and didn’t have a lot of anti squad power on the ships. He had a Luminara build which worried me because I have built my list for chip damage. My plan was to kill a Charger to gain activation advantage. Then I’d try to get at least one more and then pounce on Luminara who was on the Implacable. I had no intention of shooting the Venator. All went according to plan, and I was able to kill a charger very early because he lead with them instead of the Venator and Acclamator. I chipped away at Lumi with super powered Lando on Asteroid Tactics. I did lose Toryn and some A Wings, but otherwise I got out unscathed. He lost everything except for the Venator, but could have salvaged his last Charger if he had Brave Sir Robin’d out of there. 

I didn’t feel like NuMothma was a big factor in this match. I was able to keep my ships out of harm’s way and my squads did most of the heavy lifting.

Day 2 Game 2: Hungry Hippogorths

I played Ryan K (Who has awesome 3D prints!) for game two day 2. He also drove 13 hours from Canada with his super cool son Marcus who also played day 1.

Ryan took 1st and chose my Asteroid Tactics. The way he deployed all of his squads prevented my from engaging, so I was mentally prepared for a very boring 6-5. I set myself up to force him into the hungry exogorths if he wanted to engage. He got up to the edge and I used Adar/Lando to snipe DBS404. Ryan didn’t like that and sent his vultures into Lando to take him out. I returned the favor by throwing Shara and A Wings into his vultures along with an Exogorth. The escalation of violence continued and before I knew it we were exchanging deadly blows. This became a very fun game and I managed to barely fly my CR90B off the table. Again. You could say I need to git gud and I would agree with you. In the end I traded some A Wings, Lando, and my poor CR90B for his 134 in squads and a flotilla and earned a 7. 

NuMothma was really nice in the match. She made me feel a lot better about my MC30 sitting in front of his Prov, but I think Cracken or any other Foresight build would have been ok where I put it. This fight came down to squads, exogorths, and ship positioning more than anything. 

Day 2 Game 3: The Final Countdown

For my last match I played Ed H. Ed is a long time Armada local and has helped me prep for worlds! I have had the pleasure of playing him several times in local tournaments as well.

This was a bad matchup for Ed’s list. I had deployment advantage, lots of squads, and slippery ships. He had Motti and Targeting scramblers. I knew I only needed an 8 to secure the win for the tournament, and his Onager was exactly 140 points. I decided to hunt the onager and hope I didn’t take any losses. If I took one loss I would have to go for his flag Interdictor. I had no intention of engaging the Venator. It had LTT, ExRax, and Ordnance Experts.

Ed charged in with the onager in an attempt to nuke a CR90B. He hit it hard and got 4 damage through at extreme range with medium ignition. I elected to keep my evade and canceled 2 dice. Unfortunately his Beck raids kept him from slowing down and he landed the Onager in all of my squads, the MC30 double arc, Dodonna’s Pride double arc, and Jaina’s front arc. He was also on 6 unactivated squads –Including full power Adar/Lando.  I was able to remove the Onager and at that point I decided to take my win and go. This was mostly due to the tournament. If this was a casual match I would have gone for the interdictor as well. Jaina’s had a narrow escape. The NuMothma reroll changed a crit into a hit and left me with one hull. Had that gone down I would have had to chew on the Interdictor for the rest of the game. 

NuMothma worked well in this game, but I felt the biggest contributing factor for my success was squad flexibility, and flying my ships in a way that they weren’t in danger of being hit by a big shot. 

Final Thoughts on NuMothma

She is very strong. She is absolutely worth taking and I would even say she can edge out Cracken. If you can nav her ships well, she will keep your ships on the table. That said, when facing any rebel MSU, you have to focus down the ships and burn their defense tokens. I think she has promise with AFMKII builds and Heath A. had some success with a Mothma Hawk and Prov (Though I didn’t get to talk with him about how it went). I think she will struggle against NuPalpatine, NuScreed (at close range), large dice pools like Pats Fist, and Sloane. Who can forget Boarding Troopers, too!? But she will require some getting used to, and you might have a hard time tabling her. I might recommend the time-honored tradition of ramming MC30s to death!

I think I had a lot of really good matchups for my list in this tournament. I think a larger pool of players and fewer ship-only matches would have been really tough. We also had a lot of folks flying new styles and new upgrades. I am excited to see NuMothma (and other ARC content!) in Endor to really stress test the changes ARC has made. 

The Powerpoint Slide of 3 Rings

I wanted to touch a bit on how I see Armada. I have three major things that I think contribute to the tactical side of the game and make it a fun puzzle to solve. Keep in mind this is for tournament style competitive play which I find to be the most fun. This won’t be groundbreaking information, but this is how I think of the game.

1. Activation Order/Control/Advantage

1. I know a lot of folks lament the last/first days, but activation control is 100% necessary to win. The deadliest blows are given when you have perfect information for your heavy hitters to act on. 

2. When I’m planning a way to win, this is my most important question. How do I get you to lose an activation?

3. This ties into point 2 and 3. 

2. Extreme Range

1. I think a good list can threaten your ships at extreme range in at least one way. A great list has two. Whether it be squads, and onager, or Demo. Imperials have a major advantage with this category. 

2. Rebels must rely on maneuverability and staying out of nasty arcs to accomplish this.

3. CIS can navigate this with pass tokens and punish with Pat’s Fist. Sorry GAR, you’re up a creek.

3. Defense Tokens

1. You have to have a way to either overheat defense tokens or ignore them entirely. Fortunately most factions have lots of tools for this. 

2. Defense tokens keep ships on the table and are one of the biggest reasons a ship or squad is competitive or not. If your chosen ships have a bad suite, it’s going to be an issue.

3. Any upgrade that removes defense tokens is –for meta purposes- superior to accuracy tech. There are niche situations where this is not true, but for tournament planning I will take defense token removal over accuracy in most situations.