Building a Fleet Around Objectives

After writing about the different objectives and how they can help you score more points, I wanted to see if I could build a viable fleet around my conclusions.  Precision Strike, Superior Positions, and Fire Lanes all have the highest point scoring potential for their color of objective.  Is there a fleet that can maximize the bonus points from those objectives, while still being able to compete with other tournament level fleets?  Let's find out.

Some Objective Analysis

I tend to use similar Objectives in most of my fleets in Armada.  Partly this is because those objectives are suited to my play style.  Most of the reason is based on how I rate the objectives and what I am looking to get out of them.  This influences both the objectives that I play with my fleet and those of my opponent's that I choose when going first.

Regionals Prize Kit

The FLGS where I will be running a regional Tournament for Armada got their prize kit in today.  I stopped by to take a look as I wanted to see if there was anything special in the rules that I needed to know about.  The only thing that stuck out was that the players who earned a Bye at a Store Championship don't receive any additional points beyond a normal Bye.  This is a significant switch and may cause some players to not use their Byes.

I think all of the prize support looks really good for this event.  I REALLY like the dice and may attend a Regional that's about a 2 hour drive away just to try for another set.

Armada Wave 3 Preview

Yesterday FFG gave us the first preview of the third wave of ships for Star Wars: Armada.  There has been some surprise that there were only two ships previewed, but I am still excited to have more options coming soon.  Let's take a look at what was announced so far.

GR-75 and Gozanti!!

Today at the GAMA trade show in Las Vegas, FFG showed a quick preview of the incoming GR-75 and Gozanti models for Armada.  No real details were given, but they are supposed to be available this summer.

The first thing that stands out is that these come 2 ships to a stand.  That actually makes a ton of sense to me.  Individually, they would be weak and therefore cheap.  In order to prevent people from simply spamming them for activations, the 2 to a base allows them to be a more appropriate cost.  I would be surprised if they cost much less than CR-90b.

What will they do?  Maybe they will come with new objectives.  That would be fun.  Otherwise, they could provide cheap squadron commands like they do in X-Wing.  I am sure we will see a preview article soon.

Who has a guess on what these might do in the game? 

UPDATED

And now we have the real preview article.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/16/bigger-battles-better-tactics/ 

The fleet support sounds interesting and the flotilla rule is a great way to keep a ramming swarm from being a problem.  They are still ships though and will work with Admiral abilities.

Herding With Star Destroyers

I have been having some success recently using a pair of Raiders to set traps for my opponents.  I came across the idea for the trap as a way to work around some of the disadvantages that are built into the Imperial ships.

Armada Regional Tournament Locations Announced!

FFG has posted the locations of the US Regional Tournaments for Armada and their other game systems.  You can find the full list here.

Some has already put together a map, so it is easy to find the event closest to you.  Check it out here. 

I am actually planning on running the event at Dice Age Games in Vancouver, WA.  If you're able to attend that one make sure to introduce yourself as a reader of the blog.  I'm also eyeballing the event in Tacoma, WA.  It's close enough that I may head up there so that I can play in a regional as well.

Hopefully FFG will announce the prize support soon!

5 Ships is the New Black

In my local area we've now had 2 of our store championships.  Both of these were won by similar, 5-ship Rebel lists.  If you read the FFG Armada forums, then you are likely aware of a 5-ship Imperial list that won a recent, large vassal tournament.  These wins reinforce my own perception that activation advantage is a huge benefit in competitive Armada and one that you need to account for as you prepare your own fleets.