Armada Training for Adepticon 2021 - Part 1
I have no idea how long this proposed series goes, exactly what I'm going to share, etc. But I thought it might be fun to share how I'm preparing for Adepticon, now that it has been announced that Atomic Mass Games plans to have Armada there! I had planned on attending Adepticon in 2020 in the hopes of squeaking into Worlds with their Last Chance tourney. Lots of Armada stuff has happened between then and now, but my inclination is still to take Grand Moff Tarkin to the dance. I do have a couple of secondary fleets on which I can fall back should I decide I don't want to take Tarkin after all. But now that I've been shaking off the rust with him and have gotten this fleet to the table a couple of times, I'm learning that I enjoy flying this fleet as much as ever, and so it's unlikely I switch things up. That said, these installments might be long 'uns if I fly multiple matches in a day. So, you know: read at your own risk and all that.
As a refresher, here is the Tarkin fleet to which I refer:
Ain't Tarkin 'Bout Love (45/398/400)
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Kuat Refit (112 + 65: 177)
· Grand Moff Tarkin (28)
· Defense Liaison (3)
· Darth Vader (3)
· Electronic Countermeasures (7)
· Leading Shots (6)
· Expanded Launchers (13)
· Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer (5)
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56 + 18: 74)
· Skilled First Officer (1)
· Ordnance Experts (4)
· Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
· Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer (5)
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56 + 18: 74)
· Skilled First Officer (1)
· Ordnance Experts (4)
· Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
· Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer (5)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 5: 28)
· Parts Resupply (3)
· Vector (2)
Hondo Ohnaka (24)
IG-88 (21)
Most Wanted
Abandoned Mining Facility
Infested Fields
I have made a couple of very small changes to my fleet since the last time I posted it up here. I ditched the Phyton Q7s on the Gozanti because I just kept forgetting about them. I thought about some other things to tack on, but ultimately went with the Vector title because the difference between Hondo flying at speed 3 and speed 4 is actually pretty big. It makes him more flexible with regards to reaching a squadron to activate it or jumping over to a ship in order to hit it with some torpedoes.
I also replaced APTs with ACMs in the Ordnance slots for my ships. Originally, I was flying with ACMs on both Glads and the Kuat. However, I found myself fishing for crits constantly, and it just wasn't as effective as APTs and ACMs used to be before the 1.5 changes because I can only trigger it once per ship. So I decided to try something that I think is, frankly, stupid: throw Expanded Launchers on the Kuat, then put ACMs on both Gladiators. I was thinking about how I could maximize my damage inside of the small window anyone will tolerate staying at close range of my fleet. I still prefer APTs over ACMs, honestly. However, if I forget about crits and just go for max damage, throwing an additional two black dice from the front of my Kuat ain't nothing. It brings my dice count up to 10 (5 of which are black dice), it increases my maximum potential damage by 4 (more than any critical effects offered by other Ordnance upgrades), and I can obviously feel free to throw in an extra die from Concentrate Fire. Though, hopefully, I'm double-arcing, and so can throw 10 dice from my front and save the Con Fire to throw 5 dice from my side. Either way, I just thought that I had the points, so it might be an exercise worth trying. I figure if it's ineffective, I just quit Expanded Launchers, put APTs back on all three of my warships and take my bid.
So I talked to a couple of folks about my plans to train, and they were gracious enough to help me get started! I've written about my friend Chris here before in tournament batreps and such. He's a damn creative and resourceful player, and I've learned not to underestimate him with any fleet. Even jank can be dangerous in his hands. So he asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to fly against. I mentioned not getting in enough reps against Onagers, so he built an Onager fleet. It featured Tarkin leading the Onager as well as a Gozanti and a Cymoon. He was also flying MMJ (Morna, Maarek, and Jendon). I know this isn't a standard Onager fleet, but again, I want to fly against a lot of different incarnations to see how I can handle what folks will throw at me (Triple Onager notwithstanding, because I have some ideas on how to fight that, but I'm mostly just looking forward to when AMG figures out how to nerf that particular beastie).
Walking into this match, I felt good about just blitzing his side of the table. I wouldn't win the squadron game, but I could tie up Maarek and Morna long enough to do the damage I needed to his ships. And I'd eat damage on my way in, but I didn't think Tarkin did too much for his fleet, and having Vader (officer) meant he'd have a limited number of rerolls. I figured I'd have enough ways to eat damage on my way in that I'd be fine. Turns out that was sort of true.
Since Chris had the bid, he chose to go first, assuming that is what I would have preferred to do. I thought about that later, and if I was given the choice, I think he's probably right: I'd have chosen to go first in an effort to limit how many shots the Onager would get. Out of my objectives, Infested Fields was an easy choice for him. He was essentially giving up 15 points from the get-go, but wasn't too worried about that. However, as it turns out, it's likely that the obstruction cover my Infested Fields obstacles gave me are probably why I survived long enough to deal a killing blow. Also, the Exogorths were pretty damn hungry in this match and insisted on being satiated!
I'm guessing you can extrapolate my plan from our setup above: if his Cymoon and Onager want to pulverize that one Gladiator at the cost of a second Gladiator (heretofore referred to as Second) and Kuat in their flank, I'll happily oblige. If Chris splits his focus with the Onager taking my Glad, and the Cymoon turning out to take Second and Kuat, I'll take that action as well. He'll murder the Glad. But Second and the Kuat will squash his Cymoon, then take the Onager's flank. Finally, he can turn both of his ships to the outside threat, but now, Glad can flank from the inside, and so I like its chances.
In the squadron phase of round 1 and so going into round 2 (above), I made a small mistake. I get greedy and start by throwing IG-88 at that asteroid on my far right in order to snag the Infested Fields token. I want the 15 points, but now, IG-88 is pretty out of position. Even at speed 5, he doesn't pose much threat to MMJ, and that's a problem for me. The picture clearly shows Chris has made his choice and is wheeling his fleet to meet my Kuat and Second. I had expected as much, but had hoped for maybe one more turn of indecision.
At this point, my plan is to let the Cymoon split my main force and I'll just unload as I sail by. I'll either get the Cymoon with the Kuat and Second, or my Glad can swing hard and just harass it for the rest of the game...
... But as you can see, Chris anticipated that and boxed in my Kuat so I couldn't just fly by his Cymoon. Not unexpected, but disappointing. I'll clearly need to go through the Cymoon to get to the Onager. Normally, I honestly wouldn't mind. But in this case, Chris' first several attacks on my Kuat were absolutely devastating. In 3 attacks, he didn't roll less than 8 damage each time. I was forced to burn my Brace on the second turn in which between his Onager and Cymoon, he rolled something like 19 damage. Eat the damage or burn the Brace? Even with 7th Fleet, I can't afford to eat all of that. So the Brace went. You can see I turned in the outside Glad even though I'm now in danger of wandering into ignition attacks. It's because either I'm trading my Glad to save the Kuat and thus trading up, or I'm in range to leverage 7th Fleet. Either way, Imma risk it.
At the end of this round, I have a decision: I either use Second to ram the Cymoon and lock the kill, or I run wide so I can make my attack run on the Onager and trust Hondo to take care of business. Now. To be fair, Hondo is ALL about business. Also, you should know that my dice for this fleet are wonky, and have been for the couple of years I have run it. Not my ships. My ships do what they do and I generally can't help them one way or the other. But IG-88 will run cold dice, whether it's an attack or Counter, and I've come to rely on that. I no longer count on him to assassinate an enemy. If he does, that's great! But I count on him to be a speed bump. He will kill Shara everytime, but that's about as far as I can trust him. Hondo, on the other hand, will always come through in the clutch.
If this is a tournament, I absolutely don't overthink this scenario: if it's round 1 or 2, I ram the Cymoon to death, do my best to mitigate point loss, and hope I can overcome the showing in later rounds. If it's later in the tourney, I fly right on by and gamble it all for the table and the win (because at this point in the tourney, unless I'm 10 points up on the nearest competitor, even squeaking a 5-6 loss won't win me anything). So for this match, I agonize a bit, then decide to treat this scenario as though it were occurring later in the tourney. Besides: I can move some obstacles and the Exogorths to block the Cymoon and do some more damage to it. I might even get it when it maneuvers.
I won't lie: at the top of this round, I'm now worrying that I've made the wrong call. That I was on the edge of a razor, and now I'm going to pay for being greedy. His Cymoon sails around the Exogorths and the asteroid without so much as a scratch. He took some pot shots from his side arcs at the Gladiators, but they were able to weather it, despite decent rolls. If that Cymoon gets away, I'll never catch it, as Chris is first and my remaining ships only throw meaningful dice at close range. The Onager is mostly untouched, which means there's a decent chance that I don't actually kill...well, anything other than his Gozanti this match. Not great.
One of my Gladiators kills the enemy Gozanti while Second closes in from the other flank. Hondo flies out to the Cymoon to drop his torpedoes and a prayer...
...And he does. Hondo drops the Cymoon, so that part of the gamble has paid off. Incidentally, as Maarek and Morna had dropped back to protect the Cymoon, they ended up chomped and dead, courtesy of the Exogorths. I had flakked them a couple of times because I had little else to do, and the combination of flak and Exogorths paid off. Not only is that 48 points in my pocket in addition to the Cymoon, but it also means that the only ways for him to do damage are the Onager and Jendon. Not inconsiderable, given how much damage both of my Gladiators have already taken. But it also means that Chris has far less margin for error than I do.
He swings Jendon around to wait for Second, who is streaking around to flank the Onager's rear arc even as that first Gladiator on the right moves in to cut off the Onager and line up a double-arc. This game goes to the end of round 6 as I succeed in taking down the Onager and the Gladiators both manage to survive. One had one hull left, while the other had two hull. Chris was ready to call it before the squadron phase, so there's a 75% chance that Jendon does the requisite 1 damage to kill that fleeing Gladiator. While the result of resolving that particular attack would've meant the difference between a 9-2 and a 7-4 win for me (I'm fairly certain, anyway), there were two other people waiting to play Armada, and calling it right then and there would allow all four of us to get in a second game against different opponents. I learned a whole heck of a lot from this match and now have a better idea of how I want to attack opponents flying a single Onager. Also, every match I fly with Tarkin helps me shake off a little more of the rust I accumulated during the pandemic lockdown. Thanks, Chris!
Next up is my friend Kyle! He has put together an MSU fleet led by Cracken, and I'm looking forward to this. I think Cracken got stronger with the changes 1.5 brought with it (specifically the improvements made to Evade tokens), and my Tarkin fleet has always had difficulty with opponents flying MSU. I'm out-activated and everyone is faster and more maneuverable than I am. That last bit can be really devastating since the only time I'm throwing dice that matter is at close range. Kyle decides to go first, which works well for me as a training exercise, since I'd absolutely have chosen to go first if I'd had the bid, because at least then I get shots before his ships move out of range. He decides on Most Wanted, which is a mixed bag for me. I'd rather he pick something different off of which I can more reliably score points, but at least this gives me a deterrant against him. Especially as he's going to be siphoning dice off of my pool with Cracken's ability.
I neglected to take a picture before the top of round 2, but you can probably extrapolate our deployment based on the above picture. I obviously chose my Gozanti to be the Most Wanted ship and after considering choosing Kyle's Nebulon-B (as it was his most expensive ship), I decided to target his flagship CR-90. I decided his Hammerhead and Neb needed to attack me head-on anyway, so I wouldn't need the dice help against them. Plus, it was looking as though my Glads would take the trio of Corellian Corvettes to my left and my Kuat would take the Hammerhead and Neb to my right. My Kuat wouldn't need the help, so I decided to give it to my Glads. And if his flagship steered very clear of danger, that would be ok too. Means it would be two CR-90s versus two Gladiator Star Destroyers, and I was fine with that.
I'm keeping IG and Hondo close, but suspect that IG will run interference for the Glads in case Kyle decides he'll never take down the Kuat and Hondo will remain flexible. It has been my experience that he's insanely useful against MSU because of his two blue bomber dice and Rogue designation. He can often hunt down a ship I've hobbled but couldn't finish.
At this point, my Kuat is obviously committed to the right, but not to the Neb or the Hammerhead. Though, truth be told, I think it's also obviously committed to the Neb. After all, if I go for the Hammerhead from my current position, my Kuat is *maybe* getting the Hammerhead, but not boxing it in. And then where does it go from there? It's ultimately why my middle Gladiator isn't turning harder to the left: it might need to take out the Hammerhead. I think it's easy for this to look like I'm splitting my fire and hurting a lot of ships, but killing nothing.
Here's the thing: in a vacuum, each of my ships can stand up to each of these other ships IF my positioning is superior to that of my opponent. Yes, dice factor in. But positioning is everything. If my dice fail me and I'm positioned poorly, it's a forgone conclusion. If my dice fail me and I'm positioned well, there are things I can salvage. I learned through a ton of error and poor play that I can't chase MSU fleets because I won't catch them, and they'll just take me apart, piece by piece. I need to take what my opponent gives me. That doesn't necessarily mean fighting on their terms; it means I need to pick my spots and avoid forcing opportunities.
If you don't watch a lot of hockey, it can be frustrating to watch power plays and the number of shots on goal (SOG) at the end of a lopsided game can be kinda confusing. The first bit about power plays (PP): depending on how they unfold, they can look like a ton of missed opportunities. The team on the PP may just be cycling the puck, passing it back and forth amongst them, for the better part of two minutes. A power play may end with something like 2 or 3 shots on goal, and that can seem really low for at least 2 minutes of having one more player on the ice than the other team. But here's the thing: there's a strategy going into the PP, and cycling the puck allows the players to execute that strategy. They're moving players around as well as the puck, possibly getting it closer to the goal, getting players moving in front of the net, possibly jumping on an opportunity when a penalty killing (PK) player is caught out of position. If they can keep it in the opponent's zone for the majority of those two minutes, the PK team will tire and are more likely to make mistakes. At the end of most hockey games, the losing team will have more Shots on Goal (SOG) than the winning team. That baffled me for awhile, as did the constant cycling of the puck during power plays. Why is it that the team peppering a goalie with shots wasn't scoring enough goals to win? Why wasn't that the strategy during a power play: keep peppering the goalie with shots until something stuck?
It's because we're talking quality versus quantity. Yes, it's true that sometimes, when enough pucks are thrown at the net, one of them is bound to go in. But how many are enough? Because there isn't an infinite amount of time on the clock. During a power play, each save from the goalie can lead to the puck being cleared, and precious time draining away from the PP clock. More than that, it might give the PK team a chance to change, swapping in fresh players for tired ones. Shots taken on goal have a better rate of success when they're not fired at the goalie head-on, when there's traffic in front of the goal (so the goalie has a harder time seeing the shot and thus anticipating where the puck will strike), and any other multitude of factors. So when a team is on the power play and cycling the puck, and we're wondering when the hell they're gonna take the shot, there's a very good chance they're setting up for better opportunities that we just can't see. When the losing team has more SOG than the winning team, it may just be evidence of futile struggle or desperation. A shot on goal is not necessarily a quality shot, after all. It may count for the statistic, but that doesn't mean it ever really had a serious chance of going in. There's puck luck, wherein pucks bounce in weird ways and somehow bounce in when they had no business doing so, or rolling out when everyone else thought it was already across the line because physics said that's where it should have gone. Puck luck may win or lose a game, but it doesn't win or lose a playoff series.
In my mind, that's Armada. Yes, sometimes, dice bail a player out. But that doesn't mean the player played the game well or that the strategy was sound. It just means you were the beneficiary of puck luck; it just as easily could have - should have - gone the other way. I didn't play a good game, but my dice saved my ass. The reason I mention all of this about hockey has to do with what I said about taking the opportunities given to me and not forcing any of them. When I'm flying this fleet against an MSU fleet, I've got a wealth of targets and potential shots. But that doesn't necessarily make them good shots. So rather than trying to force those shots by peppering the goalie, I keep cycling the puck until I see an open lane, maybe some traffic in front of the net, and then I send the puck at the net.
Between rounds 3 and 4, you can see that my formation has completely starburst: my Kuat is now burning hard toward the Nebulon-B Frigate at speed 3, the Gladiator on my far left has basically stayed in place, the second Gladiator has flown up the middle and banked right to meet the Hammerhead, and my Gozanti has actually stayed way behind the entire formation. IG-88 has engaged several squadrons near the Kuat, and you may notice that Hondo is way over to the left of the board. He flew over to help the far Gladiator eliminate one of the CR-90s. Not a huge point pile or anything, but it was what was in front of me, so I took the piece. It's some points, it's one less activation for him, and one less set of guns pointed at my ships. I don't love that my Kuat is going to fly right out of the fight, but if I'm lucky, I'll take down the Neb before it can go after my Glads, and that'll be that.
Going into round 6, Hondo is in the bottom of the frame because he is pursuing that errant CR-90, which had no choice but to turn back, lest it fly off the map. Also, you can see that Cracken's CR-90 is now directly in front of both my Gladiators. This spelled the end for his Neb because Cracken had no choice but to move first at the top of round 6, or he would've likely been pulverized by a double-arcing Gladiator. Cracken ran hard at speed 4, and there was just no chance that I'd catch him. Obviously it was disappointing, but then I got the double-arc from my bottom Glad on the Neb before it could also run, and the Neb blew up. Kyle just couldn't get enough guns on any one of my targets to kill it. So he sent his squadrons at my Gozanti to make sure he at least got those points. Hondo failed to kill the fleeing CR-90, but it was mostly semantics at this point, and me seeing if I could bump up my MOV enough to move into the next tournament point bracket.
I couldn't kill even one of his squadrons because IG-88 reliably rolled like garbage. Something like 4 damage rolled between 18 dice? I can't remember exactly, and at some point, I stopped keeping track because it just felt like whining instead of a point of curiosity. The final score left me with a 7-4 win. After this match, it helped to debrief with Kyle a bit, talk about what worked and what didn't. Obviously, I wanted my Kuat to have a bigger impact on the match, given how many points I sank into it. That said, Tarkin stayed alive to hand out tokens all 6 rounds, so that's a win. And while I obviously needed more than one shot with Expanded Launchers to make them worthwhile, I don't think APTs or ACMs would've made the difference in when the Neb burned down. It can be hard in a win like this to determine whether or not the Expanded Launchers were worth the points. I didn't get to use them but once. But they projected threat. Sure, I would have preferred to have gone first and the bid would've helped with that. But what were Kyle's objectives? Would flying one of them instead of one of mine have given him enough of an advantage to turn the tables on me? Additionally, he had 6 ships to my 4. As second player, I got two pass tokens. I used one of them in the second or third round to ensure better position. I didn't use the second pass token until the fifth round, forcing him to basically fly one of his ships to their doom. I wouldn't have had that second pass token if I were going first. Maybe I wouldn't have needed it. But honestly, I hit a point where all of this was academic because the fact was that I had won and only lost a flotilla and a squadron. And both died after they had served their purpose. So for now, I'm leaving the fleet as is.
If I decide Expanded Launchers isn't worth the investment, my fleet really doesn't fly very differently than it does now. I'm fishing for black crit effects with all three combat ships instead of just my two Gladiators, and I have to decide when I want first and when I want second. Because with a 16 point bid, I'll have my choice the vast majority of the time. Not sure how much of this meant anything to y'all, or if you straight up disagree with my tactics. Either is fine! But I learned a lot from both of my matches, and want to thank Chris and Kyle for the education!
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