The Puzzle Facing GAR Players

 The Puzzle Facing GAR Players

If you fly Republic, you might feel as though you're regularly just one or two pieces short of putting together a really great fleet.

I know I do. On a regular basis. Sometimes, the missing piece(s) are casualties of a 400 point limit. Points are at a premium when building Republic fleets. Other times, it's simply a matter of not having an option that fits between two pre-existing options. The Rebels and Imperials both have so many ship options that players can often find some ship that fits a middle ground they're seeking; that's a lot harder for Republic and Separatist players by virtue of each faction only having 4.5 ships (the GAR VSD and Separatist Gozanti each only feature a single chassis). It's possible other folks out there have done the math and can tell me that what I'm about to write isn't really accurate, but Imma say it anyway and simply apologize if it turns out I'm wrong - Separatist ships are more flexible in what they can accomplish than Republic ships. There are a number of roles each Republic ship can play, but once they've been kitted out to do a thing, that's the thing they need to do. If they try to fulfill some other role mid-play, consequences tend to follow.

Pictured above: a large ship from literally any other faction when bearing down on a Republic ship.

It's been my experience that when I'm flying one of the other three factions, the majority of ships can often fulfill multiple roles. Even the flotillas can be an activation, push squadrons, provide support to the rest of the fleet, and sometimes even pitch in a two die attack with a Con Fire dial. Before going any further, I want to be clear that I'm not complaining. I do want to see more choices for both the Republic and Separatists. I think even one more ship for each faction and a second squadron pack would really expand our options, but I'm not writing this to complain. I'm writing this because it's the kind of challenge I'm actually enjoying. I know a lot of people who fly Republic feel pigeon-holed and that's valid. We don't have a single ship that can equip Ion Cannon upgrades, we don't have a flotilla, we've got no Rogue squadrons, our nav charts are generally rough (we're the only faction wherein an entire third of our ships are effectively VSDs. That's...really something.)....there's a lot going on over here and a lot of ideas that simply don't work the way we want them to work.

But I'm enjoying puzzling through what works and what doesn't! It feels like Republic has far less leeway than the other factions (even Separatists) because we sort of exist on the edge of a knife at all times. We're always this close to disaster. I always have a plan when I go into a game. But sometimes, I see a fleet, a deployment, or a strategy that spooks me into doing something different. Sometimes too different and it ends up being costly. But in those other three factions, I've often felt as though if the change I make isn't too big, I can still come back and turn things around. I don't feel that way when flying Republic. If I screw up some aspect of the synergy on which Republic fleets are built and thrive, that creates repercussions and consequences that echo through the next round or longer. For instance, I've heard it said that the Resolute title is "a crutch." I think that's nonsense - Resolute is actually a pretty unforgiving title without Admiral Tarkin or Bail Organa as a commander. If I screw up my command dials (which can absolutely happen on a 3 command ship) or if I get too greedy with the tokens I choose for the Resolute title, then I either don't get the full benefit of the title or I do, but sacrifice some other element of my game by picking a less-than-ideal dial. The timing of some of these token and refresh shenanigans can spell disaster if I spend an Engineering token to move around some shields on my Pelta, but now have no way of refreshing my Clone Navigation Officer, which I was counting on to toss my Venator a Navigate token so it could speed up and not clog up my fleet. The effects of mistakes and miscalculations with Republic fleets tend to cascade. So, as I said:

I make good choices.

But! As much as I want to see some new stuff, as much as I want to see an expanded range of options, as much as I want Republic to be a more accessible faction to folks...and I really do want to see these things!...in the meantime, I'm kind of enjoying the puzzle of "how do I make this crap work?" That's not to say there aren't any strong builds out there because there absolutely are. I just know it feels like it can be a bit of a slog and as though there are "correct ways" to outfit ships/commanders/fleets. But please: keep flying the dumb stuff. Seriously. We need to fly the dumbest stuff we can think of. Including the unusable stuff. I know the majority of it won't work, but hidden in some of these cards are synergies that look terrible on paper, but play well on the board. This is counter to what other folks have said and written, and I can appreciate why: because they're damn good players, they play a lot of Armada, and they haven't had success with some of these ideas. But I'll also point out that I think there are ways to incorporate some of the conventional wisdom being espoused into some of these ideas we should definitely never bother trying. And for all of these bad ideas that don't work, ideally, we're learning things. It's awesome that we've got so many resources out in the Armada-sphere that offer excellent guidance and advice! I have learned so much from the things I've read and I keep going back to the well to re-read the stuff folks write. We've got a fantastic community and I love it. In fact, I find it rather frustrating that I can't so easily find consistently good materials on other games out there without a really in-depth search (if at all)! But I've also learned at least twice as much by making the mistakes myself while playing. It's often one thing to read theory, but another to implement. Look at how many educational programs out there require practical experience. I've had more success in landing jobs courtesy of said practical experience than of any qualifications on paper. The knowledge is useful, but we cannot always understand the why behind doing a thing until we experience it. Which can lead to us making the right decision under the wrong circumstances, making it difficult to tease apart why things are going poorly for us. Fly synergies you comprehend so you can learn some of the basic thoughts underlying why Republic doesn't fly certain things very well (Venators trying their best to be ISDs, squadron balls consistently entirely of Deltas, ARCs without speed modification, etc.). It's okay to make the mistakes and lose, so long as we're learning why those things don't work in the first place.

Additionally, along the way, we might learn about a synergy that plays better on the table than it does on paper. There are A LITERAL TON of fleet ideas that embody this: Sam Simon's Double Interdictor Speed Zero Trap, Schmitty's Dumpster Fire, Fish Farm (going back quite a bit further, but still...). These are fleets that either look meh on paper or just downright bad. It's why it's such a surprise to opponents when they face down these fleets, put together a pretty rudimentary plan on how to handle them, and then watch that plan turn to ash as their opponent just flattens them. I wrote a little while back about how horrific it was to watch Ruthless Strategists and Ordnance Pods just vaporize 6 X-Wings. I know I'm not the only person to think it would be effective and fun to use RS and OP to just keep dishing out damage and I thought it would do work. But I didn't realize just how much until I watched it happen. I effectively traded Axe (17 points) for Hera, Biggs, and 4 generic X-Wings (94 points); I traded up to the tune of more than 5x what I lost. Last night, I flew my Yularen fleet against my friend Scott. He flew 4 ARCs, 3 V-19s, and Anakin in a Delta. I lost the same V-19 twice and brought it back twice with Reserve Hangar Decks. Ultimately, in that dogfight, I ended up losing Luminara (23 points) in exchange for all of Scott's squadrons (108 points); I traded up at about 4.5x what I lost. Ruthless Strategists and Ordnance Pods did more heavy lifting in the battle against the 6 X-Wings, but it absolutely did enough lifting in last night's battle to free up my Y-Wings to do other things. And saved several of my squadrons from continued ARC onslaught in the meantime, which saved me points. I could see the synergy on paper, but I couldn't appreciate it until I actually flew it. And because of that, I fly my Yularen fleet differently now than when I first started. I understood the synergy in theory, but flying the fleet is what allows me to get closer to maximizing its efficiency, right?

I'm sorry if I disappointed y'all with this post - that I basically told you that the way to solve the GAR puzzle is to practice, fail, and then practice some more. I hope I didn't. I don't have any magic keys and I can't offer specific advice that isn't already articulated better in other blogs and podcasts. I'm here to encourage you to make the mistakes before the tournament. Fly the dumb stuff! Even if your Republic fleet as a whole is a failure, that's okay! Maybe you found a small synergistic moment in there that's worth further exploration! Maybe you finally figured out how you want to fly Kit Fisto so you feel comfortable spending 26 points on him. Or maybe you like the way your VSD flies when it features Tarkin as a commander and has Nav Team in the Support Team slot. I want to see folks fly what they want to fly. And I know a lot of what we come up with isn't necessarily viable in a tournament setting. But Dumpster Fire required quite a lot of iterations before it won a major tourney. Why can't that be you? Why can't it be your terrible idea that you refined to the point where you could fly it blind and it could actually maintain balance on the edge of that knife? The answer is that it totally can be. As long as you're willing to fail, learn from your failures, and then practice some more while implementing what you learned. On paper, the Republic Pelta isn't the terror it can be on the board. Republic has been around long enough now that people know to fear the Pelta. Dig deeper and find something else that strikes fear into the heart of your opponent! I haven't solved the Republic puzzle and it's likely I never will (I've finally put Luminara down because I simply can't find that next gear I'm so certain she has!), but in the meantime, I'm really enjoying the hell out of rotating the pieces and trying different ways to assemble them. To the point where despite prior certainty that I'd be bringing Luminara as my commander to Adepticon, I'm now 85% certain it will be Yularen instead. I don't know that I'd have reached that conclusion if I were just going by what other people are flying and suggesting. Honestly, I'd likely have made the move to Tarkin (since I loved flying him in my Imperial fleet for something like 3 years) and a double Venator, double Pelta list. Build the bad list and practice with it if it's what you want to fly. You'll find something useful in the experience, even if it's just new knowledge you can carry forward. Keep doing that until you find an iteration of your fleet that shouldn't work, but does. You can do it!