With MULTIPLE Apologies to Clement Moore

'Twas the month before release date, when all through the pad

No one used Isard, because she is bad;

Yeah, we're going there.  Enjoy the ride, kids!

Index changes

Nothing major, but we broke the "Armada basics" index out into separate sub-indices. The "basics" index was becoming where we kept basically everything that didn't fit into another category and was getting too large. Hopefully the more specific indices we have now will work a bit better.

I also removed the mailbox index because it was small and didn't really fulfill a purpose nowadays, given all the responses we've created based on reader questions are their own articles linked elsewhere. If you have any questions or want to see us cover something, please feel free to ask us wherever. I don't want the removal of the mailbox index to be construed as us no longer valuing your input!

12/14 Updates

I updated the Assault Frigate article a little more.  Nothing of major note, but a few more bits about Gallant Haven and all.  I had already updated it BEFORE from running the Dodonna list for a bit.  It's still a good ship, and I'll need to update it again when Intensify Firepower actually comes out, but I'm going to wait until we see all the wave 7 stuff so I don't have to hit it several times.

Roll the chance cube: Armada, dice, and probability

Everything's perfect: your attack is set up just right, you've got the enemy ship dead to rights. The dice roll is just a formality. Here come the dice, and... crap.

At least you won a young Jake Lloyd as a consolation prize?

Dice can and will betray you in any game that utilizes them. On the other hand, they add an element of excitement and vary the play experience. What to expect from them and how far to push them can take some getting used to, and this article aims to further explore that element of Armada.

12/13 Updates!

Based on my Regionals experience, I updated the E-wings article and the Corran part.  Relevant update below:

Corran works really great at killing enemy squadrons trying to occupy your bombers.  You want to be using him to wipe out enemy squadrons as much as possible, especially with his sniping ability.  With Rogue and speed 4, you're able to get to almost anywhere you need to (stay within 3 of Toryn) while still being able to snipe the distance.  He's a Red dice bomber, which isn't BAD, but using his ability to finish off opposing squadrons first (that are stopping your other bombers from doing the job they want to do) is a better use of his ability.

I also will fully admit that I wouldn't have placed 4th at the Michigan Regionals if I hadn't taken the Roquax "Adar Tallon and Corran" combo.  Adar activates, sends Corran out to go Snipe something.  When the squadron phase happens, Corran can then run back to safety/near Adar Tallon if needed to be launched again next turn.  Or he can Snipe another squadron or shoot whatever's engaging him.  As I said a paragraph ago, stay near Toryn in case your blue dice don't roll that well.

As for when I'm getting to the Assault Frigate update? Uhh, soon.  I need to clarify how I really feel about it, but I've got an oil change for my car scheduled for Friday, so expect some blathering then.

John's Regionals Wrap-Up 2! Games and Lessons Learned!

So, we had a list.  And we had driven 5 hours from Chicago to Livonia and we were ready for a game.... or 4.  Let's get this recap going!

When in doubt, add more B-wings

John's Regionals Wrap-Up! Part 1: The Build

"I can't believe you didn't post your list before the tournament this time!"

That was a comment (or a variation on it) a few people said to me Saturday up in Michigan (for those of you who DIDN'T recognize me on sight, I was the guy wearing the sweater and tie.  I don't have much daily opportunity to look sharp so I take every chance I can) and I can understand the sympathy.  Usually I'm all about posting the "Here's what I'm bringing today!" but I hit a slight problem with that: I didn't know what I was bringing until Friday morning, the day before the Regionals.  I present this tale to explain how I ended up getting the list I had put together and why I ran what I ran; not intending to copy any specific list or anything, just what I learned from a month or so of testing and playing.  Hit the jump for the story of this list generation!

Say hello to my lumpy friend!

Grand Admiral Thrawn article hot take

So FFG finally dropped a new Armada article (it only took nearly 3 months 😟) and while it's a bit light on new content, it was still a good read because the design process is always interesting and JJ gave us a peek behind the curtain.

We did get two new upgrade cards spoiled from the upcoming Chimaera ISD box, however, so let's talk about those!

Thanksgiving!

It's been a bit dead here, but we're in process.  I've got an article or two I'm working on, and Eric is still busy with new dad-ness.  Anyways, hard to realize that we've only been around since January, but thanks for reading!

Now go spend some time with your families or family equivalent.  Eat tasty foods, shmooze/enjoy company, and we'll be back with some articles soon.

And if we're thankful for one blog-related thing here (so much to be thankful for!) it's our readers (awwww).  Updates soon!

Eric will be away for a little while due to becoming a father!

Just a quick note that due to the impending birth of my son, I'm going to be incommunicado for a week or more. This last week or so as we've settled into the home stretch has been kind of crazy already, but I'll be back once life settles down a little bit!

"I missed you, Son."
"I missed you too, Dad."
Stormtrooper humor

Commenting changed back to blogger

Just a short note that I've changed the comments back to the original in-blogger format instead of the Google+ format. The Google+ comment format has a lot of problems I wasn't aware of when we initially made the switch-over, the largest of which was that John and I were rarely if ever notified when someone commented on an article and we don't want to accidentally ignore anybody! This will cause some minor comment field problems from back when we used Google+, but just let us know if you had a question or if you were still waiting on a response and we'll hopefully touch base with you. Thanks!

Updates November 3

How I spent my November vacation: updating and adding links to the following articles!

MC30 Frigate
Home One MC80 Cruiser
Liberty MC80 Cruiser
Pelta Frigate

Hammerhead already had links in it, so no updates were made/needed at this time.  I may have changed some slight phrasings and/or clarified a few points (Admonition I know I did specifically) but not enough of anything to warrant me posting it here.  I also added in a bit to the CR90 Corvette article about potentially using Ion Cannon Batteries with Leia Organa.  It's a work in progress.

For now, though, I believe I'm done updating and adding in links to things.  Which means! Back to writing regular articles again!

Does Yavaris Need a Nerf?

Recently, I created a topic on the forums that spiraled out of control in my mind.  However, a comment on the thread (Hi Green Knight!) helped me create an idea for this article.

From hell's black heart I throw squadrons at thee!

Let's talk about Yavaris.

This flame war's about to get too hot to handle! Someone call Steve Buscemi!

LINK IS DED

Another dead link! If you're seeing this, it means that I've got a link to here that shouldn't exist.  Please let me know where you were referred to here from, and I'll go edit that link to the right spot.  Thanks!

If you were looking for the "how to run squadronless" article, it's been compressed into the chapter about fighting squadron fleets, linked HERE for you.

https://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/10/squadrons-encyclopedia-8-fighting_24.html

Updates 10/22

I've updated the following articles with links:

Nebulon-B Frigate
CR90 Corvette
Assault Frigate MkII
GR-75 Medium Transports

I also added a section to the Assault Frigate article about how it's been unfairly maligned. Take a read below!

Unfairly Maligned
Is the Assault Frigate bad? No.  It's received an impression in the greater Armada community that it's not a good ship, for various reasons.  Some of that might be the fact that it's quite generalist, some that it's trying to straddle the line between a Small CR90 and an (actual) Large HMC80.  The main issue that I will agree with is that you can't take or even use Leading Shots on it.  Leading Shots is one of the main ways that you get efficacy out of your Large ships and their attack batteries, but you can't equip it here.  You're entirely at the mercy of how your red dice roll, which is NOT easy to deal with.  In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey TRCs on CR90s, H9s on MC30s, and Defiance/Quad Battery Turrets on an HMC80, having to accept the dice as you roll them is NOT an easy proposition.  You can equip Dual Turbolaser Turrets onto your Assault Frigate, and that's not a bad way of fixing one of your red dice rolls.  It costs the same as Veteran Gunners, but it will do more and better work for you.

It does exist in that range (between CR90 and HMC80), and I think that is its major issue.  No one expects the CR90 to one shot another ship, but a well equipped Raider can.  An ISD or an HMC80 will explode any small ship that wanders into close range of it.  An Assault Frigate generally DOESN'T have that reputation.  It also doesn't last long against Demolisher.  I have been losing Assault Frigates to Demolisher attacks for 6 waves now, and it has sucked EVERY TIME.  For the same cost as an Assault Frigate, you can get an Admonition MC30 that will put more damage into your opponent's ship faster and harder.  Here comes 5 damage from an External Racks front and another 5-6 from my side pew pew pew!  The Assault Frigate can't compete with that (realistically, I'm aware red dice have 2 damage sides) alone.

But what the Assault Frigate has that MC30s don't is consistency.  Not consistent damage, mind you, but consistent attacks against the same targets.  Let's pull up my image from before about how to navigate it.

Take THAT, VSD!

The faded Frigate can hit that VSD in the face, as can its new position.  Those side arcs are quite decent-sized and have very good range.  You aren't getting 5-6 damage at a time, but 2-3 followed by 2-3 next turn help a LOT.  Try not to throw damage at things with significant Evade tokens (CR90s, Raiders) and you'll get more work out of it.  Or if you DO choose to throw damage at those things, put an Intel Officer on your Frigate to ensure you start spending those FASTER.

The thing about the Assault Frigate is that it loves friends.  It would love a second Assault Frigate nearby to help target whatever ship it's throwing red dice at.  3 red dice aren't great, but 2 shots of 3 dice are.  Failing that, keep a CR90 or Nebulon B firing on the same ship.  The MC30 can go off on its lonesome and get work done, but the Assault Frigate is part of a fleet and it needs the rest of the fleet to help it actually get work done.  You can't deploy it by its lonesome and hope it'll win you the game, otherwise you're wasting 72 points plus.  Similarly, you can't deploy your HMC80 by itself and expect it to win you the game, so treat the Assault Frigate similarly.  Supplement its damage with a friend, and potentially even some fighters, too.

Relatedly, the other thing about the Assault Frigate is that it's the only ship in the Rebellion that can viably take and use Flight Controllers.  Hammerheads don't push enough squadrons, LMC80s want Gunnery Team, and MC30s want Ordnance Experts (and don't push enough squadrons, either).  If you want to win the squadron battle fast with a solid attack, the Assault Frigate is the way to do it.  When you finish off whatever squadrons your opponent brought, you can then start bombing your opponent's ship, making up for your potentially less than stellar red dice attack rolls.

It can still get work done under Ackbar with Gunnery Teams (5 red dice, 5 red dice? SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!), and it does well as a squadron bunker (see above Gallant Haven title) and finisher (never underestimate an X-wing or 3 throwing 5 blue dice at squadrons).  It's very flexible in it's build and role, though, which is NICE.  I can recommend putting ECM or Gunnery Team on it (like I did above), but really, it's a matter of whatever you WANT to put on it.  Whatever else you do to build your Assault Frigate, though, make sure to fill that Weapons Team slot.

Preparing for and attending an Armada tournament: principles to keep in mind

So with Regionals season upon us, there has been some discussion about what should be done prior to a tournament if you want to have a good time. This involves both training beforehand as well as properly planning for the event itself. Let's get started!

#darksidegains #sithswole

Updates 10/16

As of today, I've updated and edited and added links to Chapters 4 through 6 of the Squadrons Encyclopedia:

Squadron Encyclopedia Chapter 4: Large Fighter Coverage (Rebels and Imperials)
Squadron Encyclopedia Chapter 5: Using the Small Fighter Coverage group
Squadron Encyclopedia Chapter 6: Using the Large Fighter Coverage group

There have been some things removed from these chapters, yes.  It's almost as if I pulled them out for a reason.  A reason you'll all need to wait until tomorrow to see!

I don't know why I'm referencing songs about going back or returning to a future at all!

Skilled First Officer: a love letter

It's time for a special feature article about one of my favorite upgrades that I can only hope FFG will be releasing as a tournament kit upgrade card so more people can get use from him, the Skilled First Officer! I love this guy and I've gushed about him in multiple ship articles, so I figure maybe I should have an article just about him instead of hijacking and then making John's generic officers article longer. It also means I can just link right here to save people from reading the same advice multiple times 😉.

"Yelling hat man hate command dial!"

Slowly Updating

So as of now, I've updated and added in links for:

Commander Sato (based off some helpful suggestions from Ginkapo and Undeadguy on the forums), I added in a bit more about not just trying to turn him into a crit machine and using HWKs with him.  Minor upgrades, but if you're interested in running Sato (he's not bad, I swear!), take a look again.

Prelude: Squadron Roles and Basic Thoughts
Chapter 1: Basics and Outline
Chapter 2: Small Fighter Coverage
Chapter 3: Medium Fighter Coverage

Note to self for the next day or two: add in Ten Numb to chapter 4.

I've got plans now to add in a chapter 7, actually attacking ships with your bombers (an article I vaguely promised to do in Chapter 1) and then how to deal with your opponent's heavy squadron blob, an article that I both promised in chapter 1 and will continue our Fighting Fleets series (Eric or I may talk about hunting flotillas before or after that, as well).  I'm going to work on the updates FIRST, as I'd prefer to have them all done.  It also gives me more time to play my bomber fleet a few more games and get back into the swing of using fighters and all in my meta to blow up ships, so there is THAT helpfulness, haha.

I'm NOT planning on updating the Rebel starter fleet article, as I feel it's currently a good mix of ships and squadrons and you can choose where to go to from there (as I state at the bottom of the article, haha).  I considered adding in a few more options to give people the chance to go harder squadron or ship, but as it's a starter fleet I'd rather let them play that a few times and see WHAT they like playing and develop up from that.

Also, given that I finished my 3rd marathon (hash brown humble brag), I have a bit more time (and don't need to run for 2 hours every other day), so I can hopefully get my articles updated sooner rather than later.  But, I make no promises.  I'll do what I can, though, haha.

Squadron-heavier option added to the Imperial starter fleet article

With the release of the Quasar, some new cost-effective options are now available for the Empire and I know some folks want to go squadron-heavier right out of the gate. With that said, I added an option #2 to the Imperial starter fleet article, which is copy-pasted below:

Gearing Up for Battle 2: Armada Fix Squadron Plates

Little bit lighthearted today, no major strategy to cover in this article.  Way back in April (halfway back in this blog's lifetime, haha!) Eric wrote a post about enhancing your Armada peripherals.  Carrying case, laser pen, Recreator Studios fancy distance X rulers, etc.  Well today is a continuation of that, with regards to squadron play, specifically, Armada Fix's Squadron Command Plates

Oh, 1995, when ska and Reel Big Fish were things. "The record company's gonna give me lots of money...."

John Updates 9-26

Rebel Commanders I've updated with links:
Jan Dodonna 
Garm Bel Iblis
Mon Mothma
Carlist Rieekan
Admiral Gial Ackbar
Airen Cracken
Crix Madine
Leia Organa (Commander) 
Minor grammatical changes to them all as well, but no major new content.  Sato is not on here because he deserves a rewrite, but that's likely weekend work.

Any Admiral that I can strongly suggest using Hammerheads with (Mothma and Madine, for example) got a slight blurb in their "common ships" sections.  I don't have full experience trying all of these out, but I will update these when/if I get experience and try them.

Grand Inquisitor added to Imperial officers article

The Imperial officers article has been updated, with some cleanup involving the Quasar now officially being released and the addition of the Grand Inquisitor. The ISD article has again been updated to mention when I'd recommend Leading Shots on an ISD-I and to mention the Grand Inquisitor as an option on ships with Quad Battery Turrets due to his synergy with them on an ISD. That should, to my knowledge, completely update all of my articles to wave 6.

That Grand Inquisitor section added to the Imperial officers article is below:

Where is Spain? Why does everyone ask if I'm from there? It's so unexpected!

The Grand Inquisitor requires a little clarification before we go any further:

• The line "when an enemy ship... changes its speed" is a little more nebulous than I'd like. It can be construed to mean "its speed is changed from any effect," which would allow you to trigger the Grand Inquisitor when using a Tractor Beam or some such, but consensus seems to be that it refers to the ship itself ("changes its speed," being "the ship('s owner) choosing to change its speed") making the decision and not from effects being forced on it. I'd appreciate an FAQ on this sooner or later, though.
• That said, you can use speed-down effects to encourage the owner of the ship to speed it back up to trigger the Grand Inquisitor, though!
• Remember that you can't premeasure with the maneuver tool until your ship gets to its determine course step, so when the Grand Inquisitor triggers you don't get the benefit of seeing how you like a different speed and the options it gives you like you would with a navigate dial and/or token.

The Grand Inquisitor fills a bit of an odd niche by allowing you to quasi-navigate during an opponent's turn but only if a nearby enemy ship changes its speed as well. Because of his restrictions, if you're looking to use the Grand Inquisitor as an on-demand navigate token, I'd recommend looking to Wulff Yularen for an extra 3 points or use a Veteran Captain or Skilled First Officer if you only anticipate a one-time emergency need. You really don't want to be relying on the Grand Inquisitor only to find your opponent has denied you the triggering event you need for him to work.

Okay, so when would you want to use the Grand Inquisitor over a more reliable officer that can help you change your speed? A few situations come to mind:

• On ISDs or (to a lesser extent) VSDs using Quad Battery Turrets, the Grand Inquisitor can be quite helpful as he allows you to slow down during your opponent's turn, prior to your attack with the Quad Battery Turrets. Given that heavier enemy ships are often slowing down to avoid the extra blue die when the dice start flying and lighter enemy ships are often speeding up to get out of your front arc, the Grand Inquisitor often has ample opportunities to trigger and can assist you with getting your speed into the "just right" category where you'll be able to use your QBTs and also navigate as you prefer.
• In conjunction with a navigate token for larger speed changes. This is another feature where I feel like the Grand Inquisitor is likely best on an ISD, but any ship that enjoys going between speed 1 and 3 and back appreciates a 1-point bump from the Inquisitor followed by a navigate token spend, especially if it's generally busy performing other commands. The trick is that the ship in question needs to prompt speed changes from enemy ships to be able to quasi-reliably pull this off, and that's why the ISD is a good candidate whereas an Arquitens or Raider, for example, is not.

With that said, the Grand Inquisitor isn't bad but I overall don't recommend him much outside an ISD, and that's an officer seat with a lot of competition. I have had more success with him on a Quad Battery Turrets ISD-II than I expected, however, so I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot at some point.

Checking it Twice! Individual Activations

So we've hit the start of each turn in our last article in this series.  Now, we break this down to individual ships and how to know when to activate them.

I suggest activating the Star Destroyer first.

John Updates 9/5!

Well, Eric spurred me into it, hitting some of my own articles to update or check for updates.  I just hit:

Turbolaser article (updated for ISDs with QBTs, and potentially Quad Turbolaser Cannons on Cymoons)
Generic Officers (nothing much to update beyond adding in links)
Support Team upgrades (links)
Defensive Retrofits (links)

After I finish one of the several articles I'm writing, I'll start hitting commanders and ships and updating them more.  I have several Commanders I need to update, and I know that for SURE (with crazy plans for them all.....).  I will fully admit to having been spending the last several days playing Walking Dead Season 3 (spoiler alert: alcohol keeps the crying away!), so Eric has been outdoing me on the blogging.  Eric and I have a giant list of articles we're planning, so we'll keep those going soon!

8/30-9/5 updates

In the past few days, I've updated several articles with new hyperlinks and minor editing and such (I realize this is getting repetitive, I just like to let people know that I'm sprucing things up and that we've got a commitment to keeping the articles up to date as new waves come out so they'll be relevant in perpetuity). Those articles include:

• How to black dice!
• Interdictor Cruiser 
• Admiral Konstantine
• Ion cannon upgrades
• Arquitens Light Cruiser
• Moff Jerjerrod
• Lambda-class Shuttle
• TIE Defender
• VT-49 Decimator
• TIE Phantom
• Weapon teams 
• Red (assault) objectives, wave five
• Blue (navigation) objectives, wave five
• Yellow (defense) objectives, wave five 

No major changes were made, although the Interdictor article got a bit more work due to Disposable Capacitors improving the Interdictors' stock. As we get closer to more recent articles, the amount of cleanup/linking required diminishes greatly and so hopefully we should be 100% up to date on the older articles soonish.

Next up for me is an article on something new, as editing older articles is slowly rotting my brain.

8/29 updates

Found myself with a lot of spare time today, so I did a lot of blog-updating administrative work.

The Admiral Ozzel, Intro to objective selection, Wave one red objectives, Wave one yellow objectives, Wave one blue objectives, Gozanti Cruisers, fleet support upgrades, Bidding for initiative, Bidding for initiative 2: fleet examples, The attack sequence and you!, The basics of fleet building, and General Tagge articles have all been updated today. Nothing major - mostly hyperlinks were added to link to other articles that were produced later and were relevant, text was cleared up, some additions were made account for new meta situations (particularly regarding Sloane and the Quasar on the Imperial side) and some tweaks to Tagge's article post-TRC nerf, which has made him even worse, sadly 😞.

Slowly but surely everything is being brought up to date. It's not so much wave 6 causing major changes in the content of articles so much as the formatting of articles and the existence of lots of new reference points in the blog that were created after our earlier articles but didn't exist at the time of writing for older articles. Revisions in the future once I'm caught up should be much simpler for articles that don't need major content updates.

Update to Squadrons Encyclopedia 4 Large Fighter coverage Imperial segment

As I made my way through older articles, I found a lot of the information about Imperial squadron-building and carrier ships was outdated in our old LFC article and needed a pretty substantial overhaul due to Sloane-shaped changes in the meta and a Quasar-sized hole in the carrier ships section (what a difference one wave and a Rhymer errata makes!). With that said, the majority of the Imperial section of the article has been written anew. Here is the new section separated out:

Wave 7 announcement hot take

So FFG just out of nowhere teased wave 7, thankfully. Let's take a look at the new goodies!

8/22 updates

The YV-666, Firespray-31, Darth Vader (commander), Armada 101: Working your way up from starter box games tips and reminders, Squadrons Encyclopedia 2 Light Fighter Coverage Imperial Addendum, Imperial squadrons portion of the Squadrons Encyclopedia 3: Medium Fighter Coverage, Raider Corvette, and a small portion of the ISD article were all updated today (yes, it got updated once again). As before, it's mostly text clean up and some editing. I tried to cut down on repetition in the longer articles and mentioned a few wave 6 improvements in the Raider article (specifically Disposable Capacitors and a possible build for a Raider-II utilizing it, the wonders of External Racks were already integrated into that article earlier).

The main change in the ISD article is I changed my stance on Quad Battery Turrets and there's an argument for them on ISD-IIs (thanks to Giled Pallaeon for changing my mind on this one). Ships going faster than the ISD are the ones likely to slip past your front arc. They either get to eat extra blue dice or they are going slow enough to likely not escape your front arc. Either way, win-win.

8/21 updates

The Gladiator, ordnance upgrades, Jumpmaster, Aggressor Assault Fighter, and Imperial Star Destroyer articles were all updated today. As before, in most cases it was minor editing and adding hyperlinks.

The ISD article now includes an aside on Sloane - specifically in combination with the Avenger title. The Avenger also makes note of Boarding Troopers for the same reason, and a Boarding Troopers build is included in the ISD-I builds section.

Rebel Updates!

In the realm of updating articles just like Eric did, I hit all the Rebel fighters articles myself.  Mostly updating links (how MANY times can I reference Toryn Farr? ALL OF THEM!) and linking in upgrades (Expanded Hangar Bays or Fighter Coordination Team, usually) or Commanders (Sato and Rieekan were my 2 most referenced.  Considering I had so MANY aces, Rieekan makes sense, of course.)

Not a whole lot to say on that, but I do plan on hitting the last of the checklist articles very soon.  I'm quite close on grokking Leia, and soon after hopefully the Hammerhead (that's.... not as easy/fast, haha).  I've been having a lot of good experiences with my Leia list, and I may even develop it into a plan for Fall Regionals.  Eric and I have a store tournament the first weekend in September, so you can expect my Leia article soon after that (when I bring her to THAT, I bet).

Anyways, squadrons are updated as of now.  I read over the Nebulon article today too, and I have nothing substantial to add to that as of right now, either.  Keep on keeping on, I suppose!

More updates 8/20/2017

The TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber, Admiral Motti, Admiral Screed, Faction breakdown, Grand Moff Tarkin, Victory-class Star Destroyer, and Offensive retrofit articles have all been updated.

For the most part, I added hyperlinks to other relevant articles and did some minor to moderate text editing to make points clearer, fixed the rare typo, and removed any ambiguity left over from anything prior to the errata we received two months ago (particularly relating to Rhymer, who keeps popping up in all kinds of places I didn't expect him to be). Nothing major.

The VSD and offensive retrofit articles had some more substantial changes:

TIE Squadrons updates

Minor update:
I've updated the TIE Fighter, TIE Fighter aces, and TIE Advanced articles. Nothing major beyond creating hyperlinks where there used to be none and minor editing to make wording clearer, but it's done and the articles now look less old and more like something we'd be creating now. This should be going on intermittently as we catch everything up to wave 6.

Planning to get the offensive retrofits article updated to include the Disposable Capacitors soon, and then hopefully a Quasar article as well.

Gencon stuff and Star Wars: Legion

Unfortunately not much information about Armada from FFG other than "something big is coming," which can mean a lot. Super Star Destroyer? Huge wave 7? Another campaign? Armada 2.0? Who knows.

However, please enjoy these sweet pics of Star Wars: Legion, the upcoming FFG ground skirmish minis wargame.

Edit: and the official article just came up!

Updates and an Update!

So quick updates for some articles and the state of the blog.

I updated the Turbolasers article to include Quad Battery Turrets (Spoiler: I like them on certain ships.  This is quite shocking, I know) and some more thoughts on Quad Turbolaser Cannons (it was a quad-tastic kinda day, and I'm still dumb enough to think they're going to be useful for me soon.  In my super small ship meta, they kinda might be?)

I also updated the Nebulon article, but I will likely go back and revisit it some this weekend to put a few finishing touches on it until I'm much more happy with it. However, I didn't want it to go unmentioned in case someone asks "Hey, when are you putting QBT in the Nebulon article?" (Today.)

As of right NOW, Eric and I have a few irons in the fire.  I've still got to finish my checklist series (I haven't forgotten, I promise!) and Eric has a few things he wants to write about as well.  I've got an idea or two to hop onto after that, as well.  We're going back and updating the old articles as they have some stuff that needs to be hit and adjusted (I still had a few things in the Neb article about using TRCs twice in one turn, comma, sigh).

But where's the new articles, you ask? I promise that it's not a matter of life getting in the way (well, mostly, I did get a new job and have been running copious amounts of mileage for the Chicago Marathon), but it's a matter of trying to figure out what to write.  I lucked out in that "all" I have to do is figure out how to use Hammerheads; Eric has to learn a Quasar, see how DCaps affect a VSD-II, if they're worth it on other things, and we both need to learn our new Commanders.  I like Leia, though i can't claim I know what I'm doing with her fully yet (I AM having fun though!).  So we're both kind of in a holding pattern of trying to figure out what to write about.  We'd both rather have GOOD information out to you guys rather than FAST information that needs to be corrected, so the "How to Hammerhead" article is not necessarily going to be tomorrow, but I'm hoping it IS soon.  I need a few more games before I'm comfortable writing about them and how to use them.  Wave 6 shook up our meta and our playstyles, and that's a good thing.  We'll get more stuff out soon, promise.

Fleet deployment

I've been putting it off for a while trying to figure out exactly how to write about this huge subject, but the time has come for the fleet deployment article!

Spoilers: it's gonna be a bad time for everything you can see in this picture.

Checking it Twice: Starting the Turn

So it's been a bit of time, yes.  Sorry, job got me busy and then it's been a crazy week of trying to cobble together a fleet for last Saturday's store championships (hey look I had writeups done too!) followed by my other usual weekly activities and then next thing you know it's been almost two three weeks since you did a real article.

He's so disappointed in me! This sucks!

Anyways, the start of the turn!

Learning from losing

On a similar note to my recent article on tilting, I've been wanting to write a short article about the value of losing.

Well, that sucked. Anyone want to come up with a dangerously complex plan to save Han?

Tournament structure

This article should be relatively short, but it's important for those who are looking to get into playing Armada more competitively at tournaments. It's a quick review of the tournament rules for Armada. You're welcome to familiarize yourself with the tournament document on the Armada FFG site, but I'll largely be breaking down the items that are important for you as a player. There's a lot of language in the document about the responsibilities for the event organizer and such, but we'll ignore those for the sake of focus and brevity. This article is current as of 7/26/2017 and refers to the tournament rules which go into effect today (with very minimal changes to the previous version) and likely won't need much amending (FFG sticks to the basics for their tournament rules pretty consistently), but like the rest of the articles here, I'll update it when/if it's necessary due to changes. Onward!

The Chewbacca pulling-arms-off meta is fierce!

Wave 6 article updates 7/25/2017

The Raider article has been updated to discuss External Racks (which are amazing with Raiders and I now consider their default kit) and to talk a bit more about Flechette Torpedoes.

The VSD article has been updated due to the VSD-I getting access to External Racks, the Quasar displacing the VSD-I as the cheapest Flight Controllers carrier ship, and the VSD-II getting access to Disposable Capacitors and re-opening the "heavy VSD" build as a viable option again.

The ordnance upgrades article now includes a portion about External Racks.

Pastimes Store Championship wrap-up

So John and I went to the Pastimes store championship on Saturday and came away with first (for me) and second (for John). Our store, Fair Game, did pretty well too, with our friend Matt getting third and our up-and-comers Jack and Colin getting sixth and eighth. Out of twelve people, that's pretty good! John already wrote about his experiences (in three different articles), I'm gonna condense mine down to one.

Pastimes always has lots of space and Ron provides great event support!

Store Champs Round 2 Fight!

Alright it's go time.  Round 2 I got Kevin, and he had a Dodonna Doom Pickle.  DOOOOOOOOM!

Objects in space mirror may be closer than they appear.

Store Champs 2: Round 1 Fight!

So it was time to take this list out, see what it can do.

Why did it have to be Sloane?!

Second Place shwag

Second again! Write-up tomorrow, but shwag pic!

Store Championships II: Leia Boogaloo!

So it's another Store Champs today, and I decided that it was time to start my newest quest/obsession: making Leia a Thing! See, it's in caps so it's totally real.

No lie, Empire Leia might be my favorite Leia. What can I say, competence is attractive!

Tilting and you

I've been meaning to write about this for a little while as for some people it can be a very important subject: let's talk about tilting.

Pictured: Kylo Ren on tilt and his opponent just waiting for this bad experience to be over

Wave 6 early impressions

Hey I just wanted to make a short post to kind of explain where we are regarding wave 6 and what we're doing with articles.

In short, we're playing games and getting a sense for it but new articles and article amendments will wait for at least a little while until we have some more play data. I don't want to jump the gun too early before I at least have a decent gut feeling about whatever and I know John feels similarly. Don't worry, as when we update we'll let you know what was updated. This has been the major reason why articles have slowed down a bit - we want to be fairly confident in our assessments before we post anything "official."

Don't worry, though, we've definitely got some articles planned. John's still pursuing his checklist project and I've got another big article on deployment in my to-do pile(this time on ship deployment) as well as a few other ideas percolating. Oh, and we're hitting up another store championship this upcoming Saturday so I'd expect at least some discussion of how that went, too!

For now, we've been playing and observing games and below are my shoot-from-the-hip impressions so far of wave 6. John, if you've got anything to add/correct, please chime in!

Checking it Twice: Deployment!

As I had mentioned, we're going to start with deployment.  Let's jump right into it.

Props to these guys, I just write about fake war on my Star Wars blog.

Q3 2017 tournament kit contents!

 Look what showed up today: the Q3 2017 tournament kits. Many shiny things were inside!

Quick discussion on Admiral Sloane

Not a commander review just yet (I don't generally like posting full-fledged reviews of things until I have some experience with them to work out all the kinks and have some reality smash into all the fanciful combo elements my brain comes up with that don't tend to actually work), but I've seen a lot of talk about Admiral Sloane lately given she's coming out in 2 days.

Still too cool to look at explosions

Checking it Twice: First Steps and Initial Thoughts

Well, in our last post, I talked about why I was creating this whole checklist and what I hoped to accomplish from this.  For this to be of ANY worth to ANYONE, we'll need this to be short enough to memorize.  To turn this math style, I'm hoping to end up with something like SOH-CAH-TOA, where through repeated use and incantation, it helps you figure out how to use it correctly.

"You're in a triangle, Feeny!"

Checking it Twice: Setting Up the Idea

Having wrapped up (for now) the squadron series, I'm going to explore an idea that I've just come up with.  This may turn out to be a fool's errand, but that's something we'll find out with a few weeks of exploration of this idea.  This is not something I'll be able to wrap up in a bunch of posts one right after the other, this is going to be something that's going to be (in my opinion) worth exploring.

I hope?

After spending 3-4 days and 2 attempts at a post based around predictions for wave 6 and what I think the meta is going to be (spoiler alert: Konstantine's still bad! I have too many other things to do to get back to trying Sato!), I'd MUCH RATHER write about something that I WANT to write about here.  So, let's take a slight detour to get this series started.

Quick Updates from the FAQ

Hey all

I made minor phrasing updates to Cracken and changed some things on the CR90 and the TRC part of the turbolasers article (i also updated the quad turbolasers bit about a build i had minor success with, but that's not FAQ related).

I removed a sentence or two from the GR75 article about commander lifeboats as those don't work anymore, and i removed a sentence or two from the squadrons keywords post about BCC stacking as well.  Rieekan had some updates made to him too.  Weirdly, there wasn't much to add in the "Using the LFC" post, but I added a sentence or two in there as well.

Eric updated the Gozanti, fleet support, TIE Bomber(/Rhymer), and Demolisher sections.

Please let us know if you see anything that's still listed incorrectly anywhere and we'll make some edits.

NEW FAQ SUPER HOT TAKES

Panic! Mass hysteria! So many INCREDIBLE CHANGES AND WHAT THEY MIGHT MEAN FOR THE GAME!

FFG watching the reactions of the Armada players

Store Championships: Round 2 Ackbar Boogaloo

As a continuation of THIS post, let's talk round 2.  Remember how in my inaugural bit about building my fleet I didn't plan for a massive squadron blob? Welllllll guess what I was playing round two?

I'm hoping he says "3 ship Motti fleet"

Store Championships: Round 1 FIGHT!

So as previously mentioned, we had our store championships at Fair Game on Saturday.  Here's the first part of the writeup of how my games went, just because these are in my opinion worth talking about.  Before I begin, I of course made sure to have breakfast.  It's the most important meal of the day, and from what I understand, the last several Worlds Champions had breakfast that morning.  Coincidence? I think not!

Dang straight

Second place shwag!

Updates later, but swag pic!

Store Championships Fleet! John's Ackbar Attack

So if you're seeing this, it's Saturday.  I'm writing this earlier in the week to get it ready to go on Saturday morning when the Fair Game Store Championships take place.  I'm going to paste my fleet below, and an explanation of how it's supposed to work beneath it.  When things calm down over the next few days, I'll be doing writeups of how all our games went and what it was like.

Why did I wait until Saturday to post this? Because I don't know how many people are coming from all over Chicagoland to play, but I don't want to give anyone more knowledge of this list than I need to, along with how to figure it all out.  It'll go up Saturday when everything has started, as I'm picking a different list for any Store Champs I get to in July (Hammerheads will be out.  How do I make a 7 activation fleet? We're gonna find out!)

If you don't make the pew laser noises, your dice don't roll as well.  That's science.

Store Championships 2017

Quick minor update:

John and I will have our first 2017 store championship tomorrow on our home turf at Fair Game in Downers Grove, IL. I'll also be TOing/judging. We're expecting a smaller group of people (many of our regulars sad they could make it and then life got in the way 😞) but it should be a good mix of casual laid-back attitude within a competitive framework.

We should at the very least have our own quick write-ups of the event afterwards.

If anyone is in the area tomorrow (Saturday June 10th), registration starts at 10 and the event begins at 11.

Hammerhead Hot Taek!

So we got a Hammerhead article today.  If you haven't read it yet, go HERE and do so.  But after reading it all, let's get my observations out quick and fast (spoiler alert: i am wordy and not fast)!

See, it's a HOT CAKE, which, the rhyme.  Shut up, it's funny.  My mom thinks I'm cool.

Minor update to the TIE Fighter article

I told you I'd let you know when things changed! We'll see more major changes I suspect as time goes on (wave 6 woot!) but I wanted to add some Vassal examples to the TIE Fighters article to both break up the wall of text towards the bottom but also to illustrate the points being made.

That's it! Probably my shortest post so far!

Quasar preview article hot take

So FFG just released its preview article for the Quasar. If you haven't read it yet, please do!

A Quick Discussion on Worlds and the Status of John's Blogging Updates!

"Rise from your grave!"

Hey guys

First, sorry about the lack of MAJOR updates on my end since the LMC80 article.  I'm working on the Madine one soon enough, but I will fully admit that job applications (actual reasons!) and a bit of playing Fallout 4 Sunday night (John, you lazy oaf! I don't care if you're finally at the good point in the story and have stopped doing side quests, back to the Armada mines!) got in the way.  Madine is coming, I promise, but my tomorrow is a bit busy, so it'll likely be the end of the week.  Then I'll start hitting the Wave 5 squadrons soon too.  I'll be honest, in that I'm trying to put off Sato until I can find a way to get him to work for me.  I have PLANS, but they may need a Hammerhead to come to fruition....

The OTHER thing I wanted to bring up is a recent comment on the Rieekan post from Graeme.

I'm hearing that a lot of the top rebel lists for worlds this year were reeikan lists. Might be nice to update this article with some of them if you find any. I have never used him yet but for store championship coming soon might switch from Dodonna to him :)

First, Graeme, I hope you don't mind me throwing your comment out here.  I figured it might get a little more traffic than in the comments of the Rieekan article, and it lets me blather on for a bit about it all, haha.

Regarding Worlds 2017, Eric and I and a few of our friends have talked to each other about the results and everything they entail.  At the moment, Eric and I don't plan on addressing Worlds (well, beyond this post, I suppose).  We might come back to it if/when we get time later, but at the moment we don't have anything of actual note to say about the results and lists.  We see what happened, just like you all do, and we're concerned about it as well.  From what I've heard, the people who talked to Michael Gernes (the guy actually in charge of Armada, who, if he's reading our blog, welcome Mr. Gernes!) say that he's SUPER invested in the game.  So I'm sure he ALSO sees those final standings and wants to do something about it.  He doesn't want to turn Armada into the Rieekan Game, as I think we'd all get bored Going to a Dead Man's Party repeatedly.

Eric and I don't have current Buzzfeed list plans on What Needs to Change to Keep Armada from Dying (Number 3 will Electroshock You!), as that's just us talking past each other and you, not actually contributing meaningful discussion here.  So we're not going to try to Fix Armada.  I don't have a degree in Game Design, so it's not worth it.

Degrees in Game Design come from Bovine University

The best advice I can offer at the moment is twofold: first, wait for wave 6.  Sloan is going to shoot defense tokens out from under aces FAST, and we'll see what happens to that list then.  Plus with Hammerheads and the Boarding Engineers hitting carriers, let's see what goes down there?

Second, the best thing to do to deal with it is to look at what options you currently have available.  And if you want my honest opinion, Raiders with Flechette Torpedos can get a LOT done against it in your current meta.  Eric's Raiders have squished my squadrons like bugs on a windshield more often than I can count.  I can't claim they'll solve EVERY problem, but they're a good start.  Learning to fly them takes time, but I promise that if you get deadly with them, they'll become one of your favorite ships (yes, the REBEL is advocating learning IMPERIAL ships.  I'm shocked too!).  As for Rebels, massed YT-2400s is an answer, but one I can't just keep recommending that EVERY time.  Give me some time to come up with a current solution or two for Our Side.

Lastly, we are planning on going back and updating all the posts at some point.  Especially when a new wave comes out, and new upgrades, ships, and turbolasers/ordnance (see, I can spell it right when informed I was doing it wrong, haha!) appear to be fielded on ships.  I can't promise WHEN it'll all happen, but Eric and I view this as a resource for everyone, so we want to keep it updated as much as possible.  So, alterations to articles will happen eventually?

Thanks, as always, for reading.