John Updates 12/28

Minor notes: I updated the CR90 article with some basic bits about the Ion upgrades, and I updated very barely the Squadrons Encyclopedia 1 article with terminology and such in there.  More to come on that all, of course.  But for now, hey look, updates!

I also hit the MC75 (some Caitken and Shollan improvements and shamelessly stealing JJ's Vassal World Cup MC75 build), and I added in C&S to the AF and the MC30 articles

Fighting Fleets: Tackling Two-Ship!

As I'm sure several people are aware, it's Regionals season.  And so many of you are trekking towards your stores, getting ready to play games and win you some shiny new stuff.  Nebs, candy dice, or even a fancy pants trophy medal thing.

I must have it, no matter WHAT Nathan Coda plans on doing to stop me (jokes 7 people in my local meta will get)!

But if there's one thing that all of our readers should be aware of and what it can do, it's the new hotness that is Imperial 2-ship.  Take a look with me as I do a quick dive into this list so you don't immediately lose to it.

Chicago Worlds guide addendum: Schaumburg

Schaumburg is where Adepticon will be hosted and while it doesn't really compete with Chicago overall when it comes to things to do, it has the benefit of propinquity (which is basically an over-educated way to say "proximity," so hopefully that pointless word of the day helps someone). With that said, one of our friends and core Fair Gamers who lives in the area, Jack Otto (who some of you may know as jottootts), wanted to make people aware of what's available locally. Take it away, Jack!

Chicago Gets Its Ship Out! AKA The Worlds Guide!

So as some people are aware, because FFG Organized Play wrote it on Twitter...

I'm gonna need a training montage!

Chicago is hosting Armada Worlds next March! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

SSD spoilers hot take

Okay so let's talk about the big pile of SSD spoilers that hit the internet, seemingly from some kind of promotional pamphlet stores got. First of all, there's all the SSDs themselves:

We can see that there are two that can be used in regular 400 point games and two that are too expensive to use in a normal game, which assumes players themselves will be encouraged to play larger games or a format will be made available to facilitate that. Let's zoom in a bit to get a better look:

A Re-Introduction to Squadron Play

There isn't a GOOD way to reintroduce yourself and your writing, but that's what this post is an attempt to be.  As you all know, I've been off-and-on rewriting the Commander articles for the Rebels in a post-wave-7 world, and I said I was going to start hitting the squadron articles, too!

I'm hitttttttttttttttttttt!

Welllll, I looked at them all tonight and they don't need just a few coats of paint and some polish, some of those articles need full rewrites.  Did you guys know that an Imperial squadron ball of Rhymer and like 7 TIE bombers isn't often seen anymore? Oh you DID? Why didn't any of you tell ME?

Anyways, I'm going to be going through a MASSIVE rewrite of that whole thing, which luckily means that I have things to do.  Some of the rewrites are because I'm better able to express myself as opposed to when I had first started blogging, and some of it involves redos of the squadron components (SFC/MFC/LFC), some of it in how to go about fighting squadrons/squadron lists, I have a lot on my plate.

What it amounts to for all of you readers is that it's going to be some time on that before they're all ready and done, comma, but I'm going to be turning them out as quickly as I can.  I'm not taking DOWN any of the articles, as there's still some value in those things, but there will be edits popping up and I'll make those known when I do them.  First up is the Introduction to the whole thing...

Holy Crud John Did Something!

Sorry, been busy working on.... let's call it some other projects.  Oh, and running a marathon in... 8.5 hours.  Huh, I should sleep.

Left foot, right foot, repeat 40,000 times

Anyways, I did what everyone does when prepping for a marathon.  Eat some carbs, take it easy, update the last of the Commander articles.

Garm Bel Iblis
Leia Organa (Commander)

Garm got a bit more updates on the ship sections throughout (nothing super meaningful there, but feel free to reread it as desired) and then a larger bit in the "How Do I Fight Garm" that turned into a brief "How is Garm actually worth using" post before morphing into a discussion of the list I saw at World's and our friend Mike's list down in Champaign.

Leia, I blathered more blathering because I could.  I mean, it's me? I updated the ship section a bit (Hey, Peltas exist! I haven't PLAYED them, but they exist, you know?) and talked more about how NOT to Leia.

This brings me to the end of my commanders section update.  Man, that took forever.  But now I can cruise through a few minor updates (Did you know there's a 4th Fleet Command the Pelta can use? Womp, forgot to add that in) before I hit the squadron articles.  That's right, I've got more to add on squadrons.  Slash Second Editions of all them articles.  Stay tuned, and as Eric said, if you want to see us write something, just let us know!

Tips and tricks: inside turns

This is the first in a series of short articles going over some of the basic things you can do in a game of Armada and, when possible, giving the terminology or at least slang term for them as well. Each article aims to focus on just one small element, so they shouldn't be lengthier treatises (like, say, my "how to use black dice" article) but little bite-sized articles. Many of these topics have been covered briefly in other articles, but having their own dedicated space instead of hiding them in places (like for example I mention inside turning in my Raider article) makes them more visible and easy to find. Anyways, let's get to the point, then:

Objectives update and where we're at on updates

I made some updates to all of the objectives articles (the header article is linked, but links to all of them are there), given some time has passed and my feelings have changed a bit and I've gained more experience too (as have most of us who keep playing, even though I've been playing for years there's always more to learn). In some cases I clarified wording a bit or added more hyperlinks, but in some cases I added (like noting Fighter Ambush enjoys Rogue squadrons, for example). Some highlights:

• Opening Salvo expanded a bit to mention it's helpful against Raddus. Similarly, Most Wanted now mentions how you can't target a ship that's not deployed yet.
• Contested Outpost revised to discuss how it's an awkward fit for squad heavy fleets.
• Raddus mentioned as yet another reason to be scared of using Fleet Ambush.
• Went into a bit more detail on Strategic Squadrons in Capture the VIP. Specifically, it's fine to have one, you don't really need it, but 2+ Strategic squads really want Fire Lanes instead usually.
• Jamming Barrier opinion improved in light of a resurgence of longer-ranged gunline fleets in wave 7. John has been getting some solid use out of it.
• Salvage Run given a solid update. It's a good objective. You don't need Strategic for it at all, but it doesn't hurt.
• Added the paradoxical Sensor Net strategy of first player deploying his tokens in the corners.
• Revised Blockade Run to focus more on ISD style fleets using it to turn the play area into a hallway.
• Station Assault expanded to include its use as an anti-squadron objective.

Lots of smaller changes among everything else too.

Otherwise, you will have likely noticed our article-writing pace has slowed down. Simply put, we've largely caught up at this point and now we're in maintenance mode until the next wave releases. I know there are a few articles I'm still looking to update and John is as well (the squadron articles for sure, the builds need updating as the meta has changed), but we've covered a lot of what we set out to cover. Of course we'll be doing write-ups of events we attend with Regionals starting up and whatnot, so there will be some new content as well when events happen for us.

That said, if there are any articles any of you would like to read that we haven't done, please ask. Worst case we aren't interested in the recommendation, but if there's a subject we missed, we'd be happy to fill in the blanks to the best of our ability.

Breaking one million page views!

Just a quick blog post to announce that we've broken one million total pageviews! Wow! For a blog about plastic spaceships that's just over a year and a half old, I'm really humbled that we've reached that high a number already. Thank you for reading, everybody!

9/10 Updates

Updated the Ackbar article to include the MC75 (yes!), Hammerheads (no!), and lumped the Pelta and Neb B together (maybe one of these but definitely not both!)

I also wish I had finished this update yesterday....

For what should seem like obvious reasons.  Leia and Garm left, then over to fixing the Squadrons Encyclopedia.

8/31 Updates

Raddus and Rieekan are done, more updates soon enough I hope. Tearing through Commanders and hitting squadrons soon enough....

Raddus was mainly clarification and name-dropping Truth and Josiah as evidence of how I've seen Raddus work.

Rieekan was a few links and jokes, nothing I hadn't already somewhat changed post-nerf before.  I added a section in there about what the main issue fighting against him is, but it's rather straight-forward.  You can't alpha-strike the zombie lord.

John Updates 8/20

More Commander updates!

Jan Dodonna
Clarity updates mainly.  Nothing worth noting specifically IMO.

Jun Sato
Entire rewrites and everything.  Removed a fair amount on trying to make a Sato squad heavy list worked and heavily borrowed from discussions from friends online/the experience of Steel Squadron.  I do recommend just going and reading the article if you want to, there's a good chunk of stuff there.

Leaving me left to update (this section is here for my notes, haha):
Garm
Rieekan
Ackbar
Leia (clearly I need to write more on her....)
Raddus (I don't think I need to do an intense update, but I could stand for some more)

Eric's post-Gencon thoughts

All right, so this is the second half of my Gencon report where I kind of ponder where the game is at. Like past thinkpieces, it's going to be contentious in places. You may not agree with me, and that's fine. Hell, I may not even agree with me in a few months 😅.

SSD hype
Everyone was loving the SSD teased at Gencon. We had a number of people coming by the tables interested in the game and considering getting in with the SSD. Good job, FFG. Just remember that a number of people play Rebels, too...

Aww yiss look at that evil lawn dart!

Eric Gencon 2018 report

So John's article is out there and I dallied a lot writing a super-article, only to decide it was probably best to divide it into two parts. So here's the actual Gencon report, post-Gencon thoughts will be its own separate thing.

Workable Insanity AKA John's GenCon Wrap-Up!

GenCon! The second best 4 days of gaming all year! (Sorry, slogan bros, I had fun at Worlds).  And as we vaguely remember from our previous article, John ran his stupid mouth and made a bet that he shouldn't have! How'd that go? What'd John run? And what did he learn? Let's hit the jump and see what happened!

Star of the Show

SSD teaser article is up!

Just in case you somehow missed it:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/8/3/executor-arrives/

Onwards to GenCon!

Just a general announcement that Eric and I will be at GenCon this year, playing in the Armada tournament on Saturday.  Eric will likely be wearing the Fair Game Tee shirt with the below Chicago Armada flag (designed by Jake, one of our locals).

My, kind of crit, Structural Is....

And I'll be in my usual Armada tie with its fancy pattern of dice symbols.  If you see us, feel free to stop by and say hi.  And if you can spare some love, I don't need you to believe in Leia.  I need you to believe in the ME who believes in Leia.

Do the impossible, play the unplayable: Row! Row! Fight the power!

See you all there!

SSD teased at Gencon

John and I will likely have more to say on Friday after FFG releases a proper article on the subject, but for now you can find the teaser images here:
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/280118-new-ssd-photos-info/

John Updates 7/23

I updated the Mon Mothma article (she's still good, guys! I didn't have much to add but I did clarify some ship usage suggestions with her)

And I added in 2 paragraphs to the "Running Squadronless" Squadrons Encyclopedia article, conveniently repasted below.

How do i know if my fleet can go squadronless?
I hesitate to recommend "squadronless" to anyone just starting out at playing the game, as it involves a bit of knowing what squadrons can do to your ships, what they can kill, where they can get to.  Yes, it sucks when Sloane's squadrons evaporate the tiny force you brought, but understanding what happens AFTER they evaporate is almost MORE important to understanding how to run squadronless.  Knowing WHAT your opponent can do with squadrons is key.  That may sound weird, that you have to know squadrons before you can stop using them, but the better you understand that part of the game, the better you can be at countering opponents who run it.  Think of it like a martial art; the better you KNOW Mantis or Crane or Tiger style, the better you can be at countering it.

There's no charge for awesomeness... or my advice!

It's not just a matter of "kill their carriers fast, I don't need squadrons."  If your 4 YT-2400s die every game but they allow you to tie up the entire Sloane squadron ball as you kill the carrier over 2 turns, that's a win for you (and a reason TO bring squadrons).  No matter what you run, you need to be able to know how to put the carrier DOWN fast with your ships.  Practice, practice, practice.

John Article Updates 7/21

I updated the Madine article.  Spoiler alert: you need a reason to not be taking Raddus, guys.  If you can find it, I think he still may have some uses.  If you can find it.

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/05/commanders-cornerknow-your-enemy-crix.html

DEAD LINK

If you're looking for Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer, it's been moved to the Imperial-specific upgrades article.

And the Mon Cal Exodus Fleet is in the Rebel-specific upgrades section.

Please leave a comment saying what has led you to this link; we ARE in process of updating all our articles and we can go make an edit to that article immediately.

Some article updates 7/10

I updated the fleet support upgrades article to better reflect the improved potency of Slicer Tools nowadays. I also updated the Arquitens article in several places, but particularly I focused more on when you might want to use a Command Arquitens.

Rebel Squad Pack II: A Re-Primer

So this is somewhat of a thinkpiece.....ish.  I'm not sure that I'm going to add it to the thinkpiece section, as this is about 4 specific squadrons more than anything else.  As everyone knows, I'm working on updating all my articles on the blog, as I have a fair amount that need some work in them (glances at Squadrons Encyclopedia, looks away askance).  But as I finished updating the basic squadrons article, I had a thought that may be worth exploring in some of my games (and potentially some of yours! Hence why I share!)

We're talking about these! Yes, you know of these!

John Updates 6/25

It's been a bit, and I've been busy as those video games aren't going to play themselves....

I have now updated all the Rebel squadron articles (I added stuff in the Lancers article and less stuff in the E-wings article), and did some minor work on some of the others (included the Biggs FAQ in Rieekan, for instance, and added a bit about Adar Tallon helping pre-command Rogues).

YT-1300s
YT-2400s
VCX-100s
Lancer Pursuit Craft
E-Wings
Z95 Headhunters

I'm currently hard at work (insert image of me slacking off and playing XCOM or dreaming up crazy new Leia lists and plans) on the "Running Squadronless" bit of the Squadrons Encyclopedia.  I need to update THOSE, too, but I'll likely hit some ships first. Followed by Commanders, then the squadron articles.  I'm aware the squadron articles need updates, especially in a Sloane world, but those take a fair amount of work to write.  I need to COMPLETELY redo the "Fighting 134 vs 134" one, just based on the fact that the Major Rhymer nerf effectively killed TIE Bombers.  Thrawn might be bringing them back, of course....  I promise I'm working on things, though, haha.

Apologies that I haven't really had any articles recently, just been.... lazy.  I don't have a good answer, sorry about that.  But it's not super easy to motivate yourself to update things when I'd rather write a new article instead.  Anyways, like I said, I AM working on running squadronless, so expect that one soon.  Writing the Squadron Pack II articles has made me reconsider things a bit there, so potentially expect a quick bit on that by the end of the week (Friday night if I'm very lucky, haha!)

But Oh, Those Summer Nights!

Yeah, I titled this after a Grease lyric.  Deal, haha.  The alternative title to this post is "John Needs to Learn to Shut His Stupid Mouth!" as I plan on updating you on the best time of year: Rex Manning Day Store Championship Season

I watched this movie recently.  It does NOT hold up and I strongly endorse you to avoid it like the PLAGUE

Eric's post-Worlds wave 7-ish thoughts

So similar to John's more recent article, I wanted to get my thoughts down in one place about some things that have been kind of bouncing around in my brain since Worlds.You'll probably note that John and I have been thinking/talking about some of the same things. I also suspect I'll say something others won't agree with 100%, so be aware this is going to be more contentious than my usual articles are.

John Article Updates

Updated as of 6/3

X-wing (clarity, mainly, but I also separated the aces into their own paragraphs)
Y-wing (clarity as well)
A-wing (clarity)
B-wing (clarity)
HWK-290s (clarity)
Scurrgs (clarity)

I added a "How to Use Them" section to everything but the X-wing (as it already had it!), just to try making them a little more helpful.  I've been busy, but I'm working on these all.  I'm finishing up the other squadrons, but felt I could stand to get this all out now.  Minor wording changes, etc.

The YT1300 needs an overhaul, the YT2400 needs me to have time to look at it, and and then I've got the OTHER squadrons, too.  And the ships, commanders, etc.....

I'm working on them all I swear!

Guest article: Nathan Coda's Worlds report!

John and I asked our fellow Worlds attendees from the greater Chicagoland area if they were interested in sharing their own take on their Worlds experience and Nathan Coda (you know, that Nathan Coda, haha) volunteered. It's not too late for you, Nick G., Nick L., or Jack! Without further ado, here's what Nathan has to say:

Hello fellow Admirals! I’m Nathan Coda, originally of the Twin Cities, most recently of Chicagoland. I’ve been practicing for worlds this year with Eric and John, and they were kind enough to invite me to contribute to their blog with an overview of my 2018 worlds experience. Which, in general, went pretty okay for me.

That's me!

This year was my third worlds tournament, and I am consistently impressed with the caliber and quality of people that I meet there. Everyone I met was positive and a pleasure to talk with, no matter how their games were going. It’s extremely awesome to be able to hang out with people who are all so passionate about the game and geek out about it with them.

Does anyone else remember when Rieekan came out with the MC30, and everyone thought he was the worst? He sure showed us, huh? Rieekan’s ability is not super sexy, but it does provide something I find critical for competitive play - consistency. Knowing your ship/squadron will be able to activate this turn, no matter what, makes the whims of the dice less impactful. You may kill my MC30 parked in front of your ISD with a lucky close-range double accuracy 7 damage shot. But I still get to activate to rip your shields off, so my bombers can start hammering your hull. That’s why I’ve run Rieekan the last 3 years for worlds - he makes sure those clutch plays go through.

While I always bring a significant ship threat to a game, I find that I really enjoy the intricacies of the squadron game. When I run without squadrons, I feel like I’m playing half a game. So I’m generally running 90-134 points of squadrons with my builds, with different squadron selection for almost every tournament. For worlds this year, I was having trouble making Yavaris click without a built-in FCT move. Adar Tallon can help with that, but I didn’t like how he fit with my flotilla builds. Just messing around, I decided to add Hera to the list. And man, she just made the squadron loadout gel. She can help ensure good Yavaris placement for the next round while getting some good early rogue damage in. Plus, she can be super obnoxious against non-squadron lists, harassing early and often with rogue bomber friends. I’m looking forward to messing around with her in some other lists.

Hera and friends

I’m not going to go into detail about my games here - if you want an (admittedly dry) summary, you can find it here. Instead, I’m just going to provide commentary around some of my game highlights in this article. Note that, although there’s not a highlight from each of my games, every one of my opponents were great. They all played a good game and were excellent people. I look forward to when we next have the chance to push plastic spaceships at each other.

We do a lot to try to mitigate luck in Armada. At the end of the day, though, it’s a dice game, and luck happens. My third game of swiss was up against Dennis (Tokra) and his Sloane Aces list. He had done an excellent set of activations over two turns, trading Howlrunner for my 3 YT-1300s, Jan, and a Scuurg. I had done some chip damage to his remaining squadrons, and they were hanging around the station to repair. Ten Numb with Toryn has a 58% chance to crit on one shot, which makes it a 33% chance to trigger him on both shots of a double tap. Not impossible, but not super likely. For this game, though, he was feeling especially heroic, and turned the game dramatically in my favor - at the end of that round of shooting, only Jendon remained. I can take credit for some of the squadron placement, but I was seriously sweating Tokra’s rough treatment of my squadrons and was not at all confident I could salvage anything. But sometimes you just have to roll the dice and see what happens.

Not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need

My fourth game of Swiss with Eric also ended with a good serving of luck - you can read more about that in his excellent blog post here. However, for me, this game was far more about the mistakes I made. It’s hard to look at a decision and understand completely how it impacted a game, but it’s often easy to realize after the fact when you made a bad move. In this game, Eric had to kill my two real ships to win, and I had to keep them alive. There was no way my MC80 could get away - it just had to take down as many ships as it could with it. No, what I really needed to do was get Yavaris away. I started out great with my MC80 cutting right and Yavaris cutting left, flying past each other. But then I slowed Yavaris down, rammed a transport, then ran over both a debris field and an asteroid, before finally running into a hammerhead to explode - all while only providing minor contributions to the actual fight. Again, it’s hard to say what would have happened if I had flown differently - Eric would have changed his plan to compensate for sure. But mistakes were certainly made.

My final game against Yik was a brutal squadron slugfest. I really enjoy the squadron game, and it was an absolute pleasure to play such a technical and competitive game. We both caught some luck and made some mistakes, but the challenge and skillful play was fun throughout. And that’s really what matters at the end of the day. I’ve been knocked out of elimination the last two years, but even losing, it’s always been good games with good people, so I’ve kept coming back. This year was my year, but I’m looking forward to building new lists and playing more games with this great community.

Where Do We Go, and Why Do We Fight?

So instead of fixing any of those articles like I mentioned, I'm instead first going to do something slightly different.  These are just a few things I wanted to discuss, and since, you know, our blog, I get to do THIS first before moving back into updates and all.  They're all rather short, so they don't need individual articles.  Since they all somewhat relate, you get this amalgam of thinkpieces.

The 90s were a weird time, kids.

Eric's Worlds 2018 report

Sorry for a bit of a delay, I've had a lot of things to catch up on after Worlds. Let's talk Worlds!

First and foremost, I highly recommend going to anyone who can snag a ticket. I had a great time playing games as well as meeting people I otherwise only knew online. It was overall a really fun time. Even if you show up, get stomped every game, and then do the team game at the end (and lose that), you'll still get something like an alt-art Leia and earn enough tickets for something sweet like a frosted gloss Gladiator-I!

Decades later and Chewbacca still doesn't get a medal!

Stay frosty, my friends

Transmissions from the Medical Center: John's Post-Worlds Wrap Up

So, Eric and I just got back from Worlds, and my immediate first action is to of course start blogging my experience.  Because I REMAIN a giant nerd.

What it felt like around the top table this year. Dibs on being Chewie.

Nebulon Article Updated!

Mainly hit the Yavaris bits and nerf, though I threw in a few pieces in the Salvation part too.  Redemption remains.... a title you can take.

Anyways, working on the MC75 article nowish, expect it.....hopefully before Worlds? April's been wonky for me, sorry for the time it's taken to get this out, and make my edits to.... a LOT of articles still (stupid helpful Raddus! Making all sorts of ships and builds viable again!)

Anyways, Neb link:
http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/02/nebulon-bs-jousting-for-fun-and-profit.html

Nerf-Related Articles, v 1.1

John's working on some of the articles, and here's what I've finished up so far.

• Support Teams! (specifically Fighter Coordination Teams related)
• B-wings! (again, FCT related)
• Generic Officer Friends! (Strategic Adviser, Flight Commander with respect to? That's right, FCT)
• GR75 article (stole Eric's writeup of the rules changes and removed many of my jokes about not addressing controversy involved in their usages, haha)
• Assault Frigate article (Gallant Haven bit)
• VCX article! (minor changes to it, but I didn't really discuss Relay much there, so not much to talk about, actually.

I'm aware I still haven't updated the Large Ships of the Rebellion for potential Raddus drops.  I blame in no particular order: my job, general laziness, TV series that need to be watched (ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER), and my attempts to build a list for Worlds, that thing we're going to.  At least my montage sequence is going alright?

Yavaris/the Neb article is going to need a substantial update and build section; so, you know, soon?  I would update the X-wing article with the Biggs FAQ bit, but I'm more likely going to put that in there and under Rieekan, and I have plans on rewriting that X-wing article anyways.  It's one of my first ones and my style wasn't refined then.  That's right, it needs more Muppet jokes.

We're working on them, we promise, haha.

Nerf-related articles updated, v1.0

Updated the articles in my wheelhouse, which comes down to:

• The ISD article has been updated in a few ways:
• The Avenger title is now corrected, with some of the explanation text changed as well to reflect that.
• The Chimaera title discussion is now clarified by the FAQ - specifically, the fleet command upgrades are merely replaced and don't form a confusing discard pile.
• Updated the ISD-I Avenger Boarding Troopers build to use XI7 Turbolasers to further focus the side arc attack even after Avenger has been used.
• The Lambda-class Shuttle and Squadron Keywords articles have been updated to reflect the Relay nerf.
• The Gozanti article has been updated to include the new flotilla restrictions from the flotilla nerf.
• The tournament structure article has been updated to clarify that you get tabled when all your non-flotilla ships are destroyed.
• The anti-Avenger Boarding Troopers article has been updated to reflect the Avenger nerf and a segment has been added about Avenger attack order keeping that in mind. 
• The anti-flotilla article has been updated to reflect the flotilla nerf. A lot of text was removed, actually, because the big segments on what to do about Relay abuse were no longer necessary. Added a small reminder on tabling once only flotillas (or nothing) is left.

John will have his own adjustments to make and I guarantee I missed something somewhere. The process of amending articles once nerfs happen is never as easy as I think it will be: I was finding incorrect Rhymer references in articles for months after the last update, hidden in places I didn't expect to find him. If you spot something, please drop us a line at CGYSOblog@gmail.com or comment on the article. Thanks!

New FAQ/erratas are up!

Holy crap, a lot just happened. Let's cover it! I'll be covering it in order and then John will be making commentary in a color of his choosing below that. The text from the article will be quoted below where relevant:

We're heading to Worlds!

I wanted to post a quick update to make it official that John and I are both headed to Worlds this year (in case you missed it in John's recent montage-focused post). I got in on the initial ticket run and John was able to get his ticket on Saturday. That is pretty exciting, but it also means that we're going to be focusing on getting in as much practice as we can in April. That doesn't mean no articles at all, but it will likely mean less than usual as our free time goes towards our respective training montages. It's also going to mean a certain amount of secrecy about what exactly we're planning to bring, but we'll definitely be covering Worlds once/after we're there, so look forward to that in early May!

No pressure, it's just the most competitive Armada meta in the entire world, we'll be fine, right?

Training Montages and You: Worlds Preparations!

So, Saturday March 31st, I purchased a ticket to Worlds.  I'll be playing on Thursday, May 3rd, hoping to make my way into the Finals on Friday (May the 4th be with me?).  Let's talk about the most important part of preparing for Worlds: the motivational montage.

I HAVE, in fact, run up the steps of the Philly Art Museum.

Imperial article updates

I've done some smaller revisions to older articles, bringing the following articles up to date:

• Quasar article cleaned up a bit, builds updated, and includes discussion on new wave 7 officer options.
• Tarkin article updated to note interaction with Sovereign title.
• Annulling Avenger Boarding Troopers article updated to include Bail and Pryce as counter-options as well as a mention of Captain Brunson.

Eric's Adepticon wrap-up

Adepticon had a Thursday and a Saturday tournament this year, both 3 rounds. I attended both events. Adepticon is always fun and there's so much to see and do, I highly recommend going if you can. This year was the Legion launch party, so FFG was there in force and Legion was selling like hotcakes. This isn't a Legion blog, however, so let's cover the 2018 Adepticon Armada tournaments!

John's Adepticon Write-Up!

So, first, this is going to be a bit longer, as I combine what I remember of Thursday into what I do of Saturday.  Thursday I got more out of (as it's going to let me write the Deadbeat Daddus article) FOR THE BLOG, but Saturday I got more out of FOR ME, so, you know, wash.

I'll be there for you, Mal. Cassian said I had to.

Interdictor article updated!

I'll be posting up synopses of Adepticon eventually, but the short version is: I got second place on Thursday and took first on Saturday. Both times I had an Interdictor in my fleet and I loved the thing. Interdictors are a legit thing in competitive play now and so I rewarded the oft-maligned triangle with an updated article to reflect that. In particular, the "Tanky Tech Triangle" build and some of the discussion on upgrades (Brunson and Heavy Ion Emplacements) has been added.

Boarding teams article updated

Darth Vader and Jyn Erso have been added to the boarding teams article:

I'm in ur ship, killin ur doodz lol

Darth Vader seems to keep popping up in new places in the game, and in this case that place is aboard the enemy ship, discarding one of their upgrades that isn't a commander. Fierce! The only rule reminder is that Vader can only be used once in a fleet in any capacity, so no using him when he's already your commander or on a TIE Advanced, for example.

Some enemy fleets are relying on ships with specific upgrades to really go nuts (for example, the Home One and Yavaris titles can define entire fleets) and Vader can punish them. However, some fleets just... aren't. Going out of your way to include Vader on a ship where the sacrifices in upgrade slots makes it otherwise pretty bad (like on either Raider chassis, for example) isn't a reliable gamble for that reason. Vader does have a home, however, on ships that were planning on getting to close range anyways and can do fine without otherwise filling an offensive retrofit and weapon team slot, most notably the Kuat ISD (and to a lesser extent, the VSD-I). Vader is also used pretty flexibly in this regard as he can definitely try to use his lightsaber sharpie to graffiti titles (Home One? More like Home None, amirite?) and other fleet-buff upgrades like fleet commands and the like, but is also quite useful at stripping off defensive upgrades like Electronic Countermeasures, Lando or the Adomonition title prior to your Kuat opening fire.

For extra fun times, see if you can get Vader to trash some Rapid Launch Bays or the Profundity title before the equipped ship can put the models inside on the table 😈.

Hey whatever happened to her, anyways?

Jyn Erso can be used in two ways: either she can hit a ship to give it 2 raid tokens or she can gain you a victory token when boarding an objective ship. Let's talk about the raid tokens first. In short, when used this way Jyn Erso is a worse Cham Syndulla. Both raid tokens can be cleared by discarding a command dial or if the ship in question has good token coverage, they can be removed individually by discarding the corresponding tokens. It's an annoyance no doubt and in the right circumstances it could be a clutch annoyance, but Cham in general is superior at those kinds of command-screwage tricks and his sabotage can persist through multiple rounds. Jyn at the very least is likely superior against Command 1 ships, but they have the weakest command resolutions overall, so that's not really a lot to brag about.

Where Jyn gets particularly interesting is her victory-token use. There are plenty of objectives with ships that have objective tokens, but what she needs is an objective like that that also has meaningful victory tokens. At the moment, that list is rather short: Blockade Run (when you are first player only), Intel Sweep, and Capture the VIP.

Intel Sweep in particular can be an interesting objective to include with Jyn because she allows you to harvest 2 victory tokens in one round - one from her boarding the enemy objective ship and one from your own objective ship grabbing a token. That can create an almost-insurmountable lead in an objective that normally tops out at 5 possible victory tokens where each side can only grab one per round. It also means that Jyn's ship might be able to destroy the enemy objective ship after boarding it, which should have Intel Sweep wrapped up nicely for you. Capture the VIP is a bit weirder - you need to board whichever ship currently has the VIP, at which point you'll get a victory token worth 50 points. If your enemy keeps the VIP, it's a wash. If you take the VIP back, you'll end up with a 100 point gain. This is another circumstance where if you can not only board the objective ship but then destroy it, you're nearly certain to get a big windfall of points.

Because of how the objectives work, Jyn seems best when used by the first player in Capture the VIP or Blockade Run and works fine on either side with Intel Sweep. Therefore she's not really the kind of thing you can really build your objective suite around (besides Intel Sweep, and she can kind of be a failsafe for screwing up Capture the VIP I suppose), but she can be helpful for picking opposing objectives.

Adepticon 2018!

John and I (and many of our Armada friends) are hitting up Adepticon tomorrow for the first of two 3-round tournaments (the second being on Saturday). At this point, I've played over a dozen games using wave 7 and I still feel like there are a lot of things I want to try and that the meta hasn't come close to settling just yet as the community processes everything, reacts to currently-hot builds and then counter-builds, etc. Suffice it to say that is cause for some concern but also excitement, as I'm very curious to see what everyone brings. John and I will be updating once we've recuperated with some tournament reports and the like, I'm sure. Keep your eyes peeled!

If anyone is there looking for us, the plan for Thursday (and Saturday for me, provided I can get laundry done on Friday) is to wear our Chicagoland Armada t-shirts. They're blue with the Chicago flag, but Armada-style. Most of the guys in our group will be wearing theirs, but just ask for John or Eric and either you'll have found us or you'll find someone who can point you our way!

Updated ISD article!

The new ISD article retains some elements of the previous one, but it's pretty much been reworked from the ground up to include the new titles, Kuat, and Cymoon but keep the total length about the same due to some streamlining. Normally I post the new bits in these update articles, but I'd just be reposting the entire article, so go give it a look!

Rebel Officer Updates!

Bail and Draven in the Rebel Officers section!

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/06/rebel-officers.html

Imperial-class Star Destroyer article under construction

It's time to update the ISD article to wave 7, which means it's going to be temporarily unavailable as I rebuild a lot of it from the ground up. With two new chassis available in wave 7, I'm going to be changing the article around to try to make all that raw information as digestible as possible.

Caitken and Shollan added to weapon teams article

Continuing to update the blog to wave 7 by adding the Caitken and Shollan to the weapon team article:

"Seriously, Caitken, clear your browser history before sharing this thing. I've seen things that can't be unseen."

Imperial officers updated to wave 7

This is a more substantial update, this time to the Imperial officers article, and here are the four new contestants:

Defensive Retrofit Updates

Added in EWS, updated AP and Cluster Bombs.  Hit the jump for the relevant portions:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-best-defensive-retrofits.html

Intensify Firepower Update!

Updated the fleet commands with Intensify Firepower! (text below, Pelta updates later....)

Generic Officers Update

Strategic Adviser is in the generic officers section! Text below!

Ordnance article overhauled, Wide-Area Barrage and Ordnance Pods added

The ordnance article has been reworked from the top down, given we have 2 more options now in wave 7 and the old "brackets" system would, over time, become ponderous and unhelpful. I also streamlined it a bit to keep it from getting too long given the extra upgrades. Of relevance to wave 7, I added sections on Ordnance Pods and Wide-Area Barrage:

Hardened Bulkheads added to Offensive Retrofits

Continuing to slowly but surely update articles to wave 7 by adding Hardened Bulkheads to the offensive retrofits article:

Raider-II section updated to include Heavy Ion Emplacements

Heavy Ion Emplacements make a huge difference to Raider-IIs and that is now reflected in the Raider article. Later on I'll be updating the VSD(-II) and Interdictor build sections of their articles to mention HIEs, but likely won't make too much noise about it. It bears mentioning for the Raider-II, though. Here's the relevant section:

Heavy Ion Emplacements

John and I are getting around to updating older articles due to wave 7 (the list is very long). As it was in wave 6, we're trying to thread the needle between "getting new information up as soon as possible" and "actually having some experience with what we're discussing," so don't be too surprised if earlier impressions are later updated in light of a greater depth of experience later on.

For now, I've updated the ion cannons article - there was a bit of editing but primarily I updated the article with a section on Heavy Ion Emplacements:

Scruffy-looking nerf herders: the search for a fix to flotilla-spam

Let me get this out of the way early: this is likely to be a somewhat controversial article. In short, there has been a lot of talk online lately about flotillas and Relay and their effects on the competitive scene. I wanted to catch folks up who might be unaware of the discussion and give my own thoughts on the matter.

Overall, John and I are pretty positive about the game and we like to keep negativity to a minimum on the blog (for example, I don't personally think an Interdictor is the sort of thing I would currently bring to a competitive event, but I think they're fun in casual play and can be used well enough under the right circumstances and that's what I try to focus on in their write-up). That said, there are going to be some negative sentiments expressed a bit further in, so buckle up and get ready for some turbulence.

C3PO still has time for bicep curls in an asteroid field. That's dedication to arm day, right there.

Monster Truck Madness!

Highlight of my second computer, guys.  This and/or Age of Empires. Wololololol.....

With wave 7 dropping Thursday here in America, Eric and I figured it was time to mention the new and amazing format we helped to craft for its arrival.  The rules of MONSTER TRUX are simple:

1) 800 point fleets, 200 points of squadrons maximum
2) Your Commander must ride on a Large based ship
3) No small bases allowed.

That's it, that's the rules.  So no flotillas, no CR90s, no MC30s with the Admonition title, no Demolisher.  You're taking those Medium and Large based ships and smashing them together like Monster Trucks in a dirt stadium.  It's insane, it's dumb, and it's the best format ever.

Our friend Matt in Atlanta is working on creating a Vassal tournament for this all, but we're more excited to try this out in real life with whatever we have.  Imagine: a format where Konstantine isn't terrible! Where Garm can hand out 15-16 tokens turn 1!  Where you can field 4 named ISDs of all different flavors!  Where Sato and Nym can show up with an MC75 Ordnance Cruiser, where Thrawn can command the REAL 7th fleet!


Put your large bases on the table this THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY!  Choose Blockade Run and get into the insanity faster! You'll pay for the whole Large Base but you'll only need THE EDGE!!!!!!

This Quasar tastes delicious!

Happy birthday to us!

Cannot Get Your Ship Out turned 1 today, and my wife surprised me and John at our local Armada night at Fair Game with a cake, which was shared by all!

It's got Yoda, it's got an X-Wing stuck in a swamp, it's got an upside-down troop transport, it's glorious.

I'm already bigger than John, but when I'm closer to the camera, I look HUGE compared to him

I think I can speak for John and me in saying it's been a fun year! I'm impressed at how much we've written so far in one year and I'm looking forward to continuing to work on the blog into the future, covering new topics and refining older articles to keep everything relevant as the game continues to develop. Thanks for reading!

Eric's Indianapolis 2018 recap

All right, so I'm a little bit behind John's quite lengthy summary, and mine is going to be a bit shorter. I too went to the Indianapolis Regional and I had a good time there - Family Time Games held a good event and the complimentary food was quite nice and not something I'd seen before at an event like that. I ended up getting 7th out of 38 people (with 28 tournament points), which got me my goal of some fancy acrylic scatter tokens and I also picked up some of the fancy new Regionals dice too!

John's 2018 Indy Recap!

So, Eric and I went to Indianapolis. This post gets long, and somewhat more blathery than usual for me, so let's hit the jump for a lot here.  Explanation of why I brought what I brought, short writeups on my matches and the tournament itself, thoughts on my list, what I learned/didn't, and where I'm going from here.

Pic related and stolen from Reddit. <Waves>

John's Indy Regionals Fleet!

Here's what I'm bringing today.  It's indie, so it's pretty far underground, you probably haven't heard of it.

Man, I wish I wasn't 8 in 1994 so I could have seen this.

Commander: Leia Organa

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Flight Commander  ( 3  points)
-  Fighter Coordination Team  ( 3  points)
= 68 total ship cost

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
= 42 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 40 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 40 total ship cost

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Leia Organa  ( 38  points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
= 91 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Toryn Farr  ( 7  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 33 total ship cost

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points)
1 B-Wing Squadron ( 14 points)
1 Gold Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Dagger Squadron ( 15 points)

Updates with how it went, why I took this, and what I hoped to do/learn from this at some point this weekend (Sunday, the answer is probably Sunday).

Eric's Indianapolis fleet list

More commentary later on, but this is what I'm running at the regional today! No objectives on this one, but I'll provide more detail later.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 386/400

Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Skilled First Officer  ( 1  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Proton Torpedoes  ( 5  points)
= 84 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Admiral Ozzel  ( 20  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 71 total ship cost

4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)

Headed to Indianapolis!

A quick note to announce that John and I will be in Indianapolis tomorrow for their Regional. If anyone is there looking for us to say hi, John will be in a sweater and tie and I plan to wear a ridiculous Freeport Pretzels t-shirt (hometown represent!). We'll also have a few (I believe 4) of our Fair Game buddies coming with us.

They're saying prepare for 5 rounds at worst so if you're coming out, prepare for some intense brain burn. I'm expecting at least one ship will be needlessly lost to in large part due to "my brain hurts," haha. They also put out the call for mats, so bring spare mats if you have them. Registration is at 10 (Indiana time*) and play begins at 11. We hope to see a few of you there!

*Remember that Indianapolis is in the Eastern time zone because Indiana is weird, so it's an hour ahead of Illinois (or other Central time zone) time.

Fighting Fleets: Admonishing Admonition!

So today's the day I give it all away: the secret to fighting MC30s. All the Rebel players are going to look at me betrayed because of what I'm doing, but this is for the health of the game.

I could be talking about ANY specific title on this ship!

Fighting Fleets: Annulling Avenger Boarding Troopers

WITH AVENGER GETTING SERIOUSLY NERFED IN 1.5, THIS IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE. I'VE DE-LINKED THIS ARTICLE BUT LET IT REMAIN FOR ANYONE LOOKING FOR A VIEW INTO THE PAST.

There's a bit of a boogeyman haunting certain communities nowadays and it takes the form of an Avenger Boarding Troopers ISD (hereafter referred to by its much-shortened online initialization, ABT). Let's have a short talk about that and what you can do about it.

Obvious combo is obvious, but also pretty mean.

MC75 HOT TAKES!

Fresh fish! Get your fresh, fishly takes here!

I say we preview! - Admiral Raddus, if he was a blogger