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.