Star Wars: Armada AAR

Started by Silent Disapproval Robot, November 14, 2015, 04:40:34 AM

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Silent Disapproval Robot

In most cases players place ships as you describe by taking turns placing one ship or two squadrons down at a time. There are a few objective cards that alter the placement order though.  As part of your fleet build, you have to select 3 objective cards from a deck of 12.  The player who spent the least amount of points has the choice of taking initiative or ceding it to the other player.  The player who has initiative hands his chosen objective cards to the other player who then selects which of the three cards will be used in the match.  Most cards give an added benefit to the player without initiative which is why you might want to cede it to the other player.

Silent Disapproval Robot


LongBlade

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Silent Disapproval Robot

#18
I had another game tonight using a slightly modified build.  I pulled Wulff Yularen off the Raider and put him on the ISD and I switched out the X17 turbo lasers for heavy turbo laser turrets.  I switched up my objective cards and the rebel player chose Hyperspace Assault.  This let me put the Gladiator aside and bring it in on a later turn at one of three jump points I placed on the map prior to set up.

Worked like a charm!  The rebels came in with a heavily up-gunned MC80 cruiser with Ackbar and the usual suspect cards, an MC30 frigate with the guaranteed 8 damage/turn, and an Assault Frigate with X17 lasers and tractor beams.

The rebels tried going for the staggered line so they could use Ackbar and the side arcs.  The Assault frigate was out front followed by the MC30 and finally the cruiser in the rear.  I put everything to speed three and charged in with my ISD, the Raider, and my 3 bomber squadrons.  Turn one was spent closing the distance.  On turn two, my raider started at point blank range of the Assault Frigate and was able to land some decent hits before flying past it.  I thought I'd be able to get behind an asteroid for some cover from the MC30 and the MC80 but I couldn't quite reach so I just barreled in towards the MC30 in the hopes that the raider would draw fire and prevent the ISD from getting hit hard early on.  It worked.  The MC30 blew the Raider apart with one volley but that saved the ISD from taking a pounding.

The ISD used its front volley to hit the Assault Frigate from medium range and landed a massive hit, blowing it apart.  That definitely took the wind out of the Rebel's sails.  The MC80 cruiser moved up but wasn't close enough to get a shot off at the ISD and had to content itself with firing at the bombers.  One of my jump points was ideally positioned behind the MC30 and just to the left of the MC80 so I brought the Gladiator in at the jump point on turn two.  I positioned the Gladiator in such a way that it was able to get two firing arcs on the MC30 and the combo of assault concussion missiles from two arcs was enough to take it down.

The MC80 really didn't stand much of a chance at this point.  It managed to knock 3 hull points off the Gladiator and 4 off the ISD but it went down hard on turn 5 with no shields on any of its facings three criticals on it.

I scored 400 points to the Rebel's 61.  Very satisfying!

I'm convinced that the ECM card is now pretty much a necessity on any Star Destroyer.  The ability to use brace saved my ships in this scenario.  I suspect the Rebels will start dropping the X17 lasers in favour of the heavy turbo laser turrets in order to stop the Imperials from using their brace tokens.

LongBlade

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

RedArgo

We played the beginner scenario this afternoon.  My son played the Imperials, 1 star destroyer and 6 tie fighters, against my nebulon frigate, corvette, and 4 x-wings.  I messed up and flew my frigate in front of his sd and he blew it apart in 2 turns.  Meanwhile my x-wings destroyed all his tie fighters with no losses.  He ended up not planning his moves well, the sd has to plan 3 turns in advance, and his sd left the playing area ending the battle as an alliance victory (plus it was time for dinner).

Seems like a fun game, we will have a rematch soon!

Silent Disapproval Robot

Good stuff.  It took me a few games before I came to grips with just what a lumbering hulk the VSD is.  The key is to point it where you think the Rebels will go, not to where they are now.  You also don't want to try to chase them towards the corners or the edges of the map because they can turn, you can't.  I found it's a good move to plot your first or second action as a navigate command and then take and retain the nav token just in case you need to drop to speed 1 or 0.


eyebiter

What type of play surface was that - paper, felt, pvc, or a rubber mat?

Did you see what type of storage box or container they were using for the various armada miniatures, cards, and tokens?

Silent Disapproval Robot

They're felt mats.  They're made by a company called Hotzmats.com but we got them from a local game store.

The storage boxes are home made.  You can print out and make your own if you'd like.  You just need a printer capable of printing on cardstock paper.

The templates are here.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/117164/cardholders-carrierboxes