Star Wars: Armada AAR

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've been fiddling around with fleet builds for Armada now that the new Wave III and IV ships are out.  I'm partial to carrier fleets that can support large numbers of bomber squadrons.  Setting up an effective bomber fleet while playing as the Empire was relatively straightforward but building a decent one with the Rebels has proven much trickier.  I think this newest fleet I build might do the trick.  It's got the potential to deal out massive damage in one turn but it requires proper deployment and you always have to keep proper unit activation sequencing in mind.  I've flown it twice now.  The first time out, it wiped the board by turn 4.  Today's fight was much closer but the fleet still managed to earn a win. 

Here's the build.  It's designed for a 400 vs 400 point battle.  There are only three capital ships in the fleet but quite a number of squadrons.

Flagship:

An MC80 class Command Cruiser with Garm Bel Iblis as the admiral.  Adar Tallon is on board to act as the tac air(space) controller and allow a squadron to activate twice per round.  Boosted comms allows the cruiser to control squadrons at a longer range than normal and the figher coordination team keeps the squadrons moving in tandem with the Cruiser.









The Yavaris Nebulon-B escort frigate, acting as a smaller escort carrier.  I use this one to control the bombers the Yavaris variant allows squadrons to fire twice if they don't move.  It also has turbolaser reroute circuits to give it a bit more hitting power and a veteran captain commanding.








Finally, the Bright Hope transport flotilla acts as a dedicated bomber control centre designed to compliment the Yavaris.  These things are unarmed and made of glass but they're cheap!  The Bright Hope card makes them a little more robust, but not greatly so.  The Bomber command centre gives any bombers within range greater accuracy.  Toryn Farr improves accuracy even further, provided she's close enough.






That's it for capital ships.  Fighter and bomber squadrons consist of:

3 X-Wing squadrons.  They're there chiefly to provide escort for the bombers but they can act as bombers themselves if necessary.  They'll be directed mainly by the MC80





2 B-Wing squadrons.  I'm relying on these guys and Nym to dish out most of the damage.  They'll be directed by the Yavaris.





Elite pilot Nym flying the Havoc.  His ability to strip capital ships of their defences is awesome. 




Elite pilot Jan Ors flying the Moldy Crow.  She's not great in combat.  She's here for two purposes.  She can fly with the B-Wings in order to allow them to slip out of engagement with enemy squadrons and attack capital ships instead thanks to her Intel ability.  She can also lend her defence tokens to nearby squadrons in order to keep them in the fight longer.




Han Solo in the Millenium Falcon.  Han's there just to act like a dick.  His ability to move and attack before anyone else will let him surge out ahead and tie up any enemy fighters that might otherwise attack my bombers. 




The basic idea for this fleet is to get the B-Wings and Nym in front of whatever the largest enemy ship happens to be and use the Yavaris's ability to let them fire twice each.  That's 12 blue/black dice per turn from just those 3 bombers.  Add in the rerolls from Toryn and the Bright Hope and that's a hell of a lot of potential damage.  Add in the 3 red dice from the Yavaris, one of which is guaranteed 2 hits and the possibility of Solo joining in the fun, that's 17 dice per turn.  It should be able to take down even the biggest Star Destroyers in a single turn.


The idea didn't work out so well in today's game.  The other player got to choose the mission parameters and he went with Hyperspace Assault which meant I had to separate my fleet and delay the entry of the Yavaris and 3 squadrons until at least turn 2.

He came at me with an Imperial Star Destroyer, an Interdictor, and a hell of a lot of fighter/bomber squadrons consisting of 2 TIE Bombers sqns, 2 TIE fighters, 2 TIE advanced (one flown by Vader), 1 TIE interceptor, Dengar, and IG88.



Initial set up was pretty straightforward.  Both his pointy things aimed straight at me and his squadrons were in a giant ball of death. I angled my cruiser so I could use shots from its side arcs which are much more effective than the front.  The GR-75 transports used the cruiser as a screen.   The X-Wings and Jan Ors were out front with Han off on his own.  The Yavaris and the bombers were still in hyperspace.






Turn 1 saw the capital ships close the distance.  His leading fighters managed to get in range of my X-Wings and blasted two of the three squadrons into dust in the opening volley.  Vader took quite a bit of damage but was still flying.




The Yavaris jumped out of hyperspace on turn 2 along with the bombers.  They did exactly what I'd hoped for and pulverized the Interdictor before it could even fire a shot.



Unfortunately, the Yavaris couldn't turn tight enough to stay out of the front arc of the Star Destroyer and got absolutely hammered on turn 3.  Luckily, the volley didn't do enough damage to kill it outright so she and the bombers were able to hit the flank of the ISD hard.  I used the Yavaris to ram the ISD as its final act (it had only 1 HP left).




The Imperial Fighters managed to kill off Solo, Jan Ors, the remaining X-Wing squad, and one squad of B-Wings on turn 4.  The MC80 cruiser and the ISD traded fire at medium range and both ships got hurt pretty badly.




Turn 5 saw the last of the Rebel fighters get obliterated.  The ISD hit the cruiser again but wasn't able to do enough damage to take her down.  Her engineering teams were able to affect repairs and she destroyed the ISD with a close range volley from her side arc.  With the capital ships down, the Imperial fighters were forced to retreat and that was game.




I really should try to get this one the table more.  I always have a good time playing it.

Biggest mistake on my part was ceding first player status to the other guy and letting him select the objective.  I should have selected first player status myself in order to keep initiative. 

[JudgeDredd]

Good read thank you  O0

[MengJiao]

Good read thank you  O0

An astounding visual feast.  I laughed.  I cried.  I enjoyed the AAR.

[mirth]

Good read thank you  O0

+1 Great stuff!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Thanks all.  I really have to get a phone with a better camera (or give the camera to someone with a lesser case of delirium tremens...and I haven't even quit drinking yet).