Blockade Run is not a typical objective you will see in Armada. It's not a bonus for being second, and it can be a trap against certain fleets (looking at you Interdictor and Tractor Beams). But, you can also catch someone completely off guard if they have never played against it, so today we will breakdown both how to play this objective as well as against it. This one will be a longer article, so skip the parts that don't apply to your fleet 😋
Fleets that favor Blockade Run for points are fast moving MSU lists. For Imperials, this really disqualifies any fleet that isn't purely Raider spam, as anything slower than Speed 3 is going to struggle to make it across no man's land in this objective. For Rebels, almost any pure small base fleet is going to be able to capitalize on their speed to take advantage of positioning mistakes by their opponent.
However, there is a way to play this objective that you may not have considered; ignore the objective and take advantage of the deployment to control your opponent's space to maneuver. Fleets that favor this play style would be built around something like an ISD or MC80 Liberty.
Small Ships
As far as strategies, small bases can either play boom and zoom, or catch and release with their opponent. Boom and zoom is a concept from WW2 where planes would utilize high altitude to get above their target, then dive to rapidly pick up speed. In Armada, start your ships off around speed 2 to see where your opponent telegraphs, then spend a Nav Token and Dial to get up to speed four and zoom past the blockade. For catch and release, the strategy is similar, but more fitted for small black dice ships like the Raider or MC30. You want to pick an area of the board to draw your opponent in (since they want to kill you, they'll likely take the bait). You'll start the game spread out across the board, but the intent is to jump in the kill zone when the opponent arrives there with as many of your ships as you can to kill or at least cripple them, then make your escape. This strategy is a lot more risky, but can net you much bigger Margin of Victory.
Big Ships
For big ships, you just need to stick to your Nav Commands and lean on the board to do the hard work for you. Remember, the opponent has to kill more of your ships to win since you are the only one that can net points from the objective. Much like catch and release, set up a kill zone to draw your opponent in. You'll need to keep your ships closer together since you can't maneuver as cleanly as your small base friends, but the concept overall is pretty similar.
Playing against this, you want to not be over-committed to any side of the board. Play low and slow, keep one ship further back to catch any ships that attempt to bypass your spearhead. Blocking movement can be what wins or loses this match, so focus on using Nav Commands to position yourself to counter moves two turns out.
Commander wise, Leia is a great pick for a Boom and Zoom strategy since she gives you the double nav natively gives you a double nav command. Madine and Mothma both work pretty well for the Catch and Release strategy as they allow you lots of flexibility (Madine) or resilience (Mothma) to set up and execute your ambush. Imperial commanders, either Ozzel for B&Z or Jerjerrod for C&R for small base and (Hold your breath ladies and gentlemen) Konstantine (Yes, Special K himself) for large ships.
Hold on, did this guy seriously just say Konstantine? This must be some kind of out of season April Fools joke...
Well, it's not, and here's why. We just discussed how this objective is all about movement and controlling your opponent. What does Konstantine do well? Mess with your opponent's ability to move. With limited space on the board, you will be able to use that ability comboed with Tractor Beams to keep your opponent stuck in the deadly front arc of your menacing ISDs and if they mismanage themselves, speed them up to send them off the board. Is it competitive? Probably not, but it is fun 😁
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