Since I started playing Armada, I have been a fan of playing mostly fun/fluff builds that had teeth but weren't exactly competitive. I enjoy the story that gets told on the board and the narrative you can craft behind what is going on in your particular battle. Maybe two of Ackbar's Capital ships have encountered an Imperial Blockade spearheaded by Moff Jerjerrod; or Thrawn's Seventh Fleet has intercepted Dodanna en route to a secret Rebel base. It's also what has inspired me to make alternative rule sets like One For All that ruin balance to create a different way to play.
But recently I have decided to take on a new challenge in building my first ever tournament list. The way I approached the process has been to design my list around 3 core tenets that apply in every list you build in Armada.
1. Have a playbook, not a game plan
Know it, love it, breathe it
Every list will have a preferred method to playing the game. Ackbar 80s want to chill at red range, Screed Glads want to close the gap fast, etc. However, you cannot depend on just one trick to get you to the goal line every game. You have to have planned out multiple approaches to not only put your fleet in a good position, but to turn the tables on your opponent's game plan.
2. Be prepared to go First or Second
In Armada, there only two options: First, and Not First
A lot of Fleets play heavy into having a bid for first, and occasionally second, but you should always be prepared for the one fleet that outbids you to throw you off because it will happen. Even if you're committed to a fleet that loves last-first, you need to think about good objectives that still allow your fleet to do what it needs to do to win the game. Conversely, if you built around Strategic Squadrons and Token Objectives, be ready to go on the offensive with your fleet.
3. The best offense is a great defense
Vader: He hates sand
I might lose some people here, but hear me out. A lot of fleets I have had or seen fail did so because they couldn't counter what their opponent was able to do to them. The best and clearest example is a fleet that is not prepared to handle squadrons. It doesn't mean you can't beat the fleet you're facing; it just means you have to play it perfectly AND have phenomenal dice luck. NEVER depend on the dice to carry your fleet, they will betray you sooner or later. This doesn't mean you have to bring your own squadrons (although that's a good way to counter them) but you should think of how effective your flak is and what you can do to slow the threat down. You should be prepared to see anything across the table and at least have something to do to protect yourself from what your opponent is going to do. If you can stop your opponent from doing what they want to do, chances are you will be able to do some of what you want to do.
So now that we've covered the foundation, let's talk about my Raddus V 1.0 List:
MC80 Battle Cruiser - 103 Points
- Admiral Raddus : 26 Points
- Gunnery Team : 7 Points
- Leading Shots : 4 Points
- XI7 Turbolasers : 6 Points
- Spinal Armament : 9 Points
- Mon Karren : 8 Points
= 163 Points
MC75 Ordnance Cruiser - 100 Points
- Major Derlin : 7 Points
- Ordnance Experts : 4 Points
- ECM : 7 Points
- APT : 5 Points
- External Racks : 3 Points
= 126 Points
Nebulon B Escort Frigate - 57 Points
- Linked Turbolaser Towers : 7 Points
- Redemption : 8 Points
=72 Points
Squadrons:
Shara Bey : 17 Points
Tycho Celchu : 16 Points
= 33 Points
Total Points: 394
This was my first crack at Raddus ever, so I had to think about what approach to take. IMO, if you're playing Raddus, your entire playbook should revolve around 1 core thing: your Raddus Drop. Since the FAQ, Raddus has been less of an MSU swarm where you can surprise your opponent to more of a Large Ship build so you guarantee Raddus survives to make the drop. My opinion is you have two choices for your Raddus Drop turn: you either drop turn 2 or turn 3. Turn 1 basically throws away the entire point of Raddus and you should've taken literally anyone else as your commander. Turn 4 you only allow yourself 3 turns of almost half your fleet and a good opponent will be able to kill your flagship before a turn 4 drop or at least force you out of the game for half of it. So it comes down to turn 2 or 3.
And this leads into Tenet 1: The Playbook. Turn 2 vs Turn 3 has almost nothing to do with your fleet and everything to do with responding to your opponent's fleet. If my opponent is playing aggressively, I lean towards a Turn 2 drop to make sure my flagship is not sniped before I can drop and provide me some solid firepower to turn the tables early in the game. Aggressive fleets tend to be more of glass cannons designed to hit hard and fast, but if they fail to win the game with their alpha strike, they are going to most likely lose being unable to hold objectives effectively. Alternatively, if my opponent is playing more passively, like a squadron fleet, I want to get a key strike of my own against their lynchpin ship, or split their fleet in half with a good block if the objective is something like Contested Outpost.
This also is compounded in my choice of ships. I went with the Liberty because it meets all of the criteria I need of my flagship. A) It can take a hit. It has double brace, 8 hull, and 5 shields in the primary hull zone, which means I can pretty much guarantee it will survive 99% of alpha strikes. That other 1% is when you just get absolutely hosed by Ravager and sorry, it happens to the best of us, and the only person standing up to that for Rebels is Kyrsta Starhawk. B) Good Nav Chart. This ties into A, since good positioning can avoid that 1% for you, but it also ties into our Raddus Drop. The range is up to 2 now, but you can really stretch that danger zone with the corner of a base on a turn when you need just an extra inch for the perfect block. It also makes you flexible to respond to your opponent. C) Good Firepower from Range. This is important for Raddus because if you go against a Red Dice Fleet, you don't want to not be doing serious damage until Turn 3 when you're dropping Raddus. By that point, your Flagship will be nearly dead, leaving you 2/3 of a fleet against a full fleet. Alternatively, if you're playing against an aggressive fleet, having range means you can sit on your heels and draw the opponent into a bad situation, rather than being forced to go to them.
As you can see, this fleet is designed to be flexible and respond to my opponent, which is what Raddus does. Like a master of martial arts, he takes your momentum and turns it against you. You come at me, I turtle and crush you. You stay back, I strike at the heart. You split your fleet, I block you and control the objective. Raddus requires that constant thought process all the way up to the drop; after that, it's all executing the play.
Going into Tenet 2, we need to think about our bid and how much we care about going first. In the early stages of testing a fleet, I think you should always lean more heavy than bid. The reason is that it's easier to test something and find out you didn't need it than it is to try and fix a problem that comes up due to the lack of an upgrade.
For me, I think Raddus likes going first, but this fleet is flexible enough to play well on defensive objectives that I don't want to go more than a 10 point bid. Over 10 points can put you in a position where you're skimping too much against a match-up that if you come across it, you're going to be fighting uphill all game. So, since we're not banking on going first, what objectives can we take advantage of with Raddus. Addtionally, most fleets going for a heavy bid will be playing aggressively, so we need to think about how we can protect our fleet until we're ready to land the decisive blow.
Surpise Attack allows Raddus to lean into divide and conquer, getting some early damage into the opponent before delivering the Raddus strike to either finish a key ship, or to block out the remainder of the fleet while the Liberty kills it. Contested Outpost allows Raddus to play more of a Turtle Game where the Liberty can hang back and the MC75 can be brought in to protect the station or take out an important ship. Finally, Minefields allows us to direct the movement of our opponent and funnel them to the strong point of the Liberty, protecting it's weaker sides and rear. If the opponent does flank, the Raddus drop can block, or if they come charging head on, the Raddus drop turns the table on them.
Finally, we come to Tenet 3: Defense. We've already touched on it a bit with the Liberty as the flagship, but let's expand our scope to the Nebulon and Shara/Tycho. Anytime you see the Wonder Twins in a list by themselves, they are there purely to be a stall for squad balls or as laser pointers for Sato. Their job is to dive in, pick off a few squads and delay the turns it takes for bombers to start hitting your ships. Especially with Raddus, you cannot afford to let squadrons run wild early or you will lose the game on turn 3. Compound that with if you can stall them for two turns, you can drop an MC75 on their carrier and laugh as you double arc it and wipe out their fleet in a single turn. Adding to this squadron defense is our humble Redemption, who is wielding double blue flak and the almighty LTT to pick a squad out and remove it, or at least spray the entire squad ball closer to death. Every squadron killed puts you that much closer to a victory, so don't underestimate how good flak can be. Since Redemption needs to be hanging out with the Lib for flak, we might as well give it a title to help with repairs and ensure the Liberty can take a hit or two early and keep trucking.
So, we're defending squadron fleets with Wonder Twins and LTT Neb, we're defending against alpha strike fleets with good range and a turn 2 drop, and we're defending long range firepower with a fast capital ship that can position for a solid turn 3 drop. Again, Raddus wants to turn our opponent's momentum against them and put us in a position where we can capitalize off a good Raddus drop to win the game.
That's all I have for today, but next time we will discuss my first 3 games with Raddus V 1.0 and what changes were made going into V 1.1. I would recommend you always give a list 3 tries before you make changes so you can verify the problem is in fact a problem and not just a match-up issue or bad luck. To give a TLDR takeaway, always make a playbook for your list so you're flexible, be ready to go first or second, and a great defense can carry you to victory. These 3 tenets are not columns, they're tent poles that tie into each other to form your list and work congruently to make your fleet resilient. I hope you enjoyed this first part and looking forward to seeing you shortly for part 2!
Interested to see how it works out!
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