You May Fire When Ready: Turn Zero and the Art of Deployment

 Turn Zero and the Art of Deployment

If you were to think about what it takes to be a skilled Armada player, you might consider a couple of key components that would be used to assess your skill. The first would likely be how well you can maneuver your ships, as being able to place your ship in the advantageous position will allow you to maximize your offense, while also ensuring you can withstand the fire you receive back from your opponent's ships. You would then likely consider dial planning an integral factor, as having the right commands when you need them can give you that extra click on the nav stick to get away from the asteroid, or release the full power of your bombers to soften your target for you. Then you would probably decide that it is also important to coordinate your ships to fly as a fleet, turning them from instruments of destruction into a symphony of stellar power. 

While all these elements do play into skill in Armada, perhaps the most important skill is to be able to know thy enemy. If you can plan ahead and predict your opponent's moves before they have even decided on them, and take into account various avenues of approach, they will find themselves constantly falling into positions where you have the advantage on them. This process mostly takes part in what many refer to as 'Turn Zero', before the first ship has even activated. 

Today's focus will mainly be on Deployment, and how you can position yourself for success. Often times, players will either under or over think their deployment strategy. The key focus should be on how you are going to set yourself up to play the objective and how you anticipate your opponent will play the objective. Let's say your flying a Traditional Ackbar List against a Sloane Interceptor List, and the mission is Contested Outpost. You know that your fleet will ideally be taking side shots, so you will want to approach across the long edge of the board. If the objective is placed toward the middle, you will want to deploy on one side or the other to arrive by turn 3 and hook around the objective, keeping your side arcs on target; conversely, if the station is more toward one side, a middle deployment achieves similar effect. For your opponent, you know they will likely keep their carrier behind their other ship(s) and most likely will try and take a direct approach to the objective. If they deploy close to the objective, they will likely keep the carrier to a slow speed to sit on the station, where the other ship(s) will try to intercept your ships and protect the carrier. 

 

Since you can reasonably expect your opponent to try and intercept you, you have two different approaches to deployment and initial setup. The first is that you can attempt to bypass the other ship(s) entirely and gun directly for the carrier. For an Ackbar Fleet, this means setting up nose to the objective, deploying on the same side as the station. Essentially, your game plan is to remain at high speed until you have escaped the threat of the opponent's ship(s) and will then slow down to kill the carrier and sit on the objective. This strategy is high risk high reward and still leaves you vulnerable to Sloane's squadrons while you approach, and if you lose a ship, it could present a much more difficult win. The alternative option is to deploy further back and force the carrier to either over commit or stay out of the fight entirely, nullifying the effectiveness of Sloane's ability, while using your numbers advantage to win the fight against the other ship(s). If your opponent fails to decide what to do, they could take themselves out of the game by splitting their forces; or they could over commit and make it an even fight, but if they fail to inflict more damage, the objective will be yours to hold in later rounds as your opponent is forced to U-Turn. Both deployment options have advantages, and deciding how you want to take on the situation should determine which strategy you adopt. 

While this example is built around a specific scenario, the line of thinking can be applied to any fleet in any match up for any objective. It boils down to the following points: 

1. What is the best approach for my fleet for this objective?

2. What is the best approach for my opponent's fleet for this objective?

3. What is my opponent most likely to do and how can I use that to my advantage in playing the objective?

If you can follow these key tenets during Turn Zero, you will definitely have more control in your matches and see more success. 

- Gold Leader, signing off