Winners and Losers of the April Armada FAQ

With any major new FAQ and Errata there’s always bound to be a major shake up in the meta. Today I want to discuss the winners and loser of this change, and how the meta may change moving forward.

Losers:

Some changes were good overall, like the change to Strategic Adviser and Biggs. But ultimately, some things really got hurt. Lets talk about the biggest losers.

Relay

Relay got hit hard, but in a way that makes perfect sense. Now it simply extends range rather than making squadron range infinite. Most would agree that this makes great logical sense, but this does hurt those fleets that were designed to exploit the old way of keeping ships far away from the fight, and removing all risk of their carriers taking fire. The Lambda is probably hurt more than the VCX, considering it has twice the Relay value, but the entire strategy of using Relay now has to change to include some risk, keeping your fleet together, and keeping your carriers in the fight.

Gallant Haven

This one wasn’t as widely abused, but when it was used it had the potential to be significantly overpowered. The power came from unique squadrons with the brace token. Even if a friendly squadron was hit for two damage, they could just brace and reduce it to one, then having Gallant Haven reduce that one to zero. And if you had Jan Ors nearby, you didn’t even need to have your own brace token, since you could “borrow” hers. This title now will still help for larger attacks, such as three or more, but it will no longer stop the small damage from going through.

Yavaris

While Yavaris wasn’t changed too much, a very common crew combination certainly was. Using Flight Commander and Fighter Coordination Team together, would allow you to delay your squadron command until after moving, and also after you gave your squadrons a free speed-one move. It allowed you to partly ignore the restriction that came with this amazing ship. But that isn’t the only nerf to Yavaris. The relay nerf also hurts Yavaris more so than any other carrier, in that most Rebel Fleets that use Yavaris, often find that it’s the first target for the enemy fleet. No more, can Yavaris dish out squadron double-taps from the rear ranks and relative safety.

Avenger

While not the worst nerf, the Avenger’s new requirement to exhaust will actually affect it in multiple new shooting scenarios. The first case is the common use of boarding teams, where you have a double arc on the defender. An enemy flagship, at full strength, would seldom be able to survive. Another case is when using Gunnery Team, where you’d be shooting on multiple targets that may have spent some tokens already. But a third scenario is when using the Advanced Gunnery objective and you were actually able to attack from your front arc even against the same ship twice. At least in the case of this nerf you can still use it’s ability once, which still allows it to be used, and it will still probably be the most widely used Star Destroyer title. Probably.

The Third Flotilla in Your collection

This was the one that bothered me the most. Restricting flotillas to a hard cap of only 2 per fleet has a ton of implications. First off, everyone who bought 3 or more are now unable to use them unless it’s a strictly casual game. Second, those flotillas are now much less useful, in that they can no longer hang out around the edge of the board, supporting your squadrons, even while your ships are dead. But another implication is that future flotillas are now at a disadvantage. If FFG makes another flotilla in the future, you’ll have a hard time deciding on which 2 you want to use, considering the utility that GR-75s and Gozantis offer your fleet, it may force players into an uncomfortable decision.

Winners

When some things get worse, sometimes other things get better by proxy. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners that result from these changes.

Hera

With all of the VCXs and Lambdas getting nerfed, Hera remains the one that was untouched, keeping her original balance and power level. Her ability still is able to ignore distance from ships, and she now has more of a unique ability when you consider that her counterparts with the nerfed relay are restricted to staying close to the fleet. All rouges, actually, are winners here, but Hera is by far the biggest winner from the group, being able to still provide that autonomous activation to squadrons who lack rogue.

Boosted Comms

Boosted Comms started to see less and less play once relay came out. It almost became irrelevant. Now it is back and better than ever. Considering it stacks, in a meaningful way, with relay now, you can layer these two extensions together and still get some distance between you and your squadrons if you really want to. I expect to see more of this card in the future, especially on Quasars.

Centicore

Another upgrade that may see more play as a result of the relay nerf. Centicore never saw alot of play, and one main reason for that was that relay was just so much better. Now it can potentially help fill some gaps left by the nerf, giving squadron based fleet greater flexibility in activations. And since fleets will likely be flying closer together now, you are more likely able to take advantage of this one.

Other Boarding Parties

Since Avenger’s slight nerf, Boarding Troopers might get taken a bit less, and therefore we stand a chance of seeing other boarding party cards showing up. Cham Syndulla and Darth Vader might see a small rise in play in the coming months.

Ackbar

The nerf to flotillas is good new to slow-moving fleets, especially Ackbar fleets. That classic broadside fleet that was never able to chase down distant flotillas will now have an easier time securing victory. Additionally, Ackbar fleets have some extra flexibility in that Home One isn’t quite as crucial, in that you no longer HAVE to destroy enemy flotillas, so that one accuracy, while still great to have, isn’t quite as crucial as it once was. Perhaps now we’ll see more Ackbar fleets with only Assault Frigates? Same goes for any red-dice heavy list honestly. Imperial Cymoons and Arquitens based lists will have similar flexibility, in that they won’t absolutely need that accuracy for flotillas as much.

Ultimately, only time will tell how these changes will fully impact the game moving forward. All in all, I feel they are largely Quality of Life changes, meant to reduce negative play experiences and some “cheese” factor. You can head over to the Armada Errata Page for a summary of changes, and links to all relevant documents.

March 4, 2018March 4, 2018

Squadron Foundations – From Planning to Deployment

Squadrons are an crucial part of virtually every game of Armada. Weather you are going heavy on squadrons, light on them, or focusing more on dealing with enemy squadrons, they are something that every build needs to consider. In this article I’m going to talk about some of the cornerstones of a squadron build.

Plan

The first thing you need to do is figure out an overall plan of what you are trying to accomplish by adding squadrons to your fleet. This will help guide how many you need to add, what keywords you’ll want to include, and what overall point cost you should be shooting for.

One common strategy is to bring some bombers. Bombers are most effective at hurting your opponent’s ships, but they tend to be weaker when compared to enemy fighters, so you’ll want some supporting squadrons as well. You may want to consider some Escorts, for example, which will increase the number of squadrons you’ll have to bring overall. Bomber-Heavy builds tend to usually run alot of squadrons and push very close to that 134 point limit.

Perhaps you only want to bring a few squadrons, merely to help slow down your opponent’s squadrons from hurting your ships. A handful of TIE Fighters or Z-95s will usually do the trick, but you’ll generally want an even number, since you’ll get more of a deployment advantage by having multiples of 2. In these cases it can be a good idea to bring at least 2, but perhaps even 4 or 6 if you want a more versatile fleet.

Synergy with Rest of Fleet

Once you have a plan you’ll want to make sure your selections match up to the rest of your fleet’s capabilities. Make sure that your ships can actually activate your squadrons. You wouldn’t want to have only Arquitens, or CR-90s and also have 12 Squadrons to support. Ideally you’ll want to have your carriers, (generally ships with higher squadron values) be able to activate nearly all of your squadrons if they all performed a squadron command. If you aren’t running carriers, you could also consider running a pair of squadrons with the Rogue keyword, which wouldn’t require squadron commands.

You may also want to add some upgrades to your fleet that enhance your squadrons. A Bomber Command Center staying near your bombers can have a tremendous impact on your offensive capability. Similarly, adding Instructor Goran to an Imperial Fleet that also includes Dengar, can have a very high boost on your fighters’ ability to counter attack.

Variety

Adding a variety of squadrons to your build will greatly enhance your flexibility and allow you a greater chance of overcoming most fleets that you face. Any fleet that has for example, only bombers, might suffer due to their lack of offense to other squadrons. Any fleet without even a small squadron force, won’t have much to defend against a swarm of enemy squadrons and will quickly face what is often known as “Death by a thousand cuts”.

Intel is one of those keywords that really gives you tremendous flexibility, in that it can prevent a single enemy from locking up your entire squadron force. It helps bombers attack ships and avoid interruption, and keeps your fighters mobile. Relay is another keyword that gives you the ability to stretch your squadrons further away from the safety net of your ships. Adding multiple keywords to your fleet allows them to stay flexible and effective.

Deployment

Most of the time it is best to include even numbers of squadrons, due to the fact that you deploy them in groups of two. If you have enough squadrons, you can out-deploy your opponent and delay your important ships until the end. This is known as Deployment Advantage. Deploying 2 squadrons, in place of a ship, is one of the biggest advantages in the early game, and it’s a mistake that many new players tend to make, by forgetting their squadrons until the end. It is almost always best to save your biggest ships until the end when you deploy, and taking larger amounts of squadrons allows you to delay your ships, gives you intelligence on where your opponent is deploying, and allows you to protect your valuable ships.

If you are interested in more information on how squadrons can influence deployment and give you deployment advantage, check out this video demonstration!

February 4, 2018

More painting!

Armada Wave 7 has finally come out and I’ve made it a point to paint at least ONE of each of my rebel ships. Since I recently did one of each Imperial ship I decided I’d follow up for the rebels with an Oceanic theme to represent the fine Mon Calamari people, but accent it with some flames to represent burning oceans, or their fighting spirit.

Picture of painted rebel ships — Some of the first rebels I did with the “Blazing Oceans” theme.

More Painted Rebel Ships — Another Batch, including Wave 7’s MC-75. I didn’t give the MC-75 the flames yet, not sure if I will.

Close up of MC-75 — The MC-75’s Armor was fun to do, taping off everything else, and multiple layers of light grey and mixtures of darker black and hints of blue.

Picture of all Armada ships, painted. — Here’s all of my airbrushed ships.

January 17, 2018

Scanned Images

I’ve had a few requests for Scanned Images of the Wave 7 cards and tokens as well. My scanner isn’t the best, but hopefully this will work!

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018

Armada Wave 7 in hand!

It was just a normal night, in fact I was getting ready to play some Armada with a friend. When suddenly, my doorbell rang. It was late, and the kids were already in bed. Curious as to who could have been at my door this late, I opened the door to see that nobody was there, but instead a package was laying at my door! FFG had sent me these two ships to review! I showed my friend and immediately we knew that the game we wanted to play was going to have to wait so we could dive right in to these expansions!

First the Chimaera – I was really pleased at the fact that the paint job is on both the top AND on the bottom. A really nice touch. This expansion really does a lot to emphasize large ships and make them more competitive, which has been one of my top complaints in the game so far. Additionally, the explanation of raid tokens that comes with the rules, clears up all of the speculation as to how we can get rid of them. You can either spend a command token to get rid of a matching raid token, (Making commanders like Tarkin and Garm more useful) or you can spend an entire dial, to get rid of ALL raid tokens. Additionally the Gauntlet Fighters are gorgeous, and Gar Saxon’s ability to finally harass squadrons with Intel or Relay, begin to address my other concern with this game, in the form of Relay.

Another thing that is great about this set is the fact that it comes with enough new Star Destroyer cards to outfit itself and 2 additional Star Destroyers, so you can take 3 brand new ships into battle using the cards that come with this expansion! Considering that you get all that plus two new squadrons, this is one heck of a value for a single box!

Now the Profundity expansion was really something special. First off, I think this ship may be the best looking ship the rebels have in game up to this point. Honestly, it is just jaw-dropping. Like the Chimaera, it comes with lots of good cards that will really help large ships, and some duplicate cards that means rebels players won’t have to buy the Chimaera just to get a copy of Strategic Adviser.

Additionally, cards like Bail Organa offer a asymmetrical counter to cards like Governor Pryce. And considering new Hyperspace Jump mechanics, that show up with the Profundity title and Admiral Raddus himself, the rebels gain a unique tactical advantage in their ability to deploy ships almost anywhere on teh battlefield! With an emphasis on large ships and tokens, this looks to be a truly amazing ship!

Is this going to be an amazing wave or what?

Here are some higher rez pictures of the unspoiled cards:

December 31, 2017

Type O Negative Fleet

Growing up, my favorite band was Type O Negative. This was a major influence on me and why my favorite colors are black and green. (Also helps that Luke in ROTJ was basically those same colors as well). So when I got an Airbrush for Christmas, my first major project was going to be to repaint some of my Armada ship that I’d previously screwed up on and wanted to repaint them.

Here’s the video of the Livestream if you are interested:

The end result wasn’t half bad. Here’s how they came out.

So the next day I went back and added some details. I did some panels in grey, and then added tiny white dots where I thought lights should be. I think it came out pretty good!

Here are some more closeups:

This is part of the reason I’m now trying to manufacture reasons to use these 3 ships in a list! Might have to repaint some squadrons soon!

December 11, 2017December 11, 2017

Governor Pryce, First Impressions

We got another article today about Armada’s Wave 7 from the new article today, from FFG. In it we got a very interesting glimpse of a new officer, designed by 2015 World Champion Jonathan Reinig, Governor Pryce.

Restrictions – She cannot be used on small ships, and at first glance, seems to be very powerful on an ISD. No longer will 2 or 3 ship lists feel quite so pushed to add flotillas in place of squadrons or upgrades. Well, that seems to be the idea at least. I feel like the hope here, was that a two ISD list would be able to delay one of it’s activations until the end, forcing an opponent with say, 4+ ships, to move them all into engagement range, and giving Pryce’s ISD the lion’s share of targets. That might work for casual games but I think there are some problems here, beyond the fact that it can only be used once.

Broadcasting Your Plan

The good people over at CannotGetYourShipOut tend to often emphasize the risks when you basically tell your opponent what you are planning to do. Here is a perfect case where you are doing just that. If you select the ROUND 3 token, for example…. your opponent knows that you are planning for round 3 to be your power turn, and can typically adjust their tactics accordingly. If this were the case, an opponent could simply wait for you to move Pryce’s ship turn 2, then speed up to put all ships in range, ready to shoot at the start of turn 3. (Also there may be some shots fired turn 2 as well).

MUST can be a Bust

This card says you MUST activate at the end of the chosen turn. Which means if you’ve only got a 2 ship list and have activated your first ship, you have to just sit there while your opponent activates ship after ship, slugging Pryce’s ship with volley after volley…. and THEN moving out of the way. If her ship even survives, it may not have any good shots left against an experienced opponent. If this didn’t say “Must”, then at least you could REACT to an opponent’s ever-changing strategy – but in this case your hands are tied.

Squadrons

Heavy carriers might be a smarter move when assigning Governor Pryce, as you’ll be able to stay a bit farther away and still get some versatility out of the squadrons that you activate. However, great carriers like the Quasar tend to want officers that will give some nice synergy with their squadron abilities, like Wulf Yularen, or even Admiral Chiraneu. Also, a quasar is cheap enough that it probably is never going to run in a 2 ship list, or really fear for activation disadvantage quite like an ISD will.

So which turn SHOULD you select?

First thing’s first – before you select a turn with Pryce, you are going to have to read the battlefield. You are going to look at where your opponent placed ships, how far away they are, and what speed they are at. You are going to have to look at their ability to modify speeds beyond simple navigation commands, (Ozzel, Flotillas with Comms Net, etc). And you are going to have to think about what offensive capabilities they have. Do they need to be in close range? Are they most effective at long range? All of these things are going to factor in to your decision. But the simple answer I think, in many cases, will be to select turn 2.

Why turn 2?

Turn 2 may turn out to be the optimal turn primarily because it won’t give your opponent as much setup time to exploit your inability to activate. You don’t want a fleet of MC-30s to be able to boost up to speed 4 and all jump into close range of Pryce’s Star Destroyer and attack with impunity. You don’t want a 7 activation list to be able to take 7 separate shots on your front hull zone before you can react, and you certainly don’t want those shots to kill you before you get to use a ship that you likely have 130+ points invested into. In some cases where the opponent’s fleet is slow, and they deploy at speed 1, you will probably feel safe to select turn 3…. but in most cases Turn 2 will probably be the safest bet.

In closing I think this is a step in the right direction for large ships. It’s not good enough on it’s own, and I think it would be 10x better if it allowed you to ignore the card’s text and activate as normal if you needed to, however it is interesting and different, and addresses an important weakness of large ships. I’ll certainly try it out at some point.

November 23, 2017

Contest Finalists!

It’s been a great contest with over 60 submissions! I’d like to thank everyone who entered! Submissions are now closed, but you are still more than welcome to add some more paint jobs to the forums if you simply want to share!

I’ll be announcing the winner of the Legion Core Set, as well as the winner of the door prize in the next day or 2, so make sure and check back often!

I’ll be narrowing down the paint jobs soon, but here are some of the finalists:

Here are some thumbnails of the submissions we got over on the forums!

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017

The Original Blue Objectives

This third installment of objectives are dealing with the original blue objectives that come in the Armada core set. I also have covered reds and yellows, and will soon be covering the objectives in the Corellian Conflict as well. Lets get started!

This one is a simple points race. You land a ship on an obstacle, and you can gain a victory token. It also has the clear benefit of allowing the 2nd players ships complete immunity when landing on asteroid fields and debris fields. There are some common questions with interactions here that have been answered in the FAQ as well. First – Grav Shift Reroute moves these obstacles, the tokens move with them. Second – Squadrons with Strategic are allowed to move tokens off these obstacles. In that case, the tokens must be placed back on an obstacle before it can be removed for scoring. And if a ship lands on an obstacles with multiple tokens, you only remove one token each time. See the Armada Errata page for a link to the latest FAQ.

Why you should include it:

One thing that’s nice is that you’ll get the ability to move through obstacles unhindered and your opponent won’t. Large Based ships can certainly take advantage of this. Also, if you are running Grav Shift Reroute you can pull some of these obstacles closer to yourself to make collecting them easier. This doesn’t give a ton of points though and isn’t terribly strong, but it also typically doesn’t help your opponent either.

If you are 1st Player:

If you’ve got Jaina’s Light in your fleet, is usually a sure thing to select this objective, because you’ve already got a ship that can land on those obstacles without taking any punishment! Also if you are running an Interdictor with a Grav Shift Reroute of your own, you may be able to reverse the placement of some of these rocks and pull them closer to yourself, giving you an advantage.

Another points grab, but this time it’s winner-take-all. Flotillas have made it easier than ever to send a ship after one of these objective tokens. Years ago, this objective used to be very bad for Imperial players who tended to run a Demolisher, and either VSDs and/or ISDs. An Imperial Player typically could NOT afford to send any of his or her ships out chasing after objectives, so this was an easy pick for rebels running a lone CR-90. Nowadays however, flotillas are so common that this becomes a more risky objective to take, as it can easily be turned against you.

Why you should include it:

If you’ve got several Strategic Squadrons and ways to give them extra movement, such as Squall, Fighter Coordination Team, or Adar Talon, you’ll have a much easier time of quickly grabbing three tokens. As 2nd player you’ll be able to place 3 out of the 5 tokens, so be sure and place them in such a way that you’ll be able to get to them before your opponent. You also want to ensure that you can keep your objective ship alive. For Empire, consider something like a Gozanti with Minister Tua and Electronic Counter Measures. For Rebels, a Bright Hope with Major Derlin would prove incredibly hard to kill. Fast ships like Raiders and CR-90s also can make for good objective ships.

If you are 1st Player:

If you’ve got more Strategic than your opponent, and think you can get to those objective tokens before your opponent can, then you can turn this against him or her. Alternatively, if you’ve got a force that can quickly kill their objective ship, then you can also stop them from collecting points. A swarm of CR-90As with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits for example, can quickly move into striking distance and concentrate on a lightly defending objective ship.

A classic objective of telling your opponent which way they should approach. This one used to get used a ton before Strategic came around. Now it’s quite risky to use this if you don’t also bring in some Strategic Squadrons of your own.

Why you should include it:

If you’ve got Dodonna, you can trigger his ability if your opponent trips one of these mines and rolls a crit, so that is a very fun part of this objective. It also helps you generally control which ways your opponent can come into the fight, so if your fleet is very vulnerable to flanking this one can help. You’ll probably want to include some Strategic into your build, just in case your opponent has some Strategic of their own. And if not, it helps to re-purpose those mined that your opponent managed to miss. It’s great to push them again and again! Also, keep note of your opponent’s build. If they don’t have any strategic, you might even consider putting many of these mines closer to the center of the board so you can push them all directly into your opponent regardless of where they deploy.

If you are 1st Player:

If you’ve got several Strategic Squadrons and your opponent does not…. then absolutely pick this one. Nothing is more satisfying than pushing the 2nd players mine field back on themselves!

In my opinion, this one is by far the best of the original blue objectives. This one is especially helpful with modern fleets that might only run 2 or 3 activations. I also think this will be especially good in the future, with Wave 7’s new large ships. It punishes the 1st player by making them deploy EVERYTHING first. It takes away any deployment advantage they had. And it allows rear shots to reward both of you with victory points. Rear shots SHOULD be easy since you can see where your opponent is setting up.

Why you should include it:

This one is great for any list that has a big deployment disadvantage. 3 or less ships, for example. This list can also be very nice if you’ve got a good number of squadrons that aren’t likely to get engaged and locked down. Squadrons with Rogue are particularly nice here, but Intel will easily help your squadrons get rear shots. Maneuverable ships will also help you sneak around slower ships and get those rear shots as well.

If you are 1st Player:

If perhaps you were going to have a deployment disadvantage either way, then you really didn’t lose much by selecting this one. Perhaps you are running a 2-ship build heavy with Squadrons? Just set up in the middle and adjust accordingly – hoping your squadrons will get you a ton of victory points. Make sure you get those rear shots!

Hope you enjoyed my breakdown of the basic blue objectives! I’ll be covering the Corellian Conflict soon so check back often!

November 18, 2017November 18, 2017

The Original Yellow Objectives

The Original Yellows

In my second round of covering the basic Armada objectives, I’m tackling the yellows that come in the Core Set!

The Video:

There are some objectives that scream “Come at me bro”, and this is one of them. Contested Outpost removes the station’s normal effects and instead turns it into a huge objective that the second player gets to place.

When you should include it:

If you’ve got a slow moving list that can easily hold a position. When you want the enemy to move towards you, and not the other way around. Slow moving Broadside lists, such as Ackbar MC-80s will be able to take advantage of this Objective. So will Lists that use a few Victory Star Destroyers. And While I am tempted to also suggest an Arquitens Conga Line, the lower command value of the Light Cruisers will make this one only a mediocre choice.

If you are 1st Player:

If you think you can take the station quickly, you might consider this objective. You’ll want to have some fast ships, and it’ll help if you can flank your opponent, because they’ll be set up to receive your charging offense. Fortunately your opponent won’t get too many points from this as long as you can eventually get there. Also, if you are confident you can table your opponent, you might simply ignore the station altogether.

One of my favorite yellows. I tend to place these very close together to create a heavily contested area, even after the 1st players adjusts them. It can net you 45 points per round, which, if you were actually able to hold all 3 for all 6 rounds, would be giving you the astounding sum of 270 points! With those kind of points on the line, do you even need to kill your opponent’s ships?

It’s important to note that upgrades that add to your battery armament will actually help you control these tokens.

When you should include it:

Similar to contested outpost, this one works great for any list where you want to dictate where your opponent goes. The difference here is that they won’t be able to simply ignore it. You’ll want ALOT of dice in your firing arcs. Arquitens swarms are a nice way to establish control over a group of tokens as well as contesting enemies that enter the “Killzone”. Large firing arcs also are great. Red dice will be your friend here, so you can get control early and keep it. VSDs, ISDs, MC80s, and AFMk2s are all solid options here. Also if you are including Strategic Squadrons in your build, you can pull these tokens even farther back, into safety.

If you are 1st Player:

Honestly I rarely take this one as first player. However, there are times when it’s possible. Possibly if the opponent doesn’t have much in the way of Red Dice, but primarily if you’ve got plenty of Strategic Squadrons and your opponent doesn’t. Strategic Squadrons will allow you to pull those tokens away from your opponent.

The Ambush Zone from this objective tends to create an awful lot of confusion. To simplify – It’s 2 full range rulers from the left and right side, and one full range ruler from each player’s edge. One important thing about this, is if you have little to no squadrons, this objective will prevent a squadron-heavy build from getting deployment advantage on you, since all squadrons deploy last. That is a double edged sword though, because those squadrons will also now have the ability to deploy MUCH closer to your ships.

When you should include it:

If you want to be able to start shooting on round 1. Having a fairly high number of ships also will help you be able to react better to the 1st player’s Ambush Zone placements. Also if you are lighter on squadrons, but don’t want to suffer a deployment disadvantage, this one might be good, for example if you are counting on a raider or two to deal with enemy squadrons.

If you are 1st Player:

If you have a major squadron advantage, and want to use your Ambush Zone deployments as an option to deploy your squadrons VERY close to the enemy, you might pick this one. Also, if you are including some Relay squadrons, even your rear ships will still be able to lend their support, and that could totally work to your advantage. Otherwise you might do fine with this objective if you have very maneuverable ships, that can deploy at odd angles in the ambush zone and quickly turn around and regroup with your fleet.

This one is actually a lot of fun. It represents a ship coming in from hyperspace with a few squadrons backing it up. It has tokens, which the 2nd player can move, which does make it susceptible to Strategic shenanigans, but it’s only a marginal risk for movement shenanigans because you can warp your ship in before the tokens get pushed too far away. Wave 7 is going to open up whole new levels of hysterical hi jinks with this objective as well, considering Raddus and the Profundity can do similar things.

When you should include it:

Strategic will help you get even more precision on where exactly you want to jump out of hyperspace, so if you’ve got some Lambdas or VCX-100s you may consider this one. Additionally, if you have an odd number of squadrons this one will “Fit” them better, since you’ll set 3 aside and it won’t impact your deployment as badly. In terms of ships, you’ll want to go with a ship that can really shine by being able to be placed in surprising locations. A Victory Star Destroyer, for example will really be a hindrance when you place it behind your opponent’s Liberty. Keep in mind that you’ll be activating second, so even if you end up behind a ship at close range, they’ll still be able to move out of the way first.

If you are 1st Player:

A few strategic squadrons might help, but I think if you want to really turn this one against your opponent you’ll need to have a build that is maximizing Strategic, by using other mechanics that allow Strategic squadrons additional activations or movements. Additionally this one will help your deployment advantage, so if your build needs help in that department it may be worth it to select this objective.

This concludes the basic yellows. Check back with us soon for the rest! Thanks for reading!