Star Wars Armada - 300 Point Spring Tourmament Report at Dragon's Den Richmond VA

Just a few days back, I had the chance to play in my second Star Wars Armada tournament at Dragon's Den in Richmond VA (See my previous report for part one). This was the 2nd half of their spring tournament. For this, the winner of the day would earn the Victory II alt art card while the winner of both events (combined scores) would win the Imperial Gunnery medal.

I was fortunate enough to be joined by my buds Sean, Eric (a co-host of Intensify Forward Firepower), and Jon as well! Jon's thoughts are below.

If you've listened to our podcast, you'll know that I am on the fence on the usefulness of fighters in the current meta. So, I elected to try an experiment and went squadronless!

I had:

*Assault Frigate Mk II B (72) + Mon Mothma (30) + XI7 Turbolasers (6) + Gunnery Team (7) + Electronic Countermeasures (7)

*Assault Frigate Mk II B (72) + XI7 Turbolasers (6) + Gunnery Team (7) + Electronic Countermeasures (7)

*CR90 B (39) + Tantive IV (3) + Leia Organa (3)

*CR90 B (39) + Jaina's Light (2)

Which clocked in at a cool 300. I won't even bother listing my objectives because I went first all day!

GAME ONE Happened to be against Eric. Kinda sucked since we're homeboys, on the other hand, he lives two hours away, so we haven't played Armada against each other often. Eric had 2 Assault Frigate Mk II Bs, Luke, 3 B-Wings, and 3 A-Wings (including Tycho). One or both of the frigates had Flight Controllers and/or expanded hangar bays. Adar Tallon was on one as well. My memory is really this bad; I don't remember other upgrades, but I do know he had General Dodonna.

I chose Hyperspace Assault from his objectives and he obviously put the non-Dodonna guppy in ambush along with the 3 Bs.

As a side note, we had to play on a pretty crummy board. I absolutely love Dragon's Den so I don't want to harp on this, but the picture above really drives home what makes miniature games interesting: they look way cooler than board games! Take away the space part and why even have painted ships? Still, the Den was accommodating a large amount of players for their relatively small size, so again all props to the shop.

Many people remarked how this resembled more of a koi pond than a game of Armada!

By the time I've written this, I don't remember the exact results, but I know I managed to take down both of his guppies. I think I lost Jaina but besides that managed to pull out the 10-0. Make sure to listen to IFF Episode 6- Easy's Shame to hear more about this game!

Round 1: Eric's Rebel Fighters

Round 2: Jeremy's Imperial Brawlers

Round 3: Sean's Rebel fighters

Game Two was against Jeremy's Imperial Brawlers. Jeremy had a Vic II, a Vic I, and a kitted out Demolisher. He also had two TIE squadrons!

I chose Minefields from Jeremy's objectives, and I think I threw him for a loop! I had a theory that not many people had actually played those objectives yet, and it paid off! I took one mine hit, which I repaired immediately, and Jeremy later took one as well--I call it even!

The game went pretty well for me, minus my own major mistake, which I will get to! Well, I made two mistakes, but one I managed! I thought Jaina's was going to get out of his Vic I's front arc (but it was a close flyby). Instead, I had a good quarter inch of the rear of the base in his front arc AND side arc. That meant Jaina's was dead... or so we thought! Somehow, the little ship managed to survive (see above damage!) and escape post-haste. In fact, she went on to deliver the death blow to Jeremy's Vic II!

Jeremy and I squaring off.

You can see Jaina's trajectory. Headed right for pain. Besides that, we managed to take down Demolisher for the loss of Tantive IV. But with the loss of Tantive, I couldn't react well enough on a navigate and drove one of my Assault Frigates off the board! D'oh!!

But then, going into the final round... I damn sure almost drove my flagship off the board too! Thankfully, a well executed "juke" kept Mon Mothma from costing me the game.

With his Vic II and Demolisher out, I would've had a 10-0 but for flying my own ship off the board. 7-3 was the end result.

Game Three was against Sean, who I played first in my last tournament. Sean was running a similar list with a handful of changes. From memory, he had an Assault Frigate Mk II B, Yavaris, and Jaina's Light with Leia on it. He also had Luke, 3 B-Wings, and 2 or more A-Wings.

I again chose Hyperspace Assault. Sean hit me with Yavaris and 3 Bs. Focused fire brought down his Yavaris and Corvette, but his absolute last die of the game managed to bring down my flagship!

Fighters dogged the flagship relentlessly! My Flagship was 122 and his losses amounted to 117! He got the win, though the match was a 5-5. I think he had a combined score at that point of 24, while my 7-3 had me sitting at 22. Sean very deservedly won the day!

There once was a capital ship there!

Thankfully, my score from the previous tournament (29) combined with today's of 24 gave me the highest score of the combined tournaments and I managed to win the sweet gunnery medal, which I plan to wear every single day. Well, maybe not EVERY single day.

When we got back to my place, Eric and I had a massive reorganization of all of our Armada stuff. As you all can probably relate to--that felt good man. Real good.

Eric in one of his games.


Dirty Jon's Brief Tournament AAR:
Jon's List: 3 Gladiators with Concussion Missiles, Screed, Wulf, Demolisher (+all the fixins), Howl Runner and 4 Interceptors.

Round 1 - Played a really good dude who had a Star Destroyer and a couple of Gladiators with a token fighter force.  We played Hyperspace Assault, and I went first.  The terrain we placed went across the middle, so I tried to isolate his VSD and used my fighters to screen his Ambush.  I planned to have my fighters in a position to gank his stuff when he appeared.  Luckily, I had a squadron command right when he ambushed and I rocked his squadrons down.  I ran around a bit and ended up killing his VSD, but he rocked down two of my Glads, and I lost overall.

Round 2 - Played against a new guy who was great, but I (who am also very new!) am pretty sure we messed up some rules.  We did Opening Salvo and I went first.  He had 3 VSDs and a small fighter force.  I ended up isolating one of his VSDs and bringing it and his fighters down.  I also injured one of his ships at the last minute (netting me half points).  He killed a Glad and injured one of my ships, but I healed one at the last minute to pull out the win.

Round 3 - Got to face Mr. Sean!  I'll let him describe this mirror game, but safe to say his experience showed and he tabled me.


Overall, I had a good time!  It takes a while to set up play the game--I'm new.  I REALLY liked the Interceptors and Howl Runner combo for a small, fast and efficient force.  I would like to see this list face off against Rebs, as I think that the ships will be a little more effective and the fighters a little less.  I had trouble--due to inexperience--at keeping out of the front arc of VSDs.  Thanks to Chance and Steven for lending me the ships.  Next time, Mr. Sean...next time!

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