So we’ve reached the end stage of Worlds 2018 and are now left with our final four competitors. Having survived the trials and tribulations of the swiss rounds, they must now turn and face some of the best players competitive Armada has to offer.

The Lists

Day 1A First Seed – Shiu-Yik ‘Grandmaster Yik’ Au (Canada)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris

CR90B

General Rieekan

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

GR-75 Medium Transport

Boosted Comms, Adar Tallon

GR-75 Medium Transport

Torryn Farr, Bomber Command Centre, Bright Hope

2x VCX-100 Freighters, Gold Squadron, Rogue Squadron, Norra Wexley, Ten Numb, “Dutch” Vander, Corran Horn

400pts

Day 1A Second Seed – Josiah ‘JJsJuggernaut’ Burkhardsmeier (US)

CR90B

Admiral Raddus

GR-75

GR-75

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

Ordnance Experts, External Racks

MC-75 Ordnance Cruiser

Profundity, Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, External Racks, Early Warning System

Tycho Celchu, Shara Bey, 2x VCX-100 Freighters, 4x YT-2400 Freighters

397pts

Day 1B First Seed – Nathan Coda (US)

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Flight Commander

MC80 Command Cruiser

General Rieekan, Strategic Adviser, Fighter Coordination Teams, Leading Shots, Quad-Battery Turrets

GR-75

Torryn, Bright Hope

GR-75

Comms Net

Hera Syndulla, Jan Ors, Ten Numb, Gold Squadron, Scurrg H-6, 3x YT-1300

397pts

Day 1B Second Seed – Rikki Porter (UK)

Pelta Command Ship

General Rieekan, Phoenix Hom, Adar Tallon, All Fighters Follow Me!, Fighter Coordination Team, Flight Commander

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Flight Commander

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

External Racks

GR-75

Hondo, Comms Net

GR-75

Torryn Farr, Bomber Command Centre, Bright Hope

Ten Numb, Norra Wexley, Jan Ors, Dagger Squadron, Gold Squadron, 2x VCX-100, YT-1300

400pts

And just to rile up the Imperials, that moment when a Pelta makes the top cut and no Imperials manage to do the same.

The Semi-Finals

Nathan Coda v Rikki P

So this was the unstreamed game of the semi-finals. You can find a handy summary on the early pages of the Moustache Report Day 2. Here’s also a grainy snap shot of the early stage of the game.

Essentially though this game turned out to be a real blood bath in Nathan’s favour as he absolutely manhandled Rikki P and the Pelta Pride 490-93. Full credit must be given to Rikki P for not only taking a Pelta to the top cut but also for playing out the game even once it was well and truly lost. The crazy, loveable Brit went so far as to tell Nathan “I want to see how many points you get”. That’s the kind of good natured player you want to see opposite you at every event and it certainly brought a smile to my face when I heard about it.

Yik v JJ

So Yik and JJ were the streamed game of the semifinals. Yik’s fleet was well placed to neuter Raddus in Swiss where it could never lose big, but in cut play 1 point is good enough to seal the victory which made things a lot more interesting.

JJ, with his 397 to Yiks 400 non-bid, elected to go first and chose Yik’s Most Wanted. Yik made his flagship and one of JJs GR-75s the objective ships.

This game could have gone either way for a long period of time. The fanning out of JJs ships really created a tough situation for Yik in terms of where to direct his squads, and I do believe that the placement of JJs drop was first class for what was clearly his initial objective.

Things looked really interesting (i.e. bad) for Yik when the Profundity Hammerhead was able to swoop in and assassinate the Rieekan Corvette (which was the Most Wanted ship!) but Yik held steady and really capitalised on three crucial mistakes by JJ.

The first of these was choosing not to just turn away with the MC75. At that stage it would have been incredibly hard for Yik to catch and destroy enough points value after the assassination of his flagship to come over the top. With the angle JJ deployed at he was really unlikely of getting the MC-75 within range of anything once he turned in. So in the end, what it did put him into easy range of though was Yik’s squadrons. This is generally considered a bad idea.

The second, and probably most hilarious mistake (I’m sorry JJ, I just couldn’t believe it!) was the fact that JJ flew his Raddus Corvette straight off the board. A rare enough event for top level players in any game let alone the semi-final of Worlds! JJ could maybe have survived losing his MC75, but he could not find the points to match losing that and his flagship combined.

The third and final error from JJ was how far wide he swung his squadrons. Obviously, the intention was to come in and bomb Yik’s hammerheads into submission, and ignore the squadron game all together. In the end though they were too out of position to target the Hammerheads effectively, and, worse, they left the MC75 completely unguarded and ripe for the bombing.

Against a player of Yik’s calibre even one of these mistakes could have been fatal to JJs chances; combined they were insurmountable. As soon as the MC75 turned in, Yik stuck to his guns and let the Yavaris squadrons go to work while conserving his points elsewhere on the board as effectively as possible. Yik’s efforts in this game were a real masterclass display of keeping a steady nerve despite early setbacks, as he entered the final following a concession from JJ in the fifth round.

The Final – Yik v Nathan Coda

In a repeat of last year, Nathan found himself opposite a Torontonian (and future Manitoban) in the Worlds Finals. On one hand Grandmaster Yik was looking to personally achieve what many within the Toronto community felt he was the architect of over a year ago, and on the other hand you had a three-time cut player trying to finally climb to the top of the mountain and claim a World Championship.

The skill level shown in the final was unsurprisingly high, and for that alone reviewing the FFG Live Stream is definitely worth a look.

Same as the semi-final Yik was again outbid 397-400; unlike JJ though Nathan elected to go second. This was somewhat of an interesting call given that Yik had activation advantage and better offensive weapons in the squadron department; but I think given Nathan’s defensive squadrons and his preferred deployment of a tight, points-fortress, formation it was ultimately an unsurprising decision. Yik selected Nathan’s Fighter Ambush, and just like that we were one game away from our 2018 World Champion.

Deployment definitely seemed to favour Yik. Nathan really threw his squadrons out there with Fighter Ambush to offset their slow speed. I definitely felt early on that he was slightly wide with his MC80 and that it would end up arriving to the fray slightly too late. I think at this stage of the game Yik should have come in a bit more aggressively with both his squadrons and his ships to capitalise on the isolated position of Nathan’s squadrons.

As it unfolded, Yik largely hung back with his ships and this allowed Nathan to move up both GR-75s and his Yavaris to create an impressive flak bubble in support of his squads. Not only did this contribute incredibly important chip damage to the fray, but also forced Yik to drop his squads back. In tandem this helped offset Nathan’s conservative positioning of his MC80.

The squadron battle raged in the centre of the board without any real advantage to either player, meanwhile the MC80 slowly moved into a commanding central position. In what can only be described as a “bold move” Nathan sped his Yavaris out of the fray and into double arc of one of Yik’s Hammerheads. You can guess how that went.

With that loss, Yik looked to be in the hot seat, especially as time began to rapidly run out on the game. The definite feeling coming from the onlooking crowd (and FFGs commentary) was that Yik had it wrapped up 139-88 heading into the 5th and final round.

As it turned out though, Nathan was able to take out a Hammerhead and some squadrons while only losing Gold in return (largely through some timely “Medical Station” heals and some poor rolls from Yik on both Hera and Jan) to finish the game 151-151.

Second player winning tie-breaks meant that just like that Nathan Coda was the 2018 Armada World Champion!

Despite my critiques, which is incredibly easy to do as an observer, both players played extremely tight games. You only need to listen to their post-match interviews to get an immediate understanding for how they think about the game. Both players were able to drill down to what the core decisions of the game were, and where things went right or wrong for them.

I’ll admit, I was rooting for Nathan to get over the line, purely because I couldn’t imagine the heartbreak of making three top cuts (and two finals!) without going home with the silverware. If you make the finals again though Yik, the skill and sportsmanship you displayed this year means that I’ll definitely be in your corner!

Overall Thoughts

Armada Worlds 2018, especially the Swiss portion of the tournament, really has me amped for Armada once again. In one sense its a real shame that 3 out of the 4 cut players were Rieekan Aces because it sends a message that is more reflective of the system FFG uses during Worlds rather than the overall state of the game.

Both days of Swiss finished with nearly 10 players being in a position where they could make the cut at the start of the final round. The variety amongst those lists were astounding, and I’m positive if those final round matches were played again we could have easily ended up with a completely different top cut pool. Again though, this goes to the system implemented by FFG at Worlds. Effectively the two days of Swiss are separate tournaments that meet in the very final stages. Limiting cut positions to Top 2 each day really warps the overall tournament and a better system (i.e. a combined tournament with an extended cut) should be considered.

A similar comment could be levelled about the nature of cut games. The excitement from Swiss comes from the risk and reward at play. Players are willing to risk more when it is in their interest to do so. A 1pt win might get you over the line during the cut, but in swiss it might as well be a loss. A shift away from the current format of cut play could similarly improve what are some of the most visible games of Armada played each year. And, without meaning to sound negative (because you do a great job overall FFG OP), for the love of god please get some commentators that play the game at a high level. Seriously, you have nearly all of VTTV sitting in the front row, which makes it all the more painful when a commentator isn’t even aware that a player’s flagship has been destroyed.

In the end though I think this years Worlds has been one of the most exciting throughout Armada’s history. The impact of the FAQ has been abundantly clear from the inventive list design that has come out of the tournament. I’d argue Armada is in nearly the best state its ever been and for me that’s really been shown this week.

More than this though, the countless interactions I’ve had with so many players across the world these last few days have reminded me how fantastic our community is. It’s been an absolute pleasure to deliver these Overnight Reports the last few days and it is definitely something I’ll consider doing again in the future.

Until next time!

-Intel Officer Luke