So two major international tournaments have happened in the span of a month! The Star Wars: Armada 2017 World Championships in the US, and the Star Wars: Armada 2017 European Championships in the UK.

We have our winners, we have our losers, and by all accounts both tournaments were fantastic events to be a part of. Mozel tov to everyone involved!

For those following along at home though this article is going to serve as a handy reference for the winning lists from these tournaments (as best as I could acquire them at any rate) as well as including some of my thoughts about what trends we can identify from these lists.

Fair warning – there’s going to be a lot of text on this one.

So the information for the lists from Worlds is definitely harder to come by, but this is what I have been able to source:

1. Norm Weir – Rebels

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Flight Commander, Fighter Coordination Team

Assault Frigate Mk II B

Gallant Haven, Toryn Farr

GR-75 Medium Transport

General Rieekan, Adar Tallon

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bomber Command Centre

GR-75 Combat Retrofit

Comms Net

2x VCX-100 Freighters, Gold Squadron, Dagger Squadron, Luke Skywalker, Ten Numb, “Dutch” Vander, Corran Horn

2. Nathan Dalhberg – Rebels

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Flight Commander, Fighter Coordination Team

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Admonition, Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos

GR-75 Medium Transport

General Rieekan , Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bright Hope, Toryn Farr

GR-75 Medium Transport

Adar Tallon, Boosted Comms, Bomber Command Centre

Biggs Darklighter, Wedge Antilles, YT-1300, Jan Ors, Ten Numb, Dagger Squadron, Gold Squadron, Norra Wexley

3. Jeff Berling – Rebels

MC80 Assault Cruiser

Admiral Ackbar, Defiance, Electronic Countermeasures, Intel Officer,

Reinforced Blast Doors, Leading Shots, XI7s, Engine Techs

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bright Hope, Toryn Farr, Repair Crews

GR-75 Medium Transport

Quantum Storm

GR-75 Medium Transport

Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

– (?)

4x VCX, Shara Bey (?), Tycho Celchu (?)

– This is the best I could piece together of the list, with 25 points spare I suspect there are some definitely some upgrades or other pieces missing.

4. Justin Curtis – Rebels

Assault Frigate Mk II B

Gallant Haven, Adar Tallon, Electronic Counter Measures

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

General Rieekan, Yavaris

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bright Hope, Toryn Farr, Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bomber Command Centre, Leia Organa

GR-75 Medium Transport

Comms Net

Jan Ors, 2x VCX-100 Freighter, Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, “Dutch” Vander, Gold Squadron, Scurrg H-6 Bomber

Even with my sleuthing it was very hard to nail down the upgrades for Justin’s list. It’s clear it was an iteration of his runner-up fleet from last year’s Worlds. Therefore I’d assume that its basic structure (Yavaris, Gallant Haven, 3x Transports) is a safe bet.

Update: So thank you to Justin for providing it to me – the list is now accurate to what he was running.

5. Craig Lincoln – Rebels

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Admonition, Lando Calrissian, Ordnance Experts, Reinforced Blast Doors, XI7s,

Assault Proton Torpedos

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Foresight, Major Derlin, Ordnance Experts, Reinforced Blast Doors, XI7s,

Assault Proton Torpedos

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Ordnance Experts, H9s, Assault Proton Torpedos

GR-75 Medium Transport

Mon Mothma

GR-75 Medium Transport

Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

Tycho Celchu

6. Dong Lee – Rebels

The only knowledge I have of Dong’s list is that it was a Rieekan Aces list. I would therefore expect something similar to the other fleets in the Top 8, 2 combat ships plus 3 flotillas and max squadrons. To be clear though this is entirely conjecture without further details.

7. Carlo Roque – Rebels

Carlo is part of the Toronto crew that formulated the eventual winning list for this year’s Worlds. They purportedly all took the exact same list – so I would expect his to be identical to Norm’s.

8. Jacob Thompson – Rebels

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Flight Commander, Fighter Coordination Team

Modified Pelta-Class Command Ship

Adar Tallon, Boosted Comms, Fighter Coordination Team

GR-75 Medium Transport

General Rieekan, Comms Net, Leia Organa

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bright Hope, Toryn Farr, Bomber Command Centre

GR-75 Combat Retrofit

Ahsoka Tano, Bomber Command Centre

Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter, Norra Wexley, Jan Ors, Ten Numb, Gold Squadron, Dagger Squadron, A-Wing

1. Ben Edgar – Imperials

ISD-I Star Destroyer

Admiral Motti, Wulff Yularen, Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms,

Expanded Hangar Bays

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Bomber Command Centre

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Bomber Command Centre

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Comms Net

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

“Mauler” Mithel, Major Rhymer, 4x TIE Fighters, 2x JumpMaster 5000,

5x TIE Bombers



2. Dennis Raschke – Imperials

GSD-I Star Destroyer

Demolisher, Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, Engine Techs

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Grand Moff Tarkin, Director Isard

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Bomber Command Centre

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Jamming Field

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Vector, Admiral Chiraneau, Expanded Hanger Bay

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Colonel Jendon, Maarek Steele, Valen Rudor, Major Rhymer, “Mauler” Mithel, Gamma Squadron, Black Squadron, Saber Squadron, 2x TIE Bombers

3. Alex Hamilton – Rebels

MC80 Assault Cruiser

Admiral Ackbar, Defiance, Electronic Countermeasures, Raymus Antilles, Reinforced Blast Doors, Leading Shots, Enhanced Armament, Engine Techs

CR90B

CR90B

CR90B

CR90B

CR90B

4. Alessio Ianuzzi – Rebels

MC80 Battle Cruiser

Intel Officer, Engine Techs, Veteran Gunners, XX-9s, XI7s, High-Capacity Ion Turbines

GR-75 Medium Transports

General Dodonna

GR-75 Medium Transports

Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transports

GR-75 Medium Transports

GR-75 Medium Transports

Shara Bey, Tycho Celchu, HWK-290, 2x VCX-100 Freighter, 5x A-Wing

5. Daniele De Genini – Imperials

GSD-I Star Destroyer

Demolisher, Intel Officer, Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, Engine Techs

Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser

Captain Needa, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Raider-I

Impetuous, Ordnance Experts, Flechette Torpedos

Raider-I

Instigator, Ordnance Experts, Flechette Torpedos

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Moff Jerjerrod

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Comms Net

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Comms Net

Whisper

6. James Stead – Rebels

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Admonition, Lando Calrissian, Ordnance Experts, H9s, Assault Proton Torpedos

CR90A

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

CR90A

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

CR90B

Engine Techs

GR-75 Medium Transports

General Cracken

GR-75 Medium Transports

Tycho Celchu, HWK-290, 2x VCX-100 Freighters, 3x X-Wing

7. Jonathan Sharples (Sharpling?) – Imperials

GSD-I Star Destroyer

Demolisher, Intel Officer, Ordnance Experts, Assault Concussion Missiles, Engine Techs

GSD-I Star Destroyer

Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, Engine Techs

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Admiral Screed

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Gozanti-Class Cruisers

Maarek Steele, “Mauler” Mithel, Zertik Strom, Valen Rudor, JumpMaster 5000, TIE Defender, 2x Lambda Shuttle



8. Robin Rutter – Rebels

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Adar Tallon, Fighter Coordination Team

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Salvation, Fighter Coordination Team

GR-75 Combat Retrofit

Flight Commander, Jamming Field, Rapid Launch Bays, Quantum Storm

GR-75 Medium Transport

General Rieekan, Leia Organa, Comms Net

GR-75 Medium Transport

Bright Hope, Toryn Farr, Bomber Command Centre

Ten Numb, Nym Havoc, Jan Ors, Biggs Darklighter, X-Wing, YT-1300, 2x VCX-100 Freighter

Conclusions-

So for me there are three big take homes from this data:

1. Based off the information we have (15/16 lists) no one made Top 8 at either event with less than 5 activations, in fact the average was greater than 5 at 5.53333333.

2. Unsurprisingly given point one, flotillas were almost omnipresent in most fleets. 48! 48 flotillas were taken in the 15 lists we have data for, and only a single list did not take at least one of them. Again, just like activations the average was very high at 3.2.

3. Squadrons were also present in heavy numbers in both sets of Top 8. The average across the 15 lists we have is 102.666667 points spent on squadrons. A sub-point to this is that middling amounts of squadrons are nowhere to be seen.

For me these fleets are largely a confirmation of what I have found anecdotally. Regardless of faction, right now (and for a long time) there are two key points in fleet building at a basic level:

Activation Count, and;

Squadrons.

My advice to any admirals looking to win competitively right now is to aim for at least five activations and either go max squadrons or no more than 20-ish points.

Big ships, small ships, don’t care. Make sure you’re hitting at least five activations and decide whether you’re going all in on squadrons or all out. That’s the basic framework for a winning list right now.

Now if you feel differently, that’s great. Take a three activation list, with 65 points of squadrons.

Let me know how it goes.

I know what I’ll be looking towards come Nationals.

Post-Script

A comment on the forums, and Tokra releasing more data from Euros, caused me to do some additional analysis, which I will reproduce here.

Tokra’s data from the Euro’s thread listed 54 fleets. The activation count goes like this:

2 Ships – 3 fleets total (5.5% approx of total fleets)

3 Ships – 1 fleet total (1.85% approx of total fleets)

4 Ships – 12 fleets total (22.22% approx of total fleets)

5 Ships – 26 fleets total (48.15% approx of total fleets)

6 Ships – 9 fleets total (16.67% approx of total fleets)

7 Ships – 2 fleets total. (3.7% approx of total fleets)

So straight off, without including the Top 8 data we can see that as a percentage of total fleets activations skewed towards the high end – 68% of fleets had 5 ships or more.

But lets dive deeper and factor in the Top 8 data:

2 Ships – 0 fleets in the Top 8

3 Ships – 0 fleets in the Top 8

4 Ships – 0 fleets in the Top 8

5 Ships – 3 fleets in the Top 8

6 Ships – 4 fleets in the Top 8

7 Ships – 1 fleet in the Top 8

Lets unpack some of these results:

4 Ship lists comprised 22.2% of the field (1 in 5 players had 4 ships! And this jumps to 1 in 4 if you include 2 and 3 ship lists). They comprised exactly 0% of the Top 8 at Euros.

5 Ship lists comprised 48.15% of the field, they only made up 37.5% of the Top 8. That’s a noticeable dip, even if the winning list was a 5 ship fleet, the data don’t lie.

6 Ship and 7 Ship lists comprised only 20.2% of the field, but made up a whopping 62.5% of the Top 8.

Lets express that in another way. Only 11% of players fielding a 5 ship list made the Top 8. 44% of 6 ship players made Top 8, and 50% of 7 ship players made Top 8.

Make of that what you will.