Another major tournament for Star Wars: Armada, this time at Gencon! I’m a bit behind schedule on this one, so it’s more of an over-the-week report than a true overnight report (but hey, better late than never I guess?).

Gencon (or rather the North American Championships) was run as 4 rounds of Swiss, followed by a Top 4 cut playing single-elimination format.

So these were the standings after four rounds of Swiss, and if you’re familiar with the Armada community you’ll recognise a lot of names. John and Eric in 7th and 8th are of course from CGYSO, Nathan Coda in 5th is the reigning World Champion – you get the idea. It was definitely a very strong field by the looks of things which is unsurprising.

1. Dong Lee – 33pts

Despite being fairly quiet in the community, Dong has been a really consistent player for a couple of years, coming second overall in 2016’s Gencon / North American Championship to Norm Weir (Worlds 2017 winner) and sixth overall at Worlds 2017.

ISD Kuat

Admiral Motti, Strategic Adviser, Boarding Troopers, Electronic Countermeasures, External Racks, Leading Shots, Avenger

GSD-I

Admiral Montferrat, Ordnance Experts, Engine Techs, Assault Proton Torpedos, Demolisher

Gozanti

Comms Net

Gozanti

Dengar, Zertik Strom, Mauler Mithel, 2x TIE Advanced, Black Squadron

Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Dangerous Territory

381pts

Dong’s list is incredibly stripped down. It feels like the Armada equivalent of a boxer that has everything riding on one or two knockout punches.

The upgrade suite on the Kuat is something I’m a particularly big fan of. The Kuat is there to come in, absolutely blow something away, and make sure it comes out the other side. All of its upgrades help this goal. Motti giving the extra hull is a real plus to its survivability, Strategic Adviser is nice as it bumps the overall activations of the list to 5 (thereby giving the Kuat a better chance of activating last), while External Racks adds to the punch and gives better odds of the BTAvenger combo proving to be lethal.

Demolisher is an unsurprising partner for the Kuat as it is hard-hitting enough to threaten a killer blow on its own. Equally though, it’s just as good as a finisher or at chasing down wounded ships attempting to flee the field. My one quibble with it is that I’m not a huge fan of Montferrat. For my mind Brunson, for the same points, offers a better return on investment. You could argue that Dong has opted for Montferrat as it opens up where on the battlefield he can be (as he doesn’t need to be within range of an obstacle to proc the ability), but I’d counter that Montferrat is equally limiting by forcing you to maintain high speeds and avoid ramming.

The two Gozantis are there as a nice activation pad, and to command the squadrons / palm off a token or two as needed. I can think of very few lists where this isn’t worth the points.

The squadrons are very interesting, and I have to say I quite like them. Their main role, obviously, is to shut down enemy squadrons long enough for the heavy hitters to do what they need to do. Four sources of escort (including a brace hero) and Dengar’s Intel means that Mauler Mithel will be doing his thing for a fair amount of time, and in my experience if Mauler can get off three splashes you’re normally winning the squadron war. With 4 black dice though (Dengar, Zertik, and the two Advanceds) that annoying screen can actually contribute some meaningful damage to enemy ships if necessary.

With a 19pt bid (and the way the list is designed) this list really is gunning for first, and against all but the most determined lists it should have the choice between second or first player. I do like though that Dong has clearly thought about his objectives should it prove necessary to play them. A lot of first player oriented lists don’t do this and it can be very problematic should they find themselves in that position (or if they realise they want to be second player in a specific match-up).

Most Wanted is a no-brainer, double the value of a single target at the cost of a potential 46pt Gozanti? Yeah, that’s a good trade. Contested Outpost would allow Dong to control the battlefield, and it strikes me as a particularly uninviting prospect to try and push the Kuat and Demolisher off of it. I think Dangerous Territory is a very safe objective, second player is almost always going to score at least three of the tokens, but I’d argue that often it is safe for first player as well (as they can also generally score three tokens). Personally, I probably would have leaned more towards something like Salvage Run as it allows for a greater points differential but again a lot of that is probably personal preference.

2. Josiah ‘JJsJuggernaut’ Burkhardsmeier – 32pts

I’m running out of superlatives to describe JJ. What more can be said about this Armada wunderkind. At large events filled with the highest levels of competitive players, JJ consistently finds himself at the right end of the leaderboard at the end of Swiss which is telling of the calibre of play that he brings to the table.

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser

Strategic Adviser, Ordnance Experts, Electronic Countermeasures, External Racks, Assault Proton Torpedos, Profundity

MC30 Torpedo Frigate

Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, H9 Turbolasers, Admonition

CR90A

Admiral Raddus, Hondo Ohnaka, Turbolaser Re-route Circuits

Hammerhead Torpedo

Ordnance Experts, External Racks

GR75

Slicer Tools

GR75

Comms Net

Station Assault, Contested Outpost, Dangerous Territory

386pts

So JJ has clearly taken his Worlds list and changed it up (in a way, melding it with the list he used to win the 2018 Vassal World Cup). The largest change is that he’s traded in the squadrons for Admonition, and used some of the spare points left over to slap on a few upgrades here or there.

I’m in two minds about this change. On the one hand it makes him far more vulnerable to squadrons as he now no longer has any screening fighters. On the other hand though, adding the MC30 dramatically increases the threat that he can exert on the board to opposing ships. I think overall it’s a change for the better. This new variant requires tighter play against squadron heavy fleets to ensure that he can overwhelm and destroy the carriers before the squadrons can go to work, but it also means that JJ is less susceptible to bleeding points from his squadrons.

Again, unsurprisingly, with a bid this size JJ is gunning for first and it’s very obvious why. Being able to Raddus drop in, then drop off the Hammerhead from Profundity and absolutely unload on a previously ‘safe’ ship is a power that is amplified by being able to activate first in a round. The beauty of JJ swapping out the squadrons for the MC30 really does come to the fore here though as, unlike his Worlds list, he now has a lot more flexibility in terms of which ship is going into the Raddus drop. Admonition coming out of the ether is just as devastating as Profundity, and it allows the list to flexibly respond rather than being locked into a specific game-play loop from the outset.

One of the most interesting inclusions has to be the Strategic Adviser on the MC-75. I’ll freely admit, my first response was “Huh, that’s weird, why not Lando or something like that?”. But after thinking about it some more, and reading JJ’s own explanation of it, it’s probably the change I like the most. Basically, Strategic Adviser allows JJ to be more flexible in his game plan by bumping his activation count from 6 to 7 (which a very small number of fleets reach). This means that JJ could Raddus drop out of range of his opponents and force them into his waiting, missile laden, arms; or, if he didn’t Raddus Profundity, use it to help stall and set up easier runs for his spotter ships.

It’s a really clever addition and fits the style of changes JJ seems to have implemented. Much like Dong, JJ seems to have thought about his objectives. Station Assault and Contested Outpost seem a good way of him forcing a specific battle location (or otherwise affecting deployment). Dangerous Territory I’m not super sold on again, for the same reasons, but I do think that is less problematic here because of Raddus.

3. Justin ‘Rasproteus’ Rasmussen – 31pts

Rasproteus is the best Armada player you’ve never heard of. Known more to the Vassal community and for his exploits there than he is for real life tournaments, he keeps a fairly low profile but is active on all of the main online Armada communities. It’s nice to see him achieving the kind of tournament success that he deserves, and I’m confident this won’t be the last time that happens.

ISD Cymoon

Darth Vader, Strategic Adviser, Entrapment Formation, Gunnery Team, Avenger

GSD-I

Assault Proton Torpedos, Demolisher

Arquitens Light Cruiser

Intel Officer, Slaved Turrets

Arquitens Light Cruiser

Intel Officer, Slaved Turrets

Gozanti

Comms Net

Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Solar Corona

399pts

If I thought Dong’s list was stripped down, this is like the ~5% body fat fleet of Armada. There is nothing more that could be reasonably cut from this list.

So, firstly, I like the list because it is a Vader Cymoon list that uses Vader’s ability to the greatest extent possible. A lot of Vader Cymoon fleets are only using them to power a single Cymoon which is where I question the utility and effectiveness of the combination. In a similar vein, a lot of Vader fleets in general fail to pass the Motti test, which is basically where they could have traded Vader for Motti and used the spare points to buy all the dice modification upgrades they needed.

But lets dig deeper into this list and take a look at what its doing. So firstly, you have the two Arquittens with Slaved Turrets and Intel Officer. I’m going to happily assume that for the majority of the game they will be revealing Concentrate Fire commands and be flinging five re-rollable reds. Now I generally operate using back of the envelope math, so I figure you’re looking at about 4.5 damage on average after re-roll (3.75 average before re-roll, so generally re-rolling 1-2 dice). That’s a really solid amount of damage, and it’s made worse by the fact that the Intel Officers are going to be forcing hard questions for your Defence Token usage (which also makes every subsequent shot better).

This then rolls into Avenger. This thing obviously wants to stay at range if it can, and use activation advantage to be activating either last or close to last most turns. It’s the long range follow up hurling 5-6 red dice that also ignores any of your exhausted Defence tokens. The Gozanti, I imagine, will be passing a Nav token most turns to power up the Entrapment Formation. For the first time ever, I actually like the inclusion of Entrapment Formation. It allows Rasproteus some navigational flexibility, and frees up his Command dials for mostly concentrates or repairs.

Demolisher here is more of a dedicated finisher, but the thought of it following on from two Intel Officer Arqs and Avenger (or after the Arqs, but before Avenger to really set up the pain) is down right nasty.

The main weakness here is obviously the lack of any squadrons (or even any anti-fighter tech at all for that matter). However, as with the other lists in the Top 4, I think these days that weakness is less pronounced now that Carrier fleets are a lot more vulnerable to tabling once again.

With his 1pt ‘bid’, Rasproteus presumably played Second player a lot throughout his tournament run (or at minimum was always being told whether he was First or Second). None of his objectives are terribly surprising, and all of them work well with his list design. Most Wanted adds more dice to the pain pool and really increases the value of something for him, Contested Outpost allows him to dictate the point of engagement and basically invite his opponent into a long range trap, while Solar Corona allows him to completely counter deploy his opponent and help offset his lack of defensive tech.

4. Sean Sundberg – 29pts

Sean Sundberg (along with Jeff Berling) is, for my mind, one of the real progenitors of the Fish Farm lists that saw a real rise to popularity prior to Wave 7 and the FAQ changes. I’m fairly confident that Sean is a Regional winner, but at any rate he’s a player that’s been on my radar for some time and it’s almost always with a MC80 Ackbar list in tow.

MC80 Assault Cruisser

Admiral Ackbar, Leading Shots, Lando Calrissian, Engine Techs, XI7 Turbolasers, Electronic Countermeasures, Reinforced Blast Doors, Defiance

CR90A

Medical Team, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits, Jaina’s Light

CR90A

Medical Team, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

GR-75

Hondo Ohnaka, Comms Net

GR-75

Leia Organa, Comms Net

2x VCX-100, HWK-290, YT-1300

Advanced Gunnery, Fire Lanes, Sensor Net

397pts

Unsurprisingly, given what I said above, Sean’s list looks to be a neo-Fish Farm. I’d given extensive thought to Fish Farms back in their heyday but it is interesting to see how one of their best proponents has updated the archetype in response to the FAQ.

The Assault MC80 is virtually unchanged from it’s original form and that’s because the beast just works. Defiance and Leading Shots to proc re-rolls at long range, XI7s for help punching damage through, Engine Techs to make it more manoeuvrable and harder to pin down, and Lando, ECMs, and RBDs to help ensure that its a points fortress and not a points piñata. RBDs is perhaps my only quibble as I think there’s an argument to be made that EWS helps reduce incoming damage from ships and is really helpful against squads but I will say that 8 hull can get chewed up fast and having the ability to undo a lot of hull damage can make all the difference.

The two GR-75s are there to putter along and support the big guy / squads, comms nets and Hondo for tokens, Leia to change its command dial if needed. Much like the Gozantis in Dong’s list, they’re a great return on investment.

The squads are there to set up the farm by making Fire Lanes and Sensor Net an absolute nightmare for opponents thanks to Strategic (and Intel to keep them moving, and Escort to ensure the Intel doesn’t die). Which makes all three of the objectives awful. Do you want the MC80 to be able to hurl 6-7 potentially re-rollable dice a turn? Because your other options are going to cost you +150pts.

What’s really nice about this list though is the post FAQ changes. Swapping the now illegal 3rd-6th GR-75 for TRC90s actually makes the list better overall for my mind. The experience I found with my time at the Fish Farm was that if you didn’t have Advanced Gunnery you actually weren’t that scary to another large ship like an ISD, as you were only attacking once a round (and if you didn’t have Intel Officer you weren’t removing their defence tokens). The CR90s really help alleviate this problem by providing a nice auxiliary fire base that gets the fleet humming. Having that additional threat also makes the list better able to handle being first player should an opponent decide they don’t want to play the Fish Farm’s game.

The Cut

Seeing as this article is already fairly extensive I’m going to be brief on my recap of how the cut panned out.

The first round saw:

Dong v Sean

JJ v Rasp

Both games were pretty damn tight by the sounds of it, effectively coming down to final rolls each time. At the end though, JJ and Dong, advanced to the final.

Dong, outbidding JJ, elected to go first, and took JJ’s Dangerous Territory.

So JJ was clearly playing to offset his disadvantage at being the second player in a brawler mirror by proving that discretion is often the better part of valour.

What’s really interesting and surprising for me here is that the game would end up a draw 84-84 (leaving JJ the winner as second player). I should clarify, what is surprising isn’t so much that they drew, but how they drew based on the one photo of the board state we have during play. Dong killed JJ’s Hammerhead, a GR-75, and scored a single objective token. JJ killed Black Squadron, and scored 5 of the objectives.

You look at that image of the board state, from what I’m presuming is Turn 2, and you can see that JJ has already picked up two tokens with his GR-75s. Dong has picked up 1 from the Gozanti that’s in double arc of the MC-75, and that there are two in front of both Demo and the ISD. What’s crazy is that JJ managed to snag both of those.

It’s somewhat unfair to armchair quarter back these things, but when I was running it through my head, my assumption of how the next turn played out is that Dong probably tried to pull his Gozanti out of the fire and that this allowed JJ to activate his doomed GR-75 and have it run in and snag the token in front of the ISD. In a cut game, a 30pt swing is huge, and if I’m right in assuming that it came from a doomed game piece that’s one hell of a turn around (and probably a reflection of how many times JJ has played these sorts of games).

Commiserations and congratulations to Dong, making the final table of such an event is an achievement and a let down all at the same time.

Outright congratulations to JJ who adds another major tournament to his hall-of-fame worthy list of achievements. I’m really glad we’re not on the same continent.

– Intel Officer Luke