Once again I’m back by the magic of Australian time-zones to bring the news (and most of lists) out of Worlds Day 1B.

Day 1B seems to have been a flight stacked with some of the super heavy-weights of the competitive Armada scene (and that’s saying something considering their presence in Day 1A).

The main narrative coming out of Day 1B is two fold, first the internationals have taken over with an incredible showing in the second flight; and, second (and I say this very much tongue in cheek) move over Canada because the UK might have your number for the big meta on the block!

As always I am grateful to our sources on the ground for providing this intel.

1. Nathan ‘Coda’ Dahlberg – 36pts

It maybe says more about the author than it does about Nathan that I can recognise him by a grainy over the shoulder photo despite never having spoken to him once but that’s neither here nor there.

Nathan Coda (to use the name given at this tournament) is the most consistent player in competitive Armada at the World Championships. As an international observer every year he seems to attend a regional here or there, secure his ticket to Worlds and then largely fly under the radar before turning up and going “Hi, I’m here for the Top Cut”.

He has now made the Top Cut 3, that’s right I said 3, years running. In 2016 he lost to JJ in the semis, last year he lost to Norm in the finals, maybe 2018 could prove the old adage that third times the charm.

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

Credit where credit is due, Nathan (who ran lists that were almost identical to each other in 2016 and 2017) has rolled with the FAQ changes and really mixed things up, without any negative impact on his performance. That’s a hell of a feat.

Two things make me love this list, first is the MC80 Command Cruiser – it’s just so nice seeing a pickle out on the field in a time where they’re not well regarded. The second is Hera, whose stock I think (as this list shows) has skyrocketed in value following the FAQ changes which have increased the value of Rogue. I’d be very curious to see how he plays that squad ball, and really his overall flight plan in general.

He definitely should count his blessing though – despite what his final score might imply in the final round he came to within 1 hull point of being tabled against CGYSO’s Eric Taylor and his Rieekan MSU list. If that MC80 had gone down (which was the Advanced Gunnery ship) the points swing would almost certainly have catapulted Eric to the top cut and left Nathan high and dry.

Winning any major tournament though is about having a good list, playing at a high level, and sometimes just that little bit of luck at the right time. Maybe when it’s meant to be it’s meant to be?

2. Rikki Porter – 32pts

Rikki Porter is one part of the fantastic Comms Noise crew that hails out of the UK; which, incidentally, he is the National Champion of. Rikki vanished into the wind before our first wave of spies could get a hold of him, fortunately some of our other operatives have stepped up and we now know his complete list:

Pelta Command Ship

General Rieekan, Phoenix Home, 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

Firstly, huge congrats to Rikki for ensuring that the Pelta went from not being taken in any fleets Day 1A to making it all the way to the Top Cut with his list in Day 1B, an absolutely awesome result.

Rikki’s list really reminds me of Yik’s list from Day 1A, however he’s dropped off an activation to bring in the Phoenix Home which dramatically improves his squadrons and also gives him two fully fledged carriers plus flotillas. Again, I think the inclusion of a 40ish pt Hammerhead is something we will increasingly see in the Rebel list design space. Although they’ve been a much maligned ship since release they have a surprising amount of punch and staying power. When combined with their cheap cost it really is an attractive inclusion for Rebel fleets post-FAQ.

Very, very interested to see how Rikki flies this list and what the subtle nuances of his play are, especially with that Pelta.

3. James McGovern – 30pts

Another UK international (that’s right Canada, based off of Top 5 performances the mother country outperformed you). James is by all accounts a frequent traveller for big tournaments, heading to Regionals across the British Isles. Although he fell just short of the cut it must have been a huge effort to manage third given the level of competition in play on Day 1B.

MC80 Battle Cruiser

Intel Officer, Caitken & Shollan, Engine Techs, SW-7 Ions, X-I7s, Spinal Armament

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Lando Calrissian, Ordnance Experts, Assault Proton Torpedos, X-I7s, Admonition

CR90B

Admiral Raddus

CR90B

GR-75

Comms Net

GR-75

Comms Net

I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but honestly the list design coming out of Worlds has been super fascinating. This is a seriously ballsy take on Raddus. No squadrons, and a Liberty instead of a MC75. What it does though is have an insane amount of flexibility between the MC30 and the Liberty for what goes into the Raddus drop.

From experience that Liberty would be an absolute cannon at long range thanks to Spinals and the twins, so I suspect more likely than not it would be the usual ship to go into the drop. It would be really interesting to see how this list fared against heavy squad builds as it is definitely relying on winning the damage race, something that I’m not quite sure it can reliably do.

Still, very interesting build, and because it has such few moving parts (i.e. no squadrons) it has the twin benefits of both being unlikely to go to time and causing less mental fatigue on the man flying it. Very real considerations in a tournament like Worlds.

4. Ben “European Space Boat King” Edgar – 29pts

It was a real log jam there at the top just outside the cut, and this really reflected the fact that the titans of competitive Armada were slugging it out amongst each other. Ben “European Space Boat King” is definitely one of those titans, taking out the 2017 Euros championship and becoming a meme in the process.

Ben is both a member of the aforementioned Comms Noise crowd and is part of the Yogscast. Also UK.

You see what I’m trying to say Canada? So far they’ve done better than you guys (that’s right I’m spinning up the patriotic narrative for the top cut already when Rikki P and Yik collide).

ISD Kuat

Avenger, Governor Pryce, Boarding Troopers, Early Warning System, Leading Shots, External Racks

ISD Cymoon

Moff JerJerrod, Strategic Adviser, Gunnery Teams, Spinal Armaments, X-I7s

Gozanti

Comms Net

Gozanti

Ciena Ree, Valen Rudor

Objectives: Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Solar Corona

Double ISD is definitely more along the lines of what I expected to be very popular this year. Honestly much like Nicholas Litrenta’s list yesterday there isn’t a lot to say about this list – it’s very clear what it wants to do, and with that efficient upgrade suite I imagine it does it incredibly well.

Even more so than James list I think Ben really has the advantage of having way less moving parts; cutting down on both time and mental exertion really adds up across a full day of Armada. A big part I like that was surprisingly absent elsewhere is Governor Pryce, I imagine that activation control would really have allowed Ben to set up some horrifically devastating shots with the Kuat.

Jerry is a really solid choice for allowing the guns to stay on target, and I think being able to lead with the EWS Kuat as the list’s chin would allow it to hang tough with heavy squad builds. It’s a real shame that something like this (or any Imperial for that matter) was unable to sneak into the top cut.

5. Dennis ‘Tokra’ Raschke – 29pts

Rounding out the international invasion of Day 1B (comprising 4 of the Top 5!) we have the one and only Tokra. If you haven’t heard of him consider yourself lucky, he is the man behind the 8 Gozanti bomber list that he took all the way to Worlds in 2016. The worst part is he is an insanely likeable man, so even as he capitalises on your own lunacy and grinds your squadrons into dust it will be a pleasure. Not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything.

A two time German national champion, finalist at Euros 2017, and consistently high finisher at major events it really comes as no surprise that he managed to slip into the Top 5 at Day 1B.

ISD-2

Avenger, Strategic Adviser, Darth Vader (Boarding Team), Electronic Counter Measures, Admiral Sloane, Leading Shots

Quasar-I

Squall, Flight Controllers, Expanded Hanger Bay, Boosted Comms, Hondo

Gozanti

Comms Net

Dengar, Mauler Mithel, Ciena Ree, Maarek Steele, Saber Squadron, Colonel Jendon, Valen Rudor, Howlrunner

So straight off the bat I am a huge, huge, fan of this list, because if you’ve been watching any of our batreps it is frighteningly similar to a build I’ve been rolling for sometime now (yes I’m taking some pride in the fact that the German human calculator came to similar conclusions as myself what of it). I can attest from experience how lethal this particualr squadron composition can be, especially through the long range mass activation that the Quasar provides.

Squall as a title is an interesting choice, and allows him even more movement flexibility on those high speed squads, especially as engagement range is closing. I’m a big fan of Darth Vader on Avenger as a means of knocking off the really important upgrades on a ship (hello there Yavaris / Lando / et al), though I’m less sold on Strategic Adviser, especially as it only brings him up to 4 activations. I think Captain Brunson could have been of more use here, but that may just be a strokes for folks sort of comment.

Again, this is a list I would have loved to have seen in the cut, both to bring some Imperial flavour to what is once again a Rebel dominated endeavour, but also to see that particular and exacting style of play that Tokra brings to the table. Hopefully its something we’ll get to see from Euros 2018.

Honourable Mention – 9. Eric Taylor – 26pts

This is not meant as any knock on the players I have not included, but I really felt obligated to include Eric ‘Snipafist’ Taylor’s list. Eric played at the top tables for pretty much the whole day and was on Table 1 against Nathan Coda in the final round (having knocked off last year’s World Champ Norm Weir to get there). As mentioned before, Eric fell one hull point short of tabling Nathan, and assuredly catapulting into the top cut. Definitely an absolute heart-breaker of a loss.

More than this though, I really think his fleet was something that can play well with the way the current meta is shaping up, and that could have very easily gone all the way in the Top Cut if it had made it.

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

General Rieekan, Lando Calrissian, Ordnance Experts, External Racks, Admonition

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

Skilled First Officer, Ordnance Experts, External Racks

CR90a

Jaina’s Light, Turbolaser Re-route Circuits

Hammerhead Scout Corvette

Slaved Turrets, Task Force: Organa

Hammerhead Scout Corvette

Slaved Turrets, Task Force: Organa

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

External Racks, Task Force: Organa

GR-75

Slicer Tools, Quantum Storm

NO SQUADRONS

Most Wanted, Hyperspace Assault, Salvage Run

Again just absolutely fascinating list design as it really goes all in on both Rieekan’s ability and the strength of MSU to swarm and overwhelm its enemy before they can bring their guns or squads to bear. I definitely think its a high skill fleet, but damn it if it isn’t exciting. I think the inclusion of Slicer Tools / Quantum is definitely something that really helps this list. Post FAQ as we return to one big carrier models the value of Slicer Tools dramatically increases. Think about the potential counter-play with this against Tokra’s Quasar for example.

Much like with my earlier discussion of Day 1A I think the Hammerheads provide cheap punch that definitely hit above their weight. Meanwhile the stripped down MC30s offer the list the ability to either hunt / finish off big ships, or bully any opposing small ship that they can snare in their grasp.

Really great list and I sincerely hope Eric walks away incredibly proud of how close he came to climbing that pinnacle. As cliche as it might sound, there is, as they say, always next time.

General Data: Unfortunately, the general data for Day 1B is not as detailed as that provided for Day 1A. This is perhaps unsurprising given the fact that our core numbers correspondent Tokra was an active member in the tournament today. With that in mind though, this is what we have. Again, we had 44 players sign up, of which 35 players actually turned out to the event. Nearly mirroring Day 1A of those 35, 16 were Rebels and 19 Imperials. Imperials For Admirals there were: 6 Jerry, 5 Sloane, 2 Vader, 2 Motti, and 1 each of Tarkin, Ozzel, and Thrawn (with one fleet admiral unaccounted for). No presence of Tagge or Konstantine.

The ship breakdown is less complete but across the 19 fleets there were 67 Imperial ships total with 12 Strategic Advisers and 21 Gozantis.

These 19 fleets were supported by 99 squadrons that were spread across them. Rebels For Admirals there were: 5 Raddus, 4 Rieekan, 4 Ackbar, and 1 each of Cracken, Dodonna, and Garm. No presence of Mon Mothma, Sato, or Leia.

Across the 16 lists there were 67 Rebel ships with 4 Strategic Advisers and 24 GR-75s.

The 16 fleets were supported by 67 squadrons (one fleet having 12 A-Wings!). These averages in both activations and average squadron counts were both lower than Day 1A. There was also a higher presence of zero squadron fleets (8 on Day 1B), and the showing of several admirals that hadn’t been present for Day 1A (Ackbar, Cracken, Ozzel, and Tarkin). Similarly, as clearly evidenced by Rikki P’s list – the Pelta turned up in a big way on Day 1B (even if it may have just been solely in his fleet!). It is sad to note the complete non-presence of several admirals across both days including Tagge, Konstantine, Mon Mothma, Leia, and Sato. The Imperial no-shows are admittedly flaming hot garbage, but its interesting to see the Rebel equivalents on the bubble. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues at other major tournaments post FAQ or whether this is a reflection of the ‘figuring out’ stage that comes with every major system overhaul. As a final comment the loss of 25% of both flights at Worlds is a cause for real concern. While obviously life can get in the way and prevent a player filling their seat, there is a genuine worry that people have gamed FFG’s system to use an Armada ticket to allow themselves entry into X-Wing (or other systems) side events. Knowing first hand the amount of skilled and dedicated players who were unable to secure a seat at Worlds I really do hope this is an issue that FFG looks into. Having more engaged players in the premier tournament of the year can only be to Armada’s benefit. That’s a wrap for Day 1B. I might try and really burn the candle at both ends to bring an overview of the Top Cut match-ups as we come to the pointed end of our Worlds 2018 journey. Hope you join me along for the ride! -Intel Officer Luke