With the recent Labor Day holiday in the US, I had the chance to revisit a favorite game with my son and play some more Armada. In truth, it was originally planned to be a game or two of X-Wing 2, but during assembly we discovered that several of the key pieces have gone missing. So we defaulted to Armada instead.
My son opted to go back to the Empire again, fielding a basic force of Imperial Star Destroyer, Interdictor Star Destroyer, and Gladiator Star Destroyer, along with a large swarm of TIE fighters and bombers, and a single VT-49 Decimator squadron. Upgrades were minimal, since we have not played in quite a while, but his main focus was on the Interdictor as the flag ship, with abilities to bolster the ISD shields.
For me, I defaulted to Rebel, and fielded a MC80 Assault Cruiser, MC80 Star Cruiser, and Nebulon-B Escort Frigate, along with a basic swarm of 7 X-Wing Squadrons. Again, upgrades were minimal, but my main focus was on boosting the Assault Cruiser with durability, and providing accuracy to the rest of the fleet with the Home One title.
At the start, as Rebels, I was intimidated – Star Destroyers always do that. But with the bid, I was able to select the second player option, and with our random mission selection, opted for a Salvage Run. This worked in my favor, since I could predict where the slow and ponderous Empire would be heading. I did however, under estimate the speed and aggression of the Empire though, as they started out at flank speed, racing for the center.
The battle didn’t disappoint though. Fighters flew into the maelstrom in the center, X-wings quickly taking out TIEs, and then being swarmed and knocked out themselves. Meanwhile the ISD entered the center of the field, as the Rebel shipped converged. Very briefly, it looked like the Rebels would be obliterated especially as the ISD began to ram most of the ships, but with the concentrated fire (and frequent use of the Home One upgrade to eliminate the Brace defense), the ISD was torn down rather quickly. Free of the center conflict, the Rebel fleet reformed to mop up the remnants, though the battle was already won.
The big tackle issue here was really my son sacrificing his ISD for victory tokens – he managed to secure 3 of the 4, but in doing so, separated his Interdictor from his fleet – thus nullifying much of his upgrades. With those abilities, the ISD likely would have lasted long enough to punch back, and at least seriously damage the Star Cruiser.
For my part, I was rather happy with the Nebulon-B, which although it didn’t contribute much damage, managed to continuously issue Squadron commands. This allowed two X-wings to use their mobility, and strike back where needed, either tying up enemy fighters, or bombing the ISD. It was also helpful that as the ISD and Gladiator entered the center, they constantly broke up and disengaged fighter combats, allowing me more freedom than expected.
Final results – Rebel 176 to Empire 86
