Yesterday we had the opportunity to play our first game of Clone Wars: Armada with full 400 FP.
KKJ (left) brought a squadron heavy list with an Acclamator I carrier, an Acclamator II flaggship and a Consular Charger as support. Richy (right) was with us as observer and judge.
left: Consular Charger: Radiant VI, Clone Navigation Officer, Comms Net right: Acclamator II: Bail Organa, Clone Captain Zak, Clone Gunners, ECM
(Republic speaks German)
Acclamator I carrier: Nevoota Bee, Flight Commander, Flight Controllers, Rapid Launch Bays, Expanded Hangar Bay, Linked Turbolaser Towers, Ordnance Pods
And the 8 squadrons: Ahsoka Tano, Kickback, 2x V-19, Odd Ball, and 3x ARC-170. )The bombers were stationed in the launch bays of the carrier.)
My separatist fleet (English speaking): Muni Comms: Kraken, Tide of Progress XII, Heavy Ion Emplacements, Reserve Hangar Deck, Battle Droid Reserves, T-series Tactical Droid, and Quad Battery Turrets.
3x Hardcell Battle Refit: Swivel-Mount Battery; 1x Hardcell Transport; Wat Tambor, Projection Experts, Munitions Resupply; 4x Vulture Droid Fighters
My list hit exactly 400 FP maximum and KKJ decided to go first. He denied to play Opening Salvo or Volatile Deposits. So we went with Planetary Ion Canon.
I placed the station near to my edge and could build a castle around with obstacles and Ion Canon Tokens. KKJ dropped the flaggship at my right side, and I followed with the first Hardcell B near the station (second ship, when seen from the left). Then followed the Charger and my left-most Hardcell B. After the deployment of the carrier at the left I was free to strengthen my right flank with the Hardcell T, Muni, and than with higher speed the last Hardcell B.
My plan was to use the Hardcells as a sort of barrier against the enemy forces, to concentrate at the flaggship and to avoid the carrier and bombers as long as possible.
First round: My fleet drifted to the right to aim all potent firing arcs at the flaggship.
Acclamators charged in with speed two and the Charger dropped down to speed 1.
Second round: The Ion Cannon opened fire at the flaggship, then the charger moved in and dealt tokens. My right-most Hardcell now had an aim and fired at the Charger ripping off 4 shields. The carrier accelerated and deployed its bomber wing. The Hardcell had to sacrifice its Defense Tokens and shields but only received 1 Damage Card. Now I had to decide if I wanted to go after the Charger or stick to my plan. Other than usual I performed like planned and the second Battle Refit shot the second volley into the front of Bails flaggship. Bail sent his squadrons after the Hardcell and then dealt a damage card to the poor bugger. But KKJ forgot to use Bail’s card effect to recharge the shields and decelerate, so the ship came into double arcs of my remaining two capital ships. Because of Kraken’s vicious genius the Munificent was able to deal 5 damage cards and the last Hardcell managed to destroy the flaggship with the last shot of round 2.
Third round: The Ion Cannon nearly destroyed the Consular charger, so KKJ decided to activate this ship first, dealing a few tokens and weakening my fore-most Hardcell. That gave me the opportunity to activate my dead-Hardcell-flying one last time and to destroy the Consular with a hot overkill shot. (In hindsight it would have been wiser to aim at the carrier.) The Acclamator converted the Hardcell to dust and now had to kill my squadrons to aim at the ships. Luckily my Hardcell #1 managed to get away with 1 hull remaining. The other three ships now concentrated fire and together dealt 5 Damage Cards the Acclamator. I had a little bit of a problem not to bump one Hardcell into the other and landed my flanker at an asteroid.
Fourth round: The carrier was out of range for the Ion Cannon and KKJ decided to shoot first and activate squadrons later, but he didn‘t succeed to destroy any of the Hardcells and after its move the carrier was out of activation range. I had only a side shot from my flaggship and had to deal three damage. Thanks to my Quad Battery Turrets and Kraken I was able to get the needed result and the game ended with the destruction of the last capital ship of the Galactic Republic.
Danke, Herr Style, for your kind words. I will try to answer your questions. Please keep in mind though that we had only 1 game of 400 FP. That‘s not much of experience with the lists or upgrades. And without the forgotten Bail effect I wouldn‘t have been able to kill the enemy flaggship at the end of round 2. The game would have been more balanced, I suppose.
A) Hardcells with SMBs or LTTs
LTT for 7 FP is one of the best upgrades for red dice. Why did I take SMB for 8 FP? The Hardcell gets an additional red die in the front. Together with a CF-command you throw 5 red dice at your enemy ships. LTT grants a reroll for two attacks, which is nice but not so much needed as soon as the card effect of Kraken comes into play. I had seldom more than 1 blank die and Kraken made it more often than not showing an accuracy.
LTT is better if you‘re able to double arc, but most of the time the Hardcell won‘t get that without exposing the weakly shielded side arc. But if your enemy is in your side arc, I also prefer to throw a second red die over rerolling the only die.
You‘re right, that LTT is better against squadrons. But my list was meant to kill the carriers before the squadrons can kill me.
B) T-Series vs. Rune
I think both options are good. My plan was to move slow with the Muni. I thought I would be able to get tokens before the fight begins and then the T-Series droid gives me a nice boost. I didn‘t use the card effect during the game. I think Rune is better at a ship with a higher Command value than 2.
C) Wat Tambor and Projection Experts
The Hardcell Transport was meant to help my flaggship and to deal the needed CF-tokens when I need to recur the SMB‘s. But KKJ never attacked the Muni. I used the Tambor & PE combo during round 3 to transfer 2 shields from Muni to one stressed Hardcell. That did help the poor little ship to survive until the end of round. But it would be better (and way easier!) to help bigger ships. Timing is a problem for the smaller ones.
D) Used vs. Not used upgrades
I forgot about Reserve Hangar Deck, when my squadrons died. I didn‘t have the opportunity to use any of my defensive cards at my flaggship (this time).
Quad Turbolaser Towers granted me 4 additional blue dice.
Great write up! I would be interested to know if you think SMB’s on Hardcells are worth it vs say LTT’s, especially if up against a lot of squadrons? Also the T-Series droid vs Rune? Also was Wat Tambor and Projection Experts worth taking? Thanks!