Guess I’ll jump right in. To keep busy during the pandemic, I started putting together a collection of X-Wing ships, and when my gaming group got back together in-person, we largely played that, instead, mostly because it was quicker, easier, and new to us. It’s a fantastic game, but we’ve been missing Armada lately… so help me with a few answers?
When I last played Armada, the Onager (Testbed particularly) was a terror. Has the community learned to deal with it effectively?
Similarly, the Starhawk seemed to be a bit of a balance problem. How’s that shaken out?
The SSD seemed to be reasonably popular and successful in other communities when we last played, but our local meta could never quite crack the code. We flew probably a dozen games with it, and it lost all but perhaps one of them, mostly due to the “crippled” rules. The advent of the Starhawk just seemed to put another nail in its coffin. Have the 1.5 changes to pass tokens and other changes helped it at all? Does it actually suck? Or did we just suck at flying it?
How are the Clone Wars factions fitting in? I played a TTS game of GAR v. CIS a year or two ago; they seemed decently fun and balanced against each other, but I doubted their ability to fight the OG factions. Accurate or no?
So, I know that’s a lot. But any and all thoughts and opinions are appreciated.
When I last played Armada, the Onager (Testbed particularly) was a terror. Has the community learned to deal with it effectively?
The Onager is powerful in the right hands, but the competitive community has learned to deal with it via listbuilding and figured out ways to fly against it. I hear it's done really well in Southern California and Texas recently, but otherwise I don't think it's dominating tournaments like it used to.
Similarly, the Starhawk seemed to be a bit of a balance problem. How’s that shaken out?
The Starhawk is really easy to kill when Agate is not the commander, but a pain to kill for a lot of lists when Agate is the commander. At GenCon last year there were three Starhawks with Agate in the top 8. That being said, the Starhawk does not perform well at every tournament, because a lot of players will just ignore it entirely and the Starhawk only gets a 6-5, or even worse, there are definitely some list that can murder the Hawk and get a 10-1.
The SSD seemed to be reasonably popular and successful in other communities when we last played, but our local meta could never quite crack the code. We flew probably a dozen games with it, and it lost all but perhaps one of them, mostly due to the “crippled” rules. The advent of the Starhawk just seemed to put another nail in its coffin. Have the 1.5 changes to pass tokens and other changes helped it at all? Does it actually suck? Or did we just suck at flying it?
I'm surprised no one was winning games with the SSD before the Starhawk/Onager, because the SSD was winning a lot of tournaments nationwide. It's had it rough since the Starhawk/Onager came out, and 1.5 made it even worse. It is a tough ship to win with.
How are the Clone Wars factions fitting in? I played a TTS game of GAR v. CIS a year or two ago; they seemed decently fun and balanced against each other, but I doubted their ability to fight the OG factions. Accurate or no?
Oh, the Clone Wars factions are really good now. Thermal Shields, Tranquility, SPHA-T, Delta Anakin, Mar Tuuk, CIS Gozanti, etc. are all helping them do well at tournaments.
Appreciate the responses! Thanks. Find it kind of weird that none of the things my group were having balance issues with seem to be a problem.
Is there a site where one can see tournament-winning lists? I‘m kind of curious to see if and how the SSD has performed overall. And some other things.
Hi!
1. When I last played Armada, the Onager (Testbed particularly) was a terror. Has the community learned to deal with it effectively?
Yeah, the Onager hasn’t been much of a threat recently, from what I can tell, people have gotten used to fighting it and in the recent tournaments, it didn’t get very far, IIRC.
2. Similarly, the Starhawk seemed to be a bit of a balance problem. How’s that shaken out?
From what I gather, it’s seldom used.
3. The SSD seemed to be reasonably popular and successful in other communities when we last played, but our local meta could never quite crack the code. We flew probably a dozen games with it, and it lost all but perhaps one of them, mostly due to the “crippled” rules. The advent of the Starhawk just seemed to put another nail in its coffin. Have the 1.5 changes to pass tokens and other changes helped it at all? Does it actually suck? Or did we just suck at flying it?
The SSD is more flown in casual games. It’s annoying to play against, in my opinion, because the lists are generic and it’s just a brick being shot at, whereas Armada games are fun for their maneuvering and positioning. at the least, it seems people don’t like playing against it, so it seldom brought.
4. How are the Clone Wars factions fitting in? I played a TTS game of GAR v. CIS a year or two ago; they seemed decently fun and balanced against each other, but I doubted their ability to fight the OG factions. Accurate or no?
They can hold their own, and get pretty far in tournaments.