Armada Dice part II: Squadron to Ship

With wave 5 on the horizon, I want to put into context the stats for the squadron we already have. As everyone has seen, wave 3 has made a very powerful impact on the squadron game in Armada, because of the cheap activations, cheap squadron pushers and Bomber Command Center.

With the aid of a script I made, I can accurately calculate the damage based on clever ability usage. What does clever ability usage mean? It means not choosing the best order in which to resolve abilities, based on the initial roll

The aim of this blog post is two-fold: to show that there are clever paths to be taken when rerolling with simple rules of thumb that can be followed; to rank bombers based on their effectiveness taking into account the effect of Bomber Command Center and their cost.

X-wings

X-wings are the lowest efficiency bombers currently in the game, with only one red dice. Bomber Command Center in their case helps bring them in line with Y-wing in terms of expected damage. An X-wing with 2 Bomber Command Centers will do an average of 1.15 average damage, as opposed to a naked Y-wing which does 1. Of course, the efficiency is nowhere near, since the X-wing is 30% more expensive.

What about rerolls? With an X-wing and one BCC, you're only expected to reroll Accuracies and Blanks to get the best average result. In the diagram below, the center is the starting point, with the 5 possibilities of the red dice roll. On the next level, the red line represents the best choice, which is rerolling only in the case of the blank or accuracy.

What if we have 2 BCCs? Then the correct answer becomes rerolling all non-doubles on the first reroll, followed by blanks on the second roll. All in all, easy to remember!

To remember: While the X-wings have the lowest damage overall of all bombers, they benefit from having Bomber Command Center the most! 2BCCs increase their anti-ship damage by 50%!

Y-wings/TIE Bombers

Y-wings are the Rebel's cheap, no-fuss bomber option. 1 average damage with 1BCC, up to 1.25 and 1.44 with 2 BCCs! 44% damage increase is still very good! The TIE Bomber has of course the same damage output, but with fewer fleet points, so with greater overall efficiency in terms of anti-ship combat.

What about rerolls? Turns out this is more complicated. The average being 1, if you have a single reroll and you rolled a Hit, you have 2 options:

• You are at average, be content with the result
• Try your luck and go for the Hit/Crit

Both have the same average result, but the second option plays with variance a bit more, while the first option is safe!

If you have 2 rerolls, you can safely reroll Hits on the first reroll, followed by only-blank rerolls on the second reroll for safest and best average result!

Rule of thumb: No matter how many black dice rerolls you have, you can safely reroll hits on any reroll but the last! The last reroll is the one where you make the choice between safe and trying your luck! (but still with the same average result)

Firesprays

Almost not worth mentioning, since the rerolls are extremely intuitive. Anything that isn't a damage you can reroll. Overall they gain 30% damage from having 2BCCs.

B-wings 

With B-wings things get interesting. In terms of damage, they have the highest totals of any unnamed squadron and overall incredible efficiency.

As to rerolls, the priority seems to be the black dice. First make sure you have at least a Hit on that, then reroll the accuracy if you have rolled one. In the image below, all non-optimal choices and their respective consequences have been eliminated, so a red edge represents a correct choice. If there are two red edges, that means that both choices carry exactly the same weight, meaning they come out with the same average damage, no matter what.

Keyan is a special example (and now Ten Numb), because they're the only ones with 2 black dice and Keyan has a reroll capability built in!  Keyan benefits little, only 13% for a single BCC and 22.40% for 2 BCCs, but it takes him to an incredible 3 average damage!

His reroll rule of thumb is similar to Y-wings: Reroll Hits as long as you have rerolls left, otherwise reroll only blanks if you want to keep it safe!

Efficiency

So where does this take us? I have arranged the following table, where red columns are average damage, blue columns are benefits comparing to the vanilla scenario and white columns are efficiency, which I have defined as average damage per 10 points of squadron of that type. In this first table you can see how the X-wing gets to 1.15 average damage, trumping the vanilla Y-wing and TIE Bomber at 1 damage.

	Default		1BCC			2BCC
	Avg	Avg/10p	Avg	Benefit	Avg/10p	Avg	Benefit	Avg/10p
1red (X-wing)	0.75	0.58	1.03	37.33%	0.79	1.15	53.33%	0.88
1black (Y-wing/TIE Bomber)	1	1.00/1.11	1.25	25.00%	1.25/1.39	1.44	44.00%	1.44/1.60
2blue	1.5	0.83	1.83	22.00%	1.02	1.95	30.00%	1.08
1blue-black(B-wing)	1.75	1.25	2.14	22.29%	1.53	2.37	35.43%	1.69
1blue-black + Toryn	1.94	1.39	2.22	14.43%	1.59	2.41	24.23%	1.72
2black(w/o Keyan)	2	1	2.44	22.00%	1.22	2.72	36.00%	1.36
2black(Keyan)	2.5	1.25	2.84	13.60%	1.42	3.06	22.40%	1.53

The second table has efficiency calculated and sorted in descending order. The B-wing tops the list when taken with 2BCCs and is generally more efficient in all conditions.

	Efficiency
B-wing + Toryn + 2BCC	1.72
B-wing + 2BCC	1.69
TIE Bomber + 2BCC	1.6
B-wing + Toryn + BCC	1.59
B-wing + BCC	1.53
Keyan + 2BCC	1.53
Y-wing + 2BCC	1.44
Keyan + BCC	1.42
TIE Bomber + BCC	1.39
	...

For B-wings, both 1BCC and 2BCC bring enough damage to be taken into consideration, although the first BCC brings the bigger boost in efficiency. I also considered B-wings with Toryn Farr nearby. As expected, Toryn Farr is weaker than a Bomber Command Center for an anti-ship of 1blue 1black. Of surprise is that the efficiency of an X-wing with 2 Bomber Command Centers is higher than that of a Vanilla Firespray!

To remember: Bomber Command Center transforms your mediocre bombers into decent bombers and good bombers into great bombers!

Cost of Flotillas 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Flotillas cost too, right? So you could argue that efficiency of squadrons has to take into account the cost of those flotillas with Bomber Command Center, 26 pts minimum for the Rebels and 31 pts for the Empire.

In the following table I have filled 134 points with a single squadron type and calculated the damage. Unrealistic, I know, but the point I'm going to make after this remains unchanged..

Squadrons	Points	Avg	Efficiency
Fleet of 13 Y-wings	130	13	1
13 Y-wings + BCC	156	16.25	1.04
13 Y-wings + 2 BCC	182	18.72	1.03
Fleet of 9 B-wings	126	15.75	1.25
Fleet of 9 B-wings + BCC	152	19.26	1.27
Fleet of 9 B-wings + 2 BCC	178	21.33	1.2
Fleet of 10 X-wings	130	7.5	0.58
Fleet of 10 X-wings + BCC	156	10.3	0.66
Fleet of 10 X-wings + 2 BCC	182	11.5	0.63
Fleet of 14 TIE Bombers	126	14	1.11
Fleet of 14 TIE Bombers + BCC	157	17.5	1.11
Fleet of 14 TIE Bombers + 2 BCC	188	20.16	1.07
Fleet of 7 Firesprays	126	10.5	0.83
Fleet of 7 Firesprays + BCC	157	12.81	0.82
Fleet of 7 Firesprays + 2 BCC	188	13.65	0.73

  

It seems that the efficiency is unchanged when taking this into account! So we end up paying the same per point of average damage as before! So what have we gained?

• Activations, a flotilla is an extra activation on the battlefield
• Points for squadrons beyond the 134 point mark, because flottillas can "carry their weight" by directly enhancing squadron damage
• Decreasing variance of squadron rolls considerably: Even if the B-wings + flotillas generate the same average damage, the risk of blanks is removed
• Extra anti-squadron fire
• By having more damage per squadron, we concentrate firepower.

There's certainly things to lose:

• Flotillas might be a liability since only one accuracy can ruin their day
• More damage per squadron also means that you lose a lot of firepower for the same amount of HP lost. Individual squadrons are more important, because if you've only flotillas left, you can't do any damage with them. 

Conclusions 

This went a bit beyond a simple math article, since there are some lessons to be learned from this. Namely, that taking flotillas with BCC further increases your investment in bomber squadrons without increasing their efficiency, but eliminating variance. I admit I thought of flotillas with BCC as a damage multiplier, but it's more akin to a damage focusing element. You get more damage in per squadron activation and with less variation, this is incredibly valuable.

Correction: The second paragraph was a mess and I put 8 points for all my TIE Bomber calculations. Shows how much I play Empire, right?

Armada Regionals 2016

I happened to be in London for a week, and I figured I'd stay for the weekend to attend an X-wing or Armada tournament. Lo and behold, there was an X-wing Regional at IQGames the weekend before and an Armada Regional the weekend following my trip. With no tickets left for X-wing, the choice was made for me! The venue was in Stockport, near Manchester, at Element Games North West Gaming Centre.

The list I have had most success with leading up to the Regional was this:

Author: Chilligan
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: General Dodonna
Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  General Dodonna  ( 20  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  XX-9 Turbolasers  ( 5  points)
= 135 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
= 69 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Bright Hope  ( 2  points)
-  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 33 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 30 total ship cost

3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
4 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 40 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)

http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=47659

It's a very powerful list, but not extremely flexible. Of the hammer and anvil type, you have the blob of fighters and the small ships going steady, while the Liberty swoops and finishes up ships and squadrons.

I have also been having a lot of fun with this Madine Liberty:

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  Mon Karren  ( 8  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  H9 Turbolasers  ( 8  points)
-  Spinal Armament  ( 9  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
= 154 total ship cost

It can easily take out 2 transport per turn and will get in the most impossible of positions. I just pair it off with anti-squadron fighters and Yavaris for a very fun to play list. I hadn't considered going dual Liberty.

A third, distant option was to play Ackbar with an MC30 and 2 AF MKIIs, with the MC30 as follows:

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Foresight  ( 8  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Veteran Gunners  ( 5  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
= 103 total ship cost

The idea with this one was to have one heavy-hitter that is super-precise and cannot be braced without repercussions.

In the end, I settled on a variant of my initial list. I tossed the commander to a medium transport, dropped a Y-wing (going to only 10 squadrons) and put in Mon Karren and Leading Shots. Both upgrades are gold, of course, but I felt I couldn't fit them in before. The plan with this is to use the hangar transport and Yavaris as spear-heads, with boosted comms transport bringing up the rear. Mon Karren either covers the flank or comes in one round after the fighters hit first to finish off some ships.

The final list was:

BYwangs
Author: Chilligan
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: General Dodonna
Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  Mon Karren  ( 8  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
= 122 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
= 69 total ship cost

[ flagship ] GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  General Dodonna  ( 20  points)
-  Bright Hope  ( 2  points)
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 52 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Flight Commander  ( 3  points)
-  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 34 total ship cost

3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
3 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 30 points)

Card view link
Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The objectives are fairly obvious for a squadron fleet, the only other difference is that I've chosen to put a flight commander on one of the transports, to enhance actual activation range or to mitigate running over squadrons in tight spaces.

The list has a total of 10 squadrons, 4 activations and 9 deployments, which I am pretty happy with.

Battle report - Round 1

My first round was against Jim Murray. He had Rieekan with 3 transports, Admonition and Yavaris.  He took first player and chose Precision Strike. His Admonition wanted to deploy last, but he had the same number of activations as I did so he wasn't able to. I, on the other hand, put the Liberty on the other side, so it would enter combat almost horizontally while squadrons clashed in the middle.

He charged with Dutch and Wedge on a B-wing that was slightly exposed (seen in the picture) and took it out, but even without Yavaris' ability I was able to focus fire with everything I had to take out Wedge after he had activated. He had Yavaris with flight commander and fighter coordination team, with a trailing transport giving squadron tokens. Unfortunately, by the time his Yavaris was able to use its ability, he was running out of squadrons.

Admonition came in to kill my Nebulon, but my positioning allowed only a shot on the front hull zone, so I was able to tank some of the damage. I escaped with 1 hull, while his Admonition was coralled by transports in the middle of my fighter-bombers. On that same round, the Liberty took out both a transport and his Yavaris at medium range (hurray for leading shots). His Admonition, after making a transport kill, escaped the bombers (but had no tokens) and was only taking one side shot from the liberty at long range. It was a double hit and Admonition died, making the game a 10-1.

Jim was very fun to play with and overall the game was much closer than the outcome showed. A better roll on his Admonition or me not taking out all ships could have lessened the win for sure. It's also funny to note that my bombers didn't get a single Hit+Crit the whole game, despite me having 2 Bomber Command Centers and pushing always for the second reroll.

Battle report - Round 2

My second round opponent was James Stead, with a Motti ISD, Demo, Raider, Gozanti and a sprinkling of TIE Fighters (/w Mauler Mithel). He also took first player and chose Superior positions. I deployed directly in front of his ISD, with the Liberty on the side to protect the transports from Demo.

My plan was to take advantage of his low fighter screen to quickly take down the ISD, while making sure that Demo couldn't just barge in and kill my carriers. I was partially successful in that he kept Demo behind, but the ISD was slow to take damage. Fighters took out most of the shields and the liberty put in a couple of damage cards, but still it was not enough. The ISD was full of repair commands and started discarding damage cards and sprinted away at speed 3. I was able to catch the Raider off-guard and one-shot it due to the small traffic jam that was created by my Liberty deployment, but the Gladiator was still full-HP and coming to kill the Liberty. Yavaris and a transport died in the same round from the ISD and I wasn't able to get the second double-tap.

This was where Dodonna came into play, because I was able to sneak a nasty crit on Demo:

Ruptured Engine x2 - Ship - after you execute a manuever, if your speed on your speed dial is >1, suffer 1 damage

This made Demo slow down and not use Engine techs, allowing me to finish it off with a few fighters and back-arc shots from the Liberty. It turned out to be a 50MoV win (6-5), but it was incredibly close. The ISD repaired all the damage cards from what I remember, I don't think I could have taken it down without a second volley of double-tapping B-wings.

James was  a very tactical player and the entire approach took a long time and was pretty tense!

Battle Report - Round 3

After round 2 there were 3 players with 16pts and one with 18pts. I played on table 2 (which ended up being the one streamed). My opponent was Justin Read, playing a brutal twin Liberty twin transport fleet with A-wings. He chose to be second player and I chose his Superior Positions (options were Fleet Ambush and Advanced Gunnery, both No-Nos against his fleet).

I deployed in the corner facing towards the interior of the board with speed 1, while he deployed in the opposite corner at speed 3. I think his plan was to do damage quickly, engage my squadrons, then get out.

He dispersed his A-wings to cover every angle but took a gamble with a couple of them to engage my main force. I was able to kill them and send 3 fighter-bombers to his front Liberty, preparing a double-tap with Yavaris on the following round. I activated first with Yavaris and did massive damage to the liberty (all tokens and shields, with a couple of hull). My Mon Karren took care of the rest. Yavaris did get in a nasty position, took two frontal shots from Liberties, but managed to survive (one was long-range and obstructed). And just in time as well! I had the hwk in a good position in front of the other Liberty, so Yavaris would double-tap again the following round.

A crucial mistake in this game was me not shooting against a transport in the turn where the second Liberty died. I think I chose to do a side-shot to rear and take a victory point instead, forgetting that I had gunnery teams. I guess I was excited about taking out the second liberty that I forgot the rest of his list.

Towards the end of the game I desperately tried to kill the transports but with no success. I couldn't kill one with a front arc short-range shot and the squadrons weren't helping. Justin managed to kill every one of my fighters using the transports and A-wings.

In the end the game was a 9-2. It was a good game, I think I did the right mix of going after big ships while also taking out an A-wing every once in a while. I think I made some mistakes in the late game so I didn't get the full win

Overall this was a very fun tournament. The organization was exquisite, with hot tea and coffee, sandwiches for lunch and muffins! I am glad I was able to participate and happy I came within a few shots of taking first prize! The first table had an incredible match that went from no ships destroyed to a 10-1 in a single round, so the winner of the regional definitely deserved it!

All my opponents were cool to play against, I hope I'll play you again sometime!