Armada/Tactics/Confederacy of Independent Systems
"Guns. Lots of guns."
- – The Matrix
Why Play the Confederacy
To be part of the rootin'ist, tootin'ist, shootin'ist fleet to ever scourge space. The Confederacy's got eight ship cards all but one of them gots a turbolaser slot, 'cuz red dice is how rebs roll.
The CIS warships generally do not want to get closer than medium range, and all their medium and large ships come with the salvo token and red dice to use with it. They also have three ship cards with red flak, and more of their ships have ion cannons than ordinance slots. Every CIS ship can do speed 3 (the Munificient with engine techs) but speed 4 is generally unavailable to them due to a lack of support team slots in their large hulls.
Ships
| Class | Variant | Fore | Sides | Aft | AA | Hull | Defenses | C/S/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcell | Transport | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ❷ | ⬤ | 5 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 1/2/3 |
| Hardcell | Battle Refit | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❶ ⬤ | ❷ | ⬤⬤ | 5 | Brace, Evade, Redirect | 1/2/3 |
| Munificent | Comms Frigate | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 6 | Brace, Redirect, Salvo | 2/3/4 |
| Munificent | Star Frigate | ❹ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 6 | Brace, Redirect, Salvo | 2/2/4 |
| Recusant | Light | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 8 | Brace, Evade, Redirect, Salvo | 3/2/3 |
| Recusant | Support | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 8 | Brace, Evade, Redirect, Salvo | 3/3/3 |
| Providence | Carrier | ❺ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤⬤ | 9 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Salvo | 3/4/4 |
| Providence | Dreadnought | ❺ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❸ ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ❷ ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | 9 | Brace, Contain, Redirect, Salvo | 3/4/4 |
Hardcell Class
"What is my purpose?" "You pass butter." "Oh my god." "Yeah. Welcome to the club, pal."
- – Rick & Morty
More like hard-sell. At a moment's glance the Hardcell looks like a cheaper, crummier Nebulon-B, with fewer dice and the the maneuvering chart of the Gozanti. But this is somewhat unfair; it's not a front line warship and it will never hit the table as one. What it is, is the only ship in Armada with a three shield arc and fleet support. It's a backfield support ship with no pretensions of being anything else.
- Transport: The basic model with two officers, fleet support, and support team. Virtually no armament upgrades or retrofits to speak of, but it's the toughest fleet support ship in the game.
- Battle Refit: Trades the transport's comedy blue dice for reds. It gets both offensive and defensive retrofits as well as turbolasers, giving it a slight edge over the Nebulon-B (forgetting that people only fly the Neb because Yavaris).
- Titles
- Beast of Burden: Meet Bob the space-cleric. Bob can spend defense tokens to ready the defense tokens of others.
- Foreman's Labor: When you take damage in an arc that still has shield remaining, you can exhaust to reduce the total damage by one. Basically plugs the Hardcell's biggest vulnerability of being hit in the side by a squadron.
Munificent Class
The Munificent is an odd take on the rebel assault frigate. Both variants have the same reds and shields in all arcs as the rebel ship but with the blues all forward, red AA, and with ion cannon and turbolaser upgrades. However, its maneuvering chart only goes up to 2, although its turning at 2 is very good.
- Comms Frigate: The cheaper of the two versions with squadron 3 and offensive retrofit.
- Star Frigate: For three points more you give up a squadron to get a black AA, and trade the offensive retrofit for a defensive one.
- Titles
- Sa Nalaor: When defending at speed 2 or higher it can spend any defense token to get an evade effect.
- Tide of Progress XII: Can exhaust its card to discard an incoming damage card with the ship trait before it resolves.
Recusant Class
The Recusant is a is an odd ship that essentially takes the play style of the TRC-90 or Arquitens and does it on the points budget of the Victory. Both hulls can crank speed three, with excellent yaw for a large ship, and can throw plenty of red dice in any direction but aft. But with only shield three at best, and no access to support teams or defensive retrofits, it's a glass cannon that can only spend its upgrades on more dakka. Command 3, engineering 3, and no duplicate defense tokens all contribute to its lack of survivability.
- Light Destroyer: Black dice variant, with an ordinance upgrade. Slightly cheaper.
- Support Destroyer: The more expensive blue dice variant with two offensive upgrades.
- Titles
- Gilded Aegis: Can sacrifice its redirect to focus its shields in one zone.
- Nova Defiant: Gets four free command tokens, but at the cost of an agonizing Command 4.
- Patriot Fist: Can give up its second attack to add two blue dice as long as its shooting to medium or long range.
Providence Class
The Providence is a big squadron pushing log that falls somewhere between the Home One and Liberty in stats. Both hulls get squadron 4 and rainbow dice in all arcs, with the dreadnought hull being slightly shootier at range. With 5 shields ahead and 3 on the sides, but 5 guns ahead and 6 on the sides, the providence is built for making a frontal charge and then transitioning into a double arc, but it's narrow front arc makes this tricky.
- Carrier: Paradoxically DOES NOT get a weapons team, so no flight commanders.
- Dreadnought: Gets the weapons team the carrier lacks.
- Titles
- Invincible: Gives you a defensive slot. Simple as.
- Lucid Voice: Flips the rear arc to 3 reds at the cost of swapping one of your side blues for a black. Practically made for salvo boat gimmicks.
- Invisible Hand: Can set aside up to 5 swarming squadrons and deploy them like rapid launch bay. Increases the AI value of the launched fighters for the turn.
Commanders
- Count Dooku: Dooku starts the game with three command tokens of at least two types. At the start of every ship phase he can discard one to give EVERY enemy ship a raid token of matching type. An odd commander in that he doesn't care what sort of fleet he's rolling with because all he does is fuck with the opponent's plans.
- Kraken: Release the kraken memes. Once per activation, while a friendly ship is attacking a ship, if another friendly ship is at close-medium range of the defender, the attacker may change 1 dice to a face with any 1 icon (and no other icons). Kraken likes ship heavy fleets with lots of activations; assuming the Recusant class destroyer of clone wars Wave 2 is a speedy midranger, expect to see him a lot.
- Admiral Trench: Trench starts the game with four dials. At the start of ship phase, you can discard one from him. For the round, any of your ships that use a command token that matches the one you took off trench, resolves that token as if it was a dial.
- General Grievous: When a ship or squadron is destroyed, a nearby friendly can ready a defense token or recover a discarded one (but it's recovered exhausted).
- Mar Tuuk: Your ships gain a red when shooting hull zones with shields, but must cancel a die when attacking a zone without shields.
- TF-1726: Once per activation when attacking a ship, add a black dice for every raid token on the target up to two.
Crew
Officers
- Rune Haako: Starts the game with 2 command tokens. When revealing a command, he can pull tokens from himself or a nearby friendly ship. Good to run on your big ships, harvesting tokens from a support hardcell.
- Wat Tambor: On a repair command, he can spend 2 shields from any hull zone, or 1 hull zone of a nearby friendly, to gain twice that many engineering points. Again really handy for pulling from a support ship.
- TI-99: Some of TI-99's circuitry must have made its way into Dengar's ship after the war. When a friendly unactivated squadron is at distance 1-3 of TI-99's ship, it either gains Counter 3 OR, if it already has a Counter value (Tri-Fighters and future proofing for later waves), then increase the printed Counter value by 1. Sounds incredible, but if a squad under this effect makes a Counter attack for any reason, then it is considered activated. Pairs well with the two anti-squad dice armament of Vultures and Hyenas, especially when the situation calls for non-squadron commands.
- Tikkes: Depending on your plan, Tikkes can either be extremely effective, or doom your ship with a bad command. When revealing a command dial, you can choose to use Tikkes and gain a matching token without spending the dial. However, you must then place a matching token on Tikkes's card. During the next Command Phase, if Tikkes has a token on him, then you MUST set all command dials that you're restocking to the matching command, showing your opponent that you've done so and only then can Tikkes's token can be cleared. Played poorly, this can lock you into a turn (or more, if a dial was skipped via an upgrade) of a very unfavourable command. Playing Tikkes right on a Command 1 Hardcell or a Command 2 Munificent is the key to getting the most out of his very conditional token generation.
- Passel Argente: After revealing a command, you may place a matching command token on his card. Then, if Passel has at least 1 Navigate, Repair, Squadron, and Concentrate Fire token on him, his ship gains an extra command dial of any type you choose from that point onward. Get him set up in rounds 1-3, and from round 4 to the end of the game you can go nuts. Just be sure to keep him away from any ships that can ruin your meticulous dial strategy like a Slicer Tools equipped GR-75.
- San Hill: One of the Confederacy's weakest officers at the moment, but might be future proofing for when the Clone Wars get squads with Rogue. San Hill starts the game with two Squadron tokens. When the Squadron phase rolls around, you can discard one or both of his tokens to activate one or two more squads each time it's your turn to do so this phase, as long as those extra activations are at up to long range of San Hill's ship. As these are regular Squadron Phase activations, they will NOT trigger the AI keyword for any Separatist squad that isn't Belbullab-22s.
- Shu Mai: Following in the footsteps of the reworked Garm Bel Iblis and General Tagge. After fleet deployment, choose any two non-consecutive rounds and place those tokens on Shu Mai's card. When on those turns, Shu Mai's ship may reroll up to three attack dice (including Salvo dice!) every time it attacks another ship. Loves red and black dice and double-arcing enemies. Pairs well with the Recursant-class she comes with.
- T-Series Tactical Droid: Requires a token to ready after use, comes with none. When you spend a repair, maneuver, or squadron command token, it can exhaust to resolve the command as if it was a dial.
Support Teams
- Battle Droid Reserves: Requires a repair token to ready after use, comes with none. On a repair command, it can exhaust to flip any faceup damage cards with the "crew" trait to facedown. Or it reduces the cost of discarding facedown damage cards by 1.
Equipment
Offensive Retrofits
- Hyperwave Signal Boost: Requires a repair or squadron token to ready, comes with none. During the squadron phase, when it is your fleet's turn to activate squadrons, you may exhaust this card to choose a number of unactivated, friendly squadrons at close-long range up to your squadron value. This turn, activate each of those squadrons. While attacking, each of those squadrons are treated as if activated by a squadron command. Works okay on a recusant to make your fighters useful without command dials.
- B2 Rocket Troopers: On non-salvo attacks against a ship, can exhaust to add a raid token. While attacking a squadron, can attack to add another dice of a color already in the pool. TF-1726 loves these and will take as many as he can get.
Fleet Commands
- Jedi Hostage: A VERY high risk/reward option for a ship. As long as this card is active, if you're attacked by a ship that isn't using Salvo, the attacker must take a raid token if able. Sounds great, but if an enemy ship at close range reveals and discards a Squadron dial, you must exhaust the card. While exhausted, Jedi Hostage will prevent your ship from spending more than one defense token per attack. For this very clear reason, you should NOT take a Jedi Hostage ship into close range combat. Keep on the fringes and stay at arms length from the enemy at all costs.
Squadrons
The Separatist fighters are built around a gimmick of being individually very weak (generally inferior to TIEs) but getting stronger when commanded. This is due to the AI:Battery and AI:Anti-Squadron abilities, which grant an additional attack dice when the squadron is activated by a squadron command. This cannot be emphasized enough that CIS droid fighters really, REALLY, REALLY want to be commanded and if you're not commanding them you're not getting your points worth. Also, virtually nothing in the CIS arsenal has escort, so expect to lean on tokens to keep your bombers alive.
| Type | Ace | Speed | Hull | AA | AS | Defense | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belbullab-22 | 4 | 5 | ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Relay 1, Screen | ||
| General Grievous | 4 | 5 | ⬤⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace x2 | Relay 2, Screen | |
| Droid Tri-Fighter | 5 | 3 | ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Counter 2, Swarm | ||
| DIS-T81 | 5 | 3 | ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Counter 2, Snipe 3, Swarm | |
| Phlac-Arphocc | 5 | 3 | ⬤⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Counter 2, Swarm | |
| Hyena-class Bomber | 4 | 4 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | AI:Battery 1, Bomber, Heavy | ||
| Baktoid | 4 | 4 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Battery 1, Bomber, Heavy | |
| DBS-404 | 4 | 4 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Battery 1, Bomber, Heavy | |
| Vulture-class Fighter | 4 | 3 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Swarm | ||
| DFS-311 | 4 | 3 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Intel, Swarm | |
| Haor Chall | 4 | 3 | ⬤⬤ | ⬤ | Brace, Scatter | AI:Anti-Squadron 1, Swarm |
- Belbullab-22: A barebones relay 1 with screen to help keep it alive.
- General Grievous: This is the one you should be taking. Old wheezy keeps screen but steps up to relay 2, and his crits against anything with no readied defense tokens add 1 damage.
- Droid Tri-Fighter: Flimsier A-Wings with swarm.
- DIS-T81: Comes with snipe 3, and its attacks ignore obstructions. Hands down the best unique squadron the CIS has.
- Phlac-Arphocc Prototypes: Enemy squadrons that end activation at distance 1 take 1 damage. Difficult to use effectively.
- Hyena Class Bomber: Acceptable (but not great) for bombing ships, and that's it. Really wants to be used in squadron commands with a bomber command center.
- Baktoid Prototypes: When attacking a ship near another friendly bomber, it can change one dice to an accuracy. The ability kinda sucks but it comes with defense tokens.
- DBS-404: If in base contact with the defender, can take one damage to add a dice to the attack pool. Like the Baktoid you're basically taking this for the defense tokens.
- Vulture-class Fighter: Very good... if commanded. If not, they're bad. Really bad.
- DFS-311: When defending and the attack is obstructed, you can pick one of the attacker's dice to reroll. Wants to sit in cover and pass out Intel to cheaper droids.
- Haor Chall Prototypes: Before an enemy ship or squadron at distance 1 moves, it can attack them even if engaged. Like the Phlac-Arphocc, this is an ability that wants to be in the thick of things on a fighter that doesn't have the hull points to be in the thick of things.