Armada Worlds Day 1 at Adepticon 2025
20th April 2025
Rosco
10 mins
G’day all! It’s taken me a while to think about my games during Worlds day 1 and get some thoughts down and the Easter weekend is a perfect opportunity to bang these batreps out. I’ll start with a couple of thoughts:
Firstly, as an Aussie, I’d normally have a huge and expensive distance to travel to the US to attend AdeptiCon. Luckily, I was selected for an exchange posting and my partner and I have been located in Halifax, Canada, since January last year, making travelling to Milwaukee (and Chicago last year) much easier to manage and afford.
Secondly, as a career Naval Officer, it is often challenging to find time to take leave to attend large scale multi-day events on the other side of the world. Again, I was incredibly lucky to have a work schedule that allowed some time off to enjoy travelling around during our time in North America, including attending my first AdeptiCon last year and again this year.
With all that in mind, I was both incredibly excited and happy to be there and to also have a crack at playing in Worlds. My main aims were to have fun and chat to everyone, and my goal was try to win 3/4 games at day 1 of Worlds and the stretch goal - the dream - was to make it to day 2.
Prep Phase
The Mar Tuuk Family photo
After last Worlds I had put together a CIS fleet that I’d been playing and honing over a number of one-off games and tournaments, eventually landing on the Mar Tuuk CIS fleet entitled: “They Mar Tuuk our jerbs v6.1”.Quite a few changes were made to it following the release of the final AMG update in January. So it ended up quite different to the fleet I played in the pool stages of Vassal World Cup (report in a previous article here).
The intent of the list is to enhance and capitalise on the firepower of the tanky Invincible Providence Carrier with a drop attack on the target opponent’s ship with four Hyena droid bombers from rapid launch bays on activation, followed up by a double-arc shot with extra dice fed by Mar Tuuk and external racks. Not including any re-rolls or extra damage from critical effects, the maximum pure damage from that attack can be as much as 35 (I think) and the average would be somewhere around just over half of that at about 20 damage (pls don’t make me do maths in public haha).
The support element was there for both the flagship and the modest squadron ball, while adding some activation padding for the Hyena drop. The Hardcell with San Hill and BCC could support both flag and modest fighter ball. The Gozantis would support the squadrons - TI-99 (in the C9 Transports) for defence and FCs for attack. Tikkes could provide tokens for squads, shots or to give to Rune Haako in the flag. Though choosing first player was usually always my choice if I had it, my objectives were:
🟥 Close Range Intel Scan - Use H9s and Intensify Firepower! to farm accuracies.
🟨 Asteroid Tactics - Obstacle control, freedom of movement and Exogorths.
🟦 Infested Fields - Easy victory points, Exogorths and obstacle control/movement.
Into The Fray - Day 1 Round 1
After all the intro briefings from the awesome Judge team led by Dennis (@Rules Problems), my first game was a tough match-up against a 2024 Worlds top 8 player from Minnesota, Andy Graber (@Arcwelder).
We rolled off for initiative and I ended up first player and chose Andy’s Hyperspace Assault. He placed his Demolisher aside in hyperspace to make an entrance at a dramatically appropriate time. With a slight deployment advantage, I deployed my units centre-left, with the Hardcell on the flank, and fighters in the centre to hide in the debris field from the inevitable Imperial alpha strike from his squads. In round 2, I went to approach his ISD quickly while trying to lure his fighters away into the centre with my own under TI-99’s umbrella, but he made very short work of my very squishy Vultures between his aces and dropping Mauler in the middle to clean up the rest. He was then free to place his fighters around the ISD in a protective screen.
Have tray - Will travel
I dropped my bombers in round 3, with only one really finding a gap behind an asteroid to bomb the ISD before the double-arc external racks shots from Invincible drained its shields. I hadn’t dialled in a nav command to follow him around in the following rounds, so couldn’t get any more decent shots on the ISD to do some real damage.
Demo dropped out of hyperspace on the left flank in round 4, but couldn’t catch up to the Hardcell to finish it off as it sped away and hid under Invincible’s broadside. The Hyenas and Gozantis were deleted by round 5. We called it shortly after as we both disengaged and I barely scraped by with a 4-7 loss against his Imperial 2-ship and brutal squad ball.
I’ll leave the main part of my retrospective to the end, but the two main takeaways from this one going forward were committing squads too early and Invincible overshooting the target.
Back on Track - Round 2
Next game was up against Dan Hrobar (@DanSolo) from the US (Florida, I think) and his Imperial ISD double-Raiders fleet. I had a 1pt bid and decided to go first player and chose Dan’s Minefields objective (which he set up perfectly, I might add). I had to deploy in a way to create a path through the mines and repair the damage. I decided to keep my Vultures a lot closer this time and aimed my Invincible straight at his ISD. Hardcell went on the flank again, but was certainly about to be in trouble with two Raiders bearing down on him.
I drove Invincible through the minefield and then lined up the ISD for the Hyena drop and double-arc in round 3, while he pushed his fighter screen forward to engage mine under TI-99’s counter-attacks. He destroyed most of the Vultures, but also left an open area on the ISD’s port side to unload my Hyenas at range 2 unimpeded for a highly effective bombing run followed by Invincible’s double-arc shots - doing somewhere around 31 damage combined in one activation, removing the ISD.
The Raiders closed in on the Hardcell, but luckily managed to speed up past them after taking some heavy damage from their focused fire. They gave chase and finished off the Hardcell, but in doing so, found themselves under fire from Mar Tuuk’s Invincible and remaining Gozanti, finishing both Raiders off at long range for a table, resulting in a clutch 9-2 win for me.
Again the squads were the weak point here, going down quickly to an alpha strike and I was lucky to be able to get my bombers into a firing position before he could return his fighters to protect the ISD.
Close Call - Round 3
After lunch, my third game was up against Jerzy Frączek from Poland and another Imperial 2-ship fleet with an ISD, Demolisher, and a very effective fighter screen. He had the bid and decided on second player. I chose his Volatile Deposits objective.
After deployment, I knew I had to move in quick with my providence to cut off his Demolisher and stop his Gozanti farming the two volatile deposits at speed zero in the corner, this time ignoring the ISD. I kept my fighters close and sped Invincible right up to his Demolisher, making short work of it after delivering another brutal Hyena strike and double-arc. Though I had to bring some of my squads in to make an opening in his screen for the bombers to land. I was on track, but Jerzy was still farming 40pts a round with that Gozanti and I had to turn that off asap.
Continuing to ignore the ISD, I then moved up past the dust field to the Gozanti, blocking it in and removing it by round 4 and claiming the victory points while he continued to clean out my squadrons and gave chase with the ISD. By the end of the last round, the squads had all killed each other off and I had only one Gozanti remaining. He scored a lot of objective points on this, so I managed to score a very close 6-5 win.
Live Stream Shenanigans - Round 4
My final game actually took place on the stream table! The Ion Radio team were keen to see if a GAR fleet would make it to day 2, as it wasn’t looking good at that time. So they could get it on camera, Nick Larson (@UnskilledFirstOfficer) was called up to the table and paired up against him for round four was, of course, yours truly! Nick had a GAR Bail Organa fleet with a Venator, two Consulars and a chunky DeltaKin-led Y-Wing squad ball. He took first and we played my Asteroid Tactics objective.
Once setup was complete, I knew I’d messed up both the obstacle layout and deployment to enable a good run. That said, I still had the opportunity to ignore his Mercy Mission Charger and make a good run at his Venator with Invincible for the signature strike, but I’d have to time it right and keep his significant squad ball occupied long enough to pull it off. I tried to keep my squads close and within range of TI-99, but that was no match for the Deltakin shenanigans that ensued, as he jumped in early to clear out half of them and returned to guard the Venator.
Even with my run in from the flank at speed and with extra nav dial manoeuvring, I was well placed to have a really good shot at his Venator as I attempted to block him in with a little Gozanti, but it wasn’t enough to really make an impact. The Gozanti was deleted (just… he had to pop external racks and fish for that accuracy to stop the scatter) and he flew away.
I lost the rest of my fighter screen and the Hardcell to his squadrons, then I dropped the Hyenas in the last round to try recoup some points with some squadron kills. Instead, I traded 10pts for 33pts, as my bombers were immediately jumped by the waiting Deltakin and friends, giving Nick a much-needed points boost in addition to his Mercy Mission getting across the line. I lost that one 3-8, which actually also got Nick across the line into day 2!!
Playing on stream was actually really awesome though. The way it was run ensured that there was little to no interruption or distraction to us as players (apart from the occasional blow-up at a huge dice roll or the like). Ken, Garrett and Chris did an excellent job running the Ion Radio streaming table and I feel extremely privileged to have been called up to play on stream for the first time - and at Worlds, no less! Cheers Lads, I had a blast! Stream link below:
ION Radio - 2025 Worlds Championship at AdeptiCon! Day 1 - Round 4
Wrap-Up
After that, the Aussie lads cheering from the sidelines had a beer waiting, and I enjoyed the end of my Armada Worlds journey at the end of day 1 going 2/2 for 19 TP overall. The minimum to get through to day 2 ended up at around 25 TP with a decent MoV. Didn’t quite hit my 3/4 goal and certainly didn’t get to day 2, but I still had an absolute blast in all of the games I played and loved meeting new people across the table.
Final standings and lists can be found on T4 here: 2025_ARMADA_WORLDS_D1
As for my thoughts on my fleet and what I could’ve done better…
Turn Zero: Twice I made some pretty hefty mistakes in placing obstacles and ship deployment, setting myself up for failure, even when I had deployment advantage. A strong turn by turn game plan is needed to ensure the right units are in the right spot at the right time. I succeeded on this a few times, but others I could’ve avoided.
Fleet composition: The tanky Invincible was definitely a good choice, the BCC Hardcell was necessary for the Hyena drop, but the Gozantis could’ve been replaced, maybe another Hardcell was the better play here? Were Flight Controllers so important if I was never the first striker? Maybe I should’ve been more aggressive in my fighter coverage… Experience tells me that alpha is ALWAYS better, especially with AI and FCs giving you two extra dice on attacks. Which takes me to the next point:
Squadrons: I think that my squad ball was found lacking in delaying opposing squads, so a better way might’ve been to either drop a Gozanti for more Vultures and/or change out the generic fighters for Wat Tambor and some aces to bring defence tokens for survivability. Just one more turn of delay could’ve turned the game in some cases.
Stakes: Overall, I wasn’t really that invested in continuing through to day 2, as I had a number of hobby masterclasses to attend and games to demo all over the venue. So I was actually pretty stoked. Oh yeah, and I got to sleep in a little bit the following morning haha. I was pretty happy overall. 😊
Thanks so much for reading once again. Catch you in the next one!
Cheers 🥃
Rosco
