The ‘Final’ AMG Update For Armada!
4th February 2025
Barry & Rosco
10 mins
G’day everyone! Barry and Rosco here with a post following the release of the much-anticipated ‘final’ updates to Star Wars Armada in an AMG transmission last month on 21 January 2025! There’s been plenty of analysis, theory crafting and mad fleet building going on in the community over the past week or so and we are no different; playing with some ideas ourselves. It’s an exciting time for Armada once again, as the game gets a breath of ‘fresh air’ while right on the cusp of going into the World Championship Tournament at AdeptiCon in March!
The update brought some minor rules updates and some sweeping changes that affect all factions by adjusting many ship and upgrade card point costs and text to address some balancing issues. Also, we also saw them drop one sneaky new squadron unit for the CIS - Jango Fett!!
We’re not going to go into all the changes, as many other veteran members of the community have already provided some in-depth analysis (we’ll provide links below). So, we’ll just be looking at some key points that have piqued our interest, such as:
Each of our top 3 changes;
Ideas and stuff we really want to test; and
How we think this update will change the game overall - for casual players, the competitive circuit and campaign play.
TOP 3
Rosco
Gettem’ with the blasters, Dad!
Imperial Victory class and Arquitens class: Lower points costs for these means more viability in fleets, including Arquitens (Arq) swarms with the Light or Command variants, as well as ‘pocket battleship’ style builds for fully tooled-up Victory class Star Destroyers (VSD) that cost as much as a base Imperial class SD (ISD).
Ion Cannon upgrades price drop and slot competition: The re-balancing of Point Defence Ion Cannons (PDIC) and many of the other Ion Cannon upgrades now means that it is now viable to take almost any of them, depending on what build you’re aiming for - even fun critical effect based fleets!
Turbolaser upgrade price changes & slot competition: As above - the changes to Linked Turbolaser Towers (LTT) mean that it’ll no longer be ‘stapled’ to every ship that has the slot. Additionally, the significant point drop XX-9 Turbolasers makes it particularly spicy for those who like to put more crits through while also saving points.
Special mention - Jango Fett: Finally, one of the Clone Wars factions has a squadron with the rogue keyword and Jango was the obvious choice for CIS. His ability works well with most of the faction’s commander and fleet archetypes, especially Grievous’ penchant for sacrificing squads to regain defence tokens. If not… well, a chonky rogue bomber is always fun to pester your opponent!
Barry
Raid: It’s not a big sweeping change but if I’m understanding it properly, raid is a more disruptive element that won’t be circumvented as easily which means anything that deals it out or leverages it just got a big boost.
Keywords/Tags: The implementation of keywords or tags changes list building by reducing the general viability of upgrades like Linked Turbolaser Towers across the game. This opens up other upgrades to consider.
Jango Fett: Not gonna lie glad to see another squadron option for CIS - and Rogue no less - that could also lean into triggering Grievous’ commander ability where there is a squadron ball, and where there isn’t he’s a decent bomber.
Special mention: Tournament Regulations changes. Just kidding.
Ideas and stuff to test
Rosco
TF-1726 lists with raid tech and slicers: This could see some very strong list building, with more ways to add raid through slicer tools and B2 Rocket Troopers and get those extra black dice. Mix that with the expanded launchers price drop and now you’ve got something very punchy, even outside close range.
Screed lists with blue ion critical effects: With both his and ion cannon price drops, blue critical effect fleets are a much more viable and fun way to cascade multiple effects to dismantle tokens, upgrades and shields, rendering your targets practically defenceless before they take damage.
Raddus ‘tools’ power boost: Even with the price increase of the Jaina’s Light title, the cheaper MC75 ordnance/armoured cruisers, slicer tools changes, Cham Syndulla boarding team and various other weapon upgrades make a Raddus fleet increase in lethality. We’ll certainly see much more variety in builds now.
Barry
Slice, slice, baby…
XX-9 Turbolasers: At two points I think there’s a lot of list ideas that really need to consider this because multiple crits without having to exhaust/refresh a card is insane. In the first instance I’m looking at this and how to best trigger it.
Raid: This goes without saying, but I’m keen to find ways to use it outside of just pumping up TF-1726 (though agree with Rosco that looks fun). Raid seems to have been really the toolset of CIS though Slicer Tools and Assault keywords maybe Rebels and Imperials can also disrupt your best laid plans.
Grievous: As I eluded to earlier, Jango offers another way to ensure I kill that lowly Vulture droid to refresh defence tokens. In combination of changes to the Providence points and upgrades I really wanna just fiddle and see how effective I can be with Invisible Hand fighter drops.
How does the update change gameplay?
Rosco
Anyone seen the staple remover…?
More competition for major slots in list building.
Campaign play gets a boost with cheaper ships and upgrades, especially for the smaller fleets of Rebellion in the Rim (RitR). Upgrade and squad prices better for adding to fleets - even from lower points earned from battle losses.
More ship and upgrades are now viable for fun casual, competitive and campaign fleets.
Worlds meta shake-up: With only a few months to go and after all major online tournaments and GTs have finished or already started, these changes represent a huge refresh for competitive players to get out a try as many different things as they can in the lead-up to Worlds at AdeptiCon in March.
Barry
Agree with Rosco, the list of auto-include upgrades just got shorter and now there’s the opportunity to do something that better suits player style. And I’ll never complain about being able to use more ships and/or more upgrades.
CIS don’t get any cheap ships like the other factions outside of the flotilla but they can now afford to tool up what they have. So I expect to see both GAR and CIS on the table a bit more in future.
Conclusion
Rosco
Have to say that CIS came out on top here, with some much needed boosts to the way the faction plays to each commander. Outside of faction-specific, the huge changes to weapons (ion cannon & turbolaser) upgrades and some wave 1/2 ships mean that we’ll see more of the available tools in the toolbox get some long-awaited table time. That is to say, there’s much less ‘binder fodder’ in the mix now with so many more viable options where there previously wasn’t.
I’ve already started testing lists to prep for Worlds and am already having so much fun with ships and upgrades that I haven’t used since way back near release almost a decade ago… I’m pretty happy overall!
Barry
If I were to call the big winner as a faction I’d have to say CIS, though I think an honourable mention would be Screed and Sato but I couldn’t possibly infer the second and third order effects that exist from these changes throughout the meta. Previously I didn’t think the changes would be so sweeping, this feels almost like an X-Wing level points change. Outside of playing in a GT it opens up some space for some really unique builds using upgrades that would normally hide in a folder unused since initial purchase.
Personally I’m looking forward to running a Rebellion in the Rim campaign as the upgrades are going to be a little bit more accessible with the points that you earn regardless of win/loss.
More Info & Other IN-Depth Analysis
Ion Radio / Command Stack Analysis videos & podcasts (Eps 34-39)
Here’s an awesome change log document from Armada Legacy (Thanks guys!!)
Cheers and thanks for reading! Get after it
- Rosco & Barry
