Armada: Activation advantage

Getting the most out of cheaper ships.

Before we start, what is activation advantage?

In short, it's having more ships to activate than your opponent so you can better react to the battlefield.  I don't think there's a better way to illustrate this, so let's count it down very simplistically.  Don't worry, I'm not deliberately trying to soudn dumb here, but it definitely help paint a better picture of what you could be looking at in game.

Let's say that I have a 5 ship list and you have a 3 ship list and you have first player.

I go, first ship
You go, first ship
I go, second ship
You go, second ship
I go, third ship,
You go, third ship
I go, forth ship
I go, fifth ship

Now let's say that you're going second.

You go, first ship
I go, first ship
You go, second ship
I go, second ship
You go, third ship
I go, third ship
I go, forth ship
I go, fifth ship

In most of the games I've played so far, most lists tend to hover between 3 ships and 4.  I've seen some lists sit on 4 ships, the highest I've seen in person is 5, but there's talk of a 6-ship list with 3 Glads and 3 Raiders.  I can't really talk about the effectiveness of said list, but it seems like it can be crazy if played correctly.  In this particular case, I'm ranking crazy with ineffectual to holy cow I got owned.  I simply cannot rate something like this based on hearsay.  OK, so what about 2-ship lists?  Well, if you're only packing a fatty and a medium ship (e.g. MC80 and MKII), you're probably looking to run something really heavy in the squadron department.  While this can be ridiculously strong; such as going for a full-blown 130+ point Fireball, it does have its weaknesses.

To elaborate on this, no matter who goes first and second, as long as you have one ship more than your opponent, you will always have last activation.  Why does this matter?  Because the extra activation allows you to react to everything that has already activated on the battlefield.  Bigger ships might have already thrown their huge dice loads, shots that might have been fired might not be needed, dials that you could have spent can be converted to tokens, and places you thought you needed to be, you don't really need to move there any more.

What about first activation?  Well, we should all know now the benefits of activating first.  You will get to attack and move first, possibly destroying the largest threat on the battlefield or escaping danger.  You can activate squadrons for that awesome alpha strike, or heal back some seriously needed shields in case of return fire.  What matters most here comes mainly from the perspective of doing damage, moving into a better location, but preferably both whenever you can.  That is the key advantage of going first.

Now, this brings us to our last point:  What if your opponent is going first and have the activation advantage on you and is going last as well.  Well, now you're in a pickle aren't you.  He has both the benefits of going first and last and your fleet is somewhere sandwiched in between.  This is why in games where you're holding equal or uneven activation advantages, it's typical for players to look for opportunities to even that up in a hurry.  This can mean destroying a cheaper frigate to tie up the activation count might very well be a valid strategy.  In turn, if you already have activation advantage, destroying one of your opponent's lighter armed ships might give you an even greater boon in that department.

I know the examples I gave above a pretty radical, but I've fought against a 2 ship disadvantage with my 3-ship list many times before.  I still came up on top, but that's because I know that the more ships you take, the less upgraded they will be, and the lighter your fighter screen will be.  In a points based game, when you see lists that outnumber you great in terms of ships, you will normally assume that you have the firepower advantage.  With Wave 2 hitting us in full steam, CR90s with TRCs and Raiders with APTs are out to change that in a hurry.  Those ships put out a lot more damage than their point costs suggest and with the right numbers, can put out a tremendous amount of hurt.  To combat this strategy, I highly suggest looking into evenly up the numbers quickly.  Typically, Raiders and CR90s fall over to dedicated anti-ship fire, and most of the big boys like the ISD and MC80 will be able to take them down with one volley.  Look for opportunities where you can exploit this vulnerability and you'll be on your way to making the game a lot easier for you.