Armada Compeition

This weekend I made my first foray into competitive play with a visit to the The Oxfordshire - Pannithor Boat Race, a 3 round competition using Mantic Games fantasy naval game Armada. I played the Salamanders - fiery lizard folk who tend to have very shooty boats that are decent in combat as well.

Round 1 - Ghost Fleet

As the name suggests these guys are somewhat ethereal, so hard to damage but without a devastating punch. They also heal and some of the ships can phase-out and pass right through you.        

Mt flagship splits the line 

This was a kill scenario so attacking was needed. Casualties were pretty light though, with just one Ghost Fleet ship sunk and so a narrow win for the Salamanders 2-0.

Game 2 - Orcs

With 4 of the 12 fleets played Orcs, it was likely I'd face them and so it was in round 2. Orcs love boarding actions and they are the faction I've fought the most, as my younger brother plays them. 

In this game we had to carry loot tokens across the table and end in a specific zone in the last turn to score. I stacked my tokens on two fast ships and place the dummies on my flag ship, sailing this on  a blocking line at the Orcs. 

The Orcs took the bait and piled lots of units into my flagship. It fought  bravely and sunk two enemy vessels before surrendering. This though enabled my token carriers to make the end zone for a narrow 4-3 win.  

Mt flagship goes down fighting

Round 3 - Abyssal Dwarves

Again not a surprise to face dwarves as there were three Abyssal (evil) fleets. The Dwarves have to sails and so are very manoeuvrable compared to my ships. Like the Salamanders they have some fire-based abilities topped-off with infernal magics. In this scenario you collected randomised loot tokens from  across the seas and tried to hold them until the end of the game.      

The moment my token carrier (background) explodes

I started ok by grabbing 3 of the 6 tokens and sinking an enemy ship in the first 2 turns. Things turned though as one token carrier exploded trying to extinguish a fire and my second token carrier got swamped by Dwarves ironclads. My flagship maked a run for it and I ended-up losing 2 - 4.   

 

The Verdict

I won 2 narrowly and lost a bit more decisively. The competition rules meant that winners got "promoted" to play other winners and so the games get harder as you go along. So by the last game I was playing the person who came second overall. I managed 4th place from 12 with my brother overall winner and the third musketeer (Mick) 6th one point behind me.     

So a fun experience helped by the game being fairly silly and the competitive element very light. I took a few shots of some of the other tables along the way

Kings of Men

Orcs vs Dwarves

Orcs vs Kingdoms of Men

Orcs vs Orcs - one of two Orc-offs I think

Trident Realms vs Dwarves