So with the SSD out in the wild and some people struggling to deal with it I thought I would do this final wright up about the SSD how to play against one. In many ways it’s no different than fighting any other ship if anything this wright up is to show you that you don’t need to be intimidated much like seeing an ISD or two pitted against me for the first time it was intimidating, but after taking out several now whenever I see an ISD or any big ship really its more “It’s a tough ship, but nothing I can’t handle.” This wright up is to make you feel the same way when you see an SSD across the table from you.
So we can start at the beginning of the game talk about openings against the SSD starting with deployment.
Deployment
So in Deployment you should be able to out deploy an SSD fleet in almost every situation this is a key disadvantage of an SSD list it will almost always be out deployed and because of that the SSD player will have to commit a large amount of material to the board before you do. Delay out deployment as best you can until the SSD drops, once it drops you can assess its position and plan your attack, let’s look at a few examples. (In all examples I will have 2 deployments before the SSD drops as I feel that is about the average, though some list may have 1 or 2 more others 1 or 2 less it’s even possible the SSD is the only deployment outside squadrons the SSD player has)
In this first example our rebel player placed a flotilla in a corner and dropped a few squadrons and now the SSD has been placed facing the flotilla and squadron group how should the rebel player respond?
The Rebel player is free to deploy the rest of his fleet on the far flank even with JJ it is going to take a while to come about meanwhile the rebels should not have too much trouble getting into the sides of the SSD.
Here is another example The SSD is deployed in the center of the board and is ready to respond with a nav or JJ to whatever corner the rebels finish deployment how should the rebel player handle this?
So I am normally not a fan of splitting forces like this however the target your fleet needs to converge on is so big that it is quite easy to do. The SSD must commit to one side or the other and this opens its rear to an attack from one of 2 groups and the other group can swoop around the side to meet up with the other group and coordinate their attack on the same long side.
So this is a very odd deployment for an SSD but it does something kind of interesting for the SSD player it protects its flank with its support ships with just enough flexibility to turn if needed. how should Rebel player handle this.
You might think it odd that the rebels started to deploy more centrally and not in the far corner, but there is a reason for this. Once an SSD is Parallel, or very close to being parallel to the long edge of the board it is in its most favorable position as it has so much room to maneuver and respond to your actions. It is critical that your ships make it into the sides before this happens otherwise the SSD will be able to bring its front arc to bear on you far more often than it should and will most likely end in a loss. Let me just show you this this parallel power.
In the above image the rebel fleet as not even started to turn in the SSDs sides and this gives the SSD so many options it can turn up into the fleet, stay its course and eventually turn down into the fleet meaning its front arc will always be a threat.
much is the same in this image as the last be even though the fleet has started to make the turn into the SSD side the SSD still has the power to continually bring its front arc against its opponent, its just not a situation you want to be in.
in this last image the majority of the rebel fleet has made it into the sides and now it will be near impossible for the SSD to get its front arc onto the game baring JJ with Take evasive action shenanigans at speed 2.
So having the possibility of taking a few long range shots form the SSD in the early turns is much better than taking a few medium or possible close range front arc shots thought out the game. In essence this allows you to get into the sides of the SSD quicker and also start dealing damage sooner and that will be very helpful.
There are other deployments the SSD can do but the Ideas are the same 1) start setting up in one corner preferably fast ships and squadrons until the SSD is dropped 2) Position your ships to get into the sides as quickly as possible. 3) Get into the sides before the SSD becomes parallel to the long edge of the table. That’s deployment I know it was long, but deployment is often overlooked and it’s important to remember just how decisive it can be in a game.
Don’t over Extend
Now I know I said get into the side as soon as possible, so this might seem like a contradiction, but when playing against an SSD don’t overextend, don't rush in so quickly you lose support for the rest of your fleet. Yes it’s very important to get into the sides quickly, but its important to do it carefully. You don’t want to take shots you don’t have to take, don’t get over zealous and dive in head first, but don’t dilly dally ether. You want to pass out of the front arc and into the sides of the SSD as uneventfully as possible.
Don’t be afraid.
remember don’t panic don’t be too intimidated by the SSD that by the time you get to the sides your out of engagement range of the SSD, you need damage on the SSD as soon as possible, taking a long range shot from the front of an SSD can be scary, but let’s math it out really quick to put your mind at ease.
Let’s talk about the most dice you are likely to see from long range so an assault SSD so 5 red native then a blue from QBT and two more dice from Ravager so we got 8 dice long range pretty scary, but let’s math it out each dice regardless of what color Ravager adds is .75 average damage meaning average damage is 6 damage that average goes up to about 7ish with rerolls but if that comes from leading shots you have to factor in lost die etc. so 6-7 damage is survivable for pretty much every ship baring accuracies. Now yes we don’t want to take damage we don’t need to, but don’t be so afraid that it keeps you from engaging and dealing damage to the SSD.
I have seen this in so many games where people stay out of the SSD range so they don’t get shot at, espishaly with other front arc ships. Well if you do that you can’t shoot at them ether, and because they are fortressing up a bunch of points in the SSD you are very likely to lose a point denial game or will only come away with a small win. Don’t be overly afraid of engagement, get in there and do damage.
The Power of the SSD Engineering command.
So this needs to be addressed an SSD command gives the ship a free token meaning in essence its 6 engineering. This mean an SSD can take any of its hull zones other than the front from no shields to max shields in one command. This can be incredibly annoying however it is still quite possible to out damage the repair, but Slicer tools are pretty crazy against an SSD and also great help countering carriers so it’s not a bad call at all if you are having troubles with SSD take slicers slice some carries in other fleets and fleets that don’t have squadrons well slice their command to a squadron. Sure it’s a bit expensive and can put your flotilla in some danger with how close it has to get, but even one sliced command against the right list can be game changing.
The Durability of the SSD
The SSD durability does not come from its Hull value it comes from it defense tokens. Minimizing the effect the SSD's tokens have on its durability is key to killing them.
Accuracies
Accuracies are horridly underappreciated in Armada because of ECMs it really needs to be a discard to use, but again I digress. Accuracies against and SSD however is extremely powerful. The wealth of tokens available to the SSD is what make it so durable, if you can get it to burn one brace its durability will drop significantly. However Intel officer will not work unless paired with some sort of accuracy generation. If you want to get it to burn one naturally you need to force the SSD to brace 3 times in one round, however with accuracies you can do while just giving the SSD 2 braces. This is far more powerful than you might think accuracies are king against the big guy you could also pair accuracy generation with Intel officer and well the SSD is only getting to use that brace once like this guy is an SSD killer.
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63) • Intel Officer (7) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (3) • H9 Turbolasers (8) = 85 Points
Death by a million cuts
Squadrons will wreak the SSD day if it can’t provide an answer to them, and while many think MSU is out against the SSD the small amounts to damage that the list tend to deal negate the defense tokens of the SDD as the brace tokens become near useless. The damage will add up faster than you would think. Again it’s all about negating the double brace, if you add in some shield striping ability all the better.
Critical effects
Okay so crit effects will eat SSDs alive, as they bypass the defense tokens. However because of 3 officer slots Damage Control officer is a thing and so is Captain Brunson making crits hard to get off, but if you see people not running them or you think you can tie down the contain tokens Crit effects will really add up on an SSD, as you whole fleet will be resolving them against the SSD is can just stack the damage up to unmanageable damage levels. Again remember Damage Control officer is a thing so I would not rely on this, unless you know the popular SSD builds don’t have a way to deal with critical effects, its best not to rely to heavily on this to take one down. Getting face up cards is easy with this guy and he makes the SSDs life terrible, especially with Doddona.
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36) • Cham Syndulla (5) • External Racks (3) • Garel's Honor (4) = 48 Points
We are all on the same side.
We talked about rounding the front and coming into the sides but It is important so that you whole fleet is on the same side so they can attack the same hull zones and overwhelm that zone with damage. You want to be shooting the side and auxiliary arc on the side you have chosen as much as possible. The SSD player may use an Engineering command to take shields from the far side and move them to the side you are targeting, it will be frustrating, however once you circle round back the damage will start to pile on as even with the ability to regenerate 3 shields a turn, as they will run out of places to redirect the damage to, this leads us to the next point.
Stay close as you approach the rear of an SSD.
You need to respect how far an SSD can swing its rear even with just one click of yaw, this to me is by far the most annoying thing when dealing with an SSD. Because of this it is important to stay close, so that when the inevitable navigate, or JJ happens you are still in attack range. This is something I think most people don’t expect, but the rear swings quite wide when the SSD turns and that is something that all players should understand both thoughts that fly it and thoughts that try and kill it. When approaching the rear of the SSD position your ships close, and in such a way that when the turn comes you will still have shots on the SSD.
Now this part of is going to be a bit contradictory, to the same side principle, however I have had more success staying on the same side than using this idea, but I want to present it as an option so that you know you can do this. If you have ships on both sides it is possible to block the wide SSD turn in essence forcing them to fly strait down an aisle, it can be very useful however I have found when I try to do this my ships just die a turn or two faster because of the ram damage and sure it putts damage on the SSD, but that damage is less significant than the damage it just put on you. It is a tactic you can use, however I would rather have one more turn of extra firepower then forcing the SSD to move straight in most cases.
Deal with its supports
Look at the other ships/squadrons in the list and be ready to deal with them. If you have and SSD with “heavy” squadrons if you are ready to tie them up the SSD becomes much more manageable. One of my favorite SSD list uses Arquitnes to enhance the dangers of the side and auxiliary arcs of the SSD if you ignore them and go right for the SSD you will take a lot more damage than you think. The SSD can in some lists be very dependent on its supports and taking them out not only gives you points, but helps with taking out the SSD itself. One game I was up against a Peitt SSD with a single gozanti for support. I noticed early on that the gozanti was passing nav tokens to the SSD to give it a nav command and as soon as I could I took it out. At that point I think I could have disengaged and the SSD would have flown off the table as it had no access to nav commands, but I ended taking it off the table before it could fly off. Don’t underestimate the support pieces in an SSD fleet they can be far more valuable than you know.
Just to recap we talked about not being intimidated, not overextending your force, getting around what makes it so durable namely its defense tokens by generating accuracies, killing it will a million cuts, bypassing its tokens with critical effects, and dealing with its supports. We talked about a few other things but that is quite the list and all of the aforementioned methods are just as applicable when fighting other big ships in any fleet. That should be a big takeaway play as if you are fighting any other big ship and you will do fine the SSD is just like any other ship just a lot bigger
I would suggest to also remember these few extra things: Deployment advantage should be yours in nearly every situation use it. Respect and expect the power of the SSD engineering command if you have a way to keep it from doing that do it. Focus your firepower on the same long side. When approaching the rear stay close and remember how far it can swing its rear you want to keep shooting it. That is really all the advice I can give you, just remember you can take this ship down just like any other ship it will just take a few more shots to do so, you got this.
Until next time have a great week!
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