GA Fleet Imbalance

"Stokerini;c-1780831" wrote:
My fleet GP is 1.3m and my squad GP is 1.4m. Almost a 50/50 split.

The reason my fleet GP is so high is due to having all the prior/current metas. Ships have been my primary focus since they came out to get #1 each day

It gets worse if you’ve kept up with the meta as long as I have. I have the ships 1.0 TL team, geo trio, BH, and now rebels. I was working on the Mace timeout fleet when GA was released and I immediately stopped that because it wasn’t need in my shard and it hurt me for GA. And this isn’t counting the accidental ship power that you get from ships like resistance x-wing (back when I need the pilot to complete a 5 person resistance team).

If you have the new falcon, you know that there’s only 2 fleets need for GA. Everything else is a waste (unlike character GP where you can use old metas as defense or counters).

Current GA strategy for fleets: if my opponent doesn’t have Han’s falcon, use rebels on D and BH on O. My opponent won’t beat my fleet and I should beat his. I still have to beat as many ground territories as the opponent and then use fleet wins as a tie breaker.

Strategy part 2: if my opponent has Han’s falcon, I set BH on D and then use rebels for O. We’ll both clear the fleet territory so victory comes down to me getting more points on the ground.

"Stokerini;d-195418" wrote:
There is a persistent isssue with how ships function in GA. If you have a very strong fleet then you are automatically disadvantaged in GA. Because fleets account for very little of your battle scores, they become almost meaningless.

I understand that a fleet only GA would be difficult due to the limited number of fleet options, but couldn’t we have a fleet top or bottom solo zone that is with double points to bring them total GA result more fair? Otherwise those of us who have focused on fleets will never win a GA that includes fleets which seems to be the opposite of what was intended for GA fleets.

This is especially emphasized when an opponent can view your fleet strength during setup and decide to make getting to the fleet battle near impossible.

How do you figure you're disadvantaged? You should be able to set a strong defense and still have offense, or save your best for attacking and still put up a decent defense. Someone who doesn't pay attention to fleets will have to choose one or the other, and likely will lose both anyways.

If you can't get to the fleet zone, well, that's a different issue.

If your strong fleet holds on defense, you have a huge advantage. If your ships really are that much stronger than your opponent's, a viable strategy could be to put a weaker character defense to save your strongest characters for offence to make sure, you can clear your enemie's board, while blocking your opponent from doing the same with your strong defensive fleet.

I don't see, a strong fleet as a disadvantage.

It's not about having a strong fleet puts you at a disadvantage, it's having more than two strong fleets puts you at a disadvantage.

If you have two maxed out fleets, then you can potentially beat there's and not lose yours giving you a huge swing.

If you have all the sith, all the bounty hunters, all the rebel and all the republic ships maxed out then I grant you, that a big wack of your gp you won't be using.

But the only GA round i've lost, I lost on fleets not the ground.

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775511" wrote:
When your opponent has a significant advantage in squad GP and the only fleet zone is protected by a squad zone, the fact that you have a strong fleet does not compensate for your relative weakness in squads.

Your opponent has the option of setting a strong front line and still attacking with good squads.

And this is why you save more of your strong characters for offense, when you believe your defensive fleet will hold the zone.

"Waqui;c-1775585" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775511" wrote:
When your opponent has a significant advantage in squad GP and the only fleet zone is protected by a squad zone, the fact that you have a strong fleet does not compensate for your relative weakness in squads.

Your opponent has the option of setting a strong front line and still attacking with good squads.

And this is why you save more of your strong characters for offense, when you believe your defensive fleet will hold the zone.

Depending on the difference in squad power, that can be anything from a big strategic gamble to a hopeless kamikaze attack.

If you defend with only B- and C-teams against an opponent with more squad GP, rhe odds are good that they will break all of your ground zones, leaving you needing to break both of your opponent's frontal ground zones plus either their fleet or rear ground zone just to have a chance of winning on points. Not good odds when they have more & stronger squads than you do.

As I said before, I face this strategic challenge every GA.

Your only hope of winning is a balanced strategy, superior modding, a focused roster and good combat skills. If the squad GP difference is too large or your opponent also knows how to mod well or is highly focused, you may not have any chance at all.

Fortunately the average player's modding is not very good (and in some cases downright atrocious) and their rosters are not laser-focused, giving you a chance to eke out a victory but basically you have to be better than them to compensate for the imbalance.

"Trystan_Spyder;c-1775467" wrote:

"Stokerini;d-195418" wrote:
There is a persistent isssue with how ships function in GA. If you have a very strong fleet then you are automatically disadvantaged in GA. Because fleets account for very little of your battle scores, they become almost meaningless.

I understand that a fleet only GA would be difficult due to the limited number of fleet options, but couldn’t we have a fleet top or bottom solo zone that is with double points to bring them total GA result more fair? Otherwise those of us who have focused on fleets will never win a GA that includes fleets which seems to be the opposite of what was intended for GA fleets.

This is especially emphasized when an opponent can view your fleet strength during setup and decide to make getting to the fleet battle near impossible.

Someone who doesn't pay attention to fleets will have to choose one or the other, and likely will lose both anyways.

So what about someone that does pay attention to fleets but hasn’t kept up with each meta in the last year? What about someone that has Han’s Falcon and strong rebels but chose not to focus on any other set? What about someone that has spent some effort on ships but does not have a fully developed roster? What about someone that has only developed 2 fleets?

Using an extreme to prove your point only shows that you don’t have a solid ground to stand on in the first place. Sure ship heavy people will have an advantage against those few people that managed to get high GP and put no focus whatsoever into ships. But what do we do against everyone else???

"Scuttlebutt;c-1775661" wrote:

"Waqui;c-1775585" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775511" wrote:
When your opponent has a significant advantage in squad GP and the only fleet zone is protected by a squad zone, the fact that you have a strong fleet does not compensate for your relative weakness in squads.

Your opponent has the option of setting a strong front line and still attacking with good squads.

And this is why you save more of your strong characters for offense, when you believe your defensive fleet will hold the zone.

These are basically troll comments with no real insight into the problem. I suffer the same issue the OP does. I tried the weak D strategy but I still ran out of good teams so I lost but a few points. My opponent trampled my defenses getting a near perfect score. For people that have refined squad rosters, it’s virtually impossible to win when you’re 200k-300k behind them in squad power. Strategy should never be “hope I get matched up with 7 **** that think g12 ugnaught and 60 other g8 toons constitutes a good roster.”

Since Han’s falcon came out, the problem has only amplified. Now you only need 2 fleets (rebels for O and BH for D). Rebels nearly always win if you have good rebel ships and know how to use them. And BH on D is just a good fleet that allows you to get defense points. Having good geonosians or empire ships does nothing but hurt me in matchmaking because they will never be used.

Glad you can clearly see the problem. Most of the other replies have valid points with the emphasis on strategy, but it still comes down to being disadvantaged. Any opponent worth their salt can still win. Especially if the other team protects their fleet zone behind their top defense teams.

I have found that a sound strategy on my part will help me win 2 out of three and I always place in the #2-4 range.

I have both the current meta and the prior meta and am ended everyday at #1 in fleets. Why am I penalized in GA for this?

If I have 1.1mil fleet GP and 1.6m squad GP and there is one space battle and 5 squad battles. How will I have a fair chance when almost everyone else I go against may have a 2m squad GP and 700k fleet GP? Even if I win on fleet defense and fleet offense, that is 2 out of 10 battles. Now I have 8 battles and my remaining GP is 400k less than my opponent. This can cover up to 4 g12 teams with multiple zetas on each. How is that fair?

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775611" wrote:

"Waqui;c-1775585" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775511" wrote:
When your opponent has a significant advantage in squad GP and the only fleet zone is protected by a squad zone, the fact that you have a strong fleet does not compensate for your relative weakness in squads.

Your opponent has the option of setting a strong front line and still attacking with good squads.

And this is why you save more of your strong characters for offense, when you believe your defensive fleet will hold the zone.

Depending on the difference in squad power, that can be anything from a big strategic gamble to a hopeless kamikaze attack.

If you defend with only B- and C-teams against an opponent with more squad GP, rhe odds are good that they will break all of your ground zones, leaving you needing to break both of your opponent's frontal ground zones plus either their fleet or rear ground zone just to have a chance of winning on points. Not good odds when they have more & stronger squads than you do.

Key words:"...when you believe, your defensive fleet will hold the zone."

Who cares if the opponent clears all your ground troops in first attempt?

"Scuttlebutt;c-1775661" wrote:

"Waqui;c-1775585" wrote:

"Rath_Tarr;c-1775511" wrote:
When your opponent has a significant advantage in squad GP and the only fleet zone is protected by a squad zone, the fact that you have a strong fleet does not compensate for your relative weakness in squads.

Your opponent has the option of setting a strong front line and still attacking with good squads.

And this is why you save more of your strong characters for offense, when you believe your defensive fleet will hold the zone.

These are basically troll comments with no real insight into the problem.

Believe it or not: My alt successfully applied this strategy in 3 battles now against opponents with much weaker ships.

I suffer the same issue the OP does. I tried the weak D strategy but I still ran out of good teams so I lost but a few points.

Well, it's a requirement, that you can clear his board, for that strategy to work.

My opponent trampled my defenses getting a near perfect score. For people that have refined squad rosters, it’s virtually impossible to win when you’re 200k-300k behind them in squad power. Strategy should never be “hope I get matched up with 7 **** that think g12 ugnaught and 60 other g8 toons constitutes a good roster.”

I don't believe, you understood the strategy, I described, because this isn't it.