Star Wars Armada: The Best Commanders For New Players

A helpful guide to picking a commander for new Star Wars ARMADA players.

Star Wars Armada is a great and fun game. It does however have a bit of a learning curve, and mastering it can be hard. One of the challenges of the game is picking and making the most use of a commander. Commanders are a powerful part of your fleet, with wide ranging rules that often change how your fleet acts and fights. As such it can be hard to chose one that both matches your playstyle and your fleet. Sometimes using them is complex. Its a common trap for a new player to pick a commander that sounds powerful and then not be able to make use of their rules much. So today lets take a look at the best commander from each faction for a new player to use.

CIS -Mar Tuuk

For my money Mar Tuuk is the best Separatist commander for a new player. His rule is pretty straight forward. Unlike most of the other Separatists commanders he doesn’t rely on careful positioning or combos (like TF-1726). He will benefit pretty much any fleet, though one’s with more ship will get more buffs.  You do need to be a little careful with target selection, but pretty much any player can throw him in a fleet and get some benefits out of him, without much heavy thinking, in a game.

Republic – Luminara Unduli

Luminara is another commander who can be slotted into any fleet, as she benefits both ships and unique squadrons, something you should have a few of no matter what. Her rule is great for new players as it doesn’t require any specific positioning, though you can get more out of with good movement. This makes it great as a learning tooling. In addition it allows you to go back and correct past mistakes, giving you the chance to ready a defense token that maybe you should not have used. Its one downside is that it’s automatic and there is some choice and thinking involved in using it, but it’s hard to make a really wrong choice here.

Rebels- General Dodonna

For the Rebels I’m picking General Dodonna as the best commander for a new player. Now he’s not really the best commander, but he is super easy to use. You don’t have to do anything special to make use of him, just make your normal attacks. Sure, a well built fleet can get more use out of him, but it’s impossible to build a fleet that won’t get any use out of him. He’s also very cheap, making him an easy investment. There is some mild choice in using him as you need to pick the best crit to give the enemy, but thats a pretty easy choice there.

Imperials- Admiral Motti

Motti isn’t just the best commander for new Imperial players to use, he’s hands down the best commander for a new player. Motti is easy to use, you don’t have to do anything other than include him in the fleet. On top of that you will always get some benefit from him. There really isn’t a way to mess up using Motti, and he requires no thought to get benefits from. Indeed by making your ships harder to kill, he makes the game a little more forgiving for a new player. His rule isn’t even bad, he makes for a great commander even for a more experienced player. This is the way to go for a new player for sure.

Let us know what commander you think is best for a new player, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.