Interview With Worlds Champion Jonathan Reining

I managed to track down Armada World Champion Jonathan Reining and ask him a few questions about Worlds, his championship list, and what his thoughts were going forward.  Before anything else, I wanted to congratulate him for winning Worlds and becoming our first ever World Champion, and thank him for taking the time to answer the questions that I asked him.

We've seen your Worlds winning list - 8 A-Wings, a CR90B w/ Garm, and 2 AFIIBs.  What didn't we see?  What objectives did you go with?  Were you bidding for Player 1 or Player 2?

The objectives I chose were Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, and Intel Sweep.  Most Wanted so I could snipe an objective ship with the A's for double points, or so they would be forced to take a ship out of the fight.  Contested Outpost to try and force the opposing player to walk into the A swarm and  into range of the Frigates.  And Intel Sweep because my CR90 is faster than most other ships, as well as forcing the opposing player to position himself where I can setup a trap at one of the obj. points.  

Most of the time I was bidding for player 1. That way I could alpha strike with the A's at the beginning of a turn in order to snipe a ship before it had a chance to activate.

What was your strategy going into the tournament?  Did you change your game plan at all?

Strategy going into the tournament was to have fun actually.  I had just been getting done with my top 16 match of X-Wing and was super excited just to be playing armada.

Tell us about your preparation - what lists were you expecting to play against?  Did you practice against common lists?

Other than the Gencon Special there was not a particular list I practiced against, but specific ships very much so.  Paragon Assault Frigates and Gladiators mostly.  Especially focusing on the pros and cons of Demolisher as that has become a staple for most Imp builds in wave 1.  I definitely got practice in against the GENCON special however and that really helped a lot.

What are you excited about seeing in Wave 2?  Do you think your strategy could continue working or be improved with the new wave?

Wave 2 brings two huge things to the table for me.  The Rogue keyword means fighters are not necessarily slaved to their carrier ships.  You do pay a lot for it point wise however.  The other thing is just seeing more variety on the table.  It will definitely become significantly harder to predict the meta with a larger pool of options to choose from and I think that is one thing that really helped me out this year.

FFG said that one of the prizes the winner got was to design their own card - given any thoughts as to what your card will do?

As for what card I want to do.  Good lord, I honestly didn't even think winning was a possibility until the last round.  Even after a few days of pondering I have only a few thoughts but my largest thought concerning it is that I want to pick something that isn't going to let the community down.  What kind of a card the players as a whole would be happy with is my foremost thought concerning it. 

Tell us a bit about yourself, and where you came from.

I manage a Game Shop in Independence Missouri called Game Cafe.  We have a great community here in Kansas City for X-Wing and Armada.  Between us and Nebraska I feel comfortable saying we have some of the best players out there in both skill and character.  I really look forward to seeing everyone at worlds again next year. 

Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions Jonathan.  Until next time, everyone take care!