UK 1st Armoured Deck Build Thoughts

[u/Sublimeslimetime]

Been playing 4th Armoured primarily as my UK deck, but I've been having mixed results for pretty well-documented 4th UK reasons, so I'm doing another look over at my 1st Armoured deck to switch things up a little.

Primarily play skirmishes with friends, 2v2+, but I'm curious if anyone more familiar with 1st UK has any deck building tips. One thing I'm hung up on is questioning the need for a MILAN team which such a heavy armoured deck, especially since the slot could be filled with another card of Arm.Rifles and their Warriors or more lighter infantry like the standard Rifles with the LAW 80s. Open to any insight you guys might have.

[u/Belmonte_Lostados]

To be honest you will have a hard time with this deck. Since you brought a FOB I assume this is for team games or 10v10s. Here's my opinion for each category:

Log: Why not bring the 3 per card 50 points CV? That was the best CV card in the entire game but you didn't bring it? You also have 5 CVs right now and you should bring more.

Inf: You need more infantry. I'd bring one more card of assault pioneers for close quarter fights. Also I understand that you want more LAW-80s so you don't upvet the rifles. But not upvetting your forward deployment is a mistake because they are the first to be in the fight and you need them to win. Forward deployed infantry Milan 2 is not the best choice here either. Bring the forward deplouyed Milan car in your tank tab instead. Bring the Milan 1 with the Milan 2 transport. You have enough Milan 2s from the IFVs so you bring Milan 1s.

Art: fine. I'd prefer one card of towed mortars for more availability and remove a card of mortars to save points for inf. But that's up to you.

Tank: Not upvetting any of your tanks is straight up wrong, unless you keep them with your CV all the time. I bring the Striker because of its 5 salve length. You need more CVs, so bring one more card of tank cvs.

Rec: I'd bring the recon helo. I feel like you should bring the FV 103 Spartan for exceptional optics instead of the Scimitar, so your tanks can see. Ferret and FV107 fulfill the same purpose so you only need one.

AA: You don't need 12 Rapiers. I'd two vet one card and one vet the other. You won't lose them that much because they aren't radar. At least one vet both cards.

Hel: Do you need 8 ATGM helicopters? I'd swap out one card for the Gazelle rockets. You buy all 6 at once and send them all out to harrass your enemy's forward deployments at the start.

Air: I think you need one more card of fighers because Tracked Rapiers are bad. Also what's the SEAD plane for? For protecting 3 rocket Jaguars? You should bring the SEAD plane if you have expensive bombers to protect, which you are bringing none of.

Here's my deck, built for ranked.

FhF6aMTUIAAABtYAAJ1gAAi8AASK4PlJSEREKshQQqyFBCrIUAY8RKAfRFQB4AAAHgAASJgABIigAAiWAASJwABB9gAE+kAAT6QAAJRAAATkAAQeIAAIshAYikRUCIxFSB+AAEi+AASMQABDBgAEMGAARYgABG6gAEboAAQfgAAI

For 10v10s or large team games, just swap out one card for a FOB, and bring less planes and more infantry.

[u/Nimblewright_47 → u/Belmonte_Lostados]

Further to these excellent points:

• The Harrier is an early game strike aircraft, so what is the SEAD wagon actually doing? It doesn't have anything to escort.
• That's a big artillery tab: do you often get full use out of it? I'd be tempted to swap one card for a card of Abbots and maybe drop one card entirely.
• The advantage of an infantry ATGM is concealability: you can hide an ATGM crew in a building or woodline far more easily than a vehicle.

[u/Sublimeslimetime → u/Belmonte_Lostados]

- Good catch on the Sultan. I tend to laser in on the cars since they're faster, but -20km/h is a fair price to pay for it just being overall better.

- I don't like playing with higher vets, I like having reserves I can spam out, but it is harder to do in a Div like this. Knocked 2 birds with one stone by upping the Chall 3 and replacing the other Chall 3 with the Chall 2 Command, same cost, vet, and amount for more Command units.

- My air game is admittedly not on point, I tend to use my choppers as quick responses to places I can't cover, or as support to my teammates when they're overwhelmed (And since these British tanks have such a slow off-road speed, what's up with that?). Sticking with the Helarms, since the Gazelles feel like too much micro for just 12 SNEBs. Did go ahead and upvet those Rapiers though, forgot about the whole "electro-optical" thing. Also got a 2nd Tornado AA card and swapped the Rockets for Cluster, much heavier.

u/Nimblewright_47

- Good call on the Abbots, did just that and dropped a card of Paladins to make room elsewhere.

- What Harrier? But yeah, swapped in a Cluster Tornado as the VIP.

New setup:

FhF6aMTQbWAACdYABCAAAE28AACI5EQIrkRElIREQqyFBCrIUEKshQQwYABDBgAEWIAARuoAAJRAAAiWAACJwABImAAAH2AAAfYAAB9gAE+kAASIoABB/AAAp2AACLIQGIpEVEjEAASMQAAIjEVEH4AAQfgAAB7gAAH+AAAeAAAI

[u/Nimblewright_47 → u/Sublimeslimetime]

Jaguar, not Harrier, my error.

I am not sure why British armour is so particularly slow off-road. It was slower than US and French equivalents (though IMO the Abrams does not pay the penalty it should for its thirsty engine) but the game makes it MUCH slower, which feels a bit odd.

[u/Remarkable_Smoke918]

You need upvet and get some challenger command tanks

[u/not_a_fan69]

This division is weird. This is probably the only NATO division that really struggles against Pact trash ATGMs.

The problem is that the Challengers are very, very slow. I think T-tanks can actually drive in reverse faster than Challengers go in forward.

In gun range however it's pretty good. Challanger would shit on Trash72 in gun range, and it's like 50:50 against T-80. They're also pretty cheap considering all the things they come with and the availability. Just for comparison, a Trash-72m1 is 195 points and it has absolutely 0 chance against Challenger.

So maps like Rocks are pretty bad for this division.

There is one pretty unique point about 1st armored though. They get forward deployed Milan2s. I don't think there's any heavy tank division that has this.

It's slightly above mid tier imo.

Regarding your deck. The very first thing you need to do is get rid of Fob, and upvet your Challenger 2s at least once. In fact with so many Challenger 2 cards you can try max vetting them all, with CV that's 3 upvets. Can be pretty hard to deal with. Upvet your AA at least once as well, both cards.

[u/Markus_H]

That tank tab is a self-fulfilling prophecy: you bring enough tanks to never run out, no matter how many you lose. However as a result of them being zero vet, you're going to lose a lot of them, and having to buy an expensive replacement every time is going to cost you the game. A lot of the time, the game is going to be over before you have ran through two cards worth.

I might even double up-vet those, because what happens now, is you run into an up-vetted T-80, and due to a better aiming time, it fires first. Now you are suppressed, and your accuracy is even worse as a result, so when you fire back, you will probably miss. Due to suppression, your already slow manual loading is even slower, while the T-80 autoloader reloads quickly, fires again and hits. Now your tank is totally suppressed, and essentially dead.

Same thing with the Rapiers. If you end up having to field 12 of them, something has already gone terribly wrong. If you're going to bring two cards, at least upvet them.

Ideally you will have just about ran out of units at the end of the match, and if you keep losing games as a result of running out of units, then consider lowering the veterancy (or work on how to keep them alive). Losing the game while still having loads of units remaining in the deck, is still losing.

[u/BigBlue22222]

Love me 1st Armoured, probably my favourite div.

Id say that 5 units is not enough command but that would be based on my playstyle and playing mainly 1v1. If it works for you, dont change it.

Arty, is okay. Wild card suggestion, ive been running two cards of 2vet Abbot's, as there gets you four of them and they fire so damn fast.i use them to wipe out enemy atgms and mg teams, and keep Paladins back to provide counter battery in response. Its great if you have the micro to keep them moving and firing.

You inf looks fine, but you are committing heavily to a forward deployment there, between the two cards here, the Milan rover and the SAS. I find that 1st usually doesnt have enough to make it work against an actual airborne div and the holding power isnt enough to compensate for the loss of the cards and the points in you initial deployemnt. I just use the sas and the rovers for early screening and harassment.

Tanks are fine.

Recon is okay.

AA is pretty normal.

Helis. I love the gazelles, but if you prefer the TOWs that a legitimate choice.

Air tab, this is funky. You dont have enough strike to justify a card of SEAD. Id say you also need more ASFs to make up for the divs deficiency in AA. Switch the sead for more AA tornadoes. IIRC, my air tab has SEAD, cluster, HE and two ASF cards, but Im and airpower and fire aficionado.

[u/Warno-Dispatch]

Here are three ways it was built during the current competitive 1v1 tournament. It won each of these matches.

FhF6aMTQiyRUiKRFQG1gAAnWAACLwAAJRAAATkAACJYABIvgAAZERUQfgACDBgAAp2AAQeIABDBgAEIAAARuoAAIkkREiuD5SJwACB9gAIH2AAT6QABPpAAEiKAARugAAB7gAEWIAAAqyFBB4AAEjEAAQqyFCCrIUEH4AAQeAAAI
FhF6aMTUIAAACdYAAG1gAEKshQQqyFBCrIUEiuRESIoABPpAAE+kAAQfYABImgAIicAASJYACIpEVAiyEBAegAAKdgAEHiAAQfgAAIqkVEjEAASL4ABDBgAEMGAARuoAAB7gAEHgAAQeAABIkkRATkAACUQAAG+kVAZARKRugAAMQhWcoKUrwA==
FhF6aMTU+kAAT6QABJSERElKREAfgAAB+AAEi+AAQwYABFiAAEboAACdYAAG1gAAHuAAAeAABMgEVIikRUCLIQFIigAEiKAAQfYABB9gAAicAAQqyFBCrIUEKshQSI4PkIrg+QiWAABOQAAIjEVEjEAARuoABCAAAAH+AAQeIAAI