Continuing to look at our “retired” commanders we are going to look at General Madine. Now Madine has been seen fairly recently in higher levels of play, but is very spare. So why is this and what could bring him back out of obscurity, Well let's take a look at him.
So Madine is about supercharging you navigate commands, by giving you 2 yaw not just one with a dial and in essence the nav team effect with tokens meaning if you spend a token and dial with madine you can get up to 3 yaw with this guy it seems really nice, and with so many players embracing the “always be navigating” mantra why would a commander that makes your navigate command even better hardly ever seen, it really comes down to two things in my opinion.
First in a unique thing among rebels commanders that clock in at the 30+ point range we will call it the Rieekan effect. The Rieekan effect is about asking the question why is this not Rieekan? Rieekan is by far the most forgiving, versatile, and flexible commanders in the game. Take a bunch of good stuff in a list throw in Rieekan, and bam all of a sudden activation order does not matter as much because well if you do kill that ship I will just Rieekan it so I will lose some points but the ship will do what I needed it to so everything will be fine. Oh shoot I made a mistake I should have done this, but it's okay I can just Rieekan it and it will be okay. No matter what list you put Rieekan in he works and even if you never use him it is just a great insurance plan, and it can be hard for a Rieekan list to lose big. Maybe you don't believe in this effect, but I think its a near indisputable fact all 30+ commanders are overshadowed by Rieekan, with Ackbar being the only exception, but even then while Ackbar is still seen his presence is not overwhelming and I would stay has decreased slowly but steadily over the last little while.
Second issue with Madine is well you have to always be navigating. This limits his builds and makes it hard to take anything other than rogue squadrons in a list as your ships that want to be taking a squadron command if they do that will git no use out of Madine. So they could use a token and get some yaw if they need it and I did try to combo that idea with Entrapment Formation, to get basically a nav command on my ships every turn so that they are freed up do other commands.
MC80 Command Cruiser (106)
• General Madine (30)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Flag Bridge (0)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• All fighters, Follow Me! (5)
= 167 Points
Pelta Command Ship (60)
• Entrapment Formation! (5)
= 65 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points
Squadrons:
• Gold Squadron (12)
• Ten Numb (19)
• Dagger Squadron (15)
• Dutch Vander (16)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• Green Squadron (12)
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 123 Points
Points: 399
However I Found that I could do practically the same thing with Garm more effectively.
MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Garm Bel Iblis (25)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Nav Team (4)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Liberty (3)
= 153 Points
Pelta Command Ship (60)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Fighter Coordination Team (3)
• Entrapment Formation! (5)
= 75 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points
Squadrons:
• Gold Squadron (12)
• Ten Numb (19)
• Dagger Squadron (15)
• Dutch Vander (16)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• Green Squadron (12)
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 123 Points
Total Points: 395
I just have a really hard time with Madine his closest counterpart is Jerjerrod on the empire's side and while JJ has the downside of the damage he does not look you into taking only nav commands, this give JJ a degree of flexibility Madine will never have. Personally that is my buggiest issue I have with Madine. Now with that all said I think he still has his place in the right list, mostly ship heavy lists, generally without any squadrons or very light on squadrons.
MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• General Madine (30)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
= 148 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 53 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points
Squadrons:
= 0 Points
Points: 400
However I did have some fun with him in a rogue heavy list.
MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• General Madine (30)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
= 140 Points
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Admonition (8)
= 82 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Toryn Farr (7)
= 25 Points
Squadrons:
• Dash Rendar (24)
• Hera Syndulla (28)
• Dutch Vander (16)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• Lando Calrissian (23)
= 132 Points
Total Points: 399
On paper I should really like Madine he makes ships more maneuverable however because of how rigged his devotion is to the nav command he just doesn't quite fit my personal play-style and that is okay. He is not a bad commander and really deserves a second look particularly as a LMSU commander that is bringing minimal to no squadrons. but that Reekian effect is always there. If the rebellion got a ship that was really good, but had a truly terrible navigation chart that would help Madine out. In addition I don't want to speculate, but it was hinted at in a FFG live stream that they where looking at point cost ether a point hike for Reekian and or a point decrease for Madine will go a long way, but again that is more speculative than anything. What do you think of Madine why is he not seen as much these days, what can be done to bring him back? Until next time have a great week!
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