So I feel I have played with Romodi enough to give my final thoughts on the guy. Before we dive into my thoughts let’s look at the text of this commander as a refresher.
“While a friendly ship is attacking a ship, if the attack is obstructed by a ship or obstacle, the attacker does not remove a die (even if the attack is also obstructed by a card effect and may add 1 red die the attack pool.”
Alright so the simple way to think about the commander’s ability is if Line of Sight is drawn through a ship or obstacle you may ignore all obstruction effects and may add a red die to your attack pool. Maybe that is more confusing, but that is how I think of his ability, and it helps me. His ability only works if LOS is drawn through a ship or obstacle as obstruction effects from EWS or Craken do not let you add the red die unless line of sight is also drawn through an obstacle or ship. In addition something important to remember is that you add a red die as I did make the mistake of adding a blue once as I had no red dice in my attack pool, but you can’t pick and choose the color it must be red.
So first thing is Romodi is 20 points so he is the cheapest of the commanders long with commander Ozzle. I do think that Romodi is more universally useful in Imperial fleets, Ozzle is still useful, but is most useful in imperil MSU and well we all know where that archetype is at currently.
When playing Romodi you have to adopt a slightly different play style, you want to be obstructed as often as possible, however several things should be considered when doing this.
1) Are you sacrificing better positioning to gain obstruction?
Position is king in armada, the player with better positioning will win 99.9% of the time. It is so important that you don’t sacrifice a better position for your ship to be in to gain Romodis bonus. There may be a few exceptions to this rule, but don't go running into the ackbar gunline because you can get obstructed shots if you are able get into the front of the gunline.
2) Are you limiting your activation order?
This happens most of the time when you are using another friendly ship to obstruct an attack. Is that ship blocking the movement of another ship forcing you to activate that ship first so it does not take ram damage? its is most common when using a ship to obstruct a strong front arc ship like an ISD.
3) Are you going to overlap an obstacle?
In some cases it might be worth it to overlap a debris field or even an asteroid, but it can be a dangerous game practically with an asteroid, it's generally not worth gaining obstruction if you are going to overlap an obstacle other than the station, but there are corner cases. Also remember even with romodies ability he can’t shoot through dust fields.
Really the key is to not get overzealous with trying to get obstruction that you make misplays to get it or limit your play options, etc. It is important to get use of Romodi, but not at the expense of the long term game.
The best way to think about Romodi is like doddona he is nice when he works and you may invest a few points here and there to get a bit more consistency out of his ability, and you will play a bit differently to leverage his ability however at the end of the day you are likely just taking him because he is cost effective, however the empire as quite a few cost effective commanders like its 3 points more for Jerjerod so why Romodi?
First sometimes the 3 points really matter, it might seems small, but if your list is a few points over dropping to a cheaper commander that fits in almost any list like Romodi is not a bad way to cut a few points to make a list legal.
Romodi does work better with ships that have long range dice pools, so in most cases I would say raiders are out, an argument, for d-cap raider II’s is interesting. Getting an obstructed long range shot from the front of Demolisher on its approach is fun, and the idea of a non-demolisher GSD II intrigues me with romodi not sure it will be good but if I can get both arcs obstructed 3 out the front two out the side is not terrible, with some close range punch, not great but interesting enough that I kind of want to try it in like a seventh fleet type list. All ISD like romodi I mean even the kuat and the ISD-I go up to 4 dice at long range so that is nice. There are however a few ships that just really like Romodi.
Arquitens
Arquitens have the benefit of being able to attack at long range, and not have to joust it can in essence strafe through and obstacle field getting an extra dice here and there or they can even use a larger ship like an ISD as a meat shield to shoot trough without having to worry too much about ramming as the primary arc for the arquitens is the side arc. With the romodi obstruction it is effectively a confire command for your arquitnes and the arquitens has some stiff competition for both nav and con fire commands smart play with Romodi gives the arquitens in essence both commands when obstruction happens, and all you really need to slap on the arquitens is LTT to get consistency.
Onager
Okay I feel like this is obvious a ship that can shoot basically all the way to the other side of the table is likely to have something in it way. It also has added synergy in that both ignition crits trigger on red crits and more red dice means better chance of getting the crits to go off, It’s really that simple.
VSD’s
So a dirt cheep VSD I gets that little extra firepower at long range he is not the star, but a VSD II with decaps and QBT and leading shots with a remodi buff is an ISD-II medium range shot from long range not absolutely crazy but if I can shoot like an ISD-II for 23 points less than its base cost it’s pretty nice.
Gozanti
Okay so yes the regular gozanti don’t have long range dice, but I have been continually surprised by how often a gozanti has an obstructed shot, that it normally would not be able to take, but romodi not only lets you take the shot it effectively doubles your firepower.
Assault Gozanti
Okay yes it’s happening it’s a thing Assault Gozantis that red dice with romodi are wonderful particularly when paired with a con fire command you effectively have an arquitens for cheaper. This works best when paired with the Intensify Firepower fleet command, as it gives you great consistency with the little guys, they basily feel like little CR-90s with Romodi and it’s kind of awesome, as remodi is so cheap with the points you save I would try to upgrade a Gozonti if you have one to an Assault version it's in all honesty surprisingly good and well worth the points with Romodi, and yes I did accomplish the dream of a double ach obstructed shot with con fire from an assault gozanti did a total of 7 damage that activation it was freaking awesome, so maybe I am a bit bias.
One last thing Remodi likes to control obstacles so any objective that lets the Romodi player move obstacles around like Purrgils and Exogarths, or effects like grave shift reroute will really add to the impact remodi has on the game, so keep that in mind. Objectives that have purrgils and Exogarths, or other effects that let you move obstacles around are not an auto include, in a Romodi list, but if you are having trouble with picking a objective anything with moving obstacles will be very nice for you.
Okay so Romodi where does he stand, he is a solid pick for nearly any list period, just like dodonna you might add a few things that make him better here and there, but he can really fit into pretty much any list and he will do something for you. To really leverage him will take some practice getting obstructed shots, as it requires a different mindset when playing, but I honestly feel like you could put Romodi in almost any Imperil list and he will do something for you, even if that is just being cheap. I personally feel Romodi will be a top tier commander in my option, he is currently in the top 4 in the Vassal World Cup, his flexibility to really do something for every list at a cheap cost is what will make him see play, but the players that really learn to adapt the way they play to leverage his ability, without sacrificing to much to get it will be the ones that will see Romodi rise to the top competitive stage. Until new time have a great week!
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