So we have gotten in the data from both worlds and regional championships you can look at regional data evaluation here by Truthiness, and the evaluation of world’s data here by Snipafist I wanted to talk about one thing in particular list diversity, and what I am calling the rule of 4, what is the rule of 4 well put simply it would appear from the data that The Rebellion has only 4 viable commanders, and the Empire only has only 4 viable ships, but lets take a closer look as to why. the rule of 4 in regards to the Rebels 4 statistically viable commanders that is summed up in the enduring rhyme Red fish Blue Fish Crit Wish, Death Wish (Ackbar, Raddus, Doddona, Reekien)
If we just look exclusively at worlds Akbar seams more in the rhyme for his namesake in it then performing really well. There are a few notable exceptions to this rhyme like a Madeain list coming in the top 10 at worlds, but it is important to remember that is currently the exception and not the rule. So why are these the only commanders that consistently perform well for the rebellion a brief look at the other commanders might help us see why.
First up Sato, Sato buffs ship damage output by changing the color of dice in a ships battery armament it could be to get blues to get the need accuracy or blacks to boost damage potential, but in the end he is all about boosting your ships damage by swapping in the appropriate dice. Looking at the commanders in the Rebel rule of 4 we come to Ackbar who does the same thing boost ships damage but he takes the more dice idea in place of changing to more consistent dice this means he will alway incress your maximum damage Sato can almost never do that without help from upgrades. Ackbar does not have to deal with the requirement of having a squadron near a ship, that makes him work all the time and for only 6 points more. So how can Sato compet with this, well by running ships Ackbar does not work that well with front arch baised ships, and Sato can increases the damage output of most double archs whereas Akbar in most cases can’t use his ability and have a double arch on a ship. So Sato has a place but is lacking a little, I do think he is over costed, should probably be around 28ish points, but if built around he could pull his weight, I mean he did win a regional championship, though he did not even make an appearance at worlds.
Garm Bel Iblis, I cannot deny my love of Garm that goes back to wave I, he is just wonderful and does something no other rebel commander can do for you. The 4 competitive admirals, no one really does what he does, Garm gives your list a little more flexibility, gives your list tokens without needing a comms net Flotilla to do it. He works well with the pelta, and when taking him you should probably only take ships that have command 2+ to really get value out of him. I think if the rebels had another medium ship that was command 3 Garm would come into the limelight. there are successful builds with him I mean he made the cut to day 2 of worlds even if just barely. When building a Garm list it is important to ask why Garm and not someone else the answer usually is I need tokens and don’t have a comms net flotilla, and/or I want my ship to be able to resolve commands and not have to take tokens. It is important to note that if a ship needs a token before it activates to do some cool combo Garm gives you flexibility in that you don’t have to activate the comms net flotilla before that ship can go. It would be nice if Garm was a little cheaper as he really starts to shine with some key upgrades, that just make token more efficient I mean I am working on a crazy Idea called the Garmmobile that gets great value out of tokens and with Garm and an Ahsoka comms net flotilla near by I will have great flexibility this is the base idea:
MC80 Star Cruiser (96) • Nav Team (4) • Liberty (3) = 103 Points
its it crazy yes, but as Garm does something no other rebel commander can do, and I want to try and utilize it.
Next up Cracken, okay so I will be completely honest I hate Cracken, why because speed control is so important to me, and he keeps my ships dialed up to 3+ all game long but I will try to make a case for him. What does he do well he simply he keeps your fast moving ships alive. Who is this guy competing with well Rieekan. Cracken keeps your ships alive but most of the fast moving rebel ships he works with are pretty fragile. In the end you need to realize that some of your ships are going to die, and wouldn’t you rather get some value out of that ship before it dies then none at all Rieekan is your man, I just find it too hard to justify Cracken over any other rebel commander he is one of my least favorite commanders in the game and defiantly my least favorite rebel commander.
Next up we got Madine, he made it into the top ten at worlds so that bodes well for him. Who is he competing with well at first you might say no one but actually it’s Raddus. Raddus can do what Madine can do for you namely out flank your opponent, it’s done in a different way, but it’s still the same in essence, as far as offensive ability Raddus can do what Madine does for you just in a deffrent way, however this can only be done with one ship two if you count a Profundity drop. However Madine can be used both offensively and defensively, in that no one can get out of a bad spot quite like Madine. A big downside of Madine is that you have to take nav commands for him to give you the value you are looking for, so all other commands are locked out, meaning most particularly your squadron game will be lacking. This can be compensated for by have your “battleships” take the nav and have flotilla squadron pushers or have some rouges. Madine is an interesting commander not one of my favorites, but I think if built around well he can really shine.
Now to Leia, oh Leia if only you did not cost so much, she does something that no other rebel commander can consistently do. Give rerolls to ships that have no source for them, and Turing corvettes into small pocket carries, if your list is not doing one of thoughts two things you need to pick another commander. Even with the interesting things Leia opens up she is just so expensive, and sure ackbar is really expensive but he adds in essence two enhanced armaments to each of your ships that’s a 20 point value for EACH of your ships if we go off of that, though the actual value is probably slightly less but as long as you got 3 ships benefiting from Akbar you are getting your points back. Now looking at Leia if we go with the corvette pocket carrier idea we are in essence giving our corvettes expanded hanger bays a 5 point value meaning we would if we look just exclusively at that we would have to have 8 ships to get value back from that ability meaning we would have to push a minim of 16 squadrons to get value out of her in just that category. However Hammerheads can naturally take expanded hanger bays and Leia can push them up to 3 squadrons so I mean you get a weird carrier that looks like this:
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36) • Flight Controllers (6) • Expanded Hangar Bay (5) = 47 Points
an odd Carrier, but with the ability to push 3 squadrons and take Flight Controllers for only 47 points, seams nice but you could add Ray Antilles in a non Leia list and get the same thing for 54 points, I feel like I am becoming a mad scientist I need to stop..
Now the reroll's with Leia is a little hard to put value on the best I can do is 2 points with comms net and hondo as example we also have veteran captain, if someone knows the approximate value of a con fire token let me know but I will say 2 points that means if we are looking at just that alone we would have to get at least 19 rerolls to even out, a high task but can be done, and maybe that value of the reroll is higher when going for a crit like on a CR90B with Heavy Ion Emplacements. Leia on a Projection experts pelta might be a thing not sure just thought of that while writing this. However in the end the point is its hard to get Leia’s point value back, it can be done and in the right builds she can have value, but she is really overpriced, and that keeps her from performing as well as she could.
Lastly we have Mon Mothma, who is she competing with well again Rieekan. The argument can be made Mon Mothma keeps your ships from Dying keeping your points safe, but once you are finished building a Monthma list you will find in most cases you are safe losing 2 maybe even 3 ships and still get the 10-1, and with your ships being so fragile and Mon Mothma not doing much, I mean think about it she has no extra effect at long rage with you evade at medium range you can only effect one dice still and at medium range your probably getting more dice thrown at you anyway and the same goes for close range. I can argue that Craken might be better then her in that if you can keep your ships at long range and at speed 3 your are in effect going to be able to cancel 2 dice. Mon Mothma does have something going for her she can force squadrons to reroll, but in a world where squadrons have 2+ dice against ships that ability become less and less valuable. So it really devolves into the same same argument as Craken why not take Rieekan and get some value from your losses. If you are taking a Mon Mothma list I find it hard to not take two MC-30 one Admonition and the other Foresight, as Foresight with Mon Mothma can be a beast, again without more upgrades like Foresight that buff the evade token I don’t see Mon Mothma dethroning Rieekan as the ruler of MSU builds, and besides she is a little insensitive to the Rebels fishy friends...
So that is the rule of 4 for rebels they are limited to Red fish, blue fish, crit wish, death wish, there is some hope for more commanders breaking up this rhyme with some creative list building, and new upgrades. The good news for rebels is all of their ships are viable, not quite so for Imperils.
So if we look just at worlds the Empire was following the rule of two with its commanders Sloan and Thrawn, but with regional data as well added in you can take pretty much any commander and finish strong as long as your name is not Tagge or Konstintine (I mean he is the reason the empire lost the war, I feel like the defeat of the empire is all tied back to this one moment his complete ultimate failure, this also illustrates an interesting thing that happens in Armada called baiting.)
The rule of 4 for the Empire comes from its viability of ships when you look at the data you see only the Gladiator, ISD, Quasar, and Gozanti performing well, however the Interdictor is slowly climbing up though and that is exciting I am hoping it will finally make the big push with the new objectives coming out in Rebellion in the Rim. To be fare because the ISD has 4 variations it makes up almost a quarter of ships currently available to the Empire. The empire has only has 4 other ships other then the 4 ruling ones, but they are very rarely seen Arquitens, Interdictor, Raider, Victory.
The Arquiens helped win worlds so there is that, the Command Cruiser is the most popular I think it’s because of squadron 2 and the support team slot, I really wish the Light Cruiser version had that support slot. I think with the advent of Director Krenick coming in the SSD we might see more of these guys, the fickle red dice is really what holds this guy back as a combat ship, though its odd Yaw values do not help ether, but we might start seeing somehting like this flying around soon.
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) • Director Krennic (8) • Enhanced Armament (10) = 72 Points
Like I said the Interdictor is on the rise and as mentioned before I anticipate that to continue with the release of more objectives from the Rebellion in the Rim, I don’t see the combat refit seeing play really ever unless they come out with some title or experimental retrofit that benefits it almost exclusively, the only thing the combat has over the suppressor is the extra Flak die everything else is a down grade in my option. So I hope to see this ship finally in the spotlight once we get our hands on more objectives.
The Raider, he was in the winning list at worlds, but it was just a lifeboat. It’s a ship that I love but it has a hard time next to there counterpart the Gladiator or should I say Demolisher. It’s very hard for the raider to compete in a demolisher world, sure Gladiators are more expensive, but the demolisher title alone makes nearly always worth it even with the extra 10 point cost. I mean even though I love raiders and think they can do some great work, I have a very hard time justifying taking one when I can take Demo right now the raider I is just filler after you have taken what you wanted to take even when the standard Raider is 20 points less than the standard Demo. The Raider II might have some kick in it yet I was surprised to not see any attend worlds with Heavy Ion Emplacements (HIE) they can really get some work done and you don’t have to take Vader or screed just take Veteran Gunners to get that HIE to trigger, and with Disposable Capacitors (Dcaps) you can do it at long range. Once Rebllion in the Rim hits we might see more raidrs kit out like this:
Raider I-Class Corvette (44 points) - Instigator ( 4 points) - Iden Versio ( 6 points) - Ordnance Experts ( 4 points) - External Racks ( 3 points) = 61 total ship cost
but I think they will still be an after thought when compared to Demolisher.
Last we have the victory, the slow and far to steady star destroyer. So I was happily surprised to see the VSD I outclass the VSD II at worlds I just don’t see VSD I any more though I think they are the better ship because of the price difference I think the point difference between VSD I and II is the largest point gap for a ship variant in the game at 12 points, could be wrong though. The Victory to say the least is an interesting ship, I have found it best used for area denial in tandem with other ships and some squadron pushing, and if it by chance catches a ship in range so be it. We have a victory title coming in the Rebellion in the Rim that might give it a leg up, but with JJ and D-caps trying to fix the VSD II the only thing I think that could salvage the Victory would be a price decrees or a speed increases. Right now I think the VSD I is playable as that area denial ship but I feel that the VSD II just gets too pricy once you have it upgraded, and you would just rather take an ISD as the VSD II is just a cheaper ISD II/Cymoon at least the VSD I has something going for it in that it is the only Imperial ship that has both a turbolaser and an ordinance upgrade slot and that can be useful. I have personally found on build for the VSD I that I particularly like as it is cheep and effective:
Victory I (73) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5) • External Racks (3) = 85 Points
There are a lot of good cards and good ships in the game, however our use of them, in our various archetypes are they there because they are good, yes but are they there because we have grown comfortable with them as well, absolutely. I might have touble seeing the value in a card and there are some cards/commanders that are just bad, and sub-optimal, but with work you might be supersized what you find in underutilized card and commanders. Reekien was seen as a bad card at least in the local area when he first came out, but now look at him. Imperil 2 ship came about because someone wanted to try something new something interesting out and see if it would work, and let me tell you a lot of people laughed at the idea of 2 Ship build, or where at least skeptical and well look who is laughing now, sure it did not win worlds but the stats are there to show it is a very powerful list ( you can listen to an interview with the creator of 2 ship on SWAE also subscribe to his channel he needs 1000+ to live stream https://www.youtube.com/user/STIM007 .)
so maybe the next time your building a list remember its okay to break the rule of 4. Try something new something weird, become the mad scientist and try to make it work, if it fails ask why and go back to the drawing board, and who knows you might craft the next two ship. We got some pretty cool news this past weekend so at some point we may talk about that when we have more info, but in the meantime have a great week everyone!
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