This week Crabbok had an interview with Michel Gerns the lead developer of Star Wars Armada and we got some good information, if you have no see it you can watch it here it seams Konstantine will be getting some sort of rework. However the biggest piece of information seemed to be in the form of the pass token and as that is a new mechanic I just wanted to talk about what we learned.
In the interview we got a some good info “the pass token is about the differences in the number of activations, you receive them at the beginning of the game, and were going to compare size of fleets and figure out how many pass tokens each side will receive. The first player will always receive fewer pass tokens then they would if they were the second player.”
Okay so there is a lot to unpack from that so let's look at it at the start of the game we look at fleet sizes fleet A has 3 ships fleet B has 4 ships, now we did not get information about at what ratio we get pass tokens so as fleet B has one more ship then fleet A it would follow that fleet A would get at least a single pass token, and that will be my assumption and that could be completely wrong, but we are going to go with that for now. So as of right now Fleet A has one pass token fleet B has no pass token.
Now it Is important to note that the statement that “The first player will always receive fewer pass tokens then they would if they were the second player.” is very different from “The first player will always receive fewer pass tokens then they second player” So this leads me to believe that if you are second player you will receive an extra pass token. So lets say fleet B is second player so they get an extra pass token so A has one B has one its a wash, but flip it the other way so B is the first player and then A has two pass tokens and B has none. So how do we utilize these pass tokens?
Well pass tokens have changed in that huge ships no longer just innately generate a pass token every round and that “pass tokens are expendable” and that seams to suggest once you spend them they are gone there function I assume is remaining the same if you could activate a ship you may instead spend a pass token.
In the above example of fleet A and fleet B you can see if fleet A uses token judiciously as second player even with just two total pass tokens they can avoid giving the first player the dreaded first last for nearly the entire game, spend one pass token on turn 2 to avoid letting the first player go last then again in round 3 and so the first player if all their ships survive into round 4 can now go last, and then first in round 5, but not being able to do that on the early rounds of the game is key as it becomes slightly less impactful as the ship that gets first last in round 4 has already contributed far more than it would have if first last in round 2 or 3 for example. This also becomes basically impossible if pass tokens are gains on a 2 to 1 ratio so for each activation you have above me I gain 2 pass tokens and then perhaps second player also gains 2 pass tokens as well it becomes very difficult to first last if not impossible depending on the ratio of pass tokens gained. The player with more pass tokens also has the option to use the majority if not all on one round and then jump on the other players ships that had to advance hopefully evening out the activation game so you are options on how you want to spend your pass tokens.
Now we also got info on Pryce, Bail, and Strategic Adviser “they are on hold.. but will eventually reaper in a new form” and that they will “most likely not” be playable in competitive/balanced games moving forward. They appear to be effectively banned cards right now and from my understanding will not be present in the upgrade cards pack.
I think all this info begs the question is MSU deader than dead now? Well I think that is an optimistic no. There are several things that have lead to MSU decline but I think that especially if the rumors surrounding gunnery teams to be true that it will be an exhaust that requires a token to ready MSU might be back in business. It wont get the leg up on activation but the thousand cuts strategy that it offers I think is still one the table even with salvo as I personally think small ships are better equipped to deal with salvo with their evades then larger ships are, and with the thousand cuts tactic salvo tokens could end up being spent fairly quickly. This is me and my rather optimistic view, but I don't think MSU is gone forever.
If you have not watched the full interview I would encourage you to do so It has good information particularly from a game design perspective. More info on the changes to the game and Clone Wars info seams to be right around the corner this is a good time to be an Armada fan until next time have a great week!
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