So the last FAQ update we had was just after Wave 7 since then we have had the SSD, Rebellion in the Rim and now wave 8. We have had some updates on FFGs official web page. Such as the raddus change, and the oops we forgot to include the evade rules when attacked at extrema range in the onager rules. However there are a lot of questions about new cards, ship rules, and objectives. Here are just a few of the questions. I don’t want to stir the pot, just show some questions that have not been answered that probably should be, this is also by no mean a comprehensive list just some of the ones that cross my mind.
HFZ
Okay so I know that HFZ has been mostly worked out by many people that know the rules far better than I do. It does let you attack squadrons at long range, however I am in the dissenting opinion however, and it’s not because I don’t want the card to work that way, but the way it’s written well could have been better to say the least. An official clarification would be very nice.
SSD Surprise attack
Okay so the SSD player picks Surprise Attack, now he must place the SSD (as in this case it will be their flagship) however the SSD cannot be deployed overlapping obstacles but it “must overlap the station” not and issue in my option as the card text takes precedent over the rule the SSD overlapping the station, but what if there is no legal deployment that does not overlap another obstacle? this is possible to do with this objective. In addition can you deploy not touching the back edge but touching the station? For me I would rule the SSD must still touch the back deployment zone, but the SSD can overlap any obstacle during deployment, however again clarification is needed.
Rift assault interdictor
Okay so you are playing an interdictor and your opponent chooses Rift Assault objective. You use your grav shift reroute to move the grav well in front of a ship, it is at distance 1-2 of that ship. You declare that ship as the ship that “must execute a speed-1 maneuver”. Does the must on the card override the effect of the grav rift? This one is tricky, as later in the objective it talks about how a ship if at distance 1-2 must make a speed one maneuver then says “the gravity rift does not have the ability to temporarily reduce that ships speed during this maneuver.” This implies that in other situations where a ship “must make a maneuver” the rift would maintain its effect and reduce the ships speed. This is muddy and unclear, and needs clarification.
Beck
She is the messiest card around Karnack did a great video about why she is so messy you can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRyYayoWq0 He points out some things I missed, but in essence beck lets you resolve a command as if you spent a token. First question can this be paired with a dial effect, to do dail+token, many people say no and I think I agree, but again if they had added the word only after had I would be 100% on board, but as is it’s a bit ambiguous. There are tons of interactions and strange things Beck does go watch Karnacks video about Beck to see a good chunk of them and some I did not even think was a thing. Without stealing too much of Karnack thunder it really boils down to we don't have any rules definition for "as if" and without that Beck is rather ambiguous.
Rules clarifications are part of the FAQ, but so are changes to the game, and while these are a lot more speculation than anything, I still think it's fun to speculate.
Mon Mothma
To say Mon Mothma is underperforming is an understatement according to the current PRIME data we have when compared to the entire field she is only taken in 1% of lists. when we compare it to just the rebel faction lists she only taken more often than Commander Leia and General Cracken. She is however the only rebel commander not able to place higher than the top 50% in PRIME tournaments in faction, so she might need to be looked at. However I think this fix is pretty likely considering the added bonus of evading 2 dice at extreme range it makes sense to let Mon Mothma do that at long range. This probably won't push her over the edge, but its a step in the right direction.
JJ SSD
There are very few times I have felt like what I was doing was cheating, but JJ SSD does feel that way. Yes it's cool and fun, but something about it just does not sit right for me personally. Really the only other time I felt this way was when I played Reekian aces back in the day, and we all know what happened to that list. Is JJ SSD over performing like Reekian aces, I really don't think so, it has done well don't get me wrong JJ himself accounts for almost half of all Imperial victories in primes at 44%, and I would wager most of the lists are JJ SSD . The change would likely not be with JJ himself but with huge ship rules themselves "a Huge ship cannot have a yaw value of more than 1 at any joint even if a card effect would allow it to." Will this happen I don't know, but I just feel dirty doing it and it just does not feel right to me.
Whale Watching
Maybe this is premature, as against an SSD and probably Onager it becomes risky to farm this objective. However, when you can farm this objective its a joke let's be honest. I guess sure pick the other objectives, but it is absolutely flabbergasting how many points this objective can score if you farm it I have scored 400+ points with this objective more than once, it's probably something that would have fit into the clarification part, but RAW you score this every round after the first, I believe it was intended to only be every other round, but since the effects share the same timing the player gets to choose the order they resolve in so that needs to be fixed I think, and it would still be a strong objective.
ECMs
Okay so I have been crying for this nerf for a long time, but I think I like changing this to a Agate like effect best. "during the spend defense token step you may discard 1 token targeted by an accuracy to resolve its effect", this in essence makes it a one off use for high impact defense tokens, this will be a buff to Walex Blissex for the rebels and will make Tagge a much more interesting commander choice for the empire, feels like a win to me.
We are a bit overdue for an FAQ when do you think we will be getting one? What questions do you want clarified? If changes are made what changes would you like to see? Hopefully we will see an FAQ soon, but until next time have a great week!
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