So this will be the last week we will be talking about the contents of Rebellion in the Rim at least as far as spoilers go. This week we are going to look over the objectives that come in the box. Again this is just first impressions, I have not played with any of these objectives, but my thoughts on the objectives and how they will impact the game. We are going to start with the Red objectives and move on from there, well let’s get started.
Marked for Destruction
So we have seen this one already but I want to cover all objectives even the ones we know about just to talk about their merits. First this one adds the dust fields so you can hide ships behind them if you need to. I think dust fields are an underrated assist in many objectives so keep this in mind. We also add the purrgil. This objective can be summed up in that when you roll a crit you can resolve a critical effect that lets you place an objective token on that ship and then remove all objective tokens from your ship. this is given to both players. Then after you move a purrgil if it ends distance one of a ship with an objective token that ship suffers 1 facedown damage card and you will gain a victory token.
So this one seams fun and can get you decent points, but I think this is best in a high activation list, so that you know you will go last and not have any objective tokens on your ship and that your opponent will have objective tokens on at least one of their ships. Because Purrgil move in that the second player picks on and then the first player picks one then the second player, so as long as you’re able to insure that your opponent has a ship with a token on it you are most likely going to score.
This is a decent objective 75 points over the course of the game not bad at all, which is probably the most you are getting, unless you get a little lucky, and/or place the purrgil near perfectly, making you score 2 tokens in a round. You also get the added bonus of doing a bit of damage to your opponates ships as well. However high activation fleets will probably like this more than others as they insure last activation to clear tokens off their ships and get a token on an opponent’s ship to score. An Interesting side not the Ezra officer works well with this objective as he can move an obstacle like a purrgil and score a token so that increases the value of this objective, in a list with Ezra.
Rift Assault
Personally I really like this objective, but just like the last one works pretty well in MSU lists. So CR-90 long range attack from the side accuracy spend it to put an objective token on the ship then switch your other dice you added with con fire to a double gaining points for getting to do that, because of the timing of the card you can add a token and change a die during the same attack. Its gives you points for attacking ships sure they have to be more than distance 1 from an obstacle, but most people don’t like to get that close to an obstacle, it will get you points in any list you bring it in, but again the more ships the more points and the more die modification you get being able to throw away a die face for a better die face latter and score points on it make this a solid objective you could put in any list, but again best in some type of MSU I feel.
This objective does add the gravity rift the rift temporally reduces speed by one when executing a maneuver, it has the added effect in this objective that it deals 1 facedown damage card if you are at speed 1 or slower at distance 1-2, in essence to prevent you from sitting at speed 1 at distance one to prevent getting a token on you. So I think this is a solid and fun objective.
Ion Storm
So again this one gives you points for just attacking ships, sure you have to get a crit like with Marked for Destruction, however he have an added benefit of getting a Ion battery upgrade for all ships with any color of die for free. Players can get rid of objective tokens by repairing, but with second player placing all the obstacles all of the first players ships for the first round or two will get tokens on them. It’s a really nice objective. Again the more attacks you can get the better this objective will be, but you do have to get that crit, but I could see MSU with TRC on the little guys changing a red die to a crit if they get to play this objective.
Surprise Attack
So when I first saw this I did not think too much of it, it just seemed like fleet ambush with some more restrictions and getting raid tokens, but let me tell you something getting a raid token at the start of round one unless your opponent has Garm, Tarken, hondo, or even a veteran captain this could be devastating turn one you will probably target navigate with your raid tokens now if that is what they picked and most the time it is they are out that command and comms net won’t work because they have a raid token for navigate they won’t be able to take a token and pass it to the ship they want to so ships will ether discard their dial or resolve another command. What do you pick turn two are you facing a large squadron complement give them that squadron for raid the next two rounds if they don’t have squadrons with rouge you have drastically reduced the effectiveness of their fighter wing. At best this card forces deployment of your opponents flagship where you want it to be, and that in and of itself can be quite powerful, add on top the ability to drop raid tokens for the commands you don’t want them to be resolving it can get really nasty possibly locking them out of resolving commands completely, or just insurance to make sure that they are not doing the commands you don’t want them to be doing for half the game. I can see people vastly underestimating how much control this gives the second player over the game, and they will pay the price.
So that’s the red objectives really I think all of them have their place I am most excited for Ion Storm, and Rift Assault, with Surprise Attack getting an honorable mention for how unique it is, its not that I don’t like Marked for Destruction, I just think the others have a higher point threshold, and surprise attack gives the second player so much control over what the first player gets to do that it just feels okay, not great, but let’s move on to the yellow.
Abandoned Mining Facility
So I think this one is very fun and thematic, and its also a pretty good objective as well. You can hide a bomber command flotilla behind a dust field at speed zero and just mine the dust field. Getting the tokens lets you get points fairly easy with 3+ engineering ships as well. its big downside would be locking up command dials, but if you have a way to continually generate tokens to mine the dust fields it could get pretty lucrative. You do also add in the purrgil to this objective but they don’t seem to have any effect on the objective itself but you can move them to sort of block your opponent from getting too close to a mining obstacle or at the very least take a bit of damage because they wanted to get close. I look forward to giving this one a shot if nothing else for the fun factor, but I can see it being potentially point lucrative as well.
Rift Ambush
This one is interesting in that it makes the second player force one of his opponent ships to make a speed 1 maneuver then he can increases of decrees its speed. This can force a ship out of possession without support from the other ships, but your opponent will probably just nav to help correct this. It also lets the players use the gravity rift as some type of sling shot in that when a ship ends its maneuver at distance 1-2 of the gravity well you can make a speed one maneuver so definitely interesting. I just don’t see a huge advantage or much reason to take this objective other than fun factor, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all I mean it’s a game it should be fun, but if I was trying to build a competitive list I have a hard time thinking of a reason to take this one.
Asteroid Tactics
Okay so this seems like a fun one and a nice one as well it is in essence dangerous territories but a ship gains defense tokens back in place of all obstacles it is just asteroids, I was thinking this one might add more asteroids to the board, but nope. You also move around Exogorths so they will deal damage to squadrons and stay in the asteroid field’s seams interesting, again I think is a little better than rift Ambush competitively, but because there are only 3 asteroids it just feels like it won’t happen super often, but it is what it is, and I could be wrong.
Fleet in Being
So this one seems like a good objective for list with a lot of high command ships. It also helps keep the battle more centralized as ships will lose tokens if they are distance 1-3 from the 3’ edge. At the end of the game you get points for each Enemy ship in the play area (so not killed) that does not have a token on it. So the first player as soon as they refresh a token with this objective effect it that ship is not killed you will get 15 points, its not much but its better than nothing at all, plus your high command ships will be pretty hard to bring down as you can refresh your high impact tokens a few times without worrying about giving points to your opponent. So I think it is a good choice for the high command ship builds. Moving on to the blue.
Volatile Deposits.
So let me just say I love this objective so much. Okay so first when you as the second player are resolving a crit you can get a special crit using any color of dice you get to deal damage to a ship or squadron at distance 1 of that obstacle equal to half the number of crits in your attack pool rounded up. So you are getting extra damage for attacking ships, then for each asteroid you control contested outpost style at the end of the round you get 15 points that is potently 45 point a turn, so it can get pretty point crazy. True it will probably only be 2 a round as your opponent is probably going to grab one, but you get to blow up ships faster and get points it’s a solid objective in my book.
Infested Fields
So this is an objective a lot like dangerous territories, expect better in one way worse in another. The way it is worse, well the second player is not immune to obstacle effects, but you can pick you the token when a squadron lands on the obstacles. Then you add in exogarths, and well I think this makes this objective a good objective for fleets that have a light or medium squadron wing, that can pick up the tokens and then use the exogarths to help thin out the other players squadrons.
It is definitely not the most point lucrative objective out there as your opponent is going to be getting two of these token most likely and you will get 3 meaning a net of 15, that won’t always be the case. the exogarths anti squadron attack can leave a good dent in a squadron and if you can pull it off multiple times, and support it with flack of your own you could really wear though a squadron wing, keep your ships close to the obstacle and use exogarths to attack your opponents squadrons and you can get a good return on this objective. it’s not amazing points wise, but it is worth consideration as it can help immensely in the squadron game.
Hyperspace Migration
So we saw this one on the stream, and it looks fun, I also think it can be very point lucrative especially for lists that want to use their side arch because of how the purrgil move from one side of the mat to the other. I think this is a solid choice for Akbar lists. It is worth noting the course of the purrgil can be changed with a strategic squadron.
There is really no max amount of points you can earn with this objective it is really just biased off of how many ships you can keep at distance one of the purrgil I don’t think if played well 100+ points is unrealistic, because of the restricted movement of the purrgil its pretty easy to determine where they are going to be even when the other player is moving them. I really think in the right list the objective could really shine.
Doomed station
So this is another really fun one, but can get you the same amount of points contested outpost can, but with the added benefit that you can move the station along with you and move it out of range of your opponent. Also if things get to dicey to can destroy the station by letting in fly into the grav well it’s a fun objective and any list that wants contested outpost will probably want to take this one as well. It’s a good solid objective and I think you are much more likely to score max points of 120 with this objective than you are with contested outpost, very solid objective, you will probably see this one a lot.
So that is all the objectives that we are getting in Rebellion in the Rim. A lot of really good objectives I feel like all the reds are very playable and I am super glad about that as it seemed to be the objective that was really ether advanced gunnery or most wanted every now and then you would get station assault, but it was not super common, we should be seeing a greater diversity in that slot. I do find the yellow objectives a little underwhelming in this box though I do really like abandoned mining station, and I think Fleet in being has potential, but I’m not sold on it. Then the blue I think all of them have a place in a list baring infested fields being a little meh, but any objective that has exogarths in it is probably half decent if you are going low/no squads to help you deal with them or at the very least create an area of denial.
I am very happy with the objectives and I do look forward to trying them all, and once I do maybe I have overlooked something and some of the objectives that I don’t find super appealing right now will be a hidden gem. Regardless objective choices in both competitive and casual list building will be more open than ever. Until next time a wonderful Week!
Comments