So we got some exciting spoilers over Thanksgiving vacation, and there validity is all but confirmed, so I think I am safe to start writing up this article series. This will most likely be a 5 part series, this first part will be an evaluation of the upgrade cards that come in the box, the second We will take a look at the two admirals that will be coming in this box, thirdly we will bo an evaluation of each ship variation, Titles, and some builds to go with them, fourth will be a reevaluation after having played with the ships and cards, and the last article will be a look as the SSD's competitive viability after playing with it. So lets just dive right into this and look at what new and exciting upgrades await us in this upcoming Expansion. Director Krennic
So this guy is pretty awesome, it might be the best card in the expatiation, but only time and actually using the card will tell. So why do I think this guy will be good, well he is the Empire's Caitken and Shollain, but slightly better but less flexible. So what does he do lets break it down into two parts. First “while attacking at medium-long range if you spent a con fire dial, you may also reroll any number of red dice in your attack pool.” So you want it to be on a ship that is going to stay at medium-long range, so what ships come to mind, well ISD Cymoon, ISD II, Victory II, any Variation of the Arquitens, and unsurprisingly every variation of the SSD. We will talk about his application to SSD's when we talk about SSD builds, so lets look at the other options.
So Director Krennic (DK) makes the Cymmon a much more interesting choice for all imperial admirals. Really when I see a Cymoon 90% of the time the admiral is Vader, and DK just really opens up interesting reliable builds for the Cymoon with any admira. Once this drops I think you might see Cymoons more often, I am in particular wanting to try a Thrawn Con-fire build.
We also get what I think is a very interesting build for an ISD II. As some know I have had issues with the ISD II because it has the lowest damage output of all ISD's don't get me wrong it has its place, but it is more about killing small ships and providing supporting fire against large ships, but DK changes that, with an interesting build for IDS II Imperial II (120) Director Krennic (8) Gunnery Team (7) Electronic Countermeasures (7) SW-7 Ion Batteries (5) Spinal Armament (9) Avenger (5) = 161 Points So with this build you can though out some seriously heavy damage, with DK you don't need to take leading shots so you can take SW-7's for guaranteed damage on the blues and then you can fish for doubles on your reds with DK how do you do that well that is the second part of his ability. “if you spent a con fire token you may also reroll up to 2 red dice in your attack pool.” so let me explain so with the con fire you add in a dice as normal, but you are able to reroll all reds, but if you roll well what do you do, well reroll three red dice to try and get doubles and if that does not pan out and they come up blank speed the con fire token to reroll them again (reroll one from the token effect, and two from DK), things could get pretty bonkers as far as damage goes.
So I think I have gushed about DK long enough for you to understand why I think he will be good, possibly even meta defining, or will at least make other builds viable, and anything that can do that is a good upgrade in my book. However he needs the con fire dial and or token, tokens are not so much a problem, but the dials can be. I think he pairs really well with Thrawn, and also Jerjerrod, as you can spam con fire with Thrawn and JJ makes it easier to spam it on your ship and not take a nav command, but on top of that you have to stay out of close range, so yeah he is a little tricky to use like I said less flexible, but I still think he will be a great card.
Lira Wessex
Lira Wessex she is definitely not as exciting as DK, but she is in the box so lets look as what she does for us. “when you are dealt a face-up damage card you may spend 1 engineering token to flip that card facedown (without Resolving its effect.” Yeah not to exciting at all, but where is she good well ships that don't have contain, and she can be a cheaper option to semi counter Assault Proton torpedoes, but if that is what we are worried about and have a contain Damage Control officer is better and completely negates the damage. So we are left with a handful of ships this card might be okay on, the Gladiator, the Raider, the Gonzti, and the victory.
So let me just say that 90% of the time your Gozanti is taking a crit, it is probably dead regardless of the crit it takes, so she is pretty niche there. On the victory she can help prevent really nasty crits and act as a sudo contain so that is not to bad. On the raider she can be nice as she again can prevent it from blowing up due to a unwanted structural, and on the gladiator she is okay, but Med Teams might be the better option as that has a 33% chance to essentially completely negate the damage taken. So she is kinda meh.. although she is cheep and if you have the points she might be worth taking, but at the end of the day it comes down to will I get more value out of my token if I just use it as a token or will negating this crit be better, I will admit there are some pretty nasty crits in the game, but sometimes some can just be a real flop. If this was a good the bad and the ugly article I would probably put her in the ugly category, but she is really flirting with the bad, the thing that keeps her out of the bad is her cheep price point.
Emperor Palpatine
So Emperor Palatine, is also a commander, and we are getting there but we are going to look at this card first. So what does this do “When and enemy ship or unique squadron declares you as the target of an attack, it must spend 1 of its defense tokens (if able)” so I find this card interesting, but I am not 100% sure how I fell about it, and it will definitely be one that I come back and look at after playing with it. If Emperor Palatine let you choose what token was exhausted then I think it would be good, but as your opponent gets to pick you have to build around it.
So first when you think spend/exhaust you think avenger so that is pretty good, you also think of Sloan, so I think that Emperor Palatine would be good on avenger in a Sloan list with suppressor as you are just getting so may exhaust effects. Also you could just put him on an Avenger list that is going second and will take some shots, but I think maximizing this with Sloan is the way to go. So the jury is out on this one but it will ether be Good when built around, or just plain bad so we will see once I get chance to try it out. Admiral Ozzel
So this is a card that is pretty interesting, I like it. He makes it possible to get some turn one shots off if you really want to. It is possible to put this on Demoliser, and jump on someone turn one. Other players can play around this though and hold back but just by ozzel being on a ship you can dictate parts of the engagement, and for 2 points it seams pretty good to me. Ozzel is again something I am going to have to play with, but I think he is going to be good in hyper aggressive lists, and can also add a bit of flexibility in deployment allowing you to slightly re-position your ship if needed, for 2 points I am sure you will see him in play. Commander Gherant
Commander Gherant I read this card and felt like he as just bad right off the bat, but lets talk about him. So he reads “while you are defending, the attacker cannot resolve critical effects. After you perform an attack against a ship discard this card.” so why do I think this card is bad, well you have to discard this card when you attack someone first off, second most of the good critical effects can only be used at short range, and I hope you are shooting at someone before you reach close range. However we have one good crit that can be resolved at long range with disposable capacitors Heavy Ion Emplacements. However it does have a use I believe and is best used on a raider, so if your raider takes a shot before it can deliver its payload, it wont have to take the crit. This is also a decent protection against Sato Lists that want to resolve black crits at long range. However this card does have some use when paired with our next and last crew card, if it where not for this next card this card would pretty much never be used. Darth Vader
So I think this is one of the best designed cards in all of Armada, it has a unique and interesting effect, and is super thematic, and not only is it thematic it is “best” when used with people Vader actually choked out, but lets look at the card text before we go to far. “while a friendly ship at distance 1-5 is attacking a ship, it may discard 1 of its Commander or officer cards (other than Darth Vader) to re-roll any number of dice in its attack pool.” Okay so why do I like this card well it makes one off officers like Captain Needa, and Admiral Ozzel better, and that seams thematic. The Darth Vader officer card makes all officers on the imperial side just that much better, and that is something I can't think of any other card has ever done and its absolutely a wonderful design, making other cards better.
So Darth Vader makes all officers better but what officers does he work best with? Well like I said one off use officers like Admiral Titus, Captian Needa, Governor Pryce, and Minister Tua. The next best are the cheep niche fodder officers that can do something but if not Vader has a use for them such as: Agent Kallus, commander Gherant ( As you kill him before the attack is “performed” as an attack is not considered “performed” until damage is resolved), Lira Wessex, Chart Officer, Damage Control Officer (this might be getting to expensive). Another good officer is Skilled first officer as he is super cheep and can just be Vader fodder, or do what Skilled First Officer dose best. Arguments could also be made for Admiral Montferrat (when you know you are going to ram discard him to get a reroll out of it) , Director Isard, Strategic Adviser (as in most games you only use him the first few turns.) and Director Krennic (also a little thematic but once you get into close range it might be worth killing Krennic to get the re-rolls.) not to mention that there are some times when your admiral late in the game is not necessary, but getting that extra one or two damage can make all the difference at the end of the game.
In short Vader is probably one of my favorite upgrade cards, because of what he does for a lot for the imperial niche officers, did I mention he is only one point? He literally helps you squeeze out every last bit of value from your fleet, also did I mention he is only one point? I think the Vader officer might become one of the most prevalent upgrade cards in Imperial fleets, did I mention he only costs one point?
So we are getting 6 new officers in this box and I think that 4 of the six will be at the very least playable if not good, and the other two that are meh are good fodder for Vader that have potential to do something good. So as far as the upgrades go they are great, though I only think one will evolve into and auto include and that is Vader. I mean I could be wrong, but he just seams so good at what he does, but having a card that is an auto include in a $200.00 box is a little worrying, for thoughts on a budget, but the same thing happened in X-wing with C3PO form my understanding and they released it as a participation prize, and I could be wrong about Vader, and it could be just me wanting to get every last bit of value out of my fleets.
Next week we will look at The new admirals coming in this box and how they might shake up the meta. Please do let your thoughts be known in the comments on the facebook page, and what you think of these officers. Also if you have requests for future content please let me know, again thank you all for supporting the community every small thing that you do really very much appreciated, so thank you!
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