The Ex-Racks Revolution

The Ordnance slot has never been the most diverse slot in the world, but right now it feels like you have almost no other option than ex-racks for almost all ships with the ordnance slot. It might still be too early to say, but I just have a really hard time taking anything in my ordnance slot other than ex-racks on almost every ship. I think the issue is down to 4 issues: the nerf to black critical effects, and the new card thermal shields, the change to evade, and everyone's favorite Point defense Ion cannons.

First the nerf to black crit effects even with the price reduction hurts. APT only being able to trigger once even at just 4 points is kind of unplayable at least for me. ACM on the other hand is still pretty good, if you build around it. Wide area barrage has never been all that great, and both expanded launchers and rapid reload are far too expensive to compete with ex-racks. We also have ordnance pods, and flechette torpedoes for some niche anti-squadron shenanigans.

ACM seems like the best non external racks ordnance upgrade is ACM. However with Thermal shields no ship in the clone wars factions has the ability trigger a black crit around thermal shields as thermals is capable to removing all black dice from every current clone wars ship in the game, and you know you are going to run into thermals so ACM is a hard sell for me on the current clone wars factions.

In the civil war factions only the Gladiator, MC-30, and the ordnance MC-75 have arcs capable of not having thermals rip out all their black dice. Even then the MC-30 is not the best candidate as it will only be able to keep one black in its side, the same is true for the MC-75 from the front, but because it can take two ordnance upgrades so ex-racks and ACMs just works. With the Gladiator we will still get 2 black thermals as long as you are not taking the GSD II; That's not terrible and now that OE can only reroll two black dice that is all you need to fish for a cirt.

On top of everything we have already talked about forcing a re-roll if a die pool only has a single black crit with either evade or Point defense ion cannons, makes it hard even when you roll the crit to get the crit to stick. This makes getting the black crits hard to stick even when you can guarantee them. With ACM being the only black crit worth taking and having to build around it to really make it sing its hard to see much else other than ex-racks be taken for a while.

I think the hit to the black crit effects was a little heavy handed, when you factor in the change to evade, Thermal shields, and PDICs. I think the exhaust was just a bit too much of a hit and now that slot will not see a ton of competition. Some commanders like Sato and TF-1726 can get around thermals, but they still have to deal with evades and PDICs depending on the range. I guess if nothing else a crit effect could really put stress on defense tokens to keep it from triggering, but ex-racks can do the same thing.

I hope to see some more ordnance cards to help diversify the slot as it really needs it. Because of thermal’s effect, add dice effects are one of the best ways to get around it so the solution for ordnance ships is ex-racks. Forcing rerolls with evade and/or PDIC at close range of black crits can make an upgrade almost wasted points, and then well ex-racks is the better option. I don’t think the game is in a bad spot at all, in fact quite the opposite. I just wish there were more viable ordnance upgrades. I can see an argument for ordnance pods in the right list, with the changes to the squadron game; but ex-racks are so flexible. Hopefully in the near future we will start to see more ordnance upgrade cards to prompt greater diversity in the ordnance slot. Do you think the ordnance slot needs more diversity? Or do you think my assessment of the slot is overlooking something? Until next time have a great week!