I have had an opportunity to try a number of games in the last few weeks and I think it’s time for some quick reviews.
Jamaica by Asmodee 2007
Score: (2.9)
Colorful and thematic, its a very magnetic game, but mechanically it’s more a game for children then gamers.
I have played this one a couple of times now, my first exposure was years ago but It recently found its way to the table at board game night at my gaming club and I think I’m ready to put a score to it.
Jamaica is essentially a racing game with some fun & quirky card mechanics and resource management to make things go. It’s a simple game, but there is a cleverness to how the race is manipulate, a kind of combination of some dice and card play decisions. It’s a very streamlined, easy to teach, easy to learn mechanic that makes Jamaica a very relaxed game to get to the table. I think the one really memorable take away from this game is its visual appeal, it’s a very colorful, very pretty game with sturdy components and very firm stylized art. While there is strong theme here from the art work, for how simple the mechanic is, it has a very good connection to that theme for Caribbean pirate racing mechanically as well. Jamaica falls into the “light-casual” category of board games mechanically, though I found that there was enough interesting decisions and strategy in the game to sufficiently entertain a veteran gamer for a quick run through.
It’s nothing I would rush out to add to my collection and I definitely felt that it’s a bit overhyped for what it is. Much like Small World, it takes the light-casual element a bit too far and wanders into that “for kids” category which is typically a type of game I don’t mind playing but it’s nothing I want to own, nor would I suggest it even as an entry level game for someone. This is at its heart a family game with young children in mind sufficiently entertaining for adults to not get bored on family game night but for a gaming group I found the game too simple to make the table. If you have kids between the ages of 6-12 I think this might be a good pick, but for gamers I think there are considerably better racing games with more umpf than Jamaica offers to fill a game night with.
Le Havre by Lookout Games 2008
Score (3.25)
It looks like a Euro because it is one and like many Euro’s it has that simple to learn impossible to master design that Euro game lovers will appreciate.
I used to own this game and ended up giving it away to some friends, but now that it was back in print I snatched it up. Le Havre is an economic simulation game where players take on the roles of business men working in the city of Le Havre, trading, manufacturing and selling goods. It sounds complicated but the true beauty of Le Havre is precisely the fact that the game is super simple. You can effectively write the core rules on a napkin and while it has the appearance of a complex, busy Euro with lots of moving parts, it plays more like a casual game, yet boasts a fairly advanced level of strategic options. You could say it’s one of those easy to learn impossible to master type of games, something that is often said about great Euro’s and this Euro is no different.
Now it is a Euro game and it does have a rather flat theme, though I personally love great economic games and I often give Euro’s considerably more room to breathe with the themes as they tend to make up for it in the area of gameplay and replay ability. If you’re looking for a game to wow you visually or with its theme this isn’t going to be that game. La Havre’s strength is in its gameplay and re-playability, exactly where you would expect it for a euro. It plays great with 2-3 players, which is a great niche unfilled in my personal collection I was happy to see plugged up. This is a classic, it’s not going to blow you out of your seat by modern game design standards, but I it’s held up considerably better than most old school Euros have. You will definitely appreciate a game you can pull out and just start playing without a lot of rules explanation while still getting a quality, thinky strategy game.
Roll Through The Ages: The Bronze Age
Score: (1.65)
I try hard not to judge a book by its cover or be some sort of gamer snob but sometimes you just have to trust your instincts, it looks terrible because it is terrible.
Ok I’m a huge fan of Through The Ages, it ranks as one of my all-time favorites at this point so I thought, hey why not a short dice based version of this game. In fact I had considerably higher hopes for this one then one might presume about a dice game, it is after all a Matt Leacock designed game, a man I hold in the highest regard as a game designer.
Unfortunately Matt really missed the mark here. I should not judge this game too harshly it is after all a quickie dice chucker, but dice chucker or not there where some key decisions in this design that really broke it apart for me. It was quirky with odd and unnecessarily complex rules for resource management while simultaneously being too slow for a dice game. At the start the game it just feels like you don’t have enough dice to do anything and because of how the odds are shaped, getting more dice just makes the whole thing more swingy thanks to negative effects on the dice. It’s actually this precise effect (negative dice results) where the game kind of falls apart.
I think the negative effect on dice (the dreaded skull) was an unnecessary addition. Just a simple golden rule for designers out there; When making a dice chucker, don’t put negative effects on the dice, make negative impacting effects be part of player decision instead. Blanks are ok but a dice chucker should be about using your dice results (resources) and trying to find clever ways to extend the results(resources) as far as you can take them, it should not be a judge and jury result, aka, roll the dice and see what horrible things happen to you. This sort of negative dice mechanic takes a game already largely driven by luck and just overemphasizes that fact, making any decisions you make in response largely irrelevant compared to the smack down you get from just rolling badly.
I wasn’t fond of the components either, the whole wooden pegs thing was just very unthematic and unnecessarily fiddly, not to mention ugly. This was a 2008 released game so I suppose we should be a bit more lenient here but all and all Roll Through The Ages was a hard pass for me.
Well its official, its 2017 and the apocalypse has not come yet although thanks to Donald Trump you won’t have to wait too much longer. In the meantime, we may as well presume that the human race will survive another year and talk about games coming to us in 2017.
So here is my list of top 5 most anticipated games of 2017.
Rising Sun by CMON
These miniatures are begging to be painted, but I love that CMON went with a light brown color as this is a very Japanese hue that really works for the game’s color scheme.
I absolutely love Blood Rage, it was definitely the sleeper hit of 2015. Eric Lang is an amazing designer in his prime but anyone who knows me knows that while I appreciate all themes, when it comes to my list of favorites medieval Japan definitely has to be at the top of the list. Rising Sun is dubbed the spiritual successor to Blood Rage based in Medieval Japan and that combined with being an Eric Lang games makes this an auto buy! Eric Lang has recently tweeted that the game is complete and is now in development, the final stage of testing and preparation for release. I’m giddy with excitement!
The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire by CMON
The concept of running your own mafia crime family in a competitive board game that offers the opportunity to “wack” your friends is not something I intend to pass on.
I said he was in his prime but Eric Lang is really more like on literal fire making his second appearance on the list with The Godfather. Now I love mafia stuff but mafia games like Star Trek games are typically very bad. My hope here is that Lang behind the wheel The Godfather can be to mafia games what Fleet Captains was to Star Trek games. I’m already in love with the concept and the art work, so assuming Lang is the genius we all know he aspires to be, the addition of fantastic gameplay should not be a problem. Really have high hopes for this was, I want to wack people!
Tau Ceti: Planetary Crisis
I’m a sucker for 4x games, but I have actually passed on most of them over the last few years. Twilight Imperium is a tough act to follow, but I have a good feeling about this one.
A game by unknown game designers, published by an unknown publisher, Tau Ceti’s is yet another among a sea of games that attempts to re-invigorate the 4x space game genre. Now the odds are against it here but the reason I put Tau Ceti on the list is because I really like that “Archipelago” of players competing against each other, but having to cooperate on certain elements in the course of a game. In the case of Tau Ceti, players are effectively trying to do all the usual expansions, technology research, trading and politics that you might find in games like Twilight Imperium, but at the same time they must deal with the crisis that take place on the different planets and colonies in the Tau Ceti system or deal with the consequences for failing to do so.
I love the concept, I don’t know that these designers and publishers are going to be able to pull this off, but they have done a great job of creating a solid concept and developing nice visuals for a game of this type, so it just leaves the really important work of actually designing a good game. I will definitely be keeping an eye out on this one.
Raise Your Goblets
It just reminds me of the princess bride, one of my all time favorite movies. I love the concept of trying to slip one past your friends.
Ok this one caught my eye mostly because of its original (I wish I thought of that) concept. Basically it’s a game where players are sitting around the table drinking from goblets in an imaginary kingdom and the goal of the game is to poising each other by slipping special poison tokens into each other’s goblets. Like a scene from Princess Bride the goblets will be shifted around, players can put antidote into their own goblets as defense and a few other little quirky bits of randomness. It’s a bit of a funny party game for shits and giggles but like is often the case these simpler “focus on fun” type of games usually go over quite well and it could end up being the Sheriff of Nottingham of 2017.
Terra-forming Mars
I don’t know how this one got past my radar, but it went out of print fast as hell and has received nothing but rave reviews. I MUST OWN IT.
Ok this is actually a game that is already released but it was received so well by the time I had heard about the awesome concept of a game of terraforming planets, it was already out of print. For those of us that missed the train, we have to wait for god knows how long for the next printing. The game is very pretty, great concept, already getting amazing reviews, people are raving about it like it’s the second coming of Christ. Very excited!
I have been running this blog now a little over 3 years and while I consider it largely a forum for my own amusement I have over the last 3 years gotten something of a following. At least, a few people that read my blog off and on and show some interest in it via E-mail.
Now I have actually never made my E-mail public on the site so I know that people that email me are getting that address from some of the forums I frequent. Suffice to say I have always had comments off on the site (largely to avoid dealing with spam) but also because for the most part I put information out I’m not terribly interested in feedback.
This year I’m going to change that a bit. First, I have posted my e-mail address officially on the blog (its gamersdungeon.net@gmail.com by the way, feel free to email me!) and the second thing I’m doing is launching a new segment for the site, a podcast called 5 minutes of gaming.
5 Minutes of Gaming is effectively going to be a mini podcast that I will record daily (or close to it) in my car to and from work. I will use the time for mini reviews, to answer questions and any other general gaming related musings. I’m actually not 100% sure about the format to be honest, I’m mostly doing it to see if I enjoy it and if the technology is simple and quick enough to do this sort of thing without too much fuss.
Perhaps the most common theme among gamers is that we are all in a way all amateur game designers. Most us dream of creating a game from our own imagination or based on our own theories on game design, or simply concepts we think would make a great game. I don’t think I have ever met a gamer immune to this very natural instinct. That said I do believe that the only way to truly be a game designer is to experience the widest range of games possible. I firmly feel that there are certain games on the market today that are so unique and so expressive in terms of what can be done with game design that they absolutely must be played by all would be game designers. I would imagine there is a brick ton more then what is on this list, but if you have aspirations, this is probably not a bad place to start. Enjoy the list!
REX: Final Days of an Empire
There was a time when REX actually lived in my top 10 best games of all-time list and for good reason. It’s an amazing design. It’s effectively a remake of the classic DUNE which stands out as one of the very few games in recorded gaming history that was released in the 70’s and is still has a place in modern gaming. This should give you a pretty good clue about how distinct its design is, very few game designs can stand the test of time like this.
REX is a fantastic and very unique area control game with special powers, unique victory conditions and is infused with player interaction mind games as a non-mechanical, very natural, caveat that actually carries the game far beyond appearances or rulebooks. It is a unique blending of mechanics, theme and gameplay that draws out a very unique gaming experience you will not find in games often. I do believe it takes a very special lot to appreciate this game and I will admit that doing research to determine whether or not you will like this game is insufficient. In fact even playing it once or twice is insufficient. This is one of those games you will have to play 5 or 6 times before you you really recognize what its really about and why it is without question an objective work of genius… yes, I just turned an opinion and stated it as a fact, that’s how certain I am that like it or not, REX (aka DUNE) is a piece of board game design brilliance not to mention history, a true original among a flood of imitators and pretenders. I’m not surprised at all to see this game continue to get attention decades after release.
REX is definitely a must include for any board game design education, not only is it an amazing game to play it boasts a lot of great lessons for a would be game designer.
The Duke
I would argue that chess is a must play classic, a core concept game for basic board game design that every game designer should explore. To put it simply Duke is effectively an expansion for chess, or perhaps more accurately, chess 2nd edition. A game that arguably increases the complexity and challenge while maintaining that elegant simplicity of the classic. Duke turns things 3 dimensional mechanically creating a far wider and more intriguing gaming experience than the classic chess, more than that though while abstract as chess is, it oddly feels thematic. It has that Ancient Art of War feel to it, as if you are in a war tent playing a game with a fellow commander while you wait for the real battle to start. Its exercise for the brain and an absolute must play for would be game designers.
Duke has been reprinted in a few different ways but it never really caught on which I found strange given how purposefully unique it is. You don’t see it played anywhere and while I think it might be partially because it’s both an abstract game and a two player game making it kind of niche, being rather boring to look at probably doesn’t help much either. I mean we are talking wooden tiles here, not exactly a game with modern board game pazzas! But I would argue that if you released Chess today, no one would care to play that either for the same reason. To me The Duke Is an absolute must play if you plan to be a game designer if for no other reason than to show you just how much power couple of lines of rules can have. This is a perfect example of less is more design.
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
While there are a lot of different types of thematic games out there one could use as a way to exemplify and learn from on how theme and gameplay merging together is done right, to me, there is no game out there that does it with more precession than Star Trek: Fleet Captains. You often hear the term X or Y franchise in a box, well this is Star Trek in a box, but not just the shows but the very essence of the shows, movies and experience that is the Star Trek franchise.
This is a perfect combination of just the right mechanics, just the right art, just the right strategic flicks and pazzaz, fidly vs. functional and nerdy but not wordy design. It captures the very soul of Star Trek in a board game and if you are a proper trekie you will really get it when you play fleet captains. Which really brings the point home, there isn’t a card, miniature, tile, action or mechanic that doesn’t scream “STAR TREK” in this game. If you’re a Trekie this is an absolute must have, but if you’re a game designer trying to figure out how to bring theme to life in a board game, you won’t find very many examples that do it better than fleet captains. An absolute must play for game designers trying to get their head around how to infuse theme into their games.
Galaxy Trucker
I think one element of board gaming most game designers actually fail to understand is that playing a board game isn’t just about the game, it’s also about the evening and the people you spend it with. Games are supposed to be fun, they should put a smile on your face and while I would argue that there is a time and place for “haha” funny, Galaxy Trucker is a great example of how to fuse fun “haha” funny and “fun game” into a single box, inside of a single product. Unlike party games that try to draw out fart humor, Galaxy Trucker creates laughs by creating memorable moments in game that has just enough strategy to attract board gamers, but not enough to discourage non gamers. It’s really a great example of how to blend the world of gamers, non-gamers and how to create a game that will enhance an evening without making it about only gaming.
While I have heard of people who don’t like Galaxy Trucker, in my personal experience every person I have ever introduced the game to has absolutely loved it. I think the brilliance in the design is not its mechanics, but its flip on a basic premise of gaming in general. One thing that Vlaada Chvatil is amazing at is looking at game design from a perspective of experience rather than gameplay. For example in Galaxy Trucker you build a ship in a timed phase creating a bit of a frantic panic, while in the execution phase players lose control almost entirely and just watch the game unfold. It’s a very unique gaming experience. You would be hard pressed to find a game on the market that comes even close to something like it. Being able to tap into that “spark”, that ability to see what others miss is what separates a brilliant game designer like Vlaada Chvatil and everyone else. Sure you might or might not appreciate Galaxy Trucker, but you can’t deny that it’s a truly unique design and if for no other reason than that, as a would be game designer you must check this game out.
Love Letter
Game design comes in all shapes and sizes, but I truly believe that if you want to be a great game designer you should be able to take a small amount of mechanics, a couple of lines of rules and create a sensational game. Another example of less is more design, Love letter is essentially a dozen cards and a couple of tokens, yet it creates a truly strategic, dynamic, thinky and fun gaming experience. I actually think that being able to create a game like Love Letter is a test to see if you will ever be a good game designer because if you can’t create magic simply, you’re not going to do it when creating a more complex game. That’s just the reality of it and I firmly believe that even the most complex games are actually nothing more than mini designs (mini games) put together to make a grander game. So the ability to create simply and intriguing mechanics is really an important skill to develop as a gamer designer. I have personally seen a lot of gamers design games and it’s always the same story. They create a lot of fancy components and art but in the end the game itself is a slog fest that suffers from too many mechanics, too many rules and way too much weight to be functional. The ability to simplify is what separates an amateur from a pro. Love Letter is a perfect example of that in action.
Le Havre
Le Havre is a stone cold classic Euro game that does something very few games are able to pull off. It creates a very deep, strategic, very heavy and very thinky game yet manages to do it using a rule system that can be explained in under 30 seconds. In Le Havre you can take one of two actions every turn. That’s it, that’s the entire game. Either you take some resources, or place a worker. That is the entirety of the rules explanation you need to give before starting the game, yet by the end of the game your brain will be fried as you try to navigate the two impossible strategic decisions that must be made to win.
It’s a perfect example of economic simulation done right as well and I think that more than the simplicity of the mechanic is the reason to study Le Harve as a game designer. Economic simulation and resource management is the one place I see a lot of game designs having immense problems. In fact for most games I have played, including most beloved classic Euro’s often praised for their brilliance for their resource management and economic simulations are almost always way too complex, way too fiddley and ultimately far too easily exploitable. Which is why so many of the Euro classic are what I call puzzle games, where they are good, until you solve the puzzle, at which point it’s just a matter of repeating the same actions each time you play. Puerto Rico comes to mind as a good example of a horribly failed resource management and economic system design. Sure the first few times you play your trying to figure out the puzzle, but once you have that aha moment every game of Puerto Rico you ever play in the future will be exactly the same. There is a definitive “best way”, “best moves” approach to the game.
Le Havre is not the world’s best game (though I love it), but it is definitely the world’s best example of economy simulation done right and for that reason anyone looking to understand how good economic design works, this is a fine example and a really good place to start thanks to its simplicity.
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Ok first I will admit this is not my favorite game. Generally I’m not a huge fan of cooperative games, but we aren’t here to discuss what I like, so much as we are here to discuss objectively good designs and Robinson Crusoe is certainly brilliant if anything. I honestly have a hard time describing it, other than to say if you want to become a game designer, you must play this game because if you do, becoming a game designer will be easier for you.
There are so many great lessons about how to do it right in this game in terms of timing of mechanics, creating tension, putting players to tough choices and just a staggering amount of dynamic replay ability inside what amounts to a static game. The manipulation of cards and effects, the sort of thematic link to effects and just general capturing of atmosphere are all exemplified in this design. If you’re a fan of cooperative games and plan to design cooperative games, Robinson Crusoe is an absolute must.
Twilight Imperium
Many aspiring game designers dream of creating an epic, that big box super game that just does everything. Well let me just tell you that after nearly 3 decades of board gaming I can count on one hand the amount of games (game designers) that have come out in that time, that managed to pull this off. Truth is that most big box epics are actually epic failures. There really are very few success stories in this area and while there are plenty of games that will try to wow you with miniatures and their sheet size, mechanically speak I have never played one that is even in the same league as Twilight Imperium. It is the best EPIC level game on the market today and it is so by a margin so wide, there is nothing to look at in the rear view mirror.
This complex beast of a game does exactly what you want an epic to do, wows the living shit out of you with immense attention to detail and an amazing level of balance given the sheer amount of complexity in the game. It’s a galactic civilization building game that brings to life the entire genre reminiscent of the 4x PC games of old like Masters of Orion and Galactic Civilization. If you plan on creating an epic, in particular a space epic, Twilight Imperium is an absolute must play. It is one of the best examples of Epic done right on the market today.
Shogun (Dirk Henn version)
I’m not a big Dirk Henn fan to be honest, with the exception of Shogun I don’t like any of his games, but with Shogun he really nailed it. Shogun aside from its German twin Wallenstein is a truly unique game with design elements that you will not find anywhere else before or since. The use of the Cube Tower as a combat resolution mechanic, the pre-planning action phase, the unique order of play sequence it all combined produces one of the most fascinatingly strategic and simultaneously infuriatingly chaotic games I know and god I love it for that very reason. For a game designer this is an absolute must experience as it will show you just how far out of the box you can go despite the constraints of design that we sometimes feel we exist in. It really shows how you can take something seemingly gimmicky and actually give it purpose and fit it into a game so that not only is it functional but oddly thematic. Dirk Henn really tapped into that “I’m a general giving orders” theme found in Shogun, while still remaining true to the Euro roots on which the game is based. I don’t know that Dirk Henn is a brilliant designer, but he definitely had a brilliant moment when he made this game. One of my all time favorites!
Ticket To Ride
Ok so this last one is a simple game, a classic at this point but it’s also an amazing lesson of mechanic theft done right. See in game design, most of the greatest games, the truly genius ones that seem to proliferate beyond the cult board gaming culture into the mainstream are buried in classic design that was simply stolen. Ticket to Ride is a perfect example of that. What you’re looking at here is Gin Rummy. It’s really that simple. The designer took an old classic card game, added a game board with train pieces for scoring and created one of the bestselling games of all time since Monopoly. Here is the thing… it’s an awesome game. I have played Gin Rummy, I hate it, I love this game. It’s the same mechanic. Can you explain that?
This is why you really need to play Ticket to Ride as a game designer, there is magic in there and deciphering and understanding what that magic is, is very important if you want to be successful as a game designer.
Wave 5 is here and what a fantastic wave it is. Not only did we get the usual new ships & new squads but this wave brings with it Corellian Conflict a new campaign mode for Armada that breathes new life to Star Wars Armada in an epic way.
In Todays What Makes It Tick I will be picking up Star Wars Armada about two waves since my last article and while I could bore you with the reasons why I haven’t been playing, the reality is that with the last couple of waves the game has been reborn and I’m excited about it again. Today I will be talking about some of the more controversial and interesting cards to come out in recent waves. Enjoy!
Bomber Command Center
Coming out of the Imperial Assault Carriers and Rebel Transports expansion packs Bomber Command Center has become the new hotness in competitive meta proving itself at the Star Wars Armada World Champion in 2016 in which both the 1st and 2nd place lists made heavy use of the card. If there is any card you must be prepared to deal with in the Meta in 2017 it’s definitely this one.
The debates over whether or not this cards effect should be stack-able have raged for a while, but officially at this moment the answer is, yes it does stack.
There are so many advantages and ways to leverage this card but the best, most common and perhaps most effective way is to simply spam the shit out of it. While it counts as a “Fleet Support Upgrade Card” limiting it to the Assault Carriers and Rebel Transports, truth is, even if it wasn’t it would still likely be the meta to put them on those ships anyway. These are some cheap, disposable ships that can actually be pretty hard to blow up and as such in most matches they are largely ignored ensuring that Bomber Command Centers remain in play and you are able to leverage them throughout the match.
The ability to re-roll black bomber squad dice is nothing short of overwhelmingly powerful thanks to the dices ability to roll hit/crit results. When running two or three of these ships, not only do you gain an activation advantage thanks to having more ships on the table then your opponent but the effect stacks allowing you to reroll your bomber squad attacks multiple times. Not to mention having disposable fleet blockers. The advantages here vs. the point cost to put them on the table can only be described as dirt cheap.
Cheap with a scatter and capable of some potent upgrades like Slicer Tools and Bomber Command Center, the new transports are a force multiplier that has changed the competitive meta in a big way.
We saw this effect in the world championship final bout this year and there is no question in how deadly this combination is. Flying 8 Y-Wings (80 points!) protected by Intel and some escorts with 3 bomber command centers and what you end up with is a fleet of squads that can practically guarantee 8 hits & 8 Crits every single bloody round. Sure there is the logistics of making sure everything is exactly where it should be during the course of a match. While the pro’s make that look easy, believe me that it’s not that simple, but suffice to say in the right hands this Bomber Command Center supported by a fleet of Bomber based squads is a deadly combination no capital ship can withstand.
Your base list is effectively 182 with 218 points left to fill out the list.
That base combo is already deadly in its own right, but imagine now throwing in Commander Sato or as the world champion did General Dodonna. It really is brutality unleashed, the potential for damage from this very cheap base is staggering. You would be hard pressed to combine 182 points into something that could unleash that many dice with so many re-rolls and because the dice are scattered over 8 separate rolls, capital ship defense are rendered useless against them.
I would personally advise not spamming Transports, really, one command center is plenty. The black die is pretty dependable, if you happen to roll a blank once, you aren’t likely to do it twice in a row. Having a single command center, maybe two should be more than sufficient. The pro’s might not agree with me, but I work under the assumption that we aren’t all pros, I’m certainly not. For me, its better to get more effects, ships and squads on the board then it is to put all my eggs in one basket.
Now we could talk about how fantastic this combination is but the truth is that whether you are going to use it, or face it, you need to know how it unravels. How do you deal with such a list and combination of effects? Well that was a question many tried to answer and failed during the World Championship, but I do believe there are a couple of things that could ultimately challenge a list with this base.
One thing I can say upfront is that you can’t ignore the Y-Wings or really any bomber spam. That just simply won’t work, not unless you plan to stay out of the fight entirely. But unlike the classic Rhymer Ball, you can outmaneuver the slow moving Y-Wings and more importantly leverage the fact that the Transports themselves, while sturdy for their size and point cost can be rendered defenseless with a couple of new upgrades we got in recent waves as well as some old rarely used upgrades. Blowing them up early is the key as without the squadron support and re-rolls, Y-Wings are considerably less effective and can be rendered useless through some clever maneuvering. That however is easier said then that as typically the squads are placed up front so anything that wants to shoot at the transports is going to have to deal with the fighter/bombers leading the battle.
You’ll be seeing a lot more of this one, in particular on ships that are black die focused. Getting accuracies has become vital in the modern competitive meta post wave 4.
For the Rebels a good place to start is the MC30 (Torpedo Frigate) with H9 Turbolasers. This all but assures that when firing at an Assault Carrier or Rebel Transport that you are going to be able to squash that Scatter and mop up those 3 points of hull in one swift round. Two would be even better. Strategies will naturally vary but you aren’t going to one to come up the front and you probably want to make your opponent split his attention. You definitely don’t want to do what the 2nd place holder did during the championship and go up the front in some vein hope that you can survive the bombings. You won’t, there isn’t a ship in the entire game no matter how you equip it that can withstand 8 bombers shooting at it especially when they can re-roll those black dice multiple times.
The same is true for the Imperials, though it’s worth pointing out that as deadly as this combination is in a rebel list, with a Rhymer ball and bomber based list, a similar list for the Imperials can be as deadly if not deadlier thanks to the range advantage not to mention that Imperial ships are cheaper. So of course while you could counter with Gladiators in a similar fashion as the MC30’s, one way to counter a bomber list like this would be to have your own.
The main strategy at the base of it is to get rid of those support ships with Bomber Command and the best way to do it is to ensure you have at least one accuracy to get rid of its main protection which is the scatter. This probably explains are worlds champions reasoning behind using 3 Transports with bomber command, he knows that little 18 point transport is the key to his list so he tripled down to make sure he always has those re-rolls.
Suffice to say though this is all very theoretical, as the world champion proved during the competition this year, it is much easier said than done. It’s a very strong meta list and flown well it can put out considerable damage.
Many would argue that Bomber Command Centers are overpowered but keep in mind that they are 8 points which is on the high end in terms of upgrades and they currently must be placed on very soft ships that can quickly and easily be dispatched. Since the strategy is so heavily based on these support ships, you have a very obvious weak point to target.
The new expansion offers us a number of new options but the E-Wing with snipe is finally an answer to those annoying “Intel” based ships.
One other thing to keep in mind is that a heavy anti-squadron based list that can quickly overwhelm the Intel and escorts is also a good option. Especially in the form of A-Wings and now with E-Wings. Good anti-squadron is always a good choice in a list as has always been the case for facing heavy bomber lists, but Y-Wings in particular are quite tough and can often win squad based fights so it’s important that your anti-squad suppression is well thought out and preferably using the “Counter” keyword. Don’t presume Y-Wings in particular are easy to kill, they do pretty ok in dog fights in large numbers and have the hull points to outlast in big fights, in particular with an opponent who will be highly motivated to get them back on their bombing run making use of heavy anti-fighter fire from their capital ships.
A-Wings remain a very cheap anti-squadron solution, the ultimate in shutting down heavy bomber lists for the rebels.
Rapid Launch Bays
Another widely discussed card that just entered the frey in Wave 5, discussed not so much for its potential effects on the meta, but more in regards to what the card actually does. Arguably the most poorly worded card in Armada to date, it’s difficult to decipher how it actually works, but today we are going to try.
So let’s look at the wording here.
Poorly worded cards like this makes things difficult, in particular right after release when your trying to run competitive tournaments without the clarity of a FAQ.
The first part I think is quite clear. You effectively set ships aside so that you can deploy them during the match. This in its own right creates a lot of opportunity for exploiting interesting tactics, namely bringing slow moving ships into the fight. There are many slow squads in the game that often have trouble getting into position and this card addresses that issue by not only getting them to the battlefield but keeping them protected (un-targetable) while in the safety of their carrier ship.
The tricky wording in the second section of the card is where all the discussion comes from.
There are three points of contention here.
First is the “you would activate with this command”. The second is the word “Instead” and finally the last part “It cannot move this activation”.
There are really two ways you can read this. The first is that since the card says “For each squadron you would activate with this command you may instead.. do x and y”. This suggests that this is a special action, not governed by the rules of activation. Meaning that the squadron comes into play “not activated”. Allowing you to simply put it into play and set it up for future activation’s.
The card follows up with “It cannot move this activation” which is perhaps the most confusing element of the card. What activation is it talking about? The ship activation or the squad activation. If it’s the squad activation this suggests the exact opposite, that the ship is activated, but it simply cannot move, hence it can attack according to standard activation rules. Keep in mind that standard rules always apply when their is no specific exception given on a card. If it’s a ship activation on the other hande, it suggest that its not activated but since its not, you should with another squad command point you be able activate the ship and attack, but still can’t move.
The general two questions here are, is it activated and if so while we know it can’t move, can it shoot? That’s the big debate. Activated or not and can it shoot or not.
The answer is at best inconclusive and it has been so far ruled in a number of different ways, though none of them official by FFG. While an explanation is sure to come at some point, for our house games and in particular if you are running a tournament we still need to answer this question.
My general sense of the card is that in the last part where it mentions “It cannot move this activation” is a reference to the ship activation, not squad activation. The logic here is that the spending of your squad command points during the activation can be split up, some of the points going to activating squads normally and others using Rapid Launch Bay.
I think it’s best to see it in action with an example.
Lets say you have an Assault Frigate with 3 squad points and a squad token that has 2 B-Wings stashed away using Rapid Launch Bays.
The slow moving B-Wing suffers greatly as a result of its slow speed, rapid launch bays addresses that problem.
You activate the ship and reveal a squad command. Now its time to spend the points. You spend the first two points to put out your B-Wings in distance 1 of the carrier. They are not activated, this is all you can do with those two points, however you of course have 2 points remaining (one from the command and one from the squad command token). You now activate your B-Wings using your remaining two points, now since it’s still the same ship activation you can’t move them, but you can attack, so if you had ships in range you can attack with the B-Wings.
I believe this is the intent of the card, now of course this is not official and some including myself would argue that in the last part of the wording of the card it could be referring to squad activation which would suggest that you could use a single squad point to put out a B-Wing, activate it and attack (but not move). However I would argue that if this was true, this card would be stupidity over powered at only 6 points. You could in this case have 4 B-Wings stashed away, put them all out and attack with all 4 of them in a single action, with Extended Hanger Bays and a squad token you could do this with 5 B-Wings. Throw in command centers and you’re talking about a card that would completely redefine how the game is played. Even in the first scenario this is a very powerful effect but in the second scenario it’s just way out of hand. While you might be able to argue the translation, it would be hard to justify the power of this card in the scope of the game and its ultimately because of the question of balance, I believe the card will likely be ruled as our first example not our second.
Currently in most tournaments, including local regionals the first scenario is being used, it’s what I would recommend you use until the official FAQ is released.
Rebel Pelta Class Command Ship
The Command version offers 3 squad command and a offensive retrofit, setting it up to be a focused support ship.
The Assault version gives us red/black dice with 2 anti-squadron fire and a ordinance slot, making this a more shooty support ship.
Ok so let’s talk a bit about the new ship, specifically the Pelta Class Command Ship which is definitely the one I’m personally most eager to try. Finally we have joining the world of Armada a proper pure support ship that can affect the battle field on a global level. Now we have had quasi support ships in the past like a Redemption, Projection Experts fitted Nebulon-B or the more recent Rebel Transport with Bomber Command Centers, but the Pelta is different. It has no range qualification for its Fleet Command slot as these global effect driven cards simply require the spending of a token. In that little slot a lot of magic can happen opening an entirely new world of options for list building. This however is just one small part of the Pelta.
The first thing you might miss, but is important to note is the 4 engineering on a small ship. This is important because this ship will largely want to stay out of big fights and given its slow speed and maneuverability, being able to take a licking and keep on ticking is important when those flankers show up. 4 engineering means 2 shields each round without any special tokens or support and given its 3 on the front, 2 on the side and 1 on the back configuration and the fact it has 3 defense tokens (Brace, Re-direct and Evade), this is a sturdy ship with good recovery for its class. No one is going to come around and just melt it like they would easily do with a Nebulon-B fitted the same way.
More importantly it has a Support Team slot which means it can make use of Projection Experts when it’s not being shot at, sharing the wealth and further qualifying it as a proper support ship.
The fact that is boasts an Offensive Retrofit might have you scratching your head but thanks to gear like Phylong Q7 Tractor Beams, Rapid Launch Bays and Engine Techs you have serious versatility in choosing this ships role and capabilities.
Now the cost on this ship can get crazy quickly and you probobly don’t want to try to combine too many effects on it. Its best chose to serve a very specific role, though more than any other ship in the game, its role can very dramatically depending what upgrades you put on it. I think its for this reason more than any other that I’m already in love with the ship.
This is largely an untested ship though and so its honeymoon period may be short but it’s not hard to see the benefits of cards like Shields to the Maximum, All fighters follow me and Entrapment Formation. With no range requirements you have what amounts to the first truly global effect on the battlefield able to reach everyone always. You can effectively build entire lists around these core concepts and that in its own right I believe will be well worth the investment but the truth is that unless a ship can fight or add something to a fight on its own its usually not worth putting into most lists.
Spending a engineering token to give every ship in your fleet one free shield for 6 points is a fantastic trade off, especially in a game where every shield point counts.
Thankfully for that purpose we have the Assault version of the ship, a far more shooty version that one can draw comparisons to the Gladiator. In the assault version you gain an ordinance slot that can be leverage to throw in some additional fire power while still offering the core support features of the Pelta. For the aggressive minded player this is a fantastic alternative to the more focused command version.
Some Musings
I truly believe that much of what has come out in Wave 5 is geared more towards the new campaign mode in mind than 400 vs. 400 point pitched matches and I believe the Pelta is one of those elements. Consider that Shields to the Maximum for example affects all “friendly” ships. That includes your allies when doing an all-out offensive during the campaign. So suddenly the impact of that command ship is even on a grander scale!
Its more than just the ship though. In the campaign mode you are always thinking about the war, not just the individual battles. You are also always thinking about the survival of your different ships and squads and as such you are likely going to be looking at upgrades and list selections very differently. Equipment like Rapid Launch Bays can protect squadrons and offer you a choice as to when and even if you really want to risk them in a particular battle. The choices and reasoning behind making them are going to change in the campaign and I believe a lot of what we got in wave 5 supports that.
My point is that I can’t say for certain that things like Rapid Launch Bays for example will be a thing in the competitive meta in 2017, but you can definitely expect to see them in the campaign as its clear the uses there are more defined.
That’s it for today’s article, hope you found something useful in it. Fly Safe!
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