Thursday, June 22, 2017

FAQ Me? FAQ You! - FAQ Update 6/20/17


FAQ everyone!  It's Errata time!





Upgrade Card Errata:



Bomber Command Center -
While a friendly squadron with Bomber at distance 1–5 is attacking a ship, it may reroll 1 die.
A squadron cannot resolve more than 1 “Bomber Command Center” card per attack.

Well, that screws up quite a few Black dice bomber lists using BCC to fish for double damage rolls.  It also hurts X-Wing/E-Wing lists that have more "bad" results for its Red dice, and might want to fish for double / crits with Norra.  All in all, less incentive to take multiple flotillas is good, and less reliable Bomber runs is good.


Demolisher - 
During your activation, you can perform 1 of your attacks after you execute your first maneuver.

The big takeaway here is that Demolisher is no longer able to jump from outside of Red dice range with an effective 0-1-1-2 (plus nav command yaw if applicable) and ruin something's day.  This makes Demo traps more effective, and while it doesn't exactly unstaple Engine Techs from Demolisher, it means that the title is now a really good title rather than the best 30 point title in the game (the extra 20 come from making sure you have first/last).


General Rieekan -
Once per round, when a friendly ship or friendly unique squadron is destroyed, it remains in the play area and is treated as if it was not destroyed until the end of the Status Phase.

I know we've all been waiting to see what would happen here.  The big "up yours Demolisher" fix has been abused with named squadrons lately, and the new upgrade forces you to choose what you want to have hang around.  Again, this is not a horrific nerf, but something that moves Rieekan into the "strongly competitive" range as opposed to "the only Rebel Commander worth thinking about" range.

Will this be enough to kill the CR90 Corvette crash lists, and spell the end of the Ace Holes?  No, not by itself.  The crash lists never quite showed up at the top tables beyond Regionals, and the Ace Holes can still do their tricks, just with less margin for error.  Particularly, the Ace lists will be more hamstrung with what is still to come...


Turbolaser Reroute Circuit - 
While attacking, you may exhaust this card and spend 1 Evade defense token to change 1 red die to a face with a Critical icon or 2 Hit icons.

This is a fair upgrade, as it turns the CR90 Corvette A from the meanest damage per point ship in the fleet into just a fairly reliable one.  Now the double arc for the CR90A isn't a guaranteed 4 damage in 2 attacks with a fairly high average damage, to being just a guaranteed 2.  This gives people more reasons to look at the new Hammerhead Scouts and old CR90Bs for long range and reliable damage, respectively.

It also makes MS-1 Ion Cannons even more of a reasonable buy, if they weren't already.  Engine Techs, Major Derlin, Task Forces, and now Turbolaser Reroute Circuits means that there are a lot of viable cards to affect with the special critical effect.


Major Rhymer -
Friendly squadrons at distance 1 can attack enemy ships at close range using all dice in their battery armament.

Ouch.  This one hurts the Major, as it not only makes him much easier to defend against, but shrinks he and his buddies attack area by more than half, and his attack range by almost half.  While on one hand, it is certainly not BAD as his upgrade lets you pack a hull zone with a ton of Bombers rather than being limited to what space you can cram into Range 1, it's a big, big hit.

There is no doubt in my mind that this was to future proof him leading a ball of TIE Fighters with Sloan in command.  Frankly, that looked pretty good on paper, and a lot of Flak ships wouldn't be able to touch it.  Plus with Stronghold, a even more ships wouldn't be able to touch it.  Or Stronghold at better than Long range.

An ugly, but necessary change.


Flotillas


A flotilla cannot equip a Commander upgrade card.

Got to say, lifeboating as a strategy has gotten kind of silly.  As a big advocate for the "Put Your Commander on the Biggest Thing You Can't Afford to Lose" school of flagships, I would get a little bit frustrated when looking over player's lists for criticism and seeing them throw their commander on some 18-23 point support ship.

I got even more frustrated when the general consensus through the community seemed to be that 18-23 points was just the "flagship tax" you had to pay, even when they had something big and bulky in their list that would just as easily taken their commander.  Especially when that big and bulky thing would more or less lose them the match if their opponent splashed it.

I think this is just an unmitigated good for the game, as it breaks up something that was almost required, and gives us multiple options for how to handle the commander / flagship conundrum.

Option #1:  Put it on the biggest thing you have.  This is also great if the biggest thing you have is also something you plan on putting down last.  Basically something that will never be in danger by sheer reason that it is HUGE and coming in hard from a flank.

Option #2:  Uh... more expensive lifeboat?  Lifeboats were a thing before flotillas, they were just expensive.  A CR90 Corvette B for 39 points, a Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette for 36 points, or a Raider I-Class Corvette for 44 points can serve as a lifeboat, but a much more expensive one.  Oddly enough it's also a bit tougher of a lifeboat, able to at least put up a fight if it is caught.

Option #3:  Split the difference.  Put your commander on something fast that can skirt the edges of the battle.  An Assault Frigate / Scout MC30 for the Rebels, or an Arquitens / Quasar for the Imperials.  All can participate in the fight, while staying at extreme ranges.  Even a Jaina's Light CR90A could do okay here, and hide on rocks while it lobs extreme range shots.

The point is, there are now more viable options than just one, and that's a really, really good thing for the game.


FAQ


Rapid Launch Bays -
Placing a set aside squadron does not count as an activation.

Go TEAM ORANPLE!

3 comments:

  1. they removed Jamming fields in the Errata though. Do you think that was intentional or a typo?

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    Replies
    1. The fact that they didn't put a Red Text Errata to the previous Errata, and the fact that they didn't put ANYTHING about Jamming Fields in their big article explaining what they changed, suggests it was an unintentional error.

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  2. These changes are a good thing for the game. All of these things were abusable to an extreme, which led me as a (relatively competitive) player to leave the other options at home. Good news for list diversity.

    I do wonder if they considered nerfing relay. (The range is crazy) But I imagine FFG wanted to wind back some of the staples of competitive play at first. Incremental nerfs can always be made later.

    Overall - very happy. Both sides nerf batted equally too, I think.

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