Dice stacking in v1
vs v2: This was probably the biggest
problem that the game itself had in the first edition. Not nearly the problem it was in the current
edition, but it is very early. I do not
THINK they will be painted into the corner like they were in first, but being
cynical… Well, at least only surprises
are good ones I am told. But when there
were ships that had a 1 Agility that could 100% of the time dodge 3 Hits and
have better than a 75% shot at just outright dodging a 4 Hit Attack? Yeah, something had to change in a big
way. In second edition there ARE some
things that can get decent stacks set up, but they are thankfully quite rare
and REALLY expensive overall. TIE Defenders
and Phantoms come to mind. Both have an almost artificial way to get an
Evade token, allowing them to simply take the Focus Action to have the fully
stacked Defense. On the Defender with 3
Agility/Hull/Shield platform it means that even should you fail out one roll,
it might well NOT mean that the ship just died.
The Phantom? Well, 2 Agility and
Shields backed by 3 Hull… Not getting
shot is the best for that ship I am finding.
Gone are the days that I could fly Whisper right at someone knowing that
I’d have 4 Agility, Evade and Focus tokens and likely the Emperor’s “adjustment”
of dice should I really need it. But
those ships, while GOOD are not simply dominating the events we are seeing
now. Both struggle against massed
firepower, be it Ordnance via TIE Bombers or just plain guns from more ships on
the tables these days. 4 TIE Strikers
backed by a Shuttle or an Ace is a solid build.
And frankly terrifying to a lot of Aces without the passive Dice
modification in this edition of the game.
Have not really seen many Large Ships…
The Imperial Shuttle (I am flying one finally, need to get mine painted
to match the rest of my stuff), yes… But
the Rebel Falcon or Dash’s YT-2400? Not
really seeing them. Not REALLY sure why
honestly. I suspect they are actually
fairly good… Just that the new Damage
Deck’s Criticals are just terrifying and the cascade effect on those ships is
FAR worse now. Of course nerfing the
major offenders including the Jumpmaster 5000 (ALL of them) helped a lot. All around Turrets are gone, everyone is not
like the Lancer Class from the first edition.
MUCH better rules for turrets I think.
But lacking the insane Defense stacking are they playable at all? Guessing I will get to flying the 2400 at
least. It WAS the first ship my wife
bought for me in the game, and I always liked flying it. Even if it was alternately completely
outclassed and completely overpowered…
Then back to simply outclassed, for the most part…
Action efficiency: THIS was pretty much the thing that HAD
to go. Gone are the bulk of the passive
modifications like Expertise. Not
completely gone of course, one of the lists I am flying right now:
FelWhisperSai2 (199)
|
Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor
|
52
|
|
Lone Wolf
|
4
|
|
Ship
Total: 56
|
|
|
|
|
|
“Whisper” — TIE Phantom
|
52
|
|
Juke
|
4
|
|
Collision Detector
|
5
|
|
Darth Vader
|
14
|
|
Ship
Total: 75
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lieutenant Sai — Lambda-Class
Shuttle
|
47
|
|
Fire-Control System
|
3
|
|
0-0-0
|
3
|
|
Director Krennic
|
5
|
|
Shield Upgrade
|
4
|
|
ST-321
|
6
|
|
Ship
Total: 68
|
|
|
|
|
This sets up what is probably the best action efficiency I
have found so far in the game. The
Shuttle moves, Coordinates say a Focus to another ship. This gives the Shuttle a Focus as well. Then the Shuttle gets a Lock (without having
to be in Range of the Target) again for free.
The TL gives bonuses to the ship I have made the “Optimized Prototype”,
allowing me to strip shields or flip Damage Cards without having to actually
hit the target… Whisper of course gets
the Evade from De-Cloak, gains an Evade if she Hits the target, likely has
Focus from the Shuttle, Vader has the Force point that might be used to strip
tokens or just push Damage. Then she has
Juke to flip an Evade to a Focus. And as
Vader has likely already stripped the Focus token… And if she has not used all of her Evades,
she gets to Re-Cloak at the end of the Turn to do it all again. Fel?
Still the Arc Dodging PTL (light) Ace…
He can get the Focus free if he has ANY enemy in his Bullseye Arc, and
that is surprisingly common… Well, in
the HUGE sample size I have myself (4 actual games of v2). Still pretty darn good. Hard to block a lot, and the Shuttle itself is
probably up there with “Most Improved” ship in this edition. Jam, Reinforce, Coordinate actions? On the big Hull… Should note I am actually gaming the system a
bit by adding the Shield upgrade to kick the Shuttle up to 11 total
Health. Have to get 6 Damage to get the
half points on the ship. And half points
on EVERYTHING is actually how I am seeing a lot of games being resolved these
days. Mind, Agility 1, so not like LT
Sai is dodging all that much, but to be honest if they concentrate THAT much on
the Shuttle my Aces should tear them apart.
What looks like it is
going to the top so far: While some
are (I suspect) incorrectly saying that the “Meta is solved”… I think that there ARE some things that are
rising to the top for now at least. And
it has become evident that SOME things are perhaps under costed… In my own lists, Juke is just stapled to the
TIE Phantoms and Defenders. For 4 points
it is just too good NOT to take. And any
time you have to have some really compelling reason NOT to take an upgrade, it
points to an issue I think. Things like
Supernatural Reflexes, Trajectory Simulator and a few of the ships themselves
are I suspect due to hit the point cost elevator a the first “revision”. And that there WILL be regular revisions of
the game itself does make me hopeful at least that there will be a lot more longevity
in this edition and there are not long periods of certain things absolutely
dominating the competitive Meta… Yes,
casual play in local stores is not really affected, but that only works so long
as ALL of the players abide by the self-imposed restrictions. Once one or more bring the “netlists” that
define the top tier of the competitive Meta, the system breaks completely. And a lot of the “casual” players stop coming
out to play which does have the effect of killing the local scene… I suppose I put myself in more of the “Competitive”
camp as I do enjoy the local Store Champion type events… But I do also like the local scene. With the FFG official alternate formats
coming up perhaps there will be a bit of both in the future…
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