The useless cards thread

By Green Knight, in Star Wars: Armada

Some card see more use, some less, but all in all there is a time and place for (almost) every card thus far issued.


The only (IMO) utterly useless card from Wave 1 is POINT-DEFENSE REROUTE.


At 5 pts, this card makes blue AAA dice slightly better at close range, increasing average damage output slightly, which isn't very good, not even if you slap it on a 2-blue ship. Compounded by the fact that there are sooo many more interesting Offensive Retrofits (which many ships don't even have). All wave 2 does is make this worthless card "vialble" for the new 2-blue ships (ISD-II and MC 80 Assault). I can't find a single instance where I'd like to use this card. Not one.


Wave 2 seems to want to add more useless anti-fighter cards to the mix. RUTHLESS STRATEGISTS could have its uses, but I can't really find many builds where I'd like to use 4 points to occupy a Weapons Team slot with this card. QUAD LASERS 5 pts to shoot 1 blue at enemy fighters attacking you (except Rhymer balls which will just stay further away) and taking an Offensive slot? No thanks. CLUSTER BOMBS...5 pts to discard to get four blue vs. a squadron? And taking up a priceless Defensive slot? What were they thinking?


All 4 cards are anti-fighter cards, and I can totally see why making capitals too strong vs. fighters is BAD idea. That said, I'm really at a loss here...so if someone has any good, viable ideas for incorporating these cards...feel free!

Edited by Green Knight

Well, the antenna on a VSD is very fragile. So, to lessen the chance of tipping, you could use them as shims to make sure the table is level.

Agree with all of the above

Ruthless strategists combos with bossk if I remember that correctly. Cluster bombs are easy placers for corvettes, if anything. I agree point defense reroute is useless in about every situation, and quad lasers work well with the raider titles.

The true most useless card to me goes to xx-9 right now. It occupies the same slot a HTT, and xi7, doesn't increase damage totals or reduce defense token value, and requires high damage shots to make the most of it. Which won't do much without alot of supporting cast help to strip shields or defense tokens. It only has marginal value with overload pulse and dodanna, but basically every other turbolaser helps make sure the hits go where you want them

Cluster Bombs could have been useful if instead of discarding it, it was only to exhaust.

Yep, Cluster Bombs and Point Defence Re-route easily top the list. I cant stand Quad Lasers either, and would put those on the next step down on the "useless scale" (totally a thing).

XX-9's aren't that bad compared to the above....they are pretty nasty with Dodonna. Not sure i'd pick them over the other Turbolaser options, but they do have SOME use.

XX-9s cant be stopped by the contain ability.

Edited by Rhinehard

Cluster bombs is potentially quite useful. If you don't have enough fighters, Hit Rhymer with it when he shoots. Won't kill him, but will likely reduce him to 2 HP. Can't be Evaded or Braced as it's not an attack. However, as a discard, I probably won't be using it. (On Rebels, my fighters would have at him, on Imperials, only my ISD 2 could take it, and It's more likely to use something else.)

Cluster Bombs would be ok if it wasn't discard, and if it didnt take a valuable slot up. But i can't see any reason to ever take it for 1 shot when it would stop me from taking Advanced Projectors or ECM.

Gunnery Team - why on earth do I own this card, when it doesn't even fit on my soon to be 2 MC80 line?

Good point. You should throw all your Gunnery Teams away!

Agree with all of the above.

But for me the worst cards ever, remains Defense and weapon liaison, being able to change an order for an other one is not a great effect by itself, but having to spend an order token do that, is that a joke ? And on top of that, you have to pay 3pts for this ****.

Engineering captain/navigation commander/wing commander/tactical expert are just strictly better imo, but even those are corner case upgrades.

Lando is also very disappointing , such a great character reduce to such a miserable effect.

all the ship anti-squadron cards suffer from massive "bleh" syndrome apart from Raider titles, but that's probably to keep squadrons relevant. Quad Lasers get my vote of "least likely to ever see play"

I also really don't care for xx-9s. While they get around contain (yay?), they just don't do enough imo to justify their inclusion

The Nav Team card is also very corner-case

Engineering captain/navigation commander/wing commander/tactical expert are just strictly better imo, but even those are corner case upgrades.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Agree with all of the above.

But for me the worst cards ever, remains Defense and weapon liaison, being able to change an order for an other one is not a great effect by itself, but having to spend an order token do that, is that a joke ? And on top of that, you have to pay 3pts for this ****.

Engineering captain/navigation commander/wing commander/tactical expert are just strictly better imo, but even those are corner case upgrades.

Lando is also very disappointing , such a great character reduce to such a miserable effect.

Weapons Liaison is awesome with Tarkin. You can just issue navigate or engineering commands throughout the whole dial, then take an engineering token from Tarkin every turn for an extra shield.

When you want to focus fire or issue a squadron command, burn a token and choose which offence you want.

This is a great way to make VSDs more manoeuvrable or tougher. I would never use them apart from with Tarkin though. Even with Garm they suck, I tried it.

There are plenty of barely-usable card IMO... cards that work only in some very specific builds or in combination with another card.

Both Liaisons are in this category. 3 pts to change a 3-stack command is reasonable if coupled with Tarkin (you're always going to have redundant tokens), but not otherwise. Just an example.

But for me the worst cards ever, remains Defense and weapon liaison, being able to change an order for an other one is not a great effect by itself, but having to spend an order token do that, is that a joke ? And on top of that, you have to pay 3pts for this ****.

Engineering captain/navigation commander/wing commander/tactical expert are just strictly better imo, but even those are corner case upgrades.

I am unable to agree with you on this. Weapons and Defense Liason are amazing for new players. Not only that but they are good for when you want to be extra flexible in your choices.

Weapons Liaison is awesome with Tarkin. You can just issue navigate or engineering commands throughout the whole dial, then take an engineering token from Tarkin every turn for an extra shield.

When you want to focus fire or issue a squadron command, burn a token and choose which offence you want.

This is a great way to make VSDs more manoeuvrable or tougher. I would never use them apart from with Tarkin though. Even with Garm they suck, I tried it.

Just another voice for the "capital ship anti-squadron upgrades are basically garbage" crowd.

Point Defense Reroute in particular is just horribly bad. If it allowed you to reroll any anti-squadron dice, I would definitely consider it. Unfortunately it only allows rerolls on crits (making it worthless with black dice) and only at close range. Just bad.

I have a very hard time justifying Ion Cannon Batteries, if we're going to get into more turbulent waters. The critical effect is not that great (removing a Command token or one point of shields) and seems inferior to competing crit replacement effects (notably ACMs and APTs, but also the Overload Pulse and upcoming NK-7 Ion Cannons). You can use it to remove navigation counters for Tractor Beams but... who cares?

Cluster bombs is potentially quite useful. If you don't have enough fighters, Hit Rhymer with it when he shoots. Won't kill him, but will likely reduce him to 2 HP.

It's expensive at 5pts and your Defensive Retrofit slot, though. And in these sorts of scenarios, unless you have strong AF batteries those last 2pts of damage will be hard to squeeze through on Rhymer (especially if he's brought a TIE/Adv or two along with him, and most do). Also, in this scenario, if I was the Rhymer player, I just wouldn't shoot at the Cluster Bomb ship with Rhymer if there were other imminent ways for my opponent to damage Rhymer lurking.

Not firing Rhymer's missile would suck, but it's still a small price to pay to ensure that all of my other Bombers and Advanced can keep unloading missiles at their targets with great flexibility. And then, since my opponent took Cluster Bombs instead of ECM, that means they may be facing one less Rhymer black die but they will be unable to Brace against ship attacks, which probably means more net damage suffered.

Edited by AllWingsStandyingBy

But for me the worst cards ever, remains Defense and weapon liaison, being able to change an order for an other one is not a great effect by itself, but having to spend an order token do that, is that a joke ? And on top of that, you have to pay 3pts for this ****.

Engineering captain/navigation commander/wing commander/tactical expert are just strictly better imo, but even those are corner case upgrades.

I am unable to agree with you on this. Weapons and Defense Liason are amazing for new players. Not only that but they are good for when you want to be extra flexible in your choices.

Not just for new players, but for anyone running Tarkin. They offer very affordable flexibility when paired with Tarkin. I know people are ga-ga for Screed, but Tarkin is a phenomenal admiral, especially as the we enter 400pts with more total ships on the board to benefit from his tokens. With four Black dice, the Demolisher can still reliably trigger ACM/APT, and Ordnance Teams can give you a reroll on your blacks to not sacrifice any damage output on your Glads/VSD1s when you sacrifice Screed.

But all the free repair points and maneuver flexibility afforded across the fleet by Tarkin are great.

Cluster bombs is potentially quite useful. If you don't have enough fighters, Hit Rhymer with it when he shoots. Won't kill him, but will likely reduce him to 2 HP.

It's expensive at 5pts and your Defensive Retrofit slot, though. And in these sorts of scenarios, unless you have strong AF batteries those last 2pts of damage will be hard to squeeze through on Rhymer (especially if he's brought a TIE/Adv or two along with him, and most do). Also, in this scenario, if I was the Rhymer player, I just wouldn't shoot at the Cluster Bomb ship with Rhymer if there were other imminent ways for my opponent to damage Rhymer lurking.

Not firing Rhymer's missile would suck, but it's still a small price to pay to ensure that all of my other Bombers and Advanced can keep unloading missiles at their targets with great flexibility. And then, since my opponent took Cluster Bombs instead of ECM, that means they may be facing one less Rhymer black die but they will be unable to Brace against ship attacks, which probably means more net damage suffered.

I don't know, spending 5 points to effectively remove a 9-point TIE Bomber from the ball (i.e. a expected damage reduction of 1 point per turn throughout the whole game) isn't so bad... at least until you realise you'd need one of those per ship to achieve that effect. It's still really not a bad trade though, if together with a few shots from your anti-squadron weapons (or fighters) it quickly brings down a 10-20 point bomber. In my experience, 5-hull bombers like X-Wings and B-Wings are usually left with 1 or 2 hull by the end of the game by anti-squadron fire alone - even heroes, since single hits are not braceable. So blowing one of those up by round 4 is easily worth 5 points. The dealbreaker, though, is that juicy defensive retrofit slot you're giving up.

But for me the worst cards ever, remains Defense and weapon liaison, being able to change an order for an other one is not a great effect by itself, but having to spend an order token do that, is that a joke ? And on top of that, you have to pay 3pts for this ****.

I disagree with this. I love Defense and weapon liaison with a commander like Garm. It will now cost you 6 points to do half of what one of those cards can do.

I don't know, spending 5 points to effectively remove a 9-point TIE Bomber from the ball (i.e. a expected damage reduction of 1 point per turn throughout the whole game) isn't so bad... at least until you realise you'd need one of those per ship to achieve that effect. It's still really not a bad trade though, if together with a few shots from your anti-squadron weapons (or fighters) it quickly brings down a 10-20 point bomber. In my experience, 5-hull bombers like X-Wings and B-Wings are usually left with 1 or 2 hull by the end of the game by anti-squadron fire alone - even heroes, since single hits are not braceable. So blowing one of those up by round 4 is easily worth 5 points. The dealbreaker, though, is that juicy defensive retrofit slot you're giving up.

(bolded for emphasis)

Defensive retrofits are so good that Cluster Bombs are just a sad substitute, unfortunately. With the arrival of the Tractor Beams, the offensive retrofit slot is going to have more competition as well beyond just "bad anti-squadron upgrades" and "carrier-focused upgrades" like it has been.

yep. The slot use takes it from "not great but maybe sometimes ok" to "never going on any of my ships, ever. EVER".