Hey guys !
In my local meta, Garm Bel Iblis isn't played often primarily because he seems less interesting than other Rebel commanders. I think that it is because his ability is less straightforward than it actually is, and I'd love if we could all pitch in to analyze how Garm Bel Iblis fits in Wave 2.
To remember Garm Bel Iblis' ability : "At the start of the first and fifth round, each friendly ship may gain a number of command token equal to its command value."
Overlook
At first glance, it would seem to make Bel Iblis a poor man's Tarkin, and highly favour high command value ships in order to capitalize the most on the number of tokens that he hands out Turns 1 and 5. After all, tokens allow big ships to be a lot more versatile and responsive due to the obligation to plan 3 turns ahead, right ?
Well, when we take a deeper look in comparison to Grand Moff Tarkin, they key difference is that the tokens are handed out differently. There are 3 key differences :
1) Tarkin only hands out 1 token per ship, while Garm's ability fills up the command token pool of each ship
2) Tarkin hands out the tokens every turn, while Garm hands them twice per game
3) Tarkin hands out the same token fleetwide, while Garm allows each ship to cherry pick which token it wants
In essence, Tarkin makes the fleet as a whole more responsive and rewards unity of purpose along the fleet. On the other hand, Garm Bel Iblis allows each ship to perform differently depending on its specialty and as such fits the independent spirit the man got from his Corellian origins.
On Command Tokens
Before we dig deeper analyzing Bel Iblis' admiral trait, let's take a look at what exactly Command Tokens are and what they allow. Command tokens are less useful versions of their Command dials, and are most often obtained from not spending the command dial during a turn, for a later use. A ship can only have one command token of each type and no more command tokens that his command value.
There are two great benefits of having Command Tokens :
1) When combined with a Command of the same type, they must be used together but they allow to boost the actual command dial : 2-speed change + an extra yaw, +1 squadron, +1 attack dice and reroll, 1.5x rounded up the number of engineering points.
2) They also allow to perform multiple Commands in the same turn, albeit with a reduced efficieny of each command.
Now, back to Garm and his ability : Because he fills the bank with tokens early game, I think his primary ability is to allow ships to perform multiple commands (use 2) while Tarkin giving out the tokens each turn can make them match their command dial for a stronger output of the command (use 1). Indeed, Tarking is much more efficient than Garm Bel Iblis when you have 2 commands of the same type planned for two to three consecutive turns. Tarkin is all the more efficient when the fleet is working in unison with several ships having similar Commands.
On Command efficiency
Garm's tokens could be used to boost up a command dial for a key critical roll, but it's a one time use ability with up to 2 other less interesting tokens. Rather, I think that Garm's ability allows to maximize command efficiency on a ship to ship basis, by allowing the ship to focus his dials on the most efficient values for its class, while having already stored commands that are less efficient.
But, what is command efficiency exactly ? I'll define it as, on a ship to ship basis, the command that takes the most advantage of the ship's base characteristics and upgrades to maximize its impact during the turn. Let's take the example of a CR90A. It has a squadron value of 1, an Engineering value of 2 and 2 red dice from its front arc. A squadron command is less efficient on a CR90 that it is on a Neb B Escort, because each command from the Escort will activate twice as many squadrons. Similarily, an Engineering Command is twice as effective on an MC80 than it is on a CR90, because you can recover up to 2 shields, move 4 shields around or repair a hull (which the CR90 is unable to do).
However, even though our ships have natural commands that they want to use as much as possible, sometimes we find ourselves locked in a position where we have to use a less efficient command just to ensure that our ships don't get blown up or don't end up on a collision course with another of our own ships for instance, or we find ourselves needing an extra squadron to activate just to lock that bomber wing in place. And this occurs regardless of ship size : that CR90 we talked about might just find its starboard shields depleted and might need that extra shield because it won't be able to avoid getting shot at next turn, but you sacrifice higher chances to get that Overload Pulse you desperately need by not using a Concentrate Fire command.
But as we can see, in some cases, the effects are similar, or almost similar, between spending a command dial or a token. Let's take the example of the CR90 : the squadron command is as efficient as a token, or when you want to repair a shield, the Nebulon B cares not about Engineering 3 or 2.
So, we can see that, regardless of ship size, there are commands that are more efficient than other for each ship. Let's take a look at each command individually to measure their efficiency based on the characteristic they affect.
Navigate
Dial : Allows the ship to change its speed by 1 and/or add an extra yaw (to a maximum of 2)
Token : Allows the ship to change its speed by 1
Even though we're tempted to use the Dial on small ships that are already maneurable, most of them already have yaw values of 2 at their most relevant speeds and often the extra yaw is overkill, while changing speed is usually important on all ships.
A Navigate command on a MC80 can turn it almost 90° at speed 2, while a CR90 already can do that at speeds 2, 3 and 4 (for a full 90°).
It also favours ships that really rely on their firing arcs for survivability and damage output, while ships that require to position outside of firing arcs in order to survive are more interested in speed values and usually care less about the yaw value because they already have good yaw values. A prime example is the Imperial Raider : it wants to get into a good position with its Speeds 3-4, then stick there with speed 2-1 and use its good yaws to stick there.
Maximum efficiency :
- Dials : Ships with low maneuvrability (MC80, Speed 4 MC30, AFMK2), ships that require a specific arc for damage (Nebulon B Escorts and Support)
- Token : Ships with good maneuvrability that rely on speed changes to dodge arcs (CR90s, Nebulon Bs in close combat)
Engineering
Dial : The ship gains a number of engineering points equals to its engineering value
Token : The ship gains a number of engineering points equals to half its engineering value rounded up
Rather than comparing the delta, let's look at what you can do with the total engineering points depending on the engineering value whether you use a token or a command :
- Engineering 2 : 2 points (recover 1 shield, move 2 shields) / 1 point (move 1 shield) --> When you need just an extra shield, the token is as efficient as the Command, because you can transfer from one facing that shouldn't see the fight at all. Ships with an Engineering value of 2 shouldn't show more than half their shields at the enemy anyways, otherwise it means that are caught in a cross fire and will die regardless.
- Engineering 3 : 3 points (Repair a Hull point, Recover 1 + move 1 shields, Move 3 shields) / 2 points (recover 1 shield, move 2 shields) --> In this case, both the Dial and the token are interesting, in the sense that you can cycle as many as 2 shields on both with the advantage of it costing one less shield with the Dial.
- Engineering 4 : 4 points (Recover 2 shields, Repair a hull and move a shield, Recover a shield and move 3 shields, Move 4 shields) / 2 points (recover 1 shield, move 2 shields) --> In this case, the clear winner is the command because it allows to recover 2 shields for free as well as Repair a hull and move a shield.
Maximum efficiency :
- Dial : Ships with Engineering 4, so medium to large ships
- Token : Ships with Engineering 2-3, so small ships (because with Engineering 2 you can recover a shield where you need it with a token, with a cost of 1 shield where you won't be shot at and probably can't redirect towards that zone anyways)
Caveat : Engineering Commands are always useful, because a dial and a token have the same shield regeneration potential on the facings you want, at the cost of shields from other hull zones. With Engineering 4 you could recover 2 shields with a dial or move 2 shields with a token, but arguably there are some facings that won't get targeted in the battle, so it's better to throw all shields towards where the thick of the fight is and a token allows to do that.
Squadron
Dial : Activate as many squadrons as your squadron value
Token : Activate 1 squadron
Same analysis, comparing with the Squadron value :
- Squadron 1 : 1 squadron / 1 squadron --> Token and Commands are equivalent
- Squadron 2 : 2 squadrons / 1 squadron --> The ship loses 50% of its squadron capability if he only uses a token
- Squadron 3 : 3 squadrons / 1 squadron --> The ship loses 66% of its squadron capability
Maximum efficiency :
- Dial : Ships with Squadron 2 and 3 (duh !)
- Token : Ships with Squadron 1
Concentrate Fire
Dial : Add one die of the same colour as any die present in your attack pool
Token : Reroll a die
Now, this one was hard to analyze ! The key metric for the efficiency is to see how much the dial or the token amount the end roll of the basic attack pool. I'll detail the simulation with Red dice and post light results with Blue and Black dice.
With red dice, I took the attack pools throwing anything from 1 to 6 red dice, and modeled the following scenario for the Concentrate Fire token : If the average number no-hit result (Accuracy or Blank) per roll is below 1, the attacker rerolls all misses and if that average number of no hit results per roll is above one, the attacker rolls one more dice (statistically speaking, it is the same chance of hit as throwing another dice).
With a Red dice damage change of 62.5%, the average roll from 1 or 2 dice rolled will be less than 1 miss, so in essence the CF token in this simulation rerolls respectively 0.375 and 0.75 dice.
Here are the results of the average number of hits for each attack pool of red dice, without any dial, with CF Dial and with CF Token :
- 1 : 0.625 / 1.25 (+100%) / 0.85 (+37.5%)
- 2 : 1.25 / 1.875 (+50%) / 1.718 (+37.5%)
- 3 : 1.875 / 2.5 (+33%) / 2.5 (+33%)
- 4 : 2.5 / 3.125 (+25%) / 3.125 (+25%)
- 5 : 3.125 / 3.75 (+20%) / 3.75 (+20%)
- 6 : 3.75 / 4.375 (+16.67%) / 3.175 (+16.67%)
In essence, what this means is that at or over 3 red dice thrown per attack pool of red dice, the CF Token has the same result as the CF Dial (because statistically, you will have at least 1 miss at 3 dice or higher, so it is akin to add an extra dice to the attack pool).
For Blue and Black Dice (75% hit chance), the cut off is 4 dice : at 4 dice it becomes equivalent to throw a CF Dial or a CF Token.
Obviously, I counted the accuracies as no hits so that model may be partial (but if someone could take over I'd love it !), but what that model shows is that the higher the chance to hit, the more interesting it becomes to add a dice the more dice you have. For example, an imaginary ship with 6 Blue dice and SW7 Ion Cannons would love nothing more than add an extra die because it has a 100% hit chance.
Maximum Efficiency :
- Dial : Attack pools with 2 red dice or less, attack pools with 3 blue/black or less
- Token : Attack pools with 3 red dice or more, attack pools with 4 blue/black or less
Conclusion and circling back to Garm
So, as we saw, each command has a different peak efficiency based on the ship it is thrown with, and in order to maximize command efficiency, a ship would rather spend token on less efficient commands and dials on more efficient commands.
A CR90A for example would love nothing more than to spam CF every day with a banked navigate token so it can change speeds, or a banked squadron command so it can activate a squadron on top of that CF Dial and get yet another extra dice.
Meanwhile, an AFMK2 A might keep focusing on his navigation and Engineering, with a banked squadron/CF/Engineering to increase its damage.
What Garm allows a fleet to do, regardless of its size, is to bank up the tokens that are more efficient for a ship class while allowing to focus on the dials it is most efficient with. As an example of this framework, an AFMK2 B has Squadrons, Navigate as its most efficient dials, Concentrate Fire as its most efficient token and Engineering as a nice to have in all circumstances. With Garm, it can bank early on a CF/Engineering/Nav Token, which will allow it to concentrate its dials on Squadrons and Navigate while getting some measure of firepower with a CF token and an engineering tokens. The Nav token will allow it to adjust speed when yaw isn't needed, giving one more room for the squadron command.
Meanwhile, an AFMK2 A might prefer to go for a Squadron/Engineering/CF token, but it's likely to use Navigate (to move into position on a flank and set up these double arcs), then move to Engineering later on. The Engineering Dial will allow to recover from an engagement while it has set up to move from another, and a squadron command will allow it to activate the odd squadron when needed, perhaps to support its anti-fighter barrage.
But it's not limited to AFMK2s ! Corvettes can benefit a lot from banking a Nav token and focusing on CF/Squadron (CF because it's their most efficient dial, squadron because it comparatively adds the same dice as CF), or go for a banked Squadron and focus purely on damage with Concentrate Fire as well.
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Hope you enjoyed the read and please share your thoughts on the under appreciated outsider of the Rebel Alliance !
