Hi,

I've started playing with a few friends a couple months ago, but we hardly have time to play more than once a week so we are still very novice.

As of right now, the game seems pretty balanced. We all won games. When we lost, it was most of the time due to bad luck, bad strategie, few errors, etc. But now my friend came up with something and this seems very broken to me. Perhaps you will be able to help me understand how this is not totally overpowered.

So he bought the great Imperial star destroyer which has 8 dice of attack and 11 health if I remember correctly. I was suprised, but it was fine. Yeah, he is strong but he's worth a lots of point too so no worry. But then... the combo. I don't remember the names of the cards but there it is :

1. He has a card that let him change any die for a crit. (If he discard a die) ​​

2. If he has a blue cri​t (which he has every time he attacks because of #1), he exhaust ALL my defense token.
3. He has a card that says I CANNOT use my exhausted defense token.
​

So basically... every turn, he attacks me with 8 to 10 dice, I get no defense at all -ever- which pretty much 1 hit kill anything on my side. (He usually does the command that let him move and attack with his squadron so he finish anything that wasn't destroyed by that).

Is me or isn't that a little broken? I was fine with the overpowered ship because he cost a lots of point. But the combo that remove all my defense every turn... that's very annoying. What can I do?

Thanks for your help !​​

- Ben ​

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the game!

1. Admiral Screed

2. Overload Pulse

3. Avenger Title on the ISD.

1. Screed will be on the Flagship so he'll be hard to remove from the equation.

2. Overload Pulse requires a) Blue Range b) another ship to shoot first before the Avenger ISD shoots

So...

a) Don't let the other ship get into Blue Range (or destroy him).

b) Make the ISD activate and shoot first before you get Overload Pulsed.

or C...

Apply your own pressure so your friend worries about your combo and not his own. :-D

1. He has a card that let him change any die for a crit. (If he discard a die) ​​

2. If he has a blue cri​t (which he has every time he attacks because of #1), he exhaust ALL my defense token.
3. He has a card that says I CANNOT use my exhausted defense token.
​

Ben,

You guys dont understand the timing in attacks.

Your friend's Overload Pulse is a critical effect and cant be used/announced until AFTER you have already spent your defense tokens.

Problem solved.

Hey Ben, what faction are you fielding, and what types of ships? The Screed/Overload Pulse/Avenger combination is a fairly common one, and can be difficult to counteract at first.

Now, is he using Overload Pulse (the Blue crit that exhausts your defense tokens) on the Imperial Star Destroyer? From your post, I wasn't sure if he's using it properly. When you attack, the order is:

1) Gather dice and roll them

2) Modify dice (things like sacrificing a die to flip another one to a Critical)

3) Spend Defense Tokens

4) Resolve critical effects

5) Apply damage

So your defense tokens don't actually get exhausted until step four, but you get to use them to reduce damage before that on step three. So if he's firing with his ISD and saying that your tokens get exhausted before you get to spend them, he's wrong. The two legal ways to use this combo is to put it on the ISD and fire with the side arc first (which can be tough given how big the ISD front arc is), or use a Victory II-class SD to trigger the Overload Pulse first.

There are ways to counter it, as Ice mentioned. Probably the easiest is to destroy the VSD first, but depending on what you're fielding that might not be as easy as it sounds. You can always field a bunch of ships that make the combination pointless, like a Corvette swarm. And just be thankful that he's not taking the combination to the next level. There's a combination that guarantees a bare minimum of seven damage when the ISD fires.

2. If he has a blue cri​t (which he has every time he attacks because of #1), he exhaust ALL my defense token.

The key thing to understand about OP is the order things happen in during the combat phase. The effect that lets him exhaust all your defense tokens happens AFTER you spend your defense tokens against that attack. OP actually has no effect on the attack that triggers it, it is exclusively setting up a second attack from a different source. That makes it not nearly the broken combo mist people think it is at first.

****, double ninja.

And overload pulse works better in conjunction with something like a support raider which activates before the ISD and screed activate the OP and then the ISD hits with Avenger

I once played Han as counting as a ship activation when activating in the ship phase. It was glorious.

Unfortunately turned out not to be anywhere near the correct interpretation of the rules.

Hi,

I've started playing with a few friends a couple months ago, but we hardly have time to play more than once a week so we are still very novice.

As of right now, the game seems pretty balanced. We all won games. When we lost, it was most of the time due to bad luck, bad strategie, few errors, etc. But now my friend came up with something and this seems very broken to me. Perhaps you will be able to help me understand how this is not totally overpowered.

So he bought the great Imperial star destroyer which has 8 dice of attack and 11 health if I remember correctly. I was suprised, but it was fine. Yeah, he is strong but he's worth a lots of point too so no worry. But then... the combo. I don't remember the names of the cards but there it is :

1. He has a card that let him change any die for a crit. (If he discard a die) ​​

2. If he has a blue cri​t (which he has every time he attacks because of #1), he exhaust ALL my defense token.

3. He has a card that says I CANNOT use my exhausted defense token.

​

So basically... every turn, he attacks me with 8 to 10 dice, I get no defense at all -ever- which pretty much 1 hit kill anything on my side. (He usually does the command that let him move and attack with his squadron so he finish anything that wasn't destroyed by that).

Is me or isn't that a little broken? I was fine with the overpowered ship because he cost a lots of point. But the combo that remove all my defense every turn... that's very annoying. What can I do?

Thanks for your help !​​

- Ben ​

It sounds like you're triggering overload pulse at the wrong time. Criticals do not trigger until after defense tokens have been spent, so Overload Pulse cannot disable defense tokens before they are spent. Overload Pulse and Avenger are indeed a great combo, but another ship has to trigger the Overload Pulse before Avenger attacks.

I once played Han as counting as a ship activation when activating in the ship phase. It was glorious.

Unfortunately turned out not to be anywhere near the correct interpretation of the rules.

That would be a good future ability for a unique squadron.

Thank you very much everyone. It seems we played it wrong. We're still new at this.

Great community, Thanks ​a lot !

​

EDIT: So if the ISD attack from his side arc and front arc on the same turn, he could trigger the combo all by himself, is that correct?

Thank you very much everyone. It seems we played it wrong. We're still new at this.

Great community, Thanks ​a lot !

​

EDIT: So if the ISD attack from his side arc and front arc on the same turn, he could trigger the combo all by himself, is that correct?

Yes. If he has a double arc on one ship he can use Screed to trigger Overload Pulse with his side shot, and on his front shot all your Defense Tokens are spent and unusable because of Avenger.

BTW, many of us are knowledgable of the rules because we have been wrong and corrected on them many times.

Talking and, more importantly, referring to the Rulebook to prove answers to questions isthebest practice.

I encourage you to open the Rulebook and verify everything we said. Doublechecking other players rules explanations enhances your understanding AND can disprove what they have told you.

In the end, ALWAYS go to the Rulebook for verification.

Thanks Versch, I shall. On a side note, I was thinking on using General Rieekan to help against his ISD. If he destroys my MC80, I still get to attack him afterward once.

Thanks Versch, I shall. On a side note, I was thinking on using General Rieekan to help against his ISD. If he destroys my MC80, I still get to attack him afterward once.

A point to make is that basically the entire design of armada is meant to make you think ahead several rounds and to think of your fleet as a single, whole organism instead of individual components. Overload pulse perfectly exemplifies that concept. The card doesn't actually do anything without setting it up in advance, either with multiple ships acting together in concert or planning ahead to position your ship for a double tap.