Tractor Beams - Opinion on them

By SmurfWedge, in Star Wars: Armada

Yeah. Changing to support officer/change command things on a two command ship is really subpar compared to any good and used Demo officer. If slicer tools is capable of making such a change that's awesome.

I'm equally part concerned for carriers vs slicer tools. It would be a blowout to shut a carrier off a squadron command.

Edited by Trizzo2

Well to start off with a caveat... I did not do well at regionals (though in my defense I have just started to play around with this list type and did not fly well)

With that out of the way, I have been playing around with a 2 ISD, 1 Raider, and small squadron CAP. The basis of the list is tractor beams on all ships (so can tractor large/medium ships twice and/or small ships thrice). In all my matches tractor beams were useful, and usually always useful in the couple of test games I've had.

First and foremost, they force the opponent to adjust their movement plans, either by staying slow or spamming navigate commands (which you can still drag a specific ship back down in speed). If they get surprised by tractor beams, usually will only happen once, or not at all for better players, you can trap a ship in a kill zone.

This forces most opponents (some were always planning to speed 1-2 all day anyway) to adjust to you, anytime you are making the opponent adjust their plans is good. They key, which I admit I have not yet mastered in the slightest, is how to fly/build to take advantage of their movement constraints.

I had two games where if there was a 7th round I quite probably would have destroyed another ship, allowing me to either win or lose by less and in the other win by more. But this issue is not localized to tractor beams or my list, the main point is I was successfully running down faster fleeing ships.

Right now I think they have uses, but I'm not sure if you can build a list around them (I'm trying though). Come the next waves they will likely become more useful, but will probably always be niche.

A consideration, having 1 on a large ship just to remove nav tokens, might be a useful.

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

It then Rams, then double rams

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

It then Rams, then double rams

Thus reducing the entire game to a demo derby with spaceships.

Womp Womp

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

It then Rams, then double rams

Thus reducing the entire game to a demo derby with spaceships.

Womp Womp

And that's different to now, how?

That still won't kill it. You've thrown a roadblock in the face of one of the most threatening ships in the game.

The toughest part is having the tractor beams in range. Since they trigger when the owning ship activates, you'll likely be out of range without G-8 shenanigans.

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

It then Rams, then double rams

Thus reducing the entire game to a demo derby with spaceships.

Womp Womp

And that's different to now, how?

Touché sir, touché.

I made my wife quite upset just last night as I tabled her by ramming my Raider into her AFII. That made it a rather dissatisfying win for a multitude of reasons.

Touché sir, touché.

I made my wife quite upset just last night as I tabled her by ramming my Raider into her AFII. That made it a rather dissatisfying win for a multitude of reasons.

What's wrong with ramming the wife?

After said event, 0 additional incidents of ramming occurred. That sir, is the problem.

"I suggest a new Strategy. BrobaFett, Let the Wookiee Wifey Win."

A thought just occurred... (maybe due to the Tramadol!), but why can't tractor beams INCREASE speed by 1 too?

Towing/tugging, etc.

I'm sure it would have massive balance implications!

A Demo without Intel Officer would be hilarious. Tractor it down to speed one, block with a flotilla. Demo unloads on said Flotilla. Scatter. Demo unloads again. Discard Scatter.

The best alpha striker in the game fails to kill a flotilla with two shots. Womp womp.

It then Rams, then double rams

Thus reducing the entire game to a demo derby with spaceships.

Womp Womp

Destruction Derby!!! What a great game hahaha