I’ve been thinking about something for a while, something that bugs me. I’ve wanted to make a big deal about it, and see some kind of fresh change. I think that something is constraining the fleet-building decision process, and I think the game would be much improved by doing something about it.
Who Else Could I Possibly Be Talking About?
Demolisher. Rhymer. In virtually every single Imperial list, we one or both of these units. They’ve dominated--no, defined--the meta since Wave 1, making themselves the undeniable backbone of the Empire. Looking at shmitty’s Regionals data fully confirms this: These two units are the signature components of practically every Imperial player who attends these tournaments.
Rhymerballs and DeMSU won nearly 60% of all Regionals. Not 60% of Imperial winners, 60% of all winners. All of the other Imperial archetypes combined, including Imperial Swarm and miscellaneous non-archetype fleets, barely crack 10% of either wins or total tournament attendance. Not very inspiring. We can talk about Raider Swarm as a viable challenger to the supremacy of these lists, but the data just doesn’t validate it as a contender. In the right hands it might outperform expectations, but it’s just not a candidate to give the meta even a tremor, much less displace either of the two kings.
The reason they’re popular is pretty straightforward: they’re powerful and cheap. They cost very little to include in a fleet list. They get a lot of work done in a game. It’s extremely easy to synergize them with other units and upgrades to increase their value even more. And they do it all without exposing the player to too much risk. In short, they are an easy way to min-max a list for unanswered damage by doing things that the rules prohibit every other unit in the game from doing.
Why It Bothers Me
If a unit is so powerful that it is a virtual requirement in all fleets, it’s overpowered. That’s true, but that’s not what bothers me, actually. That’s an argument for other people who are more interested in the pricing of individual upgrades. I’m much more of a Johnny than a Spike, in MtG terms.
What I do hate is that my choices in Imperial fleet-building are: build around the two obviously superior options, or suck on purpose out of protest. Even Rebel players have to go up against these two guys in every Rebel/Imperial matchup, so Armada becomes the Demolisher/Rhymer show for everybody. It’s even worse in such a thematic game as SW:A. The fleet battles of the Star Wars universe are getting sidelined by two nobodies, a made-up bomber pilot and a cartoon cyborg. Listening to the latest IFF, I’m gratified to hear my sentiments shared.
Is There Hope?
Wave 3 will only increase the power of squadrons, and bombers in particular. I see Rhymer only becoming even better. Way better. Demolisher might hit a speedbump when flotillas first make their appearance, as a way to block Demo’s attack run and Scatter its big damage. But it simply won’t last. Off the top of my head, I would say just giving Demolisher a wingman to clear out the flotillas solves that problem. A Raider with Sensor Teams (wow, Sensor Teams!) will kill them off, and then we’re right back to DeMSU, only just one step more refined. That’s my off-the-cuff idea, and I’m an idiot, so I can only imagine how good someone else’s New DeMSU would look.
Then we get to Wave 4, and if any further indication was needed of how big a shadow these units cast over every conversation about Armada game balance, look no further than the threads debating whether the Inderdictor is going to have a place in the game based on how its G-8s will interact with an Engine Teched Demolisher.
The problem is just that there’s still nothing that can do Demolisher’s job better than Demolisher. Or even anywhere close to as good. And until there is, or until there’s even a choice about how to fill that role, it’s all people will pick.
What FFG Will Do
I’m not going to suggest a change to either Demo or Rhymer, because we know that’s not FFG’s way, but I don’t want to be stuck with them ruling the game until some mythical Second Edition Armada comes around to remove them. FFG must know that Demo and Rhymer have been hogging the spotlight for a long time, and seriously overperforming in terms of how much of a points investment they require and in terms of the difficulty of making them work effectively. What they seem to favor as a solution is to introduce new units and upgrades that help the opponent defeat such tactics. To me, that’s a deeply unsatisfying solution. It makes sense from a business standpoint: You don’t want to tell people not to buy Gladiator and Imperial Fighter Expansions by crippling those units, so instead you might as well encourage sales of newer stuff that counters them. But just adding autoinclude counters to the autoinclude game-winners patches over the problem without fixing it. It in fact calcifies the meta even further.
What I Want Instead
What the imaginative player in me wants is more archetypes to latch onto and build around. So here’s my suggested solution instead: cut in on Demo and Rhymer by introducing competition at the level of the Imperial fleet builder. Let’s have some ships that occupy the same strategic niche as those two, but do not synergize well with them. Let’s have some meaningful choice for the Imperial player. They must be powerful enough to entice at least some players away from the old standbys.
How about a new Imperial squadron, ship, or upgrade that buffs nearby squadrons when they attack ships at distance 1? At last, we can make bombing runs against the Rebels, rather than firing off artillery shots from the middle of a Rhymer ball.
How about a new Imperial ship with a title that gives a bonus for activating first in the round, or that gives a bonus for activating last in the round? If anything looks even remotely as good as a triple tap, then at last Imperial admirals can say, “No, this fleet (incredibly) would NOT be improved simply by adding Demolisher.”
Discuss
We know Demolisher and Rhymer deform the meta. But how badly do they deform it?
Will Wave 3 or 4 change the role of these two units?
When’s the last time you saw somebody win an Organized Play event with an Imperial list that had neither of these two dudes? Was it the Raider swarm, or something else?
Edited by pasewi
