Full disclosure: I'm an Imperial player, and have been since the game started. Yes I do have at least one of everything and intend to continue that, but Imps are my thing.

That said, I'm a little concerned about General Riekaan.

Mathematically, Riekaan adds more firepower, more durability, and more maneuvering options that every other commander in the game. Not any other commander; EVERY other commander.

Now, I'm not accusing anybody of cheese. I think that Riekaan was added to combat a very specific style of list (the high activation low bid Demolisher list, which was nuts in Waves 1 and 2) and has done so effectively.

I'm very concerned about his future impact.

Right now, as far as I can tell from Wave 3 and 4 and th new Campaign additions, Rebel players are at a severe disadvantage against Imperials when playing non-Riekaan lists. Their ships die faster, their squadrons die faster, and ultimately they have far fewer opportunities to block, ram, or shoot back. This is compounded by the new Rebel releases, which trade a certain degree of durability for lower costs and higher damage output and support options.

We can discuss the merits of his inclusion and they are numerous. Imperial fleets are currently built to hit fast, hard, and relentlessly starting as early as the second turn. Riekaan is especially tailored against this list style and punishes players who aren't ready to methodically eliminate targets.

We have some early ideas of what the new Correlia Campaign will add to the game: lots of unique squadrons and new objectives. For Riekaan, this will be as many as eight new squadrons that cannot be killed and 12 new objectives that may allow him to get extra VPs before his ships and squadrons die. God help us if the new stations with hull points and armaments are legalized for tournament play.

My answer is that Riekaan needs a nerf, but not a drastic one. Something that lets Imperials make progress, but doesn't undermine his core concept.

An example I'd suggest is changing his ability to trigger at the end of the ship phase, eliminating the Invincible Escort shenanigans but letting support ships do their thing before succumbing to enemy fire.

Another option is making it so that Destroyed ships and squadrons affected by Riekaan cannot gain or reward objective points. This would help even up the game, by giving enemy players a clear benefit to destroying ships early in the turn. It would also buff Riekaan a little, by ensuring that his ships cannot be farmed for objective points after being destroyed.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Personally, in the two games I faced against Riekaan, I haven't found him particularily annoying. I understand your point about him "adding" (well, prevents the removal of) tons of firepower, but consider the following fact :

Riekaan's ability is rendered useless when you kill ships that have already activated.

Like you said, it counters lists that are built around initiative and activation advantage to punch ennemies before they shoot. He's quite annoying in the sense that he makes admirals have to rethink their strategies ! But against Riekaan, you play to gain advantage the turn after, rather than the current turn.

For the squadrons part, Ideally you want to activate your own squadrons as late as possible in the ship phase. Example against Riekaan and Wedge : Make sure Wedge is going to hit a ship with his black dice which, while annoying, isn't the end of the world. Then throw multiple TIEs at him to bypass his tokens. 4 TIEs with swarms and a extra dice from something like Flight Controllers or Howlrunner and a single AA shot are likely to sound the end of Wedge.

Sometimes, when you can't avoid an ability, it's more profitable to play around it.

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

You lost me with this part, I underlined the part that does not match up even slightly with what I have seen

Right now, as far as I can tell from Wave 3 and 4 and th new Campaign additions, Rebel players are at a severe disadvantage against Imperials when playing non-Riekaan lists. Their ships die faster, their squadrons die faster, and ultimately they have far fewer opportunities to block, ram, or shoot back. This is compounded by the new Rebel releases, which trade a certain degree of durability for lower costs and higher damage output and support options.

Yes, they have less hull than the empire, but most of the time they have more shields, and lots of other tricks to keep them safe. Added to the fact that there fighters are much better, and are a real pain to kill with all the hull points they have. As for the block and ram, I am not sure what you mean by block, and no one in my area tries to ram as a normal thing.

Also in full disclosure, I am also an imperial player.

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

Brainless play? How so? Do you really think that a player taking Rieekan as his admiral does it so he can waste his ships? That's about as far from the truth as you can possibly come.

Rieekan is all about activation order, or more specifically, breaking free (partly) from the constraints of having to move in a set order, especially in the mid-game (2-4).

Full disclosure: I'm an Imperial player, and have been since the game started. Yes I do have at least one of everything and intend to continue that, but Imps are my thing.

That said, I'm a little concerned about General Riekaan.

Mathematically, Riekaan adds more firepower, more durability, and more maneuvering options that every other commander in the game. Not any other commander; EVERY other commander.

Now, I'm not accusing anybody of cheese. I think that Riekaan was added to combat a very specific style of list (the high activation low bid Demolisher list, which was nuts in Waves 1 and 2) and has done so effectively.

I'm very concerned about his future impact.

Right now, as far as I can tell from Wave 3 and 4 and th new Campaign additions, Rebel players are at a severe disadvantage against Imperials when playing non-Riekaan lists. Their ships die faster, their squadrons die faster, and ultimately they have far fewer opportunities to block, ram, or shoot back. This is compounded by the new Rebel releases, which trade a certain degree of durability for lower costs and higher damage output and support options.

We can discuss the merits of his inclusion and they are numerous. Imperial fleets are currently built to hit fast, hard, and relentlessly starting as early as the second turn. Riekaan is especially tailored against this list style and punishes players who aren't ready to methodically eliminate targets.

We have some early ideas of what the new Correlia Campaign will add to the game: lots of unique squadrons and new objectives. For Riekaan, this will be as many as eight new squadrons that cannot be killed and 12 new objectives that may allow him to get extra VPs before his ships and squadrons die. God help us if the new stations with hull points and armaments are legalized for tournament play.

My answer is that Riekaan needs a nerf, but not a drastic one. Something that lets Imperials make progress, but doesn't undermine his core concept.

An example I'd suggest is changing his ability to trigger at the end of the ship phase, eliminating the Invincible Escort shenanigans but letting support ships do their thing before succumbing to enemy fire.

Another option is making it so that Destroyed ships and squadrons affected by Riekaan cannot gain or reward objective points. This would help even up the game, by giving enemy players a clear benefit to destroying ships early in the turn. It would also buff Riekaan a little, by ensuring that his ships cannot be farmed for objective points after being destroyed.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Funny thing: not so long ago Rieekan was the least loved Rebel admiral, and everyone was screaming nerf on Ackbar. Just sayin'

Disclosure: I've never used Rieekan. (LOL - he's the guy that evacuates Hoth?)

@Cactus - this is a good discussion to start.

At first, I was like... "Rieekan doesn't lead to a win condition." But yeah, getting to activate something else if something is gonna get killed, is really strong. A one hull Rebel ship that survives is another turn of full firepower.

Let's look at things that break the laws of the normal game...

1 - Demolisher

2 - Rhymer and Mothma (alter maybe the right word)?

3 - Rieekan

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

Brainless play? How so? Do you really think that a player taking Rieekan as his admiral does it so he can waste his ships? That's about as far from the truth as you can possibly come.

I never said you have to be brainless if you take Rieekan...

Rieekan is all about activation order, or more specifically, breaking free (partly) from the constraints of having to move in a set order, especially in the mid-game (2-4).

Yeah, and I think the way he achieves this is not fun to play against.

Disclosure: I've never used Rieekan. (LOL - he's the guy that evacuates Hoth?)

@Cactus - this is a good discussion to start.

At first, I was like... "Rieekan doesn't lead to a win condition." But yeah, getting to activate something else if something is gonna get killed, is really strong. A one hull Rebel ship that survives is another turn of full firepower.

Let's look at things that break the laws of the normal game...

1 - Demolisher

2 - Rhymer and Mothma (alter maybe the right word)?

3 - Rieekan

I have no issues with Mothma, she still has ways of mitigating her ability. (Get close, accuracy, using ships with big dice pools.)

Can we start from a position of objectiveness and positivity rather than disgust and negativity please? Instead of how to nerf Rieekan, lets first look at how Rieekan impacts on the game and whether there are tricks we can play to take away his power:

1) Squadron Game

Rieekan allows rebel aces to remain alive till the status phase. This has benefits in making sure they all get to activate and get at least one last shot.

1A) Zombie Escorts

The major beneficiary of RIeekan within the squads are Luke and Wedge. They dont just gain the benefit of being able to fire after their death, they continue to absorb damage and prevent the enemy from hunting their friends.

Who does this affect? This has a big impact on alpha striking squadron builds. The archetype of this is Howl, Mauler, Soontir, Flight Controllered Tie Interceptors. Its designed to hit first and hit hard, taking out squads before they can respond. Zombie Escorts is a hard counter to this, as Wedge should be positioned such that he will be take the brunt of the attack.

What can we do to mitigate this? Well first up, why are we attacking the zombie squads in the first place? Alpha strike players have a tendency to throw their squads at the start of turn two to get the initiative in the squadron battle. Clearly this isnt going to work, so why are we attacking Rieekan squads?

Is our aim to kill squadrons and earn victory points this way? If so why are we doing this if the situation isnt beneficial? Can we wait until we can avoid the escort and kill other squads instead? Will delaying our alpha strike be beneficial? Is it necessary to kill squads?

Is our aim to prevent these Rieekan squads from shooting our ships? Are our ships in danger? If not, why are we attacking turn 2? Can we delay our strike until our ships are actually in danger? By waiting will we get a more favourable outcome with more targets to shoot?

What you will notice with Rieekan squads is that Wedge is usually left just in range of your squadrons. He is there to tempt, that is all. Will the Rieekan player throw his squads at yours? The answer is probably not, and that introduces the next topic.

1B) Yavaris and Adar Tallon

Now the key to rebel squadrons is not the individuals themselves. On an individual basis, rebel aces are overpriced, pure and simple. However, combine them with Yavaris or Adar Tallon and you start to get a lot more benefit and thus value from them.

We all know Yavaris and Adar allow squads to take multiple shots in a single turn. But they have limitations. Yavaris prevents the squads from moving, and comes with a ship that cannot take boosted comms. So we now have a force multiplier which actively encourages the rebel squads to not venture beyond blue range of Yavaris.

So I ask again, will the Rieekan squads alpha strike yours? Probably not, because by doing so they give up the power of yavaris, and the control of the squad battle will fall to you.

Adar Tallon is different. He only works on a single unit. So whilst he does not have range limitations, he has different limitations. Firstly, nobody alpha strikes with a single unit, so just because Adar can allow Wedge to make it all the way on his own to your squads, does not mean that he will do that. Its sucide. Secondly, Adar doesnt have a magical power over intel, if you want to control the use of Adar, force the Rieekan player to activate Jan Orrs twice. Nobody winces at being shot by Jan twice.

2) Ship Game

Rieekan lets ships stay till the end of the status phase, which has obvious benefits for being able to return fire.

2A) The Admiral Ship

As with any Admiral ability it affects all ships including the flagship. The issue when building Rieekan lists, is that as with many other Admirals its of utmost importance to keep the admiral alive. Dodonna, Garm and Ozzel do a lot of their work in the early rounds of games, whereas Rieekan is most effective turns 4-6.

So what ship do we put Rieekan on? Well we've bought 4 corvettes or 134pts of squads with Yavaris and Adar, so what can we afford? Not always but quite often, the Rieekan player has run out of money by this point and makes a fatal mistake. They put Rieekan on a ship that is not very robust.

Very simply. Prioritise killing Rieekan above all else. This is your primary aim. Now how are you going to achieve that? Trade a ship for it if you have to, but make sure you kill him fast.

2B) Engine Techs and Ramming

The somewhat cheesy aspect of Rieekan, the abuse of the ramming rules. Even after their death, Rieekans corvettes will double ram you for more hull damage.

How can we avoid this? Well if we cannot just kill Rieekan straight away we have to take other measures.

What does Rieekans corvettes need to ram? They need to be positioned with a viable movement path towards your ship. How do we avoid this? Forget whatever your plan was. Against such a specialised fleet, you have one path and one path only to take.

Navigate. Every single dial you have should be navigate. Manouver so that you keep out of the corvettes front arcs. They cannot ram you if you are not there. These ships are designed to ram you to death, firepower is actually secondary. You will outgun them. So just make sure you manouver carefully.

But what about my squads you ask!? Well this is the concession, you cannot activate them as you cannot afford to not use navigate dials. However, you are more than capable of setting a trap for these ships, by positioning your squads like mines ready to fire at the next squadron phase. If Rieekan wants to play for the next turn, then well so can you.

2C) Defiance, Salvation and MC30's.

There are three main ships which benefit in a much more substantial way. The vengeance ships. Defiance, Salvation and MC30's can deliver a staggering amount of firepower in a single burst. However they are all limited. Defiance wants you in its side arc, Salvation its front arcs, and MC30s at close range.

Unlike normal play you must consider two things when planning your attack. As per normal, your approach path is important, consideration of how you avoid fire power on the way in. However, against Rieekan your departure path is also important, consideration of how you will escape fire power on your way back out.

Hit and RUN. Sure you might need to go close to kill his ships. But this doesnt mean you have to stay close once you have killed them...

3) Summary.

Kill the flagship as a priority.

Dont alpha strike squadrons early. This will not work against Rieekan Zombie escorts.

Navigation dials are key to avoiding ramming fireships.

Plan your escape.

Imperial fleets are currently built to hit fast, hard, and relentlessly starting as early as the second turn. Riekaan is especially tailored against this list style and punishes players who aren't ready to methodically eliminate targets.

Now lets be clear here. This question wasnt about how Imperial fleets beat Rieekan. This was how does your fleet beat Rieekan. Imperial fleets come in all shapes and sizes, your fleet does not. Your fleet is directly countered by Rieekan. This isnt an issue, it is something for you to consider when building your devestator list.

So this leads onto a different question. Why do I currently run multiple MC30s? Its very simple. I can hit from long range, hit very hard, and most crucially, escape back to long range. It completely circumvents Rieekan.

Now with Devestator you can do exactly the same thing. Because you are facing Rieekan you want to be speed 3 when you make your attack. You want to be able to escape into their weak arcs after killing so that they cant hurt you too badly. Now unlike normal, there are no margins for error. So no more gung ho speed 3 from deployment. That is childish. Plan your moves. Start slow and ramp up, hitting max speed at the right moment and not a moment sooner.

If you telegraph your actions, there will be corvettes sitting in your way preventing your escape. Plan your attack, wait for a gap to appear and then strike.

Devestator chooses to lose all its defense tokens to gain maximum power. In this case you may wish to hang on to the brace as the ships will fire back after you kill them.

I've seen and played against several Rieekans who put him on a corvette (Will this be a GR75 in W3?) and fly him around the far edge of the board, making it almost impossible to kill. What's the game plan then? I don't know what ship can kill a corvette that doesnt care about anything that isn't just stsying alive. Commit too much and you lose the objective game.

I propose a trade: I'll give up Rieekan if Imps lose Demolisher.

Rieekan's fine.

I've seen and played against several Rieekans who put him on a corvette (Will this be a GR75 in W3?) and fly him around the far edge of the board, making it almost impossible to kill. What's the game plan then? I don't know what ship can kill a corvette that doesnt care about anything that isn't just stsying alive. Commit too much and you lose the objective game.

So lets look at this objectively.

The Rieekan player has chosen to spend about 80pts on keeping his Admiral alive. And he has also given up his last deployment to Rieekan. Which means he does not have a heavy hitter to place last in the perfect spot.

So we do two things.

1) Before deployment, look at your list. Can you spare 80pts to chase down Rieekan fast and kill? Do you have anything suited to this? Hold this back in deployment till last.

2) After deployment, look at the deployment. Are you in a position to kill Rieekan fast? If not, commit to winning a 400 versus 320 game. They have given you this advantage, now use it.

I propose a trade: I'll give up Rieekan if Imps lose Demolisher.

Rieekan's fine.

Do you want to expand on how Rieekan hates facing Triple Victory Rhymerballs? Because you know, all imperial fleets like to hit hard and fast and have a massive unfair weakness against Rieekan.....

I remember a certain game between you and CNinj that when on for hours and hours.... Maybe enforced watching of that video?

Rieekan relies on good planning. I've never used him. I like Ackbar too much. I really don't think the dude is OP.

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

Brainless play? How so? Do you really think that a player taking Rieekan as his admiral does it so he can waste his ships? That's about as far from the truth as you can possibly come.

I never said you have to be brainless if you take Rieekan...

Rieekan is all about activation order, or more specifically, breaking free (partly) from the constraints of having to move in a set order, especially in the mid-game (2-4).

Yeah, and I think the way he achieves this is not fun to play against.

Yes you did: Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

I propose a trade: I'll give up Rieekan if Imps lose Demolisher.

Rieekan's fine.

Do you want to expand on how Rieekan hates facing Triple Victory Rhymerballs? Because you know, all imperial fleets like to hit hard and fast and have a massive unfair weakness against Rieekan.....

I've expounded at length a few times on how to counter Rieekan. It mostly comes down to various combinations of controlling your tempo, schwacking the Necromancer himself early, and crippling his ships through alternate means.

Dodonna, Screed, Konstantine, APT-powered fast attackers, lots of fast bombers, XX-9's, tractor beams, slicer tools, pretty much all of the experimental retros... Essentially, any attack vector at all that isn't strictly MOAR DAMAGE works just fine against him. The problem is that MOAR DAMAGE is all a lot of people know how to do.

I remember a certain game between you and CNinj that when on for hours and hours.... Maybe enforced watching of that video?

The only people who should be subjected to watching that video are those who already play Rieekan swarms and understand how painstaking every... single... move... is during the middle of the game.

Also, we both agreed at the outset that we weren't in any hurry, so we felt zero obligation to make it not-boring for you guys, despite everybody watching. I like the idea of commentary on games, but I'm not sure Twitch streaming a live Vassal game is the best way to go about it. I wonder if a commentary streamed over a log replay would be a better format.

Actually... Hmm... I might gauge interest in a YouTube series or something in that format...

Riekaan? Really?

No, I don't think Riekaan is overpowered, a threat to the game, or "anti-fun".

He's a reactionary choice. Riekaan's popularity seems, above all else, to be simply due to the impact of the Demolisher.

There seems to be a pattern to it: People use a cool admiral like Akbar because he's 'obviously' much more powerful, then lose their most expensive ship to the Demolisher - often before getting to fire a single shot.

They go through denial, 'That can't have happened to my 170pt Christmas tree of upgrades!', then anger 'That should NOT happen, this game promised extended ship to ship combat!' but then just before they get to depression some of them find a home in the bargaining phase; 'Fine, I'll take this unappealing commander, as long as my ships get to fire at least once before they are removed'.

There are some other uses like "Zombie Escort Xwings" and "Crazy Crashing Corvettes", but the above scenario seems to be the reason most people choose him.

So no, I don't think Riekaan is overpowered, a threat to the game, or "anti-fun".

I think he is a reaction to the Demolisher, which is all those three.

I've seen and played against several Rieekans who put him on a corvette (Will this be a GR75 in W3?) and fly him around the far edge of the board, making it almost impossible to kill. What's the game plan then? I don't know what ship can kill a corvette that doesnt care about anything that isn't just stsying alive. Commit too much and you lose the objective game.

So lets look at this objectively.

The Rieekan player has chosen to spend about 80pts on keeping his Admiral alive. And he has also given up his last deployment to Rieekan. Which means he does not have a heavy hitter to place last in the perfect spot.

So we do two things.

1) Before deployment, look at your list. Can you spare 80pts to chase down Rieekan fast and kill? Do you have anything suited to this? Hold this back in deployment till last.

2) After deployment, look at the deployment. Are you in a position to kill Rieekan fast? If not, commit to winning a 400 versus 320 game. They have given you this advantage, now use it.

Let me make it clear, I am not saying Rieekan breaks the game, is unbeatable, or any other hyperbole; I just think he isn't fun to play against, just think two other cards people complain about...

Anyway, why is it 80 points? Cr90 b is 39- I don't think you can count the admiral's points cost.

The only thing I think could kill it for a comparable cost are 3 Firesprays that are well enough positioned to get two rounds of shooting off.

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

Brainless play? How so? Do you really think that a player taking Rieekan as his admiral does it so he can waste his ships? That's about as far from the truth as you can possibly come.

I never said you have to be brainless if you take Rieekan...

Rieekan is all about activation order, or more specifically, breaking free (partly) from the constraints of having to move in a set order, especially in the mid-game (2-4).

Yeah, and I think the way he achieves this is not fun to play against.

Yes you did: Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

Come on now, encourages isn't the same as obligates.

I've seen and played against several Rieekans who put him on a corvette (Will this be a GR75 in W3?) and fly him around the far edge of the board, making it almost impossible to kill. What's the game plan then? I don't know what ship can kill a corvette that doesnt care about anything that isn't just stsying alive. Commit too much and you lose the objective game.

So lets look at this objectively.

The Rieekan player has chosen to spend about 80pts on keeping his Admiral alive. And he has also given up his last deployment to Rieekan. Which means he does not have a heavy hitter to place last in the perfect spot.

So we do two things.

1) Before deployment, look at your list. Can you spare 80pts to chase down Rieekan fast and kill? Do you have anything suited to this? Hold this back in deployment till last.

2) After deployment, look at the deployment. Are you in a position to kill Rieekan fast? If not, commit to winning a 400 versus 320 game. They have given you this advantage, now use it.

Let me make it clear, I am not saying Rieekan breaks the game, is unbeatable, or any other hyperbole; I just think he isn't fun to play against, just think two other cards people complain about...

Anyway, why is it 80 points? Cr90 b is 39- I don't think you can count the admiral's points cost.

The only thing I think could kill it for a comparable cost are 3 Firesprays that are well enough positioned to get two rounds of shooting off.

CR90B and admiral is 69points. If you kill it, you earn 69pts in victory points. Thats the trade. I would quite happily send a CR90A with TRC's or a MC30 to do it, if I can spare them from the main fight.

Actually... Hmm... I might gauge interest in a YouTube series or something in that format...

LTD did some of those, they were quite good apart from the continuous tapping of his mouse.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/222526-ltds-armada-blog/

Demolisher and Rhymer are annoying, I really dislike their warping of the game mechanics, but, its just one ship/squadron. When they die, they die.

Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

"What's that, you've outmanoeuvred me, and my ship is about to go down? I better activate it first to make the most of it before its destroyed- oh wait, nevermind I'll priotise something else, and just drive it into you later/onto an asteroid for free victory points."

I'm worried he might be even better with these presumably cheaper new unique squadrons coming out.

Brainless play? How so? Do you really think that a player taking Rieekan as his admiral does it so he can waste his ships? That's about as far from the truth as you can possibly come.

I never said you have to be brainless if you take Rieekan...

Rieekan is all about activation order, or more specifically, breaking free (partly) from the constraints of having to move in a set order, especially in the mid-game (2-4).

Yeah, and I think the way he achieves this is not fun to play against.

Yes you did: Riekan though... He encourages some really brainless play.

Come on now, encourages isn't the same as obligates.

Come on now, you used the "brainless" word. Own up to it.

I still claim that players take Rieekan because they have a (clever?) plan: to use his ability to get the most out of their ships, squadrons and upgrades.

Motti...he's pretty dull though. And Ackbar...broadsides and gunnery teams...really creative. Should I go on with the other admirals?

My point is: each admiral encourages you to play in (usually one of several) ways. Rieekan's ability is far from the most brainless one.

I would say, for me, Rieekan was one of the hardest to learn how to play well. Sure, he is forgiving, but so is every single admiral in the game. They all have jinky abilities that really help you have an edge.

Rieekan makes you think backwards while you play, and delaying your activation isn't always the way to go, even with his abilities. He also allows you to play more aggressively with fragile ships. He really likes objectives with points (contested outpost, fire lanes) that don't involve shooting ships (superior positions, precision strike are dangerous to him).

You want to help mitigate Rieekan, learn to play going second with your fleet and choose that, or just in general try to kill his stuff after it activates. R&V really dump all over him, in my experience, unless he goes heavy squadrons too.