I think he is going to suck. And mass salty tears will flow due to him.

My take on thrawn:

Your objectives are always chosen regardless of which player you are.

50 points. (Maybe more?)

My take on thrawn:

Your objectives are always chosen regardless of which player you are.

50 points. (Maybe more?)

Card is doable but should be more to make taking a bid to be first player punishing.

I'm thinking 50 point commander and one of the following:

Before the first ship activates - you may interrupt to activate a ship.

So if you are first player you can potentially do 2 activations.

Or:

After the last ship activates, you may perform one additional attack from any one of your ships.

maybe too nasty. Might have to charge like 90 if he lets you do that.

My take on thrawn:

Your objectives are always chosen regardless of which player you are.

50 points. (Maybe more?)

Then what if it's Thrawn vs Thrawn?

My take on thrawn:

Your objectives are always chosen regardless of which player you are.

50 points. (Maybe more?)

Then what if it's Thrawn vs Thrawn?

I'd be up for something like:

Your Command 2 and 3 ships each require one less assigned command dial. Your Command 1 ships require no assigned command dials - once they activate, assign them a command dial set to your choice of command immediately before continuing.

Relentless+Thrawn = 1 command dial ISD, lulz.

Making it a Command 1 ISD?

I doubt it.

Good god. Could you imagine that?

Well I predict Piett will be an imperial version of Ackbar add dice to the front arc. Thrawn might be one of two things either affecting enemy ship command dials/ activations or allow you to change your ship command dials after your enemy reveals his

When a enemy ship at distance 1-3 of a friendly ship reveals a command dial, you may change the top command dial of that friendly ship.

People usually posit that Thrawn either has to have a crazy powerful ability to emulate his strength in canon, or will have a more balanced ability that won't satisfy our desire for his genius, but I'm always reminded of, and impressed by, WotC's miniatures game version of Thrawn. He had a couple of always relevant abilities that gave you benefit (passive stat boost, negating Force powers, ensuring you won initiative), but for those abilities he was still fairly expensive, and if you just wanted to jam him in to improve your squad, you'd likely be overpaying for it. His final ability, though, allowed you to swap two minis within a radius around him every turn. This was a very powerful ability, but it required you, the commander, to anticipate your opponent and plan ahead. If you were good at that, Thrawn was an incredibly powerful commander who won lots of tournaments, but he required skill and finesse. If you used him like a blunt instrument, you'd lose.

So I like the idea of him having an effect that, rather than simply put the game on easy mode by giving you all the information or saving you from having to make difficult decisions, is challenging to use and rewards your play skill if you're able to use him effectively.

This is only to demonstrate my point, rather than a serious card I've considered the power level of, but:

Before an enemy ship activates, you may exhaust this card and name a command. That ship may not resolve that command this turn.

(That's probably still too easy to abuse, but the concept is there. If you can't anticipate your opponent, Thrawn offers you little benefit, but if you can read them like a book, he gives you huge advantage.)

I dig it. Plus, it is a way more engaging way to tackle the topic of "Strategic Genius" than "Thrawn was a strategic genius, so now you, O mediocre one, now gain all this advantage."

I dig it. Plus, it is a way more engaging way to tackle the topic of "Strategic Genius" than "Thrawn was a strategic genius, so now you, O mediocre one, now gain all this advantage."

It also allows you to cost Thrawn appropriately. Thrawn, the commander, as portrayed in the EU, should be far more expensive and powerful than the other commanders, but that doesn't make for good gameplay. A Thrawn who can be powerful, but requires skill to use well, is satisfying to use as well as more balanced.

Such a skill could be: At the start of a turn you may change 1 of your ships top dial to a new command.

Such a skill could be: At the start of a turn you may change 1 of your ships top dial to a new command.

See, I think this is going in the opposite direction, rewarding poor play (oops, I would be better off with a different command here) rather than excellent play (no need to change anything, I anticipated my opponent's moves perfectly). Rewarding poor play obviously gives a commander a wider range of application, but it also requires the effect to be weaker, or more highly costed, since most people can easily benefit from it. Rewarding high-skill play means that fewer people are going to be able to abuse it, because not only do you need to be running the powerful commander, you also need to skilled enough to use it properly.

Such a skill could be: At the start of a turn you may change 1 of your ships top dial to a new command.

See, I think this is going in the opposite direction, rewarding poor play (oops, I would be better off with a different command here) rather than excellent play (no need to change anything, I anticipated my opponent's moves perfectly). Rewarding poor play obviously gives a commander a wider range of application, but it also requires the effect to be weaker, or more highly costed, since most people can easily benefit from it. Rewarding high-skill play means that fewer people are going to be able to abuse it, because not only do you need to be running the powerful commander, you also need to skilled enough to use it properly.

I can get behind that kind of idea. Howsabout something like...

"At the start of each ship phase, place a command dial face down in front of an enemy ship. When that enemy ship activates and reveals its command dial, reveal the command dial you assigned to it as well. If they match, you may assign that a copy of that command dial face up to each ship in your fleet. When your ships activate, they may resolve face up command dials in addition to their regular command dial."

It's convoluted, but basically it's a super-Tarkin provided you can guess what your opponent is going to be doing on his turn or get insider information (Director Isard) or engage in shenanigans (Slicer Tools). If you can't guess correctly/get your shenanigans working, he does nothing.

I would like something like this (custom card for X-Wing):

I would like something like this (custom card for X-Wing):

If only I could read that...

I think since Thrawn is a strategist his ability should definitely be reflective of his style. He's not a mary sue villain where he's invulnerable but even when things don't go according to plan he still manages to stay on top.

Maybe he's Armada's equivalent of a get out of jail card. Maybe for 50 points he can nullify one enemy attack and then is discarded?

Such a skill could be: At the start of a turn you may change 1 of your ships top dial to a new command.

See, I think this is going in the opposite direction, rewarding poor play (oops, I would be better off with a different command here) rather than excellent play (no need to change anything, I anticipated my opponent's moves perfectly). Rewarding poor play obviously gives a commander a wider range of application, but it also requires the effect to be weaker, or more highly costed, since most people can easily benefit from it. Rewarding high-skill play means that fewer people are going to be able to abuse it, because not only do you need to be running the powerful commander, you also need to skilled enough to use it properly.

I can get behind that kind of idea. Howsabout something like...

"At the start of each ship phase, place a command dial face down in front of an enemy ship. When that enemy ship activates and reveals its command dial, reveal the command dial you assigned to it as well. If they match, you may assign that a copy of that command dial face up to each ship in your fleet. When your ships activate, they may resolve face up command dials in addition to their regular command dial."

It's convoluted, but basically it's a super-Tarkin provided you can guess what your opponent is going to be doing on his turn or get insider information (Director Isard) or engage in shenanigans (Slicer Tools). If you can't guess correctly/get your shenanigans working, he does nothing.

I like this not only because it has the tactical requirement, but also because of the (again, purely tactical) interplay between the tools you could use strategically. Only problem would be the fact that, as someone already mentioned, once you have seen the game played you will always have at worst maybe a 50% chance of getting the correct dial on a stone cold guess. Demo coming up just outside red range on my flank with a banked Nav. Could it be a Conc fire? Or myabe a Conc Fire? No no, must be engineering. But seriously, It could end up at higher levels thrawn would become the only admiral actually playable because his ability could be used with essentially 100% accuracy giving you a double dial advantage for the whole game.

Edit: Or force them to choose terrible terrible commands just to prevent Thrawn from gaining an unholy advantage.

Making it a Command 1 ISD?

I doubt it.

Good god. Could you imagine that?

Am I the only one who doesn't care how many command dials a ship has? I don't have a problem setting dials. In fact, it's actually a BAD thing in my eyes, for a ship to have less than 3 command, because that makes Tarkin weaker on that ship.

Making it a Command 1 ISD?

I doubt it.

Good god. Could you imagine that?

Am I the only one who doesn't care how many command dials a ship has? I don't have a problem setting dials. In fact, it's actually a BAD thing in my eyes, for a ship to have less than 3 command, because that makes Tarkin weaker on that ship.

You are missing the point.

Its not reducing the command value

Its simply reducing the amount of Dials....

So Tarkin can still 3 up.

BUt you can set a fresh dial each turn rather than having to plan ahead.

I gotta say I really dislike the idea of either messing with opponents dials or negating an opponents activation. It's less that I think it's overpowered but more that those kind of mechanics lead to a bad play experience. Stopping the other player from doing something basic just because is usually not fun.

I like the idea behind bail organa. It still messes with activations but not in the same way. I'd rather these abilities stick with manipulating your own ships, even if the end result is similar. At least the other player still has control of his own dang ships that way.

Once per turn you may skip an activation, forcing your opponent to activate twice in a row.

I gotta say I really dislike the idea of either messing with opponents dials or negating an opponents activation. It's less that I think it's overpowered but more that those kind of mechanics lead to a bad play experience. Stopping the other player from doing something basic just because is usually not fun.

I like the idea behind bail organa. It still messes with activations but not in the same way. I'd rather these abilities stick with manipulating your own ships, even if the end result is similar. At least the other player still has control of his own dang ships that way

This is perhaps the fundamental problem with Thrawn is how does he avoid being OP. He's the Napoleon of this universe and he needs to have a power that matches who he is. According to the Duke of Wellington "I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the battlefield made the difference of forty thousand men."

Maybe Thrawn's ability isn't necessarily imbued in tactics. Maybe he inspires the effectiveness of the entire fleet simply by being the commander. I don't know how necessarily but maybe similar to how Motti influences hull but with dice and attacks?

I would like something like this (custom card for X-Wing):

If only I could read that...

At the start of each round you may guess one enemy maneuver. If you are right the ship gets a stress token and one friendly ship of you choice gets a focus token.