Hello fellow Admirals,

Quick question regarding the Hyperspace Retreat rules and General Rieekan's ability in the campaign and apologies if this has been asked before. The wording on General Rieekan is this:

"When a friendly ship or unique squadron is destroyed, it remains in the play area and is treated as if it was not destroyed until the end of the status phase."

The wording on Hyperspace Retreat is this:

"During the fourth and fifth rounds, when a ship activates and reveals it's command dial, it may immediately declare a retreat and discard that dial. If that ship remains in the play area at the start of the Status Phase, remove that ship from the play area. It will count as being destroyed when determining score, but does not become scarred after the battle has been resolved."

So my question is this. Since the wording on retreating says "If that ship remains in the play area at the start of the Status Phase..." and Rieekan's ability keeps the ship on the board until the end of the status phase, would it be possible for a Rebel ship to be destroyed before it activates, stays on the board with Rieekan's ability, declare a retreat when it activates, and is removed at the start of the status phase, but doesn't become scarred?

Just wanted to clarify the wording on this.

Thanks for you help!

That appears to be the intent, yes.

We're all waiting for the FAQ on this one, but many of us would be surprised if the ship counted as not scarred.

Some people outright refuse to play if anyone in their group wants to interpret it this way either....

The answer right now with the wording we have is that Riegan can jump into hyperspace with destroyed ships and they don't get scarred.

In fact is not so great advantage but is not bad at all of course. You only can do this before being activated during rounds 4-5 and the points you did not use to remove scarred status are wasted. And you are probably loosing the war anyway.

By the rules as written, there's no mystery. It works, by a straightforward reading of the rules.

By the rules as intended, I'd also say it's pretty compelling. Hyperspace says "if that ship remains in the play area." There's absolutely no reason not to say "if that ship has not been destroyed," the more commonplace way to write it. Except that the way it's written goes out of its way to be inclusive of Rieekan.

I haven't encountered people having a meltdown just because someone wants to play Rieekan, and I play Imperial in a campaign against Rieekan. I think it's a big mistake to act like he's a uniquely campaign-ruining synergy. If your opponents ignore the commander ability of their opponents and play as if the card text didn't exist, they deserve whatever they get. There's plenty of counter-play if you pay attention.

• Kill ships and squadrons on rounds 1, 2, 3, and 6, when he can't Hyperspace Retreat.
• Bring an Interdictor. The Imperial ship that suddenly has a new role in the campaign. This issue ceases to exist, and Rieekan's utility drops. If Rieekan is so broken that you would question being in the campaign at all, then why not just completely troll that player with an Interdictor in every fleet?
• Be points-efficient on your own. Your enemy just conceded the battle, if you are completely unable to take advantage of that, then the enemy was already winning before Rieekan's ability kicked in.

That's how I understood it too. Whilst it can save your ships from destruction, hyperspacing is a survival tactic not a battle-winning one, therefore its hardly game breaking.

It is not game-breaking, but:

Unless your opponent brings an Interdictor (and keeps it alive and at distance 1-5) Rieekan can easily and with 100% surety, hyper out on rounds 4-5 (and it's not very difficult to have the heavy fighting take place during those rounds).

That is a significant advantage - not only will my zombies hang around and do damage (usual benefit of Rieekan) they can't be scarred, thus potentially saving you a bunch of resources.

So not game-breaking. Just lame :-)

I've not played with or against Rieekan in CC so my judgement is not based on experience.

Rieekan's ability has a secondary cost (in addition to the points cost) that every ship you hyperspace out gives your opponents points. You also have to time it right. There have been plenty of times where I've lost a ship that I didn't expect to. Rieekan would not have saved them from scarring in CC if I had already activated them.

Anecdotally, people are playing more conservatively in CC, so they might hyperspace out earlier. In which case, they're missing out on another round or more of potential damage dealing with a ship. That's the opportunity cost of playing more defensively. Anyone trying to maximise on Rieekan's ability to prevent scarring is likely giving up a degree of their damage potential.

As has been mentioned before, if you play an opponent and ignore his fleet's abilities then you're asking to play at a disadvantage.

You wouldn't run into Ackbar broadside crossfire and complain that he blew up your ships.

You wouldn't keep throwing medium range Rhymerball shots at Mon Mothma Shimps or CR-90s and complain that they keep cancelling them.

If you're fighting a Motti tank fleet you have to account for the extra damage you need to kill them.

Against Rieekan in CC you need to adjust your tactics. Try to set up your big kill shots so that you make them after he's activated and won't have a chance to declare hyperspace.

I doubt I'm going to change anyone's mind, and that's fine. We're all playing our own campaign with friends to have a good time so we should play how we like. I just wanted to add my voice to pro-Rieekan camp.

Secondary cost? How so?

All ships that hyper out earns your opponent pts. Rieekan doesn't change that.

But he does save you 22 refit on those CR90s. Or nearly 50 on the BC.

Because with Rieekan you're playing a potentially dangerous game of second guessing when a ship might be destroyed and trying to push it right up to the limit.

With any other commander, you might jump your ships the turn before you think they'll be destroyed. If you're trying to abuse Rieekan's ability, you're trying to keep them in until they take maximum damage, then activate them and declare hyperspace.

That means that you have to game your activation order to something that's very possibly less ideal than you would otherwise want, to keep the ships you think might be destroyed until last. Or, you activate them earlier and jump them before they take their last damage, in the expectation that they will get destroyed this turn.

In the first case, you may get you order wrong, activate and then have a ship destroyed that turn, with no chance to hyperspace. In the second, you anticipate wrongly and jump early, wasting one of the benefits of the Commander that you've paid for.

In my campaign, scarred ships have absolutely not been such a driving force that it influenced the balance of the war. I play as Jerjerrod, and I might as well have Rieekan's ability because I hyperspace my ships out whenever I have to, and I rarely spend many points refitting them. Every commander can "never spend points on refitting" just like Rieekan, or at least rarely do so, like Rieekan rarely does so. Rieekan in my campaign didn't have a noticeably different fleet size than anyone else. He gambles on when he must withdraw his ships just like the rest of us do, and sometimes he gets it wrong and is caught and killed before getting the chance to retret, but the difference is that there are times that he gets to relax and not stress about making the wrong call.

He doesn't upturn the game, unless the opponent is a fool and refuses to change his tactics to account for what his opponent brought, just like any other element of any other tabletop game. The biggest reason to play Rieekan is the same as it's always been: shenanigans involving zombie escort X-Wing trench buddies. The CC is nothing special in that regard.