May the Force Be With Biggs - Steel Command Containment Thread

By shmitty, in Star Wars: Armada

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I've got a number of "something big" private Armada projects in my area, glad to see you doing something too!

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6 hours ago, Viktor Tanek said:

You're my hero.

I know right? He surprised his fellow bloggers with this too.

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Well this is the most pleasant of surprises. This is freaking awesome!!!

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On 5/18/2018 at 11:02 PM, GiledPallaeon said:

I like martial arts. Things like taido, tae kwon do, things that engage your brain just as much if not more than your muscles, while also continuing to remind your muscles that they hate you and everything you stand for.

Get up to 90 pushups in 2 min, and we can have a "mental exercise" discussion. My personal best was 98, and anything after the first minute is 100% mental.

Neither here nor there, just as a matter of pride, I did that at 35, beating out kids 10-15 years my junior! All discipline!

Anything that keeps you active is a good thing though, so don't think I'm dissing you. ;)

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29 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

Get up to 90 pushups in 2 min, and we can have a "mental exercise" discussion. My personal best was 98, and anything after the first minute is 100% mental.

Neither here nor there, just as a matter of pride, I did that at 35, beating out kids 10-15 years my junior! All discipline!

****. Only at 70 now... grad school has made me soft.

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7 hours ago, BiggsIRL said:

@ovinomanc3r

Oops! ?

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This is a great approach! Needs fine tuning, but that was also the case for the current system. Simply great!

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Id agree

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Definitely refine squadron play. I agree with fewer keywords, and fewer interactions for squadrons -- clever interactions should be *ship* things. Probably reduce squadron maximum to 25% of list points from 33% as well.

On the other hand ... this will be controversial -- I think all squadrons should be able to move/attack in the squadron phase. It has always seemed silly to me that slower, lumbering capital ships can outrun squadrons. If you go to move/attack, then you eliminate that issue ... and also allow the "squadrons only attack in base-to-base" mechanic that you propose. You'd have to refine squadron commands -- perhaps give them an ability to have a squadron either move or attack, not both, but not count as an activation (squadrons still activate in the squadron phase), or make it so you can only activate squadron keywords when activated with a squadron command (generic squadron phase is then plain moves/attacks, no special abilities), or allow engaged squadrons to disengage using a squadron command, or something like that.

I'd like to see more command dial options -- for example, a "command" command on the dial that activates certain ship keywords. Make planning and selection of commands harder with more interesting choices.

Stacking of certain abilities should be reduced -- make hard choices, not just shut your opponent down completely ("nope, no defense tokens, in fact throw them away").

Maybe ... not certain on this ... drive fleet mix. Max number of large, medium, small base ships by type (Flotilla limitation is a step in that direction). That encourages combined arms; avoids spam.

I'd favor objective and tournament scoring revisions, too (also controversial). First -- rebalance scenarios objective points. Victory should be based on meeting scenario objectives first (not a scenario objective point + ships destroyed, which often minimizes the use of the scenario objective, or allows selection of objectives with no scenario points); ship points destroyed is then the tiebreaker (unless the scenario is specifically a "destroy ships" scenario). See Legion objective structure for the improvement. Second, tournament scoring is then not a split of 11 points based on MoV, added up -- it's simply win vs loss. Tie breaker can then go to objective points or MoV or something like that.

Those changes might bring me back to Armada.

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3 hours ago, Truthiness said:

Time to start a flame war:

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2018/06/imagining-armada-20.html

One further consideration I fear will kill this proposal that I otherwise like so much: It looks like **** - all the squads sticking to ships or to each other.

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3 hours ago, Truthiness said:

Time to start a flame war:

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2018/06/imagining-armada-20.html

This might be faster, but it also seems to be void of requirement on player skill and wouldnt reward thinking through turns, maybe even in advance ... it seems to me like a step towards x-wing. Maybe a small one but still. Could be better for spectators, but maybe a worse game.

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I really like the base to base contact idea for squadrons. As for swarm, making it more powerful might be the right move since it is tougher to pull off - Perhaps adding a dice to the attack. I like the idea of dropping some of the complexity.

One issue I see with the base to base engagement would be scatter aces. To reliably take them down, you need numbers and that becomes harder to do in such a model.

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5 hours ago, Truthiness said:

Time to start a flame war:

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2018/06/imagining-armada-20.html

I really like the brainstorming about this, especially seeing the positive changes made in X-Wing 2.0, but we are just in such a good place right now. Aside for the continued reign of Rieekan in top tournaments (and the apparent need to nerf Poles), I don't see much to change; I am loving the game more than ever.

30 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

So would any news regarding Armada 1.0.

But this would be pretty nice. Anything. Sitting here at my computer, Wave 8 money in hand, just waiting for FFG to take it...

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6 hours ago, Truthiness said:

Time to start a flame war:

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2018/06/imagining-armada-20.html

Not to add keywords but an “interceptor” keyword that allowed an additional 1 speed move could address your speed issues for A-Wings Tie/in. LOVE the base contact idea.

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Enjoyed the article, and definitely something I'll have to try out sometime. For some of the keywords or abilities that use distances, you could probably just leave them the same. The other changes would still drastically speed up play, so one or two abilities that still needed measuring wouldn't be that painful.

Another possible consideration that could be fun, but might just recreate the problem of overmeasuring is not allowing squadrons to hop over each other without engaging. When you measure with the range ruler, your squadron would engage with the first enemy squadron it overlaps. Maybe you could have Heavy squadrons be jump-over-able of maybe only Escort squadrons force you to engage. Could be a reason for FFG to release a distance rule that is broken up into multiple pieces because a fast enough squadron could potentially fly around an escort to get to the target. Might be more trouble than it's worth, but the idea of physically keeping your X-wings between your bombers and the enemy or being able to dodge the enemy escorts seems fun and relatively realistic to me.

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I actually love the squads-must-be-touching idea in theory. It would clean up the squadron game a ton and offer lots of room for fancy maneuvering. You could actually block your important squads.

In a world in which squadrons weren't already tricky to pick up and move without bumping each other around or sliding on the table, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. But as is I feel like you'd need sticky-based squadrons for this to be even remotely viable.

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Activation tabs also add some difficulty to the base contact idea. That being said, I'm so on board. The current squadron game is so tedious.

I went and hurt myself, so I haven't been able to stand for a few months to be able to play. I should be healthy enough to get back into it shortly, and I'm having a lot of mixed emotions. I know the game is still great and I'm still going to have a ball, but the first time I face Sloane w/ 134 points in squads, I'm going to be SOOO BUMMED OUT.