Nadiri Starhawk Article

By Drasnighta, in Star Wars: Armada

1 minute ago, homedrone said:

It looks like the Unity title is only countered by squads with HEAVY actually printed on their card, not inherited by intel. Am I reading that right?

Yes.

That appears to be the reason behind “Printed” as a mechanic in this instance.

Thoughts on why shriv is a lot more expensive than vader boarding for almost the same effect but a bit weaker?

Kind of disappointing that the Tractor Array can't move enemy ships, only alter their speed. Think about the possibility of linearly moving a ship distance 1 or 2 (not speed) without changing its orientation. Well we can still hope for something like that, should the Arrestor ever arrive.

15 minutes ago, LennoxPoodle said:

Kind of disappointing that the Tractor Array can't move enemy ships, only alter their speed. Think about the possibility of linearly moving a ship distance 1 or 2 (not speed) without changing its orientation. Well we can still hope for something like that, should the Arrestor ever arrive.

How would you measure that? And in a game that rewards precision positioning so much, how would people react to it?

22 minutes ago, Ophion said:

Thoughts on why shriv is a lot more expensive than vader boarding for almost the same effect but a bit weaker?

I don't think this is a full answer, but opportunity cost? If you take the Vader boarding card, you can't take the Admiral or Squad.

Here's a nice combo: getting Salvo on AF mk II A with Paragon. First you have a decent rear arc only beaten by those expensive SSD's, and is the cheapest 3 dice rear ship in the game (though unfortunately still overpriced). Secondly with Paragon, provided they attack you first and you salvo them, you could then add black dice to your own attack against it, or if it is double arc'ed; both your attacks!

Edited by Divad

Very frustrated by the Star Hawk. It cannot take ECM... (Anyone see VIC's being played ?) Its 140 points minimum and is objectively worse then the ISD 2 which has similar dice, but has speed 3 and access to ECM. In a world of Revager SSD, this thing is a joke. Even with 2 Brace tokens it will have its brace locked out and ignored unless its run with the new commander, who still only lets you use it once like getting intel officered.

Super weapon comparison anyone?

Rebel version is a speed manipulation gimmick which has never been competitive (see Adm. Constantine, Tractor Beams, etc.) how many of them do we see getting played these days...?

Compare that to a stand off weapon that can easily kill small ships outright before they even come close, projecting 7 dice attacks beyond long range and it can simply choose to set still and turret to insure that the ships approaching it can't get in behind it.

WHICH ONE OF THESE SEAMS BETTER AND MORE LIKELY TO SEE ACTUAL COMPETITIVE USE?

Well, you're well-named, at least.

Objectively worse than the ISD? It has 7 more health, more dice in the side arc, easier double arc and a second commander slot on top of the potential to have 6 defense tokens...

5 minutes ago, Angry Ewok said:

Very frustrated by the Star Hawk. It cannot take ECM... (Anyone see VIC's being played ?) Its 140 points minimum and is objectively worse then the ISD 2 which has similar dice, but has speed 3 and access to ECM. In a world of Revager SSD, this thing is a joke. Even with 2 Brace tokens it will have its brace locked out and ignored unless its run with the new commander, who still only lets you use it once like getting intel officered.

Super weapon comparison anyone?

Rebel version is a speed manipulation gimmick which has never been competitive (see Adm. Constantine, Tractor Beams, etc.) how many of them do we see getting played these days...?

Compare that to a stand off weapon that can easily kill small ships outright before they even come close, projecting 7 dice attacks beyond long range and it can simply choose to set still and turret to insure that the ships approaching it can't get in behind it.

WHICH ONE OF THESE SEAMS BETTER AND MORE LIKELY TO SEE ACTUAL COMPETITIVE USE?

How many of those speed manipulation gimmicks allow you to reduce an enemy to Speed 0, where they cannot use defense tokens, in the middle of a game?

I was wondering why the Amity and Concord were only available to Mark 1s until I remembered they were both destroyed at Jakku. Only the Unity had a chance to upgrade into a Mark 2. Liking the theme

1 hour ago, Joker Two said:

And in a game that rewards precision positioning so much, how would people react to [tractor moving ships]?

Based on people's reaction to that mechanic in X-wing, not well.

19 minutes ago, JKShulenburg said:

Objectively worse than the ISD? It has 7 more health, more dice in the side arc, easier double arc and a second commander slot on top of the potential to have 6 defense tokens...

Also: RED FLAK. Only three ships in the game have red flak at the moment - the Starhawk-II, the Quasar variant nobody takes (and it lacks a turbolaser slot anyway), and the flippin' Super Star Destroyer.

The only thing I'm really finding limiting about it is actually the Rebel commanders. The Imperials have quite a lot of commanders that synergize STRONGLY with what an ISD wants to do. The Rebels and the Starhawk? Not so much. Rieekan, maybe? I guess Garm could be amusing given their command stack...? I suspect Agate will see a lot of play if for no other reason than her being really inexpensive. (A pair of Starhawk-IIs with Linked Turbolaser Towers, with a GR-75 toting Toryn Farr, gives you 41 pts to play with after Agate as commander. That feels like an interesting start to a list...)

Okay, second concern - it's been noted in Rebellion in the Rim that the possibility of an ISD-II as the core of a list...potentially leads to some rough first games, as it's quite the point fortress. Lo and behold what the Rebels can bring into the Outer Rim... 🤢

48 minutes ago, Angry Ewok said:

WHICH ONE OF THESE SEAMS BETTER

repair_care_repair_care_seam_anatomy_01. both_finishes_on_blue.jpg

On the one hand, I like that classic #1 seam but #2 has that bit of extra flair. Idunno. It's a tough call.

I can see Commander Sato being neat with the Starhawk; if you have room for a decent set of Rogues or similar. Sato's ability would work on Salvo attacks; so throw Ordnance Experts and you have the potential for 2 black dice at long range, with re-rolls ( and with Officer Agate to repeat? ).

Raddus seems a little... meh? Raddus is for ships that need perfect positioning, or need to get in the right place without taking too much damage. Sure, Raddus will help get you a nice double-arc, but given the red dice and tankiness seems a waste of the points, Commander slot, and comes with all the problems of Raddus.

Rieekan? But if half your fleet is going to be just one ship, he's not going to be all that useful? If the Starhawk goes down that extra activation may not be all that useful, and you won't have that many other things to use him on.

Madine for emergency turns? Leia to pretend you have a Super Star Destroyer? Garm gets you lots of tokens, but probably good to have Ahsoka nearby?

How about Mon Mothma with Amity?

Maybe be boring and go with Dodonna and XX-9s then? Or Agate (but then you don't get the officer).

So far the Starhawk feels like a somewhat bigger AFMkII for double the price (3 more shields, 1 more squadron, 1 more command, contain and salvo for evade, extra officer, ions, superweapon, a lot more hull, but slower).

-----------------

What about the second officer slot? Captain Rex could be fun with the superweapon (slow the enemy down, keep them there with raid), Agate for defense token funtimes, DCO (with all that hull), Bail? Expert Shield Tech on Unity?

Edited by Grumbleduke

Boarding Engineers and Concord means anything short of a Motti ISD or SSD will not be ramming you.

Add Salvo to taste?

Continuing with my theory crafting: QLT wouldn't 'stack' with Salvo against a squadron, it looks like you could proc both at the appropriate times but they would be completely separate attacks.

Also the new WBT, H9s and Officer Agate guarantee unlimited* defensive token refresh using Salvo.

*=1 per being attacked anyway.

On the other hand, you could do the same kind of build but add Overload Pulse...it doesn't exhaust and Salvo will keep it proccing even after you activated...add Sato+friends for long range OP shenanigans lol.

ack nmm just getting around to the stream looks like Salvo doesn't proc special crits

Edited by eliteone

You can see the designers are running into trouble with adding new game mechanics that aren't broken in the the presence of previously printed upgrade cards and special effects. Salvo: No crit effects. "friendly non-unique squadrons without strategic." The specific list of upgrades associated with Shriv. "without the printed heavy keyword", "using its printed rear battery armament", and so on.

2 minutes ago, jbrandmeyer said:

You can see the designers are running into trouble with adding new game mechanics that aren't broken in the the presence of previously printed upgrade cards and special effects. Salvo: No crit effects. "friendly non-unique squadrons without strategic." The specific list of upgrades associated with Shriv. "without the printed heavy keyword", "using its printed rear battery armament", and so on.

At least they try!

21 minutes ago, jbrandmeyer said:

You can see the designers are running into trouble with adding new game mechanics that aren't broken in the the presence of previously printed upgrade cards and special effects. Salvo: No crit effects. "friendly non-unique squadrons without strategic." The specific list of upgrades associated with Shriv. "without the printed heavy keyword", "using its printed rear battery armament", and so on.

Honestly rather them do that than release another Relay keyword that works at infinite range. Honestly Instructor Goran could use the printed Heavy since intel just shuts Goran down pretty much.

4 hours ago, Snipafist said:

repair_care_repair_care_seam_anatomy_01. both_finishes_on_blue.jpg

On the one hand, I like that classic #1 seam but #2 has that bit of extra flair. Idunno. It's a tough call.

SEAM 1 OR DEATH!!!1one

6 hours ago, Drasnighta said:
6 hours ago, Angry Ewok said:

How many of those speed manipulation gimmicks allow you to reduce an enemy to Speed 0, where they cannot use defense tokens, in the middle of a game?

People tend to omit the part that the starhawk is at 0 itself at that point, forcing the concord title for that strategy to be viable. With a cost of 12 for the title and 10 for the tractor on top of the cost for the ship you are unlikely to outactivate anything except maybe an ssd. It is thus not hard for your enemy to simply go to speed 1 after your activation. Thrawn makes this especially unproblematic.

that tactic may however work well against an ssd or if you wanna use Raddus to jump the thing into the weak arc of another ship.

37 minutes ago, RapidReload said:

People tend to omit the part that the starhawk is at 0 itself at that point, forcing the concord title for that strategy to be viable. With a cost of 12 for the title and 10 for the tractor on top of the cost for the ship you are unlikely to outactivate anything except maybe an ssd. It is thus not hard for your enemy to simply go to speed 1 after your activation. Thrawn makes this especially unproblematic.

that tactic may however work well against an ssd or if you wanna use Raddus to jump the thing into the weak arc of another ship.

It's not so much that it'll become the go-to tactic of Starhawk users, but that it might happen. You've got no idea if you're suddenly going to become tokenless in the middle of a game, so when there's a Starhawk on the battlefield you have to plan for more maneuver dials and tokens simply to protect yourself against that. I don't see it as a 'daily use' tactic but like a lot of tactics it could turn a battle.

Can't Agate still spend defence tokens even if you're at speed 0?

4 minutes ago, flatpackhamster said:

Can't Agate still spend defence tokens even if you're at speed 0?

No, that is specifically mentioned on her card.

@Drasnighta they nerfed Nose Punch 3.0 before it came out.

I wanted to Hondo, Ozzel and ET just at the start of the round 1 and shot superweapon that same roun BUT ignition token comes just AFTER Onager activates. 😭