5 minutes ago, Flyinpenguin117 said:

IIRC they've mentioned rereleasing the GCW ship cards with the new formatting and keywords, so I think a '1.5 conversion kit' could be a thing after a few waves of CW releases (as of now there are no upgrades that specify any keywords but Clone and Droid). I doubt we'll see a full ship rework for anything, since they'd also need to print new cardboard bases if they changed hull/dice, but points adjustments would make sense. I don't know if the upgrade card pack is coming with ship titles, but if not, it could be their chance to rework some of the lackluster titles as well. I love my MC80 Carrier, but Independence is the hottest of garbage compared to Nevoota Bee. Dominator is tied with Concord for most expensive ship title and second most expensive upgrade (after Expanded Launchers).

With the recent announcement of Armada development going to a new studio, I can see the new team prioritizing a conversion kit like that as a near-future update.

I'm not saying the dice pools or arcs should change. But keywords and other things could definitely be fixed with just a ship card.

The VSD has many problems (as compared with the releases that came after it), but the Dominator title isn't one of them.

Legion is reworking units as part of its RRG. No reason why Armada couldn't follow suit.

2 minutes ago, flatpackhamster said:

Doesn't the Hardcell have a Fleet Support slot? Almost a cross between a Nebulon-B and a GR-75 (if we're grasping for an analogy).

Meant to update that. What I assume to be the support variant has the same dice as a Hammerhead, but one more shield in the front and rear. The Battle Refit is all reds. With one less die in the sides and none in the rear, its not quite as good at double arcing and running away as the Nebulon, so IMO its a bit closer to a Hammerhead, though with Squadron 2 and an Offensive Retrofit it does inherit a bit of the carrier capabilities of the Escort Frigate or a flotilla. No word on its defense tokens or mobility AFAIK.

On another note: I think Auxiliary Shield Teams will be great on a Munificent, giving it 4 shields in the sides. Might actually make Advanced Projectors worthwhile, since your opponent will have to burn through 14 shields before you start taking hull damage. Accuracies are a thing of course, but even with the occasional lost redirect 4 shields is a lot for a ship that wants to stay at long range.

Once the Providence is released, Projection Experts+Wat Tambor will make a pretty good shield battery. Put Wat on the Providence and he can hoover a shield from the Muni, then the Muni feeds it 2 more while buying back one for itself (spends 2 to return 3, or spends 1 with a dial+token). Conversely, put Wat on the Muni, he hoovers one shield off the Providence to feed back 2 from the Muni, Muni buys back the 2 for itself (spend none to return 1, both gain 1 with dial+token). Depends on whether you want faster or more efficient recovery, and how safe you can keep the Muni.

So, if I'm reading Hyperwave Signal Boost correctly, you can activate multiple copies (across multiple ships) at once, and then all of those squads (6 if two copies, 9 if three on Munis) are activated in a single turn for maximum shenanigans. Plus, it's just AI that triggers the psudo-rogue, and we know that Hyenas will have AI: Battery so this just wimpy wimpy wimpy Vultures that can get thrown around, but your bomber wing, too. ****, it could actually be pretty good with rogues, too, since they'll get a full activation (essentially) regardless of if they have AI or not.

That seems preeeeeeeeetty pretty good. I'm actually a bit worried about it. Anytime one player can do "a bunch of stuff" (technical term) without the ability for their opponent to respond, things seem to get out of whack. See first/last Demo (esp. pre-FAQ Demo), first/last Pryce (esp. in 2 ship). There are definitely more ways to play around it than Demo -- I'm all for more interesting tactical decisions in the squad game. But I imagine it won't be uncommon to see fleets w/two Munis and two copies of HSB + 6 Vultures wipe out most of the enemy's squadrons in a single turn (or at least do enough damage to make the rest of the squad game a mop up effort).

Well you have better speed than most of the republic squads, so can use this to get on top of the squad war by jumping in the squadron phase then activating first the next turn. Should be a good double tap, but republic has good flak so if the republic fighters have stayed in their own flak bubble it could all end in tragedy.

55 minutes ago, Flyinpenguin117 said:

Meant to update that. What I assume to be the support variant has the same dice as a Hammerhead, but one more shield in the front and rear. The Battle Refit is all reds. With one less die in the sides and none in the rear, its not quite as good at double arcing and running away as the Nebulon, so IMO its a bit closer to a Hammerhead, though with Squadron 2 and an Offensive Retrofit it does inherit a bit of the carrier capabilities of the Escort Frigate or a flotilla. No word on its defense tokens or mobility AFAIK.

None of this gives me any confidence in the usefulness of the hardcell.

3 hours ago, redleader002 said:

I think Emperor Palpatine also has no interaction with your own fleet and only screws with your opponent’s fleet. Dooku is a lot like Palpatine, but imo he seems worse because (as I understand it) he raids all enemy ships, so every ship the opponent has must waste a turn. Absolutely brutal, but Bail Organa seems like a good counter assuming his dials can remove raid tokens.

Nah, even Palpatine requires YOU to do something - if you pop Palpatine on a turn, and then never shoot at an enemy with defense tokens, he has no effect. That is - he only works if you position your fleet to trigger his ability.

Dooku operates in a complete vacuum - he impacts the entire enemy fleet, potentially on the other whole side of the table, with no action or requirement from your own fleet at all.

37 minutes ago, LazorBeems said:

So, if I'm reading Hyperwave Signal Boost correctly, you can activate multiple copies (across multiple ships) at once, and then all of those squads (6 if two copies, 9 if three on Munis) are activated in a single turn for maximum shenanigans. Plus, it's just AI that triggers the psudo-rogue, and we know that Hyenas will have AI: Battery so this just wimpy wimpy wimpy Vultures that can get thrown around, but your bomber wing, too. ****, it could actually be pretty good with rogues, too, since they'll get a full activation (essentially) regardless of if they have AI or not.

"this card" not any other. Also when, much like while, is a timing limiter. See page 5 of the rrg.

37 minutes ago, LazorBeems said:

So, if I'm reading Hyperwave Signal Boost correctly, you can activate multiple copies (across multiple ships) at once, and then all of those squads (6 if two copies, 9 if three on Munis) are activated in a single turn for maximum shenanigans. Plus, it's just AI that triggers the psudo-rogue, and we know that Hyenas will have AI: Battery so this just wimpy wimpy wimpy Vultures that can get thrown around, but your bomber wing, too. ****, it could actually be pretty good with rogues, too, since they'll get a full activation (essentially) regardless of if they have AI or not.

That seems preeeeeeeeetty pretty good. I'm actually a bit worried about it. Anytime one player can do "a bunch of stuff" (technical term) without the ability for their opponent to respond, things seem to get out of whack. See first/last Demo (esp. pre-FAQ Demo), first/last Pryce (esp. in 2 ship). There are definitely more ways to play around it than Demo -- I'm all for more interesting tactical decisions in the squad game. But I imagine it won't be uncommon to see fleets w/two Munis and two copies of HSB + 6 Vultures wipe out most of the enemy's squadrons in a single turn (or at least do enough damage to make the rest of the squad game a mop up effort).

AI squads don’t get rogue. While attacking they are treated as if they were activated by a squad command. That means they still get their AI bonus dice, but they still have to choose to either attack or move.

AI squads seem to be overpriced if they are not actively commanded to get their extra dice. This upgrade is more of a “I couldn’t activate the squads this turn, so I need to use this to make sure they don’t lose their AI dice.”

6 minutes ago, bkcammack said:

AI squads don’t get rogue. While attacking they are treated as if they were activated by a squad command. That means they still get their AI bonus dice, but they still have to choose to either attack or move.

That isn't what was being said. Should the seps get access to a squadron that has rogue and AI (and it seems likely it'll happen eventually), it'll effectively be a full activation via squadron command for free.

1 minute ago, thepopemobile100 said:

Should the seps get access to a squadron that has rogue and AI (and it seems likely it'll happen eventually)

Why? That's one of the most unlikely combinations of keywords I can think of.

2 minutes ago, thepopemobile100 said:

That isn't what was being said. Should the seps get access to a squadron that has rogue and AI (and it seems likely it'll happen eventually), it'll effectively be a full activation via squadron command for free.

The OP mentioned a “pseudo-rogue effect.” And this card is very easy to misread as “AI squads are activated as if they had been activated by a squadron command,” which isn’t the case. I was just clarifying that this card does not allow AI squads activated by it to both move and shoot.

29 minutes ago, Formynder4 said:

"this card" not any other. Also when, much like while, is a timing limiter. See page 5 of the rrg.

Also on page 5:

If two or more of a player’s effects have the same timing,
that player can resolve those effects in any order

Multiple (one per ship) all have the same timing and would all go off at the same time.

43 minutes ago, Ophion said:

None of this gives me any confidence in the usefulness of the hardcell.

Well, think of it this way: It has a similar offensive configuration to a Hammerhead, but it doesn't have to close in to contribute. The Transport can stick by a capital ship and make use of its Fleet Support, the Battle Refit has no reason to close past red range. 3 shields in the front should give it more head-on durability than the Hammerhead.

If we're comparing it to the Nebulon, the Hardcell Battle Refit costs 1 point more than the Support Refit, has 1 more black flak die, Command 1, and trades Support Teams for Offensive and Defensive Retrofits (also may have Squadron 2 but it could be a downgrade from the Transport). Defensive Retrofit should give it some more durability, depending on its token suite, and even if it has Squadron 1, it can slot in Reserve Hangar Decks as an easy way to replenish your Vulture Droids. So you sort of get a 'best of both worlds' between the Escort and Support Nebulons, having a good mix of durability, firepower, and support for its cost.

I'd hazard the Transport to be 44-46 points, though that depends on what exactly its giving up for the Fleet Support slot. Both Defensive Refit and Turbolasers make sense on a 'battle refit' of a transport vessel, though at twice the cost of a Gozanti and presumably no Scatter I'd hope for more than just the standard Flotilla upgrade bar. Though it does have more shields, hull, and dice. Assuming it keeps its Offensive Retrofit, this'll make a good carrier with BCC, able to push AI-boosted Hyenas with rerolls.

All this analysis on Hyperwave Signal Boost is based on the current rules, so is completely academic until we get to see the new rules next month. Feel even freer than normal to ignore it all.

I went much deeper into this than I was expecting...

2 hours ago, SoonerTed said:

Multiple (one per ship) all have the same timing and would all go off at the same time.

There aren't that many upgrade cards where you can have more than one in the same fleet, and they have the same timing. Aside from set-up cards (like Proximity Mines) the obvious ones I can think of are Reinforced Blast Doors and Targeting Scanners. Targeting Scanners has a FAQ to confirm you can use multiple copies on the same attack. With Reinforced Blast Doors I don't think it comes up very often, but I suspect it has generally been taken as given that you can resolve RBDs on multiple ships in the same round. Unfortunately, neither is a "when" timing but the "when" wording is pretty similar to the "while" wording.

The wording/timing on Hyperwave Signal Boost is:

1. During the Squadron Phase, [timing]
2. ... when it is your fleet's turn to activate squadrons [timing], you may exhaust this card [trigger] to choose a number of unactivated, friendly squadrons at close-long range up to your squadron value [effect].
3. This turn [timing], activate each of those squadrons [effect].
4. While attacking [timing], each of those squadrons with AI are treated as if activated by a {squadron} command [effect].

So... we can see why this is a bit complicated. The effect is triggered by exhausting the card in step 2. The timing window for doing so is "when it is..." and so it "occurs at the moment that the specified event occurs." Based on the analogy with RBD and Targeting Scanners, each card has a separate effect, so their timing windows happen one after the another. Given that, I don't see any reason why you couldn't exhaust multiple copies of this card in the same fleet, during the same timing window, and choose more than one set of squadrons.

The important part of resolving the effect of the card is in step 3, which tells you to activate those squadrons this turn.

I guess the question is if that means activate "only" those squadrons and no others. If so, you could exhaust two copies of the card, but would only get the benefit from the card. Of course, you could then exhaust a second copy during your next activation turn.

But I don't think that is obviously in the text. Given that, I don't see any reason why you couldn't get the benefit from two sets of squadrons in one squadron activation turn. I'm not sure that is necessarily the intent, but I think it is what the card says (a clarification would be nice, eventually).

The other questions are to do with whether the HSB squadrons are in addition to the normal 2, or instead of. I can see it being read either way, depending on how you interpret "This turn" - whether it is just a timing thing, or if it overrides the normal "this turn" thing for activating squadrons. If you only had one squadron in HSB range and you used that, could you activate 2 squadrons normally as well, 1 other, or no others?

I think the simplest way of ruing it is that a single HSB activation replaces the squadron activation turn. So you get to activate one set of HSB squadrons and no others. The second easiest would be that they are cumulative, so you can activate as many sets of HSB squadrons as you can (provided you exhaust all the cards first) and two more without the HSB AI bonus.

But ... I'm open to other interpretations in between.

I said it before and I'll say it again, the Separatist faction looks (appropriately) completely separate from every other faction with the droid mechanics. It's all about ease of use and efficiency in getting droids to grind grind grind away at a more durable and powerful enemy and these upgrades- especially that Hyperwave Signal Boost - are going to be utterly insane with so many cheap options to use them on. And I am so excited for the areas this design space leaves open that other factions can't do without upsetting the balance of the existing products in player collections already.

Ships
I'm liking both Munificents. The points values seem a lot more reasonable compared to the super cheap Acclimators.

For example, put High Cap Ion turrets on the MUN-SF and compare it to the AF-IIA. Same points, same anti ship but one blue moves from the rear to be added to the front. Similar Flak power with 2 blue compared to black & red. Same hull, shields, ENG & SQUAD values. Differences are speed, upgrade slot and the command value.

Only three points between the MUN-SF and MUN-CF means - if it isn't being fitted out as a Carrier - you will probably opt for the SF version for the Defense and Support slots. I don't think Engine Techs is a good bet as it adds so much to the cost and stops you repairing with the decent engineering value and after all these are red dice ships who prefer long range action. Auxiliary shield teams and a turn one repair command to fill them up looks effective and just stay at speed 2 most of the time for the excellent turning. LTTs are so good on both variants to get rerolls in flak, salvo and normal shooting. A lack of gunnery teams means the decision to use the super range flak may stop you shooting ships and enemies can use this against you by staying on the same axis of attack as the ships. No flight controllers is also a shame for the carrier loadout but Flight Commander, FCTs & Boosted comms looks good.

Upgrades
Depending on the ratio of squads in your fleet compared to squad activations, the new Hyperwave Signal Boost card can add some redundancy to make up for loosing a carrier or a slicer tool/raid token upset. Two or three MUN-CF carriers and plenty of vultures in a fleet I would go for one Hype-SB and the rest boosted comms. I wonder if the Separatists will get a large carrier with the slots to take both? Against squadronless opponents Hype-SB could almost double your carrier control limits by just placing your fighters in the path of an enemy ship and use your squad command to shuffle those that don't get overlapped and placed in contact by you.

Sa Nalaor is Captain Needa on steroids. Very useful for these long range ships, either carrier or combat versions. Evades are great against smaller volleys and your enemy doesn't know which token to accuracy so that he can ensure his D-Cap HIE crit goes off. Tide of Progress looks good for the points and could save you from a structural damage crit. Combine it with Med Team if you aren't using the support slot for anything else. Wat Tambor, Battle Droid Reserves and 1-2 Projection experts could all combine to make a 3-4 munificent fleet into some sort of oversized Biggs ball/TF Antilles.

Commanders
Count Dukku looks like a minor annoyance to some fleets (Garm, Tarkin, Thrawn, Bail, SSD) and a major pain in the neck for others such as carriers, repair spam & Madine.

Kraken is a little expensive but better than Screed and allows the MUN-CF, D-Cap & HIE to be a nice cheap shield ripper. It has a narrow front arc but then that means it's easy to double arc from the front corners. It gets expensive but Swivel Mount Batteries could allow you to do long range guaranteed crit HIE or OL Pulse shots at any range from flank arcs too. QBTs could do it from any arc if your opponent is faster, you may have to drop to the 1 yaw speed one to get this effect.

Squadrons
Vultures are better TIE fighters if controlled by a carrier, worse if left alone unless you also buy Hyperwaves.

Haor Chall Protortypes seems expensive. As the intel rule stands now Haor would be good. He/it would punish squads that leave your fighter ball using intel granting the heavy keyword. But Intel is changing to granting friendly grit so if Haor has a buddy the enemy have to fight their way clear unless they are obscured, they are Tycho or admiral Chiraneau is on the prowl. Oh yes and he will work against cloak moves trying to disengage at the end of a turn. You could fling Haor in alone to pin a lot of grit squads or pop him in the midst of trouble but obscured and see if the enemy run for it or fight it out against an obscured scatter ace. Rushing up between 2 ships could be fun as you know these will both do a move so you get a red dice at each and another one when you would fire normally. Writing all this down I think Ive changed my mind since starting this paragraph. He's a little situational but ok I suppose.

1 hour ago, Mad Cat said:

Ships
I'm liking both Munificents. The points values seem a lot more reasonable compared to the super cheap Acclimators.

For example, put High Cap Ion turrets on the MUN-SF and compare it to the AF-IIA. Same points, same anti ship but one blue moves from the rear to be added to the front. Similar Flak power with 2 blue compared to black & red. Same hull, shields, ENG & SQUAD values. Differences are speed, upgrade slot and the command value.

Only three points between the MUN-SF and MUN-CF means - if it isn't being fitted out as a Carrier - you will probably opt for the SF version for the Defense and Support slots. I don't think Engine Techs is a good bet as it adds so much to the cost and stops you repairing with the decent engineering value and after all these are red dice ships who prefer long range action. Auxiliary shield teams and a turn one repair command to fill them up looks effective and just stay at speed 2 most of the time for the excellent turning. LTTs are so good on both variants to get rerolls in flak, salvo and normal shooting. A lack of gunnery teams means the decision to use the super range flak may stop you shooting ships and enemies can use this against you by staying on the same axis of attack as the ships. No flight controllers is also a shame for the carrier loadout but Flight Commander, FCTs & Boosted comms looks good.

Upgrades
Depending on the ratio of squads in your fleet compared to squad activations, the new Hyperwave Signal Boost card can add some redundancy to make up for loosing a carrier or a slicer tool/raid token upset. Two or three MUN-CF carriers and plenty of vultures in a fleet I would go for one Hype-SB and the rest boosted comms. I wonder if the Separatists will get a large carrier with the slots to take both? Against squadronless opponents Hype-SB could almost double your carrier control limits by just placing your fighters in the path of an enemy ship and use your squad command to shuffle those that don't get overlapped and placed in contact by you.

Sa Nalaor is Captain Needa on steroids. Very useful for these long range ships, either carrier or combat versions. Evades are great against smaller volleys and your enemy doesn't know which token to accuracy so that he can ensure his D-Cap HIE crit goes off. Tide of Progress looks good for the points and could save you from a structural damage crit. Combine it with Med Team if you aren't using the support slot for anything else. Wat Tambor, Battle Droid Reserves and 1-2 Projection experts could all combine to make a 3-4 munificent fleet into some sort of oversized Biggs ball/TF Antilles.

Commanders
Count Dukku looks like a minor annoyance to some fleets (Garm, Tarkin, Thrawn, Bail, SSD) and a major pain in the neck for others such as carriers, repair spam & Madine.

Kraken is a little expensive but better than Screed and allows the MUN-CF, D-Cap & HIE to be a nice cheap shield ripper. It has a narrow front arc but then that means it's easy to double arc from the front corners. It gets expensive but Swivel Mount Batteries could allow you to do long range guaranteed crit HIE or OL Pulse shots at any range from flank arcs too. QBTs could do it from any arc if your opponent is faster, you may have to drop to the 1 yaw speed one to get this effect.

Squadrons
Vultures are better TIE fighters if controlled by a carrier, worse if left alone unless you also buy Hyperwaves.

Haor Chall Protortypes seems expensive. As the intel rule stands now Haor would be good. He/it would punish squads that leave your fighter ball using intel granting the heavy keyword. But Intel is changing to granting friendly grit so if Haor has a buddy the enemy have to fight their way clear unless they are obscured, they are Tycho or admiral Chiraneau is on the prowl. Oh yes and he will work against cloak moves trying to disengage at the end of a turn. You could fling Haor in alone to pin a lot of grit squads or pop him in the midst of trouble but obscured and see if the enemy run for it or fight it out against an obscured scatter ace. Rushing up between 2 ships could be fun as you know these will both do a move so you get a red dice at each and another one when you would fire normally. Writing all this down I think Ive changed my mind since starting this paragraph. He's a little situational but ok I suppose.

I think engine techs will need consideration for competitive play simply to give you some ability to deal with onagers, but beyond that, agree on the ETs.

14 hours ago, SoonerTed said:

I'm not saying the dice pools or arcs should change. But keywords and other things could definitely be fixed with just a ship card.

The VSD has many problems (as compared with the releases that came after it), but the Dominator title isn't one of them.

Legion is reworking units as part of its RRG. No reason why Armada couldn't follow suit.

Dominator title is great. It's the price that's the problem.

20 hours ago, bkcammack said:

AI squads don’t get rogue. While attacking they are treated as if they were activated by a squad command. That means they still get their AI bonus dice, but they still have to choose to either attack or move.

AI squads seem to be overpriced if they are not actively commanded to get their extra dice. This upgrade is more of a “I couldn’t activate the squads this turn, so I need to use this to make sure they don’t lose their AI dice.”

20 hours ago, bkcammack said:

The OP mentioned a “pseudo-rogue effect.” And this card is very easy to misread as “AI squads are activated as if they had been activated by a squadron command,” which isn’t the case. I was just clarifying that this card does not allow AI squads activated by it to both move and shoot.

Haha yes, that is a correct interpretation of my misinterpretation. I missed the "while attacking" part (or more accurately, my brain just read it like the normal Han style effect we're used to seeing).

So yeah, the card's not as powerful as I originally feared. Will still be a good card especially when used in multiple, but it will require skill to use effectively. Stacks well with Dooku, too. Raid has always been iffy because it's easy to counter, but if you can setup your delay in just the right sequence, it could be pretty darn effective. Something like...

• Turn n - Dooku squadron raid, they clear with token, they activate squads with a dial, you activate squads with dial
• Turn n+1 - Dooku squadron raid, they have no token, they can't squad dial, you do some non-squad command, you HSB in squad phase to attack.

That wouldn't be the easiest thing to pull off, and there are ways to counter it. But I like that kind of combo play -- would feel super rewarding if you could make that work without being stupidly broken. Smart play should feel good.

On 11/16/2020 at 11:21 PM, Ophion said:

None of this gives me any confidence in the usefulness of the hardcell.

A Nebulon B with Slicer Tools doesn't sound like a good thing to you? Sounds fun to me.

58 minutes ago, flatpackhamster said:

A Nebulon B with Slicer Tools doesn't sound like a good thing to you? Sounds fun to me.

Combine it with Dooku, so the commands of the opponent will disappear in the endless space

Fleet Support on a combat ship indeed sounds very fun

Hardcells need a little toughness if Kraken is to be used effectively.

With all these tokens cards taking them should not be relied upon as they can be used/exhausted by a blue crit 1 time. Then a token is needed that can be taken away by a dmg card or by a different blue crit. Tokens as a resource management will be fun to learn!

For Dooku's raid makes a choice on what tokens be spent on a raid cancel or a card refresh!

5 hours ago, Wolf_58 said:

Hardcells need a little toughness if Kraken is to be used effectively.

With all these tokens cards taking them should not be relied upon as they can be used/exhausted by a blue crit 1 time. Then a token is needed that can be taken away by a dmg card or by a different blue crit. Tokens as a resource management will be fun to learn!

For Dooku's raid makes a choice on what tokens be spent on a raid cancel or a card refresh!

The Hardcell is nearly identical to a Nebulon in terms of its shields and hull: 3 front, 1 sides, 2 rear, and 5 hull. But we don't know yet what its defense tokens are or its speed and maneuverability. So it remains to be seen how fragile the Hardcell is compared to other small ships.

Kraken only requires another friendly ship to be at close-medium range of the target ship, which shouldn't be that difficult to achieve.

I get the impression that most players believe that Kraken should be used by rushing Hardcells at enemy ships to get them within close/medium range, while the slower Munificents remain at long range. If players are using Kraken, I believe it should work the opposite way: The Hardcell Battle Refit should attack at long range with the 3 red dice in its front arc -- ideally, boosted to 4 using Swivel-Mount Batteries or Slaved Turrets -- and the Munificent should move within medium range of the target, because it has stronger shields and hull, and more balanced front and side attack pools.

Kraken's ability should boost red dice performance the most, changing a blank and providing a needed accuracy or crit; but he can't generate double hits, so he's balanced.

Rerolls and dice modification will be difficult for the Hardcell because the Battle Refit doesn't have Weapons Team or Ion Cannon slots for equipping Veteran Gunners, Weapons Battery Techs, or Leading Shots. However, Kraken should provide red dice modification that the Hardcell will need to be an effective long-range threat.

This could mean that Hardcells will be more relevant than many players seem to think they'll be.

Did people think they weren't gonna be relevant?