Why do you enjoy playing Rebels?
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For me its some combination of the following:
- X-Wings, B-Wings, A-Wings, VCX, and YT-1300 all feel simple & solid .
- Dial and action decisions appear meaningful every round and clearly impact future rounds
- Mobility is partially available to most ships but not the main capability and usually constrained in some way
- Lots of ships have at least a couple shields
- Most lists go into a game thinking about how to "trade" damage. Not how to avoid damage entirely.
- The named character's like Luke, Braylen, Hera, Han etc. all feel impactful without going overboard and work on a thematic level
- Many of the ships and pilots feel useful at cost without any additional upgrades across init levels and chassis
- All the ships look cool and are kinda colorful
- My favorite Rebel lists feel "planted" and "weighty". More so than any other faction.
- There is a clarity to Rebel faction gameplay that I think is underappreciated.
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Its so much more than just the new player faction.
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After testing Hyperspace ETA lists extensively for a couple weeks these two lists have reminded me of why I enjoy X-Wing to begin with:
- Luke + Hera Chopper + 2x Proton Rocket A-Wings
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Luke + Braylen + A-Wing + A-Wing + A-Wing
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A-Wings
- Roll + Boost with that dial lets you set up & delay engages nicely
- Paired with just Predator or Proton Rockets an RZ1A starts to "feel" relevant to the board state
- Both as a blocker and as a offensive threat
- As with Tie v1s the option to Focus Boost is excellent
- While fast/highly mobile its dial choices and engagement strategy feels deliberate
- And....the ship is easily the best looking in all of Star Wars
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Jake does ridiculously useful things but the generic Phoenix pilots are my favorite A-Wing pilots
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B-Wings
- Slow rolling knife fighters
- The generic Blues & Blades are fun to mix into lists even with the T-65s more competitive prices
- Braylen always delivers both defensively and offensively
- Its nice to have an i4 piece that can occupy a lane or flank on its own and consistently threaten
- Braylen is still vulnerable to getting out maneuvered.
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He goes where he goes and has to think very carefully about lane positioning & stress round to round
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X-Wings
- Everything about the T-65 becomes more interesting the more I play it.
- S-Foils allows boost or roll adjustments leading up to engagements.
- Occasionally the boost sets up arc coverage or blocks that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.
- Its also really helpful for chasing down opponents or setting up locks
- They have enough HP to set up locks and see the pay off
- Able to go slow or fast depending on the situation. So much more than a 1 forward to victory ship.
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Luke is one of my favorite pilots in 2.0. Super durable, consistent offense, useful without upgrades. 61 pts gets you a "complete" ship.
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VCX
- Hits like a hammer
- Is vulnerable to focus fire
- Occupies space super well
- Moves extremely fast and is a capable flanking element
- Able to K-Turn!! Massively useful for a forward arc 4-dice ship.
- Re-Enforce to manage multiple 2 dice shots
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Hera's ability is unbelievably useful at i5 paired with Chopper Crew
- 1 forward, 2 forward, 2 bank
- 1 hard turn, 3 hard turn, 4 k turn & focus
- 4 white forwards and 3 white banks on big base to get to spots
- Like other Rebel ships it doesn't really need any upgrades to do its job
- I never really watched the show this came from but still enjoy the ship
Shared some of these thoughts before but felt like re-stating Rebels are really cool.
Its hard to say exactly what it is about Rebels that is so interesting but its something that no other faction really is able to replicate besides maybe FO.
Its also one of the factions that I find myself going back to after testing new things that don't quite have the same vibe.
Blog Version (exact same post):
https://fort-hyperspace.blogspot.com/2020/12/ramble-11-rebels-are-cool_18.html