We have played a couple of clone wars clones vs droids games, but we just played our first more serious game with the gcw factions since the rules update.

It was attacking station assault with tarkin on an onager, an arq, demo, raider and gozanti

Vs agate Starhawk, 2x trc90s, 2x gr75.

Tarkin got clobbered horribly by the starhawk then died when he tried to escape past the trc90s, but demo and the arq took out the stations and the corvettes in return. Approx 45 point win for the rebels.

I liked putting reactive gunnery on my arquitens, even though it didnt get shot at.

Clobbering trc90s with demo is as satisfying as ever.

Some interesting points...

- a raider surviving a close range star hawk blast thanks to the double evade

- ive always liked tarkin and its great to be able to field him without feeling like an idiot

- my onager felt a bit silly trying to shoot at cr90s at extreme range. Zero damage

Anyway, not much of a post, just thought would register that i really liked how the changes have played out so far beyond the admittedly limited wave 1 clone/droid scenario.

On 1/2/2021 at 3:43 AM, Ophion said:

Clobbering trc90s with demo is as satisfying as ever.

Some interesting points...

- a raider surviving a close range star hawk blast thanks to the double evade

- my onager felt a bit silly trying to shoot at cr90s at extreme range. Zero damage

Oh good it does still work...

*Reads interesting points, sucks wind*

Yeah...I was afraid that was going to happen. That too. Oof.

10 hours ago, ForceSensitive said:

Oh good it does still work...

*Reads interesting points, sucks wind*

Yeah...I was afraid that was going to happen. That too. Oof.

Afraid? I was beginning to think that Arqs, Neb-B’s, and Corvette class ships would barely be seen anymore. My group’s last few games before lockdown saw Starhawks, Onagers, and SSD’s smashing Raiders and CR-90’s and Hammerheads mercilessly. Raiders and other flimsy-but-nimble frames needed help against the behemoths, and the improved Evade rules are an important piece of that puzzle.

We haven’t put anything on the table since just before lockdown (decided to learn X-Wing instead, and wait for the 1.5 adjustment), but I’m really excited to try it all out. There’s literally nothing I’ve seen which looks bad. My only complaints revolve around things they decided not to change (yet). Still hoping that the SSD gets a little bit of a rework; I kinda feel like they were suuuuper careful to not make it too good, and then almost immediately released a direct (Starhawk-shaped) counter to it, just in case. I’ve still never seen it win more than a couple games, and even then it just scrapes by.

Just curious: What are other people’s experiences with 1.5? Are there any breakout hits in your local metas that were being held back by now-nerfed cards? Are Leia or Tarkin absolutely bonkers at 28 points? Is there now something that actually makes the SSD good?

Give it time.

On 1/5/2021 at 5:33 PM, ForceSensitive said:

Give it time.

Heh, I thought I was. My Clone Wars stuff and Upgrade Packs just arrived last week (I ordered them months ago from a reliable game store in my own state, and they were more than a month late). I figured everyone else had probably put a half-dozen games under their belts by now!

12 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Heh, I thought I was. My Clone Wars stuff and Upgrade Packs just arrived last week (I ordered them months ago from a reliable game store in my own state, and they were more than a month late). I figured everyone else had probably put a half-dozen games under their belts by now!

I don't think that's what he was getting at...

It's going to take a bit more than a few mostly private games to see the larger and long term impacts of 1.5. At the current rate with all the shut downs and distancing you might get the next wave before you really see the full impacts lol. Not in a bad way or anything, just saying, give it time. It's a lot to chew through y'know?

I think the changes to Evade are my favorite balance change in all of 1.5

On 1/7/2021 at 4:09 AM, Cpt ObVus said:

Heh, I thought I was. My Clone Wars stuff and Upgrade Packs just arrived last week (I ordered them months ago from a reliable game store in my own state, and they were more than a month late). I figured everyone else had probably put a half-dozen games under their belts by now!

Not like we have a pandemic going on or anything...

On 1/8/2021 at 5:46 PM, The Jabbawookie said:

Not like we have a pandemic going on or anything...

Yeah, obviously. I just figured people were playing a lot of TTS/Vassal games. I haven’t tried Armada on those platforms myself, but I started learning X-Wing literally days before lockdown, and I’ve put it in dozens of hours on TTS with that game, and a few more on Vassal. Even managed a half dozen in-person games with one of the people on my “quaranteam.”

Was just sort of hoping some people had had some similar times with Armada, but apparently not.

1 hour ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Yeah, obviously. I just figured people were playing a lot of TTS/Vassal games. I haven’t tried Armada on those platforms myself, but I started learning X-Wing literally days before lockdown, and I’ve put it in dozens of hours on TTS with that game, and a few more on Vassal. Even managed a half dozen in-person games with one of the people on my “quaranteam.”

Was just sort of hoping some people had had some similar times with Armada, but apparently not.

I’ve managed a few Vassal games for the tournament, but man are they less fun than in-person. The fun is in getting to play someone halfway across the world more than the game itself IMO.

As for the SSD, I’ll be interested to see whether it’s stopped over-performing competitively; the data’s a little outdated by now, but I’m surprised you’ve watched it struggle too hard. Can we trade places? Please? 😉

3 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

As for the SSD, I’ll be interested to see whether it’s stopped over-performing competitively; the data’s a little outdated by now, but I’m surprised you’ve watched it struggle too hard. Can we trade places? Please? 😉

!

I’m just shocked at this. My local group has seen it fail against Starhawks, triple MC30’s, multiple Bomber lists, and Ackbar MC-80’s with TRC-90’s, to name just a few things it can’t handle. Everything except the Starhawk just jumps out of the front arc and beats the crap out of it until it’s crippled or dead (usually dead, honestly), and the Starhawk just tanks the damage until it wins on double-arcing. Our group concluded that Jerjerrod is the only Commander who’s even worth using with it, and again, it’s got a long list of losses, and maybe a close win or two.

Does this not reflect what you’ve seen? If not, I would really love to figure out what we’re missing. And we’re not really net listing types, though we’ve done some research trying to make the SSD work.

The SSD never really overperformed competitively. At least, not on a wider level. (Local metas may vary, etc etc). Wave 8 really killed it off, as it was too difficult to get enough large wins in the larger tournaments. The Onager and SH did a number on it as well.

6 hours ago, Formynder4 said:

The SSD never really overperformed competitively. At least, not on a wider level. (Local metas may vary, etc etc). Wave 8 really killed it off, as it was too difficult to get enough large wins in the larger tournaments. The Onager and SH did a number on it as well.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zLdqo9y47lqIKubfrEUKV8gX5t9Ee-XuemM4xbiB_8A/edit#gid=322361150

Overall, you're right. 13% of fleets going in, 14% going out.

However, all of those winning fleets were Assault Prototypes with Jerjerrod.

Which were only 8.6% of fleets going in, unless I'm mistaken.

As I mentioned, the Starhawk and Onager were new or unavailable at this time. We need new data, and if you have any I'd be keen to see it.

8 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

As I mentioned, the Starhawk and Onager were new or unavailable at this time. We need new data, and if you have any I'd be keen to see it.

I missed the part where you said the Onager and Starhawk weren’t available. My bad.

As for new data, I’ve got nothing beyond the anecdotal, unfortunately. But if (IF) I’m right, the thing is just too bloody expensive to be competitive. And I’m not even necessarily talking about “tournament” competitive, just kitchen-table competitive. That’s why I was so disappointed to see points costs on the cards with 1.5. I think we ultimately need web-based, adjustable points costs not just for the ships, but for everything. Having now seen it at work in X-Wing through a couple of points cycles, it’s really the best way to balance a game of this sort. And if the developers get anything “wrong,” it’s a solvable problem. Assault Prototype too strong at 235 points? They retune it to 239 and try again. Nobody using Darth Vader’s squadron card at 21? What about at 19? Still no? What about at 18?

I think what I’d really like to see is for the points on the cards become a guideline... “this is what we suggest playing these things at out of the box, if you’re just cracking these things open at a super-casual game night and can’t be bothered to check websites and download apps, but if you want a more finely tuned experience that takes into account new releases and the current meta, go check out the current points PDF.”