Star Wars Armada: Governor Pryce thoughts

With football season winding down, my focus has started to move back towards my gaming group and actually getting to enjoy some of the games (Do not fear, NBA and NCAA Rankings are forthcoming shortly).

IN Armada, we've finally started to see a slow drip of news, this week with the coming form of Governor Pryce.  The wookiepedia article linked gives a basic overview of her character form the Rebels TV show, noting how determined she is to get revenge at some points and how well she plays the polticial game.  This I think fits her ability quite well:

She forces a medium or large ship to activate last in a pre-named round.  This is a truly huge possibility for making sure your BT Avenger gets to first last its target, or that your Quasar gets in a late alpha strike against your opponents fighters or a careless flotilla. She is also good for either pushing back the engagement by forcing your opponent's typical first last ships to wait an extra turn on their attack run or risk getting stuck in a double arc.  Your opponents will have to play around that moment in the game.  This could be very good for contested outpost or salvage run where you can grab an extra turn of objectives by threatening a specific area.

I think a few Victory builds might want her, where she might help battle carrier Vic 1s make an alpha strike and wait for that opposing ship to jump into close range.  A pumped up Vic 2 might also want her for a bit of a surprise on turn 2 if your opponent plays an aggressive list or to help deter them from rushing an objective.  But I do think the ISD is going to be the one that really wants her.

The ISD platform also helps to make up for the drawback Pryce presents for a player, namely that your opponent knows in which round that ship must activate last.  This means they know they can set up an attack run from Demolisher or Admonition and get away without you necessarily getting a shot. Luckily an ISD is a tough nut to crack, so that helps.  I also believe it is going to be key to pair your ISD with some escort ships that can take advantage of ships trying to jump in til near the end.  Victories can punish ships trying to skirt around and out-wait the ISDs activation.  The Interdictor can bring in a targeting scrambler and keep the ISD up, especially if you are first player.  It also might help to bring back some of the Rogue units the empire has, specifically the Decimator.  Any ship getting close enough might be eating a few three blue dice attacks. 

I think Pryce is going to be one of the high skill use cards.  Her exact usage is going to take the right combination of objectives and builds to make work.  I'm excited though to test her out a bit, and see what she can do to help battle the activation advantage.