Star Wars Armada Corellian Conflict New Objectives!

Getting ready to travel with all the dogs and a pregnant wife following a birthday dinner/all day having folks over really eats up spare time. So, I hadn’t gotten a chance to really examine the new objectives Fantasy Flight spoiled with Corellian Conflict.  The fine folks over at the Concentrate Firepower blog have done a great job I think breaking down all of them, and I agree with a lot of their analysis.  I won’t break down each new objective, but go into a few spots of things I really like, and some areas where I do disagree a bit.

I’ll start off by saying I am a little disappointed so many of these objectives are so heavily tilted towards the second player.  I thought the core objectives were very well balanced in that second player would get a good boost but the first player would get something as well.  I’ve always hated the need to have a large bid in any game.  Bidding to ensure you’ve got first player in a DeMSU list is one thing.  Needing to bid high to make sure you aren’t constantly facing Planetary Ion Cannons or losing a huge amount of points to the other player I think limits builds quite a bit. On the other hand, I am excited that most of the objectives do help encourage folks to actually get into the middle and fight, rather than skirt the edges and play for a small win.

I do think the new objectives will add a big boost for the Interdictor though.  Grav Well projector is going to be huge for helping balance some of the objectives that stress positioning (Like Solar Corona and Navigational Hazards, as well as Blockade Run to either slow down or funnel those objective ships to you).  The Grav shift Reroute will also be nice to move possibly several obstacles to keep your opponent from getting to some objectives or in position to use Targeting Beacons effectively. 

Carrier fleets I think are going to love the Barrier objective, especially Rhymerball fleets.  It will allow you to keep your carriers in a safer spot until you’re ready to jump across and finish off ships after your bombers have softened them up for a turn or two.  It will also greatly help VSDs, in that you can place a large shield basically on one for their flanks.

A lot of folks have really disparaged the Fighter Ambush objective, and I agree to a point.  I think if you’re running an Imperial based bomber list it’s not going to be your choice.  You’ll lose too much deployment flexibility, and not gain enough of an advantage since TIE Bombers are fast anyways .  However, if you’re running YT-2400 spam this objective could potentially allow you to really put the hurt on a ship that is a bit isolated or deny an area right off the bat.  I can also see it being useful for B-Wings to get them further out to begin.