Order 67: The Great Nerfing

We were greeted this week to a very big surprise in the Armada community. A new FAQ was published in the same quarter FFG had already published one, a complete rarity. This FAQ have a big change to several mainstay cards, as well as changing the Zombie Lord Rieekan.  One of the bigger changes not as a card is the removal of the Lifeboat Flotillas. This is going to be a potentially powerful nerf to Flotillas overall, making sure that they are more active combat participants, instead of encouraging them to hang out back along the end line. Let's go ahead and explore the card changes and why they potentially came about. 

Rieekan

 

Impact of change: High

This was a great move by FFG in response to Rieekan's surge in power. His ability is still very good, allowing a crucial fighter or unactivated ship the chance to survive and fight. But it does force more strategic choices (do I save Nora this turn, or do I hold back and make sure Yavaris lives?), and will go a long way to eliminating swarm ramming lists that were really not very fun to play against. 

Demolisher

 

Impact of change:Medium-High

Demolisher has been one of the best titles in the game since the Gladiator became part of the game. The title made sure the Gladiator could almost every turn make use of its bevy of black dice. The addition of the Engine Tech support team made it even more lethal because you could sit outside of long range and then suddenly jump into close range. With a First-Last activation Demolisher could possibly wipe a ship off the table without seeing a shot come it's way. This change isn't huge, since Demo can still shoot and ram, but it now will always face some incoming fire. It also makes Engine Techs a little less mandatory. 

Major Rhymer

 

Impact of change: Huge

Major Rhymer was by far the easiest building piece for almost every Imperial carrier fleet. If there was anything on your fleet that you might want to have shoot at an enemy ship Rhymer was coming along as well. I feel like this nerf comes in the way of Rae Sloane making her appearance. The thought of facing down possibly 10 TIE fighters tossing dice at medium range under the protection of Stronghold made the chances of shearing away shields and defense tokens far too painful. It also I think was done to help Cpt Jonus, who now might be able to find a home in Imperial fleets, possibly pulling the VSD1 from the scrap heap. 

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

 

Impact of change: Low

TRCs were the most efficient card in the game I think.  Trading some defense for guaranteed 2 damage was huge.  The change will do far only affect possibly 3 ships (Arquitens with Needa, CR90 A, and MC30 Scout).  It also is a small boost to MS1 ion cannons, which have never really seen play. 

Bomber Command Center

 

Impact of change: Low

BCC stacking and fishing for hit grits was thought to be a real issue.  It made a small presence in some Rieekan aces lists, assuring those BWing pilots were getting 3 damage through every time. It just never really materialized as a points efficient strategy though. A good move overall though since it continues to open design space. 

Game Review: Terraforming Mars

In a bit of a lull right now from Armada and IA, in part because my gaming group has been playing a lot of Terraforming Mars. Terraforming is a combination game of machine building and some small area control elements. In it, each player takes control of a corporation that is attempting to be the greatest Teraforming group on the Red Planet. In the base game, all of the corps are the same. We skipped playing that version, instead using the corporations that each have different starting money and abilities. All players are attempting to gather resources (Space Bucks, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy and Heat) to be able to play cards from their hands, or to perform terraforming actions on the planet.  Everyone is trying to raise the temperature, oxygen level, and place ocean tiles onto the planet.  Each turn a player can perform up to two actions, like playing cards, raising the temp with heat resources, or buying a forest to raise the oxygen level.  They can perform one action and then let the next player go, but if they pass they are done for that round (called a Generation in the game).  At the end of the game, the player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

The board is really nice

What we Liked:

The gameplay is pretty smooth.  Limiting things to two actions keeps the pace moving,and noone is sitting for long periods of time as happens far too often in machine building games.  Players are also kept engaged by the fact that they need to know the board state to know when they need to spend on upping one of the terraforming requirements this action phase before someone else can do so and gain an advantage.  Many of the cards also allow you to interact with other players, typically by destroying their resources or inhibiting their resource production.  The rules are also straightforward, and after a round or two everyone we've played with has picked it up and run with it.  It always makes it nice to be able to quickly explain what's going on in a game, and not need to spend several hours pointing out possible edge cases so a new player doesn't get tripped up.  The board art and the cards were another big plus to our group.  While not everyone might enjoy some of the goofier pictures, I found it added a bit of levity to the game.  The flavor text is also quite funny.

What we didnt like:
As well as the board is made, the player tableaus are pretty bad.  The issue is that the cubes that you use to track your production and the amount of each resource you have slide way too easily.  I cannot recount the times we slightly bumped a tableau reaching to place a tile that you're entire economy would be wrecked because you swept it all away.  We did solve this problem by purchasing the Broken Token's insert.  Its a beautiful set of inserts that make it much easier to track and keep the game organized.   It also struck several of us that some of the cards themselves were just better versions of several of the corporations.  Phoblog is one an example, as their ability to have Titanium count as one extra Space Buck is nice, except that the advanced alloys card does that, and allows your steel to also count as one extra.  It also was a little disappointing how quickly your machine can get de-railed in the game due to the card draw.  If youve managed to pump out Steel, but you dont draw any Building Tag cards, its completely worthless.  Some sort of galactic trade hub or the like would be nice, to sell off resources for some cost.

Overall Impression:
This has quickly become a favorite of our group.  Its fast enough to play within a couple hours with 3-4 people chatting and playing, but also has some very deep strategy behind it.  I do hope the exansion will help to even out some of the machine flow issues, but this game on its own is a winner.

NBA Finals: Notes after two games

The first two games of the NBA Finals have shown us just how dominating the Golden State Warriors can be.  Kevin Durant has run roughshod over the Cavs, posting True Shooting rates of 64% and 59% in the first two contests, while also having a 97 and 93 Drtg.  It hasn't helped that the Cavs are basically playing no defense, with their team ratings of 113 and 124.  If they can't somehow slow down Durant, the Cavs are looking to get swept away at home by this ultra high powered Warriros team.  Other Notes:

• Things could be even worse for the Cavs as we saw in Game 2 when the Warriors are getting to the line.  During the regular season, both teams posted a roughly 20.5% FT/FGA rate.  The Cavs have been slightly ahead of their rate through two games, going to the line on 29% and 19% so far.  The Warriors reached the cahrity stripe a paltry 15% of their attempts in Game 1, but posted a 27% rate in Game 2.  The biggest loser in this is Kyrie Irving.  Regular season he got free throws on 23% of his attempts.  Games 1 and 2: 4.5 and 8.7.  That will not cut it in today's NBA
• The Cavs bench has been pretty ineffective so far.  Of the bench players getting at least 10 minutes per game, only Richard Jefferson has a True shooting rate of over 50%.  Jefferson and Deron WIlliams are also near team "leaders" for turnover rate despite averaging 14 and 16 minutes respectively.  
• JR Smith is playing abysmal basketball so far.  33% turnover rate, 25% True SHooting, and 5 fouls in about 21 minutes a game.  His defense has been bad too, as his man has shot 91% throught two games.
• If the Cavs can contain KD, its encouraging that Klay Thompson broke out of his shooting woes in Game 2.  Going 8-12, including 4 of 7 from distance gave him a team leading 83.3% TS rate.  Klay's defense has been solid, but its his shooting that will break the Cavs if he can keep it going.
• The Cavs are a much better team at home than on the road, where they were just 7 games above .500. The Warriors though are roughly the same team on the road,so expect an epic game.