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. 

Is the Victory 1 Star Destroyer Obsolete?

With the continued spoiling of Armada's Wave VI, we got the full specs of the Quasar class Carrier for the Imperials. The Quasar was seen mostly in the Star Wars Rebels animated show.  This new expansion is designed to give the Imperials something they've had already in their Victory Star Destroyers, but at a much more points efficient 54 or 61 point varieties.  The Quasar come standard with at least one weapons team and one offensive retrofit (double depending on the variety you choose).  Its native Squad 4 is the same as an ISD, and can easily be pushed to 5 for still just about half the points of an ISD1.  The titles for the ship are extremely synergistic, from being able to pull out a squadron command when you need it to obstructing every attack thrown at your Swarm fighters.

This of course, plays directly into the obsolescence of the famed Victory Class Star Destroyers, type 1.  The VSD comes standard in the Core Set for the Imperials, and for much of Waves 1 and 2 was a workhorse.  Not ever being super points efficient, 8 hull and good shields with Weapons Team slot and Offensive Retrofit made it the go to Imperial Carrier if taking the VSD1 variant.  The VSD2 has always lagged behind because of its cost, but it might see some time in the sun again following the release of Disposable Capacitors as a long range fire support ship. 

The VSD1 could take a beating from enemy ships and squads while still continuing to hand out squad commands, and when timed right had enough Engineering Points to keep itself on the board in crucial moments. However, kitting one out as a carrier racked up the points quickly, and for a ship that without the skilled commanding of Moff Jerjerrod could not keep its front guns pointed at the enemy without spending precious commands navigating, nor could it use its class leading 3 black dice easily.  It also didn't help that players typically had to forgo upgrades that would help even out the fickle Red Dice the VSD1 had at range to get the max from its carrier abilities.  Now we get the Quasar that could potentially have Flight Controllers, Expanded Hangar Bay, Boosted Comms and the Stronghold tittle for just 2 points more than the naked VSD1.

Even the Card art has it getting blown up

The Quasar suffers some of the same drawbacks the VSD1 has, namely if kitted for carrier duty it loses a lot of its chances to be a more efficient combat ship. It cannot take some of the better Weapons teams upgrades if its looking to up its fire rate (Gunnery Team) or even out its dice rolls (Veteran Gunners).  It also lacks the VSDs staying power, with its rather abysmal defense token suite and the low amount of shielding.  This one hurts since its unlikely to ever be able to really use its Boarding Teams upgrades before it gets shot up on approach. These drawbacks though don't really tilt things towards the VSD1 for maintaining its primary carrier roll.

If the VSD1's days of being the main fleet carrier, what role can it fill?  It still is a survivable gunship, and has a solid 3 Squad rating.  There is a chance with the External Racks upgrade that is forthcoming it could again work as a very good area denial piece.  But that's a niche role going forward, since the Gladiator fills a similar role for a relatively equal price and is more efficient of  a killing machine for the points..  It also is not nearly as good as say an Arquitens and Gozanti Cruiser for the same price in terms of fire support and overall fleet composition. 

Perhaps its lone spot will be with the Quasar, as the tank to soak up approaching fleets shots, and equipped with Veteran Gunners and Dual Turbolaser Turrets it could effectively support bombers with long range shots that hurt.  Its just not likely though that the VSD1 will see much time on the mat following the Quasar's release.

NBA Finals Predictions

The Finals are here.  Its the matchup that prognosticators have called for this entire season.  The question will be which set of All Stars will triumph?  The Warriors have swept everyone they've played so far, giving them several extra days of rest inbetween.  The Cavs have had just a single setback, coming against a red hot shooting Celtics team that wasn't able to sustain themselves without Iisaih Thomas for more than a short time.  Lets look at a few notes from the playoffs that might make a difference in this series.

• Despite being know as an outside shooting team, the Warriors are actually taking far more shots inside the restricted zone than the Cavs.  Through both teams having played 12 playoff games, the totals stood at 282 attempts by the Cavs, 317 by the Warriors.  They both are proficient at it, hitting 65% of those shots.  
• The Cavs live and die by Lebron, but Kevin Love has been exceptionally important this playoffs.  He leads the team in ORtg, and is tied with Lebron in net rating.
• The Warriors have spread out the bench playing time a bit more than the Cavs, with only six players that have averaged more than 15 inutes per game in the playoffs.  The Cavs have 8, and thats with Lebron putting in over 40 per game.  
• Of those players, the only Cav not to have a 60% True shooting rate is Kyrie Irving.  The Warriors have a pair of players with True Shooting under 50%, Klay Thompson and Andre Igudola. 

Golden State Warriors Series Wins: 0.90455
Cleveland Cavaliers Series Wins: 0.09545
Average Games Needed: 5

 

Team	EFg%	Tov%	OReb%	FTRate	dEFg%	dTov%	dFTRate	DReb%	ORtg	DRtg	Pace
Golden State Warriors	56.4	13.2	20.5	22.8	48.5	13.5	20.1	74.9	115.8	104	99.8
Cleveland Cavaliers	54.8	12.5	20.5	22	51.6	11.5	17.4	75.7	113.9	110.3	96.2

The program does not look kindly on this series.  The Cavs defense has been the issue the whole season, and its been improved in the playoffs to a 105 mark.  And their offense has been even better, posting a 119 mark.  However the Warriors already solid D has been even better, all the way down to 99 points per 100 posessions, a mark that would have been the best in the league in the regular season. If Klay Thompson heats up, this prediction is probably closer to true than anyone in Cleveland would care to admit.  However, if Lebron and Love can continue to play this well and play defense to keep Klay down, they;ve got a shot.

Armada AA dice: Critical Effect

While discussing the recent dominance of fighters in the basic lay of Armada, the thought of how to improve AA fire from ships presents itself.  The most obvious change would be an errata from FFG changing the effect of the critical symbol to not be a miss, but rather to become a hit.  This would be a pretty substantial change, so lets look at what the odds tell us will happen.

We see a substantial uptick in the chance for damage on the standard blue die.  Double blue dice will almost never not do at least a single damage, and about 2/3 of the time are doing at two damage at all ranges.

 

Blue Black dice become much more solid, a 20% chance of one shotting a 3 Hull fighter. This would certainly help to make some of the other combat variants of the large ship a bit more viable.

Black Dice become murder dice at this point.  There is a 30% chance of doing 3 or more damage, and 70% of doing 2 or more.  Single blacks look pretty nice as well.

The newly introduced Red Die greatly benefits from the crit effect, going from a 60% chance of whiffing to 60% chance of doing some damage.

Its really the red die that kills this concept from ever happening.  The effect of increasing the damage from AA at this point is a bit too much of a swing I think back towards ships.  However, I could see an upgrade that does it at close range.  Maybe a re-work of PDR to expand change it would make it a usable upgrade instead of relegated to the bin. 

NBA Eastern Conference Finals

The Celtics, as the least feared 1 seed in modern memory, have advanced to the finals to challenge the Cavs.  It was a memorable series against the Wizards, going down to a game 7.  The Cavs on the other hand coasted through their series with the Raptors.  This series should be much more of a challenge and should give us a good series before the finals everyone has been expecting.

Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Boston Celtics Series Wins: 0.47854
Cleveland Cavaliers Series Wins: 0.52146
Average Games Needed: 6

 

Team	EFg%	Tov%	OReb%	FTRate	dEFg%	dTov%	dFTRate	DReb%	ORtg	DRtg	Pace
Boston Celtics	52.5	12.3	22.1	21.2	50.4	12.6	22.2	75.2	111.1	108.7	96.7
Cleveland Cavaliers	54.8	12.5	20.5	22	51.6	11.5	17.4	75.7	113.9	110.3	96.2