Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Rebel Officers!

Eric's listed the Imperial officers and gotten them all together in some sort of lineup to be inspected by Lord Vader and assumedly choked for failure.  Better get the Rebel Officers together too!
Ahsoka Tano, Lando Calrissian, Wicket the Ewok, Mace Windu, and Chewbacca
Let's start it off big with the OG from 1998:
Straight Outta Rebellion
Adar Tallon has been around since wave I and he is a great addition... if you use him well.  I need to emphasize that, as he is 10 points and the most costly of any Rebellion officer.  He allows you to "untap/unexhaust/turn back on" a squadron you activate with him.  So when you put him on ship A, and that ship commands squadrons, you can exhaust Adar to change ONE squadron to unactivated, allowing that squadron to attack again later in the turn.

This combines amazingly with Yavaris, as they can then attack twice in one activation (once from the Adar activation, one more extra-strength time from Yavaris itself).  The reason you want Adar on a different ship is so that he can have the squadron move and shoot, and then get the Yavaris shot when it doesn't move.  Adar combines great with the Rebellion's slew of aces, as some of those attacks (Luke, Wedge, Keyan, Ten Numb, Nym, Dutch, Norra....) get STUPID crazy when you can get 2 of them a turn.  Have 2 shots from Luke that ignore all the shields of your opponent! Shut down 2 different squadrons from your opponent with Dutch! Wipe shields like CRAZY with Norra! You're building a squadron heavy approach with this, but that's not bad.  However, if you use him to re-activate a regular Y-wing or generic X-wing, he's not being used to his full potential.

Think of him as almost an extra squadron you get to bring and activate.  If you use him to get an extra Y-wing attack, you get another 10 points of squadron attacks for 10 points.  A generic X-wing is another 13 points of attack for 10 points, a profit of 3 points.  And if you use him to get another Keyan or Luke attack, you get another 20 points of attack for a purchased cost of 10 points.  See why I'm telling you to have him activate your best squadrons? You end up using 410 points (in a fashion) that turn instead of 400, which is great.

He also combines very well with Rogues (Corran and Hera especially), giving them a free move and attack, which they definitely appreciate, BEFORE they activate again in the squadron phase... when they can attack and move away like big jerks!
Signs I've used her a lot: I can spell her name without checking now.  Sigh.
Ahsoka Tano is like a slightly different Princess Leia.  She doesn't change dials for you, but she changes tokens.  She goes great with Garm bel Iblis, Sato, the Pelta, or the actual Liberty LMC80.  She goes great with Raymus Antilles and his ability (see below) and Hondo too.  She can also work in general to change whatever token you have to be whatever you need (likely a Nav token to get out of danger; that's my common use with her).  She's not an auto include, but she's a very good help when you need her to be.  She's also quite helpful at changing the token you have on a ship into the Squadrons token to trigger the boarders you're about to trigger (or getting a squad command for Sato!)  Because the start of the ship's activation can occur as you saying "I'm activating this ship," you can trigger her to change the token right before you reveal the dial, which then allows you to NOT need to spend a full squadrons dial to discard the boarding team to get it going.

Keep in mind you NEED a token on the ship, and you need her within 5 to trigger it, and you need to do it in that order in order to not screw yourself out of it, but if you make sure you do that all right, you can have a different dial than squadrons, which is much stronger for you and the ability to use the boarding teams.  Shmitty also uses her to power up a Pelta under Garm every turn, and it's SUPER helpful there.  Basically, don't just slot her in if you have 2 points for her.  Have a PLAN, and you can EASILY get more than 2 points worth of work out of her.
Writing that over him just feels wonderful
Bail Organa is banned, sacrificing himself in the past to kill Pryce and Strat Ad in the present.  Go use the Commander version if you really love Jimmy Smits.
I fought on Endor, you know
Captain Rex is one of the new Rebellion in the Rim officers, and a great character on Rebels.  I'm happy he got a great card to go with that.  If you're commanding squadrons and are at close range of a ship, here, have a Raid token to go with the damage I just poured into you! And even more fun, you can't get rid of multiple tokens until I'm not at distance 1-3 of you! He combines great with Kanan, but he's also just really solid on any carrier that's going to end up in the thick of things (and wants to push several squadrons, but I DID say carrier already).  Carrier GR75s, Vanguard (not Yavaris, it doesn't need a SECOND target on it), Assault Frigates, Peltas (provided you can get into the thick of things and then OUT of the thick of things quickly), Large ship carriers, he's great anywhere you plan on commanding squadrons multiple times a game.  Fun note: the ability to remove those Raid tokens ISN'T tied to him commanding squadrons, just existing near the ship.  Fun note 2: even if he dies this turn, no getting rid of those tokens until NEXT turn.  Make Raid count for you.  Rex is GOLD in the right situations, you just gotta leverage him and make sure you keep throwing squadrons with him.  Last fun note: pushing zero squadrons but still spending the dial/token counts as commanding squadrons.  RAID THAT SHIP!
What, you think you some kinda Jedi or something?
Ezra Bridger, protagonist of the Rebels TV series, and friend to space whales everywhere is SUPER fun.  Let's go over movement of obstacles! (Anything I quote is verbatim from RitR, so, take it as gospel.)
  • Obstacle movement says you place one end of the middle of the range ruler on the edge of the obstacle you want to move.  Then you move it up to the specified distance (here, 1-2).  It can't end on anything or under anything (squads, ships, other obstacles, any tokens).
  • "The obstacle can be rotated as long as no part of that obstacle is beyond the specified maximum distance of its move from that object's original position."  So you can swing one end around, but the other end of the obstacle can't go more than the Distance 2 from it's start.
  • "If an obstacle with a token placed on it due to an objective card or other effect is moved, that token remains on the obstacle."  Mines and VIPs get to move with the obstacle.
  • "If an obstacle that is overlapped by a ship or squadron is moved, that ship or squadron remains in its current position after the obstacle is moved."  That X-wing does NOT get to move with it.
Lotta words there.  But! What it means for you is a lot easier to explain! Ezra gets to move obstacles around.  Where they're the MOST destructive for your opponent, as it doesn't happen on deployment like Grav Shift Reroute.  You can put Proximity Mines on any of the obstacles and then have Ezra shove them directly in something's path (like a Purgill!), you can slip a Gravity Rift right in front of that Super Star Destroyer, you can push a Dust Cloud JUSSSSST in front of your ship, guess you can't attack me this turn huh sad.  There's a LOT of jerk maneuvers you can do with this, but any list that wants maximum efficacy with Ezra wants some horrid new obstacles to throw in the way.  Dust Clouds, Grav Rifts, Purgills, mines, anything that makes your opponent think he's going one way but actually resulting in bad times for him.  If you're playing Con O, I mean, I guess, but.... there's a LOT better options.  Your WORST case scenario should be throwing an asteroid under their ship for 2 turns, or obstructing your ship from their attack, and there's DEFINITELY better in a lot of the objectives (I cannot stress dust clouds enough, especially if you can lurk on one side and wait them out and force them to cross the cloud and get shot by you.  And again, anyone who selects Rift Ambush from you is ASKING for a bad time.).  It's hard for people to predict in-game when you move an obstacle, and I am very happy to mess with minds in-game.
I was definitely in a movie!
General Draven is the Rebel Agent Kallus.  Adding an extra dice against squadrons with counter or Intel means that he naturally hates on Jan/HWKs and Dengar/Jumpmasters, along with A-wings, Interceptors, YT-1300s, Aggressors/IG-88, Black Squadron, and Decimators (not to mention all the new squadrons in GAR and CIS!).  The OTHER fun fact is that because of the way Dengar works, Draven targets EVERYTHING he's helping out by giving Counter to.  So, if there's a chance he's going to die, target Dengar last so you can wail on everyone else with more dice.

Draven usually ends up riding a Combat GR-75 or Scout Hammerhead or something with 2 dice of flak.  The Combat GR for the cheap option that helps extend range, and the 2 dice of flak because a potential 3 dice of flak is REALLY GOOD, surprising no one.  Once again, of course, Draven occupies that officer's chair, the eternal problem.  I haven't run Draven much, but he's a solid anti-squad option if you can fit the points and officer's chair.  I've seen him do OK on a Scout Hammerhead, and that's.... the best I can say for him.  He's OK? Yay? I got nothing against the card or the guy, just... it's kind of uninspiring and is really at the mercy of your opponent's fleet.  The large plethora of CIS squad users choosing Tri-Fighters and GAR players running Plo Koon (or ARCs, or any Jedi really) means that you're increasingly likely to get use out of Draven.  Just make that use count.
During the Battle for KDY, thanks Dras!
Kyrsta Agate (Officer version) is really helpful, providing a way to refresh your defense tokens mid-turn, by getting a red/blue crit and exhausting her.  She also is the ONLY non-standard critical that can trigger on a Salvo attack, so put her with something you're giving salvo to (here's the Local Fire Control link, read that for how to best add salvo's if you're not just putting her on a Starhawk).  The ability to mid-turn flip a token can be crucial.  Extra fun is reflipping the contain to prevent your opponent's critical only to spend it AGAIN on their next attack.  Potentially 3 braces a turn (if you discard it), reusing that Salvo token, she's solid.  The main downside is that this then means you aren't using Agate (commander) in your fleet.  Whatever ship you may want to add her to, you might want to look at finding a way to get those criticals to go off (such as Weapon Battery Techs, again, linked).  She subtly adds to the tankiness of whatever ship you've got her on, and should definitely see play.
The potential "Get out of death" free card
Lando Calrissian is a shot at life.  You discard him/shove him out the airlock, and he lets you reroll whatever dice your opponent is attacking you with.  Best used against a super strong shot from that ISD you're up against, pick and choose whatever dice you can to try to stay alive.  Blue dice are generally not going to roll into less damage (6/8 stay the same, just maybe adds/removes the crit), but red dice have 5/8 sides with damage on them, and black dice have 6/8.  You're not really going to get a whole bunch of blanks (barring luck that's on the scale of Lando himself), but you have a decent shot of reducing black hit+crits into hits or blanks, and red doubles into blanks or less damage at the least.  Blue dice you can reroll if you want, but don't expect a miracle there.
Colt 45 might, but Lando might NOT.  Keep that in mind.  And of course I was going to put this in, come on.
Based on the attack step resolution, any accuracies they roll into with Lando can't be spent, so those are effectively blank for you.  Unless of course their ship has SW7s on it, then you're in trouble.  Again, you've got a decent chance of reducing the damage, but don't expect it all to disappear.  If enough of it is gone, though, you can survive.

If you REALLY want to be a pain, Mon Mothma loves Lando on the Admonition and Major Derlin on the Foresight.  You can stay alive for so long.....
Some day you're gonna be wrong, I just hope I'm there to see it
Leia Organa Officer is great as a friend to your bigger ships.  I've used Leia to fix commands on bigger ships with higher command stacks or small ships with Command 2 (hello, Yavaris) and she pairs well with a Comms Net GR75 to let you 1) fix commands/command timing with her ability, 2) give you a token for the stronger version of that ability, and 3) gives you an extra activation.  She's a great way to fix your command stack to be the right one at the right time, albeit needing to activate her in order to get that command at the right time.  If you need the right command NEXT turn, activate the other ship first, and then activate Leia's ship to change its dial for next turn.  Watch out for Slicer Tools, though.  You can put her on a CR90, or any other Command 1 ship (as you're choosing commands each turn for a command 1, that's the best place for her), but if you put her on a CR90 that gets close to the action, you might lose her ship and thus her ability.  Hence, put her on a GR75 in the back and use her ability as needed.
Who are 3 people who have never been in my kitchen?
Major Derlin hasn't shown up as much in lists, but he's got an alright ability for the price.  Allowing you to reduce one damage per turn SEEMS like it's not that powerful, but combine him with a commander or ship that likes staying alive and you've got a decent damage prevention system.  He's not an immediate throw in, but combine him with Mon Mothma and the Foresight title and you have an MC30 that can reduce SO much damage that it's crazy.  I've reduced 4 damage down to 1 once (and at Medium range too!) and you can potentially get even more.  He's great with Mothma (and Cracken? Haven't tried him there, myself), but the rest of the commanders I'm not as sold on.  He takes the ability to reduce damage and makes it better, so maximize that ability.  As I've said before (when I was talking about the turbolasers), maximize your good abilities, don't try to improve your weaker ones.

You need him on a ship that only wants/gets to be attacked once a turn, as that's the best way to use his ability.  A ship that's finishing off what's left of your opponent's fleet, not usually your initial attacker on the way in.  As the MC30 titles (and to be fair, the Bright Hope) are the only really defensive ones, I like him on one of those to ensure they get to reduce damage HARD.  I've heard of people trying him on an LMC80, too, but like I said, you want it on a ship that's not going to be attacked REPEATEDLY.
The officer so good they turned him into a 38 point Commander in Wave 6.
Raymus Antilles is great.  Reveal a command, get a free token with it at the same time.  He pairs great with a Pelta (that wants tokens often!), carrier ships (for extra squadrons commanded!), ships under Madine (turn farther and faster than you ever thought possible!), and if you want an imitation super-powered Comms Net GR75, you can combine him with the Tantive IV title on a CR90.

Fun combination with Ahsoka Tano: when you reveal the dial, take the token.  You can then change that token by exhausting Ahsoka and changing it to another token.  You can then take the dial revealed as a token, resulting in one turn and 2 tokens.  Goes great on the Phoenix Home, haha.

He's great pretty much everywhere you're using token manipulation to accentuate your abilities, either through squadrons, navigating, concentrating fire, or engineering.  The only downside to him is that he's 7 points and command tokens are generally a lot more accessible than they were in wave 1.  He's still nice super-powering up a large base though.
EXPLOSIONS!!!! - Mr. Torgue
Sabine Wren is relatively easy to understand.  She drops a Proximity Mine (which must be distance 1 away from any OTHER Proximity Mine - RitR book says so).  Any ship that lands on her Prox Mine takes the same potentially 2 damage as any other mine, but! It's placed whatever round you want to.  When you see your opponent coming in at speed 3 and you know he's going to be pushing squadrons this turn? Time for a mine in his landing zone.  It's also an opportunity for ONE more mine token on the board, at the cost of the officer slot (YMMV there).  I like the mines a lot; they're great deployment help, especially for some of the MSU fleets I like to run.  And getting to drop one more just to try to throw under your opponent? Mmmm, delicious! Obvious combo with Ezra is obvious, but hey, worth mentioning.  Don't necessarily throw it out turn 1, but if it REALLY helps your plans, go for it.
Last seen on Hoth.  No seriously, she's in Empire on Hoth behind one of these glass boards
Toryn Farr lets you reroll blue dice from ships or SQUADRONS.  I put the important word in all caps there; getting to reroll the crits your dice roll or the accuracies you don't need/roll FOR the accuracies you DO need for fighting scatter aces is great.  Letting your ships reroll blue dice isn't unhelpful, as you can attempt to reroll a blue dice for an accuracy to shoot that scatter token on the flotilla.  Counterpoint: why don't you have a better way of guaranteeing accuracies, as H9 turbolasers exists?  Her ability is great for helping squadrons, and you can use it on other ships besides hers (read that ANOTHER in there...), but you NEED to stay within distance 3 of that squadron or ship.  This usually ends up with her on a flotilla that's going to explode soon right in the middle of the action, but if you can use her to generate enough rerolls to have your squadrons kill the other guy's faster and get to hitting his ships, her death may be worth it.
Agate's best friend!
Walex Blissex is pretty useful.  The ability to recover a defense token (brace, usually) allows you to double use a token on defense, and then you can reuse it AGAIN later.  Like I said, it's usually the brace, as that reduces the most damage for you.  He's great on your bigger ships (like the H1MC80 he comes packaged with or the MC75 dropping in with Raddus) that have one token they desperately need to stay alive with.  He does what he says on the tin, not that hard to understand.  And he'll keep your H1MC80 alive through a lot of attacks if you build it well. or the Starhawk with Agate for a potential 7th token use. Put him on a large base, basically.
See, you shoot the Death Star in the big glowing part. Its like none of you ever played a video game before.
Wedge Antilles is the first squadron-turned-anything else in 8 waves from the Rebellion.  No, no, we clearly needed that 9th Vader, the Rebellion doesn't need MORE heroes.  Anyways.  A lot of text on him, but he's a solid addition to squadron fleets.  You spend a token, you give 3 squads cloak, which lets them move back onto the station after attacking.  Or move those B-wings forwards another distance 1 (because it sure does combine with Fighter Coordination Team!).  Or shove something out of a double arc.  Or engaging Mauler when he was suddenly free right at the end of the turn and was going to Hop-on-Pop again next turn.  What about stuff with Grit that is now about to only be engaged with one squadron, so your Scurrg can leave next turn? Sounds good to me!

The only limits are:
1) No Strategic squadrons, because giving VCXs the ability to move Fire Lanes tokens again is STUPID.
2) Non-uniques.  Wedge is training up the scrubs right now, they can get transferred into fancy squadrons later.

I linked to it in the statement (and in this sentence), but giving cloak out is nuts.  Nothing stops cloak beyond literally having nowhere to place the squad.  And even then, a miniscule move on the station still counts for getting that health back.  Wedge also combines GREAT with Yavaris to ensure that the squad that was out of range end of turn is suddenly in range and ready to hit something hard.  The likeliest use for Wedge is with B-wings, just adding in more ways of speeding them up.  All it costs is one little squadron token, whenever you want to.  Wedge also isn't limited by ship squadron amount, so put him on a CR90 or whatever if you can afford the squadron token.

7 comments:

  1. Does "at distance 1-2" on Sabine mean you cannot place the mine on the obstacle? Or am I thinking of "within 1-2"?

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    1. You're thinking of "within." "At" means "any part of its base is touched by the range ruler within the specified ranges," which can mean it's placed pretty far away with just a sliver touching the 2 or it's placed inside the obstacle (as the range ruler measures from the outside of the obstacle to the inside of the obstacle and at least part of the mine is inside distance 1).

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  2. Is the choice between Walex and Derlin mostly a meta dependent one? Obviously Lando is the crown prince of anti-haymaker. But I can never figure out whether to bring Wally or Derlan when I'm kitting out a tanky flagship. (I rarely play rebels but enjoy the occasional pickup game with Home One)

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    1. Meta and playstyle. Derlin is a fake long range evade every turn, Walex brings an important token back. Derlin is arguably better with Agate on an AF but Walex is better with her on an MC30, assuming she's giving a Brace to both of them

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  3. Does flight commander allow you to activate rex after you move since you do not resolve the squadron command until then? Seems like a fun way to get a slicer-tool-knockoff effect.

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    1. Yes, but you'd need to have a ship with two officer slots to pull it off. Even in those limited circumstances, I'm not sure it's a great use of two officer slots. Best case scenario is probably a Phoenix Home Pelta but it's still a slow ship that doesn't necessarily like getting that close.

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    2. For sure it's expensive and unorthodox! But I could see it on a blue-dice phoenix home or maybe a squad-providence that is already making use of a flight commander units build.

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