All Eric upgrade articles updated

Me, when editing the Imperial officers article.

All the upgrade articles I (Eric) am responsible for have been updated. That includes all of the following:

• Ordnance
• Fleet support
• Ion cannons
• Weapon teams
• Offensive retrofits
• Imperial officers
• Boarding teams
• Name titles

For the most part it's been pretty basic maintenance but I've had some changes of opinion on a few items within from the last time they were updated (example: Tractor Beams; I won't tell you I think they're amazing now but viewing them as nav token snipers first and foremost has been eye-opening). I've also tried to slim down article length when possible (nothing drastic, but I'd say overall the articles are probably about 10% shorter now) by cutting extraneous repetition and shortening examples. Basically the important content remains but the fluff has been cut a bit.

And that should be all of the big (ship, commander, squadron, upgrade) articles I'm responsible for updated. There's a few others (fleet building and such) but they tend to age much better and frankly I'm tired of article updates for right now. I'm in a good place now for when wave 8 finally drops, though, and that's good.

I've got an idea or two for new articles (not updates!) and expect I'll get something up next week. Thanks for reading!

Every Imperial squadron article updated

I moved through Imperial squadrons much more quickly than the commanders, given they need a lot less overall work. Generally I added in hyperlinks, clarified some passages, cut out stuff that didn't age well, and added bits and pieces here and there. If I note something specifically, it means it was a more substantial update than the basic maintenance, but every Imperial squadron article has been updated.

Carefully rebuilt and less likely to poke my feet next time, I hope.

Finished the Imperial commander updates!

So in case you, the reader, was unaware, the Starhawk teaser article came out today. Go check it out if you haven't yet. In other news, I've finished updating the Imperial commander articles.

This is how you get a toxic work environment, Vader.

Every commander has been updated to the Imperial commander format (rules/discussion/ships/fleet building) and had hyperlinks updated/add as well as...

• Darth Vader
• Removed part about how I'm not keen on Screed with blue crits (yes, there are a few Screed references/comparisons in the Vader article). With HIEs now, I'm just fine with him there, so both he and Vader work fine for that.
• Pretty much everything apart from the rules discussion got a substantial rewrite, often from the ground up, so it's easier to just say "go reread it."
• Emperor Palpatine
• Given I just wrote this one not long ago, I mostly just added a "ships" section to the article and reconfigured/expanded on the "fleet builds" section a bit.
• General Tagge
• Is still bad, just like his buddy Konstantine.
• Another incidence of updating "turn" to "round" in older articles to keep consistent with correct Armada terminology.
• Streamlined ships list, added SSD.
• Grand Admiral Thrawn
• Minimal changes needed, as the added "ships" section comes down to "it really depends on what you want your fleet to do because it turns out everything enjoys doing two dial-strength commands when it activates."
• Grand Moff Tarkin
• Cleaned up the article a bit with the new format. Similar to Grand Admiral Thrawn, it's much more difficult to really spell out what kind of ships you want when the commander can be used so flexibly.
• Moff Jerjerrod
• A lot more added to Jerry's "rules" section, as there are some additional shenanigans possible nowadays with some different interactions. This is probably one of the most important update sections I've added to the various commanders so if you're running Jerry please give it a look.
• Otherwise just a bit of your standard cleanup/adding links/adding a "ships" section.

LFC Updated

I updated the LFC article and because I had free time (laughs) the CR90 article.  They're linked to each other in the first sentence.

LFC: Combining the 2 LFC articles, deleting a LOT of chaff.  No major new examples of "how i squadron?", but Eric and I did update the fighter groups again.  And hey, I'm sure these will stay super relevant for like 15 more minutes!

As with a lot of this, the links are going to be wonky for a bit, as are potential chapter numbers.  I'm working on this NOW while I have TIME (I don't) and should have this better SOON.

CR90: Basically smushed it into the form Eric's article took for the ships (it looked nice and made a LOT more sense to me).  Some updates to the CR90B part, much removed from it all.  Plus I got goofy names for the CR90B ones, so, hooray!

What's next? Likely continuing in the squadron articles (a quick review of the MFC and then onwards to chapters 7 and onwards) and I have several ships to update in THERE.  Got some squad articles to change around too, (generic Lancers: NOT GREAT!) and I do HAVE a bit of actual blogging to throw in soon enough, but it's a busy time for updates and all.  Right before the Starhawk and Onager upset the apple cart meta again.

Thanks for reading!

SFC Update

John did half of it.  Well, an 1/8th of it.  I updated the SFC article to include EVERYTHING SFC (combining the basic definition article with the "how do i use this" one) and I'm sure you can guess what's next for the LFC.  I added in some new group suggestions (Lando! He's good!), trimmed down a fair amount of the extraneous ones, and cut out a LOT from the "basics of use" section.  Examples, diversions and groups that no longer matter, etc.  I also added in a bit about attacking the most important squadrons when you can....

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/02/squadrons-encyclopedia-2-small-fighter.html

The links for ALL the squadron articles are going to be updated this weekend, when I can hit a lot more on Sunday.  It's LFC next, followed by MFC, and then some more changes and everything.  Eric's new ship articles have been making me want to do some major changes to my OWN ship articles, and those fancy new commander articles sure look swanky.  Looks like I got a bit of work cut out for me!

Imperial commander article updates, every Admiral X updated

I'm working through all the Imperial commander articles alphabetically like I did with Imperial ships and got through every commander named Admiral Proper Noun, which is half of the available Imperial commanders. One big thing is adopting a common format for the articles so it will be easier to edit them in the future without it being so much work (I did the same kind of thing for Imperial ships for the same reason). Specifically, Imperial commander articles will have four main "parts" which are:

• Rules (how it works, things you might not at first realize, FAQ stuff, etc.)
• Discussion (basic introduction, laying out foundational points that will get developed and/or exemplified later)
• Ships (what ships this commander likes to use and why)
• Fleet building (how do we put this all together to make a type of fleet this commander does well with?)

I removed the "how do I beat X?" at the end, given it added in my opinion unnecessary length to the article and it's pretty easy to figure out what troubles that commander when I discuss what types of situations to avoid earlier in the article. If you're the opponent, do that.

SSD and VSD articles updated, all Imperial ship articles completely finished (...for now)

Above: picture of my very own SSD (and my legs, and Ian Cross's hands) from the tournament on Saturday. Credit to Mike Bohlmann for the camera work. Yep, the very same Mike Bohlmann who took second at Gencon with two Peltas and told us all about it!
 
I finally finished up the Imperial ship article updates, so they should be current up until wave 8 hits in a few weeks, then probably some minor tweaks here and there. The SSD article in particular surprised me with how much I updated an article I wrote fairly recently, but I've been getting even more games in with it and my opinions had changed a bit.

• SSD article update:
• Added hyperlinks for Piett and Commander Palpatine references.
• Added rules note to Ravager that with a con fire dial and token you spend them together but resolve them one at a time so you can add a single die, see how it goes, then add the second die.
• Expanded a bit on the defensive officer options for the SSD.
• Replaced SSD card scans with higher-quality images (thanks, Ryan Kingston's Armada Fleet Builder)
• Revised and went into greater detail on turbolaser options (both variants, especially Assault SSD combo options).
• Revised and went into greater detail on second ion cannon option for Assault SSD.
• Added a little bit more depth to the Assault double offensive retrofits upgrade section.
• VSD article update: 
• Streamlined intro and put VSD issues right out front, because we'll have to talk about them to come to any kind of workable solution.
• Shortened and updated longer paragraphs under Basic Usage Recommendations.
• Standardized the format to be similar to the other later ship articles, so removed some segments from earlier to add them back in under the "upgrades" header for the two different variants.
• Upgrade sections added to both variants and filled up/updated. Lots of action going on there.
• Builds also updated fairly substantially for both variants.

The VSD article is still pretty long - it felt like everything I cut got replaced with an equal amount of stuff I added. The VSD-I is surprisingly customizable and there's a lot of discussion to be done about how easy it is to screw things up with VSDs. I don't feel like they're amazing ships but they can have their place and Harrow certainly helped.

Up next is Imperial commander article updates, so stay posted.

John Article Update(s)

So, I'm still blogging here too, haha.  I just updated the "How to Use Strategic" article with some of the new objectives and recommendations about how many sources of Strategic to bring with you, and the Legendary Small Fighter Coverage article update is nearly done.  I swear!

Then it's time for LFC, ships, and I'm sure there's at least 4 more articles I'm forgetting as well.  Dangit.

As for ME, I finished the Chicago marathon in 4 hours, 37 minutes.  Not as fast as I wanted (next year: sub 4:30 is the goal!), but I never hit "the wall" and got to run this city that I love (and do a shot of Malort at mile 25.  No, that isn't a lie or exaggeration).  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, to everyone who donated to the cause.  I appreciated the HUGE amount of support that you all gave me and the kids.  When the donations started coming in, I was SO grateful for everyone who pitched in.  It was NOT an easy sum, but I GOT IT thanks to all of your help.  As for blogging, I've got a few article ideas in the pipeline that will be popping up in the incoming months, and that's not even beginning to talk about the Starhawk release and Regionals soon!  Speaking OF Regionals, I'll be judging the first of the two Chicago Regionals 2 days after Thanksgiving, which means it's time to pore over that rulebook!

Article updates 11/10

John and I had a great time at the Pastimes tournament we went to on Saturday, and I ended up at 2nd with an SSD fleet, which was fun! I made a few last-minute changes and they worked out great, so I was pleased with that as it was a little nerve-wracking. Thanks for coming out, everyone who joined us!

Look at those sweet acrylic obstacles!

It's a little blurry, but there's the final standings. John came in 13th out of 22 people, but was playing a "for the lols" Leia fleet, so not doing worse is its own accomplishment.

Quasar article updated

Small update for the Quasar. Still have the Raider, SSD, and VSD to go. SSD was produced recently but needs a little bit of tweaking (as I've played with it even more) and the Raider and VSD articles were updated with new RitR stuff (Corvus, Harrow, Versio, etc.) but I won't be satisfied until I review and update the entire article. That said, they're still pretty current if anyone's worried they're wildly out of date.

Quasar article changes:

• Drastically cut down the section comparing a Quasar to a pair of Gozantis. Back when there was no flotilla limit, this was an important discussion. Nowadays there's not as much direct competition - most squad fleets don't choose between them anymore, they take (at least) one of each. It was left in previously because it didn't hurt to leave it there, but I've been endeavoring lately to trim articles down when possible to make them a bit more manageable (for me) and easy to finish reading (for you).
• Added new hyperlinks
• Compressed the title discussion a little bit as it had gotten rather long (it still is rather long, but not so much as before).
• Organized upgrades section more cleanly using bullet points because I love bullet points (see: this list of bullet points). Also added Reserve Hangar Decks (because duh).

Further Imperial ship updates

Hey it's Demolisher and... uh... some other guy

I've updated the following Imperial ship articles:

• Gladiator-class Star Destroyer
• updated/added to the builds, trimmed the article down quite a bit overall as good portions of it were covered later by the "how to use black dice" article, went into more detail with officer options.
• Gozanti Cruisers
• Cleaned up, trimmed some of the fat, explained Suppressor in more detail. Expanded substantially on upgrade options(especially officers, Imperials finally have a lot of options for flotilla officers) and brought up to date.
• Imperial-class Star Destroyer
• Slight updates and hyperlinks added. No major changes overall, but trimmed some fat and expanded a bit in areas I felt needed more elaboration, leaving the article about equivalent length to the previous version. Added new toys like the Linked Turbolaser Towers and Krennic to the Cymoon.
• Interdictor Cruiser
• Trimmed down a fair amount, dropped the commanders section at the end, standardized presentation. Added more hyperlinks, gave some more objective examples with the experimental retrofits, updated upgrades (specifically Auxiliary Shields Team). Made it clear that the Combat Refit is the worst ship in the game and you shouldn't use it 😅.

That leaves us with 4 more ships to go, Empire-wise. I'll be working on those on and off over the next few days although I'm going to be busy with the charity tournament going on this Saturday so it will likely be next week before they're all done. Some need a fair bit of work, others barely any (the SSD article, for example).

Arquitens article updated and Imperial maintenance ahead

Since I finished up Poppa Palpatine, I wanted to start working on article updates in light of the SSD and RitR releases. First priority was the Arquitens article, as they've improved pretty remarkably with access to Krennic, Linked Turbolaser Towers, and Expert Shield Tech, making them easier to slot into fleets than prior to those releases where they were "fine but you need Vader or Jerry to fix some part of them that sucks."

Now with less awful!

Speaking of Imperial commanders, they'll be getting reviewed and updated again once I'm done with Imperial ships. I want to make both types of article's layout more consistent with one another and to that end I'm shortening many of the earlier Imperial ship articles by removing the "commanders that work well with this ship" section from the bottom and will probably be adding a "ships that work well with this commander" section to the commander articles instead. Given the ship articles tend to be some of our longest articles overall and the commander articles are relatively short, this seemed to be the best way to present that information while lessening the burden of getting through those long ship articles.

On a side note, we recently hit 1.5 million pageviews! Thanks for reading!