Wednesday, May 10, 2023

You Underestimate My Power!

It’s a truism of Star Wars: you can never have too much Darth Vader. AMG has brought us another incarnation of the Chosen One with the release of Rapid Reinforcements 2. To distinguish him from the other versions of Anakin, you’ll see this version referred to as “Commandakin” by the Armada community at large, including by yours truly. This is a print and play expansion, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can find the release on AMG’s website or through this direct link. Try not to let your jaw drop too much when you start reading this card…

The Card!

Ani heard you like Salvos

It’s important to recognize this card has two abilities rather than just one. The first paragraph just straight up buffs all of your salvos. This is completely independent of the second paragraph, so don’t let anyone tell you it only happens during the second paragraph’s special attack. That, right off the bat, makes Anakin pretty decent. GAR already depends heavily on salvo for its ship-based firepower, which Anakin makes even better. A Venator under Anakin gets to roll up to four dice for its salvo outright. Before we even get into the second part of his ability, Anakin makes your salvo outright better.

The second paragraph was the most confusing upon release, as it does some things that we’ve never been able to do in Armada before. There's two ways you can use this. First, and most obvious, use allows you to resolve your salvos offensively rather than just defensively. Gone are the days of relying on an opponent to shoot you in order to do a good chunk of your damage potential. After one of your ships attack, you can spend a salvo token to make a salvo. All the normal rules of salvo apply, so a ship can’t salvo you back after this attack. AMG has clarified that this Salvo attack uses the same arcs and line of sight as the first attack. And yes, this does mean that Anakin’s ships get to effectively attack three times during their own activation. You can attack, use Anakin’s ability to attack that same target again with a salvo, and then use a second arc to conduct another attack. You can also attack, attack, and the  salvo if that’s your preference. Force help anyone you’ve managed to double arc with a Venator. They’re in for a bad time.

The second way to use this part of his ability, which might be less obvious at first glance, is what we call the "double salvo". You know what a salvo attack is? An attack. “Once per activation” includes enemy activations, not just your own. That means that after you resolve a salvo attack during an enemy ship's activation, you can spend another salvo to do it again. AMG clarified that it's indeed a whole separate attack, so you could tap a second salvo on your ship or even discard the salvo you just spent. This part of his ability is…controversial to put it politely. At risk of editorializing in a how-to guide, we here at CGYSO really don't like how punishing this is for small ships, such as Hammerheads, consulars, or other small ships that rely on double arcs and finesse to survive. This version of Anakin is very strong against those types of ships, while not helping Anakin at all against things that counter him, such as ignition attacks (which cannot be salvo'd). AMG, if you're listening, I like the design idea, but this part of the ability is too much. I'd love to see the wording here changed to "Once per a friendly ship's activation…" It makes for a strong commander, with a unique ability, but doesn't overly punish small ships.

Why Play Him!

They're definitely related


Anakin does what most versions of him do: better living through offense. If you want to play a more aggressive, ship-heavy style with GAR, Anakin is your guy. I like to say he’s essentially “free double arcs” because his salvos often match or exceed the side arc of the GAR ships he likes to use. I think AMG also did a great job of tying this to the salvo token. By doing so, they allow for some interactions that reflect Anakin overreaching and getting himself into trouble. For example, you really *really* don’t want to get yourself caught by a ship packing Boarding Troopers. While that’s dangerous for anyone, stripping away key defense tokens like your brace, it’s especially nasty for Anakin because you’re also losing uses of major offensive firepower. If you enjoy playing aggressive to the point of recklessness, Commandakin is your guy.

Ships!


When you see Anakin, your mind probably goes straight to a Venator. It is easily the most natural fit for an Anakin fleet. It has the slots to take both Flak Guns and DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers. This combination gives the Venator four salvo dice at medium range with Anakin and guarantees at least one critical. At medium and closer, that equates to two damage with a black die. Anakin and SPHA-T make an interesting combination for GAR. SPHA-T, as an ignition attack, doesn’t allow a defender to salvo. Since Anakin’s offensive salvo is still…you know…a salvo, it too doesn’t allow a defender to Salvo. If you’re dealing with a salvo monster on the other side of the board (looking at your Mr. Starhawk), Anakin and SPHA-T is a pretty interesting way to crack that can open. It also creates a rather hilarious paradigm where Anakin is his own best counter. I think there could also be room for cheap Acclamators looking to use their salvos offensively. An Acclamators 2 with Thermal Shields, External Racks, and Ordnance Experts is only 84 points. With a close range double arc, it can throw six dice out the front, five dice out the side (with the Racks), and follow it up with three more dice from its salvo. Peltas with Reactive Gunnery are also a solid option. Three reds are nothing to laugh at.

Fleet!


Unless Anakin loses the double salvo, the obvious thing to do with him is to start with two Venators and then build a support structure around that. I'm always loath to go without squad cover as GAR, so you'll need to navigate some list building tension between maximizing Anakin while covering yourself against potential weak points. Here's one possibility:

Don't Stop Me Now v2 (89/400/400)

=================================


Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 47: 147)

· Anakin Skywalker (29)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Local Fire Control (4)

· Flak Guns (3)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)


Venator I-class Star Destroyer (90 + 20: 110)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Local Fire Control (4)

· Intensify Firepower! (6)

· Flak Guns (3)

· DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)

· Tranquility (3)


Pelta-class Transport Frigate (45 + 9: 54)

· Munitions Resupply (3)

· Projection Experts (6)


5 x ARC-170 Starfighter Squadron (5 x 15)

Matchstick (14)


Blockade Run

Contested Outpost

Doomed Station


The strategy here is pretty straightforward. Venators do the bulk of the fighting, blasting away with salvos. The ARCs follow along and behind, looking to either cover the Vens or finish off any ship lucky enough to get past. Matchstick allows the ARCs to operate independently of the Vens as needed, freeing up the Vens to Nav or Repair. Be sure to lead as best you can with the Ven 2, as even with Tranquility, PE support, and squad commands, the Ven 1 is liable to go down quickly. Still, I love Intensify Firepower, as it stabilizes your normal attacks and makes your Anakin salvo ridiculously dependable in combination with DBYs. You can all but guarantee five damage from your salvos at medium range, with the occasional spike even higher. Just be warned, you’re probably not going to be winning many friends if you bring this to a casual game night. Anakin is looking extremely strong at the time of writing, so we recommend giving opponents a heads up before you become “that guy.”

7 comments:

  1. NGL, as a Seps main, outside of the aforementioned concern with him straight-up deleting smaller ships, I feel like Commandakin is pretty much exactly what Pubs need. In a game with Patriot Fist and Onaghers throwing out fists full of dice, the Republic really, REALLY needed an offensive option to help keep up. Interestingly, the option they came up with isn't tied into specific firing arcs, which suits Republic game play pretty well IMO. And the fact that he still needs to spend Salvo tokens to make his extra attacks helps counterbalance all the bonus dice he gets for them, I think. Well, we'll see how he plays out either way, I suppose.

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  2. I understand the concerns that he will disrupt MSU players but I honestly don't think it will be too hard to work around. The definition of MSU attacks is paper cuts and Anakin runs out of green salvo tokens after two uses even with Local-fire-control, or at best three attacks if the ship is insane enough to run reactive gunnery. After that he starts tossing tokens permanently.

    Will it hurt to fly against Anakin? Sure! But I feel like true MSU will burn through his tokens pretty fast

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  3. I'm about to test this out against a friend's list which is exclusively Venators with S-PHATs and Anakin, wish me luck.

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  4. now he's got errata. I'll miss old version of commandakin. I hope there will be new guide for him. How can new commandakin be used for multi-venator fleet?

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    1. Truth and I are kinda busy with life at the moment, but we'll get to a new article for him. He, uh, probably shouldn't be used with multi Venator fleets.

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  5. *Obligatory comment asking about when we'll get an update for the big errata changes*

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    Replies
    1. Ha, it's been a busy winter. Gimme a few and I'll try to start on them soon.

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