You don't know the power of RAID pt. 1 (Game mechanic)

 

Like father, like son: masters of raid

So Raid got slagged over at the FFG forums. Again. Even the mighty Count Dooku struggles to get enough out of raid to make it worthwhile (premature to conclude IMO, I've played vs Dooku, and he's a pain in the ass). And so - not for the first time - it was suggested that raid be made better. Which is an entirely justified reaction when you perceive something as weak, worthless, or overpriced.

While I do agree that raid is weakish, I urge EXTREME caution. Even a slight boost in the power of raid could quickly lead to NPE (Negative Play Experience). It may therefore be that raid is best left as a niche mechanic, nice at times, but unable to dominate games.

But, I hear you protest, raid is just a counter to whatever the opponent is up to! No, raid is NOT counter-play (which should ideally exist for any play - unlike old BTA and the original last-firsting Demo). 

Raid is, by its very nature, bordering on negative play experience (it's sibling is Slicer Tools, and Konstantine a distant, slightly insipid, cousin). It does not enhance you own fleet's capabilities as much as it ruins your opponent's fine-tuned list and carefully-crafted synergies. Losing control of their own fleet is something that most players instinctively detest, and given how reliant some builds (esp. squadron heavy) is on their commands, this a real factor. 

An example of true counter-play: ECM on a large base such as an ISD, while undeniably powerful, is countered by a thousand cuts from smalls or squadrons, or defense token overload in general. It can be stripped using Intel Officer, and other counters as well.

There does exist counter-play to raid. Raid can be cleared using tokens and dials, both of which are readily accessible to all factions and ships. There is a cost, but that cost isn't so high as to make it crippling. Good game design from FFG there IMO.

Relatedly: Armada 1.5 made some attempts at removing or weakening stuff without easily accessible (or practically non-existent) counters: Demo took another couple of hits, both on the card, on Engine Tech, on exhaustible ACM/APT, increased price on ExRacks, and last but not least the pass rules. Avenger was nerfed into binder fodder. Pryce got Order 66ed. Slicer Tools got hit hard, in no small part bc they synergize with raid (more about that later). Raid was NOT negatively affected by 1.5 (because it already has a robust counter-play mechanic).

Let's sum it up thus far: raid is rather weak, raid is weak bc it can potentially create NPE, raid doesn't enhance your fleet but hurts opponent's synergies, by extension raid isn't true counter-play to anything (although it certainly feels like that for a squad list that gets shut down), there exist counter-play strategies for dealing with raid.

A while ago I contemplated a boost to the utility of raid: 

• allow multiple raid of the same type to stack on a single ship
• a dial can either remove 1 of each raid token
• or remove all tokens of 1 type
• you can only ever use 1 dial or 1 token to clear raid per activation (this is already in the rules, but easily missed)
• "When (meaning ONE instance) a ship with a raid token reveals a command dial, it may discard that dial to discard all of its raid tokens, or it may discard a command token (meaning 1, or it would say "any number of") to discard a matching raid token."

But you can see how this would completely shut down a squad-centric list that doesn't have Piett, Thrawn, or Bail as the commander. This seemingly minor change would have DEVASTATING consequences for the game as a whole.

So, is the intrepid GK claiming that raid is fine? How did THAT happen?

Fine is maybe overdoing it. But the alternative - making raid stronger - is far worse. 

It. Must. NOT. Happen!

IMO raid should stay as it is, but the value of raid is probably overrated, so that the deliver vehicles are overpriced (looking at you in particular, Gauntlet, but also Jyn).

Final comment: Raid actually did become a bit more powerful. There are several key cards that now require you to spend a token to ready them. This eats tokens that your opponent would otherwise spend to clear raid. It's not a big buff, but it's real.

In the next installment we'll look at maximizing the utility of raid.