Changes for Armada going forward

The age of Armada 1.5 is upon us and it's a bright and glorious time indeed! 

If you have followed my "Armada 1.5" article series I've looked at every card in the game and made a running commentary of what I think of that card in the new meta - and what I would like for FFG/AMG to take a look at going forward. 

Here I've taken these scattered thoughts and structured them somewhat.

The basic idea comes from X-wing 2.0's system for updating points and upgrade slots every six months or so. FFG recognized that a game as complex as X-wing (or Armada for that matter) could never be perfectly balanced across years of releases. What's fine in wave 1 can be underpowered or overcosted (or vice versa) a few waves later, for example. They knew from experience that fixing imbalances purely through new releases both took too long and didn't always work (5 years and 8 waves and Demo is still being tweaked, for example).

If you're familiar with X-wing 2.0 you know what I'm talking about. If not I can explain it very quickly:

• Ships that are too popular might go up in price.
• More commonly ships that are underused go down in price. 
• Which upgrade slots ships have can also be tweaked (this happens more rarely). 
• Upgrade cards receive the same treatment and in some cases have variable costing implemented, are made unique, or subjected to other restrictions.
• As a last resort, FFG will turn to rules changes and/or errata. That's nothing special, I hear you say. True, but this happens quickly, sometimes before a particular archetype becomes problematic (Tripsilos - Tripple Upsilon shuttles is one archetype that died that way).

The updates aren't always 100% successful. As soon as one archetype is gently nerfed (or hammered into the ground) new ones will arise to take their place. But overall it's a system that works very well indeed. At its best, it creates much-needed rebalancing. Even at its "worst," it keeps the meta fresh.

I have long been a proponent of a similar approach for Armada. I had hoped we'd get something to go along with 1.5 but we didn't. Maybe AMG will? Or not. I don't know. Doesn't stop me from thinking about it 😅

Btw: I'm fine with the default cost being printed on the card. X-wing doesn't but for non-competitive purposes, it's nice to have a printed cost. 

How much are you willing to pay? Officer seat and 3? 2? 1? 0?

So how could AMG realistically change things around without going full Armada 2.0?

Note that I'm ignoring Objectives this time. Objectives DEFINITELY need changes through errata, but I've discussed that in the past and won't repeat it here.

There are several ways to go about such a project, sorted from least to most complex and invasive:

1. Points changes only:

We get X-wing style pdf documents listing the adjusted costs of all cards. No other changes are made to any game components. 

It would require fleet builder updates but a little SQL magic makes that easy enough. 

2. Changes to upgrade slots:

Same as no. 1, but the upgrade bar on ships is subject to change (listed in the same pdf as the points changes). The bar is used only during fleet building so it's a small change. It appears on the reverse side of the new flippable ship cards. 

Only affects fleet-building. No new components required.

3. Changes to ship/squadron cards that do not affect ship/squadron tokens:

Includes any changes to ship or squadron cards that do NOT require the corresponding ship/squadron tokens to be replaced. You could give the Vic I/I yaw at speed 2, for example. But you couldn't change the armament of any ship as this is also printed on the token. 

Cards only, no cardboard. 

3.5 Keyword changes

Squads could have all their stats changed except hull - and keywords. I'd suggest including keywords anyway because without that option revising squadron cards become pointless. Technically this invalidates the squadron tokens but it's the least invasive change to the cardboard. Let's be honest: less than 0.1% of Armada players can tell the keyword icons apart anyway 😏 Aces have their faces on the tokens anyway so only the token-less uniques are affected. Use ID tokens or paint to clearly identify who is who.

Cards only, no cardboard (kind of). 

4. Changes that affect ship/squadron tokens:

Further changes to ship/squadron cards. Includes armament, max shields, anything that is reflected on the cardboard.

Cards and cardboard both.

5. Changes to plastic:

It's no secret that Rebels and Imps don't have very many medium-base ships. Aren't that many in the Clone Wars, come to think of it 😄 Based on battery alone I'd say the GSD and MC30 would work well as medium-base ships, and a large-based Dictor makes sense given its since in-verse.

We're now deep inside Armada 2.0 territory 🙈

What I suggest:

I suggest starting with stage 1. It's the least invasive level. It can be quickly implemented with a minimum of confusion. 

I wouldn't complain if stage 2 was included. It could quickly bring more variety to the ships we have - Defensive Retrofit VSD-2, anyone?

If AMG wants to have a REAL look at 1.5 squadrons and ships, however, the way to go is both cards and cardboard.

While you're at it, what about doing the base size changes? X-wing did that for several ships going from 1st edition to 2nd 👰

A single extra point...did you forget the other ordnance upgrades were nerfed to death? 

Here are some more ideas of what could be either changed or added to the game going forward.

Upgrade card errata:

Most upgrade cards can be salvaged by points changes. Some probably can't. No matter how cheap it is, Independence will never be a good idea to put on an MC80 because you could be taking something useful instead.

TBH this is probably out of the question for the foreseeable future. The card pack has just been released. Even if I'm a bit underwhelmed by the number of changes, I don't expect anything to happen in this area.

Changes to upgrade type:

It's possible to change the upgrade icon of existing cards. The Officer category has some good candidates. Every character with a name went into this category until wave 6 or so. Later releases have given us Caitken and Shollan, Cham Syndulla, Varinillian, and others. Admiral Titus and Director Isard as Support Teams? Krennic as a Weapons Team?

More multi-icon upgrades:

X-wing has more multi-icon upgrades. There are some good double crew (officer) cards that only can go on the bigger ships. What if Armada large bases had more officer slots? X-wing also has some crew-gunner combos. Armada already has weapons team-offensive retro combos. What about officer-weapons or officer-support? Maybe a better idea than the double officers. 

Variable costing:

It's a fact of Armada fleet building that loading small ships to rafters is not a good idea. The bigger and tougher the ship, the more upgrades are reasonable to put on it. But what if we had X-wing style variable costing for some upgrades? What if Intel Officer cost less for small bases (oops, Demo and Admo, bummer). Cheaper Engine Techs for smalls - and more expensive for Larges? I have some ideas but haven't looked at them in sufficient detail to get concrete. I'll save it for a later blog post.

The thin line between much-needed nerfing and spiteful HAMMERING

To bring this to a conclusion: below you can find pdfs of revised costs. 

These are completely unofficial of course. They are intended to show how it COULD be done. The costs presented here assumes no other changes to the game - just the points. The changes have two purposes: to fix perceived imbalances and to encourage the use of lesser-used cards.

If you're interested in the thoughts behind the suggestion have a look at my 1.5 series (linked over). I've discussed my ideas with several players better than me - special thanks to NebB, Rapid Reload, and Darth Veggie for providing me with feedback - but I'm ultimately responsible for any weirdness 💥

SHIP COSTS HERE

Some GCW ships have been considered overcosted for a long time - AF2A, Vic-II, Combat Dictor. Now that we have the costs for waves 9 and 10 the picture is even grimmer. This attempts to rectify that and encourage the use of oft-overlooked ships.

Onager Testbed got a hit. As did many of the upgrades that make it tick. Starhawk wasn't directly affected, though I don't particularly care for the points fortressing options it gives. It might be in line for some changes.

SQUADRON COSTS HERE

Lesser-used generics got a rebate. YT-2400 got a hike. Scatter aces, especially high-hull ones, got a price hike. Auras were given a price hike. Some underused cards dropped a point or more. Maarek-Jendon got hit. Same with Jan-Biggs but X-wings came down.

UPGRADE COSTS HERE

The biggest loser is Sloane. Time for her to take a break. On the other hand, TIEs and Phantoms came down so it evens out.

"Maybe" pay 2 extra to get Linked?

That's it for now. Very excited to see if AMG has any future plans along these lines. I hope so. I think it would improve and invigorate the game.

For my own part, I might do another post where I try to also work with upgrade slots. Maybe try my hand at some further changes. Stuff like the way the SSD moved with and without Jerjerrod - that's not exactly top-tier design 😕

The next post will probably be a video about my first World Cup Swiss game. Have an excellent weekend everyone!