The joy of black dice is watching the whites in your enemy’s eyes before unloading — only to see your crits shrugged off by evades or neutered by PDICs. Sad times.
Jokes aside, black dice are extremely powerful: high average damage, easily rerolled, and blessed with some nasty crit effects. But they’re also the shortest-ranged, don’t roll natural accuracies, and post-1.5, they’ve been dialed back hard. The ordnance suite reflects that push and pull.
Still, let’s not kid ourselves: this category lives and dies on two upgrades — Ordnance Experts (this Weapons Team is basically mandatory if you rock black dice, which makes stuff like the Assault Pelta such a weird ship) and External Racks (warps the whole slot). Everything else has to be measured against them.
External Racks
Currently at 4 points, which is laughably cheap.
Yes, it’s a single-use card, but it can be fired from any arc and even against squadrons. And that single volley is often the one that matters.
Compare:
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Rapid Reload — same cost, only +1 die from sides, reusable but underwhelming, and a modification to boot.
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Expanded Launchers — double the price, same amount of dice, reusable but a mod.
ER just blows them out of the water.
It's also generally better to rely on the extra dice to reduce the effectiveness of evades and PDIC, since you're not relying on getting a crit, and because extra damage typically forces the defenders to use defense tokens, placing extra strains on those.
Fix ideas:
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Limit to Small ships only (or Small/Medium, though my preference is just the smalls).
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Remove anti-squad use.
Either change would make the rest of the ordnance suite relevant again. Without that, this slot is basically ExRacks, unless you have TWO Ord slots or you have a very specific build in mind, such as Pat Fist Swivels or Sato something.
Assault Concussion Missiles (ACM)
Price came down 2 points, but now you exhaust to trigger. It’s fine, I guess, but it doesn’t really reward clever maneuvering anymore. At least it’s consistent with other exhaust crits (like Heavy Ions).
That said, the math feels a little off. Heavy Ions can pop at long range with DCaps, making their 9+3 point investment look like a steal compared to ACM’s 5. Two damage vs three damage is comparable, but the range disparity is huge.
Verdict: Fine… if External Racks are reined in.
Assault Proton Torpedoes (APT)
Same story as ACM: cheaper, but nerfed. I still prefer these — forcing a faceup damage card through shields is usually more valuable than splashing extra shield damage around. And at 4 points, it’s easier to fit.
Honestly, I’d argue APT and ACM should cost the same. Call it a preference, but one free faceup card is often nastier than two damage spread across shields.
Verdict: Fine… if External Racks are reined in.
Expanded Launchers
At the new 8-point cost, this is actually a reasonable upgrade — but only if External Racks get reined in. Otherwise, why invest long-term when you can just spike more efficiently with ER?
Where you’ll realistically see it is on ships with two ordnance slots, paired with ER (of course). In that context, it’s solid, giving consistent extra punch on your best arcs.
Verdict: good design space… but overshadowed until ER is tweaked.
Rapid Reload
Ah, yes, the forgotten cousin. I just can’t ever see myself taking this over Expanded Launchers, even at half the price. +1 black die on side arcs only, for 4 points, and it eats your modification slot. Meh.
Maybe, maybe if ExRacks get nerfed into the ground, RR could see fringe play. But even then, it probably needs to drop to 3 points to feel competitive.
Verdict: Right now, it’s binder fodder. If ExRacks is altered, it might see some use (possibly even at 4 points, but I would not count on it).
Flechette Torpedoes
Always highly specialized — and always overshadowed. ExRacks do more, more reliably, and Ordnance Pods on larger ships often just kill squadrons outright rather than neutralizing them. Why disable when you can delete?
Still, this was never a bad card conceptually, just narrow.
Verdict: You could easily bring it down to 2 points without upsetting anything. But in truth, not a big deal either way.
Ordnance Pods
Now here’s a great card that actually sees consistent use where it makes sense. Free anti-squad shots are no joke, especially on ships that want their squadrons close.
If ExRacks were dialed back a bit, this would shine even brighter. Possibly worth bumping to 4 points, since it’s not a modification and just hands out free extra attacks.
Verdict: Very healthy design, one of the standouts in the category.
Wide-Area Barrage
And then there’s… this. Honestly, it’s a joke. There are just so many better ways to spend your ordnance slot. Even at 0 points, it would still see fringe-at-best play, since the opportunity cost is simply too high.
Verdict: Beyond saving without a full redesign.
Final Verdict:
This is a category with one card to rule them all. External Racks are so efficient that they warp every discussion around black-dice ships and their upgrade choices. If ExRacks were reined in — made small-ship only, stripped of their anti-squadron use, or both — suddenly the rest of the suite (ACM, APT, Expanded Launchers, Ordnance Pods) would breathe more freely.
As it stands, almost everything else feels like a consolation prize, with some upgrades existing only in theory while ExRacks hog the spotlight. A few point tweaks could help, but what’s really needed is balance on that one keystone card. Otherwise, the Ordnance slot remains one of the most skewed in all of Armada.
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