Monday, October 3, 2016

Ranking the Upgrades - Ship Titles (Rebel)

Okay, this is going to be a little bit difficult, as we simply have to consider the ship itself that the upgrade is going onto.  Still, here we go - hopefully this is good for some discussion:





Once more, here are the tiers that I am working with:

Ω Tier - A card that works all by itself.  It is overpowered and undercosted, and changes the way the game is played in some fundamental way.  "Broken".

S Tier - A card that is very good, without needing anything else to work.  Does something substantial or meta shifting while being inexpensive.  Something you would say is an "Auto-Include".

A Tier - A card that is either good without needing any other card, or something that is excellent with other cards supporting it.

B Tier - A card that can work well in certain situations.  Good when paired with other cards, or just decent alone.

C Tier - A bland card.  It might only be okay, or maybe only considered for some niche situations.  It may require several other cards, or something outside of your control to "work".  Or it might just be something okay, when there is another card that does the same thing, but better.

D Tier - A bad card.  May only be okay in niche situations, or puts unnecessary restrictions or costs onto things that something else does better.  Clearly outclassed, or doesn't do anything useful.

F Tier - Worthless.  Do not take this upgrade.  There is no reasonable scenario where it would be useful.  Taking nothing at all would be a better use for your points.

So without further ado... here we go!


Ω Tier


Yavaris - This title is what makes Nebulon B's relevant, and there is no reason to take a Nebulon B escort if you don't take this title along with it.  Attacking twice with squadrons in a single turn is brutal.  It borders very, very close to broken.  For the rebels, this is the best title, hands down.


S Tier


Jaina's Light - At two points, this is the closest thing to an Auto-Include you can get.  The only thing keeping this out of the Ω tier for me is that it just isn't as awesome on CR90B's as it is on CR90A's.  Still, if you have a CR90A, and you have 2 points to spare, it goes on the ship.

Admonition - In my opinion the better of the two titles for the MC30c.  Remove one dice for one of your 4 defensive tokens, at any range.  It's just good, and it keeps the MC30c flying far longer than it deserves to.  (Grumble, mumble, Q's freakin' Mothmonition, grumble.)

Bright Hope - 2 points to make your 18 point flotilla even more annoying to kill?  I have yet to lose a Bright Hope in any game that I have played, and I've only seen it destroyed once.  To be fair, in that scenario it parked in medium range of an ISDII's front arc.  Still, a quality title for a good ship.

Mon Karren - Turns your MC80 Liberty Class into a murder-beast.  By itself.  No need for other upgrades.  Other things just make it even better.  Makes it very hard to justify taking any other title when Mon Karren is still available.  Everything good about Heavy Turbolasers, but better.  Only reason it isn't Ω-Tier is because it doesn't actually stop the brace from being used.


A Tier


Salvation - Takes a fairly meh ship in the Nebulon B Support Refit and turns it into a sniping monster.  You go from averaging 2.25 damage per shot, to having a real chance of doing 6 damage from the front arc at long range.  Good, solid upgrade.

Defiance - I really, really like this card, if only to punish any opponent that wants to go first player against me.  Adds some extra punch to a ship that really needs it, and works on any arc, so my plan to double arc with my MC80 is even better.  Almost put this in S-Tier.

Home One - Wave 3 & 4 ships really hate accuracy results when they are being shot at, and Home One is still one of the best ways to get those results without tying up precious Turbolaser or Weapons Team slots.  If you are running Ackbar, this is almost an auto-include.  If not running Ackbar... well, it's still decent.

Independence - All of the MC80 - Home One Class titles made the same tier?  There are other ways of tossing B-Wings into the fight, but the Independence title is still the most reliable way to get them up fast, and stacks with all the other tricks.


B Tier


Paragon - Makes the AFII-A reasonable to use, and can even find a home on the AFII-B.  Makes me happy just thinking about using this on a ship that could take Gunnery Team, but now isn't because it wants to double arc ships like god intended.  The original reason why people were cautious around Advanced Gunnery.

Foresight - Admonition does it better, but nothing wrong with Foresight.  Better with Mothma for the evade boost, and simulates Advanced Projectors without having to spend the points or fill the defensive retrofit slot.  Still solid.


C Tier


Dodonna's Pride - A bit pricey for a card that does 1 damage, even if that damage is a faceup card.  SW-7 Ion Cannons guarantee 3 from the front arc, and you don't even have to get lucky with a critical.  Niche uses, sure, if you want to put Leading Shots on the ship or just get lucky.

Gallant Haven - Once this was an S-Tier monster.  Now with Rhymer balls, fast moving B-Wing tricks, and better carriers than the venerable AFII-B, this has fallen by the wayside.  Could still use, but isn't quite at the top of the game anymore.

Quantum Storm - It's not horrible.  Extra movement is always nice, but you can't turn and re-position, you can't really ram much of anything.  It's not spectacular, like Bright Hope.

Endeavor - Mon Karren's misfit cousin.  Gives a defense token, but overshadowed by the glory that is Mon Karren.  Did I mention Mon Karren is a possible title for the same ship?


D Tier


Tantive IV - A slightly better Comm Net, but on a more expensive ship that wants to do things other than feed tokens to someone else.  Pass.

Redemption - Extra engineering is good, but too bad it is on a ship that really wants to take either Yavaris or Salvation as a title.

F Tier


Liberty - Pretend that the MC80 Liberty Class is a carrier with it's namesake title!  Better take a lot of other stuff too, since you need a reliable way to get squadron commands.  If you're doing that, then you probably want every single non-Turbolaser slot filled with squadron specific upgrades.  Serious talk, if you need fighter activations, take a transport or an AFII.  This would have been awesome if the ship was able to take an offensive retrofit, or just had a natural squadron value of something more than 2.  P.S.  Mon Karren, Mon Karren, Mon Karren, MON KARREN! 

8 comments:

  1. I actually really like the Liberty title... Goes great with Garm. But really, a solid list with sound reasoning.

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    1. Raymus Antilles does the trick :)

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  2. Really loving these lists.

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  3. Liberty should be D tier. Don't take it unless it's part of your plan, but it's pretty handy to avoid wasting a command on a better ship.

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  4. I don't like Mon Karren that much. Depending on the use of the ship it may end up being expensive for roughly the same result than a XI7. And on a ship with two turbo laser upgrade that not hard to put a XI7.

    It's awesome on Battle cruiser variant with spinal that is dedicated to hunt small/medium ship at red range and want to avoid an evade + redirect/brace combo.

    The main problem with this tactics is that with the flotillas there tend to be less CR90/raider and the like that need a hunt from red range. And flotillas from red range are no good to fire on.

    But if you use your liberty to fire on big ship. Apart from avoiding the content (witch isn't that great of a token anyway) it's no better than the X17 (it may even been worth considering that given the amount of blue/red dice the ship is packing there is few chance that the brace token will still be there to use).

    So I would put it in the A category for Great but not necessary auto include.

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    1. To put it in more explanatory way the observation:

      - there is only 4 type of token that has an utility to be used with another and one of it is the content token witch is not that great and doesn't need that much to be ignored (except with Dodona but that's not the standard fleet).

      - There is no ship that got in is base Statline more than 3 different type of token (and in most of the case one of it is the content one).

      - At medium range the chance that one of the token is the target of a accuracy is high.

      - There is only one ship that has two redundant token (mc30c) and in the case of this specific ship there is such good title that always come with it that they don't need to use so many token to be resilient.

      - One of the token (evade) has a dramatic loose of effect at medium range. And is nullified at close.

      - The XI7 is doing a very good job at mitigating the use of one of the most redundant/present token (apart from the case you fire at advanced projector).

      So in conclusion apart from when you are shouting long range to a ship that got an evade the probability that there will be more than one useful defence token to be used in the first place is not that great if you add the XI7 to the mix.

      The fact that the XI7 is two point cheaper is to be taken into account.

      This is less true with Dodona that give a use to the content token (if you dont use the dooble crit upgrade and why wont you?).

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  5. I think you are underestimating the Liberty title. Put Raymus+Flight Controllers on the Liberty and you have a ship that can activate 4 squads with an extra blue die. Even if you get to a point where you don't need the squad command any longer, you still have Raymus there to give you a bonus token for which ever command you need. The Liberty is still a big hitter as you can still put SW-7 or Leading Shots on it and whatever your favorite 2 turbo upgrades you wish.

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  6. I think the Independence title has been vastly overrated at A tier. It's way overpriced at 8 points for perhaps a one-off use. If the fighters could attack, then now we'd be talking an A tier card!

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