Designer Journals: Rebels/GAR
Rebels
Mon Mothma
Mothma has always occupied a bit of an odd space in Rebel design. Because Rebels have so many small ship focused commanders, each has often crowded out opportunities for others. Rieekan used to be so much more effective, but even with his cost increase, he still retains his very unique capability. Cracken is just plain more effective than Mothma, especially at long range - where the ships who could benefit from Mothma often want to live. The challenge for Mothma is to make her more attractive, while still leaving space for these other commanders. We started by looking at small ships Cracken and Rieekan were not likely to use: Nebulons, Pelta, and Hammerheads. None particularly like (or are capable of) going speed 3 all the time, and are only marginally utilized by Rieekan in niche circumstances. What do they all have in common? A single evade that is often locked down and thus goes seldom utilized.
Mon Mothma (old)
Mothma retains her old ability to cancel dice with Evades at medium and force re-rolls of two dice at close range. The major difference now is her Evades cannot be locked by accuracy results. We recognize this is an eye-popping ability. However, we think there are a couple mitigating factors, which have been backed up in testing. First and foremost, it mainly helps ships that don’t currently see much use, such as those named above. Our hope is that some weirdly janky fleets come out of this change. Peltas and Nebulons everywhere? Wouldn’t that be something? Second, double Evade ships still get more out of other commanders. CR90 swarms still overall get more from Cracken at long range than they do from Mothma. Rieekan is still unique, requiring that entirely different style of sacrificial thinking. MC30s have always been Mothma’s friend because of their upclose preferences, but we haven’t noted any real difference in their survivability in testing. In any case, Cracken and Ackbar are still perfectly happy to use them.
Mon Mothma (new)
All of that said, Mothma is one we very much want the community to keep an eye on. Testing may have shown MC30s to feel essentially the same but testing is never perfect. Foresight in particular can take Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) and thus is always able to both Evade and Redirect at will. It’s expensive, but it's also harder to kill. Is it really any harder to kill than before? Another thing to watch is Onagers. Extreme range shots will be quite ineffective against Mothma fleets. There was some concern during testing that Mothma might be a bit too much of a hard counter. That will in all likelihood depend on meta choices. Rest assured, we have every intention of reigning Mothma in if this change proves to be a bit too much.
General Draven
Oh Draven. This will be your third iteration in your short, short life. We all know the current version of commander Draven is not… great. However, we didn't want to go with a total rewrite and a completely different ability. The card has already been through enough changes. We also didn't want to simply roll back to the original version because of the rules oddities of that card. Instead, the core of his ability, applying a raid token after an opposing ship resolves command, remains. If you're that guy or gal that really loves to apply Draven raid tokens, don't worry. That aspect of Draven is intact.
General Draven (old)
In lieu of a total revamp, we have gone the route of using raid tokens to provide an additional beneficial effect. Oddly enough, Rebels don't really have a true squadron commander to date. Given Draven’s depicted use of squadrons to quickly leverage intelligence for coordinated strikes, he seems like a good fit for such a commander. Squadrons within distance 1-2 of a raided enemy ship now gain a re-roll for their attacks. Given the conditional circumstances of this re-roll, our testing has shown that while powerful in applying to all Rebel squadrons, it has counter play by clearing the raid tokens. While it may seem like we are super charging Rebel 134 fleets with this commander, keep in mind Rebels already have access to other sources of squadron re-rolls, and there is such a thing as diminishing returns. Draven as a commander also means that damned Gallant Haven doesn't have Agate on board, Cracken isn't obstructing CR90s, or Rieekan isn't keeping zombies around to pin your screen in place. You're trading what are mostly defensive-minded commanders for a more offensive approach with higher interactivity.
General Draven (new)
In testing, we have found there are a couple ways to leverage Draven in fleet building. You can lean on Draven re-rolls to replace other sources of re-rolls, which is often more effective and efficient than you might think. If you choose to target commands that are more of an inconvenience than a necessity to clear, you can end up with a pretty wide area of the board covered by Draven’s ability. Another approach is layering your re-rolls. This doesn't really save you points when fleet building, but it does make for some very reliable squadron dice. If you have ever experienced the joy of Hera Syndulla (X-Wing Squadron) and Toryn Farr boosted X-Wings, Draven can help you achieve a similar effect over a large portion of the board. Two very nice things to bring along are Captain Rex and Fenn Rau. Fenn’s Assault keyword is nice for applying a raid to that critical bombing target before the rest of your squads go ham. Rex, meanwhile, is almost mandatory alongside Draven by preventing bulk removal of raid tokens.
Commander Sato
Rolling the Dice: Sato Rework
Commander Sato has always offered a unique way to play the game by carefully orchestrating squadrons with ships in ways no other commander does. While that playstyle is fun, it has rarely translated into competitive success. The goal of this rework aims to change that without losing what makes Sato special.
Leia Organa (authored by Maturin)
Leia, the commander, has had her champions through the years, but was rarely seen on the table as new releases made the token economy less restricted. This also affected Garm Bel Iblis, but Leia was especially restricted due to her stipulation that she could not resolve other token commands on that ship. This meant that, when she was seen at all, she was seen only in Multiple Small Unit (MSU) fleets - larger ships frequently want to be executing multiple commands a turn via tokens. Removing that restriction opens her up to use on fleets with medium and large ships, though you’ll likely want at least a few small ships in the fleet as more command dial reveals means more bonus token effects.
Leia Organa (old)
Leia Organa (new)
Republic
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser
The ship that always needed to be part of the Republic fleet is here. This one proved to be a bit of a challenge to integrate. The Imperial defense token suite, combined with Luminara and Expert Shield Techs, is one that I think most of the community has dreaded. It might not be good against some things, but it would be downright oppressive against others. That took multiple redirects out of the equation (sorry, Obi-wan). Salvo was considered, but felt lackluster given the Arquiten’s rear arc. The Lumi problem also extends to pretty much any redundant defense token. So what to do? We have opted for double Evade. The choice here boils down to the Evade token having a variable value. If you can stay at long range, yes, Lumi evades could just keep canceling dice forever. However, the Arq is not exactly a maneuverable ship. If this had the Consular’s nav chart, it might be a problem. With the Arq, however, it is not much of a concern. It will help them early in games, but they are still vulnerable once the distance is closed.
Upgrade slots were also a bit of a challenge. Early on we decided we liked the idea of double officers for the ship. Captain Zak is the obvious choice for just one officer slot, so we wanted to play around with giving players more choice in combination with that. Anakin also loomed over this whole thing a bit. I for one advocated early on for a turbolaser slot for the obvious Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (TRC) synergy. It was just a bit too reliable and powerful with Anakin. Instead, the team made a call that I have come to love: a weapons team slot. Clone Gunners and Veteran Gunners are both excellent choices for the slot, depending on what you want out of the ship. If you can create a supporting token infrastructure, Clone Gunners makes the Arq an effective long range sniper for GAR. If you don’t want to deal with the logistics, just having Veteran Gunners can help keep those fickle red dice in line.
My favorite load out right now is Clone Captain Zak, Clone Navigation Officer, and Clone Gunners (I’m going to call this the C3 loadout). Set your dials to concentrate fire and you will always have the extra Clone Gunners die by handing a token to a friend and then immediately use it. It’s a very reliable 3-4 damage with a guaranteed accuracy. Flotillas beware, this ship is coming for you. Just be careful with how you deploy the ship. Less navigating with the Arq’s nav chart will spell trouble.
Venator Star Destroyer Imperator Refit
Venator Star Destroyer Imperator Refit
Not satisfied with only the Arquitens, we wanted to give Republic an additional option with the Venator. The Venator 1 works well as a support flagship (especially when paired with the new Arq). The Venator 2 is quite possibly the most effective carrier platform in the game. Neither, however, is a particularly effective anchor for a ship-based battleline. The Venator 2 just doesn’t have particularly threatening guns. The Venator 1 can’t last long in the thick of the fight. As such, we felt that there was an open niche for a true large brawler within the Republic roster.
Getting the details right on this ship took a lot of different iterations. We initially tried the Venator 2 cardboard and an ion slot, but found it was simultaneously too tanky with Point Defense Ion Cannons (PDIC) and not offensive enough with a different ion cannon upgrade in its place. We pivoted to something more akin to the Imperial Venator, but instead using the Venator 1 cardboard. This also took some time to get right. The double ordnance slots are a bit more powerful than the Imperial variant of the ship largely because of Tranquility making ordnance delivery significantly easier. That resulted in some compromises to tone down the overall power. The biggest cut was a trial double weapons team approach. It was definitely fun to play around with all the different upgrade combinations you could get, but we found it to be just a hair too flexible and powerful.
Don’t you worry, though. The final product still hits like a truck at close range. It slots well into a ship-centric approach for the Republic, something the faction hasn’t done particularly well to date. The ship provides an anchor for your line, while also creating a significant danger zone for opposing ships. It tanks as well as the Ven 2, with Tranquility, Thermal Shields, and Projection Experts Peltas making for the usual obnoxious beast to kill. This one just also happens to have teeth. That is counter balanced by… well the usual things that balance a Venator. It can’t steer worth a damn at high speeds, which it definitely wants to use to make use of those black dice. It is also a very command hungry ship, usually wanting to repair and navigate at the same time. This variant is also the worst squad pusher of all the Venators, so you’ll likely need additional help commanding whatever squadron cover you choose to bring. But if you like battering rams, strap on those External Racks and Expanded Launchers and smash away.
Check out our design journal on the Empire and Separatist changes here!
Designer Journals: Empire/CIS
Nick Larson, ARC's design lead on the thoughts and processes behind ARC01's Empire changes and CIS additions.