“The Greatest Teacher, Failure Is.”
An Interlude
Greetings! And welcome to an Interlude of my little Palpatine experiment! Normally, these pieces include 2 batreps and any changes I’ve made to my experimental fleet based on what I learned from the aforementioned matches. However, I’ve not had an opportunity to play since the last time I wrote an article. Which means that, while I wasn’t looking, Armada 1.5 dropped! So I’m taking a look at my Palpatine fleet in its current state to see how it changed with the advent of 1.5. Happy reading!
As a reminder, here is version 1.2 of my Palpatine fleet:
Master and Apprentice (90/400/400)
==================================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 23: 135)
· Veteran Captain (3)
· Gunnery Team (7)
· Intensify Firepower! (6)
· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 + 53: 114)
· Emperor Palpatine (35)
· Agent Kallus (3)
· Flight Controllers (6)
· Veteran Gunners (5)
· Boosted Comms (4)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 7: 61)
· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
Darth Vader (21)
4 x TIE Phantom Squadron (4 x 14)
Tempest Squadron (13)
Rift Assault
Contested Outpost
Volatile Deposits
First of all, it’s worth noting that none of the point costs in my fleet changed with 1.5 changes. Which feels unfortunate, given that my Tarkin fleet effectively dropped 15 points (and no longer fields a Strategic Adviser - squeeee!!!) So my fleet still clocks in at 400 points. The new ace cap does not affect my squadron makeup, as the only named squadrons I field are Vader and Tempest Squadron (and don’t forget that Tempest is named, but does not boast defense tokens, and so does NOT count against the new cap on aces!). There’s a slight improvement on my fleet defense tokens as the Evade token on my Arquitens becomes that much more useful.
However, the one change in 1.5 that negatively impacts this fleet is the change to Gunnery Team. For those of you who are unaware, the change to Gunnery Team is thus: the card only triggers after a Concentrate Fire command is resolved (this can be done with either a token or a dial or both). In the case that a Con Fire command is resolved, “The next attack you perform this activation can be performed from this hull zone. Each of your hull zones cannot target the same ship or squadron more than once during your activation.” By itself, this is not necessarily an issue. But given that I also run Intensify Firepower! on my Cymoon and my only token generation is Veteran Captain, I now have cause for concern. Normally, I’d bank a Con Fire token on the first or second turn. I can use that token for the first round in which I’m fueling IF! I’d use my Veteran Captain for the second round in which I’m fueling IF! Then I discard IF! and I’ve gotten use of the card for 3 of 6 rounds for only 4 points. Perfectly happy with that. But now, I need a Con Fire command ready in order to use both IF! as well as Gunnery Team.
Shut up, Sterling; it’s not that easy anymore!
Given how much I like to dial up Navigate with my Cymoon (with the occasional Squadron dial to take some heat off of my Quasar), I’m worried that I now have insufficient token generation for this particular build to be as effective as it was prior to 1.5. I think that’s especially true because if I’m facing down Count Dooku and his Raid tokens, my lack of token generation may very well kill me on much-needed Squadron commands. I don’t have room in the fleet as it stands for a flotilla generating tokens for my ships without serious restructuring. The only meaningful solution I’ve come up with so far that does not require that restructuring is to replace Agent Kallus on the Quasar with another Veteran Captain. The Quasar can now bank a Squadron token for the first Dooku squadron Raid, and then I can burn the Veteran Captain to clear the second Dooku squadron Raid. And, of course, if I’m not facing Dooku and Raid, I can use the Veteran Captain to increase my squadron yield to 5 or whatever other command as needed. I don’t hate the idea, though my Quasar’s flak suddenly becomes terribly ineffective against aces, which means I’m giving up that synergy with Palpatine. I don’t love it, but it’s the tightest fix I can come up with, barring any major restructuring.
I think the reason this feels like a bigger setback to me than it might actually turn out to be is simply this: it feels like I’m making changes to my fleet that are detrimental (losing Kallus and flak symmetry with Palpatine) just to maintain what I was able to do prior to 1.5 (issue Squadron commands with impunity and without fear of Raid, as well as run both Gunnery Team and IF! on the Cymoon). There’s a treading water feel to it, which doesn’t feel good. Especially because I feel like I’d already struck a tenuous balance before in terms of asking “is what I’m working with right now worth the effort?” Up until now, I’ve felt fairly comfortable in saying that it’s working well enough to continue pursuing. But given that, in light of 1.5 changes (of which I should reiterate I am a huge fan!), my answer slides further towards “I don’t know,” I’m not sure how much I can afford to cede in these adjustments that does not precipitate an overhaul in order to be more effective.
At the end of the day, I cannot definitively answer the question without actual play, of course. Unlike something like a planned double-ram Engine Techs fleet which I can now say, in 1.5, does not work and is not worth attempting, I think theorycrafting can only take me so far with my thoughts on Palpatine. Overall, I don’t think 1.5 has a huge impact on Palpatine for good or ill. It’s not like Palpatine has a buff or debuff effect that is focused on command tokens or aces, right? The only effect I’d note is that Evade is suddenly more useful for ships that boast it, and so getting an opponent to burn an Evade early is also more useful. But overall, Palpatine sort of remains the same in the wake of 1.5 changes, which I don’t feel any sorta way about. I’m fine with the fact that he was spared from changes.
In the end, despite not having tested v. 1.2 listed at the top of this article since I moved Palpatine to the Quasar from the Cymoon, I think it would behoove me to replace Agent Kallus with another Veteran Captain. I don’t necessarily love the move, if I’m being honest. But I can’t imagine the Veteran Captain will ever NOT be useful (even if it’s just for a Con Fire token to give me a reroll outside of Veteran Gunners), and to this point, Kallus has not impacted a single game. I keep thinking he will and just haven’t had the opportunity to see him do it. But he hasn’t yet, and I’ve got to roll with what I know versus what I don’t know, I think, in the face of devastating Raid tokens that I otherwise have no way of addressing. To that end, I am proceeding to v. 1.3 of this fleet, despite not having tested it since v. 1.2. A Veteran Captain will now replace Agent Kallus on my Quasar. See below:
Master and Apprentice (90/400/400)
==================================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 23: 135)
· Veteran Captain (3)
· Gunnery Team (7)
· Intensify Firepower! (6)
· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 + 53: 114)
· Emperor Palpatine (35)
· Veteran Captain (3)
· Flight Controllers (6)
· Veteran Gunners (5)
· Boosted Comms (4)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 7: 61)
· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
Darth Vader (21)
4 x TIE Phantom Squadron (4 x 14)
Tempest Squadron (13)
Rift Assault
Contested Outpost
Volatile Deposits
Yeah, it’s a stock photo. Big whoop. Wanna fight about my lack of creativity?
I’m not certain such a change will be enough to get me through the 1.5 changes. Again, my biggest concern is the combination of IF! and Gunnery Team with the new 1.5 rules. And my change does not address that potential problem at all. But nonetheless, I’m willing to give it a shot as soon as I can. I’m looking forward to more tests and more data so I can see how this translates into the brave new world of 1.5 and Clone Wars!
-IratePooka
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