Rogue Squadron - Points Update

With the release of the new Republic Z-95 and Rogue class starfighter, AMG dropped an updated points list. We all expected changes to refine what had come with the initial 2.5 update now that it had been out in the world. Let’s take a look at the Good (positive changes), the Bad (changes we don’t like) and the Ugly (changes that might be good or bad but mostly just leave you shaking your head).

The Good

Despite what the internet would have you think, the sky is not falling. There were changes that left you dumbstruck or annoyed, but overall, things didn’t change quite as much as you might think. We’ll start with changes that even made things better.

Ship point costs, overall, became a bit more standardized. Resistance X-Wings, for example, are almost all 5 points now, which makes them consistent. There are a few very good pilots who cost more, but they deserve that higher cost. In a lot of cases, there were pilots who cost less than the rest (Manaroo, Thane, Gina, all the two pointers) and so it became hard to justify a different pilot in those frames. All of the new ships are also cost the same, making the chassis feel consistent.

Additionally, some ships saw a nice cost reduction. M3-A’s being the biggest example. Scum lacked a good selection of 3 point ships and the Scyk wasn’t worth 4. The new Z-95’s are also 3 points.

Some might complain about the major spike in Outmaneuver and Afterburner cost but they needed to go up. They might not have needed to go up so dramatically but that’s the nature of these things. First, you overreact and then tone it down later when you realize it. Swarms of Outmaneuver was bad. Afterburners were just too useful for scenarios. Though, with the next change, maybe not as useful. Likewise, Enduring went up in cost which I didn’t want to see as a player, but it feels necessary given how good canceling crits is.

The other big gripe is the changes to the ion effect. Being able to bank with an ion maneuver eliminates one of the most “feels bad” parts of getting ioned without making it worthless as an effect. You still know the ship isn’t moving far, even if you don’t know where it will be pointing, and it can’t boost or barrel roll after. Additionally, now it loses all of its locks, which is extra punishment. AMG did screw up with the Rules Reference, however. It is not clear if the player picks a maneuver for the ioned ship, or if it banks/goes straight based on its previous maneuver. There is conflicting wording that needs to be clarified.

Scenarios also saw some changes. Removing objective point scoring from round one should help extend the number of rounds in games without dragging them out. Now, each player has a round to position themselves before worrying about losing score which should add more dog fight elements to the game. You can still win via objectives but it’s harder.

The Bad

Many factions saw the loss of any 2 point ships available to them. While which pilots cost 2 points needed to be addressed (looking at your Rebels), removing any 2 point options from these factions throws up a major roadblock into list building. The Deficit Scoring rule now feels like a major penalty. There are plenty of not great pilots who could have filled a 2 point filler role and not broken the game (Zeb in the TIE Fighter, Ahhav was fine as is, Kaa’to also is fine at 2, any of the named Torrents, Rivas was fine at 2). R1-J5 in the Fireball proved that. Bucket is not a great ship, even at 2 points, so no one took him. Resistance at least still has a 2 point in the form of BB-8 (raising the question, if no one took Bucket, why make him more expensive?).

The next not good change was the heavy additions to the Ban list. Hull Upgrade being the most obvious. It was a nice and simple upgrade that people took to fill out points. It didn’t adversely affect the game. And if it was too prevalent, that’s in part to being cheap and there not being a lot of good Modification upgrades. Quite a lot of modifications are very situational or chassis specific. Electronic Baffles is the only mod that costs four or less that anyone can take and can definitely use (even if they probably don’t want to). Increasing the cost of Hull Upgrade would have been better than outright banning it.

Some additions to the Ban list aren’t as bad (Pyre and Trajectory Simulator) but Sabine (crew) ending up there feels similar to Hull Upgrade. If she’s a problem, increase her cost. Her ability was hard to trigger.

This last one is purely a personal gripe, but many of the Gauntlet fighters lost loadout. I’d just finished working out a review article and now have to completely redo a lot of pilot’s example loadouts. In addition, Veteran Tail Gunner went up a point, which screwed up so many Gauntlet builds. It was good at 2 but not OP.

The Ugly

Now we take a look at a few things that aren’t inherently good or bad but more, “Why did you do that?” The first one is Ursa Wren. She can no longer get free locks when she is locked by a friendly ship. That’s good. It was a bit exploit-y to allow that to trigger from friendly locks. However, her lock is now an action which seriously undermines the part of her ability to maintain two locks. She can only ever take a single lock action in a round. Now the only way for her to have two locks is to either save one, take her and R3 (who gives you double locks anyways) or have someone (Dutch, Hera) pass her one. Not useless, but the first part fixed the exploit just fine on its own.

The Republic Y-Wing had their Wartime Loadout Configuration go up to a massive 10 points. They did all gain more loadout points to compensate, however. I wonder though if it would have been better to just make this into two ships, ala Delta-7b. Then you could tweak their value around that. Of course, this is generally positive, as you can now afford more upgrades to make Intuitive Interface work better.

Contraband losing the ability to be recharged is another change that leaves you wondering. Yes, infinite uses of it can be powerful, and with Loadout points, Jabba is a crew you might decide to take in conjunction with Contraband. But you do only have limited charges on Jabba, and Cutthroat doesn’t trigger all that often. Would it have been better to just tweak points instead of making this change? Maybe. It could be abused but also wasn’t overly prevalent.