Hamill didn't agree with the direction either, at first. He's since walked it back, stating that his initial criticism was due to his ego over the character. Which I understand completely, Luke was not some perfect hero who marched in to save the day, taking on the whole First Order with his laser sword. Except he did, but only after some soul searching and confronting the errors of his past, which makes it more powerful than Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, mighty warrior. Rian Johnson didn't use the broad strokes of Abrams' ideas, this is true. However, they shaped the next film together, working with each other. At the end of the day, though, it's Rian's movie, and unless he's told not to by the higher-ups, he gets to make the film he wants. Frankly, I'm glad he did, Abrams' TFA was a necessary retread with added lens flare and the mystery boxes JJ so loves but it reminded everyone that Star Wars could be awesome after the slog of the prequels. You keep stating things as fact when they're just opinion. For example, Brick is an excellent modern noir film and won several awards, which disproves your assessment of his work. You can try to be condescending all you want, but the real fact remains that you just didn't like the movie. Your criticisms of it boil down to taste, not fact.

Or you can accept that it was a tactic that they were aware of, and she saw her chance for it and took it. Honestly, @xanderf has the right of it: Star Wars is not hard sci-fi, it's a fantasy movie set in space. The "science" has always been secondary to the story. We're a bit spoiled by decades of speculation, technical articles, and RPG supplements purporting to explain how all this works, but think about what we really know? How long does hyperspace travel take? Why are the bombers designed in a substandard manner for their role? It takes as long as the plot demands, and Star Wars space combat has always been set with a WWII aesthetic, so they look like B2 Flying Fortresses. Done. It's like the question: which superhero wins in a fight, X or Y? The answer is: whoever the writers says. The ram works because the desperate ramming sacrifice is a tried and true trope in movies, and that's how it's used here. Future movies don't have to worry about it because doing it again would be derivative. For those who need a technical reason why, there's what I wrote above. Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. RJ's story and characterization follows what came before, and to say he didn't pay attention or ignored things is completely incorrect. You just don't like the direction he went with it.

And on topic, that video is using that Twitter screenshot to do some heavy lifting for justifying its premise. The screenshot is just about the Falcon ride, not the others per se, and he even says "As canonical as a park ride can be". Rise of the Resistance could be from pre-TFA, it could be post-TLJ; I'm inclined to believe the former since it's called "Rise" instead of "Return" or "Rebirth". We already know that the Resistance in ep 9 is more of a guerilla force than a fleet. I mean, when you're on Star Tours it bounces between trilogies randomly. I don't think, other than doing some examination of the ships involved, you can pull much meaning out of that trailer than that without further information.

Okay, I'm taking a break from being the only guy in my office to do all the work AND try to write an episode script because I love TLJ and love talking about it. First of all, that "Cinematic Failure" video is trash, and the "points" the guy makes are either subjective opinion or disproven by actually watching the movie. And what a movie! It has depth, yo. I was talking about it with a different guy who'd watched that video and he said, "If a movie needs this much explanation, it isn't very good," and I told him, "No, man, the fact that it involves this much discussion of themes and character means it IS good. You don't dissect the motivations and themes of a Fast and the Furious movie." (Note: I love the F&F franchise in all of its dumb awesomeness. Except 2 and Tokyo Drift, they weren't very good.) So, first of all, here's the honest, true explanation of how the hyperspace ram works, and why it doesn't work so no one uses it. When a ship enters hyperspace, it goes into another dimension, one that does not interact with ours (except for things large enough to cause gravitic distortions like stars, planets, and Interdictors). Before entering that other dimension, it accelerates very quickly over a short distance as it "makes the jump". That short distance is the only place that the ram can work, because after that brief period the ship no longer affects anything in the normal universe. Now, as Armada players, you know that point-blank range is where the real hurting happens. This is why hyperspace rams are not attempted all the time: by the time you're close enough to attempt it, you've eaten several full barrages and are, if not destroyed, badly damaged and probably lacking a functional hyperdrive. Instead of throwing resources down the drain on the off chance you can get this gimmick to work, you can instead do the tried and true tactic of blasting them to bits with really big guns. I will do you one better, without needing to read the book: Holdo sees the transports being destroyed. She turns the Raddus around in a desperate act to try to save them, drawing their fire onto the flagship even for a brief period. However, Hux does not do this, he instead gives the order to ignore the Raddus and continue blasting the transports. This is a key moment. As above, you don't get to do a ram because you get shot down, especially when facing multiple FO Star Destroyers and the ludicrously big Supremacy. But they don't open up on the Raddus, and Holdo says to herself, "Self, you can do a hyperspace ram on these fools," as she closes on them and they ignore her, and the rest is very bright, very silent history. Anyway, like I said, I can go on and on, because layers and nuance. This is not a badly written movie. I can write a ton about almost every bit of it, like how you should watch the bridge crew when Holdo and Poe argue, how Poe is dressed identically to Empire Han so you subconsciously side with him as the plucky rogue bucking authority, and how Luke's line "I failed you, Ben" is one of the most powerful in the film. I love TLJ so much, it's a love letter to Star Wars fans and I wish more people saw that.

"You may cheat one time per game, so long as when called on it you say 'It is allowed... from a certain point of view.' If you do not, you immediately lose the game as if by concession."

Here's a thing that came up in my last game: Imperial player has used Maximum Firepower. Veers is engaged by a rampaging Luke, Veers then falls back. Can he make his bombardment attacks? We went with no, because the attacks are at the end of his activation, not afterwards, and the withdrawal rules are pretty clear that it cannot perform any other actions. However, we felt there is some wiggle room as to interpreting the bombard as an "action", and so I wanted to bring it up with the crew here. Thoughts?

I tried searching, but didn't find this, so here goes: A unit of snowtroopers waltzes into range 2 of some Fleet Troopers who are on Standby. What happens? A. The Snowtroopers use Steady to shoot immediately after moving, and assuming they cause suppression, cancel the Standby. B. Since Steady says "After you perform a move action, you may perform a free ranged attack action", they complete the move action whereupon Standby triggers before the next action, which is the free attack. I think it's B, but I don't know if it's been clarified anywhere.

Is it just me, or is there really no downside to being Blue (1st) player? You get a win if there's a tie, your setup deck is used, the only thing that doesn't go your way is that you deploy first, so you lose one reactive placement, but that doesn't seem to outweigh the other advantages? At least in Armada if you chose 1st player you had to use the Objectives from the 2nd player and 2nd player won ties to balance out. Unlike Armada, Legion's first activation can vary from round to round, but still, why would anyone ever choose Red? Am I missing something?

"You mean her Huttslayer costume? Well, it's because Jabba decided she should wear it to humiliate her, and then she killed him for it." She'd be my pick, too. Mostly because I think she'd take one look at the setup, say "Those are some neat little toys, but this is the dumbest g******* thing I've ever seen," and then we'd get a drink. Plus she'd have Gary with her. I've only met her once, but one of my friends spent quite a bit of time with her, and she was an amazingly kind, irreverent soul who had zero effs to give about what people thought of her, and that was very freeing to her. The world is less for her absence, and I still tear up thinking about her.

Yup, there's usually at least a few people at Around the Table on Thursdays, I try to shuttle between there and Meeples in West Seattle as it's closer to my work but the player base is more reliable at ATT. Sundays you can often find folks at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue, but they tend to run early. Evergreen Fleet Command is the group to join for the greater WA (and some Portland, OR) Armada gaming. https://www.facebook.com/groups/141980499793811/

Say what now? I'm frankly boggled and impressed that someone is making the 666 work. Sounds like you run Imperials. If they're hiding under flak, that means they aren't doing anything until they get close. That means, since they're soooooo slow, they're not going to be leaping out and attacking you until you close, so why not just let them be until you get stuck in? Then toss your 16 TIEs at them and just hold them for a turn or two. Your opponent isn't likely to flak if they have ships to shoot. Or, Howlrunner, Dengar, Soontir, Rudor, Mauler, Zertik, two Advanced, and an Interceptor are 132 points. Keep them at distance 4 of the YVs until you want to engage, then throw them in and guarantee damage + big counters to hold them and then make them die. For extra lulz, put a Gozanti (or an Impetuous Raider I) with Taskmaster Grint on it right behind them. Alternately, run a big ol' TIE Bomber wing (plus BCC) and hold them back until the turn you're going to engage as above. Then jump them into the teeth of the enemy and bomb until they die. They can only take a max of 8 YVs, and you can fit 14 Bombers in, and they can only kill a max of 4 a turn. Since they're heavy, you just ignore them, and obliterate that ISD with a thousand cuts. How is it neither of those types of strategies work?

"Wow, looks cool" is about 2000% more likely to happen if there's an ISD on the table, though. Everyone knows and loves space triangles.

His new rules are fine, he's just overcosted.

I agree, I think he's fine with the nerf, just overcosted by a point or two.

Is the loss of the commander ability enough to allow for boarding Vader even if the slots are already filled, or would that be too powerful?