Major Rhymer

[thanosazlin 52]

ok, played against him and all i can say is i think he is broken. omg the empire is already packing why did they make him allow any squad in range 1 attack at med range!!

[Intys Rule 148]

You do know you can kill him if you wanted to, right?  Or lock him down with your own squadrons?  Or kill the other guy's ships before he can kill you?  Or get more victory points at the end of the game?

 

Personally, I like flying Imperials with minimal or no squadrons but Rhymer is making me consider making a squadron-heavy build. 

Edited July 11, 2015 by Intys Rule

[DerErlkoenig 975]

I love Rhymer's ability, but I dropped him when I discovered that my bombers don't actually role standard black dice. In fact, you see, they roll a modified black die with 5 blank sides, 2 hits, and 1 hit+crit.

I just can't get them to ever feel point efficient.

[Intys Rule 148]

I like how the squadrons can make me play differently.  With ships, I either concentrate fire or navigate with the occasional engineering command.  Having more squadrons means I'll need to consider that 4th command a bit more.

 

Not only that but the way and order with which I move them can greatly affect their effectiveness.  When I was playing squadrons that had Fel and Mithel and a few Tie Advanced, getting them to work exactly as I imagined took a LOT of work.  I imagine using Rhymer won't be as straightforward either.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

He is good but to use him effectively the Empire usually needs to invest a serious amount of points in him and other upgrades. A group of X-Wings, A-Wings, and Tycho count the Rhymer ball effectively.

I thought he was overpowering my first game against him but that feeling goes down when you start to pick that whole Co cent apart. Yes his fighters can shoot like a CR90 B, that's fine. If you are not running fighters make sure to use Space Whales A's and Escort Frigates. They might not do a lot but it keeps the Rhymer player on edge and that is good. It means their tension is high and they will either be cautious or they will do something silly.

When playing against a Rhymer ball setup, just stay at high speeds. It ruins their effectiveness since most of their attacks will be at medium range and they will have to use squadron commands all the time to make it effective. If they are focused on squadrons you can use that to your advantage and dismantle their lead carrier.

Have patience and remember that you will get it, it will take patience and a lot of 2 to 3 turn planing. Remember to stock Engineering tokens.

Hmmmmmm I think I want to make an invincible fleet. . . Hmmm not the right word. Ah impervious is far better there.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Lyraeus

[Intys Rule 148]

Yeah, to use him effectively means the whole build tends to have to support him.  I'm not sure that even with a lot of dice, rolling individually might not be as good as rolling in a pool simply because there are abilities that allow me to alter a pool-rolled dice.... things like Screed, Overlord, etc.  I don't think there is anything that allows me to alter/modify dice rolls from squadrons.

 

However, he is scary because to counter him, well, the other guy has to either alter his fleet build or fly his fleet differently and combined with the objective cards, might make a hard fight even more difficult.  Think of Contested Outpost with a VSD at speed 1 with a cloud of squadrons around it.  Getting in close will be painful!

 

Sure, the enemy could engage the squadrons and tie down the bombers but a smart Imperial player could probably put the bombers far enough behind so that they can leapfrog past the initial furball.  The biggest downside I can see here is that I can only really probably field Rhymer + 2 bombers, maybe 3.  I can put in 4 bombers but I won't have much in terms of a fighter screen.  This is one of those builds that needs a good few games to find out how it works best on the table.

[Darkblade113 41]

I love Rhymer's ability, but I dropped him when I discovered that my bombers don't actually role standard black dice. In fact, you see, they roll a modified black die with 5 blank sides, 2 hits, and 1 hit+crit.

I just can't get them to ever feel point efficient.

 

I can't tell if you're making a joke about getting unlucky and rolling blanks with your bombers or if there's something I'm genuinely missing. Care to elaborate?

[Lyraeus 4,759]

His dice hate him is what I think he is saying. My counter to Rhymer is usually taking out the carrier ship from there I have better options. I am actually worried that Rhymer is the Best counter to my MC30c concept swarm. . . The worry is that Rhymer strips the shields in the squadron command and the carrier ship deals a super punishing blow that Mon Mothma can't Evade out of or Rieekan can't repair out of. . . Still that just means this game gets better and better and I need to reach a higher level of play. . .

[DerErlkoenig 975]

I love Rhymer's ability, but I dropped him when I discovered that my bombers don't actually role standard black dice. In fact, you see, they roll a modified black die with 5 blank sides, 2 hits, and 1 hit+crit.

I just can't get them to ever feel point efficient.

 

I can't tell if you're making a joke about getting unlucky and rolling blanks with your bombers or if there's something I'm genuinely missing. Care to elaborate?

Lyraeus is correct. Rhymer and my bombers roll an absurd number of blanks. It definitely exceeds probability by a pretty wide margin. My Gladiator does just fine, so I try to avoid situations where I'm only rolling one black die - maybe that's my curse, lol.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

Some people get their averages through mass dice and some through low amounts of dice. It's wierd.

[DerErlkoenig 975]

Yeah, that's how it feels sometimes. And some people just happen to have different amounts of luck. I know two neither, one is absurdly great at rolling dice, the other is terrible. The weird part is how consistent their luck is.

I'm thinking I'll give Rhymer another shot with Wave 2. Maybe with Boba's fett stack of battery dice he'll do better - or I can just Screed him.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

Try different strategies with him. You can always use him as bait btw. Have him in the list and have Vader and a few other unactivacted ships NE medium or close range and drop Rhymer at range 1 and watch them try to get rid of the now "threat" they would have to take shots at Vader and Fel would hurt them for free, etc. It makes those other ships that much dangerous. You could even drop him into a swarm of TIEs and watch them try to hold that off. It will get even better once the Imperials get access to Intel. Making the opponents heavy, gods.

[DerErlkoenig 975]

My initial build was Rhymer, bomber, Vader, Fel, interceptor. I don't know, I just never got it working. Mostly it was because I'd get 2-3 attacks against a cap ship with those 3 black dice, and blanks were just way too common to warrant the support costs.

I'll try to get him going again with some fresh blood on my list.

[Lyraeus 4,759]

Well try more bombers and tie fighters. Blue dice sound unappealing but they have 4 hits which is good enough at stripping shields. The more dice you roll the better your chances.

[DerErlkoenig 975]

I only have 1 fighter pack. Maybe I'll proxy extra in a casual game to see how I feel. I've almost bought an extra fighter pack several times, but my all ship list is doing pretty well, and I want to wait to see what Wave 2 brings... My wife is already on my case, and I'm not even telling her how much I'm spending on Wave 2, lol.

[Intys Rule 148]

I think the most important thing here is: Are you able to position Rhymer into good spots during the battle?  Is he able to trigger his ability a good number of times?

 

If the answer is yes, then Rhymer is a good addition.  You can have awful luck and he keeps rolling blanks but that's more dice rolls.  Having lucky dice rolls is worthless if Rhymer isn't in a position that allows you to make use of him.

If the answer is no (you are unable to get Rhymer in a position to attack ships), the either you need to fly your squadrons differently or he isn't a good addition to your fleet at all.

 

Point is, you have to assess the value of Rhymer based on how many times you can get him into a position that he can do his stuff.  The outcome of the dice rolls at that point isn't really a deciding factor because luck can shift at any time

[CDAT 243]

ok, played against him and all i can say is i think he is broken. omg the empire is already packing why did they make him allow any squad in range 1 attack at med range!!

 

I would say he may be the Empire reply to the Rebel "broken" Galiant haven negating one damage to all fighters in range one. Now to engage the bombers they need to get further away from the mother ship.

[Chucknuckle 2,811]

Does Rhymer's ability allow fighters to use dice that otherwise couldn't be used at that range? Does he allow black dice to fire at medium range?

[Intys Rule 148]

He allows anyone (friendly squadrons) within Range 1 of him (Rhymer) to attack ships with whatever colored-dice is in their anti-ship stat at close-medium range instead of the normal Range 1.

[Chucknuckle 2,811]

Right, but does that over ride the stipulation that black dice can only be used at close range?

[Bilisknir 443]

From the front page of the rules reference:

 

The Golden Rules
This Rules Reference booklet is the definitive source
of rules information for Star Wars: Armada. If
something in this booklet contradicts the Learn to
Play booklet, the Rules Reference booklet is correct.

Effects on components such as cards sometimes
contradict rules found in the Learn to Play or
Rules Reference booklets. In these situations, the
component’s effect takes precedence.

If a card effect uses the word “cannot,” that effect is
absolute.

 

 

Major Rhymer's Special Rule:

Friendly squadrons at distance 1 can attack enemy ships at close-medium range using all dice in their battery armament.

 

TL;DR Yes

Edited July 13, 2015 by Bilisknir

[Lyraeus 4,759]

Just like Paragon. Allows the use of a black dice at any range, Rhymer extends attacks.

[Chucknuckle 2,811]

Yikes.

[DerErlkoenig 975]

Yeah, it's a doozy of an ability.

Edited July 14, 2015 by DerErlkoenig

[Intys Rule 148]

Right, but does that over ride the stipulation that black dice can only be used at close range?

 

Yep, Rhymer's ability makes an exception to the rule.