Empire at War Preview is up!

[Stone37 3,353]

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/6/16/empire-at-war/

I like were they went with Ezra (leaves room for a more powerful Ezra in future sets) and his cost encourages a 3 character deck.  I'm hoping to see that become a trend for the EaW set.  Can't wait to see Kanan and Hera!

What Villain characters are people hoping for?

Edited June 16, 2017 by Stone37

[blackholexan 115]

Mace Windu Looks so strong!

[blackholexan 115]

And pictures of the previewed cards look really better than SoR's

[Marshal8 12]

The artwork is way better than spirit of rebellion.  Please release alternate art of aurra sing.

[Stone37 3,353]

12 minutes ago, Marshal8 said:

The artwork is way better than spirit of rebellion.  Please release alternate art of aurra sing.

I too was a bit disappointed with some of the artwork of SoR.

The worst offender being:

 

When this card appeared on the forum (from an unofficial source) before SoR came out I thought it was a fake that art is so bad!

[Lancezh 98]

q3 2017 ? Thats a bit quick no ?

[AgentoftheEmpire 221]

Just now, Lancezh said:

q3 2017 ? Thats a bit quick no ?

It sure is. Given that Wave 6 of Armada should have already hit stores by now, I wouldn't be surprised if we see EAW in Q4.

[ScottieATF 2,867]

Q3 could mean as late as September. 

[jimbrewersbro 13]

I think Ezra gives obi wan a real nice partner. The 7 isn't as much of a concern with obi wan having guardian, and though it mixes damage Ezra works well with a lot of blue upgrades and one with the force. 

[shivore 66]

10 minutes ago, Lancezh said:

q3 2017 ? Thats a bit quick no ?

This is the first set they've been able to design in response to the meta as the other 2 sets were all done before the game even released. Could be they want this one out quick to address certain issues, rather than trying to errata too much.

[theagentcoma 35]

Dang, Mace is strong. And they picked the best possible flavor text for him.

Also, Heroes finally get a cheap elite character not named Rey.

Edited June 16, 2017 by theagentcoma

[blackholexan 115]

4 minutes ago, theagentcoma said:

o, Heroes finally get a cheap elite character not named Rey.

...or Maz

[GooeyChewie 372]

If I activate Thrawn and roll a Disrupt, do I get to choose the order of bouncing the upgrade with Inperial Inspection and triggering Thrawn?

Edited June 16, 2017 by GooeyChewie

[RJM 129]

3 minutes ago, GooeyChewie said:

If I activate Thrawn and roll a Disrupt, do I get to choose the order of bouncing the upgrade with Inperial Inspection and triggering Thrawn?

Yes, that should work.  Reference the FAQ on Fast Hands / Blackmail interaction for queue timing.  Of course, FFG, so I'd expect it to just be randomly defined one way or the other in the EaW rules update. ;P

[GooeyChewie 372]

Just now, RJM said:

Yes, that should work.  Reference the FAQ on Fast Hands / Blackmail interaction for queue timing.  Of course, FFG, so I'd expect it to just be randomly defined one way or the other in the EaW rules update. ;P

Sounds exactly right. :-) So he has a chance to discard an upgrade from play, effectively.  That's pretty sweet.

[RJM 129]

Yeah, I'm liking the idea of eThrawn/eUnkar already.  Fast Hands, Inspection, Blackmail, and more money than god.

[RybackStun 15]

Very upset that they made Chopper a Support and not a Character. I knew FFG was gonna blow this due to the way droids have been depicted in this game so far (outside of IG-88). Hope that whenever they make new versions of the Rebels, Chop gets his day as a character.

Thrawn looks fun, Mace is a surprise but not an unwelcome one (good for trade bait). Ezra surprises me as Yellow honestly, but like someone else said it gives design space to make a better version as Blue down the line later.

[Alphastealer 42]

I am super keen for the next set. SoR is already boring thanks to the over-usage of Poe Maz and ePalp at most events.

Having more cards more often will keep the meta fresh and eventually after 6+ sets are out the meta will be more varied as their will be a lot of good choices.

Eventually we will see good mono decks in each colour and hopefully slower control decks. 

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

37 minutes ago, RJM said:

Yeah, I'm liking the idea of eThrawn/eUnkar already.  Fast Hands, Inspection, Blackmail, and more money than god.

Settle down there, Sean Bean. 

Honestly, this is all I want out of the set. I don't need to see anymore. Give me Thrawn and Unkle Moneybags and we can call it a day. 

[Kyle Ren 6,817]

So, my thoughts:

I'm pretty sure Thrawn is terrible. He's so stinking expensive, so he's not good for a mill/slow deck, and he does no damage, so he doesn't fit in a normal kill-your-opponents deck. Maybe there's other cards that make him better that we just haven't seen yet? I think Thrawn/Unkar might be ok for mill, but I don't see his cost justifying his existence since you can't heal or endless ranks him.

All three red events spoiled seem situational but somewhat useful. I'm not sure I'd use them, but FFG usually spoils the more mediocre events anyway. 

Ezra is ridiculously good. Rey/Maz/Ezra might be really good, and Luke/Ezra and ObiWan/Ezra might be ridiculous. I am very happy with that!

I can't tell you how happy I am with Mace Windu! He is so thematically accurate and Master of the Council is really good on him too. My only complaint is that his special is very situational, but nice when you can get it. Like others said, kudos to FFG for the flavor text!

Master of the Council is good with any high-cost blue hero. If I pull Luke in the Awakenings reprint, I'll try it on him! 

Quick escape is garbage. It would be mildly ok if it were free, but the resource cost makes it really bad. 

Chopper seems ok as a support but I'm mad about his name. They needed to either put "Chopper" inside quotation marks or call him C1-10P. I'll be interested to see what his ability is. If you can attach weapons to him, like a character, I'd be happy - he's a droid, but he can use weapons.

All in all, I'm very happy with what I see. I don't see any massive power creep or things that make old cards obsolete, but already a number of other options are opened up. I'm really excited about Luke/Ezra! 

 

 

 

 

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

Just now, Kieransi said:

So, my thoughts:

I'm pretty sure Thrawn is terrible. He's so stinking expensive, so he's not good for a mill/slow deck, and he does no damage, so he doesn't fit in a normal kill-your-opponents deck. Maybe there's other cards that make him better that we just haven't seen yet? I think Thrawn/Unkar might be ok for mill, but I don't see his cost justifying his existence since you can't heal or endless ranks him.

All three red events spoiled seem situational but somewhat useful. I'm not sure I'd use them, but FFG usually spoils the more mediocre events anyway. 

Ezra is ridiculously good. Rey/Maz/Ezra might be really good, and Luke/Ezra and ObiWan/Ezra might be ridiculous. I am very happy with that!

I can't tell you how happy I am with Mace Windu! He is so thematically accurate and Master of the Council is really good on him too. My only complaint is that his special is very situational, but nice when you can get it. Like others said, kudos to FFG for the flavor text!

Master of the Council is good with any high-cost blue hero. If I pull Luke in the Awakenings reprint, I'll try it on him! 

Quick escape is garbage. It would be mildly ok if it were free, but the resource cost makes it really bad. 

Chopper seems ok as a support but I'm mad about his name. They needed to either put "Chopper" inside quotation marks or call him C1-10P. I'll be interested to see what his ability is. If you can attach weapons to him, like a character, I'd be happy - he's a droid, but he can use weapons.

All in all, I'm very happy with what I see. I don't see any massive power creep or things that make old cards obsolete, but already a number of other options are opened up. I'm really excited about Luke/Ezra! 

 

 

 

 

Being able to consistently and unconditionally look at your opponent's hand is frickin' amazing.

[KovuTalli 178]

1 hour ago, theagentcoma said:

Dang, Mace is strong. And they picked the best possible flavor text for him.

Also, Heroes finally get a cheap elite character not named Rey.

Better than "Take a Seat, young Skywalker" ?

[Kyle Ren 6,817]

8 minutes ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

Being able to consistently and unconditionally look at your opponent's hand is frickin' amazing.

I do not deny that his ability might be the best mill ability in the game, but his cost is very prohibitive since he can't do damage. If they'd made all his dice sides one instead of two and maybe dialed back his hit points by one and then reduced his cost, he'd be great. I just think that his dice's inability to inherently mill, do damage, and only one disrupt side (so low chances for Imperial Inspection) makes him kind of a boat-anchor to your squad. I could be wrong, I just don't think he's great. Thrawn/Unkar will definitely be tier 2, but I'm not sure it can beat the tier 1 decks without some help. It's pretty easy for an opponent to kill Unkar, and after that Thrawn, despite his shenanigans, will be a sitting duck. 

Edited June 16, 2017 by Kieransi

[Tierdal 43]

24 minutes ago, Kieransi said:

I do not deny that his ability might be the best mill ability in the game, but his cost is very prohibitive since he can't do damage. If they'd made all his dice sides one instead of two and maybe dialed back his hit points by one and then reduced his cost, he'd be great. I just think that his dice's inability to inherently mill, do damage, and only one disrupt side (so low chances for Imperial Inspection) makes him kind of a boat-anchor to your squad. I could be wrong, I just don't think he's great. Thrawn/Unkar will definitely be tier 2, but I'm not sure it can beat the tier 1 decks without some help. It's pretty easy for an opponent to kill Unkar, and after that Thrawn, despite his shenanigans, will be a sitting duck. 

 

Sir, may i ask how unkar is going to die when that key card you wanted to play has been discarded?

Thrawn is fine at 17. His ability is near game breaking. To know your opponents entire turn before it happens AND remove the most important card? Its so thematic and so strong. 

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

Yeah, play Friends in Low Places for even more fun and profit.