All Aboard: Boarding Parties in the Wake of the Avenger Nerf and 1.5

If only he had removed the Profundity title...

Boarding Teams/Avenger is no more, at least not in a form worth taking (more on that later).  So are boarding parties still worth the two upgrade slots they take?  The answer is: maybe?  As with all things Armada, this type of upgrade is now less automatic and dependent on what you are trying to make your fleet do.  Vader is still an extremely powerful boarding party and Cham can really ruin your opponent's well crafted strategy.  So let's take a look at how we can use these upgrades to cause some havoc for your opponents' fleets.

One of the key things to remember with all boarding parties is that you'll need a squadron command and be in close range of your target.  For the first part, you'll want a way to get a squadron token (wasting a dial for this upgrade is really not efficient), so a token tossing flotilla or officer that hands them out will provide the best method for your party.  The second part requires that you are first player (to activate the delivery ship last/first) or something survivable to weather a close range attack.  None of the CIS ships released so far can take a boarding party (which seems odd, considering they do a lot of that in the CW cartoon), so they'll have to wait for a future expansion.

One final consideration: boarding party upgrades require an open gunner and offensive retrofit slot on your ships, which can take away dice manipulation or offensive tactics from ships; a potential problem for your bigger guns.  If you don't have other ways to compensate for this, you may want to skip the boarding party or use the cheapest delivery platform you can.

Boarding Engineers

The cheapest of the group is Boarding Engineers (BE), and for good reason.  This is a very niche card, requiring the same things as the other boarding parties, and for the ship you are boarding to already have facedown damage cards.  Considering there are plenty of other easier ways to deal faceup damage (APTs come to mind) and BE doesn't synch with other possible elements of your fleet (like the Precision Strike objective), this probably won't leave your binder any time soon.  It would be primarily useful on a "finisher" ship: something that is looking to provide the final blow to your opponent's flag or greatest threat on the board.  The sequence would be having the rest of your fleet attack the target ship, get past the shields, do some damage cards (preferably to almost the hull value), and finish up with the BE.  

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Boarding Engineers (2)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Garel's Honor (4)
= 56 Points

This is probably the cheapest build for BE and it works well with the strategy we described above.  The key will be keeping the HH back, plinking at range.  Once the target ship has been dealt a few facedown cards, the HH can slip in, flip two cards (hopefully a structural damage that finishes off the target), attack for more damage, and, if all else fails, crash for another face up.  However, this is a lot of points to sink into making a 2 point upgrade work and doesn't seem worth the effort, considering you still need to get at least two damage cards on the target before the HH can pull off this trick.  Unless you have two open slots and two points burning a hole in your fleet list, this team really isn't worth it.

Boarding Troopers

Moving up the list in cost, and the last of the generic boarding parties, is the classic Boarding Troopers (BT).  With the Avenger nerf, this mainstay upgrade of the Imperials has fallen from its pedestal to become a high hurdle version of Mon Karren for the Empire/GAR.  However, BT can still be a useful tool to stress an opponent's defense tokens using a ship with a decent squadron value.  The key to BT is using it first and then following up with a large scale attack to force your opponent into some bad choices for defense.  Another thing to remember is that BT uses the word "spend," meaning if a token is already exhausted, BT can be used to discard it.  Lets look at two options that work well with BT.

Imperial I (110)
• Admiral Sloane (24)
• Emperor Palpatine (3)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
= 140 Points

With it's innate four squadron value, the ISD I remains a solid choice for delivering your BT, allowing you to spend all, or in the case of the Starhawk/SSD most, of a target ship's tokens.  In this build, you would stock a squadron token in an early round and move into close range of your target.  Then reveal a squadron command, hit them with BT, and follow up with a squadron attack.  By that point, the hope is any really important defense tokens (the brace, redirects) are gone and the ISD can hit them up with full damage.  The Emperor is there to discourage Salvo or a return attack, as he would cause them to potentially lose any remaining defense tokens.

Acclamator I (66)
• Clone Navigation Officer (4)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• External Racks (4)
• Swivel-Mount Batteries (8)
= 85 Points

This GAR fleet is using the Acclamator I to primarily pressure a target ship's brace by using BT to flip the tokens and then maximize the follow up attack.  The Acclamator would go first in this case, hopefully leaving the target ship without its best defense tokens, followed up by attacks from your other ships/squadrons.  The Clone Navigation Officer is optional in this build, as he is there for a small amount of dice manipulation.

Darth Vader (off.)

Vader is still the best value for all the boarding parties; for only 3 points you can dump a key upgrade of your opponent's fleet (but no commanders), including those that set ships/squadrons aside, killing them before they can be deployed.  One thing to remember is that dumping your opponent's Tua or Needa will not remove the associated upgrade or token, since those were added during a prior step (fleet building or the beginning of the game) and have no continuing effect.  It is the same reason why the officer version of Vader can "kill" off these upgrades for rerolls with no negative effect. Although the Empire offers several options for delivering the Dark Lord to his target, the best option is the "Vader Raider."  There are lots of ways to build this ship, but I like this option best:

Raider I (44)
• Iden Versio (6)
• Darth Vader (3)
• External Racks (4)
• Corvus (2)
= 59 Points

This build turns the Raider into something your opponent can't ignore and must dedicate some fire too; reducing pressure on your other ships/squadrons.  Ideally, you want first player with this ship and use Corvus to place it first, adjusting it's placement at the end of setup for a more optimal approach.  Iden provides this ship with survivability to get in close range, and Ex Racks give it some more punch after Vader strips that critical upgrade.  You can drop everything for just Vader, but you take a chance that the ship will be destroyed before Darth can start swinging that lightsaber; two points for Corvus is a minimal investment to improve your chances of success.  

Jyn Erso

As a huge fan of Rogue One, it annoys me that FFG gave this character such a miserable card.  At first glance it seems that doing two things for 4 points is worthwhile investment; but the additional requirements, on top of the normal ones for boarding parties, makes this card incredibly situational.  First, your target ship can't have any raid tokens already.  If it has even one, this ability fails the first check.  Second, if it has an objective token, you gain a victory token, which is worthless unless the objective you are playing has ship-based objective tokens and gives a value to victory tokens.  Every 4 point gunner or offensive retrofit upgrade for Rebels is better than this.  But here at Armadness, we try to find a build for everything, so here we go: 

Assault: Marked For Destruction
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Hyperspace Migration

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Jyn Erso (4)
= 40 Points

Pelta Command Ship (60)
• Captain Rex (5)
= 65 Points

Here, Jyn is on the cheapest delivery ship and is supported by Rex on a Command Pelta (you could use another HH, but there are some good Pelta EW builds with Rex) to prevent the target ship from dumping both raid tokens with a dial.  We've also included three objectives that will have ship(s) carrying around objective tokens and victory tokens with an end game value.  You will have to have the HH attack the enemy ship with the objective token first, and then the Pelta, if you want to prox Jyn's and Rex's full abilities.  Realistically speaking, the chance of getting this to work is slim to none, and not worth investing at least one fourth of your fleet points.  Until there is a change to the wording on this card, Jyn will remain on the sidelines of the Rebellion.

Cham Syndulla

For one point more than Jyn, Cham is a far superior boarding team, and one that can really mess with your opponent's strategy.  Basically, he is a super charged slicer team without the refresh requirements. Is your opponent running a fleet with no squadrons?  Cham will be happy to give them all squadron commands.  Maybe they are counting on a key repair command to stay alive?  Give 'em a navigate.  The extra nice feature of Cham is that you can vary up their command stack any way you want.  His value increases the higher the enemy ship's command value, so make sure to save him for two or more command stacks.

Starhawk Battleship Mark I (140)
• Cham Syndulla (5)
• Leading Shots (6)
= 151 Points

The cheapest way to get Cham to the target is an HH, but here we are using him as a deterrent from medium to large enemy ships getting in close range.  He is also useful as an offensive tool, preventing ships from navigating away from the Starhawk or repairing after a devastating attack.  Leading Shots is here to show that you can mitigate the opportunity cost of Cham; we still have open upgrade shots for dice manipulation or improving our offensive abilities.

Shriv Suurgav

The most expensive boarding party, Shriv is the Rebel answer to Vader (Boarding Party), but at twice the cost and the inability to remove ship titles and officers.  I'm sure FFG had some logic behind this pricing and ability limit, but, to be honest, I haven't figured out what it was.  The same rules apply to Shriv as do Vader, so there is no point in using Shriv to dump Tua.  

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Shriv Suurgav (6)
• External Racks (4)
• Task Force Organa (1)
= 52 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Task Force Organa (1)
= 37 Points

Since Shriv is costing us 6 points, we need to make his ship a bit more survivable, thus Expert Shield Tech.  The Ex Racks and Task Force titles give our boarding party ship a bit more punch.  Shriv could also go on a naked HH, but at that point, it is more cost efficient to use Cham, BT, or BE, unless you really want to dump one of your opponent's upgrades.

Final Thoughts

BT Avenger is no more, but Boarding Parties can still add value to certain fleets and make for a nasty surprise for your opponent.  If you are an Imperial Admiral, Vader is going to be your best option, followed by BT.  For the Rebels, Cham or BT, and for GAR, BT.  Unless you like an uphill battle, Jyn, Shriv, and BE should probably stay in the card binder.